>>"I'm not going to talk about it though. To anyone. They don't need to know."

She looked at Andrew; there were so many things to say to that, most of them coming from her motherly instincts; if her own kids would have said something like that to her, they would have gotten an earful about it. But Andrew was not her kid, and all in all, he was nat even a kid anymore.

"Then talk to the ones who already know." was all se said to him.

That, apparently, included Jorge and herself, not counting the rest of the police department.

Gemma countered his statement with one of her own. She told him to talk to the people who did know.

"Why?"

He was curious why she seemed to care at all. True she was the school councilor but this, he would think, ought to be beyond the call of employment. It simply puzzled him why someone would care so much when she didn't really even know Andrew. Jorge got a pass because their acquaintance had started with the man saving his life. Gemma was a stranger. Sure they both knew Jorge and had had similar experiences but he didn't know her. He almost asked her point blank why she cared but managed to refrain. Being tired didn't give him a pass to be rude.

"That is a good question" Gemma nodded, looking at the boy who seemed to grow younger and younger in her eyes with every stubborn statement he made.

"It is because people are not built to deal with these kinds of things alone. Sooner or later you will need to find a way to blow off steam, and the more you wait, the worse it will get. So if it's not friends, or professionals like me, it could be any number of things, including alcohol and violence. I would not wish than on anyone, especially not a decent guy like you. Besides, if it happens anyway, I would have to go to Sam and talk to him about it." she arched an eyebrow at Andrew "Believe me, talking it out is the easiest way you can get out of this. That's what humans do."

Oh, well there was that. It was a good reason. He sort of disliked that she'd managed to make a good point. It made his holding out seem a lot less ok. Andrew sighed. When he spoke it was in a low mutter.

"I don't want them judging me for something I can't change is all."

Andrew was a mutant, among other things. The whole world already judged him on that. At least it would if he weren't able to hide it. This was similar in that Andrew couldn't change it now. With his mutation he was at least assured that the people here wouldn't judge him for that. They were mutants after all. But being responsible for the death of someone else was not something that they all had in common. They would judge him for it and that's why didn't want to say anything about it. Better to let them think he was just shy and maybe a little overcautious at times.

Latching onto something Gemma said, Andrew couldn't see himself abusing alcohol to get through it. Violence on the other hand. He remembered how bitter and angry he'd been when he cut loose on the heavy bag at the gym the first time. It had felt very cathartic. If he got angry enough there was a good chance that he could it turn on other people. Andrew didn't want that but then again he hadn't wanted to kill anyone either.

>>"I don't want them judging me for something I can't change is all."

"I can understand that" Gemma nodded; Andrew finally seemed to be giving up the stubbornnes. Maybe he still wouldn't talk to her about what happened, but at least he looked like he admitted what she was saying. That was a start.

"Some people will always judge you no matter how hard you try" she said "But those are not the ones that matter. Anyone who knows the whole story of what happened wouldn't blame you for it."

She certainly didn't, and she knew that his friends wouldn't either.

The fight went out of him. He was tired and trying to avoid talking to her was more than he could manage at the moment.

"These are pretty much the first people I allowed myself to be friends with in the four years since the mutation. I guess saying I'm nervous would be an understatement."

He smirked at little at himself. Nervous, more like scared witless that the first people he'd bothered to let this close would turn out to be just the same as everyone else. He'd told these people about his mutation and trusted them with it. If they rejected him for this then there was just as good a chance they'd decide to use his mutation. How would it be if he finally did become an X-Man only to end up little more than a slave?

"I didn't mean to kill him. The bullets were supposed to go in his torso. I only fired all of them because I was scared and figured that I'd miss."

It could have happened any number of ways. So why did it have to happen like that?

>>"These are pretty much the first people I allowed myself to be friends with in the four years since the mutation. I guess saying I'm nervous would be an understatement."

"That's all right" Gemma said "I didn't say it's going to be easy to talk about it. Take your time, wait for the right moment. They'll understand. Everyone here has some baggage from their past."

At least the kids she knew about.

>>"I didn't mean to kill him. The bullets were supposed to go in his torso. I only fired all of them because I was scared and figured that I'd miss."

She listened to him as he explained; he finally gave up the fight. She knew from Jorge it was an accident, she could figure as much. She sat down next to him. She was good at listening.

"I know you didn't." she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You just did what you could. Few people would have done any better... most of them wouldn't have done anything at all. It's not your fault that you were not prepared."

For all his desire not to talk about it Andrew hoped that Gemma was right. His friends would likely find out at some point or another. Sam at least would likely need to know. Yet he still knew so little about most of the people he called friends that he couldn't be sure how they'd react. He hoped they understood.

"Yeah."

Gemma sat beside him after he finally said something about the shooting. The hand on his shoulder was oddly comforting. She said that it wasn't his fault and he knew that. That didn't change that he felt horrible about it.

"I should have been though. I should have been prepared. I don't regret it but I should have been ready."

He'd have to work harder. This only proved that he was nowhere near where he needed to be. If something like this happened again he needed to be ready to deal with whatever happened. If Andrew meant to make X-Man eventually he needed to be much tougher.

>>"I should have been though. I should have been prepared. I don't regret it but I should have been ready."

"Nobody expects you to be prepared to shoot a man." Gemma said quietly; her hand was still on his shoulder as she looked at him "That's not something that comes with basic education. I have seen kids younger than you who would kill on purpose and wouldn't think about it twice."

She paused for a moment, thinking about the girl called Aura, the most disturbing of all.

"I wouldn't want you to be one of them." she said finally "As for the rest of it... if you want to learn how to survive and defend yourself, I think you're in the best place you could choose." she smiled. "Kinda part of the curriculum here."

Maybe they didn't expect him to be prepared to shoot someone but after what had happened Andrew expected it of himself. He was friends with a cop and wanted to be on what equated to a vigilante hero squad. He would need to be prepared for tough calls like this.

"I guess."

Andrew took advantage of her pause to think about that. It was true. Normal people weren't expected to be ready to take a life. It wasn't taking a life that Andrew wanted to be prepared for. It was the decisions that could lead to that. Jorge had to make decisions like that on a daily basis. It just came with experience he guessed. Gemma pointed out that he was in the right place to learn some of what he wanted to know and she was right. If Andrew could figure out who to ask then there wasn't much of a limit to what he could learn here.

"You've got a point." He paused a moment and then grinned, "No way I'm giving up the lessons with Jorge though. I enjoy knocking the old man around too much!"

>>"You've got a point. No way I'm giving up the lessons with Jorge though. I enjoy knocking the old man around too much!"

He smiled. Gemma knew that the whole discussion was far from over, and he still had a lot to deal with before it got better, but the smile was a start.
It was a grin, really.

"I wouldn't ask you to." she grinned back "Someone needs to knock some sense into him every once in a while. And I can't do that alone, with a full-time job and all." she chuckled, gently squeezing his shoulder before she let him go "I told you. You'll be fine."

They were done talking about what had happened and with minimal pain too boot. That was good. Gemma's response made him grin all the more.

"I'll do my best. Though every now and again I might knock him senseless instead. I'll try not to bruise him too bad."

The squeeze on his shoulder and reminder that he would be fine turned the grin into a normal smile. It was good to hear that, for some reason or another.

"Thanks."

Andrew decided that he liked Gemma. He was still going to get back at Jorge for setting her on him but he liked her.