Hoping for a Change
By: Lily Handle
Author's Note: Another write in for everyone's favorite doctor, Dr. Hope Chandler. This time the episode of choice is Joyride, suggested by Silverwolf, thanks. For those who were waiting for the Brotherhood to appear in the Hope Series again, there's plenty of Lance in this story for you. It would take place after A New Hope, but before The Effects of Hope, in the series time line for those of you who were wondering. Please enjoy, read and review.
If there was one thing Dr. Hope Chandler was use to from working as an emergency physician it was waking up quickly at the sound of an alarm. She had learned shortly after starting to live at the Institute that waking up to alarms was a common thing there too. Tonight was one of those cases. As soon as the alarm woke her up, Hope was throwing of her blankets, and getting ready to find out what was going on. She could hear the students outside her door as she got rid of her pajamas and changed into scrubs. She didn't have an official uniform to change into like the students the scrubs and doctor's white coat were about as close as she came to one, but she was quite happy to keep it that way. Spandex was not her thing. Once she was dressed she picked up her large orange bag of medical supplies and checked the read out on the type of alarm being raised. Someone was at the front door, on the grounds. Hope hoisted the large bag over her shoulder and dove into the hall, meeting up with Scott and Logan at the top of the stairs.
"You think you're going to need that?" Logan asked glancing down at her medical bag as they thundered down the steps.
"If you're involved," Hope said, "Yes." Logan grinned at her, beat her to the bottom of the steps and then went bursting through the front door. Hope could see him stop on the front steps. There wasn't much that could have Logan stopping in his tracks, Hope was confused about this until she too went through the front door onto the steps and saw what was waiting. Lance Alvers, member of the Brotherhood, code name Avalanche was standing at the base of the steps, a backpack slung over one shoulder. Hope felt her heart trip a little in her chest, she still had a slight fear of the Brotherhood and seeing one standing on the Institute grounds had her instantly stepping behind the protection of the X-men.
"Somethin' we can do for you, bub?" Logan asked, looking ready to jump Lance at the first signs of an attack.
"Yeah," Lance folded his arms over his chest, "I've come to join the X- men." If it hadn't of been such a tense situation Hope was pretty sure she would have laughed. Lance, come to join the X-men, that was possibly the best joke she'd heard in a long time. Lance was your typical street bad boy, she'd seen plenty of boys just like him while working at Charity. You could tell them how to go straight, even put the fear of jail and death into them, and they wouldn't change. Boys like Lance had a stubborn streak and a deep sense of pride that kept them from changing until some thing happened to make them change. Often it was jail, or a near fatal encounter that made them change, some times it was even a girl, but Hope had little faith in Lance being able to change.
"You're kidding right?" Kitty said, voicing what Hope was thinking.
Lance pointed to himself, "I wanna be an X-man, I'm serious."
"Hmph. Yeah, right, and I wanna be the tooth fairy." Logan said, sliding his claws back in. Hope heard someone clear their throat over the students chuckling, and stepped aside. Charles rolled out onto the steps and considered Lance.
"Now, just a minute. Let's hear what he has to say," Charles said, which stunned everyone even more. "If you'll come with me to my study, Lance. Logan, Scott, Jean and Kitty why don't you come as well. Dr. Chandler, if you'll see the other students back to bed."
"Uh, sure," Hope said after a moment, "If you're sure you won't need me at all." Hope couldn't think of a viable reason why Charles would need her, but said it anyway because she was completely baffled and wasn't thinking about what came out of her mouth.
"I'm sure, Doctor," Charles said, "Lance, if you'll follow me." Hope stood there, watching as Lance climbed the steps and walked right through the front door. When Logan passed she heard him muttering under his breath, Scott was glaring at the back of Lance's head, and Jean was whispering with Kitty.
"Uh, all right everyone, back to bed," Hope said, once the strange precession was gone and passed.
"Oh come on, Doc," Kurt said, popping up next to her, "You gotta let us see what happens."
"There's no way the Professor's gonna like him join right?" Evan asked, also coming to stand in front of Hope.
"You can find out tomorrow," Hope said, more sternly, "Go back to bed now, or I'll tell Professor Xavier that you didn't." Hope held one of the front doors open, waiting for the remaining students to go past her and back inside. They talked among themselves while they climbed the stairs, mostly they were exchanging angry comments about Lance, but Hope stayed at the base of the stairs, debating. It wasn't her place to tell Charles she thought Lance joining the X-men was a bad idea. She wasn't completely emotionally distant from the whole situation. She didn't like Lance, she was also afraid of him, definitely not a good state of mind for her to pass judgment. Could she wait until the morning to find out about Charles's decision? Hope thought about it for a second and decided no, she couldn't. So she climbed the stairs back to the second floor and the Instructor's wing of bedrooms and sat down outside Logan's door. She normally wouldn't have waited outside Logan's door, her least favorite activity was waiting for Logan, and he rarely told her anything anyway, but tonight, Hope felt like she deserved an answer this time. She played with the ends of her stethoscope, thinking up reasons why she deserved to be told about Charles's decision until she heard footsteps and jumped to her feet. Unconsciously brushing her hands down her coat out of habit, she prepared to square off with Logan.
"Thought you'd be here," He said, standing a few feet away from her, "He's in."
"I just want..." Hope stopped short, before she could get through her long list of reasons why she deserved to know if Lance was in or out and gapped at Logan, "Excuse me?"
"Alvers, he's in. Squirt's shown him to a guest room." Logan gave Hope a look she knew meant she was going to get a lecture from him and she resigned herself to listen, "You be careful around him, Doc. Charles may think that kid's got other motives for being here, but I don't like it. To me, it doesn't make any sense for a kid like Alvers to change teams. This may be Magneto's way of gettin' another shot at you."
"Another shot at me?"
"You slipped right through his fingers, sending one of the Acolytes after you would be too obvious, but sending a kid like Alvers in? No one would suspect him, but I do."
"Oh boy," Hope said, just now thinking about the possibility that Magneto was behind this, "I'm going to be as paranoid as you now."
Logan glared hard at Hope, "Just be careful, Doc," he said, then strode past her into his room, and when Hope turned to apologize the door slammed in her face. Well, Hope thought, you handled that brilliantly. He offers some concern and she says something insulting, just what anyone with even an iota of common sense would have done. Hope picked up her bag of supplies, started walking towards her room, her brain working at half capacity. Would Magneto really use Lance to get to her? Of course he would, he's an evil maniac, using a kid like Lance wouldn't bother him at all. Hope took a deep breath when she came to her bedroom door; she still got tremors of fear from thinking about Magneto. No one in the Institute knew about it, but when she had first come back after the kidnapping she had had nightmares about it. Natural, Hope had reasoned at the time, kidnap victims were often traumatized and kept the nightmares to herself. There was nothing anyone could have done about them anyway. Lance wasn't really responsible for the whole episode with Magneto, the only thing he'd done was follow orders, but she was still afraid that he may be here following orders again. Hope opened the door to her room, seeking the comfort of bed and hopefully a dreamless sleep.
Hope ran towards the simulator room, if she was late and there was going to be trouble. She burst through the door, but by the look of things she was late. Lance was at the door of the simulator, looking green around the gills, and Bobby was looking crest fallen standing in front of Logan.
"You gotta think before you start playin' cowboy," Logan was saying to Bobby. Hope stayed by the door, waiting and watching Lance.
Kitty walked past Hope and up to Lance, "Lance?"
"Huh?" Hope felt a little sorry for the boy, he looked like he was going to lose his breakfast any second now.
"Are you okay?" Kitty laughed, and instantly Lance straightened and tried to look tough.
"Hey, piece of cake," Lance said, walking down the ramp from the simulator, "Told you there was nothin' to this X-men stuff.
"Well good," Kitty said, then with one more smile walked out. Instantly Lance wrapped his arm around his stomach, clamped a hand over his mouth and went racing out of the room. Logan was done lecturing Bobby and was now looking annoyed at the simulator. Hope was suppose to have been there before the simulator exercise began, with Dramamine for everyone involved, but she'd been taking care of Rahne, who had badly sprained her finger during an exercise with Hank. The X-rays had taken up most of Hope's time and she'd sort of forgotten about the Dramamine delivery.
"A little late Doc," Logan said, not bothering to turn around and look at her.
"Yes, sorry about that," Hope walked up behind him, took the little bottle of Dramamine pills out of her pocket and held them out to him, "Here, for the other students."
"You should go after Alvers," Logan suggested taking the pills from her, "He's gonna need something for his stomach. Be careful anyway."
"Doesn't he have an exercise with Scott right after this?" Hope said, thinking out loud of the schedule of exercises.
"Yes," Charles said, coming into the room. Hope turned to smile at Charles, then joined him in watching Bobby walk away, dejected. She felt sorry for the kid, Bobby just wanted to fit in and tried really hard to do good, but over did it sometimes. Which was why Hope had a standing Dramamine run to the simulator room any day Bobby was involved. Charles waited until Bobby was gone before looking up at Logan, "Don't you were a little hard on him? I mean, after all, you've been known to do a little "hot-dogging" yourself." Hope had obviously missed the comment Charles was referring too, and took a step back, preferring to stay out of this conversation.
"Yeah, but I can walk away from a crash. They can't," Logan said, frowning back at the simulator.
"I'm going to check on Lance," Hope said, "I'll try and make it on time, next time." Hope smiled at Logan and Charles then started for the door. Kurt smiled at her while she walked to the door, tipping a broom at her.
"What are you lookin' at, Elf?" Logan snapped, "Keep sweepin', you still got another week of probation to work off."
Kurt instantly started sweeping again, "Yes, sir. Sorry." Hope patted Kurt on the shoulder as she walked past him.
"Yeah, and when you're finished, you can mop out the simulator," Logan added and Hope mentally winced at the thought of what might be inside it.
"Yeah, sure," Kurt muttered sarcastically, "Who wouldn't want to be an X- man? It's so fulfilling." Hope suppressed a smile, Kurt was just adorable and one of her favorite students. She'd sneak in to the kitchen tonight and help him with the dishes, since his probation called for him to clean everything Logan could think to assign him to clean. Hope found Lance leaning against a wall a little ways down the hall, still looking green.
She put on a sympathetic smile, reach out a hand and gently squeezed the boy's shoulder, "Come on, I'll give you something for that stomach."
Lance jerked his shoulder away, "I don't need anything."
"Well, come with me anyway," Hope gave a grin, "It will tick off Scott that you're late and have a good excuse."
"Whatever," Lance said shrugging, but followed Hope to the Infirmary.
"Have a seat," Hope offered while walking over to the fridge, "How are you handling your first day?" Hope asked, pulling out a can of Sprite, trying to be friendly even though her hands where shaking slightly around the can.
"It's a cake walk," Lance muttered, "You people are crazy."
"Well, there's a certain amount of that here," Hope said, taking a few packets of crackers down from the top of the fridge. She turned around a held both out to Lance, "Personally I'm grateful I'm only the school's nurse." Lance looked suspiciously at the crackers and soda.
"It's not poisoned," Hope commented, and Lance hesitantly took them. She walked over to the large file cabinets she had filled with medical records for all the students, and pulled out a brand new one, "I have to ask you a few questions, Lance."
"I'm not going to be part of your little science project," Lance snapped, glaring down at the can in his hand.
"No, no, I have to start a medical chart for you." Hope grabbed a stool, settled herself on it, and laid the new file out on the counter. "Any treatment gets noted down, so I can keep accurate records." Hope smiled at Lance and clicker her pen to start writing.
"I'm not sick," Lance glared, "Why are you being so nice to me anyway?"
Hope set the pen down, and stared down Lance, "You want honesty?"
"Never mind," Lance started to get up.
"Sit down," Hope ordered, using her stern doctor voice. Lance didn't sit though; he stood stiffly staring down at her, "Fine. I don't like you, Mr. Alvers, I'm actually afraid of you, but I took an oath to treat a person regardless of how I felt about them. If you were dying Mr. Alvers I would treat you, the students would save you. We're the good guys, we have something called honor, it's what makes us do silly things like that, and we take it very seriously," Hope finished her little spell and turned back into her happy go lucky doctor personality, "If you'll wait a second, I'll give you a note for Scott." Lance looked completely taken by surprise, but Hope just scribbled a quick note down and handed it to Lance.
"Stop by any time you're feeling bad," Hope suggested, taking the can of Sprite and crackers back. Lance looked completely baffled now, but turned on his heel and walked out. Once she was sure he was gone Hope sat down on the nearest bed, and put her head in her hands. She was shaking with fear, she'd never shaken with fear before, but hey there was a first time for everything. She ignored her nagging worry about being alone with Lance during the whole meeting but now that she was alone, she felt it. If he was going to become an X-man, Hope would have to get over this irrational fear, but that was easier said than done. Hope looked up from her hands when the door opened, Logan was holding Roberto up by his collar.
"He says something's wrong with his ankle," Logan said, dropping the boy on a bed, then looked curiously at Hope. Too observant for your own good, Hope thought, getting up from the bed where she had been sitting.
"Weren't you supposed to be out in the yard with Scott?" Hope asked, putting on a pair of rubber gloves, keeping her back to Roberto and Logan.
"He tripped on his way there." Logan sounded very annoyed, like he always did when he knew a student was faking. Hope too was annoyed by this trend, which only made Hope more frustrated at everything.
"Roberto, I've warned you and the other students about this," Hope said, turning back around, "If you fake an injury, there's a punishment."
"I'm not faking, Doc, honest," Roberto said, a wounded look on his face.
"We'll soon found out won't we?" Hope challenged and started to check out his ankle, "Congratulations," She said when she finished and pulled off her gloves, "You sprained it. Not severely, mind you, so out you go with a few Tylenol." Hope slid across the room and pulled out a little paper cup with two bright red pills in it.
"Hey Doc, let's talk," Logan placed a hand on Hope's shoulder as she handed the pills and a little cup of water to Roberto, then steered her to the X- ray room. "Something wrong?"
"No," Hope snapped, she did not want to talk to Logan about her problems dealing with Lance. She didn't want to talk to anyone about her problems with Lance; they were her problems to deal with anyway.
"You know, Doc, you're a terrible liar. What's wrong?" Logan was looking stern, like she was a student disobeying his orders or something.
"It doesn't matter, Logan, now take Roberto back." Hope placed her hands on her hips and tried to look as stern as he did, probably she failed miserably, but she wasn't going to back down.
"Alvers do somethin' to you?"
"No, he didn't," Hope snapped, instantly feeling like she had to protect her patient, "He was surly and a little rude, but besides that, he did nothing. You know what, he reminded me of someone, now that I think about it."
"I'm tryin' to look out for you," Logan said through gritted teeth.
Hope sighed and tried to remember she wasn't annoyed at Logan, she was annoyed at herself, "Thank you, but Lance didn't do anything to me. Now go and put fear into the students hearts."
"Just call," Logan said hesitantly, "If you need somethin'." Hope was oddly touched and all her annoyance at Logan vanished. Well, she thought, that was probably the nicest thing anyone's said to me today.
It surprised Hope how quickly she got use to Lance being around, by the second day of his stay, Hope wasn't afraid of him, well wasn't paranoid afraid of him. He had also made friends with the new recruits, becoming their almost-leader. The new recruits still looked up to Scott, but there was something charismatic about Lance that drew them in. Kitty was affected too, Hope noticed. As her assistant, Kitty normally was levelheaded, but only slightly spacey, which Hope could forgive. Lately though, Kitty day dreamed a lot, smiled more and had this glow to her eyes. Hope had diagnosed Kitty with a crush, a serious one by the looks of it, on Lance. Hope found it lovely, but she was a romantic deep down and had some hopes that Lance and Kitty's relationship would work out. Except there were a few rumors flying around about Lance "barrowing" was the more polite term Scott's car and the X-van for joyrides, but Hope had some doubts. Lance had his own car, if he wanted to go joyriding he'd take his own, or so Hope wanted to believe. Her suspicions rested with the new recruits, they looked like they had less sleep then everyone else, and of course that once again didn't rule out Lance. He could have gone with them, as he spent a lot of his time with them, but the rumors placed all the blame on Lance. She would have completely believed the rumors herself if Lance hadn't come up to her after dinner, when she'd been trying to sneak in and help Kurt with the dishes and apologized for his behavior. It had taken Hope completely by surprise, and before she had been able to thank the boy he had stalked off. It had given Hope a chance to find some forgiveness for Lance, and led her to believe Magneto wasn't behind his coming to the Institute. It was only his third day here, there had been plenty of times where Lance could have gone after her, but he hadn't. In fact, Hope glanced at Kitty who was putting away bandages; he seemed to be going after only one person.
"So," Hope said, deciding to see what gossip she could get out of Kitty, "What's new?"
Kitty shrugged, but she was smiling, "Nothing really, like, important."
"Oh," Hope smiled, "I was just wondering. You know I think we need more saline."
"I'll get the forms," Kitty hummed. "I heard that Lance, uh I mean Avalanche came to see you."
"Just an upset stomach," Hope tried to mention it casually, suppressing a laugh at how obvious Kitty was being when she trying not to be.
"Was something wrong?" Kitty said quickly, and blushed, "I mean, just curious you know."
"He was fine. I heard he rescued you from the pool during an exercise." Hope loved gossip, was addicted to it like a teenage girl, and was trying to get more than the rumors out of Kitty.
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe it, Doc," Kitty spun around in a circle, holding the forms to her chest, "When he pulled me out Scott, like yelled at him." Kitty put her hands on her hips and tried to imitate Scott's stern look, "Wrong victim, Alvers! Scott looked really annoyed, but Lance just carried me out of the pool and says: Yeah, but look who I rescued. It was so romantic," Kitty sighed.
"Sounds like it." Hope found herself sighing too and thinking about Logan's comment to her. "Just call, if you need somethin'."
"But you're not going to tell anyone are you, Doc?" Kitty grabbed Hope's arm, startling her out of her Logan-centric thoughts, "I'd just die."
"Easy, Kitty," Hope said, patting Kitty on the head, "I won't tell a soul." Of course, Hope thought, if I give Lance a little nudge in the right direction, and no one's the wiser, what's the harm?
"Thanks, Doc!" And Kitty went back to putting bandages away, humming some pop tune. Hope went back to her checklist for supplies smiling, ah to be young again.
Hope was suppose to restock the medical supplies on the Jet this morning, and with the busy schedule of training today, Hope wanted to get it out of the way first thing. So she woke up early to do just that, and found the jet in tatters. It was dented, dirty and completely different from Hope's last memory of it. Someone had taken the jet for a joyride. Oh boy, Hope thought, setting down the boxes of medical supplies she had brought with her, this is going to be ugly. Hope could hear in her head Logan's voice bragging about the jet while she turned to get Charles. "And here's out pride and joy, the X-jet. Does Mach 5 at 40,00 feet. With every new power trust, camouflage, stealth capability the Professor can dream up, it will out-run, out-fly, and out-fight anything on two wings. Heh, and still make a great cup of coffee." Hope figured Logan wasn't going to be completely rational about what had happened, but Charles would be. Hope knocked on the door to his study before poking her head in. She figured out pretty quickly that she had no choice but to tell Logan also as he was in the study with Charles and Scott.
"Good morning, Dr. Chandler, is there something I can do for you?" Charles asked when Hope stepped into the room.
"Just a quick question," Hope hedged, "Have any of you been in the hanger this morning?"
"We were working out training schedules," Scott said, "Why?"
Oh boy, "Then you haven't seen the jet this morning?"
"What happened to the jet?" Logan growled, taking a step towards Hope.
"I think you'll have to see to understand," Hope said.
"Lead the way, Doc," Logan said, "And explain."
"Well, I had to restock the jet," Hope explained while walking back towards the hanger, "I thought I'd get it done early before I got wrapped up in something or my day got away from me."
"So you went to the hanger and found what exactly?" Scott asked from behind her.
"The jet just completely trashed," Hope sighed, "Someone took a joyride in it."
"Alvers." Scott growled, then Hope opened the door to the hanger. She let the three pass her, watching them carefully as they walked towards the jet. She could almost hear the astonishment as she too followed them inside. Since she had seen the jet already, Hope noticed Kitty and Lance standing off to the side of the door, Kitty was fidgeting while Lance had his bad boy look on.
"Alvers," Scott said again, turning around and walking over to Kitty and Lance. Apparently he'd noticed them when he came in, "You took another joyride didn't you?"
"Actuall..." Kitty started, but Lance grabbed her shoulder, pushed her back and stepped forward.
"Yeah, I did, so?" Lance growled. Hope was surprised, she felt disappointed that Lance had actually turned out to be the punk she thought he was.
"I knew it!" Scott yelled, but Hope was distracted. Bobby and the other new recruits had walked past her into the room. They had taken the jet? Hope had guessed right, the new recruits were involved?
"No, he didn't," Bobby said, "We did." Hope had guessed right, well, there was a first time for everything it seemed.
"Lance was only trying to stop us," Bobby continued to explain, "We took the X-van too."
"Who's "we"?" Logan asked, looking rather calm considering everything.
"Uh, and Scott's car," Sam said, looking at the floor.
"And your motorcycle," Jubilee looked up at Logan with meek eyes.
Oh boy, Hope thought, watching Logan carefully. "My motorcycle?"
"Just kidding," Jubilee tried to laugh, but it came out as a nervous giggle. Good, Hope thought, if you took his motorcycle you'd be in deeper than you are now. What were you thinking?
"Well, luckily there's been no official mention of the incident," Charles said, "The military must believe it was a UFO sighting, so they're, no doubt, covering it up." Hope turned when she heard the ding of the elevator and in walked Kurt.
He was tossing a can of wax between his hands, talking to himself, "Now all I've got to do is wax the X-jet and my probation is history." Hope instantly felt sorry for Kurt, even more so when Kurt noticed the jet. Hope winced in sympathy at his look of horror.
"Oh man, this is gonna take a lot of wax!" Kurt moaned, shoulders dropping and looking dejected.
"That's all right, Kurt. Consider your probation over," Charles said, smiling at Kurt.
"Yeah!" Kurt tossed the can of wax in the air and ran off, making his escape.
Charles turned back to the new recruits, "Yours, however, is just beginning and you can start by cleaning the X-jet." Hope was a softy, but even she had a hard time working up anything more than mild sympathy for the students.
"I, uh, guess we all owe you an apology," Scott said, rubbing the back of his head with one hand, "Especially me."
Lance waved a hand at Scott, "Save it, Summers. I'm outta here." He turned on his heel and started towards the elevator.
"Lance, we're sorry," Xavier called after the boy, "It's been a challenging transition for all of us."
"Please stay Lance," Kitty pleaded, which stopped Lance and made him turn around.
"Sorry," He said and Hope almost believe he was, "Living with the Brotherhood's a piece of cake compared to you guys. You're way to high maintenance."
"Well, if you ever change you mind..." Charles said, and Hope knew what he was offering. There would always be a place for Lance here, and any other member of the Brotherhood that hoped to change. Kitty ran over from where she stood with Charles, Logan and Scott to where Lance was standing and kissed him on the cheek. Lance watched her while she ran back to Charles, idly rubbing his cheek and smiling. Hope smiled too while she watched him climb into the elevator, maybe some bad boys could change.
Author's Note: I'm not exactly sure on how many days Lance was actually at the Institute, from reading the transcript and what I remember of the episode, I guessed it was around three. If I'm completely off about that, whoops. This was fun, I've always been a fan of the Lance/Kitty relationship, and the whole scene between Kitty and Hope was just that coming through. I had to put in Logan's little rant about the X-jet, that's my favorite line the whole episode, I'd feel the same way if I had an X- jet. Thanks again to Silverwolf for suggesting this, and please read and review.
Author's Note: Another write in for everyone's favorite doctor, Dr. Hope Chandler. This time the episode of choice is Joyride, suggested by Silverwolf, thanks. For those who were waiting for the Brotherhood to appear in the Hope Series again, there's plenty of Lance in this story for you. It would take place after A New Hope, but before The Effects of Hope, in the series time line for those of you who were wondering. Please enjoy, read and review.
If there was one thing Dr. Hope Chandler was use to from working as an emergency physician it was waking up quickly at the sound of an alarm. She had learned shortly after starting to live at the Institute that waking up to alarms was a common thing there too. Tonight was one of those cases. As soon as the alarm woke her up, Hope was throwing of her blankets, and getting ready to find out what was going on. She could hear the students outside her door as she got rid of her pajamas and changed into scrubs. She didn't have an official uniform to change into like the students the scrubs and doctor's white coat were about as close as she came to one, but she was quite happy to keep it that way. Spandex was not her thing. Once she was dressed she picked up her large orange bag of medical supplies and checked the read out on the type of alarm being raised. Someone was at the front door, on the grounds. Hope hoisted the large bag over her shoulder and dove into the hall, meeting up with Scott and Logan at the top of the stairs.
"You think you're going to need that?" Logan asked glancing down at her medical bag as they thundered down the steps.
"If you're involved," Hope said, "Yes." Logan grinned at her, beat her to the bottom of the steps and then went bursting through the front door. Hope could see him stop on the front steps. There wasn't much that could have Logan stopping in his tracks, Hope was confused about this until she too went through the front door onto the steps and saw what was waiting. Lance Alvers, member of the Brotherhood, code name Avalanche was standing at the base of the steps, a backpack slung over one shoulder. Hope felt her heart trip a little in her chest, she still had a slight fear of the Brotherhood and seeing one standing on the Institute grounds had her instantly stepping behind the protection of the X-men.
"Somethin' we can do for you, bub?" Logan asked, looking ready to jump Lance at the first signs of an attack.
"Yeah," Lance folded his arms over his chest, "I've come to join the X- men." If it hadn't of been such a tense situation Hope was pretty sure she would have laughed. Lance, come to join the X-men, that was possibly the best joke she'd heard in a long time. Lance was your typical street bad boy, she'd seen plenty of boys just like him while working at Charity. You could tell them how to go straight, even put the fear of jail and death into them, and they wouldn't change. Boys like Lance had a stubborn streak and a deep sense of pride that kept them from changing until some thing happened to make them change. Often it was jail, or a near fatal encounter that made them change, some times it was even a girl, but Hope had little faith in Lance being able to change.
"You're kidding right?" Kitty said, voicing what Hope was thinking.
Lance pointed to himself, "I wanna be an X-man, I'm serious."
"Hmph. Yeah, right, and I wanna be the tooth fairy." Logan said, sliding his claws back in. Hope heard someone clear their throat over the students chuckling, and stepped aside. Charles rolled out onto the steps and considered Lance.
"Now, just a minute. Let's hear what he has to say," Charles said, which stunned everyone even more. "If you'll come with me to my study, Lance. Logan, Scott, Jean and Kitty why don't you come as well. Dr. Chandler, if you'll see the other students back to bed."
"Uh, sure," Hope said after a moment, "If you're sure you won't need me at all." Hope couldn't think of a viable reason why Charles would need her, but said it anyway because she was completely baffled and wasn't thinking about what came out of her mouth.
"I'm sure, Doctor," Charles said, "Lance, if you'll follow me." Hope stood there, watching as Lance climbed the steps and walked right through the front door. When Logan passed she heard him muttering under his breath, Scott was glaring at the back of Lance's head, and Jean was whispering with Kitty.
"Uh, all right everyone, back to bed," Hope said, once the strange precession was gone and passed.
"Oh come on, Doc," Kurt said, popping up next to her, "You gotta let us see what happens."
"There's no way the Professor's gonna like him join right?" Evan asked, also coming to stand in front of Hope.
"You can find out tomorrow," Hope said, more sternly, "Go back to bed now, or I'll tell Professor Xavier that you didn't." Hope held one of the front doors open, waiting for the remaining students to go past her and back inside. They talked among themselves while they climbed the stairs, mostly they were exchanging angry comments about Lance, but Hope stayed at the base of the stairs, debating. It wasn't her place to tell Charles she thought Lance joining the X-men was a bad idea. She wasn't completely emotionally distant from the whole situation. She didn't like Lance, she was also afraid of him, definitely not a good state of mind for her to pass judgment. Could she wait until the morning to find out about Charles's decision? Hope thought about it for a second and decided no, she couldn't. So she climbed the stairs back to the second floor and the Instructor's wing of bedrooms and sat down outside Logan's door. She normally wouldn't have waited outside Logan's door, her least favorite activity was waiting for Logan, and he rarely told her anything anyway, but tonight, Hope felt like she deserved an answer this time. She played with the ends of her stethoscope, thinking up reasons why she deserved to be told about Charles's decision until she heard footsteps and jumped to her feet. Unconsciously brushing her hands down her coat out of habit, she prepared to square off with Logan.
"Thought you'd be here," He said, standing a few feet away from her, "He's in."
"I just want..." Hope stopped short, before she could get through her long list of reasons why she deserved to know if Lance was in or out and gapped at Logan, "Excuse me?"
"Alvers, he's in. Squirt's shown him to a guest room." Logan gave Hope a look she knew meant she was going to get a lecture from him and she resigned herself to listen, "You be careful around him, Doc. Charles may think that kid's got other motives for being here, but I don't like it. To me, it doesn't make any sense for a kid like Alvers to change teams. This may be Magneto's way of gettin' another shot at you."
"Another shot at me?"
"You slipped right through his fingers, sending one of the Acolytes after you would be too obvious, but sending a kid like Alvers in? No one would suspect him, but I do."
"Oh boy," Hope said, just now thinking about the possibility that Magneto was behind this, "I'm going to be as paranoid as you now."
Logan glared hard at Hope, "Just be careful, Doc," he said, then strode past her into his room, and when Hope turned to apologize the door slammed in her face. Well, Hope thought, you handled that brilliantly. He offers some concern and she says something insulting, just what anyone with even an iota of common sense would have done. Hope picked up her bag of supplies, started walking towards her room, her brain working at half capacity. Would Magneto really use Lance to get to her? Of course he would, he's an evil maniac, using a kid like Lance wouldn't bother him at all. Hope took a deep breath when she came to her bedroom door; she still got tremors of fear from thinking about Magneto. No one in the Institute knew about it, but when she had first come back after the kidnapping she had had nightmares about it. Natural, Hope had reasoned at the time, kidnap victims were often traumatized and kept the nightmares to herself. There was nothing anyone could have done about them anyway. Lance wasn't really responsible for the whole episode with Magneto, the only thing he'd done was follow orders, but she was still afraid that he may be here following orders again. Hope opened the door to her room, seeking the comfort of bed and hopefully a dreamless sleep.
Hope ran towards the simulator room, if she was late and there was going to be trouble. She burst through the door, but by the look of things she was late. Lance was at the door of the simulator, looking green around the gills, and Bobby was looking crest fallen standing in front of Logan.
"You gotta think before you start playin' cowboy," Logan was saying to Bobby. Hope stayed by the door, waiting and watching Lance.
Kitty walked past Hope and up to Lance, "Lance?"
"Huh?" Hope felt a little sorry for the boy, he looked like he was going to lose his breakfast any second now.
"Are you okay?" Kitty laughed, and instantly Lance straightened and tried to look tough.
"Hey, piece of cake," Lance said, walking down the ramp from the simulator, "Told you there was nothin' to this X-men stuff.
"Well good," Kitty said, then with one more smile walked out. Instantly Lance wrapped his arm around his stomach, clamped a hand over his mouth and went racing out of the room. Logan was done lecturing Bobby and was now looking annoyed at the simulator. Hope was suppose to have been there before the simulator exercise began, with Dramamine for everyone involved, but she'd been taking care of Rahne, who had badly sprained her finger during an exercise with Hank. The X-rays had taken up most of Hope's time and she'd sort of forgotten about the Dramamine delivery.
"A little late Doc," Logan said, not bothering to turn around and look at her.
"Yes, sorry about that," Hope walked up behind him, took the little bottle of Dramamine pills out of her pocket and held them out to him, "Here, for the other students."
"You should go after Alvers," Logan suggested taking the pills from her, "He's gonna need something for his stomach. Be careful anyway."
"Doesn't he have an exercise with Scott right after this?" Hope said, thinking out loud of the schedule of exercises.
"Yes," Charles said, coming into the room. Hope turned to smile at Charles, then joined him in watching Bobby walk away, dejected. She felt sorry for the kid, Bobby just wanted to fit in and tried really hard to do good, but over did it sometimes. Which was why Hope had a standing Dramamine run to the simulator room any day Bobby was involved. Charles waited until Bobby was gone before looking up at Logan, "Don't you were a little hard on him? I mean, after all, you've been known to do a little "hot-dogging" yourself." Hope had obviously missed the comment Charles was referring too, and took a step back, preferring to stay out of this conversation.
"Yeah, but I can walk away from a crash. They can't," Logan said, frowning back at the simulator.
"I'm going to check on Lance," Hope said, "I'll try and make it on time, next time." Hope smiled at Logan and Charles then started for the door. Kurt smiled at her while she walked to the door, tipping a broom at her.
"What are you lookin' at, Elf?" Logan snapped, "Keep sweepin', you still got another week of probation to work off."
Kurt instantly started sweeping again, "Yes, sir. Sorry." Hope patted Kurt on the shoulder as she walked past him.
"Yeah, and when you're finished, you can mop out the simulator," Logan added and Hope mentally winced at the thought of what might be inside it.
"Yeah, sure," Kurt muttered sarcastically, "Who wouldn't want to be an X- man? It's so fulfilling." Hope suppressed a smile, Kurt was just adorable and one of her favorite students. She'd sneak in to the kitchen tonight and help him with the dishes, since his probation called for him to clean everything Logan could think to assign him to clean. Hope found Lance leaning against a wall a little ways down the hall, still looking green.
She put on a sympathetic smile, reach out a hand and gently squeezed the boy's shoulder, "Come on, I'll give you something for that stomach."
Lance jerked his shoulder away, "I don't need anything."
"Well, come with me anyway," Hope gave a grin, "It will tick off Scott that you're late and have a good excuse."
"Whatever," Lance said shrugging, but followed Hope to the Infirmary.
"Have a seat," Hope offered while walking over to the fridge, "How are you handling your first day?" Hope asked, pulling out a can of Sprite, trying to be friendly even though her hands where shaking slightly around the can.
"It's a cake walk," Lance muttered, "You people are crazy."
"Well, there's a certain amount of that here," Hope said, taking a few packets of crackers down from the top of the fridge. She turned around a held both out to Lance, "Personally I'm grateful I'm only the school's nurse." Lance looked suspiciously at the crackers and soda.
"It's not poisoned," Hope commented, and Lance hesitantly took them. She walked over to the large file cabinets she had filled with medical records for all the students, and pulled out a brand new one, "I have to ask you a few questions, Lance."
"I'm not going to be part of your little science project," Lance snapped, glaring down at the can in his hand.
"No, no, I have to start a medical chart for you." Hope grabbed a stool, settled herself on it, and laid the new file out on the counter. "Any treatment gets noted down, so I can keep accurate records." Hope smiled at Lance and clicker her pen to start writing.
"I'm not sick," Lance glared, "Why are you being so nice to me anyway?"
Hope set the pen down, and stared down Lance, "You want honesty?"
"Never mind," Lance started to get up.
"Sit down," Hope ordered, using her stern doctor voice. Lance didn't sit though; he stood stiffly staring down at her, "Fine. I don't like you, Mr. Alvers, I'm actually afraid of you, but I took an oath to treat a person regardless of how I felt about them. If you were dying Mr. Alvers I would treat you, the students would save you. We're the good guys, we have something called honor, it's what makes us do silly things like that, and we take it very seriously," Hope finished her little spell and turned back into her happy go lucky doctor personality, "If you'll wait a second, I'll give you a note for Scott." Lance looked completely taken by surprise, but Hope just scribbled a quick note down and handed it to Lance.
"Stop by any time you're feeling bad," Hope suggested, taking the can of Sprite and crackers back. Lance looked completely baffled now, but turned on his heel and walked out. Once she was sure he was gone Hope sat down on the nearest bed, and put her head in her hands. She was shaking with fear, she'd never shaken with fear before, but hey there was a first time for everything. She ignored her nagging worry about being alone with Lance during the whole meeting but now that she was alone, she felt it. If he was going to become an X-man, Hope would have to get over this irrational fear, but that was easier said than done. Hope looked up from her hands when the door opened, Logan was holding Roberto up by his collar.
"He says something's wrong with his ankle," Logan said, dropping the boy on a bed, then looked curiously at Hope. Too observant for your own good, Hope thought, getting up from the bed where she had been sitting.
"Weren't you supposed to be out in the yard with Scott?" Hope asked, putting on a pair of rubber gloves, keeping her back to Roberto and Logan.
"He tripped on his way there." Logan sounded very annoyed, like he always did when he knew a student was faking. Hope too was annoyed by this trend, which only made Hope more frustrated at everything.
"Roberto, I've warned you and the other students about this," Hope said, turning back around, "If you fake an injury, there's a punishment."
"I'm not faking, Doc, honest," Roberto said, a wounded look on his face.
"We'll soon found out won't we?" Hope challenged and started to check out his ankle, "Congratulations," She said when she finished and pulled off her gloves, "You sprained it. Not severely, mind you, so out you go with a few Tylenol." Hope slid across the room and pulled out a little paper cup with two bright red pills in it.
"Hey Doc, let's talk," Logan placed a hand on Hope's shoulder as she handed the pills and a little cup of water to Roberto, then steered her to the X- ray room. "Something wrong?"
"No," Hope snapped, she did not want to talk to Logan about her problems dealing with Lance. She didn't want to talk to anyone about her problems with Lance; they were her problems to deal with anyway.
"You know, Doc, you're a terrible liar. What's wrong?" Logan was looking stern, like she was a student disobeying his orders or something.
"It doesn't matter, Logan, now take Roberto back." Hope placed her hands on her hips and tried to look as stern as he did, probably she failed miserably, but she wasn't going to back down.
"Alvers do somethin' to you?"
"No, he didn't," Hope snapped, instantly feeling like she had to protect her patient, "He was surly and a little rude, but besides that, he did nothing. You know what, he reminded me of someone, now that I think about it."
"I'm tryin' to look out for you," Logan said through gritted teeth.
Hope sighed and tried to remember she wasn't annoyed at Logan, she was annoyed at herself, "Thank you, but Lance didn't do anything to me. Now go and put fear into the students hearts."
"Just call," Logan said hesitantly, "If you need somethin'." Hope was oddly touched and all her annoyance at Logan vanished. Well, she thought, that was probably the nicest thing anyone's said to me today.
It surprised Hope how quickly she got use to Lance being around, by the second day of his stay, Hope wasn't afraid of him, well wasn't paranoid afraid of him. He had also made friends with the new recruits, becoming their almost-leader. The new recruits still looked up to Scott, but there was something charismatic about Lance that drew them in. Kitty was affected too, Hope noticed. As her assistant, Kitty normally was levelheaded, but only slightly spacey, which Hope could forgive. Lately though, Kitty day dreamed a lot, smiled more and had this glow to her eyes. Hope had diagnosed Kitty with a crush, a serious one by the looks of it, on Lance. Hope found it lovely, but she was a romantic deep down and had some hopes that Lance and Kitty's relationship would work out. Except there were a few rumors flying around about Lance "barrowing" was the more polite term Scott's car and the X-van for joyrides, but Hope had some doubts. Lance had his own car, if he wanted to go joyriding he'd take his own, or so Hope wanted to believe. Her suspicions rested with the new recruits, they looked like they had less sleep then everyone else, and of course that once again didn't rule out Lance. He could have gone with them, as he spent a lot of his time with them, but the rumors placed all the blame on Lance. She would have completely believed the rumors herself if Lance hadn't come up to her after dinner, when she'd been trying to sneak in and help Kurt with the dishes and apologized for his behavior. It had taken Hope completely by surprise, and before she had been able to thank the boy he had stalked off. It had given Hope a chance to find some forgiveness for Lance, and led her to believe Magneto wasn't behind his coming to the Institute. It was only his third day here, there had been plenty of times where Lance could have gone after her, but he hadn't. In fact, Hope glanced at Kitty who was putting away bandages; he seemed to be going after only one person.
"So," Hope said, deciding to see what gossip she could get out of Kitty, "What's new?"
Kitty shrugged, but she was smiling, "Nothing really, like, important."
"Oh," Hope smiled, "I was just wondering. You know I think we need more saline."
"I'll get the forms," Kitty hummed. "I heard that Lance, uh I mean Avalanche came to see you."
"Just an upset stomach," Hope tried to mention it casually, suppressing a laugh at how obvious Kitty was being when she trying not to be.
"Was something wrong?" Kitty said quickly, and blushed, "I mean, just curious you know."
"He was fine. I heard he rescued you from the pool during an exercise." Hope loved gossip, was addicted to it like a teenage girl, and was trying to get more than the rumors out of Kitty.
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe it, Doc," Kitty spun around in a circle, holding the forms to her chest, "When he pulled me out Scott, like yelled at him." Kitty put her hands on her hips and tried to imitate Scott's stern look, "Wrong victim, Alvers! Scott looked really annoyed, but Lance just carried me out of the pool and says: Yeah, but look who I rescued. It was so romantic," Kitty sighed.
"Sounds like it." Hope found herself sighing too and thinking about Logan's comment to her. "Just call, if you need somethin'."
"But you're not going to tell anyone are you, Doc?" Kitty grabbed Hope's arm, startling her out of her Logan-centric thoughts, "I'd just die."
"Easy, Kitty," Hope said, patting Kitty on the head, "I won't tell a soul." Of course, Hope thought, if I give Lance a little nudge in the right direction, and no one's the wiser, what's the harm?
"Thanks, Doc!" And Kitty went back to putting bandages away, humming some pop tune. Hope went back to her checklist for supplies smiling, ah to be young again.
Hope was suppose to restock the medical supplies on the Jet this morning, and with the busy schedule of training today, Hope wanted to get it out of the way first thing. So she woke up early to do just that, and found the jet in tatters. It was dented, dirty and completely different from Hope's last memory of it. Someone had taken the jet for a joyride. Oh boy, Hope thought, setting down the boxes of medical supplies she had brought with her, this is going to be ugly. Hope could hear in her head Logan's voice bragging about the jet while she turned to get Charles. "And here's out pride and joy, the X-jet. Does Mach 5 at 40,00 feet. With every new power trust, camouflage, stealth capability the Professor can dream up, it will out-run, out-fly, and out-fight anything on two wings. Heh, and still make a great cup of coffee." Hope figured Logan wasn't going to be completely rational about what had happened, but Charles would be. Hope knocked on the door to his study before poking her head in. She figured out pretty quickly that she had no choice but to tell Logan also as he was in the study with Charles and Scott.
"Good morning, Dr. Chandler, is there something I can do for you?" Charles asked when Hope stepped into the room.
"Just a quick question," Hope hedged, "Have any of you been in the hanger this morning?"
"We were working out training schedules," Scott said, "Why?"
Oh boy, "Then you haven't seen the jet this morning?"
"What happened to the jet?" Logan growled, taking a step towards Hope.
"I think you'll have to see to understand," Hope said.
"Lead the way, Doc," Logan said, "And explain."
"Well, I had to restock the jet," Hope explained while walking back towards the hanger, "I thought I'd get it done early before I got wrapped up in something or my day got away from me."
"So you went to the hanger and found what exactly?" Scott asked from behind her.
"The jet just completely trashed," Hope sighed, "Someone took a joyride in it."
"Alvers." Scott growled, then Hope opened the door to the hanger. She let the three pass her, watching them carefully as they walked towards the jet. She could almost hear the astonishment as she too followed them inside. Since she had seen the jet already, Hope noticed Kitty and Lance standing off to the side of the door, Kitty was fidgeting while Lance had his bad boy look on.
"Alvers," Scott said again, turning around and walking over to Kitty and Lance. Apparently he'd noticed them when he came in, "You took another joyride didn't you?"
"Actuall..." Kitty started, but Lance grabbed her shoulder, pushed her back and stepped forward.
"Yeah, I did, so?" Lance growled. Hope was surprised, she felt disappointed that Lance had actually turned out to be the punk she thought he was.
"I knew it!" Scott yelled, but Hope was distracted. Bobby and the other new recruits had walked past her into the room. They had taken the jet? Hope had guessed right, the new recruits were involved?
"No, he didn't," Bobby said, "We did." Hope had guessed right, well, there was a first time for everything it seemed.
"Lance was only trying to stop us," Bobby continued to explain, "We took the X-van too."
"Who's "we"?" Logan asked, looking rather calm considering everything.
"Uh, and Scott's car," Sam said, looking at the floor.
"And your motorcycle," Jubilee looked up at Logan with meek eyes.
Oh boy, Hope thought, watching Logan carefully. "My motorcycle?"
"Just kidding," Jubilee tried to laugh, but it came out as a nervous giggle. Good, Hope thought, if you took his motorcycle you'd be in deeper than you are now. What were you thinking?
"Well, luckily there's been no official mention of the incident," Charles said, "The military must believe it was a UFO sighting, so they're, no doubt, covering it up." Hope turned when she heard the ding of the elevator and in walked Kurt.
He was tossing a can of wax between his hands, talking to himself, "Now all I've got to do is wax the X-jet and my probation is history." Hope instantly felt sorry for Kurt, even more so when Kurt noticed the jet. Hope winced in sympathy at his look of horror.
"Oh man, this is gonna take a lot of wax!" Kurt moaned, shoulders dropping and looking dejected.
"That's all right, Kurt. Consider your probation over," Charles said, smiling at Kurt.
"Yeah!" Kurt tossed the can of wax in the air and ran off, making his escape.
Charles turned back to the new recruits, "Yours, however, is just beginning and you can start by cleaning the X-jet." Hope was a softy, but even she had a hard time working up anything more than mild sympathy for the students.
"I, uh, guess we all owe you an apology," Scott said, rubbing the back of his head with one hand, "Especially me."
Lance waved a hand at Scott, "Save it, Summers. I'm outta here." He turned on his heel and started towards the elevator.
"Lance, we're sorry," Xavier called after the boy, "It's been a challenging transition for all of us."
"Please stay Lance," Kitty pleaded, which stopped Lance and made him turn around.
"Sorry," He said and Hope almost believe he was, "Living with the Brotherhood's a piece of cake compared to you guys. You're way to high maintenance."
"Well, if you ever change you mind..." Charles said, and Hope knew what he was offering. There would always be a place for Lance here, and any other member of the Brotherhood that hoped to change. Kitty ran over from where she stood with Charles, Logan and Scott to where Lance was standing and kissed him on the cheek. Lance watched her while she ran back to Charles, idly rubbing his cheek and smiling. Hope smiled too while she watched him climb into the elevator, maybe some bad boys could change.
Author's Note: I'm not exactly sure on how many days Lance was actually at the Institute, from reading the transcript and what I remember of the episode, I guessed it was around three. If I'm completely off about that, whoops. This was fun, I've always been a fan of the Lance/Kitty relationship, and the whole scene between Kitty and Hope was just that coming through. I had to put in Logan's little rant about the X-jet, that's my favorite line the whole episode, I'd feel the same way if I had an X- jet. Thanks again to Silverwolf for suggesting this, and please read and review.