Maddie pulls away, shivering slightly. "You're cold." Bobby says, blushing immediately. Way to go, Captain Obvious. "Um, let's get you inside, huh?" he says, but she isn't paying attention. Fear paints her face and her eyes are focused over his shoulder.
Bobby looks behind him, and sees the headlights. "Oh, it's ok. It's probably just a new student." she backs against the building, trying to hide. "What if they're here to hurt me?" she asks, her fear of recapture evident.
"Then I'll fight every single one of them off. You're safe now." Bobby tells her, hooking his thumb under her chin and turning her head so she's forced to look at him. He kisses her on the forehead, and she wraps her arms around him, more afraid of recapture than ever, now that she has someone who actually cares about her, or so it seems. "Come on, let's get you inside." he says, leading her stiff body inside.
A tiny teenage girl with auburn hair, excepting two ghost-white streaks in the front, opens the door, playfully hitting the boy behind her. "John, stop it, dork." she stops when she sees who's at the door. "Rogue, what is it? Did Wolverine forget to buy cheetos again, cuz if he did, I will SO try to beat him up." a voice says from behind her, and Alec and Max can't help but smirk.
The girl just stands there, staring at them. "Um, hi." Alec says, trying to break the girl out of the trance. "Rogue, what's taking you so..." a teenage boy comes to the doorway, his mouth filled with Christmas cookies. "Um, hi." he returns, sticking out his hand. "John, and the one who stares is Rogue." he says, and Alec smirks. "Alec, and this is Max."
"You're here for her, aren't you?" Rogue asks, staring at them critically. "If you hurt her, I'll have to hurt you back." she tells them, and, though this girl is small, there is something threatening in her eyes.
Alec and Max turn around and reveal their barcodes. "I promise, I just want to find my sister." Max says, her eyes pleading. "She's the only family I have." John mumbles something through the cookie stuffed in his mouth, and elbows the girl, who hits him back, but moves away from the door.
"Ok, Professor Xavier is gonna want to talk to you." she tells them, shutting the door on the coming winter storm and escorting them through the obscenely large school. "Yeah," says John, smirking, eager to be a part of the conversation, "he has the tendency to tell really, really long stories, so, just so you know, you might get a little bored."
"Uh, John, that's not very nice, and you know that the professor's gonna bring it up sometime?" Rogue says, rolling her eyes and looking at Max and Alec. "He's kind of an idiot sometimes."
"He's male, I think it's understandable." Max tells her, copper eyes gleaming with laughter. Rogue laughs, ignoring the protests of the two males in the group. She smiles. "I think I could get used to having you around." she tells Max, who smiles in an almost maternal way.
"We're here." John says, and they all stop suddenly. "Good luck, guys." he tells them, opening the door for them and shutting it as they walk in. He looks at Rogue. "They seemed nice. Wanna go see if there's any cookie dough left?" he asks, and she shrugs. They walk down the corridor, walking suspiciously close to each other.
"Mad, everything's gonna be fine, all right?" Bobby asks, and she shakes her head in confusion.
"I just need to think, Bobby. I'll be back in a little bit." she promises, and without a look back or another word, walks into the staircase that leads up to the cold, dark sky.
"So she doesn't remember a thing?" Max asks, gripping Alec's hand with all of her might, trying not to cry. "Not even when we were younger?" she asks, her eyes pleading.
"She remembers snippets of things, but not much. Don't expect anything." Charles tells them, his eyes softening at the obvious heartbreak of the girl before him. "I'm sorry, my dear. I wish it were different. She put up a barrier. I can't see her memories, or her thoughts. You were trained well." he tells them, and they nod. Alec squeezes his mate's hand.
Snowflakes curl around her head, and the winter wind bites at her nose. But it doesn't matter. She doesn't feel it. She just feels the loneliness that curls over her heart like a snake, slowly squeezing its victim to death.
I don't want to leave, but I can't stay here. Everything's upside down, like the whole world is closing in on me, like it could swallow me whole. Maybe it will. I don't know. I don't know anything, anymore. I doubt that I ever really did.
"She went to the roof, to think." Bobby tells them, "she's scared. She's trying to hide it, but I can tell." he says, shaking his head, as if to say that even he doesn't know why Maddie's clung to him, or how he can read her like his favorite, memorized book.
"I'll go up," Max volunteers, the words spilling out of her mouth, unbidden. With no objections, she walks up the staircase, bracing herself for the sister that doesn't even remember her. You can do it, Max, she tells herself, trying not to cry.
The steel door swings open with ease, and though it doesn't make a sound, Maddie tenses. "They're waiting for me, aren't they? To say goodbye." she asks as Max walks up to her. Sadness tinges her voice, making it sound tinny, and hollow. She doesn't want to leave, Max thinks, shaking her head. Of course she doesn't want to leave, this is the only safe haven she can ever remember having.
"Well, they can wait. You probably have a lot to think over, huh?" Max says, sitting down next to the teen, and grabbing her hand. "You may not remember me, but I'm Max, and if you'd like to, I'd like to take you home, to Terminal City. It's where transgenics can be safe." she tells the girl, whose clover eyes fill.
"Oh, god, you made it." Maddie gasps, pulling Max into a hug. A half-laugh, half-sob escapes her. "I can't remember anything past the escape, so I didn't know if anyone made it." she confides, her voice choked, full of emotion.
"We're still searching for the others, but Zack, and Syl, and Krit made it out, too. They're in hiding now, trying to find the rest of our unit." Max says, avoiding the painful topic of Ben, and the others who didn't make it. "But there are hundreds of us out now, Maddie. Thousands, even. If you want to, you can come with me and Alec, and meet them." Maddie looks down at the ground, obviously in deep thought. She looks up, her green eyes full of determination, and sadness, too, at the prospect of leaving her new friends.
"I'll go. It's what I have to do." she says simply, wiping off a tear that strays down her face.