Ethereal | (X-Men: First Class)

7. Introduction

The action of introducing something; a formal presentation of one person to another, in which each is told the other's name.

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"So, you're Charles's little sister?" Marianne asked with surprise. She never would have guessed - Charles seemed too much like an only child.

"If anything, I'm his adopted sister," Raven said with a grin. "But we're more like childhood friends who've always lived together."

"What are the chances of that?" Darwin laughed. "Adopting another mutant!"

"You're lucky, you got to meet another mutant early on," Sean said almost enviously. He glanced at Marianne. "Or you knew you had met another."

"I told you, I showed you when we first met," Marianne said. "It isn't my fault you forgot. And I could say the same about you."

Raven laughed, but it sounded a bit forced. "Yeah. Lucky."

Marianne stared at her, brows furrowed in concern. Raven met her eyes, gave a smile that wasn't really a smile, and looked away.

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"A son?"

Marianne nodded. "Yes, he's twelve. He is staying with some friends while I am here."

"What's his name?" Raven asked eagerly.

"Henry Schulman," Marianne said. "He has my husband's last name."

"And you don't?" Angel questioned. Sean shot her a look. Angel glared right back when she noticed.

Marianne shrugged. "I started using my maiden name again after he died. My last name still is Schulman, but I prefer Ouellet." She smiled a little sadly. There had been too many memories attached to the name Schulman for her to keep using it. Her last name was still legally Schulman, however, as it would have made things too complicated to have a different last name than Henry.

"I wouldn't have pegged you as a mom," Angel said, clearly sensing this was a sensitive topic. "You don't seem like one."

Sean laughed and Angel shot him another look. Marianne gave him a look as well and he stopped laughing, though he was clearly still smiling as he drank his soda.

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"A stripper?" Marianne repeated, barely managing to keep the horror out of her voice.

"It pays the bills, and I'm good at it," Angel said, sounding a bit defensive.

"I get it," Darwin said. "You have to do what you have to do. I was a cab driver before I got here. That's how Charles and Erik found me. They got into my cab and told me to drive them all the way to Richmond. We were in New York."

This diverted into a conversation about what they had all been doing when Charles and Erik had come to find them. Alex was cagey about his answer, whereas Sean happily told everyone about bringing his little sister to the aquarium. Hank described how Charles had accidentally exposed him when they met, as Hank worked with the CIA even before their arrival. Raven sighed and rolled her eyes when Marianne described the men's almost predatory arrival in her store. But even as the conversation continued to flow, she kept glancing at Angel. The girl was only nineteen, and she had been a stripper. Marianne was no stranger to sex workers; she had grown up in the Depression and had witnessed many prostitutes in her neighbourhood trying to make ends meet. Had Angel chosen to become a stripper? Or had she become one because she had no other choice?