JJ Always Get Her Man!!!

by Julie

Well, JG, you may have explained my first disappearance, and given my beloved Peter away to my dear twin, June (that's okay, she shares. Don't you, dear?;-), but you DID forget one thing:

My second disappearance, of which I will share the circumstances now.

After several requests from the KFTLC lists, I was attempting to refine my cloning technolog so that we could each have our very own personal CP. Unfortunately, I was not careful enough with the secrecy surrounding this project, and my efforts were brought to the notice of one Mr. Sinister. Driven by his obsession with manipulating genes, he had several of his evil mutant cronies come to steal me from my home and carry me off to a secret lab, where he forced me to work non-stop on my cloning machine, threatening the lives of all those I loved unless I complied (given that I live online, that's a LOT of people!). Unable to see a way out of it, I pretended to give in to his evil scheme, all the while plotting a way out. I completed my research, searching for a way to sabotage Mr. Sinister's efforts as I continued to look for an escape. I managed to get a mayday call out to the X-Mansion, but I wasn't sure if they got it. One night, while I was alone in the lab, I took my courage in hand and quickly rigged a bomb out of some of the leftover raw materials from the now-completed cloning machine. I was just about to detonate it, saying farewell, earth's bliss (and wondering how the cable reception was in the afterlife), when I heard a strange commotion. Thinking I had been discovered, I looked at the door just in time to see it blasted open by some supercharged force! A man strode through, a card held in his glowing hand. I looked up into his beautiful, intense eyes, and forgot to breathe.

"You called, chere?" he asked me, smiling devilishly.

"Uh..." I said intelligently. It was all I had time to get out before several of Mr. Sinister's evil underlings came crashing through the ruined door, quickly spotting my erstwhile rescuer and preparing their attack. Shielding me with his own tall, muscular body and terribly fashionable trenchcoat, he proceeded to unleash a volley of super-charged cards (and you thought only women could do this;-), felling our antagonists before they even reached him. He began to edge toward the door, one arm tucked protectively around me. Just as we reached the door, though, Mr. Sinister appeared, eyes dark with fury.

"You won't thwart me again, Gambit!" he shouted angrily. "She is the key to creating my genetically pure empire! I won't let you take her!"

"The little lady don' like your company, monsieur," said Gambit, pulling me tighter against him. I slipped my arm inside the trenchcoat, wrapping it around his waist. He looked down at me and winked, then looked back up at our tormentor. "Gambit hates to see a pretty woman unhappy."

Mr. Sinister took a threatening step toward us. I felt the shift in Gambit's stance that indicated he was about to let go of me and do battle. Unable to bear the thought of the loss of those strong arms, I took matters into my own hands (so to speak, my actual hands being full of well-muscled Cajun;-).

"Stop right there, Sinister," I shouted, pulling something out of my pocket and holding it up. "I've rigged your machine with a bomb! One more move, and this whole laboratory looks like the Warner Brothers Studio Store the day after Thanksgiving!"

Sinister froze, glaring at me. "You're lying. You wouldn't dare risk yourself in such a fashion."

"Wouldn't I?" I said scornfully. "You obviously haven't done your homework. You're talking to the woman who scoffed the first time she was exposed to an episode of KFTLC. It was Redemption 2, no less! So you can imagine how self-destructive my behavior can get. I always wanted to go out with a bang!"

Sinister watched me uncertainly. Gambit was gazing down at me in admiration. I felt a small qualm, looking up into that beautiful face. If I hit the trigger, he'd die, too. Would I be able to live with that, even if I was dead?

Before my thought processes could go further, Gambit was suddenly swinging me up into his arms. Tossing a card at Sinister, he used the explosion to cover our escape as he jumped on one of the lab tables and catapulted us upward, grabbing the bottom edge of one of the line of skylights. Deftly shattering the window with a minimal charge, he swung us up and out. As we bounded toward the edge of the roof, he whispered in my ear.

"Set de bomb, chere."

I'd forgotten I still held the detonator in my hand. Taking a deep breath (that machine could keep us ALL in Toms and Peters and Franks and Wolfs-and GAMBITS!-forever!!!), I resigned myself to what could be years more of delay, and pressed the button.

The lab disappeared in a ball of smoke and fire, debris raining down around us.

I felt Gambit suddenly jerk and stumble.

"Gambit?" I said worriedly, looking up at him.

"Gambit's all right, chere, we gotta get you out of..."

Ever the gentleman, he set me gently down before passing out. Quickly checking him over, I saw that he'd been hit in the head by some of the debris. There was blood dampening his dark red hair, a nasty lump forming. I also saw that at least one piece of debris had pierced the armor (why does that stuff ONLY work when the rest of the team is around? I thought irrelevantly), burying itself in his back. Thinking of punctured lungs and concussions, I tore the sleeves off my shirt, using one to bind his head wound while I pressed the other against the heavily bleeding wound in his back.

A few minutes later, the rest of his team showed up, Wolverine muttering something about waiting for backup (guess they ALL share that problem, I couldn't help thinking) and gumbo stew. He fell silent when he saw me hovering over Gambit.

"He's hurt," I said urgently, my gaze settling on Beast, the doctor of the group. "We have to get him back to the X-Mansion. Where did you leave the Blackbird?"

I knew Cyclops was staring at me, though I couldn't see his eyes. "Who ARE you?" he asked at last.

"My name is Julie," I told him, "and I-"

"You're the one who sent the message. The one building the cloning machine for Sinister."

"I built it." Wincing a little at the memory, I added, "I also blew it up."

"She can tell you the whole story on the way home, ole fearless," Beast said, kneeling by Gambit, on the opposite side from me. "Right now, we need to get our teammate out of here. He's badly hurt, and the lab may be gone, but I don't know about Sinister."

Quickly acquiescing, Cyclops called Jean Grey back at the Blackbird, telling her our coordinates and to hurry. A few seconds later, the plane arrived, and Gambit was loaded onto one of the stretchers. Beast let me assist him in doing what we could for my rescuer on the way back to the X-Mansion. When we were done, I looked up to find Wolverine staring at me.

"What?" I asked tiredly.

He shook his head, grinning. "You blew up that lab, huh?"

"I didn't have much choice," I pointed out. "If I didn't, Sinister would have used that machine for more of his experiments. I couldn't allow that."

"If you feel that way, then why did you get into the cloning thing in the first place?"

I looked down at Gambit. He lay on his side, making it easier for him to breathe. His lung HAD been punctured. Asleep, bandaged and bruised, he still did dangerous things to my blood pressure. Reaching out to brush a tendril of silken hair away from his face, I shrugged and answered Wolverine's question.

"It has its moments."

The mutant seemed to find that funny. Grinning wider, he said, "One thing for sure, Gumbo's sure can pick 'em. Good thing Rogue's still addled over dear old JOSEPH."

With that remark, he left me to watch Gambit sleep. The trip back to the mansion was WAY too short.

I stayed at the X-Mansion until I was sure Gambit was going to be all right. After all the excitement of a month ago (WHY did you do it, Mimi? I've never BEEN on the Chat!), I couldn't wait to get back and tell you guys about my adventure. I suppose I could have used the computer in the mansion (IBM, eat your heart out!), but I was...distracted. Gambit said he couldn't have gotten us out of there unless I'd distracted Sinister long enough for him to charge another card, and he wanted to show his appreciation.

Who was I to refuse such a display of gratitude?

I just returned home this week, exhausted but happy. I've returned to my research, and Gambit generously

volunteered some of his DNA for me to test the machine with when it's finally rebuilt. Wasn't that thoughtful of him? In fact, he said he planned to stop by as often as possible, just to make sure there were no more kidnappings and the research was going smoothly. I told him please do, and I might even have a DIFFERENT project he could help me with. "In the name of science," as Cassy would say.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Aren't you glad you didn't have to write this, JG?

More delirious by the hour,
Julie