She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Beams of light danced on a blanket thrown over her when she moved. Her joints felt stiff. Prying her eyes open she saw Kurt asleep on the bed, the TV still blaring. The smiled and pulled her self up off the chair. Without making a noise, she crossed the room, opened the door, and left. Outside, in the corridor, students were milling around. She ran to her room, changed, pulled back her hair then rushed out. Gambit caught her arm on the way out. She smiled at him.
"Morning," he said, sounding like he had just crawled out of bed. She laughed, and he led her through the corridors towards the breakfast area. She looked at all the faces that passed her, trying to remember names and identities when Gambit pointed a few out. Then she stopped dead. Gambit frowned at her.
"Alyce?" he asked, "what's wrong?" she starred ahead of them, her eyes glued to the back of a retreating finger. Gambit was frowning at her, trying to follow her eyes when they flickered around her and back to the man striding down the corridor.
"Dad," she whispered, her voice breaking.
"Dad!" she called loaded. She frowned when he didn't turn. He should recognize her voice. He hadn't been gone that long…had he?
"Dad," she called one last time, a tear streaming down her cheek. Please don't let it be him, she thought, I couldn't handle it if he didn't even recognize me. She suddenly became mad.
"Logan!" she yelled, loader than ever before, an edge in her voice. Gambit's face paled. Slowly, Logan turned, casually as if nothing were wrong. It was probably just a student. The sudden anger faded when she saw his face, exactly the same, as it had been the last time she had seen him.
"Dad!" she ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. He turned to stone as she clung to him. She let go. She looked up at his confused face.
"don't you remember me?" she whispered, the hurt clearly heard. He bit his lip, and shook his head slowing. He didn't remember anything about his life before…
"Look, kid," he said gently, "I don't remember anything, ok? We should…your mum here?" he asked, confused and, yes, he admitted to himself, scared out of his mind. She backed away from him. The anger but, but more overwhelming was the pain.
"What? You didn't get the message? The email? Nothing, not even the post-it? Christ, dad, I had to leave a message at your work. You didn't get any of it?" she paused. He shook his head.
"Mum's dead." She wasn't sure the words could be heard by anyone else but herself, they were almost silent. He swore and raked a hand through his hair. He didn't know what to do, he'd never been good with kids, but a teenaged girl telling him he was her father? He'd only ever seen it on daytime soapies. This was real life. Be tactful; be careful, he told himself. She swore back at him and turned to run. He caught up with her in a few steps. He reached out to her arm. She whirled, clipping his chin. It hurt. But he held on. She punched him, and then leapt into the air to kick his chest. He knew that she would, but he let her. What else could he do?
"Leave me alone," she spat at him, as he staggered backwards. He reached out again.
"Don't touch me! Get off!" she squirmed under his iron grip, to messed up to fight now.
"LET GO," she roared at him, tears dripping down her cheeks, onto her jumper. Then her skin became hot. It burned his fingers and he let go. Then she began to glow, a brilliant yellow light. He reached out to her. Then it seemed that the light itself had exploded, engulfing everything around it, throwing Logan and Gambit backwards. Logan opened his eyes. The light had disappeared. His daughter was curled on he ground, her body shaking with the force of her sobs. She made a strange, eerie keening sound the he knew baby wolf cubs made. Her face was twisted in pain, soaked in tears. It broke his heart that he hadn't even realized existed. He scooped her off the floor and she felt so fragile and weak, so tiny, held close to him. She held onto him with the little energy she had left and whispered, "I'm sorry daddy. My name's Ally." He patted her back as he carried her to Jean's office.
