1973

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MUTANT SAVES PRESIDENT AND CABINET

SENTINEL PROGRAM CANCELLED

TRASK ARRESTED FOR SELLING MILITARY SECRETS

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"We have to find her."

Lee Palmer looked over at his wife; a tear running down Rita Palmer's soft cheek as she stared at the carpet. Even in the past strife filled months where neither of them had gotten a wink of sleep, Rita was still a beautiful woman.

Ever since Samantha had disappeared from their sight, they knew they'd made a mistake; they should've never given their baby to people they didn't know anything about other than the names that they gave them. They shouldn't have let people they didn't know take their baby daughter out of fear of the unknown.

It only became more apparent they'd made a mistake when weeks passed and they heard nothing, despite that fact that they had been promised they'd be kept updated and that Samantha would have access to a phone. They'd already known in their hearts that those people they'd given her to were nothing but evil, but the headlines that screamed at them about how mutants had saved the world and that Trask had no other intentions than extermination had only cemented their suspicions.

"Rita…" Lee said; his voice filled with painful emotion as tears began to well up in his own eyes "Samantha's already…"

Rita's head snapped over to Lee; tears still in her eyes, but now accompanied with a fury that Lee hadn't seen in a long time.

"Dead? Is that what you were going to say? But you had to stop yourself to spare your perfect little housewife?"

Lee's eyes widened; he hadn't expected his wife to lash out at him like this.

"Rita, cal-."

"I'm not going to calm down, Lee!" The woman said, jumping up with a fire in her words "We fought so our children could have better lives than us. So that our daughter could go to a good school and could maybe look forward to being something more than a maid or a wife. And then what did we do? We took away any future from her!"

Rita quickly ran over to the stand near the door; grabbing her coat and purse.

"Yes, my baby is probably already gone, but I'll be damned if I don't know what happened to her."

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1983

.

"Absolutely not."

"Sean-."

"Charles, I don't care; they're the reason Trask got his hands on her in the first place."

Charles sighed and rubbed his temples; looking at the silent young woman sitting in the leather chair in the corner of his office. He could clearly remember the day she came to him; he'd been able to see the fear in the young girl's mind and the distrust she'd developed after being betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect her.

He'd also seen the growing attachment she shared with Sean.

It was a bittersweet relationship to see; the only reason the pair had found a family in each other was because of their shared experiences with Trask. But, they cared about each other far past that at this point; it wasn't a love because of shared, traumatic experience anymore. He could see the sibling-like bond that had developed between them over the years; he understood why Sean was so outspokenly against Samantha going anywhere near her parents.

He understood completely why Sean was so against her speaking with them, but he'd also seen into their minds. He'd seen the years spent desperately trying to find any evidence of their child, he'd seen the countless sleepless nights spent nursing their own guilt, and he'd seen their determined protests against any anti-mutant sentiments.

That's why he found them in the first place; their protests against the restoration of the Sentinel Program. He'd heard them pleading with anyone who would listen to them; he'd heard them speak about their darling daughter who was long dead due to their ignorance and the malicious nature of Trask Industries.

And he'd seen the young girl that had entered his home all those years ago in their minds.

So, even though he understood why Sean was pushing back so hard, he was still going to give it his best shot.

"Sean, what do you think I should do then? Send them out with the knowledge that their daughter is alive, but not allowing them to see her?"

"Fuck 'em, Professor."

Charles sighed; this was going to take a while.

.

How had she matured?

Was she still the happy-go-lucky kid she was before? Or had the years and Trask hardened her to the world. Would her hair still be in those tight ringlets or had she taken to styling it differently? Was her favorite color even the same anymore? Or had pink or purple replaced her young self's love of blue.

Would she resemble the Samantha Palmer they had known in anyway?

.

"Samantha, they have spent the past ten years looking for you."

"Samantha, they were the ones who gave you up to Trask."

The man in the wheelchair and the man with ginger curls exchanged dirty looks; neither of them liking the other person's stance on the matter.

"Maybe we should let Samantha speak on the matter," Charles said, his voice taut.

"Maybe you shouldn't have brought them here in the first place," Sean replied sarcastically, Charles sighing in increasing annoyance.

"Sean, they were in DC protesting the Sentinel Program, I don't understand-."

"So, what? That undoes what happened to Samantha?"

"I never said that, Sean," Charles replied, getting angry "I'm simply saying that they aren't the same people that they were before."

"That forgives everything that happened?" Sean demanded, also becoming more riled.

"Sean."

"Charles."

.

How tall was she now? Was she petite like her mother or tall like her father? Or maybe she fell somewhere in between. Was she light with her makeup the way her mother was or did she adhere more to the current glammed up style? Did she wear the bright clothes that every star wore or did she wear more muted tones? Was she still her mother and father's daughter or was she a woman shaped by the decade?

.

"Maybe," Charles said tightly "We should ask Samantha how she feels about this."

"Yes, I think we should," Sean replied, just as wound up "Sam, do you-?"

The pair turned to where Samantha had been sitting; both prepared to make their cases on whether or not she should speak to her parents.

"Where'd she go?"

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"Samanzha?"

The young woman in question looked up from her spot tucked away by the window; her lower lip trembling as she took in her boyfriend's concerned face.

"Kurt."

The blue mutant stumbled backwards slightly as she practically tackled him with a hug; Kurt returning the embrace tightly as she buried her face in his neck.

Kurt reached up and gently patted her hair; attempting to be a good boyfriend even though he really had no idea how to handle this situation.

"Samanzha, Scott told me vhat is happening," he said gently, resting his blue cheek against Samantha's dark curls "Are you alright?"

Samantha's response was just silence; Kurt able to tell from the way she was shaking against him that she was not alright at all.

"Vhat do you need, Liebling?"

"Can you just hold me?"

"Ja, Liebling," Kurt replied, gently rubbing her shoulder blades as he felt her grab at the back of his shirt.

It was quiet for a long, long moment; the pair holding each other close while Samantha did her best to pull it all together.

Finally, Samantha pulled back slightly so that Kurt could see her tear stained cheeks; the blue mutant feeling his own heart break as he took in the evidence of her tumultuous emotions.

"I don't know what to do."

"Vhat do you vant to do?" Kurt asked, tilting his head in question.

"I don't know," Samantha said, extremely upset.

"Vell…" Kurt said, sounding lost.

"You don't need to make this better," Samantha said "Just make me feel better."

"Okay, Liebling, I can try," Kurt said, reaching down to taker her hand in his; Samantha smiling a sad smile and resting her head on his shoulder.

"What if I refuse to talk to them?" Samantha murmured.

"The Professor vill send zhem avay," Kurt said softly.

"But will I regret it?" Samantha asked.

"I don't know zhe answer to zhat one," Kurt replied simply.

Samantha's hand tightened around his; Kurt resting his cheek on her hair again.

"But, if I talk to them, what will Sean say?"

Kurt pulled back slightly; Samantha frowning and giving him big eyes that made it near impossible for him to not pull her back into his arms. But, he persevered to answer her question.

"Samanzha, if you vant to speak to zhem, zhen you should. Don't vorry about vhat ozhers vill zhink."

Samantha looked up at him with wide eyes; now obviously thinking over what he'd said. She looked down at the three digit hand and rubbed the back of it with her thumb as she thought.

"I-If I talk to them, will you come with me?"

Kurt also looked down at their hands; thinking very different thoughts about his own.

"I don't know if zhat's a good idea."

Samantha frowned and took a step closer to her boyfriend.

"Why not?"

"Zhey von't react vell to me, I zhink; it'll be easier for you to talk to zhem vithout me zhere," Kurt replied, wishing he could support his girlfriend without causing more strife.

"Kurt, if I go to talk to them, and they react badly to you, they can fuck off."

"Samanzha."

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"It's your fault for bringing them here."

Charles sighed hard as the pair went down the hallway; searching for Samantha.

"Sean, your argumentative nature towards the matter didn't help either," Charles replied sharply.

"My argumentative nature? Did you mean my nature of keeping a person safe from the people that brought about their torture at a young age," Sean said, Charles clenching his jaw.

"Professor."

The pair turned to look at the two teenagers standing together; Kurt's hand in Samantha's with his tail wrapped around her waist.

"There you are," Charles said with a relieved sigh "Samantha, about your p-."

"I want to talk to them."

Charles snapped his mouth shut; both of the older men giving her surprised looks. They had not expected such a definitive response so quickly.

"Kurt's going to come with me," Samantha said, not questioning; she was simply stating the facts "And could you get Naomi? I'd feel better if she was here too."

Charles nodded and placed his finger to his temple; not inquiring why she was suddenly firm in her convictions about this.

It was quiet for a long moment; Charles shutting his eye to focus to find Naomi's mind and tell her to come back.

Suddenly he opened his eyes; a funny expression on his face.

"… Samantha, you know I would call her back unless she was doing something very important, and this one…"

"What, are they getting nasty?" Sean asked sarcastically; Charles not heeding his words in the slightest as he placed his finger to his temple again. This time, the Professor gently told Samantha the exact reason he wasn't going to call Naomi back.

Samantha's eyes widened and her mouth opened the slightest bit before she shut it quickly and seemed to shake off her surprise.

"Don't bother her," Samantha agreed quietly.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Sean asked, seemingly cooled down and in a more sympathetic mood.

Samantha took a deep breath before she shook her head; Sean lowering his eyes slightly.

"You'll get wound up," Samantha said, Sean not even trying to debate that one.

"How about Jubilee? Or Jean or Ororo?" Sean offered, Samantha smiling softly.

"I don't need the cavalry, Sean."

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"She'll speak with you."

Rita could've cried right then; she was going to see her baby again.

"She has some conditions, though," Professor Xavier said.

"Whatever she wants," Lee said, Rita hearing the way he was trying to hold back his own thankful and excited emotions.

"I will be present until she dismisses me as well as Kurt; her f-," Professor Xavier paused and thought about it for a moment "Well, I suppose he's her boyfriend now; forgive the slip of the tongue. All of that occurred while I was in DC."

"That's fine," Rita reassured, having a moment to consider how her daughter had grown; of course, logically, she knew that Samantha was eighteen and legally an adult. But, hearing the way the Professor had casually said that she was dating someone had thrown her for a loop; that little girl she'd known had a boyfriend.

They'd seen a few boys around the school; a few of them passing through the room they were told to wait in with looks that ranged from curious to outright dark. Rita got a feeling that those ones knew who they were and weren't so quick to forgive what they'd done to a fellow student; maybe one of them was her boyfriend. Maybe the one with sunglasses that had walked through the room with a girl in a yellow jacket; both of the pair had given them very dirty looks as they walked past. Sure, he was white, but Rita highly doubted that mutants cared much about the color of a person's skin.

As she thought that, she couldn't help but notice the way Professor Xavier's lip twitched and he readjusted himself in his wheelchair.

"Are you ready to meet her?"

And that was it, wasn't it? They weren't going to be seeing their daughter again; they were going to be meeting an adult woman for the first time. It didn't matter that they'd raised her when she was small; she'd had ten years to grow and change and become a person with her own thoughts and aspirations.

"Yes, we're ready."

.

She was average sized with her dark curls teased into the big hair of the era; her form borrowing a little bit of the curviness her mother had had as a young woman. Her lips were full like both of her parents, but were currently pulled into a considering frown as she took in the two people sitting before her. Her eyes were big, but it was hard to categorize them as doe as she was giving the pair that had raised her thoughtful but suspicious looks.

This was their daughter.

They were looking at the woman they had thought had died as a child; there seemed to be nothing else that could surprise them right now.

But, this was a school for mutants; of course there was something to surprise them.

Over the years of working with mutants, they'd encountered a few with physical manifestations; mostly tattoos, the occasional spikes, or something of the like. And of course, working so hard within the community, they'd heard much about the mutant that had saved the president: Mystique.

But, they'd never seen a physical mutation to this degree.

And, most importantly, the boy with blue skin, a tail, and fangs had his three digit hand wrapped around their daughter's.

So, boyfriend.

There was their daughter standing in front of them; more comfortable curled up to someone that most people would say looked like a demon than with her parents.

"What do you want?"

Their baby's voice sliced through the heavy silence; her tone clearly full of held back emotion. Not the type of tone that meant she was happy to see them; the type that conveyed years of pent up resentment.

Rita opened and closed her mouth, but uttered no sound; for years, she'd imagine this exact moment, but now that her baby was really right in front of her? What could she say to her that would make up for the past ten years? What could make up for handing her right over to the people that wanted to hurt her?

She snorted and looked away as neither of them answered; a heavy layer cynicism over her features.

"Of course."

"Samantha."

Her eyes snapped to Lee; a funny look in their brown hue as she took him in.

"What do you want?" She demanded; the emotion flowing over the edge.

"To see you. We-We wanted to see you," Rita said, standing up to try to get her feelings across, but immediately sitting back down when the young woman took a step back and her boyfriend took a step forward.

A tense silence filled the room; none of them knowing what to do after that.

"We just wanted to see you… We just wanted to know you're alright," Rita said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"No thanks to you," Samantha replied, angry tears building in her eyes as she hissed her response.

Suddenly, Samantha's boyfriend disappeared, leaving behind a black smoke and a funny sound; the blue boy reappearing seconds later with a tissue box.

"Thanks, Kurt," Samantha murmured, taking one of the offered tissues and gently wiping her eyes.

"Of course, Samanzha," Kurt replied, his voice heavy with emotion and thick with what seemed to be a German accent.

"… We never wanted you to get hurt," Rita said softly after Samantha seemed to pull herself together a little bit "We didn't realize what we were doing. We were… ignorant."

"So?" Samantha replied, balling the tissue up in her hand "That forgives what happened to me?"

"No, no, she didn't mean that," Lee reassured "What we did was… unforgivable."

Samantha gave the pair a dirty look.

"Did you two come here just to feel sorry for yourselves?"

"This isn't about us," Rita protested, feeling any chance at being in her daughter's life slipping away for the second time "We just wanted to make sure our baby was okay."

Samantha's face went stony and she seemed to grow in size as she stared down at them.

"How is this not about you two? If you really only cared about me being okay, then when Charles told you that I was alive and happy, you would've never come here. You wouldn't have come to my home and disrupted my life if it was about me; it was to make sure you weren't the parents that got their kid killed. It was to-to alleviate your guilt. All of this isn't about me; it's about your baby."

The door slamming behind Samantha shook them all to the core.

.

Kurt stood in the doorway of Samantha's bedroom; the young woman he called his girlfriend laying in her bed with her back to him.

"Are they gone?"

Kurt jumped slightly; he hadn't realized she'd known he was standing there. But, her watery words had been just loud enough for him to hear them.

"Ja."

It was quiet except for the soft sounds of sniffles coming from the girl curled under the covers. Kurt frowned and went to stand beside her bed; not wanting to do anything that made her uncomfortable or unhappy.

"Zhey left zhier phone number and zhere address; zhey said zhat it doesn't matter, zhat zhey'd alvays be happy to hear from you."

Kurt winced as Samantha shook with a fresh bout of tears; maybe he shouldn't have said that.

"Was I wrong?" She managed to choke out.

"Of course not, Liebling; vhatever you felt vas right vas right. You didn't do anyzhing vrong."

Samantha turned over and allowed Kurt to see her tear stained cheeks; her lower lip trembling as Kurt kneeled down on the floor to be at eye level with her.

"You're too nice to me," Samantha said quietly.

"You deserve zhe entire vorld being nice to you," Kurt replied, Samantha giving a watery, surprised giggle; the young mutant suddenly holding her covers up for Kurt to join her.

"C'mere," she said, Kurt hesitantly climbing in to the bed and lying stiffly as she curled up around him "This okay?"

"Ja, of course zhis is okay. Zhis doesn't bozher you?"

"You're a real silly blueberry sometimes, Kurt."

.

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The only sound that filled the apartment was the ticking of a clock and the quiet breaths of the couple that occupied it.

"How much longer?"

Naomi Maximoff leaned to look at the wall clock that was in the hallway; the young woman's back resting against the cabinets under the sink while her husband leaned against the bathtub.

"Few more minutes," she replied, Peter groaning and making her laugh softly.

"This has been the longest fifteen minutes of my life," he said, Naomi giggling "And you know that's saying a lot for me."

Silence fell between the couple; their legs knocking against each other's as they waited.

"Do you think they'll be like us?" Peter questioned his wife gently.

"Peter, don't get your hopes up; I don't think I'm actually-," Naomi said, trying to keep Peter's excitement in check; she didn't want him to be heartbroken.

"I know, I know," Peter replied "Just, when it happens."

Naomi sighed slightly and gave him a soft smile.

"It'll be pretty hard for them to not be a mutant; not with the genes running in our families," Naomi said, Peter chuckling.

"I meant… I want them to look like you," Peter said, Naomi smiling softly.

"Is this your way of admitting to me you want a girl?" Naomi asked, Peter snorting; the silver haired man readjusting on the cold, tile floor of the bathroom.

"Baby, a boy would be lucky to look like you."

Peter grinned as she threw her head back and laughed hard at that; he always loved making his girl laugh.

"I don't really care what they look like," Naomi admitted, still giggling slightly "Except, maybe… I wouldn't mind if they picked up the gene that runs in you and Lorna."

Peter ran his fingers through his hair as he smiled; even after ten years, he still felt a little giddy whenever Naomi's love of his silver locks came up.

"How about red? Wade would love that," Peter said, Naomi giggling.

"I don't think it matters what the hair color is; Wade's gonna love them," Naomi countered.

"I think maybe we shouldn't let him babysit," Peter joked.

"Agreed."

Suddenly, the beeping sound coming from the kitchen made them both jump; the timer on the oven just went off.

It was time.

Naomi stood first and grabbed the little stick that was face down on the sink; not looking at the side that had the answer to the question that had been ringing in her head all day long. The young woman turned around and faced her husband, who was standing and looking at her with thinly veiled excitement mixed with intense anxiety.

"It's probably negative. Like, ninety-five percent chance it's negative."

"I know, Baby; just look, please," Peter said, bouncing nervously.

Naomi took a deep breath and looked at the small stick; holding it in a way that didn't allow Peter to see. Peter found himself chewing on his nails; a habit he thought he'd broken a long time ago.

Naomi looked up at him; her big, blue eyes looking strangely shiny in a way Peter couldn't place as excitement or disappointment.

"Pete?"

Peter swallowed hard; her voice was indiscernible.

"Yeah?"

Naomi held up the pregnancy test so he could see the results.

"You're going to be a dad."