Chapter Two – The Blackbird

Everyone was too busy to take her down to the Sub-basement to see Dr. McCoy so she decided she was going to go down there to see him herself, even though she'd been forbidden to go down there without an adult to accompany her. Since the kids had returned from their Christmas vacations, it had been hectic in the mansion again and she felt as if she were just a small shrimp in a sea of rather big and important fish. Miss Munro was teaching a history class, Miss Pryde was at the doctors with the baby for a check up, Miss Grey was teaching social studies, and Mr. Summers and Rogue were in the danger room with the youngest team of students.

Jessie had always known where the access elevators into the sub-basements were but she'd never been able to access them herself. Dr. McCoy had installed a special panel into every elevator, and while they could easily be opened from the outside and inside, they would only move if someone placed their fingers upon the panel and waited for it to scan. Only the adults and the oldest students had the access – the computer recognised their handprints. Jessie herself, did not have the access to use any of the elevators.

But she had a plan today. While playing with an unplugged vacuum cleaner, she'd come across an interesting trick that had somehow made it briefly work. She was willing to try it on the elevator, to see if that might work to.

Tucking her doll under her arm, she moved a chair to the side of the elevator and climbed upon it to reach the high-up access button. She hopped off and stepped in, the doors shifted closed behind her a moment later. She glanced up to the panel, wondering if this would work or if she was just wasting her time.

There were no screws on the panel, and she'd never be able to open it to look inside, but there was a panel on the back wall that could be flipped open to reveal a socket for a plug; Dr. McCoy had installed it when realising that it'd save him having to constantly drag extension cords around with him when he needed to use his electric tools to fix the elevators when they broke down – which was frequently through extended use.

Jessie found the hidden panel by pushing on it, and it sprung open with a soft click, revealing the small socket right there. She chewed her lip, glanced over her shoulder to make sure the doors were closed and that she wasn't about to be caught and she held her index finger a centimetre away from the socket.

She only drew the tiniest bit of energy from it; too much and it would cause alarm, she knew from experience if she absorbed anymore than the fraction of electricity she had from that socket, the lights would flicker all over the mansion, and someone would come looking to find out why she was using her powers outside of the power training sessions she attended with Miss Munro, which was the only time she was ever allowed use them.

Her finger crackled with the charge; little forks of white blue light danced down into her hand and disappeared into her veins. She giggled at the slightly naughty feeling of breaking the rules and she reached up, stood on the tippy-toes of her Barbie sneakers to place her hand on the access panel.

The elevator came to life as she forced the small surge of power into the panel; the lights brightened and the elevator suddenly dipped, and shook.

"Uh oh..." she said to herself and gripped onto the bar lining the side wall.

The elevator plummeted downwards, trembling at a ridiculously fast pace; the display panel lit up showing her going past the first and second sub-basements and into the third.

She'd known about the first and second basements; after all, the second basement was where the Danger room was, and she'd been there a few times with Miss Munro and Miss Pryde. But she hadn't known about the third basement.

So when the doors of the elevator slid open and revealed the massive hangar to her; the ceilings higher than the entire height of the mansion, she felt a gasp escape her lips as she stepped out.

She'd always heard the rumours whispered between the younger students of the mansion, about how the X-Men owned a jet...a jet that the U.S. Army couldn't even compete with. She'd certainly heard something close by before that closely resembled the sound of a low flying fast plane. But she'd never imagined the rumours were actually true.

She walked across the hangar and stood facing the jet's front; it was the most amazing sight she'd ever seen up close. It was so awe-inspiring that she dropped her doll and simply stood there gazing up.

"Jessie! What are you doing in here?!"

She spun around to see that Dr. McCoy had found her long before she'd found him. He seemed angry, and and she hadn't banked on him being that mad with her.

"Uhm..." she chewed her lip, "I was playing with the elevator..." she gestured to the elevator doors which were now sitting permanently open.

"Do you know dangerous that was?! What if it had dropped and crashed?!" he squatted down and took a hold of her small arms to shake her, as if it might suddenly make her understand exactly why playing with elevators was silly.

"I only wanted to come see you – I was trying to get to the lab..." she chewed the inside of her cheek.

"Never, never, NEVER without an adult. You know that!"

She pouted and tried to fight the urge to cry – his angry expression softened in response and she relaxed just a little.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you managed to get down here..." Dr. McCoy ran let go of her arms, he shook his head then ran a hand through his hair; he seemed to be trying to calm himself down now.

Jessie wondered what he meant about shouldn't be surprised about her being able to get into somewhere she shouldn't have.

"I was so frightened you'd be hurt...do you know how dangerous it is in here?"

"What is this place?" Jessie asked, she turned back to the jet to look at it some more; there was so much about it to take in visually.

"This is the Hangar. This is where we keep our planes..." he gestured to the two smaller planes to the back of the hangar – she hadn't even noticed those!

"And this...?" Jessie raised her arms up to the plane. "Is this the plane that everyone always whispers about? The blackberry?"

Dr. McCoy suddenly seemed to lose his anger, because he laughed, although she wasn't sure what he found so funny. "This is the one everyone whispers about."

"Why do they whisper?"

"Because this...is one of the best kept secrets in the world..." he moved over to the front wheel and patted it. "And we're not supposed to have it. It doesn't technically exist," he explained.

"I don't know what you mean," said Jessie, following him.

Dr. McCoy smiled and he took her hand and led her to the access hatch which was already open, "would you like to see inside?"

Jessie nodded and followed him into the plane; he led her to the cockpit, but instructed her not to touch anything.

"What do you mean the plane doesn't exist?" Jessie asked; to her, if it didn't exist, it meant it should probably have been invisible, or not there at all...how could something exist but not exist?

"This is the SR72-A blackbird," he let her sit in one of the pilots seats but made her place her hands firmly on her thighs so she wouldn't touch the controls. "The military had SR71's back way before your daddy was even born."

She found this comment strange, what did he mean before her daddy was born. He hadn't even known him?

Dr. McCoy seemed to realise he'd said something wrong, and he quickly tried to correct it, although she didn't quite understand what the mistake was, and was only just aware it was there. "I mean...these have been out since the sixties..." he gestured all around him. "This was a prototype – like a kind of...one-off-demonstration model – that the military opted to not use and ordered to be destroyed. How we ended up with it...is not my place to say," he chortled. "Needless to say...it doesn't technically exist because the SR72 line was never approved. It's the only plane of it's kind and it has many features that no other military plane will ever have."

"I can't believe it's real!" Jessie looked all around her in astonishment.

"It's the fastest plane in the world, you know," Dr. McCoy admitted.

This impressed her, she was sitting in the fastest plane in the world – there were people who'd never get to do that! "Can we fly it?"

"Not today," he replied. "And I don't think the Professor would approve of letting you be a passenger in the Blackbird."

She pouted.

"It's not a toy," he reminded. "This is an important part of the X-Men's arsenal..."

"I've never been in a aeroplane," she confessed.

"When you're older you can fly with us," he smiled at her, "When you're old enough we'll even teach you how to fly."

What if I'm not here when I'm older? Jessie wondered. Despite the promises of everyone in the Institute, she still felt that insecurity that something would take her from the people she'd grown to love, and the home she'd finally begun to adjust to. Somehow, she still couldn't imagine herself here in the future. In fact...she couldn't imagine herself in any future at all.

"Can't we just fly for a little while?" she asked sadly.

"I'm sorry..." Dr. McCoy said sincerely, "but it's out of the question, little one."

"We could fly to that Island to see Mr. LeBeau," she said hopefully.

Dr. McCoy's face softened, there was something there behind his eyes...pity? Or...secrets? "Ah...well...Mr. LeBeau can't really see anyone right now while he's having his treatment."

"But why?" asked Jessie. She felt that the word can't was an utterly poor excuse and no one would ever explain the reason of why she couldn't even call him on the phone when surely they had phones in Scotland.

"He...will be sleeping, a lot. To heal. Sleep helps, you know. It's when your body does most of it's healing," Dr. McCoy led her out of the Blackbird, his big blue hand totally enclosed her, it was warm, like a glove. She'd once found his appearance so disturbing, but now, she saw him almost as Teddy-bear like, almost like a character from Monsters Inc. She couldn't imagine ever being scared of him now.

As they moved across the hangar, she saw the doll, lying on the floor. "Dr. McCoy..." she said softly as she let go of his hand and ran to pick the doll up, "can you fix this?"

He smiled at her, "of course I can. But you need to promise me you'll never play in the elevators again...and that you'll never tell anyone about the things you've seen in here."

Jessie crossed her heart, and smiled, "I promise."