Work Text:
X Marks the Spot
Putting his bag down beside him, Evan pressed the button beneath the speaker. It was helpfully labeled “Press to call for entry.”
“Yes, may I help you?”
He leaned towards the speaker and cleared his throat nervously. “Hi. My name is Evan, I was given this address, is this the school?”
“Evan… Lorne?” the disembodied feminine voice asked.
“Yes.” He breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn’t messed it up, if they knew his name, it must be the right place.
The gate beside him buzzed. “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you. Come in through the gate. Walk up the pathway to the right, stay on the walkway. That is very important, do not wander off the cement walk, Mister Lorne, it could be dangerous. You’ll see a sign for the door to the administration office.”
Her warning might have concerned him, if he hadn’t known he was walking into a school populated with other people like him. He knew all about dangerous. Clenching his hand tightly around the handle of his duffel bag, he went through the gate. It couldn’t be any worse in this new world than it had been on the streets, dangerous inhabitants or no dangerous inhabitants in the student body.
The gate closed behind him and he looked around at the park-like grounds as he started walking. It was quiet, except for the birdsong. He never heard a sound; the collision happened so quickly and silently, he was down before he had a chance to react. That in itself was good, since he might have reacted badly and hurt someone unintentionally. One moment he was walking, the next he was flat on his stomach, a weight pressing on his back. Something whooshed past over his head and he smelled something burning nearby. “Hey!” he protested when he got his breath back. “Lemmee up!”
“Come back here, you little bitch!” the whooshing sound came again.
The little brunette that had been on his back scrambled to her feet and bent to tug him up, urging him up, “Hurry up, she’s almost close enough to actually hit us!” As she wrapped slim hands around his arm, she smiled up at him. “Oh, wow, uhm. I wish I knew how to use that! No time to learn now.”
“Use what? Who are you?” Evan looked around and saw a girl with reddish blonde hair stomping towards them, a look of determination on her face.
“That power you’ve got there. I’m Allie, that’s my roommate Laura and she’s a little miffed right now.” Allie tugged his arm, trying to get him to move.
As she moved, Laura pulled back her arm, looking as if she were about to pitch a softball, and hurled a ball of fire towards them. “Oh, crap!” Evan shouted and dove aside, knocking Allie to the ground as he went; they rolled into the mulch beside the walkway.
“You swiped my assignment card! Your card sucks,” Laura shouted.
Allie leapt to her feet. “That’s one of the founder’s trees you just set on fire, you’re in for it now!”
Her step faltered and Laura dropped her hand to her side, and she muttered “Uh oh.”
“Yeah! Uh oh!” Allie mimicked.
“What was on the card?” a male voice asked from behind Evan as he climbed to his feet. Evan looked over his shoulder and saw a slim guy with spiky blondish-brown hair leaning against a tree.
“I had Danger Room,” Allie offered with a smile.
“Hell no, I don’t like pain. What’d you have, Cads?” he looked at his hands casually.
Laura stomped her foot as she pointed a garden hose she’d pulled from the landscape at the burning tree and squirted at the flames. “Don’t just stand there, Parrish! Do something about that!” Laura waved a hand at the charred surface of the tree.
“Card?”
Allie tugged a folder piece of cardboard from the pocket of her jeans and waved it. “Hand to Hand Training with Professor Summers. She has a crush on him.”
Parrish pushed away from the tree and snatched the card from Allie’s fingers as he walked past her. “Who doesn’t? Better than the Danger Room, or History of Mutant Relations with old blue nose. Cads can have my lecture card in exchange for me pulling her ass out of the fire. Again. C’mon Porter, you can help with this.” He held a hand out to her expectantly.
Evan stood back, careful to not step off the walkway, after all this could be some kind of test engineered to see if he could follow instructions. He’d been warned by the man that had found him after the last incident not to use his abilities again until he was in a safe environment, and until he had proper training.
He watched Laura curl the hose and drop it back where she had found it as Allie took Parrish’s hand and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Then she nodded and dropped it. Parrish went to the base of the damaged tree and put his hands gingerly on the wet surface. “Aw, poor baby, what did that mean fire starter do to you, huh? Wicked fire witch tried to burn you all up, didn’t she?” he cooed.
“Just make with the tree-hugging, Parrish, before someone comes along and I get slapped with another week’s detention.”
Peeking out from the far side of the tree, Allie replied cheerily, “Stop blowing stuff up and you won’t have to do detention all the time.”
“You go through my things again bitch and I will set your bed on fire, and I won’t make sure you’re out of it first.”
Apparently used to empty threats, Allie merely stuck her tongue out in response and disappeared in a swirl of dark hair. Laura moved to stand beside Evan, her arms crossed over her middle. “Hey, new kid.”
“Hi, Laura.”
She grinned. “What’s your name?”
“Evan. What are they going to do?”
“Fix the tree, I hope. It’s one of the old ones; the administrators frown on those getting torn up. Oh, sure, if you’re one of the X-men, you can pretty much wreck the place and get away with a slap on the wrist, but we students get in a lot of trouble. I’ll be doing bathroom detail for a month if the wonder twins there can’t fix it.”
Not understanding completely, Evan opted for silence and just nodded. He blinked in surprise as the bark of the tree began to change, starting at the area under Parrish’s hands and spreading from there. Soon, the damaged surface looked just like the rest of the tree, if a bit newer. He saw the same changes come around the tree from the other side, and assumed that Allie was doing the same as Parrish from there.
“They have the same abilities?” Evan asked Laura quietly.
She smirked. “For the moment. Allie Xeroxed David, it doesn’t last very long, but it’ll probably last long enough for them to finish, from the looks of it.”
“So her ability is to…”
“Copy other people’s. It takes her time to learn to use them, so she usually just sticks to people she knows. She and David have worked together on projects before.”
This was why he was here, to learn to use what he could do, to possibly make some use of it. At least, to learn to live with it. Evan smiled, more confident now that he had made the right choice in crossing the country to come here.
“I think that’s good enough,” Parrish declared as he patted the side of the tree. “Should be fine now.” He walked over towards Evan and Laura, giving Lorne an appraising up and down look. “So, new guy, eh? Where you staying?”
“I don’t know yet, I’m on my way up to the office to find out, I guess.”
Allie bounced over towards them, her long hair swinging. “I’ll come with you, make sure they stick you in one of the cruddy dorms. Least I can do for getting you all messy.”
Evan looked down, noticing that he was a bit mussed and dirt covered from their dives at the ground. “Sure, yeah, that would be cool.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, Evan noticed that Parrish was staring at him. David shook himself and started to follow. “I’ll come too.”
“I’m going to the library,” Laura turned away but stopped when Parrish waved a card at her.
“Don’t forget your new assignment. You’ll need to pick up a few books while you’re there for Professor McCoy’s class.”
Laura practically ripped the card from David’s hand with a sneer. “I hate you, Parrish.”
He smiled broadly and called after her, “No, you love me Cads. You want to marry me and make lots of little fire-spouting plant babies with me. Stop fighting it!”
She gestured rudely over her shoulder which only made David laugh.
“That’s the gym, down that way,” Allie had apparently appointed herself his impromptu personal tour guide. Evan nodded and looked, trying to memorize what he saw. He knew he needed to keep the exit route in his head. He always kept the exit route in his head.
“Keep clear of that area over there. You never know when the landing bay is going to open. The X-men come and go a lot.” She waved towards a wide open grassy area.
“Who?”
David snickered behind him. “Ah, good. Someone not enamored of our illustrious faculty! You’re a breath of fresh air, new guy.”
“Don’t pay him any mind. He’s just mad because his skill will never get him on the first team.” Allie stuck her tongue out at David and he swatted her ass.
“While yours is a hot ticket to doomsville, brat. Don’t gloat. I’m perfectly content out of the spotlight. Not everyone longs to wear the giant target on their chest. X does not mark my spot.”
Allie ignored him. “What do you do, Evan?”
“I’m not sure. It all just started. Stuff kind moves when I get mad.”
Allie stopped and put a hand on Evan’s arm. “You mean your ability only just woke up? How old are you?”
“I’ll be eighteen in a few months.”
“Seriously, dude? Wow. You’re a late bloomer.” David tilted his head and looked at Evan oddly.
Agreeing with David, Allie nodded. “Most of us started at puberty.”
Lorne shrugged. The guy that had come to get him had told him this. He didn’t care. He wasn’t here to be an X-man, whatever that entailed. He was here to make the bad stuff stop happening.
They reached the building and Allie dragged the heavy oak door open, they scooted inside and Evan took a deep breath, smelling wood and furniture polish and books. It smelled old here, and that comforted Evan. Things that were old were sturdy and well built, hard to damage. This was a good place.
It did not take long to do his paperwork; they had been waiting for him. The lady at the desk looked over at Allie and David and smiled. “I see you’ve met some of our students, very good, Mister Lorne. Mister Parrish?” the lady called as she looked over at him expectantly.
“Yes’m?”
“There’s an open bed in your block, isn’t there, with Mister LeBeau’s departure?”
David was leaning on the wall beside the door. “Plenty of space, I’m all alone in a room meant for three.”
She smiled and made a notation on the paperwork in front of her. “Show Mister Lorne to the room, please. Your orientation will begin tomorrow, Evan. I’ve printed a schedule and put it in this folder with some other information you should read through tonight. All of your classes will be in the main building. We usually assign a student guide for the first few days...”
“I’ll show him around,” Allie volunteered.
The lady looked over her glasses at Allie. “It won’t get you out of your classes, Miss Porter.”
“I know. But I can show him; all my classes are over here too.”
“Very well. Show our new student to the cafeteria at some point. Welcome to Xavier’s, Mister Lorne.” The lady smiled at him and passed him a glossy black folder embossed with a giant letter X across the cover. It made him stupidly happy, to have a place he belonged, after being out on his own for so long. “Any questions?”
He shuffled his feet, a little ashamed, but everyone would know eventually so it didn’t matter if he spoke in front of his new acquaintances. “I’m a little behind on classes; they didn’t put me in with the seniors, did they?”
“No, you’ll be given some tests and you’ll be assigned to classes at your level. Don’t worry; many of our students have missed out on much of their schooling before coming here, due to their abilities isolating them. You shouldn’t have any problems catching up.” The lady’s smile was warm as she patted his hand where it rested on the counter.
He smiled back and bent to pick up his bag. “Thanks.” He followed David and Allie out into the hallway.
As they climbed the stairs and turned down a hallway, Allie waved. “I can’t go into the boy’s wing; I’ll meet you in the cafeteria.” She waved and bounded off.
Evan watched her go. “She seems nice.”
“She is. Laura gives her a hard time, but then she gives everyone a hard time; she can’t help it. Allie’s good people, she has a good heart. Room’s this way,” David tossed his head to the left.
The room Parrish led him to was huge, at least to Evan’s eyes. There were three beds, three desks and three dressers, in addition to a sofa and TV in one corner.
“There used to be a fourth bed in here at one time, but they decided a few years back that three was a better number, less fights and more room to spread out. You can have either of those beds, this one is mine.” David pointed and Evan smiled and went straight over to the bed beside the window. Easy exit, an escape route; he wouldn’t be trapped in this room.
He dropped his duffel on the plain blue comforter and unslung his backpack. His stomach rumbled as he glanced out the window at the campus.
“You a little hungry, dude? We should go meet Allie.”
Turning to see David staring again, Evan smiled and shrugged. “I could eat. You don’t have to go out of your way, if you’ve got someplace to be.”
“It’s Sunday, no place to be. All my homework is done. And I’m getting hungry, let’s go.” Parrish beckoned with one hand as he went to the door. He looked both ways up and down the hall before exiting the room. “We’ve got runners on this floor, a bunch of wild eight year old quads, got to watch out, they’ll trample you.”
“Okay.” Evan looked before walking out. He was relieved to have someone to tell him these things; he would have felt pretty stupid figuring that out on his own, trampled by a bunch of little kids. “Identical quads?”
“Yeah, it’s freaky. And they have a staring problem.”
Evan bit his lip to keep from remarking ‘like someone else I know.’
The path to the cafeteria was a little twisty. Occasionally, David would point something out that was interesting. He paused in front of a painting and said quietly, with a reverence he had not previously demonstrated, “That’s the founder, Professor Xavier. He went missing a few years ago. Things have been different since then. Not bad, just different.”
The bald man looked serious and stern. Evan nodded without comment and they moved on. They found Allie easily in the nearly deserted cafeteria and joined her after getting trays of food. It was the most food Evan had ever had on a plate in front of him in the last ten years. It smelled wonderful. He didn’t even mind that a large percentage of it was vegetables. His stomach growled again as he sat down on the chair beside Allie. They had real chairs here, not benches. Comfortable fabric covered seats on wooden chairs, not cheap industrial plastic. It reminded him of home, back before all the stuff happened.
“Where are you from, Evan?” Allie was chewing noisily on a carrot stick.
“Here and there, originally the Bay area, suburbs of San Francisco. You?”
She smiled. “California too, down near San Diego.”
“Vancouver.”
“You’re Canadian?”
David leaned across the table and whispered, “Yup, they’ll take anyone in here, eh?” Then he laughed and sat back. “There’s mutants from all over the world here.”
“Tell me about your classes.” Evan was more comfortable with everyone else doing the talking. He sat back and ate slowly, listening to Allie and David banter back and forth about their teachers and fellow students and classwork. It all seemed so normal, for such an abnormal school.
“Most of the X-men are on the faculty, at least part time,” Allie said.
“Allie wants to grow up to be…”
“Shut it, Parrish.”
David gave her a lopsided smile then turned to Evan. “X-men have short life expectancies. It’s a dangerous line of work, fighting the good fight on the front line against evil.”
“You are such a pessimist,” Allie accused, jabbing a finger at him.
“Realist, sweetie, I’m a realist.”
Sensing this was a hot topic between them, Evan interrupted, “I just want to be able to control myself.”
With a really odd look at Evan’s face, David licked his lips as he said, “Don’t we all?”
“Leave him alone, David. Don’t start with him, it’s only his first day,” Allie tossed a carrot stick at David’s nose; drawing his attention and making him break the stare.
“Just looking, I’m just looking. Not touching.” David held his hands up after crossing his fingers over his heart. “Cross my heart… unless he wants touching.” He gave Evan a wink.
Staring at David, Evan figured out what was going on. He’d had to put up with a lot of crap while he was living on the streets. He understood the staring now. It didn’t bother him, David seemed fairly harmless. Heck, someday, he might welcome the attention; just not now, while he was trying to get his life under control. He picked up a carrot stick, bit it and said casually, “Not today.” From the look David gave him, he knew his point had been made; it was a temporary brush off. He wasn’t shutting Parrish down completely now.
“Do not encourage him!” Allie hissed, bumping Evan’s shoulder. Evan was now staring across the table at David, seeing him in a slightly different light. “He will not stop if he thinks…”
“I can behave, Alison. There’s a movie tonight in the rec hall, you guys want to go?”
Allie nodded, “I’m sitting between you.”
With a bark of laughter, David shook his head, “She’s such a tiger when she gets all protective. Rar!” He made a claw with his hand and swiped the air towards Allie.
Evan smiled, warmed to the core. It had been so long since anyone had cared anything about what happened to him; even Allie’s small gesture was huge to him. He reached over and patted her hand. “Down girl. I think I’ll be safe. But I would be very happy to have you sit with me.”
As he walked back to his room to unpack and settle in, Evan had no way of knowing that he had just met the three best friends he would ever have, or that the young man walking beside him would hold a permanent and primary place in his life.
For now, he was content to have a roof over his head, and the promise of guidance in learning to use his troublesome abilities.
~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Through the Wormhole
John Crichton was not thrilled to be on his way to Xavier’s School for the Gifted. His father had made him come, after his latest ‘eruption’ had torn a hole in the side of the garage and resulted in the loss of the neighbor’s dog, the telephone pole from in front of the house, and his father’s new ride-on mower. His dad made the call, his mom packed his bags and they put him on a plane to New York.
He sat in the back of the car the school had sent to LaGuardia Airport to fetch him, his walkman on full-blast as he sprawled in a boneless heap on the seat and occasionally sipped at his coke and snacked on the pretzel he’d bought at the airport.
This sucked. The whole thing sucked. He hated this stupid power. The headmaster of the school had told his dad that they would teach him to use his “gift” – Ha! Some gift! – like creating wormholes out of thin air was a useful skill. Maybe they would teach him enough to be able to start his own trash removal service; he could advertise that he’d make things go away, permanently, no fuss, no muss, no harm to the environment. Well, not to Earth’s environment, anyway. He had no idea where the things that went into his wormholes came out. He could be trashing some poor defenseless planet in the Andromeda Galaxy and not even know it.
The car drove through big iron gates and pulled up in front of a huge mansion. Was this the school? Pretty damned fancy. His parents must be pretty desperate to be rid of him to foot the bill for a place like this. He climbed out of the car and took his bag from the driver. A dark skinned woman with a long white mohawk was coming down the stairs towards him. John gulped; she was pretty darned hot in her leather outfit.
“I’m Professor Monroe. Welcome. Are you John Crichton?”
“Yes,” he tried to keep his voice level, and respectful. It wasn’t the teacher’s fault he didn’t want to be here.
“Oh, I see, you’re one of those students,” the woman said in a lightly accented lilt.
He was confused by the statement. “What kind of student?”
“One that does not wish to be here. Don’t worry, John you will find your way eventually.”
John didn’t bother asking how she knew that. She was probably one of the mutants that could read minds. He had read about them in some of his dad’s science journals. Wonderful. People around here could read his mind.
“Do not fear, John Crichton. The telepaths here at the school will respect your privacy. I’m Professor Xavier, I was skimming your surface thoughts and informed Ms Monroe that you are not here entirely of your own volition.”
“Oh, well, okay. It’s weird though.”
“You do not need to speak aloud, you may respond to me in your mind, I will pick up your thoughts.
“Come with me, I will show you to the Registrar’s office and get you started with the intake process.”
As he followed her, he tried to keep his eyes off her leather clad rear end and the long white pony tail that was sweeping across it. No easy task for a randy sixteen year old. She dropped him at the Registrar and told him someone would be along to show him to the dorms.
When he stepped out of the office, a handful of official papers and a class schedule in hand, John stopped short to avoid running into a girl. She stopped as well and stared at him. She tilted her head, pursed her lips and gave him an up and down look. Her full lips spread into a wide smile. “So, you’re new.”
He nodded and stuck out his hand. “John.”
“I’m Aeryn. Let me see your schedule. When do you start classes?”
Handing her the paper schedule, he replied, “Tomorrow.”
“We’re in biology second period. Oh, and it looks like you’re on the same training team as Chiana, Zhaan and me. Finally, they assigned us a guy! I’m getting tired of being the team’s tank.”
“Tank?”
She smiled and handed him back the schedule. “Muscle. I’m stronger than I look. Come on, Storm sent me to show you up to your room.”
“Storm?” he asked.
“Professor Monroe’s codename. All the X-men have codenames for when they go out in the field. And some of them only answer to their alias.”
He slowed his pace a bit so that he could get a good view of her denim-clad posterior. So far, he didn’t mind the views around the place. It might not be so bad…
Aeryn spun around suddenly and glared at him. Then she galloped down a few steps to grab his arm. “Eyes off my ass, Crichton, you got it?”
Damn, she was pretty when she was mad. Not bad at all. He smiled as she dragged him up the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
5 Times Something Happened to Evan at School
The time Evan had a nightmare…
Before coming to Xavier’s, Evan had tamped down his abilities. He’d almost learned to live with the mutation. But the power had escalated as he got older and it had become necessary to enroll at the school to learn to deal with it.
He liked rooming with Parrish and he was pretty sure Parrish liked having him there. It took some adjusting to get used to having someone else sleeping in the same room with him, but eventually he grew accustomed to hearing Parrish’s snoring from the other bed.
The nightmares that had plagued him his entire life continued after he started at the school. At first it wasn’t too bad, nothing he wasn’t used to dealing with. But as the professors worked with him to unblock his abilities, he started losing control more often.
One night he woke from a particularly bad nightmare to find the lights on and Parrish sitting on the edge of his bed, shaking him by the shoulders. His roommate looked very concerned as he said, “Wake up, Evan!”
“I’m up. I’m up, stop jostling me.”
Parrish’s hands fell away. “You were screaming. You trashed the room.”
Looking around, he saw that the room looked like a small whirlwind had passed through. He groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “Sorry, Dave. I’ll clean it up.”
“That’s not the point. You have to talk to someone about this; I don’t want to wake up dead because you lost control. You’ve got a destructive power, Ev, you can’t keep going like this, nightmares every night.”
“You know about…?”
“Dude, I sleep right over there. You aren’t quiet about it. I usually give you a shake and you roll over and go back to sleep. You’re getting worse, man.”
Nodding, Evan acknowledged that he was right. “I’ll go to the counselor tomorrow.”
When he returned from classes the next day, he found the room cleaned up. Everything breakable had been stowed in drawers or in the closet.
The time Lorne messed up the science lab…
He didn’t mean to do it. It just sorta… happened. One minute he was watching Parrish flirt with the girl that made colored lights out of thin air and the next the pig on the table in front of him exploded, and then every pig in the lab exploded.
Professor McCoy was not at all amused. He dismissed the class and made Evan stay to clean up, once he had determined which of his erstwhile young mutants had been responsible.
The entire time Evan was scooping up pig guts and washing down tables and chairs, the Professor lectured him about the importance of keeping control of his emotions. He regaled him with tales of mutants that had lost control, and the results of those incidents.
Dave was waiting outside the classroom door when he finished. He gave Evan a wavering smile and handed him a can of Coke. He never flirted with exploding light girl again.
The time Evan nearly got killed in class…
One of the main tenets of Xavier’s school was the importance of teamwork. It was drilled into the students. They were supposed to learn how to work with each other using their skills and abilities.
That was all well and good, when everyone actually worked together. Sometimes, someone didn’t hold up their end, and things went upside down.
They had an exercise to do, working with Professor Summers in the Danger Room. They were supposed to move a heavy piece of machinery from one end of the room to the other, while being assaulted by ‘enemies’ – the room hurling objects and small projectiles at them. Evan assumed they were supposed to be learning to keep it together under stress.
As the telekinetic on the team, he was mainly responsible for the heavy lifting. He was concentrating on moving the huge machine. The kid that threw energy charged cards around was supposed to be watching his back and running interference with the projectiles. Something hit him though, and the other guy that was supposed to take up the slack didn’t.
The machine crashed to the ground as Evan was hit in the chest by a projectile the size and weight of a baseball, going about a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Having his concentration broken so forcefully caused a bit of feedback and his head was spinning as he was thrown back against the wall by the force of the impact of the projectile.
“Evan!” Cadman screamed his name and ran to stand over him, cursing the failure of the rest of the team to protect him. She shielded him from any more projectiles until Professor Summers shut the exercise down and called for a medical team to come collect Evan.
She knelt at his side, running her hands over him. “Dumbasses. They had one simple thing to do. How many fingers am I holding up, Evan?”
“Geraniums?”
“Oh crap,” Summers said as he got to them and heard the question and Evan’s answer. “Class dismissed. You will write a three page essay on this exercise and what went wrong and the ramifications of it. Out, now!”
The class scrambled. Laura held Evan’s hand and stayed with him all the way to the infirmary. Much to his embarrassment, she later told Evan that he had complimented her on her hair, on her ass and asked her if she thought Dave liked him. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Dave hadn’t been standing beside the bed at the time.
He answered the question for her, leaning over and whispering, “I like you, Ev. A lot.”
The time Allie was being bullied…
Evan hated bullies very much.
He was walking down the corridor and saw one of the kids with telekinesis standing in front of Allie with a look of intense concentration on his face. Allie was pinned against her locker, her feet dangling about a foot off the floor as an invisible hand held her.
Without thinking, Evan tossed a ball of energy at the kid, hurling him about fifteen feet down the hallway. Allie dropped to the floor, rubbing her neck and looking at Evan gratefully.
“Mister Lorne! This is not acceptable behavior!” the economics professor bellowed, coming out of his classroom. Of course he was the one that got caught, not the jerk that had been choking Allie.
“He was helping me, Professor Worthington!” Allie protested as the professor took Evan by the elbow and dragged him into the classroom.
Looking back over his shoulder, Worthington snapped, “There is no excuse for that kind of outlay of power against another student.”
Evan got another long lecture on control, but no one ever bothered Allie again.
The time they had a blizzard…
Being from California, Evan was not used to the cold and snow storms that plagued upstate New York each winter. The first time it snowed, he was delighted and went out to play in it, having a snowball fight with Laura, Allie and Dave.
By the time the blizzard hit, the novelty of the white stuff had worn off. The only good thing about it was that they cancelled classes. At least, that’s what Evan thought as he stared out the window at the blinding whiteness.
Dave came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist, dropping his chin on Evan’s shoulder. It startled him, but it was kind of nice, it felt comfortable, it felt right. It had been a very long time since anyone had embraced him. He sighed and put his hands over Dave’s.
Together they quietly watched the snow fly, until Allie and Laura turned up with hot chocolate and a video. When they sat side by side on the sofa in the rec room, Evan noticed that Dave was pressed up against him, more than necessary since there was plenty of room on the sofa.
He smiled. Maybe the snow wasn’t quite so bad.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
New Horizons
The dorm room door burst open and bounced back against the wall - twice. “You’re leaving? What the hell, Evan? Why did I have to hear it from Kitty? Alison is crying her eyes out because the brain trust knew something before she did and was rubbing it in.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“WHEN? Look at you, you’re already packed!” Dave was in a high temper, one of the worst Evan had seen him in over the years.
“I was going to come and find you. I don’t leave until tomorrow morning.”
Dave dropped heavily onto the edge of Evan’s bed and shoved at his suitcase, knocking it off the bed. “Whoops,” he sneered.
“Nice, very nice Parrish.” Evan bent to collect the clothing that had spilled out.
“You’re leaving me. Why are you leaving me?” Dave’s voice had gone very quiet as his rage evaporated. He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. “Why, Ev?”
Looking up from where he was crouched on the floor, Evan sighed and said, “I did what I came here to do, Dave. I’ve learned to control my abilities. I’m no longer a danger to anyone. I’m done here, there’s nothing else to learn and I don’t want to teach, I’m not cut out for it..”
“Where will you go?”
Evan dropped the clothes into the bag and sat beside Dave. “That’s why I have to go so soon. Professor X got me an interview with some military operation; I’m going undercover on a top secret mission.”
“You’ll be hiding your abilities again, won’t you?”
Nodding, Evan pressed his leg against Dave’s and reached for his hand. “I can’t hide here forever, Dave. I’m nineteen, I graduated last year. It was either this military gig or college. They offered me a commission, I’ll be a lieutenant. The Professor thought it would be a good experience for me, a good path to explore.”
Dave turned and threw his arms around Evan’s shoulders. Hugging was as far as they had ever gone, besides a chaste kiss here and there. There was virtually no privacy at the school. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I’ll miss you. I really will. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, Dave.”
Dave leaned back and framed Evan’s face in his hands. Then he leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth. “Don’t leave me,” Parrish whispered raggedly, trailing kisses along Evan’s cheek and down his neck. “Please.”
“I have to. I really have to, Dave, I signed the contracts; I’m committed. A few years, I’ll be back in a few years.” He rubbed his hands over Dave’s back as his roommate buried his face against his shoulder, soaking Evan’s t-shirt with tears. Evan had never seen Parrish cry before. It made his stomach hurt, seeing it now.
“You won’t have your team, who is going to watch your back?”
He stroked Dave’s hair, feeling a little close to tears himself. “I’ll be assigned to one of their teams. We trained for this, Dave, we trained to go out and work with others. I’m an asset to someone, for the first time in my life.”
“No, not the first time, you’ve always been the best thing in my life, Ev.”
~*~
When he finished his required six weeks, he was sent to Colorado Springs, to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. There he was indoctrinated into the Stargate program. He was given a crash course in the project and the mission he was being assigned to. His head was spinning with information overload by the end of the first day.
He had some more specialized training with a Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell and a huge guy named Teal’c. He learned alien martial arts, some funky hand to hand moves and how to fight with a staff. Then they turned him over to Doctor Jackson, who taught him the basics of the Ancient language. It seemed he had not quite escaped the classroom by leaving Xavier’s School for the Gifted.
He was leaving the small classroom with Sergeant Stackhouse, who was in his language class when he heard a familiar voice complain, “I want to see my friend. When can I go find him?”
Cadman? Had he just heard Laura Cadman? He turned right instead of left and came face to face with his favorite red-head. “Never mind, there he is!” She waved the private escorting her away. “He’ll show me where I need to be. Go. Shoo.”
“I’ll take charge of her, private.” The soldier looked relieved and walked away quickly. “Laura, what are you doing here?”
She smiled and gave him a brisk one-armed hug which was the most affection she ever showed anyone other than Allie. “I’m going on the Atlantis mission.”
“You are?”
“Professor X thought it would be a good use of my abilities.”
“You still can’t control yourself, Laura,” he said with doubt.
She tapped his chest with two fingers. “Which is why I’m on your team, you have always been the best at containing me. I nearly blew up the Danger Room after you left; the new kid has no idea what he’s doing. I’m in room 2340, bring me there.”
He led her to the room, which was only around a few corners, on this level. As they chatted, he was able to learn that she had been through he same basic training as him and had also been granted a lieutenant’s commission. He was kind of happy, now he wouldn’t be alone as the only mutant along on the expedition.
When they got to her quarters, the door opened and Alison launched herself at him. He caught her and hugged her tightly, shocked and happy to see her; his best friend - after Dave - and his confidant in almost everything. She was laughing and crying as she rained kisses over his face. “I missed you!”
“Did you join the SGC too, Allikins?” he let her slide to the floor.
“I did. I didn’t like basic training though. I almost washed out, but Laura dragged me through it.”
Evan followed them into the room and shut the door. He turned around and Dave was suddenly kissing him passionately, with tongue, his hands roving over Evan’s back and sides and finally resting on his hips. Evan pulled back to take a breath. “You’re here too? You’re all here?”
“It was Dave’s idea,” Allie said, snickering behind her hand. “School was getting boring anyway. I can’t afford college, so I decided to go work for a while then come back and go.”
Dave was caressing his cheeks and breathing heavily. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stay there without you. I didn’t even miss my mother this much when I left home. It sucked without you, Ev.”
“You came for me?”
Snorting, Cadman dropped an arm over Allie’s shoulder. “We all came for you, Evan. We’re a team. We have each other’s backs, always.”
~*~
Major Sheppard, the head of the military since Sumner’s death two months earlier, came down the stairs and took over the hauling of the bleeding Lorne from Porter. On his other side, Parrish was as white as a sheet. “What happened, Lieutenant Parrish?” Sheppard asked as they went down the corridor. Lorne’s head lolled forward, he was out cold.
“They were pretending to be farmers, sir. When Evan was snooping around, he got caught and ended up in a fistfight with a few of them. He got knifed before we could get involved. It turned into a free-for-all: I tried to field dress the wound while Cadman and Porter went after them. They ran into soldiers not far from the Gate.”
Doctor Beckett waved them over to an exam table. “When did he lose consciousness?”
“Just before we got to the Gate. Is he gonna be all right, Doctor?”
“Too soon to tell, you lads take yourselves out and let me work.” Beckett made a chasing motion with his hands. Sheppard took Dave by the sleeve and pulled him out into the corridor. Once there, Dave slid down the wall into a crouch and dropped his head into his hands.
After a few minutes, a water bottle was tapped against the top of his head. “Drink,” Cadman ordered as she slid down to sit beside him. Allie leaned against the wall on Laura’s other side.
Sheppard was watching Dave with concern when he looked up. “Is it like that, Parrish?”
“Is it against frat rules sir?”
“Nah, you’re of equal ranks. I don’t care. Sumner might have made you toe the line and been a stickler about the fraternization, but I don’t care.”
“Good. Yeah, it’s like that sir. I’m because he’s here.”
Nodding in understanding, Sheppard said, “If I didn’t need the four of you working together as a team to use those abilities, I’d split you up so things like this didn’t happen again. I’m going to add a fifth to your team. Stackhouse has a lot Gate experience from back in the Milky Way, maybe he can help keep you out of trouble.”
A nurse came out of the infirmary and walked up to them. “Doctor Beckett has taken Lieutenant Lorne into the OR. The knife apparently sliced into his spleen; he might need to have it removed. I have to go assist, but the doctor wanted you to know.”
The lights suddenly dimmed all around them. “What just happened?” Cadman demanded.
“That was the city,” Sheppard replied, putting his hand flat against the wall and closing his eyes. He opened them and looked over at the team as he dropped his hand away. “Damn. She’s got her hooks into Lorne, when they put him under the anesthesia, the city reacted. I didn’t realize anyone else had the ability to interact with the city’s AI.”
Allie was watching the major as all this went on, and had slowly edged over to him. She brushed the side of her hand against his and then pursed her lips. “You’re a mutant too!” she hissed.
He clamped his hand over her mouth and pressed her back against the wall. “Shhh! Don’t, just don’t ever say that word out loud, Porter. Do not blow our covers.”
“How many others sir?” Parrish asked, staring up at Sheppard.
“Eleven. I think it’s better if you don’t know the identities of the others. Bring any problems or concerns directly to me, do not go to Weir. The IOA was completely against allowing any gifted individuals through the Gate. If they learned that there were sixteen smuggled in under their noses, they would go on the warpath.”
“What if Doctor Beckett finds out?” Cadman said as she pushed up to her feet. “Lorne’s under heavy duty drugs, there’s no telling what he might do or say. He’s the control of our unit, sir. He’s the one that keeps the rest of us in check.”
Sheppard stepped back from Allie, eyeing her suspiciously. “Beckett won’t say anything. And he’s got the situation in there under control.” Sheppard jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the doors behind them. He can keep Lorne in check, as you put it. The rest of you are off Gate rotation until your team leader is back on his feet. I have to go see Weir; she’s busting my chops for a situation report. Stay here, stay quiet and stay out of trouble.” He left without another word.
Parrish tugged Allie’s sleeve, knowing better than to touch her skin and overwrite what she’s picked up from Sheppard before she could get a handle on it. He dragged her down beside him. “Spill, what’s his ability?”
She tilted her head and touched the floor with the palm of one hand. “He’s a techno. He can work the city’s systems and operate most machinery with his mind.”
“No wonder he loves the puddlejumpers so much; they were designed for people just like him,” Cadman remarked as she sat beside Allie.
Allie rested her head on Dave’s shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They waited for a few hours. Allie kept one hand on the floor and practiced utilizing Sheppard’s power. Just in case a situation ever came up, she would at least be familiar with it.
When the surgery was over, Beckett came out to update them himself. “He’s pulled through. I had to remove half of his spleen. He should recover fully, so long as there are no post-surgery complications.”
Allie jumped up and ran over, intent on hugging the doctor. He help his hands up in a warding motion and snapped, “No, no, none of that, Missy. You keep those hands of yours to yourself!” She blushed and stopped dead in her tracks.
He tapped the side of his head. “I know what you were on about. We’ll have none of those types of games, Lieutenant Porter, do you understand?”
She nodded, still blushing.
He tapped his temple and said quietly, “I graduated Xavier’s the summer before you all enrolled. You can come in and see him, Parrish, for a minute, and then you’ll have to go.” Dave scrambled to his feet and followed Beckett like a puppy.
Looking over at Allie, Laura sighed and said, “Great, we’ve got a friggin’ Junior Professor X in charge of the infirmary.”
~*~
“What happened?”
“You got stabbed by those Amish wanna-be bastards. You don’t remember?” David brushed the hair back off Evan’s face. Since coming to Atlantis, he’d let his Basic Training buzz cut grow out. There was enough there now for Dave to play with, which he did.
“No, I don’t. Are the girls all right?”
David nodded and caressed Evan’s cheek. “They’re fine. Allie did a brush-by on you and then went out and covered Laura while she went all Rambo on their asses.”
“Okay. Cool.” Evan yawned and tried to stretch, but gasped at the pull on his belly and hunched in on himself slightly.
Trying to distract Evan from the pain with cheery gossip, Dave remarked lightly, “Sheppard and Beckett both went to school in Westchester. Did you know that?”
“No. I knew there were others, just not who they were,” Lorne whispered after looking around to see that no one was listening in. “I really got stabbed?”
“Yeah, with a big giant knife, you’re gonna have a big scar here.” David traced a finger along the length of the bandage around Lorne’s middle.
Looking down, Lorne noticed the bandage for the first time. “I got stabbed! No one ever got close enough to me to do that before.”
Chuckling at Lorne’s indignation, David said, “They jumped you, you were outnumbered and they clonked you on the head with a frying pan. Don’t worry; I still think you’re sexy, even all cut up.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You do know that I love you?” David leaned over the rail of the bed and kissed Evan’s lips. “You need to get well quickly, because I’m kinda tired of waiting to be with you.”
“You want to…” Evan waggled a finger between them, “With me?”
David kissed him again. “You’re pretty slow on the uptake for a telepath.”
“I don’t sweep you. It wouldn’t be right. Not you, unless we’re working. Then only the surface stuff.”
“Enough chatter, gentlemen. Kiss Lorne goodnight, Parrish. I’m quote certain that he’s had enough of you for one day. Out!”
“He’s worse than Professor X. He’s sneaky!” David whispered after he kissed Evan sweetly. To Beckett he said, “I’m going, I’m going. I’ll be in the hydroponics lab trying to get something with some actual flavor to grow.” Parrish squeezed Evan’s hand and then stomped out.
Beckett checked Lorne over and then told him, “Try to sleep. You’re recovering from a serious wound, there, Lieutenant. I almost lost you on the table. I don’t want you moving around and tearing anything open again.”
“Okay, Doc,” Evan replied and snuggled down into the pillow. He was smiling as he drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that the person he loved the most in the universe felt the same way about him.