It was the next day that Professor Xavier finally arrived. He walked though the entryway (which was unusual in and of itself) into the foyer, all but slamming the expensive front door, but no one greeted him. Thinking this was odd, he went about telepathically searching the mansion for signs of life. He detected all the consciousnesses were out back approximately where the baseball diamond was. Charles walked around the outside of the house slowly, taking in the feel of comfort this old home gave him. He hadn't realized how much he had missed these vine-covered bricks, the metal scrollwork on the balconies, and all the other little touches that made it his home. He grew up in this house, and had so many memories, both good and bad. Muir Island was comfortable enough, but it wasn't home.

No one saw him as he approached; they were all too focused on the game. Storm was up to bat, with Bobby pitching. Jean was on first, Jubilee on third. It appeared to be a "Boys vs. Girls" game. Bobby threw the ball, but even from his far away vantage point Charles could see that he had coated it with ice. Storm didn't bother to swing, but started yelling something about a "no-powers" game. Peter even had trouble catching the ball and throwing it back to Bobby because it was so slippery.

Charles decided to make his presence known. He continued his walk towards the field until Marie (who was sulking and insisting everyone call her Rogue again) stood up from the bleachers and hollered:

"Professor!" Everyone looked in the direction she was looking, then dropped what they were doing and ran to meet him. The kids in the outfield made it there first, closely followed by Jean, who pushed her way through the kids to give the professor a huge hug.

"Ah, Jean my dear, so good to see you!" he laughed. Someone made an executive decision to move the welcome home party inside the house to the den, for which Charles was very grateful. It was quite a bit warmer here than in Scotland.

Linda always seemed to have a sixth sense that told her when food was needed (some kids actually insisted that she was indeed a mutant, and that this was her power). She came into the overcrowded den with a tray full of sandwiches and a pitcher of ice cold lemonade, both of which disappeared from the table she set them on almost instantly.

The first order of business was to have a briefing for the X-Men. They congregated down in the basement meeting room, the professor sitting at the head of the table. Jean was on his right and Storm on his left. Logan, of course, sat by Jean, and the rest of the X-Men who were present (Beast, Colossus, Iceman, and Rogue) sat along the other side with Storm.

First they talked about adding Jubilee and Warren to the X-Men. They knew all about the team, just like most of the students at the school, and wanted to join. Most people agreed that Jubilee would be useful, so long as she took things seriously. Warren, codename Angel, would be valuable as well. In the end, they voted them both in. The professor sent each of them a message to come down to the basement and join the other X-Men for the rest of the meeting.

Once Jubilee and Angel were there and settled (Jubilee sitting next to Logan, and Angel next to her) the meeting continued. They discussed Rogue and her condition, and what it meant for the mutant community. There were others who were going to go through what she went through, and who didn't have all the support that she did. Also there were enemies, namely Magneto, who would come after them again once their powers returned.

This discussion led to a question of whether or not the X-Men should start recruiting. It seemed everyone knew someone who would be an excellent addition to the X-Men. Storm started making a list of promising candidates. After a page and a half, they divided it up among the group. Each person was given roughly half a dozen people to speak with.

The meeting concluded with scheduling of danger room sessions (over the summer, people had just used it when and if they wanted to) plus the decision to call back Kitty from summer vacation. They needed everyone back here, informed and practicing in the danger room.

After the meeting, Jean and Logan went out on a leisurely walk through the more secluded gardens, using the paths Logan had recently set down. They hadn't had much time alone lately except at the fair, and that had been interrupted. As they walked through the flowers and wove among the trees, Jean reached over and slipped her hand into Logan's.

"I know you don't like talking to people, so I thought we could combine our lists and talk to them together. Some of them are out of town, so we can take a little road trip, maybe?" Jean ventured, looking sideways towards Logan.

"Sure, Red. You volunteering to do the talkin'? Couldn't pass that up."

"Great! We'd have to stop in New York City first, then down south to Virginia and Louisiana…" she went on and on, making plans as they walked. Logan didn't mind listening to her talk. He liked the sound of her voice, even if he wasn't paying attention to precisely what she said.

The next morning, Logan woke to the sound of someone trying to beat down his door. He rolled over to look at the clock, which read 6:30am. He groaned. Whoever this turned out to be, they were getting a beating for waking him up at this godforsaken hour. Logan stumbled out of bed and over to the door, unlocking it and jerking it open. A tall red-head fell into him.

"Whoa! Logan! Sorry, I was leaning on your door because my arm was getting tired. I thought you were a light sleeper?"

"Didn' wake up 'cause I smelled you I guess. I wake up if somethin' smells or sounds unfamiliar." Logan mumbled, still half asleep. He rubbed his face with both hands, and then ruffled up his hair, which was sticking up every which way anyhow.

"What's up, Jean?" It was usually not a good sign when Logan used her actual name, anymore.

"We're leaving, remember? We talked about it yesterday in the garden? We decided to leave right away because we have twice as many people to talk to than everyone else." She paused and put her hands on her hips. "You weren't listening, were you?" Logan just stared at her. Jean sighed. "Well, we're leaving, so go take a shower while I pack a bag for you. Go on!" she shooed him into the bathroom.

First she made up his bed, which probably hadn't been done in a while, then looked around the sparse room for a bag. She finally found a small duffel bag in the closet, and proceeded to fill it with jeans, t-shirts, boxers, socks, etc. She felt slightly self-conscious being this domestic, but decided it was not intimacy, but expediency. Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, Jean, she thought.

Logan emerged from the shower then, towel-clad but looking no more awake than he had going into the shower. He walked over to where she was sitting on the bed, grabbed one of everything off the top of the bag, then went right back into the bathroom. He didn't bother to close the door all the way, so Jean heard the sounds of him getting dressed and brushing his teeth. She thought about how it would be to do this every morning; to wake up together, and get ready together. Jean knew that if it weren't for her protests of needing some space, Logan would have already invited her to move into his room. She was beginning to feel bad about how she was treating Logan. She found herself just expecting that he would wait around until she was good and ready for a relationship, which wasn't fair to him. He had been making all the compromises so far. I really need to stop thinking about this too hard, she thought.

He emerged again, this time looking a little less out of it.

"You should grab your toiletries from the bathroom." Jean prompted. He just grunted, but turned around and grabbed them, throwing them on top of the bag and zipping it up. He turned to her then.

"Where's your stuff?"

"Down in the car." she replied. "I loaded them up already. I packed snacks and drinks for the ride too." She smiled. "Well, I guess we can go!"

"Great."