The Tie That Binds

Posted on Sun Jul 7th, 2024 @ 9:01am by Scott Summers & Jean Grey
Edited on on Sun Jul 7th, 2024 @ 11:43am

Mission: Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Rural New York
Timeline: September 20th, 1990 - Early Evening

[Warning: This post contains mild adult content - Reader discretion is advised]

Once the Jeep had been packed with the last of their things and all the reunions and introductions had concluded, Scott and Jean began their drive back to the city. They had spectacularly timed the drive so that their arrival into New York would occur at the same time as rush hour.

As the mansion gates became an object in the rear view mirror, Jean slumped down into the passenger seat and pinched the bridge of her nose while she inhaled and exhaled deeply and slowly in an exercise of mental clarity and focus. It had been a long and emotional roller coaster of a day and she looked to shed the mental burdens that had come with it. Scott could feel her mind stilling and centering as the tension left her, it had a calming effect on him too.

“How are you doing?” Jean asked while opening her eyes and returning to a more upright position. Perhaps an unnecessary question but one that helped guide their thoughts and conversation towards ultimately a more pleasant direction.

“I don't know,” Scott answered while he navigated the rural route that would lead away Salem Center and back to the interstate highway. “I knew it was going to be difficult. It needed to happen. Just…” He scrunched his face in thought. “I don't know what I expected. I'm not happy. I'm not sad. Just…relieved? But not completely at that.” Letting out a sigh, Scott was ready to set his jumble of non emotions aside for the moment. “What about you? That was quite the speech.” He smirked a little. “I'm impressed.”

“Impressed?” Her lips turned upwards into a smirk that matched his. “I don’t know if that’s the word I would select to describe my behavior.”

Jean paused for a moment of internal reflection, it was easier to process her own feelings once she had removed herself from a crowd. In the isolation of the car, with only Scott, she could better identify them.

“I shouldn’t have lost my temper. It would have gone better if I had remained cool and reserved like the Professor does when dealing with difficult subjects. I just couldn’t…” She shook her head in disapproval of several different topics that all stacked together to form the current situation. “There are some things that I can maintain composure and empathy while discussing, but you are not one of them.”

While Jean talked, Scott repressed the memory of her fiery passion that he’d been privately indulging. “I’m sure Professor Xavier would’ve taken a different approach, but you aren’t him. Neither am I. We have to forge our own paths using the tools he gave us while still being true to who we are. There’s some of what you said that I hadn’t even considered before. I’d bet that’s true for Aurora as well. And there wasn’t really any delicate way to put it either.”

Scott slid his hand off the Jeep’s gear shift onto Jean’s knee to give it an affirming squeeze. “That couldn’t have been easy…” For a great many reasons that flashed through Scott’s mind. He ignored them in order to complete his thought. “... but you did the right thing. I’m proud of you. I really am.”

She placed a hand over his. Jean found comfort in his touch. It confirmed everything that she felt for him and exactly why her temper flared so fiercely.

“Thank you.” Jean accepted his praise but still wanted to do better and be better. Then again, she hoped she would never be placed in a situation like this ever again. “It needed to be said, not just for my sake but for everyone involved. I just want to move past this.” She begrudgingly let go of the hand that rested on her knee, knowing that Scott still needed it to drive.

“That being said, the Professor told me that Aurora has seen the face of the man who abducted me. That she may know something about him, but he wouldn’t tell me anymore. We’ll have to talk to her about it directly, though Xavier has already requested to be present when we do.”

Scott felt a swell of conflicting emotions inside of Jean during the sharing of that information; how upset she was with herself for adding additional friction to an already difficult relationship, this mixture of pity and loathing for Aurora and how clueless she was, that protective and savage desire to defend him. Jean felt like all of those emotions were going to stop her from solving the real issues of what happened to their classmates and why had she been tortured, she faulted herself for being human.

“That might be for the best,” Scott concluded. “We're all in uncharted waters here with plenty of regrets to go around. Somehow Xavier always brings us back to center with his unwavering hope. I think we all could use that in our next group huddle.”

Suddenly, Scott turned the Jeep off the pavement onto a dirt road marked by a National Forestry Service number. The vehicle coasted up the bumpy road toward a grove of maple trees.

“Jean… listen to me.”

The inner turmoil he felt from her compelled a more face to face conversation. Once the Jeep finally rolled to a stop, Scott engaged the parking brake and took Jean by the hands, forcing her to look at him.

“Jean… if you can find it in yourself to forgive me for what I did, then you can forgive yourself for not being perfect.” He fondled her fingers together inside his own. “Because you’re perfect for me. I know that now more than ever. Find all the hidden wisdom in today and everything else just like the Professor taught you, but take it easy on yourself. I wouldn’t let anybody else talk down about my w—”

Scott's jaw fell slack as his heart went aflutter at the thought of the word, only because it was so unexpected, so cavalier, and yet so right. The mixed feelings he held over his annulled marriage to Aurora were perfectly unraveled by the mere thought of being married to Jean. But the situation was still so fresh and volatile, dare he finish his sentence?
“Wife.”

Yeah. He did. His silent punctuation challenged a response from Jean. There wasn’t a beehive he wasn’t punching today, it seemed.

“Scott.” She nonchalantly laughed his name before Jean tilted her head to the side and gave him a look that was light-heartedly skeptical. She didn’t believe him, at least not enough to take his choice in words as anything more than a slip of the tongue.

They had always discussed marriage ever since they were starry-eyed teenagers that swore themselves to one another. But it had never happened, there had never been a proposal or serious conversation between them. Why? Because they had always placed the X-Men and Xavier’s as their first priority and it was easy to brush off personal plans when they would always be there for each other. Until the day they weren’t.

“Scott.” The playful but cynical little smile left her lips as she looked him in the eyes and felt his sureness along with the butterflies in his stomach. It dawned on Jean that he wasn’t kidding, that this wasn’t some absentminded choice in words. Things were so raw and messy right now, the very idea of taking him seriously seemed foolish. Nevertheless Scott watched her green eyes widen with disbelief before she blinked back her tears.

“Seriously, Scott?” Her voice was sincere and knotted with emotion now as her own butterflies appeared along with heart racing optimism. This wasn’t the right time for this to happen yet it felt like it should happen.

“I… I think we should seriously start planning it,” Scott replied, a little unsure of Jean's reaction. Both of them seemed hesitant yet eager at the same time. “I tried living without you and it’s not living at all. Not really. At this point, where we’re starting a new life together after being through hell and back, I don’t know what we're waiting for.”

And then he grinned his angst away. “Tell you what. How about we start planning today? We’re going to do this right, straight to the nines. Whatever you want, whatever it takes, our special day will be a day to remember for all time.” His grin shifted with a mischievous element. “Between then and today, though, when you least expect it, I’ll do what you were afraid I was going to do on impulse just now.”

Scott’s smile actually turned coy, the way it did when he was a teenager and still shy about kissing her. “What do you say, Jean? Will you plan to marry me?”

“Yes!” The emotions broke inside of her as ecstatic joy filled her heart, happiness that caused her breath to hitch as blinding optimism and euphoria made a few tears streak her cheeks. Scott had never felt such a wave of positive emotions from Jean. These feelings didn’t crash or tremble against him, instead they seeped into him and penetrated every part of him until that shared sensation of jubilation was the only thing present.

“Yes!” Jean said once more as she unbuckled her seat belt and advanced on him. The confines of the driver’s seat were tight but she managed to find a way into his lap. The extra fabric of her yellow dress bunched up around her waist as she straddled his thigh and filled the space between him and the steering wheel. Jean had to tightly press herself against him but it was a welcomed sensation.

~* ‘Yes!’ *~ She kissed him with that same extreme closeness, her full lips and chin pressing against his as Jean kissed him with celebratory vigor.

Scott thumbed the seat adjuster. It was already back most of the way, but now it slammed against the rear seat, which in turn made Jean slam against him most deliciously. Despite the extra space, Jean hadn’t separated from him at all.

~Yes is good~ It was a silly thought but with Jean saturating him from his exterior mind clear to his inner core self, there wasn’t much space for profound thoughts. All he could do was drink in her fervent passion through his lips and return a bit of his own.

Jean settled into him as they fell back a few extra inches, the shift in position gave some leeway allowing for her weight to merely press against him, replacing the tight crush with warm curves. She placed her hands over his head and Scott was enveloped in her as Jean’s elation filled his thoughts and her lissome figure stretched out across his.

“I want to celebrate and enjoy life.” Reminiscent words that sent a hum of excitement through both of them. Jean kissed him again and her tongue playfully met his as she slowly rolled her hips into him. “I want to invite everyone we know and have the most glorious party.”

Scott chuckled at her rambunctious enthusiasm. “It's like you're reading my mind,” he quipped through her kisses. “Big party, lots of people, glorious celebration.” Her wicked tongue teased him into a near paralysis that her rolling hips banished with energizing vigor.

Times like these were when Scott found himself completely at her mercy. There wasn't anywhere else he wanted to be. Despite himself, he couldn't help but get worked up. Life for him was a still pond and Jean was the big rock that splashed him into motion. Wave after wave of her ecstatic happiness washed over him.

~I’ll give you whatever you want~ Scott's thoughts were turning ecstatic as the tension from earlier melted away. ~Just don't stop doing that~

“Never.” Her words became breathy as anticipatory tension started to build between them. “I’m never going to stop and I’m never going to let you go.”

Jean’s hips dug into him further and the friction she created between them went from tempting to sinful. It stirred up more urgent emotions and wants combined with their exultation.

“You belong to me.” Her lips claimed his and Jean allowed him to delight in that fierce and intense love for him. That love that made her fight for him, that made her so angry and protective. She was gentle and kind but it was for him that she dared to bare her teeth.
~* ‘You’re mine.’ *~

The mental push sent a shiver through Scott that made his whole body shudder in overwhelming delight even more than the grinding did. Jean was so meek and mild with others, but Scott wasn't fooled. He never had been, not even when they were kids. There was a strength inside her that was as inspiring as it was indomitable.

For the love of all that she was, he would die for her. But her point about celebrating and enjoying life was well made.

“Ugh…” he moaned.

A point that was being made more compelling with each passing second.

~You’re mine~ It took a strength of will for Scott's mind to present any thought against Jean's, pinned as he was under her torrential outpouring. But that thought flowed from his heart's wellspring. It would resonate through him even if he were unconscious. ~And I want the whole world to know it~

When he kissed her again, a raspy growl came from his throat. It was an echo of the same primal drive that had driven his globe-trotting travels to find her and glue himself to her side during her recovery and physical therapy. The animalistic gesture spoke volumes. Behind it was the torch Scott held for Jean, lit by her belief in him that made him be better than he ever thought he could be.

Once expressed, it fueled his hunger for her. Scott took hold of Jean by the shoulders and buried his face into her neck, kissing her along the sensitive areas he knew so well. Each press of his lips came with the mixed scent of her flesh and hair which he savored like incense, both comforting and intoxicating.

Jean gasped from the sensation of his lips across her skin and the throaty sound filled the close quarters of the car. Scott’s roaming mouth across her skin always left her panting and asking for more, combined with that animal call that resounded inside of him its primal and primitive desire to find her and claim her, it made her body tremble with excitement against him.

She became desperate for more of him but the tight and limited space of the car’s driver seat left them with few options. That realization created a fever pitch inside of Jean, one that made her even more frantic for him. Emboldened by her lust, she directed his hand up the length of her bare thigh until his fingers found the sheer and delicate lace of her panties.

“Tear them off of me.” A risqué request that matched that primeval want inside of him, an easy solution to a problem created by the small space they resided in. “I have to have you.”

Her wish was his command. Scott slid both hands along the curves of her hips, his fingertips seizing the lace on either side. When he gave a rip, it snapped her panties apart with a shockwave that traveled up inside her. Just as Scott soon would be.

Scott took a moment to unfasten the belt of his pants and unzip them. And not a moment too soon. The open air followed by the body heat radiating from Jean drew his arousal upward until there was no escaping the inevitable.

Their flesh merged together like drops of water. Scott let out a gasp. The slick warmth seized upon him, turning Jean's grinding into a tantalizing union of body and soul. He gave in to her then with a lopsided grin of surrender. As much as he desired her, the sheer lust he felt rolling off of her led him to offer himself for her to find her fill.

A cry escaped his lips as she explored the angle of her positioning in search of one she wanted. He returned to her neck as he had before, but this time the other side. Nibbling never felt so hard when all he wanted to do was throw his head back and take everything Jean wanted to give.

She savored the feel of him and the easily found satisfaction that came from their coupling. This perfect place where everything made sense and the rest of the world disappeared. Intimacy created a sanctuary for them where they could both lose and find themselves all while they affirmed everything they meant to one another. It was a celebration of their duality and their congruency.

Jean moaned and writhed against him as she found a measured pace that allowed them to enjoy the other. That all consuming need for release only faintly tugged at her, so she would continue to luxuriate in him for as long as possible.

Scott found that triangle shaped patch of skin on her neck, close to her ear, that caused her whole body to shudder when his lips moved across it. Helplessly and happily she succumbed to that involuntary shiver as it moved through her and against him.

“You’ll be my undoing,” Jean murmured before she gasped from the sensation of his teeth grazing the neck. She mentally cursed him and his wicked mouth as she begged for more.

“What a shame,” Scott teased with his words in between teasing with his lips and tip of his tongue against her neck. “You’ve been my renewal.”

The clever quip belied the sincerity underlying the words. Every day with Jean, whether the difficulty of Muir Island or the labyrinth of New York, brought him back to life a little more. His hands seized her hips and pulled her against him, driving himself as deep as he could go.

~Closer!~ Breathing came in ragged gasps on the tail of a lone, sharp moan. It cut the cord between his speech and his mouth. ~I want to be closer~

Pleasure was so very gratifying, such that Scott could never resist the warm-flesh sensuality that Jean lavished on him. But what really held Scott in thrall was the emotional entanglement. When they were intimate, there was no telling where one ended and the other started. Scott craved that fusion of body and soul more than anything else.

~* ‘I have to be careful.’ *~ Jean warned him as her hips found and matched the rhythm his hands asked for. Scott’s hold on her created a punctuation to their cadence, a moment of forceful impact as their bodies crashed against one another and he buried himself in her. Her breathing synchronized with their union, a sharp exhale of air and small moan occurred when he slammed into her, the sound of her pleasure only added to momentary anticipation that was created when he withdrew and entered her again.

Despite her warning, Scott felt her push and press herself against his psyche. It was more than a caress of her presence, Jean allowed herself to lean into him, letting him feel a firm press of her and her abilities against his mind, his soul, his spirit.

That primordial fire inside Jean which made Scott adore her above and beyond all else passed into him. He could feel it spread from his head and loins out to the tips of his fingers and toes. It made him throb inside her even more than her moaning did.

“Jeeeeaaan…” Her name was a hoarse whisper on his lips, like a blustery winter wind passing through his throat from a diaphragm that forgot how to work right. The sound of her moans, the press of her body, the scent of her desire, the passion of her mind crashed against him in a nearly over-stimulating wave that threatened to wash him away. But he held on, addicted to her love, to her proximity, to her very being.

~I love you~ It was all he had to give at that moment. Everything else was a jumble of sexual sensations and intimate longing for one another. But for its simplicity, it was no less true. If anything, the singular place it held in his mind gave it a whole new depth of meaning. ~I will always love you~

Jean continued their fevered pace as Scott’s hands stilled and he indulged in her. A look of illustrious surrender on his face as he barely whispered her name, lost in what she was and what she did to him. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight, this man loved everything that she was and he wanted nothing more than bask in her light, to breathe her in and savor every inch of her body and mind. ~*‘I will always love you, you’re my forever.’*~

The sensation of him inundated with her, first being saturated with her joy and then drowned in her desire, it spurred Jean to take action and find her own pleasure in his form. She sat up as straight as possible in the cab of the Jeep, causing her weight and her hips to shift to a position that filled and caressed her in a new and salacious way. Jean returned to that hungry and wanting rhythm from moments before and it made her whole body quake and tremble with pleasure.

While Scott had attempted to hold on the effort became a futile one as climax thrummed and moved through her. The radiance of her beautiful release became the only sensation in their shared spaces, he could do nothing more but fall with her.

Scott wrapped his arms around Jean's torso and clutched her tightly against him. The release of climax came and went, yet the ecstasy was still boiling over. He couldn't help but scream into her chest so hard it made him short of breath. From there he just held her, still tight but less intense.

~Jean…~ His mouth quivered so hard that he couldn't speak, not even her name. That had felt more than good. It felt like victory, like they had planted a flag together on a battlefield. What that meant exactly, he couldn't be sure. But he did know one thing. ~I never want to be apart from you again~

~* ‘Never again.’ *~ Jean ran her fingers through his auburn hair as she felt his quivering lip and his triumphant joy. His loss of her and then her subsequent return, the emotions behind those two events still overwhelmed Scott when he allowed them to. They had spent so much time focusing on her and her recovery, it was no surprise that his own ordeals still affected him. Scott had come home on his own and struggled through every day of it, today was the first time that he really felt like he had survived and overcome his hardship.

“I’m home, Scott, and I’m not going anywhere without you. Not now or ever.” Jean wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him tightly. “I love you and want nothing more than to be your wife.”

That word was still so charged for him that Scott started weeping anew. Before it had felt so tarnished, so contaminated with guilt and shame. Today, it was redeemed for him. It was a joyous word that was free of regret.

Jean maintained her hold on him as he cried, there had been so many tears shed these past few months but she was grateful for the catharsis they provided. Each time that Scott found another piece of himself there was a moment of deliverance. It was as if a circuit had been closed and the light that had been turned on by it cast out another haunted creature from his mind. This liberating process of restoration left Scott momentarily overwhelmed by his emotions, a moment of disbelief that he could be reclaimed. Jean happily weathered each of these storms by his side knowing that her presence was what inspired it to happen. She never doubted the depth of their love but sometimes she was in awe of what it could do.

Once his emotional purge was spent, his breathing finally steadied. “Then let’s go home,” he said, his voice a little hoarse. “We’ve got some planning to do.”