Rogue watched warily as the other students walked into the classroom, chatting. They didn't see her at first sitting at one end of the half circle the desks made. Rogue was nervous, nervous that they had heard rumors that were probably true, and had already decided to be afraid of her or take pity on her.
She had been in the infirmary for another week after the incident, but with that freedom came more constraints. Professor Xavier, with Logan's and Ororo's consent, decided to require her to attend some of the classes that were provided at the institute. These included the one she was waiting for to begin.
As soon as the students started to decide where to sit and who to sit next to, they noticed Rogue. They all quietly sat in other desks that were not the one next to her. Jean didn't decide to grace them with her presence until after everyone else started to whisper amongst themselves about Rogue's reasons for being in their classroom.
I do not feel welcome here. Why did the professor have to insist I come to this class?
"Good morning, everyone, I hope you all had a well-deserving weekend." Jean walked behind her desk, which was positioned at the mouth of the half circle of desks and perpendicular to the doorway. The doorway Rogue looked out longingly.
Jean started to pull notebooks out of boxes that were on top of the desk, calling out names of her students as she did so. They all walked up and grabbed their notebooks. Rogue could tell which students had been in Jean's class the longest, because their notebooks were covered in sketches and doodles and words. Lastly, Jean called Rogue up to get her blank notebook and the whispers started.
The students had immediately become quiet when Jean had walked in, but once Rogue's presence was made known to them again they started wondering what was up. Why they didn't just whisper in their minds was unbeknownst to Rogue.
Rogue, I want to try something today. It might hurt, or be uncomfortable, but I want to teach them control; when to stop probing someone's mind. Are you up for letting them try to read your mind to find out who you are? I also want to lighten the atmosphere a little. Some of them are projecting feelings of wariness to me about you, and I think this will give them a new perspective to them of who you are, and why you might be here. I was going to lead discussion today, not necessarily about you, but it probably will be anyways. Are you up for it? I will not do this unless you are on board. Jean's voice was prominent in her mind.
I guess so. Would you like me to play up the pain factor, to see if any of them will stop?
Sure.
"I am sure all of you are wondering who our newest classmate is. This is Rogue. She is not exactly a student here, but she will be joining us for awhile, so I expect all of you to make her feel welcome. I was thinking we would start today off with a twist." Jean paused and looked each student in the eye. "I would like all of you to probe Rogue's mind and write down on a piece of paper what you learn about her. I will pick up the papers and read them out anonymously. You may begin."
At those three words Rogue blanked her mind out as much as possible.
At first the feeling of ten students probing her mind all at once was manageable. It felt weird, but nothing compared to the psyches living in her mind. Eventually a headache did begin to form. No mind was meant to handle ten inexperienced children probing as deep as they could all at the same time.
Rogue knew she could trust Jean, after talking with her multiple times over the past week, to stop the class if it did become too much for her to take.
Rogue's hands immediately flew to cradle her head as a sharp, piercing headache graced her skull. A groan whispered out of her clenched teeth. Playing up the pain factor was going to be easy; this really did hurt. A few more minutes of feeling the fleeting touches of the ten students Rogue pulled up her legs and cradled her head amongst all her limbs; she began to rock back and forth. She really was playing it up now; the amount of pain she was feeling really only created a grueling headache, nothing more or at least nothing to warrant rocking back and forth like a psycho.
Unexpectedly Rogue felt a very strong force, and without enough time to catch herself she fell out of her chair and on to the floor; that was when the students stopped.
Jean immediately came to Rogue's side and helped her sit back down on her chair. "I didn't expect them to all work together; normally most of them stay away from each other since they are all different ages. I am sorry about that. How are you feeling?"
Rogue knew she would have to answer truthfully, or else Jean would tell Ororo who would tell Logan who would come after Rogue. "I still have a piercing headache, but it is fading now that all of them are gone."
"Good. Do you need anything?"
"No, I'll be fine."
"Alright," Jean walked around the half circle picking up papers as she went. "I am disappointed in all of you. Did any of you notice the pain she was in? Did any of you hesitate to continue searching her mind for answers? None of you did, and for that I am disappointed in you. I thought all of you understood that reading minds is a great responsibility and harms the other person no matter how gentle you are about it. I am proud that all of you worked together though, I did not expect that since most of you have been on opposing ends in discussions for months. Would anyone like to tell me what you learned about Rogue when you all worked together?"
"I thought you were going to read what we found out about her?" The girl sitting at the other end of the arc pointed out.
"I will later, right now I want to figure out what all of you found out as a team."
"I guess I'll go. We all found out that she is secretly in love with Logan. That is just wrong if you ask me."
Rogue started to laugh uncontrollably. The one thing they found out about her as a team wasn't even about her! They had found some information about Ororo fleeting through her subconscious.
The class stared at Rogue like she was insane; some of them with confused looks.
"Rogue, may I ask what is so funny?" Jean asked with a slight smile on her face.
"Just that being secretly in love with Logan doesn't really make sense when I think of him as my father," Rogue smiled huge when she saw the rest of the class start thinking about what they found out.
"What does she mean, Jean?" One of the younger boys asked.
"I think I will answer that question after I have read what all of you found out separately."
Standing at the mouth of the arc she began to read what the students believed to be the truth about Rogue.
"She loves to go shopping, especially for shoes. She really likes to make Scott slip and fall on purpose all for the laugh. She," Jean was cut off by a groan from Rogue, and immediately flew to her side. "Rogue what's wrong, what is it?" Rogue's eyes were flitting open and closed, as if she might become unconscious at any moment, and she was sweating, droplets soaking her hair and clothes in moments. Her hard, labored breathing caused Jean to act fast.
When Jean entered Rogue's mind she felt an unknown presence probing deep within without permission. This "dark" presence was what was causing Rogue to put up a fight, and the presence's signature was familiar to Jean.
Jean came to fast; her head whipped in the direction of the presence and stared him down. Nick was his name, and he had just gone too far. Jean straightened up and practically teleported to Nick's side, she got to him so quickly.
Nick was a little shocked she knew it was him, but he probably shouldn't have underestimated Jean's skills as a telepath. He continued to stare her down though until she spoke.
"What do you think you were doing? Did I give you permission; did she give you permission, to go messing around with her head? I can't believe you would go against all morals, to look for what might I ask?" Jean was livid and holding her voice back from shouting at Nick was taking quite an amount of patience.
Nick couldn't control himself, he really should have shut up, but Ms. Grey just presented him a challenge that he had to meet.
"Yes, I admit I am going against all ethical reasons by doing this, but all of you have been hiding something from all of us. All of you adults think none of us students can handle the truth do you? Well you're wrong, I think keeping this from us wasn't a good choice, and I know what that truth is." Jean gasped in fear, but she could not stop him, less she harm him, and she had no real reasons to harm one of her students.
"She's a murderer!" Nick stated slowly, his voice dripping with venom it was so dark and clear. Jean froze in shock and so did the rest of the class; Jean for fear of Rogue, and the class afraid of what those words meant.
Jean quickly telepathically communicated to Charles what was happening and then also to Dr. McCoy. Charles assured her that Nick had no other motives that he could tell, so she left him and went back to Rogue.
Rogue was still sweating bullets, and even with her eyes open, it was noticeable she was seeing something else. Jean went into her mind once more and found chaos, but only the usual amount of chaos, nothing more. Perplexed, Jean left Rogue's mind and waited for help to arrive.
Hank came in shortly followed by Charles Xavier, and the tension in the classroom reached an all time high. Jean and neither had any of the other adults expected a first day quite like this. Charles began to speak to the class about the ethics and morals of reading another's' mind without permission and assigned them all a 1,000 word essay on the topic to be turned in the next day, which was accompanied by quite a few groans. He requested that Nick visit him later that day in his study for further conversation on the matter.
Before Charles left, Jean felt a slight change in the room and came to realize he erased from the students' minds what the exact accusation was, even from Nick's.
During Charles' lecture Hank had come to the aid of Jean in regards to Rogue's condition.
He slipped a thermometer into Rogue's mouth, and from hearing a recount of what happened to Rogue, could only assume that she was healing her mind from the breach caused by Nick's unwarranted penetration.
"All she needs is rest, but I will inform Ororo and Logan, so that one of them can stay with her at all times today. Her temperature is too high for to be left alone, but I think when she does wake up she will be back in full health. I will set up an IV in her room, she lost a lot of water from this ordeal; if you could ask Logan to come here and carry her up to her room? That way I can have her IV ready when Logan brings her up?"
"Sure, already done," Jean smiled at Hank as he got up and left the room to go down to the med bay.
Logan came in looking like he had run all the way there from wherever he had been just as Charles finished his lecture to the students. He shook his head as he felt Charles erase their memories of the accusation.
As he looked at Rogue, he couldn't help feeling a little frustrated that something so mundane had happened to her when all of their efforts had been to protect herself from her mind. Logan scooped her up in his arms, aware that her eyes were still open wide and that she was soaked through and definitely in need of a hot shower, and carried her up to her new room. Logan could feel the eyes of the students watching them, and knew that in no less than a few hours a rumor would spread like wild fire. In times like these he was glad Charles could erase memories, at least the students still didn't know what had happened to Rogue in the last year.
Hank was already waiting for them, and Ororo came in a few moments later. As an unofficial mother for all of the children at the institute she wasted no time in undressing Rogue and putting a fresh nightgown on her, she then backed away to let Hank attach the IV to her arm.
"I think she will be okay for now, I have closed her eyes so they stay hydrated, but I do request that at least one of you stays with her at all times, I am not sure if she will come to docile or not, and I have no idea when she will become conscious again. I still stand true that she is just healing and in need of rest, and so I take my leave." And with that Hank left Logan and Ororo to watch over Rogue.