Not
Myself
By Princess
Alexandria
Princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Christy rubbed her temples with a grimace and glanced around the room at the groups of students working on their in class assignment. It felt like a migraine, but she never had one before. Her brother was the one with migraines. She grimaced again at that thought. He had been the one with migraines.
"I'm gonna step out for a minute." Christy told the girls sitting closest to the door so that if anyone asked someone would know.
Her face was pale and drawn in pain as she closed the classroom door behind her. She took a few deep breaths and tried to not throw up. Two women were sitting in the chairs in the hall and they stared at her for a while, but Christy didn't notice them. The headache started to ease.
"There aren't enough drugs in the world to fix this." Christy muttered to herself. If this is what her brother had felt she regretted not taking this seriously. "But I wouldn't mind trying."
She was leaning against the wall away from her talking students because listening to them had started to make her head throb more.
"Are you alright?" A soft voice made Christy look up into concerned green eyes.
"I think I'm dying, but otherwise I'm fine." Christy gave her a weak smile. The attractive red head looked too concerned about that. It forced Christy's pride back into action and she straightened up a bit. "Just a headache. I'll buy some aspirin or something after class."
"You don't look too good. Maybe you should cancel class." The red head gave Christy the impression that she was being studied. Christy glanced over that woman's shoulder to see an equally stunning blonde staring at her with a bit of hostility. It was the woman in white. What was it about a blonde woman in all white that kept nagging at Christy? There was something there she just wasn't getting. The sharp jab in her head stopped her from staring at the blonde.
Christy sighed. "Thanks for your concern, but if I leave the monsters alone much longer they'll stop working."
Christy glanced at her watch. She still had twenty minutes to go. Twenty minutes seemed like eternity. She opened the door to the louder conversations that had nothing to do with computers anymore. Now if she could just not bite their heads off for the rest of the class all would be good.
********
Jean glanced in the window at the woman and felt a bit of guilt. She'd been just as fascinated with Christy's shields as Emma had been and they had both made a game of trying to push their way past it. It had started to budge just a little between the tag team approach but they hadn't been able to sense that they were hurting her.
Jean moved to sit beside Emma again. "We should let her at least finish her class in peace." Jean spoke quietly while giving Christy a hint of help by subtly encouraging the students to be more quiet.
"That shield is beyond anything I've ever seen." Emma glared at the classroom door.
"Me neither." Jean sighed.
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Christy's eyes widened as the realization that she'd seen a redhead outside her classroom with a blonde woman in all white. It couldn't be. She paid no attention to the shocked students that watched her stop lecturing in mid word and march to the classroom door without any explanation.
She looked at where the women had been sitting and they weren't there anymore. Had that been Emma and Jean? Did she miss getting to talk to them? Oh, Christy felt her disappointment as a physical blow as she realized that she really did think that was them.
Her head had been hurting too much or she would have made the connection sooner. Head… damn, they did that to her. Christy could hear her students shuffling about in their seats. She didn't even look over at them. "I think I'll let you all out early today." She called into the classroom before turning around to see the happy faces beaming at her. Yeah, well there was no way to make that lecture fun and she didn't like giving it any more than they liked hearing it.
She was impatient to get out of there and see if she could find those women on campus, but had to be forceful in getting rid of a few students that thought she'd dismissed class early so that they could talk to her one on one.
She'd walked across the entire campus looking for a glimpse of white clothes or red hair, but got nothing. They had to have come because of the books and her call.
By the time Christy got to her office she began to doubt herself. Other women wore white and there were other redheads. Just because she saw them together didn't mean it was the telepaths. She gritted her teeth and closed her office door behind her. Her co-workers must think she's getting very anti-social this year.
The phone startled her out of her blind staring at the ant crawling up her wall.
"Christy? I got a call about Wolf." Erik didn't sound very happy.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Christy spoke softly. She could hear his disappointment easily. She'd started to hope that the dog was staying with them too. The kids loved her.
"He wants to pick her up tomorrow." Erik spoke tightly.
"Did he say who he was?"
"Henry Mc… something." After a moment of silence where Christy's stare returned to that poor ant that couldn't seem to find it's way out of the room Erik spoke again, "Christy you still there?"
"Was it McCoy?" Christy swallowed, "Did he have a big vocabulary?"
"Yeah, he sounded like he'd eaten a dictionary."
Christy slumped down in her seat a bit. So it was Jean and Emma she'd seen today. The whole team must be here. "Okay. Well, I need to go." She spoke softly and hung up. "The X-men are here." Her face felt pale. "Oh my God, the X-men are here." She started to chuckle sounding like she'd lost a bit of her mind to her own ears.
"Wolf… Wolf… Wolfsbane." The chuckles started again. "I've been feeding Wolfsbane dog food." She felt like a dam was breaking and she was surprised to find herself crying seconds later. Her heart felt like it was being shredded and her throat hurt as she tried to keep her sobs quiet.
Christy's mind was moving so quickly she could barely keep track of her thoughts. These were her heroes. She may have claimed to herself that she didn't seek them out because they couldn't help, but it was also that fear that they'd see what she'd done. Also meeting the people that she'd used to encourage her and give her strength when she needed it would just make it that much more real that this place wasn't… What? Real? It was real. Mutants existed and Christy lived with them, so why was meeting these mutants so hard?
Because she'd made them gods in her mind. That's why it was so hard. Christy sighed. She'd made them gods, but they were just mortal and she didn't want to see that. It was the same reason she hated watching awards shows, she had an idea of who the actresses were and didn't want to see she was wrong. If these heroes hated her or thought nothing of her after everything she'd gone through it would hurt so badly.
Emma had glared at her. Christy started to wipe away her tears. That hurt now that she knew it really was her, but Jean had been nice.
********
Scott Summers sat in the back of the van waiting for the others to finish eating while he listened in to Christy's office. He wasn't feeling very reassured by what he was hearing. She'd figured out they were there, and the way she'd done it made it clear that this woman knew a hell of a lot about them. She knew Hank was an X-men and she'd easily figured out Rhane was one of them. Rhane wasn't as high profile as the others. Most people didn't know about her.
Maybe they should get the werewolf out of the house sooner than tomorrow. Her cover had been compromised.
The van door opened and the rest of the team came in. Emma was carrying a bag for her lunch to go, and Jean had one too. "Christy Taylor is far more than we realized." Scott spoke from his place in the back with the equipment. "She knows were are in town now."
Jean's eyes widened a little, "But she didn't look like she recognized me."
"It was Hank. She knew his real name." The teams eyes all widened a little at that. "She's also figured out Wolfsbane's in the house."
"Is anyone else not thrilled that this teacher knows so damned much?!" Logan growled. Scott just nodded his agreement.
********
Erik was startled when he heard a car drive up. He and Annie normally spent Monday afternoon alone in the house. Seeing Christy's car drive up was a surprise. Christy didn't even take the time to park it in the garage she just leapt out of her car and headed for the front door.
"Hey." Christy called out once she was inside.
"You're home early." Erik spoke a little slowly while really wishing he could read the woman. She looked anxious. Christy barely paused as she walked down the hall to the girls room. Erik turned his attention back to the T.V.
********
Wolfsbane heard Christy and became a little more tense. Her coming home in the middle of the day wasn't expected and changes in routine could mean something bad. She'd heard that Beast had called and she was being pulled out tomorrow, but this reaction set her alarms off.
Christy's scent was almost non-existent when she came in and sat on the bed beside Annie and Wolfsbane. It was another thing that made the werewolf leery of the woman. She wasn't human like the others thought. Christy kept giving Wolfsbane an odd look and it made her tense up a bit more. Christy wasn't looking at her like she was just a pet.
"What are you doing home so early?" Annie sounded concerned.
"Using a sick day." Christy's voice softened when she talked to Annie. Did she even realize that she only did that with this girl? It made Wolfsbane concerned that Annie's crush wasn't just one sided. "I had a headache, but I'm feeling a bit better now."
Annie's hand shot out so quickly to caress Christy's temple while she looked at her in concern. Wolfsbane was laying close enough to the woman to feel the tension coil in her body for a moment before Christy forced herself to relax. Annie's voice was softer and quieter, "I'll see if I have any aspirin."
"Thanks." Christy answered more subdued while watching Annie walk into the bathroom.
After some coddling from the teenager Christy got up and stared at Wolfsbane again. "I'm taking Wolf for a walk. We'll be back in long before dinner."
"Do you want me to come too?" Annie gave Christy a small smile.
"Um, I kinda wanted to be alone." Christy noticed the girls disappointment. "Maybe Friday you and I could do something. We haven't done anything just us two in a while." Wolfsbane's eyes widened at how much that sounded like a date. Oh, this was so wrong!
********
Christy almost grimaced after she'd invited Annie out on a Friday night. That was a normal date night, and now knowing about Annie's feelings she was afraid that was how the girl was going to take it. They used to do things just the two of them. It was a way to let the girl know she was still special, because Christy could see she needed to feel that way. Erik had his family and Jon and Jessi had each other. Christy had no idea if she was doing the right thing, but she wasn't going to run away just because Annie had feelings for her. They could handle this. She could handle this. God she hoped that she could handle this.
Christy felt funny about putting the leash on the mutant, but decided it was best to not tip her hand. The X-men were going to have enough questions about how she knew things, she didn't need to add to them. Rahne Sinclair was doing a very good job pretending to be a dog, but now that Christy knew she could tell the dog was far more intelligent and looked more alert than most.
Coming home like she did probably wasn't the wisest move she could have made. At least Jean and Emma had given her an excuse. Her head still hurt. She would have been concerned with the telepaths obviously trying to shove their way into her head, but they obviously didn't succeed. She couldn't imagine them calmly walking away if they'd seen her secrets. She'd probably be in their custody now if they had. So one blinding headache was a fair cost to know that she truly was safe in her own mind. If they hadn't done that Christy might never have been able to relax around them. Well she probably wouldn't be able to now either, but for different reasons.
Christy was back from her walk with Wolf in what seemed like no time at all. She'd wished that she could have asked her questions, but didn't. She just undid the leash when they got inside and let the woman in disguise do whatever she wanted.
Knowing who was visiting tomorrow there were things in the house that she'd prefer to hide, but if she hid anything Wolf would take notice of it. Admitting to what she didn't want the X-men to know would just make it that more obvious. The new shelf of sexual education materials in the office stayed, with all the glaringly obvious titles. The binder about the X-men stayed as well. At least it wasn't horribly obviously titled on the side. She started to move about doing general cleaning and vacuuming. That she could do without raising too much suspicion.
After dinner they all piled into her car and left Wolfsbane alone to go through their things. Christy really didn't feel comfortable with that, but taking the 'dog' with them to the shop wouldn't be something she'd consider if she really were a dog.
"What time did that guy say he was picking up Wolf?" Christy asked as they pulled out onto the road. She was going to be there for that even if she had to call in sick.
"After work, so around dinner time." Erik answered while staring out the side window. Christy just nodded at that. Beast would probably have his image inducer on and the rest of the team would be nearby in case things got messy. Christy really wanted to invite them all for dinner even if it dented her already stretched too far budget. Wolverine and Beast might actually eat a lot, and that would cost, but aside from Christy's pounding heart and excitement at the prospect of meeting them, the kids could use more exposure to real adult mutants. Role models. How could she invite them in without giving away too much?
********
As soon as the others left Wolfsbane pulled out her phone from where she'd hidden it to make a call. Something was more off about Christy than normal today and she wanted to check on what had happened when Scott's team checked out the school. The kids had been too surprised that Christy took a sick day, so that headache wasn't a normal thing.
"Scott?" She shifted enough to speak without having a bit of a growl in her words.
"Are you alright?" He sounded a bit concerned. Rahne's eyebrows drew together.
"Sure, everything is fine here except that Christy is acting a little strange."
"How so?"
"She stares at me sometimes when she thinks I'm not looking and she insisted that I have some of their dinner rather than…" She grimaced, "dog food."
"I don't know how, but she knows you're a mutant." Scott said after a moment of silence. Rahne's eyes widened a bit. "She even knows your code name."
"Could she be some sort of precog? A telepath? I know she's not human, her scent is all wrong." Her scent had to be a mutation too, because it was wrong for any living creature really. Underneath her shampoos and other such things her own scent was barely there most of the time, and it sometimes disappeared all together.
"Wolverine mentioned her scent too."
Rahne sighed, "So she knows I'm here and she left me alone in the house." She thought about the way Christy had mentioned when they'd be home almost as if talking to herself. "It's an invitation to snoop around. She doesn't think she has anything to hide." Rahne's voice was a bit higher at that realization.
"Well, I say take advantage of it." Scott sounded a little surprised as well. "We will be by tomorrow night to get you out of there."
"Good." Rahne nodded even though he couldn't see her. She had other things to do. She was visiting friends in the states and this side trip cut into that time. Now that the other team was here she could believe that they'd deal with whatever Christy Taylor was up to. The telepaths would be able to figure it out better than Rahne could.
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