It didn't occur to Emily until later – namely the next Monday at school when people were whispering, staring at her with obvious judgment – that she'd unintentionally given Alex (the head cheerleader) ammunition to absolutely ruin her reputation. She hadn't thought Alex was the kind of person to do something like that, but what other explanation was there for everyone's attention on her?

It wasn't until Alex followed her into the library, froze the lone student and the librarian, then rounded on Emily with an expression somewhere between hurt and angry. "Is it true?" she demanded.

"Is what true?" Emily replied, unsure why Alex seemed so upset when she'd been the one ruining her life by telling everyone about her teenage pregnancy...

"Everyone is saying you fucked that brainless burnout Doyle guy," Alex hissed, "And he's got the nudes to prove it."

Emily's eyes went wide, surprised and confused. "What?" she said, voice cracking.

"Six different people texted me photos of what I can confirm to be your nudes!" she snapped. "How could you do this?"

She blinked a few times in silence, digesting this unexpected turn of events. But the silence only seemed to be making Alex angrier, so she was forced to address the rumour head on. "I sent him the nudes, but I did not hook up with him! I swear!"

Alex studied her with narrowed eyes, weighing whether she believed the story.

"It was before we hooked up," she added.

"That doesn't make it a good idea!" Alex hissed.

Emily scoffed. "Yeah, I can see that now, genius, but some of us aren't perfect, okay? I fucked up, but I am the victim here!"

Sufficiently chastized, Alex glanced at her shoes for a moment before she could summon the courage to once again meet her gaze. "What can I do to help?" she asked softly.

"Can't you, like... I don't know... Mind wipe everyone?"

Alex's face screwed up in concentration as she did some quick mental calculations. "I'm afraid it's too late to contain," she murmured apologetically.

"What!?" Emily demanded.

Holding up her hands in self-defence, she explained, "Once it start spreading at an exponential growth rate, the sheer number of people whose minds I would have to reach is..."

Emily waved away the complex explanation, looking annoyed. "So, there's nothing you can do?"

Alex chewed her lip in thought for a moment. "I mean...maybe if I had access to Cerebro..."

"Who or what is Cerebro?" Emily interrupted.

"It basically amplifies brainwaves – it allows Daddy (and I suppose me) to expand the range to which his powers extend," she explained. "But I can think of several reasons that plan's a no go."

Emily quirked a brow. "Such as?"

With a scoff, Alex rolled her eyes. "One: I've never used it before. Two: we'd need Hank to operate it. And three: Daddy would never allow it." She placed her hands on her hips with an air that clearly said she thought she'd won the argument.

"So?" she countered.

After spluttering, at a loss for words, for several moments, Alex said, "I don't break rules."

"There's a first time for everything," Emily said with a wicked grin.

The plan was simple enough.

Alex told Hank she was tutoring someone in calculus and needed his help and he'd always had a bit of a soft spot for Alex (perhaps even a crush at one point before Charles made it clear she was off-limits), so he'd rushed right over.

Once there, Emily did an excellent job of pretending to need help with calculus...until Charles made a hasty exit, at which point Alex swooped in and batted her lashes and smiled demurely, then said in a rush of air, "Hank, I really need your help to operate Cerebro and you cannot tell Daddy!"

Hank blinked in surprise for a few moments as he digested the request. "You... You want to..." he stammered.

"Please, Hank?" Alex begged. "It'll just be this one time, Daddy never even has to know..."

He still seemed dubious, but she could tell he was wavering.

She cocked her head slightly, really working the puppy dog eyes. "I promise it's for a really good reason and I wouldn't ask if it weren't really important!" She could see him wavering, so she added, "I know exactly how to work it, I just need a little help..." For good measure, she pouted just a little.

Emily, for her part, was doing a remarkably good job of seeming like an innocent bystander in all this, though Alex could see the little smirk she wore when she laid it on a little too thick.

Hank, though, seemed to be buying it.

When Alex awoke in the middle of the night and tiptoed to the kitchen in search of a midnight snack, she was surprised to find her father doing a crossword puzzle and drinking scotch. "Daddy?" she said on a yawn, "What are you doing awake?"

He glanced up from the puzzle, brow raised in a very pointed manner. "You tell me, Alexandra Claire MacTaggert," he said with that tone that said 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed'. "Do you want to tell me why you used Cerebro without asking permission?"

"Daddy, I..." she started to explain.

He didn't give her the chance to finish. "Alex, do you understand how foolish and dangerous that was? Cerebro is a very delicate machine and the human mind is even more fragile. You risked..."

"I'm sorry, Daddy, but..."

He shook his head, but there was no missing the weakening in his resolve. "Lexi, you know how tenuous the average teenager's grasp on reality it...do you really want to put that grasp to the test?"

"Daddy, I had to do it and I'd bet my college fund that you would understand if I could tell you why I did it," she explained sheepishly.

Charles stared her down, knowing his daughter well enough to know she'd crack if he made her think he might be disappointed in her.

"Emily can never know I told!" she pleaded. When he nodded once in concession, she continued, "A guy at school leaked nude pictures Emily sent him. I knew that it could very well haunt her for the rest of her life, so I took a stupid risk and I'd do it again. What's the worst you'd punish me compared to Emily's life, essentially?"

Several moments of silence followed. Just long enough for Alex to think she was in trouble.

Then, "So, you just...what? Because if you limited your mind wipe to the school's population, there's a significant..."

Alex shook her head. "I didn't mind wipe, I just suggested to the town's entire teenage population that the asshole lied and faked the pictures with a Russian porn actress," she explained, actually quite proud of herself.

"Genius, Ladybird!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Alex's back. "A most elegant solution."

A beat.

"You're not angry?" Alex asked, surprised.

"You're a good person, Lexi. Next time, just ask first, okay?" he bargained.

Alex thought for a moment, then asked, "Did Hank tell you?"

Charles laughed. "Lexi, he didn't have to," he said cryptically, tapping his temple.