Girl Talk

Posted on Mon Jul 22nd, 2024 @ 7:53pm by Jean Grey & Mara Ricci

3,943 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Baxter Building, NYC
Timeline: October 12, 1990

It felt surreal to Mara to be back in New York so quickly. Not that she minded, but she had just barely gotten used to the idea of living at the mansion and now she was back in the city. Granted, it was only for a week, but even so. It just felt odd.

Yesterday had been busy. She had checked the wiring for the computers around the Baxter Building, replaced any necessary, and got everything set up. Today was establishing a connection to the mansion, which consisted of a lot of waiting for the computer to ask for input from her. There were usually several minutes- sometimes half an hour- between commands. Today was, in short, a boring day.

She should have brought a book.

The computer before her beeped and she quickly gave it the next command, then settled in to wait some more.

Jean had been busy for a good stretch of the morning, she had already made several trips to the Beat Street Club in preparation for the Alternate Class and Junior student's arrival. It was almost lunchtime before she returned to the mirrored skyscraper that was the Baxter Building. Using her keycard to take the elevator up to the twenty-ninth floor she was surprised to see the doors to the office space open. A brief moment of telepathic investigation answered her questions about what was going on before she made her way down the hall and into the offices.

“Hi Mara!” Jean announced herself as she entered the room housing the office’s server and the more advanced computer. She was dressed for fall and the crisp New York air in a knee length skirt and cardigan. As always, her thick red hair was worn down and in soft curls. “You got started earlier than I was expecting you to. How’s it going?”

“Slowly,” answered Mara. “One day, I’m sure there will be a quicker way to form an instant and permanent connection between two buildings, but until then, I have to sit here and wait. How has your morning been?”

“Busy but rewarding, the school is set to arrive at Beat Street in the next hour or so. There is already a lot going on this morning but it was productive.” Jean leaned against the door frame before folding her arms across her chest and examining the boxy computer. “So when this is all set up, we’ll be able to get Cerebro and War Room information, right as it’s happening?”

“That’s the plan,” replied Mara. “Well, close enough to right as its happening, anyway. There’ll be a slight delay- no more than a minute. But yes, everything will feed automatically here.”

“That’s amazing.” Jean said with a touch of awe in her voice, technology was advancing so rapidly and it was redefining how the world communicated. “It will make a huge difference, us being able to know what’s happening at the mansion. We can keep track of one another so much better. If we had had something like this available before that mission to Krakoa.” She shook her head as she considered the possibility. “I would have ended very differently.”

“Try not to think about it that way,” Mara advised. “You’ll only have more regrets.”

Jean couldn’t help but smirk upon hearing those words, words that she had said to Scott so many times before. So this is how it felt, to be on the other side of the statement.

“I know, you’re right.” She waved her left hand through the air as if it helped to banish those intrusive thoughts, the sparkle of a green stone on her ring finger caught the light as she moved. “There are no regrets in life, just lessons.”

“Exactly,” replied Mara. “If you learned from it, it was worthwhile.” She spotted the ring and attempted to get a good look at it. “Have you done any planning, yet?” she asked, nodding towards the ring.

“Yes.” Jean said with a beaming smile that showed how delighted she was. “We've been looking at locations around the city but haven't made up our minds. Where we pick determines the date, but we don't want to wait too long, we're both ready.”

Mara squealed happily. “Oh my goodness, that’s so exciting!” she said, grinning from ear to ear. “I love weddings. If you need any help planning, let me know. I’ve got way too many ideas to use for my own. You know, when I eventually meet someone.”

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t over the moon about it. We have always wanted to and after everything that’s happened, it just felt like it was time to.” Jean admired the ring herself for a moment, she was still smitten by it and what it represented. She smiled at Mara and her invitation to help as well as her interest in romance. “I have a feeling you would be amazing at keeping track of everything involved with a wedding. So…” Jean’s smile turned into a grin. “Are you interested in finding your own special someone?”

“Who isn’t?” Mara replied, watching the code on the screen in front of her with disinterest. “It’s been tricky, though. First college, then work, and now I’m at the mansion and there’s not really a lot of prospects there. And those video dating services are so…. I’m not sure what word to use. Creepy? Weird? Gross? I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I’ll get there eventually, I suppose.”

“What about Hank?” Jean gently nudged Mara towards the topic knowing that he was already interested in her. “The two of you seem to get along really well.”

“Hank?” replied Mara, surprised at the suggestion. “Hank is just a friend. I mean, granted, he’s probably my best friend, so…” And suddenly she laughed. “Does that mean he has to be my maid of honor at my wedding?”

“Scott was my best friend long before he was my partner. It was in the friendship, in those moments of support and trust that I really fell in love with him.” Jean’s voice became both distant and warm as she reached out for Scott through their telepathic bond, an affectionate touch that didn’t require physical proximity. “I got to know who he was and what motivated him and I enjoyed every minute of it. It got to the point where I missed him whenever we were apart and all I wanted to do was be with him. He was… is… my favorite person.”

Mara did know Hank really well. In fact, she seemed to gravitate towards him more than the others. She must have spent about eighty percent of her free time at the mansion with Hank. Was he her favorite person? Yes, probably. She shook her head. “I don’t think he’s interested in me that way,” she said with a shrug.

“You never know.” Jean said with a small shrug, she was willing to push in the right direction without openly outing Hank. “Things happen with time, maybe keep an open mind. You might be surprised.”

“I mean…” Mara trailed off, considering all of her interactions with Hank. The times he seemed to defer to her, gravitated towards her, even stood up for her at times. The realization that he’d been in love with her for some time slowly coalesced until literally everything he’d said and done confirmed this fact. “Wouldn’t he… wouldn’t he say something? I mean, why wouldn’t he? Does he think I’d reject him? He’s a nice guy. He’s kind and smart. And that’s putting it mildly. Not to mention he’s gorgeous! Those beautiful blue-grey eyes, the chiseled jaw, the muscles! Don’t even get me started on the muscles! Good grief, even his fur is beautiful! What does he do, brush it every day?” Her eyes widened slightly. “Oh, my God,” she said. “I’m in love with him.”

Jean chuckled a little as Mara mentally connected her own dots. “I’m glad you’re figuring yourself out.” Jean’s tone softened a little before she continued. “Hank can be painfully shy at times. After his accident he lost most of his self-confidence and I don’t think he’s ever really gotten it back. Sometimes he doesn’t express himself for fear of rejection or ridicule.”

Mara was only half paying attention. The other half of her mind was puzzling over what to do about Hank. If she told him and things went badly, she’d lose a friend. But if she didn’t tell him and someone else came along who didn’t have the same reservations she did…. The thought made her clench her jaw involuntarily.

The computer beeped at her and she forced herself to concentrate hard enough to give it the next command. “So it’s probably up to me, then,” she said. “And I honestly have no idea what to do.”

“It’s not all up to you.” Jean said in a supportive tone. “But just be patient with Hank, it might take him a little bit more time to make any kind of move.” She casually raised a hand as if to stop Mara from being so overwhelmed by the idea. “Don’t worry so much about what you should and shouldn’t do, just listen to your heart and move at the speed that feels right for you and for him. There isn’t one way to romance a person, just be yourself with him and it will fall into place.”

“I don’t think you understand how impossible it’s going to be for me to just be the same old Mara now that I know,” she said. “Growing up with a brother who is a lie detector made me a terrible liar. Hank is going to know something’s up- probably as soon as I see him again.” And then she groaned. “He’s picking me up from the train station!” she said. “That is going to be the most awkward ride of my life.”

“Then don’t be the same old Mara.” Jean said while maintaining her evenly keeled tone. “If being forthcoming feels like the right thing to do, do it. Sometimes all it takes is for one person to take the first scary step and then the rest falls into place.”

“Yeah,” Mara replied noncommittally. “I guess we’ll see.” She sighed. “I can’t think about that at the moment, though. There’s nothing I can do about it right now anyway.” She paused a moment. “Have you got any ideas for your wedding, yet?” she asked.

“Nothing real, at least not yet. We both want a big wedding, a huge celebration with everyone we know in attendance and a dance floor big enough to hold everyone.” Jean’s smile became winsome and dreamy. “A cake so tall it almost touches the ceiling and flowers on every surface… But all those grand things take time to plan, so it's a slow process.”

Mara nodded. While she would prefer a small wedding for herself, planning huge extravagant theme weddings was a pastime of hers. There wasn’t usually much to do while waiting on computers like she was today and her mind needed to do something to keep from going stark raving mad. Planning hypothetical weddings with a sky high budgets seemed as good of an idea as any. “Well, I don’t suppose there’s any real hurry,” she said. “Have you at least picked a color theme?”

“Oh no!” Jean said with a bashful wave of the hand and a short stint of laughter. “I haven’t gotten that far yet, I haven’t even picked up a bridal magazine.”

Jean suddenly stilled and held a finger up to signal to Mara that she was listening to something.

“I’m in the office Sue!” The redhead shouted as she turned her head toward the hallway outside the server room.

“Oh Jean! Thank goodness you’re home!” A voice from down the hall replied and a few moments later a petite blonde woman appeared, wearing pearls and tweed. “Do you have any garlic? I don’t have enough for dinner and don’t want to run to the store.”

“Sure. I can check in a minute.” Jean gestured towards Mara, making sure Sue saw that she wasn’t alone. “Mara Ricci, please allow me to introduce you to Sue Storm, she’s our upstairs neighbor.”

“Hi,” said Mara with a shy smile. Meeting new people unexpectedly always made her nervous and she often forgot her manners. This time, though, she hastily added, “it’s- it’s nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.” Sue offered Mara a hand to shake. While Mara may have been shy, Sue was eager and gracious to meet someone new.

“Sue and her family do similar work to us.” Jean implied the nature of their work without openly saying it. “They have an aircraft hangar on the top floor of the building and they’ve allowed us access when needed in case the blackbird needs to come here. We’ve become friends since then.”

“Oh sure, Scott and Jean are the best.” Sue smiled sweetly at Jean. “Plus Scott humors Reed with all of his questions and experiments. He’s fascinated by his power. What did Reed check his power at? A gigawatt?”

“Two gigawatts.” Jean corrected as she raised two fingers into the air.

“He’s dying to learn about Jean’s telepathy after that dinner party.” Sue gently nudged Jean to agree to Reed’s request. “Whatever Scott said about it, well they are just dying to try it.”

“Maybe another time Sue, I’m pretty busy right now.” Jean declined yet again.

“What do you do?” Sue didn’t have any hesitation about asking Mara what could be a rather personal question.

“Computers,” answered Mara. “I- well,” she said, nodding towards the monitor. It switched from an endless line of code to a blank screen. The words “HI, SUE!” flashed different colors on the screen and a little cheerful tune played briefly before it switched back to code. “That,” she finished simply.

“Oh wow, that’s a neat trick.” Sue said with a smile but the full extent of Mara’s abilities appeared to be lost on her. “Reed keeps on meaning to upgrade our systems but ever since our trip to space, he just doesn’t have time.” A lightbulb went off in Sue’s mind “Say, you should come up and take a look at them. Maybe show Reed what you do.”

Jean was standing behind Sue at this point and began to feverishly shake her head so Mara could see. ~* ‘No. Don’t do it. The stories I have are terrible.’ *~

Mara hesitated, but then gave Sue a grin. “Uh, sure,” she said noncommittally. “I mean, you know, if I have time.” She would have to ask Jean later. She couldn’t imagine what could be scary about computers.

“Oh swell!” Sue said with grin that was a little too wide. “Reed is just fascinated with mutants and what they can do.”

Jean shook her head in a hint of disapproval, she didn’t care for the way Reed poked and prodded Scott. He treated him more like a lab rat than a person. “I’ll get you that garlic Sue.” She replied before heading out of the server room and across the hall to her condo.

“So did you grow up at the mansion like Scott and Jean did?” Sue continued with her curious questions.

“No,” answered Mara. “I grew up in Maine. Computers weren’t really around as much so I didn’t even know I could do anything until I was almost 16.”

“So if you grew up in a place that didn’t have computers you never would have known that you were a mutant?” Sue pondered the idea of circumstances changing someone’s life in its entirety, a notion that she herself was subject to. “That’s wild.”

“Here you are, Sue.” Jean returned and offered her a small bulb of garlic for her cooking requirements.

“Thanks, Jean.” Sue took the garlic with some hesitation, another topic and the real reason she had come down here was gnawing at her thoughts. “Say Jean, I was thinking about what you said the other day about making Reed see me. I’m not really sure how to do that…”

“Oh!” Jean had felt Sue’s budding question but she hadn’t expected it to be on this topic, especially with Mara present. “You don’t know how to get his attention?”

Sue sighed out of frustration. “Reed is a brilliant man, his mind and his motivations are awe inspiring but sometimes he’s so focused on the future that he forgets about the present. How do I pull him back into the moment? Back to us.”

“Just kiss him,” suggested Mara vaguely. “That always gets their attention.” Sudden realization of what she had just said made her cheeks go pink and her eyes go wide. “I- I mean,” she stammered. “Not that- my mother always- Oh, boy.”

“I’m sure the physical aspect is part of it.” Jean said with a small smile towards the now blushing Mara. “But intimacy can also mean a deeper connection that goes beyond sexual relations. Sue misses Reed’s companionship and friendship too.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t mind the sex.” Sue said with frustration. “There are a lot of reasons to call him Mr. Fantastic.”

Mara giggled wickedly. She liked Sue. “Oh, great,” she said, still giggling. “Now when I meet him, that’s all I’m going to be able to think of!”

Sue joined Mara in her laughter and after a few minutes Jean joined in as well.

“Oh thanks Mara, now we’re all thinking about it.” Jean looked down and covered her eyes with her hand, as if shielding herself would make the intrusive thought go away.

“We had our honeymoon at Niagara Falls.” Sue said with a dreamy look in her eyes. “No lab coats or data sheets, no grant deadlines or lecture tours. Just the two of us. Reed read outloud ‘Cosmos’ by Carl Sagan. It was wonderful.” Sue sighed happily from the memory. “I’m not saying I need every day to be like that but an occasional reminder of it would be nice.”

“Scott and I were raised in a boarding school.” Jean offered her own experiences. “The student body was small at first but it rapidly grew and made it incredibly challenging for us to find the time and space for one another. It’s not really the best environment to fall in love in. But we had to make the effort to make it happen, otherwise it wouldn’t.”

Sue nodded her head in agreement. “Oh sure, I’m willing to turn it off and make the time. It’s him that’s the problem. How do you make someone who’s so preoccupied suddenly unoccupied?”

“I have no experience,” Mara admitted. “So the only real idea I have is perform a strip tease?” She made a sorts of questioning face that was also sort of disgusted at the same time. “That’s probably terrible advice, though,” she laughed.

“That’s not a bad idea at all Mara.” Sue said with a wicked smile on her face. “Wear something sexy and he won’t be able to ignore me.”

Jean lowered her head and shielded her eyes in embarrassment once more as the conversation turned to a more tawdry topic. “Sure Sue, just make sure you try and talk to him, tell him that you’re feeling neglected.”

“Oh yeah..” Sue agreed but her thoughts were already somewhere else. “Say Jean, do you know of any good lingerie stores in the area?”

Jean shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose before letting out a sigh in defeat. “Sugar Cookies, on 20th.”

“Swell.” Sue said with that continuing smile and enthusiasm. “We should go! Do you have anyone special that would appreciate something like that, Mara?”

Mara felt her cheeks grow hot and she quickly looked away. “Uh… n-no,” she stammered. “No- nobody. Not- not yet, anyway. Maybe… maybe some day.”

“Maybe is good. Maybe can always turn into a yes.” Sue said with a smile. “You should take your own advice and just kiss him.”

Mara felt her cheeks grow hot again and she mouthed wordlessly for a few moments. “Uh… y- yeah,” she stammered. “M-maybe.” And suddenly, an image of her just up and kissing Hank sprang into her mind and while it was terrifying and weird, it was also rather appealing. What would it be like to press her lips to his and feel his arms surround her? She had to shake herself to escape the unbidden vision.

“Slow down, Sue.” Jean said with a smile and shake of her head. “People move at different speeds. Mara will come into her own when she’s ready.”

The redhead glanced over at Mara as the technopath’s thoughts wandered off, lost in her own amorous daydreaming for a brief moment. Jean had a feeling that day would be sooner rather than later, so she made a mental note to seat Hank and Mara together at her wedding.

"Say that reminds me..." Jean was about to say something but she was interrupted mid-conversation with a telepathic message. Whatever was being said to her caused the redhead to stand up straight and her demeanor became serious.

"Hey Sue, you're going to have to excuse us. We need to go." Jean stopped once more as her mental conversation continued.

"Oh goodness, I know how that goes." Sue made her way towards the front of the building and its elevator. It was nice to know people who knew exactly what it was like to have to spring into action at the drop of a hat. "We were on the dark side of the moon just last month. Thanks for the garlic, Honey. Stay safe and good luck."

"Scott and Pietro have been following a lead surrounding the MRA's financial paper trails. They went to investigate a suspicious location only to discover sentinel production." Jean looked over at Mara. "Can you come with me and Bobby? I think you would be a huge help in taking down the sentinels."

Mara blinked, surprised. They wanted her to take down Sentinels? That sounded dangerous. And thrilling. And terrifying. Mostly terrifying. “Uh…” she hesitated. “Y- yes.” She glanced at the endless code scrolling across the screen. If it needed input, it would wait until she came back. She turned the monitor off to prevent the screen being damaged. “Yes,” she said more definitively.

"Great. I have a uniform you can borrow." Jean reached out to Bobby and gave him the details along with the call to action. "We need to get in and see what we can collect before they're onto us. Mara, if you could get information from their system... it could be a game changer."

~* 'We're on our way Scott, ETA of no more than 15 minutes. I'll let you know when we're close.' *~ With that, Jean collected Mara and Boddy and the trio were off to Alchemax Tower.

- End -

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