August 23, 1955

"Now Rahne," Moira said, "It's going to be fine."

Rahne peered around her, still holding onto Moira's pant leg tightly. She took in the large brick building and the well-groomed lawn. Moira watched as her daughter looked from the school to a playground where several children were chatting happily, playing jump rope and climbing on a slide.

She shook her head once before taking refuge behind her legs again. Moira sighed and turned around. She knelt down gently, her hands cupping her daughter's face.

"It's just school Rahne," said Moira, her tone reassuring, "It's going to be fun. There are other kids here you can play with, and the teacher will give you crafts to do. You like crafts."

Rahne hesitated.

"What if they don't like me?" she asked.

"Rahne, they'll like you," Moira assured her, "Why wouldn't they?"

"I can't change when they're around," said Rahne uncomfortably.

Moira swallowed. Rahne's unique ability had been the cause of several long conversations wither daughter. Rahne was aware that she was different, that other people didn't change into wolves. From the pauses when she talked about it Moira could infer that she'd gotten decidedly negative responses in the past. The specifics were locked deeply in Rahne's mind though, and Moira had no wish to make her relive painful memories.

For all her youth Rahne had a keen sense of how the world worked. She had divided the world into two categories. There were people she could 'change' in front of, and people she couldn't. To Moira's knowledge she was the only person in the change-friendly category. She hoped that that more people were added one day.

However, Rahne was acutely aware that other people shouldn't be able to see what she did. It saved Moira from having to explain it to her. She'd already been exposed to far too many of the world's evils. Five was too young an age to be on the street at, and even a year spent safely at Moira's house still left her feeling exposed in public.

How she would make her daughter feel better was a completely different matter, and one she fumbled awkwardly at.

"Well, it will be okay," Moira said, "Come on. You'll like school. I'm sure of it."

Again Rahne looked uncertainly at the school.

"You'll be back for me, right?" she asked plaintively.

Moira pulled her into a hug.

"Always," she said.

Getting to her feet she took Rahne's hand. Her little fingernails dug into Moira's palm. Together they walked into the school together. The teacher greeted them and said something kind, if not rather generic, about Rahne. Moira explained that her daughter was a little shy, although she had the feeling that all parents said that about their young child on the first day of school.

The teacher nodded and Rahne was assigned a desk and cubby. She hugged her again before leaving. Getting into the car she reflected on how this would change things. Her work hours had had to be pushed back, as had her lunch break. Moira knew she would have to use her lunch break to pick Rahne up from school and return her home. She'd practiced eating in the car. It wasn't perfect, but it was something.

School was, despite her nervousness about leading her new daughter into her first day of school, a godsend. Moira didn't like leaving Rahne home alone for the long periods of time it took for her to do her job. She'd shown that she could take care of herself, but Moira had fretted constantly. School would be good for her, would help her make friends. She was sure of it.

With her promotion, one more level and she would be an agent, she was also bringing in more money. That too was a godsend. Moira had never planned that she would be providing for someone other than herself at this point in her life. She was very young and had thought she'd be much more focused on her career. The road of life could lead to funny places sometimes though, and you had to run with it or be bowled over.

She parked her car and got out, locking the door behind her. As she walked she fumbled with her keys slightly, trying to get everything in order before she arrived. Moira walked into the building and sat down at her desk, adjusting her typewriter on her desk. Immediately Levine leaned over from his adjacent cubicle.

"So, Rahne's first day at school?" he asked.

"You must be really bored to be asking me about my daughter," Moira said, "Last time you asked me you went away looking terrified."

"I didn't know kids threw macaroni," said Levine, "I plan on having kids one day. Not now; I'm not even married, but one day. I just didn't know they did that."

"You're honestly telling me that you never threw macaroni as a kid?" asked Moira.

"Nope."

She shook her head.

"Sorry; I don't think I buy that."

"I was an old soul," Levine said.

"Mmhm. So what's got you so bored?" she asked.

"Just some reports of a Russian cargo ship found carrying guns in wheat crates," said Levine, "It's not going to be an international incident though; it was taking them to Hungary."

"Why do we know it had guns on it at all then?" she asked.

"Oh, it got blown off course to around Africa," he said.

"Africa," Moira repeated.

"Yeah, I'm not joking. Africa," said Levine, "There was a legitimate storm and the ship took some pretty heavy damage from it. So the coast guard was towing it. They found out and we found out through them. It was a pretty small shipment to be honest. Just means what we already knew; they're stockpiling weapons."

"So it's the same old news?"

"Same old."

He yawned and stretched.

"Now; back to Rahne," he said, "Today is her first day right?"

Levine smiled a little when he said her name. Despite his fear of small children he had met Rahne when Moira had forgotten a file at the office. He'd been nice to her and Moira knew he had a soft spot for her daughter. It felt nice to have someone to talk about Rahne with, even if he didn't know about her ability.

"Yeah. She's really nervous," Moira said, "She looked like she was five seconds away from latching onto me and refusing to let go."

"Sounds like my first day. My mom says I bawled like a baby," said Levine, "Let's just hope hers isn't exactly like mine."

"Oh?" asked Moira, "What happened?"

He blushed and looked down at a piece of paper on his desk.

"Um…nothing…"

"You've got me curious now," Moira said, "You can't just say 'nothing'. So what happened?"

Levine sighed.

"I puked on the teacher," he said.

Moira burst out laughing. A few of their co-workers looked up and Moira tried to stifle her chuckles. Levine rolled his eyes and tapped his pen irritably on the table.

"Yeah, hilarious," he said, "The teacher hated me for the rest of the year. Apparently her dress was new or something."

She stifled another chuckle but could feel Levine's continued glare.

"Made me a hero to the other kids though," he said defensively, "I was the most popular kid in class. Me and the kid who could drink milk through his nose."

"Valuable life skills I'm sure," Moira said.

"Sue me for making small talk," said Levine, "I'm getting back to protecting my country. You can go do whatever."

With an air of finality he turned back to his desk. Still smiling Moira looked down at the reports on her desk. She flicked through them until she came to the daily reports on some of the countries they had under importation surveillance. Her eyes lit on a small paragraph about a country off the African mainland called Genosha.

Frowning she flipped through the statistics. Moira pulled open her drawer and pulled out another folder. It had the statistics for the past year. It was old data and she knew that most people didn't keep every piece of paper they came across. She needed to keep her data somewhere though.

She took out a pen and began circling numbers. With a bit of further digging she picked up a few old photos of air surveillance taken of the area. She compared these to the times when certain numbers increased. Her brow furrowed and she looked over to where Levine was, typing something out.

"Levine," she said, "you said that ship got blown off the coast of Africa, right?"

"Yup," he replied.

"Where exactly?"

Looking puzzled he gave her the latitude and longitude. The final pieces of information snapped into place. She cross referenced her data with Levine, who had stopped what he was doing when she presented him with it. For the next hour they gathered more information until the two of them were standing in front of the door to McCone's office. They'd already gone to the official directly above them who had referred them there. She swallowed, her mouth dry.

"Certain about this?" he asked.

"Positive," she said, "How about you? Both our names are going on this."

"You did all the work," Levine answered, "You deserve the credit."

"Yes, but I used your data," she said, "Besides, two of us makes it look like we know what we're doing."

He gave a tight nod as McCone called for them to come in. They did so, Moira' s knuckles turning white as she clenched her folder.

"This had better be good," he said, "It's almost time for my lunch break."

Swallowing Moira pulled out the data sheets for comparison.

"For the past five years Genosha has been receiving substantial imports from the Soviet Union," she said, "They're expected to join the Warsaw Pact officially soon, even though there's been a puppet government in control for several years. The Soviet dislike of monarchy doesn't seem to stop them from having an alliance. However, around May you'll notice that they started receiving more shipments."

"There aren't any droughts going on," Levine said, "It's perfect weather. They're exporting wheat. So it's definitely not food. The numbers match up with steel exports in several countries in the Soviet Union."

He pointed to certain highlighted numbers. McCone read the numbers, his brow creasing.

"They've been building something," Moira said, "Possibly weapons or military facilities. It's possible it could be factories. But in May I think that they started getting the goods in their finished forms."

"There was a ship that claimed it was blown off course by a storm," Levine said, "They were blown off course, but only in a way that pushed them back."

"We believe they were delivering weapons to Genosha," said Moira, "And that they have been for some time. They weren't before but now Genosha appears to have a need for weapons."

McCone leaned forward, interested.

"And what, Ms. MacTaggert, do you think caused that?"

She took a deep breath.

"I believe that there's a civil war going on in Genosha right now," she said, "I believe it's between the puppet government and other forces; possibly ones that want a democratic government. If it was a Communist takeover than the Soviets wouldn't be providing weapons. No matter waht it is the Soviets are in danger of losing an area of strategic importance if they want a gateway into Africa."

He leaned back again, looking thoughtful.

"We're going to have to look into this," he said, "I'd like you to leave the folder with me and send me any additional research you come across."

Moira nodded. She wondered if they should leave, but McCone continued on before she could ask.

"Good work, both of you. I can't believe you're only in the typing pool," he said, "We're going to have to work on that. You're dismissed."

They walked out silently. Once they were down the hall they allowed themselves to cheer. Levine laughed and picked Moira up, putting her down only when they heard footsteps down the hallway. Still repressing their grins they returned to their cubicles. It looked like their applications might have just been streamlined.

On her lunch break, an hour later, she picked Rahne up from school.

"Good day?" Moira asked.

Rahne chattered on and on about the games they played and stories they read. She especially enjoyed art time, bringing home a picture she'd painted of her classroom. The colors were running and Moira wasn't sure what anything was. At the same time she knew it was going to end up on the refrigerator.

"So you liked it?" asked Moira.

"A lot mom," she said.

There was a pause and Rahne turned her head, her bright eyes shining.

"Was your day good too?" she asked.

Moira smiled to herself.

"Yes," she said, "yes it was."