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A New Hope: Chapter Six

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From the journal of Hope Chandler:

There are times I wonder if I had made the right choice, in coming to work here. It's been two weeks since I've started and have found that while I fit, there is still a small resentment between the students and myself, though I do enjoy the students, I believe they hold my normalcy against me. None are compared to Mr. Logan though. I have never seen a less mature man in my life, not ever Dr. Felson, my teacher in my first year in Charity, who I remember as being a total jerk, is nothing like Mr. Logan. The man can be helpful, cold, indifferent, all of these are infuriating to me, which I believe he takes great delight in being. I do enjoy the company of Ororo, the only other female instructor here. I spent a school day working with her in the small green house she keeps, and enjoyed myself immensely. Mike would be proud of me. Hank also is a wonderful part of working here. He has helped with cleaning the hospital, which finally is organized, and we argued theories of environmental protection at dinner once and confused everyone. Always fun. Yet, for all of the distractions there are, here my theories are taking flight, I've had another article publish, with my latest, that the X-gene is a double recessive gene. I don't have solid evidence, but after studying the genetic background of the some the students here all of them have recessive traits, being it eyes, hair, skin tone, it's incredible!

Hope looked up from her journal, something seemed odd in her room. Billie Holiday was still playing on the portable stereo, the outside hallway was active with students staying up late on their Saturday night, and no metal objects were threatening her life. She really believed she was paranoid, there had been no attacks since the scalpel incident, of course Logan was still lodged right next door, which ticked off Hope immensely. Hope turned back to her journal and the window shattered, sending Hope to her feet. A Frisbee had flown in. Hope picked it up and leaned out of the window, "Wolfsbane!" The young girl came walking under the window, looking guilty, "How many times have I told you not to throw this towards the house? Even the Professor has talked to you about it."

"Sorry, Doc," everyone had picked up a Logan's little nick name for Hope, "Sudden wind caught it, can I have it back?" Hope threw it, just as Logan kicked in her door, claws drawn, another occurrence Hope had gotten use to.

"Hello, Mr. Logan, just Wolfsbane again," Hope said, carefully avoiding the broken glass. Logan slipped his claws home and studied that damage, "You can either schedule another visit from the glassier, or you can call Forge."

"Why is it always your window?" He asked, walking over to look at the damage.

"Because the wind here blows towards my window," Hope said, returning to her seat and carefully sliding the pen home in her journal. She would wait out Logan before she started writing again.

"My window is in the same wind pattern," Logan was talking more to himself then to Hope, which suited her fine. There was nothing better for her than to study him, when he was lost in thought. It was easy to tell he was thinking, and frustrated, his eyes were darker and the left corner of his lip was pulled back. Hope found her eyes lingering on his lips, just a spilt second too long, and hauled herself back. There is no way I'm actually enjoying his presence, Hope thought, there is no possible way. But there was something about the way he stood there, hands confidently place on the windowsill, Hope jumped to her feet.

"Logan, get your hands off the window, that's covered in broken glass," Hope ran over and pulled Logan's hand off the sill, looking at the wounds on there.

"I'm touched that you're concerned Doc, but I'm fine," Logan said, watching Hope as she watched his wounds heal over in a matter of seconds.

"That's incredible, I mean," Hope looked up at him, simple doctoral pleasure at healing written all over her face, "If your X-gene could be found, and then if we could genetically alter humans, there'd be no death!" Hope let go of his hand and went racing for her tape recorder, "Have you ever had any colds, flues, even the chicken pox?" Hope asked, pressing record and turning back towards Logan.

"I don't want to be part of your study Doc," Hope was a little thrown off by his serious look, but that had never stopped her before.

"Mr. Logan, I just want to ask you a few questions. Your powers could save hundreds of lives," Hope pressed on, she couldn't force the students to help, but surely it wouldn't cost her, her job if she tried to persuade Logan.

"How Doc? You're going to have to run test if you want to use me for science, and I'm not sitting still for any test."

"Mr. Logan.."

"You called me Logan a few seconds ago," He interrupted, one eyebrow raised in defiance, or it seemed to be defiance from Hope's point of view.

"Are you going to help me if I call you Logan?" Hope countered, raising her chin and extra inch because it seemed to be needed when facing down Logan.

"No."

"Alright then, Mr. Logan, have you ever had any type of illness?" Hope tried again stepping closer, tape player held out towards Logan. "Any bad vision, weak joints, or other disabilities?"

"Doc, I'm not going play along with your little project," Logan said with a shake of his head.

"You've been guarding me because of my little project, Mr. Logan, you are playing along so why don't you just continue?" Hope trumped him, and the little flash of realization that crossed Logan's face made Hope' victory all the sweeter. "So, Mr. Logan, about those questions." Hope was deeply infuriated when Logan just shook his head and side stepped around her.

"Oh, the cold shoulder," Hope said and turned, grabbing Logan's arm as he passed past her, it startled her when Logan turned like lightning, and grabbed her shoulders in a vice like grip.

"I don't like doctors, or questions, Doc. I don't like your kind either, so are you going to push your luck?" His voice was like venom, and even though Hope was slightly afraid, she could match that venom.

She curled her hands in to his shirt, pulling herself level with Logan's eyes, "I'm working on getting people, like me, to understand your kind, Logan, so why don't you sit down and help?" It was swift, surprising and not that bad, Hope would later think when Logan pressed her into a kiss. In surprise Hope released her grip on his shirt, and in that instant of release, Logan pushed her away. Hope watched him stumbling backwards, caught totally unaware. The glass on the floor jumped with the force of the closing door, but Hope closed her eyes slowly. She was shaken, completely to the bone by the action. For Logan the act of a kiss was incredibly personal, he wasn't a personal man. Steeling herself Hope pulled herself up, she wasn't going to go after Logan, he'd enjoy seeing her so thrown. Hope sat back down in her chair and picked up her journal, work erases everything. Of course work didn't block out the sensation of Logan's lips against her, how his fingers had tightened their already vice grip, God it was just as infuriating as the rest of him. Hope slammed her journal on the floor, and jumped to her feet, picking up the dropped tape recorder, she ejected the tape and tossed it in the box with the others, the tape recorder went with it. Hope dragged her hand through her hair, looking towards the window, damn window. Hope moved her hand from her hair to the space between her eyes, she had a head ach now. As good as an excuse as any, Hope thought downing a Advil, she crawled into bed and spent the time before she slipped into sleep thinking about how many ways she could kill Logan and not get caught.

~**~

Hope wasn't exactly sure what woke her, but suddenly she was awake and someone was in her room. Hope had a deep sense of person space and there was definitely someone in the bed room with her, but Hope stayed still. If she opened her eyes, bolted forward the person would bolt, and Hope wasn't sure she could catch them, instead Hope slowly slid her hand towards the night stand next to her bed, as if she was just moving in her sleep. The glass she had used earlier in the evening was still there, if she could get it, hit the person with her, she might make it to Logan's room down the hall. Moving as quickly as she could, Hope grabbed the glass, and followed her gut, throwing the glass to the right corner of the room.

"Ow, ow," Hope jumped out of the bed , reaching for the lamp, if Logan arrived at the sound of the breaking window, he better respond to the lamp. A long, green, tongue closed around the lamp and pulled it out of Hope's grip, "Nope, sorry lady. Stay where you are."

"Okay," Hope paused, and started the question reluctantly, "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Naw, your aim sucks," the voice answered, but Hope was thinking about where Logan was.

"Good, I don't like violence," Hope was actually looking for her next weapon, there wasn't much. "Do you have a name?" When the voice stayed quiet Hope smiled, she could feel the reluctance of the person in her room, "Mine's Hope, most people around her call me Doc, you can call me that if you like." Hope moved to look at the corner, trying to make out a form in the shadows, if someone was there they were crouched down, sitting like a frog.

"Eh, why don't you keep quiet, I don't think you should be talking." He was nervous about her talking, well Hope would just keep at it.

"Oh I don't think anyone will hear me, I've got this hallway to myself, you know? I don't think Charles wants me near the students, I'm doing a study on them you know? What about you, are you a mutant?" Hope jumped from the bed as the door to the bedroom collapsed inward and Logan was thrown in, the same over weight teenager was standing in the doorway. Hope could see that her box marked junk was missing, and she lunged towards the door. Something wrapped around Hope's ankle and pulled her down. Hope tried to swing her leg around, connect to her captive, but her ankle was released. Logan grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet.

"Let's go guys!" and the house started to move underneath Hope's feet, she grabbed Logan to steady herself, and he help her steady.

"What's going on?" She yelled over the rumbling.

"You've been attacked," Logan said as the shaking stopped, "I'm going after them."

"Logan, everyone's awake now, listen," Hope paused and she could hear the confusion and sleep in the voices that drifted from the hallway, "Let's see what they've taken." Hope pushed away from him and ran into the room, instantly diving for her boxes, the few that remained packed still. She began frantically opening them, looking for anything remaining of her project, even the damn tape recorder was taken.

"What's going on?" Charles was in the door with the students standing behind him.

"The Brotherhood broke in," Logan said, instantly taking charge, "Through the window that was broken earlier in the evening. I heard more glass shatter this evening, and came in to find Avalanche and Blob standing guard."

"What's gone, Hope?" Charles asked, moving further into the room.

"My notes, all of them, not even my back up disk, which I kept in a different box," Hope said, getting to her feet.

"We have to act quickly," Charles said, but Hope stepped forward.

"You are not going to actually attack them for this?" She asked, following those who joined Charles as they moved down the hallway.

"Your notes are important to you aren't they Doc?" Logan asked, "We're just going to get them back."

"But we don't have to do it with a full frontal assault," Hope jogged a bit and stopped in front of everyone, "Why don't we give them a taste of their own medicine?"

"What do you mean Hope?" Charles asked along with the murmurs from the gathered students.

"I show up at their front door, with some enforcement, Mr. Logan, or you Professor, we could bring cops raise hell, and while we're doing this, Kurt and someone else look through the house find the box and come back," Hope explained, pleading with them, "If you attack out right the box and it's contents could be destroyed, I don't want that, nobody does."

"She's right Charles," Logan said, and Hope was surprised there was a slight smile and look of. admiration, yes admiration in his eyes.

"Alright, Logan and I will go with you, Kurt, Kitty, you'll wait for my signal to Jean. Alright, act quickly." Hope nodded, and Hope followed quickly not hesitating to jump into the limo with no shoes on, in sweat pants and a Yankees jersey. Logan was just in jeans, and Charles was in a robe, it didn't matter to anyone. God, my research, Hope thought, keeping an outward appearance of calm. If she lost it here, she didn't think she could make a large enough fuss for the Brotherhood. It didn't take long to get to the house, or what could barely be called a house in Hope's opinion. The place was run down, decrepit and falling apart at the seems, Hope was ready to raise hell.

She jumped from the car and didn't bother to knock on the door, "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU FREAKS!" She screamed, loud enough to shake the roof, or at least the floors above her. There was no way they could deny not being awake, every light in the house was on.

"What?" a girl, blonde hair came down the stairs, Hope would have lunged, or at least faked it if Logan hadn't put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"She wasn't there," He said, put Hope was mad as the Furries and wasn't about to let anyone stop that.

"What did you do with the stuff your friends stole from me?" Hope asked, voice low and dangerous.

"The boys were out late partying, badger, who's she?" The girl asked, looking sleepily at Logan.

"Boom-boom, we're looking to talk with the boys," Logan said, and Hope pretended to struggle so she could get at this Boom-boom.

"Alright, alright, hold on," She said, putting her hands together Hope watched a small ball of yellow light form, then explode in her hands. That got the house going, the first down the stairs was nothing more the a blur, the second was a tall boy, no more that sixteen, with brown hair that fell into his eyes, next came a hopping boy with skin that was slightly green.

"It's you!" Hope yelled, breaking free of Logan's hold on her shoulder she went for the boy, "You sat there in the corner and watched me sleep!"

"Toad, what is she talking about?" Boom-boom asked as Hope continued to follow the boy who was jumping out of the way.

"You broke into the mansion, all of you," Charles said as he joined the chaos in the house, everyone was assembled down stairs. Hope snagged Toad's ankle and pulled him down, with a strength she didn't know she had.

"Woah, Doc," Toad began.

"HA! I told you my nick name was Doc back at the Institute, gotcha!" Hope yelled, keeping Toad pinned by the shoulders and pressing on a little nerve the doctors use on occasion to subdue a patient. Toad's shoulder was in intense pain if Hope knew what she was doing, and she did.

"You.you can't prove anything," the sixteen brown haired kid said, stepping towards Hope, Logan stepped towards him.

"Of course we can Lance," Charles said, "We have cameras all over the Institute, if was catch you on film along with Logan's eyewitness report, we can have to police here to do a search."

"And if you run towards those stairs, speedy," Logan drew his claws, and pointed them towards a kid who was extremely thin with silver-white hair.

"You can't," The boy said quickly, "You tell the cops, how you gonna explain everything?"

"We've got it on film," Hope growled, still holding down Toad, "Why don't you be nice and give me back my things, we don't want any trouble."

"Yeah, guys why don't we give her back her things?" Toad was obviously worried about the insane look that had flashed into Hope's eyes. The action was unexpected and Hope was to startled to fight as she was lifted off Toad. With a threatening growl from Logan Hope was gently set on her feet, she calmly walked to stand next to Charles and watch everyone with a suspicious eye.

"Look, we don't have your stuff, okay?" Lance said, though Hope highly doubted it, "Or at least not anymore, Mystique's got it."

"And where is she?" Logan asked,

"Long gone," Charles said, "Come on, Hope, Logan, we've done all we can." Hope was the last out the door and made sure to slam it with the force of a tornado, and slammed the limo door with the same force. Taking three deep breaths Hope exploded in laughter. She didn't mind that both Charles and Logan were looking at her like she had lost her mind, it was worth it.

"The look on his face," Hope explained when laughter wasn't fighting through, "Toad's or what ever they were calling him, he actually thought I'd hurt him."

"You looked like you were," Charles commented dryly.

"Oh, no, Mr. Xavier, I'm a pacifist, I just subdued him," Hope wiped away a single tear, "Did Kurt or Kitty get the box?" Hope asked suddenly serious.

"They got what looked to be the correct box, you can go through it when we get back." Charles studied Hope, "That was a very clever plan you came up with, Doctor."

"Oh," Hope blushed, "I guess being a pacifist has forced me to think creatively." Hope was out of the car before Logan had pulled to a stop. She raced up the steps and into the main area, the box marked junk was sitting there waiting. Without a second though Hope dropped to her knees and ripped it open. There were the multi colored disk with her reports, the tapes, the recorder, but, "Was there a lap top?" Hope asked, looking up at Kitty and Kurt, who she had been ignoring.

"No, there wasn't, or at least I didn't see it," Kitty said, looking over at Kurt for confirmation.

"No, not computer." Kurt gave a shrug and shook his head.

"What was on the laptop, Doctor?" Charles asked as he joined in the conversation and the entrance hall.

"Notes, transcripts of the tapes, personal thoughts on all the information I had, medical notes, almost all of my finished work," Hope listed, ticking off the points on her fingers.

"Was anything incredibly important in that computer?" Charles asked, coming to look over Hope's shoulder into the boxes.

"Yes, there were valuable research notes, stuff I hadn't moved to disk yet," Hope stood and looked down at the box with a scowl. She had just gotten those notes from the Internet, and needed them to start the next part of her theories.

"I'm not sure if we can get the laptop back, Hope." Charles was studying Hope, but Hope was focused on her work. Her out line for the third article was on there, and that had not been moved. Without those notes Hope would have to remember them, which might not be as hard as it sounds, but going through her tomes of medical books would waste time, time that she had wanted to use for getting solid medical evidence.

"It's alright, I can make up the missing work," Hope started to chew on her nail, another bad habit she had gained while working at Charity. "Thank you for all your help though, I'm grateful to have some of my work back."

"Logan, would you mind coming with me to my office, I'd like to hear about what happened from your point of view." Charles said, looking away from Hope over to Logan.

"Elf, Half-pint, go to bed," Logan ordered before walking off with Charles.

Hope smiled at both students, "Thank you once again, both of you."

"Can't we stay up and help you, Doc?" Kurt asked, looking hopeful.

"No, better listen to Mr. Logan, I don't want him mad at me, and I know neither of you want him mad at you," Hope insisted. She waited until they had climb the stairs and gone their separate ways before letting off a long string of creative curses. It wasn't her personally that was threatened, he had gone for her work, he life for the past five years, that was very, very evil to her. Hope hefted the box and walked back into her room, fuming still. Tossing the box down Hope pulled out her large note pad, a pen, and the biggest book she had on genetic and DNA. Hefting the large book she walked into the kitchen and turned on the small over table light. She had been continuing her research on the double recessive theory, it needed more ironing out, the editor of the medical journal had pointed out a few short comings, and Hope was determined to fix them. Taking a soda from the fridge Hope sat down to work late into the night.

~**~

Logan watched Charles as he was framed by the night, it was easy to tell he was tense. There were a lot of things that made Charles tense, always it was connected with his dream. "She's got her notes," Logan guessed at the topic of Charles current discomfort.

"It's not the missing notes that bother me, Logan," Charles said, turning towards Logan, his brow furrowed in a tight slanted line. "It's what Magneto might do with them."

Logan mused on that before shaking his head, "The doc said that it was notes, medical stuff, Magneto might not be able to read it for all we know."

"You know as well as I do that Magneto is smart enough to figure it out. Why would he want the notes this badly, why didn't he try this first, Logan? Why attack Hope out right before stealing what he really wanted?" Charles drummed his fingers on the arm of his wheelchair.

"Who says he really wants the notes?" Logan offered, sitting on the arm of the large leather couch. Though he agreed with Charles he had to offer the other side, if only to help Charles think everything out.

"Would you send the team to watch over a room if what was in with wasn't what you really wanted?" Charles countered, his drumming fingers the only noise in the room.

"We need to know what was on the lap top, in depth, not just the glazed description the doc gave us," Logan said after a while.

"Ask her to make a list," Charles said, "Her minds sharp and she'll remember a lot of what she wrote."

"Get her to start on it tomorrow," Logan said, getting to his feet.

"She's awake, talk to her now. She's in the kitchen." Charles made no comment to Logan's disgruntled shrug as he left, but the little smile didn't stay long. He wanted to find out Magneto's motives, now, before he went back to attacking Hope.

~**~

Hope could have sworn she read the same line of words three times and it had yet to make sense to her. She understood there were four acids in DNA, she understood that only two opposing DNA's could match together, what she didn't get was her own theory. If the X-gene was a mistake in the joining of a certain DNA strand why wasn't there a more serious mutation? The there was the hetrozygote and homozygote gene parings, which if the parents of the mutant were all dominate gene parings, a dominate homozygote mix, how would the child have the double recessive genes needed for the X-gene. God, Hope's head hurt from thinking about it. DNA hadn't been her best subject when she was in Biology in college. Now her theories hinged on her understanding it. I'll get Hank to help me, Hope thought, trying to understand the diagram that the book said was helpful. It wasn't, but it didn't matter, Hope could wait until morning for Hank help, hell maybe the students could understand this better than she could.

"Here," Hope jumped back as a mug was placed under her nose, she looked up at Logan, a little of surprise and suspicion in her eyes, "It's not poisoned." Hope took the mug and leaned back in her chair, breathing in the coffee, even though it was cold, it was coffee.

"How can I help you, Mr. Logan?" Hope asked, slowly drinking the cold brew.

"Not me, Doc, Professor needs a list of everything, in detail of what you had on the computer," Logan said, standing just outside the circle of light cast by the single lamp.

"Oh lord, I've got a memory, but I'm not sure how much I can give you," Hope looked down at the six sheets of notes she had managed without an eraser.

"It'll come back to you," Logan muttered, tossing down the last of his coffee, "You can take the room I was using if you want."

"Why?" Hope had yet to see what was wrong with her room, but then she remembered seeing the room when she had gone to see what was missing, her room had been in shreds, "How long were you fighting with them for?"

"Good ten, you slept through most of it," Logan smiled, well it was more of a smirk.

"What woke you then, I thought it was the glass I threw at Toad." Hope closed her book, sliding the pad of paper to keep her spot.

"Wasn't asleep," His answer caused Hope to look over his shoulder at the clock, it was just reaching three.

"It was two maybe one o'clock in the morning, you have insomnia often?"

"I'm not your patient Doc, lay off." Logan looked away from her, and the new angle of light that played over his face showed he hadn't slept well for awhile.

"Well, everyone here's under my care, do you want something to help you sleep, something mild?" Hope offered, even if Logan bothered her she wasn't going to refuse treatment to anyone.

"Mild isn't gonna work, you're wasting your time, Doc."

"If you ever need anything medical Logan, don't hesitate to ask, though I think you will," Hope added, watching him walk out of the kitchen. Hope wasn't going to take his room, she'd sleep in the bed given her and wait until the room was repaired. If Magneto wanted to steal her notes, she'd defend them, and silently she told him so.