Being the youngest in any family leaves room for the older siblings to tease or exclude that child from activities, and it was no different with the students in Xavier’s school. Jake shared a room with the rest of the boys, and the only one close to his age was Artie, who would be celebrating his thirteenth Birthday in another month. Jake had turned ten a few days before his abusive mother left him at a shopping mall, and the hurt that abandonment inflicted upon him was still present.

The problem arose not long after classes let out for the day. Jake and Artie, who spent more time around him than the older boys, had returned to the boys’ dormitory to get on their hiking boots and go exploring, something that every young boy enjoyed doing. As they were about to leave, Bobby and a few of the other boys walking into the room ready to head out for the shopping mall with Cyclops and Peter. Artie decided he wanted to go along too, and Jake quickly objected as the other boys got ready.

“But you said you were going to go hiking with me,” he said as Artie put on a black shirt with a red X going across it.

Artie put on a black pair of high-tops, and asked, “Do you want to come with us?”

“I want to go hiking,” he said letting his anger get the better of him. A little away from where the two boys were talking, Bobby finished getting dressed. He was standing behind a bookshelf and a moment later something hit the back of his head. As he turned around another book flew off the shelf and he ducked, letting it fly across the room to hit the wall on the other side of the shelf. 

All the boys stopped what they were doing, and all eyes focused on Jake who had shut his eyes. Suddenly all the books flew off of the shelves and the boys had to duck and weave to get out of the room. As Artie, the last one to exit the room, made it into the hall, Jean was on her way with Scott behind her.

The two of them had been talking in their room, when Jean realized that Jake was losing control of his powers, and with Scott trailing behind her, she arrived to see all the books flying around the room. In the center of the room Jake stood with his eyes squinted shut. He was too focused on his anger to realize anyone was there, so Jean spoke to him through thought. “Jake it’s Dr Grey,” she said to him. She had to call out to him three times, but finally he heard her and the books which had been flying around the room in a whirlwind suddenly stopped and dropped to the floor. Sure she had his attention, Jean turned to Scott. “You should go on without him,” she said, wanting to get the boys on their way so Jake wouldn’t feel embarrassed. She and Scott shared a kiss before he left, then she entered the room. For ten seconds she focused on the books and almost at the same time they shut, lifted off of the floor and returned to their places on the shelves.

In that time Jake had found a place to sit on his bed watching Dr. Grey as she cleaned up the mess his mental tantrum had caused. He chose to look at the wall across from him as she sat down next to him. 

“Are you all right?” she asked. He nodded his head but didn’t say anything else. “Will you tell me what happened?”

For a moment Jake remained silent then he looked at her. “I was mad, because Artie decided not to go with me hiking in the woods. Am I in trouble?” he asked. When he had lived with his parents, any time he made things fly around by themselves he was locked in the basement for the remainder of that day.

“No you are not, but we need to talk about why you got angry, and how to control your powers when you are,” she said in all seriousness. She thought back to when she was younger. Her powers hadn’t shown up as early as Jake’s and she couldn’t imagine what his life had been like. The Professor had read his mind a few times and said that his powers started to manifest themselves around the age of Two years old, when he was left alone for two days in a dark house. His parents arrived home to find every light in the house on, and found Jake quietly playing in his room as though nothing had happened.

“Can we eat before we talk I’m starving,” he said.

Jean smiled at him. “I think we can find something,” she replied as she stood up. Jake stood up as well and the two of them left to raid the kitchen.

II

It had taken a lot of work but Heidi finally found the address of the school where Dr. Jean Grey worked. It was in Westchester, a few hours drive from the city. She was in her office at work and jotted down the address. There wasn’t any other information, which made her wonder just what type of school it was. After she put the address in her purse she started to look up some other things when her phone rang. Heidi answered it and found Jarrod on the other end. 

“Max wants us to work together on the Lansing project, so I thought we might go out to lunch and go over what we have so far,” he said. Jarrod was a quite spoken man, and someone Heidi didn’t mind being around. 

“Alright, just let me finish up here, and we can meet in the Lobby in a few minutes.” She hung up her phone and signed off of the internet. After she made sure her desk was clean, and important documents were locked in her safe drawer, Heidi grabbed her purse and headed out to lunch. 

Upstairs Max got a report from the security guard at the door, that Heidi and Jarrod had gone to lunch, and after sending Judy to lunch he road the express elevator down to the fifteenth floor. Heidi’s office was the last door on the left, and the only office that wasn’t messy. He walked over to her desk and tried a few drawers, and when he couldn’t find anything he wanted he turned on her computer. Max hoped that she wasn’t the paranoid type, and when he was online he looked at the last few sites she had gone too. The first few didn’t bring up anything of interest. The last one however brought up the Mutant Registration Act and a name he was familiar with. “Dr. Jean Grey, so you do like them,” he said as he found another page with the address of Xavier School for the Gifted. He too jotted down the address, before he went back upstairs to his office. Once he was there he picked up a phone and dialed a number. “Jack I need you to find out all you can about Heidi O’Connell. She works for me and I want you to watch her.” After he got off the phone he sat down at his desk and smiled.

III

In the kitchen Jean sat across the table from Jake, watching as he finished off a third peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She and the professor had noticed that when ever he had a mental tantrum his appetite increased.

Jake finished his glass of milk then looked up at his teacher. “Do you ever get made about things?” he asked as she stood up to get his plate and glass. 

Jean took his plate and glass to the dishwasher and put them there before she answered his question. “Sometimes, and when I was younger there were times when I couldn’t control my powers,” she admitted. As they started out of the kitchen Logan strolled in. “Hello Logan.”

She was wearing black slacks and a dark blouse and even though Logan knew her devotion was to Scott he still felt attracted to her. “Hi Jean.” He walked closer to her and then stopped when a young boy stepped in front of her. 

“Logan this is Jake,” she said realizing that the little boy was protecting her from Logan. 

“Hey kid,” he said realizing the same thing Jean had. 

Jake had quickly learned that most everyone in this school had special abilities, and asked, “What is it that you do?”

Logan didn’t want to scare the kid, so he told him about his ability to heal.

“You mean if you cut yourself on a sharp glass or something that you can make it go away?” he asked very much interested in that.

Willing to spare Logan Jake’s fascination with his powers, Jean interrupted. “Jake we still need to have that talk.”

He sighed, and his shoulders slouched forward as he began to walk toward the door. 

Logan watched them go, and once they were gone he went to the refrigerator and got out some bread, salami and a tomato. As he started to fix his lunch, the professor wheeled into the kitchen. Logan finished fixing his sandwich and sat down at the table. He was the only one of the adults who had not started teaching a class, and was beginning to feel out of place. It had been a while since anything had happened where the X-men were needed, and the longest Logan had ever stayed in one place was a few months. 

Watching as Logan began to eat, the professor wheeled over to the table. He knew that Logan hadn’t found anything to occupy his time here, and wanted to help if he could. 

“Is there something you need?” Logan asked when the professor didn’t say anything. He had tried yet again to get the professor to read his mind, to travel further back into his memory, but again the old man was bent on letting him figure things out for himself. 

“I was about to ask you if you would be interested in teaching a class,” he replied.

Logan swallowed his sandwich, and took a drink of soda before answering. “I don’t think there is much I can teach them. Actually I was thinking it may be time for me to pack up my things and see if I can find some more out about my past. What Stryker said back at the lake has me wondering what kinds of things I did, and if you aren’t willing to help me, then I need to go and find out for myself.” 

Professor Xavier was about to answer him, when Peter and Bobby walked into the kitchen with Kitty between them limping. Both Logan and the professor took notice that she looked frightened, and all of them headed downstairs to the Lab while Professor X sent a mental message for Jean to meet them down there.

A little later in her own room Kitty was resting in her bed, relieved to be home and safe. At the mall, she Rogue and Jubilee had gone off on their own. They made the choice to go outside and put their purchases in the SUV Scott had driven them in, and on the way someone grabbed her and tried to mug her. With Rogue and Jubilee there the man didn’t get much, and as the girls ran back to the mall, Kitty fell and twisted her ankle. 

While the professor was proud of them for not using their powers, in his room Logan paced. He had been all set to go out on his own, and now it seemed like he had found his calling. If the kid’s couldn’t use their powers to protect themselves, then it was evident that they needed another way. Logan had been around long enough to meet all sorts of people and knew how to defend himself when in danger. As he walked toward the door to go tell the professor what he wanted to do, he heard a knock. “Come in,” The door opened and Professor Xavier wheeled into the room.

“Logan perhaps you might consider staying to teach the children how to protect themselves,” he said, even though he had already picked up on Logan’s thoughts. 

“Actually I was coming see you about that.” For a brief while they talked about where he could train, and after the professor left, Logan headed downstairs to have another snack before bed. It was past time for the kids to go to sleep, and when he arrived in the kitchen he found the boy he had met earlier that day. Jake was sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen eating peanut butter with a spoon. He looked at Logan for a moment before asking him if he wanted a spoon full. When Logan agreed he got a spoon and dipped it in the jar and handed it over. 

“Your up late,” Logan said.

“Artie wanted to know why I got mad at him so I came here so it wouldn’t happen again,” he offered as his explanation.

Logan watched as the kid finished another spoon of peanut butter before he got up and went to the fridge where he got out a jug of milk. He was about to help Jake get a glass when the cabinet where they were kept opened. From there two glasses floated out and settled on the counter next to the milk. Jake used his abilities to pour two glasses of milk then floated one over to Logan.

“That’s a lot of power you have there Jake,” Logan said impressed by what he could do. 

“I can do more but most of the time it is because I’m angry,” he admitted. He sat back down at the Island and watched as Logan drank the entire glass of milk. “Are you a teacher?” 

“I will be tomorrow. Does Jean know you are awake?” he asked. He watched as Jake closed his eyes, then opened them. “She’s got a block up so I don’t think so. What else do you do?. Bobby said you are good at taking care of yourself.”

Logan walked over to the sink, and put his cup in there and as he turned around Jake’s glass floated in beside it. “I think maybe you need to head off to bed,” Logan said not wanting to share his abilities with this young boy. 

Jake sighed. “I don’t get afraid much. My dad and mom used to be really mean, and when I used my powers I got locked in the basement and they didn’t have lights down there so I had to be in the dark. Are you afraid you will scare me?”

It never ceased to amaze Logan how cruel people could be, and as he walked Jake up to the boys’ dorm he told him about his blades. At the door he and Jake said goodnight, then Logan headed outside to patrol the grounds.

IV

A few days had gone by since Heidi and Jarrod had last met, and as they ate lunch, she asked him what other projects he was working on. Jarrod was a year younger than she was, and was excited about one project in particular. “There is one project that he has me working on in secrecy, but I figure I can trust you,” he said. When she nodded her head he continued. “He has me designing these machines, well I guess you could say they are robots. Most of them stand over ten feet tall, and they have all of this state of the art weaponry. Max said the military contracted him to build them, so you can’t say a word about it,” he said as they finished eating. 

Heidi felt a cold chill creep down her spine and had a difficult time swallowing the food she had in her mouth. What he had just described reminded her of the creatures she had seen in her dreams. “Do they have a name?” she finally managed. 

Jarrod leaned forward and she did the same. “Max calls it the Sentinel Fund.”

A few tables away, as the two ate and talked about their project, a well built man sat wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He was in his mid thirties, and didn’t look like the sort of man one should mess around with. When Heidi and Jarrod walked out of the restaurant Jack waited and then left spotting, them a few feet away from him waiting for a taxi. Since Max had hired him to watch over this girl, Jack hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary. She worked and she went home, and it seemed to him as though she didn’t have much of a social life. He wondered why his boss was having her followed but didn’t care. Max paid him to look out for people out to do him harm, not to ask questions. 

His hands were all over her and his hot breath heated the skin on her neck. Heidi couldn’t see him but whoever this man was, she somehow knew he would never hurt her.  A loud ring woke her from her dream and Heidi slammed her hand down on the alarm clock. She had never had such an erotic dream and was angry that the alarm woke her from such pleasures. She spent a few extra minutes in the shower before she finally dressed, and had a quick bite to eat. She needed to get to work in a hurry. Max wanted a meeting with she and Jarrod, and she was hoping to talk to the latter of the two after that was over. Aside from the dream which had been so rudely interrupted, Heidi also had a dream about what she now knew was a Sentinel. They were in the woods and these beings were attacking somebody. 

At work she check her emails, and made a quick reply to one Anna had sent to her from the Bahamas. Anna had gone away on a vacation to clear her head and Heidi was happy to see that her friend seemed to be adjusting to life as a single woman. She would be back in a week, and they were planning on going up to the lake for some hiking and camping, activities they had done before Anna married. 

In meeting room A, Heidi found Max waiting for her. Jarrod wasn’t there yet, and they passed by the time looking over the schematics Heidi had been going over. 

Max found the one he liked. “This one seems to bring the outdoors in,” he said looking at the design. It was a shopping mall with an open court in the middle complete with a waterfall and a small park. “It can’t be built until spring, those frosts we have been having has made the ground too hard to try and dig into,” Heidi said. 

“I have something that might solve that problem, Jarrod.” Max stood up and shook the young mans hand. “I was just looking over this Schematic, what do you think about testing out the Sentinel?” He said, not noticing Heidi’s shocked expression. When he did look at her she was still looking over the schematic, and her expression was unreadable. 

“We will have to work at night,” Jarrod said trying not to be too specific as to the reason. 

“Then organize that. Heidi I suppose we need to let you in on my special project. From his briefcase Max pulled out a model. It looked like an action figure. It was mostly black with one long eye which was red. Max explained to her that the eye was a special sort of laser which could thaw out the ground, and enable them to work on the Mall now. “If everything goes right, then the mall should be up by Christmas,” Max said pleased with his work. “Now I think both of you need to be there, and I want to start on this project by the beginning of next week. I think Saturday night should be good. I’ll have my driver pick you both up and take you to my Leer, and from there we will fly to Connecticut to the site where the mall will be put up.

Heidi just shook her head and after the meeting was over she returned to her office and took out the address of Xavier’s school. She would wait until she saw what this robot could do then she would go to the school herself and tell them what her boss was up too. 

V

Logan’s self defense classes were well attended. He was a tough instructor, and after every class not one of his students left without feeling some form of physical pain. Today his class was full of mostly girls, and today he was focusing on what had happened with Kitty. 

“You can’t assume that just because it is daylight that someone won’t attack you. I’m not saying you have to be paranoid but you have to look out for yourself.” Logan told them that even the simplest thing could be used as a weapon, and made Kitty come for a demonstration. “Now I’m going to come after you, and I want you to use anything you can to get rid of me,” he said.

Kitty waited and suddenly Logan had a hold of her. She struggled to get away from him but he was a strong man. Remembering what he had just said she managed to get her keychain with a pointed crystal out of her pocked, and stabbed it into his side. She also slammed her foot down on his food and when his grip loosened, she drove her elbow into his groin. He released her then, and when she turned around he was doubled over. “Oh my god I’m sorry,” she said.

Logan let his body heal then straightened up. “Don’t be, you do that the next time some person puts his hands on you and I guarantee it won’t ever happen again,” he said feeling proud of her for being able to get away from him. A few of the other girls tried escaping him and when class was over Logan headed upstairs to his room to soak in the bathtub. Just because his skin healed quickly, didn’t mean he didn’t feel the pain, and usually soaking in a tub of hot water helped him feel better.

VI

The night of the demonstration arrived, and the jet landed in an airfield ten miles away. Max had a limo waiting, and when they arrived Heidi got her first look at his toy. The Sentinel stood over twelve feet tall, and it’s red eye cast an eerie glow in the dark. Max had a special observation area for them to sit in and when he gave the command the a red laser shot out of it’s eye. It hit the ground and the area around the direct hit, almost five acres of land glowed red. When the ray stopped, Max told one of the workers to break ground and he did that with ease. 

“Excellent,” Max said as he stood up. “Well it works for that project. Jarrod I want to see you in my office Monday morning. Heidi, I’ll take you home,” he said. 

They all flew back to New York together, and in the Limo, Max asked her what she thought of his project. 

“That’s a pretty expensive piece of machinery for only one job,” she said playing stupid. She had a feeling he had built it to destroy the mutants, and wanted to know more. 

“It isn’t just for that. The military contracted me to build them, so what you saw tonight was just a dream,” he warned. When his limo arrived back at her apartment he asked her if she wanted to see him tomorrow night, and Heidi was thankful she had plans. “My friend is returning from a vacation and we have a lot to catch up on, but thank you for the offer.” 

“I’ll ask again,” he said as she shut the door. As he left he called Jack and was pleased to find that his associate was just across the street. “Make sure if she goes anywhere to follow her. I want to know if she has anything to do with the X-men.”

After changing into her dark blue jeans and a black shirt, Heidi dug through her closet until she found one of her father’s baseball caps. It was black, and she tucked her hair under that before she headed downstairs to her car. Living in the city Heidi rarely ever drove it around. It was only times like these when she had to go out of town that she ever drove. Heidi knew she could go to her destination during day light, but was also being careful. If Max had any suspicions he could somehow be spying on her, and knowing he didn’t like Mutants, she wasn’t going to take any risks. 

Jack was eating the last of a pile of donuts, when a blue sports car pulled out of the parking structure next to Heidi O’Connell’s building. Having been in his line of business for a long time he knew when something was going to happen, and after letting the car get a little away from him he pulled out and began to follow it. They were driving toward the bridge leading into New York State, and when they crossed it he had a fairly good idea of where she was going. 

Sitting outside on the balcony in back of the mansion, Logan had his cigar in his mouth and inhaled. He was about to go patrol the grounds, almost ready to quit doing that. It had been a long time since anyone had come looking for trouble, and he was no longer restless with his stay here. Jean had been right. One day they had been talking, and she told him that if he started teaching a class he would feel better about staying. At first Logan hadn’t believed her, but now he knew she was right. After taking a few more puffs of his cigar, Logan snubbed it on his hand, then headed out into the woods to do his nightly patrol. 

Heidi arrived at Xavier’s School at almost two in the morning. She found the gate locked, and didn’t stop sure she was being followed. As she drove on she found a side road, and pulled into there quickly shutting off her lights. A car passed up the road she was on, and she sighed, relieved that she was safe. Now she was stuck with how to get into the school, and wondered once she found her way in, how she should go about finding this Jean Grey, not knowing that who she really needed to see was the professor himself. Knowing that she couldn’t go in through the gate, Heidi got out of her car and after getting a flash light she started to walk west back toward the mansion. She knew she had driven about half a mile east, and as she walked into the woods she felt safe, more so than she had on open road. 

Sure that the school and the students there, as well as his friends were all safe, Logan began to walk back toward the house. He was almost there, when he smelled someone. The person was within fifty feet of him, and coming his way, so Logan found a tree to hide behind and waited. 

Heidi could see lights in the distant, and continued on not knowing that someone was waiting for her. Suddenly she found herself pulled against a firm solid body. A man’s arm wrapped around her chest, and his other arm squeezed around her neck.

As soon as he held this intruder, Logan realized by smell that this wasn’t a man. He moved the arm holding her around her stomach up, and what he felt confirmed what he already knew.

Heidi realized this man was holding her a little too long, and spoke up, “Was it good for you, I usually don’t let anyone get this far on a first date.” As soon as she said that, he released her from his grip. Heidi spun around, and found her face to face with a very handsome man.

“Who,” Logan paused for a moment, flustered that she had left him momentarily speechless. “What do you want?” he finally asked. 

“I’m here to find Jean Grey,” Heidi answered.

Logan wasn’t about to let her get anywhere near the mansion, and was about to tell her as much, when Jean herself walked over to them. “I’m Dr. Grey,” she said able to sense that this woman was frightened.