I know that I have not updated in a long time for which I am incredibly sorry and I know that many are expecting an update on "Did you miss me?" and I am here to tell you that I have not abandoned that story nor any story of mine. Again… sorry for the long wait. I have no good excuse other than its been a busy summer.
When people would ask about Toby Logan, they would be told that he was a very kind, generous, yet incredibly shy man who seemed to fear letting people in. He avoided large crowds and yet he was very intuitive about how people felt or what they needed. He always wants to help people. No matter what he was doing at the time, he would drop everything if he felt his energy could be better spent helping someone. This is what made him perfect for his job as a paramedic.
His past however remained a mystery. The earliest memory he has was when he was eleven years old. His mother held both his hands in her own and told him, "Your name is Toby Logan, okay? That's your name now."
He nodded and repeated, "Toby Logan."
He was afraid. In the memory, his mother and himself were standing in the middle of a wheat field. Behind his mother was a mobile home that had caught fire. His mother seemed scared also. She was out of breath and there was a layer of sweat on her face.
"That's the only name you've ever had, okay? Say it again." She moved her hands to cup his face.
"Toby Logan." The mobile home behind his mother then exploded.
He heard a gruff, male voice come from behind him, "Come on, Moira. It's time."
Toby woke up with a gasp. His whole body was covered in a layer of sweat and he was gasping for air. This memory played itself in his dreams very often. The newest part of it though was the voice that had come up behind him. He fantasized it was his father but he knew it could be anybody.
The next thing he remembers is waking up in the office of Dr. Ray Mercer. Ray worked at the University and was an expert on anything to do with the brain. Ray told him that a large man with brown hair and sideburns dropped him off, unconscious, at his office at the University and told him to take care of him.
Ray, after spending a couple of days with the amnesiac child trying to help him recover his memories, discovered that Toby was able to read his mind as Toby was not only responding to his voiced questions but also to the ones he was asking in his head.
Of course, Ray had to eventually report to the police that a child with amnesia had been abandoned at his office. He was put into foster care but was taken to Ray's for two hours twice a week. Ray had recommended this to Child Protective Services so that he could help Toby recover from his amnesia but as he was doing this, he was also attempting to help Toby get control over his ability to read minds.
Toby was not always put in the best foster homes and Ray's office soon became his sanctuary. The only place on earth that he felt truly safe. He was never able to retain any more memories than the one he had just had a dream about. While he and Ray had worked on retrieving more memories about his past, most of their efforts were spent coming up with methods to control Toby's mind reading abilities.
Now 27 years old, Toby does have more control than he had 16 years ago when he showed up at Ray's door but some of what he can do still scares him and the fear sometimes causes him to not be able to block out the sounds of people's thoughts. His abilities do come in handy sometimes with his job as a paramedic. Not everyone tells the truth about how they got into an accident or if they had been drinking or taking drugs and since it is very important for Toby to know this to save their lives, he takes a bit of a peek if he suspects that someone isn't telling the truth. On more than one occasion Toby has given an 'anonymous' tip to a cop friend of his, Sergeant Michelle McCluskey, on several things that he has picked up doing his job.
Toby took a deep breath and sat up while pushing the sheets to the side. He rubbed his face with his hands and shook his head as he thought back to the dream he had just experienced. The only person that he remembered from his past was his mother and when he thought about his lost past, he saw her face. He thought that it was just the two of them and from her tone of voice, she was changing his name because she was scared that someone was after them. He must have been abandoned to be kept safe but she isn't the one who did it. Ray said that a man had brought him to his office, not a woman. It could have been the new addition to his dream but Toby couldn't know because he never saw his face.
Ray was one of the few that knew of his ability. The only others who know are his closest friend, Oz Bey, and Sergeant McCluskey. Oz and Toby were trained together to become paramedics and worked together out of the same ambulance. Oz had begun to notice how Toby would tilt his head and concentrate hard as if he were listening to something and how he would know things that there was no way he could have figured out or heard from someone. He thought Toby was crazy for a while till he began to demand the truth from Toby. He took the truth in stride and even offered to be Toby's wingman when it came to Toby becoming involved in police investigations.
Today was looking to be a normal day though. Toby pushed his dream out of mind and turned toward a little girl, Erica, that he had helped last week. She was being exploited by her father for her ability to heal others and he would take money from those she healed. He didn't notice the effect it was having on his daughter. He would pick and choose who she would heal and it left her feeling alone and powerless. There were certain people that she wasn't able to heal, those too close to death for anything to be done for them such as a woman in the last stages of cancer. There was too much damage for her to heal and a man who had been expecting his wife to be healed went after the father, calling him a con. Toby had been called to their hotel after Erica's father was killed. He read her mind to discover her father's cause of death. He discovered her ability and talked to her to let her know she wasn't alone. She was sent to live with her American uncle but was finally happy to know she had someone to talk to about her life. Toby had calling her every other day to make sure she was adjusting well at her uncle's house. She told him that she was able to get a scholarship to a school for gifted youngsters and he was happy for how things were turning out for her.
"Erica, my name is Professor Charles Xavier. I'm the one who sent you the letter about the scholarship to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. You have abilities don't you? Abilities that nobody else has or understands?"
"Yes, professor. I know what your talking about."
"I'm here to tell you that you are not alone. The school is for those, such as yourself, with special abilities. I, myself, can read minds. You're not alone in this. We can teach you how to control your powers and how to use them to help others."
"I know I'm not alone. I met someone else who could read minds too. He also helped me to control my powers so I don't hurt myself. If I strain myself too hard I get sick."
"Who was this, Erica? What was his name?"
"Toby Logan."
"Professor have you ever heard of this Toby Logan?" The professor shook his head at Storm's question.
Storm, Logan, Jean, Scott, and the professor were gathered in his office to discuss whether to approach this newly discovered mutant and how to approach them. Charles knew the name of every mutant in the world but he didn't recall a Toby Logan.
"The name sounds familiar." Logan commented. He was leaning against a bookshelf with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to be in deep thought.
"Well that's because part of his name is your name." Scott said bluntly.
"No, that's not it." Logan shook his head and kept his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him.
"Well let's see what this Toby Logan looks like." Jean began pulling up records on Charles' computer. "He is a 27 year old paramedic from Vancouver, Canada. He went into the foster system when he was eleven years old and his history before that is unknown since he has amnesia. He's beginning to sound more and more like our Logan."
"It must have been hard," Charles interjected. "If his powers began when he was in foster care, there mustn't have been very many anyone that he could go to."
"His personal physician was a Dr. Ray Mercer who actually found Toby passed out in his office when he was eleven before calling the police. After Toby woke up it was discovered that he had amnesia and the only thing he remembered was his name. Since Dr. Mercer was a neurologist, Toby continued to see him two hours twice a week until he was eighteen. It could be possible that Toby told him about being able to read minds." Jean theorized.
"Myself and Logan will travel to Vancouver to talk to Toby. I would appreciate if you three could keep the school running when we are gone." Charles rolled backward out from under his desk and began to make his way toward the doors to begin preparing for the trip.
"Professor, would you like to see a picture of him?"
"Of course, Jean."
When he looked at photo, he saw his own eyes reflected by those of the young man. The bright blue eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of anyone who looked into them when in reality they were simply piercing the mind.
The part where Charles is talking to Erica is mean't to only be dialogue. She was only used as a way for Charles to find out about Toby and is not going to be a major character in this story.
