Author's note: Thank you to NotMarge, NicoleR85, babydops, partygirl98, Jinxofthe2ndLaw, and StarlitStar for your reviews! babydops inspired me to go find a picture of someone who looks like Zoey, for those of you who want the visual. It is now the cover image for this story. Zoey has curly, iridescent hair, but the face and eyes and everything are totally her! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Confrontation

It took a few minutes, but a blonde-haired woman finally opened the door.

I hadn't noticed before, but the sisters were very alike in appearance. Both had curly hair, though Chloe's white-blonde curls were tighter and more wild. Zoey's hair was more lushly curled, with that fascinating iridescent quality to it. Red, strawberry blonde and platinum all at once. The older sister was also taller and heavier-set than Zoey's tiny form, with blue eyes instead of green.

But both sisters had the same heart-shaped face and full lips. Chloe's expression was pinched and worn out compared to her sister's fresh complexion. I had a feeling it was because her husband tried to make her life miserable, the poor soul.

Chloe Grey took one look at her younger sister and the two men behind her and tried to slam the door in her face.

"Hey! No you don't," Zoey snapped. She stuck her foot in the door jam and slammed her shoulder into the door to keep Chloe from closing it on her. "Let me in, Chloe."

"Nick says you can't come in here," replied the fearful woman.

"Nick also said that we would talk later, and here I am," Zoey retorted. "Ready to talk."

"Fine," Chloe relented, after a moment's thought. Her eyes swept over to Charles and myself as she allowed the door to swing open. "What's that man doing here again?"

"He's here to help Livie, I promise. Let him in, please."

Mrs. Grey looked at us suspiciously. I thought she was going to refuse, but she stepped to the side and allowed me to push Charles' chair over the front steps and into the house.

Her back was towards Zoey, but I saw what the younger sister did at that moment. A little bird formed in her hand and took flight, up the stairs. It looked like it was made out of flames.

Interesting.

"My husband already spoke with you," Chloe said once Charles and I were inside. "We don't think our daughter needs to go to a special school. She's a girl. Why waste time on education?"

"'We' or 'he,' Chloe?" Zoey asked, watching her sister closely. "We were raised in the same house. Daddy told us we could be anything we wanted to be. Just because you were content to be a wife and mother doesn't mean Livie will, too."

Chloe looked like she was about to reply, but an interruption came in the form of her husband.

"Who's at the door?" Nicholas Grey shouted from deeper within the house.

"It's Zoey. She-"

"What?" The question was a snarl.

Zoey glanced at Charles and I. "Here we go," she muttered, squaring her thin shoulders.

I wished I could tell her how pretty she looked today. The red sundress she was wearing brought out the green in her eyes and the scarlet in her hair.

Grey walked in with murder written across his face. He didn't even seem to notice the strangers in his foyer. "I told you to stay out of this house," he snapped.

"You said we would talk later, and here we are," Zoey retorted calmly. "We need to discuss this. Livie needs to get-"

"The only thing my daughter needs is to learn how to cook and clean."

What is this man, a Neanderthal?

"It's 1968, not 1868," Zoey argued. "This is ridiculous. Your daughter deserves to have options."

"I'll thank you not to tell me how to raise my child, considering your lack thereof and the fact that no man is ever going to want an unnatural creature like you."

I take offense to that statement.

Zoey laughed bitterly. "You think I'm going to end up a spinster because I'm eighteen and unmarried? News flash, Nick, people normally don't pop out kids at sixteen anymore. And besides," she said in an acidic tone. "A few months ago you were trying to set me up on blind dates, because you were 'worried' men were going to go after me for my money."

Wait, what?

Zoey stepped closer, until she was right in her brother-in-law's face. "So which is it? Am I going to die alone or have a gold-digging husband? Or are you just trying to distract from the fact that you know that at the age of seven your own daughter is smarter than you will ever be?"

"Don't speak to my husband that way," Chloe interjected.

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Why do I bother with either of you?" she muttered, pulling a sealed envelope from her book bag. She slapped it against Nicholas' chest. "Time for blackmail. This is a court summons. Two, actually."

"W-what?" Grey sputtered, holding the papers like they were plague vectors.

"You've been living in this house for eleven months without being charged rent. One of those summons is for a mediator to figure out a good price for you to start paying me. If you can afford to go on a vacation to Colorado you're obviously not hurting for money as bad as you claimed when my father died," Zoey replied. "And the other is for an inquiry as to why you haven't sent your seven-year-old daughter to school. She should be in first grade by now, and yet she's never set foot in a classroom."

She stepped back and put her hands on her hips, eyeing her family. "So here's how it's going to be. You send Olivia to Xavier's and I'll make both of those summons disappear, or you don't. And I'll stop letting you suck off my inheritance on top of getting you thrown in jail for educational child neglect. What's it going to be?"

Wow. I need to make sure I never make Zoey angry.

Suddenly Nicholas' hand flashed out to slap his sister-in-law in the face, and then I was there next to them, holding Grey's wrist in an iron grip while I tried to maintain my self control. Flying to pieces in this situation wouldn't help anything.

I glared at him silently, barely noticing that while Grey's face was a mix of anger and shock, Zoey and Chloe both looked startled as to how I got there so fast.

Oops.

Hank, be careful, Charles' voice cautioned in my head.

"Who the hell are you?" Nicholas snapped, tugging to get his hand loose. Not that it did him any good. "You were at the shop yesterday getting into my business."

I tossed his hand, so his shoulder jerked back, and stepped away slightly. The temptation to crush his wrist was getting too great for me to handle. I felt, rather than heard, Charles' quiet sigh of relief.

"I'm Zoey's- friend. I work at Xavier's School for the Gifted, and I'm a man who knows that men who hit women are weak, sniveling cowards," I replied coldly.

I was too afraid to meet Zoey's eyes at that moment. I didn't know what I would find there, and it scared me.

"Ms. Dubois is trying to do what is best for your daughter," Charles said, trying to interject some calm into the situation. "And is obviously willing to go to great lengths to do so. I suggest that you let her."

There was very tense silence before Grey finally spoke.

"Fine."

A huge sigh of relief all around.

"Can you two give us a minute with Livie?" Zoey asked Nicholas and Chloe.

"Are you going to threaten me with jail time if I don't?" he sneered.

"Possibly. That kind of fear keeps a man like you in line," she shot back, glaring daggers at him.

I tensed, just in case he tried to hit her again.

He let out an inconsequential snarl and walked away. Chloe sent her sister a baleful look as she followed her husband deeper into the house.

Zoey took a deep breath and looked between Charles and I. "Thank you. I'm afraid you're not seeing my family at its best."

"I'm guessing you left out the fact that Olivia is a mutant to protect her?" Charles asked gently.

"Yes. I couldn't care less if they hate my guts," Zoey replied seriously. "But I will not allow that girl to grow up believing that her parents hate her. They're not what you would call open-minded."

"I noticed."

She cupped her hands, and a little bird of flames appeared once more. It flew up the stairs, out of sight.

"Livie and I have a code for when some kind of argument happens. She can come out of her room on the second bird," Zoey explained.

Does that mean this sort of thing happens often? Great...

"Can you generate fire?" I hypothesized out loud.

"Yes," she replied.

I smiled to myself- her hair looked like flames and she was pyrokinetic. I felt silly for not inferring that before.

Zoey's expression was rather rueful as she met my eyes. "You haven't exactly seen the best side of me today. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to speak to me again."

I shook my head and grinned. "I haven't run away yet, have I?" I replied, quoting her own words from earlier back to her. "I'm still here."

Her answering smile made me feel like I could fly.

I just wanted to bask in the glow of her presence for a moment, ecstatic that I had the chance to be here with her-

"Sounds like someone is smitten," Charles mused, with a self-satisfied grin.

It made me remember that we had an audience. A very nosy audience.

Thanks for that, Charles.