From now on the story is narrated in 1st person by Neil.
Chapter One: Going Home
There were four of them, humans, heavily muscled, wearing cheap sports clothing, smoking cigarettes, and not blessed with any great intelligence. They were what us Scots referred to as 'neds'. They had been following us for the last several minutes, staying fifty or so yards behind us, clearly confident that we would not realise they were there. Unfortunately for them, they did not realise they were following the world's second most powerful telepath. I had sensed them and their intentions almost instantly, and I decided to find out what they were planning. Subtly probing their minds, I saw what they wanted. They had decided we looked both rich and helpless, and thus easy targets for a quick mugging.
It was when we turned into a narrow side street on our way home, that they made their move. I sensed them walking faster, getting closer, then one of them called, "Hey!"
We turned. I sensed the emotions emanating from my friends. Chris, who had grown up in the Edinburgh slums, was used to scenes like this, and was unworried. Fliss was nervous, still uncomfortable in a country that was new and foreign to her. Chloe, who had a natural aversion to fighting and violence, was unhappy at the prospect of confrontation, but she wasn't frightened. The four neds were approaching us, smug grins printed on their faces.
"You're not from around here, are you?" the lead one said.
"No," I said.
A quick glance at the street surrounding us told me all I needed to know. There was nobody else in sight, save for a couple of mangy dogs sniffing at the contents of a dustbin, thus no witnesses to whatever might happen next.
"Where you from?" the guy demanded.
"I think that's our business."
"You trying to be smart?" he leered, opening his hand to reveal a switchblade knife.
"What do you want?" said Fliss nervously.
The guy stared at her, "A bloody Yank! I hate bloody Yanks!"
He grabbed Felicity by the wrist and snapped, "I hate little American rich bitches like you! The rest of you, give us your money and we might not have to cut this one!"
They were expecting us to be afraid of them, and to hand over our money to stop them from hurting her. It wasn't going to happen.
"You guys have seriously picked the wrong target this time," said Chris, his anger rising at the way Fliss was being treated. "You really don't want to make us mad."
"Whatever, rich boy, just give us the money. Or maybe we'll take what we want out of her," the ned sneered, pulling Fliss close to him, his free hand encircling her waist, fondling her backside.
This was too much for Felicity, and she reacted angrily, using her power to send a small electric shock into the guy's body. He jerked, yelped, and was thrown on to his back, the knife clattering on to the pavement.
"Bitch!" he spat. "What the hell was that? Get them, you idiots!"
The other three guys were jolted into action, and headed straight for us, flick-knives appearing in their hands as if by magic. Chris grinned, and met one of them head-on, calling on his knowledge of martial arts to aid him. The other two guys, wary of Fliss, headed towards Chloe, seeing her as the easiest target.
"Help me!" Chloe cried.
For a moment I thought she was talking to me, and I raised my hand to use my power. Then I realised it wasn't me she was addressing, but the two moth-eaten Alsatian dogs I had seen earlier. They heard her call and responded instantly, running towards us, barking loudly, and leaping on to the backs of the two thugs.
"What the hell?" one of them shouted, fending off the enraged animal that was biting and snapping at him.
"Don't kill them!" Chloe said to the dogs. "Just scare them off!"
The dogs put themselves between the neds and Chloe, protecting her, growling angrily at them. I looked over to see how Chris was getting on. He'd disarmed his opponent, the knife now lying harmlessly off to one side, and was laughing as he easily dodged punches and kicks, toying with the guy.
The leader of the pack of thugs was back on his feet, his knife in hand once more, approaching Fliss, murder in his eyes. He was wise enough now to keep the knife out, preventing her from getting close enough to shock him again. I knew she had deliberately given him only a tiny jolt, not wishing to hurt him, only to get him away from her. I knew that was the reason why she didn't simply launch a bolt of lightning at him now, since any such airborne attack was difficult for her to control, and would probably kill him. We couldn't kill them. It wouldn't be right. I decided it was time to end the fight.
I raised one hand. The four thugs froze, unable to move, held in place by my telekinesis. Chris relaxed; Fliss breathed a sigh of relief; Chloe knelt down to pet the two dogs, thanking them for their help.
"What the f**k is going on?!" the lead ned yelled, struggling to break out of my power's grasp.
"Shut up and listen to me," I said. "Understand one thing: I could kill you right now, just as easily as I'm holding you in place. I'm choosing not to."
"You're a bloody mutant!" he realised, his fear mushrooming inside him.
"Oh, well done," Chris said sarcastically. "What tipped you off?"
"Let me go!" the ned yelled, beginning to sound hysterical, his confidence eroding rapidly.
Fliss glared at him angrily, "Not so brave now, are you, pervert? Maybe this will teach you not to pick on people who are weaker than you are! They might turn out to be not so weak, mightn't they?"
I relaxed my power, and the four guys, caught by surprise, fell to the ground. Overtaken by fear, they scrambled to their feet and hurried away as fast as they could, not even stopping to recollect the knives they had dropped. Chris cracked his knuckles, a sound that made the rest of us wince, and said, "That went well."
Fliss was still angry, and she snapped, "What a creep! Did you see the way he tried to touch me? He probably thinks women are just sex objects!"
Chris put his arm round her and squeezed her gently, "Don't let it get you down. Some people are just scum."
"Are you all right?" I said to Chloe.
She nodded, "Yeah. They never actually got close enough to hurt me."
"We'd probably better get home," I said. "Word of this little incident will spread quickly, and we don't want an anti-mutant mob on our hands."
The others agreed, and we hurried the rest of the way home. It was the first time I had been back in my home city of Edinburgh since May, and it was good to have returned. As happy as I had been living in the X-mansion, the US was still a foreign country to me, and I was uncomfortable there. This had felt like coming home, and yet it hadn't. Life wasn't the same as it had been before, and it never would be. My grandparents, who had raised me from babyhood, were dead, killed in a traffic accident earlier in the month. Now I had no living relatives left. Jacqueline too was dead; one of our closest friends, who had been killed by military forces two months ago. The memories of these three people who I had loved would stay with me forever, even although they were gone.
As the only relative my grandparents had had, everything that they owned had been left to me. It was to their old house that we now headed, the house I had grown up in, the house that now belonged to me, where we would staying for the foreseeable future. It was just an ordinary house, and I had a certain fondness for it, having spent my childhood there. I could tell Fliss didn't like it, but out of respect for my grandparents, she wasn't saying anything.
The sun was just beginning to set when we got back there, and we were glad to get inside out of the cold.
"It's freezing," Fliss shivered, as she huddled against the radiator for some warmth.
"Welcome to Scotland," Chris grinned, ignoring the cold, immune as he was to temperature change.
Chloe headed upstairs, and I dumped on to the kitchen table the few items we had bought that day. As I watched Chloe making her way upstairs, a thought occurred to me. It was something that I had been deliberating over at length for the last few days. I had been struggling to come to a decision, but now I felt the time was right. I headed through to the front room. In the corner was a small wooden bureau, with one drawer which held trinkets and paraphernalia that were of family significance. I opened the drawer, and began rummaging inside. I knew it was in here somewhere. Yes – there it was. I slipped it into my pocket, and went upstairs to find Chloe.
She was in the bigger of the two bedrooms, where my grandparents had slept, the room she and I had claimed as our own, unpacking some of her clothes into the wardrobe and chest of drawers. I sat down on the edge of the double bed, fingering the object in my pocket, and tried to decide how I was going to say this. It was early evening now, and it was only that morning we had arrived from New York. This would be the first night we spent here, sleeping in a double bed together. I did not have a problem with that; Chloe and I were no longer in a platonic relationship, but it seemed the kind of thing a married couple should be doing, not teens like us. I didn't really know what to think. Our relationship wasn't exactly a normal one; how could it be when one of us was telepathic?
"Chloe?" I said, finally mustering the courage.
"Yeah?"
"I want to ask you two things."
"OK."
"First of all, would you like to go out for dinner tonight?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I'd love to. Just us, or are Chris and Fliss coming too?"
"No, just us. The second thing – this isn't easy for me. Promise me you won't laugh."
"All right, I promise I won't laugh."
"OK. Will you marry me?"
Surprise and shock erupted inside her, and she had to grab hold of the wardrobe to steady herself. For a moment, one terrible moment, I thought she was going to reject me outright, but then her emotions settled slightly, and I knew it was happy surprise she was feeling. She was shocked, but pleasantly so. It was something she had wanted to hear.
"Of course I will," she said, giving me a delighted smile. "You knew all you had to do was ask."
I fumbled in my pocket, and pulled out the object I had taken from downstairs.
"What's that?" she said.
"It's my mother's engagement ring. My gran kept it. I'd like you to have it."
I walked around the bed towards Chloe, and took hold of her left hand, slipping the ring on to her unresisting fourth finger. She looked at me, then at the ring, enraptured, holding it up to the light to see the stone shining brightly.
"It's sapphire," I said.
"It's beautiful…"
"So are you."
Chloe smiled, and we drew together to kiss. Her elation and her excitement washed over me as our lips touched, and I knew I had never been so happy before as I was now. I couldn't believe we were engaged; I couldn't believe she had actually said yes. It was incredible to think I had first met Chloe only four months ago. Within a day we'd begun to admire one another; within a week we had shared our first kiss; within two months we had lost our virginity together; and now we were engaged to be married.
When we pulled apart at last, Chloe said, "So where are we going for dinner?"
"Well," I said. "If I had the money, I'd take you to the most expensive restaurant in the city to celebrate our engagement. Unfortunately, I don't. But there's a nice place just a couple of streets away."
"OK," she smiled. "Let's go."
It was an hour later, when we were at the restaurant eating our meal, that the enormity of it hit me. We were going to get married. The single greatest commitment that anyone could make, we had made to each other. I knew we would not regret it. I could never love another girl, or woman, as much as I loved Chloe. I knew we would be happy together. I knew we would never part. There might be difficult times, we might argue or fight, but I knew the love that had brought us together would always reign supreme, and would always keep us together.
"Neil?" Chloe said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"There's something I want to say, something I want to make clear."
"What is it?"
"I know we both want to have children, but I have to ask you: if we had a child, and it wasn't a mutant, if it was just an ordinary human – would you still love it?"
"Of course I would," I said. "I was born human myself, remember. What about you?"
"I would love any child we had, regardless of what they were," she said. "It wouldn't matter if it was human or mutant, or if it was disabled in any way, it would be our child, and I would love it. I…I just wanted to make sure you felt the same way."
"Don't worry," I told her. "I agree with everything you just said. I'll try to be as good a father as I possibly can, unlike my own."
Chloe sighed, then said, "I've hardly got in touch with my mum and dad since we first went to New York. I really feel as if I ought to go and visit them here in Edinburgh, while we're doing our job for the Professor."
"I won't stop you," I said. "I was planning to go and pay this Constantine character a visit tomorrow morning, but I'm sure we can work your parents in somewhere. Do they know about us?"
"Sort of," she said. "I've told them you're my boyfriend, but obviously they don't know about…about us having sex. And I definitely won't be telling them we're engaged – not right away, anyway."
"I've lost my entire family," I said. "I guess I'm just starting to find a new one."
Chloe smiled, and her gaze moved to her new engagement ring, which had just caught the light from the candle on our table. We fell silent and returned to eating our meal.
I felt like I was walking on air when we left the restaurant, holding each other's hand tightly, lost in love, both looking forward to the future we would share with each other, and imagining the children we might have. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. Chloe was my perfect girl, an irreplaceable part of my heart, and now we would be together forever. Till death do us part.
I was so wrapped up in thoughts of Chloe and my future with her, that I didn't sense the presence of the mutant coming up from behind me until it was too late. There was a sharp stabbing pain as a blade was thrust into my back, then it was retracted, and I fell forward on to my knees, crying out. The pain was overwhelming, and I was struggling to remain conscious, falling over on to my side. To make matters worse, my body sensed there had been poison on the blade, and it was infecting me even now. I couldn't identify what it was, but it was acting fast, and I would be dead within seconds. Chloe was on her knees beside me, holding my hand in hers, desperately asking what was wrong. I knew there was only one thing I could do.
Taking a deep breath and forcing myself to concentrate, I called upon my healing power. Spreading outwards from my heart, it began to surge through my bloodstream, cleansing me of the poison, repairing the stab wound in my back. My body mended, I felt my strength begin to return, and I struggled into a sitting position.
"Are you all right?" asked Chloe anxiously. "What happened?"
I shook my head to clear it, and then I remembered. That mutant. I got to my feet, Chloe helping me, and looked in the direction the attack had come from. Nobody in the milling crowd looked extraordinary or out of place. I couldn't sense the mutant's presence any longer. A few people had stopped to make sure I was OK, but had moved on when I got up looking apparently unharmed.
"What happened?" Chloe repeated.
"It was another mutant," I said. "A girl. She stabbed me."
"Stabbed you? But who? Nobody even knows we're here!"
"I don't know. She's fled; I can't sense her any more."
"Do you think Magneto sent her?"
I shook my head, "Magneto wouldn't try to kill me. We have an understanding."
"Then who? Hey, do you think it's got anything to do with this Constantine guy? Maybe somebody else has got to him first, and is trying to keep us away!"
"Maybe. But like you just said, nobody knows we're here, nobody except the Professor."
"I don't understand. What does this mean?"
"I don't really know either," I said. "All I know is that somebody is trying to kill us – or me, at any rate – and just now they almost succeeded."
"They obviously didn't know about your healing power."
"Yeah. We're going to have to be extremely careful from now on. We don't know who's out there, what they want, or why they've targeted us."
Then another thought struck me. I looked at Chloe and said, "If somebody was just sent to attack us – what if somebody else was sent for Chris and Fliss?"
"Do you think they're in danger?" she gasped.
"We'd better hurry."
I led the way back to the house, keeping my senses active, pushing out to detect any mutants in the vicinity. There appeared to be none, other than my three friends. When we reached my home, I pushed open the front door, and looked around the hallway. No signs of an intrusion. I could sense the two of them on the upper floor. Hurrying up the stairs, I sensed Felicity in the room on the right. I opened the door to check she was all right, remembering too late that this was in fact the bathroom.
She was inside, lying in the bath, only her head protruding above the soapy bubbles. Her eyes were closed and for a moment I feared the worst. Then she opened her eyes, and I realised she was only luxuriating. Her eyes widened as she looked over at me. For a moment I thought she was going to be angry, but she was in a good mood, and I knew she wasn't about to shout at me.
"Can I help you?" she giggled mischievously, trying to cover up her embarrassment with a joke.
I felt myself blushing slightly, "Haven't you ever heard of locking the door?"
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" she retorted with a cheeky smile.
I sighed, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to check you were OK. You see, I was attacked while we were on our way home from dinner."
Her expression changed, and her mood became serious, "What happened?"
"I'll tell you in a minute; when you're finished in the bath."
"All right, I'm finished. I'm getting out. Hand me that towel over there. And don't look!"
I grabbed her towel and threw it over to land beside the bath.
"I said don't look!"
I averted my eyes and left the bathroom to find Chris. He was in the other bedroom, the one that had been mine when I had lived here as a child. Lying on one of the two beds, he appeared to be asleep, but opened one eye when he heard me came in.
"Hey," he said. "How was dinner?"
"Dinner was good. The trip home wasn't so nice."
"What happened? Someone run over your foot?"
"I was attacked. By a mutant. I don't know who it was."
He raised both eyebrows and a frown crossed his face as he repeated Fliss' question, "What happened?"
"I'll tell you when Fliss gets here."
Chloe had joined us by this time, and presently Felicity appeared, a towel wrapped around her, her long blonde hair still dripping water on to the floor.
"You said you were attacked," she prompted.
I nodded, "It was a mutant – a female – and she stabbed me. I don't know what with, but it was poisoned."
"Your healing power saved you?" Chris guessed. "What do you think it was, an assassin of some kind?"
"Probably. I guess I never thought about it before, but if I really am as powerful as the Professor thinks, it will make me a target for certain people."
"But who would want to kill you?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know. Maybe somebody who reckons I'm too powerful, and thinks I'm going to get in their way."
"Magneto," Felicity said instantly. "It has to be him. He waited until you were away from the mansion, away from the Professor, then he struck."
"No. Chloe said the same, but I know Magneto. He wouldn't do that."
"Can you be sure?" Chris asked dubiously.
"Yes. I've read his mind before, and I know his intentions. He still has hopes that I will join him one day, though I've told him it's never going to happen. He doesn't want to kill me, and he knows I don't want to kill him. We'll fight against each other when our interests conflict, but neither of us really wants to hurt the other."
"If only all our enemies were so friendly," Chris said sarcastically. "So who does that leave us with? Nobody."
"I think it has something to do with Constantine," I said. "Somebody else is interested in him, and they must have figured out why we're here. They don't want him to join us, so they tried to kill us."
"But why only kill you? Why not kill Chloe too if she was with you?"
"I don't know. She – the girl who stabbed me, not Chloe – ran away immediately, so it seems I was her only target. I couldn't sense her presence any more, so we couldn't go after her. We just came back here."
"And came upstairs to watch me taking my bath," said Fliss, the spark of mischief still in her eyes.
Both Chloe and Chris turned to stare at me; shock, disbelief and anger registering in their minds. I sighed. Sometimes I really wanted to throttle Felicity. Sometimes she was just too cheeky and playful for her own good.
"Don't be stupid," I said. "I thought someone might have gone after you too. I only came in to make sure you were OK."
She laughed, "Of course you did."
I glanced at Chloe. She knew I was telling the truth, and she gave me a little smile. Chris, however, was still fixing me with a suspicious glare, half-believing what Fliss was saying.
"Come on!" I said impatiently. "I can look through walls! If I wanted to ogle a girl, I could do it without her even knowing !"
"So you're sticking to that story," Felicity giggled, finding the whole thing extremely amusing.
Chris' anger was rising once more, and he half-stood, then seemed to think better of it. I knew he was devoted to Fliss, and any suggestion that I was trying anything with her would not make him very happy. I knew he was a little bit insecure, unsure whether or not she did actually like him. Felicity's playful nature made it difficult for her to genuinely express her feelings, and Chris must be wondering whether or not she was just playing a joke on him. Reading her mind also, I knew that was not the case. I knew she loved him as much as he loved her. Chris needed somebody who could share his adventurous, humorous outlook on life, and Fliss needed somebody who could put up with her. They were perfect for each other.
Before I could say anything on the subject, Felicity was ushering me towards the door, still laughing, "All right, I'm going to get changed for bed now! Chloe, Neil, out! You've seen enough of me today already!"
I sensed fury rising in Chris again. He was on his feet and heading towards me, before Fliss closed the door between us. I heard her giggling hysterically on the other side, probably trying to calm down Chris before he stormed out of the room and threw a punch at me.
"What is she like?" said Chloe, shaking her head. "I was never like that when I was fifteen! Was I?"
"No. I wish I could laugh too, but I'm just thinking about what happened tonight."
"Me too. Are you scared?"
"Scared? Somebody with mutant powers is trying to kill me, and I don't know why," I said. "Of course I'm scared. You?"
"Yeah. For your safety more than anything else. And the thought of losing you. I couldn't live without you."
"I couldn't live without you either, fiancée."
A smile lit up her face, "Hey, do you know what? I'd forgotten about that. In all the excitement, I'd forgotten we were engaged."
"I hadn't."
In the years to come, we could never remember which of us had made the first move that night, but suddenly we were in each other arms and kissing furiously, moving slowly into our own bedroom, and sinking down on to the double bed. My emotions were running wild inside me, and I could sense Chloe's too. It was a familiar drill by now, forming a telepathic link between our minds, and transmitting my feelings to her. Warm delight spread through Chloe as she felt our combined love washing over her, and our passions started to take over. We drew together, closer than ever before, and began to spiral out of control.
Our clothes didn't stay on long, hitting the floor one at a time, and as we nestled together under the duvet cover, our love still flowing between us, there was a part of my mind that told me we shouldn't be doing this. We were using no contraceptives, and my logical mind screamed at me to stop. Unfortunately, my emotions had completely taken over, and logical thought had no power over my actions. After all, we'd got away without using contraceptives before. And yet…and yet…this time I knew, somehow I knew, it was going to be different.
The second it happened, I knew it. As the sperm and the egg came together, I could sense the tiny life-form that was created. I had never felt so many emotions at the one time, and my mind reeled with a combination of joy, horror, lust, wonder, love and a terrible sickening feeling as I knew exactly what had happened. For several minutes my realisation fought with my disbelief, and as realisation came out on top, I looked over at Chloe. With the telepathic link between us, she would have sensed it too.
Chloe was asleep, so exhausted she had dropped off instantly. The telepathic link was useless now, and I dropped it. Chloe didn't know she was pregnant.
Oh God, what have I done?
Not only were we going to be married, we were going to be parents too. We should have been more careful. It was my fault. I should have been more careful. It was with this guilt that I finally succumbed to both mental and physical exhaustion, and fell asleep beside Chloe. I only hoped that she would forgive me.
