Jean pushed the button to open the gate, flung open the front door and rushed towards the little yellow convertible that was maneuvering its way through the gates. Regan opened the door and Jean practically dragged her out off the car and they hugged each other tightly. Scott found them like that a few moments later soaked to the skin rocking back and forth. He needlessly covered them with the umbrella and left to get Reagan's bags from the trunk of the car. He looked at it admiringly. He had always liked little convertibles, especially yellow ones.
Professor Xavier watched from the doorway, smiling, and called, "Bring them inside Scott. They'll be soaked in no time with or without that umbrella."
Scott motioned them towards the doors and followed them inside to the family room. The two women still had their arms around each other and didn't look like they were planning on letting go anytime soon. As they sat down and the doorway behind them filled with interested looking faces and Scott finally got up to close the door on the protesting youngsters. He stepped back and looked at the door for a second and sure enough an ear appeared in the grain of the wood. He poked it and it disappeared with a muffled ouch from the other side. "No more listening through doors Kitty;" he admonished and then joined the group on the couches again. Jean's cousin was talking excitedly to Professor X.
"You can't imagine the shock I felt a few weeks ago when I was on a plane and looked down to get something out of my purse and I could see the ground miles below me! Talk about shock, I about passed out then and there. I asked the poor man next to me if he could see it too and he just looked at me like I had another head growing out of my shoulders. It's quite an odd sensation really. Like all building are made out of glass. Any walls that I face and squint at, I can see through, and like Jeanie I have another power too. Look." Reagan held her hands palms up away from her and cupped them slightly. Small flickers of what looked like lightning arched out from her palms to meet in the air between them. Everyone else in the room could feel the hair on their arms and the backs of their necks rise a little, and Reagan's black hair poufed out quite a bit.
Dr. X spoke first; "It's an electrical current isn't it? Your gift Reagan, must be the ability to manipulate electricity. I have a feeling that you are almost like a human battery. Is that correct? Jean will do some tests on you tomorrow and we can test your abilities then. Now it's getting late. I think it is time for all of us to get some rest and we'll talk more in the morning. Jean, why don't you show Reagan to Logan's room. She can stay there for tonight." He maneuvered his wheel chair to the door and called out over his shoulder, "I can't wait to hear more about you Reagan. You have some interesting abilities. Sleep well." He smiled and wheeled out.
* * * * * *
A few hours latter Reagan was just falling asleep. It had been a long week of driving across country and sleeping in the cramped little convertible. The room was small, Jean had explained that it was one of the few single rooms in the Institute, most were in the style of a dormitory with three or four people to a room. The adults, Ororo, Scott, and herself had private rooms and this room had recently belonged to a man named Logan who seemed to have a metal skeleton, claws that came out of his hands and a miraculous ability to heal no matter what happened to him. She had clarified that he had gone to Canada a few months before in search of clues to his past, and no one knew when he might come back. Maybe never. But the room was hers until they cleared another bedroom for her in the morning.
Reagan dropped off to sleep and was soon dreaming cannibals had attacked her. They had her tied up and were beating the drums and stirring a cooking pot. She woke up in a cold sweat with the sheets twisted around her. The drums were still beating and it dawned on her that they weren't drums at all but someone pounding on the front door downstairs. She glanced down at the floor and squinted slightly to focus. Two floors down, on the main floor, Professor X was opening the front door to admit a man who stood dripping on the carpet. She couldn't hear what they were saying but the Professor seemed to be happy to see Dripping Man. He put his arm around him and the two headed off in the direction of the study.
An hour latter when she was once again almost asleep the door to her room opened quietly and a figure stood outlined in the doorway. She kept her eyes closed and looked at him from under her lashes. This must be Logan. He sure didn't look any different than anyone else, well, at least not in the dark Reagan conceded. He silently went to the bureau to get some dry clothes and she decided to make sure he was who she thought he was.
She propped herself up on an elbow and called some sparks to her hand to illuminate the room in a weak purple glow. "You must be Logan."
He whirled around, a surprised look on his face, then he smiled a lazy smile. " Well, well, well. I come back and find a beautiful woman sleeping in my bed. Scoot over, I'll join you."
"Excuse me, but I was not put here for your amusement. I was put here because none of the other rooms are ready and I arrived without any notice, ok? So just take you large ego right out of here and leave me alone." It seemed that having her sleep interrupted twice in just as many hours did not sit well with Reagan. She sent a small wavering burst of electricity in his direction. It fell well short of it's intended target.
"Hey!" snick, the claws popped out, "Who are you to --"?
Ororo knocked quietly on the door, and shushed at them.
"Don't shush me Storm." Logan grumbled, but he whispered as asked.
"I see you've met Jean's cousin, Logan." She smiled.
"Jean's -- But -- You're nothing like Jean! Jean's a lady!"
Reagan sucked her breath. That stung, she was just as ladylike as Jean was. Just because she didn't wear dresses often or always talk softly didn't mean she wasn't lady like. This was something she had been putting up with a lot lately from her family, and she Reagan just weasn't up to dealing with it at two in the morning. "You have no right to tell me I'm not a lady!" She hissed. " How dare you, why, you don't even know me!"
"You're in my bed aren't you? What else do I need to know! Why is she here?" This was directed at Storm.
"Reagan is a mutant, just like we are. She came to learn, and like she said before, we didn't know when to expect you back and yours was the only clean room. Tomorrow Reagan can pick out a room for herself --"
"And you can be sure it'll be as far away from you as possible!" Reagan interrupted.
Storm smiled. And you will have yours in the morning. After all, it was only yours for two days Logan. I'll give you some sheets and you can sleep on the pull out bed in the study. Come on, get your things and we'll get out of Reagan's hair."
You can stay for now, but I expect you out of here tomorrow, understand?" He shook his finger at the slim form. "Fine." She shot back, crossing her arms in an obstinate gesture. "I don't like sleeping in other people's beds anyway." With one last smile from Ororo and a glare from Logan they left and closed the door behind them.
Once in the study Logan found himself thinking about the woman in his room. She may have been Jean's cousin, but she didn't look anything like her, or act much like her either. She was candid and Jean had tact. Jean was tall and had red hair and warm brown eyes. This woman was small, with dark hair and blue eyes and ... and ... He realized that he really couldn't tell much about her in the dark, and that weird purple glow she projected didn't help matters any either. Oh well. It would keep until tomorrow.
But he fell asleep with the feeling that her eyes were still watching him. Which they were. Regan glared at him through the floor for long moments until he fell asleep, and only then did she sleep herself.
* * * * * *
The next morning Logan and Reagan met for the first time in full sunlight at the breakfast table. They were the first ones up. Reagan was eating a bowl of cereal and wrinkled her nose in distaste at the huge slab of bacon Logan was frying at the stove.
"You're back kind of soon aren't you?" Reagan was feeling much more civil now that she had had several hours of sleep. "Jean told me you might not be back for a few more months yet."
"Yeah, well they must have forgotten I had the bike." He nodded his head in the direction of the garage.
Reagan blinked. "You rode a bike through Canada? Are you nuts? No wonder it took you months." Reagan sounded incredulous. The mental image of the short compact man pumping a bicycle through the Canadian Rockies was almost too much for her, but she contained her giggles.
"Yeah. It flies. I'll show it to you latter if you want. It's Cyclops' bike. I stole it." His grin showed lots of teeth.
"Cyclops? Who is Cyclops, don't tell me we have a one eyed man here too. I won't believe it."
"Cyclops is Scott's nickname. Did you notice that he always wears sunglasses? That's because his eyes are lasers. He gave the train station a new sunroof a few months ago by accident. Bet even you heard about that on the news."
Reagan shook her head no. "So that's why he always wears the glasses. I wondered. He seems nice enough though, and Jeanie adores him." She turned her sunny smile in Logan's direction but he wasn't paying attention. She thought he may have mumbled "Not for long," under his breath, but she couldn't be sure.