Hallo! thanks to all my readers and reviewers! you're all amazing! no i can't just tell you who her loverboy might be but! i will try to amp up the hints. translations are: Have you finally come home?, and Yes, Mummy. I missed you...if you haven't already picked up on it something really nasty happened to Lily while she was in Germany going to school...it shall be explained, soon...please Enjoy!

"Good afternoon, Lily."

"Wha-? I'm up, I'm awake!" Lily said thickly, snapping out of a strange dream about blue worms, as she peeled her face off the pillow. Charles smiled at her as she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"It's almost twelve-thirty…" He said.

"I had a late night…something about saving a girl from dying and then helping the man who almost killed her sleep peacefully…nothing major."

"Rogue has been asking to talk to you."

"Great…" She said sarcastically, standing to go over to her wardrobe.

"She just wants to talk." Charles replied rolling over to her.

"Ok, in my own defense, she is alive, alright? I wasn't going to stand back and wait for her to use her powers as she bled all over the carpet." She snapped out, pulling clothes from the wardrobe to look at.

"No one would fault you for what you did, but she might have lived without using her powers…" He said as Lily rolled her eyes at him.

"Uh-huh, stabbed through the chest, a lung and half her rib cage. He cut through her like she was butter. I don't have to read your mind to know you're lying."

"It still would have been her choice."

"You'd know all about choices, wouldn't you?"

Silence pervaded the room as Lily banged her head against the door of her wardrobe and sighed.

"I'm sorry…that was uncalled for." She said her voice muffled against the wood.

"I'll leave you to getting dressed." Charles said rolling out the door.

"Wait!" Lily said stopping him before he got out the door. "I really am sorry. I didn't mean it, and your right…it's her choice to use her powers. I shouldn't have taken it away from her."

"As you said, at least she's still alive…" He said putting a hand on her arm and drawing her down to his eye level. "Lily…you have such a good heart, and I don't think I've told you how extremely proud I am of you, of all your accomplishments and all that you've done. I'm so very, very proud."

"Is everything ok, Mum?" She asked looking up at him in confusion. Charles simply smiled at her and placed a hand on her cheek.

"Yes, of course. Can't a mother tell his child he's proud of her?" He said with mock anger as he ran a hand gently through her long hair. Lily's face split into a wide grin and, for the first time in almost a year, he thought he could see his little girl smiling back at him.

"Lily-bear…Avez-vous enfin à la maison?

"Oui, Mummy. Je vous ai manqué."

"What's changed about you? Something's different…" He said slowly smiling as she blushed a light shade of pink.

"Ummmm…nothing's different…"

"No…something is definitely different, have you met someone?"

"NO! I mean…not really? I don't know…" She said standing up and crossing to the window.

"What do you mean?" He asked rolling over towards her.

"I…please don't freak out…"

"Lily…Bobby and John getting into a fight in the main hallway freaks me out. Just tell me…"

"I've been having these dreams…nightmares actually, but they all end the same way. This…person saves me from whatever is frightening me or chasing me…or pushing me off a cliff." She said to the side as Charles drew his eyebrows together.

"And you think this dream person…is real?" He asked as Lily nodded and bit her lip.

"They pulled me out of my own dream…only an actual physical person could do that to me. Otherwise I'm free to ignore it and continue dreaming. They yanked me out of my dream." She emphasized. Charles thought for a moment before looking up at her.

"What do they look like?"

"Well…I've never seen his face…"

"His?"

"Jean and I have been over for a long time, Mum." Lily said with a smile. "Besides Scott's going to pop the question sometime soon. I'm happy for her…I could never be what she needed. Not after Germany."

"You never told me what happened after Erik brought you home." Charles said quietly watching her face as the smile left her eyes to be replaced with an almost dead look.

"Someday, I'll tell you…but not today." She said walking over and kissing his forehead. "Now, scoot! I need to get dressed."

Charles rolled to the door but stopped before he left.

"Do you know anything about your dream man?" He asked as she examined a long white dress from the back of her wardrobe.

"All I know about him is that he has amber eyes…and something about the scent of sulpher." She said looking at him and smiling the smile that reached her eyes again. "Oh! And he speaks German."

"Amber eyes? Sulpher?" Charles said thinking back to a young red-headed woman who had disappeared with a flash of amber eyes and the smell of sulpher.

"Yeah…He also has these, markings...I think they're self inflicted, but they were in a pattern. Angelic symbols...he said they meant he had a long way to go." She said stopping before she took off her tank top. "Do you mind?"

"Sorry…I'm leaving." He said rolling out of her room with a smile on his face as he contemplated having a talk with Scott before the day was out.

Lily walked outside wearing a long white sun dress as she looked for Rogue. She'd searched the inside of the house and hadn't found the young girl anywhere. Her eyes roamed over the multitudes of children as she looked for the specific brunette, suddenly, she saw Bobby walking quickly toward the house. Narrowing her eyes, she scanned his mind and headed in his direction.

"Bobby! There you are." She said with false bounciness as she took the young man by the arm and steered him towards a secluded grove of trees. "I've been looking all over for you! You told me you'd have that composition done and handed in to me today! What happened?"

"I…uh…I forgot…" He said looking back at the house. Lily yanked his arm, pulling him back around as they turned into the clearing.

"Really? That doesn't sound like you, Bobby…or should I say Mystique? Or can I call you Raven today?" Lily said pushing the Bobby-copy to the ground and putting her hands on her hips. Bobby shifted in his form and soon the blue mutant was looking up at her with bitterness.

"Mystique." She said glaring at Lily as she stood up.

"I see…what are you planning? Or rather what is he planning?" Lily asked as they began to circle around one another.

"You think I'd tell you that, Lily?"

"No…you will, however, tell mien Vati that if he wants to play games with an innocent girl, I'll be waiting for him. And the name's Whitefire, if you don't mind."

"Ha! Playing pretend will only get you so far, Whitefire, you're no innocent." Mystique said sarcastically. Lily's eyes began to glow faintly white as her temper rose to meet the challenge of the older women's words.

"Don't tempt me, Raven, I'll do it…I'm not the same person I was three years ago." Lily said as Raven's eyes became wide with fear.

"You've changed, Lily." She whispered.

"I know. You like it?" Lily asked as she turned to leave.

"No…"

"Get used to it."

"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm doing here? Read my mind? Something?"

"No…I walk a fine enough line without lying to my parents. Whatever you're going to do, I would do it in the next half hour…after that I tell everyone you're here." Lily said walking away as Mystique shifted back into Bobby's form.

"Yes…you have changed…" She whispered to Lily's retreating back before quietly walking away.