Sam grabbed Rahne around the waist and hugged her.  "She's goin' ta be alright."
 
         Rahne could have been a million miles away at the  moment.  "A know, Samà" she broke off, buried in her  own thoughts.
 
         He knocked on the door softly, uncertain what he  would find.  Tony opened it and pressed one finger to  his mouth, indicating they needed to be quiet.  Stepping outside the house, he explained, "Emma gave  Celeste a suggestion to sleep.  She's resting now."

         Sam nodded, knowing that hysteria and fatigue fed off of each other in a vicious cycle.  "She's still  not taking it well, is she?"
 
         The other man shook his head and indicated for the  three to move to the large swing that hung off a tree.   "She's gone into denial again.  æAriel's not that  bad, I overreacted.'"  Tony shook his head.  "There  are times I want to drag her kicking and screaming  into an Al-anon meeting.  I can't make her see there's a  serious problem and they can't help her until she  understands that."
 
         Sam agreed and then carefully asked one question he  hadn't been able to understand.  "How did Ariel get out?  This school is secure-- at least from what I know."
 
         "It took three hours for Gambit to break in," Tony defended his work.  "But until last month when Ariel ran away, I never saw any need for preventing the  students from leaving.  As it was, Ariel was able to be in the garage at 10:58 because she's in shop, and was able to leave the campus because all of Emma's cars come and go  as they want-- Emma can work weird hours.  And with  Ariel's security card in the garage, the system  thought she was still there."

         He covered up the fact that Ariel was only allowed  access to the garage until eleven and the system  hadn't reported her missing until two am.  Two  students on campus had the know- how to fool the computer.  And until he talked to Angelo, he wasn't  going to point a finger and make an already bad situation worse.
 
         Rahne nodded.  "Cannea A slip in andà" she got  flustered and Sam realized she needed to use the  bathroom.
 
         Tony nodded.  "I want to check up on Celeste anyway."  He started to escort her inside the cottage  as his beeper went off.  "Sam, that's Li'l Bit." Sam left to go greet his friend.
 
         Once inside the cottage, Tony noticed the haunted  look Rahne gave an overturned lamp.  Rahne stooped down to pick it up, lost in her own memories.  "You  alright?" he asked, concerned.
 
         "A guess anybody can hit somebody else when pushed  hard enough,"  Rahne whispered.

         "Celeste feels terrible for what she did to Ariel."  Tony tried to pull her out of her past.  Not that her  reaction was much better than his when he first saw the knocked-over lamp and table.  Painful childhood memories came to mind.  "Ariel was trying to get her  to lose it, if you ask me."
 
         A faint æMaybe' was heard as Rahne crossed the room to get to the bathroom.
 
 **
         Celeste was peacefully sleeping on top of her bed when he peeked in.  The suggestion had been for mild sleep, just enough to convince her to doze off.  She had been sobbing hysterically when he came in and hadn't gotten better.
 
         He clenched his jaw as he pulled a blanket out of the  small cedar chest at the foot of the bed and covered  her.  It was plain to see that the woman was upset  about her actions and her anger wasn't normal.  Sitting down in the chair by her desk, he remembered the little bits and pieces he had learned about her  parents.
 
         Celeste and Ariel had grown up feeling very much  neglected.  Their father, Brock, was absent a lot of  the time, overseeing his holdings, spending time playing tennis at the club or with one of his lady  friends.  Their mother, Brook, had been a socialite,  married because she looked good on his arm, and  devoted to her first-born daughter's needs.  "She  would go from Stella's room to a party and come back,  sit by Stella's bed until the day nurse got there," Celeste once said in a tone of voice that was both  bitter and wishful.  "Stella had been sick from the time she was born, and I always got the feeling that we were in the way."
 
  When, at age six, her teachers figured out Celeste was  learning disabled, her mother decided that, lacking  brains, her second born would be well married.  The  first step on that path was to make sure Celeste was  known for her beauty, which time spent under the camera and the hot lights of Hollywood was sure to do.  At first, appearing in commercials and print ads for her  mother's æfriends', Celeste excelled in her career.  Her parents became remote, disapproving figures in her life.  As her career petered out, her mother had  started to make arrangements for her debut into  society.  Marriage at twenty-one was the goal.
 
         Ariel, lacking classical beauty or dazzling brains,  had hidden in the shadows for years, looking for a way to be what her parents deemed she wasn't- worthy of  attention.  Her report cards, covered with B's, were  cast aside, signed by her father's personal assistant.   There was no abuse in the family, save the type given by constant ignoring.
 
         Indeed, if Tony's hunch was correct, Celeste's learning to not see the signs of addiction came from a lifetime of closing her eyes.  She had already talked about quitting drinking when she started to need the drink, a sign she knew about addiction.  Her parents, from the little bit he gathered from his sources, were lushes.   Her reaction today was  closely associated with what she saw as a child when two tempers clashed after alcohol loosened restraints.
 
         Rahne's reaction was more what he'd expect to see from an adult survivor of child abuse.  The thought of anybody hurting a small, defenseless child made him  tighten his fist.  He'd been subject to it too often as a young child.  The knowledge that Celeste would panic  if she woke up in a strange place, unable to remember how she got there, made him stay, though he wanted to go after Rahne when he heard the door shut.
 
         The noise was enough to wake up his friend.  She  stretched and looked at Tony.  "That wasn't nice of Emma."
 
         "You needed something, baby."  She smiled slightly at the endearment.  Tony continued with, "You were hysterical and it has been at least two days since you had some sleep."
 
         Celeste groaned, "I over-reacted."
 
         "You reacted," he corrected her.  "Trust me on this-- one incident does not mean abuse."
 
         "It's my fault," she moved to defend Ariel.  "I told her she couldn't go out because her grades were so low."
 
         "You set limits and she walked over them," he re-interpreted.  "Your sister is out of control."
 
         Celeste swung her legs off the bed, "Yeah, well, she wouldn't act up like this if I were around more."
 
         "You don't know that."
 
         "It's my fault Ariel is like this."  Celeste had reached a decision earlier that day.  "I'm going to quit my job."
 
         The two friends had always been able to be honest.  "That's an idiotic move," Tony told her point-blank.  "You'll be letting Ariel  really control your  life-isn't it bad enough she decides who you date?"
 
         Celeste closed her eyes and rolled them at the same time.  "If I lose my sister, who do I have left? Distant aunts and uncles, and maybe-- if I can find them-- two cousins I'd want to talk to?"  Sighing, she added, "I've lost my parents, my grandparents, and one sister.  I don't want to lose the only family I have left."  She started to walk out the door.
 
         Tony's words stopped her for a second.  "And if Ariel dies because she doesn't get help, what will you do?"
 
         "That won't happen," Celeste said firmly.  "Tony, I'm sorry.  The Underground has come first for too long. My sister has to sometime."  She started to turn to walk out the door but paused.  "I'm sure Emma has figured out who would replace me if something happened to me."
 
         The words flew out of Tony's mouth without him meaning them to.  "She'd never mean as much to me as you do."

         Tears welled up in her eyes.  "I'll never meet  anybody like you again.  I'll miss what we have."  She walked over to him and hugged him tightly for three seconds before turning and nearly running out the
 door.
 
 
 ***
 
         Outside the main school building, Li'l Bit struggled to walk using the crutches that she had acquired that morning.  "From what Paige done tol' me, Mz Frost is agoin' ta hate me bein' late, much less bringin' ya, Mike."  The stress and frustration of the day had brought her accent to the forefront.
 
         The male she was talking to just nodded as he moved the suitcases out of the back of the car, and shrugged.  "I'm not going to leave you alone, you should know that."
 
         She shuddered as she thought about the writing that  had appeared on her hotel room wall the night before.  "Ah'm not goin' ta run scared.  Ah told Rachel that Ah  needed more security and Ah'll lay low until they get  it but..."
 
         What would have finished that sentence was forgotten  as Mike planted a kiss on the top of her head.  "I  love you Bit, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
 
         Li'l Bit smiled as she looked up at him.  They were a  study in contrasts.  She was lucky to be five foot two with spiked heels and fluffy hair.  He was easily six feet tall.  She was blonde with blue eyes while he had brown hair and eyes.  Where she was very curvy, he was lanky.  And her family situation had been far from the nearly picture perfect one he had.  In short, she often told him, she had fallen for a near clone of her
best friend, Sam Guthrie.
 
         "My ankle not included?" she asked as she laughed.
 
         "That was a pure accident," he reminded her.  "And who had the harebrained idea to climb a chair?"

         "Who's always stopped me from doing scatterbrained stuff?" she laughed.  "Who wants the full time job of keeping my butt out of danger?"
 
         "It's a very cute butt..." Mike whispered in her ear and then looked at the door.  "Sam's here."
 
         Sam took one look at his best friend and literally flew out the door.  "What happened?" he asked, landing beside her.
 
         "Gee, Sam, what if Mike didn't know you were a mutant?"  Li'l Bit asked with a teasing smile.  Mike laid a hand on Li'l Bit's shoulder and grinned at Sam.
 
         "We've got telepaths in case we need ta fix him," Sam answered the question with a challenging note in his voice.  Mike was showing way too much familiarity to Li'l Bit.  Growing up, Sam had learned to protect his best friend's reputation and carefully screened her dates.  Even while she had been at Belmont University, he had written her with advice about the guys she had dated.  But this guy had managed to slip by without so much as a casual peek into his background.  If he had the slightest hint of impure thoughts about Li'l Bit, then Sam knew at least two telepaths who would help  him fix the jerk.
 
         "Ya remember Mike, doncha?"  Li'l Bit asked.  "He was with Daystar, the Christian group that I had ya and Rahne go ta meet on yer first date."
 
         Now Sam was able to place a name with a face.  Yes, he remembered the brief introduction to the band, and the way the group had gone out of their way to make him  and Rahne feel welcome.  To Daystar, the fact they were mutants didn't matter.  Mike was a Christian and free of bigotry, those were two points in his favor.  But Sam also remembered the way Mike's face lit up at the mention of Li'l Bit's name.   Thinking back, his mother had put Mike and Li'l Bit in the same category as him and Rahne, even though she had protested at the time that he was æjust a friend'.  How long had the relationship gone on?  Exactly what did Mike want from Li'l Bit?   Sam had more questions than he would ask the other man, but he would get some answers-and soon.
 
         "Bit asked me to come over for a few days so she can stay off her ankle," Mike explained his presence at the school to Sam and to Emma Frost, who had approached the three.  "I have a master's in Music Education from Southern Baptist Seminary in  Louisville."
 
         "Ah figured that outranked my bachelor's in Music any old day of the week," Bit offered as she wriggled around, trying to get comfortable with the crutches. "Ah had ta up and tear up some of the ligaments around muh ankle this morning.  Doc says Ah have ta keep off of it for a while."  Mike and Sam snorted at the same time.  "Ah'm supposed ta be quiet and still and let the thing heal-iffen Ah'm real good, they might not have ta operate."
 
 "So when is the operation?"  Sam asked her.  "Because the one thing ya ain't is quiet and still-at least not  conscious."

         "She even talks in her sleep," Mike joked.  "And does she ever snore!"
 
         Li'l Bit's look promised deadly physical punishment. "Ah do not!"
 
         Sam's was worse as Mike continued teasing her, "What  was it- æclose the door so Daffy doesn't get out'?"
 
         "Ah'll remember this the next time yer heater doesn't work and ya want ta sleep where its' warm.  Jist see  if Ah'll offer ta double up again!"  She leaned into Mike as she explained, "Mike is tourin' with me right now and his bus doesn't have the world's best heater, so Ah offered ta let them come rack with us for a night."
 
         Questions about Mike's intentions towards his friend would have to be tabled until Sam got more info.   He knew that his former boss, Tad Martin, had discovered he had a brother, Adrian, who had been forced to retire from his career as a spy.  With one very discrete phone call, Sam would know everything there was to know about Mike-without a chance of it getting back to Rahne.  Years of practice at protecting his very innocent, and way too trusting, friend dictated the need.
 
 **
 
         Sean watched as Emma left the building before slumping into his chair.  Watching Ariel go through  this period was painful for a lot of reasons.  Chiefly, because his own daughter had a problem with  alcohol.  And, as he watched Celeste struggle with her sister, he was reminded of Terry's battle.  And it hurt him to know he could have helped her more if he had been around.
 
         Picking up the phone, he sighed.  This call was less about his daughter than it was about easing about missing her growing up, being left out of most  of the events that shaped her and made the woman she
 was.  Still, the most important thing was that he was calling.  He hit a number on the speed dial and was swiftly connected to his daughter.
 
         On the other end of the phone, Terry sounded as if she had been crying as she answered.   "Jimmy?"
 
         "Just me," Sean answered.  Terry let out a painful sigh.  "What happened?"

         In the simplest terms possible, Terry told him about X-Force's latest adventure.  "We were sent into the future to met our children.  Joseph diedà" Her voice trailed off, hiding the real source of pain-she had caused the death of her own two children.  A sob came bubbling up.

         "Come see me," her father begged her while mentally looking over his to-do list, seeing how much was really and truly urgent.  The only thing was finding another place for Ariel, and he could call on his old
partner and get some recommendations.
 
         "I can't leave the team, not after what we've been through," Terry explained.  She paused and thought wildly for a second.  Paige was a student there.  Maybe they could change the future.  Her heart beat faster at that thought.  All it would take was stopping Paige while she was young, before she got too ambitious.  "I think the best thing we could do is come see you."
 
 **
          Rahne made her way back to the main building with a growing sense of unease.  She'd never really told Sam about her childhood under the Reverend Craig, and she got the feeling that this omission was coming back to haunt her.  The right thing to do would be to pull Sam aside, but it was the most painful thing to do.
 
         This morning, when she heard what her friend had done, the first feeling was one ofà well, approval.   Words hadn't stopped Ariel, restrictions hadn't, and the girl refused to seek mental help.  It was time to clearly show her the limits.  But at the same time,  Rahne had doubts-what would she do when pushed too far with her children?
 
         Growing up, she and her foster brother, Kyle, had been subject to some inhuman treatment.  Physical and emotional abuse.  Hell.  She could never be good enough, love the Lord enough, or be perfect enough to please the Reverend Craig.
 
         And the phone call she had received as she was packing was making today so much worse.  Reverend Craig had died a week ago, a victim of untreated gonorrhea.  The irony was evident in Kyle's voice as he told her the news.
 
         Right now, she felt emotionally rocky.  Everything was boiling together in her brain and she knew she was going to explode sooner or later.  Celeste was too involved with her problems for Rahne to turn to her, Kitty had a special project this weekend, and deeply ingrained shame kept her from talking to her boyfriend.
 
         Shame that she hadn't told Sam before now, shame at how Reverend Craig died, and shame at herself for wanting to mourn the man that she just had just discovered was her father.
 
 **
 
         "Wolvie, this is hard for me to say," Jubilee started talking as soon as Logan picked up the phone, trying to get her words out in one short burst.  "Ariel told me she slept with her sister's boyfriend.  And I know how little I can really trust her, but I do think she's telling the truth on this one-her voice didn't have that inflection, the I'm getting away with somethingà it sounded real when she told meà.  I can't believe it-I know that Angelo had told me that Ariel's been getting booze from Matt, but I can't believe he'd sleep with herà What should I do?"
 
         On the other end of the phone, Logan waited for his friend to finish telling him everything before responding.  "What do you think?"
 
         Jubilee had thought it out carefully before calling the man that was closer than a father to her. "If I tell somebody here, and if Ariel was lying or denies it, then I'll look likeI'm trying to make life harder for herà I don't want to do that.  Emma could easily read her mind but I don't think that's a good option, because then Celeste will know what happened, and right now is not a good time for that to happen and Emma would lose a friend.  Monet could check out the story but, again, Celeste will know."
 
         "Don't you think she has the right to know?"  Logan asked, flicking the ashes from his cigar out of his bedroom window.  Hank might have banned smoking from the mansion but Logan wasn't going to give up his beloved smokes without a fight.
 
         "Not for a whileà I mean, she held on to the jerk because she believed he was helping Ariel and now, thisà Be bad to tell her now.  But I don't know what to do, you know?"
 
         Logan puffed a little more on his cigar before coming up with a solution.   "Betts and I will get close enough to Ariel so she can read her mind, and if she's telling the truth, I'll call and tell Sam, and let him handle this."  That way, the truth wouldn't be known by a member of Gen-X but some one who could be discreet when needed.  Still he knew that if was him that people were keeping secrets from, he'd be furious.  But he didn't know Celeste, and wasn't in a place to judge.
 
         "Thanks, Wolvie," Jubilee lay back on her bed and sighed.  One less burden to worry about.
 
 **
 
         Bobby had left the X-Men a while back, back when Emma referred his first client, handling the books at one of the firms she used for outside representation.  Since then, she'd been helpful in getting Frozen Assets, his accounting business, off the ground.  Two days after operating in  the black for a quarter, he proposed marriage to Emma.  Two months later, she was still thinking about it.
 
         Today, he was working from Emma's cottage, trying to keep near ground zero.   Celeste knocked on the door and waited until he invited her in.  "She's not here right now," he explained to her request.
 
         Celeste looked at the computer screen and smiled. Bobby had been helping her study for her CPA test, whenever she had a spare second that coincided with one of his.  "That's really going to seem boring," she sighed.
 
         "You thinking of giving up your job and going into accounting?"  That surprised Bobby greatly.  She, like him, needed more human contact.  He was bringing in business and building it up so he could hire others do the accounting.  He was a natural born salesman, not an accountant.  That degree had been more to please his father- and he was grown up enough to admit his dad had been right in insisting he get it.
 
         "I am," Celeste admitted.  Changing the subject, she asked him, "Has Emma told you one way or another?"
 
         Bobby shook his head.  "I'm in it for the long haul. If she wants to live together, then we live together. If she wants to stay permanently engaged, then that's what we'll do.  I love her and I can't imagine living without her."
 
         A small, sad smile crossed Celeste's face.  "I admire men who fall in love with women like me and Emma-we're hard to love, demanding, and don't give much back."
 
         That was something Bobby really, truly disagreed with.  "The easiest thing in the world for me to do was fall in love with Emma.  She challenges me, makes me be strong, and lets me love her."  He blinked as he saw the words didn't register with her.  "Yes, at times it's very frustrating but that doesn't mean I love her less.  What takes work is real, true, and is held on to when times get tough."
 
         "Maybe, for some women."  With that, Celeste drew a circle and excluded herself.  For her, she deserved the hard times.  Deep down, she didn't feel that she deserved the storybook love that others had found.  And that, coupled with Tony's deep wounds, was the reason they never had anything but friendship.   And that was why she clung so tightly to her sister. Because Celeste felt that she was going to be alone, a punishment for being strong.
 
         "One day, if you let yourself, you'll see, " Bobby promised.  He knew he was in a wonderful relationship with a woman that many would find impossible, but they were working towards each other.  The promise of a forever with Emma was worth it.  Sex was easy, love was tough.

         Celeste turned towards the door.  "Tell Emma I'm looking for her, will ya?"
 
         "Sure will," Bobby promised.