"Now, Charlie…" Josephine batted her lashes at the men with a hint of condescension. "Tell me all about this little project of yours."
Charles and Erik shared an amused look, as the elderly lady set a cup of tea in front of each of them. She moved back to the fridge, grabbed a beer for herself and then dropped into the chair across from them. Letting one foot come up to rest on the table (an action she would slap her daughter for, but Josie was doing her best to maintain an aloof, cocky front), she snapped the tab out of it with her wedding ring. She looked between the young men with an arched brow, expectant.
It was Erik who spoke first as his gaze fell to her mud covered cowboy boot. "Well, we're looking to gather mutants from all over the country. To help them with their abilities, of course."
"We've been working with the CIA to show them that we are not so much a threat as we are allies," Charles added when his friend failed to mention it.
Josie took a sip of her beer. Peering over the rim, she hummed with a hint of suspicion to be found in her aged features. "And my daughter would be safe?"
Erik pursed his lips. Leaning forward just a touch, he assured her, "No harm would come to Fern. At the first sign of danger, if there is any, we intend on sending them home."
"Them?" she echoed curiously. Sitting up, she pulled her boot from the table. "You've found more… special people already?"
Charles grinned with a child-like excitement that while endearing, didn't instill a lot of confidence in the older woman. His eagerness tended to make him look quite young. "We currently have two young people back at our base with rather astounding gifts and we're hoping to pick up several more on the way back to Virginia."
Her blonde brows rose. "Really?" A grin spread across her lips. "That's fantastic."
Erik smirked. "I'm glad you agree. Not as many parents are as… accepting as you are." He knitted his fingers together on the table as her smile dwindled. The German went on regardless, "Your daughter is lucky to have you."
"Hm." The elderly woman's eyes narrowed subtly at him. "How do I know you ain't just gonna lock her in a room and use 'er as a lab rat?"
Charles and Erik shared a conspiring smile. The former leaned forward. His fingers pressed to his temple, he spoke telepathically to her, "We would never do that to a fellow mutant, Mrs. Ailey."
Her blue eyes widened at him as a smile stretched over her lips. The men chuckled as she turned to Erik expectantly. The mutant smirked as raised his hand. The metal kettle floated toward it seamlessly, and he grinned proudly as the woman slapped the table with an open palm and a laugh.
"Amazing!" She crowed with nothing short of sheer warmth, "Both of you!"
It was at this moment her daughter ushered Raven into the kitchen. Charles smirked as he watched Erik's jaw drop. Subtle the Lehnsherr man was not. Admittedly, it was slightly hard not to gawk at a mutation as obvious as the young Ailey woman's. Much less when so much of her fantastic skin could be seen around her modest bathing gown.
"My god," The man beside him muttered.
Fern swallowed uncomfortably. The lines and waves of grey on her face and neck flickered, and for a moment Charles was sure he could see the teal from the wall behind her pass through them.
"Yeah." She chuckled with a hint of nervousness as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I get that a lot."
"Amazing, isn't she?" Raven asked fondly, her arm looping around the girl's shoulders. Fern tensed, but the blonde didn't notice as she pulled her into a brief, one armed hug. Some lake water stained her black wool coat, but she neither noticed nor cared.
Erik's gaze swept over the young woman. "Positively marvelous."
"Indeed you are, Miss Ailey." The telepath stood from his chair. With a bit of a smirk on his lips, he offered his hand as he continued, "Charles Xavier. I believe we spoke on the phone?"
"Yeah…" Fern offered him a crooked, somewhat embarrassed smile as she shook it. "Heh, sorry about that. I'm a lot better in person than on the phone."
He inclined his head, his bright smile never leaving his face. If he noticed the odd sensation of the pads of her fingers against his skin, he didn't mention it. "No apologies necessary, I assure you."
Josie looked between the four of them and beamed. "Fern, baby, do you have any questions for these nice young men?"
A head shake. "None." She looked meekly to her mother and shrugged. "I'm gonna go, if that's alright with you."
"Of course it is!"
Fern's large eyes narrowed at her mother. With a hint of a frown, she bristled. "You don't have to be so enthusiastic about it."
"Yes I do." Josie stood, still grinning. Her hands cupped her daughter's face a moment before she spun the teen toward the door. "Come on, babe, let's get you packed." She turned to point at the dog as she reached the threshold. "Bruno. Guard."
The massive beast quickly took to snarling at the men in front of him. They gaped at the elderly woman, who smirked at them. With mock innocence, she batted her eyes. "What? I might trust you with my daughter, but that don't mean I trust ya with my silverware."
With that the three women went upstairs. Defeated, Erik and Charles sat back down, the both of them pouting somewhat.
"Do you think they would mind if I took a quick shower?" The grey girl asked Raven as they moved up the stairs to her room. "I don't want to smell like lake the whole way back."
The blonde shrugged. "I don't see why not. I think they're just taking us to the airport." She smiled impishly at Fern and elbowed her gently in the side. "And I'd certainly appreciate it."
"Go on." Josie gave her daughter a light pat on the butt. "It'll give me some time to get to know Raven here."
Fern smiled tightly at them and slipped into main bathroom. It didn't take her long to undress and she made it a point to shower quickly. With well-practiced ease, she stripped the scent of stagnant water from her scaled skin and gave her hair a thorough washing. While it may have had some to do with not waiting to keep the others waiting, she mostly didn't want to give her mother too much time to (oh so lovingly) embarrass her.
Dressing in a pair of dirty sweats from the hamper, the young brunette wasted no time hanging around the bathroom.
The women looked up from the empty suitcase Josie had thrown on the bed.
Fern smiled sheepishly at them. "Hey, sorry."
"No biggie," Raven was quick to assure her with a grin. "We weren't sure what you might need so we thought we'd just wait."
Her mother smirked at the young blonde's particular ways. Apparently Raven seemed to be under the impression that the Ailey girl had some sort of fashion sense. With her hands in her back pockets, she glanced at the stranger with a shrug, "I told her you'd probably just dump the whole drawer, but she wouldn't listen to me."
It only took a few minutes to pack a bag. Like her mother had predicted, the young Ailey more or less just dumped her underwear drawer into the bag. Fern had never been very fussy about clothing. She mostly wore and only intended on taking what she knew she would wear. Practical clothing; things like sweats and jeans, long sleeve t-shirts and a few hooded sweatshirts to help hide her face. At Raven's pestering, Fern threw in an extra pair of sneakers and Josie convinced her to take her cowboy boots ("Just in case you go anywhere fancy," the elderly woman insisted with a wink). As her mother and the stranger spoke, the grey girl slipped one of her clean bathing suits in one of the side pockets. She probably wouldn't find a chance to use it, but she figured it was best to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. She also put in a few baseball caps and an extra pair of leather gloves to cover her hands.
While she did this, the room was filled with idle chitchat about the CIA and Raven's abilities.
"So, you can imitate anyone?" Fern asked with a sly smirk that flashed a hint of sharp teeth. "Down to the very last detail?"
A touch hesitantly, the blonde confirmed, "Yes…"
The young Ailey's smile turned devious. "So if I ever wanted to see Charles naked you could show me his-"
"Fern!"
The grey girl winced as her mother whacked her upside the head. She snickered to herself and offered them a coy shrug. "It was just a question."
"The Jew is much more attractive!" Josie chided with a catlike grin of her own.
It dwindled down to a weak smirk as her only daughter closed her suitcase. Raven glanced between them with a soft smile of her own before offering to step out and give them some privacy. The Aileys' watched her go and waited for the door to close before looking at one another.
Josie cleared her throat. She had never been particularly comfortable with sentimentality. "You should probably get changed. Unless you wanna go down and show them young fellas your skivvies."
Fern glanced down at her pajamas. She rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish nod. "Yeah, you're probably right."
She grabbed a pair of pants from her dresser and a long sleeve shirt. Her mother turned to give her some privacy. The girl had always been rather finicky about privacy, at least when it came to nudity. Over her shoulder, Josephine asked, "So… excited?"
"I guess." The girl slipped out of her sweats and into dark jeans. It was normal for the young mutant to cover as much skin as possible when she was in public, and she reached for a tenser bandage as she went on, "A bit nervous, actually."
"Understandable." Josie nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. Licking her lips, she went on, "They seem nice."
Fern winced as she tightened the bandage around her chest. Her modest bust was easy to hide, but the process of pressing them down was still rather unpleasant. She had found at an early age the less feminine you appeared, the less you were hassled (at least about certain things). She tucked in the excess piece into the edge with a frown and reached for a long sleeve black t-shirt.
"I guess."
"Not that I expected any less," A hint of smugness laced the elderly woman's tone.
Fern rolled her eyes behind her mother's back. She hated that tone. She tucked her shirt into her pants with a frown. "You think they'll turn me into some kind-"
"Of lab rat? No," Josie finished as she turned to look at her daughter, just in time to see her sliding on a worn pair of leather gloves. Her blue eyes rolled. "Are those really necessary?"
"Better safe than sorry, right?" The girl grinned puckishly, flashing some sharp white teeth and just a hint of annoyance. As if to emphasize her point, she gave them a tug up her wrist.
Her mother dropped her hands to Fern's shoulders. She watched her daughter's face a moment before brushing some of the still wet black hair from her cheeks. Fern bit her lip as Josie spoke, "If you get uncomfortable and want to come home, you're welcome to. I won't be disappointed, so long as you try, okay, baby?"
"Okay, Ma."
"That's my girl," Josie said fondly.
Fern threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly and burying her face in her mother's neck. Voice barely above a whisper, she closed her eyes, "Thank you so much for everything."
The woman didn't say anything to that, just stroked the girl's hair and held her just as tight.
Note: Okay, so I would never recommend anyone ever use a tenser bandage to bind their chest, but apparently sports bras weren't invented until 1977, so I couldn't use that method. Also, sorry for the wait.