Stephanie held her breath as the
plane touched down at JFK. She'd seen to New York before, with
her Girl Scout troop years ago. She vividly remembered seeing the
Statue of Liberty with ten year old eyes, wondering how something
that big could have managed to make it across the ocean.
Remembered looking at the ant-sized people from the top of the
Empire State Building and wondering at the people who could build
such things.
At no time could she have thought
that her father was little more than a stones-throw away. Had she
known that he lived outside of New York, she probably would have
spent the fifty dollars her mother had given her for souvenirs on
a cab to Westchester, ten years old or not. As it was all she had
as a memory of her trip was a cheap plastic rendition of Miss
Liberty and a couple other smaller statues from the Museum of
Natural History.
She would have preferred her father.
Looking around briefly, she watched
as the parents of Cynthia, a little girl that had taken a
particular liking to her on the three hour trip, gathered the
sleeping bundle with the rest of their carry-ons, careful not to
wake their small burden. Blinking she looked away, quelling the
small hopes that still struggled to the surface of her mind, of
what it might have been like if she had known her father. Would
he have carried her like that while she slept, as if she were
something precious and utterly breakable?
Sighing, Stephanie gathered her small
carryon and laptop and headed for the exit. She still had a long
way to go before she could relax on the long drive to
Westchester.
______________________________________________________
Charles Xavier was nervous.
It wasn't a slight, 'didn't
take the time to study for the quiz last night' nervous either.
It was an, 'oh my God this place is full of landmines and
it's the middle of the night and I cant see shit but I have
to keep moving' nervousness.
At least, that's the way Bobby
Drake pictured it.
At the moment, he was sitting in the
Rec Room, idly twining an ice tether across it, wondering how
thin he could make the leads before they broke. It was one of the
things he did when he was tense, and that morning had been
entirely too tense for everyone.
Charles had tried to contact
Stephanie several times, but the numbers he'd tried always came
up busy or with no one home, and she hadn't returned any of his
calls. He'd wanted to make sure she had a ride into Westchester
without having to deal with New York cabs. He'd even gone as far
as to try and find her with Cerebro, with no luck. It turned out
that this stranger was just as much a sensor ghost as Gambit.
'Guess that means she's a mutant,'
Bobby thought. He wondered what kind of powers she had, then
curbed himself. It took a lot to hide from the professor, the
only two people he'd ever known to do it were Gambit and Legion.
He shuddered, remembering Israel all too vividly. If she were
anywhere near as powerful as David had been he wondered what kind
of person she would be. Would she be withdrawn? Outgoing?
Crazy
Cute?
'Whoa, slow down. Bad idea dating the
bosses daughter,' he thought to himself. Beside, what if she was
loony like David?
'Bet Sinister would kick himself in
the ass for not thinking about how powerful the Prof's kids would
be.' Just thinking about Legions powers in Sinister's hands made
him sick.
"Please don't even think
something like that, Robert."
Bobby jumped, loosing his hold on the
ice that made a fine sheen glimmer in the sunlight drifting
through the windows. He hated the way Xavier could sneak up on
him. Sometimes he thought the man did it deliberately, just to
make him jump. "Hey Professor. Any luck?"
Charles shook his head, "As far
as I know, she could arrive any time. Marianne said she was to
arrive sometime today, but even she didn't know the details
of Stephanie's flight plan."
Bobby blinked, trying to absorb what
the professor had just told him. Usually, he spoke very calmly,
smoothly, with enough serenity in him to make Storm look like a
nervous wreck. Those two sentences however, were spoken with a
speed that made them almost unintelligible.
Yeah, definitely nervous.
_____________________________________________________
Stephanie had drifted to sleep
sometime before they were out of New York, with the tall shadows
of the skyscraper still creating a long shadow on the ground.
Now, she watched as they passed several lakes, the surface of
them smooth as glass. They'd been through some smaller towns,
most of which still boasted the mythical 'Main St' in full swing.
Now they were outside of most of the
cities, just having passed Salem Center and still heading north.
All she could see were forests and small glades, and was
entranced by the colors of the leaves on the trees that towered
around them, seeming to crowd the small street they were on.
Occasionally through this wall of vegetation, she caught a
glimpse of large colonial houses, bigger than the plantation
house she'd grown up in. Their sheer size astounded her, and she
wondered who could possibly have enough children to fill such
places. When she and her mother lived at home, the place always
felt so empty, as if there should have been dozens of children
running through the halls, dogs and cats chasing them, begging to
be petted.
She sighed, staring into the smoky
ceiling of the cab. Her mother hadn't even allowed her to keep
the animals that always seemed to follow her home.
"Hello, Xavier's School for
Higher Learning."
Stephanie looked through the
windshield, becoming aware that they had stopped. In front of
them stood a tall gate, the brick sides seeming to disappear into
the undergrowth.
"What you want me to say
lady?" The driver asked, looking expectantly at her.
"Stephanie Tarrington."
The driver sighed before leaning out
the window to the console, "Yeah, I'm carrying a Stephanie
Tarrington. I think she's expected."
The gates opened with none of the
squeaking that she had expected. Ominously silent, she judged
them as they drove through, onto a private drive. The trees here
seemed even taller, and Stephanie fought a bout of panic. She
would do this, this was what she had wanted for a long time, her
whole life, and she wouldn't let panic get in the way.
"Jesus, how big is this
place," she whispered, almost smiling when the cab driver
nodded in assent. They'd been on the private rode for almost five
minutes, and not going slowly either. The trees were just as
dense here as they were on the rode, without a sign of giving up
their hold on the land.
Stephanie blinked when sunlight
poured through the windows. Abruptly, the trees fell back,
revealing a huge house sitting on top of a slight hill. Looking
around she took in the sheer size of what she was assuming was
the spread of the place, and caught a slight glimmer of water in
the distance, another place, what she thought was a boathouse,
rising behind the main house.
"People don't actually live
here, do they?" the driver asked as they pulled into the
circular driveway, past a stone sign that read, Xavier's School
of Higher Learning.
Stephanie shook her head,
"Apparently, my father does."