Warren kept busy during the next week. He decided to take the position as the economics professor at the school. He figured that if he was staying there, he might at well help out as best as he could. Teaching was challenging, but he was enjoying it. The class was comprised of sixteen to nineteen year olds, and the only familiar face was Kitty. He didn't have to deal with too much unruliness but rather blatant staring from some of the girls in the class.

Warren also began training with the X-Men. Ororo and Logan were not conducting the training, but Bobby, Kitty, and Peter taught Warren a lot in the Danger Room. The young X-Men were all quite helpful, and they seemed to respect him for helping out at Alcatraz even if he got the shit beat out of him in the process. Warren wasn't sure if he wanted to be an X-Man, but he hoped the training would prevent future injuries in confrontations. Also, he liked what the X-Men stood for, even though he wasn't sure if this would be his future path.

Chaos reigned supreme within the mansion. Logan was in emotional shambles, locking himself in his room and not coming out at all. The only one who dared to go in there was Marie, who, Warren had learned, had taken the Cure and could now touch people. But Warren saw her leave Logan's room crying, so he assumed it had not gone well. Storm was distant and distracted; all of her classes were canceled for the week. The children were confused and restless, and many of the older students had to step up and keep the younger ones in line.

Thea, unsurprisingly, was a leading authority figure in this time of confusion. When the younger teenage boys would begin fist fights, she would be the one to jump in and separate them. When some girls were having shouting matches with each other, she would shout louder and try to figure out a way to keep the peace. When there was no food for dinner, she would be the one to whip up a large pot of spaghetti that could feed twenty people. Unfortunately, Thea's involvement did not extend to Warren.

Thea would join the group for dinner, but she kept quiet and did not even spare him a glance. Warren would try to strike up conversation with her, but she would answer his questions curtly and proceed to ignore him. He learned that none of them but Kitty were particularly close to Thea though they all seemed to respect her and her good cooking. When Warren questioned Kitty about it once Thea fled from dinner after hastily eating, Kitty tried to explain.

"Thea…she has a hard time with new people," Kitty said.

"Maybe if she got to know me, it would be easier," Warren supplied. He had been there for a few weeks already, yet he had barely spoken to the girl who had healed him.

"That's the logical answer, and usually Thea is really logical, but…"

"But what?" Warren asked.

"She healed you," Kitty said.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Thea doesn't like using her healing powers. She…she thinks she's playing God when she does it. So, whenever she does use it, she goes into these funks where she doesn't eat much and just thinks a lot," Kitty explained. "The fact that you're new is probably making her funk worse."

"I told her she didn't need to heal me," Warren said.

"Yeah, but Thea, once something gets into her mind, it's hard to get it out. She wanted to heal you, that's a good sign," Kitty said hopefully.

Warren looked at her skeptically. "I don't really understand how that's a good sign," he said.

"When she heals people, she feels guilty because she can't heal everyone and so that means she chooses who she's saving. The fact that she didn't hesitate to heal you meant that for some reason, your well-being meant more to her than her internal moral struggles did at that moment. Trust me, it's hard to supersede Thea's moral struggles," Kitty replied with an encouraging smile.

Warren nodded and continued eating his dinner. "She sure is…weird," he commented to Kitty.

Kitty just smiled.


Thea was lying on her bed, physically exhausted but mentally buzzed. Kitty walked through her room.

"You're so rude," Thea said as she heard the bed creak under Kitty's weight.

"Oh, and you're Miss Courteous," Kitty countered.

Thea snorted.

"He asked about you after you left today. Asked why you're ignoring him," Kitty reported.

"Oh," Thea said.

"He's nice," Kitty commented.

"He's annoying," Thea said.

"And yet you've healed him…twice," Kitty pointed out.

Thea didn't say anything.

In the two years Thea and Kitty knew each other, Thea had only used her healing abilities a few times. The most recent time had been about six months ago when Artie, a mute mutant with a reptilian tongue, had fallen down the stairs and ended up with a broken ankle and a minor concussion. Thea had seen the whole thing occur and did not hesitate to heal the wounded boy. Only afterwards did she realize that she had healed Artie when just a few days before she had seen another boy, Flea, fall on the basketball court and sustain similar injuries. She did not heal Flea but instead watched Storm escort the injured boy to the hospital.

What had made her choose to heal Artie but not Flea? Was it even a conscious choice or something more instinctual? What kind of person would chose to heal one person and not the other? Whether she meant to or not, she had placed Artie's well-being above Flea's and she did not like that. She did not like favoring people. She hated what her ability made her do. She hated how guilty she felt after every time she healed someone knowing there were so many more out there that she could have healed but did not heal.

But now, in a course of two days, she managed to heal Warren Worthington III two times. The same questions and many more swirled in Thea's head.

"Now's just not the time to be an angst whore," Thea said, criticizing herself.

Kitty laughed.

"I'm serious. This place is just so messed up," Thea explained.

"You're doing a lot. Let others help out too," Kitty said.

Thea knew Kitty was right. Thea just hated disorder, and right now, the mansion reeked of it. Also, keeping busy around the mansion meant she had less time to think about her internal disorder. That was always a plus.

"Wanna talk about it?" Kitty asked.

"What can I say?" Thea asked, not bothering to feign ignorance at to what Kitty was referring to.

"Whatever you want," Kitty said encouragingly.

Thea smiled. "You're good to me, Kit," she said affectionately.

"I'm a fantastic person," Kitty supplied.

Thea laughed, her mood brightening. "Yes, you are," she said, giving her friend an ego boost.

"Glad that's been established once again. So, talk," Kitty urged.

Thea was quiet for a few moments until she finally confessed, "I don't know why I healed him, either time. It was…it wasn't even a question in my head."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"No. I don't like this running on instinct thing. Makes questions come up later on. Why did I heal him? Why didn't I heal other people?" she said.

"I think you're too hard on yourself," Kitty said gently.

"I think I'm an idiot," Thea countered.

"Yeah, that was a pretty idiot thing to say just then," Kitty conceded.

"What?" Thea asked, a bit annoyed.

"You know there are no concrete answers," Kitty reasoned.

"I'm not looking for answers, Kit. I'm looking for how I feel about my abilities. I should be consistent in who I heal, when I heal…that sort of thing," Thea said.

"You're looking for the impossible, and you know it too," Kitty replied.

Thea didn't respond.

"You're trying to make up rules for how to run your life. And you can't. If you try, you'll break them eventually, and that'll just make you angry. You made the rule about not using your healing powers after Arnie and now you've used them. You just have to…"

"Deal?" Thea supplied.

"Yeah."

Thea inhaled and exhaled deeply. "Yeah," she said quietly.

"Thea?"

"Hm?"

"Before I left to Alcatraz, you said you couldn't go back there. Did Warren's dad…did he do something to you?" Kitty asked gently.

Thea frowned. She certainly didn't want to talk about that now. "Yes."

"What happened?" Thea could hear the concern and alarm in Kitty's voice.

Thea sighed. "Another day, Kit. And please don't tell Warren," she said.

Kitty sighed quietly. "Okay."


The next day Warren found Thea alone and decided to approach her. She was in the garden, her full lips looking quite nice in a cheerful smile. Her purple hair sparkled vibrantly in the sun and complimented her tanned skin as her slightly slanted brown eyes were unguarded and bright. She touched a dying flower with her small fingers and it rejuvenated.

"Hey," he said, almost feeling guilty for intruding onto a happy time.

Thea looked up from the flowers and the smile disappeared. "Hi," she said stoically.

Warren's feelings of intrusion only amplified. "Sorry, I'll go," Warren said, turning around to leave.

"You don't have to," Thea blurted out.

Warren faced her again with a peculiar look on his face.

She averted her eyes. "The garden…is open to everyone," she said lamely. She resumed her examination and rehabilitation of the flowers.

She looked like she didn't want him there, and yet she said he didn't need to leave. "You confuse me," Warren admitted as he continued to watch her.

Thea looked at him thoughtfully. "I confuse myself."

"You look happy here," he commented. "Less confused around flowers?"

Thea shrugged. "People are messed up. Flowers…they're just there."

"You don't like people much, but you're practically running this place right now?" Warren asked.

Thea smirked. "I like the power, not necessarily the people," she confessed.

Warren laughed. "You're friends with Kitty though," Warren pressed on.

"No one cannot be friends with Kitty. She's just so…"

"Nice?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think you don't like people."

Thea quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"No, I think you're just…scared. Probably something happened to you in the past that was traumatic and makes you think you hate people."

"Did you major in psychology in college or something?" Thea asked.

Warren smiled, a bit of arrogance seeping through. "Minored."

Thea didn't say anything, so Warren continued.

"I may have lost a lot of blood, but I saw your face after I got beat up at Alcatraz. You called me names but I heard the tone in your voice," he said.

"Don't flatter yourself."

"You were worried," Warren stated.

Thea shrugged. "You were hurt."

"There was compassion," Warren replied, stepping closer to her.

Thea backed up. "I'm no saint."

It was Warren's turn to shrug. "Never said you were. But, you're usually…"

"A bitch?" Thea supplied, crossing her arms in a defensive stance.

Warren laughed and shook his head. "No, never thought that actually. Most people here just seem…troubled."

Thea let out a hearty laugh at that. "You're so PC."

"I am my father's son, occasionally," he said lightly.

Thea's eyes darkened and her posture became stiff.

Warren had intended that as a joke, seeing as how he was nothing like his father, but apparently it did not go over so well.

"Althea?"

"Everyone here has their demons," Thea said distantly as she brought another dying bloom to life.

Warren watched her with utter fascination. "Even you?"

She raised her head so that their eyes met. "Especially me," she said quietly.


Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Your compliments are so amazing! I was so happy to read that one of you guys found the story sexy. WOW! What a wonderful compliment. As for using my ideas of Warren in your stories: it's okay if other writers want to make Warren flirty like my characterization of Warren, but if you take dialogue or storylines from my story and put it into yours, that's plagiarism and that's not cool, so I ask that you please do not do that. I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review!