~2003~

**Visitor**

Logan and Dani were sitting at lunch.  Logan was observing a table of girls gossiping, and couldn't help but smile.  They were talking about that morning's test with Dani, and how she managed to beat everyone.

"I was wondering about that red headed fellow, just who is he?" Dani asked Logan.

"That's a new recruit of ol Chuck's.  Some Cajun kid with a shady history," Logan said.  "Scott and I didn't approve of him, but Chuck gets his way, you know."

"He probably figures we can help him," Dani offered.

"Something like that," Logan conceded.

"So I was wondering what kind of a name I should have, now that I'm official and all," Dani said smiling.

"Name?  Why not Violet?  I go by Wolverine," he said as he looked at her.  He figured she'd adopt the name from her tag the way he adopted the one from his.

"Yeah, but that sounds cool, and menacing.  A violet is a flower, and implies shyness.  Not very impressive," she added with annoyance.

Logan chuckled at that.  The name fit her when they first met.  But she wasn't the traumatized woman he found at Alkali Lake any more.  She had come into her powers, and was a force to be reckoned with.  He had to admit, she could be scary in a battle.  He thought about it a moment.

"Jean doesn't have a name," Logan said.

"I'm not Jean," Dani said flatly, controlling the urge to jab him in the ribs for using her as an example.  Jean and Dani got along, but it was not friendly between them.  Dani just did not like Jean, and she knew the feeling was mutual.

"I'll have to think about it, baby," he said with a smirk at her reaction to the mention of Jean.  He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.  "I gotta run," he said.  "I'm helping Beast coach the kids."

"I'll be out later to watch a few innings," Dani said as she watched him go.

*****

Rufus hated being a gopher.  He wasn't a chauffer; he was a lawyer, and a damn good one.  He pulled an elegant gold pocket watch out of his vest pocket and opened it.  He frowned at the time.  You'd think that a time traveler wouldn't be late.   He stared into the woods expectantly.  Why here?  Why so close to the enemy?  The Xavier mansion was less than a mile up the road.

Then the moment he'd been impatiently waiting for finally happened.  There was a strange flash of light, and the sound of rushing wind.  Rufus straightened up and watched.  A seemingly short and unassuming man in a business suit and trench coat stepped through the portal.  He had short blue-grey hair and fiery green eyes.  He looked really pissed off, and Rufus suddenly remembered the warnings that Gabriel had given him about this man.

'Whatever you do, don't get in Odium's way when he gets pissed.  If you think I'm scary, you'll fill your pants when you meet him…' Gabriel said.

'Why would I have to meet him?' Rufus said.

'You're the one who's going to pick him up when he arrives,' Gabe informed him.

'That's just bloody marvelous,' Rufus said sardonically.  That's just what he needed, another psychotic leader to deal with.

That had been shortly before Gabriel had been killed when his Montana lab had been destroyed by the X-men.  Rufus had been left to pick up the pieces, and sort out a new plan of action.  Rufus had held the network together, barely.  Odium was all too willing to step in.  Rufus greeted the man cautiously. 

"I'm Rufus," he said simply.

Odium brushed past him without a glance and got in the car.  "Get in the bloody car and drive.  There's been a last minute change of plans," he said sharply.

Rufus obeyed without a word.  He started the car and pulled back out onto the road.

"Contact all of Gabriel's associates.  It's time to plan our new approach," Odium said icily.  He closed his eyes and all he could see was his Bella, lying in a pool of blood at the feet of Wolverine.  Her face was so beautiful, even in death.  He tried to search his memory for the name of Logan's wife.  He couldn't remember.  Just where in the timeline was he?  Was the bastard even married yet?

"Why the sudden change?" Rufus asked boldly.

"Revenge, Rufus, plain and simple revenge," Odium said seething. 

*****

"Get behind the ball, Jamie," Beast instructed from behind the umpire's mask.  "The catcher's glove is padded, you'll be just fine," he assured him.

Jamie crouched back down into the appropriate stance and gave Bobby the signal, fast ball.  There was no way that Jubilee was going to hit it.

Bobby smiled at the sign, and gave an almost imperceptible nod.  He straightened up and checked his bases.  He looked back at the plate.  Jubilee was giving him the most determined look.  Sure, Jubes, just hang on to that misplaced confidence, he thought. 

He threw the pitch, and Jubilee swung, and missed.  The force of the pitch knocked poor Jamie on his butt, and there were suddenly a dozen copies of him sitting on the ground around the plate.

"Steeeeeerike!" Beast exclaimed, trying not to laugh.  Just whose idea had it been to make Jamie the catcher.

"Pull yourself together, kid.  I don't want this game to go on all day," Logan said with a smirk.

Jamie's doubles disappeared and he got back in position.  He gave Bobby another sign.  Bobby nodded again and prepared to strike out Jubilee.  Just as he was about to throw the pitch, there was a boom of thunder, and a bolt of lightening struck the field halfway between the pitcher's mound and the plate.  Everyone had covered their eyes at the sudden flash of light, and when it was over, they looked at the spot where it struck.  There were multiple gasps of shock at what they saw.  Lying in a heap, in a charred circle of turf, was a boy.  He was laying face down, and motionless.

"Everyone go inside immediately!" Beast roared as he went to the limp form to check for a pulse.  He didn't believe the stranger was a threat, but he refused to take chances with the students.  They grudgingly obeyed.

Logan ran out from the dugout, and joined Beast.  "What the hell was that?" Logan growled.

"I don't know, but we need to get the boy to the infirmary.  He got a little crispy," Beast said with a little hint of dark humor.

They turned him over carefully, and he started to wake up.  "Ouch," he said half wincing and half laughing.  His eyes were scrunched closed to stave off the pain.

"Hey kid, who are you?  What happened?" Logan asked gruffly.  He was watching the kid warily.  He didn't seem like a threat, but he wouldn't take any chances.

Jesse's head felt like it was going to explode, but he racked his brain for the best way to proceed.  He didn't know the exact year he had landed, but he knew he just landed in the middle of a secure fortress full of wary mutants in a very intolerant world.  He didn't need to tell his story until they believed he wasn't the enemy.

"Name's Jesse," he said.  "Sorry to drop in uninvited, it wasn't my choice."  He tried to open his eyes and winced again, letting out a small groan.

Beast and Logan exchanged looks.  The kid wasn't a threat, it was obvious.  Looks like we may have inherited another stray, Logan thought, just what we need.

"All right, Jesse, let's get you inside and make sure you're all in one piece," Beast said, helping him to his feet.  He helped support him as they walked up to the mansion.

Jesse ignored the pain and opened his eyes.  There was Logan, walking beside him, regarding him warily, and Beast half carrying him.  Well, history comes to life, he thought.  Every step was painful, but he forced himself to hide it.  He didn't want to look like a wimp in front of his heroes.   By the time they reached the door, the pain had become unbearable, and Jesse passed out.

"Well, he lasted longer than I thought," Beast said with a chuckle as he picked up the now unconscious Jesse.

Logan just looked at the boy.  Something about him was disturbing him, and he couldn't put his finger on it.  He was a complete stranger, but Logan could swear he smelled familiar somehow.  He was a tough kid, that was for sure.  Logan could tell he was in a lot of pain, but the kid never complained. 

"He gonna live?" Logan asked Beast.

"I expect so," Beast said with a chuckle.

*****

"All right kids, make a hole," Logan growled at the crowd in the hall way as he and Beast took their unexpected guest to the infirmary.

"Who is he?" Jubilee asked as she and Kitty stared at the limp form in Beast's arms.

"Mr. Logan, is he going to be ok?" Kitty asked in a voice full of concern.

"All right, that is quite enough, all of you.  I know that some of you desperately need to study for my history exam, and you all have homework," Ororo said firmly.  "Beast will take good care of him."

The students dispersed, and Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue headed to the lounge.

"Wow! Whoever he was, he was cute!" Jubilee said with excitement in her voice.

"Hey, I saw him first," Kitty warned.

"Oh, good grief!  You two are not happy if you're not fighting over some guy," Rogue scolded.  She was annoyed.  Her own experience with dating had been more than just a little disappointing.  She could have Bobby back with just a word, but she didn't want him anymore.  She was content to just be a Rogue for a while.  While Jubilee and Kitty gossiped and giggled about the cute John Doe that fell out of the sky, Rogue ignored them and flipped channels.

"Hey, we're going upstairs to pick out what we're going to wear when we go visit that hunk in the infirmary, wanna come?" Jubilee asked sweetly.  She knew Rogue would say no, but she always offered.  Sooner or later she would get Rogue back into the dating game.

"You go ahead, I'll just watch this for a while," Rogue replied, indicating the cooking show she just found.

"Ok, Chica, see you later," Jubilee said with a sigh.

"Later, Rogue," Kitty said.

"Later," Rogue said half heartedly.  She actually did like this show, it was Emeril, and she loved his casual style in the studio kitchen.

"And now let's make that Gumbo really happy as we add the fresh ground pepper and ~Bam! ~ kick it up another notch," the enthusiastic chef was saying.

"Ah, Gumbo," a sexy voice said behind her.

Rogue turned around to see a tall, red-haired men standing right behind her.  He looked down at her with strange red and black eyes, and gave her a smile.

"Enchante, miss…" he greeted and waited for her to fill in her name for him.

She arched her eyebrow at him giving him an annoyed frown, and turned back to the cooking show.  She'd already heard about the charming Cajun flirt and was not interested in a ladies' man.

"Oh, now, you hurt Remy's feelings with dat cold shoulder, petit," he said as he walked around the couch to sit beside her.  "Remy just want to be friends."

He was sitting way too close for Rogue's comfort, and she scooted away, without a word.

Remy started looking himself over, and straightened his shirt.  He lifted his arm and sniffed his armpit dramatically.  He looked back over to Rogue. "Do I offend?" he asked her humorously.

Rogue couldn't ignore him after that, it was just too funny.  She cracked a smile and chuckled. 

"Oh, you can smile," he said approvingly.  And that smile makes her even more beautiful, he thought.

"My name's Rogue," she said, but still didn't look at him.

"An' dis fellow here," he said, pointing at his chest, "is Gambit, but I'd like it if you called him Remy."

She glanced over at him.  Oh, he was good; very, very good at the charm thing.  He looked at her like she was the only woman on the planet.  It unnerved her, and she blushed.  She swore at herself in her head for letting him see her blush.

Remy's lips curled up in a triumphant smile.  Score!  He took in the sight of that beautiful face and big chocolate brown eyes.  He liked the odd platinum streak that framed her delicate features.  He reached out to brush a platinum lock away from her face and she pulled away abruptly.

"Cher, Remy's not trying to hurt you," he said with a hurt look on his face.

"I know," she said with a hint of embarrassment.  "It's just that you can't touch me, it'll hurt you," she added with a hint of pain in her voice.

 Remy looked her over more closely, and realized she was dressed a bit out of season.  It was in the nineties outside, but she wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt, gloves, and a scarf around her neck.  He got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  "I'm sorry, petit," he said.

"It's not your fault, you didn't know.  It's my mutation," she explained, "When people touch my skin, I absorb their life force, and mutations.  If I touch them long enough…" she didn't finish.

Gambit could hear the pain in her voice.  What a horrible mutation.  He saw one tear trail down her cheek as she turned back to the TV.  He really wanted to touch that soft white cheek and brush away that tear.

*****

Logan stood with his arms crossed and a dark expression on his face while he watched Hank check out the kid.  The scent, what was it?  The boy had an innocent face, but that didn't mean squat.  Logan knew that this kid didn't drop here by mistake, and it was eating at him.

"He's stable, and seems alright, but he probably has broken, or at least bruised ribs," Hank said as he removed Jesse's shirt to have a look.

Logan heard a jingle, and went still.  He stared at a very familiar looking chain. 

"Oh, my stars and garters!" Hank said as Logan walked over to examine the tags around the boy's neck.  There were two, instead of just the one.  He read them: 'Wolverine' on one and 'Violet' on the other.

"Call the professor," Logan said with quiet anger.  They were obviously not copies.  Logan knew every scratch and dent on his tag. 

"No need to call," Xavier said as he entered, closely followed by Jean, Scott, Storm and Dani.

Dani walked over and put an arm around Logan.  He was tense, and he pointed to the tags.  She gasped at the recognition, but kept silent.

"Kitty and Jubilee told us how he arrived," Xavier said.  "How is the patient, Hank?"

"He's very bruised, but fine.  I gave him something for the pain.  He should be waking up soon," Hank informed them.

Logan looked down at Jesse's peaceful face.  "I think you're going to have a little explaining to do when you wake up, kid."

"Professor, do you want me to speed that recovery up for you?" Dani offered.

"No!" Logan said harshly.  He didn't want Dani suffering for a stranger, especially one with a lot to answer for.

"That's all right, Danielle.  He's waking up," Xavier said.

Everyone looked at him as he stirred.  He raised a hand to rub his aching head and cautiously opened his eyes.  He was surrounded by nearly the entire X-men team.  He knew most of them by the descriptions in the archive.  They regarded him with expressions that ranged from curiosity to flat out mistrust.  Logan was just plain angry.  He looked around for the friendliest face, and wasn't surprised to see that it was Professor Xavier.

"Um, hi," he said nervously.

"Hello, Jesse," Xavier said.  "I'm Professor Charles Xavier."

"Yes sir," Jesse said, and started looking at the others.

"I'm Ororo Munroe, also known as Storm," Storm said smiling.

"Scott Summers, er…Cyclops," said Scott with a nod.  "And this is my fiancé, Dr. Jean Grey." Jean gave Jesse a smile as well.

"I'm Dr. Hank McCoy, but everyone calls me Beast," Hank said with a warm smile.  He looked over at Logan's angry expression and stance, and decided to just introduce him as well.  "The grouchy looking man is Logan, also called Wolverine…"

"And I'm Danielle," Dani filled in for Hank with a smile.

Jesse regarded the group with barely disguised awe.  "Jesse Stanley," he said simply.  "It's an honor to meet you all."

 "I understand you have quite a headache, Jesse," Xavier said, "but I believe you have a story to tell, and now would be the time for it."

"Yeah, I guess it would," Jesse said nervously.  He looked around at everyone again; suddenly very apprehensive at the position he was in.  If they didn't believe him, what would they do with him?

"Its okay, Jesse, we won't hurt you," Xavier assured him.

Logan just grunted and stared at those tags.

"I'm from the future," he began.  "I was sent here to warn you that a mutant named Odium is trying to kill you, Professor Xavier, sir," Jesse said seriously, with a great deal of respect in his voice.

"You care to elaborate a little on your story?" Logan said as he reached over and jingled the tags around his neck.

Jesse looked sick.  How do you tell a guy that you met him over two hundred years in the future?  And worse than that, how do you tell him that the bad guy wants to take out his revenge on his friends and family?

"It's all right, Jesse.  He huffs and puffs a lot, but he won't hurt you," Dani assured him with a smile.

Jesse looked at her, and returned her smile.  Logan just snorted and waited for him to answer the question.

"Um, Mr. Logan, sir, you were the one who sent me here.  You gave me these and told me to show them to you here.  You -future, assured me that you -present, would believe my story.  Or were you mistaken about yourself?" Jesse said sarcastically.

The bizarre humor of that statement wasn't lost on any of them, but they all managed to keep from laughing when they saw Logan's angry expression.

Suddenly Logan realized what had been bothering him about the kid.  He smelled like – himself.  He had been with this kid, and not long ago.  His expression suddenly softened.  The kid wasn't lying about knowing him.

Xavier regarded the kid with keen interest.  "You are leaving out a lot of details," Xavier said.

"Yes sir," Jesse said respectfully.  "Everything happened very quickly, sir."

Scott was impressed by Jesse's manners and respect.  He glanced at Logan.  There's a guy who should be taking notes here.

"Perhaps you will permit me to have a look at what happened," Xavier asked him.

Jesse visibly paled.  He wasn't sure that was a good idea.  Knowledge of the future could be a very dangerous thing.  "I don't mean any disrespect to you sir, but I'm a history major.  I know a lot of very significant details about all of your futures.  Is it wise to have a look at information like that?" Jesse asked.

"The boy has a point, Charles.  Knowledge of the future can be dangerous," Hank agreed.

"I trust Chuck's willpower; I want to know what's going on.  Just what are you hiding from us, kid?"

Jesse winced.  This was not going as smoothly as he'd expected.  His head throbbed.  He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.  "Well, this isn't as easy as I thought," he said to himself.  "I think I'd rather be sitting in McMurray's Mutant Physics class taking a pop quiz!"

That comment elicited several chuckles from the group.  Jean and Xavier had realized right away that the kid was sincere, but now the rest of the group was starting to relax as well.

Dani looked at the nervous kid and took pity on him.  He was sitting on the hot seat, and he was suffering.  She couldn't get him off the hot seat, but she could relieve his pain.  She walked over to him, held her hands over his chest, and healed him. 

Jesse's eyes flew open and he stared at the petit woman with the violet eyes.  Her hands and eyes were glowing, and he started feeling better.  In fact, he was feeling great.  She stopped, and stepped back on shaky legs, but was quickly supported by Logan. 

Logan frowned.  Dani does what Dani wants.  She's such a softy.

Jesse's eyes were huge.  He sat up, looked at the tags around his neck, and looked back at Dani.

"Supernova?" he asked as recognition set in.

"Danielle," she said quietly.

Jesse looked thoughtful for a moment, searching his memory.  "What year is it?"

"2003," Scott told him.

"Oh," he said, realizing his error he quickly filled in her current name.  "Thank you Miss Mason, I know how much that hurts," he said sincerely.

Xavier looked at the boy and smiled.