Disclaimer: Nope. Still. I know, it's sad.

When dawn peeked into the room the two teen girls shared, hoping to get a glimpse of life through the shuttered window, it was rewarded with the sight of one sleepless redhead, dark circles prominent beneath her reddened eyes. Her taller companion was uncharacteristically silent as she made her bed and pulled striped, fuzzy socks up to her knees. "Are you sure about this?" she asked her petite roommate.

"No," was the quiet reply. "But I need to tell you guys sometime."

Jubilee nodded, eyes dark with thought. Kaylie bit her lip and cuddled her knees to her chest as she sat on the middle of her still unmade bed. As much as the thought of telling her friends was relieving it was also frightening. What if they thought of her differently after finding out? They had to – her story wasn't one that left people thinking of her as normal.

"Here."

Something soft collided with the side of her head. Startled, Kaylie picked up the pair of electric blue fuzzy socks and looked over at Jubilee, confused. "What?"

"They're called socks," Jubilee teased. "Come on, put them on! Fuzzy socks make everything better."

"I don't know…" Kaylie held the pair up to her face and inspected them dubiously. "They're really-" she paused, struggling for an appropriate adjective. "bright," she finished.

"That's the point. Bright colors make for bright feelings," her friend said wisely. Kaylie stuck out her tongue, prompting a mock-gasp followed by a laugh. "Okay, seriously, they're really comfortable. And besides, they'll give you something to stare at as you tell your story." An emotion that Kaylie didn't recognize tickled in the back of her mind as Jubilee flashed a toothy smile and narrowed her eyes in a way that even she could recognize as evil. "Unless there's someone you'd rather stare at instead."

Kaylie frowned, her brow creasing in thought as she tried to decipher what Jubilee meant. Clearly the other girl was teasing; Kaylie wasn't dense, just a little out of touch. But what could she be teasing about? Stumped, she shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she admitted.

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "You're a wonderful person, Kaylie," she informed her, "but you really need to learn about boys and the appeal they have to us girls."

Kaylie's lips twitched. "I'm not that far behind," she pointed out, giving in to the temptation of the fluffy socks. As she pulled them on her feet, relishing the softness against her skin, Jubilee grinned at her. "These are really comfortable."

"Told you. Ready? If we're lucky, they might actually be awake."

"Wait. Let me try something first." Kaylie closed her eyes and focused inward, trying to distinguish the 'waking emotions' she felt. Despite her outburst last night, her training really had been coming along, and she was starting to be able to distinguish people she knew by feel. Jubilee's distinctive willingness to wait mingled with curiosity shone like a beacon; she ignored it and tried to sort through the other emotions. Professor Xavier was up – his tired reluctance slid smoothly past her shields. She didn't recognize the sleepy contentment, but it felt less child-like and more adult-ish to her.

After what seemed like forever, Kaylie finally sighed and opened her eyes. "I don't think they're up yet," she told Jubilee, who had migrated back over to her bed and was reading. At Kaylie's words, she looked up.

"Fifteen minutes of trance," the girl told her as Kaylie stretched, wincing as her legs cramped. "What were you doing? If you don't mind me asking," she added hastily.

"It's okay. I was just trying to see if I could tell if they were awake." At Jubilee's confused look, Kaylie tried to think of a better way to describe what she'd done. "Basically, people's emotions feel different to me if they're awake or asleep. I was sorting through the awake emotions and trying to see if I could tell who they were from. I figured I could do it since you three are the ones I spend the most time around."

"Cool. Did it work?"

"Sort of," Kaylie admitted. "I couldn't figure out a lot of them, but some of them I got. Mostly teachers, I think."

Jubilee nodded. "I guess that makes sense. So, do you want to wait, or do you want to go wake them up?"

Kaylie winced and Jubilee shrugged. "Okay, fine, we'll wait."

It was long past dawn before either John or Kitty woke up.

For once, John had been able to sleep for more than four hours at a time. With the exception of the weird middle-of-the-night wakeup call he'd gotten when a jolt of sheer terror had woken him up, his night had actually been pretty peaceful. When his body finally declared that he had enough sleep, light was streaming in through the blinds and the digital clock read 10:00. With a groan, he turned over and buried his face in his pillow, unwilling to get up. It was the lack of oxygen that finally convinced him that at least turning over was probably a good idea.

"Oh, good, you're up." Kitty barged in through his wall and tugged the covers off of him. "Nice boxers."

"What the hell!"

"Get over it and get dressed," Kitty replied flippantly. When John didn't move except to flip her off, Kitty rolled her eyes. "Come on! Kaylie's got something important she wants to tell us." She huffed. "I have no idea why she wants to tell you anything, but whatever. She says she'll only tell it once, so get up already."

With that, the mutant flounced out through his wall. John just stared at the spot where she'd left for a moment before calling, "I have a door, idiot!"

Kitty didn't reply. Annoyed, John fell back onto his bed, fuming. The one day that he had actually managed to sleep in and the girl had the nerve to barge into his room and interrupt his lounging around in bed time? "I should roast her," he muttered, reluctantly standing up and beginning the search for clean clothes. It didn't take long to peel off his shirt and yank a clean one over his head, but finding pants was another matter. It took at least five minutes for the bleary-eyed teen to find a pair of relatively clean jeans. Refusing to care about the state of his hair (it was easily the worst case of bedhead he'd ever had in his life) John stomped out of his room and glared daggers at the brunette who'd had the gall to drag him out of bed that morning.

"Ooh, so this is what the great and mighty Pyro looks like without hair gel," Kitty teased.

"You're lucky murder is illegal."

Kitty waved off his death threat. "So growly. Come on, let's go!"

John couldn't decide if it was bravery or stupidity that prompted Kitty to grab his wrist and start to try to tow him off. Whichever it was, she didn't last long as a tow truck; he pulled his arm away and followed her with narrowed eyes, keeping up a mental litany of insults as they traversed down the hallways, heading for that great place known as the rec room. As soon as they reached it, Kitty lost her good humor and quietly slipped into the room. With a sigh, John ran his hand through his hair to get it out of his face before following her.

Kaylie sat at the very end of the couch. She'd pressed herself into the comfortable corner as though she were hoping it would swallow her whole. When she looked up, he could see that although she'd actually bothered to brush her hair, her eyes were undercut by dark purple. As was normal, she wore clothes that were probably muted hand-me-downs from Jubilee, except for the bright blue socks on her feet. Next to her was Jubilee, and beside her was the hellcat of a girl that had dragged him out here. "You look like hell," he told the redhead before sinking down into an armchair directly across from the bench.

"Hello to you too," Jubilee snapped.

Kaylie winced. "He has a point."

The eccentrically-dressed mutant's lips compressed into a thin line. "Whatever."

"Ignore him. He's grouchy," Kitty advised.

Before Jubilee could reply or John could retort, Kaylie stopped the upcoming argument before it could happen by nudging Jubilee in the side while simultaneously aiming an entreating look at John. Jubilee shut up immediately, but John folded his arms and inspected the haunted look his short friend wore before nodding. The psychic sighed and sank back into the couch, her troubled eyes dark. "You have to promise not to interrupt," she said softly. "I don't know if I can finish this otherwise."

Verbal affirmations came from the girls. John just looked at her. Evidently she caught onto his acceptance of this condition, for though she didn't respond to any of them, after a moment she began to speak. John started at her tone. He'd never actually heard anybody talk without any kind of emotion in their voice before.

"The whole thing started over three years ago. I lived in one of those big, old Victorian-styled houses, and my room was on the top floor. I'd gone to bed early that night because I wasn't feeling good, and it didn't take me long to go to sleep.

"I don't remember what I dreamed about. In the dream I smelled smoke, and then I coughed myself awake." She shuddered. "My room was full of smoke. I couldn't see anything properly because everything was covered in gray haze. It took me a second to realize that smoke actually comes from fire, and then another second to remember that smoke rises. I tried to drop down to the floor to get away from it, but it didn't help much. So I grabbed my jacket and tried to open the door so that I could get out, but the doorknob burned my fingers.

"I don't know how long I froze. All I know is that the next thing I knew, the house was groaning and creaking. The ceiling started to fall and I tried to dodge, but I got hit by something on my shoulder. I freaked. I grabbed the doorknob and flung open the door, but there were flames taller than I was eating up the hallway.

"I didn't know what to do or where to go. I couldn't get out of my room and I couldn't jump out the window either since I was on the second story. The fire just kept on getting hotter and hotter and closer and closer and it was getting so hard to breathe…" She trailed off. After a moment, she started up again. "Eventually the firefighters came and got me out through the window. After that they checked me for burns – my hand was pretty much blistering by that point and I had a lot of other injuries too.

"The ambulance came pretty quickly and I was bundled into the back with my mother. The rest of my family wasn't seriously hurt, so they went down to the hospital in the car that my dad had parked across the street. I was still in severe shock at that point, so I wasn't registering much of anything, but I knew that there was something strange going on. I could hear and feel so much more than I'd ever been able to before, and some part of me was already freaking out at that even though most of me was frozen."

At this, Kitty gasped and understanding dawned across Jubilee's face. Neither said anything, however, not wanting to stop Kaylie's story. John just sat there, eyes fixated on the redhead. He thought he knew what was coming next, and he was positive it wasn't going to be pretty. Her next words confirmed his suspicions.

"When we got to the hospital, I was checked over and they started treating my injuries. I had a lot of damage from smoke inhalation, so they started with that. I think. Honestly, I don't remember most of what they did. All I remember is suddenly feeling the pain, sorrow, and anger of thousands of people. I could hear everything. Pleas to live, tirades of curses, desperate hopes for terminal patients, everything. I tried to tell the doctor that something was wrong, tried to tell my mom that I could feel and hear everything, but nobody believed me. I got hysterical, and the doctor finally put me out with some sort of drug.

"When I woke up, I was in a secluded room in the hospital, and there was a psychiatrist there, though I didn't know that was what he was at the time. I just thought he was some sort of weird doctor. He asked me some questions about the voices and I told him the truth. He wrote down everything on a little pad of paper before he left. He tried to reassure me that it would be okay, but I knew what he was thinking.

"When the doctor and the psychiatrist came back with my family, I protested and fought the decision. The doctor knocked me out again, and when I woke up, I was in a mental ward."

The pause that Kaylie took here was so that she could draw a deep, shuddering breath. Jubilee seemed to be in a horrified shock; Kitty opened her mouth to say something but John shot her a glare that shut her up before she could speak and then turned his eyes back on Kaylie, careful to keep his expression absolutely emotionless and trying very, very hard to not feel any sort of pity or horror on her behalf. Something told him that she wouldn't appreciate that. Still, he couldn't help but feel some horror, mingled with admiration. He had known that the hospital trip would have been bad, but he had no idea that it had ended like that.

If that was what she had been through, it was a miracle that she was as sane as she was now.

As Kaylie finally started talking again, he informed himself that paying attention was a good thing and that being lost in thought wasn't. There was still more story to go, after all.

"It was horrifying. The people there really were insane – depressed, schizophrenic, multiple personality disorder, anorexic – you name it. All of their thoughts, all of their feelings, I knew it all. The doctors kept putting me on different medications because I wasn't getting any better. I switched therapists so many times I can't remember how many I had. And none of the medicines helped. They usually just made things worse.

"Finally I was switched over when the ward down in Colorado decided there was nothing they could do to help me. I was in the ward down here for three months before Professor Xavier came for me."

Clearly finished with her tale, Kaylie knotted her fingers together and stared down at them while John tried to process the entire tale. It was hard for him to believe that only yesterday he'd guessed that her abilities had shattered her life. He hadn't realized just how right he was. Caught up in his own thoughts, he missed the quiet exchanges that the girls had before Jubilee and Kitty left. By the time he resurfaced, the two were alone in the room. "Well," he finally said, seeing the apprehensive look that Kaylie was giving him, "that explains a lot."

She shivered visibly. "So anyway, that's why I'm scared of fire," she offered quietly, her voice catching.

"But not of me."

She shook her head without pausing for a moment. John's lips twitched into a half-smile. "You probably should be," he told her conversationally, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "Sensible people usually are."

"I thought we just established that I'm not sensible," came her whisper, with more than a hint of choking. It was clear to John that she was desperately trying to hold back tears. Wordlessly, John got to his feet and sat down on the couch next to her. She tried to scooch away from him and John stopped her from falling off the couch by grabbing her shoulders with his hands.

"Come on, small stuff," he said quietly, pulling her to his chest. "Let it out."

There was only a moment of hesitation in her stiff little body before silent sobs began to wrack her head to toe. She wrapped her arms around him and gripped onto his shirt like it was the only thing she had in the world, and he, awkwardly, patted her head and stroked her hair. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes, she let go and her crying died down to a few sniffles. "You smell nice," she mumbled.

"Gee, thanks."

She drew a deep breath. "You didn't have to do that," she said quietly, finally looking up at him. John huffed.

"Don't get the wrong idea," he warned. "I don't like seeing people cry."

Quickly, Kaylie turned away and rubbed at her face with her sleeves. "I shouldn't have been crying," she muttered. "I cried enough last night."

"Last night?"

"I had a nightmare," she admitted, still not looking at him. "It's why I finally decided to tell you guys what happened to me."

A nightmare. "That explains why I woke up horrified in the middle of the night."

Even though he couldn't see her face, John was sure that Kaylie flushed to a red that a tomato would be jealous of. "I – I knew I was leaking, but I didn't know it was that bad! I'm so sor-"

"Not your fault," he said easily. "With all the crap you've been through, I'm surprised you don't wake up half the school more often."

She looked over at him then, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she did so. Her face still held evidence that she'd been crying. "Cold water would help with that," John told her, poking her cheek rudely. "Want me to push you into the pool?"

That got a shaky smile out of her. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass," she replied. He watched as she stood up, shifted from foot to foot for a second, then quickly leaned forward, kissed him on the cheek, and then left as quickly as she could.

John just sat there for a moment in a state of mild shock. His hand slid into his pocket of its own accord, looking for his lighter. When his fingers met with nothing, he snarled, "That girl needs to be shoved in a wall and get stuck there." With that, he picked himself up off the couch and headed back towards his room to find the lighter that Kitty had distracted him from picking up before.

A/N: Two months. I am so sorry. You guys do not deserve these long waits between updates. I promise I'll try to get better. So. This time we had story time from Kaylie and we finally got the entire story! …Or did we? Either way, there seems to be some blossoming fluff going on between our little psychic and our resident pyromaniac. Thoughts? I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!