A/N: Bonjour! Ah, at last, an update! I've fallen out of love with writing fics at the moment - as soon as I go to sit down to write, I get writers block. This chapter has taken about three weeks to write and it's drivel if I'm honest! LOL, I know what I meant from this chapter and hopefully it's in there amongst the crud. I'm at that stage of this fic where it's the calm before the storm and these chapters are a bugger to write! Anyway, no more moaning from me, I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for my reviews and thank the Lord that there are more people than just I who hates Kitty!
Chapter Five - Without My Wings, I Feel So Small...
Evey had taken a wrong turn back to her room and had ended up inside a massive library instead. The room was rounded with shining mahogany bookcases lining the walls stuffed full of volumes upon volumes of everything imaginable.
Evey had selected the 'Mutant History' section out of curiosity mainly and heaved a large scrap book to a shiny mahogany desk in front of a large bay window. She set it down carefully upon the wood and leaned over it as she opened the cover and let the musky smell of dust fill her nostrils. Inside was a faded newspaper front page dated from the fifties with a black and white photo of this so-called freak child. The child was clearly a mutant but the newspaper reported him as some kind of dangerous freak of nature with an equally nasty headline about his condition. The small boy could apparently fuse his legs together at will and transform into a mermaid with the ability to swim underwater for any length of time. He should've been celebrated, Evey thought, not mocked and feared.
Evey sighed and kept turning the pages, reading each headline and scanning each article. She paused on a large article proclaiming all mutants should be registered for the public's safety.
"What?" Evey said quietly to herself as she pulled the book nearer so she could read the fine print. The Mutant Registry Act was backed by most government officials and publicly celebrated as the correct way to handle mutants as if they were some sort of dangerous new breed.
Evey kept turning and found newspapers from around the world instead of just America. It dawned on Evey that mutants were everywhere, part of rich families and equally part of poor ones. Some lived in the poorest parts of the world and some were very famous and important. Evey was ashamed of her ignorance and realised just how lucky she was.
She paused on a page from an English newspaper which spoke about the terrible times mutants suffered during the olden days and beyond. They were branded devils and suffered the most horrifying executions because so called doctors thought they knew best.
Evey closed the scrapbook and sat down in a chair just to let her brain process all this new information. It was a little too much for Evey had received quite a bit of new information and revelations for one day. She clenched her hands into tight fists before stretching them out again and wriggling her fingers. She turned her hands over so they were palms up and looked closely at them. How much power did she really have?
Fortunately Evey had never been in a situation where she had to use her ability in a life or death scenario. Her greatest achievement so far was healing the wounds of dogs and cats that had fell from trees and been knocked down by cars. Surgery could've saved them but it was easier if Evey just laid her hands down. Could she actually save a person from dying? Or who was already dead?
Evey sighed slowly and rubbed her face with her palms, pressing them into her eyes until she could see stars through the blackness and willing her mind to calm and clear itself.
"Hey? Evey, right?" A voice asked, breaking the cool silence of the library with gruff tones. It was Logan leaning against the doorway.
"Yeah," Evey replied quickly, glancing at the scrapbook she hadn't put back. "I'm sorry, I was just…curious."
"It's what it's there for kid," Logan replied, stepping over the threshold of the library, clearly something he didn't do very often.
"I had no idea," Evey mumbled, looking down at the scrapbook sadly. "There's been so much suffering on our part." Evey surprised herself with her choice of words; she was identifying herself among the rest.
"It's all down to misunderstanding," Logan said with an irritated sigh as he sat down opposite the new girl. "It's been the same throughout history unfortunately, anything remotely different to what's considered normal needs to be cured. Or exterminated."
"I've been so naïve about all this," Evey admitted, toying with the dog eared corner of the book. "Me and Warren, we grew up without knowledge of the community we belonged to. I've grown watching Warren doing everything possible to rid himself of his wings for he just longed to be normal. His father puts a lot of pressure on him."
"His father believes he is helping and to some extent, he is," Logan replied calmly. "There's been many before Warren Worthington the second and there'll be many after all with new and exciting prospects for us mutants," He finished sarcastically, propping his feet up on a chair next to the one he was sitting on.
"What's your gift?" Evey asked quietly after a few moments of silence. She scanned over the man but couldn't see anything physical.
"Concealed weapons," Logan replied with a bitter twang in his voice after a bemused smirk at her word 'gift'. "And the ability to self heal."
"Can you heal others?" Evey asked hopefully, thinking maybe she wasn't alone with her gift.
"Nah, mine's a selfish gift unlike yours," Logan replied with a small smirk at Evey's crestfallen expression. "Don't worry kid, we're all different."
"Hmm," Evey said in response, looking down at her lap. She had many, many questions for Logan but wasn't quite prepared to ask just yet. In truth, she was scared of what the answers might be.
"Look," Logan said, sensing Evey's troubles. "Everyone's in the same boat as you. No-one knows for sure what's going to happen so my advice to you is to do what you think would be best."
"I have no idea what the best thing to do is," Evey replied, flicking a glance at the scrapbook. "I know nothing of the history of mutants or even what I'm capable of. Then there's Warren…"
Evey trailed off and blushed furiously at her thoughts.
"Well that's something I certainly can't help you with," Logan replied, looking out across the gardens from where he sat. "You've got a long way to go kid and I don't envy you. Been there."
Evey furrowed her brow. Logan definitely gave the air of someone well travelled and Evey felt the urge to question him further about his past experiences but she held back. Logan didn't seem the reminiscing type.
"It'll be a voyage of discovery," Logan added with a wry smile. He rolled his legs from the chair where they had been resting and stood up with a stretch. "Keep reading," He said, indicating toward the bookcases with a nod before he turned and made his way out of the library.
Evey watched him leave and waited until his echoing footsteps could no longer be heard before she lolled forward to rest her forehead on the wood of the table. She felt tired and alone and very apprehensive about the information concealed inside leather bound copies of mutant history. She wanted to go home, back to her old life where all she did was work and fret over a certain pharmaceutical heir. Evey had been blissfully ignorant about the mutant community and Warren only yesterday.
Evey sighed loudly and dragged herself into the sitting position before reaching for the scrapbook and getting up to replace it on the shelf. Evey stood in front of the shelf and slotted the book back between many others. She ran her fingers back and forth against the spines absently as she toyed with the idea of pulling out another volume but was weary of what else she might uncover.
With Logan's last words ringing in her ears, Evey heaved out a massive and incredibly heavy volume entitled 'Mutant Registry' and placed it down on the desk behind her. She tucked a loop of hair behind her ear and sat down, staring at what was in front of her. Evey blew out her cheeks wearily and opened the cover.
"Here goes…" She said to herself and began reading.
- - -
"Oh hey? Logan, right? You haven't seen Evey have you, the girl I came here with?" Warren asked, catching Logan slightly by surprise. He lifted his eyes to look at Warren, who was hanging out of the room he shared with the girl. "You know, brown hair, brown eyes, snotty disposition?"
"Lost her, have we?" Logan replied, ignoring his last remark as he carried on striding down the hallway. Warren had no choice but follow after him.
"She took off," Warren admitted, looking at his feet. "Is there a library around? She always storms off to a library."
Logan glanced sideways at Warren. He certainly knew his friend well, he'd give him that.
"Yeah," Logan replied finally. "I was just talking to her. It's that way." Logan pointed over his shoulder without breaking stride, leaving Warren looking down the corridor then aimlessly back at Logan, who was fast disappearing. Warren shrugged and headed the way Logan had motioned too.
He looked through every doorway down the long stretch of hallway, his shoes continually screeching on the polished floor as he halted every few steps to peer inside a door.
Warren was beginning to get agitated now as he was finding his search fruitless. He halted at what would be his last door and peered in lazily, expecting to find an empty classroom or storeroom like the ones before. Instead he saw Evey, pouring over a book at the far end of the library, turning pages feverishly. Warren rolled his eyes before he could stop himself and rapped sharply on the door.
Evey shot a glance at the doorway and saw Warren waiting there. She ignored him and continued to read. She heard an audible sigh coming from his vicinity and the impending footsteps.
"What now?" Warren huffed as if he were preparing for a spanking from his mother but wanted to get the facts straight beforehand.
"I'm reading," Evey replied serenely, not pausing. She was tracing underneath the words with her index finger as she went so Warren knew exactly where she was. He tried reading some over her shoulder.
"Jesus! What the hell is this?" Warren asked after a couple minutes. He pulled the book away from Evey so he could continue reading while sitting down. Evey huffed angrily at him but Warren was too engrossed to notice as he flicked the page. "Is this right then?"
"I can't see why they would fib about it," Evey replied sourly, folding her arms. "Can I have my book back now please?"
"In a sec," Warren said impatiently as if Evey was the one who was interrupting him. He waved a hand at her and she slumped back into her seat, arms still tightly folded and her mouth drawn in a thin line as she watched him.
"I can't believe this!" Warren announced after several more minutes. Evey snapped from her daydream of peaceful reading and looked at her friend.
"There's so much more to learn than that," Evey replied. "I've only scratched the surface I believe. We're pretty sheltered about all this, Warren."
"That's not our fault though!" Warren replied. "These things were never available to us. Your parents still don't even know you're a mutant so they were hardly going to educate you on mutant rights and the word isn't even allowed to be spoken in my house!"
A sinking feeling in the pit of Evey's stomach suddenly reared its ugly head making her skin go cold. Evey had completely forgotten all about her regular life after all what had happened this morning, what if her parents had been watching the news?
"I think I'm going to be sick," Evey whimpered, covering her mouth with a hand. "The news, we were all over the news! Me proclaiming to the world that I'm a mutant!"
"Evey, listen to yourself! You sound like me!" Warren said seriously, taking both her hands in his own. "Look at me."
Evey obeyed, drawing her gaze up to Warren's nervously. She could feel the nerves in her stomach growling.
"Use some of the courage you gave me on yourself for a change," Warren said clearly. "Remember what you said to me, we have gifts and we're special. No one can take that from us. Your parents should be proud of you and if they're not then so what? You've always got me."
Evey could feel her bottom lip quivering horribly and she forced herself to look away again so she could blink back her embarrassing tears before they spilled over her cheeks.
"You're right," She replied somewhat tearfully and pulled her hands free from Warren's. She wiped her eye with the back of her hand quickly and clasped her hands in her lap out of the way.
"Where's Kitty then?" Evey asked after a few moments silence. Warren turned a page of the book before looking up at his friend.
"With the others I guess. I don't know," Warren replied gently.
"Oh," Evey replied in a small voice. She didn't know why she decided to bring Kitty up or why she had taken an instant dislike to the girl. Maybe it was the way Warren looked at her when they were in the living area.
"She's not you, y'know," Warren said somewhat conversationally but he didn't look up from the passage he was reading. He turned the page and glanced up at Evey, who had been staring at the top of his bent head.
"Good," Evey almost whispered and Warren looked away again.
Evey sighed inwardly. It seemed every new door she opened with Warren was met with another door, two windows and a garage.
