Chapter 13: A New Beginning
Andi slipped out of the bathroom, fully dressed in a pair of her new jeans and one of the T-shirts she had bought with Ororo. They sagged on her, and she looked distressed at herself in the mirror. Ororo rested a hand gently on her thin shoulders. "Do not worry, child. You will begin to gain a little weight soon. You'll fit into the clothes soon enough."
Xavier smiled. "Are you ready, Andi?"
"I don't know," Andi said nervously. "I guess so."
Ororo turned to look at her. "'You don't know' about what?"
Andi fiddled nervously with the hem of her T-Shirt. "I don't know if I'm ready to go back to school."
You didn't tell her? Xavier asked Ororo in surprise.
No, Ororo thought. I wished it to be a surprise. And…I wasn't sure how to tell her.
Well, she'll find out soon enough, Xavier thought.
Andi didn't realize where she was going, at first, but when she started to look out the window frowning, Ororo figured that she was realizing this wasn't the way to the school. Finally, Andi said in a small voice, "Uh, Ororo? This isn't the way back to the school."
"It is not, child," she said with a smile. "Because we are not returning to the school. At least not just yet."
"You're sending me away? To where? Please--" Realization suddenly dawned over her face. "You said 'we'. Does that mean you're coming with me?"
"Of course, child." Ororo patted her shoulder. "I would not go anywhere without you. You are my daughter now, after all."
"But what about the school? Don't you teach there?"
"I can take a sabbatical. Call it a 'maternity leave', of sorts." That got a smile out of Andi.
"It's so pretty!" she exclaimed as she got out of the car, and Ororo hid a smile. "Are you living here too?"
"Yes. Go on in and see, child; We'll get your things." Jean pushed Xavier's wheelchair up the walk as Andi ran up to the house. The door opened just as she got there, and she looked up, to see a tall, imposing woman with platinum-blond hair standing there. She stopped, suddenly fearful and intimidated, unsure of herself, enthusiasm gone.
Xavier saw the sudden tension in her shoulders, and decided to break he ice. "Emma," he said, greeting the woman warmly, "It's lovely to see you. Have you decided to stay?"
Emma nodded, and Xavier turned to Andi. "Andi, this is Emma Frost, one of our teachers. She is going to help you learn to shield and control your powers."
"You're not going to do it?" Xavier wasn't sure if that was relief or uncertainty in her eyes. Probably both, he decided. Uncertainty because Emma was a new stranger she was going to have to deal with; and relief that it wasn't going to be him. He sighed internally.
Ororo had told him that Andi was terrified of men; he had seen it for himself when he rolled his chair into the girl's hospital room and watched her body tense. She had spoken as few words to him as she could get by with and withdrawn into herself. It wasn't surprising, considering the torment that the males around her had put her through; her father, Dr. Hebron, and his perverted assistant. Xavier himself had felt like cringing when Ororo had told him about Andi's violation; being tied down and beaten into submission wasn't something he even wanted to think about anyone enduring, much less this girl. Andi had seen too much pain in her short life; he didn't want to see her experience any more.
"No, I have responsibilities as Headmaster that won't wait, as Ororo's can," he said gently. "Emma has been a friend of mine for quite some time; she has my complete confidence."
Andi raised her eyes from the floor to Emma's face, then looked back down quickly, shy and uncertain. Emma gave a friendly smile and moved aside, gesturing into the house. "Come on in, Andi. Your room is on the left; you shouldn't have problems finding it. I'm going to help 'Ro with your things." She walked out toward the car, and Andi disappeared inside.
She came back holding the flowers, and said to Xavier, "Charles, I wish you had called me earlier; I'm not sure how comfortable the girl is going to be with me coming in this late in the game. She's mentally fragile enough as it is; having a third around while she'd bonding with Ororo might be awkward."
Xavier shook his head. "It has to be this way, Emma, I'm sorry. I had fully intended to do it myself, but the trauma Andi experienced made me unwilling to subject her to my presence."
Emma turned to face him. "You've been very mysterious about this whole thing, Charles. What is wrong with her and why does she need a female instructress?"
Very quietly, Xavier told her about Andi's parents, about their neglect of her and Dr. Hebron's abuse; about her removal from the mansion and about her torture and violation at the hands of Dr. Hebron and his assistant. By the time he was done, Emma had gone pale. "My God, Charles. How did she survive it? A child molester…I can't imagine…" she shook her head. "I'll take care of her, Charles. She'll never be exploited like that again." She went up the walk, still shaking her head. "I can't believe…poor girl."
Andi was sprawled out across her bed, sobbing, when they came in. Emma had been right, some part of Ororo's mind noted distantly as she ran to the child's bedside; Andi had known immediately which room was hers. "Andi? Andi, dear child, what's wrong? Do you not like your room? If there is something you dislike, we can change it." She stopped, because Andi was smiling through her tears.
"I love it, I really do," she said, sniffing back her tears. "My own room, and it's all colors I like! None of that yucky pink stuff like my parents chose for me in my room at home. I'm sorry, it's just…a lock!" she gestured at the door.
Ororo looked blankly at the lock in the doorknob. She didn't understand. Emma did. Think about it, 'Ro, she said. Andi can retreat in here and lock the whole world out if she wants to. No one can make her come out if she doesn't want to. It's privacy she's never had.
Now Ororo understood. "If you don't want to deal with anything, you don't have to," she said comfortingly. "Just come in here and lock the whole world out. I won't violate your privacy."
Andi threw her arms around her, clinging to her tightly, and for a moment Ororo felt a surge of hatred for her parents. Privacy was the one thing everyone needed; and Andi never had. She smiled to herself; one of the things she had bought Andi was a diary that had a small lock on it. It lay in the drawer of the small desk, unopened; so Andi could see that no one had opened it and made a copy of the key. Andi would like that.
"Andi," Xavier said finally, and she drew back, a little startled. "I'm going to take the shield down from around your mind now, Andi. I have to touch you to do it. Will you give me your hand?"
Andi hesitated for a long moment, then stretched out her hand. Xavier took it, all too aware of how tense the girl's body had just gone, and the way she had nervously pulled down the long sleeve of her shirt to hide the fading rope burns and handcuff marks around her thin wrist. He stayed out of the deeper levels of her mind, touching her mind only as much as he needed to in order to take down the shield. As he did so, emotions flooded her mind, and he sensed her mental cry of despair as they battered at her mind.
Another mind suddenly entered the meld, projecting calm and control. Emma. She moved confidently through Andi's mind, soothing the panic that had started to well up in the child, and gently erected walls and barriers that she alone could key. Then she smoothed the ripples and left Andi's mind, Charles with her, leaving a tranquil lake sealed behind an unshakable barrier.
She stared, astonished, at Emma, then summoned a watery smile. "Thank you," she said. Xavier felt a little germ of trust beginning to form for Emma, and he decided to retreat quickly, satisfied that his choice had been the correct one.
Andi turned to Ororo as Emma and Jean walked out to the van with Charles. "Ororo?" she asked timidly.
"Yes, Andi?"
Andi hesitated. Ororo waited patiently. Finally the girl stammered, "Y-y-you said that I could call you whatever I wanted to call you. Ororo doesn't sound right, somehow. Will…will you mind terribly if I called you….Mom?"
"Oh, child." Ororo regarded Andi with a tender smile. "I would be honored if you would."
Andi smiled, a grin that wrinkled the corners of her eyes, showed off the dimple in her cheek, and lit up her face. "Thanks…Mom."
* * *
Okay, that's it for the first book, then.
Wow. You know, when I first got the idea for this book and I started writing it, I didn't tell any of my regular readers (of which there seem to be many) that I was going to start writing it. Firstly, because I didn't think anyone was going to be interested in it; and secondly, because I didn't even think it was good. I don't know how my books are going to turn out, you see; I just type into my computer whatever comes into my head. Somehow, it all comes out okay, which is even more surprising. So this started out as an impulsive write; and I figured impulsive writes were no good.
I was wrong on both counts.
The majority of the people reading this seemed to genuinely like it, which surprised me no end. And I got more reviews for this than I'd gotten for my other trilogy currently in progress, the 'Forced Mutations' Trilogy (yes, there's going to be another one in that series; I rarely do one-shots. Everything is usually two-fers or trilogies). Seems like there's a lot of Ororo fans out there.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed; I added some new names to my reviewer list, (and I noticed some new people added me to their fave authors list; thank you!) I really look forward to reviews. They have given me some ideas for the next book, the first chapter of which you'll probably see go up tomorrow. Andi's parents aren't done with her yet, because she has something they want very badly: a trust fund. Andi's biological father is going to appear and disappear; he's not going to interfere much with the happy little family of Ororo and her daughter. There's going to be a trial, in which some things Dr. Hebron thinks Andi has forgotten will come swimming back up.
Andi will get her empathy under control, but it's going to be a long, hard road, both for her and for Emma and Ororo. Emma is going to get a wakeup call as to what kinds of abuse can be heaped on a child; her personal interest in Andi is going to help Andi survive the recollections brought up during the trial; and finally, a certain charming Cajun is going to help Andi get over her fear of men.
I do have to say one last thing to a reviewer named Lamarquise;
People are capable of doing the most shocking things to a child. What happened to Andi is terrible; but not outside the realm of possibility. You probably have loving parents; you can't imagine parents being anything other than loving and receptive.
But they can. During any given year you could probably find upwards of a dozen sensational stories of children being abused. Babies get thrown in dumpsters. Little girls and boys are raped, strangled, maimed, and killed at an appallingly shocking rate every year. Parents beat their children to death. I read an article about a little boy, eight months old, whose father beat him to death with a belt because the child wouldn't stop crying. There are tons of child molesters in prison because they've raped, sodomised, beaten, starved, maimed, tortured and killed children, either their own or someone else's. The law doesn't condone it; but the law isn't flawless. It's a creation of man; and man, being a faulty creature, will build faulty systems. We keep it in place because a faulty system that catches most of the worst cases is better than one that catches none at all. Andi is one of the lucky few; Xavier had the guts to call out her parents and the psychiatrist and bring them forward to account for what they'd done, and to push for Andi being placed in a better environment, a better home, than what she had.
I hope everyone reading this will, if faced with the same situation, make the same decision and bring forth the ones responsible for atrocities committed. It might be difficult; but if you're proven right, you could save a life. And that makes any effort worth it.
See you all for the next book!
Sincerely,
Jaenelle