He had to wonder, as he stirred the batter for a second batch of blueberry banana nut muffins, if anyone in the Mansion had connected the disappearance of baked goods at breakfast to his little vacation. Of course to him that felt like a lifetime ago. Yet he'd taken up the baking again not long after returning. He'd started it as a way to soothe his nerves. Now it was part of his routine and so Drew clung to it. Every little thing he could scrounge to feel more at home here was welcome. With the memories of Styx rattling around in his head Drew could recall this place as a worn shambles. That plus other recent events had shaken his faith in his place here at the Mansion.

What did he do after all that was so important? He took care of paperwork for Sam and baked treats for the kids to have with breakfast. As near as he could tell he was an X-Man in name only. Missions went to other people. People with powers that were useful. Drew ruthlessly squashed that old bitterness as he poured the batter into a freshly washed muffin tin. He'd worked for a long time to get over that. No way was he going to backslide now. There were only two things keeping his power from being useful: a dearth of cleverness on his part and his own morals.

As such he had worked long and hard to convince himself that he was content not making use of his power. Drew had cultivated other means of fighting. He smirked to himself as he waited for the coffee cake to finish baking. At least the last month or two had been good in that respect. He leaned against the counter with a sigh. It was going to be a long night alone with his thoughts.

Serena was surrounded. Flashes of steel, blood everywhere. Serena screamed. A blue glow radiates through the night air, blood floats, a flash of blue and red. They approached her, yelling at her, a hooded figure laughs. A river of blood flowing across the concrete.

Serena flung herself awake, and nearly screamed. She caught herself just in time, putting a hand over her mouth, remembering that Liz was asleep just across from her. She felt the cold beads of sweat dripping down her body slowly.

She quickly threw on a tank top and some trousers and left the room quietly. She felt dizzy as hell. As if she had actually just used her power. She slowly moved groggily through the corridors. She knew where she was going, the kitchen.

As the even paler than usual girl moved into the kitchen, she saw a man, with black hair and a scarred looking body, slaving over the kitchen counter, baking? She wasn't sure, everything was still spinning.

Serena gave a nod to him as she stumbled in and then immediately poured herself a glass of water and downed it. She took deep breaths and slumped against the counter. "Hi... there...." Serena was panting, she still looked pale and shaken, but it appeared to be fading.

Being interrupted while baking had happened often enough in the past that Drew was no longer startled and embarrassed by it. Ergo when the teenage girl walked in looking about as pale as Death's Horse he wasn't surprised, merely concerned. He watched her as she got her drink of water and nodded as she greeted him.

"Hi there. You alright? You're lookin' a bit worn."

Drew didn't recognize her but then there were a number of students here at the Mansion that he didn't recognize. Whether they'd shown up in the month he was gone or had just slipped beneath his notice he couldn't say. Drew wasn't about to go digging through the files just to find out. He wasn't that desperate and the clean up from such a move would be more than he wanted to deal with.

"My name's Drew by the way. Andrew Leroy. I work for Sam."

The oven timer went off and Drew erupted into quick activity. He removed the coffee cake from the oven, set it aside to cool, slid the new batch of muffins into the oven, and adjusted the temperature accordingly. Once the timer was set again he leaned against the counter again and grabbed one of the earlier batch of muffins he'd made from the basket on the counter that he'd tucked them into. He offered it over to the new comer. Some food would probably do her good.

"Hungry?"

Serena smiled weakly to the man. 'Worn' was one way to put how she felt... another would be completely naked, or drained, or zombified.

She smiled at his introduction. And she then followed politely with her own. "Pleasure to meet you Drew. I'm Serena." She began to radiate a wonderful smile. "Sam's nice, he is my self defense teacher." Serena added.

Serena's thoughts were interrupted by the noise of the oven timer going off, Drew then quickly spun around and began to remove a cake from the oven, set it aside to cool and then put more muffins into the oven. Serena was impressed by the speed with which he did so, she assumed that he probably did this often.

He then took a bite out of a muffin he had already made and offered her one. She grinned and retrieved a muffin. "Thank you!" Serena commented as she happily munched down the muffin. As she had finished, the last of the missing colour returned to her face.

She then giggled slightly. That was a really good blueberry muffin... "Wow... you are an amazing baker." Serena murmured in a sweet tone.

It had taken him a minute to recognize that the gal had an accent. What was it with him and meeting blonde British women here at night? Was the baking like some sort of catnip but for British ladies? Though he didn't think this one was an actual Lady with a capital L so that was something. This one seemed a bit more open than Kate had been at first though. So when smiled so did Drew.

"Sam's a good guy. Helped me out of a scrape a while back that ended up with me working for him."

His assumption that feeding her would help seemed to prove true. Serena gained back her color as she noshed on the muffin. Well it worked for the grannies back in Kentucky so he didn't see why it wouldn't work here. They fed everyone that set foot in their house whether they wanted it or not. He grinned a little at her thanks and her praise.

"Eh, don't mention it. My mother taught me growing up and I kept it up as a habit. Once I got here...well it's one small way to help out. Keeps the kids fed anyway."

Spinning to the fridge, Drew poured himself a glass of milk. Shame there wasn't any beer but it was the public fridge. He'd have to break into Sam's stash for a beer if he wanted to drink in the Mansion. Since that wasn't happening, Drew settled for milk and good company.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Serena smiled at the man as she poured herself a second glass of water. She sipped it, it was refreshing. She did not want to go back to sleep at this point.

infact, she was beginning to feel as if she could do some exercise, it wasn't as if she'd have class, it was the weekend after all.

She nodded at his comment "Yeah, yourself?" Serena did not want to talk about the reason she was not sleeping... it was too horrifying for her. After all, these nightmares were something truly awful.

She had been experiencing them for months now. And the resulting immsonia was really starting to provide issues for Serena. She was going to have enough of a nightmare pre-pairing for exams this year as it was. Considering she had missed so much of it thus far.

Since she was quietly leaving out the why of her sleeplessness Drew didn't pry. It was hers to divulge if she wanted to. Downing the rest of the milk he nodded grimly to Serena.

"That's part of it. This is sort of a nightly ritual for me. Has been for a while. And I don't tend to sleep well on the best of nights. Nightmares, that sort of thing. So I stay up baking until I'm too tired to go on. That usually takes care of the problem."

Of course there would always be nights that he couldn't escape the various nightmares but no need to tell her that. He'd left out the content of the nightmares because...well that was his business. Things he hadn't shared even with his closest friends. Drew glanced over at the oven timer. Wouldn't be long before the next batch was done. After that he wasn't quite sure what he'd do. Maybe hit the Danger Room with his sword and dagger. That would keep him busy enough until he could sleep.

Drew wandered over to the sink, letting the quiet space between himself and Serena grow. There wasn't much to say and if he was going to go exercise once the muffins came then he needed to clean up now.

Serena winced as he mentioned nightmares, She was definitly familiar with those... It was so frustrating. And it wasn't that she just had nightmares, it was this one, awful reoccurring nightmare.

She carried on drinking and then relaxed against the counter, except she was not relaxed. She was fidgeting, she felt like she should be outside doing something...

Serena was getting very impatient indeed. She was looking impatient. "Maybe I should go for a run or something, god when did I become my brother..." Serena muttered to herself aloud.

Serena noted Drew moving across to the sink, it looked as if he was about to clean up. Great, maybe she could help him with that, something to do finally. "Hey, Drew. Would you like a hand? I feel like I need to do something."

He saw the wince but didn't comment on it. In a house full of kids with strange powers nightmares were pretty common. A fair number of them had had bad home lives before coming to the mansion. Not to mention that the very nature of mutation and it's tendency to appear in times of emotional stress meant that there was plenty of fuel for nightmares in the various minds that resided here. In fact it sort of surprised Drew that he didn't have more visitors when he was baking. Though he heard the muttering he didn't comment on that either, instead working on the dishes. Serena's suggestion that she help out surprised him a bit but he smiled and motioned her over.

"Sure, many hands make light work and all that."

After a moment or two of silence an idea occurred to Drew. Serena did take self defense from Sam after all. Neither one of them appeared likely to sleep soon.

"Tell you what, once the washing up is done and the next batch comes out of the oven I'm going to hit the Danger Room for a bit of a workout. Wanna come with?"

Drew scrubbed at a crusty portion of a pan while he waited for Serena's answer.

Serena felt very fidgety and impatient, until Drew accepted her offer. She smiled, nodded and walked over to the sink, Where she proceeded to grab another pan and start scrubbing. It felt good to be doing something, something to take her mind off of that awful, awful nightmare.

She wondered in the silence, what exactly Drew did for Sam. Sam had shown her the danger room, and he was the self defense instructor for the mansion, but she got the feeling that he might be something more than just that.

So, what did that make Drew? Was he like Sam's secretary? Or something else. Maybe, he was like Sam's self defense assistant.

Serena smiled at his suggestion. "That would be wonderful Drew!" She exclaimed.