August 16, 1992

The streets of Boston were crowded with partygoers. Jean kept her head down. She was wearing her favorite jacket over her uniform: they were all wearing jackets. It was the only real way to cover up the fact that they were wearing protective uniforms beneath them. Scott preferred a brown trench coat and Ororo a thigh-length black coat, but the concept was the same.

Ororo began pushing through the crowds, her steps determined. Jean was worried about her and looked at Scott. He nodded at her, and she knew that he had understood. They rarely needed words to communicate what they were thinking or feeling. They would have to do something to contain her before they ran into their enemies.

More people poured out into the street, almost crushing them. Jean had heard that the circus was in town, quite literally. The Munich Circus was world famous and, if she wasn't on business, she probably would try to get Scott to take her.

As it was that wasn't an option. Jean wished that there was time to breathe, to do something other than have to investigate and report. She wanted to go back to the Institute and just teach her classes, write her papers, and take the students' temperatures.

Not for the first time she wondered if she was cut out for the X-men's lifestyle. She thought of Calvin and Clarice, happily married and living in Florida. They were doing good work, but they weren't X-men anymore. Their marriage was, as of yet, childless. The last she'd heard on the matter Clarice and Calvin were discussing adoption.

They seemed happy though. They didn't live day to day in combat like the X-men did. Calvin and Clarice still had plenty of the same worries as they did, she had no doubt about that, but they didn't respond to things in the same way. They didn't have to.

Jean wished that Scott and her could do that same thing: get married and move to some pleasant city. She loved the Institute, but Jean had lived there in some form or another for around twenty years. Perhaps it was time to move on.

It wasn't as though that were a real option though. Scott was tied to the X-men, both by blood and desire. He'd wanted nothing more than to lead the X-men like his brother did since he was fifteen. He saw it as continuing his brother's legacy It was his most fervent desire to stay there until they had completed their phase in the journey.

It would be a while until they completed that phase. They hadn't trained another generation to take their places yet. Remy was the closest they had to someone who would take their place, and there was only one of him. The X-men membership had never dropped beneath three, mostly because it was a bad idea.

In other words, it all meant that she was going to be another X-man for at least another five years. That was how long it took to train someone to a competent level where they could fight unsupervised. It was an uncomfortable thought, but what else could she do? She couldn't leave Scott behind, and she couldn't just drop the X-men. Not when they needed her.

So she knew that she was going to be staying at the Institute for the time being. It wasn't horrible: she had friends there, the man she loved and expected to marry one day, and a good and rewarding job. It was a very nice set-up: the only thing that didn't fit was that she was occasionally required to take up arms. She was fine with staying there for the time being.

Logan was raising some difficult questions. Jean didn't like the way that he flirted with her, and she didn't like that she was attracted to him. She had the feeling that Scott knew that, and it was hurting him. Logan was the type of person that Scott hated the most in the world: someone with no ties, responsibilities, or respect. To know that Jean saw something in him, something that she didn't really understand herself, had most likely wounded him deeply.

Jean wished that she could just confess everything to Scott, tell him that it was just a fleeting attraction, that she still loved him. She didn't know how to explain without hurting him even worse though.

The last time she'd been in the situation she'd handled everything poorly, and that added trouble. Jean had hoped that, when she was older, it would make sense. Now that she was older she knew that it didn't.

"The more crowded the streets the easier it'll be to blend in," Scott said.

"That's good. We have to stay under the radar," Jean said.

Ororo looked over at the two of them.

"I understand that," she said.

Her voice was flat, but there was a slight edge to it. Jean winced at the tone. Ororo was more volatile than she would ever let anyone know. The entire team had always known that, and they'd known that she was even worse when she was protecting someone.

Teaching had softened her, but she still had some rough edges. Those edges were the ones that worried Jean. They were already on edge after what had happened to Terry. She had been one of their brightest students.

Having Sinister on the loose after two decades of peace was also frightening. Jean still remembered what he had done, what he had tried to do to Scott. His prison break, his connection to Magneto's attack on New York, and Warren's death were all too close together to be unrelated.

"We're starting at the crash site, and then we're moving outward," Scott said, "We need to keep a close investigation pattern."

Ororo nodded. Jean moved closer to Scott. For a moment she allowed herself to brush his fingers with hers. He looked over at her in surprise, before his face softened into a smile.

"Keep close," she said.

"Keep close," he agreed.

"Knock it off you two," Ororo said, looking over her shoulder at them.

Scott grinned and pulled away a bit. Jean smiled back as they continued through the crowd.


David and Kurt sat in silence for a few minutes. Kurt saw David staring at the ground, almost as though he were trying to work out some sort of puzzle. At least now Kurt knew that it wasn't because he was trying to avoid eye contact with his father.

His mother was looking out the window and his father sighed, his hands on his desk.

"Poor Terry," Kurt said at last.

"Poor a lot of things," David muttered.

He looked down at his hands.

"Her voice, her mutation, her weapon," David said, "I always thought she was really loud."

His words came off regretful. Kurt nodded. He had a hard time imagining Terry as being mute.

"There are dangers associated with our lives," his father said, "And I suppose that, unfortunately, Terry suffered because of it."

"There is a chance that she'll speak again," his mother said.

"It's slender," his father said.

"Hope springs eternal," his mother said, "And we both know that Terry will fight until she knows for certain."

Their father nodded and their mother put a hand on his shoulder.

"She's getting the best medical care right now," his mother said, "And once she's out we'll be able to visit her. Until then we're just going to have to sit tight, and hope and pray for the best."

David nodded, his expression thoughtful. He wasn't the only one: a million thoughts were racing through Kurt's head too. They knew that the X-men were investigating something somewhere, they hadn't been briefed on the details, and now Sinister was loose. None of it could be good.

His brother got up and Kurt followed. They both knew when they were being dismissed. Together they walked out into the hallway, neither of them speaking. After a moment David said:

"It makes you think."

"You might want to be more specific," Kurt said.

David shrugged.

"It's just...we choose the people that we trust," David said, "And Terry trusted her boyfriend to have her back."

Kurt shifted, feeling uncomfortable.

"We only know Uncle Alex's part of the story," he said.

"Nah, I wasn't even thinking about that," David said, "I mean, it sucks what he did and there should be some sort of law against that but..."

His brother ran a hand through his hair.

"The way I see it is that Terry's not an idiot," David said, "I don't think that she'd be so completely fooled by someone. If he was just a straight-up asshole then I don't think that she would've been with him. She's had enough assholes in her life that tried to cut and run to know one when she sees one."

Kurt nodded. Although it had been before his time, he'd heard about what happened to Terry when she was younger.

"So I think that he really does love her, that he's just confused and stupid," David said, "I think that he might come back."

"I hope he does," Kurt said, "She's probably in a lot of pain right now."

"Yeah," David said.

His brother looked at the ground. Kurt thought about what his brother had said.

"If you weren't talking about Terry's boyfriend, then what were you talking about though?" Kurt asked.

David sighed, sounding frustrated.

"It's just, well, we don't have as much time as we think we do," David said, "And I was just thinking that, with that in mind, deciding who to trust is actually a matter of more importance than we give it."

He crossed his arms.

"I mean, you trust Amanda, don't you?" David asked.

Kurt flushed. He immediately looked over his shoulder to see if his parents were within earshot.

"I don't know why you haven't told them," David said, "It's not that big of a deal. They'll be excited."

"I know that," Kurt said.

He shifted his feet.

"It's just...it's difficult," he said, "I really want them to like her."

"Hey, I liked her," David said.

Kurt grinned. He didn't want to tell David that he was the one that he'd been more nervous about introducing Amanda to. David had a habit of walling people off and, though Kurt had seen him tear down many of those walls recently, there was no changing the fact that those walls had been there. His brother's opinion meant everything to him, and he knew that if he walled off Amanda it would hurt terribly.

He'd wanted his brother to approve of Amanda so much that he had almost forgotten about his parents.

"All I'm saying is..." David trailed off.

He began walking again. Kurt hurried to catch up with him. He'd never seen his brother at such a loss for words.

"Okay, what I'm trying to say is that Terry made me think that things can happen that can take our planned futures away from us," David said, "And they can be stupid, random things. It's a lesson that I should've learned a long time ago, but I think that I took the wrong lessons away from a situation instead of this one."

Kurt blinked at his brother. David hadn't talked about his condition since New Orleans. He didn't even look too uncomfortable talking about it, just like he was at a loss as to what to say. Kurt remained silent, unsure of what was going to happen next.

"You know what, I'm all out of eloquence right now," David said, "Basically, life is short, shit happens, and I'm asking Sharon out to dinner tomorrow."

Kurt's eyes widened. He gaped as David quickened his pace and turned down another hallway. Kurt stared after his brother for a moment more, almost feeling his brother's impulsiveness in the air.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him. Kurt smiled slowly to himself. Maybe his brother wasn't the only one who could be impulsive.