I stared out the window, enjoying the sight of the rain falling from the sky and drizzling down the sides of the mansion. My mind was replaying all of the information I had received from Carson's research. Unceremoniously cryogenically frozen. Total vegetative state. Possible coma? No, too much brain activity. Could he know he was frozen? How much is he aware of? How much will he remember upon being awakened?

There were far too many questions and not enough answers. Carson had gotten so close to finding a way to wake him up, but he had never really considered what the mental health of Steve Rogers would be afterward. The psychological implications were completely unforeseeable. That worried me. What good was an icon if he was insane?

An icon. That's what I had to think of him as. I could not afford to think of him as a person. If this failed, he died. If I thought of him as a person, that made me a murderer. I couldn't have that on my soul. I'd killed too many in my life that were evil to be forever stained by the death of a person truly good. I'd go insane….er.

Formulas, equations, statistics, and schematics flew through my mind. I had found the blueprints Carson had made of the machine, and gave them to Tony. They were fairly simple- a little too simple. Carson had proposed a bit of electro-shock to jolt awake all of the subjects bodily functions and higher brain activity. That seemed far too dangerous. There was too much of a risk for electrocution. There had to be a safer way.

The doorbell rang, breaking me away from my musings. I sniffed the air; I didn't recognize the person at the door. I growled under my breath and made my way downstairs. I had not been attacked since Sinead blew up, and it was making me paranoid. Would Hydra be stupid enough to go after me here?

Jean was about to open the door when I reached the bottom of the stairs. She gave me a look of confusion as I pulled her back. I shook my head and looked out the peephole. It was a man in a uniform. Didn't look military. I let go of Jean and she opened the door, laughing.

"Chill, Annie."

"Flowers for Siobhan Analya." The man said; he was holding a bouquet of white lilies, my favorite.

"I'm Siobhan." I said, taking the flowers.

"Sign here, please." I signed, and he left.

"More flowers? God this is getting weird, Annie. You're gonna have to tell me who they're from."

"It better not be from who I think." I growled. I told Tony to back off. Why the hell would he send more flowers? There was a card stuck in the middle. I opened it and read aloud, "Spoon."

"Spoon? That's all it says?" Jean raised an eyebrow at me.

"That's all it needs to say." I beamed at her and ran upstairs to my room. I was hoping he had this all planned out; I'd get the flowers and then he would teleport on to my bed, where he always was when I wasn't at school. I ran into the room.

"You're not mad?" I yelled as I pushed the door open.

My face fell; I almost dropped the flowers. Wade wasn't there. No one was there. I was alone. I picked up my phone, hoping for a missed call or a text message; nothing.

I sighed, and put my flowers down on my desk beside my computer. I looked over to my dresser and saw Tony's flowers, now almost dead. I picked them up and threw them in the trash can. I put the vases on a shelf beside some books. They were pretty. For the first time I noticed that they were both decorated with Monet's Pansies. I loved that painting.

I looked over to the substitute teleporter that Weasel had given me, and seriously thought about popping over to Wade's house. Maybe I could convince him to have Doritos tacos at Taco bell or something. Mmmm…Doritos tacos…. No. Bad idea. I should just continue doing what I was doing. What, nothing? God, why was I stressing about this? Our friendship had never been stressed before. Maybe it was because I was finally admitting to myself that I had feelings for him. Maybe I was turning into a pussy. Yeah, I'll go with the second one. I needed to chill the frig out.

"Annie, what are you up to?" Jean walked in without knocking and st on my bed.

"What do you mean? I've done nothing…lately."

"Who's been sending the flowers?"

I sighed heavily. "The first two were from…"

"Yes?"

"Tony."

"As in Tony Stark?" he eyes went wide.

"Yeah." I looked down at my shoes.

"And the lilies?'

"Wade."

"Wade hasn't been over here the past few days."

"A lot of shit's gone down this past two weeks, red."

"You used to tell me everything, Annie."

"There's too much I don't want you to know."

"Why don't you want me to know?" She looked confused.

"You'll think I'm being stupid- hell! I am being stupid!"

"You're 17. You're supposed to be stupid."

"No, I'm not. I'm supposed to be mature. I have killed people with my bare hands and I can't fucking handle a little boy trouble? The hell is wrong with me, Jean?"

"Just because you're uber-genius smart, doesn't mean that you can't act like a teenager."

"Doesn't it though?"

"No. It just gives you an extra excuse. You know, you've never really acted your own age. You've taken care of yourself sine you mother died, and you've taken care of Logan since you found him. Wade came along, and you take care of him, too. Then there's us, all the X-Men. You're always looking out for us; cooking meals, driving us to school, helping with homework, leading us in simulation exercises. You're like a giant mother hen."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. You've never really cared about yourself, only others. Now you've actually got the chance."

"I feel…silly."

"It's part of being a teenager. Now, when were you going to tell me you had a crush on Wade?" She hit me with a pillow and I laughed.

"I didn't mean to just now!" I hit her back with my fluffly cow pillow. "Pillow fight!" Ah, it'd been a while since I had fun with Jean.

I was laying on my bed, trying to read Letters from the Earth, by Mark Twain, when I heard a knocking on my window. Now, as you might have guessed by my constant climbing of stairs, I live on the second story. I don't even have a balcony, so how the hell could someone have been knocking on my window? I grabbed the machete I keep under my pillow, and slowly walked over. I pulled back the curtain and raised the blade above my head, only to drop it when I saw Wade hovering on a board in front of my window.

"OHMIGOD! What the hell, Wade?" I jerked open the window and pulled him inside. He laughed at me and bounced on my bed.

"I borrowed the board from the little Goblin man." He giggled.

"Borrowed?" I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest.

"You haven't seen me in two weeks, and this is the greeting I get?" he pouted.

"You asshole!" I giggled as I grabbed him in a hug.

"Still mad at me, kitten?"

"How could I stay mad at you? I figured you were pissed at me."

"Nope. Just waiting for you to come back over. Did you get my flowers?"

"Spoon? Seriously? You're so gross." I giggled.

"Yep. Now, pack a bag."

"What?"

"You're afraid of getting you precious X-Men hurt, so you and Jean and gonna stay at my place where I can keep you safe."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"I have the mansion bugged."

"I'll be sure to tell Cyclops so he can sweep the place."

"Damn." He smiled and hugged me again. "You are never to ignore me again, understood. I'll shoot you in the face otherwise."

"You wouldn't do that, Wade. You enjoy my face too much."

"There's a lot of you I enjoy, kitten."

"Jean won't come. She'll insist on staying here. She's probably safer here, anyway."

"You don't think I can keep her safe?"

"You'll have your hands full with me, Wade."

"Will I now?" He winked at me through his mask. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a bag outta my closet.

"Pack my bag for me? I need to go talk to Logan."

"Sure, kitten." He smiled maliciously. I shook my head, wishing I could take that back.

I went down the hall and knocked on Logan's door. There was no answer.

"Dad?" I called softly as I opened the door.

He wasn't there. I looked to his desk; the keys to his bike were gone. He was probably off on a ride. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down that I would be at Wade's. I hoped he wouldn't get pissed off, but I knew he would be. I sighed, and went back to my room. Wade was sitting on my bed, my bag stuffed full beside him. He was smiling at me.

"Promise you're not mad at me?"

"Kitten, I can never stay mad at you."

"But you were mad."

"You really wanna talk about this right now?"

"You'll avoid it otherwise."

"True."

"Answer me, Wade."

"Fine. Yes, I was mad, but not really at you. I wanted to kill Stark. Could you imagine what I felt when I see him carrying your unconscious body into Weasel's apartment?"

"Violence, apparently."

"Ok, so maybe I shouldn't have hit him with the Louisville Slugger." He shrugged.

"Why do you hate so much?"

"He seemed so close to getting something I couldn't have it pissed me off."

"What can't you have?"

"You!" He yelled.

"What?"' OMG, did he just-?

"You're gonna make me say it, aren't you?"

"It'd be nice to know I'm not just going insane."

"Going?"

"Wade."

"Fine. I love you, Siobhan. I'm not about to share you with anyone."

"Ok, now we can go."

"What? No 'I love you, too, Wade, darling?'"

"Nope."

"Dammit."