Chapter 4: New Surroundings

"Her mental state will need careful observation. She gave birth around six months ago and pretty much straight away she felt she had to run away from home. She's struggling with a new baby, her first child obviously, away from all the support of her family, with all those hormones in her system. She's been running for nearly six months under those conditions, it's no wonder at all that her state of mind is so deteriorated. I would not be surprised if she was suffering post-natal depression, aggravated by her circumstances; and it is very likely her sleep patterns have been heavily interfered with, even more so than the normal new-baby disruptions. She panics easily, understandably and was near hysteria in the jet, as well as depressed at another point. That's just what we've seen so far. You know I don't like to pry but her mental defences are completely worn down, battered from being on constant alert; she was projecting EVERYTHING in the jet; so strong, I could practically feel it bouncing off the walls. It took a huge amount of concentrating on strengthening my own shields to keep it from affecting me. She's a wreck, Professor. I estimate if we'd arrived between 5 to 10 days later, even without the Marauder attack, she would have had a serious mental breakdown. She'll need to be handled very carefully, and given a lot of time to come to terms with everything she's been through before she can even begin to feel at home here and interact with the team and students on any kind of normal level." Jean finished reporting on their newest resident.

There was a moment of silence as the Professor absorbed everything she had just said. There others in the room were doing the same too; as one of the X-Men, it paid to make sure you took everything in.

"I see. Well, of course, I don't see a problem with her staying. Admittedly, she isn't a mutant but her daughter is and they both need help. She may even prove to be a valuable contributor to the Mansion, either to the team, or more likely, to the school; when she has fully recovered from her ordeal that is. Jean, am I to assume that I can trust Beth's well-being to you? You are the logical choice of course." The Professor said

"I would be delighted to help her. I'll let you know should I encounter any difficulties with her mental rehabilitation; but I am confident that, handled correctly, there shouldn't be any problems." Jean replied

"Good then. Henry, have you examined Beth and the child, Isabelle, did you say?"

"I haven't yet had the chance; she was far too exhausted from the events of not only last night but the last six months. I will require a preliminary examination of course, but I allowed her to rest first. It is not yet a matter of urgency after all." Hank replied, trying to filter out most of his doctor-speak for the benefit of his team-mates.

"Well make sure you do. Does anyone else have anything they wish to bring to my attention?" The professor glanced around the room at each member of his team as they shook their heads, denying any immediate claims on his time.

"Well, then, I have an English class to teach shortly and you have your respective classes and duties to return to so, I suggest we call it a day."

As the X-Men filtered out of the room, the Professor mentally attracted Jean's attention, all he needed to do to ensure she would hang back a little. When the others had left he simply said;

"Make sure you a keep a good eye on her, won't you? If anyone can help her, it's you Jean. I'm here if you need me." She smiled at his concern for their latest addition and his confidence in her and nodded in acknowledgement and reply before slipping out of the room, leaving him in peace before he was bombarded with the challenge mutant teens posed on his ageing mind. He possessed the world's greatest psionic powers, could handle intergalactic negotiations and deal with rogue mutant activists everyday of the week but an hour-long lesson with a dozen teenage mutants caused him more stress than all the others put together.

Beth tossed and turned uneasily as she slept, plagued by worry and fear during her waking hours, by dreams in her sleep. She muttered feverishly, her face creasing in discomfort. She found herself in a memory; back on the jet, 'The Blackbird' she now knew, and Isabelle was sleeping soundly in a box at her feet. Looking around, she saw them all there, completely normal. She saw the redhead, Jean, an eerie understanding in those green eyes; Scott, those strange glasses; the beautiful young black woman with white hair; a dark-haired man, predatory, exuding an air of primal masculinity, wild; a guy who looked like…. An angel. A gorgeous blonde angel, with the most beautiful white feathered wings. Another guy, he was blue too, but it was a darker blue, he reminded her almost of a shadow. Memories twinged, she thought maybe she had seen a show as a child about shadow-people that resembled this strange mutant. She saw the tall, muscular young man; the one who had turned silver when he slammed the cupboard shut, containing Isabelle's explosion. The two that had been attending to the crowd, younger, a lad in his early twenties with dirty blonde hair, cute baby-faced good looks and the his eyes, a really crisp, clear, icy blue; she had never seen a colour like it. She saw the girl, around her own age; brunette with a funky white streak and green eyes that intrigued Beth. There was just something about her eyes; she couldn't put her finger on it. Like she had seen too much, or there was too much behind them, it was intense.

All this was true to her memory but she didn't notice when it began to distort. It started small; awkward silences, resentful glares, then progressed to downright loathing. It was so thick, she could smell it, taste it in the air; the hatred. The abhorrence, she could feel how much they all detested her, each and every one. The indignance and disbelief that she was here was rife in the air, she had no right to be there. She didn't belong and they all knew it, and resented her for it. It didn't take long before the glances of disgust became mutterings of revulsion. She was stuck there, trapped with these people. They started prowling angrily around the room, closing in on her; slowly, inexorably. Her breathing hitched and fear settled in her chest; or at least, the ever-present fear took a stronger hold. Anger and hatred flashed in their eyes as they started getting more violent as they got nearer, punching walls they were within reach of, kicking out in the air. Panic rose and she had to do something, anything.

"Please." She begged, whimpering in fear "I don't mean to upset you, I know I shouldn't be here; but we don't have anywhere else to go."

She was in tears by this point, pleading with them. The white-haired woman spoke, a fury in her cold eyes like Beth had never seen before

"You do however. You can go anywhere. And you are the problem, the one that doesn't belong. The child is welcome." And with that she picked up the box with Isabelle in and stepped back. Beth stepped forward, to follow but the others closed in around her. Beth couldn't even see them anymore, the woman or her daughter. She was suffocating, contained, cramped, by the crowd of people. She heard the white-haired woman's voice, cold, high above them

"We take care of our own." She looked around wildly but couldn't find the source of the voice and she heard no more, nothing other than the grumble of hate as the crowd pressed in around her. Just as she began to sob in hysterics and she battled, struggling against the crowd, beating her fists with no avail, she fell to her knees and leant to the side back against the wall, weeping into her hands.

And she woke up in reality, in her bed at the Xavier Mansion, the sheets twisted around her; to a loud knocking on her door. She looked around, panicked, but on realising where she was she calmed down and, easing her arm out from around her sleeping babe, she stumbled across the room and peeked out of the crack she opened the door to.

There stood Jean, the redhead with those gorgeous green eyes which held all that knowledge. A shiver crept up her spine as Beth remembered her dream

"Hi Beth." Jean said, and as Beth nodded with a slight smile

"Morning." Beth replied in a voice croaky with sleep

Jean continued "I would say that I hope you slept well but I know you didn't. Perhaps I should have said something yesterday, but you obviously needed to rest. I'm a Telepath. Telekinetic too." Beth stood there, blinking, intrigued by the news, but not surprised.

Jean registered this and carried on, smiling, trying to put her at ease, delicately picking her words, trying to soften it

"Well, I'm afraid, I saw your nightmare and I just, well, I wanted to assure you that it was only a nightmare. You ARE welcome here. It doesn't matter that you're not a mutant; too many of us have suffered because of prejudice to apply those same rules to you. How can we feel the way we were treated was wrong if we do the same thing to you? It'd be hypocritical. But I think you'll find given time that, you could feel very much at home here and become a part of our family. Because we are a family here, for better or worse; we stick together. And we would very much like you to be a part of that." A small smile blossomed on Beth's face and Jean could tell she was genuinely touched. She opened the door wider.

"Thanks. That means a lot. I, er, I guess I didn't realise how much things had affected me."

"A person can't go through nearly six months of that and emerge unscathed. It will take time to get over it. But I want to help, we all do. Like I said, we're a family."

Another small smile from Beth was rewarded with a bright, sunny grin from Jean, who spoke again "Well, now that you've slept, I'm fairly certain our medic, Dr. McCoy will want to check you both over and other than that, perhaps I can interest you in breakfast and show you around this place? It's your home now, and well, it takes a while to get used to, being so big, but once you know your way around it soon seems a much more manageable size."

"That's sounds great. But I'll need to get dressed and sort Isabelle and stuff." Beth said

"Of course. I'll drop by to walk you so you don't get lost. How long will you need?" Jean asked

"Urm, say, half an hour?" Beth said, Jean grinned again

"Perfect. I'll leave you to it then." And with that, she headed off down the corridor and Beth closed her door, smiling.

Safely inside her room, Beth leaned against the door and tried to squash the butterflies of nerves and anxieties fluttering through her body. She moved to the end of her bed and went through the bag there. It occurred to her that maybe she should unpack; but found herself wondering, not for the first time, if she would actually manage to stick around this time, if she could make a home here or if she would have to rip up her and Isabelle's lives by the roots again and make yet another run for it. She was so tired of it all, and not-knowing was worse than anything. But she knew, if she had to do it, had to find the strength again, she might not manage it. Spurring herself into motion, she pushed the thoughts away and forced herself to concentrate on what she was doing; a strategy that had helped her deal with so many uncertainties for so long now.

At that moment, Isabelle began to whimper and her little face screwed up. She began to cry and Beth ran to comfort her baby. She lifted the tiny body gently and stroked her hair and face, making shushing noises.

"Hush baby, hush. Oh sweetie, shhhhhh. Shhhhh sweetie, shhhhh."

And as the baby quietened, the short, muscular man paused outside the room stopped wincing. He sniffed, listened, and contented that nothing sinister was lurking, moved on. Beth, oblivious to her silent guardian, continued seeing to Isabelle; the baby calmed, now that the strange man outside her room was no longer in the vicinity.