Bayville, New York. Caroline never dreamed that in a thousand years that she would be living in New York of all places, but it was starting to grow on her with each passing day which was a good thing as Caroline knew that she couldn't go back to Salem. She could never go back there, it would be too painful, too many memories and just as many reminders of all the destruction that she had caused. Not to mention, Caroline had nowhere to go if she went back home to Salem, her parents had made it pretty clear that she was welcome in their home anymore. After everything that had happened in the last few months, the situation with her parents was the thing that Caroline was most at peace with, her parents disowned Caroline the moment she needed them the most and there was no coming back for that. Caroline was just a kid, a very confused and mixed up sixteen year old but she knew that parents were supposed to love their children unconditionally and her parents apparently didn't love her enough to accept the fact that she was a mutant. It was okay. Caroline was learning how to cope with it and every day it got a little less painful and living in a swanky mansion sure seemed to help things. The institute was easily ten times the size of Caroline's old home, the institute – or rather The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters was impressive, it had everything that Caroline could ever imagine. The place was everything that the Professor said it was and more, the mansion was away from prying eyes but big enough that Caroline didn't feel like she was enclosed in some glass box built for freaks.

It wasn't home but it was the closest thing to a home that Caroline had at the moment. Five weeks Caroline had been at the institute and she had yet to burn down the place although she had caused quite a sizeable damage to the property which wasn't limited to half of the kitchen, some rather expensive looking couches and a bush in the gardens. Professor Xavier had been rather gracious about the whole thing much to Caroline's surprise, she had been expecting him to get mad or perhaps even annoyed. But not once had he batted a single eyelid, instead he had always assured Caroline that this was all apart of the learning process. Although she hadn't known him long, Caroline knew that the Professor was a good man, perhaps the best man that she had ever known in her short life. He gave her hope, which is something that Caroline hadn't had in very long time. They had these sessions three times a week for an hour in the Professor's office and they just talked. Sometimes it was about Caroline's life in Salem before the accident. Most of the time it was about her life here at the institute and how she was coping with the training and her abilities.

They had talked about the fire a handful of times. Caroline wasn't exactly sure of the actual number of times her and the Professor had discussed what happened that night. Every time they had talked about it, Caroline had ended up getting upset and spent the remainder of each day crying. So they didn't speak about the fire often, they only spoke about it when Caroline brought it up, Professor Xavier never broached the subject, unless Caroline mentioned it first. It was all supposed to be a part of the healing process, to help Caroline deal with her grief. Caroline wasn't fixed, she knew she was too broken to ever be really fixed but the grief no loner crippled her. Her days, unbearable as they were, weren't threatening to destroy her anymore.

"Don't worry I'm not going to jump." Caroline said from where she sat on the ledge of the balcony, her legs swinging freely in the air. Caroline didn't bother to turn around to see who it was who was standing a few yards behind her as she knew very well that it was Logan, she had been aware that he as standing behind her for a fair while. The Wolverine was the only one here at the institute who kept even more bizarre hours than Caroline herself. She wasn't surprised that Logan had found her as many a times had Logan found Caroline sitting in the library after lights out because she was unable to sleep. Logan hadn't busted her chops over Caroline's flagrant disregard of the rules, most nights he just left her to it, then some nights Logan joined her and the two of them sat in silence, reading in the library until Caroline finally dragged her sorry butt to bed.

"Didn't think you would Goldilocks." Logan replied in his typical gruff manner and Caroline could afford to laugh at Logan's use of his own personal nickname for her; Goldilocks because of Caroline's blonde hair. She hated it but Caroline was sort of stuck with it as according to Scott, once Logan had branded you with a nickname, it was irreversible.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did, given my history…" Caroline grimly replied as her mind briefly wondered back to that night on the bridge, when she was all but ready to end her life. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago as ever since Caroline had come to the institute she had been kept rather busy, there was always pretty much something for her to be doing. Whether Professor Xavier had purposely done this to distract Caroline and keep her out of her own mind, she wasn't sure but it was all a welcomed distraction as Caroline was too preoccupied to wallow in self guilt. Until nightfall when everyone went to bed for the night, that was when Caroline could afford to let her mind catch up with her and the guilt over what had happened would come crashing over her. It was always there to remind of her of what she had done, Caroline knew that it would constantly be hanging over her, most likely for the rest of her natural life.

"Still can't sleep?" Logan asked and Caroline ruefully shook her head, the insomnia was still the ongoing bane of her existence and it had no inclination that it would be going away anytime soon.

"It's a work in progress, some nights are better than the others. It really all depends on what I've been doing in the day, Scott and I spent this one day last week just goofing around and acting like normal kids and that was fine. I slept like a baby. But the next day I had a session with the Professor and that was it, the whole night I couldn't sleep. I'm guessing that tonight I won't be getting much sleep, if I even get any…" Caroline woefully admitted with a sigh.

"How'd it go with the Professor today?"

"The usual… How grief is something completely natural thing for me to be feeling after what happened, I lost my best friend, the boy I liked and my family because of what I did, an innocent girl died and I caused countless destruction in my wake. I can deal with being a mutant, I'm to coming to terms with it but it's the whole guilt thing that I can't really cope with. We discussed that there is a difference between grief and guilt, how I can't keep holding myself accountable for something that was an accident. I know talking is supposed to help but it only gets you so far, talking doesn't change the fact that three people are people dead. That my parents have given up on me. Today the professor told me that trees turn into diamonds, whatever that means. All this talking with the Professor about how I need to stop blaming myself for what happened, that I need to accept that what happened was an accident. Continually talking doesn't change the fact that in my head I can still see Haley, in my head she's as happy and alive as the last time I saw her and, it's like she's haunting me. But if I learn to accept that this was an accident, if I learn to let go of my guilt then that won't be the case anymore, Haley won't be in my head anymore and I don't think I'm ready to let that go just yet. I know that must make me sound crazy but I'd rather have a little bit of Haley still with me than learn to live a life without her." Caroline wearily stated, knowing full well that she sounded like she was losing her damn mind.

"I get it kid. You didn't ask for any of this, yet it happened to you… One day you woke up and your life was turned upside down. Everything was fine and then something happened and you started to manifest your abilities. I also understand a little something about guilt, a lot better than the Professor or anyone else would as they haven't done the things that we have. They can't really ever understand… The Professor is right Goldie, it was an accident but I know that no matter how many times people tell you that, it doesn't mean squat unless you believe it. But that doesn't mean you can just switch off feeling guilty. The guilt will never go away, it'll always be something that you carry around with you kid but it gets easier to carry. It just takes time." Logan said and there was something in his tone of voice and the words that he had used that told Caroline that Logan carried some guilt similar to the guilt that she was carrying on. There was part of her that was curious, she wanted to know what on earth made Wolverine feel guilty but she knew better than to ask. There were just some things that you just didn't talk about with Logan and his past was at the top of the list.

"Well time does seem to be something that I have and it seems to be helping in some respects, at least when it comes to the whole mutant thing. I'm not causing mass distracting wherever I go anymore." Caroline replied allowing herself to forcefully laugh as she held out her left hand and after concentrating for a few moments a small fire ball appeared in her hand. The fire ball hovered a millimetre or so above her palm and Caroline could feel the head from the fireball spreading all over her body. It gave her this comforting feeling in a rather odd way and Caroline looked at the fire ball for a few more moments before closing her hand to extinguish it. A month ago Caroline would have never have believed she would been able to exhibit this amount of control over her abilities. Before she could have never generate fire unless she was under some kind of duress but now she could produce it at will – for the part. For Caroline it was a huge step in the right direction of getting her abilities under control. "It's weird to think that I'm spending most of my time training and trying to get a better handle of my abilities given that I wasn't that receptive to being a mutant at first. It wasn't because I was anti-mutant… It just that being a teenager is hard enough without having abilities and then having the label stuck on you. I knew what I was after a couple of days of my abilities manifesting, I was just in denial for the longest amount of time. I thought if I pretend like nothing was wrong and I was fine then I would be, turns out there was nothing wrong with me in the first place. I'm still trying to work out this whole mutant thing but the Professor seems to believe that I can do even when I keep causing minor damage to the institute. He has so much faith in me that I'm actually worried that I'll fail and end up disappointing him. But I know this is where I'm meant to be."

"You've been doing a good job Goldilocks, I know I've not exactly told you that. I may have been a bit tough on you since you've got here…" Logan responded in his typical grunt like manner and at first Caroline thought she was hearing things because it seemed like the big bad Wolverine had just given her a compliment which was a pretty deal. Logan wasn't exactly the kind of guy who did the whole warm and fuzzy things and he most certainly did not idly had out praise. Caroline was half tempted to feign ignorance to what she had heard and get Logan to repeat himself it wasn't for the fact that she knew Logan would refuse to. Soppy and emotional things were rare for Logan and when he did say something that resembled sentiment, he only said it once.

"Tough? Seriously… Is that what you would call everything you'd done to me since I've arrive?" Caroline questioned in disbelief as ever since she had arrived at the institute and had gotten adjusted to her new surroundings it had been one thing after another with Logan. Seeing as the Wolverine was in charge of combat and survival skills here at the institute, he had been putting Caroline through her paces be it through five mile runs every day at 7am regardless of rain and shine, karate lessons, assault courses and sessions in the danger room which were currently kicking Caroline's ass. It seemed like Logan loved nothing more than watching a computer simulation beat the crap out of her. To say Logan was pushing Caroline to her limits was a little bit of an understatement, there had been some days where she had woken up so sore that she could hardly move. It was hard work and Caroline had faltered at times, there had been plenty of scrapes and bruises, quite a bit of tears but despite how tough Logan was being on her, it was a welcome distraction. It kept her busy and stopped her wallowing in her guilt as much as she used to.

"I need to break you down. Both physically and mentally in order to get rid of your bad habits and build you back up again to be the person that the Professor knows you can be. We may just make X-Men out of you yet..."

"Gee Logan, I didn't know you cared so much." Caroline quipped trying her hardest to suppress the idiotic like grin that was covering her face and get praised by Logan was like being accepted as one of the team. Although Caroline was a long way away from becoming an official member of the team but getting some acknowledgement of her worth here at the institute meant a lot to her. She knew if Logan believed she had what it took to become an one of the X-Men than it was a real possibility.

"Don't get so big headed kid." Logan retorted in a half-hearted manner.

"I can't help it! I was a cheerleader in my former life ya know…"

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that."

"Me too, it seems like it was forever ago." Caroline replied after a few moments silence and she could help but sigh as it seemed that her old life back in Salem seemed like it was several lifetimes ago. It was hard for her to believe that only three months ago was she still a regular high school teenager who loved nothing more than hanging out with her friends at the mall, going to pep rallies and having fun. Caroline didn't like to focus much on her past as it was too painful but when she did, she couldn't believe how naïve she had been about everything. Before her life had changed she had been so clueless about the mutant situation, how others like her were being persecuted and didn't have the luxury of seeking refuge at the place like the institute. Back then Caroline would have never given two thoughts about mutant rights or the possibility of a war between humans and mutants. But things had changed, Caroline had changed. The fire had changed everything for Caroline and now she was no longer living in what she called ignorant bliss. The Caroline Cassidy of back then and the Caroline Cassidy of now were not the same people. They were as different as oil and water.

"Missing home?" Logan questioned and Caroline scoffed in disgust.

"What home? We both know that I can never go back to Salem again, my parents made it pretty clear that I can never come home, well I can't even call it home given that my folks disowned me." Caroline replied with a scowl, not bothering to disguise any of her bitterness over the situation. She knew better than to pretend in front of Logan that this thing with her parents wasn't bothering her, the more she hung out with Logan the more Caroline noticed that he was very good at seeing right through her. They both knew that Caroline would always have some kind of resentment towards her parents but it was something that she had made peace with a few weeks ago. She had better things to worry about than her parents not loving her enough and when she didn't, Logan was always good for finding something for Caroline to do.

"You're better off without them."

"Yeah, yeah… I should probably try and get some sleep but thanks for the pep talk Logan, it's appreciated. I'll try and keep the noise down." Caroline chuckled before letting out a small yawn and climbing down off the balcony and back onto the balcony. She offered Logan a mock salute which was turning into her personal greeting for the older gentleman before slowly making her way back into the library.

"Don't forget Goldie, you have your five mile run at 7am followed by a session in the danger room. Don't make me have to come and wake you up with a jug of cold water again…" Logan threatened calling out to Caroline who spun on her heels to turn around to face her instructor.

"I had plenty of time Logan."

"I find that hard to believe Goldilocks since it was 6:59."