Jean sighed. It had been a long day; she quickly gazed at her clock and saw that the time was 19:35. She was late for her appointment with Scott. He knew she'd be late, she had telepathically contacted him and told him but she still didn’t like it. He had understood, he was always very understanding about her work but she could still feel an unavoidable feeling of irritation in him over her message.

She turned on the radio as she drove towards the mansion, thinking while she half hummed along to a song she knew. It was autumn and the leaves were falling in all the colours of the rainbow. Maybe on the weekend she could kidnap Scott away from his work for a walk in the woods near the mansion so they could enjoy the rain of leaves… she'll hold his hand, he'll smile down at her as they walk while he talks of the classes he's had and she'll tell him about all of the colours of the leaves, explaining each to him as vividly as possible until he has a clear image of the various hues in his minds' eye.

She smiled at the thought. That would be nice. They had both been very busy lately; Scott with his classes and she with her job at St. Mary’s hospital downtown.

The song "16 Candles" began playing on the radio and she turned the music up, singing with the song. She had first met Scott when he had been 16. He had been so different then; frightened, blind, insecure… and very thin. He was also been incredibly distrustful, reasonable enough considering he had clearly lived on the streets for some time before the professor found him. As a medical student, she had worked with his body while Charles had helped him come to terms with who and what he was. She had treated him for malnutrition, lice and a wealth of minor bruises and cuts, some of which had been infected. His teeth had need treatment as well and while that wasn't her area of expertise, she had made sure that he'd seen a dentist. Scott's biggest concern though had been his
blindness so she had worked with Charles to develop the ruby-quartz glasses for him.

She hadn’t thought of him then as a woman thinks of a man but rather had seen him as a patient. He had been seventeen when he began to show interest in her but she had assumed it was just gratitude as she was twenty-seven at the time and was struggling through her last year of medical school. It wasn’t until she was thirty and had gotten her first job as a doctor when she finally recognised his affections and agreed to go out on a date with him. She had never counted on falling in love. He was ten years younger than her; what could they possible have in common? As she learned more about him, she found they were profoundly different…yet the same. Their upbringing had been miles apart; he had lost his parents in a plane crash and grew up in an orphanage, she had grown up in an upper-middleclass family with parents who loved her in a nice neighbourhood
where nothing bad ever happened. Yet the more she learned about their differences, the more she began to understand that was what would hold them together.

Her father had never glossed over the fact that he expected nothing but the best from his only child. He was a university professor so everyone in the family had counted on her going to college. Though she never doubted her
parents’ love for her, she had always felt a great pressure on her to do the right thing. Her choice of medicine as a career had pleased them but it was first a few years later that she was 100% certain that their approval wasn't
the reason she had continued her studies. She truly wanted to help people, to make the world a better place and she felt like she could make a difference as a doctor. Her social life had always been very limited; school came first…she had to be the best and so she had been. She had graduated med. school among the top ten and had finally felt like she could relax a bit and try to figure out what she wanted out of her life. Her parents had wanted her to go to a fine hospital that would pay her a big salary but she had decided to work at St. Mary’s instead. It was a good hospital, not fancy… normal. She was also the medic at Charles’ school though she did that for free and luckily there wasn’t much work to be done.

Her parents had wanted her to marry a doctor or dentist or anyone else who was rich or had great chances of becoming wealthy. The first time she brought Scott home for dinner to meet to her parents had been very awkward. Scott was always very passionate about his work and loved helping kids but an orphan high school
teacher wasn’t their first choice for their little girl. Her parents had an old fashioned view on life and the roles everyone should play. Scott was everything they didn’t want in a son-in law: he would most likely never earn even half of what Jean earned, he had no family and no ties to anyone, he was ten years younger than her, which disturbed her mother a lot, he was also an atheist and he always wore his strange red glasses, marking him more obviously as a mutant than they would have liked. Jean's parents had only accepted her mutantcy because it was so easy to hide, no one could tell she was a mutant just by looking at her.

She had wondered long and hard if she was with Scott merely to defy her parents because, if so, it wouldn’t be fair to either of them, but she found she was with Scott regardless of her parents’ wishes. She knew well what plans her parents, especially her mom, had for her; to marry a rich man, settle down, have kids then stay at home and take care of them while her husband earned lots of money. Well, that wasn’t her life dream. She hadn’t struggled for eight years to become a doctor to go home and not use the education she had worked so hard to get. What she wanted was a man who would accept that she worked, who wouldn’t mind if she earned more than him or had a fancier title than him, a man who took her desires into consideration yet didn’t bend over easily either, a man who shared her vision of a better world and a man who wasn’t afraid or resentful of her mutation. Where else would she find a man who fitted all that better than in Scott? He didn’t care that she earned more than him, he didn’t mind if she picked up the check once in a while at the restaurant, he didn’t mind being dragged along to medicine conferences where everyone more or less talked over his head about things he didn’t understand, he didn’t fear her powers and didn’t mind the mindlink they shared nor the fact that she could
heard his thoughts….he didn’t mind waiting for her. She knew some men, like Logan, would call him weak but he was far from weak. He was the strongest man she had ever met. He dared to be with her; he didn’t need for her to be weak and dependent on him constantly to feel good about himself. He had grown into a man sure of himself, his choices and his way of life. Their telepathic link helped her make sure she didn’t step on his toes or his pride. She liked when he gave her his coat even though she could have used her powers so she didn’t feel the cold, she liked when he helped her do things even if she could have done them herself, she liked when he protected her and took care of her but most importantly she made sure he knew that.

Jean smiled to herself as she entered the driveway to the mansion. Scott was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She didn’t know what to do without him; he supported her when she was in doubt, stood behind her, took care of her, held her up…he loved her. He was always there, not afraid to stand in the shadows and let her take the spotlight but always there to catch her when she fell. In her mind’s eye she saw their souls as being one. They fitted together like two pieces of a puzzle; she enjoyed the spotlight, he avoided it whenever he could, she liked attention, he'd rather be left alone, she liked a lot of people around her, he often sought solitude. She had always counted him as her equal, her powers made sure that she always judged people by who they were inside and not who society said they were and in her mind, thoughts and heart Scott was a beacon of light; shinning so brightly. A light she needed to find her way home.

They had had their arguments, every couple did. The biggest one had been about Logan. Scott had been afraid she would like him better and maybe even choose him instead. Logan was indeed what society classified as a ‘real’ man; strong, protective…. macho. No, she felt nothing but friendship towards him. She didn’t want a man like him; the sacrifices one of them would have to make would be too great. He would either have to learn to not always be the strongest, to not always decide or she would have to live with him controlling how things went. He didn’t mean anything bad by his behaviour but she knew that his only interest in her was because she was different from other women. Logan's type was the classic woman; someone he could protect and take care of…someone who
needed that all the time. His connection to Rogue had proved that. He might be able to fall for a strong and independent woman but since he wouldn’t change and as she wouldn’t either it would never work.

Their arguments didn’t last very long. All she had to do was open her mind to him and let him search for whatever answer he needed. It was after Logan that she had established a permanent telepathic connection between them. Scott never needed to fear how she felt anymore, all he had to do was feel the link and he'd know. It limited their arguments to minor things, such as to how early they had to get up on the weekends; he was an early riser while she was not, if peanut butter for breakfast was healthy for you or not; Scott loved peanut
butter while she had never liked it and so on.

Jean parked her car, turned off the engine and checked her clock; 20:05. Noticing the time brought with it the stirrings of hunger. Scott had said he’d wait with dinner till she got back so they could eat together; he had claimed he had some reports he needed grading anyway. Humming ’16 Candles’ she went into the mansion, hung up her coat and went towards the kitchen. She could smell food and not just any food…this was roasted duck and…creamy mashed photos and…yes, Scott’s amazing gravy! Her favourite food. A wide smile was on her face when she entered the kitchen. Scott was standing with his back turned to her, a glass of red wine stood on the kitchen table while he stirred in the gravy. The radio was on and he hummed happily to a tune.

"That smells amazing," Jean said as she went towards him and put her arms around him from behind. He turned around and put his arms around her and smiled at her.

"That’s good," he bent down and kissed her lips. *I’ve missed you,* she heard over their link.

*I’ve missed you too. It’s so nice to come home and see all this. No one cooks better than you,* she grinned and he smiled, a proud smile.

*What did I ever do to deserve such a great man like you?* she thought and he grinned, a teasing gleam in his eyes had she been able to see them.

"Just lucky I guess," he said out loud and gave her another kiss before he turned back to his gravy. *Just like I was lucky to find you,* he thought and she smiled warmly.

"Okay, it’s all finished. Would you set the table?" Scott asked as he began to put food on the table.

"Of course." She used her telekinesis to make forks, knifes, plates, glasses and the wine bottle fly to land gracefully on the table.

"Cheater," Scott complained good-naturally as he put the rest of the food on the table. He held out her chair for her and she sat down. He kissed her before he went and sat across for her.

For a moment they both just looked at each other, smiling. Then the thought;

*I love you,* was sent simultaneously between them and they grinned.

They began to talk about their day while they eat but the happy feeling remained like a kiss being echoed forever and no words were needed to say what was in their hearts…or minds.
 

The End