Rogue pulled up to the gates of the mansion and hit the button on the intercom.
"Hi, it's Rogue," she said, by way of introduction, "may I come in?"
Back at the desk in the mansion, Geraldine Foster was roster on for gate duty. The security camera at the gate took a quick snapshot of Rogue and ran it through their database, and confirmed her identity. In this day and age of anti-mutant feelings, and previous attacks on the mansion, extra tight security was a must.
"Sure," Geri said into the microphone. "Gates opening now."
Indeed they were. As soon as they were done, Rogue continued her drive down the driveway and to the entrance of the school. Geri closed the gates behind her.
Rogue was just getting out of the car when Peter appeared.
"Rogue!" he greeted. "Hey, welcome back."
Rogue looked up and grinned.
"Hey, Pete," she said. "How's things?"
"Good, good. Where have you been?"
"Oh, everywhere. Ah've done a trip around the world, or at least North Americah and Europe."
"Cool. You staying?"
Rogue shrugged.
"Ah dunno," and then she smiled. "Once we talked about being teachahs here, remembah that?"
"Well, I started tertiary ed, so..." Peter grinned. "You still want to do that?"
"Ah dunno," she repeated. "Ah thought Ah might talk to the professor and see if there's a place for me here."
"I'm sure that there will be. Oh darn, I have to go. But you know your way around."
Rogue nodded. She followed him inside and the two parted company. Rogue walked resolutely towards Professor Xaviers' office.
*Come in,* his voice said inside her head, and she smiled.
She entered the office.
"Welcome back," he greeted pleasantly. "How was your year away?"
"It was good. Ah took up fuzzle breeding, and Ah taught some self defence classes in Genovia, joined a circus," she replied with a giggled. "Oh! That reminds me... John - Pyro? He'd joined the circus too."
Professor Xavier's eyebrows raised.
"Indeed?"
"Oh, yes, Ah was quite shocked myself. But now he's using his powers for entertainment, rather than evil," Rogue smiled. "The circus is mostly mutant. There are a couple of Daths, and a couple of humans, but primarily mutant. Ah used muh atom manipulation to create glass statuettes out of sand. Ah toured with them for a few months, but then leftto go to Ireland... and that's when the trouble started."
"Oh?"
"Ah had a run in with an anti-mutant organisation and a mutant rights organisation called the Caretakahs."
"I see."
"The incident was over quick enough, Ah suppose, but Mick - the agent from the Caretakahs, he, well, took an interest. He invited me over to their HQ, and while Ah was there, Ah found out that one of their agents had been badly injured..."
Rogue went on to tell Professor Xavier about Ms Marvel, and her absorbsion thereof.
"Mick did offer me a job, but Ah just accused him of wanting to replace his star spy with someone... close enough to the original," Rogue shook her head. "It's... weird. Ah don't know anything about him or his organisation, and yet, Ah know so much about them. Ah just don't know what to do. And Ah doubt that they're just going to let me disappear. Ah mean, Ms Marvel knows so much sensitive information, and now Ah have that information."
Professor Xavier nodded.
"So, what do you want to do?"
"Go back to having a normal life?" Rogue shook her head and sighed. "Being in Genovia in particulah was so inspiring. There are mutant businesses everywhere - both run by and catering to. No mutant is afraid to walk on the streets there."
"And yet you taught self defence?"
"Well, just because they lack the usual anti-mutant terrorisim, doesn't mean they don't have other kind of criminals. Although their crime rate certainly isn't as high as it is in other countries, but Ah think that's more a 'it's a small European country' thing."
Professor Xavier smiled.
"Ah did enjoy teaching. And Ah'd like to see that kind of... of peace, here in the States."
"I'd like to see that too. Is this your way of asking to return to the X-men?"
Rogue chewed her bottom lip.
"Ah don't think Ah ever really intended on leaving - not permanently," she said at last. "Ah love it here. Muh friends are here. The people Ah considah family are here. This is like home. If there's a place for me here, Ah'd like to stay."
"There will always be a place for you here," Professor Xavier assured her.
The two then spend the next hour or so discussing further education, training, teaching, her new room (her old one, which she previously shared with Kitty, had been taken), being rostered onto various duties around the mansion (she'd done most of them before so it wasn't a problem), so on and so forth. At the end of it all, Rogue retrived her bag and moved it into her new room. Shannon was waiting for her.
"Shannon!" Rogue exclaimed.
"Hello," Shannon smiled.
The two hugged.
"The professor asked me to get your room ready for you. It was a little dusty," Shannon said, eyeing the room critically.
"Thanks," Rogue said appreciatively. "How've you been? How's Briar?"
"I am good," Shannon replied. "So is Briar. She has been teething and learning to speak."
"Awesome. Are you teaching her Elvish as well? Or just English?"
"Both."
"Cool."
"How was your travels?"
As Rogue unpacked her things, the girls chatted about all the things that they had missed fo each others' lives while Rogue had been adventuring.