The X-Project

As planned, Jean meets Mr. Haverford for lunch in New York. He's rather more charming than she might like, but the h-word (husband) gets him to back off.



Ah. There she is. The blond man, one Robert Haverford, stood at the sight of the redheaded woman, smiling broadly. "Dr. Grey. I'm so very glad you agreed to meet with me today. Please, have a seat."

Jean smiled, pulling out a chair and settling into it. It was a lovely day, and Haverford had managed to get them a table by the window. "Good to see you again," she said, glancing briefly at the menu.

"You as well." Haverford sat gracefully, folding his hands: Watching Jean, but not too closely. "I was hoping you could tell me a bit about your role in the school. What it is you do, what your experiences have been - that kind of thing."

"Well, these days I teach science and am the head doctor. Most schools, of course, make do with only a nurse's office, but partly because we're a boarding school, and because our students can get into rather more trouble than the average teen usually manages, we keep two doctors on staff." A waitress came by to take their orders, and Jean continued when she left, "As for my experiences, they have been many and varied over the years."

Haverford raised an amused eyebrow. "I have absolutely no trouble believing that, Dr. Grey," he murmured. "What kind of problems are you speaking of? I'd imagine a lot of powers-related injuries? Or - something a bit more quotidian. Teenagers, you know."

"A bit of both," Jean said, relaxing back into her chair. "For one thing, the normal teenaged propensity for simply falling over their own feet can be made significantly worse by the addition of mutant powers. Tripping and banging into someone with razor skin, or falling when exceeding the speed of sound will both leave someone rather banged up."

"I can imagine," Haverford replied drily. "I spent a good deal of my youth at boarding school. One appreciates the sheer amount of trouble teenagers can get into, away from their parents, after that." He took a sip of water, then met her eyes: "Of course, as an adult, I've found that there are better kinds of trouble."

The man was far too charming for Jean's own good. And replying 'you know who's good at getting into trouble? My husband' lacked subtlety. "You must have some entertaining stories of your own, then," she said instead, keeping her composure.

He waved his hand dismissively, glancing away from her only briefly. "Well," he said, amusement playing on his lips, arms resting easily on the chair, "I much prefer to live in the present. A sentiment I'm sure you can appreciate, Doctor."

"Fair enough, I guess," Jean said, and before she could say anything else their lunches arrived. "Well then," she began again as the waitress left, "were there any specific questions you had about the school?"

He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it boyishly. "I had a few, but what I'm really looking for is more of an overall idea of the way it works. The philosophy of it, I suppose, applied to practice. I thought I could ply you for - ah, the shape of things, shall we say?"

"Hmm," Jean said slowly, tucking some loose hairs behind her ear. "As for philosophy into practice, I'd say that the institute manages that at least as well as any other organization. We do provide a safe environment for mutant children to learn to use their powers without having to deal with many of the challenges they would otherwise face. At the school they have role models who have been there and done it in a very real way, however much, as teenagers, they don't want to think that their teachers could ever understand them." Jean's smile was decidedly wry.

Haverford's smile echoed her own. "Kids these days," he said, keeping his eyes on her face, "always underestimating their elders. Though I find it hard to believe that they get much work done at all, given the distractions they're faced with." He paused a beat, letting it sink in, then added, "I mean, from what I've heard, your school does have fairly poor luck occasionally."

"Yes, well, that many mutants gathered in one place does provide a bit of a target, even aside from the accidents the students can cause." Maybe mentioning Scott, subtle or no, might not be a bad idea. "Of course, if you want more of the day to day stories, you'd possibly be better off speaking with my husband, Scott Summers. He's the headmaster at the school, and is always there, even when my political work takes me away. At that, I missed the fall term of this year - I was away on sabbatical."

Haverford's wry smile at the mention of her ever-present husband made clear that he'd got the message. "He sounds very dedicated. Sabbatical, you say? Where to? Forgive my nosiness - I fancy myself a bit of a traveller, when I don't have to tend to business at home."

"Tibet, actually - have you ever been? It was more of a personal trip than business, I guess. An opportunity to clear my head of the continual craziness of working with mutant teenagers. Although I did get to see first hand some of the Chinese over-presence." All of which was more true than false, with enough comfortable padding around the things she couldn't say.

"Tibet? How fascinating. I've found myself there on occasion - nothing like an extended trip, but I do some business in Asia, and I have an interest in the region, so I thought it best to educate myself," Haverford replied. "Did you stay in the city?"

"No, up in the mountains. I was in search of some quiet and, well, nothing says 'quiet' like Tibetan mountains."

"I'm sure." Haverford seemed to mentally switch tacks; after a moment, he said, "Well, Dr. Grey, I believe I've underestimated the complexity of your school. I'd very much like to meet you and your husband to discuss some of the things we've touched on today in more detail; I'm very interested in hearing what both of you have to say. Would it be rude to suggest dinner sometime this week? On my tab, of course. Perhaps Wednesday?"

"Dinner?" Jean asked and then, after a slight hesitation, added, "Certainly. Wednesday should be fine. I hope we can answer any questions you still have."

"Thank you very much, Dr. Grey. You've been very accommodating - and I must say that I am so looking forward to hearing your answers." His grin was disarming. "Now, it occurs to me that I've been quite unutterably rude, distracting you while your food was cooling. Shall we eat?"