It wasn't him. It was her. She had passed the police exam and gotten hired. Amelia had outgrown the mansion greeter, slightly secretarial, job. She had a real world gritty police job and didn't have time for her old job. She had gone to his office to tell him just that.

Amelia had been careful in her wording. Explaining the situation had gone easier than she had initially thought. Sam had been given her notice. The girl had explained the situation. It was a good thing! Great. She was certain someone could replace her. It wasn't as if she had been the most present greeter during her year of police academy and college, anyways. And if she needed a new secretary, Serena might be interested.

The girl certainly had enough dresses. A skirt wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility. Mini skirt, maybe. She hadn't told Sam anything about the dresses and skirts, though. Those were just some thoughts that had idly passed through her head.

"So to summarize, I'm leaving." Amelia said seriously. "It's not you. It's me. I've found a new job now, as a police officer. I hope we can still be friends. In fact, when I get time." She crossed and uncrossed her arms. "I might even join the X men. But that will be separate from the police officer job."

She was finished. Amelia had explained it all. Now it was up to the cycloptic pirate to respond.

When she finished talking Sam pretended he was shocked and hurt as if she was breaking up with him. Sam only had one person break up with him before where it wasn’t mutual and that was Circe. Amelia was no Circe. Sam tried to forget his old girlfriend and ‘not-real’ wife by distracting himself by continuing he was hurt. ”But I can change.” Sam smirked as he leaned back in his chair then nodded his head. ”I was wondering when you were gonna bring this up.”

Sam reached into his desk and brought out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses because he needed a reason to drink. This was one in his book. ”No one stays here forever, the greeter position is just to help out it was never meant to be a full time job.” Sam smiled and poured some whiskey in one of the glasses ice started to form as he poured and with a small ‘plop’ three cubs landed into his. Sam offered some to Amelia before continuing. ”I’m happy for you and would frankly be pissed if we weren’t still friends. Not that childish.” Sam said smirking into his glass.

”You can have a separate life from the X-Men it isn’t do or die. In fact I encourage you to try to keep them separate. I’d wish I had done that when we first started helping out.” Sam said setting his glass down. ”Why the sudden interest in the X’s?”

She met his smirk with one of her own. Amelia knew he'd understand. Sam always had her back with his weird easy sense of humor. It fit him a lot more than grumpy leader, she thought. What did they call it? Boyish charm. The one thing she didn't like was the laziness and the drinking.

She held up a hand and said no thank you when he offered. It wasn't late enough in the day for drinking, she thought. Amelia turned him down politely and decided they'd talk about that later if someone did t beat her to it.

"Glad you understand." She smiled. "I knew you would."

He asked why she suddenly wanted to join. The answer wasn't even a full sentence, but it was true enough to stand strong on its own. There was no humor in her voice when she said "Odessa." The name was sobering in its impact. It filled the air between them with its weight.

”I’m a realist.” Sam said with a shrug. The ice mancer didn’t think there was much to not understand. Everyone needed a change at some point. Sam included which is why he left for a month or two at a time to go somewhere. Russia, Japan, Antartica. The further he got from anyone the better. Less to deal with.

”Odessa….” Sam repeated replaying the events in his head from the news. It was a mutant shelter that was bombed. He didn’t know who exactly had done it but everyone was saying it was a hate group. Granted it could have been a hate group, Sam didn’t know enough about the situation to comment but his main focus was to make sure it didn’t happen here. Security doubled and more mutants were on alert he had also talked to Kaz about hiring his security team to help out the mansion and the kids in it was Sam’s number one priority, number two was the glass in his hand.

Sam took a swig in silence for the people of Odessa and didn’t say anything for a few moments. ”So…” Sam said after he sat in silence, ”What do you plan on doing then?” Sam asked curiously if she had some ideas on how to proceed.

"Something." Amelia said. "Anything." There was fire in her voice. "I feel like there is more that I can do than what I'm doing, and more that the X-men can do than what they're doing. Volunteering to help with relief would be a start. I just feel like..." She paused, and frowned. "We need to be actively seen doing things to help the victims, and to provide aid to the area. And we need to be seen as a group that does something when something like this happens, be it relief. Be it talking with people about ways to prevent such an event in the future. I feel like there is a lot that can be discussed. And I feel like just asking for 'peace' isn't enough."

It wasn't. Suing for peace only made one look weak. You couldn't force others into peace, either. You couldn't take peace by your own hands. That was the sort of thing dictators did. It rarely worked out well for them. Peace was something one had to fight for, without fighting, and build through trust and unity.

"Trust and unity." She said. "We need to regain the trust of the people of New York. And we need to think bigger. We need to earn the trust of the international community. The world. I know you always work hard to do things to help others, but sometimes, it's overwhelming organizing all of that. I feel like you can use all the help you can get."

Sam shifted and swirled the ice in his glass and listened to Ami. It seemed she had been thinking about this for some time, which he appreciated further. Everyone was always willing to criticize but when it came down to it no one had any idea on how to make things better. Sam had thought helping the police was the next best step, now that they actually had a department and could not die every thirty seconds he wasn’t sure how to best pull his support from them especially now that Meta bots and videos of police beating mutants were all over the internet. The thought of that video made his knuckles whiten around the glass. ”I’m tired of asking.” Sam agreed with what Ami was saying. The X-men were there to show that humans and mutants could live and work together for a brighter future. Sadly it was becoming more and more clouded for Sam.

”I can.” Sam agreed with her once again. It seemed that Ami had some ideas of her own or at least was starting to ask the right questions. Questions Sam had lately, forgotten to ask himself with everything that had been going on in the city. ”Hawaii, Romania Russia.” Sam said not really going further than the names if she knew about them great if she wanted to ask about them Sam would answer. ”Sometimes all we can do is react. Romania we were a little more aggressive with helping but that backfired a little too much.” Sam pointed to his eye, this was just a small example. They did succeed in helping the Romanian mutants, and his old girlfriend/not-real wife. Sam took another strong sip when he thought about her.

The ice mancer poured a little more in his glass and added, ”You know why we decided to help the police right?” Sam asked curiously.

Anyone would be tired of asking after working at something so long with so little help. Somehow she felt like the xmen had met themselves down. If they'd been a bit more proactive in helping each other and with their goals... Luckily for Sam, there was going to be a small group of people that could help with that. And Sam would be glad for that help.

He started listing different places. Amelia didn't get every single one of them. Romania, yes. Hawaii, no.

He was right. Sometimes reaction was all you could do. She let him speak.

When he paused, she broke in. "I heard about Romania, she said. "From Shin. You'll have to tell me about the other places later." But he had asked her a question. She tackled that next. "No. I don't know why we decided to help the police. I figure we got tired of seeing them hurt by dangerous mutants and wanted to get warned soon enough to help them out. Am I close?" She asked.

Sam nodded his head, ”Close, but that’s more of a simplified version. When I first started with the X-Men Neena told me that the purpose of the X-Men was to show the world that we could work in harmony, humans and mutants. While we were always going off to stop on crisis after another police and innocent people would die back home. How could we justify that we could help the world when we couldn’t help at home?” Sam took a sip of his glass then continued, ”So I decided to start focusing at home first. Sure our attention shifted, but the amount of lives we saved here in New York was amazing, more and more mutants decided to join with the police and now they have an established division for mutant related incidents. The death count is next to nothing now.” Sam took another swig of his drink then continued.

”We teamed up with them to show people that the X-Men weren’t just all talk. We sought out to show humans and mutants can work together to benefit both parties and we did it.” Sam paused again, ”That being said how do we readjust our focus now? The police have been taking a lot of heat lately between the riots and now the META bots. If the X-Men faze themselves out completely what kind of message does that send? That we don’t support them? What would stop them from going back to the way things were?” Sam asked Amelia curiously. ”I personally have no idea what to do next without it looking like we stopped supporting them.”

Amelia listened.

The purpose of the X-men that Sam had been brought up believing in was fairly close to the one she believed in, herself. How it went down sounded like the age old story for the team. Show up, try and help. But people sometimes still got hurt. That was the way police work was, as well. Cops could do their best. You can't save everyone every time. Sad truth. Amelia nodded her head.

It made sense. How could they move beyond New York to help the world if they couldn't handle New York alone? So he laser-focused on home territory. And things got better. Yes, their involvement had paved the way for NYPD's current MRC program and other measures.

He brought up several good points. Amelia considered them, holding her chin in thought.

"Well..." She started out slow. "I think that right now, the first step is bolstering support for the X-men. Increasing the number of members. I'm planning to help you with that where I can." She paused, and thought some more. "Cutting our help for police may send a negative image. Right now, we can't handle all the negative press we're getting. Yes, I realize I'm saying we when I'm not yet a member of the team. We need to arrange tryouts at some point. I'll pass." It wasn't being cocky if she knew she was prepared. Police training is a good preparation for X-men training, truth be told. There was less focus on mutant powers, but more focus on the basics of self-defense as well as personal fitness... all of which helped incredibly well.

"I am not sure of the answer to your question," she admitted. "But if we work on those things, we can spend some time figuring the answer out."

She seemed keen to listen so Sam did the same as she spoke. He sat in silence as well sipping his glass and leaned back in his chair making mental notes on each point she had. It was clear that the conversation would be splint and counter point for a while until there was some agreement. Then it hit him, most of the things she had been suggesting was what he had been thinking.

”Oh?” Sam asked raising an eyebrow, ”so you do want to join and get some blues?” Sam asked with a little smirk as he addressed he continued. ”so we bolster our ranks… how about we start tomorrow. Humor me anyways, I’m sure you will but I might have someone else hold it I haven’t decided yet.” Sam said with another sip. Would he be too hangover tomorrow. Sam drowned that out with another sip as he set the glass down.

”See those are the questions I need help with. I’m not the only one in charge here and I need some help with some ideas about said subject. It’s giving me a headache.” Sam said yawning.

>>”so you do want to join and get some blues?” Sam asked.

He got a nod.

Sam mentioned tryouts, and the word 'tomorrow'. Amelia mentally winced, but outwardly, her demeanor did not change.

"Tomorrow doesn't work for me," Amelia said slowly. "Work. I'll call you and we can figure out a good time. Hate saying 'I'll join!' and then saying 'but there's no time!', but starting a new job with the police... well, you understand. Swamped."

"Yeah. We'll all have to hash things out. You and Shin and me and everyone else." Amelia concluded.