Eye of the Beholder

Author’s Notes: Thanks to Arden Skysender and blue_lioness for your reviews.

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“AMANDA!!” Serena shrieks as she rushes towards the woman and then drops down on the ground next to her. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Where did I get you? Oh god, I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok,” Amanda assures the girl, trying to keep the pain out of her voice. “It was an accident.”

“Oh god, it’s all my fault,” Serena whimpers as the others run up and then stand there, not sure what to do.

“Not completely,” Kitty states. “If Jubilee hadn’t made that crazy suggestion, Amanda wouldn’t have looked at her and then the Frisbee wouldn’t have nailed Amanda in the face.”

“It wasn’t crazy!” Jubilee snaps defensively.

“Well, you got to admit that it was a bit out there,” Rogue puts in.

“If it’s all the same to anyone else,” Amanda interrupts. “Could we please have this discussion some place else? Like, say, inside perhaps.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Hank states as he shoulders his way past the standing girls, scoops Amanda into his arms and starts back towards the mansion, ignoring the teenagers as they start to follow him.

“You know, it’s my face that’s hurt this time, not my legs,” she teases around the pain as she slips an arm around his neck, keeping the other over half of her face.

“Yes, well, I’m not wearing a coat and it’s rather chilly out here so I didn’t want to waste time,” he replies, suddenly realizing that he may have over stepped his bounds.

“You’re covered in fur,” she reminds him as she gently strokes some of that soft, silky stuff on his neck with her finger tips.

“Yes, well, it doesn’t mean I’m immune to the cold,” he stammers, trying to ignore the shivers running down his spine and the growing heat in his groin.

Mate, The Beast purrs and Hank has to refrain from burying his face in her hair.

“What happened?” Storm demands as she catches with them.

All of the girls begin answering at once and Hank just starts walking a bit faster to put some distance between them. A minute later he’s depositing Amanda in a chair at the kitchen table and then squatting down next to her.

“Let’s have a look at your face,” he instructs.

She hesitantly lowers her hand and it takes all of his will power not to flinch in sympathy to the growing bruise.

“That bad, huh?” she quietly asks.

“Why do you say that?” he counter questions.

“Well for one, my face is throbbing, I can’t open my eye all the way and you’re face suddenly went very still as if you were trying not to wince,” she answers.

“How close to your eye did the Frisbee get you?” he asks as he goes over to the freezer and pulls out the ice tray.

“Just above it,” she replies as he gets a plastic bag out of a drawer and then starts to put ice in it. “How bad is it?”

“It shouldn’t be too bad if you put ice on it to keep the swelling down,” he responds as he grabs a towel, wraps it around the bag and then hands it to her.

“Thanks,” she says as she takes the offered item and puts it against her face. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Well, hopefully with the ice there, the bruising won’t be too bad,” he replies as he returns the tray to the freezer.

“You’re still not answering my question,” she points out.

“It’s still too early to tell,” he tells her evasively.

He turns to look at her and immediately wishes he hadn’t. She’s staring at him with one glaring eye and a very serious look on her face. He feels like a butterfly pinned to a board and he’s pretty sure hears The Beast give a little whimper as he takes a small step back.

“Please answer my question,” she requests in a tone of voice that promises him a lot of trouble if he doesn’t.

“It currently looks like someone punched you in the eye and it’s liable to get worse,” he finally answers and she closes her eye with a sigh. “But with continued icing, it shouldn’t be too bad.”

“I was afraid of that,” she mutters, sagging into her seat.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” he tries to assure her.

“I imagine it’ll look quite lovely when I have to go to court on Tuesday,” she replies with bothering to look up.

“Oh dear,” he mumbles.

Just then, Storm and the girls come trooping into the kitchen with Kitty and Jubilee both looking ticked off, Rogue looking thoughtful and Serena on the verge of tears. Amanda opens her good eye and sits up again as they come to a stop around the table.

“Are you alright?” Storm asks.

“I’ll be fine,” Amanda assures her.

“I’m sorry I distracted you just when Serena threw the Frisbee,” Jubilee sulkily says.

“It’s alright, Jubilee,” Amanda replies. “It just surprised me more than anything.”

“Crazy questions will do that,” Kitty mutters under her breath and Storm gets a frown on her face while Jubilee looks ready to start yelling.

“It wasn’t a crazy question,” Amanda interjects before there’s an explosion. “Impractical maybe, but not crazy.”

“You can’t be seriously considering it,” Kitty says in surprise.

“No, I’m not, but it’s because it’s impractical, not because it’s crazy,” Amanda replies.

“So what’s the difference?” Kitty asks.

“The difference is that crazy means that the idea is so far out there that it would be like asking for the moon,” Amanda answers, shifting the ice on her eye slightly. “Impractical means that while it sounds like a good idea, the feasibility of it isn’t possible.”

“I still think it’s crazy,” Kitty grumbles.

“Of the four of you, how many of you are wards of the school?” Amanda asks and of the four girls, only Kitty doesn’t raise her hand. “Kitty, when the holidays come, where do you go?”

“I go home to visit with my parents,” Kitty answers.

“You see, that’s why it doesn’t make sense to you why Jubilee made her suggestion,” Amanda points out. “You have a family and home to go to, they don’t. Is it so wrong for them to want to have what you have?”

“No,” Kitty replies and turns to Jubilee. “I’m sorry I said your idea was crazy.”

“That’s ok,” Jubilee smiles and hugs her friend.

“Ok, now that that’s taken care of, I would like to talk to Serena alone for a bit,” Amanda says and then waits patiently for everyone else to leave, including Hank. “Serena, have a seat.”

Serena sits across the table from Amanda and stares at the table top, refusing to look the woman in the face.

“I’m guessing you’re not too happy with me right now,” Amanda states softly.

“Hey, my own parents and grandparents don’t want me, why should you?” Serena replies with a half hearted shrug.

“Would it surprise you to know that I had thought about becoming your legal guardian for a while?” Amanda asks.

“Then why didn’t you?” Serena demands, tear filled eyes finally looking up at the woman. “Why didn’t you adopt me instead of letting a school take me?”

“Because, truth be told, this school is a much better choice as a guardian than me,” Amanda admits. “I would make a horrible guardian to you, Serena. My work is my life, I work long hours, I spend most of my free time in the library and if it weren’t for my friend Doug, I’d never do anything else. I have managed to kill cacti, trusting me with a living person is one of the worse things the courts could ever do.”

“So the reason you don’t want to be my guardian is because you don’t think you’d be any good at it?” Serena asks.

“Exactly,” Amanda answers.

“But you’ve done all these great things for me,” Serena says with a sniff. “You took my case, you…”

“Serena, I’m not ready to be a parent,” Amanda interrupts. “In a couple of years you’ll be a legal adult. Finish you’re schooling here, get control over your powers, figure out what you want to do with your life and then go for it. Miss Munroe and this school are so much better equipped to give you that than I ever will be.”

“But you’ve been emailing me and you came up here…,” Serena weakly protests.

“I can be and will continue to be your friend,” Amanda tells her. “But being a friend and being a parent are two different things. Can you understand that?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Serena sighs as she wipes her eyes. “When are you going to leave?”

“I figured after lunch I’d get going,” Amanda replies as she shifts the ice again. “I still need to go grocery shopping and do laundry.”

“Uhg, don’t remind me about laundry,” Serena grumbles. “It’s my turn to help with the laundry this week.”

“I was kind of wondering about that,” Amanda replies. “Does that mean you’re doing other people’s dirty clothes?”

“No, everyone has an assigned time to use the washers and dryers for their personal stuff,” Serena tells her. “When you have it as a chore, you get the joy of washing, drying, folding and putting away all of the sheets and towels in this place and we use a lot of those things in this place.”

“I could very well imagine,” Amanda chuckles.

Before anymore can be said about dirty linens, there’s a quiet knock at the door. They turn and see Hank tentatively sticking his head in the kitchen.

“I hate to interrupt, but I’d like to examine that eye further,” he says. “Are you about done?”

“Yeah,” Serena answers as she stands up. “I better go find Kitty and the others. Kitty’s been trying to come up with a special surprise for Logan ever since yesterday.”

“Just don’t do anything that’ll require a lawyer afterwards,” Amanda laughs while Serena heads for the door.

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Serena giggles as she leaves.

“Alright, let’s have a better look at that eye,” he instructs as he takes the seat next to her. “Open your eye as wide as possible, please.”

She obliges by lowering the bag of ice, forcing her eye as open as she can and letting him taking her chin in his hand. He shines a pen light into the injured eye before shining it into the good eye. He carefully prods the swelling and she winces with a hiss of pain.

“Sorry,” he quickly apologizes as he sits back and she puts the ice back over her eye. “It doesn’t look like the eye is damaged, but the swelling is making it hard to judge.”

“It’ll be fun driving with one eye swollen shut,” she groans.

“Yes, well on that note, I’d rather you didn’t try driving home with your eye like that,” he tells her.

“How am I supposed to get home? Fly?” she asks, trying to ignore the throbbing pain next to her eye.

“I’ll drive you,” he offers.

“What do I do about the rental car?” she inquires. “They would like to have it back.”

“I’m sure that there’s someway they can come and get the car,” he suggests.

“Only one way to find out,” she replies as she fishes her cell phone out of her pocket.

She places the call and fifteen minutes later she’s still trying to make it clear to the person on the other end of the line that it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to drive. At this point Kurt and a few of the students come into the kitchen to start preparing lunch. They give her and Hank curious looks, but other than that, they ignore the couple. By the time she gets off of the phone with the agency, lunch is nearly complete and she’s about ready to scream.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who work at care rental agencies are rejects from the fast food industry,” she states, trying to keep a hold of her temper as Hank chuckles.

“I doubt they’re all that bad, but you did seem to get someone who doesn’t seem to be on the upper end of the food chain,” he snickers.

“I better go pack,” she sighs as she puts down her bag of ice water. “They want me to stick around until they can get someone up here to retrieve the car. So much for getting anything done when I get home.”

“Look at it as extra time with Serena,” he suggests, silently wishing it was him that would get that blessing.

“I need to pack first,” she points out as they both rise from their seats and exit the now bustling kitchen. “Maybe I can convince them to watch a nice safe movie this time.”

“That sounds good,” he smiles as he leads her through the twists and turns of passage ways. “I’ll be ready to go when you are.”

“How do you I find you in this place?” she asks as they finally end up back in the foyer. “I’m no Sarah Winchester.”

“I’ll be around,” he assures her while they start climbing the stairs together. “I can usually be found in the library though.”

“You know, that’s one room they haven’t shown me yet,” she states as they reach the top.

“I would gladly show it to you, if you like,” he offers while they walk towards their rooms.

“That would be great,” she replies as they get to his door. “Should I just meet you out here?”

“Yes, when you’re ready,” he answers as he steps into his room.

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A while later, he leads her into the library and the look of wonder on her face makes him grin.

“I’ve seen public libraries smaller than this room,” she whispers in awe.

“Yes, well, unfortunately for them, they aren’t as well funded as they should be,” he sadly replies.

“I could get lost in this room and be content to stay that way,” she admits as she delicately runs a hand over the spines of several books.

“I know what you mean,” he says as he watches her facial expressions. “This is one of my favorite rooms in the mansion. I remember many a winter evening spent by the fire with a good book and a snifter of brandy.”

“Sounds lovely,” she replies and turns to see him standing very close to her. “I remember doing something similar when I lived with my parents, but I was usually under a warm fuzzy blanket and it was hot cocoa, not brandy.”

“Hot cocoa sounds good, too,” he responds quietly as he moves even closer to her.

She swallows a nervous lump in her throat as her heart starts pounding against her ribs. She looks up into those incredible blue eyes and gets lost in them, unable to think beyond how incredibly good he smells. The warmth radiating from his body is sending delightful shivers down her spine and heating up all the right places. He starts to lean forward and her good eye starts to close of its own will.

“I’m not interruptin’ anythin’, am I?” Logan asks from the door that he’s casually leaning against as they jump apart.

She hears Hank give a low, deep growl that’s more felt than heard, but it’s obvious that Logan hears it as he stands up straight and curls his fingers into fists. She’s not sure, but she can swear that she hears a snarl coming from the other man.

“Is there something you wanted, Logan?” she asks hurriedly.

“The kid was wonderin’ why you hadn’t shown up for lunch yet,” Logan answers, giving Hank a long, hard look before turning to her. “What happened to your face?”

“Frisbee,” she tells him before turning to Hank. “I should get going. Where do you want to meet after the car rental people get here?”

“I’ll come and find you,” Hank assures her. “Go have fun with Serena. I’m sure she’ll love the extra time with you.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later,” she replies and heads for the door only to find her way blocked by Logan.

“Need me to show you the way, darlin’?” Logan nearly purrs.

“No thank you, I can manage,” she responds and stares at him until he finally moves out of the way.

“You have a death wish, boy?” Hank growls.

“Gettin’ a mite possessive ain’t ya?” Logan snickers before walking off.

Hank is half tempted to go after the other man when he realizes that The Beast is getting the better of him. He can hear it snarling and roaring in his head and he takes a deep breath for force himself to relax. He silently tells The Beast to calm down; after all, in a couple of hours they were going to have Amanda all to themselves. As The Beast digests this information, Hank goes off in search of his own lunch and nearly laughs out loud when The Beast starts to purr.