Unwilling Weapon

The Boss Lady

The next morning, Annie was surprised to find that she wasn't the first one up. There was a full pot of coffee ready just before dawn — and Logan was in his usual spot reading the paper.

Kurt wasn't far behind him, and Storm had been through just before Annie and Scott. Annie did feel a little bad when Scott went right for the coffee with his shoulders slightly slumped — she hadn't slept except fitfully toward the end of the night, and that meant he hadn't gotten much sleep either. It had just... been so long since she'd done anything but teach little Alaskan five- and six-year-olds, and this was such a big change. She wanted to get this right. This was Scott's home, and his school, and she wanted the whole thing to be perfect.

Scott pressed a cup of coffee into her hand before he filled a second cup for himself, and she sat down at the table with her notes for her first class in her hands as she read over them for about the third time already that morning. She had a list of the children in her class as well as pictures with their faces, and she was determined to know every single one of them as they came in.

"You'll do fine. They'll love you," Scott promised her for the fifth time since they'd left their bedroom when he saw the worried expression on her face, and she just let out a breath and kissed his cheek but didn't say anything else.

Breakfast passed far too quickly for her tastes, and she found herself all but holding her breath as she got to her classroom and set up shop early, smiling brightly at each student filing in and, mercifully, managing to get every single one of their names right as they sat down in their seats — and relishing the look of pleasant surprise on their faces when they realized the new teacher knew them.

By lunchtime, "Miss Annie," as she still preferred to be called by her students, was slightly less of a ball of pure stress, though she simply ate a quick bite in her classroom and took the opportunity to peek in on one of the other classes, curious to see how the other teachers conducted their classes at the school and to see if she was doing this right — no matter how many meetings she'd had with an ever-patient Storm to make sure she had the right idea.

The history class caught her attention, and she slipped into a seat in the back, half-curious to see if Logan even had anything prepared after coming so late — though she was pleasantly surprised.

By the time they were ten minutes into the class, Annie was just as enthralled as the other students as Logan started them off in World War I, with far more detail than Annie had expected, and by the second half of the class, the students were asking questions for a Q & A that had her raising her eyebrows at all the specifics he was able to give so readily with no notes in front of himself.

Clearly, he knew what he was doing. In fact, she had thoroughly enjoyed herself the entire time, and she was even surprised when the class was over at how quickly the time had passed and had to rush back to her own classroom — now slightly less stressed as she felt confident the students were in good hands.

By the end of the day, Annie was in a great mood. She'd remembered every student's name, the kids seemed to honestly enjoy her more interactive approach to teaching, and she'd been able to sit in on both Logan's lecture and a literature lecture from Storm that had Annie wishing she was a student again just to take some of these classes.

Of course, with no stress and adrenaline keeping her upright, this also meant she was entirely exhausted, and she made it just long enough to get through dinner and gush to anyone who asked about how amazing this school was and how lucky she was to be part of it before she simply went up to her room and crashed contentedly.

..................

Noh had gotten a message from SWORD about a follow up briefing from the debacle of a mission he'd purposefully botched in Antarctica, so that afternoon, he dropped by after Jubilee's class to give her a quick kiss and tell her where he was going.