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Guthrie reunion! Jay shows up to the mansion Wednesday afternoon and ironically bumps into Paige first thing. He tries not to be too much of a jackass, but ends up pressing a couple of buttons. More angst to come.

The yellow taxi cab pulled up to Xavier's Institute, and its rider sighed heavily. Fishing out some crumpled bills from the pocket of his jeans, he handed them to the driver before getting out, his guitar slung over his shoulder and his big green duffle bag in his hand. As the cab pulled away, Jay put his stuff down for a minute so he could take off his jacket and get more comfortable. A pair of huge red wings unfurled from his back, and he breathed a sigh of relief at not having to keep them covered anymore. Picking up his stuff again, he silently entered the huge mansion and swore mildly under his breath. Where would this X geezer be?

Due to the mansion's own special version of Murphy's Law, Paige was, at that exact same minute, making her way downstairs. She'd left one of her books down in the library when she'd been down there earlier, and while she didn't technically need it right this second, it would be nice to know where it was. Besides, keeping the library neat and orderly for Shan was the polite thing to do. Rounding the corner she found her gaze instantly drawn to across the hall, where a teen with large red wings was standing, wings to her. "Hey there, may I help you?" she asked, noticing idly that he had very similar hair to her brothers but not thinking much of it.

"Yeah, Ah'm lookin' for . . ." Jay turned around to face the speaker, and quietly swore at his luck. Of all the people to greet him, it had to be her. "Paige." He involuntarily brought his wings close to his body, as if trying to hide them, a habit he'd developed whenever any of his other siblings or his mother were around him.

"Josh?" Paige stared for a moment, completely dumbstruck. Her younger brother was standing in Xavier's. Her younger brother had wings. Her younger brother was a mutant? "Josh!" she cried out, breaking from her shocked silence to run to him with a hug, only to be met with feathers and stony eyes. "I mean," she stumbled, backing up and forcing a smile. "Hi. Whatever are you doing here? Well, no, I know what you're doing here, but when did this happen? Why didn't you warn us? Trying to pull one over on me?"

He returned the hug, as much as he could given his luggage, and forced himself to relax and wings to spread out. "Ah'm here because Ma's no fan of my gripin' anymore," he explained, putting his duffle bag on the floor and adjusting his guitar on his back. "Some . . . stuff happened, and she felt a change of scenery would do me good."

Paige smiled warmly at him, taking his duffle from him and slinging it over her shoulder with ease. "Yeah, I know how she gets. Don'cha worry, you can gripe however you please if you please here. Sure have plenty of other people who do," she said cheerfully, shifting her weight to one foot. "What'd you do, anyway? Wreck the car? You'd think she'd be used to that already."

"Why use the car when Ah can fly?" His older sister was the last person he wanted to be talking about this with. Except for maybe his older brother. "You know. The normal bashin' stuff. Kill the mutie! Kill the fag! That kinda stuff."

"Ugh," Paige said sympathetically, rolling her eyes. "This is why a part of me wasn't horribly upset to be leaving home. I could do without the stereotypical Southern ideals. Was there holy water throwing?" She couldn't help but stare at little at his wings; they were really quite something and if he could fly. Well. Shifting again, Paige caught sight of the letter sticking out of his pocket, and something in the back of her brain clicked. "You'll probably be wanting to see Professor Xavier. I'll take you to him, this place it pretty big."

"Thanks," Jay said, shrugging and following her down the hall. "Ah know ya weren't throwin' a hissy fit when you found out you could come here, Paige. But Ah wanted to stay home, take care of Ma and everyone else. Who's gonna do it now? Melody or Liz? They don't know nuthin' 'bout the mines. Can't do what I did once you an' Sam left."

Paige glanced back at him, slowing so he could catch up. "Josh, you knew it was my life dream. I get to save lives here. Make a difference. That doesn't mean I wanted to leave you at home, with that you've had to deal with for a year," she said, not allowing her happy gait to be influenced by his words quite yet. "I did it before you, remember? It's probably because of that that I worked so hard on finding a more permanent solution. A solution that would let you be where ever, whatever you wanted.

"So, for now, the family is going to have to live on the horse earnings. It won't be for long, I promise. I think I've finally come up with something that will solve things, or at least make them more that bearable. A lot more."

"Always with the answers, aren'tcha, Paige?" Jay asked rhetorically, keeping his bitterness to a minimum. "An' bein' 'where ever, whatever' I want is just a fleetin' dream now." He gripped the strap across his chest tightly, feeling that wave of emotion he'd been fighting for the last two weeks coming back.

"I..." Paige answered quietly, looking like nothing else if she'd just been kicked in the ribs before taking a deep breath and shaking her hair back, a smile, however weak, reappearing before she was done. "I don't believe that, but you're not the first to think so. Then again, you wouldn't be the first to have your opinion change, either."

Jay may not care much for his sister, but he wasn't dense enough to not see the change. "Paige, Ah . . ." He shook his head, his long dark-blond hair swaying with the movement. "Sorry," he muttered. This was neither the time nor place to get into a fight. They'd have plenty of time for that later.

Paige waved the apology away with her hair, trying to get some light past her smile. "Don't worry about it. This sort of thing is tough and you've had a long ride to get here. Maybe you'll feel better later." She paused in front of a large wooden door, and turned, looking at him head on. "Well, this is it. I'll leave you here, but I'll talk to you later, okay? So much to catch up on," Paige said, stretching to give him another slightly awkward hug. "I missed you so much, Josh. I'm sorry if you thought any different."

"Right, sure," he said, half-heartedly returning the hug. "See ya' 'round, m'sure." He raised his hand to knock on the door, but paused and turned back to the retreating form of his sister. "Oh, and Paige? Call me Jay now. Josh left."

Managing not to look too startled, Paige nodded. This was the place that housed a man named Cyclops after all. "Um. Sure. No problem, Jay. See ya' 'round." She gave him a last smile, before turning and making her way down the hall, unsurprisingly forgetting why exactly she had been coming down here in the first place.