"Let me get this straight," Matt started. "Julie isn't Julie, but Jubilee, a mutant, her friends are mutants, and you knew all along?" He looked at Ariel who was sitting in the waiting room of the Massachusetts Academy.

Ariel nodded. "That's the short story. Does it bother you?" It all made perfect sense to her.

Matt was pacing the hall. This was supposed to be an ordinary day. Pick Ariel up for a doctor's appointment, bring her back, spend the evening watching movies with Celeste. Now he was waiting to hear if his girlfriend would live. He clenched and unclenched his fist, trying to work off nervous energy. He hated waiting.

Matt had learned long ago that the only way to be around Celeste and Ariel was honest. He had grown up with the mutie jokes, the evening news relating the latest mutant attacks. But he believed that all people had to make a choice to be good or bad, it was unfair to lump all people in one category. "It shouldn't, but it does," he admitted.

Ariel nodded. "For what it's worth, Matt, I appreciate your honesty. If I hadn't know Julie, I'd have a hard time knowing Jubilee. I'm not as open minded as Celeste, and the only reason Celeste is so open minded is Stella was like she was."

Matt started to disagree with Ariel. He had a feeling that Celeste had a better reason to be so open-minded, but that was for Celeste to get into. "Your sister is wonderfully trusting, that's one of the things I love best about her."

Jubilee walked into the waiting room. "Are you ok?" she asked both people. Matt looked uncomfortable, Ariel shrugged her shoulders. "It's hard, waiting to hear about a loved one. Remember the night I called you crying, Ariel? Logan had just been hurt bad. I couldn't go to him, and I had to lie about why I was crying. But you were there for me, and I'm here for you." Ariel started to cry, and Jubilee hugged her.

Matt couldn't stand it any longer, he left the room. This had been the hardest, most confusing day of his life. He would pay for a clue as to which way was up. Celeste felt so strongly about mutant rights that she opened her house up to mutants, but didn't trust him enough to tell him. And the woman he thought he could trust had given something to the men in the apartment to let her sister go. She didn't have any money, very little jewelry. The only other thing she had was herself. That thought hurt him almost as much as the fact that she was fighting for her life in the sick bay.

He bumped into the president of his youth group, Paige Guthrie waiting outside. The vice-president, Everett Thomas, was right next to her. They both looked worried. "Is Celeste okay?" Paige asked.

"They don't know yet. How did you know that Celeste was here?" Then it hit him, these were Julie's friends. "Were you involved in this?"

Ev nodded. "I found her in the apartment."

At that moment, Matt understood what Celeste knew about mutants. They were humans, with something extra in their DNA. A mutant could be your friend, neighbor, co-worker, or child. They were anybody and everybody. And like anybody else, the deserved to be judged on their actions, not on their DNA.

It was as simple and complicated as that.

Dr. MacTaggart had left her research at Muir Island and flown halfway around the world to help her lover's students. Instead of the massive casualties that Banshee had been afraid of, only one person had been hurt.

It was a combination of drugs that had almost done Celeste in. She had come in the sick bay with a severe case of anaphylactic shock, due to a drug she had known she was allergic to, and had nearly overdosed on benadryl, sometimes used to counteract allergic reaction. The gamble had nearly failed her, but she had had enough epinephrine in her system to fight the reaction. Still, things would have been different if Celeste hadn't ended up in the tub, and been holding a list of medication she was already taking with her doctor's name.

After talking to the doctor, Moira had felt a feeling of kinship towards Celeste. This girl was strong willed, practical, and very intelligent. Moira sat down by Celeste's bed and started sipping her cup of coffee. Later, she promised herself, they would have a long talk about being closely associated with mutants, how to nurture and help them, and how to live as a survivor. Banshee had already told her Emma's plans for Celeste, and Moira would be damned if she didn't have some input.

Ariel had cried herself to sleep by the time Moira was satisfied that Celeste had stabilized. Jubilee sat at one corner of the couch, nearly asleep, guarding over her sleeping friend when Moira came out of the sick bay. It was a touching sight to see the girls, so protective of each other, comforting themselves. It strengthened Moira's heart to see Ariel covered by Jubilee's jacket. That scene was Xavier's dream.

Jubilee looked up when she saw Moira. "She's okay, isn't she?" Jubilee was almost too exhausted to talk. Moira nodded and Jubilee smiled. She started to wake up Ariel and then stopped.

"Moira, I know Scott says we have to be careful who we share Shi'ar technology with, but Ariel gets so sick and she hurts all the time. Can you do something to help her?" The same car wreck that had killed her parents had also cause Ariel a host of medical problems.

Moira thought about it. These girls were the same to this team as Tom, Sharon, and Stevie were to the New Mutants. If they had needed special medical care, she wouldn't have hesitated to help.

"If Scott doesn't like it, A'll make him drink me coffee." Jubilee smiled at the thought.