Author's Note: I realize that this is not the way Jean is probably introduced in the comic strip, nor is it the way her powers manifested. But it's my story, I've already said it won't be exactly canon, so...roll with the punches, people! :)
Interlude
Jean Grey smiled at the desk nurse as she walked in for her volunteer shift at the hospital. Although she was only one year into college, she knew what she wanted to do, and she was working her way toward it. She had already volunteered in every section of the hospital, but today was her first day working in the section that mattered the most to her - medical research.
Reaching the doors that almost seemed, to her, like the entrance to heaven, she took a deep breath, set her shoulders and walked through.
To find no one. Frowning, she slowly made her way to the rooms beyond the main one, looking around for a sign of life.
"Hello?" She heard a clattering in the room at the far end of the hall and made her way toward it. She almost reached it when a harried - looking young doctor stepped out.
"Hi. You must be Jean. I'm Hank McCoy."
The Hank McCoy. This really is heaven!
"Nice to meet you, sir." Dr. McCoy pursed his lips in disgust. "None of that. Just Hank."
"Yes...Hank."
He smiled. "I'll show you where you can toss your bag." She followed him to his office, which was little more than a closet with a desk stuffed into it. That desk was so covered with papers that she couldn't even tell what color the metal top was."
"Excuse the mess," Hank said in his harried, preoccupied voice, which Jean had a feeling she'd soon realize was the only tone his voice took.
"No problem."
"Put your stuff anywhere. I'll be back out in the lab when you're ready."
"Thanks." He was gone in a flash. Jean moved over to the other chair, pushed back against the wall and also covered with papers. She put her bag down next to the chair's legs and laid her raincoat over the top of it. As she did so, the paper on the top of the stack caught her eye and she looked closer it.
Mutations: The X Gene. A study by Dr. Hank McCoy
She was immediately intrigued. The X gene had fascinated her in class, but nobody really knew that much about it. And here she was, volunteering in the lab of the person who knew the most about it. Desperately wanting to just sit down and start reading the study, she forced the urge down and went out to the lab area.
"So, what would you like me to do, Hank?"
"I was told you knew how to make slides."
"Yes, sir."
"Good." And that's what she did. For the next three hours. The two didn't talk much, although she desperately wanted to ask what each "hmm" and "hunh" was about. Finally, when she thought she was about to burst with curiosity, he offered her a glimpse.
"This is really interesting. Did you want to take a look?" She all but ran to his side, getting there before her mouth could form a reply. He smiled and stepped aside, allowing her access to his powerful microscope.
Looking through it, she saw what she thought was DNA, but nothing like she had ever seen.
"What is it?" Her voice a mere whisper, the awe she was feeling practically emanating from her.
"Alpha - Mutant DNA."
Jean stood up, a frown of confusion upon her face. "I thought alphas basically kept to themselves, afraid of how everybody else would treat them. Last I heard, there were no samples of mutant DNA, except the little people could get when the manifestations caused the mutants to be brought to a hospital."
Hank smiled mysteriously. "I have my sources." His source was the alpha mutant who helped him adapt to his own mutation, and who was currently helping another young mutant. He had yet to meet the new charge and apparently wouldn't for a while because the boy was at some other school.
Jean smiled back, but didn't push her luck.
"Thank you for letting me look. I'm very interested in the X gene." After that, Hank started telling her everything he was studying, and the overjoyed Jean couldn't figure out why she had been afraid to broach the subject with him. Too soon, though, she forced herself to go back to work and began to make slides again. Engrossed in her work, it didn't register when the doors opened and a man rolled his wheelchair into the lab. She jumped when he spoke.
"Excuse me, miss. Is Dr. McCoy around?"
"Oh, hello. Um, I believe he's in the back room. I'll go get him for you."
"No, thank you. I'll go myself. Feel free to get back to work."
Unsure of whether she should stop the man from going back to the lab, Jean just stood there, watching him wheel his way toward the other room. He entered the room.
And that's when Jean's life changed.
"Xavier! It's nice to see you!"
Jean just about dropped the glass she was holding. There was no way she should be able to hear Hank like he was standing right next to her. And, in a way, it didn't sound like he was right next to her. It sounded almost like he was speaking over the phone to her.
Jean's heart started racing. What was happening? Why was hearing the voices making her head hurt? Why could she hear the voices in the first place? It didn't make any sense, and she didn't know what to do.
And then her heart practically stopped. A different voice started talking right along side Hank and his visitor. Then another, and another. Pretty soon, voices were chasing each other around inside her brain. She grasped her head with both sides, tears running down her cheeks, praying for it to stop.
She didn't think she could take it anymore.
So she fainted.
* * *
"Do you think she'll be alright?"
"For now. I've erected shields for her, and, hopefully soon, she'll be able to block it herself."
"It was a good thing she was in the lab when she manifested."
"Yes...a very good thing..."
The voices came to Jean slowly, like they were swimming through muck. But she was just happy that the voices came through her ears, not miraculously into her brain. She fought her way back to consciousness and opened her eyes to see Hank and the man in the wheelchair looking down at her with concerned faces.
She wasn't in the lab. She appeared to be on a bed in some sort of mansion. What was happening?
"Don't be afraid, child. We're here to help." The man in the wheelchair said, smiling at her. That smile made it seem silly and impossible to be afraid. He appeared to be such a gentle, intelligent man.
"Hank?"
"Jean...do you remember what happened?"
Tears sprang to her eyes as she remembered the cacophony of voices that had scared her so much. She nodded, and the motion made her head hurt.
"Jean. My name is Charles Xavier. I am a mutant." Her eyes widened, not out of fear, but out of the burning curiosity to find out more about him and his gift. "And so are you."
Shock reverberated around her body, but not for long. In a way, she had already known that. Even as the voices confused her, she remembered hearing another voice - her own voice - telling herself you know what this is. you've been expecting this.
"You are a telepath," Hank said. "Like Charles."
"I will help you learn how to control your gift so you never have to listen to the multitude's voices again. You will be able to control what you see and hear. But, most importantly, you will be able to control what you don't hear. And that will be a lot. A person's mind and thoughts are their own, and just because you have the ability to know them doesn't mean you have the right. I have the power to wrench open your mind and know everything about you - your innermost thoughts and secrets, your deepest desires, your most horrendous hatreds. I can see your most treasured memories and your worst nightmares. How would you feel if I did that?"
"Violated." Jean's voice was tiny, in awe of this man who exuded such power.
"Exactly. And when you learn how to control it, you may have the ability to do everything I just described. If you cannot tell me right now that you would never do that, that you respect a person's privacy, then I will not teach you. I will remove the shields I have erected and leave you to the voices." He wouldn't do that, and Hank knew that. But it was a good idea to put the fear in her heart. "And, if at some point during the training, I feel like you might someday not respect someone's privacy, I will immediately stop training you."
"I would never do that," Jean said, trying to put as much of her conviction and own sense of ethics into her voice as possible, hoping Xavier would believe her. Not realizing that he would have already known she wasn't the type of person to do that, and was just telling her again to be doubly certain.
"Good. It's important you realize: mutants are not gods. We are humans, with the ability to act with the grace and wisdom of God."
"I understand."
"You should know," Hank said. "I'm a mutant, too. Although nowhere near as powerful as Charles."
"Are you a telepath, too?"
"No, I have advanced intelligence and physical agility." (A/N: This is what I gathered from other stories I've read. Please forgive me if it's incorrect.)
"Thank you, Hank. You can go back to your research now, if you'd like. Jean and I have a lot of work to do."
"Thanks, Charles. I'll start working on that problem of yours tomorrow."
"I appreciate it."
Hank left, and Xavier turned back to Jean, smiling as he prepared to start helping her learn how to control her gift. Two children in a matter of weeks. I'm closer to that school Scott and I envisioned than I had thought....
