Charles Xavier, the old man in the wheel chair, had sent Gambit away. Once Gambit left, he talked to her, about unimportant things at first, but gradually he turned the subject to her life. And why she was at his school. He must know, she thought. He had told her that he was a telepath. How could he not know? She had mentally tried to block the information. This mostly consisted of saying, over and over-I'm not thinking of anything, leave me alone. After so much effort, she was surprised to find herself telling him anyway. Or at least, wanting to.
"My father's…missing. He, uh, he left, and I just…" she looked down at her lap. Shut up, she told herself. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Her stomach churned. She felt sick. Her head felt like it was spinning, while the rest of her body felt numb. She didn't want to say anything. She wanted to go and sit in a quiet, dark, small place and cry to herself. Then she would be ok. Or at least that's what she would tell people. Sometimes she tried to tell herself that, that she was ok. It never worked. Maybe, she thought, looking up again, if she told someone the truth, she really would be ok. She shook her head. Her mouth moved. In her mind she could hear the words, but she didn't have the strength to say them aloud. This always happened. Whenever she came close to telling someone the truth, she bottled up more than ever. Every time she tried to tell someone, it got harder and harder. She knew that one day she wouldn't even be able to consider telling someone the truth, no matter how much she wanted to. Xavier nodded. Then he smiled as if he understood everything.
"I took your extreme want to tell somebody the truth as an invitation to be told." This was his way of telling her that he had read her mind. There was a pause, which grew into an eerie silence, as both seemed to what the other to speak first. Before either gave in, a sob broke the silence. Though her head stopped spinning and the pain in her heart that she had felt since her father left was gone, she felt a new pain. This one was greater than before. It was a pain for herself and all that she been though. She cried until eventually she ran out of tears and it became too hard to breathe. The Professor was holding her arm, a comforting gesture. She knew her eyes were bloodshot, and that her skin was sickly pale. She was still struggling to breathe properly and yet…she felt ok, for real this time. For the first time. The professor smiled at her again.
"After your trying day you should rest. I'll have a room prepared for you. If you feel up to it, I'm sure Gambit would be more than happy to show you around. Though I should think you would like to save that for another day…?" She nodded, certain that she didn't have enough oxygen to speak. There was a knock at the door, and it inched open. It was the blue man, Night crawler, the professor called him. He nodded to her, and then looked over her shoulder to address the Professor.
"You called me, Professor?" Xavier smiled, and indicated to the girl.
"This young lady will require a room, do you think you could show her to room 104-the eastern wing?" Kurt made a move to collect her bag, which Gambit had left for her. She smiled and thanked him, but she preferred to carry her own things. They were all she had.
" I would honored sir," Kurt turned from the professor to face the girl.
"May I ask your name, miss?" She noticed that the Professor smiled and raised his eyebrows slightly, as if curious. She cleared her throat, mostly to save her some time. She mentally sorted through all the fake names she'd created for herself previously. But then she saw the Professor and Kurt looking at her intently, as if they actually cared. She could have kicked herself when she told them her real name.
"Alyce. Ally, my dad called me…" her voice trailed off and her eyes seemed unfocused. The Professor cleared his throat.
"Thank you Kurt, get some rest, Alyce."
