Disclaimer: not mine obviously

NOTICE: Yeah, sorry about having the chapter repeated twice here, in my defense it was late and I was tired and had been working on it all day. so. sorry.

A/N1: I tried to get this out around xmas or a little after but just didn't work out, sorry about that. I've been in a good writing mood but I kept on getting distracted by Pinterest and then my car was being fixed and having problems come up but now, my dear car named GERTRUDE, is fixed! And I have heat!

A/N2: Also, this is a two part chapter technically.

Chapter twenty-nine

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The idea here was for Norah to head up this flight of stairs that she was currently standing in front of, but, well, she hasn't really moved one single foot to do just that. The truth of the matter is that she's scared, scared to go up a single flight of stairs to be reunited with her mother and sister after however many years of being apart. The thought of seeing her sister and mother again terrified the hell out of Norah so instead of heading up to the lounge where Pepper was waiting with her family at, Norah was just staring intently at the stairs as if it was some sort of medieval torture device.

Norah thought that she had prepared herself for this exact moment, she thought that she had mentally prepared herself for seeing her mother and sister again, she talked with Pepper, Tony and even talked to Sam about this who was kinda like a counselor of sorts (usually for Vets, but whatever. That was beside the point). You'd think after preparing herself that much that she'd be all cool and collected, instead she's just freaking out. She missed her family so, so much, her sister especially and the relationship the two used to have. But this…..situation was slightly terrifying and made her feel as if shew as going to get sick from how nervous she was at the moment.

"All right Nor, you can do this," Nora said, giving herself a pep talk. "You can walk up those damn stairs and into that lounge where your family is and you will see your Ma and sister again. Everything will be fine and filled with rainbows and butterflies or whatever. It's been almost eight years since you last saw them, you can do this." She said to herself determinedly, trying to do all she could to convince herself that everything would turn out fine. "You're a strong, stubborn and fierce woman; if you are able to go up against Ultron then you can definitely do this Eleanorah Rosabelle Sjoholm." She lectured to herself with a stubborn look on her face.

Norah was excited and nervous about seeing her sister again, but her mother, well her mother she was downright terrified about seeing again. The last time that Norah had seen her mother there were words said that could never be unsaid; her mother had also stated that she wanted to take her to a doctor so that she could be fixed of her Mutant problem, so that Norah could live a normal human life. That had been the final nail in the coffin of their mother/daughter relationship so to say, when those words had been said Norah knew that there was no way in hell that she would be able to stay with her mother any longer. Now…..now Norah hoped that she and her mother would eventually be able to rebuild their relationship into what it once had been.

Steeling herself for a moment, Norah closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she forced herself to walk up the stairs towards the lounge where her family was waiting for her – anxiously she assumed – so that they could finally be reunited. Cracking her knuckles once, a nervous habit of hers, Norah slowly and cautiously made the trek up the massive set of stairs and towards the lounge. Norah did her damndest to try and control the nerves and uneasy feeling that had settled in her stomach but no matter what she did Norah was unable to do so. The closer she got to the lounge the more distinctive the voices of her mother and sister got, they were so clear that Norah had to stop for a moment and cover her mouth with her hands to keep herself from letting a sad/happy/relieved cry out from hearing their voices and she may have possibly had to quickly wipe at a few tears that were forming in her eyes. It was more than wonderful to hear her mother's and sister's voices once again….it was heart-wrenching, beautiful and astounding all at the same time.

Pausing at the top of the stairs Norah slowly crept forward so to not be seen or heard and hid behind a corner wall, looking around the corner she saw her mother and older sister for the first time in years. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry you silly little girl." She chanted to herself quietly as she studied both her mother and sister for a few moments, just to soak up being near them again.

Tony was so going to have a field day when he saw the video from this moment, Norah sneaking around the tower like a bandit or a burglar of some sort.

Norah took a few moments to observe her mother and sister; both looked relatively the same but when sevenish years go by without seeing one and another the changes become quite obvious. Niki still had her medium brown colored hair but rather than going halfway down her back it now was kept at neck length, she looked older now but Norah assumed that was from her having a family and a business to run. (Norah did in fact end up looking at the files Tony had on her family). Her mother looked older than she expected her to, she still had brown hair but there was some grey throughout it as well and she just looked….aged. As if something had tired her out endlessly over the years, mayhap it was from life in general or her work, or maybe it had to do with the situation with Norah.

Shaking herself out of her stupor and to the present – creeping on her Ma and sister was definitely not what she was supposed to be doing at the moment – Norah rolled her shoulders, walked past the wall that she had been hiding behind and strode into the open lounge like she owned the place. Basically Norah channeled her inner Tony and did her best to put on a brave front even if she wasn't feeling all that brave presently. The moment that Norah stepped out from behind that wall and walked into the lounge both her mother and sister stopped the conversation that they had been having with Pepper and instead stared at Norah as if they had just found salvation or as if they were a thirsty man who had just found water in the middle of a desert.

"Uh, hi," Norah said a bit awkwardly as she shifted from foot to foot, the whole nonverbal staring thing that both her mother and sister were doing at the moment was kinda creeping her out. "Sorry to keep you waiting." She said while rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

Seeing at Norah's mother and sister were either still in shock or mute, Pepper decided to reply to Norah with an encouraging smile. "It's fine Norah, we were just gossiping is all." She said and then stood gracefully from the stark white accent chair that she had been seated in. "I'm going to leave you three to talk, I am sure you all have a lot of catching up to do. All right?" she questioned as she loved to Norah and into her dark eyes, silently communicating that if Norah wanted her to stay for moral support that she was more than willing to do so but would rather let her have some time alone with her family.

Hearing that Norah gave a small thankful smile to Pepper, "We'll be fine." She replied. "Go and do CEO stuff or go bother Tony, I'm sure that he's about to get himself into some sort of trouble by now. You know, making robots and shit." She joked with a half-smile on her face.

"Not funny Norah." Pepper murmured to her as she made her way past Norah and out of the room but not before she had stopped to give Norah a supportive hug and a whispered, "Good luck."

"Thank you." Norah responded in a whisper.

Whilst this was happening both Niki and Cheri were just staring at Norah in amazement over how much she has grown and changed since they had last seen her at the age of fifteen. Back then Norah had curly hair but it seems that the older she got the curlier and wilder her hair became, she also had more womanly curves and had lost that bit of baby fat that all teenagers seemed to have a hell of a time trying to lose. Norah was still somewhat short from the looks of it, her hair was still a golden blonde color and still had the pale ivory skin tone that differed from the somewhat tanner skin tone that both Niki and Cheri had. But what both Niki and Cheri noticed the most while Norah had been talking with Pepper was that Norah held herself different now; rather than being a somewhat quiet, introverted and shy teenager she now held herself with confidence, a hint of arrogance and seemed…..playful which was the exact opposite of what either had expected to see from Norah. Seeing as Norah had been in a sort of goth stage when she ran away her…..being like this was not what they had been expecting, it was a welcome surprise though.

Niki could hardly believe how much her sister had changed over the years, she had gone from the anti-social goth kid sister that she's always known and loved to a beautiful, strong (from what she could tell and from what Pepper had told her and her mother), happy woman who now wore less black and more variety of colored clothing. Seeing her sister again made Niki want to cry but she was able to control it somehow and decided that she could not wait to get to know this new version of her sister and build a relationship with her.

Laying eyes on her daughter, Cheri just couldn't believe that Norah was but five feet from her and she couldn't believe that shew as finally able to see her daughter once again with her own two eyes. She couldn't believe that after everything was said and done all those years ago that Norah, her wonderful and absolutely beautiful Mutant daughter, was willing to see her again. If Cheri had been in Norah's shoes she would have refused from ever seeing her again, she would have condemned herself for what she had said and for what she had wanted to do to Norah simply because she was a Mutant with incredibly powerful and sometimes dangerous abilities. Cheri will forever regret what she had said to Norah for the rest of her life, and if she has to she will beg Norah for forgiveness for the rest of her life.

"So, yeah." Norah said breaking the silence that had settled between the three of them since Pepper had left the lounge. "I'm the long-lost daughter slash sister that you guys haven't seen in seven and a half years, give or take a few days or months." She said jokingly and bit her bottom lip, waiting nervously for them to say something. "Just wanted to put that out there in case there was any confusion." She said, attempting to ease the awkward silence that was happening at the moment.

Hearing that Niki couldn't help but give a little laugh, "Glad that we got that all cleared up." She said, a soft smile on her face and quickly brushed at any tears that attempted to form in her eyes, she was not going to be crying during this little family reunion.

Rather than respond to the quip of her youngest daughter, Cheri slowly stood up from the couch she was sitting on (a couch that probably cost more than her car) and looked into Norah's dark brown colored eyes that were identical to hers for but a moment before she strode forward and pulled Norah into a tight hug. A hug that was so full of relief, thankfulness, love and regret for everything that had happened that resulted in all three women being in their current situation. It was a hug that Cheri never wanted to release her youngest daughter from, being able to hold her daughter like this after thinking that she would never see Norah again. It was more than she could have ever asked for.

"N…Norah." Cheri stuttered out into her daughter's wild curls as she held her as tightly to her as she possibly could, she had a hand pressed lightly against the back of Norah's neck so to keep her embraced within her arms for just a few minutes. "God, Norah. I…I love you so damn much, so, so, so much. I really do, I know….I just, by god I am so sorry for what I said, for how I acted. For….for wanting to fix you and just for everything." She said letting the tears she was holding back fall freely from her eyes and down her face, she didn't care about crying in front of her daughter, all Cheri really cared about was letting Norah know how much she loved her and how much she regretted everything that happened. "There's nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with you Eleanorah. Mutant or not, you're wonderful the way you are and I love you. I know…know that there's nothing I can say to make up for what was said and what was done. And Jesus, I wish I could go bac in time and yell at myself, tell myself that I shouldn't think along those lines or despise a group of people for being Mutants." She said shaking her head and pulling away from her daughter so that she could wipe angrily at the tears that kept on forming in her eyes.

Norah wanted to say something, wanted to interrupt her mother but instead she just let her talk, let her say what she needed to say. To tell the truth Norah wanted to hear what her mother had to say, she wanted to see the emotions on her mother's face as she apologized and explained things to Norah and she wanted to see with her own two eyes that her mother meant everything that she was saying. So, Norah waited and let her mother get out what she needed to get out.

"I made a mistake Norah," Cheri said as she pursed her lips together, doing her damndest to not let her voice crack in front of Norah. "I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life that night and I ended up pushing you away and making you run away. All because I was terrified of what you were. And god, I wish there was a way for me to take back all that had happened and all that was said but…..but I can't. I can't take any of it back." She said and closed her eyes regretfully.

Norah always wondered how she would react to seeing and talking with her mother again, when she thought about how the first conversation would go she had envisioned that there might be a bit of anger and hatred for what was said and for what she had to endure because she had no other choice but to run away. But Norah could honestly say that she didn't really feel any of that any longer, five or six years ago she definitely would have but not so much now. Okay, there was a bit of anger still and probably would be until she felt she and her mother had worked things out completely, but for the most part enough years have passed that Norah understood to a certain extent why her mother had reacted and said the things that she had. The media had brainwashed people into thinking that Mutants were dangerous, that they were 'something' that needed to be locked up and monitored at all times and sadly people feared what they don't understand. Her mother included. Norah was hurt more than anything really.

"Shh," Norah said as she quickly wiped at the tears in her own eyes before cupping her mother's aged face and wiping at her tears with the pads of her thumbs. "It's okay, it's okay Ma." She said with a voice full of emotion and wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly and immersed herself in feeling her mother's embrace once again, a daughter always wants to be hugged and comforted by her mother no matter how old or young she is. It's a scientific fact as far as Norah was concerned. "It's okay." She repeated quietly.

At that Cheri shook her head almost violently, "No, no it's not Norah. It's not okay that I said and did those things; it's not okay that I drove you to running away. I…I'm a horrible mother." She said with a forlorn expression on her face, angry at herself for how she had reacted all those years ago and angry at how many years she had lost with her daughter. "I am supposed to be a mother to you and I failed." She said as she pulled away from Norah and began to slowly pace. "I failed as a mother, I am supposed to love you unconditionally, and love all of you no matter what you choose to do with your life and I should have loved you no matter what. You can't change the fact that you are a Mutant and I should have accepted that part of you without hesitation, instead I…I just reacted the most horrible way I could have." She told her.

Niki shifted and was about to open her mouth to comfort her mother but she looked from her mother and then towards her younger sister and knew the things that were being said right now needed to be out in the open if either Norah or her mother wanted to clear the air and have a clean slate to rebuilt their mother/daughter relationship from. So, she kept her mouth shut and watched but would intervene if it was needed.

"Ma," Norah started but before she was able to say more than that herm other shook her head.

"No," Cheri said as she clenched her fists. "No, I was not a mother in any way or form when I found out you were a Mutant. I shouldn't have let the news scare me into thinking that you would lose control of yourself, I shouldn't have thought that you needed to be fixed, that if we took away your powers you'd be fine and wouldn't end up like those Mutants that always end up on the news." She said and lowered her head for a moment and ran her hands through her hair in frustration – a habit that Norah also has. "I should have realized that not everything that they put out on the news was true, that not all Mutants are bad. I mean I've done a bit of research on that Xavier in New York and he's doing good for his students." She said.

At that Norah couldn't help but give a small smile, "He does, he tries to help any Mutants that he can. Kids and adults alike." She said with a fond smile, the Xavier's teaching style, power wise at least, may not have benefited her all that much but they did help her and they do help other Mutants as much as they can. "He can't help himself, he has a complex where he has to help anyone that needs it."

"You know him?" Cheri asked, hopeful that her daughter had help with her powers from someone. "He helped you?" she questioned.

Norah nodded, "I ended up at Xavier's a few months after I…after I left Minnesota." She replied, not wanting to make her mother feel anymore guilty than she already does by saying the word ran away even if it is what Norah did.

"Oh." Cheri said lamely and cleared her throat. "That's…that's good. A good thing." She said to her.

After that things got quiet for a while, neither Norah nor her mother saying much of anything to one and another and Niki waiting to see if either would say anything because the current discussion definitely was not over. Norah and their mother still needed to talk about a few more things before the subject was dropped about the whole Norah running away and whatnot.

Norah knew she needed to say something to ease her mother's mind so the two of them could move on from what was said and done and get back to having a mother/daughter relationship once again.

"Look, Ma," Norah said gaining her mother's and sister's attention. "I was so angry back then, I was angry and pissed off, I was shocked and devastated all at the same time when you had said I needed to be fixed." She said and paused for a moment. "I mean, I thought being a Mutant was the coolest thing ever. I first found out about being a mutant when I was seven or so, I hadn't gained the blowing up things power yet just being able to blink from place to place as I call it. It was second nature, being a Mutant and being able to do things that the majority of other people couldn't." she said to her and gave a sad, forced smile. "I mean when you found out it wasn't the best of ways admittedly, I mean blowing a shed up is probably one of the worst ways to find out about your daughter being a Mutant. But I thought that after giving you some time to think that you'd be okay, that you'd realize that I was still your daughter and that we'd figure things out. I never thought you'd want to fix me, that you'd want to take something from me that made me…me." She said and closed her dark eyes for a moment as a few tears ran down her face. "I wondered what I did wrong, why you couldn't accept me like I was. Wondered why I wasn't good enough, why you couldn't love me enough to be okay with me being a Mutant."

Hearing her daughter say those things broke Cheri's heart, she knew that when she saw Norah again that she would be hurt over what had happened when she was fifteen, she knew that she would be angry over what was said and over the fact that Cheri hadn't reacted like a loving parent should have. But Cheri was not prepared to see the hurt and pain on her youngest daughter's face, she was not prepared for the heartache of seeing that pain on her face.

"Norah," Cheri began as she caressed the side of her daughter's face lovingly. "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry I made you feel that way. There was nothing wrong with you, you never needed to be fixed do you hear me. You are perfect, Mutant powers and all." She told her and leant forward and pressed a kiss to Norah's forehead.

"I've tried telling people that I'm perfect, for some odd reason they don't seem to believe me." Norah joked, a watery smile on her face but sobered up from her joking and began to speak of something more serious. "I love you mom, I always have even when I ran away. I've always loved both you and Niki and hoped someday I'd see you again and Tony offered to find you for me when he took me in but….but I wasn't brave enough then. I couldn't face rejection, just in case." She said with an embarrassed smile. "I didn't want to get my hopes up only for you to decide to not to talk to me or see me. So I decided to not do anything." She said with a shrug.

"Of course we wanted to see you!" Niki exclaimed from the couch.

At that Norah gave a small laugh, "I was scared and didn't want to be hurt." She told them and then looked her mother in the eyes. "I love you and I forgive you for everything that had happened back then but it will take time to gain that trust and the relationship we had."

"I'm willing to be patient." Cheri told her daughter to which Norah gave a smile to, happy that they were on the road to being what they once had been.

"All right, all right," Niki said as she gestured towards her mother and sister. "Yay, we got things figured out and are all on the same page. Now, is it time for story time?" she questioned, a grin on her face as she looked between her mother and sister, hopeful eyes.

When her sister said that Norah couldn't help but let out a laugh, she was glad that though a good amount of years have passed that Niki was still relatively the same person and hadn't changed too much. The same of which could not be said about herself.

"Nicole!" Cheri admonished, narrowing her eyes at her eldest daughter.

"What?" Niki said innocently. "Don't tell me you don't want to know what she's bene up to since we last saw her." She said.

At that Cheri gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose and wondered about her eldest daughter, somedays she thought that maybe Niki had been switched by another child or something.

So with that said Norah gave a laugh, took a seat beside her sister on the couch, her mother following suit and began to tell both her older sister and mother about her life and about all the things that they had missed out on in the last seven and a half years that they've been separated. Norah told them about where she went when she had left Minnesota but not before she apologized profusely to her mother for stealing her spare car to run away in, she told them the states that she had gone through and that she had stayed in homeless shelters, slept in the car in front of apartment complex's so to not draw too much attention and anywhere that she could really.

Norah made the smart choice and decided against telling her mother and sister about the St. Louis incident, about the fact that she had been raped, her mother and sister both felt enough guilt as it was so there was no need to put even more on their shoulders. It was something that had been horrible for Norah to relive when she had gone to her therapy sessions, sometimes she still has flashbacks which were rare but they did happen once in a while and over the years she has come to accept and move on with her life and would rather not have to relive the story to her mother and sister. Norah loved her mother and sister and knew they would be supportive and sympathetic to what happened to her but all Norah wanted to do was move on and not think about what happened, it was a band thing that happened which very few people knew about (Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, Xavier and Hank McCoy being the only ones). She'd prefer to keep it that way.

Norah told them about Xavier's, how they had found her on the east coast and brought her back to the institution and offered her a place to live and learn like any normal teenager would get. She said that she met some great friends while living at Xavier's – Rogue, Kitty and Piotr being the main ones. Norah then told them about how she had graduated early and at the top of her class and was accepted at some pretty damn good universities within New York and some of the surrounding states but rather than accepting one of those Norah had decided to move out of the country and go to Stockholm, Sweden to continue her education. At least she did until she accidentally blew up a housing development in one of the suburbs. Oops.

Norah then explained her adventure of travelling through Europe in case the guy who had seen her blow up the housing development decided to tell the media and the authorities and have a witch hunt so to say which was something Norah didn't want to deal with. She had told them in the end she had ended up in Romania where the head honcho of Shield had found her and offered to help teach her how to control her powers, better than Xavier's did since the school's techniques didn't really do too much to help her.

"It was through Shield that I ended up meeting Tony actually." Norah said as she leaned back against the couch they were sitting on, a couch that Tony had to have cleaned because he had surprised Norah one day when she had a cup of hot chocolate in her hands and spilt it on the cream colored couch.

Niki looked at her sister, "I've been wondering about that." She said to her, as she looked at her sister intently. "I mean I've thought of all the possibilities of how you might know Tony Stark which ranged from you worked for him, he owed you a favor for something or another or that you were dating him possibly. I mean, it's not every day that you get picked up by the Stark Industries jet."

"Oh, Jesus." Norah said with a laugh and shook her head at the last obscure possibility that her sister had come up with. "Dating him? Pfft. Hell no, so not my type. He's too short for me." She joked before she got a soft smile on her face. "No, Tony took me in when Shield had brought me to one of their training facilities here in New York, Tony had been in the office of Nick Fury and well, I never called Nick by his actual title and Tony found that amusing. In the end it resulted in Tony offering me a place to stay while I trained with Shield, something that I still do. He's done a lot for me when he didn't have to." She told them softly, a faraway look on her face.

Cheri pursed her lips, she was angry at herself for missing out on so much and not being able to help her daughter when she needed it but appreciated that Tony Stark had offered her a home, as odd as it was for him to do so. "I'm glad you had someone to look out for you. To help you." She told her.

Norah nodded her head and gave a bit of a smirk, "Tony is the most self-centered, arrogant, stubborn and somewhat of an asshole that I have ever met in my life and I've met a good deal of different sort of people especially with all of the Mutants that came to Xavier's." She said and gained a two odd looks from her mother and sister for describing Tony like that when she had just said he had done so much for her. "But at the same time, Tony is the most caring, wonderful, loving and self-sacrificing man that I've ever known. He'd give the moon if he could, though," she said with a grimace. "I'd never mention that to him, knowing Tony he might just try to do that and he's already got enough crazy ideas in his own mind." She said shaking her head and then looking at her mother again. "Tony…..Tony may seem eccentric and batshit crazy, which I will admit he definitely is a good portion of the time but he's been a great father to me. He really has."

Hearing that made Niki glad, neither of them had the best father figure while growing up sadly and as the years passed and even after Norah had ran away Tom hadn't changed whatsoever and didn't seem to really care about the fact that Norah was gone or care about his only remaining daughter that he had the ability to talk to if he wanted. Tom cared about two things in life; drinking and dealing. So Niki was glad that Norah found a father figure to look up to, to talk to, to be a father to her even if he was a bit of an eccentric, genius, billionaire who may just be a bit batshit crazy.

Norah then explained to them that she had just graduated from university with a double major in Linguistics and Public Relations, that she hadn't really had time to look for a job or even look for any freelance work to do since not even a month after she graduated did Tony call her and ask for her to help him and the other Avengers in Sokovia and then she explained the whole hot mess that Ultron was.

"You nearly died, didn't you?" Niki asked quietly, in a subdued tone. "Tony, he didn't tell me that when he had called me to tell me what happened but I could tell it was serious from the way he had talked." She said, looking at her sister seriously and seemed to study her closer trying to find any signs of wounds she may have suffered from the fight against Ultron.

"Yes, I nearly died." Norah admitted, figuring they would have heard about it one way or another.

"Oh, Norah," Her mother said to her, grasping onto her hand tightly at that new bit of information.

Norah patted her mother's hand comfortingly, she knew that hearing about your child nearly dying was hard. It was hard enough for Tony and Pepper to hear about, as well as the rest of the Avengers and she could only imagine what her mother thought about it.

"I did almost die," Norah repeated. "I did it to save my friends from being killed, Ultron was in a jet that he stole and was shooting right in the direction that they were and I was the only one who would be able to get to them and get them to safety. I knew that there was a big possibility that I could end up seriously injured or dead but I had to, absolutely had to try to save my friends." She said and closed her eyes at remembering that day, at remembering the fear for Clint and Pietro and remembering the feeling of being shot and the smell of her own blood. "I saved them but I ended up with serious injuries."

Cheri breathed in deeply, doing her best to control her breathing that was very close to becoming erratic at the information that she had just found out about. A mother never wants to hear about her child being in danger let alone the fact that her child had nearly died, it was not something she ever had imagined for Norah and definitely not the sort of life she had wanted for her daughter.

"What were the injuries?" Cheri asked finally, in a controlled voice.

Seeing the serious look on her mother's face Norah decided to get right to telling her, "I was shot twice in the side," she said pointing a bit above her hip, and then pointed at her thigh. "I was shot here, another up near my shoulder and neck and then the last place that I had been shot was right here." She said and pointed to her chest. "I was shot in the chest; the bullet went through my lung." She explained to them somberly, knowing that this was a serious conversation for both her sister and her mother. "I was in a coma for a while after my injuries, the doctors put me in a medically induced a coma so that my lung could heal up enough so that it wasn't too painful for me to breath or anything like that. I'm banned from using my powers until Doctor Cho says it's okay to do so though, they want to make sure I'm a hundred percent before I am allowed to do that or start my training back up."

"Norah." Cheri said simply before she pulled her daughter into yet another crushing hug, even more thankful that she was alive and well. "I'm so happy you're alive."

"Me too." Norah joked with a wink.

At that Cheri shook her head at Norah, it would take a bit of time before she got used to this new version of Norah. This Norah was very different from the quiet, shy and somewhat anti-social fifteen year old version that she had known.

"So," Niki said looking at her sister expectantly and using a voice that made Norah suspicious. "I have a question." She told her.

"I'm afraid of what it might be." Norah said as she raised a skeptical brow in her sister's direction. "Will I be willing to pay the price?" she asked playfully.

Niki gave a smile, "I just was wondering, why could I never find you?" she asked, a curious look in her eyes. "I looked for you after you ran away. I searched high and low, looked all over the country and even outside of the country and no matter what I did was I able to find you. I even had my husband search and look up school records and everything, but nada." She told her and looked at her searchingly, needing to know why she had been unable to find Norah.

When her sister had asked her that Norah made a face before discreetly looking at her mother, wondering how she would take this next bit. "I changed my last name when I went to school at Xavier's so it would have been pretty hard to find me without the right last name and well, Xavier's keep a pretty tight lock on any information that has to do with the students." She explained with a shrug of her shoulders. "After everything I needed a new start, I needed to make a new me that represented who and what I am." She told her mother and sister and then gave a grimace. "I also changed my last name because I didn't want to share a name with a man who had never been a father to me. I guess I just connected Sullivan with too many bad memories and wanted a name that I could make good memories with." She said with a shrug.

When Cheri had heard Norah's explanation she wanted to open her mouth and say something about it, to tell her that her reasoning was a bit askew and that Tom was still her father no matter how absent from it he had been during her younger years and up until she had ran away at fifteen but Cheri controlled herself. Norah was an adult and could do as she liked and Cheri no longer could control her daughter and she needed to stay on Norah's good side for the unforeseeable future, or at least until she had gained Norah's trust again. Hopefully Norah would take the time to talk to her father Tom, and hopefully Tom would show Norah that he had missed her. But Cheri had a feeling that Norah would never accept Tom back into her life; Cheri loved Tom because he was the father of her children but he was definitely not father material and wished she could have changed him so her daughters could have had a better childhood but nothing she did or said ever made him change his habits. One of the reason's they had gotten divorced.

Cheri decided to push those depressing thoughts away and concentrate on the fact that she was with her youngest daughter once again and that she had forgiven her for everything she said and done. That was a success in her book.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry it took so long to put out, I wanted it out sooner but things happened.

I'll try to get the next part out, I want to show Norah meeting her niece and having her mother and sister meeting Pietro.

smooches darlings.