Politics and Priorities
Posted on Thu Dec 14th, 2023 @ 10:41pm by Charles Xavier & Connor Bruin & Bobby Drake & Kennedy Kelly
Mission:
Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: Mansion Grounds
Timeline: August 21,1990 - Late Afternoon
The black limousine sat idle in front of the school gates for a lengthy period of time. Unannounced and unexpected, it also didn’t help that the individual inside the car refused to provide any substantial information about who they were or what they wanted. Their only demand, which was repeated over and over again, was an audience with Professor Charles Xavier.
After what was the eighth or ninth request, the gates to the mansion finally opened and the sleek, long car was allowed onto the property. It sat idle in the driveway for another long moment, as if another round of demands was being made inside by its occupants. But the darkened windows of the luxury vehicle prevented any onlookers from seeing who was seated inside.
The chauffeur of the limousine finally exited the vehicle, his uniform starched and pressed and his shoes polished until they shined, he made his way to the back of the car and opened the passenger door.
A woman in her early forties stepped out. Dressed in a smart gray suit and black leather pumps, her cornsilk blonde hair was pulled back into a neat and tidy chignon and a simple golden cross glittered against her throat. She was the perfect mixture of wholesome authority and traditional femininity.
The woman glanced back towards the cab of the limousine, as if she was waiting for someone else to step out. Her face soured at whomever was still in the car before her attention shifted to her driver. She gave the chauffeur a brief command to unpack the contents of the trunk before making her way to the front door.
She knocked on the door once with a single, substantial rap of her knuckles against the sturdy wood before the woman squared her shoulders and waited.
The oaken doors parted almost immediately. "Welcome, Mrs. Kelly," said a kindly voice. "Had I known to expect you, I would have made preparations. Even so, may I get you some tea?" Professor Xavier rolled across the great hall from the elevator that had taken him from the upper floor.
Her brown eyes softened when she finally saw Xavier, while her arrival reeked of wealthy, white entitlement, he could sense the fear and desperation that motivated her behavior. Something was terribly wrong with Senator Robert Kelly’s wife.
“Charles, thank you for seeing me.” She dared to call him by his first name. “I see my name and face supersede me.”
Indeed, Caroline Kelly had been a consistent presence alongside her fear mongering husband’s side. She was even present at the ill-fated debate yesterday, to know Senator Kelly was to know her.
“No tea for me, thank you.” Caroline gave a precursory glance around the exposed space of the hall as she followed him inside. “But I was hoping we could talk someplace a little more, private?”
"Yes, of course," the Professor said, turning his chair around. "My office is just down this hallway." He led Caroline away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.
Caroline followed Xavier into his office and took a seat across from his desk. She reminded him of his past life, one of those debutants that appeared at the spring coming-out balls of his teenage years. Trained in social etiquette and appropriate morals, he danced with each of them with the prospect of courtship. How different his life had been then.
She crossed her legs at the ankles and delicately cleared her throat before she began.
“What happened yesterday was horrifying. I’ve never seen anything like that before, at least not in person. I didn’t realize how hostile things could be for mutants.”
A glimmer of compassion from the wife of the most hateful man in the Senate.
“I know that you are an expert when it comes to mutant affairs. And after yesterday, I realized how urgently I need your help… how much she needs your help.”
There was dread inside of her as she built up the courage to continue.
“My daughter is a mutant…Senator Robert Kelly’s daughter is a mutant.”
She pulled a crisp white handkerchief from her purse in preparation for the emotions swelling inside of her. This created enough of a pregnant pause for her revelation to sink in.
“She had an episode several weeks ago that got her into a bit of trouble. Robert is absolutely furious with her and he tasked me with figuring out what to do next.”
As if the option of letting her stay at home didn’t exist, their daughter needed to be removed, like a nuisance pet.
“At first I was going to send her to a ranch in Montana, but after that attack at the library, I realized if she doesn’t figure out how to deal with her ‘issues’ that she could end up dead because of them.”
While maybe a bit over dramatic in its delivery, Caroline Kelly wasn’t incorrect in her assessment.
“So will you take her?” The senator’s wife wasn’t here to mince words. “Can she stay here at your school?”
Professor Xavier listened intently, not only to Caroline's words but also to her stray thoughts and feelings. There was sincerity to the woman and not a total lack of empathy. Her skewed priorities still ranked her daughter as something worth protecting.
"I think that can be arranged," he said at length. "Will the Senator be an obstacle?"
“Robert wants nothing to do with her.” Caroline dismissively waved her hand through the air.
“It would be political suicide to acknowledge her. His campaign and his supporters have concrete morals and those will never change. You won’t hear from him in regards to her.”
A slippery comment that didn’t promise that Kelly wouldn’t bother Xavier about other topics.
“And I know you won’t sell our secret to the press or use her as blackmail because you know what that would do to her, how that would ruin her life.”
Leave it to a politician to make being a good person sound like it was a weakness.
“Are we agreed then?” Caroline pressed the question again.
While this was a tremendous risk on Xavier's part, it also represented an even greater opportunity. "Mrs. Kelly, my life's work is to prove that people such as your daughter can be a positive contribution to this world. We are agreed on the condition that your daughter's place here will not be used as leverage to interfere in that work."
“Fantastic! Thank you for your time and your cooperation.” Caroline said while standing. He felt a great weight being lifted from her thoughts, the burden of what to do with her daughter finally resolved.
“She’s downstairs right now along with all her things.”
While a timeline for her daughter’s arrival had yet to be agreed upon, it was a bit surprising that Caroline intended to plead for her daughter’s enrollment and drop her off all in the same meeting. Her confidence in her own success was rather impressive.
“Send any billing for her care to the following accounting firm.” Caroline placed a business card on his desk, not bothering to hand it to him.
“Her transcripts and the medical records needed for her enrollment will arrive in a few days. If you need any additional documents signed on our behalf, send them to our attorney.” Another business card was placed on his desk before Caroline headed towards the door.
“I can see myself out, once again thank you for understanding how trying of a time this has been for us.”
And just like that, Caroline Kelly was gone and Xavier had the sinking suspicion that he would never see or hear from her ever again.
-jump to outside school-
Outside in the courtyard, Connor scaled down the side of the Mansion from his perch on the roof. He had never seen a limousine before. Not up close. And everyone knew up close was what counted. He crept around the sides of the vehicle, loping about to get a better vantage point and then planting himself where he landed. The suspension on this one sat heavy, suggesting either an overweight load or a modified chassis. Which could it be?
"Whatcha' got there, Connor?" Bobby dropped from the sky like a hawk before coming down next to Connor in a tight corkscrew ice slide.
Connor ignored him as if he hadn't heard, focused as he was on his visual inspection.
"Nice wheels," Bobby quipped. "Must be someone important."
“You there!” A voice from behind the open trunk shouted. “Stop that, this instant!”
The chauffeur dropped the traveler’s trunk he was struggling and made his way around the car to where Connor and Bobby were standing.
“Just what do you think you’re doing? This car is private property.”
"He's not hurting anything, Jeeves," said Bobby with no shortage of snark. "I bet if you said please, he might even help you with that heavy trunk."
“Such rude and impetuous behavior.” The driver grumbled and returned to his task, knowing that he needed to have all the luggage unloaded before Mrs. Kelly returned.
Connor looked up as if realizing for the first time the two others were there. "WHO ARE YOU?" he asked via manual input to his speech-generating device.
“Who am I?” He was starting to become impatient with the trunk and now with the boys. “Who am I? I’m the man who drives the car for the people who are rich enough to ride in the back of it. What you really should be asking is who she is.” He gestured to the front door of the school indicating the older woman who had gone inside.
“And who she is…” He gestured to the back of the car, divulging that there was someone else still inside.
“Can’t tell the difference between the money and the help.” The chauffeur grumbled to himself and used his anger to generate enough momentum to yank the trunk from the back of the limousine, setting it down with a thud next to its matching suitcases. After shutting the trunk, he fixed his coat and smoothed his hair back before knocking on the glass of the of rear window.
“Miss.” His voice was much kinder as he addressed whoever was in the car “Your things are unloaded, you’re all set to get out now.”
There was a long pause before the door finally opened. A figure dressed in a trench coat and a wide brimmed hat stepped out of the car. It was an unusual outfit for a warm August day but not an uncommon disguise at Xavier’s. Wings and tails, feathers or scales, all had graced the school’s doorstep before. They could tell that the girl was tall, much taller than Bobby, but her shoulders were hunched to better hide her face from them. She didn’t really seem to care where she was or who was milling around the limousine, she merely shoved her hands into her pockets before walking over to her luggage. Standing next to it, she waited for the woman inside to return.
Bobby left Connor to stare at whatever it was that fancied him about the limo and sauntered up to the new arrival. "Why, helloooo, miss. You must be new around here. You can tell Mr. Belvedere over there to leave now. I can help you to your room, no problem."
“He isn’t waiting for me.” The trench coat clad girl corrected Bobby as they stood outside. She looked up as the front door to the mansion opened and a woman clad in a power suit and high heels exited.
“Darling, don’t slouch like that, you look like a Neanderthal.” The woman snipped at the girl, who in return straightened her posture. The change allowed Bobby to see her jawline and a few wisps of blonde hair from under the hat.
Connor bristled at the Neanderthal remark but did nothing.
“He’ll take you.” The suit-clad woman said as she walked towards the girl. “Don’t screw this up Kennedy or it’s the ranch in Montana for you. You need to figure out where you’re volunteering at and as soon as you do, you’ll need to tell your parole officer - Don’t wait!”
Rather than hug or kiss the girl, the woman continued to walk past her and towards the waiting limousine. She did pause before getting in, remembering something.
“We’ll take Christmas card photos at Thanksgiving, you can come home then.” The woman didn’t wait for a response and merely climbed into the car. Her chauffeur shutting the door for her before stepping past Connor to get into the driver’s seat.
The driver wasted no time, with almost too much enthusiasm, the limousine departed leaving the girl and her things in the driveway.
The girl let out a long breathy sigh as the car disappeared, a release of pent up emotions now that the woman in the suit was gone. She reached down and grabbed the handle to one of her suitcases. She certainly had a lot of stuff compared to most people who arrived at the school.
“Where do I go now?” Her voice was bland and emotionless as she asked Bobby the rather philosophical question.
"Nowhere, babe," said Bobby, "'cause you already arrived." He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled at Connor. "Yo, Connor! Help the new girl with her luggage, you big lug."
Connor looked at Bobby, then the girl, then Bobby again, and then back at the girl. He typed into his device. "DO YOU WANT ME TO CARRY YOUR THINGS?" He looked skeptical. Nothing about her demeanor suggested she wanted to be there.
“Oh…umm…sure…”
She had been raised with enough decorum to not gawk or outworldly show surprise when meeting people who were openly different but she had never seen or heard anyone who used a device like Connor’s to speak. It wasn’t so much that he needed it, but more that it spoke with such a loud and punchy delivery, it felt like he was yelling at her.
“I mean, yes please. I would appreciate any assistance you could provide.”
She found her manners again, offering a better response to his question.
“And my name is Kennedy.” She said to Bobby, assuming he needed some assistance in what to call her since ‘babe’ was the best he could provide on his own.
He beamed when she said please. "SHE IS NICE," Connor typed while looking at Bobby. "BE NICE TO HER."
"Nice is my middle name," Bobby said. "From my French side." He leaned in closer to Kennedy and offered her is arm. "Come on, hot stuff. I'll show you all the cool spots around campus." Making a flourish with his free hand, he crafted a thin, ornate rose out of ice and offered it to her. "Like moi."
“Wow, Thank you.” She seemed genuinely impressed by the rose he created but not so much by the rest of his advances. Kennedy took his offered arm, once again her manners showing.
“Honestly, I’m pretty tired and while a tour is appreciated I’m not really up to it today.” It was an honest excuse to get out of an afternoon of being hit on.
“Plus, I’m rather warm.” She nodded down at her attire. “Maybe tomorrow?”
Connor, for his part, hoisted her trunks up on each shoulder like they were empty. Without knowing where he was going, though, he set them down at his feet and typed the query. "WHERE SHOULD I PUT THEM?"
“Oh no!” Kennedy let go of Bobby’s arm and turned around to face Connor and acknowledged his need for his hands in order to type. She realized that him carrying her things took away his ability to speak.
“I’m sorry.” Bobby was so quick to leave Connor behind, lugging the heavy luggage while he led her around by the arm. It made her feel bad for him.
“Where are we going?” Kennedy asked “We should go straight to the dormitory.”
"Splendid idea," said a kindly male voice just entering the main hall. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Charles Xavier and this is my home which I have turned into a school for the gifted." He came about in front of them. "Thank you, Bobby." His smile turned from kindly to reproving. "We can take it from here."
Bobby had a bout of vertigo as if briefly disoriented. "Oh. Yes, Professor," he said dejectedly. "See you later, Kennedy," he said with one last parting glance that favored her with a half wink.
“Hello Sir.”
Kennedy turned to face Xavier. Still dressed in her trench coat and hat she offered him a small curtsy of respect and salutation. A brief reminder that the girl had been raised differently than the average teenagers of the school.
“Thank you for having me. I’m grateful for your hospitality and I promise I won’t be a bother to you...”
It was a sad, common response from a lot of the mutants that arrived at the school, so grateful for being allowed a place to exist.
“My family doesn’t really want anything to do with me anymore...”
Another sad, common response, children with no one to love them.
“And I can assure you, he won’t come here, he never wants to see me again.”
Kennedy’s memories flashed through his mind’s eye as she recalled the ‘he’ in question. Senator Kelly, red in the face, screaming down at her. Worse than any filibustering or campaigning he had ever seen from the man, he seethed and spewed vitriol at his daughter simply for being born different.
She was so sad and hollow inside. Everything and everyone she had known was gone now, her life felt meaningless. It would have been a concerning state of mind had it not been for the small kernel of determination residing inside of her. A little beacon of light that Kennedy knew she was strong enough, capable enough, to endure and survive. She may be sad today, but she would be a fighter tomorrow.
“I know my presence has the potential to complicate things for you. Which is why I’ll do my best to meet or exceed your expectations.”
There was a storm surrounding this girl that would not soon dissipate. With her family pedigree, Charles supposed that should be expected. Even so, she would need regular support to become acclimated rather than alienated.
"Connor," said the Professor. "Please take Kennedy's effects to Bliss's room." His brow flicked ever so slightly. "I believe you already know the way. They will be bunking together."
Connor pretended not to notice the Professor's nuances but blushed all the same. He gave a quick nod and carried the luggage upstairs without so much as a grunt of strain.
"Dear Kennedy, you are welcome here." The Professor said with his hands wide in a broad gesture. "If this is to be your home, then we need not stand on formality. Whatever complications which may arise from your presence are my concern, not yours, so I will ask this once that you do not assume them for yourself." While his smile never faltered, his eyes turned probing, like twin cobalt blue searchlights which scanned for anything fleeing their illuminating circles. "I will not share details from stories which are not mine to tell, but I do want you to know that almost everyone who crosses my threshold carries the same burdens which you do. Given time, I believe you will find that you are in good company." He paused for a moment to allow Kennedy to absorb his words. "Do you have any questions for me, Kennedy?"
Kennedy took off her hat and shrugged off the trench coat she had been wearing. There were no scales, or a tail, or claws hidden under the disguise, just a teenage girl. Kennedy looked like the stereotypical All American girl, blonde hair and blue eyes with a summer tan, perfect for any political candidate’s public appearance. She was dressed in a summer romper covered in that dizzying floral pattern that appeared on all women’s clothes as of late.
She draped her coat over the arm that held her hat as she pondered his question.
“What happens to the people who go to school here? Where do they go? Who do they become?”
"That depends entirely on them," the Professor said cryptically. "I can promise that you will get out of this school what you put into it." Guiding her toward the lift, he asked, "Now let me ask you the same question. Where do you want to go? Who do you want to become?"
“That’s a very good question.” Kennedy said with a mirthless laugh as she stepped into the lift with Xavier.
“I was supposed to attend Smith College after graduating high school.” Xavier knew of the school, it was a private university for girls in Northern Massachusetts, one of the historical ‘seven sisters’ of the Northeast.
“And I would have been a legacy student at Harvard for graduate school. I was supposed to become an attorney, like every generation before me. But I don’t think any of that is an option for me now. My parents are supporting me financially because they are legally required to. Once I turn eighteen and I’m done with high school, I’m on my own.”
She pursed her lips while she thought about what he had asked of her. The simple answer was she didn’t really know anymore. Her life had been meticulously planned out for her up until now.
“So much of my efforts have been put into skills that feel pointless now, I guess I want to know that I stand a chance.”
"A Juris Doctor is a fine goal," the Professor said, "one which I can help you attain if that is your aspiration. But it sounds as if that was more of a familial expectation, one from which you are now free." He entered the lift once the doors parted and turned around with an inviting hand gesture for Kennedy. "I'll let you ponder the question for awhile. Time may yet reveal your true heart's desires."
