Some of the X-men had been out for the evening, it had been pleasantly spent among the small closer nit group of friends within their team, Logan, Ororo and bobby, walked out into the streets. The original group had contained Remy and Rogue as well but they'd wanted to go off by themselves, and that was understandable since they'd only recently been able to touch each other, it was easy to see why they wanted to be alone as much as possible.

The Peace of the evening was shattered by yells as a frightened young girl about Bobby's age tore past them pursued by a lynch mob of gigantic proportions.

"HOLY SHIT" wolverine swore, catching Ororo, as the crowd thundered past, bowling them over "by the goddess" Ororo muttered staring after the crowd.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE WE HAVE TO HELP THAT GIRL" bobby yelled at them, jerking them into action, they sprinted off after them, the crowd, had backed the girl into an alley way, she cowered against the wall, trying to make herself a small as possible, as close to wall as possible. If she got any closer she'd come out the other side, maybe that's what she wanted. She sure looked scared enough. They swerved into the next alley over, climbing onto the roofs and staring at the scene below them

A man the same age as the girl had stepped out from the crowd, taking a step towards her. "Please Mathew, please don't do this," she whimpered, softly, pushed as far as she could against the wall, eyes wide like a trapped animal. Bobby felt his blood boil, how could you do that to someone you knew? Crowds could be such monsters at times, he knew that from first hand experience, he knew how that girl in the alley felt, and he wanted to yell and tell her that. Instead he said to his friend "Logan you protect her, storm blow the crowd away, and I'll take her out of harms way on an ice sleigh sound good?"

Ororo looked at him, it wasn't like bobby to give orders, normally he was the one taking them, or disobeying them, but he never seemed to mind, then she remembered how the younger man had joined the x men, poor boy, this must be all to familiar to him.

"Notice, you get to save the pretty lady bub" Logan grinned. "Don't be ridiculous" bobby replied, "we're all saving her, but If we don't move now It'll be too late for that, come on!" He whispered savagely, the crowd down there hadn't noticed them yet.

"Right y'ar bub!" Logan jumped down into the Alley, landing between the guy, he assumed that this was Mathew, and the frightened girl, whatever her name was.

"huh" The girl whispered, already so frightened she could barely think straight, whoever this was she didn't know and she didn't care they were all going to kill her, she whimpered, sounding more and more like an animal and buried her face in her hands, screwing her eyes closed.

"You wouldn't be hurting a poor defenseless little girl now would ya" Logan drawled, there was a *snikt* sound as he unsheathed his claws,

"JESUS CHRIST" someone in the crowd swore, that was a pretty darn common reaction to wolverine claws

"IT'S ANOTHER MUTANT GET THEM BOTH" another guy next to Mathew said, Mathew looked uncertain, took a step back from those claws, was getting back at gemma, really worth tangling with those for?

"I STORM, MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENETS COMAND YOU TO LEAVE THE CHILD THE HELL ALONE!" storm said dropping down beside Logan and with a swift motion of her hand, summoning the wind.

The wind roared down the alley with tornado speed, knocking the crowd off their feet and leaving them on their butts on the pavement a few feet away.

"Going my way miss?" bobby laughed, swooping down on and ice sled, grabbing the girl by the waist and lifting her up beside him, as he slid all up to the next buildings roof, out of harms way, she whimpered, still scared as hell, shit if he'd been through what he'd just saw, he'd have been so panicked he wouldn't know who was the good guy.
He had been

Down in the alley the angry and embarrassed crowd had picked themselves up and decided to charge storm and Logan after all, I mean they were two of em trapped in an alley couldn't be that dangerous

"Think we better leave now before wee need to hurt these suckers" wolverine said, punching on guy without using his claws that was enough to knock him out.

"I think your right my dear friend" storm laughed, took Logan's other hand, summoned the wind and flew up to join bobby, on the roof.

The crowd stared up at them angrily, then someone threw at stone others started joining in.

"OUCH" storm yelped,
"I think we better be going people" bobby said, trying to keep the girl out of reach of the stones, they didn't really hurt him in ice form.

"I think your right bub" Logan growled, "lead the way"

Storm continued to fly Logan, and bobby kept the girl on the ice sled, she was struggling to free herself, confused and frightened, he really didn't blame her but he couldn't risk her struggling free and falling off the sled

"Shss miss, it's ok we're friends were here to help," he risked taking his eyes off where he was going to gaze down into the frightened girls face.

Gemma had been panicked struggling, she didn't want anyone near her she just wanted to run back to her hotel room and hide under the covers, but Mathew might be there, might ne waiting to turn her in, so where could she run. Didn't matter, had to be somewhere in a city this side, the airport, she could catch a flight home.

But what would her parents think to their little angel being a mutant?

Didn't matter, she could sort it all out as long as she didn't let these others take her. She struggled in the arms of the guy, It didn't help that he was made of ice and his grip was just as strong, but she did it anyway, the cold arms biting through her flimsy jacket.

The guy leaned down, paused in the air, she looked up at him on impulse, he was looking down at her "sssh miss we're friends, we're here to help" he said… she gazed into his kind eyes, and felt safe again, the panic dieing down within her, his face was made of ice but it was a kind face, soft perfect features and a nice smile. She could badly do with a friend right now, and she knew he didn't mean to hurt her she stopped struggling.

He was gazing down at the girl, she was beautiful, he hadn't noticed it before he looked straight into her big brown eyes so filled with panic, and wanted to hug her and make all the pain go away, her brown hair was soft, falling about her face in a way that seemed to invite you too stroke it, her tanned skin was as warm as it could be when you were standing on ice being held onto by someone made of the same material, slowly the panic faded from her eyes and she stopped struggling, "you ok now?" he whispered.

she nodded dumbly.

"If you two are quite finished , we need to get out of here and back to the mansion" Logan said "scratch that we need to get back to the car and tell rogue and gambit that there "alone time will have to wait, If that girl spends any longer with Bobby in those clothes, she going to die of pneumonia."

"I think we can stop with a minute" storm said, glancing down to the city below them, they'd lost the crowd"

"I think your right" gem whispered softly, they land on the roof of a sky scraper, gem takes a step back, slips on the icesled and lands on her butt

"ouch" she laughs, stressed, she been running from an fucking lynch mob for half the evening that had started out so well and now she was saying "Ouch" over tripping up, right Gemma right, and Mathew how could he do that? How when she thought he'd loved her, they'd been going out for a year already, and thought they could weather anything, some anything! Gemma began to cry.

"Poor child" storm said softly, she walked over, to her, bobby de-iced and watched helplessly. It didn't take a genius to see that having someone she knew it that lynch mob, or just having that lynch mob after her in the first place, was enough to make anyone cry, she'd been tough to last out this long. He wanted to help her but he wasn't sure he could, storm was better at that kind of thing.

Storm knelt down in front of the girl, she stroked her hair back out of her face "look at me child" she coaxed, Gemma pulled her head up from her arms and looked at storms kind face.
It was a pretty face, she'd love to look like that, but she reminded her of her mother. No reason, she just did, gem had the feeling she'd remind anyone of their mum, she seemed to radiate kindness and wisdom, her blue eyes were kind and understanding, but somewhere to the back of them, lurked the shadow of pain, A shadow that came from growing up too fast.

"What's your name child?" she said softly, the voice was soothing, the kind you would use to rock a baby to sleep, Gemma bet she would be great at singing. "G..Gemma" her voice trembled, she choked back her tears.

"good girl" storm whispered, softly so the others wouldn't here, Gemma managed a small rueful smile.

"My name is Ororo" strom continued, this time at normal volume "This is Logan" she motioned to a hairy lumberjack look alike. He looked thought, but he also looked like he could be kind in a gruff kind of way, he looked like he didn't like seeing young people hurt.

"And the one who's been carrying young for the last couple of minutes is bobby" Gemma followed storm's gesture to the man made of ice, except he wasn't made of ice any more he looked like a normal man now, and if she'd been in any kind of state to notice it, Gemma would have thought how cute he was, with his sandy brown hair and soft blue eyes. He smiled, a soft and cheeky little boys smile. "That'd be me, you ok mi…" gem glared at him "Gemma" he finished.

"I think so, I think I'll be fine, hah, some vacation I g et myself into, I'm never going on holiday again"

"your not American darlin'?" Logan asked

"No I'm French and I'm not your DARLIN'" Gemma said, the last word almost a growl.

"Logan calls all the girls that, don't worry," bobby laughed

"I think we should get back to the car and call the others" storm said

"Others?"

"Our fellow x men, remy and rogue"

"remy is a French name but rogue?"

"Her code name, no one knows her real name"

"Really, so you're the almighty x men you don't look like terrorists to me"

"We're not dahlin', we're the good guys" wolverine said indignantly

"I thought those news reports were a load of bullshit, I mean your always fighting these other terrorist mutants, why would you do that if you were on their side" gem shrugged "journalists are an annoying bunch"


"Yeah well, you said it not me" bobby grinned.

"Shall we go?" storm asked

"I think your right dahlin', we should go"

"here" bobby said to gem "if your gonna ride with me you might need the extra coat"

gemma looked up at him, he'd taken off is coat, preparing to change back into ice form

"aren't you gonna get cold" she asked

"nah, don't feel the cold in my cie form"

"Ok than, thanks, thats sweet"

"what's a little coat between freinds" he grinns, gemma manages to smile back, her life had been turned upside down in just one evening, but she wansn't going to curl up in alittle ball and die, she was going to fight back.

She was going to be an x man

whatever an x man was.

**AUTHORS NOTE: I know bobby's eyes are sometimes brown but marvel keeps on changing what s a girl to do?**