author: Lucinda

seventh in 'Feather Links', a series of companion stories to the 'Feathers' series.

similar in content to early X-Men comics. Should be pretty harmless.

ensemble cast, PoV is Scott Summers

disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to any characters from BtVS or X-Men/Marvel comics.

distribution: Twisting the Hellmouth, WLS, Bite Me, Paula - anyone else just ask

note: this is a glimpse into the lives and views of other people about the events of the Feathers series.

Scott was prepared not to like Willow. She was dating Warren, which shouldn't be a bad thing, but her records... They left questions. Her medical history was a chaotic mess, and she'd been involved in a few police investigations, but as a witness, not a suspect. There were too many strange gaps in her background and records. Somebody was covering something up.

However, this little corner of his mind kept pointing out that his own record would have a few weird gaps and oddness. In his case, it was because he was covering something up, and he really didn't want it to become public knowledge that he was a mutant. Part of him wondered if maybe she had a similarly good reason for the irregularities in her past.

There she was, walking in with Warren and Remy, a platter of something in her hands. Jean went over, undoubtedly to say hello and offer names. He turned, wanting to watch her reaction to everybody, to Kurt and Hank's visible mutations, to Rogue floating with the super-soaker. While it was a relief to see that Warren wasn't using the image inducer to make her feel happier, he still wondered how she'd react.

She was surprised, which he really couldn't blame her for. But there wasn't any sign of fear, and from the continued relaxed calm of both his fiancé the telepath and Remy, with his minor empathic skills, he'd say that she wasn't afraid. That was a mark in her favor, not being afraid of their mutations. It didn't mean that she'd do well with everything else in their lives, but it was a start.

"Come over and say hello, Scott." Jean was smiling, and tugged Willow a few steps closer.

He looked at them, seeing that Willow had dressed a little more conservatively than some of them had, and her hair looked very similar to Jean's. Her files had described her as a redhead, though he really couldn't be certain. One of the disadvantages of looking at the world through a red visor, everything was in shades of red. He walked towards them, inspecting Willow. "Hello, I'm Scott."

"Hi, I'm Willow," she held out her hand. "I brought cookies, hopefully there's something on there that you'll like, I wasn't sure what everybody would want."

"Cookies?" Scott could feel himself blinking. What did cookies have to do with anything?

"Well, yeah. Warren said that you guys are practically his family, so this is me being introduced to the family for the first time, and I'm a bit nervous. I brought cookies, because it's rude to show up at someone else's picnic empty-handed, so..." Her words stopped, and she blushed, glancing around. I have no idea what Jean did with the platter, it floated off that-way. um, I hope you like chocolate chip?"

"How did you meet Warren?" He tried to keep his tone casual, but Jean was frowning at him now. Maybe he hadn't been quite as casual as he'd hoped.

"Oh, I got hired to upgrade some of the computers at his company, and he walked into find me at his desk with his computer gutted." She chuckled, and glanced over at Warren with a little smile. "He was pretty surprised, actually, I guess the people didn't tell him that I'd be there that day."

"It probably didn't look that encouraging to find a stranger in his office poking at his computer," Scott commented. "Are you sure that you're... umm... You look a bit young for that sort of thing."

Willow chuckled, "Too young? As if you don't look remarkably well-preserved from someone who's been fighting all sorts of things as an X-Man for almost ten years."

Scott tensed, and looked at her. "How...?"

"It's pretty obvious. Warren has wings, and is known to be on the X-Men. Look at the pictures, you can identify Dr. McCoy, and there's a tallish guy with a red visor. You're a tallish guy with red sunglasses, that Warren's known for years and years, practically family... Obvious. There's just one thing that I'm curious about."

"What would that be?" Jean asked, looking as if she was trying not to laugh.

"Don't you ever wish those uniforms had pockets?"

Scott couldn't help it; he burst out laughing. Of all the questions that people had asked about the X-Men, from who are they to why do they do it, to how the women could be so beautiful, he'd never heard anyone ask about pockets on the uniforms.

"Honestly, it's never been the biggest worry about the uniforms. Damage resistance, laundering, and Rogue wanting to make sure hers didn't make her backside look too big, yes. Pockets? Not really," Scott relaxed a little more.

"I know that I look a bit young for what I do, or at least, for the fact that I'm not just a consultant, but I own the company." She gave a small grin, and admitted, "It's still a fairly small company, but we're getting a reputation of doing good work."

"You own the company?" Scott asked, feeling a bit curious. Surely, if she owned a computer consulting company, she'd be too busy to be working on some nefarious scheme?

"After Sunnydale, after one of my best friends died, we couldn't bear staying. So, me and my surviving best friend and his then-fiancé moved across the country, started a company with my computer skills and her accounting, and started to make a new life." She shrugged, and looked at the spread of food. "Wow, that's a lot of food. Are you sure it's not too much?"

Scott shook his head, "No, what we do takes a lot of energy, you'd be surprised how much we can eat. It all gets worked off again anyhow."

Willow nodded, and arched an eyebrow, "So, was there anything that you really wanted to ask? I know someone's been digging into my background."

In his mind, he could hear Jean's chuckle, and a single word - busted.

"Right," Scott tried to remain calm, and for a few seconds, debated several ways to ask what he wanted to know without alarming her too much. Finally, he decided to just be blunt. "Willow, what are your records hiding? From your medical history, you aren't just someone with computer skills, and there's something particularly unusual about being involved in so many police investigations."

"Scott Summers!" Jean gasped, "We're not supposed to be attacking Warren's girlfriend."

It was hard to tell through his visor, but she seemed to pale. "Summers? No, it has to be a coincidence. Summers is a common name."

"What about my name?" Scott asked.

"My friend that died was Buffy Summers. I... we helped her hunt and kill vampires." Willow closed her eyes, wiping at one cheek. "It wasn't the safest of things to do, and the police were either clueless or being manipulated. That's why I'm not asking why you go out and fight, because if you don't, who will? But it's left some bad memories."

Scott felt like he'd just been punched in the stomach by Rogue in a bad mood. Vampires. They'd had a run in with Dracula once, when the vampire had decided to try to make Storm his queen, and it had been... Terrifying, horrible, chaotic. He still wasn't certain what the right words for the mess really were. If she'd been fighting vampires, not only would that explain the many hospital visits, it might explain her calm reactions. "Vampires. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," She paused, and then sighed. "Can we try to pretend that today's just a nice, peaceful day? No fighting vampires, giant robots, or really cranky mutants? Just some sunshine, lots of food, and apparently squirt-guns?"

Scott considered her words. Her definition of a peaceful day sounded appealing. "That would be good. I just hope no sentinels show up to crash the party."

She just shook her head, muttering, "Why is he tempting fate like that? All someone has to do is make a comment like that and then, boom, badness happens. The only question is will it be giant purple robots, angry ex-dates, or demons in the lake. Shouldn't he know better after ten years risking life and limb?"

Scott just smiled as Jean pulled Willow away, saying something about lemonade. Maybe Willow would fit in here after all. After all, it didn't sound like she'd be scared away that easily.

End Feather Links 7: Red Feathers.