A New Hope
Chapter One
By: Lily Handle
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A.N: This is a rewrite of the original A New Hope. If you've read the old, you'll notice I fixed some things and reworked a little of the plot. For those of you where this is your first time reading the fic, please enjoy. If you have questions or just want to talk to me, email me at: Please read and review.
Lily
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Dr. Hope Chandler was running late, once again. It wasn't that her alarm clock hadn't gone off, it wasn't that she couldn't find her keys and it wasn't that she couldn't find her hospital i.d. Once again she'd filled in for another doctor on the trauma team. Just her luck Dr. Kincaid worked night shifts and on top of Hope's afternoon shift the night shift had been a little much. In other words, Hope had slept in. Now she was trying to make it on time to Charity Hospital where she was employed as a member of the trauma team. Hope quickly tossed on some clothes, she preferred to change into scrubs when she got to the hospital anyway. Hope tossed on her white lab coat, grabbed her keys and started for the door when the phone rang.
"Arg!" Hope yelled, trying to debate between the phone and leaving. Hope's little inner voice was telling her to answer the phone, it could be someone important, but then Hope's little logical voice was telling her to run to work. She looked between the door and the phone, debating, "I'm going to regret this!" and Hope lunged for the phone. "Hello?"
"Hope? Hope Chandler?" Hope frown and tilted her head like the dog, the voice on the other end of the phone was eerily familiar.
"Yes, can I help you?" Hope checked her watch, yup, it was official, she was late.
"Hello Hope, I don't know if you remember me or not, my name's Hank McCoy." Instantly the name tipped Hope's memories, her years in college, late nights in the library and the endless tomes of anatomy books.
"Hank? What are you doing calling?" Well, if you're gonna be late, Hope thought, grabbing a near by chair and sitting by the phone.
"I read one of your articles, peaked my interest and wanted to catch up with you."
"I imagine you're one of the only persons who has, not everyone reads the Completely Obscure Medical Journal." Hank chuckled and Hope found herself smiling, even though she could hear her job slipping through her fingers.
"Well, actually I'm not the only one. My boss is interested in your work." Hope felt her heart jump with excitement. Maybe Hank's boss was a rich doctor and he'd give her funds for her research. Oh lord, that was a dream come true for her. She wanted nothing more than to quit her crazy hours, spend more time with books and throwing ideas around.
"Uh, well, that's great Hank. Um, who's your boss?" Hope tried to be casual, but the butterflies in her stomach were about the size of Great Danes.
"Do you know Charles Xavier?"
"Know of him?" Hope gaped at the phone, "There's a children's wing at the hospital named after him, he's the richest guy in town and is only one of the most popular topics in the society section of the news paper. Of course I know of him!"
Hank chuckled at the other end of the line, "When do you have lunch, Hope?"
"At two," Hope said absently, reading the page on her beeper. Two gun shot wounds, and where was she? "Hank, I'm sorry, I'd love to play catch up, but I'm running late. It was great to talk with you." Hope jumped to her feet, "Sorry." And she hung up, grabbed her purse and sprinted for her car.
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Hope threw herself into a seat behind the reception counter, dropped her head onto the tabletop and groaned.
"Bad day?" The morning shift receptionist James Boscoe asked.
"This is my second," Hope thought about it, "No third pair of scrubs I've been through today."
"Aw, poor baby."
"Shut up, James," Hope groaned again, lifting her head from her arms.
"Well, looks like your days not going to get better because that looks to be the Chief of Staff headed towards you at a nice clip."
Hope quickly straightened up, "Get me a file, quick, I got to look busy." James casually handed over a file and Hope began to pretend to scan the information while watching Chief of Staff Adams walk towards her.
"Dr. Chandler," He said stopping in front of the desk, "I'd like to see you in my office, please." Hope looked up from the file she wasn't reading and pretended to be casual.
"What for, sir, I've got patients to go see."
"Give your patients to one of the other doctors for now, you'll be back soon enough." Hope thought it was odd the way Dr. Adams kept glancing over his shoulder, towards his office with a frown on his face. Hope looked up at James, who subtly shrugged.
"Alright, here James, give these to whoever doesn't have enough work," Hope said, getting up and walking around the counter to follow Dr. Adams to his office. Dr. Adams's office was a comfortable room at the end of the hallway from the trauma center, with a set of chairs and a desk where Dr. Adams lorded over the staff of Charity's trauma center. Dr. Adams was a nice guy, when he wasn't trying to increase efficiency while keeping cost down. Hope found many of his methods for that took a lot away from the patients care, but she couldn't object, she wanted to keep her job.
"Why don't you take a seat, Doctor?" Dr. Adams suggested as he took his own seat behind the desk. Hope wondered why Dr. Adams was being so pleasant towards her while taking a seat across from him. He had never been this personable before, just cold and distant during staff meetings, and often when he worked in the ward he was rude to patients and nurses. Hope honestly disliked the man.
"Is there a reason you wanted to see me, sir?" Hope asked in her most polite tone, one she used when she actually despised the person she was talking to, a tone mostly reserved for lawyers and telemarketers.
"Charles Xavier asked for your records," Dr. Adams said in a matter of fact tone that had Hope's jaw dropping open in surprise.
She quickly recovered though, "Personal or professional?" She asked, mentally crossing her fingers in the hope that it was professional. Come on, she thought, dream job please be right around the corner.
"Both," Dr. Adams frowned at Hope like she'd done something wrong, "He seemed very interested in you."
"Well," Hope felt herself blushing, "I feel flattered, sir."
"He's coming tomorrow to talk with me, and then he wishes to have lunch with you."
Hope wanted to jump onto Dr. Adams desk and jump around screaming like a maniac she was so excited, instead she just smiled with polite interest and said, "Oh really?"
"Yes," Now Dr. Adams glared at her with his most intimidating stare, "You're not going to be anything but your best tomorrow, Doctor. Mr. Xavier is a very important patron in the hospital; his yearly Christmas donations have kept this hospital in the best equipment there is. If we lose those donations, then you lose your job, and that's a promise."
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A section of the wall in Charles Xavier's office sunk into a recessed part, slid down and disappeared. In its place a flat plasma screen lifted up and slid seamlessly into the place before flickering on. Hank McCoy had seen this trick many times; the screen was used often when the instructors of the Institute gathered in the office. Hank was sitting in one of the large armchairs, Logan leaned against the far wall near the door, and Ororo sat comfortably on the arm of Charles wheelchair.
"This is Doctor Hope Renee Chandler," Charles started as the portrait of the woman with shoulder length brown hair and smiling brown eyes appeared, next to the picture were the traditional status information, age, weight and height. Hank smiled at Hope's picture, it had been a long time since he had seen her. They had met in college Biology, Hank taking it to off set all the Chemistry classes and Hope taking it on her way to a medical degree. They'd run into each other again in Anatomy, had lunch together and decided to form a study group. A fast and strong friendship had formed in the late night study sessions, and Hank had trusted Hope with his biggest secrete which turned out to be a very smart decision. When he had stumbled upon the article title "X-gene Theories" he hadn't expect the author to be Hope Chandler, and when he had shown the article to Charles this was not the result he had expected. Everyone was gathered to decide if they should take the next step and see if Hope could become an instructor here.
"She's currently a doctor at Charity hospital. Her specialty is trauma surgery, but she works with the trauma team. Her family is the Chandler Shipping Company family, and her one brother, Michael Chandler is a know carrier of the X-gene," Charles continued, "Dr. Chandler has recently published an article on the X-gene and its properties. She hopes to find the impact of the gene on modern medicine. I believe she would be beneficial to have here at the Institute. Any objections?"
"The students shouldn't be lab rats for some doctor," Logan said, glaring at the screen.
"I have talked with those the doctor's theories are based on," Charles said, turning on the lights by pointing a finger towards the switch, "Her test are fairly painless and she never administers them if they say no. She never pushes either."
"Have you talked with the brother?" Ororo asked, rising from the arm of Charles' chair.
"The brother refuses to talk with me, but he promises not to tell his sister about my visit." Charles turned towards Hank, "You know her better than anyone here, Hank, what can you tell us?"
"She's not like other doctors, certainly. Even in college all she talked about was how she was going to help heal the world," Logan snorted and Hank glared at him, "Her views have probably changed a bit, but she doesn't have it in her to betray people."
"I still don't think we should just let her walk in and make herself at home," Logan frown, "You're going to talk with this doctor tomorrow, right, Charles?" Charles nodded, "Let us all come with, Hank here can wear a holo-watch, and we can all check out this doctor."
"Any objections to wearing a watch, Hank?" Charles asked, turning towards Hank.
"For this, no," Hank smiled, "I'd like to see Hope again."
"Then it's agreed by all?" Everyone in the room nodded, "Tomorrow we will all see just what this doctor is about."
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Author's Note: I like this chapter, a lot. It's much better than the first, but I wish I could get my mind around the sequel. If any of you fans out there would tell me what you'd like to see in what's tentatively titled, Hope Returns, let me know. You can email me a