Disclaimer: I don't own Mutant X or X Men.

We're All Family

Chapter 14

Saturday

Never had there been such a noisy breakfast in Sanctuary. Everyone was happy and looking forward to the activity ahead. Some were scheduled to baby-sit, some were testing the teens. Some were in charge of cooking lunch and dinner to feed the 28 people sharing the mountain. Throughout the morning there was constant motion.

Jean and Marie were in the kitchen with Evie and Ro. That way the two very pregnant women could sit as they helped prepare meals. Evie told them a little about Adam and Dria. They also mused about the additional Kane, on the way.

Kitty, Jesse, Jubilee and Bobby formed their usual group and took the job of occupying two 2 year olds, a 1 year old, the 8 month old twins and a 4 month old feral who seemed determined to show her territorial side. Her eyes glowed every time little Mikey crawled next to her. "I can't wait until she starts talking about her crush on Mikey." Kitty cooed. "I'll have fun telling her how she used to want to chase him away."

Sissy tried to get away but Scott and Shalimar wouldn't hear of it. They took the brooding teen to the training room for her test prep. Scott wanted to make sure she did the proper warm ups as he was going to rate her ability to attack and defend. It was at her age that he began creating personalized programs to train each student. Shalimar made the perfect testing opponent.

Remy and Logan took Jack to the dojo to warm up for his series of tests for the day. Just because he had a break from school didn't mean he got to just sit around and get lazy. By the time Brennan got there, the boy was sweating and panting.

Adam, Hank and John worked with amazing synchronization, their single-mindedness in purpose driving their steps. Dria watched in pride and amazement as she sat in the lab beside the professor. She was very much enjoying getting to know him and his family.

By afternoon Adam was ready to do his part of the procedure. He made sure Dria ate a good lunch and took a nap. Now he knocked at her door, waiting for her response. When he didn't get one, he knocked again. Still nothing. Quietly, he opened the door. "Dria, it's time." The light spread and fell over the unoccupied bed. Turning he headed back down the stairs as he called out. "Dria?" She didn't answer. "Jesse?"

"Yeah," he answered from the rec room.

"Did you add recognition for Dria and John to the internal coms?"

"Yesterday," he answered over the com then walked out the door and saw Adam coming down the steps toward him. "Why?"

"I called Dria but she didn't answer me. It's ok. I'll find her. Go back to the kids." He watched as Jesse nodded and turned away. Evie, do you know where Dria is?

No, Darling, I haven't seen her since lunch.

Adam, Dria is with me. We're in the hangar.

Adam entered the hangar bay and furrowed a brow as he saw his cousin sitting in a chair facing Charles. As he approached he noticed that they both had their eyes closed.

In moments, Charles opened his eyes and turned to his friend. "I'm sorry, Adam. Dria and I came in here for the quiet."

"Is she ok," Adam knelt by her side.

"Yes, she is in a deep trance," Charles answered as he closed his eyes once more.

Adam waited as Dria blinked then focused on him.

"Adam," she smiled.

"Dri, I called but you evidently weren't with us." Adam smiled and glanced at Charles.

"Well, I was a little nervous about the procedure and I couldn't sleep."

"She mentioned her nervousness so I offered to help her meditate to release the fear." Charles turned to her. "How do you feel now?"

"Rested. Thank you very much, Charles." Dria smiled and touched his hand.

Adam led her to the lab and the procedure began. Hank and John stood by and observed with interest and amazement as Adam worked. This was the easiest part for Adam. He often had to adjust gene sequencing for one in his family or a new mutant waiting to go into the underground. The process was modified to work on a non mutant but posed him little challenge. After one and a half hours, Adam ran the last scan to ensure his work was done. The results were clear on his large monitor, as Hank and John confirmed, the alterations were complete.

John moved to check the vitals monitor. "Everything looks good here. She should be out of the anesthesia in a couple of hours."

"That's what I want to hear," Adam finished his report and closed the file.

"Thank you for the opportunity to observe," Hank called from his seat across the lab. "My admiration for you is renewed. I'm confident we can ensure that the procedure next week will go equally as efficiently."

As evening came Adam scanned repeatedly to reassure himself that Dria was indeed resting peacefully. The others having made their plans were dressing to go out. They never missed the opportunity to go clubbing at least once during a visit to either home. John, Hank, Charles, Evie and Adam were staying home with the children. Sissy and Jack groused about not being able to go yet. Jack begrudgingly agreed to spend the evening pitting his mind against Hank's in a series of chess matches. Sissy was discovering a fascination with baking and asked to have the kitchen for a while.

A few hours later Dria's monitors signaled her waking. Adam and John entered the lab as she was trying to sit up. "Hey, no, no. You can't sit up yet." Adam rushed to her side. "You've been out for hours. Let me scan you, first."

Dria lay back in the chair and put her hands to her face.

"Mom," John's concern was evident in his voice. "Are you ok?"

"Yes," she smiled and turned to look at him. "I feel fine, just a little dizzy." She stilled as the scan bathed her body in the now familiar warm glow. When it stopped she began to sit up again with much more ease.

"Easy, don't push it," Adam came to her side.

"I feel fine, Adam, really. I want to get out of this chair."

"You know, I'm gonna have to look into redesigning another one," Adam smiled. "No one thinks my chair is comfortable." He held her hand as John took her other and helped her stand. "Stand here for a minute. How does that feel?"

Dria held their hands and looked down at her legs. Tentatively she bent her knees slightly. When they didn't weaken she bent them further. Her smile quickly faded when she needed to use the men to help stand straight again. "Well, I thought I was fine."

"You are." Adam reassured her. "The re-alteration was successful. The surgery will be, too."

"You need some natural sleep now." John stated. "We have a big weekend to look forward to." John helped Dria to her room as they spoke of Christmas.

Coming down the stairs, John's thoughts were sidetracked by the delicious aroma wafting through Sanctuary. He stood at the kitchen door and laughed to see the young girl in the middle of such a big mess.

Sissy was startled by the sound. Gasping, she jumped; her hand slipping as she was lifting a tray of cookies out of the oven. As she quickly turned she dropped the tray back onto the rack with a clang and her hand grazed the top of the oven. Pain suddenly replaced fright as she yelped and grabbed her hand.

John's laughter died as he ran to her side and took her injured hand in his. "Sissy, I'm sorry. This is my fault. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok," she gritted. "I was used to the quiet, you just surprised me." The burn wasn't bad but enough to make her eyes suddenly water.

John felt terrible. "Come with me, to the lab. I'll dress it."

As they got to the kitchen door, Evie came up to them. "Sissy, are you ok. I felt some distress."

"It's my fault," John declared. "I startled her."

Evie smiled as she looked into the young girl's eyes, sensing something more than pain. "Let me handle this." She took Sissy's hand in hers. The burn really was minor, her powers healing it quickly.

"I guess I'm not used to having a healer around. Kinda takes some of my job away," he smiled at his aunt.

After a quick inspection Evie glanced into the kitchen. "It smells like something beside you is burning." She smiled as Sissy turned and bolted back to the oven. Quickly meeting John's eyes, Evie left them alone.

Sissy reached for the hot pad to take the tray out of the oven, only a few cookies had fallen off in the incident.

"Let me help," John came up behind her. "I feel really bad for getting you burned."

"No, it's ok." Sissy answered shyly, "I shouldn't have been so jumpy."

John smiled and took the hot pad from her hand despite her mild protest. He removed the tray and got the cookies that were burning on the bottom of the oven. "Not too many were lost."

"That's good, baking for this family usually means multiple batches. I've already made 4 and I really didn't want to be in the kitchen all night. I guess the workout this afternoon is beginning to catch up with me."

"Was it that bad?" John leaned back against the counter and watched her put a waiting tray into the oven.

"No. Not really. After living in the mansion for so long now, I guess I'm used to it. Logan and Remy drive us pretty hard in all our physical classes."

"How did Jack do?"

"He passed the fitness test and he's a black belt now. I knew he'd do ok. I'm really proud of him. He pushes himself to physically excel. I think he's worried that because he's such a genius that he'll just be another computer geek if he doesn't push his body to the limit."

"I exercise but…I'm sure I couldn't do any of that. I guess that makes me the computer geek." He smiled as she laughed at him.

"Well, I know these guys. If you're gonna be hangin' around, they won't let you sit for very long. Brennan is almost as bad as Logan," Sissy lowered her voice and looked around conspiratorially, "but don't tell them I said that or they'll have me doing routines and reps for Christmas, instead of opening presents."

"Let me help. I like baking and between the two of us we might actually get to sleep before morning. Who knows what tomorrow might bring." John smiled as Sissy nodded. They worked and talked. Sissy was full of questions. In no time at all they had a clean kitchen and counter full of chocolate chip cookies.

"Thank you for the help," Sissy said as she covered the cookies and reached for a pencil and paper from a drawer.

"It was fun. What are you doing?" John read over her shoulder as she wrote.

"If I don't threaten these guys," Sissy smiled knowingly, "all these cookies will be gone by morning. Logan, Remy, Brennan, Jesse and Jack are insatiable."

"I guess I had better not sneak this one then," John smiled as he quickly popped a whole cookie into his mouth.

"Definitely part of this family." Sissy shook her head. "You get added to the list."

TBC