author: Logan Berry
Summary: Jean finds evidence of Kay's frozen x-gene and discusses it with Xavier. Jean needs more assistance and calls on Hank McCoy for help.Rating/warning & pairing (if applicable): PG-13 language
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to any Marvel Characters. Kaylan O'Connor is a fictional character and is owned by the above author.
Feedback very welcome"Did you check for contamination Jean!" Xavier asked abruptly, his head bent over the eye piece of the microscope. His distressed tone made Jean flinch in her seat as she held the vial of blood up to examine the amount of plasma settled on the surface. Sighing heavily, she placed the tube back in the rack and pushed herself from the chair. She was exhausted. Rubbing her aching neck she crossed the lab.
"Charles, I've check it three times…there's no change…the results are the same." She placed a gentle hand to Xavier's shoulder. "Please Charles." She whispered trying to stifle a yawn.
It was 1 am, and she had been poring over the same data for two days. Startled by the results of what should have been a routine analysis; Jean had called Charles down from his office earlier that day. Running the analysis again made no difference the results were clear to both of them.
Charles looked up at her tired eyes. She could see the worry on his face and feel the waves of sadness he was trying to suppress - that someone dear to him had been mistreated this way upset her immensely. Never in all her years at the school had she known Xavier to show his emotions and this brief glimpse tore at her heart and she instinctively bent and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Please professor she tried to reassure him.
She pulled away as he struggled to laugh it off, embarrassed by his un-characteristic lack of control. "Oh dear." He whispered, turning away. I'm sorry Jean
"It's alright Professor" she replied, "It's late and we're both tired, its only natural you should be…" she trailed off, not wishing to remind him of why he was there. She took a deep breath. "Professor…Charles, I don't think…"
Xavier half smiled at her, only too aware of what she was about to say, "Yes Jean I know." He answered as he wheeled away from the counter.
Please sit with me.
Kicking off her pumps she eased her aching body into a leather seat in the briefing area and brushed her ruffled red hair back from her face. Charles sat quietly opposite, eyes unfocused, staring at a point on the wall behind her. The ripples of anxiety flowing from him buffeted her mind, and she struggled in her fatigued state to maintain control.
Charles please
He looked up, reality dawning on his face. "Oh my dear, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"Its ok, its just exhaustion." She whispered rubbing her temples.
They sat in silence for a long while, both considering the implications of her findings. Finally Xavier spoke. "Why Jean? Why would someone do this to her? She must only have been a child, she couldn't have known what they were doing."
"I don't know Professor," she answered with a sigh. "But then nothing seems to surprise me these days."
Charles shuddered, forcing his emotions down, he closed his eyes, sucking in a deep breath. Finally, regaining control, he breathed out slowly and opened his eyes. "Gene manipulation is one thing…but this…"
"The problem is what do we do about it?" Jean replied, "I don't have the necessary skills to…"
Xavier cut her off; "Nonsense Jean, you are an accomplished biologist." he smiled at his now grown-up pupil.
She returned his smile, somewhat embarrassed. "You know what I mean Charles."
But Charles already knew where her train of thought was leading. "Hank?"
"Yes" She answered. "I think he will be able to help us with this problem, he's the only person I know with the necessary experience to fix this kind of damage."
"Yes I agree. It will however require you to spend sometime in Scotland. Hank has been working with Moria on several research projects. Even though your visit would be of a serious nature I'm sure they would both love to see you." Charles replied.
"Yes, it will be nice to see that furry genius again." She added. "It's been a long time."
Xavier smiled; reminded of Jean's fondness for the man they affectionately called Beast. "You can make preparations after a good night sleep my dear. I will ring Hank in a couple of hours." His tone became serious. "Then we will brief the others. I want everyone working together on this. This has changed things completely."
She nodded as she stifled another yawn.
"Now do go to bed, there will be much to do in the morning." Charles added.
Rising from the seat and stretching, Jean headed for the door. "Are you coming Professor?"
"In a moment my dear" he whispered, trying to reassure her.
But Jean could still sense the sadness in the professor and she felt tears come unbidden to her eyes. There was nothing she could do or say to that could possibly ease his distress, instead she wished him good night and wandered along the silent corridors to her room; the results of her analysis whirling around her head. Stripping off her smock and clothes she shuffled down into the bed, glad of the relief the mattress brought to her aching back. Scott groaned and rolled over. No longer able to contain the anguish Charles had shared with her she allowed the tears to flow down her cheeks.
"Scott," she whispered, "Please hold me."
Half asleep, Scott wrapped his arms around his love and she folded herself into his warmth. "Tomorrow is going be a hell-of-a-day."
"Please take a seat Marie." Xavier waved to the empty chair at the conference table as the youngest member of the X-Men entered the room. The entire team was assembled, woken by Xavier's telepathic message at 7am. Jean could feel he had not slept, and his face was clearly drawn and pale, but she sensed he had returned to his familiar self, focused and ready to chair the meeting.
"Well, now we're all here, I'll begin". He sucked in a deep breath. "As you are all aware Jean has been analyzing Kaylan's blood sample."
"Huh" Logan grunted in feigned disgust and shuffled in his seat at the mention of her name; maintaining the façade was getting difficult. Ro fixed him with an irritated stare; it was just too early for one of his crabby moods. "Sorry." Logan muttered, silently slapped-down by those big brown eyes.
"Yes, well, it was to be a routine analysis, even though opinions as to the outcome were varied."
Scott flashed Logan a look and rubbed absently at his neck, still flecked with purple. Logan just raised a brow and scowled back.
"I have to inform you all however, that the results were not what I had expected".
"I knew it!" Logan exclaimed slapping his hand on the table. "I damn-well knew it!"
"LOGAN!" Scott bellowed, unable to keep his temper.
"O' get the bug out ya ass, one-eye…" Logan snapped back.
"Stop it!" Ro interjected, "Before I knock this childishness out of the pair of you". The two men glared at each other but stayed silent. "Please Professor, continue".
"Thank-you Ororo. As I was saying, the results of Kaylan's blood tests were a surprise to me, but it seems Logan's suspicions were correct".
"So, she is a mutant?" Logan questioned; curious to discover why she had been driving him crazy all this time.
"Well, yes ….and no." Charles replied.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Logan looked bemused. "An' spare me the science mumbo-jumbo."
"It means exactly that Logan," Jean stood up to take over from Xavier. "To put it simply, she has no outward signs of mutancy, yet her DNA and gene profile shows she is to all-intents-and-purposes a mutant." Jean began.
"So what has caused this?" Ro questioned.
"At this point we're not positive but it looks like someone has interfered with her genes" Jean answered. "But the professor and I have been in touch with Hank and we believe he will be able to help us discover what has happened and how it was done."
"So, in the meantime there's a mutant, who don't know she's a mutant, out on the streets". Logan asked slumping back in his chair.
"Yes" Jean replied.
"Don't ya think we should get 'er back?" He retorted.
"Not just yet Logan," Charles interjected. "Until we know more, I do not wish to attract too much attention to Kaylan or her father, either from her attackers or the media; since she was just here it might be just the kind of thing some enterprising reporter might want to exploit. Her family is high profile, the last thing we need right now is to have them under public scrutiny".
"So what's the prognosis Professor? Will Kaylan be alright?" Scott asked.
"I believe so Scott, she seems to have lived her life relatively normally until now and I see no reason why she can't continue to do so."
"But what about her x-gene?" Marie questioned.
Jean picked up the remote for the projector off the lectern and headed over to the wall. Pressing the button, the image of a gene profile flicked up on the large screen. "This is a normal mutant gene profile," she pointed to the image with a laser pointer. "Mine in fact…these however," the image changed, "are Kaylan's genes".
To all present, the difference between the two images was clearly visible.
"Some how," Jean continued "the development of Kaylan's x-gene has been halted, 'frozen' if you like, by the looks of it sometime in early child-hood, well before she would have begun to exhibit mutant abilities."
"Manipulation and testing on mutants is not unheard of" Charles interjected, "but in all my years, I have rarely seen anything as blatant as this." He glanced at Logan as he spoke, "To completely repress the x-gene…" He trailed off with a sigh.
"So your saying this has been done to her…it's not just another mutation?" Scott asked.
"We are not sure how it has been achieved," Jean replied, "but there seems to be some residual enzyme present around the gene, suggesting that it has indeed been suppressed".
"So what about 'er scent?" Logan asked, his fascination with this woman's condition growing by the minute. "How come she's givin' off pheromones like a chameleon changes color?"
"Well, this is only speculation Logan," Jean answered, "but it could be that as she has grown older the strength of the enzyme suppressing her x-gene has begun to weaken. It's possible that she is starting to exhibit her mutant powers and her scent may be the first to emerge, from that we could hypothesize that eventually she would gain all her abilities - whatever they may be - although how she would deal with them at such a late stage in her life is anyone's guess. Right now she's not even aware that she is producing pheromones that's why they've effected you. She will have to be taught how to control it."
A wave of relief spread over him. To finally know the truth; to know she was a mutant, all-be-it unaware of her potential, filled Logan with a sense of satisfaction. "Next time maybe ya'll listen Cyke. I know a mutant when I smell one." He smiled inwardly to himself, vindicated at last.
"So now we know what she is," He growled rubbing his knuckles, "whose evil lab door d' we go knockin' on this time?" The compulsion to get his claws into the attacker who'd flattened him with a lighting-bolt in Kaylan's apartment was rapidly growing in his gut.
Charles wheeled around the table, "That is what we must find out, Logan. Whoever is responsible for this must be found and stopped before anyone else – and there may already be others – are assaulted in this way. This violation could have all kinds of ramifications; not least a way for the anti-mutant lobby to expand the mutant registration program with a method of control before mutancy develops."
"Professor, I think I may have some leads which could help us." Scott replied standing and heading over to the computer terminal on the lectern. "I've been looking at the series of attacks in Westchester with similar M.O.'s to that of Kaylan's." A city map appeared on the screen with red dots scattered across it. "As I have discovered, they are not isolated cases. In fact there have been four attacks in Westchester in the last few weeks but, I have tracked ten similar attacks across the country, some dating back as far as three months ago." The map changed to that of the U.S. with more of the red dots dispersed across it.
Scott continued. "All these cases have similar characteristics. 1) They were all attacked at or near their homes. 2) The victims were all approximately the same age. All aged between 25 and 30, except Kaylan who has just turned 31, and all human. 3) They all report seeing similar dressed guys to the ones we encountered. 4) Since making their statements to police, all of them have either taken extended vacations or disappeared without leaving contact details or telling family. All that is except Kaylan, we know were she is and we now know she's a mutant."
"So what about these missing people?" Ro asked.
"That's the next thing I'm going to look at. We need to get hold of police reports and evidence." Scott replied. "Bobby and Marie, you could help me with that." The two youngsters nodded.
"Vat about zer medical records?" Kurt quietly added.
"I'll take a look at those," Jean responded, "I should be able to get access to the national archive, see what I can pull out before I leave".
"I'll assist you Jean" Ro offered. "Then Kurt and I can search for further information".
"Well looks like ya all got it under control, no need f' me t' hang around." Logan announced, pushing himself up out of his chair.
"Logan!" Charles called after him. "There is something for you to do".
Logan hovered halfway out of his chair. "Like what,… watch the kids?" he quipped.
Charles ignored him. "Check out the other attack locations in the city; see if you can find anything that the police missed."
Logan nodded. It was all the incentive he needed. "Few hours outta this place will suit me fine." he thought.
"Right well we all have things to do." Charles addressed them, his spirits rising a little from the gloom. "Please keep one-another informed of progress. We will meet at dinner before Jean leaves for Scotland, thank you all." He smiled at the assembled team.
Conversations about the present crisis broke the silence of the conference room as the team members heading off to carry out their appointed tasks.
Jean, may I speak with you the voice of Xavier echoed in her mind and Jean turned from her conversation with Scott.
"What's wrong?" Scott asked.
"Nothing, just the professor wants me...I have to go…see you later for dinner?" Jean smiled at him.
"Yeah sure." He kissed her softly on the cheek and headed for the door.
Jean wandered around the table, to where Charles waited. "Do you think you could spare some time to discuss a few things?"
"Yes of course".
They headed back up to the professor's office. Jean made herself comfortable on the sofa and waited for Xavier to begin. Wheeling himself behind his desk, Charles sat in contemplation, staring out of the window into the gardens beyond.
"Jean, I have to contact Lewis Williams" he shook his head. "I am having difficulty finding the right words to tell him that not only is his daughter a mutant but that she has been violated".
Jean thought on Xavier's predicament for a moment, "Maybe it would be better if you invited him here. Show him the school and let him meet the pupils, I'm sure it will ease the situation."
"Yes Jean that may be the best option. I still can't believe he was not aware of her condition and if he did know, why he would not confide in me. I have known his family for many years; he knew he could trust me." He turned to face her. "Maybe that's why after his wife Jennifer's death, he sent Kaylan away and why we lost touch…oh this is all speculation!. I need hard facts and he is the only one who can give them to me".
Jean could sense the feeling of betrayal Charles felt as he thought about the old friend who only a few days before had called him for help to protect his daughter. She hoped in her heart-of-hearts Charles was right, and that Williams didn't know of his Kaylan's situation, but it also seemed completely plausible that a high-powered businessman such as Lewis Williams could disguise his own daughter's mutancy, after all it only took money – Jason Stryker was living proof of that.
"I'll invite him here tomorrow; I'm sure after Kaylan's rescue he'll be happy to oblige." Charles added. "Thank you for your patience and efforts Jean."
"Now you know that's not necessary, Charles". She smiled coyly, rising from the chair. "I'll head off and pack and then help Ro, see you at dinner."
"'Bye my dear." he said as he turned back towards the window to contemplate the impending reunion.