In his Manhattan office Max was seated at his large desk looking over the new plans for his Sentinels. If all went well they would be ready to deploy in a few nights, and Max had the perfect spot picked out for their test. He had installed electrical shields around their outer metal skin so that anyone coming in direct contact with his robots, say a man with metal in his body would get a real shock as a result. Max smiled at that thought, and as he was putting his files away for safe keeping, his phone began to ring. “Max here,” he said as he put the phone on speaker.

      “Just thought you would be interested in knowing that Omega 1 and her carrier have been spotted just outside Washington State, our informant there put a tracking devise on their vehicle, so we should be able to move in when they settle down again,” said the voice.

      “You have done well Mr. Adams. When you get a solid lead let me know, I want you to take them to our Boston office for questioning.” Max turned off the speaker phone and leaned back in his chair. Soon they would have the Sentinels and a weapon that the X-men wouldn’t even suspect him having, Max was pleased and thought about Heidi. He shook his head as he thought about what a waste her life was. She would have made a valuable partner had she not defected to the other side. Thinking of that Max took a glass paper weight and through it hard across the room. It came in contact with the wall and shattered. “What a waste indeed,” he said as he called his secretary to send someone in to clean his mess.

      A little more than two hours away from Max and his volatile schemes was the woman of his thoughts. Heidi was settled in at the mansion and her computer was hooked up to the internet. She spent a great deal of time in her room and found that was the only way to avoid Logan. He hadn’t really said much too her seeming to respect the fact that she didn’t want him near her, though lately Heidi had found she wanted him around, and missed his company, and again that dismayed her. In the past she had prided herself with her accomplishment of getting a great job, and managing to take good care of herself. She hadn’t needed any man to be there for her then and she knew she didn’t need a man now.

      Seated at her desk Heidi was using the internet to play games, trying to get her mind off of Logan when she heard someone knock at her door. She waited to see if whoever it was would go away and when the knock came again she pushed back her chair and stocked toward the door. If it was Logan she knew just what she was going to do. When she opened the door she didn’t find Logan standing there. Instead she found a young man with red eyes and brown hair with red highlights. He was a little shorter than Logan but not by much.

      “I thought I might introduce myself,” he took her hand and kissed it, “Remy LeBeau,” he said.

      Heidi stood there surprised by his way of introducing himself. He had an accent that she had never heard before. “Well you have quite a unique way of saying Hello, where are you from?” she asked not able to help wanting to know.

      “New Orleans. What is a beautiful rose such as you doin spendin so much time alone?”

      Again Heidi was surprised by his choice of words, but realized it was just his nature and suddenly realized she had a way to get her mind off of Logan. “Lost in thought I guess. Let me shut my computer off and I’ll come with you,” she said as she went back into her room.

      Remy knew she had arrived with Logan, and since he seemed to be avoiding her, he thought he might try to get to know her. When Heidi came back out of the room, he offered her his arm and when she wrapped her left arm around his he led her down the hallway to the stairs.

      As they approached the stairs they met up with Bobby and Rogue who had just come from her room. Both couples said hello to one another and as Bobby was about to follow them down the stairs Rogue pulled him back into her room. “Is it my imagination or are they a little to close?” Rogue asked as Bobby shut the door.

      He walked over to her bed and sat down. Bobby was not one to gossip but he had noticed too, and wondered what would happen when Logan saw them. “Maybe it would be good for her. She and Logan don’t seem to be getting along all that well,” he pointed out as Rogue came over and sat down next to him.

      Rogue thought about that. She wanted to see her friend happy, and knew that he likely wasn’t since Jean and Scott seemed to have renewed their relationship. “They remind me of two people on one of those Soap Opera’s,” she commented as Bobby took her gloved hand in his. 

      He moved his head close to hers and they shared a brief kiss before he pulled away. Their own love life was more difficult than he would like it to be, and trying to figure out how to get close to Rogue without getting hurt was not all that easy. He noticed her silence and took her hand holding it in both of his. “What is it?” he asked almost worried that she would tell him that they had to break up again. Since that time he had tried to take things with her a little slower but it wasn’t easy.

      “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have this power. I wish I could be like any other girl,” she said as she looked into his eyes.

      “But you aren’t and I like that about you. Look we will figure this out and I’m not planning on going anywhere,” he said hoping she would understand what he meant.

      This time she initiated the kiss, and this time they kissed a little too long. She felt him pull away and was surprised when he didn’t let go of her hand. 

      Bobby took a few deep breaths and offered her a smile. “Let’s go see if we can get Scott to take us into town to see a movie.”

      In the recreation room, Heidi stood on one end of the Air Hockey table with her peg guarding the goal. Remy on the other end had the puck in one hand and seemed to be contemplating his next move. So far he had yet to score and Heidi thought that was funny because until today she hadn’t been very good at playing this game. Suddenly the puck was moving toward her goal and Heidi batted it away back across the table, it glided across the smooth wooden surface and was intercepted by Remy’s peg. It came back to her and she just managed to keep it from going into her goal.

      Logan stood just outside the entry of the Recreation room watching them. Heidi was happy again, and he knew he should be happy for her but he couldn’t, not when it was another man making her smile and laugh. Finally he entered the room and noticed Remy looking over the woman he loved. “So whose winning he asked.” 

      “This rose, she seems so delicate but this game proves that she is stronger than I first thought,” he said.

      Heidi ignored Logan and put her peg down. “Remy would you like to go out for walk?” She wondered if he would now that Logan was here.

      Remy respected Logan, but knew Heidi needed a friend and ignored his glare as he walked over to her and offered her his arm. “Where would you like to go?”

      Heidi didn’t answer him as she moved closer to him, wanting to be close so that Logan might get the idea that she didn’t need him. She expected him to make a scene and almost wished he would but when they got outside without a hitch she found she was disappointed and hurt.

      By the end of the day, a complete day of being ignored by Heidi Logan was restless and angry. He didn’t like playing games and felt that was what she was doing. Now he stood at her door waiting for her to return from her outing with Remy Peter and a few other of the students who had gone into town. As he waited for her he paced the floor letting his blades slide out and in. Finally he heard familiar voices and stopped pacing. Peter Remy and Bobby went down the hall toward their dorm room and Rogue Jubilee and Heidi were on approach.

      The other two girls went into their room and when their door closed he stepped away from Heidi’s door drawing her attention to him. 

      Heidi could see the anger in his eyes and found that she was not afraid. “Do you mind moving out of the way so that I can go into my room and go to bed?” she asked as he prevented her from passing.

      “Not until we talk,” came his angry reply.

      Heidi tried pushing past him but he caught her arm.

      “Do you mind,” she asked as she tried to get away from her.

      “Yeah I do. Look I don’t know what game you’re playing but keep Remy out of this,” he said. Heidi yanked out of his grasp and ran into her room. The door almost shut but he held out his hand out and prevented that. Logan stepped into her room as she spun around to face him.

      “I’m not playing any sort of game, and I don’t think what I do is any of your business,” she added. As he stepped forward she began to back up. Heidi backed up several steps until she found herself pressed against the wall. She looked into his eyes and saw the desire burning there, but this time she didn’t want it. Her whole being screamed for him to stop and suddenly within inches of her lips he did stop. Heidi stood there for half a second before she ducked away from him and ran out of the room. She ran down the hall and found Bobby at the stairs not moving then suddenly he started to walk down them as if nothing had happened. Heidi followed him and as she reached the bottom of the stairs she heard a voice in her head. The professor asked her to go to his office and even if she hadn’t heard the voice she would have done just that.

      When she arrived in Xavier’s office she found the professor sitting behind his desk. His hands were folded and he watched her as she took a seat across from his desk. Without hesitation she asked, “What just happened.” Heidi had never felt more confused in her life and along with that confusion the young woman also felt tired, like when she had a very intense clairvoyant dream.

      For some time now Professor Xavier had known that this woman possessed a greater power than even she knew and now knew that it was time to have a talk with Logan. While he couldn’t forbid him from seeing Heidi he needed to make sure that Logan knew he needed to give this extraordinary girl the space she needed to develop this new gift.

      “Sometimes intense situations bring out a mutants power, I feel this is the case with you. You have the ability to stop time,” he said waiting as she took all of this in.

      Heidi looked at the older man not wanting to believe him. Nothing in her life made since and this just seemed to make matters worse. “I don’t need this,” she said as she stood up. “I never asked for this or to have dreams about the future,” she continued as she walked toward the door. “I just need to be alone,” she finished as she opened the door finding Logan standing just outside. She held out her hand and pushed her way past him running for the stairs. What she wanted was her old life back a life that made sense, a life that didn’t seem like such a prison.

      The following morning Heidi wasn’t at breakfast, and no one really seemed to notice what had taken place the night before. Logan hadn’t needed the professor to tell him to give Heidi time to deal with the changes going on in her life and didn’t really agree when the professor told him that the woman he loved needed to be left alone. He knew all about being alone, for the past fifteen years of his life Logan had drifted from one place to the other trying to figure out his past. He had thought that being alone was the only way he could survive, but now that he had people around him that cared about him, and whom he cared for Logan knew better. As he was about to get up Remy came over to the table where he was sitting and sat down across from her. “She would not answer her door,” he said sounding concerned. 

      Logan wasn’t sure what to say to this younger man. Remy was at least a year older than Heidi and seemed to really care about her. “Yeah she has a lot to deal with,” he said as he got up taking his plate into the kitchen. He was about to head upstairs to go talk to her when he remembered he had a class with Peter and a few other boys. Logan cursed under his breath and headed for the elevator intent on talking to Heidi after his work with the boys was finished.

      In her room Heidi sat in her bed holding a book but not really focusing on the words in front of her. She was thinking about Remy and Logan. Both of them were so different and both seemed to really care for her. She was feeling guilty because she knew what Logan had said the other night was true. She was only using Remy to prove that she didn’t need Logan and knew she couldn’t keep using him in that manor. Just a few minutes ago he slid a note under her door inviting her to see a movie with him tonight, and as much as she wanted to go Heidi was almost afraid too. That only seemed to anger her more. Before all of this had started she had been confident. Heidi had known what she wanted and didn’t hesitate to do what was needed to make her life feel more meaningful. Having a job and being successful used to be her top priority but now in the blink of an eye all of that seemed to be changing. 

      She looked at her door as someone began to knock, and after turning her book the right way she called for whomever it was to enter. When the door opened she found Jean Grey standing there and felt an instant wave of disappointment was over her. For a brief moment Heidi wished it was Logan who had come calling for her.