There was a long and pregnant pause, as all three of them stared at the words the pen had just written.

"Ah, I, uh, think I see your problem," Xavier offered, snatching his pen out of the air.

"Fascinating!" Hank interjected. "And is it the same for your other, uh, tenants?"

Rogue grimaced at him. "Wolverine, yes; Bobby, some. It's Pyro that I'm worried about." She looked at Xavier. "I can't control him. I have no place to put him. Wolverine is fighting with him pretty much all the time, just to keep him from torching my whole brain. I think I can probably access his powers too, but I'm afraid to because I'd have no control over him."

"What do you mean, 'no place to put him?'" Hank asked. "Do you mean you… have places to put the others?"

Rogue explained that Jean had helped her build mental containment areas for her three "squatters" a year ago, and while they weren't perfect, they did seem to work okay. But she didn't know how to build one herself and now Pyro wanted to take over the whole place.

"Rogue, I will need some time to think about this, to decide how best to proceed. Meanwhile, if you'll allow me to help you, I'm sure I can come up with a makeshift containment facility for John. Will you let me help you there?"

Rogue nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh. Please."

"Very well, then." Xavier touched his temples and closed his eyes, and a moment later Rogue felt his presence inside her mind.

Rogue focussed hard and a moment later had entered a light trance, enough to show Xavier around her head. She brought him to her room in Meridian first, and introduced him to David.

"Professor, this is David Cody, the first boy I ever kissed. In fact, that's what I was doing when my mutation surfaced. I don't know which of us it freaked out more."

"Oh, that would be you," David teased. "Me, I was all snug and asleep in my comfy little coma. You were the one who freaked out and ran away from home."

Xavier smiled at the boy, and glanced around the room. The maps on the wall caught his eye and he looked curiously at Rogue. "This is your room, then, Rogue? Where you grew up?"

"Yep," she said. "I didn't knew what his room looked like, so I had to put him in mine."

"I see." There seemed little that Xavier needed to do there, so they moved on.

Next, they visited Magneto, sitting snugly in his torch atop the Statue of Liberty. "Ah, Charles! How lovely of you to visit."

"Hello, Erik," Xavier said a little sadly.

"So what brings you to this little segment of brain? You must have gotten my message on your desk," Erik smiled graciously.

"I did. Rogue tells me you've been a bit more outgoing than usual, Erik. Care to comment on that?"

Erik raised his eyebrows. "Well, she couldn't reach the paper clip herself," he said innocently. "I was merely helping her out."

"Why?"

"Call it an instinct for self-preservation." Erik turned his attention to Rogue. "After you left, my dear, I found myself thinking about what you had said. About turning all of us out, I mean. While I stand by my previous statement that it is your right to decide who gets to share your brain-space, I had difficulty accepting the fact that I might have to leave. I thought I might help you out a little, and show you how useful I might be, and you might decide to keep me."

"'Old age should burn and rave at close of day,'" quoted Xavier.

"'Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.'" Erik finished the quote. "Exactly. I am not ready to die, even so small a part of me as a mental shadow in another mutant's head. I wished to stay."

"We'll have to talk later," promised Rogue. "But we have to get going. Charles wants to see the rest of you as well."

They took their leave, and as they floated down from the Statue toward Xavier's mansion, Rogue felt Bobby Drake join them. "Bobby?"

Bobby looked sorrowful. "They say you're trying to kick all of us out," he said sadly. Rogue squinted at him. Wolverine was right; he was fairly blurry around the edges. They could almost see right through him.

"Bobby, I don't know yet. The professor's just having a look around right now. Have you had any trouble with John?"

Iceman shook his ghostly head. "No, he picks on me a little, but mostly he's busy fighting your precious Wolvie."

"Ah yes, I think I hear them now," Xavier murmured as they neared his mansion. It was a smoking ruin, and Pyro was getting thrashed out on the front lawn. Xavier and Rogue stood and watched the last few minutes until Wolverine knocked him out and bent over panting.

"Hey, kid. Hi, Charles," Wolverine greeted them. "You guys can't stay long. He's gonna be up again in a sec."

"Yes, but he'll be contained by then," Xavier said. He stood up out of his wheelchair and took a few steps forward.

Damn, it's good to be a telepath, Rogue thought. She realized that Xavier wasn't at all handicapped in his mind.

Xavier smiled at Pyro's supine form and suddenly several giant rocks rose out of the earth to surround Pyro. Slowly, they changed shape until they were square and piled on top of one another like an ancient Roman building. They were immense, and they formed a massive bastion all around Pyro.

"That should keep him under wraps for a while," Xavier said, dusting off his hands theatrically.

"Chuck!" Wolverine said admiringly. "You're pretty good!"

Xavier chuckled. "Thank you, Logan."

Wolverine shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he said. "In here, I'm just Wolverine. Logan's the one out there," he gestured toward the gate.

"Interesting," Xavier commented.

"Hey, kid, now what am I going to do with my time?" Wolverine complained, kicking absently at the corner of Pyro's stone box. "I've gotten kinda used to fighting all the time."

Rogue grinned. "Well, you could either start rebuilding the mansion, or you could learn to play chess with Erik."

"No way, doll. Now that the flamer's restricted, the mansion'll probably start rebuilding itself. Maybe I'll go hang out in your room with David."

Rogue grinned at him. "Just stay the hell out of my underwear drawer, Wolvie!"

Go ahead, bottom left. Blue button. You know you want to!