That night the mansion was silent and it was this silence that woke Lacey from her dreams. First it came slowly in short little snippets of dreams. She got out of bed and left her room for the hall as they ripped through her mind, and as she walked it got worse with every step. Everyone's dreams and nightmares floated into her head as she stood in the hall. Soon the not so passive forces forced her to the floor where she sat chanting, "make it stop" over and over again as tears welled in her eyes. It was Scott that found her, the one they called Cyclops, his own thoughts only added to her pain. He saw it as he watched her and left to get the professor.
When he returned she was still there on the floor holding her knees and rocking back and forth. The professor wheeled his chair over and Scott shook Lacey gently trying to wake her from her this state. She gasped and the whole mansion frosted over. The Professor instantly lulled her back to sleep with his mind. The students had all gathered around her. They were watching her, she seemed more dead than sleeping however. Scott picked her up and took her down stairs.
It went on for about a week and then it suddenly stopped as soon as she received training. However, she was a loner and she found herself getting teased constantly. She never did anything about it, told anyone or anything of that sort. The Professor had his concerns however. She only got along with the members of the x-men for the most part, Bobby ignored her almost completely and tried to stay away from her at all costs for the most part, he often came off stand offish at best when in fact he really wanted to be softer, warmer towards her.
She did however gain control of her powers rather quickly however; she did what it takes most people years to do in a matter of months. It wasn't long before she had complete control. However this might have been because she trained all the time and never let anyone talk to her. She rarely came out of her room after her studies for the day were completed but that was how it was when she was in normal school. Back then however people used to come to her, to the others she started to seem secretive and suspicious.
One night Lacey was driven from sleep but something she couldn't put her finger on, this feeling festered in the air like a sore. The feeling was so strong it wouldn't let her go back to sleep. So she slid from the sheets and out of the bed to walk to the kitchen with her white night gown flowing behind her.
Lacey found that the kitchen wasn't empty. Another occupied the place of which she wished to, eating the food of which she sought to perhaps lull her back into a blank state of sleep undisturbed by the dreams of others.
"Can't sleep or is there an X-men thing tonight?" she spoke as she grinned he shook his head.
"You tell me" he spoke as he scowled. She shook her head and the ice cream carton slide across the table and the spoon slipped out of his hand. She stuck the spoon in the ice cream and looked at him.
"It's still hard for me to control that one… very hard" She shook her head and stuck the spoon heaped full of ice cream in her mouth. It melted so fast on one side of her mouth and on the other remained in it's solid state so she flipped the spoon over.
"Why are you still wearing those gloves?" He moved closer and got another spoon as he watched her slide onto a stool.
"Ask Wolverine" she replied before plunging the spoon into her mouth again. There was nothing feminine or dainty about it, she was in a mood that was equal to 'give me ice cream or die'.
"You froze him?" he asked as he sat next to her. She shook her head.
"Nope, but you're on the right track… think just as painful only hotter" She waved the spoon in the air like a baton as she spoke.
"Wow, you burned him? I though you controlled ice?"
"No, I don't really know what I can do, all I know is fire and ice are two things I can easily create" She shook her head and trailed off as she started playing with the Ice cream.
"So why do you hide from everyone?" he asked as he tilted his head towards her.
"It's so much easier to hide than to cope, if you haven't noticed I am not the favorite here especially since I turned all the books in the library into ice blocks" He laughed a bit and smiled. She shook her head "I'd rather hid in my room all the time then have to stay out and see all the dirty looks I get, The Professor said that I have no one to fear here but it's odd I feel that I have more to fear from people here than out there… maybe it's where I came from" she shrugged and took another spoonful.
"Maybe… So is the Professor really teaching you how to use Cerebro?" The question hung in the air long enough for her to look in to his mind briefly.
"Do you love Rogue?" There was a silence as the question was asked. It was a deep silence that seemed to penetrate all. Her eyes locked on his.
"Yes," she laughed a bit.
"You don't sound so confident, and you never answered my question,"
"Oh, yeah… I can't sleep" she laughed again, she had a bubbly kind of laughter that made all those around her want to laugh as well.
"Yeah I kind of guessed that after your whole bit with the hesitation, cause and effect" She spoke with a grin as she dug the spoon in again.
"So what happened, I heard you were engaged" She swallowed her ice cream and held her head massaging her temples "are you okay?" he asked as he looked at her careful not to touch any of her exposed flesh. It went as fast as it set on however.
"Yeah, brain freeze" she spoke as she smiled a little and looked up there were tears in the corners of her eyes. This was more than brain freeze. She looked around. He brushed the tears away and leaned in close. She pulled away, something was wrong.
"The Professor" She spoke as she stood and took off down the hall. She ran till she reached the professors room. She looked at the clock and it instantly clicked open. The room was empty and the window was broken. Bobby stood beside her expression blank, it seemed like he was frozen.
"Go, go get some one!" Lacey cried as she used her powers to snap her out of her stupor the room was devoid of all life. The professor was gone. Bobby left and she just stood there thinking. Soon however everyone was there looming around the door way like flies to fodder. It took a while fro the x-me to come the students were first of course back tracking over Bobby's hurried footsteps and stopping when Lacey came into sight. Scott disbursed the crowed
"Go back to bed, all of you, NOW!" He shouted as Bobby emerged from behind him. He looked in the doorway of the room.
"What happened? Bobby told me you felt something" Scott spoke as he watched the nervous wreck of a girl that was Lacey. There was a pause that seemed to last forever as the girl who never really needed to think hard before speaking searched her own mind for words. She took a deep breath.
"It was like brain freeze, only worse, it was like someone was stitching my mind and the instant it was over I knew something was wrong, my mind felt empty, suddenly I thought of the professor… some part of his mind is watching over me most of the time but I couldn't feel it, I couldn't sense him anywhere, It's kind of like when you're a child and you get lost in the super market" she shook her head and sighed.
"I found it" Storm spoke as she walked around the room stopping at a small metallic device "The kidnapper must have dropped it at some point"
"How can you be sure?" Scott asked as he looked at her. Storm flipped a small switch and Lacey suddenly tensed and the furniture in the room started to shake. Storm turned it off "That's enough proof for me" he spoke as he patted Lacey on the shoulder "Are you okay?" he asked as Bobby who was still leaning against the wall walked over to Lacey and paused inches from her and took her hand.
"I'll take her back to her room" Bobby spoke as he looked at Lacey his gaze never wavered from her eyes.
"No, we're going to need her., we're short one and , well she can work Cerebro" Scott spoke as he looked at her.
"Oh NO! nuh-uh! No, I have used it successfully by myself, once! All the other times the professor had to save me!" She spoke as she turned around and looked at Scott Bobby still held her hand stroking the glove.
"I'll go in there and as soon as I think you're loosing control I'll sever the connection" wolverine spoke as he watched Bobby's hand the thumb stroking away at the satin.
"No" Bobby spoke up "No, she's only been here for a few months, she has barely any control don't force her to commit mental suicide"
"Yeah, he's right" Rogue spoke as she stepped forward; Bobby dropped Lacey's hand instantly. It was action reaction stuff.
"Do you think that Magneto might have something to do with this?" Night Crawler asked as he dropped from the ceiling.
"Who's a Magneto?" Lacey asked as she looked around.
"You'll find out soon enough if we're right" Wolverine spoke as he passed Lacey on the way out.
"Logan! Where are you going?" Rogue asked as she watched him he turned around.
"Back to bed" She chased after him. Lacey and Bobby watched on kind of suspiciously.
"I think Logan has the right Idea, I mean we can't really do anything till morning" Scott spoke as he headed for the door.
Everyone started leaving. Lacey didn't leave she simply sat watching the moon through the shard of the broken window. Bobby stayed too but he was watching her. Lacey however wasn't even trying to read the thought around her but she could feel his emotions loud and clear. She turned around and looked at him as she pulled her heavy black wavy hair into a bun. He reached for her shoulder she turned around and sighed.
"No, you and Rogue are good together," She smiled a little and shook her head.
"Rogue has Logan, she has no clue that I know about them but I do,"
"Bobby what do you think they do?"
"What do you think we could do?"
"Nothing! Wolverine had his hand bandaged what do you think will happen to you?" She shook her head and left down the hall. She was confused and frustrated again. That night as she slept things in the mansion moved.