^Devil May Care^ Scott Summers

^just come home, jean^

the search: nf

that's when i start to get anxious
that's when my thoughts can be dangerous
———

Having not seen Maxine for a few hours and starting to get worried, Scott walked towards Jean's bedroom. When he made it to the door, something felt wrong. He opened the door and saw Max laying on the ground unconscious. He dropped to his knees and cradled her head in his lap, "Hey, hey, Max. Wake up. Wake up, please."

Her eyes slowly opened, wincing at the bright light over her head but thankfully Scott's head was blocking most of it. "ow..." She murmured quietly as she began to push herself up with the help of her boyfriend.

"What happened?" Scott asked.

Max was silent for a second as she realized what happened. Her eyes went wide.

"Max, what happened?" He asked a little more urgently as their eyes finally made contact.

"Jean left."

***

Max and Scott run down to the labs and saw the Professor, Hank, and Raven. Charles was starting to sit up as the couple walked in.

"Jeans gone. She left." Scott said simply while Max nodded with him.

"Gone where?" Raven asked him as she quickly walked over to the two of them.

"She said something about needing to see her father? Everything still a little fuzzy." Max said as she rubbed the side of her side with the heel of her hand.

"Charles, you can track her with your mind."

The Professor let out a sigh, shaking his head as he answered, "Not anymore. She's grown too powerful, even for me." He paused for a moment and asked the dark haired woman, "Where did you say she was going?"

"To see her father...but, that doesn't make any sense, right?" Max said, having the sneaking suspicion that he did know.

'Charles, what haven't you told me? Told her?' She asked inside his mind and he gave her an almost fearful look before shaking his head and taking the band off his arm.

"Prepare the jet. We are bringing her home." He said stubbornly.

"'We?' Charles, you're in no condition." Raven replied scoldingly as he rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"I have to stop this. She's going to find...She is going to find nothing good there."

***

The X-Jet was silent. Nobody saying anything and the empty seat that once occupied Jean was where Charles was sitting. Max fumbled with her fingers, letting the coat of black nail polish start to chip off of her pointed nails. Scott sat behind her with his head hung and the cut on his cheek starting to bruise.

"How do you know where we're going, Charles?" Raven asked from the co-pilots seat, finally someone breaking the silence, "If you can't track her, how do you know where she is?"

"You know how." He grumbled under his breath.

Before they could start bickering, Max reached over and placed a hand on Charles knee. She gasped as memories started to flood her head. Charles conversing with a average height man with dirty blonde hair and a neck brace, which she could only assume to be Jeans father. She couldn't hear the full conversation but she heard tidbits of it.