A week had passed, and Rachel was settling into the new arrangement. Slow, cautious, but settling in. The students and x-men each understood that the discomfort she radiated was simply an effect of her abilities, and didn't hold this against her. She'd expressed curiosity of the X-men themselves, and been working with the professor to try and sort out her memory loss, though that was slow going in itself. She was doing what she could to not be over-baring towards the one she had decidedly fallen for. She hadn't said the words yet, not properly, she wasn't quite ready to yet. But she claimed the light affections where she could for the time. A kiss on the cheek, a touch of hand or tail, the occasional more lingering moments. Neither rushed. Neither pushed. But both were perfectly content in what the other provided.

He was catching her up on an old Errol Flynn film, his portrayal of Robin Hood, when Rachel received a telepathic alert from the professor.

"Don't be alarmed, Rachel, but it looks like your brother is approaching. We can send him away, don't worry about-" he was rolling into the room when Rachel stood and answered out loud, making Kurt look between the two in alert.

"I can deal with this." He was on his feet in a moment, she answered before he could inquire in her ever calm manner, "My brother seems to be here. I'll send him away." she had that confidence again, the one she had for the anti-mutant boys who had approached them that night, a determination that still could not get Kurt to back down completely.

"Alright, but I'd like to come with you. In case you should like the extra support." She gave a nod, and another to the Professor, who would stand back but likewise be watching in case this went badly.

She was going out the front door before William had reached the end of the driveway, moving towards him with her head held high and Kurt just behind her, giving just enough space while still being present, his tail lashing nervously. She stopped him in the driveway,

"That's close enough. What are you doing here, William?" He clearly didn't want to halt the advance, but just obliged.

"You disappeared without so much as a goodbye, and you wonder why I would worry?" he did sound genuinely surprised and hurt, but Rachel's lips remained a thin line.

"How did you find me?"

"I'm glad to see you're okay. I've been worried about-"

"How. Did. You. Find. Me?" every word was a bite, the aura of hers reaching out to pluck at him, even though she knew the powers had never seemed to effect William at all. She had tried. Oh had she tried in the past. He still didn't answer her question, eyes sweeping back to Kurt instead, who crossed his arms in a clear demonstration of disapproval.

"Rachel, it's time to come home-"

"I am home." He closed his mouth, jaw grit for a moment, taking a mental breath.

"I will only ask you once more. How did you find me? I did not bring a phone here, I left it at the clinic."

"I did some research on him." his eyes flicked up to Kurt, but Rachel didn't buy that either,

"You're very good at lying. But not to me. Moving on then, I am home. You will go away now. You will not contact me, speak to me, and you will never come back here again." The blow made him take a step back, wince at the words.

"Rachel, you don't mean that-"
"Oh but I do."

"We can't talk about this? What could I have possibly done to-"

"The fact that you don't know is verification on its own." Ice in her veins. Even Kurt had to admit, it was harsh, though he trusted she had very good reason for such a response. He hadn't poked or prodded, had let her reveal things to him as she was comfortable with it.

"Rachel, I-" he reached a hand for her, and in an instant found a wire snapped around it. Both men were surprised by the development, following the chord to her pocket. A thin metal wire, not sharp enough to cut but enough to tighten around the target. Which it did. Her eyes had changed to reflect the use of power, it dripped from her words as well,

"This is not a request. The next time you approach me, will be the last mistake you make." There was no denying now her abilities, no possible way she could see her brother lying to himself about everything being as ordinary as he might wish for it to be. The resolve in her words made a shiver run through Kurt, it was far too convincing, but the wires released William and she took a step back.

"Go." William gripped the sore wrist, opened his mouth to argue, closed it again. In the end he turned, heavy steps reflecting the heavy heart that walked away. Kurt stepped forward, cautiously as the wires returned to her coat pockets and her eyes returned to normal. The expression he received dismissed the concerns that her threat had created, for a glimmer of a second he could tell the truth. It was convincing posturing, that she wasn't exactly pleased to have to do. The same mask she had thrown on when they had first met. His hand reached for her shoulder, and she intercepted to hold onto his arm as they turned to go back inside. The professor was on the porch, having given her the distance to confront things herself.

"I know that was hard, but I'm proud of you for standing your ground." he offered the affirmation as they reached the steps, and it earned the barest flicker of a smile from Rachel.

"I actually want to be here," she answered, "And will always fight for what I want."

"And we're glad to have you with us." Kurt chimed in without missing a beat, getting a playful look from Charles,

"Some perhaps more than others."

"I still have a suspicion that warrants investigating. If you'll excuse me. Though I suppose either of you may come along with if you wish."

"I see no reason to leave your side now, unless you request." instead she accepted Kurt's presence with a nod.

"I didn't know you could do that. The wire thing." Kurt made the conversation idle as they made their way through the lower portion of the school.

"My previous employer had me work with a few others once, and I quickly learned my abilities are not exactly team friendly. So began to investigate other methods. Channeling the disquiet through the wire allows me a tool that won't drive those beside me mad." she answered with the same ease the conversation began with. It was yet another reminder of how little he knew about the mysterious woman beside him.

"Your previous employer?"

"The first telepath I met. Tim. Dangerous, authoritative, saw my potential and gave it a direction." not a very good direction, she didn't need to tell him, but a direction where she had been able to learn how to control and wield her abilities all the same.

"He disappeared a few months before I met you. Most likely crossed the wrong person. It's a kill or be killed kind of world." she said it so matter of factly, it drew him to pull her to a stop and give her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Not this world." she stopped, looking to his yellow eyes properly and allowing the pause and speed up of pulse.

"I know that now..." as ever at this distance it was difficult to resist closing the spare space between their lips, she was getting pulled in, but managed if barely not to get distracted from the current goal in mind. Back on path, getting a playful jab of "tease" from him that was accompanied with a grin she returned. Destination met, Hank McCoy glanced up as they appeared.

"One moment, let me just...there." he wrapped up, or at least found a stopping place, for his current project and greeted them with a smile. Hank, much like Kurt, had not responded unfavorably to the aura she produced. In fact, very few of those here had needed very much time to adjust to it at all. Rachel had stopped by before, given her inability to feel pain but that she still takes damage, it was reasonable to at the very least become acquainted with one of the residential doctors.

"Nothing is wrong, I hope?"

"That depends. My brother showed up today, I am suspect as to how he found me." Both men blinked at the statement, glancing to each other.

"Call it a suspicion." Kurt wasn't following, but Hank was quick to read between the lines.

"You think he might have created a way to track you?" Now Kurt got it, face expressing the emotion perhaps she ought to have but didn't. No, her words still came calm for now.

"I would not put it past him." Kurt gave another reassuring squeeze of her hand, unsure what words to say. He hoped it wasn't true. Hank motioned with a pawed hand to the table, and she hopped up to it.

"Well, if he did, I imagine he wouldn't put it where you could easily see it. It would most likely be a small discrete-" Hank already paused as she parted her hair to the front, here she did not need feel a need to wear the scarf that had always hidden the scar across her neck prior, "something rather like that, perhaps. May I?" she gave a nod, Kurt noticing her jaw setting the way William's had before. Contained anger. A slit of eyes. Hank pressed one finger across a small scar at the top of her back, by her neck but not on the spine. It was clearly a deliberate, surgical grade mark. Something was under the skin.

"There's something here, would you like-"

"It removed? Yes." Hank nodded, about to offer a local anesthesia before remembering better, and moving to grab some gloves and a scalpel. The incision was quick and easy to make, a pair of pliers used to remove the small item with a practiced ease. He already had a cotton bandage over it. Rachel never even so much as flinched. She did not feel it. Hank examined the small chip for what it was, glancing up at Kurt with the unspoken question. Would she want to know this? She already knew, the anger seeping into her words enough to send a chill out that made both men shiver despite their fur.

"It's a tracking chip, isn't it?" She didn't even have to see it. The lack of answer was in itself a confirmation. She glanced back at it at last.

"Well, it's gotten rid of now. Thank you, Hank." As quickly as the anger had managed to surface, she had dismissed it. Or swallowed it.

"Not at all. And for what it's worth...I'm sorry."

"It's not something you have done to be sorry for." she offered him a smile, and turned back to Kurt.

"I believe our movie got interrupted?"

"So it did." He gave a nod to his friend, and accepted the hand she held out. Instead of teleporting them back to the living room, they didn't go too terribly far at all, surprising her by wrapping arms and tail both around her petite frame. She blinked a few times at the embrace. He didn't know everything. It seemed she didn't either. But she had confided in him William's history of literally locking her away when it suited him. And now to find this? That her own family had, without her consent or knowledge, put a tracking chip in her like some house cat? It wasn't okay. Half of what most of them had been through, more even, was not okay.

"Why are you...?"

"I will never try to cage you." When he pulled from the embrace she tilted her head in confusion for the statement. So he continued,

"If you ever want to go, the choice is yours. And I won't stop you." He didn't want to trap her. Or put his own interests before her own.

"Why would I possibly want to leave?" she raised a hand to his cheek, one of her favorite affirmations, and his dark fur hid any trace of what could have been a blush.

"I only mean-" this time she shushed the thought with a kiss. Not a peck, a firm pressure that, while she meant for it to be a quicker regard, melted into a head dizzying indulgence. Whirlwind result, she didn't pull back until she had no choice but to catch her breath with a sigh and a smile.

"I don't see myself wanting to go, anywhere." Not the smile of reassurance given to quiet another's emotions, it slid over her entire face and behind her eyes, suited her better than the mask of calm she so often kept guarded. Fingers on each played in the embrace, the mood lifting considerably despite the earlier drama.

"Although, if you're interested, we don't have to finish the movie just yet." he made it as playful as the first time he had invited her home, grinning all the further at the way the remark spread red so quickly over her face and down her neck.

"Well, I mean, I suppose we could. Though you were pretty excited for pulling me into the loop..." From terrifying figure, facing an abusive family member with ice in her veins and a fierce determination, to glancing away with a girlish blush. Kurt wasn't going to push or rush things. Not truly. Tease? Certainly. But only that much until she decided for more.

"Shall we then?" he offered an arm, and received a nod along with one of hers in his own.

Rachel felt, for the first time since arriving there, truly out of William's grasp. Confident now that the chip would be destroyed. And yet, there was still one problem. If she wasn't going anywhere, then William would know still exactly where she was. For the time, however, she put it from her mind, determined to enjoy the rest of her day, beside the man who had grown from a flicker in the darkness, to a hope that even she could exist beside him in the light.

AN: Did you think it was over just yet? Oh no. There's still quite a few curve balls I intend to throw their way. What's a story without conflict? :P