"Delia?" Heather asked when she saw the young mutant with the X-Men. They stood outside the YMCA, waiting for the jet.
Delia smiled, obviously recognizing the girl. "They roped you in too?" she asked, walking over to them.
"Are you coming back to the school too?" Allison asked her, surprised. "That'll be great for you. You dropped out a few years ago, right?"
Delia glowered at Allison. "No, I'm not."
Emmaline told them, "She told us she was twenty-one."
"No, she's seventeen like us," Heather said, ignoring Delia's glare. "You should come with us. There's no tuition and you can learn to use your power."
"I already know how to use my power, thanks, and I'm so over school," Delia replied stubbornly. "I'm just here to hide out in the Y until Magneto's group leaves."
"You can leave if you don't like it," Emmaline told her. Both Storm and Scott were not well enough to talk and Logan wasn't an ideal recruiting officer for the school, so Emmaline felt like it was her responsibility to get Delia to safety. "My brother—well, basically my brother—is seventeen also. He was also 'done with school' and didn't want to go, but I convinced him to and he really likes it now." 'Really likes it' was a bit of an exaggeration of Drew's feelings about the school, but she felt they were necessary.
"What have you got around here that's any better?" Heather asked her, shrugging.
There was a quiet noise as the jet appeared overhead and lowered itself automatically onto the empty parking lot, narrowly avoiding the street lamps. "Either way, you've got to make your choice. We've got to head back now to take care of Storm and Cyclops," she said, Scott's mutant name sounding weird on her tongue.
The jet landed and the stairs lowered automatically. "Coming? You can get someone to send you your things later," Emmaline said.
Finally, Delia nodded. Reminding Emmaline of Drew, she said, "But if I don't like it, I'm out."
"All right," Emmaline nodded before helping Storm on to the jet, followed by Logan. Scott was awake now, but dazed, so Logan walked behind him to stop him from falling down.
"Let's get you patched up," Emmaline muttered to Storm, helping her to the back of the plane. Storm punched in the code and the doors slid open to reveal a sterile med lab. She managed to sit down on the edge of a metal table.
Emmaline turned around to see Scott turning right instead of left, walking unsteadily to the cockpit.
"Like hell I'm letting you fly us," Logan said, blocking Scott's way. "We're sticking to auto-pilot."
Emmaline spent most of the short flight in the medical area of the jet, following Storm's instructions for Scott's care. His face was bloodied and had been scraped against the dirty brick wall. He retained consciousness through the flight, apologizing to Storm repeatedly for not fighting against Miss Scarlet though her mutation had clearly stopped him. Storm's primary instruction was to make sure Scott did not fall asleep.
Storm's injuries were spread more widely, with bruises scattering her entire body from the long fight. She helped Emmaline bind some of the deeper cuts on her legs, but told her that the rest would be patched back at the mansion.
By the time they landed, Emmaline was less worried about Scott and Storm than she had been at the beginning. Both seemed to be getting progressively better rather than worse. When they landed—on the lawn rather than in the bunker because none of them could land the plane well enough and the autopilot was not exact enough—several teachers came out with stretchers. It was past ten, so the grounds were dark. The lights from inside the mansion lit patches of the lawn, but most of it was in darkness. Despite their protests, they loaded Storm and Scott onto the stretchers and had Kurt teleport them immediately to the med lab.
Delia, Heather, and Allison stood back during the proceedings, but were not ignored. "New students?" one of the teachers asked Logan.
Logan nodded. "Emmaline," he said, addressing her. "I'll walk with you to take them to the Professor's office."
As they walked, Emmaline explained more about the school to the girls, though she felt she was not the best candidate for tour guide since she had only been there a few weeks. Logan remained quiet, walking stoically beside Emmaline under her shield. A faint blush overtook Emmaline's face every time she looked at him, mind full of images of their kiss.
The Professor was as calm as ever as he explained the school in better detail to the three rogue mutants. Heath er and Allison were eager while Delia was silent, taking in the words without expression. Logan and Emmaline stood farther back in the room. She had taken the shield from the girls at the Professor's request, doubtlessly so he could read their minds, but she had maintained it over herself and Logan.
As the Professor was wrapping up, Rogue stuck her head in the door. "You rang?" she asked the Professor, tapping her head.
He nodded. "Yes, thank you, Rogue. These are our new students, Heather, Allison, and Delia. Delia will be rooming with Kitty, and Heather and Allison will share the empty room on the third floor. Would you mind showing them the way?"
"No problem," Rogue said. She gestured for the girls to follow her with one gloved hand. "So what are your powers?" she asked them as they walked away.
"Logan, Emmaline, please take a seat," the Professor said, gesturing to the recently abandoned chairs. Emmaline sat first. Logan seemed ready to refuse, but then complied. "I know it's getting late, but I need to talk with you. What happened these last two days?" he asked them.
Logan gave a brief explanation of the events, mentioning the security of the YMCA, Tori White's attack, her drawings, and how they convinced the girls to join the school. Emmaline sat back, only interjecting when the Professor asked her specific questions.
"Since we have done all we can for Newark, you can remain here until Magneto's forces move again. If both Storm and Scott are too injured to return to the field, Logan, you will be in charge of putting together the team. But we can worry about that later. For now, please relax here. You've done a good job," the Professor told them.
By the time they finished debriefing the Professor, it was past eleven at night. Only a few hours ago they had been fighting the Brotherhood, and the calm of the school made Emmaline tired after the action. Emmaline and Logan went to the kitchen to eat before going to bed.
Drew was already in the kitchen. "I heard you were back!" he said, standing to greet Emmaline. "Jamie was already asleep, so I didn't wake him up."
Emmaline brought him into the shield with her and Logan and hugged him tightly. "I told you I'd be fine," she said when she let him go.
He frowned. "I hear Storm and Scott didn't fare so well," he said. Seeing Emmaline's surprised look, he said, "Gossip travels fast in a school, mutants or not."
Emmaline nodded. "We were in a fight," Emmaline admitted but before she could give any more details, the door to the kitchen opened.
"After the dining hall closes, we're allowed to come here any time for a snack," Kitty was saying. She had already walked through the door into the room, and the door had opened to reveal Rogue, Heather, Allison, and Delia. "Oh, hey guys," Kitty said to Logan, Emmaline, and Drew.
Emmaline took over the introductions. "Hello. Drew, this is Heather, Delia, and Allison. Girls, this is my brother Drew. He's your age." She used the term brother because it came the closest to describing their relationship to strangers.
Drew waved to them and turned back to Emmaline. "I just wanted to see for myself you were okay. I'll see you at breakfast," he said.
Emmaline let him out of the shield as he brushed by the group of girls and left the kitchen. Logan rapped on the edge of the shield. "Let me get to the fridge," he said, stepping forward.
Emmaline expanded the shield to encompass all the occupants and appliances in the kitchen, surprised at herself to realize she trusted everyone present. "Hey, Logan, go ahead and grab us a box of Cokes," Rogue said, sitting down at the small table. Logan grumbled something about not being a servant, but complied anyways.
Emmaline turned around one of the chairs at the counter to face the girls. "So how do you like the school?" she asked the three new girls.
"It's really nice," Heather said.
"Better now that we've seen some of the male population. If the whole school looks like Scott, Logan, and Drew then we've hit the jackpot," Allison said bluntly, grinning.
"Oh, they are," said Kitty.
Logan raised an eyebrow as he set the cans of Coke in the middle of their table. "I'm not available," he told them, casting a subtle glance over at Emmaline, who blushed.
"Did you mean my Drew?" Emmaline asked, hoping her blush wasn't too obvious. Had Logan meant he was unavailable to them because he was a teacher or because he was interested only in Emmaline? "You guys think he's cute?"
"Um, yeah," Heather said as though it should have been obvious. "Right, Delia?" she asked.
"I like blonde guys," Delia said, but didn't meet their eyes.
"Whatever his hair, Drew is adorable. Is he single?" Allison asked Emmaline. "Just for general knowledge," she added when Emmaline looked unsure.
Emmaline was a bit thrown off. She had never thought of Drew that way, but she could see the reason for their attraction. "He's definitely single," Emmaline told them.
"What's his power?" Delia asked.
Emmaline shrugged vaguely. "Maybe you should ask him sometime. That's a good conversation starter," she encouraged.
The girls continued gossiping about the boys of Xavier's School as Logan and Emmaline turned back to the counter where their food was sitting. Logan had made them both BLTs and a bag of chips. Emmaline smiled over at him, trying not to seem as nervous as she felt.
Emmaline ate delicately, feeling Logan's eyes on her. "I am so hungry," she admitted.
"Me too," he said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"You're healed from that poison, aren't you?" she asked him, suddenly worried. "It had you out longer than I would have expected."
"I'm fine now," he said. He lowered his voice. "That girl was lucky we were there."
Emmaline looked discreetly over her shoulder back at Delia, who was demonstrating her power to Rogue and Kitty by transforming a plate into a hat. "She was," Emmaline agreed. "Those mutants were terrible. We ran into a few like that when we were living on our own—that's how we met Drew, actually."
Emmaline was prepared to leave the story at that, but Logan seemed truly curious when he asked, "What happened?"
She cast a glance back at the girls and muttered, "Let's go somewhere else for story-time."
Logan nodded. They waved goodbye to the group of girls and started to walk down the hallways. Emmaline let Logan decide the turns they took as she began the story. "After the incident at my house, Jamie and I stuck together. I was already seventeen so I could get jobs and stuff for money. With my shield we were generally safe, but didn't have anywhere real we could stay. We had to move between hotels a lot, since we were minors. There are more job opportunities in cities, so we went to Boston about two years back. What we didn't realize was there are also more mutants in cities.
"We were walking back to our apartment one night after getting some groceries—I always made Jamie come with me everywhere, you know, to keep him safe—when we saw a kid being beat up in an alley. I found out later that Drew had tried to convince the gang out of money, but his power doesn't work on other mutants so they turned on him."
Logan smiled. "Let me guess—you jumped in and shielded him."
"It took a bit of time to get to where I could loop him in without accidentally including the rest of them, but basically," Emmaline nodded.
"You can't just trust someone because they're getting hurt. For all you knew, he could have been a serial killer that they were trying to rid the streets of. Your shield can't protect you if you don't keep the bad guys outside of it," Logan said, sounding angry.
They started up the staircase together as Emmaline tried to come up with an answer that conveyed her motivation. "I'd seen stuff like that before. It was a city, after all. It was just this one instance I had to help. Normally I rank Jamie and me as more important, but Drew was looking so young. He, um, sort of reminded me of my little brother. My real little brother, the one that died in…," she trailed off. "Anyways, once I had him safe, we took a few detours, circled around, and made our way back to our hotel. He only stayed at first because I offered to fix him up, but then he decided he liked our little group. He was a definite help to us."
"You had a perfect team. Jamie was offensive, you were defensive, and Drew was able to stop most fights before they started," Logan said.
Emmaline nodded. "It was a good system," she said. "At least until we ran into Scott."
"One-Eye does have a way of ruining things," Logan agreed. They came to a stop outside of Emmaline's room. "You've got to actually sleep tonight," he said, changing the subject.
"I slept last night," she argued.
Logan snorted. "I'd believe that except I stubbed my toe on your shield around four in the morning," he told her. Emmaline blushed. "No one moved my chair," he said, gesturing. He was right—the plastic chair was still next to her door, a tribute to his nightly vigil.
Emmaline shook her head. "You need sleep also," she said. "I can handle another night napping."
His eyes took on a determined glint. "You're going to sleep," he told her.
"So are you," she said, crossing her arms. "I'm an adult—it's ridiculous that I need you to act like my security blanket."
"If I thought you'd actually sleep without me, I'd let you be," Logan said. "I talked to Dr. Reyes about you and she told me some of the risks that come with not sleeping. You're running on empty and I'm not going to let that continue, especially if you're going to continue being stubborn and sticking with this mission."
Emmaline sighed. "You know I can't just let you take care of me all the time. I'm supposed to be the one taking care of everyone." Suddenly, she was struck by an idea. "Why don't we sleep together?"
Logan raised his eyebrows. "What about taking it slow?" he asked.
Emmaline was sure her face was bright red when she realized what she had said. "I didn't mean… Not like sleeping together, just… sleeping together. " She took a breath to calm down. "I can't sleep without you nearby, and you can't sleep while you're sitting outside just guarding me." When he didn't respond immediately, she said, "Actually, that was a crazy idea. You can just—"
Logan grinned finally. "No, it's a good idea," he told her. "As long as you're sure…"
Emmaline nodded. "We're just sleeping," she reminded him.
"Then I'll just go shower. I'll be back in fifteen. Go ahead and try to sleep." Emmaline let him out of her shield before going into her bedroom. It was generally clean, but she still scurried around, throwing used clothes into the closet. She took a short shower to get the sweat from the fight earlier off, got into her pajamas, and emerged from the bathroom.
She was surprised Logan wasn't already back, but when she checked the time she had taken less than ten minutes to clean her room and take the shower. Emmaline alternately stood by the door and sat on the edge of her bed. Finally, feeling she was overreacting, she connected the EEG and laid down on the edge of the bed. She let her breathing slow, though she was not ready to sleep alone in the room.
Just when she began to wonder if Logan was not coming back—an idea that inspired both worry and relief—the doorknob turned and she heard him enter the room. She kept her eyes closed, relaxing. Logan switched off the light and she heard him walk closer, though his footsteps were as quiet as usual.
"I still can't get through your shield," he said quietly, standing a few feet from the bed.
Emmaline glanced back at him and made out his form near her. She motioned for him to walk forward, and allowed him to pass through the shield. Logan sat down on top of the covers on the bed beside her, and spread out a quilt over himself that he had brought with him. The bed was a double, but Emmaline still worried if there was enough room for them both.
"On top of the covers?" Emmaline asked softly, not looking back at him. A small smile tugged at her lips at his uncharacteristic chivalry.
Emmaline could feel his deep chuckle in their close proximity. "Slow," he said, seeming to be reminding himself more than answering her question. "It's late. Get to sleep," he told her, "I'll wake you up if anything happens. I'm a light sleeper."
Emmaline nodded. She took a slow breath and tried to relax. Despite Logan's proximity, memories of fear and fire overwhelmed as they did every time she considered sleeping without her shield. Her heart rate picked up as she imagined waking to a charred body next to her and she made sure her shield was secure around them both.
"Are you all right?" Logan asked her softly, his voice the only noise in the room other than the beeping of the EEG.
"I just keep thinking about the fire…" she admitted and sighed.
"You're safe. Go to sleep, Emmaline," Logan said. After a moment, his arm draped over her waist, pulling her securely against him. She could feel the warmth of his body despite the layers of fabric between them. It was simultaneously thrilling and relaxing.
She closed her eyes again and focused on letting go. She subconsciously fell in rhythm with Logan's steady breathing and slipped into a deep sleep.
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