Well!!! I got another one out…eventually. It's back to school for me and I can't stand it. Oh well…there's another vacation coming up soon…just another month and a half or so…I can make it!!! Just pull through!!!

So on with the fic, huh? After making you wait each time I should at least let you read, so I will.

Disclaimer!!! I think this disclaimer takes more creative thought than the entire story…*sigh* If I owned X-Men:…

Rogue and Gambit would run off together to learn the wonders that was their other selves (southern and Creole respectively), Jean would die (very simple) and phoenix would never again appear (much harder), Bobby would be put on defrost in the microwave for about thirty minutes (crispy), Kurt would realize the holiday season is over and Santa doesn't need more help (but the monks do!), Mystique would stumble over her comic book self as well while stalking Rogue (bad mom! Don't you trust her? True, you shouldn't trust Gambit…), Spike would have an…unfortunate accident (that's gotta hurt), and Toad would regain his intelligence rather than be the stupid amphibian we all know from the cartoon (toads have brains too…even if they're small).

Whew! It gets longer every time…

And thanks to Abbie Soler Star who reviewed every single chapter so far! Many cookies and Jamie plushies to you and Dolly! And perhaps you shouldn't strangle Jamie so, Dolly. If he loses circulation to his toes he might lose them for good and then where would we be? I'd have to write about a Jamie with poor balance and flawed feet, that's where!

And thanks to all my other reviewers! You guys really warm my heart!

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Morgan of the Fairies

Jamie could not sleep anymore that night. He rested his head on the pillow and stared at a crack in the ceiling. The dream had unsettled him. There was no room for rest in his mind, now that all was in turmoil.

Mutant? Me? It was an endless refrain running through Jamie's mind. This dream was not so easy to rationalize away as the previous had been. There was a quality to it that left a sinking feeling in his chest.

After the first faint signs of morning began to turn the pitch black night into a more bearable gray, Jamie decided to read his book. With all the activity of the past few nights, there had not been much time to think, let alone read.

Turning back the pages and creating a new crease in the bent and broken spine, Jamie began:

"Well," he said, "suppose that Morgan is queen of he fairies, or at any rate has to do with them, and that fairies are not the kind of creatures your nurse has told you about. Some people say they are the Oldest of All, who lived in England before the Romans came here – before us Saxons, before the Old Ones themselves – and that they have been driven underground. Some say they look like humans, like dwarfs, and others that they look ordinary, and others that they don't look like anything at all, but put on various shapes as the fancy takes them. Whatever they look like, they have the knowledge of the ancient Gaels. They know things down there in their burrows which the human race has forgotten about, and quite a lot of these things are not good to hear."

"Whisper," said the golden lady, with a strange look, and the boys noticed the little circle had drawn closer together.

"Well now," said Robin, lowering his voice, "the thing about these creatures that I am speaking of, and if you excuse me I won't name them again, is that they have no hearts. It is not so much that they wish to do evil, but that if you were to catch one and cut it open, you would find no heart inside. They are cold-blooded like fishes."

As Jamie read, the morning swelled into life. He heard rustling from the bed beside his and noticed Raven turning in her sleep. Her hair stuck out at odd angles and there was a pained expression on her face. Apparently Jamie was not the only one with bad dreams. He put down the book for a moment to study her face. He had never really looked at her closely before.

Her eyebrows were knit together and her eyes clamped shut. Her skin was pale, almost a bluish-white. Her lips were thin and pressed together tightly, adding to the sense of unease she must have been feeling. He wondered whether or not he should disturb her and end this dream, or let it work its way out. His mother had often held his head in her arms and hummed a soothing melody to chase away his nightmares. Somehow he wasn't sure if that approach would be acceptable to Raven. So he settled for just the song.

It had been a while since his mother had come to see him at nights, and even longer since Harold had begun yelling at him for his bouts of midnight frights. It had been so long since his mother had even said good-night to him. So long…

When was the last time his mother had acted like his mother? Harold's constant shouting fits and brutal behavior had rendered a statue in her accustomed place. It was such a lonely world with a statue for a mother. What love can one find from stone or ice? With an eye blackened so many times, she turned it blind, and Jamie became nothing to her, nothing more than a speck of dust upon the boot of Harold.

But that was past now, as Jamie tried to remember. That was all in the past, and only the present matters anymore. Who knows what tomorrow will bring; to him, today was what counted. Today he was in a hotel room on a soft bed, listening to the sounds of Raven sleeping. Nothing more could cement his decision that it had been the right action to take, even if it had led to an encounter with mutants.

Mutants…The word sent his mind on that circular road once again back to last night's dream. Could the dreams be right? Is there something more behind the strange occurrences over the past few days? I hope not, he thought frantically. What would Raven say if she found out?

Thinking of his friend, Jamie looked over to her bed, only to see a pair of eyes staring back at him.

"What were you humming?" she asked, a faintly perplexed expression on her face.

"I- I'm not sure," he answered, still taken aback by the suddenness of her waking. "My mother always sang it to me when I had nightmares. Your dreams didn't look too nice."

She looked as if she was remembering something from ages ago, peering into space as a seer might do for a vision of years past. At length she turned back to Jamie, looking at him with clouded eyes. "I used to know that song," was all she said.

There was a moment of silence as Raven's eyes slowly came back into focus and she realized with a start what time it was. "Oh! It's already nine o' clock! You shouldn't have let me sleep this late, now we'll never get out in time to beat the traffic." She sprung from her bed and busied herself around the room, pulling sheets and blankets together off the floor where they had fallen and bustling around the dresser where her meager supplies were stored.

Jamie watched her move, remembering how his own mother had been so like her before Harold. She was always up and active, whether in the kitchen or the yard or even in his father's shop, helping to sand the wood and cut the planks. She was like a flame, always fluttering this way and that.

Raven though, was more like water. She flowed from one spot to another with a grace that was as unnerving as it was unnatural. It was as though she could not be pinned down to one spot.

She turned to him at one point and said, in a playful voice, "Let's go, Jamie! I'll leave you behind if you like that bed so much!" He smiled a wistful smile and rolled out of the covers.

Raven had outlined the journey they were in for. It would involve participating in the one activity his mother had always forbid him from considering.

Hitchhiking. Even thinking about it thrilled Jamie. Perhaps it was all the terrifying stories his mother used to tell him about little boys and girls just like him who had never returned from catching rides with strangers. Or perhaps it was the newness of making his own decisions independent from his mother. Whatever it was, Jamie was sure everything would work out alright; after all Raven was watching out for him and she promised everything would be ok.

He wasn't sure exactly what it was about her, but Raven's mere presence calmed him. He saw in her the mother he had lost and, although he knew it was foolish and a lie, he enjoyed every minute of it. Which was why he happily agreed to disobey his mother's wishes and accept rides from strangers.

Raven was a stranger and she was safe, Jamie thought.

It was already late morning by the time Raven and Jamie checked out of the hotel and were making their way to the road to flag down their ride. It was a short wait before finally a car slowed down and pulled to the side of the worn and beaten road. The window rolled down to reveal a man in his early fifties, or so Jamie guessed, sitting behind the wheel and noisily chewing a stick of gum. Jamie sincerely hoped he would tire of the gum before long. He wasn't sure he could stand four hours of that noise.

"Are you headed towards the city?" Raven asked. She leaned over the car and spoke to him through the open window.

The man eyed her critically before responding "Sure. Hop in." Raven opened the door and seated herself regally in the passenger seat. She had a way of commanding attention and respect in every place she entered. This car was no different. Jamie settled himself into the back seat; his eyes were glued on Raven.

There was silence in the car until the man opened his mouth. "The boy yours?" he asked. It was obviously all he could think of to start a conversation. Raven simply turned to look at him, replying with a simple "Yes" before staring straight ahead again. It was obvious she was not in the conversational mood.

And so the first hour of their trip passed in silence. Jamie occupied himself by staring out the grimy window at the passing rock formations. It must have taken a lot of energy to lay down this road in the middle of a chink of solid rock. Why didn't they just go around it?

But even the thrilling sights became repetitive and monotonous after a while. He didn't dare take out his book to read; especially sitting in the back seat of a rickety tin like this old car where every bump was magnified by at least a hundred times and he could feel every dip in the road like a crater. He remembered the last time he tried that and had ruined the inside of Harold's car. It had not been a pleasant sight – for the car or for Jamie.

The man suddenly drove over an unexpected hole in the road causing Jamie to hit his head on the ceiling. Immediately sitting next to him were the multiples, each rubbing their heads in the exact same spot as Jamie was. There were three of them this time. Jamie quickly did the only thing he could think of and threw himself on top of them. He felt the now familiar sucking sensation as he reabsorbed the copies.

Not a minute too soon it had been either. Raven turned her head to the back only to find Jamie sprawled across the seat – a little dazed and heart pounding a bit too fast.

That was close, he thought. Much too close. Next time she might see them (if they are real, a small part of his mind said) and then what will happen? Nope can't let that happen. Better to just lie here where I can't hit my head on any more things.

It was inevitable, thought, that Jamie drifted asleep while lying on the safety of the seat. For a broken down old car, its cushions were quite pleasant.

He opened his eyes slowly. The car made a nice bed; so nice that he didn't want to get up now.

Except that he was already sitting up.

And unless the trip had taken far longer than Raven had predicted, it should not be so dark.

Jamie tried to rub the sleep from his eyes but found he was strapped to a chair. Perhaps there was some truth in what his mother had told him after all! A frenzied panic began to erupt within him. He didn't want to die here! He wanted to get to Philadelphia! He wanted to live with his grandmother!

The sound of his panicked breathing brought the sound of footsteps. There was a click and then the world erupted in light. It was familiar. It was the room from before, the one with the man who spoke of mutants.

He hadn't been in a chair before! Why was he tied down now? The footsteps came closer and s woman's face appeared next to him. He found himself staring into her eyes. They were green with flecks of color in their depths and suddenly Jamie found it hard to be so frightened.

"Who are you?" he asked. She was a new one in his dreams.

"Rogue." Her answer was simple. She wasn't accustomed to being detailed in her responses. There was something about her that reminded him of Raven; perhaps her directness or the unexplainable lack of fear he had around her.

"Why are you here?"

"The professuh tol' me it was my turn ta keep watch." Living in Maine, Jamie didn't often hear accents such as hers. It was welcoming and pleasant.

"Why do you have to keep watch? I'm not going anywhere."

"Don' ask me. Whatever he says, goes." She stared at him intently. "Why are you here?"

"Didn't your professor tell you? Cause I certainly don't know." Jamie had hoped to ask her that as a next question. It seemed she had no idea either.

"He just don' understand you. You spend all day quiet as a mouse, lookin' like you're dead or somethin', and then Bam! you're talkin' and movin' around. We've dealt with enough crazy ones we picked up before that he's decided to keep you here for now rather than out and about."

"But where is here?"

"Professuh Xavier's Institute for the Gifted."

Gifted at what? Jamie thought. Criminal abductions? But he didn't dare say it. She seemed nice, but she was after all guarding him while he was strapped to a chair. It didn't seem like a wise choice.

He began to feel lightheaded and the room around him started to fade. He faintly heard Rogue's voice calling him, as though from hundreds of miles away.

"Jamie?" Pause. "Jamie?" And then she was too far away from him where he lay on the car cushions.

The early afternoon sun filtering into the car was nice after the false white light of the dream-room. He never remembered having dreams this real before in all his years. But then again, he never remembered multiples in all his life either. And they had started appearing as well.

Jamie looked up to find Raven looking at him from the passenger's seat, and she didn't seem to realize the smile that tugged at her lips as she had watched the sleeping Jamie. Her eyes were far away again and although she looked straight at him, her eyes did not see Jamie at all. She was peering through time and memory.

Jamie wondered what she could possibly be remembering. Her students? Did she have children somewhere? It seemed a bittersweet memory and the smile saddened Jamie. His mother often had that same smile when she stood in his father's old shop. It was the smile of something lost but still dear.

The man cleared his throat, breaking the moment like glass. Raven's eyes shot around, flashing at the disturbance.

"This is the end of the road for me. It's not far to the city from here."

Raven nodded, accepting that this part of the ride was through for now. Jamie stretched his arms, waiting to be rid of the old broken car. Although, he would miss those cushions…

The car pulled to the side of the road. Raven stepped out as regally as she had entered, never losing her poise. Jamie stumbled out and was not embarrassed. Four hours in the car in the cramped back seat was not beneficial to his legs. Oh, how they hurt!

Raven and Jamie watched the man pull away, the figure receding into the horizon.

"I know some people who live about thirty minutes away from here. I was going to spend the night with them. Is that alright with you?"

Jamie decided not to state what he was thinking (Of course! I'm sticking with you! I've trusted you so far and I plan to keep doing so!) and answered with "Sure" instead. It was perhaps the wiser of the two.

And so woman and boy waited patiently for their next ride; a humble carriage to carry them away to the town of Bayville.