Title: Babel Fish
Author/Artist:
Blue Stem Cell
Universe:
Marvel (Alternate Universe)
Rating:
16 +
Genre:
Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot
Summary:
"No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?
Disclaimer:
I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.
Note:
I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

Edited on 18/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up.

Chapter 8: Almost, But Not Quite, Entirely Unlike Tea

"I wish you would have let me seen to these before." Joshua 'Josh' Foley frowned down at the hands that where currently cupped in his own. Golden liquid skin shimmered against the cool metal of the infirmary. Leeland could only press his lips together to hide an embarrassed little smile. "Then you would 'ave 'ad to make two trips." He murmured, granting him a nudge in the elbow from Victor. Though he was being playful, there was an edge of worry in his look as Josh examined the hands.

With a quick trail of his fingers, the scrapes on his knuckles and the one on the back of his hands vanished as if they had never been there in the first place. The eldest of them all stared with his lips partially opened, unable to stutter even a thank you.

"You're welcome." Smirked Josh, pushing his own golden hair from his eye's as Leeland nodded quickly.

"How are you holding up?" Victor asked, taking a seat next to him with his hands resting on the top of his thighs. Leeland gave a small shrug of his shoulders, turning his head slightly to peer at the others dark green eyes. For a second, Leeland wondered what he would like if he where not green but less, well, reptile looking. Not that Leeland thought it mattered, it was just something suddenly that seeped into his mind.

"Ah'll live." Came Leeland's reply but it was quiet, almost shaken. Beast had spoken to him on his own after his session with Logan. It was not a happy conversation and Leeland did not have much to say other than the odd murmur here and there.

"It's not going to be easy Leeland." He told him. "The drugs that make up Hope are highly addictive, and it'll take a while to work out of your system. It won't be pleasant."

"Ah just…Ah just don't know what to think right now. Whether ah should be angry or, I dunno." When the one person you trust and depend on, who teaches you right from wrong and that lying is wrong, lies to you themselves…it was hard for him to take in.

"You're allowed to be angry Lee." Came Victor's reply with his hands resting on the other's shoulder gently. "Parents are…they're adults and they don't see the way their kids see but Mr. Logan's right, he must have had a reason. You love him right?" Victor asked and Leeland nodded his head. There was no question about it, he did love his father. At that moment, he just didn't like him very much.

"Parents are douche bags." Josh shrugged, making Leeland look at him with a small frown. But his face softened when he saw how contorted and annoyed Josh's was. He was looking down at one of the medical tables, scowling at it as it had done something terrible to him. "If you don't conform to their way of thinking, to their DNA they…they leave you and pretend you don't exist." Taking a deep breath the golden hued boy looked up and a smile came to his lips. "But I'm better of without them. Nobody's worth it, not even your folks, if they can't except you."

Leeland thought about this, but he did not quite agree. All his life all he had ever wanted to do was please his father but it seemed like nothing ever worked the way it was supposed to. Not as smart as the other children, certainly not as athletic. One disappointment after the other. Perhaps by making sure his mutation did not surface, it would ensure at least some kind of normality in their lives. But Leeland was not sure he could quite forgive that, or the mental institution.

Victor had wanted to say that that Josh's opinions were a little harsh, but what did he know? His parents loved him and sent him to Xavier's for his own safety. The golden boy's parents had signed him over so they could forget they even had a child. So he kept his lips sealed. It was only then that he realised his hand was still upon Leeland's shoulder and sheepishly moved it, hoping the boy had not noticed.

A tingling sensation remained where Victor's fingers had been not seconds before. Suddenly Leeland was very aware of that shoulder and cleared his throat.

"Good news though, ah don't 'ave to sleep down 'ere anymore." A smile graced his lips and the two boys before him agreed.

"Yeah but bad news, you're next to Nicky." Josh snickered behind his hand as Victor frowned. "And me!" He declared with a small pout before Josh grinned. "Exactly. You have the worst music taste in the world Borkowski."

"Do not!" Victor retorted with a scowl but Leeland could only sit and laugh, glad for a distraction.

"Come on, Mr. Summer's is on dinner duty and his cooking…we'll I think we're ordering take out."

"Can't." Said Victor with a shake of head. "No one's to come within a two mile radius of this place."

"Dam." Letting out a breath to the side Josh frowned before noting how quiet Leeland had gone. Shoulder's hunched and nose pink, he stared at the ground with his mouth pulled into sad lines. "Sorry." The British boy mumbled but Josh only snorted and shook his head, a grin spread on his face. "Don't take it too literally Leeland. We've suffered worse than Cyclop's cooking."

"Yeah." Victor joined in. "Josh's cooking." He grinned before having to dodge a punch to the arm. In retaliation, Victor threw out his tongue and with one long flick he licked the side of the golden boy's face.

"Ewww, Dammit Victor that's gross!" Jumping back in horror, the boy tried desperately to wipe the side of wet covered face with one of his white sleeves rendering them quite grubby. Giggling, Leeland leaned backwards and let little thoughts slip through his mind. He wondered what else that tongue of Victor's could do before realising that was inappropriate. Not with what was going on around him, that kind of thinking should have been at the bottom of his list. It wasn't though. What kind of teenage boy would he be if he did not have the occasional bad thought?

xxx

Leeland was not sleeping well. In fact, he was pretty sure he had not slept for the last four nights. However he was still getting used to the new time zone he was living in and his new surroundings. The room was a little on the big side and he was pretty sure he could have put two and half of his own bedroom inside of it. It was on the basic side as far as personality went; he didn't have anything with him making him feel more and more like a spare part.

Victor's room was adored with photographs and posters, little knick-knacks and trinkets here and there. On the opposite scale, Nicky's room was a dump filled with dirty laundry, chocolate wrappers and toys. (Which he assured Leeland were from when he was little and not now that he was twelve.)

It was three O'clock in the morning and he had been starting at the luminous green numbers of the digital clock for the past hour and a half. He had been contemplating for nearly twenty minutes whether or not to see if Victor was still awake. Of course he knew that was unlikely.

There was only the bedside lamp illuminating him, the bed and surrounding area. It did not quite reach the corners of the room letting dark shadows rest there. Making the boy twitchier was the wind howling outside the window, causing the trees scrape against the glass like animated bones.

Clutching the covers around his neck and towards his chin, Leeland decided he would just have to stick it out. It would only be a few more hours until it became light and then he could get up. But with his legs twitching and his mouth dry, he knew he would not be sleeping that night.

After one particularly loud bang against the window, Leeland was up like a shot and bolted towards the door. The corridor was just as dark and looming and as he shuffled to the next room along. He could feel his heart race against his chest in fear. He tried to keep his eyes from the darkness at the end of the long stretch of hallway and knocked lightly on the green mutants door. There was, of course, no reply and so Leeland tried again, only this time a little louder. Closing his eyes, the boy winced and hoped it would not wake up anyone else.

With baited breath he waited until he heard a small scuffle from inside the room and suddenly he wanted to turn and run back towards his room. But his bare feet remained rooted and he ran his hands up and down his bare t-shirt covered arms. The smaller scuffle came closer towards the door and it opened with a tiny click.

"Hmm…'lo?" Victor peered out into the hallway, his eye's still near enough closed from the sleep he had been awoken from.

"Er." Leeland started stupidly.

"…Leeland? It's…It's three in the morning?" Victor stifled a yawn but couldn't keep it away and so he tried to hide it behind his arm. It was not unusual for him to be awoken at stupid O'clock in the morning, especially when he was staying at the institute.

"I…Ah'm sorry." Leeland mumbled, his arms now across his chest as he practically hugged himself. Where as Leeland was wearing shorts and T-shirt, Victor was once again topless and only in a dark pair of boxer shorts. Seeing such a sight made the blonde chew on the side of his lips. "Ah'll…ah'm sorry, go back to bed." He went to turn and head back to his own room but the door opened a little wider and the green mutant wrapped his fingers around the top of his arm.

"Get in here." He whispered quietly with a smile in his voice. Leeland very nearly stumbled but managed to keep his up right composure. Victor's room was just as dark as his own but it looked more inviting. Besides, the dark did not affect him so much when he had someone else there with him.

He watched from the edge of the bed as Victor crawled back into it and under the covers. They started at each other for a second or two before Victor rolled his eyes and patted the pillow next to him. "Well get in then, I don't suppose the floor's very comfortable." Victor smiled and a part of him found it highly adorable as Leeland very nearly fell over his own feet to crawl into the space next to him.

The bed was big enough for the both of them, even with Leeland's longer legs. Staring at each other across the pillows, Victor tilted his head to the side as Leeland placed his hands under his head.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asked too which Leeland nodded. "I remember when I started here. I…Paras was my roommate but the room was too big for me on my own. Swapped with Santo." A smile graced his lips at the memory of the purple boy he had loved. Well, he wasn't sure if it was love but it certainly nothing he knew before.

"My room at 'ome, it's tiny." Lying in the bed together made Leeland's heart beat even harder and he was not sure why it was bothering him so much. Their legs would brush past each other and Leeland found himself trying to shuffle so there was at least some space between them.

"You're not Ok, are you?" Victor asked after a little silence had passed.

"You keep askin' me that."

"And I'll keep asking until you're fine. Or at least as fine as you're going to get here." Victor smirked ever so slightly, his eyes still heavy from the sleep he had been awoken from.

"Is it that bad?" Leeland asked, pulling his knee's up towards his chest, their legs brushing past each other once again. The soft blonde hairs on the elder boy's skin stood on end but he tried to concentrate solely on Victor.

"Depends on what you consider to be bad. The X-men are….hmm, hard to figure out sometimes." The green mutant let his thoughts wander to one particularly memory, it was slightly hazy but that was to be expected considering the circumstances.

"Tell me? If…If yah don't mind me asking?" The blonde was wide-awake and he hoped Victor did not mind being kept awake by his incessant ramblings. The other let a small smile spread across his lips and giving a small nod of his head he shuffled closer in the bed.

"It was…I had the biggest crush on one of my teachers." He started and it was Leeland's turn to smile.

"Really?"

"Really, really. I thought Mr. Beaubier was so cool and I stupidly thought he liked me. He helped me see that I didn't like girls, that I liked boys. I think I always had done but he was the one that told me it wasn't anything to be ashamed of just like my mutation. But…" Victor closed his eye's, the smile still of his face. "Shit happens and it went wrong for Jean-Paul and I didn't see it at first. You don't really see anything when a speedster punches you."

Leeland pressed his lips together and frowned, picturing the scene in side his own mind. A besotted and smitten Victor looking up at his teacher and the man had cast him off as nothing more than an irritating child. Only after four days, Leeland could see that wasn't true of the boy. There was intelligence in his eyes and a strong will, something Leeland certainly did not believe he himself had.

"Why'd he do that?"

Victor shuffled slightly in the bed before giving a sad half smile. "We're the X-men, near enough, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Don't trust anyone Leeland…seem's like everyone is looking out for themselves now."

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Maybe not us. I've got Julian, Santo and everyone but people like Cyclops and Miss Frost. You can't trust them."

"So why do you stay?"

A moment of silence passed and Leeland waited patiently for Victor's reply.

"Because we're not all like that. I want things around here to change, for our teachers to take more interest in their students. Their lives are complicated and we don't always fit into the equation."

"Besides." He added. "Someone has to watch the kids." The green mutant yawned and let his eye's close. The heat from their body's warmed their skin and Leeland found himself drifting to sleep before he could even thank Victor for letting him stay.

"Victor?" Leeland murmured.

"Hmmm?"

"…Good night."

xxx

When the sun started to rise, Leeland found himself awakening from a sleep he couldn't remember falling into. At least he had a few hours sleep that were not down in a clinical medical room or on his own in the dark. There was an exceptional amount of warmth around him and for a second or two he could not recall where he was. That was until the body next to him shifted and he felt the soft pull of fingers in his hair. Upon opening his eye's he found that he had somehow curled himself tight in against Victor's bare chest, his hands resting against his toned upper body.

In that moment, his body went rigid and he hoped-no-he prayed to whatever cruel God was out there that Victor was sound asleep. Or at least not fully awake to realise what was going on. Unfortunately the soft stroke of hands in his hair made him realise that Victor was awake but it was just a question of who was going to be more embarrassed.

The green mutant was not fully awake but he was not so far asleep that he was not aware of the body pulled up next to his. At first he had been a little shocked when the tall and dead to the world being had cuddled up close to him. Then, when the shock had worn off, he had found the experience to be almost pleasant. Having seen him in the shower already, Victor knew what to expect body wise but that did not dissolve the shock of feeling how weightless Leeland was. It was like receiving a hug from a piece of paper.

Victor was glad the other boy had slept soundly, knowing full well that he had not been sleeping well. Being in a strange new environment with the constant threat of attack over one's head could really alter a sleeping pattern, or so he had heard.

Taking a chance, Leeland peered upwards. The metal in his lip grazed against the others skin sending a shock of shivers up and down his spine. The fingers wrapped around his fly away hair, tensing, causing him to freeze on the spot.

"Sorry!" Leeland exclaimed suddenly, pushing himself as far back and up as he could go. There was a small scuffle when their legs became entangled in the covers and sheets.

"Leeland watch out!-"

THUMP!

There was a loud thud on the ground and scrambling across the bed, Victor peered over the side and couldn't stop the large burst of laughter that fell from his lips. The blonde had landed on the rug with his legs still tangled in the sheets and still up on the bed.

"….oww." The blonde murmured, irritated at himself and at the bed for causing both his embarrassment and discomfort. However, a small smile creased his lips when he heard the green mutants joyous rupture of giggles.

"Oi! Little help 'ere!" The blonde smirked and tried to move his legs but it was to no avail. Still laughing, Victor pushed himself upwards to try and help his new friend but when he held out his hand to help him up, Leeland gave a grin and pulled him down.

"Whoa-AHH!" There was another thud but instead of landing next to him, like he hoped, Leeland had pulled the green mutant on top of him.

At first, Victor did not realise he had landed on the other boy until he spread his hands outwards against the others chest. Looking up, their faces where barely centimeters away.

"Uhh…" Leeland started, his heart suddenly pounding against his chest, eye's wide. This must have been how rabbits felt in on coming traffic. Bewildered, confused and downright terrified of any movement his body was about to make.

"….Breakfast?" Victor asked quietly, his voice barely above a whisper and Leeland gave the biggest nod of his head he could muster. "Yes!" He squeaked, begging every part of him not to react but it was a rather awkward position pressing rather delicate parts of the pair of them together.

"I…uh…I'm…Going to get up now." Victor mumbled, struggling to push himself backwards as the sheets where still tangled up in his own feet. "Oh for goodness…." Gritting his teeth together he gave a rather apologetic smile to the boy he was laid on top of before shoving himself rather unceremoniously to the side.

There was silence, nothing but the sound of their own breathing penetrated the room.

"A'mgonnagoandgetdressed." Leeland rambled as quickly as he could before stumbling to his feet. Without a second look back he bolted for the door and was out in the corridor in the blink of an eye.

Victor stared at his ceiling. "Dammit."

It seemed nothing was going to the way he wanted to of late. He would have to visit Paras, again, and redeem himself, again. Secretly he wondered if his best friend would be laughing at him? Yes, yes he would.

After nearly falling out of Victor's door and into his own, Leeland had pressed his back up against the doorframe and cursed his stupidity.

The blonde was for the most part, a normal average teenage boy. Teenager boys have normal natural urges and react to certain situations. Unfortunately, that had been one of those situations and he slid down the doorframe, his bottom lip sucked into his mouth. Now the lower part of him ached and gripping his hands to his knees he tried to will the sensation away. At least, he tried to will it away but it was not working.

"…Come on!" He begged.

Knowing someone only four or five days, in Leeland's mind, did not warrant making him part of his own deluded sexual fantasies. Besides, when the adrenaline rush began to ware off he realised how bad he felt physically. Sweat had begun to pool on his fore head and the tops of his legs trembled with the exhaustion of his warped sleeping arrangement. What had made him curl up against Victor in the first place?

Loneliness. The boy was ever so lonely. Victor had been the only one to reach out to him, to take him under his proverbial wing. This one simple act of kindness had done something to the boy, which he hated himself for. He had developed feelings for the green hued mutant and now there was no way of stopping these thoughts turning into a full blow infatuation with him. Coupled with everything else going on and around his bizarre little life, Leeland knew he did not want that.

However….

"He's… gorgeous." He found himself whispering to the empty room, tilting his head to the side so that only his cheek was pressed up against the slats of wood. Maybe a better distraction would arise, and he could put push the small blimp behind.

The problem with blimps though was that they had a terrible tendency to blow up in one's face.

Pulling on a pair of Jean's and a plain t-shirt, the blonde examined himself in the mirror and knew from a glance how hopeless he appeared. The strain of the mutation and the copious amounts of drugs were rapidly gaining on him and he knew Victor was right; he was sick. If the sick didn't get better, they got worse or they died. Leeland was hoping for the former but feeling very much like the later.

Fifteen minutes later he shuffled his now sock covered feet down the deserted corridor and stretched the sleeves of his hooded top. They where now dangling at his sides, making him feel like a kid in Dad's clothes but it made him feel more at home. Home…Dam he missed English tea.

Chewing on the cuff of the jumper, he waited outside Victor's door, still shuffling his feet back and forth. Agitation was rising up inside of him as well as the pain behind his eyes. The door opened and Victor appeared wearing a pair of cut of shorts, his sandals and a red t-shirt. It was strange to think that outside it was nearly the dead of winter and here the green mutant was looking ready for the beach. Then again, Leeland supposed it was so warm in the building you might as well treat it like the middle of July.

Their eyes did not meet and Victor shut his door behind him. "Ready?" He asked, looking at his shoulder rather than his eyes. The blonde gave a small quick nod of his head and the pair headed down the corridor with the silence hanging above them like a bad smell. When they hit the top of the staircase it was Victor who turned to him and tilted his head to the side.

"Sorry about that."

Leeland frowned and shook his head, turning it with a bemused little smile on his face. "Ah'm the one who fell of the bed, remember." He was also the one who had decided to snuggle up to the other boy like a newborn kitten, but he decided to skirt over that little bit of information.

A comfortable silence surrounded them as they made their way towards the kitchen and not a living soul seemed to be in sight. That suited Leeland just fine. He was getting a little tied of being ogled at.

"So what are you hungry for?" Victor asked, rounding the corner to enter the blue themed kitchen but the blonde only shrugged his shoulders. Standing idly at the fridge he twiddled with the loose thread he had created on the new jeans, his toes rubbing back and forth on the Linoleum floor. Without realising it, he let his eye's slip shut as the refrigerator hummed away to him. It wasn't quite electrical, but the motor was run by an electric current amd it still whispered ever so quietly into his ears.

Fiddling around with the bread bin, Victor had not noticed his new friend's strange behaviour until he turned to ask him a question. He saw the peace filled look on his face, cheek pressed up against the fridge door as if he had simply slumped there after a few too many drinks. There was that look again, the hopeless lost look of a little boy who didn't have a clue what was real or make believe. Chewing on the side of his lip, the younger boy stepped forward and tilted his head to the side.

"Lee?" He whispered and as if waking from a deep filled sleep the blonde moved himself and opened his eyes before blinking up at the light. "Huh?"

"Do you need to go back to bed?" He asked with a laugh in his voice causing Leeland to quickly shake his flushed freckled face. "Tea." Said the boy, slipping into one of the chairs. "Ah think ah need tea…Please."

"Coming up." Victor nodded but he was better at making coffee than he was at making the British preference. So he potted around the kitchen, delving here there and everywhere to find a box of "English Breakfast" and went about boiling the kettle.

Leeland watched him silently, his head cupped in his hands with his elbows balanced on the table. There was something about the reptilian like mutant that made him think about himself. There was certainly nothing normal looking about the boy, except he had a very human shaped head, two arms, and two legs. Everything that a human needed to function, Victor had it. But the spiked carapace upon his head, the lack of any distinguishable hair and the bizarre thing he could do with his tongue. Yes, it made Leeland wonder why he thought he was, for a lack of better word, cute.

He had to tear his eyes away, to stare at the tabletop instead and listen for the sound of the kettle bubbling away to itself.

"Ok." Victor frowned, rubbing at the back of his head. "But how on Earth can you drink that stuff." They sat opposite each other at the table as the blonde scooped heaped teaspoons of sugar into the cup and added nearly a quarter of milk to the dark brown substance, turning it a murky caramel colour. "You lift the cup to your lips, an' drink." The blonde smirked and Victor frowned. "Sarcastic, much."

Leeland shrugged, a grin on his face. Lifting the lip of the cup to his mouth he took that first heated sip. However, the affect was not quite achieved and the blonde found himself pulling a face, looking almost disappointed.

"I should have mentioned." Said Victor. "It's pretty much brown colouring in a tea bag…how is it?"

The blonde let the liquid slide around his mouth but it was certainly no tea he had ever tasted before. "Well it's… Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea." Came his reply, causing Victor to grin and rest back in his seat, sipping at his own glass of fruit juice.

The sounds of footsteps echoed down the hallway and Victor looked up when three identical faces appeared in the door. "Good morning Victor." They said in unison before they turned their attention towards Leeland who was trying, but failing, to look inconspicuous. The girls gave him the creeps, if he was putting it politely. Not the smartest chap in the world, but even he knew that identical triplets were not supposed to happen in nature. Then again, boys were not supposed to look like lizards and rock golems.

"Morning." Victor replied, unphased by the girls and set about finishing up his breakfast. The three blondes' came around the table, two on each side of Leeland and one in front. With smiles on their faces and hands on the hips they spoke to the room.

"Do you mind if we borrowed Leeland for a while?" Phoebe asked, her eyes still upon the pale boy in front of her. The blonde tried to shrink down in his seat but the three young girls practically towered over him like grinning Cheshire Cats.

There was, of course, no feeling behind the smiles just the simple act of facial muscles moving and contracting. The girls could no longer feel. No one had told they could not pretend to do so.

Victor frowned from his place at the sink but gave a small shrug of shoulders. "Urm sure…"

"Huh? Don't I get a say?" Leeland spluttered on his un-tea as Mindee and Celeste each took one of the tall male's arms and quite easily pulled him to his feet. "Come along, we have something to show you." And with that he was pulled from the seat and towards the kitchen entry.

"Uhmm…Ah'll er…Ah'll see you later?" He called over his shoulder towards the green mutant who nodded his head quickly and chewed on the side of his lip. "Sure." Was his meek reply. Peering his head around the doorframe he watched the three girls drag his new tall friend away.

Turning away, Victor continued to chew on the corner of his lip and found himself pottering around the kitchen. Leaning over the table he picked up Leeland's mug and cradled it in his hands.

"What am I doing, P?...What am I doing?"

xxx

"So…" Leeland started, peering down at the three blonde heads of hair as they made their way down the hallways of the Xavier institute.

"Which one of yah is…which?" He had wanted to ask where they ere going but a smile spread across his lips when he realised he did not know one girl from the other.

"Mindee." Said the one on his left.

"Phoebe." The one of his right.

"Celeste." Came the one at the front and she peered over her shoulder, a small smile on her face but Leeland was not so sure there was anything behind it. They seemed not cold or even distant…perhaps a little lost. As if their emotions where locked away and the door simply needed to be open.

"…Ah can't tell either one of yah apart, sorry. Erm, Ah didn't think yah could get identical triplets."

"Of course you can." Said Mindee. "They're very rare but they do happen…"

"Besides." Continued Celeste. "We're not triplets, not really."

"Then, what are you?" The boy frowned. "Ah mean!" He added quickly, realising how rude he was being. "Ah meant…well, ah know you're girls but really…is it your mutation or…." He closed his mouth as they led him towards the elevator and he had an awful feeling he would have to walk the corridors made of tin cans once again.

"We're…" Said the girls together. "Complicated." They settled on. One of the girls leaned forwards and pressed the button for the lower levels and as the door slid shut Leeland found that it was almost like being inside a hall of mirrors.

The girls were quiet, they were nice but Leeland still had an odd feeling about them.

"You er, yah look a little bit like Miss Frost." Perhaps 'a little' was a bit of an understatement. The same hair, the same bone structure and their eyes where almost duplicate.

"Yes." Said the girls. "She's our mother."

Leeland blinked several time's, as he had not quite anticipated their response and such a quick one at that. Looking down at them he began to chew on the side of his lip.

"Yah don't call her mum or mom or…whatever."

"No." The girls said simply. "But she is our mother."

Leeland pursed his lips to the side and contemplated the questions flying around inside his head. "Ok." Came his quiet response, as it seemed that the subject was closed and finished with.

"Anyway…" He started, trying to change the subject. The lift came to a halt and they stepped out into the corridor, heading towards the Danger Room.

"What do yah wanna show me then?"

Meanwhile, Emma found herself pacing the giant underground garage where they kept the majority of the vehicles including the Jet. They now had Jonathon William's whereabouts and she had found herself a little disappointed in the man. They had known each other very briefly and had one thing in common; the boy. She found herself disappointed due to the situation he had made for himself.

He was in hiding, which she knew, but she found it bitterly disappointing that it had come down to this. The man she knew was not a coward nor would he have hidden away but stood tall and proud. But, she supposed once you start adding children to the equation people start turning soft. That was why she was glad she had made the choice she had.

"Are you ready?" Scott came to the gangway of the jet in his uniform, not looking at her while he affixed his visor. Emma had wanted to do this on her own with Stark but she was finding it harder and harder to simply say no to Scott.

Dam. She thought. I'm getting soft. It certainly said something about a woman the day she could not say no to her husband. Well she would not have the last breath; Emma Frost was certainly not soft.

"Tony said he'd meet us there." Came her simple reply as they headed into the plane.

"And we're not to tell the boy?"

"No." Her flat reply held no emotion and Scott frowned. A question had been bubbling in his mind for so long and now it simply could not be contained.

"What's so special about him Emma…special to you?" It had danced off his tongue before he had even time to think the question through. It had to be said though. The White Queen was not exceptionally good with children, but there was something about Leeland that troubled him and he knew in his heart of hearts it had to do with Emma.

"Pardon?" Emma turned, with a slim manicured eyebrow arched and a perplexed expression written across her face.

"You said we wouldn't do this Emma…keep secrets. Now tell me, please."

"There's nothing to tell Scott. He's not special but he's been lied to and I won't-" She stopped herself though and pressed her lips shut. No, she would not abide lying to the boy but what if it was for his own good. Instead, she re thought her response.

"Too many of my students are dead. I won't get attached to another one just to lose him again." She turned, finished with the conversation. The jet had to be powered up and babbling all morning was going to get them nowhere.

"Again?" Scott took a step forward, the gangway closing in on them as he did so.

"What are you rambling on about now?" Taking a seat in the cockpit Emma readied the appropriate buttons and programmed in their flight path.

"You said you wouldn't lose him again."

"I said I wouldn't lose any more students." Came her calm reply but she noticed how her fingers had started to tremble. How frightfully…annoying.

"No Emma. You said you wouldn't loose him again."

She expected some sort of anger to pulse from Scott, but instead he slid into the seat next to her and placed his fingers over her own. It would have been so much easier if he was angry with her, he usually was. It was simply how they worked. Scott would be the angry macho man and she would let it fly right over her head. Such a nice arrangement.

"Who is he Emma…Who is he to you?"

Silence fell inside the jet and Emma peered down at her hands, her fingers laced with her lovers. The man was more than that; he was her husband. So why was she hiding so many secrets? Because the truth hurt, it hurt every year and she knew it would keep on hurting even now.

"No one Scott. He's no one too me." And she slid her hand from his and no more was said.

xxx

"An' we're back in the big metal room. Lovely." Leeland frowned and the girls led him to the middle of the Danger Room. They made him sit directly in the middle with his long legs crossed in Indian style. They did the same but sat around him in a triangle formation, their hands placed palm upwards on top of their knees.

"Are you gonna tell me what's up 'cos this is kinda weird." Leeland admitted with a small nervous laugh.

"We believe…." Started the girls at once. "That your ability's are on a physic level" They closed their eyes.

"But er…Doc said they where Omniling….omniligy…something or other-ah dunno, Ah can't remember long words. Ah can't read minds." Staring at them he wondered what on Earth they were up to. "Should I er, close my eye's too?"

"Yes." Said the girls and the boy did so but he felt ever so foolish and out in the open whilst doing so.

"To be able to read someone's language, you must first be able to enter their mind. We believe you do this unconsciously without realising it. That you read their physic energy first. We also believe…" They fell silent and Leeland peeked one eye open.

"Yes?" He asked.

"No." The girls changed their minds. "We do not believe. We know. We know that it is not just the drugs that cause your migraines."

"Great." Leeland muttered. "So everyone knows."

"Yes, we all know. The teachers are ever so bad at keeping secrets. But what we know is that there is something inside your mind, something you are holding back."

"There is a locked door." The one to his left said by herself, causing him to flinch and stare at her. When she opened her eye's, they where the purest white and her pupil had vanished entirely.

"And we must open it." Said the one to his right.

"By whatever means necessary." Finished the one right in front of him.

"G-Girls…Ok Ah'm not too sure about this." Leeland licked over his dry lips and even started to move away from them. Their eye's continued to glow and they looked towards his cowering form. "Stop it!" He told them. "This isn't-" He stopped mid sentence, taking the deepest of breaths and the feeling of weightlessness filled his entire being. In an instance, his own eye's blazed white and without realising it, he sat like them and waited for them to speak.

TBC~