Imagine: The List
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"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Jack Harkness covers his eyes as a very familiar figure paces on artificial legs meant for running, little more than giant letter c's meant to absorb the jolts, cursing fluently in a number of languages as she pulls off her mask, rubbing a hand over her face before pulling her hair back in a ponytail. The long coat she's wearing tangles in her prosthetics and she pulls it off, folding it shorter, the extra fabric disappearing before she puts it back on and slaps her right hand on the palm reader.

 

"Acknowledged, Takahawa, Josette Kiriko realm . . ." A long string of letters and numbers follows. "Related to . . DNA testing . . ." Josette ignores it as she settles in a chair. . .or tries to anyway.

 

"Fuck these things." Josette yanks on the straps holding the legs and pulls them off, throwing them away from her then yanking on and wiggling out of the bases they attached to, meant to cover and protect the stump.

 

"Oh thank god." Clarinda moans when she sees two legs being uncovered. A second later Josette frantically starts scratching her legs and feet, once the itching is taken care of Josette's hands start flying over the computer controls, the cells opening. The figure she'd co-cocked is dragged into one of the cells, one of the men checking the cell door after he shuts it and nodding in satisfaction that it's locked before they start moving. He looks over to see James at the controls.

 

"Do I wanna know?" Jack holds up one leg.

 

"Supposedly a disguise to keep people from recognizing me. Which makes no fucking sense since this is another dimension. Personally I think it's payback for always complaining about inheriting the short genes somewhere." Josette takes it and slips it into a bottomless bag along with the other leg and the bases. Shoes and socks come out and she puts them on. She moves away from the computer to let Jack take the seat, looking that way as it beeps.

 

"It's reading you. . .or something on you." Josette takes off the long coat that's now floorlength on her walking it over to the door and letting it drop, then coming back. "Yep, definitely the coat." Josette starts emptying pockets, putting everything in the bag that goes on her belt before putting it on the hook and then grins. "In that case, I'm off to raise a little hell by acting like the teenager I appear to be." she smirks and types out a message on a computer tablet, then heads for the door. "The others should be coming in soon."

 

"You're all here?"

 

"Just the eight of us, I'd have gutted anybody who brought the kids."

 

"Getting no complaints there." Clarinda says. Even getting her daughter back isn't going to mean not beating somebody for bringing her there. Sounds of agreement from everybody else. The door opens as she approaches and Josette swats Michael lightly on the ass as she walks past.

 

"Sexual harassment." Michael smirks as he takes off his mask and hangs up the long coat, not noticing the stunned looks he gets from the others.

 

"Doesn't count if we're married." Josette snorts, the door shutting behind her.

 

"She's going to make whoever brought us here miserable." He comes over the the computer and puts his hand down on the reader before heading to the synthesizer and getting a change of clothes, then heading to the bathroom to shower and change.

 

"Addison, Michael. Realm. . . . Relatives . . . DNA testing in progress . . ."

 

The door opens again and Mary Sanders whimpers. Even wearing clothes that conceal his identity there's no mistaking who it is in the doorway. The figure walks in and starts taking off his coat. James looks at the back of the man across the room and crosses himself. The mask comes off and they both close their eyes as a familiar face, a few years older then when they'd last seen him. . .in his casket. . . is revealed. David fluffs out his hair and walks across the room. "Hey mom, hey dad." He puts his hand on the reader like Josette and Michael had done. "Sanders, David James. . .Realm. . . Related to . . . DNA testing . . ."

 

David gets a change of clothes and joins Michael in the bathroom. They come out fifteen minutes later, combing their hair.

 

"The others?"

 

The door opens and two figures that turn out to be a pair of identical twins come in, putting their coats on hooks, taking off their masks, and falling into each others arms cackling with laughter.

 

"What did she do this time?"

 

"You know those columns that used to be lined up by the doors in the hotel lobby?"

 

"Josette accidentally on purpose take them out? Without being anywhere near them?" Michael asks dryly.

 

" 'oh my god, I'm gonna be late for school. . .It's the last day, the teachers are gonna kill me.'" Anna says in a good impression of a hurried teenager. The boys snigger. "There was a group of fancy ass uniforms coming in the door from the train as Josette ran out, the columns by the doors started wobbling and finally fell, that took out the rest. The manager was nearly crying since two of them took out the plate glass windows."

 

Jack chuckles. "Josette did say she was going to raise some hell like the teenager she appears to be."

 

"The manager had been warned that those columns were a hazard, since they didn't sit firmly on the floor." Abby says piously. "But he knew better than any building inspector, now he's whining since the insurance won't cover the damages and Josette was long gone by the time anything actually happened, even the uniforms didn't start falling until somebody got their sashes caught in the door. Tugging it loose sent his sword between somebody else's legs making them trip, that took out one column, the sash coming loose suddenly made him trip and he fell into somebody else, that took out the ones on the other side."

 

"Giving people who don't know the first thing about them swords is just asking for trouble." Jack rolls his eyes.

 

"Yeah well, for every person that has a brain and knows how to use it, there twenty who don't. And it's the people who don't who flock to the government for an easy paycheck." Abby snorts. They come over and put their hands on the scanner.

 

"Where's the others?"

 

"Alan and Susan were on their way, they stuck around to watch the brouhaha in the lobby. Somebody had brought Josette in but since she hadn't done a damn thing the manager can't have her charged even though he's bleating about the lobby to the police. There's a news crew filming everything and he hasn't figured out yet that Josette has a damn good innocent look. She's pretending to be upset about missing school, she won't be able to take her finals and she's going to fail all her classes . . . She'll be held back, won't get into the university she wants to attend. . . The drama queen is in full force. The police are busy taking reports and issuing him a ticket about the columns being a public hazard, somebody could have been hurt when they went rolling like tenpins or when the glass shattered since it wasn't safety glass. He's blaming the architect who's calling him a fucking liar. . ."

 

"Yeah, blame everybody for your own fucking stupidity seems to be a way of life for some people. Alexander?"

 

"Arranging delivery of wood and metal for your art." Michael nods.

 

Several hours . .. and the introduction of the other three later Black Jack looks around. James and Mary's son is leaning back on a couch sleeping, the twins curled up on either side of him. Raven's granddaughter Jezebel Jane Marie Creed, or Susan James as she goes by in the other realm, is curled up in a chair napping. Michael is lying on a couch asleep with Alexander laying on him, face buried in his shoulder with one arm brushing the floor and he looks towards the door when it opens, the twins older brother and Josette coming into the room. He'd lost the coin toss to 'go track down the idiot and drag her back here'."

 

"We do have rooms here, you know." Josette sighs, looking at the others sleeping in various places.

 

"We were waiting on you, trouble. Did you make them even more miserable than they already are?" David asks, opening one eye.

 

"Not that difficult." Josette snorts. "When the manager learned I had good cause to have him arrested for kidnapping since I'd been brought back against my will after leaving the building and I didn't have anything to do with the Keystone Kops he was whimpering, especially since the schools had all closed by the time he realized he couldn't charge me for destroying the lobby and I couldn't take my finals now and he could be blamed for that. Thankfully the assistant manager had some brains and was busy having maintenance sweep up the glass and board up the windows while his boss was making a fool of himself."

 

"He's probably had plenty of experience." Susan murmurs, straightening up from where she'd been catnapping. "The manager seems to open his mouth only to change feet." The others snigger as they say goodnight to the others, Josette being petted by her mother, and going to their rooms, the girls in one and the boys in another.

 

Clarinda and Raven peek in on the girls through the long night. And it's not just them, James and Mary are watching their son sleep just as often.

 

"They're alive, at least in another realm."

 

"How did they die, may I ask? I know Josette's story, Clarinda told me one day."

 

"My son Graydon killed Jezebel, he's a psychotic murderer and part of the terrorist group the 'friends' of humanity." Raven says quietly.

 

"David had . . ."

 

 

 

"What's the latest?" David asks the next day as Josette's typing on a computer.

 

"There's tens of thousands schools in this country, and the story that the manager kept a student from taking their finals, making them repeat the entire school year is on all the human interest and news station webpages. There's literally thousands of students who missed their finals yesterday, and since I've been 'banned' from the hotel even though it's only part of a public building and they can't do that, the news stations don't have my name, and the school records don't include pictures, they don't know which one I am. The hotel is busy fielding calls and the idiot manager is still bleating about his lobby. And. . .oh yeah, here come the special interest groups calling this a travesty of justice and all that other goody-good stuff." David sniggers. "They're picketing the hotel now, the idiot manager already called the police but was told this is a public building and they can do whatever they want as long as they're not impeding traffic."

 

"Ohhhhh my, I bet he wasn't happy about that." Susan sniggers

 

"Ohhhh no, not at all. Poooorrrrr baby. Not to mention he's not getting any new hotel guests with the lobby boarded up and the guests he did have are all leaving thanks to the bad publicity."

 

"Couldn't happen to a nicer asshole." Susan snorts across the room. They've all agreed to stay in the warren of rooms here while the others take care of a few things. Susan had recognized the look on her grandmother's face and nodded at the others. Though it had been a surprise to see Professor Xavier with both hair and walking.

 

"Ohhhh jeez, what did that idiot do now?" Josette says, putting what she's watching on her computer tablet onto the main screen. The others gather around.

 

"Is he trying to get arrested?"

 

"He's like that idiot woman at the flea market, somebody has to be arrested because he says so."

 

"And then they're soooo surprised when it turns out to be them." Alan snorts. "Because they should be allowed to do whatever they want. No matter who they bother."

 

"What's going on?" Mary asks.

 

"Idiot hotel manager is refusing to let the guests leave after they've checked out. He's checking them right back in. If they leave anyway, too fucking bad he's still got their money."

 

"Damn fool. That's fraud." James says, leaning against the back of the couch, David leans back against his father's arms.

 

"Well you know Uncle Dave's saying 'People need to prove themselves flaming fools before they listen to reason'."

 

"And some people never do." James says. He'd been put on tap to ask the kids some gentle questions. "How'd you guys meet?"

 

"I was taken to a boarding school in Massachusetts after the earthquake. . ." Josette says. James nods, he remembers Clarinda telling them about the earthquake that had left her daughter in a persistent vegetative state.

 

"I'd recovered from being so damn ill when . . .do you remember old Mrs. Quandy? She started saying that I had to go away for high school, you and mom had a fit but she insisted and I got bundled up and sent off to the same boarding school that Josette was attending."

 

"Anna, Abby, and I came from a small town in Tennessee, our school there does their best but they'd been on a hiring freeze for years even back then and the education opportunities meant a better chance of getting a scholarship. I missed the cutoff to start school at five so I had to wait a year." James nods. "And the school back home didn't have the classes I needed to start right after the eighth grade but the school sent me the information to study over the next year and the twins studied with me while they were finishing eighth grade, we all took the entrance exams and started ninth grade. The twins and Josette were the dorm monitors for the girls dorm while Alexander, Michael, and David handled that job for the boys."

 

"We got the position for the girls dorm since the dorm monitor rooms had outside doors, that let Alan come visit us in our room."

 

"No boys in the girls dorm?"

 

"Nope, only if they had a sister in the other dorm and then only in their room after contacting one of the monitors and being escorted. Josette had already been the junior dorm monitor under Professor Druid, when she started high school Professor Druid moved back to her apartment and Josette became senior dorm monitor. She'd moved into the next room to help Josette adapt to the school and work through the trauma of the accident, they had similar backgrounds, they'd each been through a traumatic event that left them with phobias, in Professor Druid's case a fear of fire after a wildfire and Josette's problem with being in enclosed spaces after being trapped in the rubble." James nods.

 

"Michael and I are foundlings, grew up in the same orphanage. We were looking for schools that would allow us to continue our art careers and the school had good recommendations. We got the boys dorm position for a similar reason, the outside door let us head off to the studio the school had built for us. That way if the damn muse bit at two in the morning and we couldn't go back to sleep after we wrote down the details we could head off. The dorms were locked at nine and alarmed. Those students who had jobs or classes ending at eleven had to be let in the dorms by us." The girls nod.

 

"And I came to the school after the. . .problems with my father. The government set me up with the paperwork for a new identity, including a social security number and opening a bank account for me." Susan shrugs. "The girls all met when we came to the girls dorm and a spoiled little brat who thought Daddy's money could get her whatever she wanted caused trouble. The girls invited Alan to eat with them and Josette, we had classes together and became friends. The rest. . .as they say is history. We've been in each other's back pockets ever since. The school and Sanders Construction started a new girls dorm the summer we graduated and they sold us the old one since it was Josette's home and she already planned on staying at the school as the librarian."

 

"You're a librarian?"

 

"Among other things. Alan's a doctor, Susan's a lawyer, David is in charge of Sanders Construction jobs at the school and nearby. He's got business and other degrees. Alexander and Michael are artists, and the twins are teachers. The four of us. . ." Josette waves a hand at herself, Alan, and the twins. "Work for the school, Alan at the health center, Susan at the school's lawyers in town, while the boys work on stuff for their shows or special orders, and David sits on his ass at home." David blows Josette a raspberry and everybody sniggers.

 

"Well, we can't all be working since we were 13." David snorts. James looks at Josette. "The state of Massachusetts didn't pay all the costs of putting me through school, Alan, the twins, and I had scholarship loans to put us through school, it paid for our books, tuition, and room and board,. After graduation you have 20 years to pay them off without interest. And if you pre-applied to school and were accepted, they'd roll over for university expenses. We had weekly allowances while we were in school and a debit card for expenses, I had to put my vision and dental on it since Massachusetts didn't cover them. Add in food since the dorm monitor room had a galley kitchen, clothing, and other necessities and it added up."

 

James sighs and Clarinda winces at Josette's calm tone, she could be talking about having to walk to the queue for a meal, not working so young. "The job of washing sheets and towels for the dorm was opening my freshman year since the student who had it at that time was going to be graduating. I worked with him the second semester our freshman year, back then it was only five hours a night two nights a week, then worked there alone the summer semester after he graduated. Our sophomore year it went to five hours four nights a week when the second floors of the dorms had students, or more students in the girls case. Our senior year it went to six hours a night, four nights a week and a eight hour shift Sundays. I put half my check towards paying down my scholarship loan before I graduated and still had a hundred thousand dollars on it before we started university." Clarinda moans and James shakes his head.

 

"What happens if you can't pay it off in 20 years?"

 

"You're charged ten percent interest monthly on the remaining balance until it's paid off. More than a mortgage but less than a credit card." The others nod. "After 20 years you should have made a decent dent in your balance. If not paid it off completely. The bank has a program that shows you estimates of how much money that you should be putting towards the loan when it's closed out to have it paid off in twenty years instead of giving you a minimum payment like a credit card. Most people set up a monthly autodraw once they're working." James nods in satisfaction.

 

"What about the rest of you?"

 

"Sanders Construction paid for my schooling, both high school and first semester of university, then GD took over. Susan played the ponies to get money for high school and the first semester of pre-law." Her grandmother who'd come in partway through the story leans on Professor Xavier laughing. "Michael and Alexander's shows paid for their schooling, and the twins and Alan's scholarship loans rolled over."

 

"My scholarship loan wasn't as much as the girls because the dorm monitor rooms were 1200 dollars a month, a regular dorm room was 900 a month room and board."

 

"That's still a lot of money."

 

"The new dorm had bigger rooms, those students who moved from the old dorms to the new ones paid the old rate but new students paid 1200 a month."

 

"Board included. . ."

 

"Three meals a day and two snacks. If a student had a TV in their room they got all the channels the school subscribed to and we had high-speed in every building, though the students had to sign in and there was filters."

 

"Laundry?"

 

"We had our own laundry on the school grounds. A dollar fifty for a regular sized washer or three dollars for a commercial washer, dryers were a quarter for fifteen minutes. They didn't take coins, they took cards that you slid into the machine and added money to at the school office. Supplies were fifty cents, if the dispenser ran out they had an emergency closet of supplies you signed out and paid for at the office. Josette cleaned the washers nights and filled the dispenser, then worked with eight commercial washers in the back room for the sheets and towels, the same number of dryers, and folding and wrapping machines." Everybody shakes their head.

 

"Yeah, but I was also able to do my laundry for free working there so I could throw my laundry in a machine in the front room when I got to work, start the sheets and towels washing then throw everything in the dryer. While everything was in the dryers I could fold my clothes and put them back in the bag. And the position was work/study, that allowed me to do homework and study while the machines were running." The others snigger.

 

"What was your tuition?"

 

"Five thousand a semester, that's after the government paid 90 percent of it. And the state passed along what they'd be giving a student in public schools, 1900 a year spread out over the three semesters. The school had classes two hours at a time two days a week to get us ready for university. Most of the students went on to university as sophomores. . ." The others snigger. David looks over at Clarinda as she comes into the room. "Josette took so many AP classes at school she was a junior." Clarinda hugs Josette.

 

"Breaks?"

 

"Two to three weeks over Christmas, depending on what day the holiday fell on, a week between the other semesters."

 

"Did you come home?"

 

"Yep, the minute the finals were done and they had their classes, books, and supplies for the next semester students were heading off for Christmas. Josette stayed that first year, so did Susan, Michael, and Alexander without expecting any of the others to be there. When Mom Covington found out they didn't have family and had stayed at the school, she put her foot down and told them they were coming home with them. Christmas our first year of university classes, we started splitting Christmas between the families."

 

"We'd planned on using the two weeks without classes to work on projects and our show. No classes meant we could devote hours to our work." Michael says.

 

"I had enough free time I could go to the tracks and make enough money for the next semester or two depending on the races."

 

The others snigger. "Now you just go to Vegas with Josette and the girls and put the money in the bank."

 

"Did I get in contact with you?" Raven asks Susan.

 

"Yeah, after I gave birth to our daughter Sarah." All the kids close their eyes and Raven, James, and Clarinda recognize that motion, the grief at the loss of a child.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day they Josette is standing by an officer with her arms crossed over her chest as the hotel manager screams invective.

 

"No, I will not have her removed from the building, she lives in the residential area and has every right to be in any area open to the public." The peace officer says again.

 

"I'll file a case with the judge."

 

"Go right ahead, he'll tell you the same thing but for now leave this young woman alone. May I ask where you were going?"

 

"The uniforms store, I've been told to report for work at the factory section tomorrow. I'm to work there until the new school year starts since I 'failed' all my classes being unable to take my finals. Maybe I should be talking to an advocate. . ." Josette smirks inwardly as the hotel manager's face goes from bright red to white in seconds.

 

"I'm going to go before the judge." he blusters.

 

"As is your right citizen, but it is her right to be in this building."

 

Josette walks off mentally going 'na, na, na, na, nah' to the fuming hotel manager as she walks to the mall, stopping first to the uniform store and then visiting a few other stores. She's accosted again when she walks past the hotel to the food queue, the hotel manager being told that she's allowed to be in the public areas of the building, she was nowhere near the hotel and yes, while he was allowed to go before the judge, he'd be told the exact same thing.

 

"Does he have the right to grab me?"

 

"Not if you're nowhere near the hotel. If he does, that's assault and battery if he tries to attack you and you have the right to defend yourself."

 

 

 

David sighs and taps the computer PADD to general broadcast.

 

"Where's Josette?" The audio hookups in each room send his question to everybody else.

 

"She went out. . .Awww hell, what's she up to this time?" Michael moans as the others come into the 'living' room.

 

David turns up the volume on the news bulletin.

 

"Hell no we won't go, hell no we won't go, hell no we won't go!"

 

"What's going on?"

 

"Protest outside the hotel, idiot manager tried having teenagers walking by arrested for being too close to his hotel when they stopped at a nearby water fountain. Now there's a protest sit in in the hallway of everybody who was in earshot of the disturbance. . .with more people including the media arriving by the minute. And yup. . .there's Josette in the middle of the crowd." The others nod, they can spot her streak of white hair now.

 

"Are they letting people walk past them?"

 

"Yep, there's plenty of clearance on either side, they're set up right outside the hotel. The fuckup manager's having a fit, demanding everybody be removed. Police is telling him it's a public building and they have the right to protest. He's not happy, claiming it's keeping people from checking in."

 

"The windows being boarded up, the fact that he was committing fraud by checking hotel guests back in after they checked out, the fact there's five other hotels in the building, or the fact that he's still trying to blame Josette for his stupidity isn't a factor?" Jack snorts.

 

"Yeah well you know people like that, if they say something often enough it has to be the truth. Moron doesn't realize he's just making himself look like an idiot at best, a bully, or a sociopath evil bastard."

 

 

 

 

 

"Ohhh, these are beautiful." Black Jack looks at the scalpels Josette has been sharpening on the grinding stone. He holds one up to the light, the light shining off it. "I can do excellent work with these, even though some would say pride is a sin."

 

"It isn't pride when you do a good job." Josette says calmly. "It's different if you were boasting, but you're helping people."

 

Black Jack carefully packages the dozen Josette had made for him, kissing her lightly on the hair. Once he's gone Josette turns to working on throwing knives. Michael comes out to add the hilts and work on them, Josette puts them in a wooden box that Alexander makes and kisses Clarinda on the hair.

 

"Happy Parents day."

 

"Ohhhhh!" Clarinda lifts one up. "I was working on them while I was working on Black Jack's scalpels, Michael helped me with the hilts and Alexander made the box."

 

"Thank you boys." Clarinda kisses them. "Josette, we've got that meeting." Anna calls.

 

"Happy, happy, joy, joy. More whining." Josette walks to the door, pulling on a light jacket. "For supposedly grown men and women, they act more like two year olds who aren't getting their own way. Their mommies should have spanked them more growing up."

 

"You know. . .most people say wait until your father gets home. Not in our family." Alan says snickering.

 

"Nope, it's 'your mother is on her way home, make your peace with the Lord 'cause she's going to beat you to death for being too stupid to live. She done *told* you not to piss her off today but you went and did it anyway'. Or 'Say your prayers for the asswhupping you are about to receive." David says. James lays his head down on the table and cackles, Mary giving him a disgusted look before laughing herself. David smirks as they walk out the door.

 

"I take it that's from personal experience?"

 

James is still laughing too hard to say anything, but Mary sighs and nods. "I've said the second to any number of people that have pissed me off and James favorite threat for the boys was the first one. Then David started getting sick . . ."

 

"Can you use the knives?"

 

"Oh yes, they're expertly balanced. It's almost like Josette knew exactly what I needed."

 

Black Jack nods. "Her scalpels are of excellent quality also."

 

"Did you make your own set of knives?" David asks as they walk down the hallway of the 198th floor to the elevator. When they say highrises, they mean highrises. And the rooms take up the entire floor.

 

"Yep, throwing knives, woodcarving knives, chisels, another set of scalpels. . .I was busy."

 

 

 

"Did you have to make faces at that pooooorrrr train policeman?" David smirks as they walk down the long hallway that's the main concourse for this level.

 

"No, but it sure felt nice." Josette snorts. "I'm not the one who yelled out in the middle of the crowded train that he was a guy dressed up like a woman."

 

"That was fun." Michael chuckles. "Josette saved his bacon by telling everybody he's a cop so he's gotta be 'grateful' now."

 

They look at each other and laugh. "Nahhhh."

 

"Did you talk to the judge?"

 

"Yes, the idiot hotel manager is still trying to get me banned from the building for destroying his precious lobby, but since it's a public building and I live in the residential area he can't do anything but keep filing cases every time I walk past. The judge is getting disgusted with him."

 

"Everybody has to the right to act like an idiot, some people abuse the privilege." Josette walks past the hotel with the others, smirking as the hotel manager has a hopping up and down screaming fit. They ignore him and walk to the train station, checking the schedule and walking to the escalators up or down to the right rail.

 

"Is that idiot hotel manager having you followed?"

 

"Yep, he's still trying to prove I'm causing trouble. I'm nowhere near his precious hotel and he's getting called before the court and getting his ass handed to him."

 

"And why's the train policeman after you?"

 

"Keeps trying to claim I didn't pay but my card was scanned going through the stiles a couple minutes before I got on the train so he's outta luck. He's getting lectured by his higher-ups to and told to leave me alone." The others look at her. "Everybody knows students don't want to pay to get on the trains."

 

"Isn't it part of the student tuition package?"

 

"Yeah, so he's just an idiot. He's one of those who sees people stealing at every turn. Everybody jumps the turnstiles, so the reports of ticket purchases matching people on the trains has to be wrong, somebody's covering something up even though you can't even scratch your ass without it being caught on three different cameras." David sniggers. They scan their cards for the turnstiles, being stopped and missing their train because the train cop is insisting they didn't pay. He's drug off by his superiors for being an idiot and the train management apologizes for their troubles. They settle on benches to wait for the next train, which comes through twenty minutes later. They arrive back in the rooms about six hours later, stopping to food queues and settling in the living room to eat since the others are in the other rooms.

 

"Have you looked at the schools?" Josette had taken the entrance exams to sort her into a section of schools, Professor Xavier had been stunned at her results, her mother had been so proud she thought she'd burst and Jack Harkness had smirked.

 

"The top five percentile for the state, not just the city?" Clarinda had asked that night after the kids had gone to bed.

 

"No, for the entire country, your daughter's intelligence was off the charts for the test."

 

"Yes, I've visiting them over the next couple weeks. It's not fair I've got to go to high school again." Her loving family sniggers. "Ahhhh, bite me."

 

"You're just pissed it's high school and not university, like your other degrees." David chuckles.

 

"I have nearly two hundred bachelors, seventeen Masters, and I'll be finishing my 13th doctorate this year. I routinely take thirty classes a semester, going back to high school's like being able to run at supersonic speed and having to walk." The others do the world's smallest violin for her and she laughs before heading into another room to change.

 

"Ten bucks says she finishes four or five years in one. All depends on what year she gets into."

 

"Sucker bet, even with the shorter school days and school year since she's working at her own pace. Even if the schools she's going to be visiting are the best of the best of the best."

 

Josette comes through a few minutes later in her work uniform and heads out the door.

 

"Did she ever contact an advocate about the hotel manager and having her hours cut?"

 

"Yes and no, he blistered the hotel manager in the court since he'd already seen that everything had been an accident but 'oh god, she had to do it because she was running past the hotel to the train station' but they pushed the hearing about her hours off." Susan says in a sing-song voice. "Idiot couldn't charge the building peace force because it was an accident and the insurance told him screw you because he made all those changes and they'd already said their insurance wouldn't cover it because they didn't meet the building code. But he's special and should be able to do what he wants." Snorts from everybody else, including Clarinda as she comes into the outer room. "Josette leave?"

 

"Yeah, just headed off to work."

 

"Did she say anything about school?"

 

"She's visiting them over the next couple of weeks."

 

"Good, I really don't like the idea of her working, even though she's older than the young teen she looks like."

 

David sniggers. "Josette's one of those people who are happiest working. She was off nearly a year when the school turned the laundry over to a business in Boston since we had two five floor dorms for the boys and the girls and we were building two more the next year. Nobody had taken over the work-study position after we graduated so Josette was taking university classes and working 32 hours a week. A year later that went to 36 or 38 hours when she was doing two floors of laundry a night."

 

Clarinda shakes her head. "Josette was working with two women from the laundry, showing them the ropes of sorting out the sheets and towels, running the folding machine, then wrapping the sheet and towel sets. After a couple weeks when they were familiar with everything he gave Josette the sack as she put it, giving her a severance package of her wages for the rest of the school year. That allowed Josette to finish her bachelors in Library science, the school gave her a temporary year contract since she was going for a dual bachelors in Library Science and information technology, but she still had about six or seven classes yet to go in the IT degree?" David looks at the others who nod. "Yeah, Josette got her IT degree a couple semesters later. When the second set of dorms went up they outgrew the eight commercial washers in the back room, the business started picking up and delivering the laundry. We took over the back room for our own laundry mostly since we had by this time decided it was just as easy for one of us to do all our laundry then it was each of us finding the time to do it." Mary, who'd come into the room, nods. "So we generally threw our laundry, including sheets and towels down the laundry chute and one of us would fill the washers in the back room. Josette also used the back room for her art and when we started inflicting our kids on the world, one commercial washer beat 20 loads in the washer and dryer we'd added to the basement when we started renovations. Though it was damn convenient when Josette and the twins came back from chaperoning the senior trips. They'd usually been on the busses two days traveling back and wanted a hot shower and clean clothes, one of us grabbed their clothes and started laundry before we went to breakfast.

 

"Two days traveling?" Mary moans. "How long was the senior trips?"

 

"Two weeks, visiting museums and other sights in two different cities that the students had to answer questions about during the trip. When we started graduating over 200 students a year we split the senior trips, the girls usually got the trip that came back just in time for the school's finals and our finals."

 

"That had to be rough."

 

"We had a couple hours to rest and catch up on two weeks of mail after we got home, the kids went right to their classes after breakfast. After we finished our finals, we helped the other teachers grade finals and put their grades on the server for the students graduating or going home for break."

 

"Started to graduate more than 200 students a year? Do I want to know how many students you had at the school?"

 

"We have 40 dorms, twenty-five stories tall. Twenty-four of them started out as five floors, 24 student rooms per floor with a floor monitor room at the end. The other sixteen started out ten floors, thirty rooms a floor with the floor monitor room. We added five floors at a time rather than building more dorms. Each room was double occupancy nearly from the beginning. We started getting the students a few years after we graduated when the school hit the national news since the administration at the university we first attended were stupid and allowing a hacker to torment the students by changing grades, sending letters. . ., they ended up ordering students who were picketing having their grades changed arrested, then had the campus' security attack the real police and news crews who were interviewing students over what was going on, turns out they were skimming money from various accounts, the publicity from the hacker might make somebody find out what they were doing. The state ended up taking over the school and finding out what they did." The others shake their heads.

 

"When we weren't building dorms we were building or adding onto school buildings, building a mall, movie theater, and community college by the school, or building a megastore, bank, and independent mail store since somebody in town had a fit about how we have to be overwhelming the town's post office, our mail was separated out at the sorting center and delivered right to the school."

 

"Idiots out to cause trouble."

 

"Yep, they didn't get their own way and whined when we shot down their stupidity and started growing. They were petty and stupid. We had so much business they didn't have thanks to stores wanting to build out by the school since we were between two towns and less than an hour from Boston by the interstate. Didn't help that one of the town councils wanted it to stay 'small town picturesque' and when new business wanted to come in, they wouldn't allow it, then whined they didn't have a big tax base. We were taking businesses from them even though none of them were moving to the new mall. They'd wanted a warehouse store for years but the town wasn't big enough for them but one was built out by our school. . ."

 

"Can't have it both ways."

 

"Okay, I know babies take a lot of laundry but . . ."

 

"The Covingtons have a genetic quirk that causes multiples to pop up in their family every generation. We have more than usual since we get pregnant more often." David says.

 

"Whattaya mean we kemo sabe?" Anna snorts. "I never seen you waddling down the hallway complaining you can't see your feet. But yeah, Susan had Sarah first, then we had Jasmine and Sebastian a couple years later, then the three of us became pregnant at the same time. I had twins, Abby had triplets, and Susan had a single birth. We ended up hiring four nannies since while Susan had put Sarah in daycare at four months and Jasmine and Sebastian had been nearly a year old when we went back to work, we all had to go back to work after our maternity leaves."

 

The adults in the family shake their heads at the thought of so many children at once and Black Jack frowns, there's a reason why a multiples pregnancy is high risk.

 

"And Josette was going back to work about the time you three delivered after being off a year thanks to the fuckups in the government." Alan says. The others look at them. "The government used our school as a place to hide either somebody or something, we're still not sure which. But the story was 'junior agents had been tortured by Japanese terrorists and they were still fragile, somebody with a Japanese last name might cause flashbacks'. The agent who was taking over the library who was also supposedly their psychologist admitted that he hadn't bothered to look at Josette's file, if he had he'd have seen that there wasn't anything that might cause problems. But Josette was put on administrative leave and Principal Madison made damn sure that the government couldn't use it against her when it was time to sign her new five year contract. As it was, they tried to give her a contract that would cut her pay ten thousand a year since she didn't have a MLS yet, which hadn't been a requirement for the job. They figured she was as stupid as they were and wouldn't read the contract. Principal Madison was not amused."

 

"Neither was Josette, she was only making fifteen hundred a month a ten thousand dollar a year cut she wouldn't have taken the job back. No matter how much she loves Principal Madison and Professor Druid like another set of parents."

 

"Did it get straightened out?"

 

"Yes, the government decided it was in its best interest to step quietly aside and let Principal Madison handle the new contract after he'd leaked the story to the local paper and they were shown to be bully boys." More than a few snickers. "So when Josette signed the new contract she started making 1800 a month."

 

"What was her duties?"

 

"Opening the library those weeks she worked mornings an hour before the teacher and student working that morning were due to arrive. buying the books the teachers wanted for their classes at least once a year. Every semester she went into the mall in Boston and brought books, DVDS, and music that the students had requested, getting those ready to be put into the system. Midterms and finals the teachers and student workers who also were in the library weren't there so she handled the library all week mornings and afternoons. The library had shorter hours those weeks and she closed the library for lunch and before dinner, and the library wasn't open Saturdays. The channels like PBS had stores. . ." The others nod. "Josette would order from them the fall semester, she has the knack for getting what the teachers would be able to incorporate into their classes and what the students would be interested in. That stuff she'd get ready too. We got microfilm from various places and Josette would put them in the system. The teachers covering the library were very glad to have her back both times she didn't have a contract."

 

"Both times?"

 

"Yeah, the other time it was some dumbass from the Department of Education who was trying to keep his cushy job and came up with a stupid mandate that all teachers had to have education degrees or lose their jobs, but it wasn't the teachers that were losing their jobs. Josette was due up for another contract but the school couldn't give it to her because while she had a Masters of Library science she wasn't qualified since she didn't have an education degree."

 

Mary sighs, looking up at the ceiling as if asking for patience and Clarinda says something uncomplimentary.

 

"Yeah, so Josette was given a one year extension of her current contract, we thought that it would be fixed by the next year."

 

"And it wasn't?"

 

"Nope. The judge found against the Department of Education because the Supreme Court had ruled years ago that teachers didn't need education degrees and it wasn't teachers losing their jobs thanks to the morons looking at school records and sending letters to the schools demanding everybody who didn't have an education degree be fired without looking at their job titles but the idiot who was behind everything went whining to the Supreme Court. Morons there didn't bother to read the lower court's decision or even the original mandate and let it stand. . .then when they started getting bothered they read it and realized they made a goof. But they'd promised to hear it. . .two years later."

 

"Shit."

 

"Yeah, since they'd agreed to hear it they couldn't send it back to the lower court and schools started shutting down because the idiots in charge were gutting their schools of anybody who didn't have an education degree and they didn't have anybody left to cook, clean, answer phones, change the toilet paper in the bathrooms, or drive the busses."

 

Nods and snorts from the others who'd come out into the outer room. "The lower court had also ruled that anybody who had lost their jobs could sue the dumbasses of education for their stupidity. They went whining to the Supreme Court again but this time the court actually read the ruling and agreed with the lower court. They whined, whimpered, kept telling everybody that they couldn't be sued because they were the government and just doing their jobs."

 

Snorts of yeah, right from the others. "They were stunned when they were told that we could, when it's malicious instead of normal business." Nods from the others. "They tried everything they could to stop the lawsuit, trying to get people removed who were suing because they were working, not the jobs they had lost but other jobs."

 

"Idiots, people needed to eat and had bills they had to pay."

 

"Yeah well, this is the government. Stupidity seems to be a job requirement. Anyway, about the time the Supreme Court was supposed to hear the case we got hints that they weren't going to. The rest of the schools that had been open closed either for Christmas break or at the end of the school year when it became public knowledge. The Supreme Court couldn't say why they weren't hearing the case, they claimed they were busy but there was huge blocks of open space on their online docket. They couldn't explain why the docket was empty yet they were soooooo busy. Oh, they'd still hear the case. . .later."

 

"Why fix the mess you created today when you can put it off for another day. That makes sense for the government." Sighs from the others.

 

"Josette got her job back after a few years later, the government couldn't touch Tesla because it's a section of GD?" James nods. "They did the same thing with the school, and since there was so many schools closed, and those that were open were at or over capacity, they started putting the classes on a server so students could attend school online. When the lower classes went live, grades 2-8 because parents or day care could teach kids the basics of reading and writing. . ." the others nod. "We had a million students online. "

 

"Shit."

 

"It went even higher when the high school classes went online. The DoD was hiring teachers to grade assignments and tests online, we'd hired the teachers from a second school to take turns at the education center to do it in person 24/7. Josette had the job of scanning books and worksheets. She was grumbling that it had been years since she'd had to sign into work. Once that was done and the school was part of GD, they gave her a new contract. The teachers were more than happy to have her back where she belongs."

 

"What a waste."

 

"Yeah, the only good thing that occurred from that was the idiot behind it all lost his cushy job at a private school in DC, he didn't mean for the mandate to affect him." David rolls his eyes. "He couldn't explain how it wasn't teachers who were losing their jobs. . ."

 

"No, he was too busy sending harassing letters telling people they were tainting students by not having education degrees. Then trying to change the terms of the mandate so that everybody had to have education masters." Alan snorts.

 

"What an idiot." James sighs.

 

"Yeah, he got yelled at for that. The whole department is staffed by idiots, another moron didn't like the idea that his younger daughter got accepted by the school and his older daughter didn't, mostly because she didn't want to concentrate on her studies, just do enough so she could be a cheerleader." Mary sighs. "Yeah, he kept calling saying it had to be some sort of mistake then wanting to know if we had a real librarian or just a teacher covering the library. Principal Madison told him they had a librarian but they couldn't give her a contract because of that damn mandate."

 

"Well, that's no excuse." Professor Xavier says in a fake huffy tone.

 

"Exactly, idiot kept calling demanding they hire a librarian. Principal Madison said if they were going to hire a librarian it would be the one they already had. . .Josette, but since they couldn't because the mandate meant they couldn't hire anybody without an education degree, they weren't."

 

"And of course he couldn't have that." Mary rolls her eyes.

 

"Exactly. Since he wasn't getting what he wanted over the phone, he deigned to come to the school figuring of course they'd have to do what he wanted now. After all, he lowered himself to come to the school."

 

"No luck."

 

"Nope, not at all. Principal Madison told him no, Josette wasn't at the school to kiss his feet and beg for her job back. . .She'd have knocked the moron on his ass as soon as look at him anyway. Of course he had a fit since Josette was off with the textiles teachers for an expo. He demanded that everybody who lost their jobs because they didn't have education degrees go back to work without pay and how dare they leave early even if their grades were already in."

 

"Fucktard." Clarinda says.

 

"Yeah, he got in trouble for that, the dumbasses of education were already on everybody's shit list, they didn't need the bad publicity. He got sent to Alaska, he wanted his wife and their daughters to come with him, she gave him a few facts of life. Hell no was she moving to Alaska, the younger daughter was going to attend our school, she'd skipped two years?" David looks at the others.

 

"Two or three, she was going to be graduating at fifteen. He wanted the girls to room together, she was already e-mailing the girl that would be rooming with her, they were both younger than our normal students by skipping years and Josette was going to be mentoring them since she knew what it was a super-super genius." The others snigger.

 

"What became of the older girl?"

 

"Didn't make the cheerleading team, was devastated and couldn't or wouldn't bother to keep her grades up and ended up failing. She was heartbroken that her Mother was making her work since she'd dropped out of school. She complained to her sister and got laughed at, being told it was her own damn fault for not concentrating on her schoolwork like Mom had told her. She's not dumb, she's just not motivated and was doing the minimum to stay on the team. So she's got to hold down a job and get her GED since she was too stupid to stay in school."

 

James looks at the kids. "I thought your school was a *high school. But you said Josette was copying the books and worksheets from second through eighth grade."

 

"Yep, one of the first non-school buildings Sanders put up was a 24 hour day care out by the road, they're associated with a Montessori school and offer pre-school through 8th grade. When the school in town got shut down because the principal was an idiot and more concerned about his precious sports than the academics. He was put on report and told to get the school's test scores up we added onto the building and got a good chunk of the students. He was all 'who are you to tell me how to run my school, he couldn't believe academics were more important than sports. Sports was going to put his school on the map, moron didn't realize that even if his students did get athletic scholarships, they lost them because they couldn't keep up academically."

 

"And he didn't work on the academics." James snorts.

 

"Hell no, who were the state to tell him anything? They came in memorial day one year since there was only a few days of school left and took over the school since they'd failed all the state exams again. He couldn't believe they'd do that to him."

 

"Idiot." Raven snorts.

 

"Yeah, the school ended up getting the school libraries and hiring all the cooks and teachers from the school since we were expanding our classes again. The other schools in the area brought the schoolbooks and furniture. He went on a rampage when school was supposed to start and nobody showed up, he was there to greet his beloved students."

 

Rolling eyes and snorts from the others. "He'd come to the law office a couple months before then, wanting to sue the state for daring to tell everybody they were shutting down the school without his permission, the school for 'stealing' the teachers and cooking staff away, the other schools for 'stealing' his students, the police department for not agreeing with him when he tried claiming the contents of the school had been stolen and not sold. . ., then added us to the list when we refused his case." Susan says.

 

"Fucking idiot."

 

"Amen, the school ended up having to be torn down, idiot hadn't spent any money for repairs, using it for what he wanted, and he wanted sports. Necessary repairs got whitewashed or ignored completely, he got charged with endangering the students health and welfare for that bullshit. He whined he didn't have the time to do the necessary repairs, but since the school was shut down for the summer every year nobody believed him. Then he tried claiming he didn't know the building needed repairs, the building inspections he signed call him a liar. . ."

 

"People are dumb." James sighs.

 

"What about your jobs?" Mary asks.

 

"We gotta head in a few hours, Josette's got more hours since she's being 'punished' for failing all her classes." Everybody nods. "The court's trying to get her hours reduced since it's not her fault but . . ."

 

"The wheels of justice move slow." Nods from the others. "Otherwise the idiot hotel manager would be out of a job and working off his his sentence for his stupidity."

 

"I'd still like it better if you were able to work your real jobs."

 

"Not like our degrees came from schools in this universe. I can help Dad out, Alan's helping out Black Jack, the boys are working on their art, so's Josette. . ."

 

"Josette's an artist?" Clarinda smiles.

 

"Textiles, she fell into it as she complains." Alexander says. Michael snickers. "The bottom sheets always wear out before the top ones." Everybody nods. "Josette took some old ones the students used when the dorm was still the girls dorm and tie-dyed them after a fabric painting class she took at the school. Michael took a picture of the sheet when she showed it off to Principal Madison to show our agent and that's all she wrote. Our agent had her signed up for a new artist show that day. Josette was like 'these are old sheets, you call this art? People are stupid'. Especially after she started selling out at all her shows and the stuff left at the school for them to sell and she still had requests." Clarinda chuckles.

 

"Own damn fault for adding so much stuff to her shows." Michael snorts. The others nod and snigger.

 

 

 

That night the others gather in a room the kids don't know about in the rooms that take up the entire floor. They'd already made sure the kids would sleep the entire night thanks to a light sedative gas piped into their rooms after they'd gone to bed.

 

"Are we sure?"

 

"Yes, all the bloodwork came back positive. They can easily accept the changes to their bodies caused by the serum. I'd suggest giving it to them over the course of several days in iv form instead of pure injections. It's easier on the system and with the fevers they'll be running they'll need the liquids. Now, what dosage? Enough to enhance their healing, slow their aging, or. . ."

 

"I can't lose Josette again."

 

"Same for Jezebel."

 

"Or David."

 

Black Jack nods and starts typing, the medical replicator bringing out eight large bags of an amber liquid. Typing more brings out more iv bags of saline solution and the others grab poles before heading to the kids rooms. Susan and Josette are the first, their arms uncovered and the ivs started by Black Jack before he goes to the twins, then the boys. Everybody settles in chairs brought in from other rooms to take turns watching them during the night.

 

Josette pushes the covers off and Clarinda pulls them back around her, cupping her cheek and forehead. The fever's already climbing.

 

The next morning Josette's blinking as she works on the computer and Alexander's napping on the couch across from her. Abby and Anna come out, stretching and yawning.

 

"Plans for the day?"

 

"I gotta head to work in a couple hours. Right now I'm getting in orders for my stuff. Alexander gave me his orders before he zonked out and Michael's looking over the order once he comes out of the bathroom." Michael comes over and Josette hands him the computer PADD, he nods as he looks everything over and they add a few more things after talking it over and send in the order. Josette looks at the time and heads to her room to change into her work clothes, getting two aspirin from the minor medical supplies cabinet and a bottle of water from the case before walking out. Alexander snorts himself awake on the couch.

 

"Order?"

 

"Just went out." Alexander nods and looks at the clock before stretching, yawning, and scratching his back before he walks to the bathroom and showers before he heads to work. The others head off over the next few minutes and it's quiet in the rooms.

 

Josette comes back to the rooms nine hours later, having stopped at the food queue to eat. Checking her messages she finds letters of interest from various schools. Walking into the library Josette finds Mary and Professor Xavier.

 

"Good. I've got a*ton of letters of interest."

 

"I'd been expecting them since your test results were so high." He chuckles. Josette sends him the file. "You weren't kidding, let's . . ."

 

"Sort some of these out." Mary says. "Some of these are no doubt form letters sent out to all students." Professor Xavier nods. Between the three of them they're sorted by country, state, whether it's in the city and she has to attend in person or she can telecommute, whether they're affiliated with major universities. Clarinda chuckles as they come out.

 

That night the sedative gas is piped into their rooms again after the kids have headed to bed. Blood is drawn and the ivs started again, the others settling around them for a few hours as Black Jack starts the bloodwork running.

 

 

"Shouldn't Josette be back by now?" Mary asks a few days later. It's nearly dinner and she had left before breakfast, saying she'd eat before she got on the train. She'd be gone most of the day but. . .

 

Anna's eyes glaze over. "Josette's. . .pissed." She says slowly. "She's outside somewhere."

 

James gets on the computer, he'd noticed that the kids always seem to know how the others are doing. "I don't see any notices of train problems."

 

"No, she's not on a train. . ."

 

An alert comes through and they turn on the news. Anna nods.

 

It's nearly morning by the time a cold, hungry, and very tired Josette comes into the rooms. The others had been sent to bed, though the 'adults' know none of them would be getting much sleep.

 

 

Black Jack immediately dials up a warm drink as Clarinda wraps a warmed blanket around her.

 

"Did they find anything in the train?"

 

"Hell no. After two hours they started backtracking the message that had came in. . .surprise, surprise it was our good friend the hotel manager."

 

"Shit."

 

"Hipdeep."

 

 

 

 

"Where's Josette?" Clarinda asks.

 

"Hiding, she hates being sick. She's tired, cranky, and miserable. She doesn't want to bother anybody, she just wants to be alone to complain in peace." Anna says, looking over her shoulder at her.

 

Clarinda chuckles. "She gets it from me. I hate being sick too."

 

"A cold won't kill you, you just wish it would." Susan says, the others in earshot nod.

 

"At least the court finally cut her hours down, they were stunned that it had gone on this long."

 

"Well yeah, when they put the case off five times that's what happens." Mary snorts. "Then they're stunned when they get lectured by the higher court for not hearing the case."

 

"You can't tell me the manager wasn't behind that, look how long it took for his fraud case to be heard." Michael snorts. The others nod as the doorbell chimes.

 

"Charles." Eric Lensheer, aka Magneto says when the other man comes to the door.

 

"Thank you for coming Eric, please have a seat I have a rather long story to tell you."

 

"I'd rather . . ." his voice trails off as a young man who might have been him decades ago comes into the room. "Excuse me Professor, I just got a request to cover a shift." He grabs a jacket, sliding it on before heading off. The door opens seconds later and he pokes his head back inside.. "Alexander," he says, raising his voice to be heard into the other room. "New shipment of our supplies arriving." Another young man comes into the room, talking with the delivery man. He brings in the small looking boxes on a cart and heads to their studios deep in the rooms.

 

Eric looks at Charles. "Who?"

 

"The first young man is Michael Addison, a foundling raised at the same orphanage as the second young man, who was also found abandoned there. A group of eight young men and women were brought out by . . ." Eric drops into a seat as the story continues, standing up at a bit of news. Charles takes him into the living room where he sees Susan and Raven talking. Clarinda walks through, Josette coming out a few minutes later blowing her nose and dropping the kleenex in the disposer before running her hands through the cleaning unit.

 

"Are you going to be in trouble for missing work?" Mary asks.

 

"No, I have a medical excuse and the reason I'm sick is that dickhead hotel manager's fault by calling in the threat to the train I was taking and making everybody get off and walk to a emergency exit to wait until the train was examined. Not a normal stop where we'd be warm, but an emergency exit where we were stuck outside in the cold and rain. Everybody got sick, the train management and the police are pointing fingers at each other about whose idea it was to strand a few hundred people outside for six hours. The advocates and news media are having a field day over the matter because the trains are climate controlled, the stops are buildings, people aren't expected to be outside so they don't dress warmly."

 

"Didn't he think that somebody would catch him?"

 

"Please, he didn't care, he wanted to cause trouble for me because he's smarting at being told to leave me alone and he got his feewings hurt when he couldn't get a judgment against me on his say so. He didn't think I'd have the proof that I was never charged or had the video footage and train records to show I was gone when the accident happened."

 

Susan snorts."Idiots like that never think, they just live to cause trouble." Nods from the others. "The court is receiving their fair share of scrutiny, if they'd have tried him when the fraud first happened, he'd be in prison and this never would have happened. The court didn't want that to get out but it's public knowledge the media ran with along with the news of how many times the court had put off hearing Josette's case to cut her hours and how many cases the manager had brought up against her for being in a public area. They didn't do anything about that either. Now they're getting bad publicity and the higher court is looking into whether they should be removed for obstructing justice and if they had been taking bribes."

 

Everybody looks at her. "It's the talk on the building's list. The court is asking people who've had bad experiences with the court to send them records, they don't want to have to go through all their cases but they've told them they will if they have to. Idiots are whining so they've probably been up to something, either illegal or just stupid."

 

"You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Josette says snidely. "Or in this case, you do something for me and I'll rule in your favor or ignore cases." She grabs a tissue and sneezes three times rapidly, blowing her nose and dropping it in the disposal unit before sticking her hands in the cleaning unit again. Idly she wonders if she could stick her head in the cleansing unit before sitting back down.

 

"Exactly, they're still feeling the asschewing from letting your case go so long and not reining in the hotel manager. Did the assistant manager get the position?"

 

"Yep, the first thing he did was put his big boy pants on and get the lobby fixed instead of leaving the windows boarded up like dumbass had wanted because he wanted somebody else to pay for it. It took a bit of money, especially considering he called in the building inspector and used safety glass which the former manager didn't want because it didn't give him the 'sparkle' that he'd wanted. It was all about the glitz and glamour with him." The others nod.

 

Michael nods in satisfaction when he walks into the room he and Alexander had taken over, seeing a good selection of everything brought out. Closing his eyes he starts to work, not seeing the door open several seconds later and David smirk as he waves a hand at him.

 

"Michael's got the gift for working with metal, that's one of the reasons he became an artist."

 

"Eric?"

 

"I don't feel any use of magnetic fields."

 

"No, while he can make metal sit up and beg, he doesn't have the magnetism gift that you do." David chuckles. "Alexander has a similar gift over wood."

 

"What are the others gifts?" The genetic testing had determined they were all extremely powerful Omega Level mutants.

 

"Anna's a telepath, Abby's kinetic, while Alan has a gift of creating subspace pockets that he can put stuff in. Susan's precognitive. We suspect that the Covington family has a secondary family mutation that causes multiples to pop up so often."

 

"And Josette?"

 

David just laughs. "Primarily knowledge absorption, she can literally 'dl' books into her mental library just by touching them."

 

"That's what she was doing in the library."

 

"Running her hands over shelves of books? Yes, she does it wherever she can, then spends a few hours 'renovating' her mental library, sorting books by category and whatnot. We think she's got a general absorbing mutation but knowledge is her strongest area."

 

"What makes you think that?"

 

"Josette somehow managed to start doing the same thing Alan does, putting stuff in subspace. It made it a helluva lot easier to stock up on animal food and other supplies every other month in Boston for our needs since we don't have the containers you do. Now, that could just be because we've lived in each other's back pockets for years. Same thing with our link."

 

"Link?"

 

"Yeah, it's like a mental hum for all eight of us. Anna's the telepath, but we can all talk mind to mind, makes it easier when we're not all in the same building and somebody needs something."

 

"Is there an effort involved?"

 

"No, it's just as easy as talking out loud."

 

"Does Anna have to be part of the conversation?"

 

"No, Michael and Alexander are likely to be talking about something while they're working on their art or working at Hank's. Josette and I are likely to talk about whatever work we're doing on the dorm or whatever Sanders is putting up."

 

 

 

 

A few days later Josette heads off to work once she's been cleared. After work she checks the file for her schooling, smirking.

 

"Get in to all of them?" David looks over her shoulder.

 

"Yep, and they've all offered me full scholarships and working on scheduling so I can take a good half to 2/3 of the classes here and only have to visit the schools maybe once every other week or so."

 

"School uniforms?"

 

"Yes damn it, at least I can get them all the same place. I'll print out the letters and go tomorrow since I have the day off. I've got to get the books and other supplies too."

 

"Ohhh, somebody's got to get new clothes and go shopping." Alexander laughs. Josette throws a pillow at his head. "Thankee, I needed a nap."

 

"Demanding muse?"

 

"Yes." Alexander lays down and falls asleep.

 

Josette settles in a seat the next morning on the maglev train heading to another city, arriving within twenty minutes instead of the hours it would have taken on Earth. Checking the building directory when she walks out of the station she decides to get the uniforms first, then the books.

 

"May I help you?" the older woman behind the counter asks as the young woman comes into the store. It's unusual to have a student come in alone.

 

"Yes, I'm Josette Takahawa, I've been accepted to these schools," Josette hands over the papers she'd printed out, the woman whistling despite herself when she looks at the names, checking her lists on the computer. "And I'm going to need uniforms. Please tell me at least some of them allow pants?"

 

"Yes, some of them." She chuckles. They look at the uniforms and Josette's measured, the replicators delivering everything.

 

"Shoes? Socks? Hair?" They talk about the different rules for each school, Josette getting copies of the rules for each school, putting them in each set of bags before heading off to the bookstore the schools use, putting her bags in subspace.

 

"May I help you?"

 

"Yeah, I need the books and supplies for a first year student for these schools." Josette has more bags by the time she's finished, sorted out by school and basic supplies before heading out to go to a couple museums, her id getting scanned and getting in free since she's officially a student again. After a meal at the queue Josette gets on the train and heads back to her city, heading up to the rooms.

 

She waves a hand and the bags come out, Josette hanging up the clothes to shake the fold marks out, putting the books up after dl'ing them into her mental library. She arranges them on the shelves in the case Alexander made for her in the library, starting to install programs on the computer.

 

"Shoes?" Clarinda asks when she pokes her head into the library.

 

"Black, lace up. I got loafers and sneakers, a couple different pair of each since they prefer different brands." Josette says absently. "They're on the floor in the new closet. My uniforms are hanging up to shake out the fold marks from the bags. I got a week's worth of each since I'm only going to be there once a day every week or so."

 

Clarinda nods in satisfaction. "Hair?"

 

"Up in a bun if it's beyond shoulder length, no ponytail. No scrunchy, nothing noticeable. I'll braid and pin it those days."

 

"Tie?" David smirks. Josette sighs and nods. "I look like one of those damn yaoi schoolgirls that are going to be ravished by the tentacle monsters."

 

"Skirts?"

 

"Pants for the most part, thank you god. Long skirts for the rest. I don't need the fucking short skirts that are a pervert's wet dream." Clarinda snickers this time.

 

The next few weeks pass, Josette accepting deliveries of fabric in those nice little boxes that hold tons of stuff. Josette gets into a computer and looks at the schematics, nodding. It would make delivering supplies a lot easier. Black Jack had headed to Japan to his home there, Josette had come with him marveling at the trans Atlantic trains that quickly speed you to your destination.

 

"These are much more convenient than airplanes. We'd have been crammed in small seats for hours."

 

Black Jack nods. "What were the others up to?"

 

"There's a number of old ships that are going up for sale, David wants to get one of them for a floating laboratory or just go out in the ocean and veg. The others are getting a little . . .overwhelmed with how big the building is."

 

Black Jack nods. "We all do it, which is one of the reasons why we keep alternate homes away from the congestion."

 

"I've read about buildings this large in fiction but. . ."

 

Black Jack nods. "It is a little overwhelming, that's why many of the people take trips to the open areas where they can wander and there are many parks."

 

"At least you've handled the population problems I've seen in the other dimensions. Our world was on a severe downward trend before the solar flares killed everyone but the other dimension Earth population was nearly eight billion before the asteroid."

 

Black Jack shakes his head. "I can't imagine our world being that populated, even before . . ." he waves a hand around the train car. "This." Josette nods, she'd been checking the history of the world to see where they'd changed, beyond the deaths of herself, David, and Susan. China wasn't a world power, communism had been stamped out after nearly destroying the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They'd put the halt to a lot of crackpot groups too, though there were still more in the fringes of society that the police and world government were dealing with. Josette had looked and Kelly had been killed as a member of one of those fringe groups so the mutant concentration camps would never happen here.

 

This Earth had more alien contact than theirs had, which had helped greatly when 85 to 95 percent of their population had vanished in the three years after WWII. Germany had faced severe penalties after WWII, never regaining the power that they'd had before they started the war. Japan had faced similar sanctions, not as harsh since they didn't have the death camps but they'd also never become the economic power they'd had in the other dimensions.

 

"I think I prefer our trains." Josette says after they travel to where Black Jack keeps his car. He chuckles. "Now I know how a sardine feels."

 

"Yes, they are rather packed during the rush hours. Japan doesn't have the same infrastructure that the US has."

 

"Because of the sanctions or because it's an island country?"

 

"A combination of both. I'm sure that you'll find similar packed subways when you visit the UK."

 

After a meal at a coffee shop/restaurant Black Jack knows they head to his home, Josette standing outside on the cliff and breathing in fresh air. Black Jack comes out behind her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they watch the sunset on the water.

 

"You can't get these colors in the cities." Josette makes a few mental notes for fabric painting before they go inside. Josette writes them down before settling in a chair. They come back from Japan the night before Josette is due to start school, Josette disappearing from the room. The others start to freak.

 

"Josette used the dimension controls to go home, probably to tell the others we're fine and coming back on one of the ships since we were at lunch when we got nabbed."

 

"Ships?"

 

"There's a reason why we were all sniggering about Stargate Atlantis."

 

"The city's real?"

 

"Yep, one of thirteen that have all adopted Josette as their chosen person. The show got some things wrong. Atlantis was on another planet but not sunk, she's not damaged, all the cities are at full power, and she's threatened to boot Rodney McKay from her if he's starts annoying her." James sniggers. "Let him swim back and if that didn't cool him down, she'd kick his ass off again." The others laugh this time.

 

"Thirteen?"

 

"Yep," David starts ticking off names on his fingers. The others shake their heads. "They have literally thousands of years of history, botany, biology and the other 'ologies. GD is in heaven as they slowly release information. Another thing the show got wrong, they don't need an ATA gene to operate machinery, in Atlantis's case it's a matter of who works best with her, the council had gone through thousands of people before she and Josette met and clicked."

 

A few minutes later they get the 'yeah, I'm back' call from Josette. She arrives back to the rooms a while later. "Principal Madison says just because I flit off to other dimensions at the drop of a hat, that doesn't mean you can." The others snigger.

 

The next day Josette dresses in one of her school uniforms, swatting David as he snickers before she leaves the rooms, taking the train to the first of her new schools to talk to the administration. Meanwhile, more of her selves are in the library, either taking classes on the computers or working on classwork. The rest of the week passes quickly with Josette visiting two schools a day until she's visited them all. The others are getting subtly and not so subtly nagged to consider university classes and Josette hums a funeral march as they look at university catalogs. Mary chuckles as Josette smirks.

 

"Have you been talking to your schools about going on?"

 

"Yes, and the universities are already contacting me."

 

"One of the schools you're attending would be a full-ride to any school in the country, the fact you're going to seven of them at the same time and have full-ride scholarships put you at the top of the list."

 

Josette changes into her work uniform, heading to work. After work she checks the building's list for the latest news on the court debacle. Mary looks at her. "The building court has been removed for doing stupid shit, another court has been brought in until elections can be held." She nods. "The others make it back?"

 

"Yes, they're talking about schools. The others are smart enough to get into good schools, David's just . . ."

 

"An annoying, slacking brat?" Josette sniggers. "Yeah, Dr. Blake had been after him for years to get his Ph.D in business, he kept pushing it off. The two of you pretended to faint in the audience when he finally finished it. Right now he's going for a bachelor on westerns from a sosh school, a Lit Masters on comic books, and a Mechanical Engineering Masters. She'd wanted him to go for Mechanical Engineering Masters when he finished the bachelors, he started the degree on westerns instead, then further annoyed her by only taking three classes a semester. When he goes for a comic book degree, he can get a year in a semester. He's already signed up for another one after he finishes the westerns degree."

 

Mary looks up at the ceiling and counts to ten. "Westerns?"

 

"Yep, he's finishing the bachelors this year and he's a year into the Masters. How long are they here?"

 

"Two years."

 

"Huh, another difference. They're four years in our dimension, He was going two classes the first semester for one of the degrees and one for the other then switching them our third semester since our years start at the first of the year, not the fall." Mary nods. "Your Ph.Ds?"

 

"Three years, I'm enrolled in a pilot program for geniuses through GD where I take three classes at the same time." Mary shakes her head and Clarinda who's coming through the room moans. Anna, who'd also comes out laughs. "It only took Josette a couple semesters to ask how many classes she was really taking since she couldn't get into her grades after she finished the class. She was complaining it was hard and that this is probably how normal students felt, but at that time of your studies, you should be on your A game."

 

"That's when I learned that my IQ had gone up. Before I started high school it was in the normal range, when I took the test again a few years later it had inched up to just below the genius level, then I took it the third time when I signed up for my doctorate, it had gone up again."

 

 

In his study Professor Xavier, Mr. Lensheer, and Raven are talking to Susan about the differences in the worlds. They shake their heads at how things had went for mutants, both of them closing their eyes when they hear how much worse it could have been.

 

"All that because of one man." Professor Xavier shakes his head.

 

"Him dying brought about the concentration camps for mutants, him living brought about the mutant registration act. Him dying here before he became a figurehead brought peace."

 

"Having the worlds governments take out fanatics and hate groups helped out a lot."

 

Susan nods. "The council took out hate groups and hate churches with extreme prejudice after they took over. The various governments either ignored them, supported them, or they were the governments." They nod, looking at the history and political text files that Josette had brought back with her. In return Josette's been putting history and political books on the server on Salem along with other files.

 

"Did you ever find a reason for the attacks?"

 

"China? Nope, the only people who might have known the truth in China are rotting in hell. North Korea's attacks was an opportunity, rather than going after the true target they went after the ones they'd wanted to take out. . .the US and South Korea. Same with Pakistan going after India after China attacked them in their second round of bombing."

 

"Bottom feeders."

 

"Exactly. Thanks to that one child edict the Chinese had when their military was demolished they started conscripting civilians, killing off most of the population. The ones left were older men and women who living in the outlying villages. We figured they'd never recover, which the rest of the world thought was a good thing. North Korea was devastated when their nuclear arsenal went off on the ground, we're pretty sure they were trying a final strike and got taken out. The country died of either the radiation from the bombs going off, fires from the explosions, or the nuclear winter that started there. The country was shielded so it didn't travel."

 

"The Soviet Union?"

 

"Blustering about the rest of us being involved in the war at first then bellyaching about how we hadn't stopped them when they were attacked. They didn't let anybody in to help with the damage, we think at least one got a nuclear bombmaking facility and they had more damage than they admitted. They ended up being taken out when their nuclear weapons detonated at they were being launched, like North Korea the ones who didn't die immediately from the radiation suffered through a nuclear winter. They were shielded too so it didn't spread. Other countries that didn't have representatives on the council were shielded to sink or swim on their own."

 

"Which is only right." Raven says.

 

"Yeah, they were whining about interference, then they were whining because we weren't."

 

"Some people are never satisfied."

 

"Yep, they didn't have the 'evil western influence' anymore than went whining about not having McDonalds, blue jeans, Nikes, and other shit."

 

"People are stupid." Raven snorts.

 

"Uh huh, the ones who wanted things to go back to the 'good old days' were pouting when their young didn't automatically follow their lead."

 

"Every generation has to follow their own paths no matter what their elders might have liked."

 

"And the elders will whine about how it's not proper and back in their day. . ." Susan says. The others snicker. "As a friend of ours back home says, living proof people grow old but they never grow up." The others sigh and nod.

 

 

(Clarinda realizes Josette has her fighting skills and Josette realizes that she must have absorbed her mother's mutation, her fighting skills)

 

 

"You have an absorbing mutation?" Professor Xavier asks.

 

Josette makes a yes, no, maybe hand gesture. "My mutation became activated because of the trauma of the Earthquake. It's primarily knowledge absorption from books but if I really need to I can absorb a person's memories. I did it accidentally with Mom then. . .I also absorbed her fighting skills but I figured it was just because she was a mixed martial artist and trained three or four times a week. I did it deliberately one time, I haven't tried since."

 

"Why did you absorb another's memories?"

 

"Principal Madison absorbs energy, but he's not immune to it. A good sized jolt will knock him out. It was a few months after I came to the school, I wasn't quite eleven yet and terrified that I might accidentally touch somebody and steal their lives, leaving them in a vegetative state just like I had Mom." Clarinda wraps herself around her, hugging her. "I never would have blamed you."

 

"I know that. . .now Anyway, there was an accident and Principal Madison absorbed a large jolt that stopped his heart and knocked unconscious the school doctor. I absorbed his memories of how to run the defibrillator and jolted Principal Madison back. Principal Madison has a pacemaker to shock his heart into normal rhythm if it happens again, the doctor recovered with ten stitches to close his scalp wound, a new hairstyle because of the stitches, and a hell of a headache. I realized that I could touch people without hurting them and stopped shying away from people. Meeting the others. . .then learning the truth about what had really put Mom in a vegetative state and I hadn't stole her entire life helped."

 

"That fucking ray." Clarinda says suddenly. Professor Xavier stares at her, stunned. Josette nods. "I only got the cover identity that she'd created when she found herself pregnant. If I'd absorbed all her memories, I'd have known that. Anyway, the memories except for the love slowly faded but the fighting skills never did. I found myself realizing I knew things I hadn't realized before, I was planning the garden one day and thinking that we didn't use commercial fertilizers anymore, just compost and manure and I realized I knew how to make a fertilizer bomb, that led me to realize I knew how to make and disarm all sorts of explosive devices. Somebody taught me sword and knife fighting, now I realize I already halfway knew it."

 

"Guns?"

 

"Oh yes, Principal Madison made me work with the security at the school before he was comfortable letting me keep your old gun, I can shoot that thing half-blind, half-deaf, drunk off my ass, fighting a magickal overuse headache. . .I can pick up any weapon and be familiar with it in seconds. The others make jokes about me being a Slayer from the TV show."

 

"There's a difference between knowing and knowing."

 

" 'xactly, that's why I work with experts until I'm comfortable with what I'm doing. And why the school let me start working my second semester when boarding students aren't allowed jobs until their second year. And why I was allowed to take the full eight class classload starting my first semester. It's six required classes and students are allowed to sign up for two electives their second year if their grades are good enough. Like the jobs, the students have to keep their grades up to keep them."

 

"Which only makes sense. David says that you somehow picked up Alan's powers."

 

"Yes, we've talked a bit about it over the years. I can see what he puts in subspace just like he can see what I have in subspace. I can see through subspace, Alan can too but I have a farther range than he does. We can bring out what the other has put in subspace and by working together we can put larger loads in subspace."

 

"Could you put something like this desk in subspace by working together?"

 

Josette snorts and waves a hand, it disappear and reappears. "Easy peasy. We could easily put everything in all the rooms in subspace since it's actually small stuff. Yes, there's a lot of it but it's. . ."

 

"The size of what you're moving and not the amount."

 

Josette nods. "When we were sophomores Alan put the contents of a lab in subspace and held it for a couple days before we could deliver everything to a friend. The scientist who worked there died and his family was going to burn everything because they were fanatics. Susan 'saw' it happening and we moved everything before they burned the empty building and put up cameras so they were caught on video." Clarinda snickers at Josette's bland tone. "Alan was tired because he'd never had that much in subspace that long and probably would have laid down for a nap but we had to head back to the school thanks to a stupid newbie getting caught with drugs and the 'I'm soooo much better than you are' social worker demanding dorm inspections, figuring that if she caught the other students with contraband she could either get her precious client off or cause trouble for the rest of us."

 

"That sounds familiar." Clarinda snorts. "After she was removed for the problems she was causing, we met another social worker who was taking care of her clients as they were moved from day students living in a foster home to boarding because their foster parents had took the cards they didn't realize they'd be getting for our scholarship loans and running them up, they were also stealing the girls allowances." Her mother and Professor Xavier shake their heads. "She was stunned to find out that the state didn't cover all the costs to put a ward through school, she sat down with me and Principal Madison and I found out that I was eligible for a food card since I had a way to cook, so did the other boarding students since we had kitchens in the dorms basements." Professor Xavier nods. "I didn't think I was eligible since they'd canceled that for university students. I had brought a cheap tracfone because my social worker wanted a way to contact me and leaving a message at the office wasn't good enough for them. She told me that I was eligible for a phone and contract the state would have been paying for until I turned 18 or graduated. And that yes, while the state medical plan didn't cover vision or dental, as a ward of the state I could have applied to a fund to have it paid."

 

Both of them sigh and shake their heads. "It took her weeks for her to get everything straightened out. I got a check back for most of my dental and vision that I'd paid with the card and I was covered after that until I graduated. After I graduated I found out that I should have been getting social security death benefits since I was twelve, I didn't think I was eligible since I was a ward of the state, it was just something else my social worker hadn't bothered to do."

 

"What happened to the social worker who told you you could be getting all that?"

 

"Principal Madison snapped her up immediately for the school so we wouldn't be assigned another loser by the local office. She's been at the school ever since, she and another social worker who came out to see if we were ready for the first batch of multiples are in charge of the social service on Haven, not that there's much they need to do."

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