Bobby blinked as light shined in his eyes. He sat up suddenly, looking around. He recognized the infirmary at the Xavier Institute.

"Good morning Mr. Drake." A voice said. Bobby turned to see Hank McKoy. Hank was about to say something else, but Bobby exploded with questions. "What happened? Did we stop the volcano? Where's Ell?" He stammered, but stopped quickly when Hank put his hand up. "You succeeded. You cooled the lava and the village is safe. And as for Ella-"

"What about me?" Ell said from the doorway, hands on her hips, smiling. Hank shook his head.

"She only beat you by a day, and has been checking on you every hour since then."

"Hank!" Ell blushed, "You weren't supposed to tell him that!" She playfully smacked the big blue man on the arm.

"So sorry Ms. McKay. But you didn't have to hit me." He said, rubbing his arm. Ell rolled her eyes.

"Don't act like it hurt Hank, Cuz we both know it didn't!" Hank chuckled.

"You're right, you're right." He said putting his arms up in defense. "It didn't hurt. Now Ms. McKay, I will have to ask you to leave to Mr Drake can change.

"See ya Bobby!" Ell smiled and went out of the room. Bobby smiled and turned to Hank. "Did she really?"

"Did she really what?"

"Check on me every hour?"

"Yes, and she only woke up yesterday.

"Yesterday? What's today? How long have we been back?"

"The Hawaii Incident was 5 days ago. We brought you home after you passed out."

"Passed out?" Bobby asked as he finished getting dressed.

"Yes. Storm also did. The others did not, but were all very weak and needed rest."

"OK. Well, I'm set, I'll see ya later." Bobby waved as he headed out of the Infirmary. He walked around looking for Ellanor, and finally found her standing on the edge of a balcony, watching the sun set.

"Heya Ell." Bobby stood next to her, leaning on the railing. She put her head on his shoulder. "Heya Bobby."

"Ell, can I ask you a question?"

"Go for it."

"Well, how come you can't feel cold, like in ice? Cuz I know I can practically turn into ice, but I've never seen you do it. Is it cuz you're an experimental. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's not important." Bobby said quietly. Ell shook her head.

"No, I want to tell you. Finally I feel like I can tell some one. Well, a long time ago I was practically normal. Lived with parents, siblings, you know. I found I could use water. just regular water. No ice, not boiling. Then, on my eighth birthday, some men came and ripped me away from my home. They murdered my family in front on my eyes. They didnt' care, they just shot them, right there! While I was watching! They took me to a lab, where they threw me on a table and bar coded my neck. I know I screamed then, but I dont remember the sounds. I no longer had a name, I was just a number. I thought things couldnt get worse. That's when they started the tests. They started by seeing what i could already do, then they started to drop me in boiling water. The first time, I almost died, my whole body burned and it took months to get me healthy again, but they didnt stop there, they kept going. For a while I came out with nasty burns, but slowly, I somehow learned not to feel the heat. They did the same with ice. Putting me in rooms made of ice, from ceiling to floor, with barely anything on. Soon the cold disappeared. Now there are only slight temperature differences with water for me. But the tests were far from over. Next they started to hold me under water. The first times I passed out and couldn't see in the dark water. But after some injections they gave me, I could breath and see underwater, even better than I can above. They were intrigued by me, and wanted to ship me to a different laboratory to do more tests.Like I wasn't even alive! They didn't care if I hated it, they just wanted me alive to test me! But I was fed up and while they were transferring me, I escaped. I came here. I never want to see those stupid men again! I HATE THEM! Those Bloody idiots took away my famil!! My faimly is all dead! DEAD!!!!"

By the end of her story Ell was sobbing , leaning on Bobby and crying into his shirt. He hugged her, holding her next to him.

"It's gonna be OK. We're your family now. Welcome to the X-men."

END