The woman lay on a gurney in the basement of the mansion, her wounds cleaned and dressed. All the instruments said she was in good shape, despite her appearance, and she would recover fully in a week or so.
Dr. Henry McCoy stood at her bedside, his spectacles perched on the end of his nose as he read from a screen at her bedside. He tapped in some information, and read some rather strange but interesting test results.
"Fascinating," He muttered.
"Talking to yourself again, furball?" Logan asked mockingly as he and Ororo entered the room.
McCoy just smiled at them and took off his glasses. "First, allow me to ask you both a few questions."
"Go ahead," Ororo said, sitting next to the gurney and gently taking the woman's hand.
"When you came in, did either of you notice a strange scent in the air?"
She frowned. "No, Logan did you?"
"Yeah." He said testily as he leaned against the wall. "So?"
"Aah." McCoy said with a slight smile. "And did you also notice an irresistible attraction to the young lady here? Any feelings of inexplicable aggression towards me?"
Logan shifted uncomfortably and McCoy nodded. "As I thought."
"And the punch line is…" Storm asked.
McCoy tucked his glasses into his breast pocket and held up the printout of her test results. "I noticed the same scent when I walked in today, and I experienced an uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing physical reaction to it." He glanced at Logan who shifted uncomfortably again.
Storm snorted and rolled her eyes. "Boys." She said disgustedly
McCoy cleared his throat and continued. "Curious as to what would cause such a…reaction…I ran a few scans and tested the air. Apparently, our guest here is not a Mutant per se, however her body has certain organs that have mutated in and of themselves.
It appears to be a form of Chimerism, where one body holds organs with two distinct sets of genetic signatures. This is the first case I've heard of where it was a cross between genes with and without the Mutant X gene. There's never been anything like this before. The research to be done…This will have a tremendous impact in the Medical and Scientific communities. It's absolutely fascinating!"
He glanced up and noticed that he was losing his audience. He cleared his throat and continued. "In short, the mutated organs are functioning at a much higher level than the rest of her body, creating an overflow that her body is unable to keep up with. In order to protect itself, her lymphatic system is funneling everything out through her sweat glands.
"In her case, the mutated organs appear to be related to the reproductive, and some of the endocrine systems. The end result is an elevated pheromone level. Her body is quite literally throwing off pheromones and they are infused in the air around her."
He put down the papers and sat, rubbing his eyes. "It appears to only affect mutant males, and some, like Myself, Logan, and – obviously – Sabretooth are more susceptible to them due to our," He tapped at his nose. "Highly developed sense of smell."
Storm chewed worriedly at her bottom lip. "This is going to make life interesting around here." She took a deep breath and sighed. "So what do we do?"
"Well, we have to wait until she is better, and then we can find out where she's from and so forth. In the meantime, her visitors will have to be limited to those who won't be affected by her…gift." He sighed and picked up his suit coat. "I'm sorry to have to leave so soon, but I can't stay. I won't be available for a few weeks. I've been called back to Washington."
He glanced sadly at the woman on the gurney. "Her physical wounds are limited to what you see, her psychological wounds however, will take much longer to heal." He stopped and in spite of himself, touched her cheek gently. Catching himself, he cleared his throat and headed for the door. "I need to leave before my nose gets me into trouble. I would suggest asking Warren to speak to his father about developing an inhibitor of sorts. Be sure to ask Jimmy if he'd like to help."
He paused to shake hands with Logan and embrace Storm fondly. "I'll be back as soon as I can, to see how things are going."
They all looked at their "guest" and then looked at one another worriedly.
"Well," Grumbled Logan. "This is going to be interesting."
The first thing she became aware of was a soft beeping. The next thing she noticed was that her body didn't hurt as much as it had. She tried opening her eyes and was rewarded with a blinding light directly above her. She winced and squeezed her eyes shut. The light clicked off and she peeked through squinted eyelids. She looked around carefully and saw another of those impossibilities that seemed to be cropping up so often recently.
"Logan?"
He looked down at her, frowning. "How do you know us?"
She tried to sit up and grunted with pain when her stiffened wounds tried to pull themselves open. Logan stepped forward and carefully helped her to sit up. She stopped to take a few breaths and gingerly scootched herself into a better sitting position. "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you." She smiled crookedly up at him. "You're a lot beefier in person, you know that?"
"What?"
They all stood staring at her in disbelief. "I told you you wouldn't believe me." She scowled.
"You have to admit that it's a little out there," Storm said incredulously.
Anna shook her head and heaved an exasperated sigh. An idea formed in her mind. It as a little mean, but it would probably work. She only hoped she didn't freak them out or piss them off.
She looked up at Storm. "The first time you met up with Sabretooth he slammed you up against the ticket window at the train station and drew a claw down the side of your face."
Storm turned pale and stared at her.
"He got right up in your face and said 'Scream for me.'"
Storm put a hand over her mouth and gasped.
Anna looked at Logan. "'You would die for them?'" His eyes were stricken and he swallowed hard. He turned his face away from her and, stared out the window with his jaw clenched.
"Warren, the day your father found out that you were a mutant, you were in the bathroom, desperately trying to remove your wings. You were just a child."
Warren stared at her as the color drained from his face. He lowered his eyes and would not look at her again.
The silence stretched out for several tense minutes. She felt like a jerk doing this to them. Especially to Logan. "I'm sorry guys, for dredging these memories up, but I can't think of any other way to prove that I'm telling the truth." She stood up and crossed to Logan. She laid a hand on his arm apologetically. "I'm especially sorry to you, Logan. It was a low blow to use that. I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
He glanced over at her and glanced away. She stroked his shoulder comfortingly and left him in peace.
"How do we know that you're really who you say you are?" demanded Storm. "How do we know that this is not some elaborate trick to get you into our home and trust?"
Anna threw her head back and gave vent to a frustrated yell. "Yes, Ororo, I deliberately planted myself where Sabretooth would find me, and let him brutalize me repeatedly every day for almost a week, with no way of contacting anyone for help because I knew that all according to my devious plan, you guys would somehow miraculously find out what was going on and come rescue me!" She glared at them as if daring them to contradict her.
They all glanced at one another uncomfortably and sighed. Anna wrapped her arms around herself and took a calming breath.
"I'm sorry." She muttered. "I just really miss my kids." She rubbed her arms and took a shuddering breath. "Look. I don't know how the hell I got here, so I've got no idea how to get back. I'm fairly sure that I don't exist here, and the same probably goes for everyone and everything I have ever known or loved. I'm just a little out of sorts."
Logan took a deep breath and shook his head vigorously. "Ugh. I need to get out of this room." He said looking pointedly at Storm. He strode purposefully out of the room muttering something about a cold shower.
Anna stared after him, biting her lower lip. "I really messed up, didn't I? I shouldn't have said what I did."
Storm stood staring after him with her arms crossed. "No, it's not that." She sighed and faced Anna. "While you were unconscious, we had a friend visiting from Washington who noticed something when he came into your room. He ran some tests."
"Wait, do you mean Dr. McCoy?" Anna asked intently.
"Yeah, how did you…never mind." Storm sat down and told her about Hank's findings and their resulting predicament.
Anna frowned. "So that's why Logan left?" She asked blushing.
Storm nodded and they both laughed. Warren hastily excused himself and fled with his ears burning and their laughter trailing behind him.
It was late, and the school was quiet. Storm stood staring out into the clear night sky thoughtfully. Logain sat sprawled in an armchair with his feet on the table, chugging a soda.
"Where's our "guest?" She asked, turning away from the window.
"She went back down to the infirmary. Jubilee and that girl who does the light shows…um…"
"Alison." Storm supplied with an amused twist so her lips.
"Yeah," He said, tipping back the last of his soda and belching.
"Nice," Kitty said, rolling her eyes as she, Piotr, Warren and Bobby came into the room.
Kitty and Piotr flopped next to each other on the couch, and Warren stood off to the side, stretching his sore wings.
"Are you alright Warren?" Storm asked with a frown.
"Yeah," he said, massaging one of his wings. "Flying in the cold made carrying Anna a lot harder than I thought it would. I'm all knotted up." He winced as he probed a particularly sore spot.
"I can help you massage them later, if you'd like." She offered sympathetically
Warren blushed. "Nah, that's alright. I can manage."
Logain twisted in his chair and stared incredulously at the younger man. "When a beautiful woman offers to give you a rub down, the answer is always, ALWAYS, 'Hell Yes.'"
Warren blushed even redder and folded his wings self-consciously. He cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject.
"So what are we going to do about Anna? Does anyone believe her story?"
"I don't know," murmured Storm. "There's no doubting what Sabretooth put her through but her story about being from another dimension…sounds like something out of a comic book."
"She seems nice enough." Kitty said thoughtfully. "I don't get any kind of bad vibe from her."
"We don't know this woman, and we would be foolish to trust her." Piotr rumbled.
"I agree." Logain said, leaning forward. "I can smell a lie on someone a mile away, and she ain't lyin', but that could just mean that she's crazy."
"Or it could be that her ability is messing with your sense of smell," Storm pointed out.
"Why don't we run her prints and picture through a background check?" Warren suggested. My father uses an agency that has access to just about every criminal database in the world for hiring. We could have her checked out."
Storm shook her head. "We can't do that without her permission."
"Why not?" Logain asked.
"Because it's illegal for one thing." She replied.
"Then have her sign something so we can get it done."
They all stared at him like he was crazy.
"We can't do that!" Kitty exclaimed, shocked. "That is SO rude!"
"So what?" Logain demanded. "We're supposed to take a risk on someone we don't know, just to avoid hurting her feelings? I say we do it. If she doesn't have anything to hide, then she'll do it. If she refuses, that tells us she's hiding something, and we wash our hands of her. What's the big deal?"
"He's right." Storm agreed quietly. "We have to think of the students. She already has a freaky knowledge of just about all of us. If she's not on the up and up, I don't want her here."
"But what if she is telling the truth? She's got no one here to go to. We can't just throw her out" Kitty objected.
"I think we'll climb that mountain if we get to it." Storm said with a thoughtful frown. "First let's get that background check done. Then we'll figure out what to do from there." She sat down behind her desk and started typing on her computer.
"In the meantime, we will have to keep an eye on her." Piotr said quietly. "I don't think we should let her near the students."
"Agreed," Warren said. "She's well enough to leave the infirmary. Why don't we put her in one of the empty rooms near mine? Only the staff are allowed in that wing."
Storm pointed at Warren. "Good idea, let's go with that." She typed a moment more and the printer started buzzing. "I'm going to get the paperwork ready for her to sign tomorrow. Logain, would you go fetch Anna and show her to one of the empty staff rooms."
"Yeah, that would be a No."
She blinked in surprise. "Please?"
"Unless you want the entire school to have a live demonstration of the birds and the bees, I'm not going anywhere near that woman."
Storm's jaw dropped and the rest of them burst out laughing. She tried several times to respond and finally gave up with a laugh. "Kitty?"
"I'm on it," She replied getting up and leading Piotr from the room. Warren moved to follow.
"I'll go get the linens for her room, and show her around when she gets there."
"Thanks Warren," She chuckled. "What about you, Logain?"
He hauled himself to his feet and shrugged. "I'm going to go work out, then I'm hittin the sack."
She nodded. "G'nite Logain."
"Night," he called as he strode out of the room.
That man, She mused silently. He really is a good guy, once you get to know him.
She sighed and turned her chair to face the window again. As she gazed up into the sky, a troubled wind gusted unevenly through the trees, setting the branches to twitching nervously. Am I doing the right thing? She fretted worriedly. This school is the only safe place for these children, is it right to risk their safety for a stranger?
Her thoughts grew more fretful, and the wind blew stronger, making the windows creak in their panes. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath. There was nothing more she could do for right now. She took another calming breath , stood up, and stretched.
"No point in getting yourself all worked up Headmistress Munrow." She muttered to herself. "You've done what you can, and you've got a plan. That's good enough for now."
She resolutely shut down her computer, and left her office, locking the door behind her.
Outside, the wind suddenly died down, and the night grew still once more.
"Well of course I'll sign the waiver."
Ororo blinked several times, surprised at her matter-of-fact tone. "Um, thank you," she replied, somewhat taken aback by her unquestioning acquiescence.
"This is a school. I'd be surprised if you didn't ask for a background check for everyone that lives here." She murmured as she scribbled her signature at the bottom of the page. "I'd expect it if my children were attending school here."
The headmistress quickly scanned the signature page and tucked it into a file folder with Anna's name on it. "How many do you have?" She asked gently.
"Four," she answered with a sad smile. "Two boys, two girls." She looked away and sighed, her smile fading. "They weren't with me when…well, when whatever happened happened. I can only assume they're alive and well with their father. Somewhere." She heaved a heavy, trembling sigh and fell silent.
Ororo's heart throbbed with sympathy and she came around her desk to lay a consoling hand on the strange woman's shoulder. "Try and get some rest, Anna. The library in the staff wing has a lot of great books, so please help yourself. Warren and I will see that the kitchenette up there is stocked so you can eat whenever you like. If there's anything we can get for you, just let one of us know."
Anna nodded with a crooked smile and quietly left the headmaster's office. She ambled slowly back toward her room, feeling strangely blank. She was tired. She was sore. But she was also just…blank. She'd been away from her own life for less than two weeks, and it already seemed to have been years. She thought back to what she could remember of her real life.
The last thing she could remember was driving home after a business trip three hours from home. As she drove through the mountains, the trees had already begun to show their fall colors, and the varying hues of gold, green, orange and red were absolutely stunning.
A car accident, maybe? She mused to herself. Am I dead then? The thought startled her and she shook her head irritably. Crazy was more likely. The accident was entirely plausible. And if she'd hit her head, she could be in a coma. Maybe this is what your mind does when you go into a coma?
That would explain a lot. Especially the…
A sudden, vivid memory of pain and fear flashed across her mind's eye. It overwhelmed her and when she came back to her senses, she was crouched against the wall with her arms wrapped around her head, cowering and whimpering like an injured animal.
She wanted to move but she simply couldn't. Her muscles were locked up and her body would not respond to her brain's commands. She just sat there, curled into a ball and rocked back and forth, back and forth…
This is normal, the rational part of her mind told her. It's PTSD, this is supposed to happen, right?
The severity of her emotions and the uncontrollable reaction of her body frightened her. She felt helpless and out of control, and it made her angry. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm down.
It's ok, I'm safe now. Just breathe. It's ok…
It became a chant, an internal monologue that gradually seeped through the layers of fear and terrible memories that kept her tied up in knots. She could feel her self-control grudgingly return to her unwilling limbs. She opened her eyes, immensely grateful that no one had been around to see her lose it. Her legs and feet were tingling painfully from being crouched for so long, so she let herself fall back to sit on the floor.
Her breath hitched in her throat like it would have if she'd been crying. She scrubbed her hands over her face and was surprised when they came away wet. She snuffled loudly and wiggled her feet to get the blood flowing again.
How long had she been sitting there? Minutes? Hours? She drew in another snuffly breath and pulled her knees back up to her chest. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes again.
"Hey, you alright?"
Anna jumped and screeched, scrabbling away from the voice that was so shockingly close and unexpected. She flattened herself hard against the wall defensively.
"Woah, woah! It's just me, Warren!"
It took her a moment to register his voice and face, and she blinked at him stupidly. He was crouched down next to where she'd been a moment ago, his hands outstretched in a placating gesture.
"Warren?" she gasped. "You scared me to death!"
His face twisted apologetically. "Sorry. I just saw you sitting on the floor and…are you alright?"
She glanced around and took a deep breath to calm herself. "Yeah. I, ah… just had a dizzy spell and had to sit for a minute." She fibbed.
Warren gave her a sympathetic smile and rose. He held out a hand to help her up.
"Thanks," she said as she took his hand and stood. He held her hand for a moment, then seemed to catch himself. With a sheepish grin, he gestured grandly toward the wing where their rooms were.
She laughed and accompanied him down the hall.
"Actually," he said lightly. "I was coming to ask if you'd like chicken or fish for dinner."
She chuckled softly. "Chicken," she answered firmly. "I hate fish. It's too…fishy."
He laughed and gave her a funny look. "Too fishy?"
"Well it is," she murmured defensively.
Warren snickered and walked her to her door. Then he hurried off, promising to bring her dinner later.
She smiled ruefully and shut herself gratefully into her room. She certainly appreciated his concern, but she was far too much of a wreck to welcome company at that moment. She glanced at the clock. It was still two hours until dinner. She climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head.
The next few weeks passed slowly. Far too slowly. And she was so bored, she couldn't see straight. Sitting alone and reading books on recovering from a trauma was driving her batty. She wanted something to do, and every book she'd read said that keeping busy was the key to recovery. Her background check had come back as expected; Non-existant. They'd run fingerprints and her face through every database they could find, and still nothing. Her story was checking out, but they were still wary, and had no idea what to do with her.
Not that she could blame them. But this was getting old fast. She hated being a burden on anyone, and that was exactly what she was. They were kind enough to keep her here, but she keenly felt the need to be useful. She really needed to earn her keep.
Storm finally relented and started her off with basic office duties. She happily filed, copied, clipped, and faxed her days away wherever there was a need. When she showed proficiency and care in her work, the teachers also began to ask her for help here and there. Between semesters she organized and catalogued textbooks, prepared work packets, helped scrub classrooms, and assisted some of the teachers in preparing their lesson plans. She worked happily, with a sense of relief, no longer feeling like a burden.
During a staff meeting – Anna had been dragooned into taking minutes – the frazzled headmistress mentioned a common complaint from the parents.
"I've received several letters from parents wanting to know why we don't have a home economics class." She blew out an irritated sigh. "They approve of the rest of the curriculum, but feel there's something…missing." The last she said with a trace of sarcasm.
"Heaven forbid they have to teach their own kids how to cook or sew on a button," Logan snorted.
Kitty frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know that a home economics class would be appropriate for this school…it seems so…dumbed down."
There was a general murmur of agreement around the room.
"Do we even have anyone that could teach something like that?"
Ororo snorted. "It wouldn't be hard, really. We all know how to do the basic homey stuff. But Kitty's right. That's too simple a class for us to offer. We'd need to up the ante a little bit so the parents would be willing to pay for those classes."
"What about teaching a culinary arts class?" Anna chimed in.
There was a thoughtful pause. "That's plausible, but who'd we get to teach it?"
"I could teach it." She said with a shrug. "We already have the kitchen and supplies. All I'd need is the textbooks, and signed waivers from the parents so that the kids could use the knives and the kitchen equipment."
They all stared at her, surprised. "Have you ever taught a class before?" Storm asked incredulously.
"Yeah," Anna shrugged as if it was no big thing. "I was a guest lecturer at the colleges back home. I taught everything from baking to garmage. That was what I was headed home from when I ended up here."
They all glanced around the room at one another, their eyes alight with interest.
"Hey, it'll give me a chance to earn my keep around here." She said cajolingly.
Storm tapped a finely manicured fingernail against her cheek thoughtfully. "Draw up a lesson plan, and check out textbooks. I'll also need a list of supplies you'll need and any expenses you can think of so I can create a budget for you. Get it to me by Monday, and I'll look it over. If I like it, we'll add the new class to the lineup for this coming semester."
"SCHWEET!" She murmured, picking up her notes again.