A/N: I know it's a long time coming… but here's the next chapter. I'm really working on this one and there's a load more to come. I might actually finish this one!! ;) Love as always, KT x
April
Therese woke with a start, springing up in bed.
"Ssshhh…" Auroro laid a hand on her shoulder, easing her back down.
"What's going on?" Therese asked, her voice heavy with sleep.
"You were having a bad dream… Rogue came and found me."
"I was worried about you," Marie sat and the bottom of the bed, "You were moaning and trying to get your sheet off."
"Therese…" Auroro brought her attention back to her, "What was the dream about?"
"I… I don't remember…" Therese's brow furrowed, as she thought hard, "I really don't know."
"Therese, you need to think. Your dreams are getting worse; we need to figure out the source."
"I honestly don't remember; if I knew anything I'd tell you."
Auroro sighed and got up, "Fine, get some sleep girls. You've got an important day ahead of you."
Auroro was almost out the door when Therese cried out, "WAIT!" She turned back.
Therese rubbed her fingertips over her forehead, massaging her temples, and ran them down the side of her face, along her right cheek, "There was a marble floor… it was covered in glass; as though someone had shattered something on it." She looked up, "That's all I know."
Auroro nodded, "Get some sleep." She stepped outside the room and softly closed the door behind her, her back to it. "She hasn't slept properly in weeks; ever since she had that dream about Jean."
"Her brain activity asleep, and even during the day, is abnormally high, even for a mutant." Xavier replied, "She is definitely one of the more powerful telepaths. And those powers are growing. Her dreams may be more than just that."
"What do you mean? Premonitions perhaps?" Auroro followed him down the hall.
"Perhaps, although I don't like that word." Xavier turned his chair to look at her, "People rely on premonitions as the future. What happens in a premonitions only occurs when a certain choice or number of choices are made. We shall just have to watch her extremely closely. Goodnight Auroro."
"Goodnight Charles."
"Okay, I'm gonna' fail." Marie cried, in her deep southern drawl. She slammed her English Lit notes onto the table, where the young students were desperately studying for their impending end-of-year exam.
"You're going to be okay." Bobby placed a comforting hand on her gloved one.
"He's right," Therese said, "Besides you know the stuff; you've studied. I've spent most of my time running through tests with the Professor."
"Oh yeah," Marie retorted, "Miss Perfect-at-poetry, you know it all anyway. You don't need to study."
"Okay sweetie; you know if you want me to tutor you, you only have to ask…" Therese teased.
The surrounding students erupted in laughter at Marie's fake shock. "Excuse me!" she cried, "I don't need your help, thank you very much!"
"Okay darlin', you keep thinking that." Therese lifted her books, "I'm going to study in the sunshine; get some fresh air."
"Be back in 15." Kitty warned.
"I will…" Therese called back as she walked out into the hall. She had just reached the French doors when she stopped, "Yes, Professor?" She turned to face Xavier as he rolled towards her.
"Very good, Therese. You're powers are improving; I was even beginning to close my mind off to you." Xavier stopped at her feet, "However, perhaps you should be a little less aware of your powers. And I think that you might benefit from not sitting your tests at the moment."
"Sir?" Therese frowned, "Professor, I think I'd rather do them now. If anything, they distract me from my… dreams. I'd rather continue doing what I'm doing, including missions; I want to continue with a normal life… well as normal as possible considering…"
"Are you sure?" Xavier asked anxiously.
"Professor, trust me. If I wasn't up to it, I wouldn't do it," Therese laughed, "Do you think I actually like these tests?" He smiled. "Look," she said, "If I start feeling unwell, I'll ask whoever is supervising if I can leave."
"Very well…" he turned and wheeled away.
Therese smiled and turned back towards the French doors.
"Oh, and Therese…" Xavier's voice caught her, "Good Luck."
"Thank you Professor," she replied quietly.
Rogue looked at the clock at the top of the classroom. It told her that the class were forty-five minutes into the exam. "Great," she murmured, "only fifteen minutes left."
She looked at Bobby's back, one row to the left and three seats up from her. He was bent over his desk, furiously writing. She looked down at her own paper, which she'd finished barely five minutes earlier. "Shit…" she thought, "I knew I should be writing more."
'Its quality, not quantity' She remembered Therese's words of encouragement which she'd given just before the exam. She looked over her right shoulder towards Therese's desk; two rows to the right, four seats back. Therese was pinching her temples with her left hand, and furrowing her forehead. Rogue watched as Therese looked up, trying desperately to keep her eyes open.
"Ms Monroe?!" Rogue put her hand up.
Auroro came to her desk, "What is it?"
"Auroro, I think there's something wrong with-" her words were cut short with the sound of Therese's body crashing to the floor.
She jumped up and ran to Therese's side. She rolled her onto her back, and tried to stop the shuddering. "Therese! Therese!" she cried, "Therese, can you hear me? Therese, you have to wake up!"
"Therese? Therese?" Auroro stood over them, looking down at Therese's shaking form. Fear was growing her heart. "Go get the professor!" she told Kitty.
"Therese?" Rogue was still calling her, "Therese, you have to wake up!" She gripped her shoulders and pressed them to the floor, "Listen to me, Therese. Stop shaking! Stop… shaking!" Therese's body lay still. "Good," Rogue stroked Therese's hair, "Now… wake up."
Therese opened her eyes. "Marie?" she croaked, quietly, "Where's the Professor?"
"Excuse me," Xavier pushed forward, "Therese, are you okay?"
Therese propped herself up, "Professor, I saw it again."
"So, you're telling us this has happened before?" Auroro sat with the rest of the team in Xavier's office.
"Yes," Therese leant back against the desk, "Just once; a few months ago."
"And you told Rogue what to do if it happened again? What's going on Chuck?" Logan asked, "What else are you keeping from us?"
"I felt that the team should not be burden with worry over Therese's… well, what I once believed to be dreams, or rather nightmares," Xavier explained.
"And what do you think they are now?" Scott asked.
Therese looked round at Xavier, and back at the team, "The Professor and I have been doing a series of extensive tests… and he believes that they are, for want of a better word, visions."
Auroro looked at Xavier with a raised eyebrow, thoroughly impressed by Therese's short explanation. An understanding passed between them.
"So what does that mean… if these are visions?" Bobby looked from Xavier to Therese and back again.
"Well… if they are visions…" Therese said, taking a deep breath, "It means that certain things are real… like Jean."
"However… a word of caution," Xavier said, "If these are merely the manifestation of a powerful telepaths hopes, then Jean's death is still valid."
"What do we do now? Do we go look for her?" Auroro asked.
"No… she told me that if we ever needed her, just to call," Therese replied.
"I think that we should let her reveal herself in her own time," Xavier said, "In the meantime, I have another mission for you."
"What is it?" John stepped into the main room of the Brotherhood's sanctuary.
Mystique slapped him across the back of the head, as Magneto shook his head. "It's terrible, my dear, isn't it?" he told Mystique, "The level of rudeness from today's youth."
"It is a mission, Mr Pyro…" he continued, pushing his chair back from the desk he was working at and standing up, straightening his jacket.
"Yeah?" John cocked his head up, "What kind of mission?"
"A team effort…" Magneto walked around the table towards the assembled Brotherhood, "We are gate-crashing a party."
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Toad exclaimed, "Partay!"
"Toad, this is not a joke," Magneto glared at the mutant, "We are appearing uninvited at a ball, given by the President himself. Delegates from all around the world will be at it, after attending Conference at the Pentagon… on the issue of Mutants. With TV crews and paper tycoons, we are sure to get the world's attention." He smiled sadistically, "Dig out your best dinner suits gentlemen… and your prettiest gown, my lady… we're going to the ball."
"I can't wear this," Therese called out from behind a screen, "I'm taking it off. Can I not just hide in the shadows?"
"Therese, you have one of the most important objectives in this mission. You are protecting the president's daughter. You can't walk away from that." Auroro replied.
"Yeah, so get your skinny ass out here and let us see you." Marie called out, examining her reflection in the mirror opposite, "Oh yeah Auroro, I'm definitely going with this one."
"It's perfect; you look amazing."
"Do you think it will turn heads?"
"I think it will definitely keep the attention of one certain person on you all night."
"Well?" Therese stepped out around the screen.
"Wow…" Marie said quietly, "You look…"
"Stunning." Auroro finished.
"Do you think so?" Therese stepped in front of the full-length mirror and ran her hands over the material, across her stomach, "I'm not sure."
"Well, I am. This is the gown for you." Auroro stepped behind her and pulled her shoulders back, lifting her chin up, "It's just right." She walked to the other side of the room, to look at another dress.
Therese twisted and turned trying to find an angle that she couldn't criticise. Every which way she looked there was something not quite right. Marie gripped her sides and turned her to face the mirror front-on. She draped her arms over Therese's shoulders and Therese leant back into her.
"If he could see you now Therese," Marie whispered, "He was a fool for leaving you."
Therese looked at her friend's reflection and then turned, hugging her tightly. "Thank you…" she replied, saying a silent prayer grateful for her best friend.