All pictures I've photoshopped/drawn to this story can now be found on my deviantart account 'theslowpoke'. I'm slow with updating but they'll get there. Link to a fancy 'Green Politics' folder (remove spaces and ~): theslowpoke~.~deviantart.~com~/~gallery/40786073

Story fun fact: this character – who I might have mentioned before – is in her very own fic that may or may not be nearly halfway done. More on that story at the end.

Epliogue
or
The (second) political career of Stephanie Park

J.C. Carlton had been only a minute or two late - and she barely missed the beginning. The stress and excitement from hurrying there had caused those prickles inside of her to stir, and she carefully stretched her fingers as she sat down in the back of the lecture hall. Small, blue sparkles of electricity emitted from her fingertips for a second, and she glanced around hoping no one had seen.

She had been wearing sunglasses, but the room was slightly dark, so she deemed it safe to remove them. It didn't seem as if anyone had noticed her, people around were still making small talk – and the woman behind the lectern did not seem to be finished working through her papers just yet.

J.C. took a deep breath and used the little time she had before the thing would start to calm herself down. She had a vague idea that if she was calm, there was a less chance of her losing control over the prickles. Thinking about them too much made her stomach stir uncomfortably, and she hoped once again she'd done the right thing coming there. At least no one had recognized her.

The woman on stage suddenly seemed to be ready, and without her even having to alert the audience of it, the crowd silenced. J.C. scooted forward on her seat, watching the woman intently from her place in the back.

"There was, as most of you in here know, a war back in the 1940's."

Her calm voice traveled easily through the big room, and the silence was almost heavy now, with everyone anticipating her next words.

"It was a devastating war; ripping nations apart - dragging the whole world into it – but when the dust the war had raised started to fall, was when the true horrors of it came to light."

When she silenced, pictures in black and white started flickering on the massive screen behind her.

"It had started with smearing and propaganda, and it ended with genocide."

The pictures behind the woman – the ones with smiling people that for some reason all had stars sewn to the arms of their jackets – had taken a darker turn. The poverty became clearer, and soon the people were barely people anymore, only skeletons. The jackets with stars had been changed to striped clothing that hung loose on their starved bodies.

The woman had stood silent for a while, looking at the faces on the wall beside her. She then turned to the crowd again.

"The prisoners in the Concentration Camps were not only Jews, but also homosexuals, political prisoners and those mentally or physically disabled. The list of people deemed worthy of the torture of the camps is long, and the deaths rose to unthinkable numbers. I speak of this tragedy – the greatest tragedy our world has ever known – because we stand on the brink of a new one."

J.C. listened eagerly: the woman was reaching the part she had come for.

"I know the numbers of anti-mutant opinions are rising in America, and I know it foremost because I once myself urged them to. When I joined the Clearance Society at fifteen it was really nothing more than a small and barely organized group of – sadist - youngsters. It grew quickly within only a few years, organizing, spreading from different acts of violence to matters of politics and religion. The group – we, I could even say, as I was part of it then – started using media to spread our opinions. Soon the whole nation could easily listen to what we had to say; and we had thoughts on anything from compulsory castration of mutants to special brands or tags that mutants could wear so that they would always be recognized. Listening to it now, it's impossible to understand how I couldn't – how people today still can't – see the connection between this and the catastrophe of the Holocaust. It's all so painfully obvious now: these organizations want nothing less than to treat people, an entire race, inhumanly – solely because of their genes!"

The words from the woman reassured J.C. more than she could have believed. She could still easily recall the panic she'd felt once she'd realized what happened to her. And she still had to keep it all a secret; her daddy would die if he ever found out! She actually had no idea if he would understand or be mad, but she was sure it would have reflected badly on his company, at any rate. Most things she did seemed to.

And he would have looked at her with his serious eyes, silent, but with a look that said:
"Jacey… Why do you do this to me?" and she would have disappointed him.

J.C.'s hands accidentally travelled to her lap, where the proximity between them caused a string of electricity to strike from one pointer to the other. She quickly pulled her hands apart, staring around frantically to see if anyone noticed. But it was all right; everyone was focused at the woman on stage.

The young girl watched the woman on stage once more, for a moment forgetting to listen to her words. It felt a little too much like school, in spite of the serious subject. The woman wasn't particularly old, probably somewhere in her mid-twenties, but she looked so much older than in the pictures. Of course, J.C. had only been a kid when the Clearance Society flyers started spreading, but she had seen them on the internet when she was looking her up.

Stephanie Park, which was the woman's name, had only been about sixteen or seventeen when those pictures had been taken. But there was not so much a change in her features as in her eyes and facial expressions. She had looked very naïve in those old photographs. She didn't anymore.

She'd seriously looked like a model back then though – probably the biggest reason she got to be the "face of the Clearance Society" in the first place – but she looked okay now, too. For an old person, anyway. The way she wore her blonde hair, straight and cut at her collar bones, was fashionable enough. It suited her.

About fifteen minutes into these contemplations, suddenly realizing she was missing the entire lecture, J.C. quickly sat up straighter and focused on Stephanie Park's words. She was coming to an end now.

"There are of course measures that need to be taken to make sure young mutants learn to develop and control their powers safely – but that really doesn't demand as violent measures as the ones being proposed in debates today. Through this political movement we are trying to reach a better, more equal future for this country and its laws, but meanwhile we're relying on donations to fund the education of these young mutants. If you are interested in any way, please feel free to take some of our brochures before you leave."

Stephanie Park stepped away from the lectern, exposing her gigantic, pregnant belly.

"Thank you for your time!"

J.C. felt quite shocked as she joined in the applause. She had known the woman was pregnant, but shouldn't she have delivered that baby by now? She looked like she was about to explode. That could not be healthy. And it definitely seemed like she should be helped off stage.

The woman looked almost forlorn as she reached the stairs that led down from the stage, but suddenly someone was there to help her. Stephanie Park smiled gratefully at the assistant, steadying her planet-sized belly with one hand as the red-headed young man carefully helped her down.

Once down she stopped to talk with the people that had come forward, and J.C. decided she could wait. She really had to pee, anyway.

Emerging from the bathrooms, J.C. noticed people were mostly leaving. With a slight pang of panic she realized Stephanie Park herself might have left, too. She hurried into the lecture hall, and her panic rose when she saw it was almost empty of people. She skipped down the steps as her eyes searched the room for the giant pregnant woman.

No sight of her - and it wasn't as if she was easy to miss, either. J.C. recognized the assistant that had helped Stephanie Park off stage, so she headed over to ask him.

There was a sort of after-show-feeling emitting from the group of people working on Stephanie Park's crew. They all seemed kind of relaxed, joking around a bit, content with how the thing had gone.

"Hey," she smiled at the red-head, "is there still any chance I could speak with Ms. Park?"

The assistant had given her a sideways glance first, finishing the joke he was telling his colleagues, but when he turned towards her a look of recognition seemed to come to his face.

Oh, right. She'd accidentally used her camera-smile.

"Yeah," he said, looking around somewhat confused, then quickly looking back to see if J.C. was still there.

J.C. couldn't tell if he knew her or not, people mostly recognized her from magazines, but not a lot of them could recall her name – or even the reason she was in those magazines. Young read-head was most likely trying to remember if she was an actress.

The rest of the crew had listened in on the conversation, and one of them called:
"She's out back. You could take Mandy with you."

J.C. abandoned the read-head and headed over to the young woman that had called. She met her eyes, quickly realizing the woman was a mutant, like her. It felt odd thinking that way, but she smiled at her in spite of her own uneasiness. She was at least a few years older than J.C., and her pupils were strange, cat-like slits. The young woman smiled back.

Next to her, in one of the seats, sat aforementioned child; carefully abusing a picture of Smurfette with her crayons. Really quite the sweetheart, though J.C. never really had had any stronger emotions towards children. Too messy, all of them.

J.C. listened to the directions given to her by the woman, while the little girl started packing away her things. She must have heard the conversation and understood where it all was heading. The child was keeping her head down, absorbed in closing the drawstrings on her backpack. J.C. wondered if she was shy. Most of them were, weren't they?

When the kid was done she headed over to J.C. and caught her hand. J.C. tried not to be startled. She started walking with the small human being attached to her hand.

"What's your name?" the girl asked with a squeaky voice. Apparently she wasn't very shy.

J.C. told her.

"Jay-cee? Okay," the girl answered with a tone that clearly said 'that's a real strange name but I'm too polite to mention it', "my name is Amanda. But everyone says Mandy."

The kid looked up at her, startling J.C. with her eyes. Strangely enough, they were the same color as her short-cropped hair; a yellow gold. The little one smiled at her, and J.C. smiled back, trying her best not to stare too openly.

"How old are you then, Mandy?" J.C. asked, for conversational purposes.

The reply was instant.

"Three and four quarters." She looked up expectantly.

"So you're four," J.C. concluded.

The girl giggled almost hysterically. The things that passed for humor.

"I turned four last week," the girl continued, "momma got me cake. Poppa got me a pony."

J.C. looked down, interested.

"You know, I think I got a pony for my fourth birthday, too."

The girl smiled a brilliant smile up at her.

"Poppa has her with him - I can show her to you!"

J.C. wondered which parts of the girl's story were true. She had long ago forgotten the directions given to her, but the girl seemed sure enough where they should go, so she followed her lead.

They walked past some changing rooms and came to a halt in front of a metal door marked 'emergency exit'. The kid looked up expectantly.

"Are you sure this won't set of any alarms?" J.C. asked.

The girl shook her head no, but J.C. wasn't sure she could really grasp the whole concept of locks connected to alarms. She apparently didn't know a thing about the concept of transporting ponies.

J.C. took another, astounded glance at those bright golden eyes of hers and opened the door. She held her breath listening for an alarm somewhere, but when nothing happened she relaxed.

"Told ya," the girl giggled and pulled her forward.

Stepping outside suddenly felt like entering something too intimate for anyone to see. There weren't really any of the nasties going on between the pair, only a sort of display of affection, but it still seemed like it wasn't meant for other eyes.

J.C. immediately wanted to go back in, but the girl pulled her forward.

Stephanie Park had been standing with her back against the brick wall. The mutant, leaning his forehead against hers and talking to her in a low voice, had been stroking the sides of her rounded belly slowly with his hands.

The scene had ended when Mandy in her squeaky voice had stated:
"That's my baby sister in there. Her name's Eliza."

A small hand was lifted and her tiny finger pointed towards her pregnant Momma's over-sized belly.

The pair looked up, somewhat startled, and J.C. instantly saw where the girl had gotten her golden eyes from. The strangely green man standing close to Stephanie had eyes slightly more yellow, but the similarity was striking.

He grinned at the girl, and when she let go of J.C. and ran towards him to be picked up, he obeyed immediately.

"What've ye been up to, monkey?" the mutant teased affectionately, and the young child hugged his neck with both arms.

"I made a friend, Papa," she said with her cheek pressed hard against his.

J.C. made a sort of wave.

"This is Jay-cee," the kid explained.

The mutant nodded politely and Stephanie Park, who had placed her hand on the green man's shoulder, let go to take her hand.

"I came to see you, Ms. Park," J.C. told her as she reached out with her own hand, "and they asked me to take Mandy with me."

"Well, thank you for that. Please, call me Stephanie."

When they let go, J.C. started to feel kind of nervous. And the green guy was freaking her out a bit, though he was almost ridiculously sweet with the girl, whispering something to her as she was resting her head on his shoulder.

J.C. decided to get over with what she had come for.

"Okay… My name is Josephine Claire Carlton - and I recently found out I'm a mutant."

There was no sign of recognition in the eyes of the mutant, but a glimmer in Stephanie's eyes told J.C. the woman had probably heard about her before.

"And you're interested in what we do?" Stephanie asked carefully, with an earnest smile that reached her blue eyes.

The small girl had long ago lost interest in her new friend and the conversation, and had now started asking her Papa for her pony. He gave her a plush horse he'd been holding, which made J.C. feel stupid. She quickly looked at Stephanie.

"I know what you do," she said dismissively, "what I hear is you've got a major lack in funding."

The green man had gone quiet at her words, gently hushing his daughter and looking at J.C. with curiosity in his yellow eyes. Stephanie was silent for a while, too. Then she nodded slowly.

"You could say that," she said carefully.

"I also hear there are new mutants coming out of hiding every day because of what you do – but that there's not any room for them," J.C. continued, almost enjoying stretching it all out.

Stephanie had gone quiet now, and her face was almost stiff with held back anticipation. She only nodded.

So J.C. told them that she planned to make a donation. It was a big bite out of her trust fund – and she didn't tell them that - but it wasn't like she couldn't manage without it.

She was almost positive her daddy would give her more money if she asked him nicely enough. And something in her warmed up a bit at seeing their expressions, and at knowing it was all going to a good cause.

The three of them talked through it all shortly, discussed the regular conditions and stuff like that, and at the end the golden-eyed girl had fallen asleep on her father's shoulder. He barely seemed to notice.

"I usually don't make deals in alleyways," J.C. said with a smile, "but some time's gotta be the first."
She stretched out her hand and Stephanie grasped it quickly. Her eyes didn't leave J.C.'s face, waiting for what she was about to reveal. She finally told them the exact number and Stephanie looked like she was about to faint.

They set a date and J.C. decided it was time to leave them alone to melt it all. She headed back through the metal door, and threw a glance back at the pair.

The mutant was half-gaping, standing next to Stephanie with one arm around her shoulder, and carrying their sleeping girl with the other. Stephanie was still staring at J.C., with a brilliant smile and actual tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She was cradling her belly with her hands, and for a second J.C. hoped the excitement wouldn't cause some sort of premature labor. Then she shook the thought off and opened the door.

Feeling somewhat like a fairy godmother, J.C. winked and disappeared through the doorway; leaving the young family to celebrate in peace.

The end.

There. I don't know if I did a poor job with that little cliffhanger in the last chapter - if it was way too obvious they were going to end up together anyway. But Stephanie is, after all, an incredibly neurotic woman, who overthink everything and often feels worthless – and she kept on doubting her own worth to Toad. In the end I like to think she grew more confident because of Toad. But I don't think she'll ever get rid of the worrier in her, that's just part of who she is - I'll imagine her being quite the overprotective mom as well.

I don't know if that's all that will come of Stephanie. The newly introduced J.C. will star in her very own fic, perhaps even two (the first one neaaarly but not really finished), featuring hot stuff mister Victor Creed. After I finished that/those I might try and do a short wrap-up story in a chap or two with both J.C. and Stephanie in it. It will probably be hard to stay away, but as you know I'm a slow, slow writer.

This will always be the first story I ever finished. Even though I'm already finding plot holes and bad parts, it will always have a special place in my heart. So, sweet readers: thank you dearly for your partaking in it! I hope you enjoyed it.

I'll end with a complete list of the chapter names, both the song and the 'extra' name, if anyone of you would like to check up the songs. As I mentioned they all feature in Tarantino movies, and are of very different genres. Some are very good, some are very odd. All of them are chosen as chapter names because of the titles, not because of the lyrics. 'Little Green… Man' is of course meant to be the awesome song 'Little Green Bag' (Reservoir Dogs), a title I couldn't help tamper with.

Prologue (Cleaning up)
1. Run Fay Run (Sweet escape)
2. Can't Hardly Stand It (A new neighbor)
3. Little Green... Man (Friends making friends)
4. Green Hornet (Cellulites)
5. Twisted Nerve (Tequila and some of its consequences)
6. Stuck In The Middle With You (Comeback)
7. Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time (Flirting techniques)
8. Woo Hoo (Tequila and some of its other consequences)
9. Natural High (What happened)
10. Jungle Boogie (How to lose an argument)
11. You Never Can Tell (Christmas Baking)
12. Lonesome Town (Secret Santa)
13. Satisfied Mind (Yuletide)
14. I Gotcha (Before the storm)
15. Putting Out The Fire (Burns)
16. That Certain Female (A different night terror)
17. About Her (The political career of Stephanie Park)
18. Foolish Heart (Busted)
19. Let's Stay Together (Labels)
20. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Gabriel Keller)
21. Slaughter (Fighting back)
22. Who Is He – And What Is He To You? (A visitor)
23. Good Love, Bad Love (The test)
Epilogue (The (second) political career of Stephanie Park)