X-Men - Sean/Emma - The Queen's Success

[apachefirecat]

Title: The Queen's Success
Author: Apache Firecat
Fandom: X-Men
Pairing/Characters: Banshee/White Queen, Iceman/Christian, Cyclops/Jean Grey, past Cyclops/White Queen, Shadowcat (with mentions of past/on-off pairings with Shadowcat/Magik, Shadowcat/Prestige, Colossus/Shadowcat, and Pete Wisdom/Shadowcat), Lockheed, Bumpkin, Chamber/Jubilee, and cameos from many more X-Men from Emma's present, past, and future
Rating: PG-13/T
Medium: Fic
Length/Size: 19,842
Summary: He is unforgettable, but her ex-partner Sean Cassidy does not fit into Emma's neatly planned life. She refused to get involved with him, and yet no other man has ever matched up to him. And now he’s determined to prove that Emma wants him, too!
Notes: Summary twisted from The Boss’s Virgin by Charlotte Lamb.








She watched as the man she had loved turned his back to her, at the beck of a call from another woman. Emma grew rigid within even as she scoffed at herself, careful to keep her thoughts shielded from Scott despite the telepathic rapport they had once had. Who was she kidding? Surely not herself! She had never once stopped loving the man, though she had tried so very hard to do so!

She had always known this day would come, that when Jean Grey returned from the dead, permanently, he would immediately return to her. It had admittedly taken him longer than she'd ever dared think it would, but the inevitable had happened -- and besides, she was too strong now to keep lusting after another woman's husband!

And Jean was his wife, though she had died and time again. As for as the government was concerned, as far as everyone's memories were concerned, she was still the same woman who had said, "I do", decades before Emma would have ever considered Scott Summers to be suitable as a husband. She had barely been beginning to see herself as an X-Woman then, and pain hit her heart again when she thought of the reason why she had dared to turn away from everything she had known before. There had been another man, another whom she had loved nearly as much as Scott, who had changed her life and beliefs, who had made her hope in ways she'd never dared to do before. One Charles Francis Xavier had changed her entire world and outlook on life, and he, too, had ended up lying to her, deceiving her and the rest of the X-Men, and hurting her perhaps more than even Scott could ever do. She knew what to expect from Summers, had known all along, but Charles -- Charles had blind sided her. He had given her hope than any other being ever had before, and had crushed them all --

Scott turned back, and Emma almost cried out. Almost, but she bit her bottom, blue lip just in time. She saw Jean turn to face her again, as well, and although the redhead did not verbally call to her husband or even reach out for him, Emma knew that she was telepathically reminding Scott that he had to go. And they did. Emma knew they both had responsibilities on the other side of that portal, whereas her own responsibilities were here with the children, the children whom she had dedicated her entire life to protecting, even before Charles had made his influence impressed upon her. At least that much had not changed, she thought, forcing herself to turn from Scott, and she had found herself, and her calling, again with the kids. Her place was here, regardless of Scott Summers and anything that could have perhaps been between them otherwise.

Emma gave herself a firm shake. There was nothing left between herself and Scott. There could not be for Jean was back and wasn't going anywhere this time. That was the one drawback of the Resurrection Protocols -- there would never be any keeping Jean away from Scott now. But that didn't matter. It couldn't matter. She had scores of children now for whom to care and protect. Her life was here, and her place with the X-Men, and on Krakoa, cemented because of it. She didn't have to fear that losing Scott meant she lost her respect or place among the teams. She didn't have to --

Emma stopped and turned. She had felt someone watching her and felt the whisper of a familiar mind. Shielding her eyes, she made out a familiar outline standing on top of the hill. The sun was setting in the distance, but Emma still recognized that outline instantly. Her breath still caught in her throat after all this time. She gave herself an even firmer shake, dropped her hand, and stalked back toward civilization. That was the absolute last thing she needed! Even worse than Scott or Xavier was that Irish man standing on the hill behind her, smoking his bloody pipe while he undoubtedly judged her from afar.

Emma made a sound of derision in the depths of her throat, but even still, her heart ached. She had every right to still be furious with Cassidy! After all, if he had stood with her, the children might not have turned against her! They might still be shepherding that class or perhaps another class through the hallowed halls of the Massachusetts Academy! They might --

Emma stopped. She had to stop kidding herself, painting all this pictures in her mind of what could have been! Cassidy would have never stayed with her! His heart had always belonged to that damn Moira -- and he'd been the fool who had allowed her to get close enough to kill him so savagely! It almost served him right! Almost -- but, then, if they were to get what they actually deserved... She would have died a long time ago, Emma reflected, forcing herself to relax as she saw the first building coming into her view, and she would have been rid of all this pain and these hard decisions years ago! If they got what they deserved, she would have died so many years back instead of her precious Hellions!

That was another thing, however, for which she could be grateful to The Five, the Resurrection Protocols, and Krakoa. And even, she supposed, to Xavier for, if not or him and his deceit, resurrecting every newly lost mutant life would never have been possible. Perhaps he had his reasons for being deceitful, having schemed on this all for so very long, but his deceit and the fact that he and Erik had chosen to place their trust in Moira yet again while lying to her still hurt. She had tried to be loyal to them both, even accepting the old men's relationship long before almost anyone else on the island had.

But at least, she thought, coming to a stop and watching precious, mutant lives playing out freely before her without fear of hatred, prejudice, or senseless, endless attacks, they did have an option now. At least anyone could be returned from the dead, even if Cassidy and Jean had to be a part of that number. Her students were back, nearly every last one of them. Her brother was back.

She blinked through the orange-red rays of the setting sun as she saw Christian moving toward her. She moved to meet him, trying to remind herself to move as she would normally, naturally and gracefully, sensually over the sand, so as to not reveal to anyone how furious she was.

He had Jean with him, didn't he? her brother asked in the privacy of their telepathic bond.

Yes, Emma snapped, but they'd both known he would. Operation: Kamala is a go. She had given him his orders, and breezed on pass him. Tonight, she wanted to be alone. And grow that hair back out! A miliary buzz is unbecoming for a man of your status, Christian!

She felt his gaze follow her, his heart go tentatively out toward her, and then his mind withdraw from hers to grant her her privacy. Tonight, she decided, was definitely going to be a wine night. She might also grade some of those tests she'd been putting off, or perhaps a sparring match with Ororo or Kate would be a better release of her frustrations.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

They are beautiful, Ororo, Emma thought as she moved gracefully along the towering flowers of every color imaginable. There were blues, blacks, and purples that reminded her of the enormous bruises she had both endured and inflicted over her many years of surviving in the harsh world the humans so coveted, the traditional pinks, reds, and yellows, and even some so dark they reminded her of the inky black velvet of outer space. There were two in particular that were fascinating, one being black with what looked like actual, tinny stars glistening in its petals and another sporting every glowing color of the rainbow.

I appreciate you caring for my garden for me while I'm gone, Emma.

It's the least I can do, although I don't do much. She had not even so much as watered a single one of them. It was as though the former Goddess had timed the rain itself to fall in rhythm and time to keep her garden vibrant and healthy for, as far as Emma was aware, no one else did the watering either.

You observe. You keep watch. That is all I ask.

A throbbing sensation flared up in Emma's leg. She forced her painted lips to stay in a calm smile, instead of grimacing, as she moved through the pain. She had needed that spar with Katheryne, and had insisted Kate not take it easy on her. The child had fussed over her, in her own way of course, not wanting to use her full abilities on her, especially when she had declined to use hers on her. But that fight had been exactly what Emma had needed. She had needed to get her juices flowing again, as it were, to remind herself that she was not an old woman but instead at the very vibrant and center of her life, at her very top. She was still a Queen, and not just any Queen. She was the White Queen, and she had fought her, clawing and killing without indiscretion, to get to where she was now.

She was, as Kate had once joyfully relished announcing herself, an X-Man, but more than that, she was a Queen. She was the Queen of all she surveyed. Nothing happened on this island without her knowledge -- whether she approved or not was a different story, of course, but she knew all. She surveyed all. She ruled all, and a little thing like a man was not going to keep her down. After all, she reminded herself sternly, ignoring the fact that an entirely different man's smiling face was blossoming into her mental imagery, she had always known Scott would eventually return to Jean.

She will understand one day.

Ororo's voice in her mind nearly made Emma jump for all she'd all but forgotten the other woman's presence. It was odd how close they had become in the last couple of years, especially with having been sworn ultimate enemies only a couple of decades prior. Time did have a way of changing things, however, and, in truth, she had more in common with her fellow Queen than perhaps any other person on Krakoa.

Who -- She started to ask, Jean?!, but Ororo continued before she had a chance to expose that particular weakness to her.

Kitten, of course. When she's older, she'll understand why we always insist on sparring sans powers.

It's odd sometimes, you know, Emma admitted. I still remember when that child was fourteen and we were sparring over her --

As do I, Ororo agreed lightheartedly. An unspoken pressure lifted between their mental bond as her mood lightened. Emma could tell that she was nearly laughing as she added, Time is funny. That was both so long ago and not so long ago at all.

Very true, Emma smiled, reminding herself that she needed to have the corners of her eyes touched up soon by the Healer. It was one thing to pluck out the occasional gray hairs, but it was only his touch that smoothed away her wrinkles. But I do believe Kitten understands more than she allows. After all, she was trained by you and Wolverine.

Logan did have a way --

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a certain Queen who soundly defeated Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men.

I did have to put him in his place. This time, there was a genuine chuckle that resounded through their rapport. For Madelyne and the baby of course.

Of course. And now look at that baby --

Indeed!

Emma stepped out, blinking, into the bright, hot rays of the setting sun of another day. She had busied herself all day with teaching the children, grading papers, and preparing lessons, as opposed to last night, when she had simply allowed herself to attempt to drink her sorrows away, not that that ever did any good. Her blonde head lifted at the unexpected sound of a baby's laughing gurgle and clapping hands, and she stood frozen, for a moment, staring down endless miles of bright, white shores.

Emma? Are you all right?

I'm fine, Ororo. I just -- She looked away from the children, and the child of their own, and up into the bright sunlight, willing it to burn away the tears that had unexpectedly sprang to life in her blue eyes. What is that saying? she whispered. The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Ah, but, Emma, we are the very epitome of change. Mutatis Mutandis. Just think of how far we have come.

Indeed, Emma whispered as she thought back over the years that felt, at times like now, far more like centuries. She had been born to riches, Ororo to poverty, but they had both had to fight to simply grow up in the world at large. Ororo had struggled for food while Emma had fought for freedom, having been imprisoned by her own parents because of her genes. It had taken her years to hone her craft until she had been able to perfect her freedom and begin to forge an empire of her own. But as soon as her empire had began to become successful, Emma had turned even more to fighting with words and manipulation as well as her own hands and powers.

Looking down at her own hands, Emma turned her hands in the setting sunlight. Her fingernails were as blue as her lips, a shade brighter, but she remembered well the first time they'd been bathed in blood, both that was hers and was not. The first life she had ever taken with her bare hands had been a complete stranger's, a girl not much older than herself. She had murdered her in cold blood so that she would be able to eat that night and not have to sleep on the streets, and so that perhaps, just perhaps, Shaw would take notice of her. He had indeed done just that. But that girl had not been the first she'd ever killed with her own hands.

A gunshot reverberated in Emma's mind, but try as she might, she still could feel no guilt. She looked back against the shoreline to where Jubilee and Jono played with the adopted son of the youngest member of Generation X, the team, the class, the school that had changed everything for Emma. Ororo, I --

You did nothing wrong, Emma. Thunder rumbled across the darkening sky, and Emma wondered just where exactly on Earth Ororo was currently. Was she there somewhere on Krakoa, unbeknownst to Emma, conducting business of which she should have been aware? Or was the thunder simply a coincidence? It rolled on, but Ororo's voice within Emma's mind sounded with such fury laced beneath it that it was as though she dared anyone to speak against her, or against Emma.

You did the only thing you could, Emma. She was your sister. Your powers were useless against her, the very same reason why we continue to train ourselves to constantly sharpen our bodily skills. Also do not forget for a moment, dear friend, that we did not possess the blessings we have now because of Krakoa. Death was final. It was always meant to be final -- She hurried on beore either of them could dwell on that thought, She had already killed Everett. Who else would she have slaughtered to gain her vengeance? You did the only thing you could to protect your students. Sometimes, as horrible as it is, death is the only right answer.

The temperatures had dropped, and the wind was rising suddenly. The sun was gone, whether blackened out by a storm on the horizon or the fall of night. Shadows were lengthening as Jubilee and Jono gathered Shogo, their picnic basket, and his toys and hurried toward shelter. Not even the telepath recognized that she had been watching them, as she turned swiftly away.

I must leave you now. I have --

-- duties to which you must attend, Emma finished for her, pulling her cape closer together around her bare shoulders. I know. We always do. She paused a moment before adding very softly, almost embarrassedly, Thank you, Ororo.

Of course. But know this, Emma: I was among the group who selected you to headmistress Xavier's. I have never, and shall never, regret that decision. No one would have protected those children better than you. Ororo's parting words faded away with a gentle, tropical breeze that tousled Emma's blonde hair. She resisted the urge to look about her, knowing very well that Ororo was nowhere on the shore even if she was in Krakoa. She rather doubted the latter, but forced herself to realize that it was possible she did not know everything that was happening no matter how well she tried to stay abreast of all the constantly shifting politics on the island.

She started to turn but caught sight of a familiar, blonde head further down the shore. She walked to meet her brother, her head held high and body poised as tight, rigid, and elegant as any Queen walking through her courtyard. "Robert, I wasn't expecting to see you this evening." She observed the two with a gleam in her blue eyes. "Are you two -- "

"We are whatever we are," Christian quickly stopped her, swinging his drink through the air. "Won't you join us, Emma?"

"Not tonight," she said, sensing Bobby's troubled mood. Besides, she'd had quite enough of the bottle the previous night. She needed to stay focused on more important matters. Looking to Bobby, she started to convey, "I am sorry, Robert, for your loss. Your father -- "

" -- was a jackass," Bobby said and promptly hiccupped. "He could have saved himself!" He threw another drink down his throat and reached for Christian's. "He just didn't want to! He'd rather leave his wife and son -- "

Emma's attention trailed away as Bobby continued raging about his father. It was a tragedy his old man had died because he had refused the medicine he had been offered, as Bobby's family, for free. There was nothing that could be done about it now, however, and she knew that Christian had even offered to force him, against her brother's own beliefs, to take the medicine. There was something else, however, demanding Emma's attention, another presence on the beach tingling at the corners of her mind.

Emma turned in the direction of the other mind she could feel not too far away from hers. It held the sensation of a mind that she had once felt within her own on a daily basis, and she knew, with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, to whom it belonged before she spotted. He was again standing on another hill, his cocky, Irish-emerald eyes watching her from behind the same, tacky shades he'd worn at the school.

"On second thought, Christian," she said as the wind flipped up her hair again, "I will take a drink." A waiter had arrived at just that time. Emma lifted a glass from the tray, appeared to drain it in a single gulp, and then made her departure, covered by the waiter's presence. Not even her brother would recognize for at least ten minutes that she was gone.

Moments later, walking into her own home, Emma performed the customary switch into her diamond form. This was her home. She should feel safe here, yet she still chose to sleep, every night, in her hardest, most invulnerable form. She wondered if Jean ever felt exposed when she slept with Scott's arms cradling her. Emma had never slept in her diamond form when sleeping with him, but here she was again, alone and exposed.

Yet, as she lay down on her silky, white sheets, her mind turned back to Sean. She had never felt exposed or vulnerable when sleeping at the academy with him there, but of course, she'd not had her diamond form then. Still, she could have slept with a knife or gun underneath her pillow and had never once felt the need to do so. She thought of the Irishman, alone and standing on the hilltop for a second day in a row watching her, as she tried to drift off to sleep. Anger boiled in her as she began to toss and turn. Sean Cassidy could have changed everything! If he had stood beside her, perhaps the children would not have left! Perhaps Generation X would never have disbanded, or they would have, but only to allow more students to take their place. They could have even stayed on as teachers.

But he had not stayed with her. He had never been loyal to her, only to that damn Moira, who had ripped his very skin off of his flesh and worn it to mask her presence. Emma had warned him time and again about that horrible woman, but he had never once listened! Instead, when she'd needed him the most, he had turned from her, too busy judging her and grieving for Moira to appreciate the fact that, as even Ororo and Kate could see it, she had done everything within her power to keep their precious students alive.

They were all alive now, alive and busy with their own lives. Paige was with one of the original X-Men, as apparently, too, was Emma's own brother. Jubilation and Jono were actually building a life together. Everett was with the current team of X-Men, and Monet had built quite a little superhero career for herself. They were all doing well, all except for perhaps Sean. What kind of a fool would she be to allow herself to care for that stubborn, old asshole? He meant nothing her, especially after all this time. He could mean nothing to her!

Scott hurt, yes, but Sean was meaningless. That chapter of her life had closed long ago, and unlike her students, she had no desire to even see him again. He meant nothing to her! Her life was full of other students, hundreds instead of a meager dozen, and actual friends now! She was a member of the X-Men on her own standing, not on Sean's or Scott's or even Xavier's! She had earned and cemented her place in the survival of mutantkind. That Irishman with all his blarney meant nothing to her! She hoped, with all her heart, that she'd not see him again even, while in her dreams, a Gaelic tune whistled through her billowing, white curtains.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

Emma stiffened as the air shifted subtly around her. The heavy aroma of pipe tobacco turning a bit old wafted from directly behind her. She kept her eyes fixed on her wine glass as she spoke coldly, "Must we continue this cat and mouse game, Mister Cassidy? I rather tire of it." In truth, she rather tired of him, entering her dreams at night and having constantly been hovering around her for the last week. She had picked up his thoughts far too many times for her liking. It was almost as though he was stalking her, but she knew better. Of all the things Sean might be, of all the disappointments he had proven to be, there was no reason for him to stalk her at this point in their lives.

Her fingers tightened their hold on her glass' stem. It would serve him right if she threw her wine into his face, called him out right here and now, but he would merely attempt to deny her accusations. She knew she had not been imagining his presence, however, any more than she was imagining the scents of McQuaid tobacco and Old English cologne. "Let's cut to the chase," she added, her tone as stiff and icy as if she had been speaking to Shaw. "I would have eaten any other mouse by now."

The bastard had the gall to grin at her. She could hear it in his voice as he responded, "Ack, I'm sure ye would've, Em. I jest -- "

As his words floundered, she downed the rest of her glass in one smooth sip.

"I wanted tae -- "

She turned from the bar and faced him, trying to will into her tone, eyes, and face every bit of disdain she now had for him. "You wanted to what, Cassidy?"

"Ack," he ran his fingers, whose every callous she knew too well from having held hands with him in the past, "must be we be so formal?"

"Yes," she snapped, blue eyes flashing like lightning, "we must! Perhaps you have forgotten how our team disbanded, but I certainly have not. I always had your back, Cassidy."

His hand dropped to his jaw, and he rubbed it tenderly. "I seem tae recall ye havin' a rather mean right hook a couple o' times too."

Damn it all! Why did his brogue always have to make her shiver? No other man had such an impact on her simply by speaking, not even Scott!

"I seem to recall that you turned against me when I stopped the bitch who was intending to murder every one of our students in cold blood and had already succeeded in doing that very thing with Everett -- "

"She was yuir sister, Em," he whispered, emerald green eyes widening. "I ne'er could understand -- "

"What would you have done to Tom?!" Emma demanded, slapping her glass down onto the counter behind her and almost breaking it in the process. "If Tom Cassidy had been the one to explode Everett instead of my sister, what would you have done?! What have you already done to your own family?! Don't you dare stand there and judge me, Sean Cassidy -- "

"Is this a bad time?"

Emma turned swiftly toward the sound of the unexpected voice, her blonde hair flipping about her shoulders. Sean still stood, gaping, at her. The very air vibrated with Emma's barely restrained force. She was both surprised, and not quite so surprised, to see that Kate had reached her first. The girl really had grown so much from the trembling, frightened fourteen year-old she had been when Emma had first attempted to recruit her to her cause. Before her stood a confident woman, a proper leader who had been perfect for the position of Red Queen Emma had planted her in, but also a woman who knew a little too much about Emma's genuine feelings and past.

She had her own Demons, though, Emma thought, and noticed with just a brief glance around the bar, Rachel downing another beer at the counter a few stools to her right, Illyana dancing with some woman she actually did not recognize immediately, and Pete Wisdom standing in the shadows, watching Katheryne from behind his lit cigar. She wondered, fleetingly, if Kitty knew the smell of Wisdom's tobacco as well as she knew Sean's, and then she considered the truths Kate had shared with her nearly a week ago in the gardens, after their sparring match.

Emma composed herself, straightening her back and holding herself rigid at her full height of five foot ten inches, and forced herself to smile gracefully at her colleague. She thought of the secrets they had shared that day, each needing to let off a considerable amount of steam, and how well they had worked together to place Sebastian Shaw, at long last, into his rightful place. She'd love to do that to Cassidy as well, but so far, none of the others knew what a traitor the Irish bastard was.

Lockheed was curled around Kate's shoulders, and Emma noted she was still wearing her favorite, leather jacket that she'd taken on her first voyager with the Marauders. She was quite certain Sean wouldn't approve of their voyages, no more than he'd approved of her killing Adriene, but they were every bit as necessary. The dragon, who certainly was no longer a baby and yet whom Kate carried on her lithe shoulders as though he weighed no more than he had in those infant years, released a small puff of flame. In its smoke, however, Emma witnessed the scaley alien, whom she knew well had a sense of humor himself, wink at her. "Coo?"

Emma smiled, and this time, the smile actually did touch her baby blues. "Never, Kate. How can I help you this evening?"

"Actually," she grinned up at her, "I was hoping for a dance."

"I would much prefer your company to present company," Emma replied with a sniff to indicate that her present company was no more appealing than what came out of the dragon's tail end.

"Perfect. Let's sway!" Kitty grabbed Emma's gloved hand and led her out to the dance floor, before anyone else could object.

Everything all right, Katheryne? Emma thought to her as their hips began to sway in rhythm to the music. These were mostly younger tunes, and she was not quite familiar with the latest generation's taste in music. It certainly wasn't hers, but as Kate's hips bumped against hers, Emma was very well aware of the eyes turning onto them... and the heat rising in the room.

Everything's fine, but I saw Sean and figured you could use an escape too. Now hush and let me lead.

The song changed, and a new one began. She could sense Robert, of all people, having taken over for the DJ as Christian distracted him. Then, as the words began, she understood why they had suddenly taken the positions they had, and just what their scheme entailed. She let herself go, swaying not just her hips but her entire body alongside Kate's. She'd almost forgotten the child had taken dancing lessons when she'd been younger, that they were, in fact, a part of why she was such an agile and graceful fighter.

She was quickly being reminded of just how skilled a dancer Kate was, however, as she called on every bit of her own experience and then some to keep match with her. It had not only been her manipulation and killing skills that had procured her a spot on the Hellfire Club all those years ago when she'd been even younger than Kate was now. She had learned the arts of swaying men with sensuality decades ago, and she put every bit of that to use now as her flesh slid against Katheryne's. She could feel every inch of her breasts and womanhood as she slid provocatively around her.

Even the dragon seemed to be leaping into the mix, Emma noted, as Lockheed soared above them. Between his brother and his latest boy toy (or was Christian meant to be Robert's boy toy? she fretted briefly), this scene was the perfect way to start her revenge. She had been aware of Cassidy following her for a week, and each night, as she'd laid to rest in her impenetrable, diamond form, she had remembered more and more of her time with him at the school.

She had loved him long before ever considering Scott as a possible mate. Indeed, if it had not been for Generation X's disbandment and the fact that she'd still yearned to preserve a place for herself amongst the X-Men, amongst Xavier's dream, not her own (but, of course, her own were now impossible), she would have never once considered dating Scott Summers, or luring him into her bed so that she could use him. That, of course, had been how their relationship had began: He had been intended to be an ends to a means, a way for her to stay with the X-Men rather they wanted her or not, and she'd never once intended to fall in love with him.

Especially as she had already been in love with another man, another who'd always disappointed her, who'd never wanted her as she'd ached for him, who'd treated her so cruelly, in some ways worst than Sebastian even had. She and Sean could have had everything together. They had been building a life together, not unlike how Jubilation and Jonothan were now doing, only they'd had an entire team of Shogos at their proverbial beck and call, a whole group of young lives who had desperately needed them rather they'd realized it or not. And she had desperately needed all that Generation X had represented, including the arrogant, self-possessed Irish man with whom Xavier had partnered her.

The Professor's choice of partners, of co-headmasters for their school, could not have been a mistake or coincidence. He had chosen Sean on purpose, just as he'd chosen her on purpose. Charles had all but confessed that to her once, when they'd been drinking together -- or rather, she'd been accompanying the old man while he'd been drinking, reminiscing, and yearning and grieving for both Erik and Moira. Of course, back then, she'd still been a naive fool. She'd still believed every word he'd said, and she never once would have dared to think that all his careful schemes had been intended to preserve his own pride and status far more than their species.

The revelation of what Moira had always been had indeed been an eye-opener, and not just where Cassidy was concerned. Her heart was hurting, but as the tempo picked up even more, the singer wailing about how she could love herself better than the guy who had hurt her so cruelly, Emma actually did something which was very rare for the infamous White Queen: She stopped thinking. For only a few minutes, she actually stopped thinking and just let Kate guide her across the floor.

Their bodies were a whirlwind, but somehow, they seemed to stay perfectly in tune to each other. Kate's young, nubile body sliding against hers did indeed make Emma hot and sweaty, and after the song had finished, they proceeded into another and then another. She continued to let Kate lead until she suddenly realized that the young woman had successfully danced her all across the bar's floor and out into the night. It was only when they were well away and alone together underneath the vast blanket of stars that swept across the midnight sky that Kate finally released her.

Lockheed soared toward the stars, cooing loudly and happily, as Kate breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said, shooting Emma a lop-sided grin. "That was getting bad. Rachel and Illyana asked me to dance at the same time."

"Heavens, what a problem!" Emma teased, grinning and fanning herself.

"I know, right?" Kate slipped a flask from her red coat's pocket and downed what looked, to Emma, to be about half its contents. "What about you? Cassidy didn't seem to want to leave you alone."

Emma paused. Her blue eyes touched on Kate's brown ones, and then she looked away. Her gaze swept up to the sky and across the ocean and sand before finally daring to meet Kitty's inquisitive expression. "Well," she asked, "he didn't, did he?"

"No." Emma took a deep breath. Did she dare tell anyone? No one would believe her... Sean was one of their precious X-Men who could do no wrong.

Katheryne slowly lowered the flask. She cooed up to Lockheed before turning to face Emma head-on. "What is it?" she asked. "Did he say something?"

"He didn't have a chance to," she said, shaking her head. A genuine but small smile tugged at the corners of her blue lips. "You didn't give him a chance to." She paused again, weighing the admission of anything that could make her look weak against all she and Kate had shared over the last couple of years before daring to venture, "Thank you."

"Hey," Kitty grinned broadly, "we Queens gotta look out for each other. Now what did he say?"

The expression her Captain wore in that moment reminded her of another much older and more grizzled person. She'd always known Logan had taught Pryde well, but it wasn't until their last few adventures shared together that she had begun to realize just how much Kitty had come to copy Logan. Jubilee might have been the one to snap Wolverine out of his animal-like stature years ago, but Kitty clearly had modeled herself after him, even if unconsciously, in far more ways than young Jubilation had ever thought to do, or, rather, become.

Right now, facing the anger and wrath quickly clouding Pryde's face, Emma realized two things: She did appear to have a genuine friend in this sometimes hostile, young woman, and if she did not confess to her what Sean had been doing recently, Pryde was likely to stalk right back into that bar and beat Cassidy into a bloody pulp until he confessed. The idea of Sean's bloodied face made Emma warm inside, especially at the thought it would be done to exact vengeance for her, but then, just as Katheryne started to turn from her, Emma knew she had to tell her. As much as she might like her revengance to at long last be granted, Kitty going back into that bar would prove to everyone, worst of all Cassidy himself, that she had allowed the blasted Irish man to hurt her. She shouldn't care that people talked so much about her, but she did. She had worked too long and hard to build her reputation as an ice-cold bitch to let Sean, Scott, or any other man destroy it, to destroy her in the eyes of the people who rightfully feared her.

"He's been stalking me."

Kitty whipped back around, her brown eyes going wide. "Are you sure?"

Emma nodded a single, firm bob of her blonde head. "Of course I'm sure," she said and tapped a long, blue fingernail against the side of her skull. "Telepath, remember?" She knew Kate understood more than most how well telepaths could read others, having shared a telepathic rapport with Rachel for years.

"Fair enough," Kitty murmured, and, to Emma's surprise, her gaze dropped to the shore beneath their boots. "That's a pretty big accusation."

"I know, but it's the truth," Emma spoke quickly and firmly. She had not considered it until this very moment, but evidently, Katheryne's standing with her own people was also not what it had once been, or should be. "I don't suppose you'd -- " she started to say, looking back up into Emma's blue eyes.

"I'd welcome to anyone to pick the thoughts from my mind, except for one problem." She folded her arms defensively across her chest. "I will not allow anyone to know how much he's -- "

" -- hurt you," Kitty finished for her.

Those were not the words that Emma had been going to choose, but they were the truth. She stared at the girl for a moment, once again thinking of the fourteen year-old she had once tried to woo to her side of mutant politics and then thinking of all she had seen her do, and all they had done together, since she had joined her on the new Hellfire Club. After a long moment, she pressed her blue lips silently together and nodded one more time, admitting the truth at long last to another living being even if not verbally.

"Jackass," Pryde snarled, snatching her flask back out of her pocket and finishing it in a single gulp. "Men are such asses."

"Yes, but -- "

"Don't tell me we can't live without them. We can."

"Yes, but we all choose not to."

"Not all."

"Even if not romantically, you'd never cut Logan entirely out of your life, nor Lockheed." Emma looked up at the purple dragon's cooing and couldn't help grinning, her eyes sparkling, at the sight of him bringing them two more bottles of wine curled up into his big, leathery tail.

He landed on Pryde's shoulders. She uncapped one bottle, handed it to Emma, and took the other for herself. For a while, they drank in silence. "What are you going to do?" she asked at length.

"I want to know what he wants -- "

"You could just pluck the thoughts from his mind."

"I... I have attempted that, but I would have to do a good bit of prying to get pass the jumbled images clouding his mental vision." That was indeed the truth for Sean seemed to always be heavy in thought whenever he was around her. Grief seemed to constantly be clouding the Irish man's judgment, and not just over Moira. Unlike many men, he still grieved for his wife who had died years ago, long before she'd ever met him, and he, too, grieved for the students they had lost. They might still be alive, or rather have been reborn, but they were as surely lost to him as they were to her, and Emma knew not a one of them would ever forgive her. She rued the day she had ever allowed Adriene access to the school, but she'd not known what else to do at that time in her life. One thing was for certain: Her children might be reborn and still act as though she was dead to them, but her sister would never again breathe. Emma would keep access and at least enough control over the Resurrection Protocols that that was one rebirth she'd never have to face.

"I could shoot him," Kitty said, drinking down more wine.

It was such a blunt, matter-of-fact, and unexpected statement that Emma actually laughed.

Pryde lowered the bottle and looked at her with a raised brow. "I mean it. I'll shoot his ass."

"I know you would, Kate, and I appreciate it truly, but then word would still did out that he -- "

"He hurt you. He betrayed you. If it hadn't been for him, you might have been able to keep the school going. You know, I was convinced Moira was a good woman before, but she always a pain in the ass. I honestly have to ask if it hadn't been for the Professor -- "

"Would you have ever trusted her?"

"Yeah."

"I know." A wind swept across the beach. Emma shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Her gaze turned out to the ocean, whose water, underneath the dark, night sky, seemed to have been turned an inky black. "It seems sometimes impossible that he lied to us all so much."

"I think she lied to him too."

"She did," Emma admitted, "but not about everything."

"I know..." Kitty's voice trailed off, and for a while again, they simply stood there on the shore, gazing out at the night ocean, each lost in their own thoughts.

Emma eventually started to turn away, an excuse that she needed to rest before the next day's classes poised on her tongue. It was only then that Kate spoke again. "I wasn't planning on setting sail again for a few days," she said, nonchalantly waving her half-emptied bottle through the salty air. "I was going to give the crew a little r&r. But if you like... With him stalking you and all, I could stay at your place until we get this figured out."

Emma looked sharply back at her, her surprise making her questioning look all that much more piercing and demanding.

"Of course, if you don't want me to -- "

"I..." She paused, trying to find the right words without revealing too much. "I would appreciate the companionship. If you are certian? I'd hate to impose."

"Heck, you're not imposing, Frost." Emma's surprise grew as Kate swung a companionable arm about her shoulders. They walked that way toward her condo, Emma noting but not mentioning that Kate seemed to have lost her usual, perfect grace. She had been prepared to offer the guest room upon arrival when Kate dropped her arm from her shoulders and threw herself down onto her nearest sofa. "This'll do fine," she said, kicking her boots up onto its end.

Lockheed cooed and circled through the air, preparing to land on Kate's stomach. She downed the last of her wine. "Night, Emma."

Emma watched the younger woman for a moment, noting again how very much she had grown and transformed over the many years they had known one another. She knew very well that Kate was perfectly aware of her gaze, but eventually, she glided on to her own room, never once having mentioned the fact that the mud caked onto and falling off of Kate's big boots had just completely destroyed her leather sofa.

Instead, she moved to her own room, leaving the younger woman to her own defenses. She could already hear the dragon snoring loudly but knew that Pryde was still awake. She wondered if she would actually pull her pistol on Sean when he came through that night. Then she found herself contemplating not taking on her diamond form. It wasn't until her wet eyes fell shut and she began to hear the first strains of that very same Gaelic song that Emma shifted into diamond. That blasted man might be able to tread all over her heart, but he would never, ever again touch her body.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

Emma was surprised to enter her condo the next night to an array of delicious aromas wafting about the small area that served as her kitchen. She'd never really been much of a cook, and she had little reason to actually host anything at her private building now that she had rule over an entire island. Christian and even Bumpkin had their own places now, and the building was vastly empty with her normally being the only life passing through it. Even that, it seemed, ever less frequently, as of late. She might not be constantly running to save the world, but she was constantly moving around the isle, trying to guide not only the entire student body now, which was quite possibly bigger than it had ever been before, but also many of the adults still struggling to find their place in a land where they could actually be free to be themselves, whatever craziness that might entail.

Kate appeared in the doorway to her small kitchen, two glasses in one hand and a bottle of Emma's favorite brand of champagne in the other. Emma arched a single, perfectly curled eyebrow in elegant question. "I was unaware," she spoke, choosing her words with great care, "we were on a date tonight?"

"This isn't a date," Kitty instantly responded, but her wide grin told Emma she wasn't upset with her for assuming. "No offense, but I've learned about dating the older generations."

"Have you?" Emma asked smoothly. "Finally?" She followed Kate into the smoothly polished kitchen, and realized afterward that she hadn't stepped into the room for months. It looked completely unlived in, not, of course, that she ever made that great a mess.

Kitty set their glasses on the counter and began to pour the bubbly. "I definitely have," she told Emma. "I think Piotr pretty much settled that for me. I'm done with men, and I'm done with people twice my age." Emma glanced at her, and Kate defended herself, "Well, you are half my age!"

"I never argued the point, Kitten."

She was surprised again when Kate didn't argue that point, either. She generally insisted on people calling her Kate these days, but Emma was half her age -- actually, more than that, but she certainly wasn't going to correct the girl! Beyond that, however, the last time she had attempted to call her 'Kitten', she had immediately rebuffed her and rather crassly informed her that name was preserved for Ororo only.

That particular memory caused Emma to again wonder why she had seen the former goddess flying over the island that night. Something was keeping her away from Arakko. Whatever it was, it was something Emma had yet to hear anything on, which was cause for alarm for a number of reasons. Control over the island was slowly slipping from her fingertips with Scott no longer at her beck and call, but Ororo, though they'd been speaking every day at least for a few minutes, had yet to mention it to her as well. For just a moment, an old fear slipped icily through her. Were they again doubting her? Did they once more think she had turned evil? Sean had certainly accused her of that more than enough times over their years together with Generation X!

Blinking, Emma realized young Katheryne was prattling on about how much she had enjoyed her day, being alone with only her thoughts and Lockheed. She had sunbathed for a while and watched her little, scaley friend flying in circles in the bright, tropical sunshine and had also partaken in a number of meditation studies, only half of which, Emma would not admit, she had heard. "I'm glad you enjoyed your day, Kitten," she said, slowly sipping her champagne.

Kate turned swiftly from the stove and eyed Emma inquisitively. Did she suspect something as well? Surely not, not with Emma having granted her the free roam of her home -- but then, why else would she have stayed there all day?

"I was unaware you're a cook," she said, indicating the sizzling meal of meat and vegetables. They shone with some kind of sauce. She was further surprised to find her stomach growling. She'd long ago learned to do without proper meals so as to keep her luscious figure, and keep men's minds wrapped around other uses for her body whose passion, grace, and agility all far belied her age.

"Kung Pao chicken," Kate said, shrugging a shoulder. "I don't often get in the kitchen -- I don't often have time --, but I figured it was a good thank you. I also kinda figured we could both use a night in."

"How did you know when I would be home?"

"You always stop by after the last class. You're a good teacher. You're constantly grading papers and preparing lessons. Of us all, you're probably the best teacher we have."

The girl seemed constantly full of surprises! "Do you really mean that?" Emma asked softly.

"Absolutely!"

"There are many who would argue I have no place here."

Kitty whipped around to stare at her, mixing spoon raised as though it was a weapon. "Every mutant has a place here! You've worked your ass off for the betterment of mutantkind! We may not have always agreed on our stances, Emma, or the best chance for our people, but you have always worked to protect mutant kids! Your lessons may have been questionable with the Hellions, but since then, you've always done what's best for the children, even if it wasn't necessarily best for you! Is it Scott?! Did he say something?!" As Emma started to shake her head, Kate persisted, "Jean? I don't care who it was," she said, pointing the diamond spoon, which Emma had actually never intended to be used, at her, "and they'll have a hot ass tomorrow! If not tonight! I wasn't planning on going out tonight, but -- "

"Katheryne," Emma finally cut in, "no one has said anything..."

"Then why?"

"...recently," Emma admitted, to which Kate lowered the spoon.

"I get it," she said slowly and softly, "but, Emma, we've all done things we've lived to regret. As long as we have to fight for a better world, fight for our people's very survival, that's going to keep happening. It's the way of things." She turned back around and began spooning the meal onto crystal saucers.

"You are very wise for your age," Emma spoke softly.

Kate shook her head. "It doesn't have to do with being wise, not really. It has to do with everything we've been through. I want you to sit and think for a minute about everything you've done for our people, everything you've given up to be able to teach the kids, and don't tell me for one minute that you haven't made sacrifices. I know you have. Heck, you killed your own sister!"

Emma's head snapped up from where she had taken a seat. Her skin took on a sudden pallor as her mouth opened. But she couldn't deny the fact. Yet, even as she was searching for words, Kate was continuing.

"I can't say I could've done that," she was saying, shaking her brunette head. "I don't know if I'd be able to, if I'd have the hearts or the guts to kill my own sister, if I had one. Thankfully, I don't. But it did take guts, Emma, and I know you didn't see any other alternative. You had to save the children. Hell, that's been what your whole life has been about!"

"Do not kid yourself, Kitten."

"I'm not! Don't forget I know you better than maybe anybody else on this whole island! I know what you're capable of. I know what you did with the New Mutants and the Hellions, and I know how their deaths tore the crap out of you! You wanted to die, Emma! You put yourself in that coma, and then you wouldn't come out of it! The pain was too much! Until you somehow got in touch with Bobby's head and realized everything he was holding back on, and the pain train he was headed for." When Emma looked at her, wide-eyed, she mumbled, "Sorry, not sorry." She shrugged after sitting down across from her with her own plate. "I guess you could say too many '80s videos today."

Emma's stomach was gurgling, and not simply because the food smelled so wonderfully enticing. She poked at a glistening mushroom.

"It's not going to poison you."

"It's not that."

"Look, I know you were bad once. I also know you'd be bad again if it took it to save the children. You will literally do anything you feel you need to to keep what happened to you from happening any mutant child ever again, or to keep what happened to the Hellions from happening again, or -- "

Ice filled Emma's blue eyes as she looked directly at Kate. "What do you mean 'what happened to me'?"

"Oh, come on, Emma, and do shoot me with the Ice Glare. I know what happened to you. I looked it up long ago. You know I can break into any computer. Did you really think you'd always be able to keep it a secret? Your own folks threw you into a mental asylum to get rid of you, and then it turned out all your siblings had powers and your dad did too. But you were the one they all feared." She pierced a piece of steak with her fork and ate it. "See? There. I'm eating too. Even if I was going to poison you, I wouldn't poison me too!"

A wavering smile crossed Emma's blue lips as she brought the mushroom with a piece of chicken to her own mouth. "They feared me because I could read all their thoughts, and I wasn't like them. I tried to be. I suppose I was for a while." She paused to chew and, when she had swallowed, looked again at Kate with a completely new appreciation. "Kitty, this is marvelous!"

"I know." Pryde flashed her a grin but kept eating. "Emma, you were better than them. You were better than the Hellfire Club. But you did what you had to to survive." She shook her head again and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know if I could have done it. It took guts, courage, wits -- "

" -- and an ice cold heart which people continue to expect of me."

"So stop doing what they expect. I did, and look at where I am now!"

"You've earned the position of Red Queen."

"I know. It took me a while to accept it, but you're right. I have. And I don't regret anything, including what we did to Shaw!"

"I never said you should. This really is wonderful, Kate!"

"Don't change the subject, and there are those who think we should. They don't expect you to, but they do expect me to." She shrugged again. "Screw what they think! Mutatis mutandis -- everything changes, and we have to change with the times or let people run over us, kill us, manipulate us, rape us -- "

Emma almost choked on her chicken.

"Not recently," Kate said, waving a hand dismissively. "Years ago. Back in the '80s. It wasn't me. Someone tried with Illyana. Well, a gang of some ones, mutant haters, tried with her -- We managed to rescue her in time, but Magneto, of all people, talked us out of avenging her. And you know, to this day, I still have to wonder if some of them didn't later rape a girl, mutant or not? He had some right to talk too -- "

"People will always talk, Katheryne."

"Oh, I know that! Believe me I know that!" She waved a bean shoot at the end of her fork. "But listen to yourself, Emma," she added, pausing to actually eat the shoot. "People will always talk. People will always expect the worst from people they've been told are bad, or expect those people they claim to like to always abide by what they think is right or wrong. The Professor wasn't much better. I had to fight for my place on the X-Men even after leading the team through a number of victories, remember?"

"Oh, I remember. You've always been far more talented and wise than your years let on."

"Ready for cheesecake?"

"Cheesecake?! Did you make that too?"

"Actually, I had Bobby bring it by. I didn't feel like going out, and he was about the only guy I didn't mind coming around."

"Even after the two of you dated?"

"Yeah, but he just kinda helped shove me into being what I've always been deep down. I'm bisexual, Emma, always have been, just like I've always been a Jew and a mutant. We fight so much, so long, and so hard for our people's rights, but then what about our rights? Not just as mutants, or women, but as people? Our rights to do how we feel we should do? I know the X-Men can be judgmental. I've been judgmental. But you have proven time and again that you have every right to be on the team, to be an X-Man! Sean Cassidy judging you for killing your sister is no different than Logan and Ororo judging me when I first took a life. They wanted better for me, I get that, but they still didn't have any right."

Emma paused. After a moment, as Katheryne was moving the cheesecake out of her top-of-the-line, stainless steel refrigerator, she opened her mouth, but then shut it again. She focused on finishing her dinner instead, and then looked again up at Kate with genuine appreciation shining in her baby blues. "You really are a very talented young lady, Kate."

"Stop it -- "

"I mean it. The only time I have ever tried to cook for my students, the only thing I could manage to cook was eggs and ketchup."

Kitty made a face. "Euuw. But yeah, stop it. Tell me what's really on your mind. Have you seen him again?"

She placed two saucers, each with a fresh slice of cheesecake topped with strawberries and cream, before them. She sat down and dug in, but after the first two bites, she continued, "I've told you everything that's on my mind, Emma. Friendship works both ways. You can tell me what's really bothering you, and not be judged."

"Okay, yes, I've seen him again," Emma admitted, cutting into her pie. "Well, not seen him, but I've felt him. Several times today. Every time I was outside of my classroom, and once while the students were actually quiet during testing."

"And you've picked up nothing?"

"I'm not -- "

Kate silently raised a dark eyebrow and watched her warily.

"Okay." She sighed again. "I've tried, but there seems to be something keeping me from reading his thoughts."

Kitty let her fork linger in her mouth for a moment before slowly drawing it out and asking, "Are you sure it's him? Not -- "

"It's not Moira," Emma said with a shake of her head. "Even when she wore his skin, she couldn't really smell like him, and there's a feeling about him -- this... this presence -- " She struggled to explain. "Other than Charles, he was the first man around whom I genuinely felt comfortable when I wasn't using my powers or my... other attributes to seduce him." Kitty nodded, silently encouraging her to continue. "I... There was something special about him, something special between us -- or, at least, I felt there was something special between us when we ran the academy together."

"But he never acted on it?"

"He did kiss me once... Twice... But he always did his best to deny or otherwise dismiss it afterwards. He'd actually bloody apologize for it," she said as Kitty poured her a second glass of champagne. "He was always so damned determined to be true to MacTaggert -- "

"She was dying," Kitty gently put in.

"Be that as it may, I know damn well he felt something! No man has ever kissed me and not felt something! And that's not just pride talking!"

"I'm sure it's not," Kitty said, her brown eyes raking up Emma's long and voluptuous body.

Lockheed suddenly sailed into the kitchen, cooing loudly. He circled in the air above the table.

"Don't worry, dragon," Kitty said, laughing. "I saved some for you! You don't mind?" she asked as she slid a third slice of cheesecake further down the table.

"No," Emma said and was surprised to realize that Kitty was being true to her word. She genuinely seemed to not be judging her weakness.

Kitty placed the saucer of cheesecake underneath Lockheed's beak. He cooed once more and then began devouring his piece of pie. She looked back to Emma. "Like I said, Emma, you're a good woman."

To her surprise, Emma felt heat beginning to rise up her collarbone, but Katheryne continued, "'Heed says he drew a bubble bath for you."

"Your dragon," Emma repeated in disbelief, looking back over to Lockheed who now had cheesecake smeared all over his beak, "drew a bubble bath for me?"

"What can I say?" Kate asked, scratching Lockheed between his horns. "He's a dragon of many talents."

"Like his mistress," Emma murmured thoughtfully but rose and walked to her chambers. She closed and secured her door behind her, but thought back to Kitty, Thank you again for dinner, Kate.

My pleasure, Emma. Like I said, we don't all judge you. Thank you for letting me... hang out here. I needed the break from all the craziness with Ray and 'Lyana.

I'm sure you did. You're welcome to stay for as long as you like. She added coyly, Especially if you contiue to cook such delicious dinners.

My pleasure, but Emma? We're only friends, okay?

Of course, Kitten, Emma said with a sigh whose nature she was unaccustomed to. I am glad that is settled.

Of course. Enjoy your bath.

Emma sighed again as she slipped, now naked, into the warm water. It was surprisingly the perfect temperature, and she realized that 'Heed must have learned long ago to draw such baths for his mistress. She then paused, listening to the sound of her own sigh and feeling the release of pressure within her as her breasts arched with the sound. She was happy! She was happy, satisfied, content... She had not been that way since her days at the Academy.

She had not been that way since her days with Sean, when she had first thought she'd had a friend who would not judge her, when she had fooled herself into allowing herself to believe that a good man was falling for her and not because of any of her plethora of tricks to make them fall... And he had been good too! She had told herself so many times over their years together that she could not be upset with him for refusing to hurt a good woman who was dying. She had always had her doubts about Moira truthfully, but she never could have imagined just what a cruel and sadistic person the Scientist was deep down. She wondered idly if perhaps she had known exactly what kind of a man she was raising in her sons, and if perhaps they, too, had simply been experiments to her. Had Sean?

He'd been hurt too, she reminded herself, so very many times. He had been hurt that she had shot Adriene; she had witnessed his pain and horror clearly in his handsome face. She'd had no other choice, though, she thought, allowing herself the luxury of a lone tear as she remembered burying Everett's body and watching the other students mourn so for him. Monet and Jubilee had especially been shattered by his death, and Emma had known that her sister was not done. She had done what she had to to stop her. She didn't regret it, and Katheryne was right: She had no choice but to let whoever wanted to think whatever of her to think it, but what would they have done? Would they -- could they have simply allowed the rest of their students to be slaughtered a second time? That was what Emma could not have lived with! She had done the right thing; she had protected the children she'd had left.

Why couldn't Sean understand? He would have done the same thing with Tom Cassidy, and had indeed left his brother, or cousin (their stories had changed over the years), for dead many times. Or had she perhaps terrified him? He'd gone quickly into his bottle at that time, but of course, Moira had also, conveniently, died around that same time period. Now that Emma knew exactly what that woman was, she could not help but to wonder anew if that particular death had simply not been perfectly timed.

What if his drinking had been more than grieving for the one woman, for the wrong woman? What if he'd also feared losing her, and the knowledge that would shoot her own kin had led him to believe that she was still embracing her old ways? Katheryne saw her for who she was. She'd thought -- no, she'd believed Sean had as well, until he'd betrayed her so completely. But what if he, much like Emma with her sister or waiting for Moira to finally die, had also not truly known what to do?

The world was full of what ifs, Emma mulled, her eyes sliding closed. Her life had always been full of what ifs. What if her parents had actually loved her and not feared her? What if she'd not had to claw her way, quite literally, to the top of the proverbial ladder? What if someone, any one, had reached out to her when she'd still been young and genuinely cared for her? What if Sean had been falling for her too, and she had scared him?

They had spent so many long nights together. He had gotten her to relax in ways she'd never believed she could, from watching movies, including the old, black and white detective flicks he'd liked so much, to playing games even occasionally at the arcade when they'd taken the kids. She had so very many fond memories of the man. He'd always been handsome and smoother than he realized, and that brogue of his could have easily charmed her right out of her clothes if he had been anyone else but a man she'd had to work closely with day in and night out to care for the children placed into her safety.

Had Charles known any of that? she wondered, not for the first time. He'd had a fling with Moira as well, and his feelings for that dreadful woman were certainly not over -- or, at least, they hadn't been until she'd worn Sean's very skin to betray them all. What must that have been like for Cassidy? How terrifying must it have been for him to know that the very woman he'd surrendered all for was the one to kill him? Surely he'd been dead by the time she'd started removing his skin, but -- Emma's stomach twisted -- what if he hadn't been? Just what tragedies had he endured at her bloody claws and unmoving heart? They all thought Emma was the cold-hearted one, but she had nothing on the monster that was MacTaggert.

She wished her heart was unmoving. She wished she had never been so easily moved, manipulated, and utterly and completely charmed by almost everything about Sean Cassidy. Admittedly, even the fact that he'd refused to budge to her great temptations in honor of a woman who was dying had been charming in its own, sickening way. After all, if he'd been that loyal to a woman who had never deserved him --

A shot rang out. Emma's eyes flashed open as her flesh turned to diamond in record time. She leapt out of the tub and darted into her bedroom, but all she caught sight of was a very familiar looking behind and brown hair streaming as the shooter dodged out the open door to her balcony.

Kate darted in through Emma's closed and locked door, running to her from the opposite direction. Emma gave no thought to her nudity as she raced out to her balcony. Lockheed soared higher and faster than either of them, spraying fire the moment he burst into the outdoors. But there was no one there except for a few familiar faces walking the shoreline. One in particular gawked up at her. Emma stared down at him, noting that his mouth was open, but if he was screaming, singing, or saying anything, she could not hear it.

"Are you okay? She didn't -- "

Emma turned to Katheryne, still not having spoken a word.

"You look like you saw a ghost! Did you see who it was?"

Slowly, Emma shook her head and re-entered her private chamber. Kate leaned out over the balcony, took one final survey of their surroundings, and followed Emma back inside. She waited for Lockheed to swoop inside before slamming and locking Emma's balcony doors. Turning back around, Kate surveyed Emma thoughtfully. "You still look like you saw a ghost."

"It was only my imagination -- " she started.

"Emma, that wasn't your imagination! Or do I need to go into your bathroom with you and show you the bullet that almost lodged in your skull?"

"No, you do not, but whatever I thought I saw had to be my imagination."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because," she answered, meeting Kate's worried gaze at last, "the person I thought I saw looked like Adriene, and I have taken very careful measures to make sure neither of my sisters are resurrected. Adriene's dead. She's going to stay that way." She had killed her sister by her own hand, and she no longer held any remorse for that deed whatsoever. Adriene was dead. Cordelia was dead. Her parents were dead. Only Christian and she herself remained of her family. But then, just who had managed to break through all of Krakoa's securities and dared to attempt to kill her in her own chambers?!

"I don't know," Kate said, crossing into the bathroom to examine the bullet, "but I'm going to find out."

"I didn't -- "

"You were broadcasting," she said without ever looking back.

Emma padded over to the door and looked out from her sheer curtains. Perhaps she should call Bumpkin, and a number of others, and it was certainly a good thing that she had taken to sleeping in her diamond form. She saw Sean had now risen into the sky.

"GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!" Kate bellowed from the bathroom. Emma, quietly and uncharacteristically demurely, moved; almost as an afterthought, she began to dress.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

Once again, Emma felt the telltale approach of Sean Cassidy. She was already facing the bar, so there was no point in trying to turn her back to him, but she did stiffen. Her entire body grew rigid in stark alarm as the heady aroma of his Irish Spring soap, Old English cologne, McQuaid tobacco -- and something else, some underlining aroma that had reminded her of the green and rolling, Irish hills on many a Spring morning back when they'd been working together, building, she'd far too often deceived herself, some kind of actual life for themselves and their students. The man had lied to her time and again! He was nothing but the worst kind of scammer, convincing her to allow her heart to get entangled --

"What are you doing here, Sean?" she snapped icily, hoping he hadn't noticed that she'd downed her latest glass in one full swig. Her fingers coiled around the glass' stem now as she concentrated on not allowing the shaking she felt inside of her to present itself in her outward appearance. She was not afraid. She was not afraid of being shot at. She was not afraid of either of her sisters, or anyone else that might have tried to kill her, and she most certainly was not afraid of Sean bloody Cassidy!

"Em, I've been concerned -- " he started. She felt the presence of his fingers lingering at her elbow, and remembered a good many times when that simple gesture had meant so much to her. Back during their days at the academy, he had been able to turn her insides to much with a single word or the merest touch, though she'd never let on. She snatched away from him now and felt his hand drop back to his side where it belonged. His sigh was audible, and thoroughly disappointed, but she cared nothing for his disappointments.

"You shouldn't be here -- "

"I've e'ery right -- "

"No," she snapped, "you really don't." She whirled around, raising her drink which Bobby had just revealed with a mischievous grin, one of which he no longer wore nearly as much as he so often had in their younger days. She was fully prepared to throw her drink right in Cassidy's handsome but foolish face, but froze upon turning to face him -- not because of Cassidy at all, but because of the man who stood just a few feet behind him. "Scott! What are you doing here?" Her brow furrowed, and she ignored the thought that ran through her mind that she really must stop allowing herself to show her expressions. That was what caused wrinkles after all, and she'd be damned if she'd ever be a wrinkly, old prune!

Scott stepped forward, and of course, there was Jean, right behind him and in the process of stepping right to his side. She looked at her with a smile, and Emma reminded herself forcefully that they had agreed to a truce. Scott had married her, after all, long before Emma had "changed her ways", and her entire affair with Scott had begun as a way to regain and maintain her post upon the X-Men. Jean, for whatever else she could say about the redhead, had at least genuinely loved him when they had wed. She owed it to them both to have a chance to work through their marriage, and also to herself to determine what it was she truly wanted in life -- or rather, she thought, glancing at Sean, who.

"Where else would I be when someone shot at you?"

Emma looked around for Kate. Spying her talking to her brother in hushed tones, Emma glowered at her. "Who else did you tell?"

Kate nodded and parted from Christian, who slipped back into the crowd, mingling, drinking, and also keeping a constant lookout for whomever had dared to shoot at his sister. "They already knew."

"What the Hell do you mean they already knew?!" Emma was quickly losing her composure, something her years of growing up within the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club had taught her years ago was very dangerous to do and never a wise move to make.

"Em, darlin', -- "

"Don't you darling me, Sean Cassidy!" she snapped, and threw her drink in his face at last.

Sean grimaced and reached for the tablecloth Lockheed dangled before him. He'd no sooner wiped the wine from his smug face, however, than the crafty dragon slapped him straight in his mouth with his tail! It was only Scott's hand on Sean's shoulder that kept the Irishman standing.

"Did everybody know I was going to be shot at?! I know you people don't like me, but I would think my tenure with the team would at least have earned me the common decency of a warning!"

"Jean?" Scott asked.

"I've masked us all, Scott, and everyone else except those who need to know believe they just witnessed Emma storm out."

Cackling laughter filled the air suddenly as Teresa Cassidy waved her wine bottle in the air. "Good goin', Da! I always told ye that one was a mean, cold soith!" Terry fell back, laughing and waving her arms and legs in the air. She only kept from slipping from her chair because of Rahne's quick reactions, grasping her friend and holding her upright.

"Muh apologies, Mister Cassidy. I'll see tae it that yuir daughter gets home safely."

"Ye do that, please, Rahne," Sean said, his face coloring. Looking back to Emma, he attempted once more to speak with her, "We did nae knae ye were goin' tae be shot at, Em, I promise ye -- "

"Why would I believe any bit of blarney dropping off of your acidic tongue, Cassidy? You've hardly been the trustworthy sort -- "

"He's telling the truth, Emma," Jean said.

Emma's heart then sank as Kate added, "We knew you were going to be attacked, Emma. We just didn't know where the attack was coming from."

"We still don't," Scott added.

"Aye, we di," Sean spoke up again, wiping another bit of wine off of his grizzled cheek. Emma was surprised by the sorrow she not only noted in his voice but felt rising in him. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him questioningly, and she refused to acknowledged the twinge of hope she felt in her own betraying heart. "Em, I'm sorry. Truly, I am."

"You're sorry for what, Sean?" she snapped, ice blue eyes blazing fiercely down at him. She was grateful she'd worn her "man-stomping" boots as she'd once heard her students whisper about her current footwear. It did at least give her a height advantage over the damn man! "Making my life a living Hell?!" The words were out before she could stop them.

"I'm sorry fer makin' ye a target, Em," he apologized sincerely. His emerald eyes looked directly up into her baby blues, and suddenly, he wasn't masking anything. She could feel every inch of his anger, grief, and hatred... at himself?! It had to be a trick. Sean Cassidy may have had a temper, and they had all done many things they'd regretted, but he had never, would never, hate himself! At least not on her behalf! "An' if I did that, Em, I'm sorry fer that as well!"

"Save your apologies, Cassidy," she snapped, glad she was able to maintain herself. She let her fury blaze, and hid the other emotions swirling in her heart and gut. "What are you talking about, making me a target?"

"Moira wants ye dead."

She stared at him for a moment, and then a cruel laugh burst from her. She tossed her head back and laughed again. "That's a rich one, Cassidy! You're the one whose skin she wore!"

"Aye, an' fer a while, I did nae remember when I was brought back. But then when I wanted to find 'er -- "

"Idiot!"

" -- people started tellin' me what had happened, how she'd gotten pass all th' isle's defenses by wearin' me like a bloody suit! I wanted answers. I... I suppose ye might say I even needed answers. I'd already lost a lot o' me life before tae that woman, but th' thought that she could've done like that tae me -- "

"It what? It hurt?"

"Emma, please -- "

"Shut up, Jean." Now isn't the time for Goody Two Shoes! she blasted at the other redhead who she really did have every reason to abhorr.

"Aye," Sean answered, much to Emma's growing surprise, "an' I knae I had it comin'. But it hurt a mighty bunch, an' more'n that even, what hurt more were all th' chance I'd missed at me own happiness tryin' tae be true tae her. I pretty much killed meself before because o' tha' woman an' th' sorry mess she left me."

"No, you didn't!" Emma feigned surprise. Kate may have deceived her as well, but she knew the younger woman had had her reasons and heard her snicker now. Lockheed settled onto Emma's bare shoulders, wrapping the same tail he'd struck Sean with gently over her right arm. Resting his head on her left shoulder, Emma felt the dragon staring at Cassidy with glowing eyes, fiercely daring him to --

To what?! she thought suddenly. Did she really believe that she and the dragon had become that close friends? Lockheed had always belonged to Kate, but then, he had spent a considerable amount of time with her while they'd been working to resurrect his mistress, or best friend as they preferred to call one another. He also had to know, Emma reasoned, that she was the reason why Kitten had finally been resurrected successfully. She'd not given up on her, and clearly, the two of them were not giving up on her now. She felt Kate beside her, Lockheed on her shoulders, and she glowered back at Cassidy, daring him to say something, anything more, that might hint of the feelings he seemed to be trying to purport.

"Em -- " Sean took a deep breath. Her eyes were so beautiful yet hurt him so much when she was this furious with him, especially knowing that she had every right to be so. "I knae ye're goin' tae believe whate'er ye want tae, but that's th' reason I've been followin' ye. I knew she was goin' tae attack ye. I just did nae knae where or when or how. That's why I've been followin' ye," he said again, bowing his head, "that an' I'm truly sorry, Em, fer everythin' that went down before."

Emma stared at him. She continued to stare as he opened his mind to her, and Jean dropped all the guards she had had in place that had previously kept Emma from reading his thoughts. His pain was fresh, genuine, and suddenly made it very hard for Emma to breathe.

"You were right, Sean."

The unexpected, but very welcome, voice had every heard in their little circle snapping to attention. The person clad entirely in black leather, including the hood that concealed her face and had done so every time Emma had spotted her in a crowd, raised her head to reveal herself. Her smile to Emma was warm, and met her blue eyes showing its genuineness. "Hello, Emma."

"Ororo! So you have been here all along!"

"Not all along, but I was one of the first Sean contacted. He refused to go to the Professor -- "

"Understandably so," Scott muttered, bringing their gazes to him. He shrugged. "It does have to do with Moira. The Professor's lied to us many times -- "

"Too many," Jean and Ororo agreed together, and then exchanged a little smile.

"He certainly cannot be trusted where Moira MacTaggert is concerned."

"I know another man who can't be either," Emma stated to which Sean again lowered his head.

"I understand ye feelin' tha' way. Ye have every right tae -- "

"As though I need your permission for anything, Sean Cassidy!"

"Em, I've been tryin' tae say I'm sorry," he said facing her with tears sparkling in his emerald eyes. "I knae ye'll ne'er forgive me, an' I knae how tae live wit' me decisions. But I am sorry."

"He would not have come to us, dear friend," Ororo spoke, reaching out and gently touching Emma's shoulder, just underneath Lockheed's swishing tail, "if he had not been concerned for you. Mystique and Destiny have been working to try to uncover Moira's plan, and if they are to be believed, we now know who she chose to send after you."

"Ye said I was right?" Sean suddenly snapped back to the matter at hand, but though he was again focused on their mission, his face had not gained any of its missing pallor. If anything, his green eyes looked even more sullen, sunken, and sorrowful. "So it's -- "

Ororo nodded. "Yes." A crackle of heat lightning streaked across the dark night sky outside.

"Damn it!"

"Christian?" Emma asked, looking up to her brother. "What do you know -- " she started to ask and, at once, received clear images from Christian, Sean, and Ororo.

"It's Adriene, sis."

"I know."

Kate almost choked on her rum. "What do you mean you know?!"

"Remember how I said I looked as though I'd seen a ghost when I was attacked last night, Katheryne?"

"Yeah..." Kitty's voice trailed off, and she took another slug of rum as she considered Emma's words. Slowly, she lowered the bottle. Directly meeting Emma's gaze, she questioned, "This is your fight, Emma. What do you want to do?"

"Coo!"

"I'll do what I've always done. I'll handle my family." She stalked pass Sean and Ororo too.

"Wait, that's not what I meant!" Kitty called behind her. She phased through Sean as she rushed to catch up to her.

Lockheed's scaley tail swished harder. "Coo coo!"

Emma paused. Just as Kate reached out for her, she spoke firmly, "I appreciate your concern, every one of you, but this is my fight. It always was." She then resumed walking.

"Surveillance continues," Ororo stated quietly.

"Of course," Jean agreed.

Sean reached for the drink Bobby had poured Emma, threw it down his throat, turned, and rushed after her. "Begorrah, th' bloody woman's stubborn!"

Kitty let them both go, knowing Lockheed would not allow anything to happen to Emma. Folding her arms before her breasts, she smirked. "They both are!" Looking back to Ororo, she asked, "Wanna dance?"

"Kitten, now is not the time!"

"We're not going to get anywhere with her right now," Kitty said, shaking her head. "It's Adriene, same woman she killed before, same sister she killed before. She's not going to let us help, at least not yet."

Ororo's thoughtful gaze turned toward the door through which both Emma and Sean had just raced. "You're right, but she's going to have to."

"She's not alone on this one, damn it!"

"No, Scott, she's not."

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Lightning crackled once more, and the rain began.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

"EM, LISTEN TAE ME!" Sean bellowed, his voice ringing out over the shore and the splashing waves despite the rising winds. "DIN'T BE DAFT, WOMAN! LET ME HELP!"

He had almost caught up with her when he screamed those last three words. Emma spun around, blue eyes glaring defiantly. "LET YOU HELP, CASSIDY?!" she screamed at him. She wiped her hair out of her eyes and all but spat, "DO YOU NOT THINK YOU'VE HELPED ENOUGH?! YOU HELPED DESTROY OUR TEAM!"

His blondish-red head jerked back. Pain etched over his tired and grizzled face. "I knae, Em," he said, and though he whispered the words, they reached her ears with ease. "I knae, an' I'm sorry."

"WHAT GOOD IS SORRY EVER GOING TO DO, SEAN?! I'M SORRY YOUR BITCH WAS DYING! I'M SORRY SHE RIPPED YOUR BLOODY SKIN OFF! I'M SORRY YOU COULDN'T GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF MOIRA'S ASS LONG ENOUGH TO SEE THAT THE CHILDREN AND I NEEDED HELP! I'M SORRY -- "

"I'm sorry tae, Em! I'm sorry I was ne'er there fer ye th' way I should've been! Charles tried tae tell me what a good ye were, an' most o' th' time, I could see it fer meself but e'ery time he'd start praisin' ye an' tryin' tae warn me about Moira, -- I din't knae -- " He shook his head and threw up his arms. "I'd already one luv die on me an' -- "

"And you let this one literally rip you to shreds, Cassidy," Emma snapped, but at least, she was no longer yelling. She was almost... puzzled by the hurt she could see in his emerald eyes sheening with genuine tears, but when he shook his head, she was even more puzzled. "Don't try to tell me she didn't! I know -- "

"Nae, she did. She killed me. She used me. Time an' again, she used me," he admitted, shaking his head, "an' time an' again, she was jealous o' ye, which is why I knae that she was giin' tae try somethin'. Given that ye killin' yer sister is what finally succeeded in drivin' a wedge between us, it made sense she'd gi that route. I knae she was goin' tae resurrect someone tae send after ye. I jest did nae knae th' actual details o' it until a few nights back. I kept tryin' tae figure out a way tae talk tae ye, but I could nae manage tae find th' courage -- " His voice trailed off as he once more stared into her beautiful, furious eyes. "I truly am sorry, Em," he said, shaking his head.

For just a moment, watching him standing there soaking wet, Emma was reminded of years ago, the first time that she had worked closely with Sean Cassidy, before Generation X was even a thought, at least as far as she knew. In hindsight, Charles might have always intended to test her with a new group of students underneath his domain; it could well have been the reason the old man had been so determined to reach her while she'd been protected in her coma, still grieving her first students. She had come to realize, over the years, she would always grieve for them. The pain would lessen. It lessened with time, and certainly with the resurrections, but nothing was the same. Nothing would ever be the same.

"I'm sorry I did nae tell ye I loved ye when I had th' chance."

It might have been her imagination, but it looked like there were actual tears streaming down Sean's face as he stood there before her in the pouring rain. She'd fallen for the man years ago, far back when they'd been working together against the Phalanx, but the man she'd thought she'd been coming to know had quickly been changed by Moira MacTaggert. Changed, killed, and utterly destroyed. Yet he stood before her now, sobbing his eyes out and -- All of her thoughts came to a screeching, abrupt halt at once. Perhaps she was the one losing her mind after all! Had she just heard him say he loved her?

"That's what I was tryin' tae say earlier. That's why it took me so long tae work up me courage. Ye see, Em, truth is, when it comes tae love, I'm a cowardly, ol' dog. I did think I loved Moira. I'd already asked her tae marry me when ye came into me life. An' then she was dyin'. An' I didnae knae how tae tell a dyin' woman that I was nae giin' tae keep th' promise I'd made tae her. An' o' course," he shoved a hand through his sogging, wet hair, "she died before I could. Then I was a utter an' bloody mess."

"You already were a bloody mess," she countered coldly. "You're a bloody mess now if you think I believe this blarney for one moment!" She started to turn away, but he grasped her elbow and held tight before she could leave him again. "Let go of me, Cassidy, or what I'll do to Adriene is nothing compared to what I'll do to you!"

"Then di it, lass." His words were so gentle and accepting that they once more shocked her to her core. She froze, and ever so slowly, with him tugging forcefully on her elbow, turned back and raised her eyes, questioning, to his again. "But first di one me one favor. If'n I e'er meant anythin' tae ye, Em, an' I knae I did, I knae it wasnae just one-sided, open yer heart, an' read me mind. Din't tell yerself yer lyin' or imaginin' t'ings. Actually, read me mind. All o' it."

She did, and by the time she had finished reliving all the moments they had shared together, only from his point of view for the first time, Emma, who had always prided herself on being untouchable, especially unbreakable, was crying like she had not since the disbandment of Generation X. She was outright sobbing in the pouring rain, heedless that Ororo had lifted the winds but left the rain for Emma had shared with her moments of watching Sean Cassidy in the rain. She did not even realize that they were being watched, nor would she have cared if she had realized. In that matter, all she cared about was the truth she had just learned: Sean Cassidy did, in fact, love her! Many of the moments she had held coveted and held close to her heart over their years together had also impacted him. Like herself, he had tried so hard not to fall in love with her, having already promised his heart and name to another, but in shaping Generation X, in fighting to build a future not just for their handful of young mutants but for all the young mutants and the generations yet to come, he had fallen in love with her as surely and completely as she had with him.

"I love ye, Em! I always did! I -- I'm sorry I was never able tae tell ye before, an' I knae yer heart belongs to Scott now, I accept that, I must, but I wanted ye tae knae, I'm -- "

She did not give him the chance to finish his sentence. Since those first nights running and hiding from the Phalanx together while they'd sought a way to free the teenagers the aliens had kidnapped, since those first times of seeing raindrops glisten on his skin and aching inside to lick them off of his flesh, since those first moments of opening up to him, a man who could maybe, just maybe, understand her pain and perhaps help her to build a new chance for herself and new students... She had loved him for so long, and she realized now that Scott had nearly always been an ends to a means. She had started using him as a way to stay with the X-Men, and then later he'd genuinely made her feel better about herself, but her heart, deep down, her heart had always belonged to this one, infuriating but gorgeous man.

Opening her own mind to him, letting him read her thoughts and emotions as clearly as he'd allowed her to read his, Emma closed the distance remaining between them and pressed her lips to Sean's. Emotions and memories poured between them. His arms wrapped around her, pulling and pressing her closer. She could feel him trembling against her and heard his thoughts and heartbeat racing. He was as terrified as she would have been once to wake and find this all only a dream, but it wasn't. It was reality. It was her reality! Sean Cassidy had always loved her, since those early beginnings of their teamwork, not Moira! He'd just been too good a man to simply break his promise to a dying woman, who the whole, crazed world had thought a heroine at the time! But his heart, in truth, had belonged to her for as long as hers had belonged to him, if not, perhaps, even longer.

When at last the need for oxygen demanded them to pry apart, Sean still held her close. He lifted her in his arms, spun her around, and then brought her slowly down against his body. She could feel his burning desire for her for their clothes had been soaked completely through, not that she'd been wearing very much to begin with. He snuggled his face into her hair and the crook of her neck and deeply inhaled her scent. "I'm ne'er leavin' ye again, Em," he promised, "less'n ye make me." She knew already she'd not have the heart to do so but had no time to voice anything more as he kissed her again before sweeping her back up into his arms. This time, he cradled her as he started toward her place.

"I'm goin' tae di right by ye this time, Em, I promise," he vowed. "Ye'll sleep taenight while I stand guard."

It was the first night, since Scott, that Emma did not assume her diamond form at all while she slept. It was also the first night that she had peaceful dreams, but it wasn't until in the morning, waking to find Sean having already cooked eggs and bacon, both of which had been delivered by Lockheed (only a pack less of each), that she thought to ask Sean about the odd, Gaelic tune she'd been hearing every night. "You were quiet last night," she commented, watching him over her breakfast platter. The silver tray had not been used since Bumpkin had moved out, when she'd been dating Scott -- if one could even actually call what they had done dating.

"What di ye mean?" he asked, emerald eyes shining, for he knew there was something more to her comment.

"Whatever that silly song is you've been singing while you've been watching me at night."

He frowned. "What silly song?"

"Coo?" the dragon seemed to add, also inquisitive, as he rolled around on Emma's white, silk sheets.

"That Gaelic tune. Don't try to tell me that was Adriene!"

"Nae, o' course not."

"Then...?"

She felt the old, familiar catch of her breath in her throat as he smiled, the genuine warmth of his expression filling even his eyes. "Despite what others may think, 'tis nae only us mutants on this isle."

"Oh. You mean your..."

"Aye. Me Fae folk have wanted ye tae be their Queen fer a long time now." He blushed, recalling that they, too, had tried to warn him about Moira, but he'd been too bloody stubborn to listen to what he'd mistaken as only bigoted opinions.

Emma's smile grew as she watched and listened to him. "You were too honorable too." She had had to lie and deceive for so long while she'd climbed her way to the top. Who would have ever thought that anyone could make it in this world as an actual, honest man?

"Ye t'ink tae highly o' me, Em. I 'twas nae completely honest. If I had been, I would've manned up, as Kitty calls it, an' told Moira and ye both who I truly love."

"You have now," she said and reached a hand out toward him. "Join me?"

"Nae." Her mouth nearly fell open as he shook his head. "As much as I'd love tae, Em, 'twould nae be far tae ye. I'm goin' tae court ye, woman, like a true lady should be courted."

She smirked up at him. "Then what are you doing in my bed chambers?"

"Makin' sure, as I should've a long time ago, that ye're properly taken care o'. Now I've an old friend tae watch o'er ye as ye get dressed." He walked over and opened the door.

"Bumpkin! You did not have to -- "

"I wanted to, Lady Emma." Bumpkin nodded his head in honor to her.

"I'll be waitin' tae walk ye tae class, luv," Sean spoke with a wink and scooted out the door before she could stop him.

Emma laid back in her pillows for a moment, allowing her mind and heart to comb over everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She'd always dreamed of being loved for who she was at heart. She'd dreamed of being loved by Sean Cassidy in particular for years. But all of this... It felt almost like a fairy tale come true! She heard humming, paused a moment, listened to it happening again, and only then realized -- She was the one humming the old, Gaelic tune this time! She was humming. She was beaming. She was happier than she had ever been in her entire life!

Throwing her sheets off, she nearly leapt out of her bed. She stretched before the sunlight streaming through where Bumpkin, as he knew she had always preferred, had already opened her curtains to allow the shining, new day to enter her chamber. Then she set about preparing for the happiest day of her life so far with all the jovial eagerness of a teenager in love.

~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

The last few days had been like a dream come true for Emma. People had whispered about her vanity and even blatantly called her a rich snob and far worse names to her face, but she had never felt so special and covetted in her entire life than she did the week following allowing Sean Cassidy back into her life. Even more amazing, to Emma, it wasn't just Sean. Christian, Bobby, Bumpkin, Kate, and Lockheed all stuck close to her throughout her days and nights, and she very often noticed others carefully watching over her as well. She was no longer spooked or even surprised when she noticed Logan smoking underneath a tree beneath her balcony, Ororo spending a night in the trees in the same area, or even any of her former students watching her as though they were stalking her.

There was always someone not too far from her, and Sean and Bumpkin had made it a point to never leave her alone. The only time either took a break, it seemed, was when they had to relieve themselves or slumber. Even then, they did so in shifts. She asked Sean one time why he could not leave her alone for five minutes, not angrily just teasingly, and his answer played over and over again in her mind, making her cheeks burn and her heart both burn and leap with joy. "Why, Em, darlin', ye o' all people knae ye dinae let a diamond slip through yer fingers when ye get one. I've been blessed tae have ye return tae me. I'm nae wastin' this dream."

She'd never felt such love in her entire life! Sean slept with her every night, but knowing how he had treated her before and how she had been treated her entire life, he would not allow them to go beyond searingly passionate make-out sessions. The man left her breathless and infuriated her to no end, but he was determined that she know that he wanted her for far more than just her sexual talents. For the first time in her long, and often sad, life, Emma was actually being courted. There were many times she didn't know how to feel, but every time Sean wrapped his arms around her, she understood what the teenagers used to gab about when saying they were floating on the proverbial Cloud Nine.

She had never felt so love, never felt so safe, as she did with him. It honestly was too good to be true, but every time she tested the thoughts of any of those around her, all she could sense, wherever she was concerned, was their concern and love or friendship for her. It was almost enough to make her forget about her sister. Almost -- but she knew too well that Adriene was a Frost, and that Frosts were rentless and ruthless, especially when it came to getting what they wanted. What Adriene wanted, most of all, was not even her death but to hurt her.

It almost seemed an impossible task until late one afternoon when her current class of students all their heads bowed over a test that had began a mere fifteen minutes prior, Sean had stepped away from the bathroom, and Bumpkin had his own head quietly bowed, doodling on a practice exam. Emma tended to keep copies of her exams, and often would reuse the same ones with new classes, but she had never realized before, in his long tenure with her, that Bumpkin actually had an interest in learning. He was not yet to her current class' level, but he would get there. She would make certain of it.

She smiled, watching him doodling, his childlike drawings reminding her of Jubilee and even Monet. That girl had been a strange mystery to herself. Looking back, Emma realized she should have known something more than a mental ailment was going on with the child. She should have sensed something in at least the occasional trance, but she had been so busy with everything else that had been happening both in trying to train the others, fight for her place to remain at Xavier's, and deal with her feelings toward Sean and, admittedly, her second batch of students as well that she had never even suspected the truth about the girl until the twins had been revealed in that initial explosion.

She was lost in thought when she heard the telltale click of metal against metal. She leapt from her seat, her head snapping up and arms into a defensive stance. Her students' heads were raising at her sudden reaction, but no one saw anything. Then Emma heard it again. She flipped over her desk in the heartbeat following the sound of the trigger being fired. She somersaulted from there to throw herself between the bullet, which could now be seen, and the child who was already screaming. She was the youngest in her class, and the brightest. She was one of Emma's prized pupils, and Adriene knew it.

Emma yelled out in pain as the bullet blasted into her arm. She'd been transforming into her diamond form, but the transformation had not completed in time. The forearm the bullet hit was still mortal flesh. It sailed through her arm, blasting out the other end, but passed harmlessly through the child. Kate phased up from the floor, her hands already having grasped the kid. The other children had ran, leaving the bullet to slam into the far wall.

There was a flurry of activity. Pain throbbed through Emma. She heard several voices calling out her name.

"EM!"

"MISS FROST!"

"EMMA!"

"EMMA!"

"EMMA!"

"EMMA!"

"ADRIENE, SHOW YESELF, DAMN YE!"

"Right there." It was that smooth, almost graceful voice that stunned Emma the most. Now leaning against her pupil's desk, Emma looked to the doorway where Jean Grey-Summers stood with her husband and several of Emma's former students. Bobby, carrying Christian, and Storm, carrying Logan, had come in through her windows, Storm's lightning have made short work of their protective barriers.

Adriene was swiftly and fearfully looking around for an escape route when Jean revealed her. She was wearing some kind of gaudy instrument on her designer belt; Emma vaguely recognized it, through the red-hot pain searing throughout her body from the fresh bullet hole in her arm, as a cloaking device. She realized, suddenly, that there were two hands on her shoulders -- Sean's and Bumpkin's. "Take 'er, Bumpkin," Sean ordered, and she found herself leaning against her former limosuine driver's white-cloaked chest.

"No," she managed to speak as Sean strode purposefully forward toward Adriene.

"I COULD SHOOT YOU ALL!" Adriene snapped.

"There ain't enough bullets in that gun, lady, to take out half o' us. Ya messed with one o' us, on our island. I'm gonna take pleasure in this -- " Wolverine growled.

Adriene continued to sweep her gun in an arc, trying to keep the assembled X-Men at bay. "Maybe I can't take out all of you," she admitted, "but I can certainly kill some of you!"

"To what point?" Jean asked.

"You know we'll resurrect anyone you kill," added Scott.

Emma realized she didn't care that he was standing strong beside his wife, but what she did care was that anyone else would take out her sister. "No," she said again, forcing herself to sound stronger than she felt.

"It's her fight, Wolvy," Kate, standing behind Bumpkin, spoke up.

"She's in nae shape tae -- "

"She will be." That was Jubilee's youthful voice, Emma noted through the pain fogging her mind.

She will be soon as we get 'er healed. Jono.

"An' then you'll kick her ass, won't you, Miss Frost?" Paige!

"We could start now," Monet offered, and Emma heard the sound of her fist smacking the palm of her other hand. "I'm sure each and every one of us would take great delight in battering the bitch who killed Everett, hurt our teacher again, and single-handedly caused the disbandment of our team."

"She wasn't alone." Kitty -- Kate, Emma corrected herself -- again.

"Aye, we each played a hand in it, an' fer that, I'm sorry. Ye lasses stood by me when nae one else would. Ye deserve better'n this old man. Ye all di."

"Oh, hush, Sean," Ororo cajoled. Thunder rumbled outside. "But Monet does have a point." A quick, carefully-aimed lightning bolt knocked the gun out of Adriene's hand and sent it sliding across the floor. She started to dive toward it, but Scott blasted it to pieces with a low beam.

She'd not heard her brother's voice, Emma realized.

"He's fine, Emma," Jean spoke in a surprisingly soothing and calm tone to her. "He and Bobby are with the children."

"Enough of this." Monet again, and once more, Emma was reminded that she should have seen that there was far more to the girl's problem than any ordinary autism. As an adult, she had a far shorter temper than she'd ever possessed as a child and tended to lean more toward violence and immediate resolutions than temper tantrums. She stalked toward Adriene.

Adriene's body jerked wildly. "Why can't I move?!"

"You hurt the wrong one, lady," Jean spoke again.

"Ya got that right!" exclaimed Jubilee, and Shogo wailed.

"Get that child to safety!" Even despite her pain and everything else going on, Emma's first thought was for the baby.

'e's, safe, Miss Frost.

"You don't mess with the X-Men!"

"COO!"

"She's not an X-Man. She's nothing but a -- "

"She is an X-Man!"

"She's a better woman than you'll ever be!" Monet exclaimed and, with a single punch straight in her face, knocked Adriene unconscious.

"She's a Queen," Sean crooned, slipping his arms around Emma once more. Emma felt Bumpkin step away, and she let herself fall back into Sean's strong arms. He lifted her smoothly. "Let's get ye tae th' healer, Em."

"It's only a flesh wound," she started to protest and felt warm all over at his response.

"I din't care!"

Emma, Jean's mind touched hers, accompanied by a warm and soothing sensation, the man loves you.

I know.

Let him take care of you.

The children --

Everybody is safe, Jean assured her. You are the only one harmed.

Adriene?

Kitty and Logan are handling her. She will be kept as a prisoner until you are ready to deal with her.

"Thank you," Emma whispered and let herself rest, her blonde head falling against Sean's strong shoulder.

"Hum," Bumpkin spoke up, scratching the back of his green head, just underneath the old, white cap he still wore, "I believe that's all, folks, or rather, hum -- "

"Class dismissed, y'all," Paige announced.

No one in the group spoke again for a while. They had no need for words for they all seemed to be of the same mindset, each and every one trailing out of the classroom behind Sean carrying Emma.

There were two, though, who lingered long enough to make certain the students were okay and the eldest would make certain they all safely reached their rooms. "My sisters," Christian murmured, shaking his blonde head.

Bobby, having missed the plural form, shook his head in amazed agreement. "What a woman!"


~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~X~~

Emma woke later to find Sean, Bumpkin, Kate, Bobby, Christian, Ororo, Jean, and Scott as well as every single one of her former students, both Hellions and Generation X, gathered around her.

Catseye stretched up and peered hopefully up at Emma. "Lady-Emma feel better now?" she purred hopefully.

Lockheed cooed softly from his place draped around Kate's shoulders. He gently tapped her shoulder with his tail. Then he cooed again and swept from his best friend to settle beside Emma on the bed. Emma reached out and stroked the scales between his eyes, making him coo more. The sounds rumbling from him quickly became similar to Catseye's purr.

"She will be fine," Ororo spoke again. "We Queens always rise again." She smiled at Emma and winked.

"Yes, you do," Jean agreed gently. She, too, was smiling though her hand was openly linked with Scott's, but that no longer mattered. Emma had never really loved Scott himself, she realized, watching the two of them now. She had only loved how he had made her feel, and now she had a man who loved her so much --

And, she gulped, who was kneeling before her bed! "Sean, what are you doing?!"

"As I told ye earlier, Em, whene'er ye find a diamond in the rough, ye din't let anyone take it from ye. I should've done this long ago, an' I'm sorry very, eternally sorry I did nae. Will ye marry me?" he asked, looking imploringly up at her and popping open a small, velvet box. She had seen far more expensive rings, even wore more expensive ones quite often, but she had never seen one sparkle more brilliantly -- or had any other ring bring tears of joy to her eyes.

"Are you sure?!" she asked breathlessly. For some reason she could not understand, laughter circled around her, but for once, the laughs as her expense did not hurt.

"O' course I'm sure, luv, if'n ye'll have me?"

"Of course, I will!" She threw her arms around him, almost falling out of the bed, and wept openly onto his shoulder. Her every dream had come true!

She heard a few voices begin to clear after a while. Looking up again, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked to her students. "I want you each at the wedding, all of you," she added, looking up at the older adults as well. "Perhaps we could bury Lockheed for a ringbearer?" she suggested to Kate, grinning mischievously.

"He'd like that!"

"And Catseye could be the flower girl," Emma added quickly, noticing Sharon begin to pout.

"There's lots to plan," spoke Ororo.

"But you'll have plenty of time," Jean added, squeezing Scott's hand.

"Few things have made me happier in this life, Emma," Scott told her sincerely, "than to see you happy."

A chorus of agreements went up around the room. Sean hugged his fiancée tightly, gently rocking her in her bed.

"But for the rest of you --" Emma added. "For my students at least -- " she clarified for she knew that Ororo, Scott, Jean, Kate, Bobby, and even her baby brother, Christian, all had far more important roles to play elsewhere, " -- I want to offer you each an opportunity to become a teacher."

"Miss Frost?"

Emma stilled.

"What could I teach?" Bumpkin asked humbly, cap in hand.

She did not have the heart to hurt him, but Sean was quick again to the rescue. "Drivin', lad. Ye can teach 'em how tae drive!"

Emma laughed. She paused for a moment, stunned at the merrily twinkling sound emitting from her soft, pink lips, a color she had chosen that morning because she was so much happier than the pale blue depicted. Then she laughed again. Sean squeezed her, also chuckling merrily. They had certainly had more than their fair share of adventures attempting to teach the teens of Generation X how to drive over their years together! Indeed, Bumpkin being able to teach them how to drive was almost a rescue for them both!

Soon, the entire room was laughing, but even while rocking in her soon-to-be-husband's arms, Emma exchanged knowing glances with Jean, Ororo, and Kate. She recalled the conversations they'd had in the former weeks and glowed even more with happiness. Her new-found friends had been right: Queens always did find a way to rise and, in the end, to triumph, to achieve, as cliche and lame as it might seem to some, their own modern-day versions of happily ever afters!

Sean caught her smiling at Kate who was winking back at her. Lockheed cooed again, almost knowingly, beside Emma on the bed. "What are ye thinkin', gorgeous?" he whispered into her ear.

"Never you mind, Irish! Never you mind!"

He lifted her chin with a crooked finger and carefully surveyed her beautiful, smiling face. She was not hiding anything of importance from him, and she was truly the happiest he'd ever seen her. "I'm the happiest I have ever been, truly," she confessed. "Far happier than I long ago gave up thinking I could ever be, thanks to you, Sean!" I love you!

I love ye tae, Em, he vowed and covered her beaming lips with his own. He kissed her long and deep, and as they rocked together, Emma made them both a promise: She was getting that Irishman out of his tight jeans tonight, and making a dream come true for them both!

"COO!"





The End










"COO!"