Charles & Vanessa | BACKDATED

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Vanessa shows up at Charles' office while still wearing Laura to get his opinion on an idea she has. What she finds is a generous offer of aid.

Vanessa wasn't exactly herself when she knocked on the door to Charles Xavier's suite. In fact, she was someone else entirely. Laura's willingness to offer her healing factor to the metamorph meant Vanessa was walking around in the girl's body, complete with small, pleated skirt. It wasn't exactly Aoife fare but it seemed to fit Laura's look better than the stuff the metamorph wore for her Irish counterpart. On the bright side, she was healing pretty damn quickly. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to keep the scars or not. The scars could be cool, really, and it wasn't like there would be any other ones left by the time she was done healing.

~And if you find later that you don't want the scars, you can always find another healing factor to remove them?~ Charles' mental 'voice' was still exhausted-sounding, but it held a note of his usual dry humour that hadn't been there the last time they'd spoken. "Come in, Vanessa," he added aloud. "Forgive the intrusion - you were thinking rather loudly."

She grinned despite the mental intrusion and opened the door. Laura's face beamed at the professor. "It's alright, I like the second opinion. Want to weigh in on whether chicks really do dig scars?" She didn't mean the question seriously and wasn't expecting a response. Vanessa curled up in the chair opposite Charles' desk, feet slipped out of their sandals and tucked beneath her neatly. It would really suck if those claws popped out now, wouldn't it? "Am I interrupting or do you have a few? Why I'm here is completely not official business or in any way related to the school or Institute."

"I'm not sure my preferences on the scar issue would be terribly helpful." Charles set aside a bundle of papers. "And I think I can spare you some time. I wanted to thank you any way, for your assistance in India. Lilandra was most grateful and sends her thanks to her saviours. As well as her best wishes for a speedy recovery, although I see you are already taking care of that."

Vanessa smiled with borrowed lips. "Laura's a nice girl, volunteered her usefulness. I'm glad Lilandra's doing alright." The metamorph didn't think the woman was particularly pleased about herself, Jubilee and Bishop killing the two members of the Imperial Guard who were out to recapture Lilandra, but you could only disarm and subdue so well when people were out to kill you to capture a prize. "You're welcome. I told you, all you had to do was ask and I'd do it. It's good to be useful for something. That's why I'm here, actually."

"Oh?" Charles raised an eyebrow, although there was a gleam in his eyes that indicated he might have his own suspicions about Vanessa's visit.

She really hoped he didn't think she was going to ask to join his team of leather-clad folks with a hero complex. Oops, had she thought that aloud? Vanessa gave him quite an innocent, sweet smile. The expression was very convincing on Laura's face in that I'm-up-to-no-good sort of way. "Aye. I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself since I left Snow Valley. Substituting around here is fine but it's not exactly my life's ambition. I had this thought to start up an investigative type agency, but I don't qualify for a PI license at all, not even if you stretch your imagination way out. But I wanted to set up something to look after the people in District X, be around if they need someone to help keep bigots from pushing them about in their neighborhood, look into general PI type stuff but mostly be there for those people. Maybe shuffle them off to you or Samson's shelter he works with or the Snow Valley people if those are the people that can help with whatever they've got going on." She frowned a little. "Other than a PI set up I'm not sure how to pull off what I want to do. At least not legally. I was hoping you and your giant, amazing brain might have some thoughts that could help?"

There was a slight twitch of the corner of his mouth to indicate that perhaps he had heard that particular thought. "Your skills are certainly not being utilized as well as they could be, since your departure from the Snow Valley Center," he agreed. "And teaching is not for everyone. Your future is certainly something that has crossed my mind, once or twice." He steepled his fingers, tapping the forefingers against each other in thought. "A detective agency? I imagine that this isn't something you're looking to set up alone?"

"In theory, no. In reality I'm not sure who else would be interested who I trust at my back to bring in to work with." Jean-Paul had crossed her mind because, outside of some of the Snow Valley folks and some of her friends involved with the X-Men like Kane, he was the one person she felt she could trust at her back unconditionally. Vanessa very carefully did not think about why that was just in case she was projecting again. She hadn't brought this up with Jean-Paul, however. He may or may not be interested in using his speed and flight to spy on people for her.

"Trust is important," he agreed. "As is access to a skill base that would provide you with what you need." He looked at her intently, as if considering something. "Are you aware of the Xavier Institute, Vanessa? Not just the college - I mean the project funding scheme."

The Institute's scheme. Scheme was a word she loved and which seemed so entirely inappropriate attached to the man in front of her. Then again, people surprised you in all sorts of ways. The corners of a mouth that wasn't really hers pulled downward. "No, I don't think so."

"It is, essentially, a funding board created to promote mutant-related projects. It partially funds the Red-X leadership training program, for instance. It might be, if you were prepared to act as a consultant for the Institute on occasion, that your agency might qualify for funding." He cocked that eyebrow again, waiting for her response.

She raised an eyebrow in mirror of his own. "You're not actually expecting the girl who said 'yes' before I even knew what the favor was to say 'no' are you? What sort of consulting do you think you'd need me, or us eventually, for?"

"There are one or two caveats you'd need to consider," Charles cautioned. "But nothing onerous or more complicated than what has already been asked of you before. Should you accept, however, you would not only have funding, you would have the legitimacy of the Institute backing you, which would assist in circumventing certain obstacles, such as permits and the like." He folded his hands in front of him on the desk. "As for the nature of the consultancy... I imagine it would cover situations that are usually considered too 'small' for the X-Men. Missing mutant children, reports of bullying or discrimination that aren't being pursued adequately by the authorities, gathering of information for intelligence purposes..."

"I don't have a problem looking into stuff that isn't big or bad enough to bring the X-Men in on." She'd nearly called them the leather brigade aloud but had caught it before the words came close to leaving her mouth. "And the unsaid bit is that if we're so closely associated with the Institute there's basically a big 'don't fuck it up' sign hanging over the coffee machine." It also meant the letter of the law, or at least never being found breaking it. "I think I could handle that. Same warning applies as in India, but I don't think there will be so many people trying so hard to kill me or mine in unavoidable ways. At least I hope not." With enough witnesses you could reasonably plead self-defense in this country. She even knew a lawyer, handy that.

Charles nodded, smiling slight as he caught the near-slip. "That is it, in a nutshell," he replied. "The Institute will assist you, provided there is no danger posed to the school or its students and staff."

"And by 'no danger posed' do you mean 'these people are not to work in the field for you'?" It was an important thing to get clear in the beginning.

"That is a decision they have to make for themselves - I won't deny that there are resources here that you will need to rely on at some point. And it would be hypocritical of me to insist on such a caveat when I have trainee X-Men getting involved in combat, albeit inadvertently." A shadow crossed Charles' face. "The school must be protected, not only from physical threats, but from associations that could make it vulnerable to accusations of us creating a private mutant army - if there are situations where there is that potential, I do ask that you keep the connection to Xavier's to a minimum."

She nodded, understanding without taking any offense. "I don't plan on having minors involved at all. I don't like the odds of them getting dragged into a situation they shouldn't be in in the first place. Beyond that, I'll keep 'em all out of any trouble I can see coming." Vanessa knew, and Charles knew, that sometimes the worst of the trouble sidelined you after abruptly materializing out of nowhere. She was considering putting staff and students on a blacklist of sorts but that was a too black and white way of going about it.

"Then I believe we have an understanding," Charles said with a small smile. "I wish you all the best in this new endeavor, Vanessa. I will have the appropriate paperwork drawn up and we can finalize matters as soon as possible." He paused. "So, what are you planning to call this agency of yours?"

Vanessa smiled with her borrowed lips. "I figured I'd go simple and to the point, Carlysle Investigations. I don't think Morgan has any real place here anymore." It was the first time she had acknowledged that aloud. Vanessa figured that Xavier had long known Morgan was nothing more than a defense mechanism to keep at a distance, one that had obviously failed.

Charles nodded, a look of pleasure crossing his face. "I do believe it is time, yes," he replied.