The week hadn't exactly been easy on him. He couldn't do it, he couldn't just give up on what could potentially be a permanent home for him. So he got his hands on a map of the U.S. and in retracing his steps he found memories pulling themselves out of their long buried spaces. It made sleeping a little more difficult than usual. However, bad dreams or not, he knew this was for the best. He needed to get on with his life, rejoin society as it were. And he couldn't very well do that living the way he had.

Still it didn't make it any easier, which was why he was sitting in the kitchen rather than going straight to Miss T. He figured if he ate something it would make things easier on him. Though this time he didn't send Ace to hunt like usual. He didn't have motivation for it. Instead he had bowl of cereal, which was a lot more boring than he remembered. Maybe it was the time and distance but when did cereal become so lame? Too late to make eggs or anything else. He just had to deal with what he had.

He took a sip of his coffee, letting the warmth sooth his nerves. The sooner he fessed up the better he would feel later.

Gemma gave up on the paperwork and ventured into the kitchen for more coffee. To her surprise she found Alex there, having cereal for breakfast. The counselor smiled as she refilled her mug and took a seat across from him at the table, making sure he was out of her aura.

"Hi there" she smiled "I was just working on your paperwork. A little more difficult than I expected, but it should be doable. I have a lot of practice with jumping through hoops."

She sipped her coffee, looking at him.

"So... have you by any chance thought about what I suggested last week at our meeting?"

He looked up when she walked into the kitchen, saying nothing while she got her coffee and sat down across from him. The distance was comfortable for him, far enough that he could make a run for the door if he needed to. Geez why was he thinking of escape plans? She wasn't going to hurt him, he was sure of that. Okay maybe not so sure, if he was thinking of escape routes. He never really went into depth with anyone about his past with anyone. Surface stuff, sure, but details, never.

"So... have you by any chance thought about what I suggested last week at our meeting?"

He nodded, prodding at the soggy cereal in his bowl. "Yeah, a lot of thought...I, uh... I actually retraced my path on a map for clarity." He pulled the folded up paper from his pocket and placing it on the table by his bowl. "I thought it'd help. I've got a lot of things that you should know." He only hoped that it would stay between them.

>>"Yeah, a lot of thought...I, uh... I actually retraced my path on a map for clarity. I thought it'd help. I've got a lot of things that you should know."

Gemma arched an eyebrow at the sight of the map. He was not kidding about giving things a lot of thought. It made her smile; not in a cynical way, more out of happiness that he was willing to go through with the whole idea. It showed commitment to sticking around.

"All right then" she nodded, picking up her coffee mug "Shall we walk over to my office so we can talk in peace?"

The kitchen was fairly quiet this time of the day, but students would start wandering in soon. Gemma stood, nodding to Alex to walk with her, and take his breakfast too.

"I am really glad you decided to do this" she confided "I'll do my best to make the whole thing quick and as simple as possible."

"All right then. Shall we walk over to my office so we can talk in peace?"

He nodded, getting up with cereal bowl in hand to follow her to her office. It felt oddly like he was marching to confession to be judged for his sins. He just hoped it was easier than what it was building up in his head, that the urge to run was merely anxiousness.

"I am really glad you decided to do this. I'll do my best to make the whole thing quick and as simple as possible."

He bit his lip, wondering just how invested Miss T got in his case. He only hoped that he was worth it. Despite his pride his mutation, how confident he could be, rarely was he met with people who he could actually trust. Who knew more than the surface information he gave out. Would she want him to stick around? Would he still be worth the effort of her work? Would she turn she turn him in? Standing at the threshold of her office he found himself uncertain, frightened by so many unknown variables. Somewhere in the back of his mind his constructs were screaming, he had to run, this wasn't safe, this place wasn't safe, it was a trap.

The constructs had been quiet before, the normal white noise they usually were. But now, for some reason, they were getting louder. "On second thought...I don't know about this...Maybe I shouldn't..."he tried to give her a smile, reassure her that things were alright.

>>"On second thought...I don't know about this...Maybe I shouldn't..."

Gemma stopped as Alex stopped and hesitated on the doorstep to the office. She knew it was hard for him to make that decision, and he probably felt like he could still walk away.

"It's okay to be nervous about this." Gemma said, holding the door open "And I understand that walking away seems like easier to do. But are you sure that you would not regret it if you did? Because I know I would. And I know you have already thought this over. You even prepared a map."

She knew it was hard for him, and she allowed him some time to think.

"How about this. Come in and tell me some of it, and if you want to stop at any point to re-think all of this, or maybe take a break and continue later, that's okay too. How's that sound?"

"It's okay to be nervous about this. And I understand that walking away seems like easier to do. But are you sure that you would not regret it if you did? Because I know I would. And I know you have already thought this over. You even prepared a map."

She was right, he would regret it but he was also sure he'd regret being tied down to one place. The constructs grew louder, making it hard to think. He looked down at the folded up map in his hand trying to remember why he had been so determined to retrace his path, why he felt being clear had been so important. He wanted...he wanted...normalcy, safety, rest? Something like that, it was getting too crowded in his head. He clenched his eyes shut, as if he could block out all the clamor from the constructs so easily.

"How about this. Come in and tell me some of it, and if you want to stop at any point to re-think all of this, or maybe take a break and continue later, that's okay too. How's that sound?"

He looked back up at her, knowing that just a few steps would put him in her aura and the noise would be cut out. He nodded and stepped in, purposefully putting himself in her aura. It was jarring, all at once the noise was cancelled out, turned to the weird pressure but at least it was silent. "It...sounds good."he said softly. It was hard to think without access to his constructs but at the same time with them being so aggressively against this it was better this way. He felt in control again.

>>"It...sounds good."

Gemma smiled in relief. She noticed that Alex stepped into her aura on purpose, and while she was not sure why he did that, she respected his decision. As they moved into the office and she offered him a seat at her desk, she made sure he stayed in the aura. Once they were both seated, Gemma ready to take notes at the computer, she nodded to the boy.

"All right, go ahead. Let's get some of this out of the way so we can move forward. And let me know if you want tea or coffee or... anything."

He was brave, and she respected that.

The silence in his head was unnerving and he didn't know what the effects of prolonged exposure to her aura would do to his constructs. He liked them, he really did, and he wouldn't want to loose them. But right now it was better this way, he'd figure out why they were so upset later. So, sitting down at her desk in the offered seat he set down his cereal bowl and unfolded the map.

"All right, go ahead. Let's get some of this out of the way so we can move forward. And let me know if you want tea or coffee or... anything."

He shifted nervously in his seat, "W-where should I start? The newest stuff, the oldest...the most important..." He wasn't entirely sure how to go about this. The eight red circles on the map glared back at him and those were just the important stuff. There was no remembering just how many convenience stores he had stolen from, among other things.

>>"W-where should I start? The newest stuff, the oldest...the most important..."

"Let's start at the beginning" Gemma suggested "I feel like it makes sense that way."

When in doubt, choose the chronological order. Things happen one after another for many reasons, and if she wanted to understand Alex' history, they had to start at the beginning. She glanced at the map and the circles, and once again wondered if the story really was that bad, or Alex just didn't have a sense of the kind of things she had had to deal with before.

"Let's start at the beginning. I feel like it makes sense that way."

He nodded, deciding to focus on the map and not her face or the nervous clenching in his stomach. "Alright, um, the beginning..." He pointed to the beginning of the line, the first circle. "So I started off here, rode my bike as far as I could then ditched it by the side of the rode. I-I must have traveled, two weeks or so before I ran into a small group living in those woods. If I'm remembering correctly they started living out there because the mutant camps and they just never bothered to move back."

It got easier as it went on, this was the simple stuff, nothing major to hide. "So I went with them and I learned a lot about survival. A-and how to steal, every time we'd come across a gas station or something, we'd take what we'd need. I didn't like it at first but the forest doesn't provide everything, so there wasn't much arguing after the first time I needed it." He glanced up at her, "I don't know if the security cameras ever caught my face, never stuck around long enough to find out."

He followed the line and stopped at the next circle, taking a breath to calm himself. He didn't need his constructs to remember this clearly. "We were heading south for winter and it was getting harder to find food with it being out of season. Not to mention me, since I didn't know what I was doing half the time we didn't always have enough to go around. So one of them suggested we hold up a food semi, you know the kind that goes to grocery store n' stuff. At first, nobody thought it was a good idea, then we got desperate...It was better than nothing. Long story short I ended up getting shot." He could still remember the feeling of the bullet piercing him, nearly bleeding out. "I don't remember much after that. Somehow they got me to a hospital." He tapped a nearby city on the map. Just above the next circle. "The nurses told me I was lucky not to have been kill, apparently there's an important artery where the bullet went in."

>>"Alright, um, the beginning... So I started off here, rode my bike as far as I could then ditched it by the side of the rode. I-I must have traveled, two weeks or so before I ran into a small group living in those woods. If I'm remembering correctly they started living out there because the mutant camps and they just never bothered to move back."

Gemma nodded and took some notes. She also looked carefully at the map, quietly noting the incredible distance the kid had traveled without any help from adults like her. The story was only beginning, but it was already impressive.

>>"So I went with them and I learned a lot about survival. A-and how to steal, every time we'd come across a gas station or something, we'd take what we'd need. I didn't like it at first but the forest doesn't provide everything, so there wasn't much arguing after the first time I needed it. I don't know if the security cameras ever caught my face, never stuck around long enough to find out."

"I'll look into that" she nodded. Some of them might have circulated a picture of him, although the fact that most people thought him dead would have taken care of most of the heat. Still, better safe than sorry. She could ask the X-men to help.

>>"We were heading south for winter and it was getting harder to find food with it being out of season. Not to mention me, since I didn't know what I was doing half the time we didn't always have enough to go around. So one of them suggested we hold up a food semi, you know the kind that goes to grocery store n' stuff. At first, nobody thought it was a good idea, then we got desperate...It was better than nothing. Long story short I ended up getting shot. I don't remember much after that. Somehow they got me to a hospital. The nurses told me I was lucky not to have been kill, apparently there's an important artery where the bullet went in."

Gemma frowned as she looked up.

"Sounds like you got very lucky." she nodded "I have been shot before too. Not a good experience."

And way more than a kid should handle.

"Do you remember which hospital it was, or if they reported your case? If someone brings in... a minor without a home address, they have to report it. I'll look into that too, but if you do remember anything else about it, that would help."

She paused and looked at Alex.

"I know that you understand this, but I'm going to say it anyway: It wasn't your fault. None of that, really. The camps... made a lot of mutants lose trust in the government, and it is hard to ever gain it back again. You, and everyone else, did what they could to survive. I will say that to anyone else who brings it up too. But so far, I don't think any of this is very serious, for your case anyway. Go on."

"Sounds like you got very lucky. I have been shot before too. Not a good experience. Do you remember which hospital it was, or if they reported your case? If someone brings in... a minor without a home address, they have to report it. I'll look into that too, but if you do remember anything else about it, that would help."

He shook his head, "No, I ran...maybe two days after. I still had the stitches in an everything. They never asked for an address, so I guess they gave them a false one. But I do know that the hospital was near Salt Lake City at least." He had been too out of it to really care and too heartbroken over the fact that none of them showed up to at least talk to him to really look back. That whole situation had left him wounded in more ways than one.

"I know that you understand this, but I'm going to say it anyway: It wasn't your fault. None of that, really. The camps... made a lot of mutants lose trust in the government, and it is hard to ever gain it back again. You, and everyone else, did what they could to survive. I will say that to anyone else who brings it up too. But so far, I don't think any of this is very serious, for your case anyway. Go on."

"I know...I got lucky I never had to experience the camps, my powers didn't show up until after the camps had closed. Unfortunately, things didn't get all that much better after the hospital."He sighed and tapped the next circle, which was so close to the last they were practically over lapping. "I stuck around Salt Lake for a while. I guess I was lost and still hurt. I didn't really know where to go so..." He shrugged, acutely aware now of the scar on his shoulder, the way the old sown flesh pulled at the unbroken parts.

"Eventually I ran into a new group. Well not really a group, so much as an older teen and little kid, and we gave each other aliases instead of using actual names. The older one was Shield and the younger was Void. They practically dragged me along kicking and screaming, called it fate..."he sighed, "We stole stuff. Started out small with the essentials but Shield kept wanting to go bigger. He was the oldest, so we went bigger. Though thankfully we never robbed in daylight, didn't hurt anybody. Physically at least, I'm sure someone lost their job along the way..."

He wasn't looked at Miss T any more, eyes content to stay trained on his hands. "Everything was going good, you know. Barely had to worry about food or warmth, sometimes we'd sneak into unused motel rooms or the unfinished apartment building that was being built. And maybe I should have realized that the whole thing was a bad idea but they were becoming brothers to me. Void especially, I promised him that I'd protect him...Then he got sick, around March or April. Like a fever but he wouldn't wake up for longer than a minuet. We didn't know what to do, he just seemed to get worse..."