The door to reveal a tousled looking Isabelle Winston. She wore a white wife beater, a pair of tight jeans, and last night's make up was smudged under her eyes.

"You know, I didn't actually think you would show up," she said. She opened the door wider and said, "Come in. John's down in the basement."

Bobby stepped into the house, hesitantly, and closed the door behind him. The living room just beyond the door was neat, with a splash of both modern and antique furniture and paintings, but it didn't look bad. Bobby could see a corner of the kitchen peeking out from behind a wall.

"C'mon," Isabelle said, ushering him towards a door. "You caught us at our usual naptime, but I don't think they'll mind."

"They?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah, they. John and Gale."

She grabbed Bobby's jacket, almost flinging him down the stairs beyond. He caught himself on the rail and continued down with only gentle prodding.

"I feel like I'm being kidnapped," Bobby muttered.

"Oh, please," Isabelle said. "If you were being kidnapped, you'd never know it."

"That makes me feel safe."

"It should," she said, pushing him down the last few steps.

The basement was dim, but not so much that Bobby couldn't see anything. There were two couches, both looking well loved, a small table in the corner and various instruments laying around the room. Bobby spotted two guitars and a trumpet before he was pulled back to the present. Isabelle flipped on a few more dim lights and Bobby was able to see why the place was so quiet. John lay on one of the couches with an arm thrown over his eyes and a small child sleeping on his chest.

Bobby had to stop and blink a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Isabelle bent over and ran her fingers through John's blonde-brown hair, whispering, "John, sweetheart. You've got to wake up. We've got company."

"I'm not moving," John groaned.

"So don't move," Isabelle rolled her eyes. "But you have to wake up."

"Fine."

John moved his arm and began to rub his eyes. Blinking slowly, the pyro lifted himself up on his elbows, trying not to disturb the small girl on his chest. John looked around and sighed, "Hell, Isabelle. It's only Bobby. Why the fuck did you wake me up?"

"John!" Isabelle scolded quietly.

"She's asleep," John insisted.

"Well put her on the couch and come upstairs. We're gonna talk."

"Talk or talk," John asked warily.

"We're gonna move our mouths and have words come out. Get up."

"Bitch," John mumbled.

"Slut," Isabelle shot back.

Bobby watched the exchange and didn't know what to say. This wasn't the John he had known. John shifted slightly and put the girl on the couch. He stretched his arms over his head and bent backwards until his back popped several times. He turned to the near stranger standing with Isabelle and said, "C'mon, Bobby. I don't want to wake Gale up."

"She's so got you whipped," Isabelle muttered, heading up the stairs behind the two men.

"She's my kid. I don't mind."

Bobby stopped in his tracks in the middle of the living room.

"She's you kid?" he asked.

"Bobby, relax," Isabelle said. "There's a lot Xavier hasn't told you."

"I know," he said. "I just… I just wasn't expecting that."

"There's probably a lot you're not going to expect," John said, falling into the couch.

"Can I get you anything, Bobby?" Isabelle asked.

"No, thank you," Bobby said.

Isabelle practically pushed him down into a seat then collapsed next to John.

"Where do we start?" she asked the pyro.

He shrugged. "What did you tell him last night?"

"Not much," Isabelle said.

"Start at the beginning then."

Isabelle nodded. Bobby watched them go back and forth for a moment more before Isabelle turned to him and said, "Let's get the shocking things out of the way. John and I are married; Gale is our daughter. I'm a mutant too. Um, Magneto is my great uncle. John has served time because he sold out the Brotherhood."

John grunted in disagreement.

Isabelle mended the statement: "John sold out the worst of the Brotherhood: slavers, rapists, murders, psychos. Those people."

Bobby nodded.

"I'm not some stupid kid anymore, Bobby. I know I shouldn't have run off with Magneto, but I can't really say I regret it. I have a family because of it," John said quietly. "Magneto didn't have it right, but neither did Xavier. We've been duped by both sides. I know more about what's been going on in the last six years now than when I was involved. It's not as simple of a war as you think it is."

"So fill me in," Bobby said.

John nodded and cleared his throat.

"When I left Xavier's it wasn't because I felt alone. It was because I felt useless. I was a Class Five mutant forced to watch from the sidelines. Xavier and his X-Men, they never saw me. All they saw was some hotheaded, hormonal teenager who didn't want anything more than to fight. I wanted to fight, but it was because that was the only way I knew to help. So I left to join Magneto. He's a charismatic old bastard. Talked me into doing a lot of things I never would have done, if I had been in my right mind.

"There were a lot of things that looked like accidents. A few things that made national news. It wasn't until you froze my ass at Alcatraz that I really stopped to think about what I had been doing. I regret a lot of things."

The house grew earily quiet and Bobby eventually had to look up to see if John was still awake. Isabelle patted his knee and he continued.

"I met Isabelle in Chicago. Magneto had sent me and a few others to "scout talent" as he called it. Jamie and I had gotten into a fight one night; he had come back to the hotel drunk and was just being stupid. I had to leave, just to get out of there. I wandered down to the south side of Chicago and ended up in this bar. Business was slow and it was the kind of place where you wouldn't be recognized."

"It was a shitty bar," Isabelle said. "We get it."

John chuckled. "Isabelle was the bar maid. She was working to pay off a college loan. I figured she was under aged, I was under aged, so we wouldn't have a problem," John grimaced.

"We had a problem," Isabelle laughed.

"You broke my jaw," John growled.

"You were in the way," was all Isabelle said in way of explination.

"Anyway," John said, turning back to Bobby. "There was a bar fight, Isabelle broke my jaw, I blamed it on Jamie. He was too drunk to remember anything and there was no way I was telling Magneto I got beat up by a human girl. Wasn't until later she told me she wasn't human."

"He didn't talk to me for weeks," Isabelle sighed.

"My jaw was wired closed," John ground out.

Bobby laughed at the two; they were just some couple in his eyes now. Isabelle was a good person and it even seemed like he and John could be friends again.

"So what is your power?" the cryokinetic asked.

"I'm a Tank," Isabelle said.

"A Tank?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah. I'm indestructible. Super strength. Stuff like along those lines."

Bobby whistled and sat back in his chair. "I see why she broke your jaw."

"Ha ha," John snipped.

Bobby paused in his reply when he heard a faint shout of 'Mama'.

"That's Gale," Isabelle said, leaving the couch. "She's probably wondering where the hell we are."

The woman disappeared down the basement stairs.

"Did you ever get the letter about our wills?" John asked quietly.

"No," Bobby said shocked.

"I guess that's another thing Xavier kept from you," John sighed. "When Isabelle got pregnant the first time, we thought a lot about who would be their guardian if something happened to us. We finally decided on you."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you're my best friend, Bobby, and I knew you'd never let my child be treated unfairly or unkindly just because they were mine."

Bobby was stunned that John still had that kind of faith in him.

"Wait," Bobby said, realizing what John had said. "The first time Isabelle got pregnant?"

John nodded. "She miscarried. Said it runs in her family. But ot see that reality crash through her." John shook his head, "It nearly broke us both."

There was a silence Bobby was hesitant to break, but Isabelle did it for him when she stepped back into the room with a small blonde child on her hip.

"Bobby, this is Gale," Isabelle said. "Gale say hello to Bobby."

The blonde looked at him through John's chocolate brown eyes and waved shyly.

"Hi, Gale," Bobby said quietly.

Isabelle sat the girl on her feet, "Go sit with Daddy, yeah? I'll go get your juice."

Gale walked over and climbed into John's lap. Bobby still found it a bit weird, seeing John as a father, but he figured that would change. Gale turned her brown eyes to the X-Man once she was tucked into her father's side.

"Po?" she asked.

"Um," Bobby stuttered, turning to John for help.

The pyrokinetic laughed. "She wants to know if you have any powers.

Bobby blinked, then cupped his hands together and blew into them. When he opened his fingers and held them out to Gale, a flower of ice and snow rested lightly in his palm. Gale squeeled in delight and reached out for the flower.

"Careful," John warned his daughter.

Bobby handed the two year old the flower and smiled, delighted himself to be able to make the girl happy. Isabelle laughed from the doorway. It wasn't until later that night, when Bobby had been convinced to stay on the couch, that he realized he was happier than he had been in a long time.