X-Men: The Gifted Ones

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

One of the many places Jane enjoyed on the grounds of the Xavier mansion were the flower gardens. Planted around 100 years ago by a Xavier long since gone, the gardens boasted a variety of prize-winning flowers. Jane enjoyed the roses the most. She supposed she liked roses because they reminded her of home, reminded her of her grandmother's home, reminded her of childhood. They were the flower furthest from the stresses of war and wounded. Whenever she smelled roses, she felt like she was home. She loved to spend time in the well-tended rose gardens of the Xavier mansion before she would focus on her training. They were doing more group trainings now. Jane was always amazed at how much she could do, how much the recruits strengthened one another.

Of course, she still had the individual trainings. Neither of them mentioned what had taken place after Jane had had her flashback. She figured perhaps he had filed that into the part of his mind where he held the secrets people revealed when they were half asleep yet wide awake from fright. Perhaps he hadn't given them anymore thought. She tried not to, but even her mind at its most rational couldn't overrule her heart in this matter. She couldn't help wanting to be at his side.

She even had ideas for the family he could give her. She could scarcely believe how much time she had spent thinking about it.

She hated herself for feeling like a simpering schoolgirl when it came to him. She tried telling herself she was Captain Jane Tropp, she was a nurse, she had been through war and back. She wasn't the kind of woman who was reduced to sentimentality over a man.

It didn't work. She was still fundamentally human. She laughed at herself. She remembered how she had felt when she first arrived here, thinking the professor would be some dried up old man or some goofy-looking middle-aged mad scientist. She never expected the young, handsome man she had met. She never expected to fall in love, either. She wasn't the type to do that. She had never been much for romance, anyhow. She always felt there wasn't enough time for that. And now, in the last place she should have time for it, she found herself thinking and hoping for it. She found herself hoping her feelings weren't one-sided. She tried reminding herself that others had seen it, too, that Sway had even mentioned that their psychic energy was powerful after their sessions.

She remembered how it felt as she had slept chastely next to him after she had tried to absorb his pain one night. She felt like she could be in his arms every night. It was a love she had never felt before.

She had to keep herself from thinking about love. This was an assignment, this was a different war.

It was a war, alright...

"Penny for your thoughts, Captain Tropp?" a voice called.

She turned and found Charles wheeling himself toward her. "I thought you could read minds?" she grinned.

He shook his head, "Not unless it's necessary, and usually only with permission."

"So you're saying you won't pry into my thoughts?"

"No, many people would find it invasive. A violation of privacy. Humans are scared of mutants like me because of my telepathy."

"Hard to imagine anyone being scared of you."

"Same could be said as you," he winked. "You've been testing that new ability to some horrifying effects in training."

"I'm not OK with it," she confessed. "Although I know why you want me to do it. I'll be one more mutant to fear, won't I?"

"Yes," he told her. "It's hard to say what people fear most. Ones who clearly look different, ones who look like everyone else and could hurt people outright, or ones like me who blend in and can get into their minds."