Chapter Two
"Noah! Could you take the coffee pot of the burner and start topping off some of these customers cups for me?"
"Sure thing mom!" Noah called back across the happy bustle of the little café. Once an old warehouse, 'Tick Tocks' was now a bustling little place with a high roof, lots of windows and open area. The front doors opened up to a view of delicious pies and baked goods, along with some of the best coffee in town. The serving counter also sold salads, soups, sandwiches, and even simple hot meals for dinner. Noah dumped his book bag beneath the counter and slung and apron over his school clothes before picking up the coffee pot and wandering about the various tables closest to the counter, topping off peoples coffee's and making idle chit chat as he went.
To the left the shop opened up into what must have once been a rather big work space, but was now a large open seating area that also contained a few old fashioned pinball and packman games and an old clock tower in the center. The old foreman's office ran along the top of the back wall, probably so that he could oversee the workers, but was now home to Tick Tock's name sake, a little watch shop that catered to most of the New York area. Broken watch, clock, timepiece- Gabriel Wright could fix just about anything. Didn't matter what make, model, or even era the piece was from. If the spare parts still existed, or even if he could jerry rig another part, then he could fix it. And for a reasonable price too.
Business had been booming for as long as Noah could remember. But he knew it wasn't always that way. When he was just a little baby, he knew that the neighborhood had a serious gang problem, and that the warehouse was the epicenter of a booming drug trade. One of the down sides of always knowing the truth was that you couldn't hide from it, not even if you wanted to. But one day, at least as far as the police were concerned, the gangs and drug lords had all simply disappeared and a man had come forward offering to buy the otherwise derelict piece of property. Less than six months, a few business permits and some cosmetic renovations later, Tick Tocks had opened it's doors to business with an almost immediate response. With the gangs no longer roaming the streets, three different schools funneled their kids and teachers past this block every day on the commute, as well as the fact that it was only in the center of a ring of high capacity jobs- meaning a big lunch hour rush. The place had become so popular that when Noah was eight someone had petitioned and succeeded in changing the main bus route from six blocks over so that there was a stop right in front of the café. An old newspaper clipping framed and hung proudly on the wall showed a beaming young couple, a petite and very pretty blond woman and a tall, dark haired man standing in front of a brand new bus sign with an equally excited dirty blond haired boy standing before them, grinning from ear to ear as he held up Tick Tock's signature- an old cuckoo clock rescued from a garage sale- wrapped safely in his arms. The caption below read 'Elle and Gabriel Wright with son Noah in front of rising local café'. Since then that single stop sign had been expanded to include a full depot; bench, covered awning and all.
Noah looked over to where his mother was topping off someone's coffee, chatting amicably with the regular and his wife, new to their little home away from home, as she laughed at something the man had said. Blond hair tied up in a high pony tail, blue eyes sparkling as she laughed. Her slim figure partially hidden by the little white apron she wore, it was accentuated at her tiny waist where it tied behind her back in a neat, perfect little bow. White, pink and grey sneakers only added to her apparent shortness, but his mother had consistently refused to wear heals. 'Only masochists torture themselves for a few extra inches sweat heart,' had been her response when he'd asked her about it once. Confused, the six year old had gone upstairs to ask his father what a masochist was only to see the older dark haired man have coffee exploding from his nose as he collapsed into a very painful belly laugh.
His mother had always said his father was a very handsome man, and that he had inherited most of his features from him, but she was proud to take credit for his blond hair and blue eyes. His strong, angular features, dark, expressive eyebrows, strong jaw and straight nose were most definitely his fathers. Even his mothers genetic contributions had been darkened somewhat by his dad's features. Her light blond hair and highlights had turned dirty blond on his head, inheriting his fathers thickness and consequent messiness as well. And though his mothers eyes flashed grey when truly angry, his turned such a deep cerulean blue that it could nearly be confused with the dark black that his fathers brown eyes turned when angry.
He had only seen his fathers eyes turn black once, and though he had complete and total faith in his father, as any five year old would have, the expression on the older mans face when a gang banger had returned from the old days and threatened himself and his mother, had unnerved him somewhat. His father hadn't responded at all to the threats made upon his own life, but when the gang banger had turned his gun on the pretty blond twenty eight year old and the little boy held tightly to her knees… he hoped he never saw that look again. It was in that instant that little Noah had known the truth about his father. About how the man was capable of doing truly anything, and that he and his mother were the only ones holding him back. He knew that his father would never hurt him or his mother, and that he would never want to hurt anyone else for that matter. The thought of what he was ultimately capable of if he lost control of the monster living inside of him…
"Noah, sweet heart, could you go tell your father that we need more coffee when he gets a chance?" his mom asked sweetly from across the room. Translation: make sure your father hasn't buried himself in his work and forgotten to eat lunch.
Noah smiled and nodded. "Sure thing mom."
The stair case to the foreman's office ran across the back of the warehouse, behind the tables, opening down into the seating area of the café by the small kitchen and leading up to a tastefully decorated hall with beige carpet and a small seating area that might once have been a tiny break room. Complete with a fake potted plant, the area looked like the lobby of a dentist. But instead of the smell of toothpaste, the mixture of clock oil and baked goods filled the area with an aroma that Noah had only ever been able to describe as 'home'.
The door to the office was propped open by a large, heavy book leaning against it entitled 'Crystalography- the refraction of patterns throughout the physical world'. Noah tried not to snort at his fathers eclectic taste in books. He happened to know for a fact his father had picked the heavy tome up at a garage sale for a quarter and finished reading it only two days latter. It wasn't uncommon for either father or son to read their way through more than one obscure book each and every night, as neither one seemed to require more than two to four hours of sleep, despite his mothers insistence that they all have an early bed time. But hey- since when did being in bed translate to actually having to sleep?
Sure enough, as his mom had suspected, his father was sitting at his desk, nestled in amongst a pile of wires and gear and tools and watches awaiting their turn to be fixed like soldiers in a little line. Even as he watched his father, complete with his some-what ridiculous super magnifying glasses, snapped the back onto one watch, newly completed, checked a box on the paper ID tag hanging from the band, and set it aside, picking up a crystal works clock just as soon as he put the watch down. Sitting next to him, completely forgotten as it rested upon a stack of files, was a half eaten turkey sandwich and some macaroni salad.
"Hey Dad?" Noah asked quietly as he entered the dim office. How his father could work with so little light was beyond him, but as the windows looking out over the store floor weren't quite enough to let in a great deal of light and he had refused them installing halogens in his office, most of the light for the room came from a dim standing lamp in a far corner of the room, nestled between varying filing cabinets and box shelves of miscellaneous parts and the old fashioned desk lamp shining dutifully on the corner of the grand mahogany desk. His father looked up expectantly, but apparently unsurprised at his son's sudden appearance. Noah couldn't help but choke back a laugh when he saw his dad's eyes, magnified ten times due to his ridiculous work glasses, looking back at him. "Forget something?" he pointed to the half eaten sandwich and watched his fathers super magnified bug eyes follow in the direction indicated.
"Oh! Well, I meant to finish that. It's not that late…" a low growl from his fathers stomach cut off any further arguments as Noah laughed, honestly and openly for the first time in what felt like a long while, at his fathers creeping blush. Moving carefully so as not to spill anything or drop any crumbs, he quickly tore a few more bites out of the rapidly diminishing sandwich, chewed for a half a second, and then shoveled in some of the macaroni salad. While Gabriel Wright was usually a neat and meticulous man, he did not have the best of table manners- especially not when he was working alone in his office, a place that he considered to be solely his domain.
'It's my office, in my shop. Why should I have to bother with white table cloths and three sizes of forks in my own room?'
It struck Noah that his parents were not very much ones for pretense, believing it to only be a nuisance at best, and a version of a lying at worst, something that neither one of his parents could or would tolerate.
"Did you need something son?" his father asked concernedly, snapping Noah from his little revelry.
"No. Sorry, just thinking," Noah answered nonchalantly.
"You're powers aren't acting up again are they?" It always amazed Noah how his father could go from zero to panicked in the blink of an eye. He had to fight down a loving smirk as he held his hands out, calmly placating the now honestly worried man before him.
"Everything's fine dad. I was just thinking about some stuff." This seemed to calm him a little bit, but Gabriel was obviously still worried. "Can I do my homework in here until dinner time?"
And Bingo. Noah hit the nail on the head as his fathers shoulders relaxed significantly and the older man smiled at him, all worry gone now that he knew he would be able to keep an eye on his son while he worked. He knew the boy didn't need any protection, not with that ability of his, but, damn it, he was the boys father and it was a fathers prerogative to worry.
"Sure thing Noah," Noah smiled and began to go downstairs when Gabriel tentatively called him back. "Don't suppose you could grab me a cup of coffee while you're down there?"
Noah smiled congenially and nodded before disappearing out the door and down the stairs, back into the hustle and bustle of the calm but busy little shop.
"Do you really think the boy's going to take us up on our offer Charles?" Ororo Monroe asked the bald head currently starring out his grand office windows from his wheel chair.
"I'm sure of it Ororo. The boy may be bright, popular, and have full control over his ability, but we still have something to offer him." Ororo looked at the Professor questioningly and Xavier just glanced back at her with a reassuring smile. "Peers. Real true peers- people his own age going through all the same things he's gone through. A support system built upon friendship and common ground rather than convenience."
"But… his powers…"
"They are unpredictable. We will have to keep a tight leash on what we allow him to see. If the boy ever decided to rogue… we could all be in very grave danger."