"I have not seen a mall in at least five years," declared Anne as they pulled into the great expanse of the parking lot. "It looks more like an amusement park now."

"Amusing's the word, darlin'." Logan said, sighing with resignation. Rogue had declared over lunch that it was their duty to show Anne around the area, and that of course included a stop at the gargantuan shopping complex that dominated the center of town.

"You don't get out much, do you?" Bobby commented.

Anne laughed wryly. "You have no idea."

Everyone stayed clear of Rogue as she effectively commandeered the group through the multitude of shops in the mall. Bobby hugged Anne's side, chattering about whatever subject came to mind. Every time Anne smiled or laughed at something he said, Logan had to fight down the urge to skewer Bobby on his claws.

Finally, much to his relief, Bobby excused himself to go to the men's room. At the same time, a clothing store caught Rogue's eyes and she dragged Anne in after her. The petite woman threw a pleading glance towards Gambit and Logan. With a resigned sigh, the two men followed.

By the time they ambled in, Rogue already had two dresses in her arms and was whispering animatedly to Anne. Anne laughed, and turned to look at the approaching men with mischief in her eyes. Gambit and Logan watched them suspiciously as they disappeared into a dressing room.

A few minutes later, Rogue pranced out in a skin tight, emerald green dress that draped lovingly around her legs. A high slit exposed a long length of tanned skin. Gambit whistled, and Logan smiled appreciatively. Envious looks from other women in the store were thrown Rogue's way. She grinned wickedly.

"Well, if you two think this dress looks good, wait till y'all see what Anne's wearin."

"So, what do you boys think?" Anne asked, stepping from the woman's dressing room a moment later.

Logan felt his mouth go dry. Dark blue silk hugged the lean lines of her body, the color complementing her fair skin perfectly. The long sleeved dress was short, though not immodestly so, and the low V cut of the neck showed off her ample curves. Her eyes sparkled as she posed for them.

"Well?"

"Darlin'," Logan said, ashamed that his voice sounded so hoarse. "Any man who doesn't think you look beautiful in that dress is either blind or has bad taste in women."

Anne laughed with delight. "With a compliment like that, how could I not buy this dress?"

When they went back in to change, Gambit elbowed Logan.

"Anne cleans up good, non?"

"She looks good no matter what she wears, but yeah...that dress was made for her."

Something in Logan's voice caused Gambit to look closer at his friend, and the suspicion he had on the mountain grew.

"Gambit t'ink you beginning to like Anne a little more than a friend, eh?"

Logan turned to glare at him, but before he could comment, the two women exited the dressing room. They paid for their purchases and the foursome left. Bobby was looking for them a few stores down and made a bee line towards Anne. This time however, she walked between Logan and Gambit. The young man was forced off to the sidelines, much to Logan's satisfaction.

When they finally began to trek back to the car, Anne groaned.

"Back home I could walk up to thirty miles in a day, and I never felt as tired or foot sore as I do now." She declared heavily. They all piled in, Rogue at the wheel and Anne in the back seat between Bobby and Logan.

Half way to the mansion, Bobby began to talk about his exploits as a member of the X-Men.

"I mean, I know it's a horrible thing to do to another guy, but he was coming at me with a sledge hammer! How was I supposed to know that I would really freeze his balls off?"

"Gambit always hate dis story." He muttered over the snickers of the two women. Anne elbowed a stony faced Logan in the ribs, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

Abruptly, the twinkle died and Anne's face drained of all color. Logan felt her body stiffen convulsively, her breath rattling in her throat.

"Anne!" Logan shouted. "Rogue, dammit, stop the car!"

Rogue swerved to the side of the road, horn blasts accompanying her move as other cars braked to avoid hitting her. As soon as the car stopped, Anne clambered out of the vehicle, practically over Logan who could not get out fast enough. She fell to the ground on her hands and knees, heaving. It had been several hours since lunch, so her body forced up dry gags that caused her narrow frame to shudder painfully.

When Anne finally stopped, she continued to kneel on the ground, forehead pressed into the dirt. Sobs racked her body.

Logan crouched by her and he could hear Rogue on the cell phone, calling the mansion.

"Darlin', darlin'," he soothed, gently rubbing the small of her back in tiny circles. "It's all right."

Gambit appeared on her other side and smoothed back her short hair.

"Chere, don' cry. Tell Gambit and Logan what's wrong."

"How's she doin'?" Rogue asked, her voice filled with concern.

Gambit looked up at her, his eyes pained.

"What did Hank say?" Bobby asked quietly, obviously ill at ease with the turn of events.

"Just to get her back as quickly as possible."

"Bobby," Logan snapped. "Get in the front seat."

The young man did not argue, scrambling at the order.

"Ok Gumbo, let's get her in the car."

Anne was completely unresponsive as they uncurled her body. Gambit took her shoulders as gently as he could, and pulled her into the car after him. Logan followed closely with her legs until they were all seated in the back, Anne stretched out across their laps. She was still crying, her body shaking with silent sobs.

They pulled in front of the mansion less than ten minutes later, Logan and Gambit missing Rogue's maniacal driving as they concentrated on soothing and comforting their friend. It felt so natural to think of her that way, Logan thought suddenly. As his best friend—something that only a few people could claim the privilege or burden of.

Anne, he thought. What have you done to me?

Beast stood on the front steps of the Mansion with Jean at his side. They held a stretcher between them, and greeted the car with hurried waves. Logan slid out of the car first and took Anne from Gambit. Her racking sobs had ceased, but tears still trickled down her face. He gently lay her on the stretcher and soon they had her in the infirmary. Beast hovered over her still form, his instruments whirring and clicking.

"There is nothing physically wrong with her." he announced finally.

Jean frowned. "Her shields are as strong as ever, and there is absolutely no sign that she was attacked."

Logan snarled, shaking off Gambit's restraining hand. "So what are ya' saying? That we can't do anything for her? What if something worse happens?"

Beast grimaced, but did not back away. "My friend, there is every likelihood of her 'snapping' out of it. I cannot guess as to what caused her current condition, but she has stopped crying, and her heart rate has slowed to normal. These are good signs, but you have to give her time."

"We can sit with chere, oui?"

"Yes Gambit. I would recommend that, in fact."

"'kay. Come on, Logan. Anne needs us." His simple statement brought Logan out of his seething fury, and the stocky man entered the infirmary without another word. Gambit stopped just before the door and looked back at Rogue, who had followed Anne's progress as eagerly as the rest of them.

"I see you later, Rogue?" Gambit's earnest plea brought a smile to her lips.

"Yeah, Remy. You can find me when Anne wakes up."

"Thank's chere." he brought her gloved fingertips to his lips and lay a gentle kiss on the soft cloth.

At dinner, Logan and Gambit were conspicuously absent.

"They are still sitting with Anne?" The Professor asked.

"The last time I checked, they were." Beast said over his meatloaf. "And I was just there less than ten minutes ago."

"Ah think it's sweet," Rogue declared. "Anne brings out the best in them."

Bishop glared at her from the other end of the table.

"I still think we should put her under surveillance. Despite the fact that you didn't consult me before allowing her to stay in the mansion, I managed to do a back ground check on this...Anne." He spoke her name with distaste.

"She has been arrested several times in the past few years—destruction of property, being a public nuisance—you yourself say that you cannot sense her intentions, that her shields are unnaturally strong. And her reasons? Trees? Communion with the earth?" His look of derision spoke of his belief in her explanation. "She is a potential threat to—"

"Enough!" Xavier did not shout, though he might have with the effect that it had on Bishop. The man quieted instantly, though his eyes burned with irritation. "Gambit and Logan vouch for Anne, and I for one have never known any two people with better instincts for character. As for her explanations of the source of her training and strength, I cannot verify them, but I am willing to believe her. Anne has shown incredible power, and I do not think we can afford to lose her."

He did not bother to say that if they drove her away, they would lose Logan and Gambit as well. He refused to loose not one, but three of his X-Men. And he did think of Anne as an X-Man, despite their rough beginnings and her short time at the mansion.

What the others did not know, what he had shared with only Beast and Jean, was that Anne possessed a raw psychic ability that surpassed his own. She simply did not use her powers enough to be aware of her true strength.

Get well, Anne. The Professor urged silently over the chatter of his X-Men.

Anne woke to a dull throbbing in her chest. Her mouth felt as though it had been stuffed with cotton, and she imagined that if she looked into a mirror her face would appear to be as puffed and swollen as a cabbage patch doll.

Images still flashed through her mind—the eruption, the feeling of lava pouring out of the ground as though the earth's blood was rushing from an open wound. The inability to stop the flow as it began, the feelings of helplessness as lives—human, animal and plant—were snuffed out, buried beneath the molten rock that swept across the land.

Yet the worst part was that the eruption had not been natural. This was no response to building magma pressures that required release. The Argentinean volcano had been dormant for hundreds of millennia, had slept as the earth's blood flowed sluggishly beneath rock and mountain.

Something—someone—had pulled apart the mountain and called up the fires. It was as much a violation of the earth as rape to a human, and Anne had felt it all. She could never shield herself from the earth. It was not possible for her, since she drew energy from it. And she had felt the back lash of the earth's pain.

Anne shifted beneath her covers, and immediately heard two chairs scrape across the floor.

"Chere?"

"Darlin'?"

She managed a weak smile, though her eyes remained shut tight.

"Why am I getting a feeling of deja vu?" she croaked, and was pleased to hear the deep, relieved chuckles of her friends. "You two must be my Guardian Angels."

"Need water, darlin'?"

She nodded, and felt strong hands helping her to sit up, propping soft pillows beneath her back.

"Anythin' wrong wit your eyes, chere?"

Anne forced herself to unclench her eye lids, and she blearily looked around the room. Obviously, the infirmary. "No, my eye sight's fine. I was just too lazy to open them."

She heard Gambit's sigh of relief and she reached out to pat his arm.

"How long have I been out?"

"It's morning...since yesterday, darlin'." Logan appeared on her right, his chiseled features creased with worry. He pressed a tall, chilled glass of water into her hands. She gratefully took it and gulped down the cool liquid, not caring that some of it trickled down the sides of her mouth and into her lap.

"Mmm, that's better." She looked up at the two men who still hovered anxiously.

"You boys look as though you've been through the wringer and back. Was I really in that bad of shape?"

Gambit and Logan shared a significant glance that was not lost on her.

"I guess I was then." Anne murmured, clutching at the empty glass.

"What happened, chere?" Gambit pressed her gently.

Anne shook her head, swallowing heavily. How to describe the images, the heaving emotions and turmoil of an entire planet?

"A volcano," she began weakly. "One erupted when it was not supposed to. Someone forced the eruption, and there was a back lash from the earth." When she looked up at her friends, her eyes were bright with tears, though she looked no where near the mindless state of grief that had possessed her earlier.

"There was pain," she whispered, almost hissing. "And loss. Frustration that the event was occurring, and that there was nothing that could be done to stop it. Violation," she said softly, eyes dropping to her lap. Anne's knuckles were white around the glass she held.

"You felt all this from the earth, darlin'?"

She nodded silently.

"And you said that someone...forced the volcano to erupt before its time? People were killed?" Logan asked her quietly.

"Many." She said fiercely. "And trees and animals. I experienced all of their deaths. This has never happened to me before. I never realized how closely everything was connected."

"Darlin', I promise you that we'll find the bastard and he won't ever do this again." His voice was deathly quiet, and despite the killer that she could feel lurking within his anger, Anne smiled with appreciation and thanks.

Gambit nodded in silent agreement, taking her hand. Logan pressed his own hand over her other one, engulfing her fingers in a tight, reassuring squeeze.

"Together?" she asked.

"Together." The men responded simultaneously.