"Mae?" I looked down at my little sister. She was walking along side me holding my hand as we walked home. She looked worried, which was strange for her, being six and all.

"Yeah Rain?"

She looked past me into the alley we were passing. Her bright brown eyes seemed to penetrate through the darkness. "There's a man in there." She said.

I whipped my head around to look down the alley. "C'mon, baby." I said tugging on her hand.

"No wait! He's hurt!"

I looked down at her in exasperation. "Honey, we can't get involved."

"But…but Mommy…" her bottom lip quivered.

My heart wrenched in my chest. I wasn't actually her Mom, but I didn't mind. I didn't even know if we were actually sisters…but more of that later.

"He's hurt." She whined quietly.

I closed my eyes and steeled myself. You will not give in. I instructed myself firmly. You will not look into those chocolate brown eyes and… I slowly opened one eye. Oh, God. The puppy dog pout. How could I say 'no' now?

"Fine." I grumbled. "But, you stay here!" I told her pointing to the spot we were standing.

She had a very satisfied smile on her face. She knew I acted tough, but was really just a big softie on the inside. I crept into the alleyway.

"Hello?" I called cautiously. I walked further into the darkness. The sun was just setting and it cast disturbing shadows across the walls. Then I spotted him.

He was sitting in an upright position leaning against the wall. His shirt was ripped to shreds and blood trickled from four deep scratches on his cheek. His chest was torn up pretty bad. But, man was it a nice looking chest. I knelt by him and poked him in the shoulder.

"Hey Mister? Wake up."

He groaned faintly. I guessed he would've been tall if he were standing. He had light brown hair and these awesome red shades. I wrapped my arms around him and dragged him out into the light. I felt blood trickling over my arms and willed my stomach to be strong. I'd seen worse. Rain was still standing there, thank God. I harrumphed at her as I lifted him further up into my arms.

"Just our luck, right?" I asked her. She just smiled at me and that made it all seem worth it.

Our apartment was only another block and a half up. We made it there with minimal stares. It was Los Angeles; apparently, this happened all the time. Or something equally strange. Huh. Getting him up the stairs was an adventure. One-step at a time we got there. Past A3 with the fighting couple, and beyond B1 with the blaring TV, and further than the little old woman in C2 with a nasty temper and access to a cane. We came to a stop outside our apartment, C5. I dropped him hard on the floor as I dug around in my pocket for the key. I unlocked the door and let Rain go ahead of us. I dragged him in and dumped him on the floor again, probably rougher than I should've and sat, exhausted, in the one comfortable chair we had.

Rain stepped back to the front door and closed it softly. I tossed her the key and she locked it. She walked around the man and climbed in my lap.

"How'd you find him anyways?" I asked snuggling closer to her. "I didn't even see him until I was on top of him."

"I felt him. In my head." She said hugging me back briefly then pulling away.

I reluctantly let her go. That's right. I had forgotten about her mutation. Rain was a mutant. A healer actually. She could heal herself instantly, any wound she got closing up immediately. She could also feel other people's pain. Not physically, but as she explained to me once their aura changed. Mostly a person's aura was one solid bright color that swirled around. When they were in pain, she said, it grew darker or had pieces of black swirls in it. She could also heal other people. Not as well as herself, mostly only cuts and other small stuff. She squatted by the man.

"Rain…" I said warningly. I knew what she was thinking. She wanted to heal this guy. That was great and all; points for Good Samaritan, but healing left her tired and hurt. Once she insisted that she heal a gash on my hand. She healed it; then, slept for two days. Longest two days of my life.

She pouted and stepped away from him while I got up and knelt next to him. I wasn't a mutant. At least, not that I knew. Problem was I could only remember the last two years of my life. I had woken up in the middle of a destroyed house. My ears were ringing and I had no idea where I was. Rain was crying and tugging on my arm. 'Course I didn't know it was her at the time. I had just enough sense to grab her and run though. Picked her up and bolted into the forest. When we seemed safe, I interrogated her. Who was she? Who was I? Where were we? Where were her parents? However, she was only four years old and couldn't tell me much. She just said that 'the bad men' had taken her father and she wouldn't answer anything about her mother. So I asked her what I was. A sister? A cousin? She just shook her head.

So now here we were. I started pulling stuff out of his pockets. Wallet crumpled up business card, compact (?), and a set of keys. I opened the wallet curiously letting Rain play with the ring of keys. His I.D. said that his name was Scott Summers. I poked him again.

"Hey. Scott."

He grunted in what I interpreted as irritation and lay still again. I rolled my eyes, set the wallet aside, and smoothed out the business card. Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I wrinkled my nose. Professor Xavier's? Never heard of it. Probably some prep school Scott's son went to. I flicked it away and reached for the compact. It was smooth and black. I turned it over and traced the large silver x. It almost looked like a button…I pressed it and the thing opened. Rain crawled next to me watched in fascination as it unfolded. Well, dang. Now it looked like a cell phone. Only problem was that there were no buttons or screen. I lifted it cautiously to my ear and heard a voice.

"Scott? Scott is that you?"

I looked at Rain incredulously. I opened my mouth to answer when another voice cut me off.

"Please, Scott, are you hurt?"

I heard a voice in the background.

"I cannot locate him on Cerebro."

"Hang on, Scott we'll find you."

I shut the phone. "Oh, snap."

So someone was looking for him. That was good. If they called back, I could tell them where he was and they could come pick him up. Then he would be out of me and Rain's hair. I opened the phone again and lifted it to my ear. Nothing. No dial tone…hmmm.

"Well that was weird." I said to Rain.

I rolled back on my heels until I landed on my butt. She was looking at me intently. I stared back at her.

"What?" I asked bewildered.

"I'm hungry." She stated as if it was obvious.

I blinked at her for a second then got up off the floor.

"Okay then. The usual?" she nodded vigorously.

She was happily munching away on her bowl of cheerios as I thought. These people would find him eventually, right? But, if they had that kind of power…they were dangerous. And I vowed to myself from the very first day with Rain that I would never let anything bad happen to her. So maybe this wasn't good. I needed to get him out. Now. Was there anywhere safe I could dump him? I'd take him downstairs tomorrow morning. If they could track him, they'd find him eventually. For this guy's sake, I hope it was sooner.

"Done Mae-Mae."

I smiled at her and put her bowl in the sink. I wasn't hungry. I actually felt sick. Now we were in danger. As I stripped the lone mattress in the corner, I planned it out. I'd wake up tomorrow and drag him downstairs. He'd stay there until they picked him up, he'd wake up, or someone would call the cops. Don't get me wrong I wanted to help him. But, Rain came first. I watched as she kicked the blankets roughly in place on the floor.

Dragging Scott up on the mattress was a struggle, but I did it. Rain had changed into her cute second-hand pajamas and lay curled up fast asleep. I sunk down next to her more or less gracefully and snuggled up behind her. In seconds, I was asleep too.