Sami woke in the most frightening location she could imagine.  She was sitting upright and was strapped to the chair by chains across her chest, arms, wrists, thighs, and ankles.  Worst of all, a bizarre helmet clung to her head, and she knew exactly what it was for.

            I am a mutant.

            She felt sick.  She was now one o the most feared and hated people on the planet, and she was already locked up.

            Maybe someone would bail her.  Her parents?  Her friends?  But what would they think of her?  Would Andy still love her?

            And before she could silence it –

            Andy's dead.  The voice that had been berating her about her cursed new abilities now reminded her of her love's death. And you're a mutant now, you might have been able to save him – but no, you just sat and panicked –

            She hung her head, preparing for a long day of grieving, alone, in a dark cell –

            The door opened and Sami looked up in surprise.  A policeman stood in the doorframe, silhouetted by the brighter light outside.  She could barely make out the form of a man in a wheelchair behind him.

            "Miss, you have a visitor."

            Sami didn't respond – why should she?  The guard didn't seem too keen on conversation, anyway.  He quickly backed out of the cell and rolled the wheelchair in.  Sami didn't recognize the man sitting in it, but something in his blue eyes asked to be trusted.  He still looked youngish, early forties perhaps, but he was completely bald.  His brilliant eyes met hers –

            – just follow along – I will guide you -

            He smiled sadly.  "Hello, Sami."

            "Hello, Uncle Charles," she heard herself respond.  "Why are you here?"

            "Your parents were unable to make the bail arrangements, so I have taken the liberty of paying for them."

            Some where beneath her confusion and grief she felt unexpectedly touched.  A complete stranger had freed her only hours after her arrest!

            "Thank you, Uncle."  Again, the words left her mouth without her command, but the elation in them was truly hers.

            "All you need to do is sign a couple papers and we'll be on our way," "Uncle Charles" told her.

            Sami was surprised again – after all, with Song Yi majoring in law she knew that getting out of jail this early was practically unheard of, and bordering on impossible if one was a mutant.  "It's that easy?"

            "Actually, they have no reason to be holding you.  You've committed no crime, those tranquilizer darts are considered police brutality, and as of yet there are no laws saying mutation is a crime."  He cast one resentful glance over his shoulder at the guard behind him.  "As it is, they shouldn't have charged bail all.  So, since you aren't needed here any longer, let's go take care of those papers."

            So Sami found herself signing papers under the supervision of the partly jumpy, partly sullen police guard, who had finally freed her of the hated bonds.  She followed Charles outside into the sun, still in a numb trance, and accompanied him to a dark blue Mazda that was sitting at the curb.  The young man standing next to it was of the handsome, clean-cut, all-American variety, with dark brown hair falling in front of red-tinted sunglasses.  Cousin Scott, that voice instructed.  

            "Hey, Sami.  Doing okay?" Scott asked, honoring her with a smile that probably put him at the top of several women's lists. 

            "Yeah, fine," Sami answered.  Why was it when someone was at their worst, they would always answer with the usual "fine?"

            Scott helped Charles into the car, then ushered Sami in as well.  As soon as the car passed the police checkpoint, the trance over Sami broke and her pent-up tears flooded free.

            "What's happening to me?  What do you want?"

            Charles didn't answer immediately.  "You know the answer to the first," he said quietly.  "For some reason your gifts emerged late, and I'm not sure all of them have manifested yet."

            "Gifts?" she spat in response.  "I'm a mutant! A freak!"

            "Do you really think that?" the man called Scott asked calmly.  "Do you think we're freaks?"  He turned in his seat to smile briefly at her.  "Granted, the glasses do look a little dumb, but other than that, we're people.  We're just a little different.  We still function the same – we eat, we drink, we care for people…we make choices…"

            He trailed off, but Sami had no difficulty recognizing the grief in his voice.  Charles patted his forearm, then looked in the rearview mirror at Sami.

            "You have a choice to make, too.  I am Professor Charles Xavier, and this is Scott, also known as Cyclops.  I have spent most of my life looking for people like you."

            For a moment Sami panicked.  She had hear rumors of the government experimenting on mutants – was this what he was planning?

            "No, no," he reassured her quickly – he could read her thoughts – "nothing of the sort.  I run a school for mutant children; Scott and I are both teachers.  I know your education is almost complete, but if you come to the school, we can help you master your gifts."

            The car pulled out of the heavy traffic and idled on the curb.  Looking out the window, Sami recognized her dorm at NYU.  She wanted so badly to return – but to what?  Her fiancé dead, her friends and classmates probably hating her…She looked back in the rearview mirror into Xavier's trust-filled eyes.

            "I'll go with you."