Aurum frowned, but took the card and dutifully called the number. He wasn't doing it for Kaz the investor. He was doing it for his boss. His boss who was silly and naive and who really deserved to take a nap in her own bed for once. He told the service the address of the Full Circle from memory, but he had to look up the address of the Mansion.

The phone was cradled and Aurum returned the card to Kaz. He had to shrug at Kaz's question, though. "Never been there myself. She's lived there a long while, though. I bet someone would be able to help you if you ask nice enough."

Ghost, meanwhile, didn't seem to mind the chatter. She didn't mind that she was sleeping essentially while sitting up and she most definitely didn't mind that she was sleeping on something warm. She was safe and that was all that mattered for now.

Kaz hadn't really expected the man to know which room Vega claimed as her own at the mansion, but it was worth a shot. He had to give himself a few seconds to figure out if Aurum was getting a bit smart, thought Kaz was an idiot, or just spoke whatever he was thinking in case it could help in some way. Yeah, that's the one he'd go with. He didn't want to get annoyed right now, especially with Vega sleeping as she was.

It didn't take long for the limo to pull up to Full Circle's side door. A sharply dressed, dark skinned man with a well kept goatee, black suit, white shirt and red tie opened the door as silent as a mouse, "Sir." He said softly almost inaudibly. Kaz turned his head and saw the man, <Just who I was hoping for.> As gently as he could he moved and lifted Vega from her seat, her back resting on one arm, his other arm was in the cook of her knees as her head laid against his shoulder.

As he made his way toward and out the door, he watched his steps carefully to make it as smooth a ride as possible, even Demi was quiet and stepped lightly. "Jacob, if you could drive as smoothly as possible," He stole a glance at Vega, "I'd rather her not wake up. I might need you to help me with the doors when we arrive." Smooth and deep of voice, "Of course, Feather Ride." Jacob said with a smile on his face and eyes.

After Jacob opened the doors, Kaz set Vega in the seat and moved to the other side to get in. Shutting the doors for the riders, he pulled a pepperoni sausage from the cooler compartment up front and held it out for Demi. The drakeling nearly pounced on it as he joined Jacob in the front of the limo. Kaz had to look out the window to know the car was moving, Jacob having been silent and slick about starting the car and moving it. It would most likely take a bit longer than normal to reach the Mansion, but the side-streets with the best roads and the slower smoother speed is exactly what he asked for.

~~~~~~~

Jacob pulled up to Mansion's gates and waited for a signal from panel to his left. If he didn't get one in two minutes he'd press the button and hope to get a response.

She wasn't sure what woke her. It wasn't the change of location and certainly not the journey. She'd slept through X-Kids painting on her before. Ghost lay on her back, exactly as Kaz had set her down. She looked at the ceiling of the limo, smelled the leather, caught movement out of the corner of her eye and none of it should have been enough... She curled onto her side with her back to Kaz and her forehead pressed against the black leather and worked on not feeling pathetic.

It bothered her a bit that they were obviously not at the Full Circle any more, but beyond that... she couldn't seem to care just now. They were going somewhere. Where didn't exactly matter. And even if in that moment she felt alone, she wasn't. Kaz was a good guy.

She heard the buzz associated with the car gate and knew it was the Mansion or some place with an identical buzzer. A man's voice was answering a fuzzed electric voice from, no doubt, the Mansion's Security Office. That was good. They would let them pass. What was not good was the idea that she'd be dropped off in her room.

It was fine as far as rooms went, but she never spent a lot of time there. Ghost did not like to be alone. It was why she slept in close proximity to people and was used to sleeping in all manner of strange places. Most of all, she dreaded anything like the time that she had spent in isolation in the mutant internment camps. She was a little too old to share a room with a high school student.

Coming in at odd hours because of work or not coming home at all was troublesome for someone who was on the Mansion's school schedule. For the first time ever she seriously considered the mild and far away possibility that she could live somewhere besides the Mansion. Oh sure, Seizure had invited her to live with him before he'd gone kind of nutty and scared her half to death, but she had never even considered it an option... even when she had perhaps maybe even loved him.

"Thanks... for the ride." She talked right to the leather in front of her face.

As they were nearing the Mansion, Kaz had lightly moved a lock of hair from Vega's forehead. He was wondering how he'd find out which room was hers, and get her there without attracting too much attention, when she curled up on the seat. She laid quietly on the seat, Kaz didn't speak, thinking she may have just shifted in her sleep a bit.

When the gates opened Jacob brought the car smoothly to the front of the building. Instead of getting out to let Kaz and Vega out, he sat and waited. When he had driven Kaz around previously, he knew the man didn't wait for the door to be opened and would get out when he felt like it.

"Thanks... for the ride." She said in a voice somewhat muffled by the leather. "Don't mention it." He said with a slim smile. "Thought maybe a seat cushion or a bed might be a bit more comfortable." Kaz shifted in his seat to look at her more directly. "How you feelin'?"

How was she feeling? Ghost assessed herself. Physically she felt fine. She always did after Sebastian had rolled her through the worst of things. Mentally? "Like a sullen child." But how did one get out of gloom free? She swallowed, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She would feel silly and quite childish if she just rolled over. So that meant she had to sit up.

She moved slowly, almost arthritically. First one foot and then the other made their way to dangle off the edge of the seat before she turned, abductors straining and lifted herself up to a sitting position. She wanted to huddle there against the leather; it felt so very much alive. But that was silly too. So she made herself unfold and put her feet on the floor of the limo and her shoulders against the seat back. Something low and thick popped as she did so.

"Are we here?" Yes, straining to see out of heavily tinted windows was better than looking Kaz in the face.

Kaz gave Vega a very slight smile at her response. For a brief moment he thought to ask her if she wanted a sucker or icecream, since that seemed to cheer kids up. That moment passed as quickly as it had come. He didn't think that sort of humor would work too well at the moment. A small 'hmm' escaped his mouth as he watched Vega sit up tiredly.

When he heard one of her joints pop quite audibly, his head semi-snapped to look at her with an eyebrow raised. It sounded fairly gruesome to his sensitive ears, and seemed like it either hurt or felt really good. "Are we here?" Vega asked while looking out the window away from him.

Nodding minutely, even though she didn't see it, "Yeah." He said flatly. "Aurum said you didn't have to work until later tonight and thought you might enjoy sleeping in bed. I think I agree with him to be honest." Kaz opened his door and got out, his hand flashed to Jacob telling the man he could stay in the car. After his door, he moved around the back of the limo swiftly and smoothly as if he was gliding just above the ground.

Opening his door, signaling Jacob and making his way over to Vega's door took mere moments. Lifting the handle of her door he opened it and offered his hand, palm up, to help her out. "I was thinking I would be carrying you to your room while you slept. Finding out which of them was yours might have proved...interesting." Kaz held an easy smile on his face and a light tone to his voice.

Aurum. Of course Aurum suggested it. Ghost rolled her lower lip in between her teeth and Kaz slipped open the door who's window she looked through. He didn't glance back though and the door closed again, though this time she saw something very different from a limo window tinted Mansion.

She had screamed. And she had smeared her blood all over poor Aurum. At the time, she thought her insides were still coming out, but it was still embarrassing to think about now. The man who she worked with so many days a week saw her up close and personal when she was completely panicked.

It took two full breaths before Kaz cracked open the opposite door to open up the cavernous vehicle. The light that flowed through the opening blinded her, made her squint against the glare. Out of all that light came Kaz's hand. Palm up. Waiting.

Ghost touched her lower lip and her fingers came away with something colorful. But there was nothing colorful about Ghost. Her skin was white as a sheet and easily mistaken for pure white if the messy frock on her head weren't white as snow. The smudge of blood looked neon against that skin. She'd bitten her lip.

Even if it might seem awkward she used her other hand, the clean one, to accept Kaz's help. She pressed the little bit of neon back to her lip and dabbed at the tender spot again as Kaz drew her from the backseat. Ghost followed that momentum and let herself tip forward and spill into a one-armed hug. She needed the hug. "Thanks. Again." One of these days she was going to have to learn how to save herself.

It occurred to her that for all the times she'd seen Kaz and Demi, for all the help she'd received from them... she didn't really know anything about them. Mutants were funny like that sometimes. Kaz was Kaz. Ghost had never thought to call him by any other name just as Zephyr was Zephyr and Hymn was Hymn. It seemed any mutant she had met outside of the Xmen had only their mutant name and a great deal less trust between them.

"My name's not really Vega. Is your name really Kaz?" It just blurted out past the fingers at her lip before she could think better of the idea.

When he opened the door for Vega his eyes locked onto something...out of place: Blood on her fingers. With how pale-white she was, it was somewhat hard to pull his eyes away. He couldn't help his mind from wondering how easy it would be to notice she got scratched or cut, or just plain hurt. Before the wind blew so softly he couldn't even consider it a slight breeze, Kaz was sure he caught just the barest and faintest of a coppery scent, though perhaps his mind created the smell from memory at the sight of the crimson liquid on her fingers.

She kept the hand at her lips as she took his hand, yes it was a bit different than he thought it would be, using the other hand and all, but it was something that barely registered with him. When she began to lean forward, he moved his hand that was holding her's so it wouldn't cause her's to end up in an uncomfortable position. His free arm draped across her back and held her gently. A gently soft chuckle, "You're welcome."

She blurted out, "My name's not really Vega. Is your name really Kaz?" Which caused Kaz to chuckle again and give her a knowing smile. "Yes, but not in full," He said as he backed up two steps, bowed as he lifted her hand is his, "Kazimierz Romanik Corydon," Kissed the knuckles of her hand lightly, "At your service. Kaz in short." The last was said lightly and with a wink.

Kaz unwound her arm and took her hand to his lips. Kazimiaz Something Cor-uh-wha? She would never remember all that if she didn't have him write it down for her. "No wonder you go by Kaz. That's quite a mouthful." He lightly pressed his lips against her knuckles and even winked. That caused her to blink a few times. Was he... hitting on her? Surely not. He had a vested interest in the store, right? They were like business partners. And business partners weren't more than that, right?

Ghost daubed one last time at her lip, but it had long since dried. It was only a small place where she'd bit through the lip on accident, but it made her pink lips redder for the pooling blood there.

She wasn't quite sure what to do now. He actually winked at her. "Uhm. So, you've been to the Mansion before right?" She wasn't quite sure what to do with herself now. She hadn't really ever considered Kaz in the winking way before... and she wasn't exactly feeling up to normal mutant interaction just now.

Kaz looked at her expression and inwardly smiled, big enough that it would have threatened to take his head off if it were real. Straightening up, "Heh, yup. I have yet to figure out what my parents were thinking or why." She seemed quite confused due to his actions and wondered what she was thinking. For a brief moment he wished he could read minds, but banished that thought quickly, <No..I'd probably want to hit a lot more people if I knew their thoughts.> "Since Vega isn't you're real name, what is?"

His gaze drifted from her eyes to her lips for a moment before he turned to look at the Mansion. "Yeah, a few times actually." Kaz let a soft chuckle rumble from him for a few moments. "I was actually registered as a resident here a few years back. Though I highly doubt that stood for long." His mind and memories drifted back to his short meeting with Tricity outside the War Room. His words were soft and voice almost non-existent, "Good times." His mind wandered again, remembered bumping into a young girl in the library.

A slight crease was starting to form between her eyebrows. Lucky for her he didn't just launch himself at her. Not that she expected that. But he had winked at her. She just wasn't in her right mind enough to figure out if he was kidding or not. Thankfully he asked her name instead puckering up.

"Maya. Don't call me that." She said it all very levelly and then she turned and started walking toward the mansion. Ghost wasn't playing coy, she simply didn't want to hear it.

Visibly relieved that she didn't have to give Kaz a tour, her shoulders relaxed. If he'd been there, even if it was during or before one of the rebuildings, the general layout should have remained the same.

Her fingers ran through her hair when she thought back to the time when she'd run through the files in search of Sensor's past. There was a good possibility that if Kaz's file was still here, she'd already had her hands on it. It was a shame she hadn't known what she was looking at. If she came across it again, she'd memorize it. Because she wanted to know more about this winking man who handed off half a million dollars to her so casually.

She was trekking across the lawn at a good clip. It wouldn't take her long to reach the Mansion's back door. "Uh yeah. Thanks for the ride." Ha she said that? She should probably walk faster then.

"Maya. Don't call me that." She began away after saying that in such a way Kaz was unsure of what to say. He raised an eyebrow, pursed his lips slightly, and put one hand on his hip. His other hand lifted up as if he was holding up a platter. "Well then. I suppose I don't have much of a choice with a response that sharp. I have to tell ya, I'm curious to know why you don't want your name used." He shook his head slightly, "I'm not asking you to tell me, just saying."

Kaz sighed as she took off across the lawn. "Good going, probably freaked her out a bit." He said under his breath and mirthlessly. He looked up at her voice. Nodding, "You're welcome." He looked down at the ground before looking back at her. "Would you like me to wait for you, when you're ready to head back? Or have a ride waiting for you?" His weight was on his back foot as he scratched his head slightly.

Maya was her born name. And everyone who'd ever said it tenderly had ended up dead or in a position where they'd betrayed her. In her opinion, it was a name worth leaving behind. She hadn't thought about what she'd been saying properly otherwise she wouldn't have admitted it. But it did bother her to hear the name Vega said tenderly... she should probably just get over that if she was going to leave who she was behind fully.

She froze with her hand on the front doorknob. He offered to wait and... she really didn't want to go to bed alone. Not that she wanted Kaz (or anyone else) in her bed, but it'd be nice to not be alone. She looked down and then looked back at where Kaz was still standing. "Do you want to wait?" Hand firmly on the knob, she was still ready to bolt. She had her own transportation built in with her mutation, but... it was nicer to have a ride for a number of reasons.

She sighed and turned to face Kaz, hand still on the doorknob, but it was an improvement. "It'd be nice to have a ride, but it's really not necessary. Don't you have... other... things?" Was that rude to ask? Now it was Ghost scratching at her head.

Maya...Vega...What was he suppose to call her now? She had said not to call her Maya, which would default it back to Vega, but he knew her actual name now and he liked it. He rolled the two names over in his head and Maya fit the woman more than Vega did in his opinion. From the time she gave him that name he had wondered why she hadn't given her real name, he was still very curious about it. Abyss, Amp, Vibe, Syn, Calley, Tricity, Bast, Fade...His mind went through the names of the mutants he had met that used aliases as their name, even just part time, he had never wondered what their given names were, it had never occurred to him they just 'fit'. They weren't just names, that was who they were, through and through down to their core.

He hadn't expected her to stop at the door or anywhere else, so when she turned and spoke he looked at her slightly surprised. Kaz got the feeling of mutual awkwardness or perhaps he was just impressing his awkwardness onto Vega. "I don't mind waiting," <I planned on waiting from the beginning.> He thought to himself, "I've already taken care of all the things I needed to today. But, ah.." His gaze flicked to the side at one of the Mansion's many windows for a moment before returning, "I can have a ride waiting for you later, if you'd rather be alone."

~~~~~~

Inside the limo both Jacob and Demi had been looking out the windows to see what was going on. Neither of them could hear what was going on, nor could they see very well, but it sure didn't stop them. "I don't know either little guy." Demi turned and looked at Jacob and made a soft clicking sound as he picked up the pepperoni and began to eat and gnaw on it again. "Good idea." He said as he reached into the cooler and pulled out a BLT sandwich his wife had made for him before he had left.

She looked at the ground. She looked at Kaz. "Instead of getting a ride to work... would it be okay to get one home instead? I-uh understand if you're busy that late. I'm usually the last to leave." But really... she needed to get inside and shower and get out of yesterdays clothes at least. Sleeping was gravy. Even if she was seriously dragging. Okay.. maybe she needed some gravy today.

Ghost scrubbed at her eyes with her free hand, the effect looked childish, and sighed. Could they talk about rides and stuff later? "Why don't you come inside or something?" She realized as she yanked open the Mansion's front door that she didn't have her wallet, phone, keys... all of that was still in her office. So it should be safe, but... another sigh.

She waved him inside. "You can... uh, I dunno. I have to shower." Ghost took the front hall stairs two by two, but stopped somewhere on the upper third portion of the staircase. "Why don't you get something to drink in the kitchen. I'll come find," she yawned, "you in a bit." And if she ran into someone over the age of 12, she might send them to entertain Kaz until she got back.