I Thought You Were Different: Part 6

Surprise

No matter how much you wanted it, and even with a very close friend who guarded the time stone itself, you couldn't make the clock slow down. A week passed by as if it were a minute; a month felt like an hour. Becca had been at Xavier's for just over that time now, and both Sam and Bucky were at their wit's ends and missing her terribly. There was still no definitive answer about Becca and if she truly had been the cause of Bucky and Steve's deterioration because they were still worsening without her having to be there with them. Bucky argued that if it wasn't making anything better then he wanted his daughter home for his last days, but Sam refused to tempt fate or anything that could make the process speed up at all. It was a continuous argument that was driving a wedge between them, and the stress was taking its toll on everyone.

When the call came in from the school that she was having problems that the professor found difficult to control, the information was kept from her parents so that damage control could be attempted first. Given the history that he himself had gone through around that same age, Grant was asked to visit the girl. If anyone understood the angst of parental issues, it was that particular young man.

"Becca, just talk to me, okay? I'm not here to tell you what to do, I want to help."

"Go home, Grant," she argued, "I never asked for help. I'm fine."

"Yeah, it sounds like you're great. I think the last straw was short circuiting Xavier's chair. Did you do that on purpose or was it just a hilarious accident?"

"Not directly...on purpose..." she scoffed, "I had to aim my energy somewhere and he was in the way."

"Hmm, yeah, sounds familiar. I set Grandpa's lab on fire when I was twelve."

"You did?"

Grant laughed as the images bounced through his memory, the true horror of the moment no longer holding the fear of the time. "Yeah, I sure did. Hormone changes really mess with powers, kiddo. Wait," he paused, pointing at her suspiciously, "is that what's going on here? Are you becoming a woman and...stuff?"

"Wow, Grant, are you serious?! I'm ten!"

"I don't know! Brooke was really young! You girls develop differently than guys do!"

"No, that's not it, alright, let's just drop it."

"Sure, consider that idea dropped," he relented, "but what I won't drop is that there's something going on Becca. I'm not here to gather data and submit a report back to your parents, I'm genuinely here to help, so let me."

Becca shook her head in denial of the idea, not wanting to engage and definitely not wanting to reveal a weakness here. She had been strong in her decision to leave the compound so that she could protect her dads, and if they found out that she was having a hard time then they might never trust her to make her own decisions again. On top of that, of all people, why did they have to send Grant? She wasn't as close to him as she was the others, given his time away with the Fantastic Four, and she was having difficulty connecting.

But maybe that was a good thing, she started to think; if they weren't that close, maybe she could give him an answer and make it convincing enough for him to buy it and leave.

"Listen, it's nothing, really," she finally began. "Erik doesn't know why my powers took off all of the sudden, and the only way that we've come up with to stop killing our dads is to shut them down. Erik and Charles are working on a bracelet for me to wear to block my ferrokinesis. I'll be just a normal kid. Nothing special at all."

"Oh, Becca, no," Grant jumped in, "that's not possible. You'll always be special, are you kidding? Just because your powers are put on hold it doesn't mean they're gone. It just means that you have to be a little more careful about when and where you use them, that's all. This sounds like a really good idea."