A Romance Revealed

"How long has this been going on?" Scott shouted. Hank and Alison were with the other instructors and the Professor in his office.

"A while," Hank admitted. "But nothing happened until Alison was well."

"It's true," Alison said. "He didn't take advantage of me!"

"I'm not so sure," Scott glared at Hank.

"And to think you were all worried about me losing it when Cooper showed up," Logan snorted. "Charles didn't you and Jean know anything about this?"

"We try to make it a policy not to spy on the private thoughts of staff and students," Xavier reminded him.

"Maybe we should," Scott groaned. "You're the one with the nose! Couldn't you have…smelled something?"

"Look I've been a little preoccupied lately okay?" Logan snapped. "Between trying to get Rina adjusted and taking care of the kids that are socially maladjusted…"

"We've…taken precautions," Hank admitted. "Let's just say there's more than one way to have safe sex. Showers and perfume usually do the trick."

"Obviously you two have taken great pains to keep this relationship a secret," Xavier sighed. "What I want to know is why on earth the two of you would pull a reckless stunt like this the very day Valerie Cooper walked through our door?"

"Look we thought everyone was upstairs after the kids had a mini pool party," Alison told them. "We didn't plan it. It just happened!"

"We had no idea you were all going down to the pool," Hank said.

"No duh," Scott snapped.

"Look I am sorry for the way you all found out about this," Hank told them. "We never intended to cause any embarrassment or scandal."

"Ironically one of the reasons we kept the relationship secret in the first place," Alison sighed.

"But the fact remains that Alison and I are very much in love," Hank continued.

"You are also forgetting the fact that she's a student here," John pointed out. "Over eighteen or not that's a problem."

"She hasn't been in any of my classes," Hank pointed out.

"Yeah, because she was too busy recovering under your care!" Scott shouted.

"Ororo…" Vi walked in with Carl. "We need to talk."

"Not now Vi," Ororo said. "We're having a little bit of a crisis here."

"So I heard," Vi folded her arms.

"Oh let them stay!" Scott waved his arm. "Everybody knows by now anyway!"

"We haven't done anything wrong!" Hank snapped. "Legally…"

"Hank has been nothing but a gentleman," Alison said. "Until I made a recovery he never laid a hand on me. Well you know what I mean. I don't see the problem! We're both legal adults and this is our business! The last thing we needed was the media hounding us or anything."

Xavier folded his fingers. "This…" He thought aloud. "Is a bit of a problem. Technically nothing illegal has happened. Morally however there is a bit of a gray area. You have to admit Hank falling for your patient is rather a complicated situation."

"No more complicated I guess than for a patient falling in love with his nurse?" Hank snapped. "Don't start with that moral blackmail on me Charles. You've been in a few gray areas yourself if I recall."

"What's he talking about?" Logan asked.

"Why don't you tell them about Amelia?" Hank continued. "I'm sure they'd have something to say about that!"

"Who's Amelia?" Scott asked.

"Since we're all exposing our private lives why don't you tell them?" Hank folded his arms.

"Tell us what?" Ororo raised an eyebrow. "Charles?"

Xavier let out a breath that seemed to say 'Thanks a lot Hank', "Amelia was my nurse when I first lost the use of my legs," He admitted. "We fell in love but since I was engaged to Gabrielle Haller at the time…It was a very brief affair."

"What?" Jean gasped.

"HOLY MMMPH!" They could hear Bobby shouting from somewhere.

Scott stormed over to a nearby cabinet and opened it. Hiding inside from where they phased through was Kitty and Bobby. Both smiled weakly. "Coming out of the closet?" Scott asked sarcastically.

"Uh…Would you believe this is a shortcut?" Kitty gulped.

"Yeah to detention!" Logan snapped. He sniffed the air. "And the same goes for the Elf and Timebomb hiding in the closet!"

Jean used her telekinesis to open the closet door. Tabitha and Kurt winced. "Busted…" Kurt gulped.

"So you really fooled around with your nurse before you got hitched?" Tabitha asked Xavier. "Whoa. I never figured you for the type."

"TABITHA!" Kurt shouted in embarrassment.

"Talk about giving your patients their confidence back," Tabitha went on.

"OUT!" Logan roared. Kurt teleported with Tabitha and Kitty phased out with Bobby.

"I've heard enough as well," Vi walked out. She stopped and saw her husband was still in the room. "Carl?"

"Well I haven't!" Carl told her. Vi grabbed his arm and shoved him out.

"I'd better go talk to her," Ororo sighed as she left.

Carl had walked off and Vi was there fuming. She looked at Ororo. "Well no wonder the students feel like they can sleep with the teachers," Vi remarked.

"Well technically Alison isn't a student," Ororo sighed. "She hasn't taken any classes or anything. Not yet anyway."

"Well she's still been his patient hasn't she?" Vi shouted. "That's got to be against the medical code!"

"Hank assures me that nothing happened until she was well," Ororo said.

"And you believe him?" Vi shouted.

"Yes!" Ororo shouted. "Besides Alison is over eighteen. In this state she's legally an adult. There's really nothing we can do about it if we wanted to!"

"You know the more I hang out around here Ororo, the more I'm beginning to wonder if Evan hanging out in the sewers isn't such a bad idea after all!" Vi snapped.

"You don't mean that!" Ororo shouted.

"You're right I don't," Vi sighed. "Ororo I just can't believe what you've gotten yourself into. And worse you dragged Evan into it!"

"I haven't…" Ororo began.

"Ororo open your eyes!" Vi shouted. "Look around you! Students and staff having affairs, secret government agencies traipsing in and out of here all the time, the school is plagued by protestors and lawsuits! Half the kids here have either been in jail or part of some clan of thieves or experiments of some kind! Not to mention those Misfit nuts that keep dropping by to cause trouble whenever they feel like it! And you wonder why people won't send their kids here? This place is a madhouse! And worst of all you are training these kids to be some kind of paramilitary unit."

"That's not…" Ororo began.

"Don't deny we both know it's true!" Vi snapped. "Learning to control one's powers is one thing but making them run combat situations and run around in black spandex uniforms? Come on!" She ran her hand through her hair. "You know I used to wonder why Evan was having a hard time fitting in and rebelling so much. Now I don't blame him! I'd rebel too if someone tried to mold me into some kind of perfect soldier!"

"That's not what happened!" Ororo protested. "We've never encouraged Evan to be anything other than the best he can be."

"You even sound like the army commercial! God willing if Evan gets through this…" Vi sighed. "I can't send him back here Ororo."

"And where will he go Vi?" Ororo shouted. "Back to the sewers?"

"No," Vi snapped. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but God help me I am not going to let him become Xavier's perfect little soldier! Or anybody else's tool! Not if I can help it!" She stormed away.

Ororo clenched her eyes tight trying to fight the tears. She went out on the nearby balcony and saw Logan standing there. "You were listening on us?" She said angrily.

"Kind of hard not to," Logan pointed out. "I think half the mansion could hear you."

"Goddess Logan," Ororo sighed. "How did all of this happen? How did everything get so wrong so fast? All I ever wanted to do was help my nephew, and now I've screwed up his life…"

"Don't say that," Logan put a hand on his shoulder. "That's just your sister's anger talking."

"Well you have to admit she has a point," Ororo sighed.

"Okay let me ask you this then," Logan said. "If there were no X-Men do you really think Evan would have been better off? And take a few things into consideration, like Trask, Magneto, Apocalypse, Cobra…"

"I get the picture…" Ororo waved. "It doesn't change the fact that I still failed!"

"You didn't fail," Logan said.

"Yes I did," Ororo sighed.

"No you didn't!" Logan snapped. "You can't keep blaming yourself for the things the Porcupine got himself into! And you certainly can't say that Beast and the Lightbulb was your doing!"

"There is that," Ororo sighed. "I mean, I want to be happy for them but…Goddess what was Hank thinking?"

"More like what he was thinking with," Logan sighed. "I knew this was gonna happen the second I saw him look at Dazzler back in Hollywood. I just didn't think it would happen this soon. She has some kind of hold on him. I have no idea what. Maybe it's that light show she gives off? Does something to him."

"Hank is obviously infatuated with her," Ororo sighed.

"Can't blame him for that," Logan shrugged. "Gotta admit she's easy on the eyes when she's not lit up like a super nova."

"Logan!" Ororo snapped.

"I'm just stating the facts here!" Logan defended. "No need to bite my head off."

"You're right," Ororo said. "I mean Hank has always had trouble accepting his mutation. Dazzler's beautiful and sees him as her knight in shining armor. And he's….Goddess its so obvious now! Why didn't we see it?"

"Well I did," Logan told her. "I even tried to warn him but he didn't listen. Personally if it wasn't for the fact that she's thinking of taking classes here I wouldn't have a problem with it. I mean the age difference isn't that great. Hank ain't even thirty yet."

"I suppose you have a point," Ororo said. "I mean younger women go out with older men all the time."

"And vice versa," Logan pointed out.

"But like you said it's the student/teacher thing that worries me," Ororo sighed. "Not to mention the gray area of the possible patient/doctor."

"Nah Hank's not the type to do anything while she was sick," Logan waved. "But he sure didn't waste time once she was well again! I'm glad I don't have Charles' job right now. I sure as hell don't want to decide this."

"Yes on the one hand it's our reputation we have to think about…" Ororo said. "What there is of it."

"And on the other it's their happiness," Logan nodded. "Depending on how long it lasts! Man what a mess!"

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"Okay girlfriend spill it!" Tabitha said to Alison. "You gotta give us the details!"

"Yeah first tell us about Xavier and the nurse," Jubilee asked. "And how Beast knew all about it!"

"No, she has to tell us when they first kissed!" Kitty shouted.

"Xavier and the nurse?" Tabitha asked.

"No Einstein, her and Mr. McCoy!" Rogue snapped. Nearly all the females in the house were currently in the library trying to get information on the newest romance that had come to light.

"We'll get to that in a minute," Jubilee said to her. "First I wanna know about the nurse!"

"After Xavier divorced his wife he managed to contact Amelia again," Alison gave in. "For a while they worked together on genetics. She was with him when Hank was in high school and first finding out about his mutation. But eventually she felt that he was too obsessed with his work and took off."

"Sheesh," Tabitha shook her head. "The Prof. really knows how to strike out when it comes to the ladies doesn't he?"

"Okay now that that's explained tell us everything!" Kitty said. "Start from the beginning!"

Meanwhile several of the boys were outside in the halls. Scott was wandering and was about to go into the library when Ray called out to him. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

"Why not?" Scott asked.

"Because the girls are all pumping Dazzler in there for information," Bobby told him. "It's become a no-man's land if you get my drift."

"Yeah those girls and their gossip are a dangerous combination," Sam shook his head.

"Hey is it really true that the Professor really fooled around with his nurse?" Ray asked.

"What is it with this place?" Scott groaned. "Is everyone's private lives fodder for gossip around here?"

"Pretty much yeah," Roberto shrugged. A loud squeal could be heard from inside. "There they go."

"So what's going to happen?" Sam asked.

"Well obviously Dazzler can't take any classes here but she can study for her GED," Scott told them. "And it's decided that she's going to start teaching some music classes so…"

"So those two can continue to see each other," Bobby remarked. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah well it's time for all of you to get to class," Scott pounded on the door and opened it up. "Okay Gossip Break is over! Get to class people!"

"It's wonderful that Alison and Beast are dating!" Kitty squealed as the girls filed out of the room.

"I think it's romantic!" Paige said.

"You think dating your own cousin is romantic," Ray scoffed.

"Okay it's official, you're dead!" Sam snapped. Then he proceeded to chase him around.

"Sam no!" Paige shouted. "I want to hit him!"

Scott looked at Alison when they were alone. "Look Cyclops I know you're ticked off at me and Hank," Alison folded her arms. "But you're not exactly one to talk are you? I mean you and Jean have had your share of secret rendezvous as well."

"Yeah but in the first place we're the same age and second we weren't student/teacher," Scott pointed out.

"That's not what I heard," Alison snickered. "I saw a tape of a certain Danger Room session of you wearing nothing but a schoolroom skirt and a smile with your shades."

"I am going to kill Jean for talking me into that," Scott moaned. "And then kill myself for leaving those cameras on!"

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Hank sighed before he walked into the class he co-taught with John. He didn't have to be a genius to know that the student's minds would not be on literature. His assumptions were proven correct as soon as he walked in. Every student stopped talking and looked at him intently.

"Well," Hank sighed. "I suppose while I have your attention we should start to work. Now let's get on with our assigned reading shall we?"

"I got an idea of what book we can do in class," John grinned. "How about Lolita?" Immediately the entire class laughed.

"Very amusing Thunderbird," Hank growled.

"No you gotta admit it is relevant," John continued. "Older guy seduces this teenage student. Then he gets the runaround from her. Sound like anybody we know?"

"Watch it Proudstar," Hank growled.

"Well at least you didn't have to sleep with the girl's mother before…" John began but was interrupted by Hank's fist. Soon both of them were brawling on the floor.

"Man I love this class!" Bobby whooped. "Ten bucks says Beast cleans his clock!"

"And they complain about us fighting in class," Tabitha shook her head.

Next: A new adventure begins as Destro and Cobra plot to take over the world.