DISCLAIMER:
Recognisable characters = Marvel
Unrecognisable characters = Rhona Highet
No Permission = No money making
Maths lesson over = Beginning of story!

* * = thought/telepathy

Distribute freely without asking me because the answer is yes anyway. Make changes if you like just point out that the original text is mine! Make fun of it if you like BUT you have to e-mail me first. Don't change the title of this 'cause I happen to like it. Be happy!

It was now late October and the leaves on the trees outside the school were beginning to turn golden brown before falling on the cold concrete street. There was a cool wind blowing through the Massacussits Academy and Emma Frost, now 3 months pregnant, looked at the beautiful scene before her. She'd never really appreciated the beauty of this time before, nothing had ever interested her apart from money and power.

"You're a bad influence on me!" She joked to her stomach as she wandered over to the closet and continued to pack her bag. For reasons she didn't quite understand, she had decided to take Paige to London. Maybe she was getting soft in her old age or maybe she actually cared about the two students but either way, the situation had to be resolved. She just hoped that Paige wouldn't be hurt in the process.

There was nothing in her wardrobe that she really liked; business suits were not needed and somehow she didn't think she could walk around London semi-naked.

"Looks like we'll need to go shopping." Then she caught herself in the mirror. "Why am I talking to you? You're just a fetus. It's not like you really understand what I'm saying to you unless you are as intelligent as your father and have mastered linguistics already." She sighed and looked at the mirror again. The reflection of a woman in her mid thirties with sad blue eyes and an expressionless face looked back at her. For a moment Emma saw something she hoped she'd never see, her true self. "Okay, I admit it, I am lonely. I suppose you are the only real family I have."

Sean Cassidy normally didn't eavesdrop but on this occasion he had to. Emma, the cold hearted White Queen was actually admitting to being lonely. He felt, in a way, sorry for her. There was always someone for him but Emma didn't have that kind of security. Her parents, from what he had heard, were dead and the rest of the Frost didn't talk to each other. She only had herself and the baby, Hank was always too busy to spend time with them but Emma had always shrugged her shoulders and said it was fine because a cure for the legacy virus was more important. Somehow, Sean didn't think she had meant it but since this pregnancy had started Emma had been acting almost human.

"Em, are you okay?"

She nodded and patted the side of the bed as a gesture that he should sit there. He complied and sat next to her.

"What do you see in the mirror Sean?" He followed Emma's gaze to the full length mirror.

"I see you, I see me and the rest of the room." There was nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that seemed out of place. His attention turned back to his friend.

"I see a woman who's looks are fading and has nothing left. I see someone who's let her bitterness twist her and left her deformed. I don't like that person Sean." Tears ran down the side of her face as she thought about her life and how much pain she had inflicted for her own selfish reasons. Sean hugged her and patted her on the back. This was one of those times where he wished he had been around for his wife Maeve and daughter Theresa. After a few moments he looked at Emma's face.

"Now, there's no need for tears. Ye've got your little one to think about now. And I know for a fact that you are going to be a really good mother to this kid."

She looked up at him through red eyes. "How do you know?"

"If ye didn't care, then ye wouldn't be regretting everything. Ye also talk to the kid constantly, ever since ye told us about the pregnancy ye've been nattering to it non-stop." Emma giggled, she hadn't realized just how much she had been talking to her infant and she saw Sean smile at her as he got up to leave.

"Thanks Sean."

"And another thing, ye've never had a bad word to say about Hank or regretted that one night."

She sighed. "In some ways I would like it if Hank spent some time with us but I know how important finding a cure is to him and to everyone who is infected by it. I don't want to be selfish considering how much everyone is counting on him. We can wait, we'll always be here."

"Em, Hank's not the only doctor in the world. There are others trying to find a cure too. I think he should spend time with ye and the bairn before it's too late. Look at me and Terry. We hardly know each other, that's not how it should be."

Emma sighed. She hated seeing Sean and Theresa so far apart. They were family not strangers. Families should be together. "Sean, since Paige and I'll be going for a few weeks, why don't you invite Terry and James up. Then you could get to know your future son-in-law and have two perfectly adequate substitute teachers."

"Son-in-law?"

"I think they'll settle down one day and make you a grandfather!"

Sean raised an eyebrow, he'd always dreaded the thought of having Wade Wilson for a son-in-law but James was more than acceptable. "They'd make a great team. An' I would remind you that you are Maria's unofficial grandmother."

"Well, since Terry seems to be her adopted mother, that would make you her grandfather! Go and stick that in your pipe old man."

Both smiled and laughed at the thought of being grandparents.

"After I get you're walking stick, Granny!"

She threw a soft toy at him as he left the room. It was then that she noticed the time.

*Oooooooops.* She thought a little too loudly as Paige, who had just come from the girls' dorm looked at her. "Sorry Paige, Sean, eh, Mr Cassidy and I were just discussing substitute teachers. Are you ready to go?"

The blonde haired mutant just nodded, letting her golden hair fall over her face.

"Paige, one day you and Jono will look back at all this and laugh as you tell you're grandchildren about it."

Paige half smiled. "Ah don't think Jono an' Ah have a future." She replied solemnly. Emma cuddled the young girl.

*You will Paige, you will.*