Nanny's eyes were drifting to sleep when she heard the sound of a motor over the soft and steady rain. She glanced at the DVD player; two o'clock in the morning. She got up for a glass of water and Scott came in, soaking wet.
"Hope you all didn't stay up waiting for me."
"Hmm, well, Jean tried, but she fell asleep fast. Nah, don't flatter yourself. I simply couldn't sleep."
"Do you want some coffee?" Scott offered.
"Haven't I been around here long enough for you all to know …"
"… that you don't like coffee. Sorry, forgot."
"It's fine. Guess I'm a little irritable, eh? Guess that's what I get for staying up. … So, how was your ride?"
Scott took a deep breath and sighed. "It was nice."
"Was the rain bad?"
"No. It was mostly drizzling until I headed back; it picked up a bit then."
They sat together in silence for a few moments. Scott took his time with his coffee and Nanny snacked on gummy Sponge Bob candies. Scott rinsed out his mug and headed up for the night. Nanny turned out the lights and headed up to her own room as well. She still wasn't able to sleep, but the only thing on the Tv at this time of the morning were hour long commercials of "Oh my gosh, that really works! How'd you do that?" Or, there would be some kind of porno show, or those stupid blind date reruns.
She went and lay in her bed, listening to the radio play softly.
…
-knock knock- "Professor … where's Nanny?" Kitty asked, interrupting the Professor's class the next morning.
"Isn't she in her classroom?"
"No. Storm doesn't know where she is either."
"Maybe she's still asleep," Jubliee suggested.
"Hmmm." The Professor mentally asked Kurt to go see if Nanny was still asleep and he told Kitty to return to class; Colossus could handle the class for now.
"Hello? Nanny … are you ok," Kurt's German accent whispered through the crack in the door. He could hear her radio playing faintly in the background and her alarm clock wouldn't stop buzzing. Kurt knocked on the door louder, and the door pushed in a bit more. There Nanny was, curled up on top of the covers, shivering, fast asleep. Kurt turned off Nanny's radio and he fiddled with her alarm clock until it shut up. Le left, shut her door tightly, and returned to the Professor's office just as classes were changing.
"She's fast asleep."
"Hmmmm. That isn't like Nanny."
"No, but from what I gather, she didn't sleep hardly at all last night," Scott interrupted. "When I came home about two, she was still up. She was really tired but said she couldn't sleep. I'm not sure how much longer she stayed up after that."
"Let her sleep then. I'll talk to her when she wakes up."
…
Nanny stumbled down the stairs at a quarter to one, showered and dressed, but was still a bit groggy.
"What time is it," she yawed, grabbing out the cereal and milk and rinsing out a bowl.
"It's almost one, earlier bird," Wolverine teased.
Rogue giggled at the two of them- the look in Wolverine's eyes and the look in Nanny's: tired, confused, and taking forever to understand one sentence from Wolverine.
"I thought you said you couldn't sleep."
"I couldn't. That was until about six or so when the sun started to come out. I either fell asleep because my body simply couldn't stay awake any longer or because the light has something to do with my nightmares."
"Gonna become nocturnal, eh?"
"Mmm, I hope not."
"Here- let me help you with that." Wolverine hurried over to help Nanny with her cereal. She was so tired and sluggish she couldn't keep her hands steady long enough to get the cereal into her bowl.
"No, I've got it. I don't need any help."
"That mess of yours says otherwise."
"I'll clean it up. I don't need your help-" Too late. He had her cereal poured and the milk poured before she could really protest. He was even on his way to cleaning the mess up before she had time to sit down.
Nanny sat down to eat and by looking at her, you might have thought that Nanny was the female version of Rip Van Winkle, with magenta highlights. She had bandages all over and heavy bags under eyes, yawning every three seconds or so. Wolverine smiled and Rogue left before things got too mushy.
…
Nanny spent the day out side walking in the gardens, weeding a bit. She sat down on the lawn in the afternoon and read some too.
"Nanny," the Professor interrupted her reading. "Tell me about these dreams."
"Um …" she finished the sentence she was on, put the book mark in her book, and set it down. "I don't remember things that happen in my dreams for the most part. I simply remember killing those two people- the blood, the smell. Their pain. I see their faces and their bodies."
"Hmmm."
"Why?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if there was something I could help with. I'll work on it and let you know of my progress around dinner time."
"Professor, dinner is in two hours."
"That should be enough time." The Professor wheeled himself inside, mumbling to himself.
Just a few moments after Nanny had picked up her book again, Jean came out.
"Feeling any better?"
"Much better. You?"
"For the moment things have calmed down."
"How's Scott?"
"He's much better. I have to say, we both slept very well last night. I wasn't bothering him by moaning or tossing and turning, or moving the furniture around. And that was helpful to me too, obviously." Jean sat down next Nanny and played with the grass. They sat quiet for a few moments and then Jean grinned and suppressed a laugh.
"What? … what?"
"Rogue told me about the two of you this morning."
"What about this morning?"
"When he helped you with your cereal and how he was starring at you."
"He was? Man I must have really been out of it."
"Rogue said it was the cutest thing of the century."
"Oh ya right! Hahaha, Wolverine- cute!" Nanny scrunched up her nose and looked up at the sky. "I don't think he's capable of cute. He's too … too tough, too strong- and bad tempered to be cute."
"Well in his own way, I'm sure he's adorable."
"Again, not exactly the word I would have chosen."
"Have the two of you even talked about the two of you yet?"
"Heh, no!"
"Why not? What are you afraid of! It's obvious to the both of you, and everyone, that you like each other."
"It gets awkward and uncomfortable when we're alone."
"You already act like a couple in many ways. What could be so weird about making that official?"
"Look Jean," Nanny laughed slightly. "I have no clue why it is the way it is, but, it is the way is."
"Know what I think? I think you both are scared- of, maybe loosing each other. Think about it- if you can like each other openly, but not make it official, then if one of you finds someone new, it's not like you actually lost the other person."
Nanny laughed. "You're way over complicating things."
"Well, that's still the way I see it."
"Uh huh."
They sat together a little while longer in silence, both wrapped up in their own thoughts. Kurt and Storm sat on the porch talking quietly, looking out over the gardens as well.
…
"Mmm, this pasta is fantastic Storm."
"Nanny, I think what we need to do is spend a little bit of time during our training sessions each day working on getting rid of those images. I have some mental exercises that I think might help."
"Do we have to start our lessons so early?" Nanny slouched in her chair disappointed to hear the word "lessons" again.
"I suppose we could do them after lunch."
"Oh thank you!"
"She needs her beauty sleep," Scott poked. Nanny shot a glare at Scott.
The Professor sat in silence for the rest of the meal with the concerns of his team weighing heavily and cumbersomely on his mind.
…
"Still can't sleep?" Wolverine asked as he stepped out on the porch, closing the sliding door behind him.
"Yep. My guess is that the light some how pushes the images away. I have no idea why it would have any effect, but sure enough, as soon as the sun goes away, that's all I can seem to think about."
"So, what nocturnal animal would you like to be? A raccoon, cat, fox, perhaps an owl?"
"I always have wanted to fly, but I don't think I'd like to be an owl. Maybe a cat, or a fox. Nah, a cat. It'd have to be a wild cat though. Maybe a leopard." She took a deep breath and tried her best to stare straight out in front of her. They were alone together for the first time in a long time, out under the cold, romantic stars.
"So, how's your arm doing?" She asked, finally breaking the silence again.
"Mmm, oh that? It's fine. I guess it finally healed about an hour after the surgery."
"Really? Then you must have woken up minutes after I left." She sighed again. Why couldn't she have noticed that the doors had been unlocked just a little bit earlier?
"How are you doing? You've got some pretty big bruises there yourself."
"Ya. It kind of hurts to sit down. My shoulders are sore too. Hahaha, it took me forever to get dressed this morning because I have so many aches. I'll be fine. I am fine. Some of us just don't heal as fast as others …" She teased.
"You know, despite all of your wounds, I have to tell you that you put up one hell of a fight."
"You saw me fight?"
"The Professor didn't explain everything to you?"
"No. There wasn't really any time. Rogue helped bandage me all up and then she sent me off to bed, but I couldn't, so I came to join the meeting. Then I stayed up all night and then everyone else went to bed. By this morning, I guess everyone figured that I knew. I slept most of the day and didn't want to think about any of it, so I put off asking. Then I forgot about asking."
"Well, I'm not sure how much they told you or how much you could pick up on from being there, but the arena was a way to get rid of mutants and make some money too. They put the fights on the internet and some of the better fights they sold tapes too. People would bet on who would win and so forth. However, when they died, they would send the bodies off to some lab so that some sick pervert could perform tests and experiments on the bodies."
Nanny tried keeping her dinner down. She didn't even want to imagine what they were doing to the people in those labs- to the two people she killed. And what would have happened if she hadn't made it? What kind of experiments would they have performed on her!
Wolverine sensed that she had heard enough and stopped.
"It's getting chilly," Nanny whispered after a few moments of silence and stood up to go inside.
"I'm sorry I brought it up," Wolverine said as he opened the door for her.
"Don't be. I wanted to know more about it all."
Wolverine gently took her hand and they went in together.