A/N: Hey, where did everybody go? Seems like nobody's reviewing. Am I doing a good job? A bad one? It's too quiet in here...
If they drop one more thing on me tonight, Grace thought as she followed the lion's directions, I am going to unspool completely. I don't need anything more to do at this point; if one more thing gets added to 'suing the government, getting the Act repealed and anti-discrimination laws passed, living with the worst mutant terrorist in the world and repairing his relationship with his children, matchmaking for his daughter befriending all of mutantkind, and 'sending them home'—whatever that means—I'm going to crack.
Well, all right. I have to admit living with Erik does have its advantages. But otherwise I am going to crack.
The lion told her to take a right and go down the main stairs, and she did, absently. She was busy thinking over what 'Send them home' meant.
To me, it would mean 'send them home to their families'—but those are the same families who abused, rejected, and threw them out to begin with. Even if their families were willing to take them back, would they be willing to go? Would the Toad be happy to reunite with the mother who used to stub out cigarettes on him? Would Callisto want to go home, even if they pleaded and said, 'We're sorry, we didn't understand. Please forgive us. We love you.'?
And how am I supposed to do it? Who's going to help? It's not like I could go family by family and mutant by mutant. Nor do I have the kind of influence to address large groups of people.
Why did I get tapped for this, anyway? Who did the tapping? Why do they talk to me?
She realized she was heading towards the kitchen and the rec room, and she could hear the students chatting and laughing up ahead. Ororo came out of the elevator with a couple of the smaller children. "Grace—you're just in time for movie night. It's Pirates of the Caribbean. Won't you join us?"
"Go on in." said the lion. Finally a sensible suggestion, she thought. A couple of hours of Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush sounds just about right.
"Sure," she said.
It seemed as if the entire student body was there, as well as Erik's people, even if they were hanging around the fringes of the group.
Grace could see Jean and Scott were on hand to help Ororo maintain discipline. "Grab a chair," Jean invited. "Have you seen this before?"
"Who hasn't?" Grace chose an overstuffed armchair.
Jean leaned over toward her and beckoned Ororo as well. "Captain Jack or Will Turner? I'd go with Will Turner."
"Captain Jack!" Ororo shook her head. "I don't know who you're kidding. Will Turner is a wet noodle."
"Barbossa." Grace said, naming the villain of the piece. She liked Geoffrey Rush's acting.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Jean asked.
Just as Grace was getting comfortable and starting to relax, it happened. The elephant on a bag of peanuts in the shell raised its trunk and said. "The girl in the gloves needs a hug."
That's it. "Excuse me." Grace grabbed the peanuts out of the hand of a very startled student and emptied them into a handy bowl, which she handed back to the boy. "I just need the bag," she explained, and stormed out into the hall.
"You mean Rogue? The same girl who gutted Erik in front of everybody at dinner? You want me to hug her?"
"Yes!" the elephant trumpeted.
"Why?"
"The girl needs a hug."
"That's what the fish potholder said yesterday. Why does she need a hug from me so bad?"
"Give the kid a hug." That was the lion speaking.
She pulled it from her pocket, and snapped, "Bite me!" at it.
It did. "Ow!" It wasn't a hard bite—just enough to startle her. She dropped it, threw the peanut bag to the ground, and ground her heel into the elephant.
"Why me? Why did I get this power? Why am I the one who has to spearhead the saving of all mutantkind? Is there a reason?"
"Yes," said the lion.
"What's the reason, then? Tell me."
"Go hug the girl in the gloves."
"No. I'm not doing another thing for you until I get some answers."
"Hug the girl, and I'll tell you."
"Answers first. Then I hug."
It shook its head. "Nope. First hug her. Then I'll talk."
"All right. This had better be good!" She strode back into the room, and went over to the sofa where Rogue was sitting with her friends. The girl started guiltily when she saw Grace standing over her.
"Ms—Ms. Engstrom?" Rogue stammered.
"Rogue, would you mind standing up for a second so I can hug you?"
"Ah—Ah—Look, Ah'm gonna apologize to him tomorrow. Ah know Ah screwed up."
"That's nice. Now let's hug. My little friend and I have a deal. I hug you like he wants, and he gives me some answers." She held up the lion.
Rogue got to her feet and stepped forward, looking as if she were going to her execution. "Okay—but you gotta be careful--."
Grace knew that contact with the girl's skin was dangerous.
She knew that Rogue absorbed memories, powers, and lifeforce that way.
She knew all of that, but the hugging habits of a lifetime took over, and as she hugged the reluctant girl, she touched her bare cheek to Rogue's fatal skin.
Rather than sticking to her like a loose filling to a candy apple, Ms. Engstrom simply folded up, leaving Rogue to grab the woman bodily to keep her from hitting her head on the snack table.
The room burst into uproar. "Rogue!" Ororo cried, shocked.
Suddenly Callisto was right in her face. "What did you do to her? What did you do?"
"Ah didn't do it! She did. Ah warned her!"
"Hey, kiddo." said an unfamiliar voice—young, male, and slightly nasal. "Down here."
It was coming from the floor near Rogue's feet. She looked down, and froze, even as Jean and Scott were taking the unconscious woman from her hands and laying her down on the sofa.
It was the little plastic lion. And it was winking at her.
Dr. Grey must have seen something in Rogue's face, because she asked her, "What's wrong?"
"That little red lion. It talked to me." She pointed at it. It had a funny face, sort of half-smooshed.
"Let's talk," it invited her.
"Of course," Jean replied. "That's her power."
"It says it wants to talk to me. What am Ah supposed to do?"
"Knowing what I know about her powers—I'd listen." Jean bent over Ms. Engstrom and began taking her pulse.
"You didn't hurt her," the lion told her. "I needed a word with you, and this was the only way you could hear me—and believe."
"It says I didn't hurt her. It says it wanted to have a word with me." Rogue told the room.
"Whoa! What's it like, having her powers?" Kitty asked.
"About the freakiest thing ever." Rogue replied. "And by this time, Ah've seen a lot of freaky. What do you want?", she asked it, picking it up off the floor very carefully.
"It's what you want," The lion said, "Your powers don't come with an off switch."
"Ah know that!"
"How would you like to have one installed?"
"What?"
"All you have to do is learn to listen to us like she does. We'll fix it so you can turn your powers off and on whenever you want."
"Can't you fix it now? Ah'm listening now."
"Right now you're listening with her ears." It nodded in Grace Engstrom's direction. "You have to learn how to listen on your own."
"Ah will, Ah swear! But is she going to want to teach me, after what Ah said about...him?"
"Listening isn't something that can be taught like arithmetic. You have to learn it the same way you learned how to talk."
"Like Ah learned how to talk—? Wait a minute. What are you?" Suddenly she was worried—was she making a literal or figurative deal with the devil?
It shook its head. "When you're ready to understand the answer, you won't have to ask the question."
"Well, can Ah talk to you again like this before Ah make up mah mind? If she agrees?"
"Nope. This isn't going to work a second time. Your power won't have any effect on her again."
"If there was gonna be one person Ah could touch without hurting, she wouldn't be the one Ah'd choose." Rogue grumbled.
"You can touch anybody once you learn to listen. Talk to you later, kiddo." The lion went back to plastic immobility.
"Come on. Let's take Grace up to her room." Jean said. "Before anybody tells Magneto what happened."
It was just like coming to in the yarn shop, except that the faces were different. Grace recognized that she was in her guest room at Xavier's. "What happened?" she asked.
"He wanted to talk to me direct." Rogue held up the little lion. She looked shell-shocked—pale and trembling. Her voice shook as she spoke.
"Thank you. What did he—?"
Then Erik was there, furious and loud. "Wasn't what you did at dinner tonight enough, girl?" He seized Rogue by the shoulders and shook her.
"Ah didn't—!"
"Erik! It's all right." Grace sat up and put a hand on his arm. "I'm all right. My little friend there wanted a word with her in private. She was about to tell me what he wanted."
"Oh." He let go of Rogue and stepped back. "My apologies." he told the girl brusquely.
"He said that if Ah learn how to listen to them on mah own, they'll make it so Ah can turn mah power on and off whenever Ah want."
"I'd think hard before I agreed to that." Grace said, considering it. "Believe me, you'd just be swapping one set of problems for another."
"They can do a thing like that?" Erik asked, his voice turning speculative.
"Apparently so." Grace said, and put out her hand.
Rogue placed the lion in it. "Ah hope you don't mind, but even if you do, Ah'm sticking to you like Ah was your shadow from now till Ah learn how to listen. Anything's got to be better than what it's like for me now."
"Let the kid tag along." The lion was back. "You're going to need her to deal with the firebird."
"Oh, I am, am I?" Grace brought it up to the level of her eyes. "You made a deal with her, but I made a deal with you. I hugged her, so now I want some answers.
"Why does the future of mutantkind all get loaded on my shoulders, huh? The lawsuit and the repeal and new laws and 'Send them home.' Why me?"
"You remember the saying, 'Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.'?"
"Of course."
"You wanted purpose in your life. Now you've got it."
"I didn't want purpose in life! I was perfectly happy. When did I ever—Oh."
When I was sitting alone in that bar on my birthday, feeling like my life was meaningless, and humming 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.' Right before Erik turned to me…
"But you weren't talking to me yet!"
"We were too. We've been talking to you your whole life. You just didn't know you were listening." It sniffed haughtily. "Not that you always listened."
"All right. If you have been talking to me my whole life, then why me? Why do you talk to me?"
"Because you listen."