Julie POV- "Follow me" Julie said, smiling as she headed back towards the cell door.

"Anywhere" Alex replied softly.

"I heard that" Julie said, turning her head back to look at him.

He just smiled. Using Erik's power, she opened the cell door.

"Alex, this is Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. Guys, Alex Summers" Julie introduced.

"Fantastic" Charles said smiling.

"Great" Erik deadpanned.

Once back in the car, Alex rode in the back with Julie. The fact that he sat closer to her than needed didn't surprise her; nor did it bother her. He was very attractive and he couldn't be more than a year or two older than her 17.

"So how are your powers?" Erik asked Alex.

"His powers are fine, Erik, leave him alone" Julie said defensively.

"My, my, someone likes the new guy" Erik replied.

"Bite…" Julie started to say.

"It's okay. My power is pretty much controlled unless I get angry. Of course even when I use them though there isn't much aiming control there either" Alex explained placing his hand on Julie's to stop her from talking.

"We'll help you on that control Alex" Charles promised.

They were all silent for the rest of the trip. Julie noticed that Alex still had his hand on top of hers. As she looked out the window, she casually turned her hand over so that they were now holding hands. Alex didn't say anything just gave her hand a small squeeze.

Back at the facility, they all got out and Charles and Erik immediately went to the installation to look for more mutants while Alex and Julie headed inside.

"Want a tour or just ready to see your room and get some sleep?" Julie asked.

"How bout a tour on our way to my room?" Alex suggested.

"Okay. These first two rooms are taken by other mutants we recruited. This room on the right is the gym and general training area. This third room on the left is yours. It has a bathroom, shower, fridge, and microwave but if you want real non-frozen food then the kitchen is farther up the hall on your right. Even farther on the right, is the rec room with games if you want" Julie explained.

"And your room is…" Alex asked smiling.

Julie laughed softly.

"On the other end of this corridor. These rooms are all set up for new recruits. Those of us who were already here got the best rooms first" Julie teased.

"Well have a good night and welcome to the team" Julie said turning to go.

"Julie" Alex said taking her hand stopping her. "All jokes, teasing, flirting aside I think there is a mutual attraction here and I'd like to get to know you and explore it."

"I'd like that too. Good night Alex" Julie said kissing his cheek before heading off for her room.

Alex POV- The next morning around 10 A.M. Alex woke up and made his way to the opposite side of the corridor and knocked on the door with the magazine cut out of Elvis Presley on it.

Julie opened the door, in a long black shirt and loose black pajama pants, rubbing her eyes.

"Sorry did I wake you?" Alex asked.

Julie froze mid eye rub and looked up at him and closed the door in his face.

"Uh Julie?"

"You didn't wake me I was up… at 10" her voice called from the other side of the door.

"Can I come in?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I look terrible" Julie said as I it was the most rational argument ever.

"No you don't; you look cute."

"Cute? A puppy is cute, Alex. Cute is not what you want a guy you like to call you" Julie explained.

Now Alex was starting to understand what she meant.

"Okay how bout when you're all amazingly even more beautiful you meet me in the kitchen, fair?" Alex asked.

"…Fair" Julie replied.

Smiling to himself, Alex went to the kitchen and decided to whip up some breakfast for the both of them.

Julie POV- Julie got ready fairly quickly, anxious to go spend time getting to know Alex. Dressed in a simple yet snug white t-shirt and black pants with boots, Julie walked into the kitchen and froze.

Set on the table was a stack of toast and scrambled eggs on plates and last was orange juice in glasses.

"Morning" Alex said smiling.

"You did all this? Wow."

"It's just eggs and toast" Alex said blushing slightly at her praise.

"Thank you and good morning."

"So tell me a little about yourself. What was your childhood like?" Alex asked as they sat down to eat.

"Actually it wasn't that great. I got my powers around the age of 13. The first mutant power I copied was Charles' when he was 26. His telepathy nearly drove me insane all the voices in my head. It became too much and I slipped into a coma. Charles found me and used his power to pull me out from under the voices. After that, he helped me try to control them. My parents had me home schooled to minimize the risk I'd meet more mutants. Yet here I am surrounded by mutants whose powers I now have" Julie said.

"Why do this then if you didn't want more power?"

"You can't hide forever. I wanted to face my fear and be part of the real world" Julie smiled, finishing her breakfast.

"So what are yo…" Julie asked when Erik came into the kitchen.

"Julie, time for meet and greet" Erik told her.

"Okay. I'll be right there" she said.

"You don't have to do this" Alex said.

"No I don't, but I want to. I'm not afraid anymore plus I really want to stop the bad guys" Julie said getting up.

She went out to meet the mutant Charles and Erik brought back with him.

"Hi I'm Julie welcome to the team" Julie said shaking the boys' hand.

As always heat filled her body as she got near him and copied his power.

"Well hello there I'm Sean" he held her hand just a few seconds extra after the hand shake.

"Julie we're going to get one more then we're done I swear" Charles promised.

"It's okay. I'm okay; no more fear Charles" Julie said.

"Excellent. Then we'll go get him" Charles smiled at her.

"So I'm good to go? Alex is waiting for me" Julie asked.

"Damn" Sean said softly.

"Yes go on, have fun for once" Charles grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up" Julie said as she blushed and walked away.

"Oh Sean, the room three doors down is your room" Julie tossed back over her shoulder.

"Hey everything go okay?" Alex asked when she returned to the kitchen.

"Yeah everything's fine" Julie smiled noticing that he'd cleaned up their meal.

"Your turn to tell me about your childhood" Julie said.

"Oh boy. Let's walk while we talk then" Alex said chuckling a little.

As they walked out into the corridor Alex casually took hold of her hand.

"Well I'm an only child. My powers showed up when I was 15 and with it my change in attitude. Keeping my temper got harder, but my parents just thought it was puberty. I got in a lot of fights, that's actually what got me put in jail…" Alex said.

"Hey, what happened?" Julie asked when he refused to look at her.

"This guy was picking on a bunch of younger kids and I told him to stop. When he didn't and he hit one of the kids, I hit him then I hit him again and again and again until my power lashed out. Destroyed the school and nearly killed the guy. He was in ICU for weeks and I went to jail" Alex explained.

"Just because something bad happened doesn't mean it was your fault or that you're a bad guy. That's why it's important to learn control instead of trying to run or avoid the problem" Julie said making him look at her.

"Even after hearing what I did you still want to be with me?"

"Yeah you're not a bad guy, Alex, just had a bad accident is all."

They spent the whole day talking and hanging out with each other that by the time they looked outside it was dark. Alex walked her back to her room and they stopped outside her door.

"I really want to kiss you but I don't want to rush you" Alex said blushing slightly.

"Then kiss me" Julie said smiling.

Alex leaned down to kiss her.

"Come on, impromptu mutant party in the rec room" Raven said, running up to them and grabbing their hands to pull them along with her before they got to kiss.

"Alex, this is Raven and she has an award in bad timing" Julie said.

In the rec room, everyone else was waiting for them with food and drinks. Raven pushed Alex down in a chair and shoved Julie onto his lap.

"She may have bad timing, but I like her seating arrangements" Alex said slipping his hand around Julie's waist and grabbing two sodas for them.

Once everyone was introduced they all seemed to relax and start to enjoy themselves.