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She’d made him uncomfortable….really uncomfortable. Kealey frowned, that hadn’t been her intention at all. She’d simply been curious to see exactly what it was Lance did, and how it would affect his ability to work in the library.

He held it together though, and earned another mark in the positive column of the mental tally Kealey was keeping. She’d offended him and he’d still managed to come across as composed and well spoken. Kealey gave him an apologetic look.

”I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable Lance, I’m sorry for that. I’m very open with my powers, and sometimes I forget that other people aren’t as comfortable. I really hope you’ll forgive me.”


It seemed like his power was good for crowd control, but made him sick if he used it too much. Kealey’s heart went out to Lance…sometimes it was so easy having a power that was constantly active. Lance kept explaining, giving her even more than she’d asked for despite his discomfort with the subject.

” Don’t worry about your voice. If there’s a problem we can always put you someplace out of the way to work until you’re better.” she said, trying to bolster confidence that was slowly starting to wane.

”I feel emotions.” Kealey blurted, then clapped a hand over her mouth in slightly shocked dismay. A moment later, she laughed and shook her head.

”Sometimes my powers still get away from me. Like I said, I feel emotions. All of them, all the time. Yours, mine, everyone in this room and the next….almost the whole mansion.” she explained with a shrug.

”Its taken a lot of practice.”

There was a silence while Kealey thought for a few moments.

”So…when could you start?”

Saturdays were supposed to be for relaxing and quality time. The problems with that started to arise when people had ridiculously crazy schedules, and bad guys insisted on taking convenience stores full of people hostage. The X-Men were spread a little thin this morning, Shin was doing one of the million things that occupied his time, and the others were too. That had left one trainee and one official team member to answer the call when the MRC called for backup during the crime.

Kealey had been thrilled, not only was she going to get to help people instead of lazing about and doing nothing…she’d get to wear her uniform! It would be the official reveal! Well, in public anyway.

It wasn’t to be, though, and the blond found herself slightly disillusioned as far as the glamour and excitement of a police scene was concerned a short time later. Ghost had begrudgingly worn the t-shirt and jeans Kealey had picked out when they’d heard they’d be working under cover. They needed to blend in though, and these poor people had simply been going about their Saturday business.

Kealey had picked something simple for herself too, and hoped that it would be enough to blend in once they were inside.

If she made it inside.

Being “ghosted’ made Kealey grateful for her powers, and she said a couple of silent Hail Mary’s that she’d make it up the side of that building with her lucky charms still inside her stomach. It wouldn’t do to be a complete walking stereotype and lose them, after all. Besides, that wouldn’t be very X-Man like…she took shallow breaths…if a “ghost” could breathe at all, and concentrated on their steady ascent up the side of the building.

The plan was simple. One more hostage probably wouldn’t be noticed, especially if the bad guys thought there was no way for anyone else to get in. Kealey would be the eyes for a while, then they’d go from there. Simple enough.

But Kealey was nervous. This was real…there were peoples’ lives on the line, and one of them was currently dangling out a second story window.

”Ghost..if he drops that woman…make sure you get to her before she hits the ground…no matter what.” Kealey said, even though she figured it didn’t really need said.

Then, they were inside.

Kealey looked around and counted out the hostages. They were terrified, absolutely terrified. For a moment, Kealey was too and a terrible tendril of self-doubt worked its way up inside of her. She battered it down and worked quickly to compartmentalize everything she was feeling.

First…the hostages were calmed. That helped significantly….even if it would eventually take a toll on Kealey’s energy stores.

Next…she needed to do some preventative work. They were calm…but they’d sure be surprised when she popped out of nowhere.

It happened…and they were surprised…but Kealey tamped it down with the fear before even a gasp could escape them. If the captors noticed the new blond, or the cessation of tears from their scared prisoners, none of them acted like it.

Kealey turned to the young man that Ghost had dropped her beside and had to suppress her own gasp of shock and mild horror as she realized she recognized him.

”Andrew” she said, eyes widening significantly….she shook it off. Explanations could come later.

”We’re here to help. “ she explained in a hushed and rushed whisper. ”You’re going to feel funny…like you can’t really feel much of anything but calm. That’s just me keeping things under control so nobody does anything rash. Just stay quiet and listen.”

She took in the scene, relaying information back to Ghost in a whisper that nobody else would have been able to hear if they tried. The bad guys hauled the woman back in the window and Kealey took care of her emotions. Then they started shooting. This was bad.

”Ghost, can you start taking them out one at a time?”

Kealey grinned as Lance explained how he would work damage control. It wasn’t exactly what Kealey had been getting at with her question, but his answer was more than satisfactory in a few different levels and eliminated the need for some of the other questions she’d been going to ask.

Yes, it would have been nice to live in a perfect utopia where absolutely nothing ever went wrong and accidents never happened. People would have lived in harmony, there would have been no fighting, and there wouldn’t have ever been a need for the X-Men. Surely these books would never have gotten so wet. Unfortunately, that was not the case. They lived in the real world, and Kealey knew that. She also knew she was still curious about the real answer she’d been seeking when she’d ask her question of Lance.

”Good answer.” she said, flipping through the pages of her current project and making sure they were all dry before setting it to the side and grabbing another.

”Now. Tell me what complications you’re going to have from your mutation, and how you’re going to deal with them in a way that won’t affect your work.” she said more bluntly and to the point.

The blond waited for an answer and hoped she wasn’t coming across at all as rude. She needed to know, though. Her own powers caused her problems all the time, and she constantly wrote herself notes so she wouldn’t forget what she was doing in an unintentional fit of emotional pique. ”I’m not trying to be rude or nosey, but understanding your weaknesses…even in something as simple as a library job…can help a lot in the grand scheme of things.”

She waited patiently, fanning through more pages and blow-drying. This was an important question.

Shin blushed, and Kealey blushed even more, the heat in her already burning cheeks intensifying tenfold. Her heart was also trying to beat its way out of her chest, but she ignored that for the time being in favor of waiting to see exactly what it was Shin had meant to show her.

>>"Yeah... hold on a second. Got to do something first."

Kealey held on, but wasn’t expecting Shin to close the small gap between them and kiss her.

She held on some more, now to the jacket lapels she’d just finished straightening, her mind going strangely blank as it had a tendency to do when Shin kissed her. It was easy when that happened, to get completely lost in the feelings and Kealey definitely didn’t fight it.

What was it they’d been doing again? Kealey couldn’t remember…whoops.

Lance liked libraries because of the solitude and Kealey smiled slightly. ”Just because a library is quiet, doesn’t mean its deserted. Many of these places are open all the time…” she paused, ”More people go in and out of libraries than most other places in the world.”

She paused, hoping she hadn’t given the wrong idea, ”Not that I can’t understand how nice the silence is. I eat it up whenever I can.” Only, this library was never quiet. The library was in close enough proximity to everything else in the Mansion that Kealey could still feel all sorts of emotions.

Her other question was answered as well, and Kealey smiled as he pointed out the fact that he liked science fiction and fantasy. They were popular genres these days, and everyone seemed to have at least some interest. Lance, however, was also a fan of non-fiction, and seemed to think that he’d be spending a lot of time in the library whether he was helping out or not.

They’d made it to the circulation desk by this point, and Kealey sat down in her wheelie chair, fumbling with the plug until the sound of the dryer broke the silence of the library.

Kealey winced slightly at the sound, but started on the first biography. She tilted her head up at Lance and studied him again for a moment, ”This is going to sound rude…” she said over the sound, ”If you work in here…can I expect problems like this?” she gestured at the damp books.

Lance was thinking about something, and Kealey paid attention. If the blond had been asked to guess, she probably could have done pretty well at getting a handle on the idea forming in Lance’s mind. Kealey thought about it too…she was awful busy with the Library and the designing, and school was getting ready to start. It would be nice to have someone lighten the load a little bit.

The books were all up off the ground now, and Kealey turned back to Lance, pushing the hair that had escaped her curly ponytail back behind her ear. Hands went on hips and she studied the kid. Sure it was just the library, and it didn’t seem like a job that would require too much responsibility. It was Kealey’s though…and things that were hers were near and dear to her heart.

He looked like a nice, clean-cut kid, and his emotions so far had been nothing but flattering and polite. That didn’t mean he’d get off easy though.

There was the question. Kealey studied Lance for a moment more.

”Come with me back to the desk so I can plug this in without electrocuting myself and we’ll see.”

Kealey turned, pushing the cart in front of herself and looking over her shoulder, ”You like libraries then? What’s your favorite book or series?”