X-Men: The Gifted Ones

9. FLOWER GARDENS, XAVIER MANSION, WEST CHESTER, NY

Charles had to do more than train his new recruits. He needed to know them, he needed them to know each other. They needed to see one another as individuals, as people, as more than just someone at the training school. He would try to meet with them individually, in small groups, and as an entire group.

He found himself anticipating time alone with Jane. She fascinated him. She was a rare kind of mutant. She was an altruistic empath, her powers were driven by a genuine need to help others, rather than benefitting herself. He could see no benefit for her in her powers. If she were to use her powers, she would have to suffer as a result.

It didn't seem to bother her. In fact, he noticed she seemed to expect it, she accepted it.

She was becoming too tense in their meetings in his office and he hoped that a meeting in the flower gardens would help her relax a little. He told her to dress casually, hoping she would shed some of her military formality and relax. He had set up a small lunch at one of the picnic tables through the garden. He laughed at himself. It felt almost like a date. He hoped he would not give her the wrong idea of his intentions. As much as he had come to adore and admire her, love was not something he wished to partake. Some paths were closed to him for good. She reminded him too much of what he had lost, and he couldn't fill his head with hopes that someone like her would ever accept him as he was. She deserved a man who would give her a real marriage, a house full of children.

He had to keep himself from wanting her.

He waited patiently for her in the garden. He was not surprised when she showed up as a casually-dressed version of herself, as if she were attending a church picnic instead of a training class. He concluded that the military need for presentation would never fully leave her. She was always going to be meticulously tailored. Then again, so was he.

"Hello, Jane," he greeted her cheerfully. "I hope you arrived hungry."

"I hadn't had lunch yet, so thank you," she smiled, sitting down across from him.

"I wanted to know more about your powers," he began. "You have to know, I'm interested in any mutation I come across, especially one like yours. Anything you tell me will help me understand more about people like us."

"OK," she replied.

"Did you always know you had this power?"

She shrugged as she made a plate for herself. "I don't know, I guess in a way, I did, even if I couldn't always describe it. I liked making people feel better. I always wanted to be a nurse, even as a little girl, it just seemed so natural to me. I seemed to always want to take care of people. I never understood why, but people seemed to feel better when I was around. I thought it was because I would do the usual, you know, chicken noodle soup, or sitting with them. I didn't realize that contact with me was what was helping them feel better. I didn't know I was doing anything special until I was in Vietnam."

"You're what is known as an altruistic empath," he told her. "It's another form of mutation."

"What does it mean?"

"It means you sense others' pain and wish to take care of it, make it stop. It's no wonder you are a nurse. You can feel their pain, you can also take it away, yet it doesn't seem to benefit you any, does it?"

"I don't understand."

"Most mutations benefit the mutant in some way. Some can absorb energy, and it can enhance their powers. Some can steal another mutant's powers. Some mutants can heal themselves. I've yet to meet one who can heal others. I knew it was always possible, and here you are."