Bobby woke up with a hangover. And the couch he had been sleeping on was not the most comfortable place to sleep. And oddly enough, he remembered very little from the time he walked into — Emma's house?

He bolted up and looked around. Yes, he had spent the night on Emma's couch. At least that was where he hoped he had spent it. Emma walked out of her bedroom and smiled, "Good morning."

"Morning." He looked at her from some clue as to what happened.

Emma smiled as she said, "The kids are due back in a couple of hours. With my rep and your well-known crush, it might be best ..." Her voice trailed off as she pointed to the door. "I know nothing happened, besides a little drinking, but why risk things?"

Bobby nodded as he looked at Cordelia's mother and wondered how he knew that. It would be best if he quietly made his way back home, he agreed. Quickly, he went to the field where he left the PAC- RAT. It wasn't there.

He panicked, knowing that certain people were going to have a field day. Not only did he have a hangover, he had spent the night at Emma's, and he had lost the PAC-RAT. And with his love of gossip, he was never going to live it down. There was only one person to blame for this. "SAM!"

***

Rahne turned to Sam and sighed. "A ken wha' it means that ye've brought me t' yuir kirk," she told him. Bringing a girl to Sunday services was a way of saying you were serious about her. "It's nice tae go back tae the church A used tae call home, too, but A've been asked sae many times 'what took us sae long?' A'm aboot tae scream."

Sam laughed and held her tight. What had taken them so long to get together? He thought back to their time as New Mutants when they were so close they would pray for each other and hold each other accountable, yet so far from each other, holding back as if they were afraid of what they might discover. He had Lila and Tab, she had Doug and Ric. Then they had decided to take other roads, his with X-Force and then with the X-Men, hers with X-Factor and now Excalibur. She had chosen to remain away with her new friends and he with his old. They grew somewhat apart and somewhat different.

And then he knew the answer, "We waited until we knew what we had in each other." Rahne smiled at his answer and took his hand as they entered the church for services.

***

Emma handed Paige an envelope after Sunday lunch, and Paige stuck it in her purse until she was alone in her room. Quickly, she opened it and read it.

"Paige, I am impressed. You show a fine ability, a talent, to predict and control people's actions, which is needed to be a good leader. At first, when I started reading your prospectus on Friday night, I thought you might be too simplistic in your efforts. Sam and Rahne would have gotten together down the line. Given their friendship and the fact they move in the same circles, it was inevitable. It wouldn't have been much a challenge, either. And given enough time, Jubilee and Everett would have gone out. Using the one to quietly motivate the other was a good idea. But you went deeper than that. You set up a situation where your brother showed some backbone and stood up to a teammate, one of several traits he's been sorely missing lately. Expanding that, you used me to get Rahne to feel beautiful. You helped the two of us move to a point of understanding, which I never thought I'd see happen. And with yet another layer of this onion skin plan, you arranged events so that Moira and Sean would have a night alone and honestly talk about how far their relationship had crumbled. Using your desire to tell Jono off, you made them realize that they needed to get help or break up. And then you arranged for your brother to make peace with a life- long friend, a resolution that when I first read about, I thought would never happen. Gracefully, you set up a situation and moved them past one of the potentially biggest stumbling blocks. And, using his distraction, you got permission to date Nate Gray. I do hope this means you'll try to convince him he needs to join our school. And finally, without knowing the details, you helped me. I thought that was the most impossible thing to do of your proposal, but you did it. My grade for the whole project is a 100, although I was sorely tempted to deduct points for comparing me to a female dog. Ready to start the intermediate manipulations course? I can always use someone with your natural talents at Frost Enterprises."

Paige smiled as she read the whole letter. She was ready to learn more from Emma.

***

Jubilee answered the video phone when Kitty called. "Where's Rahne?" Kitty asked.

"She's at the mansion, spending the day with her new boyfriend, Sam." The two shared a impish grin and Jubilee continued, "Moira and Sean are at this intense couple's camp, tryin' to learn how to fix their relationship." Kitty smiled at that remark. "And Bobby's driving back to the mansion, after spending the night with Emma."

"What?" Kitty laughed.

Jubilee nodded, "Emma says they got to talking and he had too much to drink and he slept on the couch. Yeah, right. Wolvie said that Sam said that Bobby was 'tied up' with Emma. Need I say more?" Kitty laughed at that one. "And Bobby says Sam stole the PAC-RAT he came in. As if! Jethro is so honest he couldn't pick up a penny without trying to find who it belongs to."

"Now this is where it gets confusing," Jubilee warned. "Logan said that he told Bobby that Sam was going to use it to take Rahne to the concert in Dallas, and Rogue says she left Bobby a note to tell him the same thing. And Sam promised that he was going to return it after he dropped Rahne off at the mansion so they could go to church together this morning and then fly here and drop the PAC-RAT off so no one was the wiser, but it had engine trouble cause Scott didn't tighten a nut and cause he didn't tighten the nut, the engine had bigger problems. It took Scott two hours this morning to fix the trouble." The girls shared a laugh.

"So," Kitty summarized, "Sam got some measure of payback without trying." Ironic. Changing the subject, she asked, "Does Paige suspect anything?" Kitty leaned in.

"What? That I told her Rahne has a thing for her brother so she'd do all the dirty work for us?" Jubilee laughed. "Yeah, like we would actually plan something that sneaky!"

The two girls laughed again. Who would believe it?