Eye of the Beholder

Author’s Notes: Thank you, blue_lioness for your review. If it wasn’t for you, this story wouldn’t be getting updated. There’s already one completed chapter after this one and one on the way. If people want to see them, please leave a review.

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Amanda looks out over the valley from her vantage point and sighs when she sees a familiar form moving through the trees towards her.

“You didn’t have to come out here,” Amanda states as she rubs her back against the trunk of the tree to scratch an itch. “I do know my way home.”

“You had Mom worried,” Annie growls in response. “You could have left a note or something.”

“Sorry,” Amanda replies, not moving from her perch. “I was too upset when I left to think about it.”

“Did you bring your cell phone?” Annie asks, stopping under the tree Amanda’s in.

“The trees are blocking the signal,” Amanda answers shifting slightly on her branch.

“So what sent you into such a snit?” Annie inquires as she sits at the base of the trunk.

“I failed her, Annie,” Amanda responds sadly. “I screwed up big time.”

“What happened?” Annie asks softly.

“I sent Serena to that school and now she’s run away,” Amanda quietly replies.

“Xavier’s is the best,” Annie firmly states as she starts to bunch the muscles in her legs. “You and I both know that.”

“It was when Xavier was there,” Amanda points out, ignoring the sound of a large body hitting the tree and claws digging into the bark. “I’m not so sure now.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Annie suggests as she settles on a nearby branch.

Still watching the lengthening shadows over the valley, Amanda tells her sister about the emails and the phone call. By the time she’s done, the valley is mostly covered in shadow and a cool wind has picked up.

“Did I waste my time?” Amanda quietly asks. “Was everything I went through for nothing if she’s not happy?”

“She’s a hormonal teenager,” Annie reminds her. “There’s not much you can do about keeping them constantly happy. I’m sure once everything settles down things will get back to normal. Or as normal as that place can get.”

“I suppose,” Amanda sighs.

“Feel better?” Annie asks as she gets up and prepares to leap out of the tree.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Amanda answers. “Thanks."

“Good, now let’s go home,” Annie says just before she jumps and gracefully lands on all fours. “I’m freezing my tail off out here.”

“How can you be freezing?” Amanda demands as she swings her legs over to one side of the branch. “You’ve got a fur coat on.”

“What do I look like to you? A snow leopard?” Annie sarcastically asks her, her black fur bristling and her ears lying back against her head. “The Serengeti isn’t known for its cold winters. Are you coming or not?”

“You’ve still got a fur coat on,” Amanda repeats as she pushes off and experiences a couple of seconds of thrill in free fall before she lands with a grunt. “That was a lot easier when I was a kid.”

“Well maybe if you lay off the Twinkies…,” Annie teases as she starts heading home.

“Now, now, don’t be catty…,” Amanda smirks, giving as good as she gets.

“Which reminds me, you left your Twinkies where the kids could find them again,” Annie snarls, her tail twitching irritably.

“Is it my fault they keep sneaking into my room?” Amanda inquires innocently as she follows the black leopard in front of her. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“I don’t know, but there better be a lot of meat,” Annie grumbles. “Lots and lots of red meat.”

“And then you’ll go to bed for the next twelve hours or so,” Amanda adds as she catches up to walk next to her sister. “Guess I won’t be the only one sleeping in tomorrow. But it’s our birthday so we should be allowed to wallow in bed. Hell, at least you have someone who’ll bring you breakfast in bed.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you what happened to Jeff,” Annie replies.

“I came home on the day I won Serena’s case and found him coming out of Bobbi’s bedroom with his pants barely on,” Amanda tells her and then sighs. “What’s wrong with me, Annie? Am I such a horrible person that no guy wants to be around me for more than a few months?”

“You’re asking the person who’s children you just snuck Twinkies too?” Annie demands before she too sighs. “I don’t know, Amy. I just know that when I met Mike and he didn’t mind what I am, I was the luckiest girl in the world. Just hang in there, sis. There’s someone out there for you.”

“But how long do I have to wait?” Amanda rhetorically asks with a sigh.

“Why the sudden rush to find a husband?” Annie questions.

“While I was sitting up there thinking it just dawned on me that I’m turning thirty tomorrow and I don’t even have a pet goldfish for company,” Amanda answers. “Maybe that’s why I put up with Bobbi for so long. I didn’t want to come home to an empty apartment. Maybe I should get a pet. Of course that would make finding another apartment even harder.”

“Amy, you can’t even keep a cactus alive, please don’t get a pet,” Annie begs.

“I suppose that’s why I can’t keep a guy interested in me either,” Amanda replies sadly. “I’m too distracted with my work. I worked so hard to get where I am and now I find it’s not enough. What am I going to do?”

“Learn a little patience,” Annie tells her as they step out of the trees and start to cross the clearing towards the house. “It’ll happen when it happens.”

“I know, but…,” Amanda starts only to be interrupted by her cell phone going off and she quickly fishes it out of her pocket. “Hello?”

“Miss Simon?” a woman’s voice asks.

“Yes?” Amanda responds.

“This is Ororo Munroe,” Storm states. “The police picked up Serena a little while ago.”

“Thank god,” Amanda says, breathing a sigh of relief. “Is she alright?”

“Well, she hasn’t been examined by a doctor yet, but she was hitchhiking when they picked her up,” Storm answers. “I’ll have her examined by a doctor as soon as I can, but the fact that she was walking when they picked her up is a pretty good sign that she’s ok.”

“Good,” Amanda replies. “I would like her to call me tomorrow when she gets a chance.”

“I’ll have her do that,” Storm agrees.

“Thank you,” Amanda says. “I’ll let you go now. Good night.”

“Good night,” Storm replies and hangs up.

“Well, the police picked Serena up while she was hitchhiking,” Amanda announces as she closes her phone and puts it back in her pocket.

“That’s good,” Annie replies. “Now, do you think the police are going to save you from Mom and Dad?”

“What?” Amanda questions and then looks up, seeing their parents standing on the back porch, neither looking overly happy. “Uh oh. Maybe I’ll hide back in my tree.”

“You do and I’ll bite your butt so hard that you won’t sit for a week,” Annie growls as she breaks into a trot.

Stuart opens the back door to let Annie in before turning back to his other daughter.

“Do you have any idea how worried we were, young lady?” Cathy demands, her fists firmly planted on her hips.

“I’m sorry I worried you,” Amanda calmly replies, easily sliding into lawyer mode. “But please give yourselves some credit for raising a daughter who can look after herself.”

While her parents stand there trying to figure out how to respond to that, Amanda slips past them and into the house.

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Her scent is much stronger now and he knows he’s close so he puts on a bit more speed. Logan slices his way through some undergrowth and then steps out onto the asphalt of yet another road. Sweaty and pissed as hell, he stops and glares at the car pulled over to the side of the road just across the street. A young man with brown hair and blue eyes leans against the vehicle making ice sculptures to pass the time.

“What are you doing here, ice cube?” Logan growls, his eye’s narrowing.

“The police picked Serena up about an hour ago,” Bobby answers congenially as he continues to work on his ice swan. “Storm’s on her way to pick her up now.”

“She ok?” Logan asks.

“Yeah, but pretty worn out from what I heard,” Bobby replies, holding up his creation so it glows with the last rays of the setting sun.

“Good, ‘cause when I get my hands on her I’m gonna kick her ass,” Logan snarls as he pushes Bobby out of the way and gets behind the wheel.

“Sure, Logan, you can drive, since you asked so nice,” Bobby says sarcastically, shaking his head as he pulls the keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Logan.

Logan just glares at him as he sticks the key into the ignition. Bobby goes around the car and gets in the other side, dropping his swan on the ground and watching it shatter into a million pieces. Logan starts the engine and then lays rubber as he heads back to the mansion while Bobby is still getting his seatbelt on.

“Would have been nice if someone had contacted me to let me know she’d been found,” Logan growls low in his throat.

“Tried to, but you didn’t respond,” Bobby tells him. “Either you were somewhere where the signal couldn’t reach or you lost it or you damaged it. Since you pretty much have to be like a mile underground for the signal not to reach you, I’m guessing you lost it, but most people are betting you damaged it. Good thing your locator isn’t attached to it or would’ve had to send out search parties to try and find you.”

“Nice,” Logan mumbles and Bobby just grins at him. “Any one call that lawyer?”

“Yeah, Storm called her right after she got the call from the police,” Bobby answers. “Serena’s supposed to call her sometime tomorrow. Storm also called Beast and asked him to come up to check on her so he’ll be getting here later tonight.”

“Jeez, the furball finally remembers how to get back to the mansion and now we can’t get rid of him,” Logan grumbles.

“Rumor has it that he and Storm used to be close,” Bobby nonchalantly states. “Real close.”

“And I wanted to know this, why?” Logan growls.

“Just keeping you up to date,” Bobby tells him with a shrug. “Of course, ever since Kurt joined the team, she’s been kind of soft on him but she did agree to go to that big party down in DC with Hank, so who knows.”

“Regular bleedin’ soap opera,” Logan mumbles to himself.

A few minutes later, they’re pulling into the garage and as they’re getting out, Storm arrives. She parks out on the driveway and Logan marches towards them with a bit of mayhem on his mind. He rather forcefully yanks the door open, but before he can move towards the girl in the passenger seat, Kurt appears in front of him with the smell of brimstone surrounding him. He wraps his arms around the girl and they both disappear in a puff of smoke and a loud ‘bamf’. With a growl, Logan spins on his heel towards the front doors and the few people who came wandering out the door quickly move to the side.

“LOGAN!” Storm snaps causing Logan to look back over his shoulder with his eyes narrowed. “Leave her alone. She’s asleep so yelling at her won’t do any good.”

“It’ll make me feel better,” Logan snarls.

“Go take a shower, Logan,” Storm orders. “Yelling at her isn’t going to accomplish anything.”

Logan scowls at her for a few moments longer before heading into the mansion. Once he’s through the door, Storm gets back into the car and drives it into the garage. As soon as she’s parked, she cuts the engine, closes the garage door and then leans her head against the steering wheel with a sigh. A few moments later the car shifts and the smell of brimstone is once more evident.

“Is she still sleeping?” she asks without looking up.

“Ja, ze liebchen sleeps,” Kurt replies in his heavy German accent. “Peter vill vatch over her until Herr Beast can be here.”

“Where’d you put her?” she inquires as she finally sits back and looks at the other mutant.

“In ze infirmary,” he answers, gazing back at her, his yellow eyes kind and gentle.

“I guess we’ll keep her there for now until we can get to the bottom of this,” she sighs as she leans her head back against the headrest. “Thank you for holding down the fort during this whole mess.”

“Keine ursache,” he responds with a kind smile making her smile in return.

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A couple hours after sunset, a lone car pulls up to the mansion and Storm goes out to meet it. A moment after the engine is killed and the headlights turned off, Hank steps out of the vehicle. Without a word she walks up to him and wraps her arms around his middle and sighs with relief. He gladly returns the embrace of his dear friend remembering a time when these hugs meant more. He quickly pushes away those painful memories as he gives her a gentle squeeze before she steps back.

“Thanks for coming, Hank,” she says with a small smile as he gets an overnight bag out of the car.

“I could do nothing less,” he assures her as they start to head inside. “Where is she now?”

“She’s sleeping in the infirmary still,” she answers while they make their way through the corridors.

“Still sleeping?” he questions.

“The police said they put her in a holding cell, she crawled onto the bench and fell asleep,” she replies just as they reach the hidden elevator. “She didn’t even wake up when I came to get her. They at least were nice enough to carry her out to the car for me.”

“She’s obviously exhausted then,” he states as the elevator starts to take them down. “I wonder how dehydrated she is and she will probably be ravenous when she does awaken.”

“We found a large bottle of water that was about half empty and some apples and oranges in her bag,” she tells him just as the doors open and they exit the elevator. “Logan says he also smelled peanut butter and jelly though we’re guessing she had already eaten that when she was picked up.”

“It’s good to know that she at least took some provisions with her,” he muses as they travel the underground corridors.

“Well, when she got kicked out of her home, she only had the shirt on her back,” she replies as they reach the infirmary. “I guess she took that into consideration when she packed her bag. She had a few days with of clothes, some toiletries and food.”

“Smart girl,” he observes with a nod as he drops his bag by the door before they walk over to the examination table Nightcrawler left Serena on.

They watch the sleeping girl who’s curled up on her side for a few moments. She’s still wearing her torn and dirty clothes, though her grubby, worn tennis shoes are off to the side of the room and there are a few pieces of twigs and leaves caught in her shoulder length brown hair. Hank slips his half moon glasses on before he reaches down and removes a couple leaves and examines them for a moment and then throws them away.

“I will need to run a diagnostic on her,” he states as he pulls the light blanket off of her.

He sets to doing the job he was asked to do silently while Storm watches from the side. After getting Serena properly arranged on the exam table, he pushes a few buttons and the table with her on it slides into the machine to run the diagnostic. While the machine is doing its job, he turns back to his old girlfriend.

“You know, you could have done the diagnostic without me,” he points out.

“I told Miss Simon that I’d have a doctor look at her,” she replies sounding a bit peeved.

“You don’t sound happy about this,” he responds.

“She threatened law suit if anything happened to Serena,” she grumbles, leaning against the wall.

“Ah, the fall back of all lawyers it seems,” he sighs as he checks the machine briefly to make sure everything is running smoothly. “When all else fails, threaten law suit.”

“She’s a hard woman to deal with too,” she admits. “I just about had to fight her tooth and nail to get the right to take Serena and then the girl has to go and do something like this. I tell you, this is turned into one big headache.”

“Any idea why she ran?” he asks.

“No, but we think it has something to do with Rogue’s return and Kitty,” she answers. “At the beginning of the week she was happy. Then Rouge returned and by Friday Serena was very sullen. I had Serena bunking with Kitty and they had a fight last night so that was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. Other than that, we’re not sure why she took off like that.”

“Ah, teenage angst,” he sighs. “And this too shall pass.”

“That doesn’t help, you know,” she points out.

“I know, but that’s all I can give you,” he replies as the machine beeps its completion and the table slides out of the device. “If someone could find a cure for teenage angst, they’d be rich beyond their wildest dreams.”

“Maybe Worthington Industries could work on something,” she snarls. “Not like the Cure worked out real well for them.”

“It would be a much more worthwhile venture then their last one,” he muses as he starts to look at the readings the computer is giving him.

“So how is she?” she asks.

“Exhausted, a bit dehydrated and she’s going to be very sore when she wakes up,” he answers as he walks over to her feet and slips her socks off. “She’s not going to want to walk any time soon if these blisters are anything to go by.”

Storm walks over to him, looking down at Serena’s feet; she hisses and cringes in sympathetic pain at the sight of the blisters covering the teenager’s feet. He carefully picks the girl up and takes her into the adjoining room where more comfortable beds are set up. He gets her settled into one and then starts pushing buttons on a screen above the bed. A moment later, her vital signs are shown on the screen and he heads for a nearby cabinet.

“I’m going to give her some fluids,” he states as he takes out a bag of saline solution and a needle. “I don’t want her alone when she wakes up so I’ll stay in here with her.”

“What are you going to do?” she questions as he steps back into the infirmary.

“I brought some books and magazines I’ve been meaning to read with me,” he replies as he retrieves his bag.

“What if you get tired?” she inquires.

“There are plenty of beds in here,” he responds as he drops his bag on the one next to Serena’s.

“Would you like me to send someone to relieve you later?” she asks as he gets the IV drip set up.

“No, I think it’s best if I’m the one here when she awakens,” he answers while he finishes up. “I’m an impartial third party, so maybe she’ll open up to me and tell me what’s going on.”

“I wish Charles was still here,” she quietly states and he goes to give her a comforting hug.

“Now go get some rest,” he instructs when they finally separate. “I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this by tomorrow.”

“Would you like anything to eat?” she inquires.

“I got something on the way up here,” he replies as he opens his bag and pulls out a magazine.

“Well, holler if you need anything,” she insists as she slowly moves to the door.

“I will,” he assures her. “Good night, Ororo.”

“Good night, Hank,” she replies as she finally leaves.

He takes his shoes off as he hears the outer door open and close announcing her departure. With a sigh of sad regret, he leans back on the bed, gets comfortable and starts to read his magazine. A short time later, the magazine is lying on his chest and his soft snores fill the room while Serena simply sighs in her sleep and rolls over.

The magazine is gently tugged out from under on of Hank’s large hands and then placed on the small table next to the bed. A moment later, his glasses are carefully folded up on top of the magazine and a blanket is pulled over his sleeping form. A dark skinned hand softly caresses his face before she lowers the lights and leaves the room.

“His snores still sound like he’s purring,” Storm chuckles as she makes her way to her own bed.

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Keine ursache – German, you’re welcome

Liebchen – German, darling

Ja – German, yes