Office #2 at the school, Thursday mid-morning.

[biotic_psychotic]

[CW/TW: Jono's thread goes some dark places. Torture/etc.]

Jack had decided on office hours so once she hit the coffee shop for the largest to-go cup they had she went and camped out in her spartan school office. After about twenty minutes she became bored and out of coffee. Examining the lock on her door, she pulled a multi-tool from her pocket and began disassembling it. Once it was off the door she took pictures of the whole rig and reassembled it. It was tossed carelessly into the bottom desk drawer.

The door was propped open with the wastecan. From another pocket came a tennis ball. Leaning back in her desk chair, she began doing a slow bounce with it from floor to wall and back to her hand.

The teacher is in.

[Open office hours!]

Comments

[biotic_psychotic]

Most people were horrified by her. Jack didn't care.

She laughed a little, "I'd be real fuckin' surprised if that were true but sure. Give me a call whenever."

[furnaceface]

//I absolutely will,// Jono replied. And then shook his head a little. //Shame Logan's not around,// because he died, //anymore.//

Sure, he'd also gotten better, as tended to happen a lot among the X-Men. But he wasn't just hanging out around the school, either.

//He was Weapon X's poster boy. Ran th'school for a bit, too. I think you'd have gotten along.//

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack couldn't track that. "I thought Weapon X were the assholes? He was a poster boy for the assholes and ran a school for kids the assholes wanted to kill? How's that fuckin' work?"

[furnaceface]

//They get in your head,// Jono reminded her, tapping the side of his head with one finger. //Logan I know isn't who that person was. Logan I know isn't entirely feral rage and unbreakable claws.//

No small part of him was, still. But even so...

[biotic_psychotic]

She laughed a little, "Other than the damn claws, yeah sure we'd get along great. That's all I am."

Not so much anymore.

Still more than a little.

Still mostly.

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded.

//He was the only one who came looking for me.// A beat. //When Weapon X took me. The rest of the ones with the power to make that decision wrote me off. Another casualty. Logan didn't. Logan understands what it is to look after his own.//

There were many reasons why Jonothon had gone with Logan to raise a school, instead of with Scott to raise an army.

[biotic_psychotic]

A muscle in her jaw twitched. "People wonder sometimes," always, "why Kaidan and me are friends. The how of it, cuz fuck knows we're not alike most other ways."

In more ways than showed. In more ways than she'd ever admit.

"Commander died and I fucked right off. Did what wounded animals do and found a nice dark hole to crawl into by myself. The rest, they thought I needed space cuz even I thought that I wanted to be left alone. Kaidan's the guy who showed up and wouldn't take 'get the fuck out' for an answer."

He'd seen it. The thing she didn't want anyone to see. That she was afraid that without Shepard the rest of the crew would cut her loose and so she'd done it first. Under her control so it wouldn't hurt so much. Jack didn't fit. They'd only put up with her for Shepard and now that asshole had died.

"He's the guy who was there. The one who fought with me and made me understand that I was their crew. We were a crew. And we don't ever leave ours behind." Jack's voice softened a little. Grew a little quieter. "Drove me fucking crazy when he was stuck here for four months without a goddamn word. Those fucking gnomes.. "

She took a breath. "Ain't the same as yours but yeah. I probably would like that Logan guy."

[furnaceface]

//Isn't the same,// Jono replied. //For the most part. Where it counts?//

He bowed his head a little.

//Where it counts, I think it's similar enough. Not every day you find somebody who'll track you down when you don't want to be, because you need to be.//

Spoken from another person very prone to finding his way into dark holes to hide.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Goes both ways," Jack shrugged, "That's all that really counts."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded as he made that connection.

//He was here. You came for him, too.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"We don't leave crew behind," Jack said. "They all looked. The whole damn ship went out until it got so's every time it went out it was a big deal and made everyone sit up and hope only to deflate again when she came back empty. I didn't figure my trip'd be anything more than another goddamn snipe hunt but I guess I was in the right place at the right time when the fucking gnomes got up to their shit."

A twitch of her head cracked her neck to one side. "He knew they would be looking. If it was him on the other side he wouldn't stop either. They're all fucking annoying like that."

They were the best people she'd ever known.

[furnaceface]

//First time I wound up here, it was unintentional,// Jono offered. //Jubilee found me. Best friend back home. One of the only people back there who'll consistently go out of her way to find me. I think you'd like her, too.//

And Shogo, who was a menace, but a precious toddler menace.

[biotic_psychotic]

"You have a habit of gettin' lost?" Jack asked him. Half-teasing and half.. she got it.

[furnaceface]

//Siginificantly more lost, on occasion, than most people,// Jono confirmed.

Entirely without shame. It wasn't always his fault or even his choice, after all.

[biotic_psychotic]

"I'm not really the kind of person you want coming after you," Jack warned him with that same half-teasing tone. "I get worried, I get angry. I landed on Kaidan like a neutron bomb when I got here the first time."

She was the perfect kind person to go find him. Probably one of the few who wouldn't be afraid of whatever was hiding him and up to the task of slapping it back out of his head.

[furnaceface]

God knew Jono often only really answered to a few good, solid smacks to the head.

//I can take a little punishment,// he replied. //Hell, most of the time I probably need it, anyway. I don't respond well to coddling.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"Wouldn't be a little punishment," Jack shrugged with one shoulder, "I don't know how coddling works but I know mocking baby talk real well." It drove Liara crazy.

[furnaceface]

//Mocking baby talk just gets my attention. Almost as good as a swift kick,// Jono replied. And then he shrugged. //I can take a lot of punishment, too. Sort of need to be able, when you run around with most of your insides missing like it didn't so much as tickle.//

[biotic_psychotic]

Her chin tilted a little. "Does it still hurt? You said dead nerves, they're not just all exposed like that are they?"

That would be much more than non-tickle.

[furnaceface]

//Hurt like a sonofabitch when it happened,// Jono explained with a shrug. //Every time it's happened again.//

He hated that 'again' was a non-zero quantity. And would likely continue to grow.

//But it doesn't hurt now, no. Either I've blocked it out -amazing what a telepath can place a wall around when they've got a mind to - or anything that could feel this has burned away. This has been my life so long now, I don't much care which it actually is, anymore. I suspect it's th'former, though. Still sure as hell felt it when some bastard ran me clean through with a spear.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"I don't imagine getting unzipped explosively would ever be a real fuckin' hoot, Jon," Jack drawled at him, "Much less you survived the goddamn experience."

She caught the 'every time', yes.

"We need to go to China," she announced.

[furnaceface]

//Eh, survived worse.//

A lot.

//... Why China?//

[biotic_psychotic]

"Somewhere on some fucking mountain is the little old guy who wished you to have a goddamn exciting life," Jack pointed out, "Kinda want to find that fucker and throw him into a motherfucking crevasse."

[furnaceface]

//If we ever meet that man, I have dibs,// Jono replied immediately. //Knowing my luck, he took off first time he saw my face in the tabloids and he's gone into hiding somewhere in Madripoor, though.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"Where's that at?" Jack asked blankly.