Following Instincts

Summers Break

Jean had just kissed Scott for a short farewell after coffee had ended and the two had parted company for the morning. He didn't have classes yet, as class hadn't yet started at Xaviers, but he'd promised to help Charles prepare for the upcoming semester as always, so that left Mrs. Summers to take a little time to herself while Rachel stared up at her giving her the biggest, roundest puppy dog eyes that nature had ever created.

She'd been like this for weeks now - ever since Logan and K had scooped up their little trio of trouble and disappeared to who knows where. It was never any problem for Rachel to find something to do when the Howlett kids were there. It seemed that all three of them loved her just as much as she loved them. So when they were gone, Rachel definitely felt left out. Even if she did have little Michael Rasputin to play with most of the time. But there wasn't much Jean could do about it that she wasn't already doing.

The two of them had gone to the movies, been swimming almost every day ... she'd taken Rachel to ride the ponies that K had picked out for the kids though that might have been a bad idea since Rachel kept staring at the little pony the twins used and looking sad with little sighs.

So when little James rocketed into the kitchen ahead of the rest of the family - grinning and out of breath, Rachel beat Jean to the punch when she let out a little squeal of delight and rushed over to give him a hug. The two of them were giggling hard- especially when Rachel accidentally toppled James over. Rose caught up mistaking the hug for a dogpile on James. Which it exactly what it turned into..

Jean readjusted how she was seated and turned to watch as Abbey came in much quieter and calmer, though she was still skipping with her little pigtails swinging until she climbed up on Jean's lap and gave her a hug.

"Hi Auntie Jeannie," Abbey said, curling up with her.

"Hi, little sweetpea," Jean replied, snuggling up. Abbey had always been a unifying force for the whole of the mansion from the day she was born, and no one in the mansion could argue that fact. "Did you have fun on vacation?"

"Uh huh," Abbey said before she slipped back down and headed over to steal an apple from the bowl of fruit nearby.

Jean was watching her, smiling to herself when before she could even lift her gaze to greet K - the little feral stopped dead in her tracks and had dropped her coffee mug - shattering it on the hardwood floor. Jean looked up in alarm - she couldn't recall K dropping anything like that in the time that she'd known her ... but here she was, one hand over her mouth in what Jean thought was horror as she stared at Jean ... and looked as if she might just cry. Which only had Jean that much more alarmed. "K-"

"Oh my God," K said, cutting her off with a shaking, quiet voice, approaching slowly, though a moment later, Jean had to frown when she saw that K was smiling as she dropped her hand away from her mouth. "Oh my God."

"What is wrong with you?" Jean said, frowning at her deeply.

"Nothing!" K said, wide eyed as she dropped her jacket across the back of one of the dining room chairs and then half-tossed her key onto the table ... as she made the last few steps closer to wrap her arms around Jean in a tight hug. "Nothing is wrong at all."

"Then why are you -"

"You need to go see Hank," K said, pulling back from the hug just enough to look Jean in the face. "Unless you've talked to him already."

"What ... " Jean's eyes went wide as she stared back at K - and a moment later, she dove into K's mind to double check her suspicions. "Oh my God."

"That's what I said!" K laughed then pulled a still very shellshocked Jean back into a tight hug. "Go ... talk to Hank. I'll keep an eye on Rachel."