Title: The Nightmare before X-mas

Disclaimer: They are all Marvel’s and I believe Charles Dickens owns Scrooge

Rating: G

Summary: Scott runs into a few problems while managing the Xavier’s Christmas musical. Just a little Christmas ficlet. 

“Has anyone seen Logan?”  Scott Summers, leader of the X-men and the Xavier’s Christmas Musical, searched around the room while holding a stack of papers.

He, as everybody else in the mansion, had been busy with the musical project for the last few weeks and tonight was the  moment supreme and everything had to perfect.  Being the coordinator of the project, Scott had to make sure that everybody and everything was at the right place at the right time, which proved to be quite challenging.  The supposedly cute little orphans were wrecking havoc on stage, running around and throwing parts of the décor at each other.  Hank was hanging upside down the ceiling trying to fix a new curtain, because earlier that morning one of the kids accidentally set the old one on fire.  But that were just the children, the adults were a completely different story.  Rogue demanded she should have a bigger role, while Warren flatly refused to sing in the angels choir.  So Scott had to search for another angel and a set of fake wings.  All in all it was just another chaotic day in the life of Scott Summers, leader of the X-men. 

As he searched for Logan he walked into Ororo and Remy decorating the entrance of the hall. 

They were happily humming Christmas carols while they worked together. 

“Hey dere Fearless! Found a spare angel yet?”

“Don’t get me started Gambit.  How are you doing? Everything according to plan?”

“Perfect, in fact we’re almost done, aren’t we Remy?”

“Oui.”

“Wonderful! What should we do next, Scott?”

“Why don’t you help Hank, it looks like he could use a helping hand.” He frowned at Hank still hanging upside down, but now tangled up in the curtain.  “ And you, Gambit, can you find Logan for me?”

“You reckon he ran away?”

“I certainly hope not.  But I just want to check to be sure.  If you find him tell him he has to be here at 5 pm.  It’s the night of the play, I need him.”

“Oui, monsieur.  Gambit’s on his way!”

He watched Gambit hurry off to find Logan, then focused on the dressing room, were Jean was busy putting make-up on one of the children.  He checked the script in his hands and found that the child was playing a ghost.  The boy frowned as Jean powdered his face in white.  He smiled, pleased that at least everything went to plan there.  He looked around the hall once more, when his eyes came to rest on the Professor.  He was discussing something with Kitty, who was already wearing her costume.  They were both laughing merrily, so he assumed that that seemed to be going all right too.  If just Logan did was he had to do all would be fine.  Yeah, but when did Logan ever do what he should do? Scott frowned.  He’d never given Logan such an important place in the school play, but the others found that he was the man for the job.  And, Scott hand to admit, he was perfect for it. 

He suddenly spotted Jubilee, who was his sidekick manager.  She was supposed to coordinate the costumes and the catering, but was doing a dreadful job if you asked him.  Her ideas of 18^th century outfits were at least a bit disfigured.  So she was degraded to the catering- which she did okay until ten minutes ago, when she started eating the all cookies - while they costumes were now in the skillful hands of Psylocke. 

“Jubilee! Jubilee, get over here!”

“Hiya, Scotty, what’s the deal?”

“You’re an angel.”

“Uh, are you okay? ‘Cause ten minutes ago you were still yelling at me for eating those cookies…”

“Those cookies are for the guests, Jubilee.  What I meant is that you have to play an angel, Warren resigned.”

“ What? But he’s like, the Uberangel!”

“I know, just go to Betsy and see if she’s got an extra set of wings.”

“ Dude! That’s means I gotta sing, right?”

“Yes, in the last scene.”

“Cool! See ya, Scotty!”

Feeling a rush of doubt he tried to call her back, but it was too late.  Taking a deep breath he went trough the script once more.  When he felt soft hands on his shoulders he didn’t even have to look who it was.  The mental bond shared with this woman said it all. 

“Hey, sweetie.  You're tense.”

“Yeah, this whole play is going to be terrible.”

“Of course not! Everything will turn out just fine, trust me.”

“I know, I know…  it’s just that there will be parents and loads of other people.  Charles has invited some of his friends and they’re all very influential.  This can make them see that mutant are just like other people.  This is very important for the school.”

“They will love it, I’m sure.  You did a great job, Scott.”

“Thanks Jean.” He kissed her, then hurried to the stage were a fight had started.

An hour later everything was ready and perfect.  Except for one thing…Logan. 

“Were is he?!” Scott was furious.  All this work and Logan managed to ruin it.

“Gambit! Did you find him?”

“Non, he left yesterday.”

“What!!” He roared with a temper which matched that of the man in question.

“Dat’s what le Professeur said.”

“I’m going to kill him!” He was about to hit something, when he heard a deep gravely voice behind him.

“Don’t get yer pants in a twist One-eye.  I’m here.”

As he turned around to yell some more he found that he couldn’t.  Logan stood there dressed in a long black coat, high hat and magnificently styled sideburns which had some sort of powder on them to make them appear grey.  He had a black cane with a shiny silver knob on top of it.  It was the most fitting costume of the entire play.  Oh yes, Logan was going to be an amazing Ebenezer Scrooge.

After the play when the guests lounged in the makeshift foyer, Scott looked back on a wonderful evening.  Everything had turned out fine, just as Jean said.  The children played their roles perfectly, with the exception of Jim who forgot his text once, but Logan had smoothly intervened and most of the audience hadn’t even noticed.  The angel’s choir sounded brilliant and the curtains worked just fine.  Ororo and Remy had been complemented on the decorations all evening and the cookies turned out to be delicious.  Logan proved to be a very talented actor, although Scott didn’t think he had to act much.  His own personality seemed to be almost like that of Scrooge.  Yet at the end of the play when the cast was applauded by the audience he saw a rare smile appear on the gruff Canadian’s face and he wondered if Logan maybe acted also in real life?  Was he really the gruff and mean jerk he seemed to be?  Scott decided to pay some more attention to it in the future.  After the guests went back home and everything was cleaned, Scott lay in bed, feeling very pleased with himself and the rest of the mansions inhabitants.  His Christmas this year was already a merry one.

Wolvster

Special thanks to XLF for beta-reading it so quickly!