xp_logs | Tuesday, late afternoon/early evening

Closing the door to the kitchen behind her with trembling hands, Alison listened to the sounds of the children cheering their friend's return in the living room, her own kids laughing as well at the happy reunion. After a moment, she took a deep breath, and headed towards the counter - not sure what she wanted to do, only knowing she couldn't stay in that room right now, not with the rage and anger bubbling so near to the surface at everything Miles had told her.

A glass found its way on the counter as she moved on automatic, mind still simmering with thoughts and half formed plans. Iced tea was poured in over ice cubes Bobby had filled the freezer with, all of them neatly stacked and somehow refusing to glue themselves to each other as most ice cubes would. Once that was done, Alison hook a foot around one of the legs of a nearby stool, and sat down heavily, elbows on the counter and leaning her face in her hands.

Angelo had seen her disappear into the kitchen and followed, sensing that she wasn't as happy as the other occupants of the house. Seeing her distressed posture, he stopped in the doorway and said tentatively, "Ms. Blaire?"

"Come in, Angelo," she replied in a low voice, not really moving all that much otherwise. Still firmly fighting the good fight to get her emotions under control before she blew out a wall - as opposed to one of the students, for a change.

Angelo moved forward into the room and perched on one of the other stools. He hesitated before asking quietly, "Are you okay?"

"Yes." A pause. "And very much no." She took another deep breath before straightening up, and placing her hands on the countertop with deceptive calm. "The kids helped him break out of a traveling freak show," she stated, bluntly. "They've been hiding him out in that cave for a month now."

Angelo blinked. He couldn't think of anything more profound to say in that moment than a heartfelt "Oh my God."

"His name was Leech. Where he lived before, not that he'd go into details... he was taken from there after something bad happened, and sold to the freakshow. Sold. To. Them." She bit out the words, then looked down again, closing her eyes and clenching her fists. "He's still scared they'll come back for him, somehow."

Angelo took a breath, shocked. "What are you going to do?" The idea of doing nothing was, obviously, not even worth mentioning.

"He's coming back with us." Flatly stated, and undeniable. "He has no papers, so I'm going to contact the Professor and ask what he can do about that. Failing anything official being possible before we leave, which might be sooner if only to get him out of here safe, I'll just find the right person to bribe and get him signed off as my ward. Tomorrow."

Angelo nodded. "Has he told you where this "freak show" might be now?" Unconsciously, his fists clenched at his sides.

"He doesn't know. Amy told him they'd left town a few weeks ago." She looked down at the glass of iced tea, still untouched. "I'm going to talk to the Professor about them. From what he told me... I'm not sure, but there may have been more mutant kids in it." She took another deep, slow breath, trying to work out the anger and failing miserably. "Amy's the one who decided they were breaking him out. They just snuck in during one of the afternoon shows and broke him out."

Angelo sighed. "Remind me to buy them ice creams or something, every day till we leave. They're good kids."

"I'm sure Bobby won't mind helping you with the ice cream bit," she shook her head slowly - some of the anger finally draining away, just a little bit, for now. "I couldn't call him Leech though. I don't care what his power does, I mean... can you imagine? We had a talk about names and if he wanted a new one - for the papers. I want Miles in my custody as fast as possible." She grinned, a bit ferally. "Let them try and stop me."

Angelo looked at her thoughtfully. "You know, if they give you trouble... why not have someone come in the Blackbird and take him back?"

"I've thought about it. But... as a last resort only. Because otherwise it won't be settled, and they could still try legal avenues of claiming him, later. Somehow." She shook her head and sighed. "I'd rather clean up things tidily here than have it come back to haunt us later."

Angelo nodded again. "True. But it's worth remembering as a last resort. Don't suppose there's any clue to where he came from before that? The local kids don't know anything?"

"Nada," she replied absently, jotting down a few notes based on Angelo's questions on the notepad, however. "And Miles isn't talking for now. We'll see how he feels about it later, I guess... not pushing right now."

"Do we even know how old he is?" Angelo asked. "Does *he* know how old he is? I mean, if he was raised in a place like that..."

A long silence followed that. "I asked. He doesn't know," Alison said, softly, "and he always remembers being as he is now. Hank can figure that out things well enough, later."

Angelo closed his eyes. "God, poor little squib. What did they do to him?"

A few other notes were taken down, and she shook her head - those hadn't been the important questions, right at that moment, and Miles clearly hadn't wanted to go into it himself. "We mostly talked about the fact that I wanted to bring him back," she said, simply.

"It's good that he knows that", Angelo said quietly. "Give the poor kid some hope."

Her lips quirked. "He couldn't believe I actually wanted to bring him back. That was the longest part of the talk, actually - but once it got through, oh, Angelo..." her eyes misted over in remembrance of the slow, brilliant smile the boy had gifted her with.

Angelo reached out to squeeze her hand. "He'll be okay now. We'll look after him."

"Yeah," she smiled at him a bit, although there was a good deal more hardness in her eyes at the reminder. "I'll have work to do tomorrow. But for now, I need to call the Professor and figure out the legalities involved..."

"Do you want me to go back to the kids while you talk to him?" Angelo asked. "If you meant right now, that is..."

"Yeah, actually," she nodded, reaching for pen and paper, flipping out her cell phone. "No time like the present."