Chapter 13:

Sienna rested her arms on her desk in exhaustion as she searched through her schedule for tomorrow and rubbed her temples to dispel the stress that had been hovering around her mind all day. This was not what she was used to and she still got quite tired these days. Shortly after the battle, Xavier had elected the mutant as the welfare/social worker/councillor for the Institute which meant that she also took on the responsibility of being a liaison officer for new students. The new job meant that Sienna had needed to forego most of her schoolwork in order to graduate from student to Faculty member, which had been a relief for the mutant. Teaching also took pride of place, with Sienna also being allowed to tutor students and teach religious studies and mythology/classical studies. The night of the announcement, Xavier had also told her in private that she was now a student advisor, taking on most of the newer students as their 'mentor'. She had baulked at that but had soon accepted that she should take a more active role in the lives of her students and had accepted reluctantly. That had been three months ago and she had noticed that for some reason, she had been given most of the students who had tougher pasts, anger or hate-filled attitudes, loners, strange and/or dangerous genetic mutations and the ones that the other faculty staff didn't want to worry about. The social work side of things increased her workload, meaning that she was increasingly called upon by Xavier to intervene in cases, search out mutants and negate the effects of erupting powers or accidents by uncontrolled mutants. One of the tougher cases had happened this week and she was still drained emotionally.

Looking down as she rubbed her temples, Sienna sighed and shook her head in disbelief. Scheduled in were three official counselling sessions, a danger room session, lectures to teach, students to settle in and a very long informal counselling time plus cooking dinner for the younger students. As she closed her schedule tiredly, she could feel the mental caress of Xavier in her mind. Letting him in, she leaned back against the chair and sighed,

:::Yes, Xavier? Do you have another favour to ask me?:::

The voice laughed slightly. :::No, my dear. There is a new student coming in about half an hour. Would you greet her and bring her to my office when she is ready?:::

Sienna smiled. :::Do you really have to ask?:::

:::I don't suppose I do but it is better to ask anyway::: came the mental brush.

Sienna nodded. :::Send me the details then and I will try my best, Xavier:::

The intrusion disappeared and the new email tone came a few seconds later as Sienna moved her chair over to her laptop and clicked on the icon. Scanning through the profile, Sienna mused as she filed the necessary details in her mind for later use and pressed the print button. Filing it in the inbox tray on the desk, she placed it on top of the other profiles and sighed. Standing, she stretched delicately and then padded towards the stairs.

---

Changing quickly, she walked to the window half an hour later and saw the far gates open slowly before walking down gracefully and stopping at the entrance. Smoothing down her skirt as the taxi came to a halt in front of the door, Sienna took a deep breath and walked towards the sole occupant of the back seat. Two long braids of flaxen hair fell along the back of the girl as she tried to pull one of the suitcases out of the boot but Sienna intervened and took the heavier of the two. Paying the cab driver, she watched as he drove away and then shook the hand of the girl.

"Welcome to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, my dear. My name is Sienna Wagner, I'm the liaison officer for the new students. You must be Paige Guthrie, am I correct?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, ma'am." A southern twang in her accent made a pleasant impression in the empty hallway as Sienna stored the suitcases in the closet downstairs. Then, she straightened up and smiled sweetly. Her dulcet voice held the slightest sense of irritation as she addressed the bewildered girl.

"You don't have to call me ma'am, Paige. That term makes me sound so old and I'm barely 26. I prefer my name so please, call me Sienna."

Paige frowned slightly before nodding. "Yes, Sienna."

The councillor smiled politely and linked an arm in Paige's. "Please, feel free to treat this as your home, my dear. I'm sure Sam will fill you in on any details you might not understand, this is your home and you must treat it so. We have..."

Paige quickly interrupted. "Mah brother is hearh?"

Sienna nodded as she spied Sam Guthrie lurking around near her peripheral vision. "In fact, I believe he is right here behind you..."

Squealing, Paige threw herself fully into the arms of her brother as Sienna watched and tried to unblock her ear from the effects of Paige's scream. Then, she spoke quietly but with authority to the older Guthrie sibling. "Sam, can you please take your sister to Professor Xavier and then get her settled?"

Sam nodded and led his blubbering sister away as Sienna smiled and made her way back to her office.

----

Throwing herself back in her chair, Sienna began to flick through her emails and then made herself a cup of hot chocolate from the kettle in her room. Sighing, she sipped slowly from the mug and cursed as her anti-virus software flashed, indicating a virus had been caught. Opening the box, she sighed as she saw a dozen worms and viruses in her software and began to tedious process of deleting and wiping the files. She was so engrossed in the cleanup that she squealed when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed her eyes and threw the contents of the mug at her attacker. A muffled yell sounded and then the hands moved to show a bemused Kurt Wagner covered in hot chocolate behind her.

He laughed. "Liebchen, did you really have to do dat?"

Sienna laughed and shook her head. "What do you expect if an unexpected man comes and tries to cover you eyes, hmm?

Kurt's face fell. "I vould not have done dat if I had known you did not hear me come in..."

Sienna got up and sponged Kurt down as best she could. Kissing him on the lips, she rubbed his neck with a hand and whispered as they drew apart. "You look better in brown, anyway..."

Tickling her, Kurt smiled widely and his fangs showed. "Then I vill let you cover me anytime."

Sienna kissed him fully and then pushed a pile of paperwork to one side. "How about we go out for dinner, just you and me?"

"Ya," Kurt agreed. "Vhere do you vant to go, my sweet Liebchen?"

Sienna smiled. "I feel like Italian tonight, my love."

Her husband grinned. "Italian it is, my sweet love." Then, he pushed her out the door and they walked up to change together as the email tone in her box sounded again and then the screen went dark...