-New: Added Dialogue & Scene-

Chapter Five:
Sing Me a Lullaby

"Gyps. Seriously, stop it. Dr. Grey is just trying to help and you're making things really difficult for her."

With a grimace and a long sigh of defeat, I muttered, "Sorry," and remained quiet, swinging my legs back and forth over the side of the examination table. I shifted a little, trying to get comfortable as I could - the table was cold, hard… unwelcoming, but I realized that it wasn't just the table making me feel uncomfortable.

It was the way she looked at me, examining me with curious eyes. It kind of made me want to cry. I felt ashamed of the way I looked. I knew that she wasn't doing it on purpose, but it didn't stop me from feeling any better.

"There - all done," Dr. Grey announced as I made my final sound of protest when she finished applying the last of the stitches I had needed. Apparently V had been right - the blow to the head that I took was a lot worse than I thought and I needed a few stitches. "That wasn't so bad was it?" She asked, moving from behind me as she took off her latex gloves.

"Easy for you to say," I told her, sulkily. "You were the one doing the poking and prodding." I shivered involuntarily when she began to put a white cotton cloth bandage around my head. "Am I really going to have to walk around like this?" I asked, touching it gingerly.

"No," she said, walking over to a cabinet and pulling something out. She turned to me and I saw that she was holding a black skull cap. "Here you go," she said, putting it on for me as my hands were pretty useless at the moment. "No one will notice."

"Thanks," I said, smiling a little as I adjusted it. It was sort of loose on me, fell over my eyebrows but it was okay. I suddenly felt guilty. "I'm sorry. I just don't like doctors," I admitted to her when she pulled out a penlight and flashed it in my eyes.

She dropped her hand. "I'm sorry to hear that." She placed the penlight in her pocket as she walked over to a table near by, grabbed a white band aid and walked back towards me.

"No offense to you, Dr. Grey," I said, lifting my head as she placed her hand under my chin. I avoided eye contact with her as I spoke. "It's just… I have a bad history with doctors…" I felt the need to explain my dislike of Doctors to her. So that she wouldn't take it so personally.

"That's the understatement of the year."

I furrowed my brows, willing myself to keep my mouth shut. I didn't want to talk out loud to V at the moment. I didn't want to appear crazy.

Dr. Grey smiled understandingly as she tucked some of her red hair behind her ear. "It's all right. Most people do." She shook a step closer to me, placing the band aid on the side of my neck, where Ben had pressed his knife against me too hard. Stupid bastard. "You've got a lot of wounds, but I've managed to disinfect the major ones."

My wounds, as she said, consisted of - a busted lip (really nothing to cry over), a messed up knee, my hands, from when I fell and dragged them along rocks, were covered in a beige bandage and the side of my neck as mentioned before, along with a few cuts and bruises here and there. Turned out my arm wasn't broken, just dislocated as Mr. Logan had said. She'd given me a shot, so that it wouldn't hurt too much, but said that I still needed to wear a cast for a while.

It'll heal eventually.

Nodding, I let my eyes slide down to my socked feet. I had been allowed to get cleaned up before she began to treat my wounds. I had also changed out of my original clothes. I had been given gray sweatpants, a white t-shirt and a pair of socks. My old clothes had to be thrown away; they were too dirty, bloody and torn. Disgusting.

When my eyes met Dr. Grey's, I found that she had been staring at me intently. I raised an eyebrow. What was it with these people? All they did was stare.

I shifted a little. She was beginning to make me nervous and I felt something… like something tugging at my mind… blinking, she cleared her throat, "That voice inside your head - how long have you been hearing it?"

I nearly fell off of the table when she asked me that question. "You can hear it?" I asked, my hear thumping hard against my chest. She could hear it? So I wasn't crazy?

"You've never been crazy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You hear me? Never." V spoke firmly, it knew my history and my touchiness on the subject of being crazy. "And she can't really hear me, but she can sense me. She knows that there's more then one mind in your head. It's hard to explain. She's a telepath."

"You can read minds?" I asked, incredulously. I had never met a telepath before. To tell you the truth, I didn't know there were any around. I hadn't met many mutants in my life. So if she could read minds that meant that she had probably been eavesdropping. I frowned, "You know it's not polite to break into someone's mind and read their thoughts."

She smiled again, sadly this time. "So I've been told, but it can't be helped at the moment. Sorry."

"Yeah, how come?" I was curious. Why couldn't she keep out of my thoughts?

She shook her head, "Tell me about the voice in your head." I was a bit relieved that she hadn't asked me how I got my wounds. She had before, but I told her I didn't want to talk about it. She had probably read my mind anyway. "How long have you been hearing it?"

"For a while now," I admitted, feeling a little relieved that I had someone besides V to confide in. "I'm not sure, it just came from nowhere…"

Nodding, she brought her hands up, nearly touching the side of my head. I jerked away from her, "What are you doing?"

"I can't really communicate with it, Sweetheart," she brought her hands up again. "I need to see if the voice you're hearing is apart of your mutation."

"I'm an Empath," I blurted out. Being an Empath meant that I could feel others emotions and, if I wanted, or if it was too great, they could feel mine as well. I could also manipulate their emotions, which would explain Dan's abrupt change and Ben's pain.

"An Empath?" She asked, looking some-what surprised.

Nodding, I pushed her hands away, not forcefully; they had been hovering around me. "I don't think breaking into my head is a good idea."

She sighed, "I wouldn't ask to do this if it wasn't necessary."

"It's okay - let her in."

"Okay," I sighed, long and heavy. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Without another word, she brought her hands up again, her eyes starting into mine. "Don't move," she said and I fought the urge to push her away from me. She was making me feel very uncomfortable. She closed some of the space between her hands and my head, barely touching my ears. I felt a small tug, like before, than it grew stronger. My eyelids felt heavy. I could barely keep them open….

It was dark. I could hear voice, couldn't make out what they were saying… and then images began to appear. Most were fuzzy, quick and probably wouldn't make sense to someone who hadn't been there. They slowed a little. I could make out some of the faces of the people standing around me, men and women wearing white lab coats. Doctors and nurses. Two male nurses were holding me down… a doctor was injecting me and I was thrashing around.

"This wont hurt a bit," he said, lowering the needle into my arm.

"No," I cried, reaching out, grabbing someone's wrist in my hands. A burst of emotions hit me, full of pain and disbelief. My head jerked back as if someone were pulling my hair and I felt a sharp blow to me stomach making me double over. I felt as if I had been stabbed. There was fire and destruction everywhere. I gasped loudly, opening my eyes and saw that I was bleeding.

"Let go of Dr. Grey!" V shouted.

I hadn't realized that I was still holding on to her wrist. I quickly let go and looked back at my bloody white t-shirt. The blood was gone. "Not my blood," I breathed. It hadn't been my blood.

Could it have been hers?

"Are you all right?" She asked, worriedly. I could feel it and see it written on her face. I knew she wanted to reach out and touch my shoulder, but she knew that I was vulnerable right now.

"Carolina, are you all right? What did you see?"

"How did you know that I…?"

"What did you see?"

"Blood," I admitted, trailing off, a lump in my throat was beginning to form. "Something bad is gonna happen" I said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"You can feel it?" She asked, lowering her voice. I nodded. She sat down and looked at me with this haunted look in her eyes. "So can I."

X . X . X . X . X . X

"Clairvoyant" wouldn't exactly be the correct term for what I was. Being an Empath often times allowed me to catch glimpses of a person's future through their emotions. It was always reflected on me. Sort of how I saw the blood on my shirt or back in the woods with Ben.

V could often times block other people out, but not always. And it was beginning to wear me out so much so that I could barely concentrate.

That's why I was so surprised when I bumped into the built, handsome, Russian young man, who Dr. Grey had left in charge of seeing me to my new room for the time being. He was tall, very tall, dark hair and blue eyes with a square jaw. "Sorry," I muttered. "I didn't mean to b-bump into you." Though he was tall and looked kind of intimidating, at first, I'd come to notice that he was a bit shy. My neck hurt from looking up at him. I was a hobbit compared to him.

"Is your arm all right?" He asked, showing concern on his face, brows furrowed.

I looked down at my arm, it throbbed a little, but I didn't want him to worry. "It's fine no worries." He nodded and began to walk along side of me. There was an uncomfortable silence between us. Sighing loudly, I cursed myself for not being able to start a conversation, but I couldn't really be blamed. I hadn't been around a lot of people for a long time so it kind of made it hard for me to be able to make friends. I was defensive, shy, clumsy and often times rude. Not the best combination. "So um… what's did you say your name was?" It was the stupidest thing to ask, but I had trouble remembering things.

My memory sucked.

Still walking, he looked down at me, smiling for the first time since we left Dr. Grey. His face looked much friendlier when he smiled, more handsome too. I was grateful I didn't look as bad as I did when I first came into the school, but the bandages on my forehead and neck still made me more self-conscious then I already was, still the sulk cap hid it well. Not to mention my slightly swollen lip and my limping. "Piotr Rasputin." He answered in his accented voice. "You may call me Peter, if you like, or Colossus."

I nodded, taking notice of all his names. "Which one do you prefer to be called?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Piotr."

"All right, I'll call you that." It went a little silent again, but I wanted to keep the conversation going. He seemed like an interesting guy. "What can you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

He stared forward, waving at a few kids who passed him along and stared at me a bit before taking off. Brats. "I posses the ability to transform into organic steel, it allows me superhuman strength and endurance." My jaw dropped a little. I was tempted to ask him if he could show me, but stopped myself from doing so. "I can also draw," he added as an afterthought.

This surprised me. Maybe he was a gentle giant. "You can?" he nodded. "I've always wanted to learn how to draw." I sighed, wistfully. "I kind suck though. Most of my stuff comes out as stick figures, but even they look wonky."

He laughed and, like before with Mr. Logan, I felt proud of myself for being the one to cause it. "I'm sure your drawings aren't so bad."

I shrugged, "If you say so, but I'm positive they are. Will you show me some of your work?" I asked, almost sounding like a little kid. He seemed surprised by my request. Hell, even I was a little shocked. I'd never been very outgoing, but there I was asking him to let me see some of his drawings… that blow to the head must have messed me up worse then Voice and I thought.

"If you wish," he nodded, leading me down a hall, towards the room I was suppose to be staying in. "This is your room," he said, opening the door, allowing me to go in first. "Kitty will be along shortly to bring you some clothes."

Nodding, I entered the room and began to look around. The room was small and cozy, something I wasn't very use to, with a bed big enough for one person, night table beside it with a lamp, and a window next to a body length mirror. The walls were painted white. It was the only thing I didn't like about the room. I turned around to face Piotr, who was still standing by the door, hand on the handle. "Thank you."

He smiled again, his blue eyes brightening. "Rest well, I will see you later." He shut the door behind him as he left the room. Suddenly I felt very lonely, but then again I always did.

"I'm here. You're not alone."

"Thanks, V," I said, moving towards the bed and sitting down. I picked up a fluffy pillow and placed it on my lap.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't know." I didn't know how to feel. So many things had happened in such a rush. I was attacked, saved and brought to a school where I didn't know anybody…less then 24 hours. I wanted to laugh, scream and cry. I buried my head in the pillow. "I'm going to be okay. These people will protect me." I said, wondering vaguely if I was trying to convince myself or V. It had been very quiet after Dr. Grey broke into my mind. I wondered how much she saw.

"She saw enough to understand you."

"Yeah… maybe she saw enough so I won't have to--"

"Hi, there!" A voice called out, cutting me off. I picked up my head from the pillow and let out a surprised yelp, falling off the other side of the bed. I groaned in pain. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" The phantom girl said, coming around the bed to help me up.

I moved away, "No, don't touch me." I picked myself up and, with my good arm, placed a hand over my chest trying to steady my breathing. "Where the hell did you come from?" I asked the girl, who seemed to be a little younger than me. I didn't like people sneaking up on me. "I didn't hear a knock or the door open."

As she opened her mouth to speak, the bedroom door opened. A boy, around my age, walked in. He was taller then me, brown hair and eyes. Great another good looking guy. What the hell! His eyes shifted to me sitting on the floor to the girl placing some clothes on the bed. "What's going on?"

Ignoring the boy, the girl turned to me. "I'm so sorry. I thought Peter told you that I was on my way over here."

"You're Kitty?" she nodded. "He did tell me, but I though you'd knock or, at least, let me know that you were coming in," I finally got over my shock and stood up, still conscious of the boy standing a few feet away from us. "How did you get in here anyway?"

She bit her lip, "Why don't I introduce myself first. I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot." She stepped towards me and extended her hand, "I'm Kitty Pryde, or Shadowcat, if like. I phase." I must have looked confused because she went into more detail of her power. "Basically I can walk through solid material… people included."

"Right." I glanced down at her hand, hesitantly shaking it. She was giddy and worried. I felt it. She smiled, obviously relieved that I didn't just leave her hanging. "I'm Carolina Castro." I didn't give her my other name and I didn't explain my power. She seemed to notice, but said nothing more.

"Well, Carolina, it was nice meeting you," she said, still smiling. "I got to go, I promised Jubilee, who I'm sure you'll meet later, that I'd help her with some stuff. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Sure," I wondered if everyone in this school was friendly or if I was just lucky to have run into some. "Nice meeting you too." She left the room with a wave, pushing past the boy who was still hanging around the doorway. His eyes were shifting from my arm to the hat on my head. He couldn't see the one on my neck, obviously, because my hair was long enough to cover it.

"Can I help you?" I asked, waving my hand a little to get his attention. I watched him snap out of whatever thoughts he had been dwelling on. Probably wondering how I got hurt. Nosy bastard.

"So," he began, scanning me over with disinterested eyes. I furrowed my brows. "You're the new girl, huh?" His tone was lazy and unimpressed, like he was expecting someone else. Someone more exciting. I felt like throwing something at him.

"Be nice."

I rolled my eyes inwardly, "Looks that way, doesn't it?" I asked, picking up some of the clothes Kitty brought up for me. Pajama bottoms, a pair of blue jeans and two shirts with socks.

"Uh-huh," I stopped playing with my new clothes to see that he had made himself comfortable by leaning against doorframe, one arm tucked under his armpit, the other holding a Zippo lighter. I vaguely wondered if he was a smoker and if he had a cigarette on him at the moment. "Name's John… they call me Pyro," he paused for a bit as if waiting for something. "And you are?"

I guess he hadn't been paying attention to Kitty and me when I was introducing myself to her. I was getting tired of giving out my name and talking. "Carolina," I finally said. "Nice to meet you, John."

He nodded, beginning to play with his lighter, flicking it open and close. "You got another name?" Weren't these people ever satisfied with knowing one of my names?

"Gypsy," I replied, narrowing my eyes a little, daring him to make some kind of smart ass comment about it. I wasn't usually this defensive, something about him made me though. He was giving off weird vibes.

"What kind of powers you got, Gypsy?"

"It's Carolina, if you don't mind," my brother was the only one who was allowed to call me by my mutant name, mostly because he was the one who gave it to me. Voice and Mr. Logan as well, because they earned the right to do so. "And I'd rather not talk about it," I told him. I didn't like talking about what I could do. Over the years, I had learned that some things were better to keep to myself. Flick. Click. I cringed a little; the sound of him playing with his lighter was becoming annoying. "Do you have to do that?"

"Do what?" He asked, looking genuinely confused, but I had a feeling he was playing with his lighter deliberately and it was starting to piss me off. I guess that I had spoken to soon about everyone being friendly in this school.

"That," I said, motioning to the lighter in his hands. "It's kind of annoying. Can you please stop?"

He raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat amused. "You trying to tell me what to do?"

I sighed. "I'm asking you to stop," I frowned a little. "I'm not telling you what to do. There's a difference."

"Uh-huh," he looked unconvinced, but stopped flicking it open and closed. He kept it in his hands though. "Better?" He asked, sounding terribly sarcastic.

Ignoring the way he was looking at me with annoyance, I smiled. "Much. Thank you." It kind of went quiet for a while after that. I hated silence; it gave me way too much time to think about things I didn't want to give a second thought to. "So… what can you do?"

He chuckled a little, but it didn't sound very humorous. "You won't talk about your abilities, but you'll ask about mine?" He shook his head, leaning forward a little and then stood up straight. For a second I thought he might leave, but he just continued to stand there. "Kind of being a hypocrite, aren't you?"

That hurt. It really did, but I did my best not to show it. It was hard though, being an Empath. It was hard to hide how I was feeling. I shrugged, "I was just trying to make conversation." I turned away from him, putting my new clothes onto the nightstand by the lamp. As soon as he was gone, I was going to get changed and get some rest. "Sorry."

He went a little quiet, then sighed. "I can manipulate fire," I heard a click.

I looked over my shoulder, he had opened his lighter. "Can you create it?"

"No," he said, flinching a little. "I can only control it, that's why I carry a lighter," I watched as the fire from the Zippo moved to his hand. I turned to face him, backing up a little. The flame was growing. I didn't like fire. Seeing my expression, he brought his hand up a little, close to his face, puckered his lips and blew the fire out like a candle. His eyes met mine.

"I'm an Empath." He tilted his head to the side a little. I wasn't surprised that he hadn't heard of it before. "I can feel others emotion and they can feel mine if I wanted them to," I sighed when I added, "I can also multiply pain."

"Sounds interesting," he said, eyebrow raised.

I shrugged, "It's not very useful." Just when I touch someone and combine both of our pain. "Not like yours."

"I'm nothing without my lighter," he said, obvious pain and resentment in his voice. I could tell he didn't like admitting that he had to rely on his lighter for his source of power. I nodded, but didn't say anything. "Well I'm gonna go. See you around, maybe," he didn't wait for me to say anything, just shut the door as he left.

"He's a troubled kid."

"Yeah, I got that too." My chest was beginning to hurt, my arm throbbed and I had a headache.

"Maybe you should stay away from him"

"Why?" I asked, getting into bed. It felt good to be in a warm bed again. I sighed heavily.

Get some rest, Voice said softly, it echoed in my ears.

"Okay," I bit my lip, staring at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. I was tired, but I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep. It was still light out, but I hadn't slept in the last 48 hours. "Hey, Voice?"

Yeah?

"C-can you sing the song Michael use to sing for Irene? Do you know it?" My eyes stung a little as I spoke my brother and sister's name. "Please?" I just needed to hear something familiar, something soothing. "Please?" I asked again.

"Hush-a-bye don't you cry, Go to sleep-y, little baby." I chewed on my bottom lip. "When you wake you shall have all the pretty little horses." I remember Michael coming into our room, mines and Irene, to sing her to sleep. "Blacks and bays, dapple grays, Coach and six white horses." I used to stay up and listen, but pretended that I was asleep. "Hush-a-bye don't you cry, Go to sleep-y, little baby."

I missed them both, but I knew I'd never see them again. They were gone and I was alone.

"You're not alone. I'm here."

And that did it. I started crying, my shoulders shaking. V continued to sing and it helped, but I kept crying. I hadn't cried in a long time. Not since Michael and Irene died.