Howdy beautiful folks! Sorry for the delay, but here's the next installment. Special mention for Castiel Angel Heart for being the only one to reply to my other story ideas: thank you very much for nominating a Jenko/OC; I'm also disappointed by the complete lack of them, so we're going to have to do something about that!

Enjoy the chapter:)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the things in this story that you recognise. Only Evelyn.

Chapter 3 – Return

When I woke up on the third day, Angel and Raven were already awake and sitting quietly on their beds, waiting for me as usual. I'd discovered that my peers preferred to travel in a group to avoid an agent confronting them on their own, and, to be honest, I had to agree with them. The looks we received just walking through the corridors was evidence enough that mutants weren't favoured at all by these agents, and sometimes they were so vicious that I worried about what would happen if they were allowed to do what they wanted to us.

I knew that I would be able to handle just about anything they threw at me – I'd pretty much experienced it all already – so I wasn't really concerned for myself, and I'd seen the arm muscles Darwin had under his shirt sleeves that showed he could definitely do some damage if he wanted to; it was the others I worried about. Hank was weak; there was no doubt about it. He was nervous and shy and insecure and if someone said boo to him he'd fall apart at the seams. Angel tried to act strong, claiming she'd had worse insults thrown at her from her time as a dancer in a gentlemen's club, but anyone who looked close enough could see that it really did hurt her. If push came to shove, I didn't know if she'd be able to stand up for herself physically. Then, there was Raven. The insults thrown our way, about being freaks or being ugly, they cut her deeply. I could have sworn the second night I was here, I could hear her muffled sobs for at least forty minutes. There was something about her that made her incredibly insecure – which I supposed is what drew her to Hank and vice versa – and she was dangerously vulnerable because of it.

Even if Darwin and I could protect ourselves, there was no telling if we would be able to hold off that many agents to protect the others. They outnumbered us ridiculously, which made us weaker. Sure, we all had mutations that could probably do some damage, but how well could we all control them? And were we even prepared to use them violently? If it did come to a fight, the best case scenario would be that Erik and Charles were around to work their magic and do some fancy tricks, but they were almost always travelling to find the new recruits and bring them back; they wouldn't always be here.

Erik had said that Shaw could attack at any moment. I could see that he believed that with all he had, and I believed him. Shaw was powerful and dangerous enough that he could make people think there was going to be a third World War, and he had followers – if he came while Erik and Charles were gone, we'd be screwed. I wished that the two of them would hurry up and get the other mutants so that I could learn everyone's mutations and get an idea of how much of a defence we could put up, but they were taking days, and that was time I worried we didn't have.

Suddenly there was a knock on our door, making me jump, and Darwin's voice floated through the wood. "You girls ready for breakfast?"

I sat up and ruffled my messy hair, hearing both girls' stomachs rumble. Smirking, I called back to him, "I need to get changed, but these two are ready." I looked over to them both and nodded my head at the door. "I'll catch up with you."

Raven seemed to pale. "It's fine, Evelyn, we can wait on you," she insisted.

It was still hard to wrap my head around the fact that there were now people who were concerned for my well-being and possibly considered me a friend of theirs, so for a moment I couldn't really formulate a coherent response. "I'll be fine, Raven, you don't need to worry about me."

Angel seemed to see that more than the blonde. "Don't be too long," she said firmly, before the two of them left the room.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed and sat there, staring at the floor. I'd done this countless times already, but that had been when I was in the asylum where I was "inferior" and "unstable" to pretty much every other living soul in the building – and probably the ghosts too, if there were any. Now, I still seemed that way to the majority of the people in the facility, but there were a select few who saw me as their equal and possibly their friend, and that made everything else bearable. I wasn't alone anymore.

Slipping off my bed, I grabbed the pair of denim shorts Angel leant me and a grey tank top of Raven's and pulled them on. Quickly, I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and shoved my feet in a pair of Raven's baseball boots – they were a little bit too big for me, but they were better than bare feet on cold floors, which is what I was used to. I was still uncomfortable with showing so much skin, but I needed to overcome that and move on – these clothes were more substantial than the flimsy gown I used to live in, and they did not mean that I was a patient; they meant that I was free.

I made my way through the corridors, relaxed but keeping an ear out for anything unwanted just in case. Everything was fine until I came to the doors to the mess hall. One of the agents came out, the door swinging close to my face. I dodged to the side and grabbed onto it, stilling its movements as he stepped out next to me. He was tall and looming, with eyes that seemed to go black the longer I looked at them. For a moment he was wearing a white coat, but then I blinked and it was gone, along with his black eyes. He had a smirk on his face, his brown gaze sweeping over my body appreciatively.

My features hardened. "Excuse me," I said, struggling to sound polite.

Suddenly the smirk was gone and it looked as if he'd smelled something foul. "You're a mutant," he stated. I wondered if he'd been blinded by his lust before so much that he'd failed to deduce that about me. "If you weren't," he trailed off, looking at my chest and thighs before smirking again, "The things I'd do to you."

"Do you really think pissing me off will do you any good?" I challenged, my heart thumping loudly in my ears. "I could ruin your life."

He scoffed. "I bet you couldn't hurt a fly."

I clapped my hands together and pushed one of my palms towards him quickly, closing my eyes. When I opened them with a secretive smirk, I saw his face had paled and his hands were starting to shake. "You might not want to eat bacon for a while, pig," I told him.

Agent Pigtail – as I decided I'd take to calling him – flinched away from me when I walked into the mess hall, smirking at the expression on his face. For now, at least, I could settle with threatening the agents with my mutation – and I could make it anything I wanted, as long as they didn't know of my real one. It wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do to someone, and it certainly wasn't going to get me in their good books, but if they were allowed to go around making comments like that and throwing insults as frequently as breathing, then I sure as hell didn't care. I wanted to see how long I could fool them like that, and I was going to have fun doing it.

Spotting the others sitting at a table in the far corner – the closest tables to them being empty, of course – I started to make my way over, studying them. Hank was sat next to Darwin on one side of the table, head low and shoulders hunched in towards his neck, giving off an undeniable air of insecurity; Raven sat opposite him, playing with her food, her blonde curls falling forward to hide the sides of her face; Angel was sat next to her, head up but face filled with stony misery, slowly picking at her meal. Darwin was the only one who looked mildly comfortable, eating his food normally, his shoulders rolled back and head rising in between bites in an image of humble confidence. I would ask Erik and Charles if we could eat in the recreational room, but 1. they weren't here, and 2. everyone needed to grow a goddamn backbone if they were going to live in this world. Darwin and I could only do so much.

"Evelyn!" Raven sighed in relief when she peeked out from beneath her hair, head snapping up to look at me. Hank glanced over and forced a stiff, brief smile before returning to his hunched-over position, and Angel lightened up almost imperceptibly.

"I told you I'd be fine," I replied, sitting next to Darwin. He gave me a bright smile and shifted so I'd have more room. I glanced around at their trays of food, frowning slightly. Most of them hadn't eaten much at all.

"Here, have mine," Raven said, sliding hers over to me, mistaking my expression for envy.

I shoved it back. "No, Raven. Eat your own food."

"I've been trying for the past ten minutes," Darwin warned me tiredly, "They won't listen."

"I'm not hungry," Raven said slowly, irritably, pushing the tray to me again.

I reached out and stopped it roughly, glaring at her over the table. "Eat it," I told her, allowing my tone to adopt a harsher edge."Or I'll make you."

She huffed in annoyance and grumpily stabbed her food with her fork, shoving it into her mouth. "Fine," she muttered. I sent a look to Angel and Hank, watching as they reluctantly dug in too.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side," Darwin teased me, sending me an impressed grin.

I allowed a smile to tug at my lips, although there was a bitterness to it that I knew he noticed. "You have to learn to stand up for yourself, sometimes," I replied, mind briefly lapsing into memories of cruel guards, violent patients, and power-hungry doctors. If I hadn't, they would have killed me.

Obviously sensing I didn't want him to ask questions, he smoothly redirected the conversation. "Will you bite my head off if I give you my leftovers?"

An amused grin broke out across my face, startling me momentarily. Darwin smiled, pleased with himself and pleased for me. I couldn't find the comfort in myself to reply with a carefree, witty remark however, so I merely settled for: "No, I'll thank you," with a grateful smile.

"Good enough for me," he said, nodding, as he slid his tray to me. I didn't know if he meant that it was better than biting his head off, or that my reaction had been good enough for him just now, or what, but I knew it was more than a simple remark, and I knew that he at least had a vague inkling of what was going on inside my head. I had to admit, as refreshing as it was, I found it slightly unsettling.

A few hours later, we were back in the recreational room; Hank, Angel, and Raven sat on the sofas off to my left, while I sat on a stool at the bar and Darwin stood behind it, pouring us all glasses of Coke. I was leaning my forearms on the bar, staring longingly out at the expanse of grass and, beyond that, the dense woodland. I really wanted to test my mutation out somewhere that I'd be able to see what I was doing for once, to see what extent my powers reached when I pushed them to the limit, but that would "ruin the surprise", as Raven never ceased to remind us. So, instead, I was left with a tantalising view that made me very grumpy and very serene at the same time.

"Hey, Hank?" Darwin called out.

"Uh, yeah?" Hank replied, surprised he'd been addressed.

"What's the big sphere thing out there?"

Hank rose from his seat, eyes lighting up as he strode with a newfound confidence towards us. "That's Cerebro," he said proudly, smiling at it.

I quirked an eyebrow at Darwin, the word completely foreign to me. "Spanish for 'brain'," Darwin grinned back at me.

"What does it do?" I asked Hank, twisting on my stool to face him. Normally, I wouldn't have been the one to initiate a longer conversation, but this topic induced such a change in him that I couldn't pass up the opportunity; it was wonderful to see him so animated.

"I programmed it so that Charles is able to use it to enhance his telepathic abilities," he replied, looking me straight in the eye, his passion never wavering. "It's what allowed him to find all of you. Once he locates a mutant, it records their coordinates, and he uses it to lead him to them. It's produced accurate results so far, given that you're all here."

"It's incredible," Raven added in, a fond smile on her face as she walked over, looking at Hank.

"Sounds like it," Angel agreed, following after her.

I smiled as Hank flushed, stuttering a thank you. Raven's smile widened. "You should see the jet."

I blinked and Darwin's eyebrows shot up. "Jet?" he repeated incredulously.

"It's just a model-" Hank rushed.

"C'mon, I'll show you!" Raven exclaimed excitedly, hurrying towards the door.

I smiled at Hank's embarrassment and followed after the girls, hearing Darwin mumble, "Now this I gotta see," behind me.

"It's really nothing," Hank protested weakly at the back.

"Don't underestimate yourself," I replied, walking out the doors, nearly colliding into Raven and Angel. They were stood stock still, silent, and for a moment my heart leapt into my throat in panic, pushing past them to confront the guards I'd assumed were in our way.

But it wasn't guards.

The first figure I identified was Erik, and I felt my tense muscles deflate in relief as I let out a sigh. Next to him walked Charles, and behind them both was a lanky, ginger boy with bright blue eyes and a lopsided grin on his plump lips. "Where are you all running off to?" Charles smiled, watching me carefully.

"Nowhere-"

"To show everyone Hank's jet model," Raven interrupted the poor boy, grinning, as she slipped in front of me again to greet her brother with a hug.

As soon as he was past her, Erik subtly rolled his eyes and walked over to us, leaving the ginger boy in what should have been an awkward position, what with Raven and Charles hugging affectionately, but he was still grinning lopsidedly, looking completely confident in himself. "How were things?" Erik asked quietly, coming to stand by my side as I leant against the wall at the side of the group.

I watched as the others walked over to the new recruit, now that the siblings had separated and started the introductions, and replied just as quietly, "Tense. These agents are unpredictable and three out of the five of us are far too insecure and not confident enough to handle their own in a fight if it comes to it. Tell me this new guy is as confident as he looks?"

Erik glanced down at me, a hint of emotion flashing in his eyes briefly as he said, "Insufferably so."

I smirked at his irritation and exhaustion that obviously stemmed from the ginger. "Good."

"The agents didn't confront you though?" he asked, rebuilding the serious atmosphere.

Yes. "No, they were fine. For now. I'm hoping that when the last recruit comes, we'll be a big enough group to intimidate them at least a little bit. The image we're giving off right now isn't exactly formidable. We're like lambs among wolves." I could hardly believe how much I was talking, especially with someone who showed no emotion most of the time and often didn't respond to anyone.

"Once we get the last one, Charles and I will be around more, too. They won't bother you then."

"You better be quick about it."

He quirked an eyebrow at me. "Is someone feeling suddenly sociable?"

Before I could stop them, my eyes rolled at his unexpected teasing. "I'd just appreciate the security in numbers, you know? Plus, I want to know everyone's mutations – it'll come in handy if we ever do need to defend ourselves."

He nodded in agreement, turning to look at the others again. Then he pushed off the wall and looked ready to wander off. "You should introduce yourself," he simply stated, before disappearing into a corridor.

I sighed, not so relieved anymore, and prepared myself for more interaction. For some reason, interaction with everyone else was different than when it was with Erik; he just seemed to make words flow from my mouth easily without me having to force or fake them even in the slightest. I felt like I could be my usual, unsociable, awkward, cold self around him, because I knew he alone understood the most.

"Evelyn," Charles smiled, waving me up to the front of the group where the ginger was standing. "This is Sean," he told me. Sean's grin appeared to have not faltered at all since I first saw him, and his gaze quickly took in my figure before he winked at me. I quirked an eyebrow, not pissed off like I would have been with an agent, because I got the vibe that Sean was just being playful, and shook his hand. "Sean, this is Evelyn." Charles then looked over all of us, his gaze flickering to where Erik had walked off. "I'll leave you to it, then, shall I?" he grinned, kissing Raven's temple before heading off.

"So, Sean, do you want to see Hank's jet model?" Raven asked friendlily.

"Sure," he replied. "But, uh, do you have any snacks? I like snacks."