Glen could feel the tension oozing out of his body as he drove through the streets of Bayville. After weeks of intense training in the Danger Room, he was finally being allowed to take some time off, and he was on his way to see his friend Sam. He was driving one of the jeeps that Professor Xavier had purchased for the Institute. Unlike some of the other vehicles that the Professor had acquired, this jeep had not received any kind of modifications and was exactly what it looked like; a perfectly normal- looking automobile.

He turned onto Sam's street, and as he got closer, he could see Sam already waiting on his porch. Sam jumped up eagerly as Glen pulled up and got out of the car. They walked towards each other and hugged each other, and then Glen tilted his head and kissed Sam very deeply. They held the kiss for several seconds, oblivious to anybody else that may have been watching. When they broke apart, Sam had a wild look of exhilaration in his eyes. "Wow!" was all he could bring himself to say. "I'm glad to see you too!"

"I figured I owed you big time for not being around the last few weeks," Glen said, smiling.

"Well, I'll consider your debt to me paid. For now," Sam grinned back as he picked up the basket by his side.

"What all do you have in there?" asked Glen, his eyes drifting to the basket.

"You'll see. It's a surprise!" said Sam.

"Aah! The tension's already killing me!" Glen laughed.

"Whatever, Hamlet! Or should I say, Ophelia!" Sam said, bursting out into pealed laughter.

"Yeah, I do tend to be a bit of a drama queen," Glen said. He picked up a large stone sitting on the ground and held it up in front of his face. "Alas, poor Yorick!" he said, and then broke down laughing himself.

"Alright, stop already!" Sam said, gasping for breath. "Our dinner's going to get cold!"

Glen picked up the basket, fully lost in himself, letting out all of the stress he had felt over the last few weeks. "Aye, forsooth as winter's bitter chill grips my veins! Is this a basket I see before me?"

"Gah! You're horrible!" Sam said, laughing so hard that tears began to blur his vision. He swatted Glen on the butt. Glen gave a mock shout and leapt in the air, laughing his heart out. Finally, the stress spent, he opened the passenger door on the side of the jeep before heading around to start it up. They both got in and they drove off.

As Glen drove, he glanced over at Sam and began chuckling again as Sam smiled back at him. "Boy, you HAVE been stressed out lately!" Sam said. "What have you been training so hard for?"

Glen paused. How much should he really tell Sam about what he had been doing? The professor had been explicitly clear in telling Glen, as well as all the other X-Men, how much they should say about their activities at the Institute. But Glen thought that he could trust Sam to keep a secret. "There may be some bad times headed our way. We're trying to prepare as best we can. I've been doing all of these sessions so I can get in the same shape as the others, and so I can get used to using my powers in certain situations,"

"Are you getting ready to fight somebody?"

"If we have to, yes," Glen said, his voice taking on a much more serious tone. It was about time to end this particular discussion. "I can't tell you who, but this. person, is very powerful, and the professor's worried that he may be able to expose what we're doing at the Institute. I know you want to know more about what's going on, but I can't say anything else, and you need to keep what I've told you secret. Tell absolutely nobody about this,"

"I understand," said Sam. "I promise I won't tell anybody,"

They drove on for a few minutes until they came to the hill outside of Bayville. The hill afforded a great view of Bayville, and was a traditional place for couples to go to spend time together and be close with each other. Glen parked the jeep at the foot of the hill, and they got out and climbed up the gentle slope to the top. There, they set up a blanket and Sam reached into the basket, pulling out a plate of fried chicken.

"So where's the surprise?" Glen asked with a sly look on his face.

"Ok, I'll give it to you, but now it's YOUR turn to keep a secret," Sam said, and reached back in the basket and pulled out a bottle of wine.

"Where did you get THIS?" Glen asked, his jaw dropping a bit.

"I snuck it out from my dad's private supply. It's supposed to be a good year. Hope you like it!"

"You little sneak! Stealing for me!" said Glen, grinning wickedly. "I should be careful, you might try to steal my heart next!"

Sam said nothing and only grinned, that, "Who, me?" expression making him look very much like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

Sam pulled out 2 glasses and poured the wine. As they ate, they watched the sun began to go down. As they reclined on the blanket, Sam sat up suddenly. "Oh! I almost forgot!" He reached into the basket again and pulled out a stereo. "The other part of your surprise. I know how much you like classical music, so I got this CD for you," He set the stereo down and turned it on and the beautiful strains of Rachmaninov's second piano concerto began to pour out, the thick, lush melody hanging heavily on the air like a wool blanket. Sam watched as Glen closed his eyes, his whole body relaxing. "That's beautiful!" he whispered.

"I knew you'd like it," said Sam, and leaned forward and kissed Glen, very much the same way that Glen had kissed Sam when they had met earlier. When they broke, Sam took hold of Glen's hands and looked deeply into his eyes.

"Glen?"

"Yeah?"

"You've never kissed me like that before, like you did earlier. At least, not in public," Sam said. For the most part, their affection for each other had been very private. "Weren't you worried that somebody might have seen us?"

"Not then, I wasn't. It had been so long since we had been together, since we had held each other, I didn't care if the whole world saw us,"

"Is there any reason it can't be like that more often?" asked Sam. "I know we've been trying to be discreet, but I don't want to always be worrying, 'What if somebody's watching?' I want to be able to say that I have a boyfriend and say it to somebody besides myself,"

"Are you sure you want to be public about this? I mean, the reason I've tried to be so discreet is because I'm afraid something might happen to you if people knew about us,"

Sam stood up. "Glen, you told me to be proud of who I am and not to hide anything. I don't want to hide this any more. I'm very proud of the way I feel about you, and I want to be able to tell people what you really mean to me, because I love you, Glen! You said that earlier you didn't care if the whole world was watching us. Let go like that again! Screw what everybody else might think! Let's love each other and let whatever happens come!"

Glen looked back at Sam. He completely understood what Sam desired. He also wanted to be able to tell people that he had a boyfriend and that he had feelings for Sam. At this point, he was becoming caught up in Sam's bravery and his willingness to face down the world and say, "THIS is who I am!" He felt one last strand of doubt holding him back from making the same proclamation. I'm tired of hiding, he thought to himself. If he's not going to be afraid, then neither am I. With that he stood up and opened his mouth to say a few very special words. "Sam."

A siren suddenly burst through the air like a knife slashing across a victim's throat. They both turned to see a police car at the bottom of the hill, its lights flashing angrily. How long had the car been there, wondered Glen? He looked down at the empty wine bottle on the ground. The cops probably wouldn't arrest them for kissing each other; after all, Bayville had no anti-gay laws on its books. But if the cops saw the wine bottle, they'd probably be arrested for underage drinking. Looking back to the police car, Glen saw that they had come up from the other side of the hill. Which meant that they hadn't seen Glen's jeep. "Hang on, Sam. We're getting out of here," said Glen. Sam looked at Glen, and then suddenly found himself staring at empty space as Glen phased out of time. An instant later, Glen reappeared beside him, holding the now-full picnic basket. The cops were starting to walk up the hill, but there was still enough time to make a getaway. "Sam, take my hand!" said Glen. Sam gripped Glen's hand tightly and they phased out together. "Don't let go!" shouted Glen as the purple vortex of his alternate temporal dimension swirled around their bodies. They ran back to the jeep and Glen started the engine. He hit the gas and was able to make it down the hill before they phased back into normal time.

"That was close!" said Glen. "Next time, maybe we should leave the wine in your dad's cellar,"

"Yeah," Sam muttered. Looks like the world won today, he thought glumly.

Back on the hill, the police officer shook his head. He could have sworn he had seen two teenage boys sharing a bottle of wine together just a moment ago, but now he was the only person standing atop the hill. "Too many strange things going on around here these days," he muttered to himself, and walked back to his patrol car.

As the car drove off, a bird landed on the ground. It had been sitting up in a nearby tree while Glen and Sam had shared their dinner and more, and witnessed their narrow escape. The bird lowered its head and suddenly expanded in size, reshaping itself into the form of a blue-skinned woman with red hair. Mystique looked down the hill at the direction that Glen had driven, a plan formulating in her mind. She reached down to her belt, pulled out a small phone and dialed a number. When the person on the other end picked up, she said, "Go to the alley behind the Bayville Library. I'll be bringing him there in a half-hour. Make sure you're all there. We're putting our plans into motion tonight," She hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.

After tonight, she thought, Magneto would be one step closer to accomplishing his goals. When they had the modules of Cerebro in their possession, they would be able to find mutants far faster than Xavier could and soon they would be the ones to present the mutant agenda for mankind. But it would not be Xavier's puny idea of peaceful coexistence. Mutants would soon offer humanity a choice: accept us or get out the way. She flexed her muscles, shifting her form again, this time taking on the appearance of Glen himself. Looking at her reflection in a small mirror she had with her, she nodded her head. This would do perfectly. She turned herself back into the bird she had been and took flight, flying over Bayville to meet with the Brotherhood. Operation Broken Heart was under way.