July 16, 1957
Finding people with nothing more than a name to go on was difficult. Moira had been trained to crunch data though, so she was used to the long hours that were required. The road trips were tiring; she had to travel for days at a time. She was grateful to Kayla for babysitting Rahne when she had to go.
Although it wasn't the best, Rahne was getting used to the idea that her mother was going to be gone sometimes. The only heartening thing in this development was that she had gotten used to the idea that her mother was always going to come back. At eight years old Rahne was slowly getting used to the idea that her life was safe and stable.
Upon her return from Genosha Rahne had flung herself into Moira's arms. She'd been in awe of her for days afterwards. Moira wondered just how many people had lied to her in the past. Rahne wasn't used to the stability she was experiencing. It was all she could do to keep from asking Rahne what had happened to her before they met. It was an unspoken rule that she could never could.
At the same time, she had told Kayla about the MRD. She'd also mentioned Genosha to her, a mutant homeland. She'd had to. Telling her about Genosha gave her an option to go to a place where she would be safe. Moira even wondered if she should take Charles' suggestion and move to Genosha with Rahne. Her daughter would grow up safe and in an environment where she wouldn't have to hide.
However, now wasn't the time. Her career, her life, was in America. Moira knew that if she was forced to chose between her daughter and her career that she would chose her daughter. She had made that promise when she had taken her in, even if it had been silent. For now though, making America safe seemed the more viable option.
Kayla recognized that it wasn't her time either and refused to leave. Her reaction about the MRD had been different. When she had heard the news she'd pursed her lips and offered to be a witness of the tactics, if the time came to it. Moira thanked her for her help, but her assignment wasn't to find the elusive MRD. Not yet anyway. It was to find the family members of the exiled mutants.
After the update to Charles and Magnus Moira had realized how vital it was to get these mutants back to their families. She had always known that it was important, from the moment the list had been laid in her hands. It would foster a sense of trust between them, to show that they really didn't know what the MRD was.
The update had also showed her how fragile that trust was, how easily it could be broken. Charles, she knew, trusted her and Levine. He trusted in their work, in their desire to help. She trusted him in the same areas and probably for the same reasons. Moira knew that what was between them was more than trust though. It wasn't something she could dwell on, but she knew that it was there.
What they had was complicated to say the least. Moira reflected on the fact that she barely knew him. Even so, something did exist there. It was something that couldn't be unearthed, would be wrong to be unearthed. All it could do was harm their respective causes and result in the weakening of both sides.
Still, she knew that he knew that they were trying their hardest. He had respect for her work as a professional, not just for her person. It was why he had stepped away when she'd asked him too. There were other reasons, she was sure of that, but he knew that she was competent and could be relied on.
She doubted that Magnus knew that, that he believed that they had nothing to do with the MRD. Perhaps it was the frustration of having to tell someone that the people they had been longing to see again were missing. Moira could sympathize with him; she felt bitter and angry over finding it out. Either way he seemed at his breaking point. Failure, on any level, wasn't something that they could afford.
His anger had seemed to come from something deep. Moira had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than having to tell someone that their relatives wouldn't be coming home. Perhaps Magnus had a personal connection to the Danes. She even briefly toyed with the idea that he was the one who was looking for them before dismissing it. It wasn't relevant.
No matter what though, she knew that she had to find Susanna and Lorna Dane. It didn't matter if they were connected to the King of Genosha or not. What mattered was that people needed to be reunited with their family. If someone had taken Rahne from her she would have moved heaven and earth to find her. On a political stage it mattered because she knew that the trust between the countries was fragile.
It was why, on the day before the return to Genosha, she was driving to San Francisco after a grueling plane ride. Her stay there would have to take a very short time if she was to meet back at the airport for her trip to Genosha. She had also foregone her last night with Rahne in order to do this. She just hoped that it wasn't a wild goose chase.
She stopped her car and stepped out on the sidewalk. It was ten in the morning, giving her plenty of time to make the rendezvous point in Los Angeles if they hurried. The neighborhood was also a bad one. It was slum housing, an old hangover from the days when immigrants were pouring into the city. Moira's own neighborhood was only a notch above it. It looked like the neighborhood of a single mother on a limited income.
Straightening her suit Moira entered the apartment and knocked on the appropriate door, hoping that the dark circles under her eyes weren't too prominent. The door was open by a young woman. She looked at Moira, her face exhausted and suspicious all at once. Moira stared back evenly.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Susanna Dane?" asked Moira.
Immediately the suspicious face clammed up. Moira knew she had the right address.
"Who are you?" Susanna demanded.
"I'm Agent Moira MacTaggert of the CIA-" she began.
Susanna began to slam the door closed. Moira put her foot in it, keeping it open just an inch. The door came down forcefully and she winced from the pain. She could see the woman's green eyes looking at her with determination and fear.
"This isn't what you think!" Moira reflecting that she could have handled things better.
Ignoring her Susanna threw her slight frame against the door. Knowing it probably wasn't the best path, but the only one that was available to her, she forced the door the remainer of the way open. Susanna pressed herself against the wall briefly before running into the kitchen. There were no fire escapes, so Moira figured she wasn't going to make a run for it.
So Moira didn't go after her. Instead she began searching for the letter that Susanna's husband had written. She had it out when Susanna came back, a gun leveled to her head.
"Whoa!" Moira said, splaying her hands out, "You don't need to do that! I'm just here to deliver this! I swear!"
She swallowed nervously. Susanna's hands were trembling on the gun and Moira didn't trust her shot. She'd seen too many nervous shooters when she was in training. Slowly Susanna reached out and snatched the letter from her hands. Her eyes flickered down to the envelope and Moira saw her eyes widen.
"Where did you get this?" demanded Susanna.
"There's a country called Genosha off the coast of Africa," Moira said, hoping that Susanna would put the gun down, "That's where I got it."
"Genosha," repeated Susanna.
"Yes," Moira said, "Some recent immigrants there are sending for their families. The island has changed quite a bit and they believe it to be safe. A lot of them came from the United States, and we're trying to foster friendly relations."
It was the line she had given everyone else. Susanna lowered the gun but didn't put it down. Moira relaxed slightly as Susanna opened the letter and began to read. Tears welled up in her eyes and dripped onto the paper. It was an emotion that Moira had seen on many faces over the past few months.
Susanna swallowed and put the gun on a rickety table.
"I'm sorry," she said, "But…my daughter…"
"I understand," Moira said, "I'd do anything for my daughter too."
She nodded and sat down, her hands twisted around the letter.
"He wants us to come," Susanna said softly, "No one could have forced him to write this…he's too strong-willed."
She put her hand over her mouth.
"He said he'd be back...I didn't think..."
Her voice trailed off into tears. Moira didn't say anything.
"You have to understand," said Susanna, "You…you know about mutants, don't you? You must if you're working this case."
"I do," said Moira.
"My daughter…she manifested about a month ago," Susanna said, "Just like her father. Of course, it came with some other changes too, but, well…"
She gave her a slight smile and got up.
"When are we leaving?" asked Susanna.
"Tomorrow."
"So soon?"
Her voice was laced with excitement. Moira could only imagine what such a change in circumstances would mean to Susanna. She was living as a single mother in a slum, probably struggling to get by. Moira had had her own difficulties in that department, sometimes just barely managing to make it through the week.
To be told that everything was about to change probably sounded like a miracle.
"Yes," said Moira, "we were worried we weren't going to find you."
"I paid a great deal of money to get our files a while back," Susanna said, "I had them destroyed."
Susanna laughed.
"That's illegal, isn't it?"
"Well, yes," Moira said, "I'm surprised you managed it, but it is. Frankly at this point I don't care. You were worried after your husband left, weren't you?"
Her hands twisted around the letter and she nodded.
"I thought, well, if he's a mutant, then our daughter might be too," said Susanna, "I just, I couldn't take that risk."
Moira nodded. She wouldn't hesitate to do the same for Rahne if it came to it. Susanna swallowed again.
"Lorna!" she called out, "Could you come down?"
A door opened and footsteps padded down the hall. A little girl walked in, her hair plaited tightly. She wore a plain black dress, all of her clothes drab but her face bright. It would have been a perfect image, if not for the girl's mint-green hair.
Seeing Moira she took a step back, her eyes darting to her mother's. Moira blinked for a minute as the Susanna cleared her throat.
"Lorna, it's okay," Susanna said gently, "This is Moira MacTaggert."
Lorna folded her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. Eyes that matched her hair looked over Moira, seeming somewhat nervous. Moira smiled the smile she used on Rahne when she came home from school. Lorna cautiously looked from her mother and back to Moira, as if asking if everything was alright.
"I'm from the CIA," Moira said, "You know what that is, right?"
The seven-year-old girl nodded.
"I'm not in trouble, am I?" Lorna asked.
"No, of course not," Moira assured her.
Lorna didn't look convinced.
"Is this because of my hair?" asked Lorna, "And…what I…what I can do?"
Moira shook her head.
"No," she said, "No it isn't."
Smiling gently Susanna walked over to Lorna. She knelt down and took her in her arms. It was something Moira might do with Rahne, a gesture of comfort. Lorna looked back at Moira doubtfully but Susanna kept smiling. She wasn't used to strangers and Moira could understand why.
"She's here about your father," Susanna said.
Lorna blinked and her eyes widened. She swallowed and bit her lip hard. Moira could only imagine what must have been going through her mind.
"He's living in a place called Genosha now," Susanna said, "It's an island around Africa."
The girl nodded, her eyes still wide.
"And their government and ours, well, we have a bit of an agreement," continued Susanna, "It's hard to explain, but one of the conditions was that we tried to find any lost family members here. And we were on the list."
Swallowing Lorna looked at her hands. For a moment there was only stillness in the small apartment. Then Lorna burst into tears and threw her arms around Susanna's neck. Susanna held her close, rocking her slightly. Moira stood still, feeling like an outsider during such a tender moment.
Lorna continued to hold her mother. Susanna looked up, tears in her own eyes.
"She hasn't seen her father in three years," Susanna explained, "And, well, she's very young."
Moira nodded. Lorna looked around at Moira again, her eyes wide.
"When can we go?" she asked.
"We're departing today," Moira said, "You should get there sometime tomorrow."
A smile broke out on the little girl's face.
"That's really, really great," Lorna said, still clinging to her mother, "I wanna go as soon as I can. I miss my dad and…and I really want to see him again. We're really, we're really alike."
Silently Moira took in the girl's features. Although she was young and a different gender, Moira could see similarities. It was there in the slant of her eyebrows, the set of the jaw. Some of the features, like her eyes, belonged to Susanna, but Magnus' genes had obviously been dominant in the little girl.
"I can see that," Moira said.