AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I read through the reviews and wanted to address something Guest told me. I wanted to let you know that I am aware that Gideon's surname is misspelled-I made the error while writing the first chapter and never changed it-just kept the spelling the same in order to not confuse readers. With regards to the telepath/telekinetic error-I do know that Professor Xavier is a telepath, and didn't realize I'd written telekinetic instead, so thanks for pointing that out!

This chapter took me a long time to write because I kept fussing over the details of Alex's house.

You'll get a peek into her home life and plenty mushy goodness with her and Gideon, so I hope the wait was worth it!

As always many thanks to those who review-it really makes a world of difference.

CHAPTER 17

I was finally home. Not the campus, but home home. I hadn't been back here since I turned 14 and moved into my dorm with Alicia. My father had stayed on campus-dealing with the media-who believed me to be there. I was staying here until all of this died down and my attacker was caught.

Closing the door behind me, I glanced around. The house had stood empty for five years. I had forgotten how strong my mother's influence was here. The furniture was covered with sheets, and there was a thin layer of dust just about everywhere. The house was open and airy. When you walked in the front door, there was a small hallway to the left, which lead to the downstairs bathroom and the laundry room. On the right was a wall that ended at the halfway point of the downstairs and marked the beginning of the den area.

Walking forward, I came to the end of the staircase, and tucked just beyond it was the kitchen. In the back area between the kitchen and den was a sheet-covered dining table.

Turning, I faced the stairs. There were four steps leading up to a landing, which was split. Furthest was another small flight of stairs leading to the second floor, this staircase was flush against the wall. Beside it was an open hallway that leads to the two guest bedrooms. I walked down the hallway. At the end, there were two doors. Opening the first one, I peered inside. The walls were painted a pale pink color with white moldings. On the opposite wall there was a queen size tufted headboard. Making up the bed were two twin sized beds with a small white table in between them. The bathroom door was next to the bedroom door. (The two guest rooms shared a bath. The left wall was a window, but the drapes were pulled closed. The right wall had a double doored closet. All of the furniture had sheets over them.

I closed that door and turned to open the other. This guest room had a pale, light green paint without moldings. The sheet covered furniture included one double bed with a wrought iron head and foot board, Two green dressers that were only a little higher than the bed itself, two tan armchairs at the foot of the bed, and an ottoman that would open for storage. The bathroom door was on the wall the chairs faced, and the bathroom door was framed by dark brown bookshelves. These were empty. Two windows with closed drapes were on the far wall. I closed the door and walked back out to the landing. The second staircase had twelve steps. Once at the top of the staircase I glanced around. The top level was wide and open. It had three walls, leaving the staircases and bottom floor open, and in plain view. Looking left, I saw my bedroom door, looking straight and a few feet in front of me, was my parents master bedroom, and looking to the right there was a open space overlooking the downstairs, and on that wall was a third door that lead to my little sister's room. Technically, it was the other way around-I was the second child, but my sister had died before I was born-so as I grew up, after I'd passed the age she'd been, I'd just thought of her as the little sister I never got a chance to know.

In front of that door, in the little space that looked over the downstairs, there were sheet covered chairs, and a loveseat couch.

Walking straight, I opened the door to my parent's room. There was the queen bed I remembered, sheet covered-just like everything else in the house. The bed itself had fluffy pillows and even fluffier blankets. The head and foot boards were tufted, and a rich brown. There was a fabric bench sitting at the foot of the bed, and two glass side tables.

The light brown drapes were closed on the windows. On the wall that had the door was another door which I knew lead into the spacious master bath.

My mother, who died giving birth to me, had designed this house from top to bottom. Every room was organized to the tee, and had always been so. The furniture was stylish and classic. She'd been a successful interior decorator, my mother.

Growing up, there'd been pictures of her in the house, on the walls, framed next to the couch downstairs, and that way I felt close to her-even though knowing her would never be possible. Those pictures were gone now-boxed up with all the little odds and ends, boxed up with the books from the guest rooms, boxed up. My mother was boxed up and stored away in a storage unit downtown.

Opening the door to my room, I stepped inside and was greeted by a sheet covered ghost. My odds and ends were boxed up as well, but mine were sitting downstairs with my suitcases. My room had not been designed by my mother-she never got the chance. I had designed it, and taken a few of my mother's influences. The walls were white, but I had hardwood floors. A rug was still on the floor, under the bed and spreading out. I had a tan tufted headboard on my double bed, multicolored pillows, white sheets and blankets with a pink and green blanket as the top quilt. Antique white dressers served as my bedside tables, and small pink loveseat sat at the end of my bed and acted as a footboard. I had two windows which framed the bed. My desk sat on the right wall and was a bookshelf and desk all in one. Next to it was a door that led to my bathroom. On the left wall was my closet. Walking over and opening it, I smiled. I had absolutely loved this closet. It wasn't large enough to be classified as 'walk-in' but it was large, and organized so that I could fit a small vanity mirror and desk inside. The vanity was front and center as you opened the closet, framed by four short gold rods for clothes. I stored my shoes beneath the clothes. The closet was five feet deep. As you turned to leave, there was a small pipe that was bent in a semi circle tucked into the top corner of the closet, for hanging the clothes you wanted to wear the next day. I closed the closet doors and walked across the room and opened my bathroom door. My bathroom was small. It had a shower that spanned the width of the small room, but had sliding doors. Directly next to it was the toilet, and next to that was the mirror and sink. I went out of my room and down the stairs, back into the foyer, where all of my things were. I glanced over to the den, which was open and more of an area than a room. Although the whole area was on a step. The fire place was built into the corner of the house, and the TV was a few feet away from it, braced against the wall.

The back of the couch was facing the open foyer and kitchen. The couch itself was a light gray and very soft. It had three seats-the first two were normal, the third stretched out so you could lie down if you wanted. Pillows of red, gray and yellow were on it, under all the sheets. There were two armchairs, one on each side of the couch. Both were gray and plush. Everything was sheet covered. I sighed. Glancing over to kitchen, I realized that there wasn't anything, anywhere in this house to eat for dinner.

At that moment, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

"Alex." I answered.

"It's me."

I smiled to myself. Gideon's voice really cheered me up.

"Hey."

"So it's your first night home from the hospital- You going to hang with Alicia?" He asked.

"Actually no. I'm home. Home-Home, not on campus."

"I didn't know your family had a house." He sounded surprised.

I glanced around again before answering. "Yep. Although the place has been boarded up and sheet-covered for years now."

"Riding out the media storm?" He asked.

"Pretty much. Although I'm going to see about a disguise-There's no food here."

"Well, allow me to come to the rescue. Give me your address and I'll pick something up."

"Really?" I smiled to myself.

"Of course. It's my boyfriend duty right?"

I could hear the chuckle in his voice.

"Right." I said. Seeing Gideon would cheer me up, I thought.

"So, any requests on dinner?"

"Mmmmmmm….how about pizza? We could cook it together." I said, hoping to spend a few hours with him. Now that we were "out" to my family, it was going to be harder and a lot more awkward for us to go out on dates.

"You got it. One frozen pizza coming right up."

"Thanks, Gideon."

"No problem."

"Well I'll see you soon."

"Alex-"

"Yes?"

There was a moment of silence.

"I love you."

I felt happiness. Gideon loved me? I couldn't help but smile to myself again.

"I love you too Gideon."

I pressed End Call.

Allowing myself a girlie moment, I twirled with excitement, stirring up quite a bit of dust.

Gideon's POV

I held the phone to my ear longer than needed after Alex ended the call. I'd told her I loved her, and almost had a heart attack from nervousness when she hadn't said anything at first. But now-I was already in the car, so I tossed the phone aside and started the car. Pulling into the parking lot of the supermarket, my phone buzzed. As I headed inside to grab a pizza and some soda, I read the message. It was brief, just the address- with a smiley face emoticon. I smiled and shook my head.

I left the store a few minutes later. I keyed in the address in my navigation system, and drove off.

Alex's house was far enough outside the city to hear crickets and feel the peace, calm, and quiet of the suburbs, but not so far where a trip to the city was more than an hour.

Pulling in the driveway, I looked around. Alex's house was by itself-not in a subdivision. I'd been willing to bet that the land around the house probably belonged to the Xavier family.

Knocking on the door, I thought over the trip out here. If I took out the supermarket trip, it took me a little over half an hour to reach Alex's house from my apartment downtown.

Alexandria's POV

I heard Gideon knock on the front door, and rushed to answer it. I'd hauled all the stuff upstairs and cleaned the kitchen, took the sheets off the dining table, and wiped it down.

Opening the door, I smiled when I saw Gideon standing there grinning at me. I tugged at his shirt and hauled him in for a kiss.

"Well well. Had I known that was the welcome I was going to get, I would have gotten here sooner." Gideon said once I let go.

I laughed. "Come on in. Kitchen's right there."

"Now. I got pizzas and a liter of soda, but I also picked up stuff for butter cake, because as I remember-I still owe you some."

I laughed as I recalled our garden conversation. "Well I'm looking forward to it."

I opened one of the pizzas and preheated the oven.

Gideon reeled me in for another kiss, this one longer than the first. "I meant what I said on the phone earlier. I'm in love with you, Miss Alexandria Xavier."

Wrapping my arms around his neck, "Well I suppose it's a good thing that I'm in love with you too, Mr. Gideon Lenshaw."

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."

The timer for the oven decided that now was the perfect time to start beeping.

We broke apart laughing.

"Alright. I got us a cheese pizza and a pepperoni and sausage. Put them both in?" Gideon looked back at me.

"Sounds good." I murmured as I poured the soda into two glasses.

"Just to clear the air-I washed these. Don't want you to think I'm serving you dusty glasses." I teased. Gideon took his.

"Good, because if I recall correctly, dust doesn't really flow with the flavor of soda."

I snorted. After taking a drink, I set the glass down.

"While I have you here, do you think I can enlist your help with some of these sheets?"

Gideon shrugged off his jacket and cracked his knuckles. "Enlist away."

We walked over to the den, and began pulling off the sheets, stirring up clouds of dust.

We tossed the sheets over on the hardwood floor of the foyer.

"If I remember correctly…ah ha."

I pulled out a duster and a vacuum from the hallway closet.

Gideon took the vacuum and ran it over the carpeted den, and I knocked the rest of the dust off the couches, chairs, fireplace mantle, and television. By the time we had finished the sheets and cleaning, I was fluffing up the colored pillows and replacing them on the couch when the timer went off, meaning our pizzas were ready.

I headed over to the kitchen, and pulled them out of the oven, and began slicing them up.

Gideon gathered up all the sheets. "Hey, I know you probably don't have any garbage bags here, but is there an outside garbage can? I figure these could go in there."

"Yeah-there's a big green one in the garage. It's through there."

There were two glass doors that lead outside just behind the dining table, but there was a small white door in the kitchen that led to the garage. Gideon went to toss the sheets.

Gideon's POV

Holy freaking cow. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a garage that was this organized. The walls were painted a plain white. The green garbage can was next to the door. The walls were straight, except on the left side which had a niche. In that niche was one long shelf near the roof that had two rows of six bins, one row stacked on the other that had various things in it-most looked like Christmas stuff. Below that various tools hung, and just below those was another small shelf with a few stacks of things. Tucked beneath it was a small black craftsman toolbox on wheels. Next to the shelf, which was only about half the length of the niche were two golf sets, and hanging next to them were two bikes with helmets. I shook my head at the level of organization, but also of the idea of the Professor riding a bike.

Heading back inside, Alex was drying two plates off. "Ok-I have to ask. What's up the military code organization out there?"

Alex laughed. "My mother was something of a neat freak, I'm told."

I was confused.

Alex-seeing my confused look, hurried to explain.

"My mother died giving birth to me. I never knew her."

"Oh Alex. I'm sorry." I stood next to her. She shrugged. "It's not your fault."

Alexandria's POV

We sat and ate. After dinner, Gideon led me back to the kitchen for dessert.

"So…butter cake huh?"

Gideon nodded as he showed me how to split up the ingredients into two bowls. "Ok-stir this, while I wipe down this pan."

I had strong arms, but I was surprised at the resistance I encountered trying to stir it.

"Ok wow, this is difficult."

Gideon laughed and took a stance behind me. "You just have to tilt it, there. Holding it at an angle makes it easier to handle."

Once we had that stirred up and mixed together, Gideon handed me the second bowl. "There are two layers to this cake" he explained. The second layer was just as hard to stir as the first.

We finally got it in the oven and Gideon set the timer.

"While I'm here, any other rooms you want to uncover?"

"Well if you're offering…"

Gideon wrapped his arms around my waist. "I'm at your disposal."

While we waited for the butter cake to cook, we got the two guest rooms un-sheeted, dusted, and vacuumed. Once the timer went off, we ran back to the kitchen. Gideon took the cake out of the oven, as I hopped up on the counter.

Gideon walked over. "It's best to let it cool and settle before we dig in." His hands were resting on my knees. Looping my arms around his neck, I pulled him close. "Fine by me." Gideon pulled me into his arms and I wrapped my legs around him. Kissing Gideon never got old; I could stay here forever and perfectly content.

Gideon pulled away. "I've made the decision to tell my father about you, Alex"

I was surprised. "Really?"

Gideon nodded as his hands settled on my waist. "I think it's time. I love you, Alex. I'm serious about you, and that's something that he is going to have to come to terms with."

"Gideon, I love you, so please don't take this the wrong way, but something tells me he is not going to be that calm about it-Gideon, my dad wasn't even that calm about it."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be furious. And if we're being honest, when I got to the hospital and it came out, I was more worried about Logan than your dad. To this day I am astounded that he did not slug me." I had started to giggle about halfway through Gideon talking.

"Yeah, Wolverine's like my big protective uncle."

"He's like your big scary as hell uncle." Gideon muttered.

I threw my head back to laugh, Gideon started to laugh too. Once our laughter died down, we sliced into the cake.

Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was a lot later than I'd thought. "Hey Gideon?"

"Huh?"

Gideon looked up from washing dishes. "You're not going to be able to get home tonight."

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. "And why is that?"

"You know that bridge you cross to get over here?"

"Don't tell me." He moaned.

"Yep. It floods at night. I am so sorry. I'd completely forgotten about it."

Gideon dried off the plates. "It's ok."

"Well, you can bunk in the guest room, if you'd like."

Gideon nodded, a wry grin on his face.

The next morning, I woke to the smell of something cooking.

Wait-no…something burning?

Sliding my silk robe over my pajamas, I wiped the gunk from my eyes, yanked a brush through my hair and hurried downstairs.

"Gideon?" I called.

Arriving at the base of the stairs, I saw smoke billowing out of the oven. The windows were open, and it looked like Gideon was attempting to clear the room of smoke.

"Oh my god." I pressed a hand to my hand to stifle laughter.

Gideon turned.

"Oh you're awake!"

"Yeah…What happened?"

Gideon, still holding a spatula and an oven mitt, shrugged. "Well I tried to cook breakfast for us, but I grossly underestimated my cooking abilities."

I looked around. "Where did you even get food for breakfast?"

Gideon closed the oven door. "There's a quick-mart just a few miles down the road. I ran out and got you some necessities, and the now burnt ingredients to breakfast."

I walked into the kitchen, and stood next to Gideon.

"Thanks."

He tossed the spatula into the sink.

"Well, I suppose you learn something new everyday and today I learned the smoke alarm is not a timer."

I laughed.

Gideon cocked his eyebrow at me. "You think that's funny, Alex?"

Still laughing, I looked him dead in the eye and shook my head.

"That's it." He reached out to grab me, and I jumped away.

Gideon chased me through the house until we wound up in the den, collapsed on the sofa, laughing so hard we cried.

Gideon had managed to snag me just before we fell on the couch, so I lay in his arms.

We lay like that for awhile, until my stomach rumbled loudly.

"Time for breakfast."

Gideon looked at his watch.

"Actually, more like lunch-It's almost four."

I laughed again, and got up. Gideon followed me into the kitchen.

"Well there's a box of chocolate pop-tarts in the pantry-oh by the way, that's the coolest pantry I've ever seen." Gideon told me.

I grinned. I had to agree with him there. We had a twenty foot by ten foot walk in pantry.

"Or, we could go the really unhealthy route, and finish off this butter cake." Gideon held out a fork to me.

I took it, and we stood there eating the rest of the butter cake, laughing over the charred mess in the oven.

"I'll clean it before I go." Gideon said.

I shook my head. "You don't have to. It's self cleaning." I explained as I turned the knobs to CLEAN.

"Well that's handy." He remarked.

"I'm confused. If you're such a bad cook, how is this butter cake so delicious? And unburnt, I might add." I asked.

"Well, to let you in on a secret-Butter cake happens to be the one thing I actually know how to cook. Don't get me wrong, I can make a mean can of spaghettio's, I can make Easy Mac, and can fix pizza rolls as well as frozen pizza. But that's pretty much it."

I shook my head. "That's just sad."

Gideon nodded. "I know."

At that moment, his phone rang.

"Gideon." He answered. Whoever was on the other end did all the talking. After a while, Gideon hung up.

"That was my father. Looks like it's back to the real world for me."

"I'll walk you out." I said.

Before Gideon left, he turned back, and I gave him a long, sweet kiss. Once we pulled away, Gideon tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "I meant what I said last night. I'm going to tell my father."

"Good luck."

"Thanks. I'm going to need it." Gideon gave me one last kiss before jumping in his car and driving off.

Gideon's POV

I had the radio on as I drove from Alex's house to my father's headquarters. Having never made this drive before, I accidentally took a few wrong turns, but got myself back on track in a few minutes time.

Pulling in, I saw Chad practically running in my direction. I was surprised, Chad and I hadn't really talked since our fight at the hospital, and since then I'd gotten the feeling he was avoiding me. As happy as I was with Alex, I missed my friend.

I got out of the car. "Chad?"

"Where the hell have you been, dude?"

"Around. What's going on?"

Chad and I were walking back to the headquarters.

"I'll tell you what's happened. The proverbial shit has hit the fan."

Those words were the only warning I had before entering Chaos.

What in the hell was Chad talking about? I briefly considered the fact that perhaps the news of Alex and I had finally reached my circle, but that didn't account for the craziness laid out in front of me. Chad and I made a beeline for my father's office.

Bursting in, I noted the calm inside. It was tense, don't get me wrong, but nobody was running around, losing their minds.

My father was on the phone, speaking rapidly a foreign language. He motioned for Chad and I to sit.

We plopped down on a couch next to the door, and I took it all in. My father's phone call, Mystique was working with Emma Frost, peering over a map across the room.

"Ok-so care to explain to me what's going on?"

Chad nodded. "Earlier this morning, I mean real early, like six or seven, the compromise, and negotiations, everything broke down rather violently. Your dad was yelling, the human commander was yelling, and Xavier was on the television trying to calm everyone down, but his white haired assistant there was doing some yelling too."

Oh boy. This did not sound good.

"Ok. Go on." I said

"Well, then the human commander says that they've got some sort of back up plan to use on mutants if we get aggressive, and when Xavier was trying to reassure him, your dad just lost it and threatened war, and the humans got out of here real fast after that."

I glanced at the clock. It was almost six o clock now.

"So is that what all the craziness is over?"

Something didn't seem right. The chaos downstairs felt more like panic. Most-if not everyone- who allied with my father had no issue with a war on humans. If war was brewing, shouldn't I have walked into a cheerful and celebratory headquarters?

Chad shook his head. "It gets worse."

Technically speaking, with regards to my relationship with Alex, I seriously doubted it could get any worse. If my father declared war on humans, there was no doubt in my mind that Xavier would side with the humans. From the sounds of it, my father was about to declare war on my girlfriend.

"Then about eight or nine this morning, there were a bunch of mutants released from government confines. They were sent home."

"Ok-That sounds good." I said.

Chad shook his head. "To understand what I'm going to tell you, you need to understand that this group of mutants, they're all different, no common ground, they are different races, religions, pulled from just about every state. The only thing that links them together is the fact they're mutants."

I just nodded. I could tell that there was more to the story.

Chad took a breath. "Then, around three or four-It's been difficult to tell exactly when this started to happen, the released mutants began to drop dead."

"Wait what?" I was astounded.

Chad nodded. "They're going home, they start to feel sick, and then they die."

I ran my head through my hair as I struggled to understand what was going on.

"The government was using them to tests, and then right after the break down this morning, they were injected with something, and then released."

"Wait wait wait. How do you know that?"

"One of them started to feel sick, and I guess he knew your father back in the day, so he came here. Most of our info came from him."

"Well where is he now?"

Chad just looked at me.

"Dead. And it gets worse."

I honestly could not fathom how it could possibly get any worse.

"Other mutants-ones who were never held by the government-are starting to report feeling the same kinds of symptoms that those released were feeling before they dropped. The reports have just started, so we don't have a good idea of the damage yet. It's a miracle we know this much already."

"It's spreading." I said, dumbfounded. "Anything else?" I asked.

Chad nodded. "One more thing. As far as we can tell, it's only attacking mutants. Humans seem to be immune."

My father hung up the phone. "Gideon!"

Chad and I bolted over.

"Did Chad fill you in?" He asked.

I nodded. "Do we have a plan to counter act it yet?"

He shook his head. "Although I have called in-"

There was a rap on the door to the office. Mystique opened it to reveal the Professor, Storm, and Logan.

"Professor Xavier!" I exclaimed.

My father rose. "Charles." He shook the professor's hand.

They quickly swapped info, and Storm and Logan got to work with Mystique and Frost-My guess would be mapping the advance and most affected areas. The professor rolled up to me.

"Gideon."

The professor had never addressed me by my first name, and my father noticed.

Chad clapped a hand on my shoulder. "If we all are going to be seriously working to halt this disease, now isn't the time for secrets."

My father strode towards me. "What does he mean by that, Gideon?"

Looking over at the professor, I was surprised to receive an encouraging nod. I figured this was one of those times where just coming out and saying it was best-no beating around the bush.

"I've been seriously dating the professor's daughter, Alexandria."

Silence reigned in the entire room.