Since having run into Devon in the park while jogging, Lee had started driving over to the Sanctuary, at first to simply check it out. And then Lee had continued going, helping out and even volunteering.

It was strange, really. Lee had never really thought of doing anything like this,and yet each time that Lee went there, even if all she ended up doing was talking to people, the more that she questioned it. And most of what she questioned was why she had never done anything like this before. The volunteering and helping out. With the investments that she and Tarin had made years ago, it’s not like she had actually needed to work or go back to school when she had been in Canada. She could have easily volunteered like this, or something very similar, and yet she hadn’t even thought about it.

And the fact that Devon had set all this up, done this much good in New York at such a young age…Lee was very impressed with him, admired him for doing that, and at the same time a little disappointed with herself.

But she was making up for that now, wasn’t she?

Kevin was at Tarin’s that night, though, so Lee had decided to stop by the Sanctuary before heading to work at the bar that night. Though with not having to pick Kevin up at school that afternoon, Lee had slept a little later than planned. With the rush hour traffic, and getting stuck behind an accident as she tried to move between the boroughs.

As such, by the time she reached the Sanctuary, Lee had missed helping serve dinner which had been her plan. So rather than waste the trip, Lee wandered around just chatting with people. She was sure that she’d be able to find something else she could do before she had to leave.

The holidays had been a busy one. He promised his grandparents a visit for Christmas dinner; he wasn’t going to be like Dopple-Devon. But he planned a lot before such a meal could happen. On Christmas Eve they held a community Christmas (and other holidays) party at Sanctuary. It enabled many neighbors and non-residents to attend and throw a festive party, using funds from Haven, Sanctuary donations, and simply some pot luck from neighbors.

Devon stayed over that evening and you can rest assured it was a White Christmas the next morning. The weather man had predicted a chance of snow and it barely needed a nudge to keep flurries falling over the area. The kids got many a gift. Few realized that those without a home didn’t ask for toys; they asked for socks, sweaters, nice blankets that didn’t itch… The saddest thing he’d ever heard was likely two years ago when a young boy wanted their own toothbrush; he’d never had his own. There were always toothbrushes to be shared; Devon and Haven had dental visits along with the health clinics. While Christmas last year had been uplifting, this year it was simply joyous, even relaxed. Every child got at least one toy along with the other items they wanted and adults got a good coat, maybe a gym membership with a locker…

When you want to get a job and you’re homeless, you’d be surprised what a gym membership where you can take a hot shower every morning and a locker to store your things can do for you. Not everyone wanted to stay at Sanctuary after all, and some now had jobs on Manhattan. Subway wasn’t always practical, let alone there was a cost involved. Gifts were exchanged, crafts were done, movies were watched, and food was eaten. Eventually Devon woke up with a start having fallen asleep, but he headed off to his grandparents in Boston.

A week later Haven held a 20’s theme party for New Year’s Eve. Devon joked that people should consider meal plans and athletic activities to avoid depression this winter. Some politely laughed, but what mattered were the Haven volunteers and donors who attended to enjoy their nearly year of good work. He spoke with a few corporate executives, a number of organization leaders like urban education initiatives, and even some former patients that were now eagerly working toward the future for others. It was frustrating to think of the concerns ahead, but it was important they celebrate their achievements, friendship, and even have a good time. Of course, Devon never finished his first drink and spent too much time on his phone.

And now it was January something-or-other and he was organizing donations. There were boxes to go sort, sorted boxes to stack, unopened boxes to review, and quite a few bags as well. The decorations were over by the door and Devon was trying to focus on what he was doing. He needed some water.

His black shirt dirty and dusty, Devon headed into the kitchen and dining area to grab a couple bottles of water. Lee was at one of the far tables near the door to the hall, talking with a few of the adults residents. She’d been around often and it seemed Kevin really enjoyed his time here too. Devon was thrilled they were happy when hear, and certainly glad he’d taken that random night jog. Lee seemed eager to get involved and over the last month and a half it had become increasingly clear she really did feel as she had expressed in the dark of Central Park to a random stranger.

She wanted to be a force of change.

“Hey there,” Devon said as Lee disengaged from the table. He’d sought eye contact while she was talking and inclined his head in greeting. He offered her a bottle of water as he neared. “It’s good to see ya. Happy New Year!” He smiled and then faux-winced, “You wouldn’t mind helping me with the donations would you? There’s a lot to go through, more than I realized still need sorting.”

Lee had been making her way around the dining room for a while, chatting with various people she had met during her frequent visits to the Sanctuary. She had actually spent quite a while talking with people, and the dining room was starting to empty out.

That was probably why Lee noticed Devon shortly after he had walked into the dining room, because there weren’t nearly as many people in there as there had previously been. Shooting Devon a smile, Lee turned her attention back to her current conversation.

However, Lee noticed that after a couple of minutes, Devon was still standing there. And, taking another slightly closer look at Devon, Lee saw that he was holding two bottles of water. Excusing herself and ending the conversation, Lee walked over to Devon, taking the offered water.

”Happy New Year to you, too,” Lee greeted him as she opened the bottle and then took a sip of the water. After all the talking she had been doing, the moisture in her mouth was welcome.

But hearing Devon’s question of her, Lee shook her head. ”Not at all,” she told him. She did still have a few hours before she needed to head out to get to the bar, after all. ”I was actually hoping to find something to do here tonight. I kind of slept in this afternoon and got here later than I planned.”

“Thanks,” Devon grinned as Lee wishes him a happy new year. He certainly hoped it would be despite some of the ongoing difficulties politically and internationally. There was always something, but he and many he called friend weren’t about to allow that as an excuse for those with influence… Things needed doing.

>> ”I was actually hoping to find something to do here tonight. I kind of slept in this afternoon and got here later than I planned.”

“Great,” he replied with an exuberant, warm tone. “Then let’s put your energy to good use,” he winked and gestured into the back of the kitchen. It like one of the resource rooms had a door to the back areas. He quickly guided them back and then chuckled as they went into the main storage room.

Another gesture, this time somewhat defeated at the entire room, got another laugh from Devon. “There may be a few more things to sort out… Or well, a lot. Good problem to have I guess especially when it’s hard to remind people to donate and volunteer outside the holidays. But we need to get all the decorations away, the donations sorted, and then organized by the right containers and shelving.” He pointed over to a stack of containers that were colored differently. “Orange for autumn. White for winter. Red with green lids are the holiday decorations. We’ve got blue for spring and clear for summer.”

He glanced at his side, “I guess I should be glad you slept in, eh?”

Lee shrugged as she started to follow Devon toward a back room. ”I’m not sure about the energy at the moment,” Lee told him as they walked. ”But the desire to help out is there.”

And then they reached the storage room, and Lee stopped in the doorway just looking at everything in there. No wonder Devon had come looking for help. As she listened to Devon explaining what went where in the various containers and on the shelves in the room.

As she walked slowly into the room, Lee nodded as she took in everything that Devon was saying. Then she laughed slightly at Devon’s last comment. ”To be honest, I likely would have helped even if I hadn’t slept in,” she told the younger man. ”Kevin’s with his father tonight, so I don’t have anything else that needs to be done before I have to head to the bar later, anyway.

“But, since I’m guessing you’ve done this before, any suggestions on where to start?”

Devon chuckled at her energy retort, but smiled with a quick nod as she affirmed her willingness to help. Once in the room, however, he hoped Lee’s desire wouldn’t falter. There were times that it was tedious, tiring, dirty work. It wasn’t all smiling, eager residents or strangers walking in from the cold. Sometimes it was just work to keep things going. Plenty of tasks were done by residents to help around but storage and sorting had to be done by staff or volunteer staff.

So them.

“Ah that’s good, your son is great,” Devon smiled softly. “Glad you’re here either way,” he nodded. “As for where to start… Let’s get the decorations fully packed and up on the shelves away. If anything was a leftover from autumn, you can throw that in the orange ones.” He hurried over to where he’d grouped all the decorations and pulled down the Christmas – red and green – bins.

“See any bins with garland in them already?” he queried as he held up some of the garland they’d had around the entry into the main living area. They moved on, one decoration after the next, filling bins and getting them up on the shelf. It’d been a number of visits now for Lee and she was proving helpful even when it wasn’t about training for her or her son.

“I’m glad you like coming here and you want to help,” Devon smiled. “I was wondering if you wanted to be listed on the volunteer staff, make it a bit more formal? It’s still volunteering of course, but if you can make the time we can really plan some tasks better. You could still decide your hours here on a week by week basis, come more when you want and not have tasks, etc. It’d help a lot.”

Lee smiled as Devon commented about Kevin being a good kid. That was what she was trying to go for raising him, after all. And her son definitely seemed to enjoy being around all the mutants that could be found at the Sanctuary on any given day.

But then Devon started giving ideas on where he thought would be a good place to start, and Lee nodded before heading over to the bins. Finding the one with the garland, Lee brought it over to Devon, then continued on helping to put things away in their various bins.

And then Devon started talking again, and Lee shrugged slightly. ”I do. It’s so hard to find people and places that actually help and make a difference,” Lee said as she looked over at the younger man. ”After talking to you that first time, hearing all that you’re doing, it made me wonder why I hadn’t tried more the last few years to help things get better instead of simply going to school.

“But yeah, I think that would be good,” Lee said, agreeing to the idea of volunteering more formally at the Sanctuary. ”I mean, Kevin’s at his dad’s a few times a week normally, and I’ve finally got work into a decent routine, so it shouldn’t be hard to commit to hours here every week.”

Devon grinned and nodded at Lee’s comment: it was hard to find places that actually helped. Even people were difficult sometimes. There were plenty that volunteered in some amount, but often it was for one of two reasons. One was that it was required for some reason like probation or school credit. The other was guilt or some other self-serving emotional need to feel better. Neither reason was altogether bad; it was always good to have help. Those people did help, probably making an impact in a small way, but it was hard to say a difference was truly being made.

>> “… it made me wonder why I hadn’t tried more the last few years to help things get better instead of simply going to school.

“You know,” Devon chuckled, “That’s how I started. I was going to school, doing some part time work, and realized I needed to get more involved. So I did, just like you, and now here we are.”

She agreed to his idea and Devon’s smile broadened. He’d figured she’d want to help further but never knew quite was going on in another person’s life. He tried not to assume. Not many knew how difficult his sleeping was lately… Lee note Kevin was often with his dad a few times and the routine seemed fairly stable.

“I’m so glad to hear it. I’m not really surprised, but I’d never assume,” Devon smiled. “You’ve helped a lot here. Kevin too, and I knew if asked you’d want to do more. It’s actually why I’m hoping you’d like to join Haven. It’ll allow you outreach to a larger organization of organizations in need, while encouraging further education and support for yourself.

“Haven has a serious investment in urban education, minority rights, immigration, and mutant needs and rights. A few Haven members volunteer here at Sanctuary; I hope you’ve met them. I think the Manhattan location might give you an easier opportunity to invest time when you can’t get out here. There’s various facilities that might interest you too,” he said, his gaze staying with hers perhaps a moment too long as he let the word hang.

Devon then turned to the boxes of donated items that still needed sorting. “What sort of activities would you like to get more involved in maybe? Education and mutant rights seemed to be up there for you when we met,” he said gently, even as he pulled out a stack of young boys’ clothing. “Any clothes have to be cleaned by us even if they look clean,” he commented while dropping the stack in a large hamper near the door.

Lee nodded as Devon explained how he had started, how he had gotten involved. And in a lot of ways, it was quite similar to how she had started helping here at the Sanctuary. In a way, similar how she had started with Slate, simply thinking, and talking, about how they could make a difference, help make things better.

Devon said that he wasn’t surprised that she was willing to do more, to help more. She had been coming around, helping out, more and more as the weeks had passed. But as Devon continued speaking, Lee stopped all pretences of sorting decorations and donations and simply looked at him, her head tilted to the side. Join Haven? Lee knew a bit about it, she’d done a bit of research into Devon and this Haven organization, but she honestly hadn’t looked too far. With the two jobs she was working, as well as Kevin, Blaine, and volunteering here, she didn’t exactly have a whole lot of spare time.

Lee listened intently as Devon continued, nodding slightly. That did sound interesting, more so as Devon talked about it than during the brief bit of research she had done weeks ago.

What would she be interested in? Lee thought about that a moment as she watched Devon return his attention, or at least his eyes, back to the donations in front of him. ”Education is important,” Lee said with another nod. ”As are equality and mutant rights. I’d be very interested in hearing more about how you, and Haven, are working towards those goals, what is being done.”

Then Devon pulled out a stack of clothing, and Lee laughed. ”It never fails. There’s always laundry to be done, isn’t there?”

>> ”It never fails. There’s always laundry to be done, isn’t there?”

Devon laughed, “Always.” It didn’t matter whom you were, there was always the mundane to attend to. It made you human. Maybe that’s why people who were so lost in their fortunes with servants doing their cooking and cleaning, shopping and errands. They lost their connection to humanity unless they took other steps. Maybe that’s why some corporations, some millionaires sought to aid Haven?

But it was more than simple humanity Haven sought to aid. Or at least there was a great savior in the humanized treatment of mutants.

“Glad you agree on education,” Devon said as he continued their work. “Regimes have used ignorance to combat that which they feared for generations. Dynasties. Governments. Organized religion. Education and knowledge are the tools of the informed masses. Grant insight to a mob and you’ll see individuals rise. That’s what we feel all people deserve, and we gladly invest donations into non-profit groups and pursuits that benefit education, especially to the impoverished. We certainly can’t trust our Secretary of Education.”

A joke really.

“But mutant rights are certainly important too. We aid refugee mutants seeking asylum in America from the hatred of their homelands. We aid them in getting education, including of their abilities. Hadden’s Havens offers them a place to relax, learn, and grow in a sheltered environment. I’m glad to be a partner in that. We’ve many volunteers and staff, some focused on legal aid and outreach. You’d be amazed how often a mutant is fingered for a crime just because they were in the area and had an obvious mutation,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Thankfully we have the MRD and the example of the X-Men to aid in those regards. But sometimes…”

Devon sighed again, putting down another box and looking over to Lee.

As Devon started talking more in depth about education, and what Haven did to help, to improve people’s education, he had turned his eyes back to the work they were supposed to be doing at the moment. So Lee started helping once more again, though her ears were focused on the younger man’s words, and she nodded every so often. ”I’m still trying to figure out some of the weird bits of the school system here,” Lee admitted. ”Like how two schools so close to each other can be so completely different, and produce such different results. And I’m not talking about testing.”

Shaking her head, Lee moved on to the next box as she listened to Devon as he continued. His last words drew her attention even more than the others had, though, and she looked up at him with her eyebrows drawn together. ”But sometimes what?” Lee asked. Yes, the X-Men could be good role models at times, but still...

“Sometimes… sometimes it takes large scale efforts to get real change,” Devon replied, echoing her words from the park when they’d first met. “Unfortunately large scale efforts can draw a lot of attention,” he nodded slowly, frowning slightly. “Unfortunately it takes clever maneuvering to achieve these things. I mean, look at politics, right? How many dirty deals has the White House cut behind closed doors?”

“Efforts here truly help the community at large. First we cleaned up Sanctuary,” Devon remembered those first few weeks, including his meeting with Juliette. “Then we started ensuring its people were getting what they need. We soon stepped out into the community and found a lot of people scared, in need. Not all of them were so favored or could even get the help of authorities, partly out of their own fear to come into the area. If you multiply that activity to a national scale, you get Haven.”

A shrug was given as he glanced upward in though, “At least multiple regions anyway. We’re trying to get out and assist where it’s needed but resources are tight sometimes and our leaders – at least federally – don’t make it easy. I’m thinking you might want to help there and depending on where you want to put your talents, there’s numerous job opportunities within Haven itself.”

Devon lifted a box as he headed to a shelf, glancing to his side as he passed Lee, “Your job could literally be helping on a global scale if you want. I’d like that. And Haven helps support its people. We empower them and I think – if the mansion wasn’t right for you,” he echoed her again, “then maybe Haven is. We know it’s not black and white out there.”

The help that the Sanctuary was giving, now that it was cleaned up and helping even more, the work here that she was doing, was what Haven did on a large scale, national scale? That sounded even better, like it might actually make a real difference.

Lee dropped her eyes as she listened to Devon, focusing on sorting donations. If it truly was as he said, it sounded good. Great, actually. Like what she had been trying to do with Slate. What they had been trying to do. And if it was along those lines, Lee knew she wouldn’t actually find out if it was as Devon said or not until she got more into it. Further into the organization, closer to the leaders.

And though her eyes were dropped, Lee smiled when Devon mentioned the idea that she could work on an international level, a global scale. Now that had the chance of actually making a real mark, a real difference.

”It’d be great to get out there like that again,” Lee said softly. ”As bad as things sometimes are here, especially for mutants, it’s often far worse elsewhere. And to actually be able to make a difference in the world, not simply the neighbourhood…

“But you’re right, it’s all shades of grey, and knowing how dark a shade you’re willing to go to in order to get things done.” Lee paused, taking a breath before looking up at Devon with a small smile. ”I have to say, you’ve been quite the salesman here. But if it is as you’re describing, I would like to be part of that.”

Lee might have dropped her gaze, but Devon recognized it was in realization, in introspection. Devon was glad she was thinking; she was someone he saw untapped potential in and not merely because of all the energy she built up. She seemed to care. Yes, she had a life and a family to worry about, but no one should be disregarded or forgotten, let alone not invited to action because they had a life. Those people cared all the more. If we supported our people, then that helped everyone reach their success. You can’t be on all the time.

Devon knew he couldn’t either…

But her soft words resonated back with Devon. He nodded as she spoke, especially her realization that even the challenges here were nothing compared to elsewhere. In some countries the violence, the hatred was strong. People already hated one another for skin tone or religion, add in mutants and it got even worse.

>> “But you’re right, it’s all shades of grey, and knowing how dark a shade you’re willing to go to in order to get things done.”

“Yes,” Devon said quietly. “There’s reason and purpose, but sometimes those who operate openly have their hands tied…”

>> ”I have to say, you’ve been quite the salesman here. But if it is as you’re describing, I would like to be part of that.”

Devon grinned broadly. “Then I’m going to get you a meeting invite for tomorrow,” he chuckled. “I assume 9 a.m. isn’t too early for you.”