Chapter Thirteen

SCOTT

The next month was difficult for us all. Mr. McCoy arrived from school to help the professor. I suffered through panic attacks and nightmares. My guardians suffered through my terrors, bad moods and broken cries. But Xavier kept his promise. Any time I was about to freak out and begged them to stop, despite the fact that most of the time there was nothing unusual about the examination, they would stop and let me leave. This happened every day for the first week. The second week I managed to get through four days without running away. By the third week, I was no long running away, though I now had to open my eyes and let the power slam into the strong wall in the basement. Apparently, it had been a bomb shelter during the cold war.

All of my new friends were amazingly patient with me. Xavier would spend hours telling me about his family's history to get my mind off the tests. Storm let me hide out in her garden whenever I was overwhelmed. Logan took me on long bike rides. Jean was always in and out, a fresh reminder that I wasn't a prisoner. Mr McCoy, well he used to forget I was a kid. He told me things I never heard about, in long sentences and words. Sometimes he'd quote philosophers and poets and get me so interested in their words and lives that I'd forget I was on an examination table, or under some sort of scanner.

They worked slowly, explaining every step of the way to me. Mr. McCoy spent hours in the basement lab translating the data they had gained from their examinations. At last they were done. One Saturday afternoon we all gathered outside to hear the results.

"Well Scott, you truly are a very unique individual." Hank told me. "As we surmised you take in UV rays and turn it into energy. However, you produce so much of it that your body tries to release it through your eyes. You seem uniquely able to absorb the psionic energy, which probably explains why you have such strong mental shields. From what I can tell you ought to be able to control the power and only release at your will, but the damage that was done to your brain from the plan accident seems to have cut you off from any possible control."

"So I am stuck like this." I commented.

"Perhaps. In doing our tests, I noted that your beam seems to have a harder time affecting quartz rock. I would like to do some more tests with different kinds of quartz. If one of them was strong enough to dispel or reflect your beams perhaps a pair of glasses could be formed to allow you to see." Hank replied. "I have certainly not given up on that possibility yet."

"Scott, you are what are classed as an Alpha mutant. Your x-gene was possibly active long before your power emerged. You may yet develop secondary powers. Jean is also an Alpha mutant, which is one of the reasons she had two powers. Alphas are rare among mutants. There are six classes of x-gene holders. The lowest is Zeta and ninety plus percent of the world's population is in this class. They are those who have the gene, but it is jumbled or inactive. Epsilon and Delta are very similar. They are those whose x-gene could be turned on should something traumatic happen to them, like the researchers who now serve as the Fantastic Four. The difference between these two classes is that Epsilon's are usually low function mutations while Delta would turn into a high functional power. Gamma is the first class in which an x-gene would be turned on by puberty. These rarely have more than one power as their gene seems to malfunction somewhat. Betas are those whose x-gene is fully active, but who never develop secondary powers or who seems to have some sort of block to gaining more power. Both Storm and Logan would be Beta. Most mutants who would be noticed are Gamma's or Beta's. I also would be a high functioning Beta. You and Jean are the only Alpha mutants I am personally aware of."

"So I can't even hope it'll shut off one day." I muttered.

"Hank will figure something out." Jean snapped at my moroseness. I quit making comments out loud, but if they had offered any more knowledge I would have internally reminded myself that even if I was some sort of super mutant it really made life worse for me. I could not open my eyes! Jean had control over her powers. She could close of her mind and not use it. Thanks to the worst day of my life I was not only an orphan but also apparently my brain couldn't handle the power.

"As we have already seen, you heal quickly. You probably have more stamina than a normal person does. This is probably because you use the energy you convert. You just have too much to use and must get rid of it, through your eyes. If you close your eyes, it builds up, causing the debilitating headaches. I think the energy leaks from your reserves as well because you have no way to tell it to stop. This is why you must open your eyes, preferably once a week if not at least once a day." Hank finished.

Three days later Logan brought me into the basement. Hank had procured thick blocks of different kinds of quartz. I sat down in the seat and waited until Hank and Logan were behind me; in a little room, they had built to allow me to feel sure, I could not hit anyone without some warning. I opened my eyes. The white quartz shattered after only moments and I closed my eyes while the two men replaced it with a block of black quartz.

I opened my eyes and watched is shock as the beam struck the rock and came back towards me. Logan yelled, but to my fascination, I felt only pressure against my face as my body reabsorbed the psionic energy. I closed my eyes. "That was interesting. Apparently you cannot be harmed by your own power." Hank said. "We're going to try ruby quartz now."

Once more, I waited until the door on the room closed and assured myself I could hear no one moving or breathing. I opened my eyes. Red power shot the couple of yards from my eyes to the thick block of quartz. These did not reflect the beams back, nor did the quartz shatter. The beams seemed to have no effect on the quartz whatsoever. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reopened them.

The same result. My heart skipped several beats in shock and hope.

JEAN

August 8th bloomed to life with a glorious sun. Sarah dropped me off at Xavier's early, before breakfast. My parents and Sarah were to come to a special meal that night, but I wanted to be there when Scott woke up because today was a special day. Today was his fifteenth birthday, his first birthday since his rescue. Scott usually came down last, though he woke with the sun. He had an innate sense of time and once he knew when everyone else would be up, he came down.

Storm and Logan were in the kitchen, flicking frosting at each other when I walked in. She blushed hotly when I saw them, while Logan merely smiled coolly at me. " 'morning Red." He commented. "Slim ain't up yet."

"I came early so I could be part of the surprise." I informed him.

Xavier entered the kitchen, eyebrow rising when he saw me. "Well Jean, I think you are here early."

I explained once more. Scott entered at my last word. We all turned to look at him with huge smiles on our faces, though this was lost on him. He hesitated, puzzled by our sudden silence. "What's wrong?" He asked and I nearly choked on my amusement that he would think something was wrong.

"Happy birthday." We replied in unison. He was still puzzled.

"Whose birthday is it?"

"Your's, silly. It's August 8th." I said.

He sat down and considered this statement. We were all rather confused by his reaction. Xavier rolled over to touch Scott's arm. "Are you alright, son?" He asked.

"Is this really my birthday? I can't remember." He said.

"Yes, Scott."

"How could you forget your birthday?" I cried and blushed under Storm's warning look. Scott shrugged, hardly upset with me. He knew I didn't mean anything with my exuberance.

"I never had a birthday before that I could remember…" His voice trailed off and he grabbed the table as if he were suddenly dizzy. Before any of us could ask what was wrong he whispered a name. "Alex… I can remember Alex's birthday."

Alex was his lost little brother. For a moment, even I was quiet out of respect for the loss that had changed his life. Yet Scott did not seem saddened by the memory. A rare smile lit up his face. Despite the amount of time, he spent outside soaking up the much-needed sunlight his skin barely darkened and he didn't burn either. Yet he was still tanner than I was with my fair skin under red hair. "I remembered." He turned to where Xavier still sat by the boy. "I remembered something from when they were all alive."

We all smiled again, with sweet enjoyment in his birthday blessing. Then Storm and Logan served breakfast, while I took upon myself the honor of telling Scott that since it was his special day I would not make him do anything he did not want to do and he was not supposed to let me, since there were times when I wasn't sure if he liked what I had chosen for us to do or not. He teased me that such freedom might go to his head. I ignored his well-aimed shot, since I was a bit bossy and Scott never fought for his own pleasures; I proceeded instead to tell him that there would be a little party for him that evening and that my family was coming as well.

He had met my parents and sister at various times when they dropped me off or picked me up and though for a moment he looked truly frightened by the prospect, he had soon lost his apprehension. It would be the first socializing, excepting me but I didn't count, outside of his new family. After breakfast, Scott and I went outside. It was a truly glorious morning.

I basked in the beauty, gazing at a silky turquoise sky under the golden reign of the sun. Scott's face was tilted towards the sun. He seemed happy with this simple delight, but I felt sad that he could not see the vista before me. "Scott it's so beautiful out today. I wish you could see it. Maybe…" I broke off as the enormity of what I had nearly suggested reminded me that he would never want what I could offer.

"I can feel and smell the kind of day it is. I'm all right. What were you going to say?" He smiled, turning his face towards me in imitation of a person with full vision.

"I… forgot that you did not like telepathy." I explained. He cocked his head and pursed his lips together. "I was going to ask if you wanted me to show you what it looks like." I faltered, afraid I would have hurt him.

He was quiet for a very long time and I positively came to hate the fact that half his face was covered. He excelled at keeping his emotions from his lower face and only showed us what he was feeling when he felt completely safe. Since my suggestion was something he found frightening, he had masked his face. When I saw that he wasn't going to answer I turned back to the sky, but hot tears stung my eyes in shame that I hadn't considered his feelings.

Suddenly his hand took hold of mine. "Jean I trust you." He said. "I believe that if you touched my mind you would not hurt me. But I don't think you should see what is in my mind. You don't know everything that has happened to me."

Shamed flooded me because I did know. I had seen enough in my unethical break of his mind before we had saved him.

"Scott, I have to tell you something. I have been in your mind, before you were safe. Professor Xavier had been searching for you so long and he built Cerebro for helping his search. It helped him find you, but since your shields were so strong he couldn't get your attention. I thought maybe I could get your attention and so I used Cerebro without permission." I hesitated. "The Professor would never do what I did, but I wanted to find you so badly that I latched onto the only projection I could find and was able to force my way into your mind then. I shouldn't have done it and I am so sorry. I'm afraid I didn't do a good job of masking my psyche and… I saw some of your memories. I saw you." Slowly I looked into his face. His hand had left mine at the beginning of my confession and he now sat with his face turned away from me, arms wrapped about his knees. He projected shame. I was stunned. The evil things that had been done to him were not his fault.

"I could only do it since you weren't aware that it could happen. Now you keep your mind so locked up that I would have to overwhelm your mind to get in and that would be far too dangerous for both of us." I hurried to assure him that his mental shields were still as strong as he had been told. "Please don't hate me, Scott. I swear I did not mean to hurt you."

"You were the fire girl in my dream, weren't you?" He said. I remembered that he had seen me as a fire.

"I might have been." I answered.

His hand came back to my arm. "I trust you." He said quietly, turning his face back towards me. "If you want to show me… I'm okay with it."

I mutely squeezed his hand and then reached my mind towards his. His shields yielded to my gentle touch. It felt right touching his mind. There was comfort and rest there, reminding me of the delight of coming home. It was as if a piece of me that had been missing was now in place. He felt content, sure of my good intent. Then I fed him the images I was seeing.

Pleasure and longing flooded him as we shared the beauties of nature, the swaying green-clad trees, the cool blue sky and the flaming power of the sun. I had to wipe a tear away as his craving to see these things with his own eyes was flamed to life anew. I was almost ashamed, but there was enough delight in my gift that I knew he was happy to see through my eyes. I turned to look at him and he gasped.

/That's weird/

/Seeing yourself through my eyes?/

/Yes. I wish I could see you. Professor Xavier has shown me Storm and Logan, but I've got no idea what you look like/

I stood up and pulled him to his feet, our minds still in sync. We ran to the little, crystal clear pond that sat to one side of Storm's garden. Whether because he trusted and knew me or because my own excitement was leaking to him he did not protest. Surprisingly my thoughts were difficult to keep from him. He knew what I was going to do.

We both leaned forward to let our reflections show up. Of course, the watery image was not perfect, but I did not want Storm or Logan to come upon us in the house and ruin the good moment. However he suddenly laughed. "You are red-headed."

"Yes. Logan's nickname suits me." I sighed.

"He does seem to have a knack for giving us names that fit, though they aren't always flattering."

"You don't like being called Slim?" I asked, surprised, since I had taken to using the nickname myself.

"It was strange at first. Now I do sort of like it, though don't tell Logan. I think he likes the idea that we're annoyed by his names."

"Do you mind if I call you Slim?"

A wide smile broke out across his face. "If you call me Slim I get to call you Red."

I laughed and shoved him playfully, forgetting that of course my intentions were telegraphed by our connected minds. He caught my hands. He was amazingly powerful. I had not realized how strong he'd grown in the good care of the Professor and under the ministrations of the sun.

/Jean, Hank is here, do you know where Scott is?/ The professor suddenly intruded. I quickly disconnected Scott's mind, embarrassed by the implications I knew my family would draw from the ease with which Scott and I shared a mind. Though I doubted the Professor would tease either of us, I did not like the idea that he could mention it to the others.

"Hank is here." I told Scott, though no doubt he'd overheard before my abrupt severing of the connection. "The Professor says he's got something to show us."

SCOTT

It had taken Jean some time to get used to the fact that my memory allowed me to walk as well as a seeing person. She still hovered sometimes, afraid I might fall or trip. Today she was both cautious and eager, sometimes tugging on my hand until she remembered that I never walked fast as she did, sometimes pacing herself to my deliberate steps. I missed the touch of her mind in mine. There was something comforting about the link that was now gone.

She knew something I did not, which explained her eagerness. Hank had probably brought a gift. I had been surprised by the gifts they had given me for my birthday. There were times when I realized how little I knew about the social life Jean adored. Despite Hank's amazement at my ability to grasp knowledge, I knew that this would only get me so far in the world. Scholastic-wise I was working on catching up with my peers and my innate understanding of mathematics, combined with the reading I had done prior to Jack's abduction meant I was very close to catching up. Should I ever have the chance to return to school I might be in the same grade as those my age.

We hurried in through the back door and dashed through to the foyer. There Logan was demanding an explanation of the scent of perfume that he smelled on Hank. Hank was cooling explaining it as probably coming from the waitress who had served him his meal only an hour or two before. I grinned. I knew the others were too. There was a comradeship among us that you did not have to see to know.

"Ah, here is the man of the hour." Hank cried, turning the attention of the others from him to me. "Scott I have finished the first pair of glasses. I was determined to get them done by today and with the help of a trusted friend I have managed it. I felt that was the best birthday gift I could offer."

Hank pressed a pair of thick glasses into my hand. "Put them on." Jean cried. "What if they don't work? Shouldn't I try them in a safer place?" I asked.

"We've run every test imaginable. They will work." Hank assured me.

"If it makes you feel better we can go outside and we will stay behind you when you put them on." Xavier suggested.

Jean led the procession outside. Everyone came along to my intense embarrassment. In the wide-open yard they all stood behind me as I carefully unwrapped my bandage and slid the heavy, cool glasses over my eyes. Hank double-checked that they were pressed against my skin at all edges. "Alright Scott, You are set to open your eyes."

I took a deep breath, but I could not do it. What if it didn't work? What if this hope would also shatter?

"Well?" Jean asked.

"There's nothing in front of me, right?" I demanded.

"No there isn't. Open your eyes!" Jean hollered impatiently.

I clenched my fists, gritted my teeth and opened my eyes. I could feel the power rushing out my eyes, but it stopped short against the red tinted glasses. My mouth fell open and I stared at the world. Everything was in different shades of reds, purples, oranges and blacks. Little hints of the actual colors could be made out. I could see!

"It worked, didn't it?" Jean said. I nodded and nearly jumped out of my skin when Hank and Jean came racing around to see my face. I quickly shut my eyes, raising my hands to my face in fear that the glasses would shatter.

"Scott it's alright. We proved that the quartz dispels your beam, remember?" Hank said. "It's okay to look at us."

I held my breath as my hands fell away and my eyes slid open. No deadly power shot my friends and I stared in amazement at the bulky Hank and slender, beautiful Jean. The watery reflection she'd shown me earlier had been tinged with her doubts and did not reflect her true grace. I blushed under the gaze of her eager eyes, amazed that such an angel could take interest in me.

Suddenly I felt overwhelmed. I sat down and began to cry. I had accepted my blindness. I had determined that I would keep my eyes closed for the rest of my life. Never in my wildest dreams had I fathomed these wonderful people who had given their time and effort to learn how I could be normal.