Once in the limo, Celeste reread the information Emma had handed her. It was all explosive stuff about Shaw's holdings. Setting down the reports documenting child and slave labor, she yawned. Curling up against the back of the limo, she tried to get more comfortable.

Knowing that she could never fall asleep anywhere she didn't feel safe, she read the next report on known human mutagentic agents found in various food products produced by well known companies Shaw owned. Each one of the manila folders contained a bomb shell that would destroy Shaw. When they all hit, the companies would fall, driving down stock prices. And that was where part of Emma's plan was concerned.

That was the reason Celeste had been dispatched to brief the X-Men. When stock prices fell, Emma was poised to buy up every available stock. However, this would require more money than even Frost Enterprises could muster at this time of the fiscal cycle. Before Celeste left the school she had filled Moira in on the plan. Moira had pledged a considerable sum of her personal fortune, but it wasn't enough. They needed the X-Men's help in raising capital.

Hopefully, Celeste could at the very least convince Warren to use his financial resources. Logan supposedly had a fortune saved in Landau, Luckman and Lake, and a master thief like Gambit should have a comfortable nest egg hidden somewhere. Betsy would help without a doubt, and could probably convince her brother, Brian Braddock, to pitch in with his share of the Braddock family fortune as well. Domino and Cable, because of the nature of Shaw's attack and his business dealings, would support them, but they were in England. While Xavier had left his fortune to Scott Summers to control, nether Emma or Celeste could forsee him helping without pointing out the danger to the students.

The limo stopped in Pine Valley at the television station WRCW and the well-known news magazine "Tempo" to drop off two folders apiece. The ratings hungry Liza Colby-Chandler started drooling at the chance to expose a well-know toy maker as a supplier of kiddie porn and had laughed with glee when she saw tapes of chemicals being dumped into lakes and streams. Edmund Grey personally thanked her for delivering information on how a nationally known rehab clinic would get their clients addicted to new drugs and about illegal gun shipments into Genosha.

That left six files to be given away before the end of the day. One would be given to Trish Tilby, the remaining five to Celeste's Godfather at the Daily Bugle. If he would see her, that was.

Uncle Jonah had always been a difficult man to know, a contradiction in terms almost. On one hand, he was so dedicated to the truth that he would risk his personal safety to ensure the public knew what were they were believing and the ways they were supporting their causes. On the other hand, his past kept him from looking at mutants and superheros with a sense of open honesty. When her father had hired a mutant for a job, it had cost him so many friends. But Uncle Jonah was the one he had regretted losing the most.

***

Tired of waiting for Moira to get done, Emma felt the need to move. Her eyes landed on the pile of clothes that Cordelia had worn when she had been attacked. The blood stains stood out on the white clothing. She gathered them together and headed towards the kitchen.

Emma flooded the kitchen sink with hot water and started to scrub the blood stains from Cordelia's clothes. Tossing a generous amount of detergent on the shirt, she focused her all of her attention on the first spot.

Paige walked in on this, and turned to Emma. "We can't get them all out." There was so much blood.

Emma shook her head. "We have to. This can't happen to a Frost." She reached under the sink and grabbed the bleach. The blood had to go.

"We can get the replicator to make some more clothes. I can give her some. Just throw these out-" Paige started to take the clothes, but Emma grabbed them back.

"I have to hide it!" Emma wasn't thinking, just reacting to the situation.

"We can." Paige insisted. "We can make this so that it doesn't look like anything happened." Paige showed Emma the clothes she had made in case the police came. "We can hide it."

Wordlessly, Emma grabbed the damp clothes. Paige followed her into the living room and watched as she started a fire in the fireplace. They both nodded as the flames started to burn the clothes.

*** "Your eyes are the anchors of my soul?" Berto read over Sam's shoulder and tried not to laugh. He had been on his way out to surprise Tabitha by renting "The English Patient" when he nearly tripped over Sam sitting on the front steps.

Sam turned to his best friend. "Get. Lost. Now." It was hard enough to write his first love letter- even if he couldn't bring himself to use that word- to Rahne without having his every sentence read out loud. Berto sat down next to Sam and grabbed the letter from him.

"'I thank God for allowing us to date. Somehow, he let an angel out of heaven and into my life.' Now that's decent." Berto continued reading, "'No matter how pretty any of your fairy tale princesses are, they're still ugly when compared to you.' Good line, Sam. But the next one has to go, it could put a diabetic in a coma." Dodging Sam's attempts to retrieve the letter from his soon-to- be-former best friend, soon-to-be-dead ex-teammate, he continued to critique the letter. "'No angel could sing any sweeter than you talk.'"

Sean walked out on that line. "Does Rahne know about the two of you?" He sat down on the other side of a blushing Sam, figuring out that some fatherly advice might be needed. "First love letter, huh?"

Berto nodded. "I guess since Rahne's coming back from Shi'ar space soon, he wanted to give her a good laugh." Excalibur had been called away to help an old teammate.

"What's wrong with it?" Sam demanded. "Ah took the advice ya gave me and all-"

Sean laughed. "That's what's wrong. Berto could give Tabitha this type of letter, but you're more plain spoken. Put your accent to that and try not to laugh." Quickly, the two started to help Sam write a better love letter. It was an absorbing task.

"Gee- I'm so impressed by your powers of observation and your security system." Good humored sarcasm tinted Celeste's words. The three men looked up to see her standing outside of Emma's limo, clutching a briefcase.

"Phlatt!" Sean teased her as he got up, "What can ye do? Stuff us with yer cooking and then hurt us? Berto, this is Celeste, Gen- X's Madre." Celeste grinned as the older man who helped fill her need for a father figure quickly hugged her. Politely, she nodded at Berto. "Why did Emma send ye? Nothin' at the school, A hope."

Celeste shook her head. "No students are sick, hurt, or kidnapped." Sean looked relieved at the statement. "But there is a situation going on." He was immediately worried. "It's best if I explain this all at once, to Scott and to everybody."

Sam smiled. He walked over and clasped Celeste's arm in a sort of open hug. They had met when he had been in charge of Generation-X for a short period of time and someone had decided to use Celeste and her sister Ariel as hostages to get Jubilee, and use Jubilee to get Logan, and by extension all of the X-Men so that no one could stand in the way of Operation: Zero Tolerance. Those plans had failed because of the commitment the two sisters had for their friends safety. Sam and Celeste became friends shortly afterwards.

"Most of them are in a practice session right now. After lunch, we have some free time," he told her. "But, if ya need ta talk ta them now, Ah can get them."

Celeste checked her watch. Yes, it was only 11 A.M., even if she felt like it had been a week since she arrived at the school. She yawned, her exhaustion clearly visible. "After lunch sounds good. Is there a couch or something I could lay down on?"

"Rahney's bedroom is empty." Okay, technically it was a guest bedroom but, to his mind, it specifically for Rahne to stay in when she came to visit. And the fact that it was her old room when she was a New Mutant helped to strengthen the idea. Celeste smiled at his wording as he escorted her into the mansion.

"That serious, huh?" Sam and Rahne had been dating for a few months and had doubled with her and Matt on several occasions. It had been good for Celeste to spend time with people her age who understood how it felt to be too chronologically young to feel as psychologically old as they felt. In a way, Sam and Rahne were her only real friends. They all felt that their lives were hard enough that they really couldn't relate to most people their age. That attitude was a sore point with her and Matt.

"Yep." A goofy smile crossed his face. "How's Matt?" He liked Celeste's boyfriend, and felt that Matt sheltered her as much as possible. And if Celeste had been the type to want to be sheltered, they would have made a good match.

"He's okay. We don't see that much of each other now, what with my job and his job." The demands asked of two very hard jobs had worn down their relationship, but it had been troubled before Celeste went to work for Emma. Matt had never believed her when Celeste swore that nothing had happened between her and Tony, and she didn't know if she wanted to stay with a man who didn't trust her. Right now, it felt like calling Matt her boyfriend was more of a habit than anything else.

Sam opened the door to Rahne's room for Celeste and smiled. "Here we are." Celeste walked in the room and set her briefcase down. "Nightgowns are in the top drawer." He started to leave when she called him back.

"Sam, we do need to talk." She motioned for Sam to sit down in the vanity chair as she sat on the bed.

"Ah was goin' ta ask ya about Paige when ya got up from yer nap." Celeste smiled, but didn't get up. "What the matter?"

Celeste yawned. This might be better coming after her talk with the X-Men but, if her hunch was right, there would be no chance. "I've been keepin' an eye on her, like ya asked." Her Texas accent grew as she started to speak.

"And?" They knew each other well enough to know that what Celeste was going to say wasn't pleasant, and Sam didn't want to know it as much as Celeste didn't like to say it.

"Well, Emma's classes are doing a world of good for her. But-" a yawn cut off her words. "But last weekend, I noticed something very odd. Remember I told ya I was an actor before my parents died?" Sam nodded. "From time to time, I had to lose weight fast and did some dumb things ta do it." Like most of the female actors she knew, she had resorted to laxatives and other means to lose weight. "I keep a couple of things- something ta make me throw up, an' one ta make me go ta the bathroom a lot in my medicine cabinet."

Sam winced. Part of the life he led was the intense need to keep in perfect physical condition, and he knew what Celeste was going to say. "Ya think she took something?"

"Half of my laxatives were missing after she spent the night. I'm not saying I know it was her, Ariel says that a lot of her friends at school are into b and p- binging and purging. But, I checked Paige's medical reports, she did lose a couple of pounds that week." If it was Ariel, then Celeste would talk to her about it later. But she had been around enough people with eating disorders to know that Ariel was at less of a risk than the perfectionistic Paige. "And Jubilee has mentioned that Paige is now exercising at four in the morning."

Sam started to pace the room. "Anythin' else Ah need ta know?"

Celeste nodded, but decided to honor what Paige asked of her. "I've caught her flirting with older men at church, men who look like her father." Paige had always had a father fixation, latching on to Jono because he looked slightly like her father, and then to Sean because he acted like her father. Both of them had hoped that, by allowing Sean to become a father figure, Paige would stop her search.

Sam sat down again. "Whatcha think Ah should do?"

Celeste smiled at his question. "Go see her this afternoon, after I talk to the X-Men. I need a friend in my corner." And it'll give Paige some time to calm down. Sam nodded.

"Thanks, Celeste." He got up to let her go to bed.

"Anytime Sam." She watched as he left and then sighed. Celeste had become more attuned to Paige's behavior at Sam's request and hated to be the one who alerted Paige's big brother to the fact that his sister needed help. And she hated knowing what she had to say later would change their friendship. Putting on the nightgown, she slipped into the bed.