Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is why I am a poor college student.

Author's Note: Last Chapter. Woot! Sorry it took me longer to get up than expected, finals week was killer, but thankfully I have my last one tomorrow. Also withing the next couple of days I'll be fixing the massive amount of grammatical errors in the previous chapter. Like I said at the time I had a really bad case of the flu. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the fic. As always please review, constructive criticism is welcomed!


Chapter 12

It was the day Jean had been dreading for the past week. As Jean sat in her empty classroom, she recited the eulogy that she would have to read later that day. Jean held the paper in her hands, but the truth was that by now she's recited the words so many times that she had it memorized several hours ago. That wasn't why she kept reading the words. She hoped with practice that she would be able to read it with some sense of composure, of dignity. It wasn't working because still every time she said his name, it still caught in her throat. If she couldn't say his name now, how was she suppose to say it with Scott's grandparents looking up at her? How was she suppose to say it with Alex looking up at her? She refused to break down during it. She could cry later. She could get upset when she was alone, but for right now she had to be strong. She refused to let anyone see her break.

Realizing that her attempts to devoid the words of any emotion was fruitless, Jean put the paper back down on the desk and looked out the window to the courtyard below. Hank supervised, while several of the older students helped to set up the chairs and the flowers for the ceremony. Jean was thankful for all the help everyone offered her, but part of her felt guilty for not doing everything herself. The same part of her wished that someone would let her do something instead of waiting around for the next four hours.

Jean felt the air rush into the room as the door opened, but didn't turn around. "Go away, 'Ro. I told you, I'm fine." Jean continued to watch the activity below as John and Bobby helped to carry over the podium to it's designated spot.

There were several moments of silence, but the door didn't close. "It's not Ororo."

Jean closed her eyes. "No."

"I'm sorry?" Jean turned towards the source of the voice to confirm what she had just heard. Scott stood in the doorway of the classroom. He looked perfect. Not withered like the Scott she saw die in a hospital bed a week ago, but perfect like the Scott she had known for over a decade.

Jean turned away from him. She couldn't think straight while looking at him."No, you're not here," she told him. "You can't be here. You're not real. You're-"

"Jean, I came back," his voice was so happy, but Jean couldn't accept it.

"No, you're not. You're dead. You died." Jean turned her head over her shoulder to make sure Scott was still there, but then had to close her eyes. It was too painful for her to look at him. "This is just some defense mechanism or hallucination brought on by grief. I could be dreaming." She paused. "I'm probably just dreaming."

"You're not dreaming, Jean." His voice had lost it's previous joy, and now he just wanted her to belief him. "Read my mind. Your powers don't work when you're sleeping."

"No," she told him. This scene was all too familiar to her. "Because I've had this dream for the past week, and this is the part where I wake up. This is the part where I wake up, and you're not there...again. I don't want to wake up yet," she told him.

"Jean, you're not asleep," Scott said walking towards her. He tried to put his arms around her, but she slipped from his grasp. "Aren't you happy I'm back?" The pain in his voice was unbearable. This was never in her dream before.

"I can't be happy, Scott," she told him truthfully. "I can't be happy because I know this isn't possible. Even if it was, nothing this good has ever happened to me before. Why should it start now?"

Scott nodded, knowing that Jean had been through too much in the course of her life to readily believe a miracle of this magnitude could actually occur. "Okay, you need time," he stated simply. "I'm going to inform The Professor that I'm back, and see if I can find my family on the way." Jean nodded and gave him a small smile as he left the room.

As Jean saw him vanish from the doorway, part of her doubted if she would ever see him again. Still, when she looked back to the eulogy on her desk, it seemed pointless to go over it again. Jean was about to check on the progress the boys were making outside, when she heard a loud thud come from the hallway.

Jean ran out of the room and several hundred feet down the hall before she found the source of the noise. There was a portrait on the ground, and where it once hang, Alex was pinning Scott to a wall.

"You Asshole!" Alex shouted at him. "How could you do that to us?" There was a combination of punching a hugging. "We thought you were dead!" At first, Jean thought she should break the two up, but she knew exactly what Alex was going through, so she let them be.

"I know. I'm sorry," Scott attempted to say soothingly.

"Oh 'you're sorry," Alex mocked him. "Because of course that makes everything all better. Do you know what we've been through?" Alex had stopped punching, but grabbed the collar of Scott's shirt instead.

"No, I don't pretend to know, but would you rather the alternative?" Scott asked him. Alex's grip on Scott's shirt slackened.

"Mr. Summers!" Jubilee exclaimed as she ran down the hall. "You're back!"

Jean didn't know quite how it happened, but somehow in all the commotion with Alex, Scott, Jubilee, and the other students that were now filtering in from adjacent classrooms, Jean ended up sitting on the floor with her hands around her knees and sobbing hysterically.

Seeing Jean, Scott broke from Alex's grasp, and plopped down next to her. "Jean?" he asked. There was no coherent reply. "Jean?" he asked again. "Are you okay?"

"You were dead," she stated between sobs, "but now you're not." Scott nodded.

"That's about the gist of it," Scott told her. "I'm glad you finally started believing me."

Scott was about to place his arm around her, but Jean's crying gave way to shouting, "You asshole! I thought you were dead." The crowd that previously started to gather, realized they were intruding on what was meant to be a private conversation, and began to disperse. Scott nodded to Alex, signaling him to tell the rest of their family of his return. "I thought I'd never hold you again. Do you know the hell you put me through, that you put everyone through?"

"I'll say I'm sorry for the pain I've caused as many times as you want me to," he told her, "but I'm not sorry I came back. I won't apologize for that."

There was a few moments of silence before Jean asked, "How did it happen?"

Scott shrugged. "All I know is that I woke up in a tomb in Egypt immediately after. It took me this long to make enough money to make it back to New York, and get through customs without a passport."

"You could have called us," Jean said, still slightly bitter.

"The Egyptian desert isn't really big on cell phone service."

Jean didn't have a rebuttal for Scott. She was quiet for a couple moments, as she allowed herself to cool down. "Are you okay now? No Apocalypse or anything?"

"Nothing," he told her. "He's completely gone. I was as surprised as you are," he added after seeing her expression. "At first I thought it didn't work, but so far, so good."

Jean nodded. "We should probably do regular neural scans for the time being just to make sure everything is okay."

Scott nodded in agreement as Jean nestled herself under his arm, finally allowing herself to feel joy at his presence. "So, I guess this would be a bad time to ask you to marry me?" he asked her. Jean stared at him, not quite able to comprehend what had just been said. " I had a lot of time to think the past week," he explained. "I lost you once. I never want to do that again."

Jean had trouble forming words. "Yes, bad time. Too soon."

Scott nodded. "Tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

Jean smiled. "Tomorrow's much better." Scott beamed back at her as he held her tighter. "I'm still mad at you," she reminded him.

Scott nodded. "From you, Jean, I would expect nothing less."

The End