~2003~
**Training Day**
The next six months were taken up by intensive training for Dani. Scott and Logan devoted two hours a day to teaching Dani Hand to hand combat. Beast and Jean kept up with keeping her charged, and Dani learned better control with the help of Professor Xavier. Dani was a quick study, and it was finally time to prove herself. Today was the day she went into the Danger room and took on the entire team. If Xavier thought she was ready, she'd finally be an official member of the X-men.
Dani was dressed in her spandex training outfit, when Logan came into their room. The outfit left nothing to the imagination, and he loved it, and hated it. He loved it in private. He hated it during training. All the women wore them, and Logan knew he shouldn't care, but Dani was his woman. No one else should see her in…that.
"Hey, Sweetie," she said as she tied off the end of the braid she'd just finished.
Logan came up behind her and hugged her. "Hey, baby. Are you ready for your test?" he asked as he nuzzled the nape of her neck.
"I don't know, are you going to be testing me too?" she asked.
"Chuck says I hold back too much when we spar. I'm not hard enough on you. I'll be in the control room observing with Hank and Chuck," he said.
"Then I'm ready," she said with a laugh.
Logan gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbed her hand. "Still scared of me, eh," he said with a smile as he walked her down to the danger room.
Dani gave him a smug look, "Just scared of frying that cute backside of yours," she said. "Metal and electricity, you know…"
Yeah, he knew.
*****
Rogue walked right by Bobby without so much as a 'Hi.' Bobby watched her with longing. He had ruined everything, and it was over. It had been nearly six months since she'd spoken more than a two word sentence to him. He would never be able to patch things up with her.
The accident. It happened three days after Danielle's birthday party. Bobby cringed at the memory of it. It wasn't Rogue's fault. She was always so careful. But Bobby just had to touch her, and that was his undoing. If it hadn't been for Danielle's healing abilities, who knows how long he would have been in that coma. When he finally woke up, Rogue was standing there. She handed him a soft pink scarf and simply said, "Coward."
It was true. He was a coward, and it had little to with her skin. He was afraid of commitment. What better girlfriend to have than an untouchable one? Bobby had subconsciously sabotaged that relationship from the start. Now it was over, and he hated himself for losing her. He was a fool.
*****
Everything is set up for you Danielle, Xavier said. Enter when you're ready.
Dani stared at the door to the Danger room and cringed. She'd heard that test day could be very intense. You faced your fellow X-men in some hypothetical scenario, and you were the enemy. They felt it was their duty to use their powers to the fullest. No pulling punches. Dani had dreaded it. She didn't want to get hurt, but she also didn't want to hurt anyone else either. But she would have to give this her all, she was being evaluated. Today would determine her status on the team. She was tired of the label 'trainee.'
She opened the door and entered. The simulation hologram was running, and Dani stifled a smile. The setting was a forest. This was going to be easy. She didn't follow the obvious path, but took to the shadows. She couldn't orb, or the light would give her away.
~bampf! ~
Dani heard the soft echo of Nightcrawler's appearance behind her. She spun around to face him, and was surprised to see him hanging upside down from a tree branch by his tail. She gave him just enough of an energy jolt to knock him out, and his body went slack and fell to the ground.
Sorry, Kurt, she thought, but was immediately on guard for her next challenge. Dani moved through the shadows as quietly as she could. She heard the trees rustle with a sudden breeze and braced herself. She was hit with an icy burst of air and was thrown against a tree. Dani had no time to recover, as Cyclops tackled her. They were smart to not use their energy against her. She would have just absorbed it and used it on them. Dani orbed herself out of his grip, and surprised them by appearing behind Storm, thirty feet in the air! She had to give Storm a stronger shock than she gave Kurt, or else it would have done no good. As they fell, Dani orbed Storm out of the air and onto the ground, and Dani reappeared in front of Cyclops. But Scott had been prepared for that and hit her with an optic blast, a big one. She absorbed it, but the overload left her dazed, and he was able to catch her off guard with another tackle. He had her pinned to the ground.
"Scott, I hate to do this," she said quietly. She orbed herself above him, effectively shoving him down into the ground, and gave him a mild shock. She gave him a guilty look, and was about to congratulate herself when she heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Impressive," she heard a sexy male voice say. She looked around for the source of the voice and spotted it. A tall, red haired man was leaning against a tree, casually shuffling a deck of cards. He was wearing a training uniform, but wore a trench coat over it. He glanced up at her, and she could see his eyes. They were red, like cherry tomatoes, and full of mischief. He held up three cards and said, "Wanna play?" The cards immediately started glowing, and he tossed them at her. Two of them landed at her feet, and the third struck her in the chest. They exploded at the same time, throwing her back towards another tree, but she orbed before she hit it.
Dani reappeared right behind the man and reached out to shock him, but he grabbed her hand and threw her over his shoulder. She landed with a resounding thud, and groaned.
The man stared down at her approvingly. "You are full of surprises," he said with a grin as he looked her over. "What's your name?" he asked provocitavely.
Dani smiled and kicked the cocky fellow's feet right out from under him. She orbed herself to her feet, standing right over him and said, "Goodnight." Then she gave him a generous shock to knock him out.
"That concludes the simulation," Xavier said over the speaker. The hologram forest disappeared, and Dani found herself standing in the warehouse sized danger room looking at the unconscious X-men. She looked up at the large window of the control room. Logan gave her an approving smile.
You done real good, baby, Logan thought. She was definitely in. He watched Dani check on the team to make sure no one was hurt. She was such a mother hen. Oh, god! She was totally a mother type. Logan felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought, and he liked it. He wanted Dani to be the mother of his children. He wanted her to be his wife.
Logan went pale. How the hell do you ask a woman like Dani to marry you?
