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I. CONTENTMENT
At some point, she slides into bed with him. He’s not sure when or why or what time is even on the clock at this point in the night, but there’s Jean, curled up against his side with her head on his shoulder.Scott’s not sure if she’s really asleep, there’s a smile on her face and she inches closer whenever his hand closes tighter around her shoulder. Not that he minds, he loves having her this close. He sighs contently, and then she does, and then there’s this…noise? Like low, gentle thunder and for a moment Scott doesn’t know where it’s coming from until he feels the slight vibration coming from Jean and then he realizes.She’s purring.She’s flat-out, straight-up, honest-to-goodness purring. Like a cat.And it makes him smile. He briefly considers waking her and asking her about it, but she’s so content, so peaceful, that it’s not worth it. He rubs her shoulder and lets her purr and at some point, the sound puts him to sleep.
II. MALADY
Jean is the only one who doesn’t come down for breakfast that morning. Now, in all fairness, Scott can’t blame her—it was a long day yesterday and they’re all sore and still tired—but he distinctly recalls how flushed her face was once they’d gotten home. She hadn’t been herself: glassy-eyed and sweating. She’d gone to bed as soon as they’d gotten home, and Scott hasn’t seen her since then.He decides to give her a few minutes before he goes barging into her room. If she needs the sleep, she should get it. But when breakfast is more than halfway over and Jean still hasn’t come down, Scott decides to abandon what’s left of his bagel to go check on her.There’s no answer when he knocks on the door. He tries again, “Jean?” but still no answer.When he opens the door gently and peeks in, Jean’s still in bed, lying with her back to the door. She groans, shifts uncomfortably, and settles down. Scott hears the prrrr-hrrrrr-rrrrr sound he’s gotten so familiar with.He goes in, shutting the door behind him, and sits on the edge of her bed. “Jean?”Her purring stops for a moment. She rolls over halfway and looks up at him with glassy eyes. “Scott?” Her cheeks are red. She blinks slowly with a pained sigh. Her purring starts up again.“Hey, Jean. What’s—” he reaches over to run is hand over her head; in the few second his hand has contact with her skin, he feels the heat. “Jean, you’re burning up!”She stares up at him with fevered confusion and after a moment mumbles in agreement. “I don’t feel well.”Scott runs his hand over her head; heat radiates from her. “I’m going to get you something for the fever,” he says. “I’ll come right back, I promise.”Jean mumbles something else as Scott gets up to leave; whatever she’s trying to say turns into purring and she rolls back over to drift into a fevered sleep. This is the way Scott finds her when he returns with the medicine and a glass of water.(Except her purring seems louder this time.)He wakes her, much as it pains him to, and hauls her up into a sitting position. She protests all the way, alternating between sick purring and incoherent words of refusal. “Purr” is the only word Scott can make out.“I know, Jean,” he says, “I know you can’t purr with water in your mouth, but you’ll feel better, I promise.”(It still, on days like this, amazes him that his girlfriend can purr. He still hasn’t asked why.)He manages to get her to take three pills—enough to keep her comfortable for a few hours—before she finally pushes him away and eases herself back into bed. She rolls onto her side and starts purring again. Scott sees the tension ease out of her shoulders. He’s not sure if purring will help her get better quicker, like it does cats, but it calms her and that’s what matters.“I’ll check on you again later,” he says, though he’s not sure she hears him over the rumbling in her throat.When he checks on her again in a few hours, she’s still purring, and her fever is better.
III. INCERTITUDE
Everything that could go wrong, did.It was supposed to be their average, run-of-the-mill training exercise, but everything that could have possibly (and shouldn’t have) gone wrong did. No one’s sure what happened, if it was something in the program, or if someone pushed a button they weren’t supposed to, but the session went south too soon, too fast, and it ended with three of them in the infirmary. Minor injuries, mostly, but Rogue took a nasty blow to the head and is laid up in the infirmary for a while.The other two, Gambit and Storm, have been patched up and sent off to rest up, despite Gambit’s insistence that he stay with Rogue. Hank tells him he’ll keep an eye on her.Scott eventually goes to offer to take over for Hank, but when he enters the infirmary it’s Jean sitting at Rogue’s bedside. She doesn’t turn when Scott walks in. As he gets closer, he realizes why.He can hear her purring from five feet away.(Has she ever purred this loud before? He’s not sure.)“Jean?” He rests his hand on her shoulder. She jumps, her purring pauses and she looks up at him; her eyes are red and lined with dark circles. She doesn’t say anything, just looks down at Rogue and keeps purring.“Hey,” he says, and kneels in front of her. Her purring doesn’t stop, and he isn’t about to make it stop. He takes her hands in his. “Rogue’s going to be all right. Just watch, she’ll be up and back to her old self tomorrow.”Jean stares at him with misty eyes. Her purring continues.Scott sits there and holds her hands. He doesn’t try to force her to speak.And it’s a moment before Jean finally stops purring long enough to say, “We don’t know that.” Her purring is interrupted momentarily, choked by the tears she’s holding back.Scott sighs, looking from Jean to Rogue, who lies still but breathing in the bed, head wrapped in white. It’s a moment, as he and Jean stare at her, before she stirs and takes a breath before settling down with a pained groan.Jean’s purring turns from distraught to cautiously relieved.
IV. TIGER, TIGER
The first time he calls her tiger, she doesn’t stop purring for the next hour.(She’ll tell him later that tigers don’t purr, but by then the nickname sticks.)And when they’re alone in the war room—Jean being too distracted by her own purring to use Cerebro the way she wants—Scott pulls her into his lap. Her purring reverberates through every inch of her body. She tucks her head in against Scott’s.“You’re the purriest telepath I know,” he says.(They both know that’s not a word, but she doesn’t correct him.)Jean laughs and says, “I’m the only purring telepath you know.”Scott thinks about it a moment. The words are right there—Why is that—waiting to be put out into the universe, but he doesn’t let them. He holds onto them and enjoys the moment.
V. FELICITY
It’s taken time, but Scott thinks he’s finally figured out when Jean purrs.(And it’s just short of all the time.)She purrs when she’s content, when she’s sick, when she’s scared, when she’s happy…there are other times he’s not sure of yet. Sometimes she just does.(He found her at the kitchen counter but three days ago, purring into her coffee. And after that, purring at an ad on TV.)Tonight, however—tonight, she’s purring because she’s overjoyed—he’s asked her to marry him.That was at one o’clock in the afternoon. It’s now nine at night, and Jean has yet to stop purring.Scott climbs into bed behind her, arms around her, his front to her back, and he can feel the vibration of every rumble through her back. She’s smiling, but it’s been hours and he’s beginning to grow concerned. He’s never heard her purr this much.“Does it ever bother you to purr this much?” he asks. “For so long?”He’s genuinely surprised that she’s able to stop herself to answer. “Sometimes,” she says, closing her fingers around his. “But tonight, I can manage.” She rolls over partially with a shine in her eyes. “I am to be a married woman, after all.”“And I’m to be a married man.” Scott holds her tighter. “And to the purriest telepath there is.”She laughs.(But still doesn’t tell him that’s not a word.)She shuts the light, and they settle down. Jean’s purring echoes in the dark, calming and continuous. Her steady rumbling is contagious, in a way, and if he could purr like Jean does, Scott knows he’d purring, too.
VI. REASON
It’s when they’re sitting on the blanket that Scott finally finds it in him to ask her. And he’s right on time—the first few rumblings of a purr start in Jean’s throat—and his question cuts her off before she can settle into it. “Jean?”Her purring stops as she registers his question and turns around to face him. “Hmm?”Scott pauses. Now that he actually has the chance, and the guts, to ask her, he’s not sure how to go about it. (He honestly didn’t think he’d make it this far.) “I wanted to ask you,” he says, “about that sound you make—your purring…?”“Oh?” Jean tilts her head, and for a moment, Scott doesn’t look at her. He expects her to be mad, upset, bothered, literally anything but the curious smile he finds on her face when he finally does. Much to his surprise, she laughs. “We’ve been together all these years and you’re now just asking me about it?” And she trails off into—and he’s absolutely not mistaken about this—a purr of amusement.(He loves the way it sounds.)“Well, I—I didn’t—”Jean’s purring cuts him off. She shakes her head. “It’s alright. I suppose there’s no real good way to ask your girlfriend why she purrs, is there?” She smiles as she asks the question and she’s still smiling after he shakes his head no.She purrs again and answers, “It’s a telepath-specific occurrence, the way our minds are wired. I’d call it a side effect, for lack of a better word.”And with that, he wonders why it took him so long to ask. A telepath thing? That’s all? Then a thought pops into Scott’s mind he can’t let go of. “The Professor?” he asks.Jean shakes her head. “Not that I’ve ever heard, no.” She shrugs. “Some telepaths purr more than others, some don’t at all. They don’t feel the need to. Me,” she says, “I’m one who purrs frequently, and I need to regularly. Going more than a few days without hurts me.” There’s a shine in her eyes, the flicker of a memory from a time where not purring caused her pain.He wraps his arms around her, drawing her back in, trying to push the memory away. And it works, Jean starts purring again. (And if other times have been indicative, she might not stop.) “Then never feel like you can’t purr around me,” he says, and kisses the top of her head.She purrs louder.