Surprise For A Feral

Training Days

"You can't put her on a team, Scott," Jean told him in no uncertain terms. He didn't answer her, but kept reviewing the footage. "I'm serious. Someone will get killed." Scott seemed to ignore her as he kept replaying the same spot over and over. It wasn't even anything that looked that interesting.

K was leaning on a car, her head was tipped back and her face skyward while gunfire sounded off rapidly. She'd closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, it was like a different person down there.

"I'm just trying to see ..." Scott muttered, drifting off, entirely wrapped up in his search. "She agreed when she went into the Danger Room that she wouldn't kill unless necessary. Yet," he gestured at the screen without further explanation as the playback showed K - stony faced as she plugged round after round into the robot's heads without any hesitation or attempt to incapacitate them.

"Something's wrong here," he told her as he reset the clip for what felt like the hundredth time.

She sighed heavily, the sound one of someone who had been through this dozens of times before as she slid closer to him again. She leaned her head on his shoulder as she again watched the new woman on screen. She'd quit watching it long before he'd reached this point, but decided to humor her husband and watch it one. Last. Time.

When Scott knew she was paying attention, he zoomed in on K's face as she leaned her head back. And this time when K opened her eyes on the playback, Jean finally saw it.

She straightened up abruptly and Scott's hand slid down her back as she did. "There. I see it now," Jean said as she paused the review. "We may be able to fix that. It's the programming, Scott. Brainwashing ... subliminal suggestions ... who knows what else until I can get in and look. But it's clear that whatever they did, they did it so she'd kill. I may be able to tweak that," she said thoughtfully as she started to ponder how to approach Logan's little lover. "Logan worked through this same kind of thing when he came here, and I don't think she realizes what's happening. She may not even know she's doing this."

"That's because Logan's training was his real life experiences and took him decades. Hers was probably just jammed into her brain like she was a computer," Scott reasoned out. "Isn't that what you said when you and Charles had a look?" She nodded her head in agreement. Scott leaned back and sighed before he raised his arms over his head and stretched.

"She'll want to think about it," Jean said thoughtfully. "But I think I'll let Logan bring it up. We'll have better luck that way."

"She could be one hell of an asset, if we can help her out," Scott said offhandedly.

Jean smiled as she turned to her husband. "You think she's cute, don't you?" she said as she teased him.

He shrugged a bit and smirked. With a little laugh, he rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head at the ground a moment. "Does me no good to lie, does it?" he said with a grin as Jean started to laugh.

"No. Not to me anyhow," she told him before she slipped onto his lap and kissed him.

He almost stopped her then thought better of it, instead following her lead as she telekinetically locked the door of the war room.

Ororo found K in the barn. She'd taken it on herself to care for the animals since she'd started to get her strength back. When she walked up on her, the miniscule woman had a large coppery mare in the cross ties and was brushing out her mane.

"The horses seem to like you," Ro said conversationally as she slipped into the barn. She made sure to close out the cold wind behind her. K smiled at her weakly in greeting. The barn had become where she would hide when she needed time to herself when she was down.