[i](Collab between Yoshi and myself.)[/i]

It didn't take long for something to come up that required attention. She could hear Xavier tell her to leave it alone, to let it lie. To let this kind of thing develop on it's own. [i]Pushing[/i], the man had always been fond of telling her, [i]can only result in disaster.[/i]

He was probably right. Xavier typically was, much as it annoyed her about him. But given the current circumstances, she didn't really feel as if she had time to wait and see. To let it develop on it's own. Standing there in the shower thinking about it as she washed, Jean knew there was no pushing it off.

Her wet hair was left to fall upon her shoulders after a half-assed attempt at blow drying it for a few minutes. She returned to wearing essentially the same thing, just with purple bikini straps visible upon her neck, suggesting she'd added a layer under shorts and shirt. Exiting the bedroom into the main room she learned Stark was on a phone, making Jean grin when she heard him speak the words 'grilled lobster'. 

A new drink was required, though her eyes ran to the young woman in the room as she made it. "Want to tell me why I'm getting the sense I did something to you?" It was perfectly light and friendly, the tone she used.

Except for the underlying, inescapable, certainty with which she spoke. There was an issue between her and Domino, one Jean was rather clueless about unless she went 'digging'--and she wouldn't do that, unless the girl gave her no choice. With her new vodka on ice in her hand, Jean took a quick drink before adding: "Normally I'd just leave it alone, but considering the short time frame we have and the impossible odds in which we're facing, I'd just assume get it out into the open now."

"I don't know you. I haven't even gotten a chance to talk to you at the Mansion since I've been back. I'm sorry if you feel I've slighted you in some way. I certainly never meant to."

Having taken over Tony's chair completely in his absense, Neena had her legs sprawled out over the arm of the chair with her back at a slightly awkward slanted angle on the crease between the other arm of the chair and the back of the chair itself. With Tony's drink in one hand, and twirling her pistol around in the other while she stared up at the ceiling she looked quite content...that is...until the red-head came out of the bathroom.

Without even so much as looking in Jean's direction, Domino kept her eyes on the ceiling for a bit, but she did sit up in the chair a bit more so she could finish off Tony's drink which she had stolen once again.

"You're getting a sense? Why not just come right out and say that you've been digging through my head?" Neena snapped, sinking back into her slunken position on the chair, setting the now completely empty (aside from the ice) glass on the end table next to the chair.

Jean Grey smiled. "I can't remember the last time someone who spent time in that Mansion accused me of that." She really, genuinely, couldn't. "It was probably Logan. But, sure: No, Domino, I have not violated your thoughts--concious or subconcious. It's really not my style. Are you as good at dodging bullets as you are dodging topics?"

Neena scoffed openly, indicating that she didn't believe a word Jean was saying. Her eyes lit up though the second she brought up Logan, forcing Neena to finally face her with her eyes now narrowed.

"You don't even know what you did to him do you?" She said quietly, doing her best to keep her voice down lest Tony caught on to what was going on. "No idea how many nightmares he's had, no idea just how wounded he really is..." She shook her head, trying to keep herself from shaking in anger. 

"But yes, I can dodge a bullet even better than that. It's my mutation factor after all...luck. But no one at that school gave a damn about it. What would a mutation like luck have stacked against a telepath anyway? But not even that...no...let's talk about trying to stack up against someone who died, and then came back all willy-nilly like nothing is wrong." Neena stood up, unable to sit still in her chair anymore. If she wasn't so sure that Jean would be able to stop her, she might of just shot her in the leg right then and there from the pure anger that was coming off of her.

Normally, the stance of displeasure and irrtation might have made Jean blink. Today, right now...it only made her take another, long, drink of vodka. The back of her hand that held the glass stayed at her lips for a second, rubbing a drop of liquid from her mouth as she finally removed it. Her green eyes stuck on the mutant before her.

But anger, or resentment, did not come out of Jean's mouth. Only soft spoken words of sadness. "I don't love Logan like he loves me. The man has a lot of nightmares, but I'm not one of them. Nor is my death on his hands."

"BULLSHIT!" Neena interupted, no longer caring about keeping Tony oblivious to the situation. "I was THERE! Many times in fact! Can you imagine lying in bed next to a man who just gave you one of the best nights in your sad, pathetic life, only for him to cry out in his sleep another womans name?"

Jean had a solution: she invisibly 'nudged' Tony Stark out the front door, and closed it behind him. Keeping every entrance to the bungalow telekinetically locked for the moment. "Considering it was my first time coming back to life, maybe you can tell me how the appropriate manner in which to do it is? You know, so I don't do it 'willy-nilly' next time?"

After a beat, Jean just went on. "You'll forgive me for doing the best I could in the circumstance. Just the same, I hope you never have to find yourself in that situation. Why on Earth would you need to stack up against me? Whatever you and Logan have going on is between you two. It's none of my business, but don't lay his hang ups at my feet. You'll find out in due time with that one he's going to torment himself no matter what you do. Is it my fault he's in love with me? It's not. He'll move on, or he won't, because he's Logan. Either way, out of my hands."

The redhead forced herself to take another long drink, her thoughts swirling like a maelstrom of confusion and pain. Even if she did her best not to show it. "Is that all you got? Any more misdirected anger at me? I'm not the man who took you and said another woman's name, Domino. But if you need to blame me for that, until you grow up, that's fine."

"The appropriate manner?" Neena scoffed, rolling her eyes and pushed past Jean headed straight to the bar. Fuck being sober anymore. She turned her back to Jean, examining the liquors in stock before finding a new bottle of tequila. Turning as she opened it to face Jean once again, she jumped up onto the bar, letting her legs dangle freely as she raised the bottle to her lips, downing an eighth of the bottle without even so much as a wince before stopping. "I would have stayed dead." She jabbed venomously at her.

It wasn't just Logan, it was never really about Logan to begin with. Domino didn't love him either, but it sure was a good way to break the metaphorical ice. "Logan has become my best friend, and he was fine until you came back. So don't you go on about me acting childish when all I'm saying is that I can't stand to see my best friend suffer."

Neena took another drink, just wanting this whole thing to surpass, willing for the intoxication to kick in. She didn't care if she cam across as alcoholic right then, she just wanted to be numb.

"This whole shit-hole situation is your fault anyway. I don't even know why I'm helping to be honest since you should be the one to clean it up. Maybe you'll think next time before you kill a bunch of people before you die. Maybe you'll think next time you decide to piss the government off, putting all other mutants and alike in danger."

Of 'staying dead', Jean stayed curiously quiet. Both in speech, and in her own mind. "If Logan's your best friend and you think he was [i]fine[/i] until I came back? Then, honey, you don't know Logan. Trust someone that's been in that metal head of his. At his own insistance."

The last bit she added just so the girl wouldn't use that as ammunition against her, too. Jean had no problem stepping back and allowing Domino the bar. She had plenty left in her glass, as it was. 

The harder part was keeping the laugh off her lips. Something she failed at, letting a slip of laughter out until she caught herself. "It's all my fault? I'm the reason the government tried to kill Tony Stark today? Really? I stopped Apocalypse from bringing down the world, and I'm a bad guy?"

The laughter returned, louder and uninhibitated. It left Jean shaking her head. "Your logic is twisted, alright. I also had Loki open a portal over New York City and bring an alien conquering force into the world? Ohletmeguess! I...caused Manchester and Broken Arrow, too, right? I blew up innocent men, women, and children? I mean, in your head, that's what happened...isn't it?"

Even though the laughter was gone, a grin remained. It was the only way her mind knew how to deal with the ridiculous and half-cocked claims of the girl.

Neena just watched her, her eyes narrowing more and more as the red-head continued on."Yeah yeah, lets all make Domino look like a moron shall we? Stop putting words in my mouth Jean--"

"--THEN MAKE SENSE!" Finally, the cool surface of the Cape Cod girl cracked. Suddenly, Jean was right there against the bar, leaning into the girl like Jean was Logan, and wanting more than the girl to be logical. "I'm not forcing you to say things that don't hold water, Domino. If there's a problem you're dealing with, whether it's neglect felt at the Mansion, or some sort of neglect from Logan, tell me and let me help you. Or don't, and just drive yourself crazy. But find the real targets for your pain, because for a marksman as good as you...you're sure as fuck off your mark this time."

Neena looked down at her with a rather disgusted look on her face before sliding off of the bar, forcing Jean to back up just a little to keep from colliding their bodies together. Neena didn't back off though, and since she was a few inches shorter than Jean she looked straight up into Jean's eyes.

"You don't know shit about me." She hissed and without even so much as blinking, Neena chucked the bottle of tequila at the wall to her left, watching it shatter with a satesfactory sound that made Neena almost want to smile. Shaking her head, she finally turned away from Jean, heading straight to the door that would lead her out of this room.

"You won't let me, Domino. You won't give me the chance," she said, as a telekinetic force with a strength that Domino would find impossible kept the door closed tight. "I don't blame you for anything you've said to me. You're hurt, and like Logan you're hot blooded and stubborn. I'm his friend for a reason. I'll be your friend for the same reason, when you want it."

Then the door swung open, and allowed Domino out.

Domino remained still for a while, taking in Jean's words slowly as the door was impossible to wrench open. At her first realization that Jean wasn't allowing her out, her fingers twitched towards the pistol on her right hip but was stopped when Jean began talking. Keeping her back to the red-head, she listened, but as soon as the door opened, she was out and pushing past Tony rather abruptly.

"I'm out." She quickly explained to Tony. Or maybe...she just needed to think...

The door closed again before Tony Stark could blink from Domino back to the bungalow. She'd barely done it since her 'awakening', except once...as pure reflex to ward off the attack what was left of Magneto had thrown at her those first hours on the broken remnants of Genosha after life returned to Jean Grey.

The tequila, the shards of glass; every molecule and every single atom found within came flying on a spectrum she could feel, not see, whirling and whirling in the air until the golden Tequila and it's glass bottle slowly began to take shape, then solidify as one object in the universe once more.

She wasn't quite sure what was more shocking to her: that she had reformed the bottle with it's contents back in their place...or that she had quietly wished she had stayed dead, too. After the bottle was returned to the bar Jean opened the door herself, smiling casually at Stark.

"I gotta go pick up some things. I'll be back in time for food. I sensed Carol arriving. You might want to find some way to flag her down and point her in the right direction."

Then she walked, her sandals 'flopping' with each step she took towards the designer malls.