Summary: When a relative comes to reconcile past ties, strange things start happening to Aidan and others. Little does anyone know the true danger ahead. Rated T for language, violence.
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It was a rather rainy morning at Whitney High School, as a young man entered the building. He went to the main office and approached the secretary. "Welcome to Whitney High. How can I help you?" said the secretary.
"Yes, I'm here to visit one of the teachers. Her name is Aidan Hinkley."
The secretary frowned slightly. "Miss Hinkley wasn't expecting visitors today."
"It's a surprise that Mr. Hinkley set up. We're relatives and I wanted to surprise her," said the man. "He already agreed to it and said to come in this morning."
"Oh, I see. Well, she's in the jewelry lab, and that's in the third building," she said, pointing out the directions.
"Thank you," said the man, leaving. The secretary turned to do her work and realized the man forgot to sign in. She headed to the door and opened it. "Excuse me sir, but you forgot to…" but the man had already turned the corner. She went and called Aidan's room, but not getting an answer, realized the young teacher might have been outside working on a project with the class. The secretary then went and got one of the student aides to go over to the classroom.
Unbeknownst to everyone though, a stranger was outside at the school, waiting for the right time to complete his hit. Little did he know that his prey could fight back, thanks to a suit that looked like pajamas, but contained many powers.
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The jewelry room was a bit noisy as Aidan finished hammering a bracelet and showed it to the class. "OK, so that's how you use the pommel to make a hammered bracelet. Any questions?" she asked.
"Miss Aidan, why do we have to learn this type of project," said Marci, groaning slightly. "I want to do a cast piece."
"Well… two reasons. One, this is part of the course, and will help you learn how some older pieces of jewelry were made and two… the acetylene torches are out of commission until the pipelines are repaired," said Aidan simply.
"Couldn't you bring your tanks here," asked Xavier, wanting to work with fire as well.
"Nope, because the Sup said if I brought my own equipment and something happened it's my liability," she said and the class groaned. "Besides, I don't want to risk something happening to you guys if something goes wrong. Now… less talk, and back to the lesson. After you sand the edges of your project, you'll take it to the Tripoli wheel …"
As she was talking, the man entered the room and smiled at seeing the young teacher teach. It had been quite a few years, about 12 since he had last seen Aidan.
Hearing someone enter, Aidan turned around. "Yes may I help you," she said.
"Hello Micah, how are you doing?" he said with a smile.
The class frowned, especially when they saw Aidan pale slightly. She recognized the voice, and was remembering the last time she saw the man. The last time they saw each other, it wasn't pleasant.
"I'm sorry sir, but you have the wrong room," said Lance, keeping an eye on Aidan to make sure she was all right.
"This is Micah Onyxsard… sorry Hinkley's room isn't it," said the man.
Before Lance replied, Aidan regained her composure and walked forward. "No, my name is Aidan Hinkley and this is my classroom," she said a bit coldly. The class looked at each other, wondering why she was being unfriendly toward the man.
"I'm sorry, I forgot you wanted to be called Aidan," said the man. "I wanted to see if I could talk to you…"
"Please leave," she said bluntly, and the class started getting concerned. Lance gave a look to Lauren, who snuck out of the classroom to head toward the office and get help.
"Why? Can't you see I want to talk to…"
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As the showdown continued, Ralph was walking down a nearby hallway to his office. He had just been talking with Superintendent Knight about the problem with the gas lines in Aidan's classroom and the science labs again, and to his disdain, found out it'd be another week before the lines were functioning again. He knew both departments wouldn't be too happy, but it was either wait or risk some potentially disastrous results if there was an explosion.
Just as he turned the corner, Lauren ran right into him and fell to the ground. It was one of the times he was a little glad to not be wearing the suit anymore. Otherwise, she could've really been hurt. "Lauren, take it easy. Where's the fire," he said jokingly as he helped her up. He became concerned when she didn't laugh. "What's wrong?"
"Mr. H, I need you to come with me. Miss Aidan's pretty upset…"
"Oh, don't tell me Mr. Knight's already come to the room to tell Ade about the gas lines," said Ralph groaning.
"Huh?… No, it ain't Knight. It's some guy who came in and called her Micah Onyxsard."
"Micah Onyxsard?" said Ralph, confused as to why anyone who called her that would want to talk to Aidan.
"Yeah, he corrected it though, but she still looks pissed off about…"
Ralph just started walking, and Lauren, confused, followed. As the two arrived near the room, he started to hear arguing. "If you don't leave now, I'm going to call security and have you arrested for trespassing," said Aidan with a fury that Ralph knew she was more than just "pissed off."
"Aidan, I want to …"
"Damn it, you're not listening. You're disturbing my class. Get the hell out of my classroom and off the school grounds now."
Before the man responded, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw it was an older man. "I'm the principal here at Whitney. What's the problem," said Ralph, giving Aidan a look to stay quiet until he could figure out what was going on.
The man took a look at Ralph, trying to place where he knew him, but continued. "I wanted to talk to Miss Onyxsard…"
"Hinkley," growled Aidan, adding softly as he erred in her name again, "Moron."
"Sorry, I wanted to talk to Miss Hinkley about reconciling and taking me back as part of her family," he said, and Aidan blinked in surprise.
Ralph too was quite surprised and continued. "Well, Mr. …"
"Dylan Onyxsard," he said, finally recognizing Ralph. It had been 12 years since he last spoke with the man. "You should know that Mr. Hinkley."
"Dylan, Aidan's not exactly happy to have you here," said Ralph in his mediator role, silently thankful Aidan hadn't lashed out first, given she was wearing the suit.
"Damn straight," said Aidan. "You don't have a visitor's pass and if you don't leave, I'll have you arrested."
"But…"
"Don't 'but' me Dylan. Still stubborn as a jackass…"
Ralph understood Aidan's feelings, but he knew he had to play principal to her right now. "Aidan, I understand you're upset, but if you continue, I will have to suspend you for your behavior," said Ralph warningly. Though Aidan doubted he'd do it, she nodded and listened.
Ralph, realizing she quieted down, turned to Dylan. "She's right though. You don't have a pass and she's asked you to leave. I won't call the police right now, but I will if you don't leave in the next five minutes."
Dylan nodded, a bit reluctantly. "All right. I'm sorry to have bothered you at this moment Aidan. It was a bad judgment to come and visit this morning, but I'd like to chat with you at another time, perhaps this afternoon," he said, offering a card. When she wouldn't accept it, Dylan put it on her desk and left the room.
Aidan glanced down and sighed as the adrenaline rush faded. Her mind drifted off again to that time 12 years ago when she last saw Dylan…
Once he was sure that Dylan had left, Ralph turned around. "OK, he's gone. Aidan, listen…" he said, pausing as he looked at Aidan who was standing about seven feet away. She had turned pale as a sheet and she started to sway.
Ralph became alarmed when she mouthed one word... "Lance, Xander help Aidan to the ground - right now," he ordered. The two, a little confused turned and saw what Ralph noticed. They grabbed Aidan under the shoulders just as her eyelids fluttered and she started to sag, semiconscious. As they lowered her to the ground, Ralph went to get a box from her desk. After putting her feet on the box to elevate them, he went and got a soda from the minifridge in Aidan's office.
"Miss Aidan, are you all right?" said Marci as Aidan rubbed her face with one of her hands. Aidan could only give a mumbled reply, concerning the others.
"I think she had delayed reaction to the shock is all," said Ralph instead gently as he went over to where the young woman was. He put a hand on shoulder and very gently shook it, partially for comfort and partially to see if she had completely fainted. "Just take it easy there Aidan…"
"I should say so. Creep scaring her like that calling her Onyxsard and all that nonsense," said Sean, shaking his head.
Becca spoke up. "It's not nonsense," she said simply but firmly, much to the others' surprise.
Ralph looked up. "She's told you?" he said curiously. He knew that with a few rare exceptions, Aidan normally kept that part of her life quiet from her students.
"Yeah, told me a while back when she and I had a heart-to-heart," said Becca sadly, remembering that day when Aidan told her that secret. It helped her make a decision to keep the child she was carrying, only to suffer a miscarriage when her former boyfriend, Jon, beat her.
After recovering in the hospital, she kept going over to Aidan's to share stories. In Becca's case, it was to get over the loss of her child and ensuing emergency hysterectomy to save her life. Aidan, however, was dealing with rage and other festering feelings.
Though Becca didn't know, Aidan almost beat Jon up when she found out it was him who assaulted Becca. Normally not one to even threaten someone with a slap, part of the problem was Aidan went back to the night when she had been kidnapped by an illegal porn ring and tried to use her in one of their movies. Tony helped her get through both nights, but the feelings still lingered for a time.
The principal nodded just as Aidan sat up, leaning on her elbows. "Are you feeling OK?" said Ralph as he helped her sit the rest of the way up.
Aidan nodded. "Is he gone?" she said simply as she made a motion to stand, only to be stopped by Ralph.
"He is sweetheart, but you need to stay sitting down for a minute. You almost passed out," he said simply as he handed Aidan the soda.
Lance and the others frowned. "Miss Aidan, who exactly was that guy? And why did he call you Micah Onyxsard first before Hinkley?"
"Because that was my birth name, and he was, note the emphasis, part of my family," she said. Seeing the kids' looks, she realized it was time to tell them about her past and why she changed her name from Onyxsard to Hinkley. Though the class understood why she had never told them about her Dad's side of the family, given they disowned her, Aidan could only wonder why the man wanted to reconcile with her after so many years of claiming she was dead to them.
