The X-Project

He goes to explain the LA situation, and she agrees to go with him on certain conditions.



As soon as he sent the last e-mail, Angelo shut down his computer and headed for Paige's room. Five minutes later, he was knocking on her door, in case Jubilee was in there getting changed or something.

"S'open!" Paige called distractedly, pulling pencils from her hair, when she'd put them so they'd be close by. She'd got up to four, a fistful, when the door opened, Angelo behind it. Giving him a bright smile, grey behind her eyes, Paige dropped the writing utensils to the desk. "Hey you."

He smiled back a little tentatively, moving to her side. "Hey. How're you?"

"Okay," she replied automatically, shrugging. Her finger idly pushed one of her pens back and forth. "You're supposed to be telling me what's up right now, though."

He nodded, sitting down. "Got somethin' brought to my notice earlier. I was watchin' the news... there's a situation back in LA, it needs to stop, an' I think I might have a chance of doin' somethin' about it, with backup. Got to try, anyway." He sighed. "It's to do with the boys from the gang. I'd be more'n happy never to go near them again, but... I think this is somethin' I need to do. So I can try an' help back there - an' I won't be goin' alone."

"Mhm," Paige replied, not bothering to hide the scepticism in her voice. She loved him, but that didn't mean she couldn't acknowledge the fact that he had a knack for getting into trouble. "And would this helping involve guns or knives or physical violence of any kind?"

He shook his head. "Not if I can help it. An' Nathan's goin' with us, so he can head it off if it looks like they want to make it involve that. Me, I just wanna try an' talk sense into them. It's been over a year... a lot of things might've changed."

Paige nodded, biting at her bottom lip. She was going to try to be encouraging; that's what good girlfriends did, right? Especially when they put them through hell most of the time? "And what were you planning on saying? Not exactly, just give me an idea here."

"Well, what's goin' on is that they're tryin' to do a regeneration thing on the old neighborhood, an' the boys are gettin' in the way. An' knowin' them, it's 'cause they don't think it's for their good. Think it's only to benefit the people as already have money, or somethin'. So I wanna check it out, an' if they're wrong like I think they are... then I'm gonna try an' tell them that. Make them see it could be their chance."

"Alright," Paige answered with ease that frightened her. When had it become this effortless? Perhaps it was his optimism. "So long as there's a way to get me home in case of emergency, and Professor Xavier says it's fine, I'll be there. You know that."

He nodded. "If he says it's fine, we'll have our cellphones, an' Nathan'll be there, an' they can always send Clarice to get us if there's an emergency." He reached for her hand. "Thank you."