**Standard Mice Disclaimer**
Mice is in no way associated with the Marvel Comics Group. She is merely trying to write a story and this is all she has to show for it. A noble effort. Though she would one day like to be paid for writing, please don't send her any money (send mail to urmonkeyifudo@yeahright.com on instructions to send her money). The characters of Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy, William and Maddy Drake, and Jubilee, belong to the Marvel Comics Group. Holland, Jacob, Bert, Cliff, Hollis, Annie, Claudia, Harpo, Jacqueline, Julia, Jack, and Nan are of my own mind. Any archiving of this story that is unaware of her attention will be ily received (Read: Tikki Curse). If you e-mail her, explain your intentions to archive the story and address of your archive, she will be more than gracious and will probably do something nice for you, like bake you brownies, not to mention archiving the story. She just wants to know where she can drool over the sight of her name. If you want to e-mail her comments, do it at reese@snarkyblue.com. You'll also get some brownies out of the deal, but it's not really that great of a reward because she can't cook.
Previous installments of this story can be found at Alyson Hurt's excellent site, (un)frozen:
Six Seeds, pt. 5
By Mice
-Prologue-
Zeus became the great compromiser in the situation, but only after Hermes whispered his idea into his father's ear. That idea sounded an awful lot like the following: Hades wasn't happy with having his bride for only six months, but it was better than what Demeter was willing to spare of her daughter.
Demeter, naturally, wasn't happy with the arrangement either, but knew that she was lucky to have her daughter for those six months. She and Persephone were going to have a talk about those six seeds she ate, causing this horrible decision. In truth, Demeter was almost embarrassed over having such a stupid daughter.
Hermes didn't mind. As long as it shut everyone up, he was happy to have credit stolen from him.
-1-
Logan waited to take a puff out of his cigar out. He had been waiting since Jubilee had brought him outside and had started her rambling. She was nervous and was trembling, and even with his hearing, he could only make out a few words like "Frosty" and "drunk". Even without the other words, Logan had two hunches at what the general message was about and doubted that it was the one about a drinking a good beer. It was the United States, after all.
"Jubes?"
"Yeah?"
"You had sex with Drake?"
Jubilee paled. "It depends on whether or not you're going to kill him..."
Logan smiled and took that long awaited drag. "What would you do if I did?" he asked in an eerily steady voice.
"Well, I wouldn't be happy, that's for sure!" Jubilee took a deep breath. "And I don't think Annie'd be too happy..."
Logan nodded his head once. He never really talked to the kid, but had nothing against her. "Fair enough. What does the boy think?"
"The boy" was Harpo. "He says he understands."
"Did he offer to kill Drake?"
"No."
Logan growled disapprovingly. "Yer life, kid."
Jubilee blinked. "What?"
"Yer getting older, you can make yer own decisions."
"What happened to wanting to kill Bobby?"
"I never said that. You did. Just asked what you'd do." Logan stretched his arms and watched the smoke rise from his cigar and become part of the pattern of the sky. "I like him."
"Drake?"
"The boy."
"Oh."
"Do you like Bobby?"
"I like the boy."
-2-
Bobby opened the door for Holland and Bert. He decided to give them a break from Long Island for a night, and he still wanted to be near family.
Bert looked up and all around the mansion as he slowly walked inside, his little mouth making a perfect little "o". He paced himself slowly in the entry way before stopping. "Monet!"
Bobby turned. "Where?"
Bert pointed to a painting. "Monet!"
Bobby shook his head. "She's not here, Bert. That's a painting."
Bert stomped his foot. "Lillies. Monet!"
Bobby looked at the painting -- it was the Professor's "Water Lillies at Giverney". He looked back at Bert. "What are you letting this kid watch?"
Holland smiled. "Anything he wants. He just picks up on the weirdest things. He's happiest when I put on game shows...he likes seeing people win cars."
"New car!"
Bobby shook his head and motioned for them to come in more.
"Are you sure it's okay for us to be here?"
"Yeah!" Bobby answered, knowing that the answer may be no. "Besides, I've got lots of toys for Bert to play with."
"That's good. At your father's house, I looked for some of your old toys and I couldn't find any."
"Are you deaf? I just said I have toys for Bert to play with. Where do you think the majority of them come from?"
"Bobby, I swear that you couldn't find puberty if you were an elephant and it was a peanut."
"I beg to differ--"
Bobby was cut off by an ear piercing squeal of, "BLUE!!"
Holland and Bobby looked around them to see that they were missing Bert. "Great, this is what I get for insulting you!"
Bobby grinned. "Usually, people get nothing. Feel special."
"Bert?" Holland called out to a general area.
"Is that what the boy's name is?" Hank McCoy came into the foyer, still in his suit, indisposed of his image inducer that he had used earlier in the evening, revealing his blue fur. On his left leg, he was wearing Bert.
Holland nodded. It was all she could do. She'd seen Dr. Henry McCoy on television, but never associated him with Bobby's friend Hank. Bobby's furless friend Hank.
Hank reached over to his leg to remove Bert, but found that he couldn't coax him from his position.
"Is he bothering you?" Holland asked.
Hank shook his head. "I just don't want him to get tired..."
"He won't. You should see him around dogs. He's relentless." Holland grinned in confused pride. "He's just fond of things that are blue and have fur. You seem to be the perfect blend.
Bert nuzzled his face on Hank's leg and let out the satisfying sigh of, "Blue..."
"Is Annie still here?" Bobby asked after looking in a nearby room.
"She's in Boston with Remy and Scott."
Bobby blinked. "How come you're not there with her?"
"The Professor thought that I may be a potential target for Emily and didn't want me to be involved. After all, look what she did to Annie, who knows what she would do to me?"
"So Annie's out there with Gambit?" Bobby grunted. "This is stupid! I should be there with them!"
"To do what, Bobby? To tell Annie that she's fine and doesn't need to push herself?" Hank's voice was a little louder than he intended it to be. As a result, Bert departed from his perch and ran to his mother.
Bobby drew in a small breath to calm himself. "How long have you been sitting on that one?"
Hank opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and began to walking away.
"Don't you do that, Hank!" Bobby called after him. "It's not fair that you talk all the time, knowingly over my head for most of it, and then just stop. Is talking only fun when you get to seem smarter than everyone else?"
"You don't want to hear it, Bobby. Not from me," Hank yelled, not turning around, but not progressing forward, either.
"Doesn't matter anyway." Bobby turned to walk to where Holland and Bert were avoiding his conversation. "She chose me. Not you."
This made Hank turn around. "She settled for you."
Bobby spun around and looked at his best friend. "Take that back."
"I told you didn't want to hear it, Bobby."
"I said, take it back!"
"No. I don't believe I will." Hank advanced towards him. "Do you know why she chose you? Because wanted safe, dependable, puppy eyed Bobby Drake who promised her an anagrammed password that he took from me!"
Bobby drew nearer to Hank. "You said I should use it for the appropriate girl."
"How many have you used the password on, Bobby? You used it on Opal--"
"I was careless."
"You used it on Cloud--"
"I was clueless."
"You used it on the bank teller!"
"I--" Bobby began, but ultimately faltered. "I came up with that anagram, too, if you remember!"
Hank growled in response. "I remember that weekend, Bobby. You turned twenty-one and we had just bought that cabin. We didn't have women and naturally, that's all we talked about that weekend. We talked about what we liked and what we wanted from them. I was talking about Rostand and Cyrano, and how the letters to Roxane were the most beautiful ever written and how I'd like to feel that one day. You said that you wanted something to make women tremble upon hearing it. I came up with the password -- everything. You liked it, and was going to use it just like that. I suggested scrambling the letters up, I suggested the anagram. If I had listened to you, you would have told Annie that she was your "The Very Gin". That doesn't even mean anything!" Hank approached Bobby until they were inches away from each other. "I didn't even tell Trish that password. I was saving it."
"Really? And when were you going to tell Annie? While she was waiting on our table? Making you watch soap operas? Oh, how about this, plying her with alcohol the very day we broke up because you are such a classy guy?"
"Don't push me, Bobby."
"Why not? You hit my father, why not me?"
"Your father made me angry. You have betrayed me."
Bobby laughed. "Oh, that's great. I betrayed you? You got Annie in this whole situation! You're the reason she's never going to have kids!"
"Well then thank God she's dating you! Who'd want your kids!"
And that's the first time a non-mind controlled Bobby Drake, removed from any Danger Room exercises, hit Hank McCoy.
-3-
Annie shifted in her seat in the Blackbird. She was happy to note that the ride wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be; she was the sort to get motion sickness on the merry-go-round. This was somewhat pleasant. What wasn't pleasant was the uniform Remy gave her.
"You said that you don' like de yellow and blue, so I got you somet'in real pretty."
Annie glared at her black uniform. It wasn't so bad -- the pants of it didn't cling tenaciously to her calves and thighs, but the top with the two bands of black cloth barely covering her chest was what iced it. "Is this some sort of revenge for something I may have said in reference to how silly I think your uniform is?"
"Maybe yes, maybe non."
Annie shivered. "I'm cold."
"You cuddle up to Bobby every night and you're complainin' ta me about de cold? Deaf ears, chere, deaf ears."
Annie could see Scott's smile reflected on the windshield of the Blackbird. "I agree with Gambit. You should be enjoying the warmth. In fact, Bobby's the reason that every Blackbird that has been made, with the exception of the first, has been equipped with a heater. Do you have any idea what it's like flying around with a hormonal teenager who generates cold?"
"I'm sure I'll appreciate it soon -- summer's almost here."
"That is when Bobby does his best work," Scott agreed. "And when we can better tell when he's up to something. In winter, we have prime pranking Bobby. In summer, he settles down quite a bit and becomes incredibly useful."
Annie returned Scott's smile. Though she and Jean were not even close to being friends, she found herself liking Scott as her friend more and more, despite all the stories and rumors she had heard. That probably comes from growing up with coaches, Annie thought. Yelling at you, trying your patience, pushing you until you hurt...but that's what leaders do. They do all that and respect you, too.
"We're getting ready to land. Gambit, I want you to take Annie inside and retrieve Dr. Clay-Poole. I don't want a fight, I just want to collect her and return her to the mansion for questioning. I'm going to watch you through this," Scott took out a silver communicator and handed it to Remy to put on Annie. "If you need any help, I'll come."
Annie smiled at Remy as he put it on her. "You know, at prom, I only got a corsage made of freesia. I feel like the prettiest girl here."
Remy shook his head. "Dere ain't none prettier than de one right in front of you."
-4-
"BLUE!"
Kurt Wagner jumped at the noise. "Vas?" He looked across the room, searching for where the noise came from. "Who is there?"
He felt a slight tug on his tail. He turned slowly to find a small child looking up at him with a wild smile. "Oh. Hello..."
The boy pointed. "Little Blue!"
"Little Blue?" Kurt repeated before figuring it out. "You met Hank."
"BIG Blue!" The boy outstretched his small arms in an effort to show the mass of Hank McCoy.
"Ja, Big Blue." Kurt pointed to himself. "I'm Kurt--"
"Little Blue!"
Kurt smiled. "Okay, I'm Little Blue. Who are you?"
"Gilberto Alexander Bass."
"That's a mouthful..."
Bert nodded. And pointed to himself. "Bert."
"I can do that."
Bert took this as a sign to crawl up on Kurt's backside until his arms wrapped around his shoulders.
"And I thought I was agile."
"Fuzzy..." Bert petted Kurt's fur, preferring it to the texture of Hank's.
"Okay, if you had been some sort of emissary of evil, I believe that you wouldn't choose the word "fuzzy"...emissaries of evil tend not to compliment me...unless they are tremendously beautiful women, but I can't tell you about that, yet." Kurt grinned as he made sure Bert was secure behind his back, then made his way to see Professor Xavier. "Let's see where you belong."
-5-
Hank and Bobby tumbled into the kitchen, where Bobby's back helped to break a vase that was on the table. "Why can't you just admit that you're jealous of me, Hank?"
"I can't be jealous of someone who is less than me!"
"So, it finally comes out! You think I'm an idiot!" Bobby grabbed Hank's arm and proceeded to twist it.
"I just don't think you know what it takes to maintain an adult relationship!" Hank took his free arm and smacked it on Bobby's head, creating a satisfying thud.
"I've had adult relationships!"
"Please, Robert, it was not unlike watching you play house. How did your girlfriends feel letting you go through the motions?"
Bobby charged into Hank's chest. "Granted, I wasn't the best boyfriend, but at least my ex-girlfriends have never betrayed me like Trish did to you. Or they've never had some sort of bitter vengeance on the X-Men like some of the others have."
"I have always suspected that it hurt your self-esteem a bit."
"Oh, yes, I'm so pissed off that Opal didn't acquire something like the Phoenix force and try to blow up the mansion!"
Hank stopped from going in and punching him again. "Yes you are! You revealed that to me on your last birthday! I remember because you were playing with the female G.I. Joe action figure I bought for the occasion!"
"No I didn't!"
"You did so! You were playing with Mademoiselle Marie, who, in spite of having a fabulous wardrobe of fishnets and a sexy tight black skirt and a chic beret, you thought she reminded you of Opal and you expressed regret that she never sought revenge on you, and you made the doll channel something called the Opal Force."
Bobby thought about this. "I think I remember."
"Then I felt left out because I didn't have a doll--"
"ACTION FIGURE!"
"Fine, action figure to play with, and you retrieved one from your then still intact Ford Escort love, Lady Jaye."
"You were Chewbacca."
"Yes." Hank nodded. "I'm always Chewie. And just this once, I thought that maybe, I could be Han Solo and get the lovely damsel, but I remain Chewie."
"No, Hank, you're not Chewie!" Bobby grabbed a few towels and put some ice in them and handed one to Hank. "You're Han! I'm Chewie! I'm there to make humorous growls and to have no one find sexy. You're always doing cool, sexy things, Hank!"
Hank looked up at Bobby. "I'm not Chewbacca?"
Bobby shook his head. "Not in my movie."
"I don't want you to be Chewie, either."
"Well, I don't want to be Luke!"
"Why?"
"Leia's hot."
"Then be Lando."
"I can be Lando."
A small silence rested between them as both applied ice to various bruises.
Hank broke it. "I apologize I made advances on her when you had just broken up and created this mess."
"I'm sorry that I'm a scared, jealous idiot." Bobby pressed the ice on his chest. "You are right, though."
"About?"
"I've never had a real relationship. And this feels like something I could definitely fuck up and that scares me."
Hank remained silent as he looked at his friend.
"What is it, Hank?"
"It's more than that, isn't it, Bobby?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's more than Annie. It's your mom, your cousin, your life...?"
Bobby shrugged. "It's been an uneasy year, sure..."
"How have you been coping?"
"I've been okay."
"Sleeping all right?"
"I sleep fine."
"I should say so." Hank shook his head as he withdrew the Altoid container he took from Bobby's car earlier in the evening. "I found this in your car. And though it says Altoids, that's not what's in there. If I'm not mistaken, that's Annie's prescription you inquired about earlier in the week."
Bobby looked down to the floor. "Yeah..."
"Did you take any today?"
"When I got out of my car -- I had another tin."
Hank sighed. "Bobby, you were drinking wine tonight...do you realize what could happen? This isn't a No Doze!"
"As I've said, it's been an uneasy year."
"I'm not letting my best friend do this to himself. I can't do that." Hank put his hand over Bobby's. "Promise me that you're going to stop this. I'm not even going to ask how long you've been taking them, but as a physician and your friend, I'm asking you to stop."
Bobby nodded.
Hank let out a breath. "I'll be watching you. These things are easily addictive."
Bobby nodded. "Okay."
Logan emerged from a darkened part in the kitchen. "Is the girl talk over?"
Hank and Bobby blushed as they nodded.
Logan grunted in acknowledgement as he walked up to them. "You boys done fightin'?"
They nodded again.
"Damn shame." With that, Logan gave Bobby a sharp blow to stomach before walking out of the kitchen.
Hank watched as Logan left and inquired, "What do you suppose that was all about?"
Bobby doubled over in pain, creating ice to ease it. "Maybe it was his vase we broke..."
-5-
Annie and Gambit made their way into the dark office. "There's something about this I don't like."
"What's dat? It's too quiet?"
Annie shook her head. "I don't have a cool code name."
"Is dat all dat's bothering you?"
"And the straps on this godforsaken thing you grabbed for me! I feel like I'm supposed to be in the talent portion of the Miss Teen USA pageant!"
"Well, you be usin' what your momma gave you."
"Correction, I'm using what Victoria's Secret gave me."
"There, dat'll be your codename: Wonder Bra."
"I'm serious, Gambit, I want a cool code name."
"Please, you're becoming an X-Man, there ain't no such thing." Remy motioned to himself. "I made up for everything by having an unbelievable sexy first name. You--" He stopped himself. "We find you a good code name after this, n'est pas?"
Annie sighed. "Oui." She reached over to turn a light on the lamp that was on her desk. "There's something else about this I don't like."
"I know, you're first name's horrible, too."
Annie kicked his tin covered shin. "I'm serious this time. This place looks like a David E. Kelley set." Annie blinked as she made her way to the wall. "In fact, I'm sure of it."
"The guy who keeps writing the lawyer shows?"
"No, the guy who keeps writing the bad lawyer shows in Boston."
"Dancin' baby guy." Gambit snorted. He hated David E. Kelley. David E. Kelley created Ally McBeal, to which he sacrificed every Monday night to watch it with Rogue.
"She is evil," Scott's voice called out from Annie's communicator. Jean was also helpless against the power of Ally McBeal.
Annie motioned Gambit to follow her. "If this bint is playing by Kelley's rules, then we aren't going to find anything here." Annie stormed out of the office, past the secretaries pool and into a unisex bathroom. She counted off the bathroom stalls before stopping at one.
"What are you doing?"
"Have you forgotten already? John Cage from Ally McBeal had a secret hideaway behind this stall. If she's hidden anywhere, that's where she'll be." Annie opened the stall door and pointed to the wall. "John had a remote. I have you and your kinetic energy."
Gambit nodded as he withdrew a penny from his pocket and charged it. "This is for adding Christina Ricci," he muttered before throwing it. After the plaster had settled, the two looked and found the room. "Good hunch."
"Yeah..." Annie said nervously as she motioned for Gambit to turn around. "But I don't remember there being a gigantic robot in the unisex."
"Maybe it was on The Practice...?"
-6-
Professor Xavier looked at the afro headed youth on Kurt's back with a bit of envy. He knew it was ridiculous, but he still envied that head of hair. After that moment of wishful thinking passed, he turned to Kurt. "And this is...?"
Kurt shrugged. "I'm not sure who he is."
"Gilberto Alexander Bass," Bert answered.
Xavier closed his eyes to try to remember if he knew anyone by that name. "Bobby. He's related to Bobby."
Kurt turned a cautious eye to his back. "Are you sure? Because he hasn't tried to put bubble gum in my fur yet. I consider that to be Herr Drake's signature..."
Xavier paid no mind to Kurt, staring only at the young boy who was staring intently back at him.
"Professor?"
Xavier blinked and motioned for the boy to come to him. "Would you mind leaving us alone for a minute, Kurt?"
Bert slid easily off of Kurt's back and onto Xavier's desk. "Sure. Is there anything wrong?"
"No," Xavier answered. "Something interesting.
-7-
"OW!" Annie screamed. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW, ow..." She rubbed her hand as Gambit advanced on the robot. "Why didn't you tell me that punching it would hurt?"
"I don' know, why did you think you suddenly became Rogue and had super strength?"
Annie let herself glare at Gambit for a second before making the choice to go into the room behind the stall.
Once inside, she began to take notice that it wasn't any ordinary room or a set of any kind. It was a laboratory and sitting there in the corner was Dr. Emily Clay-Poole.
"Hello, Ms. Peckenpaugh."
"Clay-Drool."
"How goes your progress with your knee?"
Annie walked up to her chair. "Let me show you." She raised her legs before remembering Scott's orders. "Are you going to call off that robot?"
Emily shook her head no. "Protocol, you understand."
"Of course." Annie let her leg connect with Emily's chin. "Standard practices and procedure."
Emily wiped her chin that now was dripping blood. "That hurt. I'm not sure if that was proper patient decorum."
Annie grabbed Emily and stared her in the eyes. "Why did you do this to me?"
Emily smiled. "This isn't about you. You were just there." Annie loosened her grip as Emily stood there smiling. "I was initially targetting Trish Tilby."
"So this is about Hank?"
Emily nodded and closed her eyes in embarrassment. "Perhaps." Emily grabbed a file from the desk and handed it to Annie. "You knew that we were both New Defenders together, correct?"
Annie perused the file while maintaining contact with Emily. "And?"
"I rather enjoyed his company then. But he didn't notice me very well. And probably with good reason. I wasn't much of who I am today. I had a weak power of information absorption -- much like what you have, but mine went on a deeper level." She smiled as she held up a disk. "All I had to do was touch it and I knew."
"Hank and I didn't sleep together."
For the first time, Emily's expression darkened. "Neither did we. It's sad, too. I've learned things since the New Defenders."
"Why didn't you go after him then?"
"My divorce wasn't final and I'm not the kind of girl who thinks about cheating." Emily pointed to Annie. "Unlike some."
"So your divorce from Mr. Poole wasn't finalized--"
"'Poole'?" she asked amused. "I never married anyone named 'Poole'. I couldn't reveal who I was married to. Not if I ever wanted to establish myself in the world of the New Defenders."
Annie rolled her eyes. "Please, they let that floozy Cloud in. I doubt that there's anyone they wouldn't take in."
Emily smiled at the memory of Cloud. "Careful, it sounds like you may actually care about your boyfriend. As for me, I never cared for my Hubert, only his uncle's access to the local university's science lab."
Annie blinked. "Oh shit. You are kidding me."
Emily blinked. "What?"
"You're Emily Humbert, the Walrus's ex-wife!"
"Am not." Emily's face flushed as she protested.
"Oh, you so are!" Annie pointed at her. "Your ex-husband had the proportionate strength of a walrus and had a colorful "W" right here," she motioned to her chest, "and was defeated by the Frog!"
"I think you have me mistaken for someone else."
"Nope," Annie shook her head. "Even in the reports about it, there is mention of Hubert Humbert's wife, Emily Claytina Humbert, who was identified as a science major at Brooklyn University. And you just totally gave yourself away, do you antagonists always do this? If so, why isn't this job easier?"
Emily soured as she grew impatient. "Okay, you have me. Do you see why I kept it a secret, though? I couldn't very well go and meet Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy and say, "Hi, I'm the ex-wife of the Walrus." No good was to come of that."
Annie opened her mouth to let another quip out when something dawned on her. "I just have one question for you, Emily."
"Yes?"
"Didn't Emily Humbert die right before you joined the New Defenders?"
Emily paused. "A glitch."
"Hank didn't even know about that, did he?"
She straightened her posture. "No. How did you?"
"I got bored one night and accessed the coroner's reports on all deaths occurring in the past decade. I used to think all this memorization was just nonsense, but I see how it can be useful." Annie shrugged. "Back to you, though. The autopsy report said that you died of heart failure."
"I don't fail. I succeed."
"Ew," Annie replied. "I think I sat next to you in government my senior year of high school."
"Go on, Annie. You've been good at piecing this puzzle together so far."
"I think I understand, but I don't understand why you had to do this to me."
"Again, with you! Why do you think it's just you!" Emily threw her hands up in frustration. "Look at my clientele list. Do you see only your name on there?" She pointed to a file on her desk. "Go ahead. Open it."
Annie picked it up gingerly and flipped through its contents. "Trish Tilby, Alison Blaire, Angina Peckenpaugh, Vera Charles..." She looked back to Emily. "With the exception of me, these are all Hank's ex-girlfriends." Annie went back to the pages after Emily nodded. "There are more names here..."
"He had more girlfriends. High school, jr. high, elementary, one night stands..."
Annie flipped more in the file. "You've cleaned most of them out. Like you cleaned me out."
"Most don't even know. I just came by offering free services." Emily shrugged. "The only accident was Vera. Vera already had a hysterectomy. So I had to do something else."
Annie scrolled to find Vera's name. "A lobotomy?"
"It rhymed."
Annie felt her face go red. "These are just women who knew Hank!"
"In a way I didn't."
"That's it?" Annie laughed. "You got heartbroken, so these women have to pay?"
Emily smiled as she sat back in her chair. "You know what it's like, Annie. Being white trash. Having people like Hank walk by you and never really seeing you. Do you think that if you weren't a mutant, he'd even talk to you?" Emily crossed her legs and pointed to herself. "I worked my way through college doing some of the most demeaning work I could think of. I even married so I could get some of my college education paid for. People like Dr. Hank McCoy don't look at people like you and me and think about romance." Emily withdrew photos from a drawer and threw them out by name. "Alison Blaire, rock star. Vera Charles, librarian. Trish Tilby, reporter. Did you know he once courted a NASA rocket science?
"Bottom line, Annie, we have so much in common. We're a couple of girls who didn't grow up with the advantages that most of these women had. I didn't grow up smart, I grew into it after learning what I could do with my abilities, just as you have. And I have worked myself into becoming more than just some ignorant girl from Brooklyn, to marry someone smart and secure -- I have worked to hard to let that be spoiled by someone who I was already once was."
Annie continued to read the report. "Some of these women were pregnant when you attacked them."
"It doesn't matter."
Annie stared blankly at her for a minute before understanding. "You don't care."
"I ceased to care a long time ago."
Annie set aside the file and grabbed the letter opener on Emily's desk. "Let's see if you're that heartless."
-7-
Bobby limped his way into Xavier's office. "Kurt told me that Bert was here."
Bert waved from the desk.
"Has he gave you any trouble?"
Bert's left hand went to pat Xavier's head. "No, Bobby, we've been having a very interesting conversation."
Bobby pointed to Bert. "With him? I've never heard him say more than three words at a time."
Bert patted Xavier's head again. "Bert communicates in a different way. Your family has a history with empathy, correct?"
Bobby shrugged. "Yeah."
"Bert here has tremendous potential." Xavier adoringly rubbed Bert's head. "And he thinks that your girlfriend should start dressing you because you look as good as a sack of potatoes."
"Is that him or you?"
"I thought you looked like a sack of onions. Mainly because of your cologne."
Bobby stared at Bert. "So, another one in my family has it?"
Xavier nodded. "It's just that aside from what you may have had and your grandmother, no one has had it this much. I sensed your cousin was here...she still hasn't done much with it, has she?"
Bobby shook his head.
"Speaking of your grandmother, how is Hannah?"
Bobby groaned. "She sent me here with wine and cheese and to tell you 'thank you for putting up with Robert'."
Xavier nodded in approval. Hannah Bass had been sending him wine and exquisite cheeses for every year that Bobby had remained with him. It was because of her fine eye for them that some of Bobby's more creative pranks had ended with him not expelling him.
"Oh, and Bobby...?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"She's a nice girl. She deserves your maturity."
Bobby rubbed the back of his neck. "Annie?"
"This means no more fighting with Hank in the kitchen."
"I'm sorry."
"I'd apologize to Jean. That was her vase."
-8-
Gambit gave one last final stomp on the arm of the robot. "Miserable piece of...!" he yelled. It wasn't that this robot was difficult to defeat, it was just that he was a bad Monty Python Black Knight gone bad.
He left the pile of rubbish and peered into the room behind the stall where he saw Annie on top of Dr. Clay-Poole. "Annie?"
Annie had something aimed at the doctor's chest. "Annie, don't do it--"
Gambit raced in to see the imperfect incision of the letter opener in Emily Clay-Poole. Annie soon took it out and made one horizontally. "Stop it."
"It's okay, Mr. LeBeau," Emily told him. "It doesn't hurt. It doesn't matter."
Gambit got a flashback to that time he crashed a birthday party at a Show Biz Pizza and saw how the animatronic puppets were made. It made him sick then, it made him sick now.
"There's a waste basket by my desk," Emily offered.
Gambit made no time in grabbing it and throwing up.
Annie pulled back the skin of Emily's rib cage and inspected. "What did you do to yourself, Clay-Drool?"
"I didn't. Nature did."
Annie's hand, only lightly covered in red, touched the inside. "If something failed, it just repaired itself."
Emily blinked in response.
"I'm going to make it stop, Emily. Would you like that?"
"Very much."
Annie took the letter opener and pried around Emily's breast bone.
Gambit pressed his communicator. "Scott...I think you need to come in here. Now."
"It's all right, Remy. It's over." Annie turned to him with an odd looking object in her hand. "I have what we came here for."
Scott came rushing in and examined the scene. "What happened?"
Annie went over to Scott and showed him. "This is her heart." Seeing that Scott wasn't understanding, she brought him by Emily's body. "Emily's mutant power was based in robotics. Her body slowly reproduced a techno-organic replica of her original biological one. I'm guessing she was okay in the beginning, but she died of heart failure a while ago. When that happened..." Annie gestured to the heart. "It isn't human. And there's no way she could be confused for a human, at least anatomically.
"Simply put, she was a robot dealing with human emotions."
Scott looked at her before returning his eyes to Emily's body. "Was this necessary?"
"It wasn't the fact that she killed and hurt other women," she explained as she showed Scott the file. "It was the fact that I don't think she could have stopped." She pointed to the body. "She's still functional. She can still live, she just needs reprogramming."
-9-
Xavier enjoyed the quietness of the war room. Lately when he came by here, Annie was at the computer, accessing the databases in search of new information. He wanted to tell her to go to bed and that she was doing fine, but knew that she'd have to learn that for herself. He knew she was afraid of him and decided to ease into that relationship with care.
Tonight, he found himself alone with the room and decided to pull up a file that he knew Annie couldn't access, or most of the members of any team for that matter.
The screen read, "Drake, Robert Linus". Xavier typed in the date "1982". Xavier knew that Bobby had remembered nothing that was truly significant that had happened to him that year. He remembered the family problems, but had seemed to have forgotten when they had first met. Xavier and Hannah Bass had been on good terms for years, she being one of the first empaths to donate her services to him. It was through that relationship that Hannah called him when she found her grandson completely blue.
Xavier had heard about Bobby from different letters and phone calls Hannah had placed to him over the years as she kept him abreast of all the accounts of empathic activity going on in her family. Her son and daughter had a medium strength at empathy, and her other two grandchildren, though, only had a trace.
Bobby was special, though. Xavier met Bobby when he was four, the age Bert was now, and was able to have a conversation through speech and telepathy with him. He and Hannah had great expectations of him until 1982. That's when Bobby shut himself off to the emotions of others, turning himself blue from cold in the process. Xavier helped him through it, and told Hannah to keep an eye on him if anything happened to him. He certainly didn't expect that cold to turn into an external thermal power.
Xavier thought one more time of his conversation with Bert and hoped that he wouldn't repeat a similar fate.
-10-
From the Journal of Annie Peckenpaugh
It's a week until I turn twenty-five. Growing up in Pallas, Wyoming, I never thought that I'd do much more than grow up and become a P.E. teacher and coach little league. Tonight, I held in my hands a techno-organic heart that tomorrow when I wake up, I'm going to tinker with to try and make it right. Two years ago, I couldn't perfect toast.
Scott kept looking at me to see if I was okay -- I was silent throughout most of the trip. Remy was too, but he was still green. I was thinking about what Emily said about growing up low. At some points, I couldn't help but agree with her, but her and I are not alike. I'm taking the opportunity I've been given as a chance to become more of what I can be instead of using it to be who I think I am.
Reaching this pinnacle of my life, I realize that I must continually be surprised with I can be. Anything else will be a sure fire way to drive myself crazy.
