Origins: Leigh gets drafted

Characters: Leigh Murdoch and August Ramirez
Place: San Francisco, California
Time: January 29, 2002
Rating: G
Summary: Blood tests reveal Leigh's abilities to the U.S. government. August is sent to call her in.

It was a hazy night in San Francisco. The fog was rolling in over the hills and August felt a strange sense of deja vu as he wandered through the streets. His eyes traced the signs. It was colorful in this part of town, even the street signs were vibrant in mingled language and shade, graffiti splattering the grey walls that surrounded him. As his feet carried him across the sidewalks, he felt as if he was coming home, his mind remembering other days, only simpler because their parts had been forgotten.

He knocked on the door, forcing himself to return to the present as the hues of other thoughts hinted at the corner of his mind. This was a large city and a drifting mind could become a disoriented one in only a matter of seconds. August looked down at his uniform for a moment, wondering what it would represent to the woman behind the door.

Leigh looked up from rinsing paint off her hands as she heard the knock at the door. Who'd be around now? Some colleague of her mother's? She didn't think they were expecting any packages. Or maybe her mother was home early and had somehow forgotten her house key. She sighed. Lately, her mother had been the lawyer version of the absent-minded professor. She dried off her hands and went to the door.

"Hello?" she said, just sticking her head out of the door. She peered at the man there and gradually it dawned on her that he was in uniform. Army uniform. And that could really only mean one thing, couldn't it. Shit...

"Can I come in?" He asked, his voice rasping in the silence that was practically screaming from her stiff figure. He could feel the apprehension in her, crackling between the two of them, and forced himself to place a wall between them mentally. August rested a pair of solemn brown eyes, meeting the woman's own with a look that did not lie to her. They both knew why he was there.

"Um, yeah." She opened the door and steeped aside for him to enter. She didn't like how nervous his uniform made her feel, but she couldn't help it. She hoped Gage had fallen asleep before the knock on the door and that he wouldn't wake. He didn't need to have to be here for...whatever this man wanted.

Leigh closed the door and ran a hand through her hair. "Could I get you anything? Food? Drink?"

August shook his head slowly. He was making his movements pronounced, attempting to soothe her with the slowness of his motions. He thought to himself that forcing the "recruiters" to stay in uniform was a bad idea indeed.

"I just came to talk." He didn't hold his hand out to her. He assumed that she wouldn't want to touch him. They never did. "My name is August. I've received some information about you, about your abilities and I thought that we could have a discussion concerning the matter."

Leigh took a deep breath. Shit. "Want to sit? Couch or chair, your pick. If I don't sit I'll end up pacing, and I don't want my brother to see that if he wakes up."

She sprawled out in a chair without waiting for an answer, trying to make herself relax and stay calm. Gage didn't need this, not so soon after their dad...she felt a little queasy and pushed the most morbid of her thoughts away for a moment. "So...this is about that blood test I had..."

"It is," August said, resting himself on the chair. His eyes, crinkled at the corner, looked into her, feeling a sudden sense of unease as they reflected her concern. "I'd guess, then, that you're Fallon." He smiled at her, a practiced smile that hid the anxiety that he always felt on these calls. Blood tests didn't reveal mutation.

"I go by my middle name, Leigh." She smiled nervously and ran a hand through her hair again, messing it up even more. "Since you know about the blood test, and you know my name...I'm gonna take a not-so-wild guess and say you'd like to know what I do..." Which made her feel weird; Gage was the only one - other than Uncle Same, now - who knew what she could do. She wished it could have stayed that way.

August's eyebrows went up in surprise. He hadn't expected her to be so open.

"I didn't know that you used your middle name," he said quietly. "I don't know everything about you, Leigh." Leaning back, he murmured, "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. We don't even have to speak here if it makes you uncomfortable- there's a coffeeshop down the street."

Shaking her head, she said, "I'd probably take you up on that...but my mom's away right now and I can't leave my brother all by himself."

She bit her lip and looked at him for a long moment. "Can I ask why you're here, exactly? I...I have an idea, but I...I guess I just want to to stop wondering if I'm right or not."

"I'm a warrant officer with the Army's mutant forces," August answered her, noticing the way that Leigh's eyes had widened just slightly as she asked him the question. "Part of what I do is to establish the usefulness of mutants and their abilities. We've existed for a long time, Leigh, much longer than the blood tests."

He paused for a moment, letting that sink in as he evaluated the need to lie to her. Finally, he made his choice, saying, "Not all mutants have use to us. If all that you could do was change your color, for instance, that's not quite an ability that could be used to defend the country." His hand rested on the arm of the couch as he forced himself to relax, letting his back loosen.

"Mmm." Leigh nodded thoughtfully. "I guessed right. It would be kind of fun if I could change my hair color just by thinking about it, but it's a little more complicated than that." And probably more useful.

"How?" was all he said.

She took a deep breath and focused her thoughts on herself. A few more deep breaths and she faded from view, clothes in the shape of a body the only indication that she was still there.

"Like this," she said simply.

Invisibility. He tried to keep his features stoic. He had yet to meet anyone with that kind of telekinetic control- at least, he thought it kinetic in origin. August stilled, watching the faint movement of her clothing as a sign that she was still there. Reaching out, he sensed her but thought to himself that it would be a difficult power to contain, should she grow too wary of him.

"How did you discover it?" He asked, leaning forward slightly, his hands clasped as he watched the spot where her eyes had been.

Leigh ran a hand through her hair and eased back into visibility. "Not really sure. Guess I just got all zenned out while painting one day and it happened. Seeing yourself paint without seeing your own hand is kind freaky. It scared Gage at first. Then he...seemed to decide it was kind of cool once I told him he had to keep it between us." She paused for a moment and smiled slightly. "And that it looked like he really was Superman when I wooshed him up into the air..."

"My daughter liked to pretend she was an airplane herself," August's eyes creased in a real smile, fondness in their depths as he thought of Chela flying through the air. "She used to ask me to describe the flights that I went on while I flew her."

Then his smile faltered. "Of course, that was difficult to do."

Leigh tilted her head to the side, brows furrowing slightly when his smile fell. "Yeah...that would be kind of hard, I'd guess. Haven't done much flying myself."

It wasn't that, he thought to himself. It was simply that he couldn't explain Asia to a child- none of it. Even trying to write Chela letters about the weather turned into thoughts of sickness, of heat so exhaustive it could kill a man... of the feelings that swirled around him. He'd been lost there. Lost until he dug his way out, clawing at the sanctity that had been offered.

Ramirez wondered whether Leigh's power provoked her to want such security. Not all mutants understood their gifts.

"I'm a pilot- was a pilot," he said carefully. "I come from a short line of them, I suppose you'd say." He smiled, knowing well that airplanes didn't predate him or his father by much.

"Ah...it run in the family?" Leigh hoped she wasn't bringing up anything painful. "My dad had his dad's business...guess it's kind of mine now."

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. "I'm no business person, though. So thanks God for managers."

August nodded, almost at ease as he answered, "My father and his brothers flew cargo across the border. He stopped when I was younger. When I joined the military- well, it was 'Nam then. Flying a plane was the best option at the time."

Searching her eyes to see if the question was acceptable, he asked, "What business is it that you run? All I know about you, Leigh, is your blood type." And the things that beat under her skin. Though he wouldn't admit it.

"Financial trading. Never really understood it, but Dad loved it. He racked up a lot of frequent flier miles going from here to New York." Leigh ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. "Kinda wish he'd liked it just a little less, sometimes."

"I don't understand financial trading, either," August's mouth quirked up into what was almost a grin. He looked at the room that they were in, eyes hoping for photographs. He was curious to know who Leigh's family consisted of, whether her mother was as important a part of her life as her brother or if, in fact, her mother was still alive. "I don't believe I'm much bothered by that, however. It wouldn't be as fulfilling."

Pausing, he asked, "Who takes care of your brother now? Would you mind if I asked you how old he was?" The grin teased a little warmer as he commented, "Children are a great joy to any life."

"He'll be five in December. I've been his main babysitter since I finished high school. I don't have a 'real' job - I sell some paintings now and then - but most of the time I'm the one who's home the most. Mom's a divorce lawyer, and she's really thrown herself into her cases since Dad's death. She's...trying not to think about it, I think."

She smiled softly. "Yeah, kids are great. I wasn't so sure at first, but once I held him...he won me over."

"They've that effect on one," he answered quietly. "I didn't see Chela until she was six months old. I've often wished it would have been different. I think that I would have liked to have been there when she was born." He didn't mention how uncommon that was in the early '70's. Glancing at Leigh, August realized suddenly that she was younger than his daughter. How odd a thought that was.

"Tell me about your paintings. Do you ever show?" They were drifting away from military topics but he thought that best. He wasn't here to threaten- a woman who could turn invisible could hide far too easily if she felt afraid.

"I've had one showing. Nothing big, but everything I wanted to sell sold." Leigh leaned forward in her seat. "Mostly I do landscapes, but not from looking at anything while I'm painting. Just things I've seen before."

"Your fingers?" An eyebrow quirked. "Why is that?"

She shrugged. "Dunno. Just like it, I guess. And it feels a little more personal than just using a brush."

Personal. The word jarred him and he realized that he was letting this conversation grow too close. August stiffened, then looked at the young woman, his mouth harsh for a moment before he asked, "What do you know about the military's work with mutants?"

"Well...mostly that they either say 'yes' and go to the Middle East, or say 'no' and end up in Guantanamo..." Neither option was one she particularly relished.

"If you say yes, there are other options," August murmured. "There are worse things, however, than protecting your country. Your family."

Leigh's throat tightened. Family. Gage. As much as she didn't really want to say yes, she couldn't say no. Because 'no' meant putting Gage through more hell than he'd already been through, and a child shouldn't have to know how dark the world could be.

"I can't say no," she said softly. There. She'd said it out loud. "Gage has been through enough with Dad being killed; I can't put myself in a position to cause him more pain. It will be hard enough, now that others will know his sister's a mutant."

"It's hard," he agreed, his own mouth tightening. He couldn't block her feelings, the wave of pain gripping his stomach and nearly bending him over. He curled his fingers inward, driving his nails into his palms as he glanced away from her, eyes staring over her shoulder at the fog of San Francisco reflected in her window. "But you'd be doing a good thing, Leigh. Or you have the potential to do good. These are not days for superheroes but for ordinary people to stand up and defend the things that we love."

His head dropped as he murmured, "I left my own daughter at a young age for the same reasons. It's difficult but she understands it now."

Leigh almost asked if he was all right, but decided it was best not to. She sighed. "Yeah..." it really was for Gage, after all. Not anyone else. Not the country, not the world. Just one little boy who held her heart in his chest.

"So. That's me saying 'yes', even if yes is a little scary." She took a deep breath and leaned her head back against her chair, staring up at the ceiling.

The thing that he should have done was to tell her that she wouldn't regret it. A stock phrase, one of the reassuring things that he did to ensure that the mutant in question believed in what they were doing or at least, would give them time enough to bring them in before they could run.

But August found that he couldn't lie. Not to her.

"They normally only give you a week," he said instead. "Is that enough time?" He could buy her more but only just.

She nodded slowly. "That should be long enough to get Mom and Gage used to the idea, and long enough to find a sitter for him." Long enough to get herself used to the idea, too. She could fit a lot of time with Gage into that week. Take him places, do things with him. Her throat tightened again and she took a deep breath. "That will work."

"I can give you a month," August answered, unable to resist the tightening of his throat, how dry it had gone- so dry that it was hard to talk. "Would that help or would it make it worse?"

"A month would be really nice. Thank you." She looked at him and smiled. It was a little sad, but it was also very appreciative and thankful.

"They'll send you orders," August said and he noticed how distant he was trying to make it seem. Especially distant, given the fact that he would be writing those orders with his own hand. "You'll have to report or it will be considered treason. Do you understand?" The threat was gentle, but still present.

Leigh nodded slowly. "Yes, sir. I understand." She'd have enough time to let it all sink in, at least. She wondered briefly if telling your parent(s) you were a mutant was much like telling them you were gay. She wasn't sure, as she was fairly sure her mother had figured out that she had bisexual tendencies, and she hadn't said anything about that. But then again, this was San Francisco.

"It was good to meet you," he said as he stood, extending a hand, not expecting her to take it. Brown eyes softened for a moment as he whispered, the sound of it too low to be audible despite the fact that it was echoing inside his head at high volume, "I am sorry."

She did take it, out of courtesy mostly, and for the fact he'd given her more time. "Good to meet you too. I'm glad it was you and not someone more...gruff, or something."

"Gruff?" August lifted an eyebrow. "I've been accused of that." Releasing her fingers gently, he added, "I'll see you in Jeddah or Riyadh. Journey safely."

"Well, you didn't come in here like a drill sergeant. You have a safe journey too," she said simply. Wasn't much else to say, really.