A/N:I started getting some idea's late this after noon about the plot of this story. It still doesn't rightly have a name but hopefully a title will assert itself somewhere along the journey. I also can't promise that every chapter will be this long. Some may only be short and then others may be as long as this. I kind of hit a streak of brilliance. Let's all hope that it holds out.


One of a Kind: Two.

There was something almost calming about the rhythmic beat of the heart monitor in the ICU room Bruce was situated in. Marie had been to see her cousin every chance that she could. The young man inside of her head had the understanding capability of an eight year old. Looking at his pale form now, Marie wished she'd been a little nicer to him. She'd never intended for anything like this to happen. It was confusing enough with her own thoughts but to have Bruce's mixed up with her own was maddening. She didn't know what to tell the boy like entity inside of her head. Marie couldn't explain it any better than her Aunt and parents could. It had been years since Bruce had had an episode of this magnitude.

The only thing Marie was capable of was grieving for what she'd done, was she supposed to tell her parents, the doctors? Everything inside her was screaming at her to keep quiet. But how much longer could she keep this awful secret to herself? Did anyone suspect her yet? And if she did tell them what would happen? Would her Aunt hate her, blame her for what happened to Bruce only a few short hours ago that to Marie felt like years of torture.

For the time being, Marie had decided to just stick it out. In a manner of speaking sit at the back of the class and play dumb.

'I'm in a crowd and I'm still alone. I am, I know, I am one of them.' She couldn't help thinking to herself as she rearranged herself in her seat. The family would be here soon, Marie had come directly to the hospital after school eager to see if there was any change in her cousin at all. But there wasn't. 'Two of a kind and no ones home.' she almost laughed at herself thinking that. She and Bruce had become one entity over the last day and a half. It really wasn't that long but when someone's being held prisoner in your mind it feels like an eternity.

Slumping back in her chair she folded her arms over her chest listening to the heart monitor as her eyes closed, having gotten precious little sleep the night before she fell asleep and dreamt.

..::FLASH BACK::..

"Bruce, stop playing with your food." Martha said from across the table passing the rolls around to Marvin.

Taking the rolls Marvin set the basket in the middle of the table as he split his open and forked butter into the middle of it before using it to help shovel mashed potatoes and gravy onto his fork and taking a bite from the fork and a bite from the roll. Normally they had home made biscuits but Irene and Martha hadn't felt like kneading them out so they had thrown some Sister Schubert's dinner rolls into the oven and had it over with.

"Bruce stop it." Marie complained.

Bruce was using his spoon to flick pea's onto her plate, he was in a very playful mood tonight as he looked down into his plate mischievously before preparing to fire a pea into someone else's plate.

"One more time, Bruce Thomas Alcott and you'll be sent away from this table without another bite to eat tonight." Martha sounded from across the table. Her voice was stern this time but everyone knew there was no way that Martha could let her baby boy go without and when she thought they were all asleep she would sneak into Bruce's room with a bowl of ice cream or some cookies and milk.

"Sorry momma." Bruce mumbled forcing himself to eat a spoonful of the peas. Everyone knew Bruce hated them but it was his own way of truly saying he wouldn't do it anymore and besides he only had about a mouthful of peas left on his plate to eat after he'd finished loading most of his onto someone else's plate.

In a way Bruce looked like a huskier Gilbert Grape, he had a gentle soul and whenever he did get into trouble it was only because he was bored which everyone normally tried to make sure he was not. Between Martha's home schooling, Irene showing him how to do needle point and Marvin telling him all about the wonders of manhood which included taking care of and watching after the ladies of the house Bruce rarely got into trouble. Marie really didn't pay him all that much attention but he liked her iPod. He thought it was some kind of futuristic robot which he liked to toy around with when she would let him. Bruce also liked watching Marie put her make-up on. It was strangely fascinating to him but she didn't seem to mind all that much so she let him watch even asking him what he thought of a particular combination of eye shadows every now and then. All he wanted was to be included in everything that went on around the house and since Uncle Marvin had become his idol they could see him trying to mimic everything that Marvin did.

Even though Marvin never said anything to implicate how he felt, he walked just a little taller because there was a young boy looking up to him.

"Pass the gravy please?" Marie asked looking over the table as Marvin picked up the bowl preparing to hand it down to Marie when Bruce reached up for it wanting to help shorten the distance Marvin and four hands on the gravy bowl wasn't good. When Marie added her hand to both of Bruce's and one of Marvin's her pinky finger brushed along Bruce's knuckles. Assuming that they had it Marvin let the bowl go and was returning to his meal with the gravy bowl fell to the floor shattering along with Bruce. Shivering and convulsing vomit rose up into his throat leaking from his mouth. Marie screaming, Martha leapt from her chair as well as Irene and Marvin while Marie fell onto the floor amongst the glass, gravy and vomit. At first she started to touch him, but then she drew her hands back quickly. In that one moment when they're skin and been in contact she'd felt it, a pull that sucked everything from Bruce into her even right down to the very last thoughts he'd been thinking in that moment. It was enough to bring tears into her was down in the crawl space between the wall and the chairs pulling Bruce's head up into her lap. "Marvin dial that number there on the fridge." she shouted pushing her fingers past the vomit still in Bruce's mouth to hold his tongue down in case he swallowed it. "Marie grab me a towel, napkin anything." Looking around quickly everything was happening so face she pushed herself up off of the floor and ran over to the sink grabbing the dish clothe from the sink and ran back handing it to Martha over her mother who now crouched next to Bruce's convulsing body in her place."I'm sorry I didn't mean too. Ah-ah only touched'em." she whimpered through the tears in her eyes.

"You didn't do this honey, Bruce used to have these all the time." Martha said as Marvin hung up the phone.

"Doctor's sending an ambulance should be here in a couple minuets, they say." Marvin said bracing his daughter by the shoulders before Marie shrugged out of them. She couldn't risk letting anyone else touch her so she staid distant from the rest of the family when the ambulance crew came in and got Bruce onto a stretcher. Marie didn't go with them to the hospital either. Instead she staid home getting left overs from dinner put away and cleaning up the mess on the floor. It was only when she dipped her hands into the scalding dish water and her hand stung that she realized there was a tiny shard of glass in her hand. For a second she almost didn't know where it came from, and then she remembered when she'd pushed herself up to get Martha a towel she must have picked up a piece of glass from the gravy bowl.

The rest of the night she was like a zombie sitting next to the phone waiting for any calls that might tell her how her cousin was. At about two that morning she woke up to the sound of someone coming in the front door. It was her parents. Wrapped in a throw blanket from the couch Marie looked at them, wondering what they knew and if they knew that she had done this.

"He's out of the world right now sweetie. The doctors have got him hooked up to a heart monitor right now just as a precaution until they can figure out what caused this, ya know since he hasn't had an episode like this in so long." Irene told her. For a second Marie let her mother hug her but she was careful not to let her touch her skin.

..::FLASH::..

Waking up Marie could almost still feel her mothers arms around her and the tears came up in her throat again. She wanted more than anything to just curl up in her mothers arms and let her rock her like she had when she was a little girl. But she couldn't do that. That was the last time that she would ever be able to be held by someone without them knowing about her skin. The very last time.


"Damnit Jean!" he roared untangling himself from the sheets in fit of rage that he had never known until this very second. Ok, that's a lie Logan's seen a lot of fits of rage but this one is in the top ten list. "So fucking sick of this shit." he stumbled getting his foot caught up in a blanket and falling onto the floor with a thud that could have woken many in the mansion if it weren't for the fact that they were in his room and there was only one other person sleeping down the corridor and Logan knew for a fact that once Jubilee had knocked out from her sugar frenzy of the day she was dead to the world at night with her headphones on her ears music loud enough for even his enhanced hearing that he could have sung along if he even cared for that stupid boy band crap she listened too. Cursing even more a string of profanities left his lips that would have made even a navy vet turn crimson in the cheeks.

Once getting his ankle untangled he was on his feet in all his naked glory fuming. "I'm not doing this anymore, do you understand me. This isn't like the other times." He said beginning to pace the room in long strides his hands coming up to thread through his already wild hair.

"I'm sorry Logan, please just come back to bed. Ok. Scott's not going to be back until tomorrow morning. Come on. Please? Let's not spend this time fighting." Was Jean's plea as she sat up in bed the sheets pooling around her waist her flaming red hair didn't look any better than Logan's did.

And just for those of you who don't know unless you've ever seen Jean naked than you would naturally assume that that was the natural color of her hair. She kept a whole bathroom cabinet stocked with her favorite shade and all hell would break loose one day if that shade was ever discontinued.

"No, Jean. Hell no. No I'm sorry come back to bed. That shit might fly with Scott but I'm not Scott in case you have forgotten." He mused his eyes darkening as she looked at the woman that he had been carrying an on again off again affair with for the past six months. Logan couldn't even admit mentally to himself that he loved Jean and he thought that she loved him and that as soon as they had taken up together she would leave her husband. He'd been waiting for it since the first time they had slept together well, sleeping really wasn't the technically word for it. More something around the lines of dirty, raunchy animal sex was more like it but that's besides the point.

Scott had left a week ago on a mission for Xavier, which left Jean and Logan a lot of time to be together, secretly of course. But it was time to admit it, Jean didn't love him and she never would. Logan was the exciting double life she lead while her husband was away and he had to wonder how many other men there had been before him. And these thoughts weren't just now occurring to him, no they had been playing around the edges of his mind for some time now and when he didn't even realize it he was looking around at all the available men around the mansion wondering if they're done this kind of thing with Jean too only now they were old hat to her.

"Believe me Logan, I know. Scott would never treat me like this." Jean said a little more righteously than a woman in her position had any right too as she threw covers off of herself beginning to get dressed.

"Oh don't start giving me any lectures about how Scott would or wouldn't treat you Jean okay. Scott may be whipped but he isn't that whipped and one day when he finds out about this." he paused for a second his eyes almost gleaming with satisfaction. "And let me tell you baby he will…he'll drop your ass so fast it'll leave that pretty little head of yours spinning."

Logan was a lot of things, and he would admit to being one mean, screwed up bastard but concerning Jean he couldn't even rightfully call her every name in the book that was running through his mind. But he couldn't because he was just as guilty as she was and even though Logan had never taken a liking to Scott he thought the man at least deserved to know exactly what kind of woman he was married to.

"You wouldn't dare!?" Jean spat jerking her shirt over her head her bra in hand.

"I wouldn't?" Logan glared. "Try me. As soon as Scott gets back ol'e one eye and me are gonna have a nice long heart to heart and there ain't shit you can do about it woman."

If there was one thing Jean hated it was people telling her that something was out of her control, especially if it came out making her look bad.

"We'll just see about that." Jean snorted heading for the door as Logan was pulling on a pair of sweat pants preparing to go after her because he hadn't even touched bottom with what he was prepared to tell her. Storming out the door Jean was stomping down the hall like an angry rhino and Logan only paces behind her before he noticed a door to his left creak open.

Jubilee. Was there anything in that kid's wardrobe that wasn't yellow! Her black hair standing up in every direction which wasn't really new because the little Asian almost always styled her hair in a way that made it look like she had just rolled out of bed.

"Geez, man what'dja do pokier in the wrong hole?"

Without much thought Logan let the claws come out with a metallic click at the knuckles and waved his hand at Jubilee. A skittish 'Eep!' was all her heard out of her for the rest of the night.


'I'm a mutant.' It was hard to believe looking in the mirror. She didn't look like a mutant, but then a lot of mutants didn't look like mutants she guessed. Only the dangerous ones was her thought. At least all the mutant's she'd ever seen on TV. Except for that Hank McCoy guy, Marie had seen him a few times on the news for Mutant Rights, she kind of liked him. He looked kind and gentle so what could she say about mutants? Only that she was one.

Since the night she'd used her powers unknowingly against her own cousin she'd kept pretty much covered up and she had a theory. It had something to do with her skin, so since then she'd been careful not to touch people skin to skin as well as wearing a pair of old opera gloves that went to an old Halloween costume. No one had questioned her about them yet, they all assumed it was some kind of phase she was going through. Sighing to herself as she sat down on the end of her bed staring into the mirror, like somehow something about her would change. I don't know something like a great big target on her forehead? Something that might tell her she was right or she was wrong, but she had a feeling that the wrong was right.

Marie had been spending a lot of time up in her bedroom since it happened and everyone naturally thought that she was somehow traumatized by seeing what happened to her cousin. Oh she was traumatized alright, traumatized into thinking that she would never again be able to be a fully functional member of society. It was only lucky for her that her parents didn't have a real clue as to what she was going through and she really tried her best to keep them from getting one. If they knew what kind of freak she really was, they would probably disown her. Even her own father was all for the mutants having to be tagged like dangerous cattle. Either way Marie knew that one day they would pass that law that every mutant in the world would have to be licensed somehow and she didn't think it was that far into the future. But she had to ask herself, was that really such a bad thing? Mutants by law having to let they're neighbors, employers know that they were mutants, if they couldn't already tell. But that also just seemed to go against everyone's God given free will to live where you wanted, work where you wanted. Marie had only recently hit the very cusp of questions that she needed answers to and she sure wasn't going to get them by sitting on her fanny just wishing for them. She had to know, she had to find out.

In her room, she made a decision right then and there. She would have to leave home, somewhere out there in that big scary world there were others like her and they had to have more answers than she did.

That night after a quiet and strained dinner Marie escaped back into her room turning on her iPod and playing it just loud enough that no one below could hear her shuffling around in her bedroom packing and collecting all the money she had been saving from a tin in her underwear drawer. Somehow she found a moment to thank God that she had recently visited the coin star and had all her change transferred to cold hard cash. She only had about four hundred dollars and she knew that wouldn't get her very far. Marie didn't have much of a plan other than she would take a bus headed anywhere. She would have to be careful, especially with all the mutant haters. In the first week she'd cried and ocean of tears and now all there seemed to be left was a broken family and dreams that would never come true so she tried to be optimistic, she'd dream new dreams and those would have to last her for a while. At least maybe until she could get this whole skin thing figured out. There had to be a way to control it.

At three that morning she snuck down the hall hearing the monitors in her cousins room. After a week in the hospitals and the doctors couldn't figure out what had caused this to happen they said the only thing to do was to take him home and have round the clock nurses put on him. Maybe being around familiar surroundings would bring him back. Creeping down the stairs she was careful to tread lightly as she headed towards the back door because by this time of night Aunt Martha would have already turned the security system on. Slipping through the kitchen a light was on in Martha's sewing room, but she didn't hear the machine so she just assumed someone had left the light on when she heard the sound of floor boards creaking.

"Marie?"

She heard Martha's voice call her from the sewing room and her heart just about dropped down into her hinnie hole. For a second she thought about not answering and just bolting for the door. But her aunt deserved more of an explanation that an empty bed in the morning.

"Yes Ma'am?" she sighed putting her duffel bag down on the kitchen floor next to the door and tread softly down the hall edging the door open she peaked inside. Martha was sitting there, with the window cracked open smoking a Virgina Slim and chewing piece of peppermint in the few teeth that she had left and her gentle face smiled gesturing for Marie to come in and sit down.

"Where do ya think you're going too little girl?" she raised her brows softly. The question was just a question. Nothing about it told Marie that she was going to try to stop her from leaving or that she was going to call the cops on her. Sitting down slowly she shrugged gently not really knowing exactly what to say to her aunt.

"I've been sitting up since what happened to Bruce. I figured you'd try to slip out sooner or later baby girl." she said more soothingly that Marie thought she deserved.

For a second she almost questioned her aunts motives but then she thought better of it and sat there dumb as a bump on a pickle for a second or two longer before looking at her aunt and frowning. Feeling the tears coming into her eyes she looked up at the ceiling feeling like this should have been the last time she was going to cry about this, but she couldn't help it. It one fell swoop everything she loved had been swept right out from beneath her and if that wasn't something to cry over than she didn't know what was.

"Ah didn't mean'ta hurt Bruce Aunt Martha I really didn't. Ya don't know how much this is hurtin' me." she said through her tears feeling a little slobber wash onto her lips. Yep, she was going into the ugly cry.

"Now don't cry baby. I know this isn't easy and I also know that you would never intentionally hurt your cousin. You don't know just how much that boy up there loves you."

Oh that was all it took for Marie to double over shaking her head in her hands and the sobs just came quicker and harder. "I do Auntie, I do….I heard'em thinking it that night and have every since." she moaned into her hands. "He, he was thinking about how pretty I looked with that yellow butterfly clip in my hair." she whimpered shaking her head her hair falling over her shoulders and eyes covering her face before she reached up nearly trying to pull it all out at the roots.

Jerking upright as she felt something being thrown over her head and shoulders she looked up at Martha who seemed to have tears in her eyes too before she bent down on her knees which Marie knew was no small feet because Martha had arthritis in her knees. Martha had thrown a quilt around her head and shoulders so that she could hold onto her while she cried her eyes out.

"I know, I know. Now ya gotta listen to me alright and you have to promise to keep this secret." she said looking into Marie's eyes and motioning with her hand lightly as the sewing machine started sewing all on it's own. "It's called telekinesis and I've had it since I was younger than you…I'm a mutant too darlin' and I know a man a very smart man who might be able to help you. I only wish that I had warned you…I knew it was gonna happen Marie."


Three hours later Marie was sitting on a bus headed for New York. Martha had explained everything to her. About her childhood and hiding what she was and then only when she was in her mid twenties meeting a man named Charles Xavier. He helped her gain control over her powers and taught her that being a mutant wasn't a death sentence. That was how Martha had met her late husband Thomas. He hadn't been a mutant, but he wasn't like most humans hating what they couldn't understand. It was with him that she built her life. Only a few people in the family knew that Martha was a mutant but Irene had never known and with Marvin's views Martha didn't want to take the chance of him disowning his own daughter and maybe even doing something worse then that. Being a mutant brought with it more dangers than Marie had ever thought. Not only could she be a danger to others because of her particular powers but others could be of danger to her. Humanity wasn't ready for mutant kind. And then there were the labs. Martha told her that she'd never personally been in one, but she'd known others who had and had lost a few very dear friends which was why she'd kept her secret all those years.

The sun was just beginning to come up as they were leaving the state of Mississippi and headed into Tennessee. It was then that she closed her eyes, exhausted with all the new information that she had and a real since of hope which was more than she could say she'd had a week or so ago. Yes, she'd tried to be strong and brave but in truth she knew that everything wasn't ok and was far from being ok for a very long time.

Marie could only help that this Xavier guy had the answers she was searching for. At the time she had the presence of mind to ask her aunt if she'd ever heard of another mutant like her. With her particular ability Martha could only shake her head. So she was unique.

One of a kind.

A/N: I only ask that you please, please leave me some reviews after you read each chapter. I would appreciate it so much. Now I have spell checked this chapter a couple of times and I have re-read over it a couple of times as well but sometimes there is only so much one pair of eyes can see. So please, go easy on the "You spelled that wrong." messages. Not that I am not glad to have them.