Celeste sighed as she covered Cordelia with a blanket. The poor girl.

Quickly, she reread the note she had found in Cordelia's jacket and forced a slightly brighter expression on her face. Right now, the last thing Cordelia or Emma needed to know was what was in the note. She folded it up and slipped it into her pocket.

Cordelia was still non-responsive, almost in a fugue state. It wasn't a good sign for anyone to remain that way for so long, much less a telepath like her. Celeste looked up as Isabella entered the room.

"She's not doing good," the nurse observed. Celeste agreed from where they were standing in the corner.

"Emma warned you when she hired you that this wouldn't be a typical job." It had been Celeste's suggestion, prodded by a talk with Sam and Rahne, to hire additional help for the school. The New Mutants didn't do it alone, and neither should this class. Emma knew that it wouldn't be easy to find people willing to live under the same security requirements that the class did, so they had hired some people from the Witness Protection Agency. It was an ideal situation for both parties. In exchange for total security, Violet, Isabella, and Abraham agreed to keep the school's true nature a secret.

Quickly, Celeste took the bundle of clothes, and continued, "This matter will be handled internally." Isabella nodded. Too few rapist actually went to jail. Celeste went over to the trash can and carefully took off her latex gloves.

"What now?" Isabelle asked. "Moira called to say she's running a few minutes late." This was a complicated situation.

"Now, I get Emma to come help." With a telepath like Cordelia, there was always the chance that she could retreat too deeply into her mind. Emma, or another telepath, needed to coax Cordelia out.

And it might just allow a mother and daughter to connect.

***

"You need to pull her out of herself," Celeste advised Emma.

Emma turned to the other woman, her face full of pain. "I can't." It was a simple statement of defeat from a woman unused to giving up.

Celeste sighed. She could understand the feeling. If that was her daughter in there, she would be torn between opening herself up to the pain of remembering how her child got created and the knowledge that her heart wanted to do what was right. Part of Emma had to be fighting the same conflict. "You need to go in there and do it," she told her boss. "Cordelia's withdrawing, and you know how dangerous that is for a telepath."

Emma nodded, and wrapped her arms around herself. "I don't know if I can," she replied honestly. She didn't know if she could reach out to her own daughter and pull her back from the brink. It was so hard, trying not to feel anything for her daughter. Opening herself up, and not letting her love for Cordelia show, would be the hardest thing she had ever done.

She had promised herself that, after what she had survived at The Clinic, she would never trust or love anyone anymore. After all, she had trusted her mother enough to tell her about the voices in her head, and she ended up at The Clinic. She had trusted that the guards wouldn't hurt her, and look what happened. And leaving her daughter with her parents tore her heart out. Loving and trusting people was the quickest way to get hurt.

Celeste pulled her hair off her neck and laced her fingers around the back. After streching, she said simply, "You must, unless I can call the X-Men." That was a threat in itself. Calling the X-Men would mean complicated explanations, not only about Cordelia's identity, but why she was attacked.

Emma turned to her right hand woman and asked, "Can I bring you in with me?" She needed to have something solid to anchor herself against, and Celeste was the best candidate for the job. Besides, Celeste knew about Cordelia.

The younger woman nodded. "Just a minute, okay?" She pointed to where Paige was sitting in front of the bathroom.

Emma nodded and then walked into the room where her daughter was waiting. "Umm... Hi?" Emma started to talk Cordelia. "I'm not the most nurturing type of person- I kill air plants- and no one in their right mind would give me something simple to take care of, something like sea monkeys or anything. I'm tops at running my own company, but I stink at being warm and compassionate."

Emma paused for a second and then continued, "But I'm the one who gave birth to you... I'm ..." Her voice trailed off as she wished she could find the words to say to her daughter. None came.

***

Celeste knelt down in front of Paige and tapped her on the arm. "Paige- look at me." She made the same V motion with her hand that she had made with Cordelia.

Paige looked up at Madre, as the team called her from time to time. "I'm fine," Paige lied, blinking back the tears. "How's Cordelia?"

Celeste nodded slightly and then asked, "How are you doing?" She knew enough to know a lie when she heard one.

Paige looked at the woman and sighed, giving up part of the truth. "I just understood why Sam's best friend stayed with us for so long. Her mother's boyfriend... did to her what someone did to Cordelia."

Celeste knew a load of bull when she heard it too, but she didn't have the time to confront Paige about it. Right now, she had to help Emma, and then give her the note she had found in Cordelia's clothes. "Want to talk about it later?" It would have to be much later, once Emma read what had been given to Cordelia and the matter had been attended to.

Paige shook her head no, and Celeste walked back into the clinic. Both females made a note to talk to Sam later.

***

Although it really didn't matter, Emma closed her eyes as she formed the mental link between her mind and Celeste. The warm, safe thought pattern calmed her. Drawing on Celeste's mental strength, Emma reached out to Cordelia's mind.

The mental landscape recreated instinctively in her daughter's mind. It was a typical dark alley, dumpsters at one end. Junk scattered about. Pieces of scrap lumber from the nearby buildings were strewn sporadically about the ground.

Leaving Celeste at the front of the alley, Emma walked in to find Cordelia. She found her behind the dumpsters, naked and in tears. There was a two by four in her hand. Blood dripped down from it and pooled at Cordelia's feet.

Sensing Emma's presence, the girl looked up. "He hurt me," she said plainly. Emma quickly glanced at where the man's body was.

"Yes," Emma answered her daughter's unspoken question. "You fought back."

"I killed him." Cordelia dropped the piece of lumber. There was a purity to telepathic communications that allowed the heart of the issue to be addressed.

"You had no choice." Quickly, Emma took the coat that she had been wearing and offered it to her.

Cordelia started to slip it on, but stopped. "Who are you?" It seemed like she was seeing this female for the first time.

Emma moved to help Cordelia cover herself. "I'm Emma Frost, the same woman you knew before." Cordelia allowed her body to be covered.

The younger Frost looked at the older one and shook her head. "I don't know who you are. But Shaw said to give my mother a message, 'Tell Emma he will have what he wants.'" Emma looked at Celeste who was politely giving the two the distance they needed. At the unspoken invitation, she moved closer to the both of them.

Emma waited until Celeste was at her right hand, and then started to continue. "I'm the same woman you always knew." The scenery switched to a bare room with two beds in it. A younger Emma sat cowering in a corner, covering herself with a blanket, almost afraid to look at the women.

Cordelia watched as the door to this room opened. In walked a tall man, dressed in white. The three watched as he sat down on the bed and tossed the blanket on the floor. The girl was naked. The man started to run his hand between her legs. The teenage girl fought to move his hand. "You're holding out on me, you little cun---" the man started to snarl.

"Emma!" Celeste spoke sharply, breaking the spell. She knew the pain of living in the past, stuck in a certain moment. If she could help Emma, then she would. "Stop it!" Quickly, the man disappeared from the room, leaving only the little girl sobbing on the bed, her blanket beside her.

"Give the girl her blanket back," Celeste commanded. "Forgive her for not fighting back." She slipped a supporting arm around Cordelia.

Emma walked over to the bed and looked at her younger self. "I don't know if I can." It was the second time Emma doubted herself today. How could she forgive herself for not fighting back?

How could she have fought back? Did she ever have any chance to do anything but allow the guards to rape her? Emma had lost control over her body, had it wretched away from her by men. How could she forgive that?

Cordelia's own sobs broke though the wall Emma had built around her heart during that time. If she couldn't walk down that path of acceptance, how could she expect Cordelia to? For the first time in a long time, Emma reacted as a mother. Carefully, she covered the naked girl.

At that, the scenery moved to a stark gray field. Cordelia turned to Emma and asked again, "Who are you?" She knew it, her heart had always known it, but she wanted to hear it.

Emma quickly built a door to the grey room and opened it. "I'm your mother," she said as they walked though the door.

Suddenly, Emma's eyes flew open. They were back in the clinic, and she was holding her daughter. A tear trickled down Cordelia's face, and then another. Finally, Cordelia started to sob openly.

Emma started to pat her hair, and lost the fight to hold back her own tears. Celeste slipped out quietly.