Haddy looked up at the sky, resting after a morning of putting the X-Mansion back together. The headaches were gone now, no pain at all. She still heard memories on accident, but it no longer felt like a barrage of being packed inside her head. Despite the turmoil of the previous night, everything seemed surprisingly calm. How could things go from crazy to peaceful in a single night? It didn't make sense. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, though.
She heard the whirr of the Professor's wheel chair and hopped up to her feet.
"I thought you might have questions," he said simply.
She nodded, sitting back down. "A few. Is it like this a lot?"
"Sometimes," he said. "Did you expect life as a mutant to be easy?"
"I didn't expect anything. I don't know what's going on anymore. I'm not sure..."
The Professor drew his eyebrows together. "You're thinking of leaving."
"Were you...?"
He shook his head. "I did not need to read your mind when the answer is written plainly on your face. As I have said before, the choice is yours whether you stay or go. I can help you, and I want to help you. The people here can instruct you, train you to use your powers correctly. Above all, though, they know what you're going through. They've been through it themselves. We know that it's hard."
She kicked at a stone with the tip of her shoe, ordinary converse, not the boots or the costume. She stayed quiet, studying the stone sidewalk. "Does it get any easier?"
"With time," he said. "You have been given a gift, Haddy," the Professor had finally taken to calling her by her nickname, "All that is left is to decide what to do with it. Do you want to leave?"
She placed her head in her hands. "I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. Everything's just been turned on end. It's mixed up, and confusing, and there are bits that I can't even remember."
The Professor leaned forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm afraid the answers might confuse you just as much as the questions, but I will do my best to answer them. When you attacked Pietro, you were stressed and had so many thoughts stirring around in your head. When you channel your power, you are using psychic energies, essentially memories and thoughts that you've absorbed. With so many in your head, you've lost some of your own." He stopped, and waited a long time before continuing his thought. "I could try and return them to you, but it would take time. I don't want you to feel that I'm holding you here using them as ransom."
"I don't," she said. "I trust you, and I know you guys can help me. I'm... I'm just not sure I'm ready. So much has happened so quickly, it's all just a bit overwhelming."
He nodded. "I understand. Take your time. Your parents are coming today to see you."
Haddy's eyes widened. "Do they know that...?
"They know nothing except that you have begun to develop your mutant powers. I did not want to scare them by telling them about last night."
"Thanks," she said. "They would have freaked."
"They will hear nothing of it until you decide to tell them. I would not blame them for being concerned, though. What you went through last night is most definitely a cause for concern."
"I know. I just don't want them to be scared; for me or of me."
The Professor smiled. "Trust me, your parents will still love you no matter what."
The low hum of the wheelchair motor sounded in the room and Logan looked up from reading the morning paper as Professor Xavier glided through the door.
"How'd it go?" asked Logan, taking a sip of a cup of strong, black coffee.
"She's leaving," said the Professor.
Logan contorted his face, confusion evident from his expression. "What? You're sending her away? What'd the girl do, Charles?"
"I'm not sending her away. She hasn't officially made her choice yet, but from talking with her, I know what she will choose. She's scared. Her powers have come on too suddenly and violently. She wants to go home."
Logan nodded and returned to his newspaper, reading through a news article about Evan's game. The Professor had started to mark down notes on a notepad, presumably for a class he was teaching. Finally, Logan broke the silence again.
"I have one question, Charles."
"Only one?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and giving a smirk before returning to his notes. "Ask away."
"What the heck are we going to tell the girl's parents about the chandelier?"
Logan held the door open for Haddy's parents as she nudged a blue duffel bag with her foot. Her mother, a thin woman with short blonde hair and a slightly crooked nose, and her father, a tall, somewhat heavyset man in his early forties, walked in, looking curiously at the chandelier that was jutting out of the floor. Haddy smirked, wondering how Logan would explain that away.
"Construction," he said simply.
"But it's broken through the floor!" her mother exclaimed.
"Uh..." Logan tugged the tip of his hat down and Haddy rushed forward to save him.
"Mom! Dad! It's so great to see you. How is everything?"
Her mother managed to pull her gaze away from the broken chandelier. "It's been going fine. What about you? This new disorder..."
Haddy bit her lip, and it was Logan's turn to come to her rescue.
"It's not a disorder, ma'am," he said. "She's a mutant, not a mental patient."
"Of course," said her father. "We're just confused. It's all so new. We don't entirely understand what's going on."
"Which is why we will be here to help you," said the Professor. "I know you will both have many questions. Here you will always be able to find help, and people who understand what is going on. In the meantime however, I believe Haddy has something to say."
Haddy shuffled her feet and picked up her bag. "I want to go home. Don't get me wrong, this place is great. I just... I want to figure this out together."
Her parents both nodded. "Of course."
Her father turned to the professor and extended a hand. "Thank you so much for all that you've done. You've already helped in so many ways."
"It's been a pleasure," said the Professor shaking his hand. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, white business card. "For when she's ready," he said.
The Professor and Logan watched from the front doors as the Micheals drove off. In the back yard, there were sessions going on, and in the downstairs library, Beast was holding classes. Everything at the institute continued as normal.
"You think she's gone for good?" Logan asked when the car had finally left from sight.
"No, she'll be back again one day."
"And what then?"
Charles Xavier pressed his fingers together. "Then we do what we've always done. We help. That's what we do, Logan. That's why we're here."
Logan tipped his straw hat. "Until then," he said to the empty driveway..
"Until then," the Professor echoed.