Chapter 7
Emily Elizabeth sat on a stone bench on the front lawn watching the students. She was happy for the break. It was now Wednesday, she had completed three days worth of classes and was having fun with the students but that didn't change the fact that she had to keep reeling herself back in. The students, well most of them, were terrified of magic. This amused her a reminder her greatly of her last job which consisted mostly of talking with orphanages to convince them that certin students would be better off school at a boarding school known as Hogwarts. It was a job where most of her time was on her butt, in the car or in an office. Now she spent most the day on her feet. Emily stretched and leaned back. Rogue was sitting leaned up against her boyfriend who was leaning against a tree the two were talking with a telepathic whose name she couldn't remember. Not far off from them several younger children were playing freeze tag though she wasn't sure who it was.
"Don't we look relaxed. You always were more content to play passive babysitter." Emily jumped when she heard this voice behind her. She recognized it easily, she had spent years defying it's owner.
"What are you here for?" she asked. A tall strawberry-blonde sat on the bench next to her.
"Well you see sis, I was sitting at home Monday enjoying a peaceful afternoon. You know how it is helping the older two with their homework, cooking dinner, and washing laundry. When the phone rings. I answer it expecting to hear from the new boy's teacher again. He likes to set things on fire. When who is it on the other end?" the woman paused waiting on Emily to answer.
"I don't know Jenna so just get on with it already."
"It was Scott, Emma. He tells me my sister is now teaching here. I'm completely speechless. I mean why wouldn't my dear baby sister tell me she was back state-side. More importantly why did Scott know before me?"
"I was going to stop by this weekend." Emily said hoping this would be enough for her sister.
"That's not the point! You knew you were going to be in the area. I've already been up to talk with Charles. You planned this all out over the last few weeks. It never occurred to you write me, call me, maybe an e-mail?"
"I don't e-mail you know that. I don't have a phone you know that too. So that leaves writing you and we both know sending one owl with two letters across the Atlantic is not good for the birds health."
"Emma, you could have sent it here and Charles would of sent it along. You know he'd do anything for you. Does Zander know you're back at least?"
"I've not talked to Zander since the funeral." Emily said refusing to look her sister in the eye.
"So, what have you been doing the last couple decades?" Jenna asked making things sound worse than they were.
"I got married, had a baby. My husband disappeared so with the neighbor lady we raised my daughter and her son. I've sent you pictures of Ann Marie, she's 17 now, in her final year of schooling. I've been working with the orphanages and what-not. Nothing horrible." Jenna closed her blue eyes and shook her head before she spoke.
"You and Scott talking again?" she asked.
"No, we aren't. Things won't ever be the way they were and I'm not sure Scott wants to even try."
"Logan?"
"I've not heard a thing from him in years. Ann's husband went off to find him. He was returned in a match box. I've got someone in the magic and in the muggle world looking for him but nothing has come up. I don't even know what he was doing before he vanished."
"I warned you." Jenna said her eyes raked over the lawn.
"I know! Just drop it. Everyone said he'd hurt me. Leave me high and dry. Well he did what do you want me to say? I was wrong you were right? Look, I'm doing my best."
"See those two?" Jenna pointed in the direction of Rogue and Bobby.
"Yes, what about them?"
"That's how you and Scott always were."
"You going somewhere?"
"Scott didn't just call me to tell on you. He's worried about you. You've dug yourself in deep. He'll never say it, he's a very proud man, but if you ever need help he's got your back."
"I know. But I want to hear that from him first."
"Sis, had you not rebelled and found Logan, I always thought I'd see the two of you in a church together." Emily laughed.
"Not once Jeanie showed up."
"How's my niece?"
"Fine. She got herself a boyfriend now."
"Have you met him?"
"Met him? Ha! I changed the boy's diapers. His mother and I raised the two like brother and sister."
"Sounds a little hill billy."
"No, it's just young love. We raised them together but they knew they weren't really siblings. It's cute, to see them together."
"Cute? You know my eldest daughter just started dating and I don't see it as cute at all. I want to beat the boys' heads in half the time."
"Oh you're just over protective. You said the new boy catches things on fire?"
"Yes, we just got him oh….. About a month ago. He's a pyro if I've ever seen one. Reminds me a lot of Daddy."
"Dad never caught anyone of fire for fun." Emily reminded her.
"No, no no. I meant that he looks like Dad did and some of the things he says…. I don't know Emma he's just a handful."
"Think about sending him here?"
"No, he's never had real parents and I don't want to send him off before he understands that me and Danny are here."
"Can I swing by this weekend? See the kids and Danny-boy."
"Only if you call Zander." Emily sighed then nodded.
"I'll call him from your place. I don't want to face that alone." Jenna put her arm around her sister.
"Sounds like a plan Em." The two sat in silence for a while watching the children around them. On occasion one of them would pull up an old memory but for the most part they just sat there enjoying having their sister back.
After dinner Emily decided to go see Scott. She had spent 23 years feuding with him but it was time one of them took a step forward instead of walking further and further away from each other. She found him in the same room they had once shared their first kiss. She knocked on the door and the leaned her head against the frame waiting on him to look up.
"Bring it here, but this is the last time Wes, I'm not going to keep showing you how to do your homework." he said without looking up from his book.
"I've not needed your help with homework in a long time." she said causing him to look up.
"Oh it's you."
"What happened to 'Hi how ya doing'?"
"Come on in here." he said patting the couch next to him. Emily made her way in the room and sat awkwardly next to him. She turned to look at him one leg folded under her.
"Can we call a truce?" she asked.
"What for?" he asked looking back to his book. Emily leaned over took the book from him and closed with her finger in it to keep his page. "Emily Elizabeth, please."
"I'm tired of playing games. Jenna stopped by today. Said you called her and told her I was here."
"Yes, I called. Of all people she should know where you are."
"That's it. Right there. Scott you are trying to drive me away. I understand you've been going through a lot but I want to help."
"Emily, there is nothing left for you to do."
"Fine, then let's start over. We were friends once before, and let me remind you I didn't want to cut things off here. My parents were the ones who drug me back across the ocean. They were the ones who said I shouldn't talk with you for a while."
"I know that! What do you think I thought when my letters were sent back with your parents little notes 'leave Emily a lone for a while', 'she's not home try and write again next month'. Then I find out not from you but from Zander that you were with some stable boy."
"He wasn't a stable boy he was a farm hand."
"What difference does it make? You never tried to contact me. Even when your parents died you didn't write."
"Scott! I never knew you were writing me. I didn't know you even tried to write me. Zander and Jenna didn't mention you. When I asked they just gave me some generic answer and changed the subject. When Mom and Dad died I thought 'if he didn't care enough to keep in contact I'm not going to tell him when my world falls apart'. So, don't sit there and try and be high and mighty."
"Emily, come with me." Scott stood up and left the room.
Emily rose to follow she had to push past several students that were standing in the hall listening to the conversation. She knew where they were going at once. On the fifth and highest floor of the mansion at the end of the first hall on the left was a store room. How many times had the two of them hid there. Sometimes in a game of hide and seek other times, and the more frequent the older they got, just to be alone. Scott drew her inside with one hand as the other felt around the darkness for the string that would turn on the light. With a blinding flash the light bulb died. Scott swore under his breath. Impatiently Emily reached into her pocket produced her wand whispered "Lumos" and a soft light filled the room. Scott jumped slightly.
"I'll never get used to that." he whispered. He kept his voice low. Whenever he'd done this in the past she had become weak at the knees. He was so close she could feel his breath on her face. She had to fight back the memories that poured in to her mind. Memories of a different person who had stood here with Scott. A girl who had been so lost in her first love that she could stand there so close to him for hours with out ever wanting to sit. A girl who didn't know what if felt like to lose someone you loved or to watch someone hold her life in their hands.
"Is there something you want to show me or what are we doing here?" she asked him. She had to say something or she would forget the two decades that lay between them.
"No, but whenever we had to talk. About anything we came here. Ecspeacialy when your parents were looking for us." she nodded.
"So?"
"You want to yell at me? You want to tell me it's all my fault. Then you'll do it in this room You will do it here and we both know why. We both know what is scratched in that wall," he pointed the left wall, "neither of us has forgotten a single memory this room holds. So if you are going to do your parents bidding and blow any chance at even a friendship you'll do it here!"
Emily turned away from him pushed aside the buckets and bottles of every thinkable type of cleaner. She held her wand up to the wall. There it was. As if it knew not what had happened to the people it belonged to. "Forever: Emily Elizabeth and Scott" was written in a circle. She'd never forgotten how proud he was when he'd finally been able to control his optic-blasts enough to write this. They'd been fifteen if they were a day and he'd pulled her away from Zander's side to see what he'd learned. Scott was standing behind her his had hovered above her shoulder. He didn't know what to say or do.
"What happened?" she asked barely auidable.
"I don't know, Em. I just don't know." her fingers traced the words his eyes had so carefully drawn years before.
"They didn't know. How could they?" without asking he knew she was talking about her parents. He remembered only to clearly the last time they'd been alone in this school.
"They were just protecting us." he whispered kneeling down behind her. Again he hesitated, not sure if he should take her in his arms like he wanted.
"From each other." she moaned "We didn't do anything! I told them so a thousand times. Just minutes before they died we were arguing about me going to visit you." Scott thought he saw tears sliding down her cheeks but wasn't sure. She turned around to look at him and sure enough tears glistened there.
"I was angry," he started not sure where he was going with this. "when I found out what had happened to your parents. Xavier told me. I waited and waited for your letter. But one never came. Xavier wanted me to come with him but I refused. If you didn't invite me I wasn't coming. I burried myself in the tasks set before me as an X-man. Then I woke up one day and years had passed since your mother had dragged you out of my room by your ear. Jean and I started dating, and things were going well. I was so shocked when Xavier got the letter from you asking to work here." he shook his head. Emily dropped her wand and it went out leaving them in the dark her hands found his face and she kissed it. First his forehead the his nose, with out a moments hesitation her lips met his. He would have kissed her back but he became painfully aware of the cold golden band pressed against his cheeks as she held his face. Scott pulled back.
"No." he whispered their foreheads pressed together. "You're married. We can't just…." his voice failed him and trailed off. She readjusted herself so she was sitting on the floor next to him she pulled his arm around her. As if she'd never left that spot under his arm. He held her tight.
"You want to know something funny?" she asked. He didn't reply. His mind kept spinning around one thought: It worked! I got her back! Jenna didn't fail me! "I was all set to rip your head off down there. I never would have thought… He would like this. Logan used to listen to me go on for hours about you. He tried to get me to write so many times. He said it was the only thing that would free me up." he laughed. "OH but he hated you!"
She dropped off talking about her husband, then her daughter. She didn't stop until he'd been filled in on every second that had passed since she had kissed him her face soaked from rain and tears as her mother pulled her along trying to take her away. When she finished he did the same. It was nearing dawn when they crawled out of the tiny room. It was hard for them to keep from laughing as they stumbled back down to their rooms. They catch maybe an hour of sleep before rolling out and starting off for the day at hand. Scott didn't care. If having to consume a gallon of coffee was all the payment needed to get his Emily Elizabeth back, he'd pay it a hundred times over.
Emily slid in her room careful not to make any noise though she wasn't sure why. She had never shared a room with anyone except her few years of joint marriage. She shut the door gently behind her and looked around the room already a faint light was spilling in her room. She'd requested when she was very young to have a room where the first rays of light would seep through her windows. She wandered over to her bed but to her surprise there was already someone there. Emily pulled the blankets back and crawled in bed next to her sister.
"When that clock goes off in an hour you're going to tell me where you were." Jenna said scooting over to allow Emily some room.
In all reality the two hadn't fit in this particular twin bed in many years. The last time they'd even attempted it was when Jenna had come to comfort her after a nightmare when she was seven. But in any case it seemed to Emily that her head had only just touched the pillow when the alarm clock went off. Jenna reached over and shut it off then shook the reluctant Emily awake.
"Come on. It's your own fault." Jenna exclaimed nudging her sister in the ribs with her elbow.
"Ten minutes longer." Emily moaned.
"Nope! Up. While we dress you can tell me where you were." Emily rolled over away from her sister's persistence and only succeeded in falling to the floor.
"Fine I'm up."
"Good. I expected you to be here when I came in. Seems our dear uncle did have favorites. My room is gone instead a rather interesting group of girls live there."
"I didn't leave the school by choice. Maybe it's not favorites maybe he was waiting on my permission to release the room." Emily groaned as she raised her arms far above her head to stretch .
"That maybe be so Emma but that's another topic. I got to your room and you weren't here. So I sat on your bed to wait for you. I must have fallen asleep before I went after a cot for the night. Now your story." Her last sentence was the gentle demand that their mother had so often used.
"After dinner I went to talk with Scott. We lost track of time." a smirk darkened Jenna's face.
"You two are hopeless." Emily disappeared in her closet.
"We aren't hopeless. We aren't even a we."
"Then what are you?"
"I'm married and he just lost his fiance." she called while struggling out of her shirt.
"Yes, and?"
"And there are a million reasons we are nothing. The two I've given you aside the next would be 23 years lost." she emerged buttoning up a snow white dress shirt.
"Yes and I was 24 before I even met Dan."
"Try this one on for size: Even if I were still interested I've remained faithful to Logan for 16 years when I've not had so much as a syllable from him. I've not moved against him once. When he returns to me, and he will, I'll be able to say, even if my heart is no longer fully his, that I am devoted." Emily stepped out of her jeans and into the navy skirt of a business suit. Jenna watched her sister closely. Too close for Emily's comfort.
"You did something. I know you're lying. Every time you lie to me you get a twitch in you left arm there." Emily's hand shot to her left arm to stop the twitch.
"Was it something huge or really small like a kiss? Was it our dear Scottie or was it someone else?"
"It's none of your business. You need to get home to your children." Emily slid her feet back into her shoes and left the room. Jenna had always known what buttons to push and she regularly pushed them.
But Emily forced these thought out of her mind as she headed for the kitchens. Grabbing up cup of coffee, with more sugar in it than she'd prefer but the energy it would provide was nessary, and a doughnut, she then traveled through the halls to the room she knew Xavier would be in. It was a strange part of his routine. Every morning he'd take a cup of tea and sit on the balcony outside the library and watch the birds settling on the trees.
"Good morning." he greeted her before she was even out the double, glass doors.
"Morning Uncle."
"You and Scott clear things away?" he asked though she knew he already had the answer.
"We did our best. But time will heal the other wounds."
"Yes, indeed it will. But I am glad to see that you two are at least in the same boat now."
"I don't think it was a problem of what boat we were on. I think it was more a problem of the two of us….." she lost her words but it didn't matter of course. That was one of the perks to having an telepathic uncle.
"Whatever the problem was it's good to have things getting back to normal."
"It is isn't it. What did you want to see me for though?" Charlie turned to look at her with a look of concern as if he wasn't sure how to say what he wanted to say. "I can handle whatever it is."
"The man I have working the field on your husband's case contacted me yesterday." he paused.
"Is it good or bad news."
"Neither really. He's stuck. He's following all the clues you gave me but he wants pictures, letters, anything that will narrow the possibilities down." Emily nodded.
"Of course. I'll get some things together. I might have to write Ann for them but it shouldn't be a problem. If you wouldn't mind I'd like to work with him one on one sometime too."
"That can be arranged. In fact since the lines have already been set up. Come to my office after your classes today and I'll give you his latest contact information and the two of you can decided the next steps." Emily leaned down and hugged her uncle then planted a kiss on top his bald head.
"You're the greatest you know it?" she half giggled as she left him to his bird watching.
Logan laid on his stomach in on the bed in a cheap motel. He'd come to a dead end which he didn't need any special power to have predicted. It was obvious why. He nothing to go on. Even the fundamentals in this sort of search were missing. Xavier had had the girl he was doing this search for send him a very thick yellow envelope packed full of pictures and old letters. She'd even written him a letter explaining every detail she could remember about her husband, and every search she'd already watch fail for him. Logan reread the letter from her. There was something strangely familiar about her. He poured the pictures out on the bed and sifted through them. He picked up the one on top where a man with similar to his own build stood holding a baby wrapped in a pastel pink blanket. As the woman had explained the picture was moving, next to him was a beautiful woman with waist length brunet hair walked into the picture kissed the baby's head then she looked up at the man and for the first time he really looked at the man. As if burned he dropped the photo.
Emily had called a cab and was a mere ten minutes and ridiculously overpriced fare away from seeing her sister's family. She couldn't help but feel the dread as she drove through a quiet little town that was hard to find in this part of New York. The town consisted of a dollar store, family owned grocery, a bar, a gun repair shop, a nursing home, and of course a bank. It reminded her of the pictures she'd seen of the town her family had lived in before they moved in with Xavier. She'd been nearly three when they'd left the tiny one horse town and she couldn't remember a single thing about it.
"You ever been this way kiddo?" the driver asked glancing at her in the review. He had a thick Brooklyn accent and even thicker eyebrows.
"No, sir. I've never had the distinct pleasure of visiting my sister in her natural habitat." he laughed.
"Donna like her?"
"We're sisters." she said making it clear she didn't want to talk about this further.
"Just as well kid, were here."
Emily stared out the window her mouth open. Her sister lived in a two story yellow house, a giant red barn stood in the back yard, and the entire place was crawling with children. She stepped out of the car and forked over the cash for the trip. The man wasted no time peeling out of the gravel drive. Emily on the other hand stood still looking at the place. It was unbelievable that her sister could leave the nice uptown mansion for this.
"Excuse me ma'am can I help you?" a girl a little younger than her own daughter asked forcing the little ones behind her. For a foolish moment Emily tried to find some of her sister or brother-in-law in the girl.
"Yes, I'm here to see Jenna…umm This is sad I can't think of her last name."
"Do you have and appointment?" the girl asked pushing her short brown hair out of her face.
"I would hope so. She is my"
"Baby sister!" Jenna exclaimed running down the porch steps in her torn blue jeans, blue flannel, with her white lab coat over top of it. The girl spun around.
"Mother! This isn't?" Jenna nodded ruffling her daughter's hair. "But you said she was so stuborn she'd never come back to the US. You also said she was a witch." The girl looked from her mother to her aunt.
"Well, she is a witch and she is very stuborn. But you remember me telling you about your Uncle Logan?" the girl nodded. "Well Lucy, he's missing here in the states so Auntie Em has come to find him."
"Mommy Jenna, I thought witches were green?" a boy probably about six or seven said tugging at Jenna's lab coat.
"Remember when we talked about movie monsters and real monsters. They are different to be more effective. Witches are green and ugly to be scary. But Auntie Em isn't like that. She's normal, at least most the time. Now, Lucy take the kids in set the table and call your father in from his office to finish lunch." as the six kids that had been strung out across the yard raced to the house Jenna called out one final order, "Jesse tell Jello to get off the phone Mommy needs it." the boy who had asked about Emily being green nodded and ran through the side wall of the house.
"They are getting younger and younger." Emily noted.
"Yes, and if you don't catch them young you'll end up with little pyros burning down the barn."
"Take it the new one isn't such a good project?"
"They are children not projects. Honestly Emily, of all people I thought you'd realize this."
"I do. I sent several children to Xavier as I crossed them while at orphanages. You treat them like a science project that must documented and tested."
"Not now, Emily. We'll go into the office up in the loft to call Zander."
"Now? I don't even get to meet Danny, first?"
"Nope, that way if you storm off at least you called him."
With a sigh of resignation Emily followed her sister up in the hay loft in the barn. The barn wasn't exactly what people think of when you say barn. Half of the lower level was devoted to animals, most of which resembled well loved stuffed animals in the way that they were all tattered and age was obvious on their furry muzzles, the other half was a sort of wrestling ring that had also seen better days. When you climbed the stairs to the upper level it was again divided 1/3 was a blocked off room where hay and straw were stored, another third was waiting room then and actual doctor's office took up the other third.
"Wow, you've really put your personality in here."
"The kids came up with the idea. We were having to commute two hours to the city to work. That's with no traffic, which in New York isn't often. We would spend sometimes eight hours a day in traffic. Which left no time for the children or to be a couple. No romance going on in the front end of a station wagon."
"Right. When you move out to the boonies?" Emily asked while her sister fumbled with keys to open up the office.
"We keep it locked cause the kids get in here and read the files. We moved here about six years ago when the number of children reached ten. The house don't look so big on the outside but there are eleven bedrooms. The S. S. S. all share rooms."
"S. S. S.?"
"Same sex siblings. It gets easier after a while just to say S. S. S."
"Still none of your own?"
"Nope, we quit trying after the fifth miscarriage. We can set bones, subdue over active mutations, and countless other things that the cave man couldn't do but the simplest matter, having a baby, we can't manage. Oh well, have a seat over there let me get his number dialed." Jenna sat down on a rolling stool next to a small desk with a phone. The chair she'd indicated was a strange looking examination table more than anything else. "Here it's ringing." she handed over the phone and watched Emily hesitantly hold it to her ear. After several rings there was an answer.
"Hello? Junior, I swear if you don't put your sister down I'll come in there with the belt!" an over stressed woman answered the phone.
"Umm Hi, is Zander there?" Emily asked even more nervous now that she was actually talking on the phone.
"May I ask whose calling?" the woman asked in a stiff tone.
"It's his sister."
"Oh Hey, Jenna! Didn't recognize your voice. You feeling okay?"
"This isn't Jenna, it's his other sister." she said flushing.
"I'm sorry my Zander doesn't have another sister." the woman answered her.
"Who is it honey?" a muffled voice asked.
"Some lady who claims to be your sister." her hand was obviously over the speaker end of the phone.
"Emily?" it was a man's voice that now reached her ear. Soft and soaked in hesitant worry but undeniably her brother.
"Yea, Zander."
"Where are you? Are you alright? Does Jenna… No don't move I'll be right there. Where is there? Why aren't you answering me can't you speak? What did he do to you?" he fired rapidly without a seconds pause in between.
"Calm down. I'm with Jenna, fine, and no one has done anything to me." she tried to speak a calmly as possible but whenever you've cut yourself off from someone then are suddenly forced back in contact things are awkward. It only makes it worse when the someone is your big brother and the reason for the cut off was his disapproval of your husband.
"What are you doing in the states?"
"Logan's…. I'm teaching at Xavier's for a while." she said deciding not to tell him he was right.
"Why? Can't he make enough to support the two of you?"
"Yes, but there are three of us now. But that's not why I called."
"Then why are you calling?" he skipped that part about the addition to her family and went straight to what he, no doubt, thought was bad news.
"Jenna is making me call and tell you that I'm state side for a year and will be at Uncle Charlie's."
"Oh." neither of them spoke for a long moment. "Three of you? Do I have a niece or nephew?"
"A niece. Her name is Ann Marie, she's 17 now."
"Oh wow." he sounded suddenly depressed. He'd come to realize he'd missed a lot of his baby sister's life and that meant all of his only real niece's. "What she like?"
"Um I don't know. She's independent, smart, a witch."
"A little rebel?" he asked and she could hear the smirk in his voice.
"No, she's not much like me at all. Far too mature for that."
"How's he as a father?"
"He's an amazing father." she lied. "Once a month the two of them go off on a little father daughter day. They're very close."
"Oh, well I guess I was wrong about him then."
"Yes, you were very wrong about him." she agreed.
"I'm… We'll….. Every year we still come back there for Christmas I'm looking forward to shake his hand. Thank him for taking care of my baby sister."
"I'm sure he'd love that." her hands were shaking now. Jenna was watching her with a steady look of concern, having only heard half the conversation and seeing the constant twitch in her arm it wasn't hard to guess what she was thinking. When she nodded Emily went straight to her good byes. "Well Zander, I've got to go now. I'll talk to you sometime."
"Yea, don't be a stranger."
"I won't. Bye."
"Bye Sis. Love you." she hung up without returning the sentiment.
"Let's go in the house. I want you to meet all the kids." Jenna said standing up.
