Chance Encounter - Wolverine/X-Men Fanfic

Chapter 20: Does he still have all his internal organs? Then consider him lucky.

"Logan what the hell do you think you're playing at?"

Jean was yelling as she advanced on them and Max could tell that she'd worked herself up into a towering rage. She looked over at Logan who was curling his lip in distaste.

"Fuckin' snitch." he muttered under his breath as the redhead strode up and got in his face.

"Scott's going to need at least a day to recuperate from what you did to him." she snapped, placing a hand on her hip and jabbing a finger in his face. Jean's eyes glittered with anger as she glared at him.

Max raised an eyebrow, waiting for Logan to respond. What the hell had happened? Had she missed something?

"Look, red." Logan replied, setting his jaw. "The kid needed to decompress. I just.."

She took a step towards him, almost hissing now.

"You just beat the holy hell out of him. That was supposed to help?"

Logan advanced a step forward, unwilling to concede ground to her, even though by doing so, he had to crane his neck to look up at her. For a brief moment Max was reminded of a mother scolding a particularly petulant child. Jean backpedaled as he growled, "Look, you psychotic harpy, he gave as good as he got. I actually went a little light on him."

"Are you kidding me?" she screeched. "Have you seen him?"

Logan presented her with a sharp toothed grin, his tone nasty.

"Does he still have all his internal organs?"

Jean frowned for a moment, nodding. "Yeah."

"Then consider him lucky." he spat, pushing past her.

Jean spun to say something but Max intervened and murmured, "He's right."

Jean gaped back at her and she quickly added, "If Logan really wanted to hurt him, there would've been nothing left of him."

"You're just defending him because you're fucking him." Jean snapped dismissively, her tone nasty and her face glowing with that beautiful fury that frustrated Max to no end. She really could be a bitch when she put her mind to it. Max was used to the woman's temper by now, and knew how to back her down.

"Jean. Just because he's my mate doesn't mean I'd defend him if he really fucked up and argued that he'd done right. I hope you'd know me better than that by now."

Max kept her tone even and non-confrontational. Jean would only get herself worked up if Max provided her with the conversational kindling to do so.

Her friend looked flustered, irritated that she was being provided with rational dialogue.

Jean opened her mouth to respond and Max quietly asked, "Did Scott tell you what happened outright, or did you have to push his buttons until he gave it up?"

Jean's eyes narrowed, the crisp green of her irises sharp as she muttered, "That doesn't make what he did right."

Witnessing the interaction between Scott and Jean in the last couple of months had sped up Max's social understanding of a great many things. The situation had been a very effective teacher.

"You know he was rattled at what happened back at that facility." Max breathed, gently touching Jean's arm, reassuring her.

"I've been trying to help him, but he's been distancing himself lately." she let out a pained sigh.

"Scott? Distant? Imagine that." Max quipped, watching Jean's lips curl into a tiny smile.

"Did he seem in better spirits this morning?" she asked, looking up into the woman's eyes.