When David arrived at the hospital, pulling into his private parking spot, his rationale had returned. He'd considered calling Chase and apologizing for his abrupt departure but such thoughts were driven from his mind by the main desk receptionist who hailed him as he walked into the foyer.

"Director? Doctor Egan is waiting for you in his office. He needs to speak to you about one of your patients."

David rubbed his temples, trying to dispel the headache that had been forming all morning, likely a residual effect from the party. He nodded, turned, heading down the corridor to his right and was soon knocking on the door to his office. When he walked in, the receptionist, a smartly dressed middle-aged woman, looked up from her computer, fingers paused above the keyboard.

"Helen." David smiled.

"Doctor Wells. Go right in, he's been waiting for you."

Robert Egan was poised over a file spread open on his desk, forehead in hand. When David closed the door behind him, only Robert's dark brown eyes slid up to look at him.

"David, there's a problem with Fred Skinner."

David sat down in the chair before Robert's desk and crossed his legs, "Outside the usual?"

Robert gave him a sardonic smile, "What do you call solitary confinement after stabbing Sue Yardley in the face with a broken plastic spoon while singing "Auld Lang Syne" at the top of his lungs?"

David leaned forward in the chair, "Jesus, I'd consider that serious enough to call me last night.."

"I would have if I'd been available myself. You're not the only one who had plans."

David waved at him, "Understood, so what do you think we should do?"

"Well," Robert leaned back in his chair, "We're going to have to change his meds again."

David took the file from in front of Robert, "He's been on every damn anti-psychotic out there. What's the next step, keeping him permanently sedated?"

Robert tapped his chin, "Why don't we go pay Mister Skinner a visit, then we'll discuss treatment."

Leon was sitting at the desk in the little reception booth reading the morning paper. When he heard the elevator doors open, he stood up. David and Robert waited for the familiar buzz at the door in the small waiting room.

"Director...Doctor." Leon nodded to them as they headed past him down the hallway.

Leroy was already waiting at the door at the other end. He swung it open for them.

"We're here to see Mister Skinner in solitary" David said as the door shut behind them. Leroy lifted his I.D. Card from his wallet and they followed him down the corridor. David glanced at Jesse's door as they passed. No doubt she was on the other side waiting for the door to open.

At the end of this hallway, however, there was a different door, heavier, made of stainless steel. Leroy waved his I.D card before the keypad in the wall to his left and David pushed the door open to reveal a carpeted hallway. Recessed floodlights illuminated its length, the reflection off the brushed stainless steel walls brightening the atmosphere where the décor couldn't.

When David had renovated the hospital, this had been the service area where the janitors kept their supplies, the laundry room and the hospital kitchen had been located here as well. He had built those services an entirely new wing, keeping this one just for the purpose for which it was now being used. Behind the stainless steel were concrete blocks that had been painted hospital scrub green. He had enlarged some rooms, cut up others. Some had been paneled with steel, others with white padding, a few with carpeted walls, benches bolted into the floors. Beside each door was a small screen and a keypad.

Halfway down the hall, they stopped before a door on their right and Robert tapped out a number on the keypad. The screen blinked to life.

Fred Skinner, in David's opinion, had been missing an I all his life. He was skinnier than any man David had ever met. He was skin and bones even though he had a voracious appetite. He had gotten in trouble more than once for stealing other patients food from their trays, the snack fridge, their rooms. At the moment though, it could be argues that exercise was the culprit. Fred was traversing the room at a manic pace. He was shoeless, his blue hospital issue pants hanging off his waist, his shirt flung into a corner and he was arguing with himself in a loud deep voice. Every minute or two, he would reach up and yank his thinning brown hair, once hard enough to throw himself into the wall for which he gave himself another tongue lashing. His hair thus stood up in a maniacal Bozo imitation. As they watched, he started to run, jumping up onto the bench and leaping off it, looking back as if someone was following behind him.

"Yeah, Fred's been a bit busy." David watched a moment longer, looked down at the folder in his hand. "Okay, we might as well start him on his original meds again."

Robert tapped the keypad and the screen went dark.

As the elevator rose, Robert made some notations in Fred's folder.

"What if we could find a cure for him?" David mused, if only to gauge Robert's reaction.

Robert was a tall thin man with short blond hair and light green eyes. He wore a severe countenance at the happiest of times. When he looked over the gold rims of his glasses at David, it felt as if he was passing judgment. "There is no cure David. Not for what is wrong with Fred, not for what's wrong with your special project. The problem is in the genes, or the chemical makeup of the brain or the environment, upbringing, trauma any one of a number of problems. There is no broad spectrum cure."

The elevator door slid open, "But what if there was?"

Robert stopped outside of the elevator, "But there isn't. Why bother with the what ifs? I'll get the new script down to pharmacy, see if we can't get him calmed down enough to let him out of solitary by tonight."

David hit the number four on the pad in the elevator, cursed himself as he recalled he'd left his briefcase in the car. By the time he walked past Julia on the way to his office, he was again thinking about what Chase had told him. The girl he was dating was a healer. Did she heal just cuts and bruises, could she change the structure of a DNA strand? Deconstruct a faulty gene? Create a healthy one? As he sat down at his desk and began to sift through the pile of papers before him which signified the day's work, the affairs of a large psychiatric hospital took front row to his son's current girlfriend.

Mid-terms were finally here. Brenna had heard of them but now that they had arrived, she was frantically studying. Even Sophie tried to talk her down when she told Sophie she hadn't slept the night before her science test.

"You fall asleep during the test, that's just as bad as not studying for it, okay?"

They were sitting in the dining hall eating breakfast but Brenna just lay on the table with her head on her arms, "But if I do not study how will I pass the test?"

Brian leaned over beside her and whispered in her ear, "With yo' pen up your nose if you nod off. Want a cup of coffee?"

Brenna put her head up and stuck out her tongue, "You know I cannot stomach that dark drink."

"Well you better have yourself some breakfast then or you gonna be tanking by ten."

Chase unscrewed her orange juice and nudged her, "Come on, I got the magic bottle here."

She put both hands out, pulled the bottle to her and hugged it, "Sweet juice of the orange."

Sophie laughed, "Juice of the orange, you are too funny."

Brenna sat up, draining half the bottle, "So good...I must pass my science test. If I do not keep up my science grades, how can I ever hope to become a nurse?"

"You have a lot more school to get through to be a nurse." Sophie poured maple syrup on her pancakes as she pointed at Brenna with her fork. "You'll have college too so if you're having a meltdown now, wait until then."

"Is it harder than this? College?"

Brian, Chase and Sophie all nodded in unison, "Try this times ten." Brian added.

Brenna groaned, slid down further in her chair, "Next subject."

"The Rock 'N Bowl trip this weekend?" Brian threw his arms out, "Who's signed up?"

Everyone's hand went up but Brenna's. Chase put his arm around her back, "You said you were going to sign up. It's a chaperoned trip, you're allowed to go."

"I have no idea how to do this sport you call bowling. I told you I would think on it." Her head flopped back down to the table.

"Will you go for me, please?" Chase squeezed her arm, "Please?"

Brenna sighed, "If I pass this test, I will go. Otherwise failure will tell me I must study more. Do we have an accord?"

The music was thundering loud, the seats hard plastic and cold, the lights flashing like lightning. Sophie flopped down, laughing beside her. "Well at least you passed the test."

Brenna gave her a half smile, "Agreed." She scanned the lanes, watching the other students laughing and screaming. "But I will still make a mess of this."

"No you won't, Chase is going to help you."

She could see Chase on the lane in front of her with his ball, approach the lane, swing and release it, hitting the remaining two pins at the end of the lane, knocking them down, then he turned and crooked his finger at her.

"Gods, this will surely be a disaster." she muttered as she trudged up to the lane to stand beside him.

He handed her the ball, showed her how to hold it with her fingers and faced her toward the pins.

Logan had stepped down into the sitting area and was now leaning over the back of the chairs.

"So she's never bowled before huh?"

Sophie shook her head, "No she hasn't."

"Warned her about lobbing the ball did ya?"

The ball landed on the lane with a resounding thud as it wobbled into the gutter.

"Nope guess not." He chuckled, "You guys got your work cut out for ya."

"You see." Brenna wailed, "I do not know how to let the ball go."

Chase held up a finger, "Now wait, this is the second ball you've thrown. How long did it take you to learn how to ride a horse properly?"

"Half a moon."

"Half a...a...okay two weeks right? Well that's a heck of a lot harder than throwing a ball down a lane to hit some pins and you did it. So let's get back up on the proverbial horse and give it another shot."

She picked up the ball which had returned and stood like Chase had shown her.

"Now let go earlier, about when the swing reaches your knee, here." He put his hand on her kneecap.

"I will try." She walked to the line, swung the ball, almost toppling herself when Chase yelled, "Wait!"

She swung around, "What in Odin's name?"

"Aim, honey. Don't forget to aim at that red arrow in the middle of the lane." Chase backed off the lane, "Go ahead."

Brenna stepped back up to the lane, stared at the red arrow and with a swing, she released the ball which stayed on the lane though it curved sharply, taking out the last pin on the left corner.

"One pin! That's more than you got the last throw."

Brenna stayed up on the lane until the pins were knocked down to reset and she cried, "Why did they do that?"

Chase took her hand and led her back down to the seats, "Remember, two chances each turn unless you get a spare on the tenth then you get another ball."

Brenna sat down beside Sophie, "This is so confusing."

"Aren't you having any fun at all though?" Sophie asked her and she shrugged.

"The game amuses me but I am a failure at it."

Brenna kept watching the others, studying them. Finally, on the last frame of the first game, she was able to keep the ball rolling down the middle of the lane and she began to relax a bit.

Chase sat down beside her as Sophie reset the computer for the next set, "Hon, you know it's only a game. The idea is to have fun, don't take it so seriously."

Brenna frowned, watching Sophie pick up her bowling ball, "But I feel like a failure. If I do not learn the right way, how can I help the team. How can I compete?"

Brian had finished his turn and now flopped down on the chairs across from them, "You ain't competing. This is a fun, silly night out. You join a league then it get tense."

Her frown deepened, "But I must learn properly! I wish to get it right..." Her mouth dropped open suddenly and she dropped her head in her hands, "Odin's beard! I am becoming my father! He sees everything as a challenge. Hunting, blacksmithing, milking the cows..."

Chase bit his lip but couldn't keep the humor from his voice, "Those poor cows."

Brian kicked at her feet, "I see him chasing them po' things, "Come here, I must milk you!" they running round the barnyard, "Oh shit, here he come with dem cold hands again!"

Brenna burst into a fit of giggles, "Brian, honestly."

Chase draped his arm around Brenna's shoulders, "Ya know, taking after him can't be all bad, he raised a pretty fine daughter."

"Chase you flatter me."

Brian rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "Ah gawd, I'm gonna get a cavity just listenin' to all this sweet talkin'"

They heard a whoop on the lane beside them and turned to watch Ethan, one of the younger boys, approach the foul line and stand there. He turned, winked to his teammates, started swinging his bowling ball back and forth and let the ball go. He extended his hand outward as the ball flew out over the lane but never touched the polished wood beneath it, floating towards the pins while his team clapped and cheered.

"Ethan!" Logan shouted as the ball dropped with a hard thump wobbling slowly into the pins.

"What did Miss Munro say about the rules?" Logan was now on the alley, standing over Ethan. Out of the corner of her eye, Brenna saw Grace come sailing over to grab Logan's arm, "The same thing she said about not making a scene!"

Ethan ducked around them and took his seat, stammering, "I..I'm..sorry. I forgot...I was just having fun."

Grace motioned for Ethan to follow her as the three of them trudged up the steps behind the lane and walked over to a large sitting area behind the lanes where they started talking.

"Oh he gonna catch hell for that." Brian cried, "I would not wanna be him right now."

They watched for a minute more until Chase poked Brenna, "Hey, you're up."

Brenna jumped up to the alley and grabbed her ball.

"Okay, babe, to the same thing you've been doing. Aim for the arrows, slide your foot, follow through."

The music was loud, thumping. If they had been a bit further away, he wouldn't have heard them, but as he leaned back in the seat to watch Brenna bowl, the words, "Fucking freaks." met his ears. He then heard laughter, turning in his seat to look up at the counters behind the lanes. Two young men stood there watching Ethan, Logan and Grace. One of the men was short, with shocking blond hair done in a buzz. He wore a white t-shirt with two black skulls on it forehead to forehead and large dayglo green gauges in his earlobes. The other man, his long dark hair done up in a pony tail, was dressed plainer in a simple white v-neck. He smiled and nodded leaving Chase to surmise that Blondie had done the talking. Blondie gestured then to the left and Chase saw he had a beer bottle in his hand. His friend nodded and they both moved off towards the bar that made up the far end of the bowling alley, laughing. Chase stood up.

Brenna watched the ball roll down the lane, holding her breath as it rolled over the red arrow in the floor. Waiting, watching until it hit the first pin, mowing the rest of the them down. Sophie jumped up and ran to the lane, "A strike, your first strike!"

Brenna stood there, hand on her mouth as Sophie shook her, laughing.

"I did it!" She whirled around to see Chase's reaction, instead seeing him run up the steps between the counters to the upper level of the alley and head to the left.

"Chase!" She called to him but the music drowned her out. She ran past Sophie. "I will be back."

Chase watched the two men walk through the open doorway of the bar and he hesitated, until Blondie's words resounded in his head, "Fucking freaks." and he walked into the bar.

Brenna saw Chase disappear into the place she'd called a tavern when they'd first arrived at the bowling alley. She looked back at the lane where Sophie stood waving at her to return. She held up her hand and started after Chase.

Chase saw the two men standing at the bar behind a burly looking bearded man hunched over a bottle of beer. He was wearing jeans and a blue checked shirt which was exposing at least five inches of white backside, crack included. Blondie leaned over to him and said something in his ear to which the man turned and peered out the windows into the bowling alley. "No shit," The man said in a deep voice that Chase could hear from the doorway where he stood, "Which ones?" Chase drew a deep breath and walked over to the three men who were now pressed to the glass, staring and pointing.

"Excuse me."

Blondie turned to look at him and Chase had the sudden urge to shove his gauges up his nostrils after he showed them his little magic trick.

"I heard your little freak comment a minute ago."

The guy smiled at him and nudged his friend, "Check this out, Pat." His friend who'd been standing with him, poked their friend the barfly who took his attention from the alley to watch what was happening beside him, "Yeah, I said they were fucking freaks, you got a problem with that?"

Chase drew himself up and moved in closer to him, "I think the one who's gonna have a problem with it is you." His hand had started to come up though not quick enough. When Brenna yelled to him and he turned to the sound of her voice, Blondie's fist was quicker, catching Chase in the side of the jaw. He stumbled to the side, banging against the windows, trying to recover his balance. Brenna had never seen such an act of violence against someone she loved and pure rage blossomed inside her, blocking all other coherent thought as she pushed forward to reach the group surrounding Chase.

Blondie had reared back for another hit, fist poised. She sensed the man behind the bar picking up a telephone beside the cash register as she passed him. Other patrons were shouting encouragment to the blond man and the burly guy in the blue checked shirt was reaching for Chase's collar but all action faded into the background as she heard in her head Brian asking if she had ever unhealed something. Teeth bared in a snarl, she caught Blondie's arm as he swung forward to deliver another blow. All at once her mind started to race through his body, seeing a cut he'd gotten shaving that morning, a scratch from a metal door last week. Still more, the burn on his wrist taking supper out of the oven, farther until she found the old healed fracture in his right femur. The molecules deconstructing, the new bone dissolving away, re-fissuring and Blondie screamed as he dropped to the floor, "My fucking leg! Shit!"

He had torn away from her as he had fallen, breaking contact with her and she stood there panting as Grace's hand closed around her shoulder and dragged her from the bar. As she stumbled backwards, she saw Logan rush past her, heard yelling and she was suddenly weak, dizzy. She clutched Grace's arm as Grace guided her to the far sitting area and eased her onto one of the bright blue couches. Sophie rushed over to her, followed by Brian from the opposite direction, "What the hell, I go to the john for a minute and everything happen!"

"What's going on?" Sophie sat beside Brenna while Grace ran back to the bar, "Someone said the police are on their way over!"

Brenna's head lolled back against the cushions of the couch. "Can we not just leave?"

Sophie brushed her forehead, "I don't think we can now, not with the police coming. We'll just have to talk to them."

The crowd from the bar had spilled out into the alleys, Logan had Chase by the collar and was dragging him out of the middle. Grace was talking loudly with the bartender who was standing there hands on his hips, yelling back at her.

Logan reached the couch and dropped Chase beside Brenna, "Where the hell is Joey, we might need him. Damnit I need a beer!"

Brenna made a move to point in the direction where she thought she'd seen Joey but the dizziness worsened again. Joey was a junior, a telepath though he wasn't particularly strong.

Brian leaned over Brenna, "Dude, the hell did you do?"

Chase had his hand to his jaw, "One of those guys saw what Ethan did, called us fucking freaks, so I followed him into the bar and confronted him."

"So sorry, Chase." Brenna mumbled, finally able to raise her head a bit, "I did not want you to get hurt."

"So then Brenna grabs the guy and he falls down screaming like he was gut shot."

Had it happened that fast? It had felt like minutes to her. She tried to focus, looking down the alley at where Logan was standing, nearly belly to belly with the guy who'd been sitting at the bar and she closed her eyes. She was in a lot of trouble.

Her head had cleared considerably. She could hear the squawk of the radio from the cops who stood talking to the bartender. The paramedics were kneeling beside Blondie, checking his vitals as he ranted on about the mutant stink in the alley. Grace and Logan were talking to another cop, an older man with graying hair. He seemed a bit sympathetic. He turned then and walked over to the couch where she still sat. "Hello, I'm Officer Jacobs, can you tell me what happened tonight?"

She went over what she remembered, following Chase into the bar, seeing him get hit. She stopped then, afraid until she saw Grace nod. Then she told him that she had grabbed the man's arm and he had hurt his leg. "Or rather I did." she sighed.

"Did you kick him?" The officer tapped out something on the tablet he was holding in his hand. "No sir. I...what you would say, I unhealed him."

"Unhealed him?"

"He had an old injury, I brought it back. I did not want my boyfriend to get hurt."

The cop stopped tapping the tablet, "...brought it back." he looked over his shoulder to where the other two cops were standing. "Okay. Stay right here, let me talk to my partners."

"At least Miss Munro weren't here." Brian tried to reassure her, "She gets real upset when shit like this goes down."

Brenna felt tears prickle her eyes, "Why did they call us freaks?"

Chase rubbed her back, "Cause they're ignorant assholes."

The black and blue mark on his jaw was dark and she put her hand to it gently, "Does it hurt much?"

"Nope. Don't worry about it."

"I can heal it."

Chase shook his head, "Later, okay?"

Logan, Grace and the older cop returned to where they sat on the couch. The cop sighed and put a hand on his hip, "They want to press charges.." When Brenna started to cry, he leaned over, "Listen, I don't want to play devil's advocate. Hell my brother is a mutant. I don't know what to tell you. This guy's not any too savory. We've dealt with him before."

"What.." Brenna squeaked between sobs, "What if I were to heal his leg? Would they reconsider then?"

Officer Jacobs looked back at where the blond man sat on the floor of the alley outside the bar, surrounded by people and he motioned to one of the officers who stood talking to another witness. They met a few feet away, talking for a moment and the other officer nodded.

"He's going to ask them if they would agree to it but I can tell you, he's a little prick. My son went to school with him."

Brenna peeked around Officer Jacobs, watching as the other officer bent down and talked to the blond man who was currently having his blood pressure taken by a paramedic. She saw the blond shake his head at first until the officer pointed to his leg and said something more. The blond paused, glanced her way and then shrugged. The officer looked up then and crooked his finger at her. She stood up, Chase with her but Logan pointed to the couch. "You sit, he wanted her."

She walked up to where the blond sat on the floor and the officer put a hand on her shoulder, "Now if she does what she says she can, and you walk away without a scratch, can we call this a draw because pressing charges means you have to appear in court, she has to appear in court. There's lawyer fees, time wasted waiting for the county. It's your choice, just saying no harm no foul."

The blond glared up at her and she almost wished she had split the shaving cut on his face wide open. The burly man from the bar gave him a nudge with his foot, "Jesus, Garrett, you want to wait for that fracture to heal on its own all over again? Let her do whatever she's going to do and next time you might try shutting your goddamn mouth."

The blond stared up at the man, "Fuck you, Holmes." then back to Brenna, waving his hand at his leg, "What the fuck ever. Go ahead."

Brenna knelt down beside him, her hands shaking, put them on the bare skin at his ankle and closed her eyes. The pathway to the fracture had already been laid out in her mind but rehealing it took a bit longer and the seconds ticked by into minutes. She felt embarrassed, nervous. Why had it happened so fast when she'd unhealed the fracture in the first place? Was it her anger that had fed her power?

"You got enough of a feel, Christ?" The blond muttered.

Brenna concentrated harder until finally she saw the bone fuse together again into one solid piece and she took her hands away. "Stand up, it is done."

The blond put his foot beneath him slowly, his face a grimace as if he expected pain to shoot up his leg. When he put weight on the leg to stand, however, his face smoothed out. He took Holmes's hand and pulled himself up to stand.

"Now can we agree to go our separate ways and be done with this?" Officer Jacobs stared at Blondie who paused, stamping his leg on the floor, "Yeah, whatever." throwing Brenna an icy glare.

Behind her, she heard Grace let out a long breath, "Okay, I think we should call this a night, don't you?"

They piled into the two black vans out in the parking lot after Grace spoke once more to the officers. Logan was driving the van Chase and Brenna were in. Brenna sat in the back, her face buried on Chase's shoulder. "I did not mean to hurt him. I only saw you getting punched and wanted to stop him."

"I know, sweetie. I shoulda let the comment roll off my back."

"My father is right, every time I think I have proved him wrong, I am proved wrong instead. Humans are so cruel."

"Not all a them." Brian leaned over the seat behind them. "Some, not all."

"Most of the humans I have met. Only the mutants have ever treated me well. I want to go home."

Chase sat up, "Brenna, don't say that, you know it makes me nervous."

Brenna felt his arm tighten around her, "I am sorry, Chase. I miss my Mama, she always makes everything better."

"Don't I?"

In the driver's seat, Logan rolled his eyes.

"Of course you do."

"Then I'll make this alright too, okay? Just stay here, stick it out."

She leaned into him, "I will."

Chase eased back into the seat, "I'll take care of you, Bren."

She allowed herself a ghost of a smile in the dark as she thought to herself, or perhaps I shall take care of you.