Chapter 13: Do I Speak to a Subject or a King? part 6

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Harry woke up slowly the next morning to small hands smacking his face lightly and a voice gurgling. He also felt a small weight on his chest and what certainly felt like drool pulling on his chest.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked at Franklin laying on his chest, playing with a few of the rips in his crysis suit and gurgling happily at him. Harry smiled gently at the toddler, reaching up with one hand to ruffle Franklin's hair. "Hey little buddy, how're you doing?"

The baby giggled even more happily, trying to grab Harry's nose which Harry was wrinkling at him. "How did you get out of your crib this time hmm?"

Franklin giggled and suddenly was about a foot above Harry's chest. Before he could drop Harry caught him easily, and got to his feet. "Ah, I see, what a clever little man you are."

He lifted Franklin up to one shoulder and used a mild sticking charm to make him stay there, though part of Harry was wondering if Franklin's odd powers, which he didn't have much of a handle on just yet, could break the charm if he wanted to move strongly enough. "Well Franklin I think we should let Madame Harkness sleep in a bit, what about you?"

Franklin giggled again, smacking Harry on the head in what he decided to take as agreement. Harry nodded and the two adjourned to the baby room, where Harry spent the next few hours playing with the toddler.

His mind was only partly on that however, the rest was spent analyzing himself and his core as well as the battle last night. The battle had been trying, yet with both Selene and Harry constrained in the damage they could do to their surroundings, (for very different reasons, Harry just didn't want to cause a lot of collateral damage, Selene didn't want to damage the array) and the fact Selene never realized until the last moment she was outmatched, the battle hadn't truly been difficult. And that was a little worrisome.

Selene had a breadth of magical spells that was amazing and her power was far more than Voldemort's, in fact I feel safe to say Selene would have wiped the floor with Tommy boy. Dumbledore might have given her more trouble, a battle between magic users normally comes down to control than to anything else but even there Selene would have killed old twinkly eyes in short order. And I was able to fight her on an even footing. I knew my reflexes and skills had grown in the Negative zone, but I am still getting used to my new magical strength. Hell even after reinforcing my body I don't think I used up half of my core. Physically I was exhausted, but magically I was nowhere near my limits.

When this whole thing with meeting Stane tomorrow is over I've got to get a handle on my magical strength. The numbers and impressions I've got so far mean nothing to me. I need to know what I am and am not capable of, and start to experiment with simply wielding my magical power sans spells. Spells are all well and good to focus my power especially for small detail things, but they are also limiting in scope. If I could have simply commanded my magic to do what I wanted I wouldn't have needed to spend all that time writing down those one shot runes to help create my capture spell.

Agatha found them there when she woke up, startled to not have been woken up earlier by her young charge. She watched them for a time before speaking. "So, why exactly were you and your young ladies so exhausted last night, young Potter?"

Harry smiled faintly. "We had a bit of an issue of the dark sorceress kind, and she had a horde of playmates too." Harry briefly described the night fought fighting Selene and her forces, not going into too much detail but giving Agatha enough information to understand how bad it was and how much worse it could have been.

Agatha frowned. She had heard of a mysterious sorceress named Selene in her youth, but to think that the same woman had been around back in the Roman era was astonishing. Neither Harry nor Jean realized how much older than that Selene was, she had never told Eliphas how old she really was after all, and Harry didn't care. "A most interesting tale Mr. Potter despite being told in cliff-notes mode." Inside however the old woman was wondering how strong this Fate Marked had become and what he was going to do with his power going forward.

After that Agatha decided to take advantage of Harry being there and asked him to watch Franklin while she went out with her familiar Ebony to find some food. Ebony much preferred to hunt in the wilds but Agatha wasn't willing to let him hunt in the city for fear of catching something. So the two of them would go to a national park for the day, where Agatha could walk the woods at her own pace and Ebony could hunt for small squeaky things among the roots and grass.

Harry was fine with that, knowing his ladies and he would be staying in California for the next two days regardless. Harry paused as that idea registered. Since when did Ororo and Jean become my ladies rather than my lady and my friend? He thought for a moment the smiled faintly a rush of warmth feeling him as he thought of the young redhead, and the fact Ororo seemed to be serious about her own feelings for Jean and the idea of her joining the two of them.

Jean was so… amazing. That was the only word for it, just like Ororo. Powerful, kind, intelligent, driven, gentle, beautiful in body and soul, was it any wonder Harry found himself drown to her after helping her break out of her shell? And if the way she sometimes acted, she felt the same way for him. For all the time I've spent fighting it, this is one battle I'm glad I lost. Still, I'll want to make it particularly romantic…

About an hour later, after changing Franklin's diaper and walking around the apartment complex Harry made his way with Franklin in tow to the kitchen to whip up some food for the two of them and the two sleeping girls. "So little mate, are you on solids yet?"

Franklin giggled at the new game as his friend was playing, tapping his fingers against the toddler's mouth and looking inside. The baby did in fact have several teeth already, but nowhere near enough to actually chew something hard. "Apple cinnamon and honey mash it is then."

With a pop a female house-elf appeared next to Harry and the toddler waddling along beside him. "Young master wishes for us to make food for the baby?" She was one of the elves who had taken Ororo's continued language lessons to heart, not that her speech was perfect yet. "I's be Nessy, master."

Harry smiled down at the little creature , ruffling her large ears. "That's alright Nessy. Sometimes it is better to cook for someone else by hand rather than let someone else do it. But if you could bath Franklin here and watch him for a bit while I make some food that would be great. How is Melody doing today?"

"Young mistress Melody be fine master, she be… I mean she is spending time reading and exploring, and will be fine until you return. The chef-elves fed her well and she is happy."

"Good," Harry sighed in relief. "If one of you could pop her up to High Note, I'll come and get her after we meet up with Emma later today. I don't think she's ever been to the ocean after all. Oh," he snapped his fingers, "And when we go out later, remind me to buy some cookbooks and some books on uniform designs. I in no way want to give any of you clothes," he hurried on, "but uniforms you can wear rather than those doilies and pillow cases would be good. You'd all look much nicer that way."

The house elf teared up a little at wearing a uniform chosen by their master, something only elves bonded to the nicest and oldest families ever could wear. "Yes master, I will remember." For a second she popped off and returned swiftly, having informed Cory, who had taken charge of most long distance teleporting duties, about bringing Melody to High Note in a few hours. Come now baby sir," she said, "It be bath time for you."

Franklin chuckled and took her hand, letting the small creature lead him off having gotten the idea that the elves were friendly and fun. This proved to be the case in the bath as well, the elf using her magic to clean and wash the baby and moving around a few toy ducks (Susan had bought one, Reed had bought one, Johnny had…) to play with him.

While this was going on Harry got to work cooking. Harry spent the next fifteen minutes in the kitchen working on a lunch meal for Franklin, himself and his ladies with more to come. When a tone went off and a mechanical voice said 'warning incoming teleportation' he looked at a security screen set into the kitchen wall, smiled faintly and began to make more food.

Below the Fantastic Four had just teleported in. They finished another adventure, once more helping Black Bolt regain his throne from his mad brother, and were rather ragged around the edges. Mr. Fantastic was walking almost like a zombie, Johnny's flames were out and his head was bandaged, and Susan, the best looking of them all, was frazzled and drooping with weariness. Even Ben looked a battered despite his stone skin, and one of his arms was in a sling.

Fighting the Mad Maximus had not been pleasant, especially when he had an army of robots and Inhumans at his command. The alliance he had made with the genetic High Council had made him almost untouchable, and the reverence the normal inhuman put in the council had helped him stay in power until Black Bolt was convinced by Crystal that it was Maximums who was keeping him from Medusa. After that with Blackbolt and his family fighting with the FF they had prevailed and broken the city Atillan out of the strange pocket dimension Maximus had transported it to.

Not that they had won everything they wanted. Black bolt still felt it was best for his people to remain unknown and separate from the rest of humanity, and had demanded that Crystal stay with her family. Johnny was rather pissed about that, but after much discussion Reed and Black Bolt had agreed the two could communicate and that Johnny could join Crystal in the city from time to time, so long as he called ahead on the new communication device Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic had designed.

The whole incident had made Reed reevaluate Black Bolt's powers. Before this he had simply felt he was super strong and had a supersonic attack of immense and uncontrollable power, now he felt there was something more to it. What that was he didn't want to share with anyone just yet, but the fact was Black Bolt might have been fighting the entire time with his equivalent of kid gloves.

The quartet made their weary way down into the living quarters portion of their suites, and were assaulted with the smells of cooking almost immediately. Looking at one another in surprise they made their way toward the kitchen, expecting to find Wyatt or Agatha there cooking for themselves and Franklin. Instead they found Harry there, wearing a crysis suit that had seen better days.

Harry turned to them smiling faintly before he saw them all. "Wow. You all look like you were put through the ringer."

Reed chuckled wanly. "We certainly had an… interesting time of it yes. And yourself?"

"Myself, Storm and Phoenix had an… interesting night yes. I imagine you'll see the modified version of it on the news sometime today."

"Oh," Ben grunted, "one of those."

"Definitely one of those." The three of them looked at one another then shared a laugh before Harry went on. "Sorry the three of us crashed here. We needed some down time and we have a bit of a shindig down in LA tomorrow, so this lets us get some time to rest and recuperate before heading out."

"Not a problem," Reed waved away his concern, "Though I would like your help in a week or so to see if I can block out unwanted magic users. No offense but…"

"None taken, I'll be happy to help, so long as you can promise me it won't turn out to be the start of something major. That seems to have happened too often lately. Besides it should be interesting to see if you can use science to offset magic."

Reed laughed, remembering how Harry's offer of aid to find Crystal had spiraled into a fight against an army of demons. Not that Harry seemed to mind that at the time.

"Food will be ready in a few minutes, so if someone could get out the plates and drinks?" Ben and Johnny helped with that, while Susan and Reed went to get changed.

On the way there they saw a little creature walking beside their baby Franklin who was walking unsteadily on his own. Franklin looked up and when he saw them smiled happily. "Ma!"

Susan laughed with delight and went down to one knee, pulling her baby into a hug. "Oh Frankie, you said your first word! And its ma!"

Reed laughed in delight, reaching a hand forward to rub his son's head. Lately he had been worried about the odd powers Franklin sometimes exhibited, but it was at moments like this when those worries seemed to fade away to nothing. "Hello little man. And who are you?" he asked, looking down at the little creature that had been watching Franklin.

"I am Nessy sir, a house-elf bonded to our master Potter."

Reed nodded making a note to figure out what the little creature meant by that later. Right now he looked at his wife, kissing her gently on the forehead while Ben, Johnny and Harry moved out to see what the fuss was about. "I think we deserve a few days of family time don't you?"

Susan beamed up at him happily, while Franklin grabbed his hand, laughing as it stretched in his grip. "Da!"

Reed teared up a little at that and Ben chuckled. "Well whattya know, the big brain has a heart too."

Franklin looked over his mother's shoulder at the craggy face of his godfather and Jonny and said "Ba, Ja!"

The two shared a glance then as one said "Close enough!" and laughed.

Harry chuckled too, and nodded his head back toward the kitchen. "Food's ready, grab it whenever, it's homemade bread, pasta salad, and baked salmon. Nessy, if you could hang around until we're ready to move on, that would be nice."

"Nessy will do so master."

OOOOOO

Jean woke up to a barely heard murmur of conversation in the hallway beyond the door to the guest room as her pillow rose and fell under her. Then it dawned on her that pillows don't generally move like that, and opened her eyes. She saw she was lying on one of Ororo's breasts, their arms around one another as they shared the single bed in the guest room.

Her eyes traced her friends body, taking in her body admiringly. I... I love this woman, she thought to herself, not as much as I have come to love Harry but its close. How the hell did a good Christian girl like me end up in this situation?

Jean frowned a little bit as she considered that thought before the frown disappeared with a wry smile. Oh screw it, I passed the point of no return a long time ago.

She looked up and saw Ororo was awake, smiling down at her through her frazzled bed head. "Hello my friend."

Jean smiled, hearing the note in Ororo's voice when she said 'friend', but meant something more. "Morning to you too Ororo." The two chuckled and then looked up as someone knocked on the door. "Room service."

The two ladies laughed recognizing the voice, and Ororo replied. "Excellent timing, bring it in right away bellboy."

Harry opened the door carrying a tray of food, a smile on his face while behind him the Fantastic Family spent time with their youngest member. "Hello ladies, either of you still sore from last night?"

Jean raised a weary arm, allowing Ororo to scoot back to put her back against the back of the bed her head flopping face first into the pillow beside the African woman. "I'm sore all over Harry, I had to literally push and pull my body along to force it to keep up with Eliphas's attacks."

While Jean's body was sore, her powers seemed back to normal, indeed she felt stronger than ever, as if using her powers was like a muscle, the more she used them the more powerful she became. That was amazing, but she was still constrained by what her body could handle.

Storm too, was fine. The exhaustion of her body having been cleared away by a good night's sleep, and the weariness caused by using her power had faded to nothing, the winds of the world filling her and giving her strength.

Jean gasped as she suddenly felt hands on her lower back, kneading her back through the uniform she was still wearing. She looked up in shock to see Ororo chuckling and turned her head to see Harry had put the tray down beside Ororo, well within reach of both of them, before moving to the foot of the bed and kneeling over her legs. His hands had started their massage on the small of her back and were slowly moving up.

Though she couldn't quite turn her head enough to see them, and lost interest in doing so when they began to sooth her muscles almost immediately. She gasped and nearly mewed in pleasure as he worked on her, Ororo's chuckles in her ears. "Harry is very good at that isn't he?"

Harry looked at Ororo for a moment. He had started to massage Jean's back before he really thought of it, and was only now realizing what it looked like. Yet his lady, like all the other times he seemed to get close to Jean, merely smiled at him happily. He smiled back, leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips, then went back to work.

Harry moved down from her back to Jean's legs, kneading the muscles along her calves and down to her feet then switching to her legs. There wasn't anything overtly sexual about the massage, but it was certainly suggestive even with Jean fully clothed in her suit. "How's that feel Red?"

"Lovely, " Jean breathed then blushed slightly as her stomach rumbled. "Though I think I'm well enough to get some food into me now."

Harry stood up letting Jean turn around onto her back. "Thanks Harry, that was great, and the food looks fantastic."

Harry smiled at her thanks, then the three passed the time talking about their respective battles from the evening before and eating the meal Harry had provided. Harry redid the Remember Me Not spells on their features, and then the three went to pay their respects to their hosts and head out to meet Emma at her hotel.

While they did that Harry went to pick up Melody and one other person.

OOOOOOO

Harry knocked on Kurt's door. At the blue elf's verbal response he stuck his head in and asked. "How'd like to help me with a rather large prank?"

"I am yours to command oh master," said Kurt bouncing up out of his chair eagerly and grabbing his image inducer. The last few weeks had been utterly boring for him, Kitty, Evan and Rogue. All the action seemed to be going on without them involved.

Rogue had lit into Scott a little, as had Charles, when he came back and told them about him and Phoenix having helped the Fantastic Four against demonic invaders. Charles had been concerned about Scott and Jean needlessly endangering themselves, but Rogue had been irritated they hadn't brought her along (oh and the others too).

It had actually been a net gain though. For Rogue, it was obvious that whatever had been between Cyclops and Jean had disappeared. While the two were still friendly whenever Jean was around, which was rare nowadays, Scott seemed to have no more romantic feelings toward the redhead, which was good for the southern belle. In fact Scott had begun to flirt with her in the past week, subtly most of the time, but she was enjoying it a lot.

In terms of the team, Scott had gained an edge of unpredictability that he lent to their team exercises in the Danger Room, and had developed a level of empathy with all of them. He demanded their best during the training sessions and he lead the after dinner discussions that Harry had started, but outside of that time he was fine with them goofing and showed a caring side of him simply hanging out with them. Where before the teens had only been acquaintances and teammates, they had now become fast friends.

To Kurt it had still been boring, so the idea of getting in on a prank had him jumping in no questions asked. "Who are we going to prank oh master?"

"The who is Tony Stark and a lot of high class people at a party in L.A. The only problem is that to be part of this gag, you'll have to change your image inducer to make you look like a girl." Kurt blanched at that and Harry decided to sweeten the deal. He wanted Kurt along thinking that having a living individual along to play the part of Anastasia would allow the part to be more fluid and reactionary than a purpose conjured golem with a lot of spells on it to obscure its body. He could tell Kurt was wavering though, and decided to sweeten the deal. "Come on laddo, think about it ritzy food, lots of fun, and you get to spend some time in LA before and after, fun in the sun, the beaches and the waves…"

Kurt adopted a thoughtful pose. "It's a great sacrifice, but for the sake of the prank I will agree to it."

OOOOOOO

Emma looked up as she felt a familiar presence enter the main lobby of the San Francisco hotel she was currently staying in. She stood up in welcome, smiling only slightly despite her pleasure, they were still in public after all. Jean made her way over to her friend swiftly. As they were still in public the two women only shared a brief but heartfelt hand clasp yet telepathically their avatars actually shared a hug on the astral plane between their two astral projections, and their greetings were much more effusive there.

Behind Jean, Ororo entered the hotel lobby and hurried over to the two younger women. Emma looked at her in query, and Ororo said, "Harry will meet us wherever we go, but he and Kurt, one of the boys at the Institute, are figuring out the parameters for the 'Anastasia prank' as he calls it."

She shook her head resignedly but didn't really have the heart to object to their plans overmuch. After the last few days, heck after the last few weeks she felt Harry needed a bit of time to let his hair down... or let someone else's image induced hair down if it made him smile.

Emma nodded and motioned the two to follow her. "Come on, I've already found the best local store for our little shopping expedition."

Jean rolled her eyes, but the two girls didn't let go of one another's hands as they walked on. "Why do I think when you say 'best', you mean most expensive rather than widest selection or location or anything like that?"

"Oh please of course it has those things too." Emma chuckled, already feeling the weight of the last few days and dealing with Shaw for so long slipping away.

"By the way," Ororo said, interrupting the back and forth before it could begin, "Harry will be speaking to you about… a business opportunity later on. I think he needs your help with something going forward."

Emma shrugged. "Whatever he wants I'll do, I owe him too much to quibble, and besides, I don't have so many friends I'll turn away when one needs my advice."

Jean looked at her friend, realizing that the past few days must have been much harder on her than Jean had thought to push her to actually say something like that aloud, but determined to talk to her later.

In point of fact this was correct. Emma had to put up with Shaw for the last few days, until he was called away to one of his businesses in Canada. Sebastian was sharp, very good at picking things up, and watched her like a hawk. It had been a very trying time, almost as bad as being back at home with Adrienne and Winston both ganging up on her.

The trio of beautiful women made their way out of the hotel and down the streets of LA, with the two young women exchanging good natures barbs and digs while Ororo trailed behind, joining in only occasionally, but with devastating force.

The trio of beauties walked four blocks before turning into a large high class clothing store. Here Jean watched Emma interact with the sales reps, noticing her imperious, yet not unkind mannerisms as she ordered them around and the redhead shook her head a little bemused. Soon Jean got some of the same treatment with Emma directing her to the dresses that were both classy enough and that Emma felt would good on her.

Emma even started to order Ororo around, trying to direct her to dresses that she felt would flatter the African woman the most, but Ororo ignored many of her suggestions, keeping her own council with a faint smile on her face at the younger girl's manner. However Ororo had her own ideas as to what she was going to wear, and wasn't going to budge on it.

As the three moved into a changing room with several dresses each, Jean asked quietly, "So which is the real you?"

Emma looked up, one eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

Before replying Jean used her telepathic power to see if anyone else was nearby, then when she was certain they were alone she went on. "You seem to change your outward expression and manner to match the environment and who's around. That cold face you have when you're trying to keep people at a distance, the flirtatious face..." she blushed a little, "You've turned that one on me and Harry a few times, both to get your own way and to deflect attention from you. Then there's the shrewd businesswoman face, and then there's the one that we saw when we all met at Hogwarts, and the one I've seen glimpses of today. So, which is the real you?"

Emma paused as she was about to take off her skirt then did so slowly her head cocked to the side contemplatively. "I-I don't know, not really. In my family we're taught almost from before we can walk to control ourselves, to show the world nothing, to be ice. Then most of us realized we had tobe ice not only in front of strangers but in front of our own family. I've lived my entire life knowing that my family was more dangerous to me than anyone on the outside could ever be, and most of that time I've known I could not escape them. The only one who that was not true was for my older brother Christian, and he was powerless to help me."

She shook her head, her face nearly cracking as she remembered how he had died recently, her voice lower than before as she went on. "And my father killed him, not because he was a threat, not because he was a disappointment, no the last thing that pushed him over the edge was because he wanted to send me a message." She spat that word, and fell silent for several minutes as she pulled on a one piece dress, looking at herself in the mirror contemplatively before pulling it off.

"I, I've never been around anyone who I have never had to try to influence or try to protect myself against, and until recently the very idea of anyone seeing the real me, if there was a real me under the masks, would never have occurred to me."

She shook her head laughing quietly, and Jean could almost see the control of her face and body slowly disappearing. "Then I met Harry Potter." She laughed again, her blond hair moving from side to side as she laughed. "There he was, this strange boy who sat across from me when he really shouldn't have been able to get through my telepathic field, and instead of trying to take advantage of me or even hit on me, he saw me as this stranger who might need his help."

Emma smiled wistfully, "He didn't flirt with me until I flirted with him later. He didn't do any of the normal things that I had become so used to, and he saw through my guise to the real me. To the worried young woman who was very much afraid she was going to have to whore herself out to survive." Her voice had gotten very soft, enough that Jean had to concentrate to hear her.

After a lengthy pause, Emma continued. "And when I didn't understand him, when I tried to influence him as I had so many other men, he simply laughed and ignored it. It wasn't exactly my best moment, but he didn't hold it against me, and the people I've met since interacting with him…" she looked at Jean with emotion filling her eyes. "None of you," she paused "I don't have to protect myself from any of you."

Jean smiled faintly with a nod of her head. "He has a way about him doesn't he?" She paused looking over at the other girl then decided to go for broke. She sent forth her telepathic avatar, and when Emma, a quizzical look on her face, did the same, took her friend's avatar through the belsham-trees that protected Jean's mind and into her tower.

Emma looked on in shock that Jean would let her into her head like this. "Jean, I…"

Jean shook her head and sent reassurance to her friend, "I figure it would be easier to show you the memory than try to explain it, and besides, I wanted to show you that I trust you too."

Emma's avatar actually teared up a little at that. In all her life she had not met someone who was willing to trust her so implicitly, and she vowed to be worthy of it, . She watched as Jean's avatar moved through her mind, picking up a small book that was a deep red, indicating some strong emotion.

Jean came back and proffered the small book to Emma who after a moment's hesitation touched the cover of the book, then watched the memory of Jean and Ororo in the bathroom of the mansion discussing sharing Harry play out around her. The sight of their naked bodies grabbed Emma's attention for a moment, but their words soon drew her back and she gasped in astonishment. "You mean she was serious about sharing?! Oh my god… I… knew she wasn't jealous when we were flirting… but I didn't think that was even a real chance!"

"I… yes," Jean said, hesitantly. "He, and I, we, we've shared a few… a few moments of our own lately, and Ororo and I, well she's as much as told me she… cares for me, and is willing to have me join them. I, I love Harry, and I love her but I'm also drawn to you and… You'll have to wait of course, I'm sorry but…"

Emma brushed that aside now openly staring at the black woman's body as she re-watched the memory through Jean's eyes, causing Jean to blush as she noticed where 'her' eyes had drifted a time or two. "I thought when I started to think of entering this race that I didn't really stand a chance of getting very far. But… now you're telling me that maybe I do have a chance, I… I would just be last to cross the finish line so to speak. And I can't tell you whether or not I'm really in love with him at this point either. Interested oh yes, very interested…

Emma trailed off for several long seconds before deciding to go for broke… but I'm also interested in you."

Suddenly they exited the memory and the two avatars stared at one another. Jean blushed slightly under the other woman's gaze but didn't back away, matching her stare fiercely. This went on for several moments but then Emma chuckled. "I won't push things with Harry or Ororo , but I might push you."

Jean chuckled even as she turned and guided Emma's avatar out of her mind. "I don't think that you would be who you are if you didn't, and honestly I really like the way our friendship is going. I don't think our friendship, or possibly eventual relationship would be very… peaceful or calm, but who says it needs to be?"

Emma laughed and the two retreated back to their physical bodies. "I can almost guarantee that it won't be calm my dear. We'll push and prod one another, but that's part of the fun."

Ororo had no idea what had happened between the two women, one moment they were talking the other they were both staring at one another silently, then they were laughing again. She had a good idea however, and chuckled, wondering how long it would take before Emma could prove that she both had a emotional connection to Harry and was willing to join Ororo, Harry and Jean. Ororo knew that Jean would join them shortly, unless she decided to wait with Emma until she could join them as well, which was doubtful considering the looks and emotions she could see building up behind those jade eyes.

These thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter coming from the main sales floor. The two girls dressed and exited to find that Harry had arrived, with Kurt in tow for some reason. Harry's eyes lit up in pleasure when the two girls came out and gestured at his companion, who was in his normal image induced guise, but didn't for some reason seem to be garnering any attention from the other shoppers or the saleswomen. Harry on the other hand seemed to be garnering some interest, but Ororo standing right next to him seemed to warn them off for now. "Ah good, just who I was hoping to see. Since Ororo has refused to try, could you two try to make Kurt here into a woman?"

Emma scoffed at the very idea, wondering what Harry was up to, but Jean laughed. "Of course, his image inducer!"

"What is an image inducer?" Emma asked.

Kurt grinned at her. After Harry had made certain no one was looking (or could notice anything) he began to use his image inducer, changing his appearance. Where before a thin gangly sort of grungy teen stood, was first a blue elf then a dishwater blonde girl.

Emma's eyes went wide, connecting the dots and realizing the change was being created by some device or other. Jean however narrowed her eyes. "Is there any reason you chose to use Taryn as the female figure?"

"I don't like friends who turn their back on my friends, besides Harry was and I think she's perfect for the role of airhead." Kurt said then paused as Emma walked around him, as if she was inspecting him or something.

Harry smirked. "We're going for dumb, but rich and barely legal, so I guess Taryn fits the bill." He then explained the purpose of the prank, and Emma nodded thoughtfully. Having a teleporter around, other than Harry would be a useful addition anyway, and the idea of amusing herself at Stane and Stark's expense appealed to her.

"Taryn's not that rich," Jean said dryly shaking her head, but was strangely moved by the two boys wanting to take a bit of revenge on the girl who had been her friend for years before throwing her to the wayside because of a perceived slight.

Emma shook her head. "Setting aside the fact that something like this would be worth a hell of a lot on the open market, not just for spying purposes or anything like that, let's move on. How much control do you have over the image? Can you change clothing, height, hair color etc?"

Kurt responded a little nervous at how Emma was eyeing him, or rather her, at present, "I can change anything from a base body I download into it, though of course it has a limited battery and the more changes we make the faster it wears down the battery."

"Hmm… still a fascinating device, I don't suppose I could ask who designed it, or who has the patent?" Jean bumped her friends shoulder and Emma sighed theatrically, a portion of her reveling in the fact that she was almost entirely surrounding by friends, people she didn't have to protect herself from. With the others vouching for him she was willing to show some emotion around Kurt, though obviously to a lesser extent.

"Fine, we'll ignore the obvious commercial applications this could have and move on. How good is… whatever you've done to make people not notice us?"

"Not that good, more a magical equivalent of sleight of hand." Harry replied.

Emma nodded and she and Jean dragged Kurt into the changing room farthest in the back, where the two girls started to work on the blushing boy, who despite the nature of the attention was rather enjoying the position he found himself in, in a changing room with two girls who were the epitome of hotness.

"Alright, let's get her body type correct first. We want her to look youngish, almost but not quite, jail bait," Emma said briskly, clapping her hands together.

Kurt nodded and began to change the image that covered him slightly, making her a little more gangly looking, and decreasing her breast size until Jean told him to stop. "Okay, now let's change her features a bit." Kurt suddenly gulped, realizing he had suddenly become the two girl's guinea pig.

Over the next forty minutes Emma and Jean worked together to create the perfect rich, but slightly dumb, blond. In the end Kurt wore the image of a somewhat thin, barely adult looking young woman with B-cup breasts and a rather decent rear, which Kurt took a few too many looks at in the mirror earning him a telepathic slap upside the brain. Her eyes were light brown, rather doe-eyed really, with a pert nose and decent cheekbones. She was also blonde, a fact that Emma rather groused about with Jean telepathically, hating the whole 'dumb blonde' image but realizing her war against it would have to be on hold for the moment.

From that point the two of them had to go back to shopping the old fashioned way while Kurt hid under a Notice-Me-Not from Harry and his image inducer charged from a plug in the dressing room the two woman had taken over.

While Jean was helping to find a dress for Kurt's new image, Emma glared at Harry and Ororo, both of whom were looking far too complacent. "Are you certain that you don't want me to look at what you chose?"

"Positive dear," Ororo said, smiling a faint smile. "After all, this way it will be a surprise."

Harry merely shrugged. "I found something that compliments my date, so that's all I really care about. This way the two of us can go and grab Melody then spend more time on the beaches. Are you done with Kurt?"

"Not just yet, but the next stage Jean can do ourselves I suppose." Emma frowned, not liking the idea of these two seemingly fashion oblivious people having chosen their clothing, but decided she would wait and see. The idea of going through the minds of the stores workers occurred to her, but in the end decided it wasn't worth the effort, and would take away from time spent shopping with her friend. "Alright, but if either of you show up dressed inappropriately I will do my utmost to give you the telepathic equivalent of a spanking, am I clear?"

Harry and Ororo chuckled, and exchanged hugs with Emma and Jean then Ororo and Kurt waited until Harry popped off and came back with Melody. He did this by the simple expedient of exiting the store and heading into an alleyway behind it, which didn't have a security camera, then popped up to High Note, grabbed Melody, a change of clothing and swimsuit for her, and popped back with Melody in his arms.

Upon joining the group inside the shop Melody looked right through Harry's Notice Me Not at Kurt. "Did you know you sound like a very strange combination of a guitar solo and church music on a harpsichord?"

Kurt looked over at Harry shocked at the little girl spotting him through the spell covering him, and then at Harry's smile. Kurt shrugged and smiled himself at the little girl with the multi-colored hair and wide eyes. "I did not know that liebchen, but it does not surprise me. Are you looking forward to seeing the ocean?"

Melody nodded firmly and not five minutes later the image inducer was charged, and Harry and Ororo led the group out of the shop. From there they walked through the city to China Beach, a small, out of the way beach that was actually a part of the edge of the city. It was small and remote, but the swimming was good, the view was great, and the sun felt amazing.

Ororo drew some attention in a rather revealing swimsuit, scandalizing several matrons around while she dozed in the warm sun. Kurt, thanking god that his image inducer was water proof, swam around like a fish.

Melody and Harry were both enjoying their time at the beach, the first sight for Melody of the ocean and only the third for Harry, and the first time he had actually gone swimming in the ocean. If not for the Hogwarts' Black Lake he wouldn't have even been able to swim at all. Now he was holding Melody's hands as the young girl learned to swim. "That's good, keep kicking your fee like that, and remember to keep your head above water."

Melody gasped in air and continued to kick out while Harry led her around by the hands in the water. Despite the rather bizarre hair coloring the two made a rather sweet sight for the other beach goers. After about fifteen minutes of this Harry let go of one hand and then, fifteen minutes later Melody was able to move along in the shallows on her own.

Ororo woke up at that point and found a picnic basket beside her. She looked around warily then asked the air "Do we have a house-elf to thank for this?"

Nessy popped in briefly, crouching down so as to be hidden by Ororo's body and the picnic basket. "Yes Miss, we always watch the master and anticipate his needs."

Ororo smiled and rubbed the little female's head in thanks, then stood up and called the others in for food. Melody raced over, famished by the unusual amount of exercise, with Harry and Kurt following after.

About three hours later Jean and Emma had finished shopping, and joined them. After a brief stop in the dressing rooms they joined the group, with both of them wearing bikinis. Jean's green suit was more sporty than anything, but it still showed off her taut stomach showing that the redhead had some muscle there, and barely covering her up top. She reveled in the glances of not just Harry but also Ororo and Emma.

Emma was dressed in a black and white stripped bikini. The bottoms were more shear than Jean's, and while the top seemed to have more material, the cut of it made that bit of material have to work much harder to cover her anywhere close to as much. Around her waist she also wore circlets of gold chained together. She too enjoyed the looks she was getting from Harry and Jean, and surprisingly Ororo as well.

She sat down next to the castle Harry and Melody were in the process of building, looking at it rather critically. "You do know you put it too close to the water? It will wash away tonight."

Melody giggled. "So, then we can just make another one, right Mr. Harry?"

Harry smiled fondly at Melody, "Yep, that's how this is supposed to go I think. Besides I doubt that our castle is good enough to be preserved or anything."

"Hmm… well the size is impressive at least," Emma responded, which was indeed the case. Harry and Melody had taken up around six feet on a side to create the outer wall of their castle, and it came up to Emma's knees. The inner castle they were currently working on was going to be even taller, if the mound of sand was any indication. "Now, what this castle needs is parapets."

Emma joined them in their play while Jean and Ororo went swimming. Kurt had found group of young teenage girls and was going around with them for the day, enjoying himself immensely.

Ororo and Jean swam out as far as they could before hitting the safety net and then floated there side by side with their eyes closed. Ororo lifted her head to glance back at the beach, a faint wondering smile on her face. "I would not have thought that Emma of all people would be into building sand castles."

Jean shrugged, not wanting to say that she had felt a wave of sadness and regret from her friend when she caught sight of the sand castle. "If anyone, besides Harry, deserves some time with no pressure or worries, it's Emma." She paused before continuing, "What about you? Having fun my friend?" Jean put the same emphasis on friend that Ororo had started to when mentioning her."

"Oh undoubtedly, this has been an idyllic time, precisely what we needed after the night from hell." Ororo paused turning from floating on her back to gently treading water, in time to see Jean nod her head in the water to show her agreement with that statement. "You look magnificent by the way. And I think Harry is done with fighting his attraction to you, if this morning, and the looks he sent your way are any indication."

"And are you still... still certain you are fine with me joining you two?" Jean asked, turning on her side but using her power to remain floating in place easily.

Ororo looked at her then raised one hand to trace the contours of her friend's side, while her eyes were locked with Jean's own. "More than certain, my dear, ecstatic and looking forward to it."

Jean let out a breath of air she hadn't realized she was holding. "Good. I… I love him Ororo, and I care deeply for you too. This, this isn't anything my parents or my upbringing would see as acceptable, but god, I want to join you so much."

Ororo nodded happily, and the two floated for a time in silence. Jean however had something else to ask about. "Um, what about Emma?"

She raised a hand out of the water, waving it toward the beach. "I can tell she has growing feelings for Harry, and I, she and I have come to care for one another. Not as much as I have come to care for you, but…"

Ororo nodded thoughtfully. "A case of like calls to like I think. I am not as certain about her feelings toward Harry though. Or at least I don't think she has let herself really acknowledge the things she feels, and I would say her feelings toward me are physical attraction at best."

Jean nodded sadly. "She just hasn't spent enough actual time around us for that, but I don't want to, well sort of seem to leave her behind, or leave her out of things. She is still the one of us that is in the most physical danger day to day, and I…"

Ororo nodded. "I know how much danger she is still in. Today has undoubtedly been a good day for her though, a chance to let her defenses down. She will come to terms with how she feels toward Harry. And I have a feeling she will make an effort to know me as well. If she wishes to be .. affectionate with you, neither Harry nor I will object in the least, and we will not say anything." Ororo laughed suddenly, splashing her friend in the face. "Well, other than the fact it would be, as Harry would say 'ruddy hot'!"

Jean spluttered under the water and by the time she recovered her friend was meters away heading into shore.

While this deep discussion was going on Emma was enjoying herself playing in the sand with Melody and Harry. That this allowed her to flirt with Harry on and off was just icing on the cake. She enjoyed feeling his eyes shift to her whenever she bent over, or squatted down in view of him. It was completely different from the feeling of being watched by people too far away for her aversion charm to hit them, it made her feel desired, not lusted after. It was an odd and very fine distinction but it was there. One of them empowered her and made her feel good, while the other merely made her feel dirty.

She frowned suddenly, as that thought jarred her loose from the happy time she had been having since meeting up with Ororo and Jean, Before she could become too concerned however the voice of Harry broke into her sudden grim mood. "Don't worry."

Emma looked up at him across from the rather large castle they were shaping with their hands into Harry's face, and saw no concern there, only kindness and affection staring back at her. "I hit you with a spell that would confound the eyes and mind of anyone looking for you with… ill intent. You're safe enough for today."

Emma nodded gratefully and the two went back to working on the castle for a few minutes before Harry spoke again. "I must say that I would not have pegged you as the sort to like sandcastle building."

The blond woman's face fell, showing an openness that would have shocked her fellows at the Hellfire club and brought about withering contempt from her sister or father. "Going to the beach was a treat in my childhood, especially when my brother and I could get away from the others. Of course most of the time we were there because my father was meeting someone at their beach house or because he was holding a informal business meeting with his associates, but that just meant us kids would be unsupervised. My mother never left the mansion, leaving it to the servants to watch us."

That was said with as much scorn as she could muster. Her mother's descent into drink and prescription pills had started long before Emma was old enough to know why her mother was never around. In point of fact it was a wonder the woman had kept from drinking during her younger sister's birth.

"In any event we all went off to do our own thing. While my younger sister stayed with the nurse, Adrienne would go off looking for some poor animal to torture, and Christian and I would swim and build sandcastles. It was the only time the two of us could really let our guard down." Her face firmed, her eyes crackling with grim determination.

Harry nodded at her, wordlessly reaching over to squeeze her shoulder. "I hope that when that issue is resolved, you find some peace in it."

Emma smiled wanly. "I hope so too, but I will settle for never having to fear my family again."

At that point the two swimmers rejoined them and the group spent the time until the sun went down finishing Melody's giant castle. After that Jean decided to stay the night with Emma. Ororo decided to head back to the institute with Kurt so she could spend the next morning with the kids, mainly Kitty admittedly, the young girl was a dear younger sister to Ororo, and leaving her behind to be with Harry was hard.

Harry gave Jean a small, but expensive looking bracelet made out of intertwined bronze and copper pieces made to look like flames, which had a Remember me not ward on it, so in case they didn't meet up before tomorrow evening, she would have it to protect her identity from anyone looking to exploit her relationship with Emma. After Emma explained the fact this would indeed be necessary, and promised to show Jean some telepathic trick she could use to further confuse things, Harry took Melody back up to High Note.

Melody was an utterly exhausted, yet exceptionally happy girl as she slept on Harry's shoulder after a lovely day. She didn't even wake up when Harry used a Scourgify on her to clear off the sand, salt and water or when he changed her clothes via transfiguration. Not even when he tucked her into her bed aboard the asteroid station.

Harry looked down at the young girl who had somehow gone from being a charity case to being an important part of his life, then leaned down and gently kissed her forehead before turning away. He assigned to of the elves that now lived up here, about sixty strong at this point, to watch her for the evening and into the next day, then turned in himself. "Today," he muttered, not realizing he was echoing Ororo, "was a very good day. Just what the doctor ordered."

OOOOOOO

After spending a lovely day together just hanging out in Emma's suite at the hotel Jean and Emma got out of Emma's Ferrari 458 and the blonde handed the valet her keys the two young women ignored the man's gaping stare with ease.

Jean had decided on a rather slinky one-piece red dress. It showed a bit more of her décolletage than she was happy with, and despite the fact it had straps up the front of her bare shoulders, she couldn't actually wear a bra underneath it because the back of it was bare. Around her waist was a crisscrossing string of beads, while on one wrist she wore the bracelet Harry had given her. On her feet she wore heels, torture devices she had rarely worn before, their straps wound around her lower legs. Her hair was done as well, falling like a river down her upper back, and Emma had helped her put on makeup, something else she would never normally have done, but for something like this it was almost mandatory. So she had a bit of eye liner, and red lipstick on her lips.

Emma's dress was white of course, and much like their bikini tops from the day before, while her dress seemed to have more material, it actually showed quite a bit more. The dress fell from her shoulders along her sides, with a large V cut out of the chest area starting at right above her navel and moving up to her neck, showing that bit of her chest through a white gossamer. The dress fell to just above her ankles, with a high slit on her right side well up her thigh. Her back was also uncovered in a wider V shape. She too was wearing high heels, but unlike Jean who felt distinctly uncomfortable in hers, Emma looked almost natural in them. Emma wore a bit of makeup, some rouge for her cheeks, some eyeliner, and light pink lipstick.

All in all, while they were slightly younger than the majority of women at this party, they both fit right in due to the way they looked, and more importantly the way they carried themselves.

The two of them slowly made their way through the throng towards the front of the entrance where Obadiah was greeting the guests as they arrived. In person Obadiah was a tallish bald man, with quick intelligent eyes set into a stern, craggy face, with a body that might have been powerful in his youth, gone slightly to seed now, not in fat but in the lack of definition. He wore a somewhat old fashioned black tuxedo with a white undershirt. He greeted everyone with a ready-made smile, and seemed as at home in front of the cameras and the crowds as one would expect from the vice president of a company the size of Stark Industries.

The man took one look at them and smiled in what he thought was a suave manner but on a person that much older than the two of them came off as merely lecherous. "Emma Frost, I presume? And who is your lovely companion?"

The way he said companion put a distinct spin on the word, but neither Jean nor Emma lost their cool at it. "This is my friend Jean Grey, she's an engineering student and I thought that she might find it interesting to meet both you and Mr. Stark if he deigns to show up."

Emma had no worry about sharing her friends name, even if the bracelet Harry gave her didn't work , Emma fully intended to erase all knowledge of the redhead from Stane's mind, and anyone else's who had the slightest bit of ill intent toward her. Jean knew it too, and had actually agreed to it. She didn't like it, but she didn't want to bring any pressure or danger down on the X-mansion, which despite the amount of time she had spent away from it over the last week was still technically her home for the next week and a bit.

Obadiah smirked a little secret smile at that but took one of Jean's hand 'gallantly' kissing the back of it. "An honor miss. I hope that if you're interested in a job that you think of us first. Stark Industries is always interested in hiring up-and-coming talent. And I hope," he said looking over at Emma, "that we can get past our first rather strained conversation. I had just had a very rough day and I probably came across rather more strongly than I intended."

Emma knew how the game was played in public, and merely nodded graciously. "We'll talk further Mr. Stane, for now however you have other guests to greet." With that the two young women moved past him, and Obadiah turned with a smile to the next group of people coming in.

The two young women circulated through the party, not moving further away from each other than necessary to move through the crowd, more because Jean was unused to this sort of environment than for any other reason. The two of them definitely garnered a lot of interest from the rest of the crowd, not because of who they were but because of their looks and their age. There was a certain type of man who felt that younger meant easier, and many of those attending this party seemed to fall under that heading.

"Is it just me," said Jean telepathically, "or are we sort of on display here? It feels like all the people here are here to be seen and to look important, nobody seems to be talking about anything important."

Emma laughed inside and along the telepathic link, something that made a very odd sort of shiver go through Jean and she decided that she liked it when her friend laughed. "Ahh, but that is the entire point my dear. You won't find any backroom deals or any deals at all being made here, save for the occasional scheduling of a meeting. It is simply an event where everyone is on display and everyone is eager to see something interesting. If someone says anything important here it's because they want other people to know they have that opinion, not because it's their real one. If they want to get up on their soap box they do it outside before or after the party, not in here."

"I've decided on something." said Jean aloud a few minutes later as she again fended off a man who was interested in talking to the sexy redhead. The fact the man was pushing forty and didn't seem to care about her own age was just one of many reasons why she threw up a little inside her mouth at the very idea. "That whatever else I become, a social butterfly will never be part of it. This is fucking horrible."

"You're telling me" said Emma, shaking her head as she too fended off a suitor who wanted to dance. Emma hadn't worn the charms Harry had designed for her today, seeing as she might need to use her own 'charms' to distract Stane or Stark if he showed up, and she shook her head, realizing for the first time how nice it had been to not worry about being hit on by random strangers. "I think we've done enough mingling, let's head over to the bar, then find a little table somewhere and you and I can pretend to be talking about something while I do… something else."

Jean took her hand and motioned with her head over to the bar and Emma nodded for the benefit of the people around them while Jean asked telepathically "What exactly are you going to be doing?"

"Something you would probably not approve of as a matter of principle." Emma responded a little bit evasively.

Jean raised one eyebrow, as her friend ordered a pair of martinis and moved over to a table. Emma sat down while Jean leaned against the wall next to her. "I rather think that my sense of right and wrong has been changing recently, so long as you don't go planting ideas and thoughts into the mind of anyone here I think I would be fine with it. "

"Not everyone Jean, just Stane."Emma took a sip from her martini, looking around them to make certain they were not being observed more than the norm for two hot young women at a party like this.

"Oh" Jean replied with a small smirk on her face, nudging her friend as if she was telling her a joke, "Well in that case go right ahead. I'll turn around anyone who tries to talk to us, and warn you if anything comes up. That man's hiding something, and I think we should know what."

Emma chuckled and leaned back against the wall behind her. Nothing in her body language changed from one moment to the next, she was far too good at this for her body to give any outer signal of what was going on. But she merely nodded along to how Jean was describing some engineering ideas and concepts that she wanted to work on, a technical discussion that was enough to dissuade the people around them from listening in overmuch, coupled with Jean slowly subtly pushing them away telepathically, like Emma was doing in Switzerland when she met Harry.

While Jean was doing this, Emma sent forth her astral projection moving through the minds around them to find Stane's. He was still out at the entrance, meeting and greeting people, yet he was also talking to a reporter of some kind.

Emma easily entered his mind, which almost surprised her after the difficulties she had run into at the Hellfire Club. Shaw of course knew about telepaths and had built up his defense against them. Buckman was a paranoid bastard who wanted to cover any and all bases against mutants and Peirce might well have met a telepath, since Emma still felt his hatred for mutants was much more personal than Buckman's fear of the unknown and different. Yet while Stane was just as paranoid as Buckman he had never even considered telepathic assaults. In fact he hadn't considered mutants at all, not seeing what the fuss was about, a surprisingly refreshing attitude despite coming from a man like him. It only took her a few minutes to find out that he had indeed been involved in Tony Stark's near-death experience in the Middle East and was in fact the leak for the weapons that had nearly killed him. "Oh my," said Emma to herself as her mental avatar sifted through his memories. "Someone's been a very bad boy."

It didn't seem as if he had any real overarching goal, he simply felt angry and bitter about how Tony had taken center stage, much like she had thought, but seeing it so starkly confirmed was rather shocking. He also had several people in the American government backing him. Two of them were new, having jumped behind him after Stark made his announcement about Stark Industries pulling out of the weapons industry.

The other was one of the senators on the Senate Military oversight committee, Emma recognized him as someone who was anti-mutant and who wanted America to take a firmer stance internationally to 'protect its interests'.

According to the information in Stane's bald head that senator, Jackson R. Trevor knew and had signed off on Stark's death, seeing it as making an omelet for the future by breaking a few eggs now. He expected Stane to cut a deal with him to sell weapons to the US Armed Forces at half the cost. Obadiah had no intention of doing so of course, but the senator had connections that had allowed him to cover a lot of Stane's moves, including the weapons leak and insider trading.

Emma was almost tempted to somehow get in touch with Trevor and point him at Obadiah and see which backstabbing bastard would gut the other, but decided against it as being a little too outside her control. However that thought didn't stop her from searching throughout Stane's mind for anything else incriminating, as well as passwords, hidden caches of weapons, money and anything else the man was hiding.

Strangely enough he was now somewhat ambivalent to the idea of having her killed so he could buy her stocks later on, though from her perspective the idea of his trying to seduce her and bring her onboard later was little better.

A moment later however Jean's avatar appeared next to Emma's smacking it on the back of her head with the mental equivalent of a shout. "Get back to your body Emma, Tony Stark's here."

Emma came back to her body blinking slightly which was the only exterior sign of her out of body experience. She nodded at Jean, then looked towards the entrance where Tony Stark was moving through the crowd meeting and greeting in a somewhat absentminded manner. She frowned slightly, wondering if she dared to send out her thoughts into him, but Jean took her hand.

The redhead shook her head, looking a little sternly at her. "Going into Stane's mind I was fine with." She sent, "Going into Stark's isn't necessary or needed. Just because we're telepaths doesn't mean we have the right to go into the minds of everyone around us."

Emma frowned then nodded. As a telepath she well knew the dangers of trying to treat other people as if they were less important than her. Since that was what her father did and she wanted to distance herself as far as possible from Winston she wasn't to cross that line without a very damn good reason. "You're right, I won't say that I won't ever probe someone if I sense something unusual, it can sometimes be useful, but under these circumstances you're right."

Jean frowned but realized that was as much as she was going to get from her friend. And Jean knew if she had been forced to rely on herself, her wits and her powers for so long that the morality of their use would have become blurred in her mind. That didn't make Emma power-hungry or villainous or anything like that, or even immoral, it just made her more willing to do things in her own self-interest. Jean wasn't in a position to call her out on it.

Jean had a support structure most of her life, a reluctant and rather standoffish one admittedly in the case of her parents, but it was still there. Emma didn't have that, and it was only recently that she had actually gained a support team in Jean, Ororo and Harry.

"I'll go along with that," she said aloud, bumping her shoulder against her friend's lightly, "But try to keep to a minimum okay? And here he comes now, with Stane, I wonder what they're up to. And is it just me or is Stane sort of directing Stark?"

"They're not up to anything," Emma sent telepathically. "I'll tell you about what I found out in Stane's mind later. It's not pretty, and pretty much confirms what we already knew." She then switched to answering aloud. "And you're right, Obadiah is leading Tony around. Tony might be popular, intelligent and good with the ladies, but that doesn't mean he is good with working a crowd, especially not after so long hiding away. I would however warn you, he's likely to hit on us, either, or, possibly both at once."

Jean allowed a slight frown to appear on her face at Emma's telepathic message then laughed aloud at her verbal response. "Well, too damn bad for him, old men with goatees are not my cup of tea." Emma laughed by which point the two men had come up to them where they sat at their table and both she and Emma nodded politely to them, waiting for Obadiah to do the introductions.

"Emma Frost," said Stane, holding out one hand to her and gesturing with the other to Tony, "May I introduce Tony Stark."