Galatea

Galatea Chapter Forty Five (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...feeling better? InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are spiffy and shiny for archiving/hosting. ProPhile is now a BUSTY smutmuse. ;) Readers/Reviewers: only a few more to go then newness. * G* One day I'll make sense, I swear...


It was a new agent on Tuesday. Amara blinked and tried to look nonchalant as she sat across from the woman with the brilliantly red hair. "Where's Mister..."
"He could not make it," she cut her off stiltedly. "Now, upon closer examination of your papers Amara, we seem to have a problem."
"We do?" she asked with just a hint of a tremor in her voice. Her eyes slid to meet the Professor's, who looked calm as usual. "Did I forget to sign something?"
"The problem is," Agent Thomas said sharply, "you don't exist."
"I'm here...I must." She silently damned Kitty for whatever error it was that was now helping to close the net over her.
"No, you don't. On first examination, you do but when I delved deeper into your background, there is a six year gap starting at age seven. You seem to disappear off the face of the earth..." She looked over the edge of her sheaf of papers and smiled sourly. "Then here you are..."
"Here I am."
"One would think." Agent Thomas glanced at Professor Xavier and sighed. "You are aware of the penalties for harboring illegals, aren't you?"
"Keenly," he murmured, never wavering under her intense scrutiny.
"Right. Amara, you are fishy as all Hell. Your information is suspicious but what is killing me is I can't prove it."
Amara's spine straightened noticeably. "I'm sure it's an oversight on someone else's part that you don't have all of my pertinent information."
"Mmmm. I'm sure. And I'm sure that if I had a spare week, I could figure out who it was amongst your friends or your...instructors... it was that neglected to determine whether or not the background files they set up for you would hold up." She flipped her wrist to pass a piece of paper to Amara. "Everything checks on first look, as I said, except this. School records. Tell me, Amara. Where is Ouachita Parish?"1
"Don't you know?"
"How about Nacgodoches?"2I reI refer you to my previous response."
"Louisiana and Texas, respectively." She smiled in a most feline manner as she leaned across the table. "It was too perfect. It read like a file from the Witness Relocation Program." She took the paper back from Amara and proceeded to tear it into thin strips. "Too bad I lost it."
Amara's jaw dropped. "What are you doing?"
Professor Xavier vented a sharp laugh as Agent Thomas rolled the remaining papers up into a tube and closed her eyes. The file vanished into thin air. "We have to keep an eye out for our own, yes?"
Amara tried to look calm but she could only stare. "You..."
"We're everywhere dear. Try harder to keep a low profile in the future." Agent Thomas rose and smiled. "Good bye, Professor Xavier. Hopefully, I won't have to come out here again."

Sean sighed in preemptive defeat as Emma strode into the room. He steeled himself for the coming confrontation and was nearly disappointed when she kept on walking out the opposite door, not even glancing in his direction. _She thinks I'm going to follow her just because she's playing hard to get, she's got another think coming! _ He crossed his legs and flipped the sports section a little too hard to be casual and recommenced reading about the scores. The click of heels on parquet flooring announced Emma's return. _Ha. She thinks she'll get me this time. Not bloody likely! _ He peered over the top of the paper and felt a keen edge in his belly when he saw Forge following her into the study.
"Right here," she said, bending at the knees to point to a socket. "It was smoking when we had the lamp plugged in earlier."
Forge nodded. "Got it. Gimme ten minutes and we'll be good."
_She thinks I'll get jealous, seeing her talking to him. Right. I'm a grown man. I don't play games like that. _ He snorted softly, earning an odd look from the other two occupants of the room as he busied himself with the next section of the paper.
Emma took a seat next to where Forge knelt, pulling off the wall plate covering the wires to the socket. "I hear you're going to start teaching a shop class next semester."
"Yeah. Basic stuff... Hey, maybe you can put the word out and get some of the girls to sign up. Hate for them to miss out just because of some sexist ideals..."
The conversation took a turn for the political and Sean seethed. _This is ridiculous! Why should I give a damn if they have normal conversations without yelling or sexual tension? Wait...is there sexual tension? How do I tell? She doesn't seem to be interested in him, but how would I know for sure? I mean, it's not like... _ He paused mid-thought and realized Emma was staring at him. "Yeah?"
"I just asked if you had the Danger Room session today with the first years," she repeated, one brow raised in amusement.
"No," he answered shortly.
"Oooookay..." She shrugged and favored him with one last bemused, amused glance and returned to her conversation with Forge.
_I am not going to sit here and take this. Smoking socket, my ass... She made it up. Maybe he's in on it... She thinks I'm some malleable twit, rolling over so she can scratch my belly or feed me a treat... Bull shit. I'm a grown man and I don't have to take this! We slept together! So what? She's beautiful and smart and...and...damn it! Think of something else! _ Emma's silvery laughter broke his reverie. "That's it!" he cried, throwing down the paper and lurching to his feet. Emma and Forge stared at him as if he had lost his mind, which, he thought dimly, he must have. "Enough, Emma! I'm a grown man and don't need this! We're going out tonight, on a date! Be ready at six!"
Emma remained silent until the door slammed behind Sean. "Odd little man, isn't he?"
"Yeah," Forge smirked. "But he fell for it..."
1 Wa-shee-taw
2 nack-a-dough-chis