nextgenerationmarvel | Fourth Time's Never the Charm

It took a couple of days after her disastrous meeting with Athos for Brooke to set one up with Rachel. For one thing, she'd needed to calm her nerves down a little bit - the meeting had truly been difficult and Brooke had never felt so off of her game in her entire life. For another, there had been the clean-up to consider. The turtle had left quite the hideous mess for Brooke - scorch marks included! - and it had been hard work for the brunette to clean all that up.

I'm never taking Sharona for granted again, Brooke mused as she knocked on the door of Rachel's office. Such a hearty constitution when it comes to hard manual labor like that.

She smoothed down the skirt of her dress and glanced again at the clutch she'd discovered while shopping that weekend. It was meant to look like the cover of one of Brooke's favourite books, L'Arrache-cœur. It was a French novel about a psychoanalyst who moved to a village where absurd things occurred. Not quite like the Institute, really, though thematically, it fits in some ways, she thought wryly.

She took a seat outside of the office, flashing back to many of the other meetings she'd had with Rachel here since her arrival at the Institute not so long ago. And really, who knows how this one will end?

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"He doesn't exist in a vacuum, Brooke. That's something you're going to have to account for. Whether you approve of the people in his surroundings or not." Rachel had no idea who Brooke was disapproving of since Brooke had not been around the students all that much recently. Nor had Rachel been paying attention to where the brunette had been with all the construction around the grounds.

"If you think a school for teenagers who don't have control of their powers can't handle scorch marks, you've maybe forgotten where you are."

"It's not just that," Brooke replied. "I need to show him what's so great about being a mutant, but we're one Sentinel attack or one unleashing from Animus from scaring him into that literal-proverbial shell for good."

Brooke set her cup and saucer down and stood up. She walked past Rachel to the window and looked out into the campus. "I'm used to having control. Being in control. This is too...wild-cardy for me."

"You also forget attacks by other dimensional beings, members of the Hellfire Club, well-armed bigots, and whatever villain team of the day decides to attack. We are in constant danger. Which may or may not happen and may or may not set him back." Rachel made her chair float up and turn to follow Brooke's movements. She had gotten comfortable and was loathe to get up at the moment.

"Who's to say he's not traumatized by being abducted by Arcade? But we're not giving up on him." She took a breath. "This wild card craziness is pretty typical for X-Men. We can control ourselves, but the world will still come at us, our students, and those like Pete."

"Yes, I know," Brooke huffed. "The world we live in is very wild card-y."

She paled, though, at that bit about Arcade. "Arcade. That didn't even cross my mind," she said, eyes wide. "Which turtle was it that experienced that? Or was it Pete himself?" Either way, Pete would have been left a little traumatized. "Rachel, I need to know more about this incident."

"Pete was on a day trip with an adult in New York City." Considering the short list of adults Pete was comfortable around, Brooke could surmise which one in short order.

"He was the one kidnapped and knocked unconscious. He turned into Athos on waking. So, Athos was the turtle who went through Murderworld." That was what Rachel had managed to piece together from talking to the turtle, Franklin, Dani, and a very brief and rare appearance of Pete.

"Franklin Richards?" The only other person that Brooke could even think of it being was Doug Ramsey, but Brooke wasn't about to suggest that he was inept at protecting Pete, given her present company.

Besides, the thought of it being all-powerful Franklin Richards who was knocked out...well, that amused Brooke.

"So he's being hyper-vigilant," she said. "I get it. I just wish...you know, it's not like I'm about to kidnap him or something." She paused. "He also believes that only reason I'm talking to them was because you asked me to. And maybe that was true, at first." Because it was. Brooke could own up to that. "But that's not the case anymore, and I don't know how to make him believe it without...forcing him to."

"Try having a less-planned interaction with him. You are setting up a situation for him to walk into. It might, on some level, send up warning flags after his recent experiences. You're seeing him on your time. Try catching him around the school or set up something with his input." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"Otherwise, it's the dreaded it's going to take time answer."

"Draw him in instead of draw him out!" Brooke exclaimed. "Of course! That makes perfect sense." Now she only needed to find the right turtle at the right time.

Or leave it up to chance and hope the fates smiled down on her.

Fingers crossed?

"I'll give that my best shot," she said. "Hopefully it works."

"It's the best advice I can give at the moment." She not going to admit she was a little surprised Brooke cared so much about... someone so completely not in her social sphere. Also, he turned into turtles, which Ray had picked up as very scary to the socialite.

"Even if it doesn't work right away, it'll help in the long run. Don't give up. You're doing a good job with all of them."

They were terrifying for her.

Even when they were dead and in soup.

But this was...at some point down the line, Brooke had actually gotten invested in this. Why, she couldn't really say. He was, after all, outside of her social sphere.

In as much as that was true, though, Brooke was also starting to realize that in some way, the turtle was part of one of her social spheres - the mutant one.

If she was ever going to be someone that the mutants could look up to, she was going to need to start helping those in need.

"Thank you," she said, finally. "For that last little...thanks." She smiled at Rachel. "I needed to hear that."

"You're welcome. Anything else I can help with?" All in all this had been one of the easier and more pleasant meetings with Brooke in her office. They had certainly come a long way since the first one.

"No, I think...I think that's it for now." Brooke stood up and smoothed down her skirt. "But thanks for hearing me out," she said. "I needed to vent, and talk out loud at someone." And considering that she was in this predicament because of Rachel, well, who else was better to talk to about all of this anyway?

Fourth Time's Never the Charm

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