An Unfamiliar Face and a Warm Smile

"Where's Jean?" Elizabeth asked, walking into the recreational room.

Her eyes searched the room for the familiar redhead. The only people she saw were Peter, Brian, Gambit and an unfamiliar face. Peter looked up at her, from bending over the pool table. He pointed his queue stick at the white queue ball. He raised his eyebrow, with a smirk forming on his mouth, as he stared at Elizabeth standing at the doorway. He stood up straight, planting the queue stick into the ground. Elizabeth shifted to one foot, as she placed her hand on her hip. She gestured to the unfamiliar person playing pool with Peter. "Who is this?" She asked suspiciously.

The young man across the pool table from Peter walked towards Elizabeth, holding out his hand. His muscular build hid under his tightly fitting white tank top and baggy black jeans. His head was shaved, with brown stubs peeking up on his head. He smiled, as his brown eyes searched her, "Hey, I'm Kenny." He smiled.

Elizabeth put her hand at her side, her other hand still on her hip. She stared at his hand, and then looked up at him, as he stood in front of her. "Betsy, he's a friend of mine from school. We're just hanging out." Peter nervously said.

Elizabeth stared at him. "Does Logan know about this, dear Peter?" Elizabeth snapped, keeping her eyes on Kenny.

"Well, I told Mr. McCoy." Peter smirked, as he pulled up his baggy blue jeans.

"Really, chere, just relax!" Gambit grinned, as he glanced at Elizabeth from his video game.

Kenny nervously put his hand down, not receiving a polite response from Elizabeth. He stared at her, examining her with his eyes. "I'm not wearing my inducer, Peter!!" Elizabeth screamed telepathically into Peter's head.

Peter winced, as he heard Elizabeth's angry remark in his head. He shook his head, and looked at her. Elizabeth's eyes moved from Peter to Kenny, as she felt his gaze. "What are you staring at?" She snapped, placing her other hand on her hip.

Brian shook his head as he heard his sister feeling defensive. He continued to concentrate on the television, with the game control in his hand, as he played a fighting video game with Gambit. Kenny shook his head, "Nothing." He sheepishly answered.

Kenny's face looked away from her, but he kept his eyes on her. Her long, thick black hair was tied back into a ponytail. He noticed a red mark on the left side of her face; having two points at the top, separated, and pointing towards her right side of her porcelain face. The mark was about two inches wide, stretching over her eye, and ending with a point just on the left side of her nose. His eyes searched down, examining what she wore. She wore a dark blue spaghetti strap silk tank top, and black flare jeans hugging her hips. Black combat boots with thick soles were on her feet, and nearly hiding under the bottom of her flares. He was taken by how exotic she was; her almond shaped brown eyes glaring at him with suspicion. Elizabeth felt uncomfortable by his stare, "What are you looking at, you bloody swine?" She asked again, a twinge of anger in her voice.

He noticed the British Accent in her speech. "Nothing, really." He answered.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and stared at Peter, "Where is Jean, I asked!" She snapped.

Peter grinned, and turned back to the pool table. He bent over, pointing his queue stick at the white ball. "Why do you want to know, Betsy?" He coyly answered.

Kenny turned back to the pool table, watching Peter aiming to shoot at the queue ball. Elizabeth's mark lit slightly, as she stared at the queue ball. Peter hit the queue stick against the white ball. On the impact, the ball flew forward, and up from the table, hitting the wall. Peter turned his head to look at Elizabeth, with a look of slight annoyance, as Kenny walked towards the ball on the floor. The light of her mark died away, as she raised an eyebrow at him. He rolled his eyes, out of frustration. "Betsy!" He snapped.

"Peter, Rogue needs to talk with her! It's extremely important!" Elizabeth snapped, flipping the hair from her ponytail over her shoulder.

Peter sighed, and grabbed the white ball, as Kenny handed it to him. "Lizard, Jean left with Kitty about a half hour ago. They'll probably be back tonight." Brian answered, not taking his eyes off the television in front of him.

"See! How hard was that? All you had to do was to satisfy me and answer my bloody question!" Elizabeth snapped, as she turned to leave.

Peter shook his head, rolling his eyes, as Elizabeth stomped out of the room, obviously annoyed. Kenny stared after her, as she left. "Wow, feisty." Kenny remarked.

"You have no idea!" Peter sighed, planting his queue stick on the floor.

Kenny leaned on his pool queue stick, as he planted it onto the ground. "Say, what's that mark on her face?" He asked, puzzled.

Before anyone had a chance to answer his question, or even attempted to think of a reply, Brian quickly spoke up, staring at the television, "It's a birth mark." He coldly stated.

He and Gambit quickly glanced at each other, before concentrating back onto their video game. Kenny nodded in slight understanding, still confused. 'What a weird birth mark', he thought to himself. He then leaned onto the pool table, pointing the queue stick at the white ball. "She taken?" He asked them.

Brian let out a scoff at Kenny's question. Peter looked at his friend leaning over the table, "Well, no. I've been trying to get at her ever since she stepped foot in this house. I only got one date out of her." Peter sighed.

"Just keep trying, Peter." Brian smirked.

Kenny looked up at Peter, his mouth dropped. "That's the chick you dumped Tara for?" He questioned.

Peter shrugged, and nodded. "Yeah. But, watch, I'll get her. I've never met a girl who can resist me, and I'm not about to let that change." He smirked.

"Yeah, he wants what he can't have." Brian grinned, still concentrating on his video game.

Rogue stared up at the television hanging on the top corner of the wall. She peeled her orange, with her ungloved hands, placing the torn peels onto the napkin placed on the table in front of her. Her elbows rested on the table. She heard footsteps behind her, and she looked to her side as Hank settled in the chair next to her, placing his cup of coffee on the table. She raised her eyebrow, noticing he was wearing his image inducer on his wrist. The inducer was activated, giving the illusion of his human form. His short clean cut black hair was slicked back on top of his head. He was immensely muscular, standing about 6'6" tall. He wore a maroon colored shirt, tucked into fitting black slacks. His blue eyes looked at her through his glasses. It was very rare that she saw him wearing his inducer. He came to accept his true form, the blue haired covered ape like body, long blue hair, with a beast like face. She smirked, as she thought of his codename: Beast. The name definitely did not fit his personality. He was a warm, compassionate, and kind hearted man. He cared so much for the students, that it was hard to believe that he could ever hurt anyone. He had such a high intelligence, like she'd never seen or even heard of. "Hey, Einstein!" She smiled.

Hank grinned, and took a drink from his coffee. "Peter has a guest here, so for obvious reasons, I would need to wear the inducer. I wouldn't want to scare anyone, you know." He smiled.

Hank placed his coffee on the table in front of him. Rogue shook her head, staring at her hands peeling the orange in front of her face, "Mr. McCoy, you don't scare anyone. You're way too nice to even scare a fly." She smiled.

"Well, thank you for the compliment, my Southern Belle," He grinned.

Rogue smiled at his comment. He had affectionate pet names for each student in the Institute. He was able to see the personalities of each student; he counseled them for Pete's sake. He was the doctor, and the teacher of the institute. The understanding of his past caused him to understand the students' pasts more than anyone she's ever known. She sighed, wondering why she hadn't told him of her past; he only wanted to help her in every way possible, to end her nightmares. He needed to know, of course; the information would be a big help to him in trying to treat her. Hank's eyes looked at her with concern, "Is something wrong, Rogue?" He asked warmly.

She sighed; he had such a fatherly personality. Just as much as the Professor who had taken her in, and took such good care of her. She had so many questions for Hank, hoping his intelligence would know all the answers. She put her orange onto the napkin, and looked at him, "Well, Mr. McCoy, I've just been so confused lately," She paused, gulping the saliva building in her mouth, "I mean, you're supposed to know everythin', Mr. McCoy. What makes us like we are, anyway?" She asked.

Hank turned to her, his face becoming solemn. "Well, Rogue, just about everything has a result, of course. Human Evolution has happened since the dawn of time. Evolution's been known to happen about every thousand years or more. Of course, during these times, evolution's taken a huge leap," Hank sighed, as he shrugged, "I'm still trying to conclude more studies of the evolution of DNA, and what had caused the X Gene to appear. But, of course, the X Gene is carried by the father of a child, and passed on. The exact cause however, is unknown." He concluded.

Rogue sighed, looking at her orange in front of her. "Rogue, is there something you want to tell me? You can trust me, Rogue. Everything is strictly confidential in the sessions conducted with me; you know this." He asked, concerned.

Rogue looked at him. She glared at him, wondering what to say. She didn't know if she could tell him. It was hard enough to tell the best friend she trusted; she trusted Hank, but she was always so afraid of what anyone would think of her, considering she had killed someone, and taken their life and even their powers into her. She knew she would have to tell Jean, in order for Jean to help lock the disturbing personality away in her mind forever. Hank's eyes stared at her with question. Rogue finally sighed, and looked at the table in front of her, "Yes, Mr. McCoy. I do. But, I want to tell you in private. Can we go to your office?" She asked, looking up at him.

Hank nodded. "Alright. We'll have this off the record." He said, standing up.

Rogue stood up, bundling the peels in her napkin. She threw the napkin filled with orange peels into the trash, and followed Hank out of the kitchen.