This story takes place after 'One'. All characters are property of Marvel Comics. I didn't ask for their permission. Oath, the story 'A Brother in Need' really started something.

Dad's in Generation X!

"Are you all right Nathan?"

Nathan looked up to his friend Stacy and replied, "No. What makes you think I'm not all right?"

Stacy the waitress pointed to the coffee cup in his hands; "You have been staring at that coffee for over five minutes. It's cold. Most of the time, you would drink it up still steaming."

Nathan looked down at the cold cup and sighed, "I can't tell you. You wouldn't understand."

Stacy dared. "Try me. Is it a 'mutant' problem?"

Nathan just shook his head, "It's a ...family problem."

Stacy said, "That doesn't sound so unusual. People came in here with 'family problems' all the time."

"My family is a tad odd," he confessed.

"Lots of people have odd families. I know this one person who was in love with his own cousin. What is so odd about your family?"

Nathan stared at her. Stacy was the most understanding woman he had ever met. When she discovered he was a mutant, she didn't care, or even the fact that his arm was really made of metal didn't bother her. "Everything about my family is odd. I don't really want to talk about them right now. But, the reason I'm so upset is that my parents have split up."

"Your parents?" Stacy asked, "You never did mention that your parents were even alive."

Nathan sighed again. "You know that I'm from the future."

"Yes, you said that you got raised there."

"This is going to sound really complicated," Nathan warned.

"I watched several soap operas a day. I think I could handle it."

Nathan explained about how he got raised in the future and about how Scott and Jean raised him as a kid. Stacy just absorbed the information and when Nathan was done she said "Wow, that is complicated. You must really love your parents."

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, it's a little awkward but it works."

"What happened?" "It all happened when Jean lost her telepathy like me in the Psi-wars. She was distraught. Scott wasn't able to express his feeling all that well. She had an affair with Logan. Scott overheard them and he just disappeared. No one has seen him since."

"I'm so sorry. What happened to Jean and Logan?"

"Logan went out to find Scott. Jean left because she felt her presence was tearing the team apart." Nathan started to tighten his grip on his coffee. "I feel so mad. I tried to find Scott but all I founded was this message in the bottle."

He took out the message that he had been keeping so carefully safe. Stacy read its contents. "Oh, my god." she murmured.

"Yeah," Nathan said as he took the message back, "he apparently didn't ran into Logan yet. He also apparently didn't run into any trouble yet. But still, I have to find him."

"I'm sure he will pop up somewhere." Stacy comforted.

All of a sudden two teenagers and a redhead Irishman came out of the air in a blast. Nathan shielded Stacy as the group landed either on the floor or on the tables.

Jubilee landed on the table and said, "Whoo Hoo! Whataride!"

Cable asked, "What is going on here?"

The two looked at Cable and Jubilee smiled, "Sorry to crash in like this. But, a bomb blew up at our school and Shifty teleported us out."

Cable noticed that there was only one teacher, "Where's Ms. Frost and the others?"

Banshee said, "Ms. Frost had been taking the others to the Fantastic Pier to visit Franklin. Chris tried to take us to them for safety. Is everyone here alright?"

Jubilee gasped and added, "Not everyone, Look!" Everyone looked over at a young man lying on the ground unconscious. He was taller than Jubilee, with black hair with white steaks on his hair.

Banshee said, "Aye, and the puir lad here took a lot of strain." He leaned over to Chris and tried to wake him. "Christopher? Lad? Can ye hear me?"

Chris groaned and opens his eyes. The left was white on black and the right was black on white. "Am I dead yet?"

Cable tried to stir him using his telepathy but found it impossible to enter his mind. "His mind is unreadable."

Banshee explained, "This is Solar Shift our newest student. His mind is naturally unreadable. Ye can send telepathic messages but that's it."

Chris looked up and asked "Is everyone ok? I tried so hard to carry you two as far as I could."

Jubilee said, "You did great Shifty. You just went in and 'port us to safety."

Chris nodded and sat up weakly. He looked over at Nathan and with a shocked look in his eyes. Jubilee introduced, "Shifty, this is Nathan Summers a.k.a. Cable."

Stacy went to the back of the diner to get some food. "Anybody want anything?"

Chris asked, "Got any peach pie?" Stacy nodded and pulled out some pie. "It's Nathan's favorite type too." She gave Chris a slice and a fork.

Jubilee asked "Got any sugar bombs?"

"I'll look in the back."

Sean getting some money to pay for the food, Jubilee sat in silence in the back. Nathan noticed her relieved of something. "Are you all right Jubilee?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered blankly.

Chris looked over at Nathan and said, "She's just a little shell-shock." He shuddered from being weak. He was still recovering from the massive drain on his powers.

Jubilee looked at him and asked, "Shifty! Are ya allright?"

"I'm just exhausted. Teleporting a long distance in the night is very draining."

"I'm so sorry guys." She apologized.

Banshee asked, "Fuir what lass?"

She started to cry, "I gotta package from what I thought was Wolvy. I was so excited that I just ripped it open. Shifty grabbed me and the tried to port to the Fantastic Pier. If it weren't for Chris getting us out..."

"It's alright lass." Banshee said, "Ye didn't know. I passed it under the detector and it passed."

Nathan scoffed, "The runt wouldn't send you anything. It would lead a trail for anybody to follow. He wouldn't take the chance."

"Don't call him that!" Jubilee cried out, "He woulda send me something."

"No he wouldn't." Nathan said, "He's a coward."

"He's not!" Jubilee screamed, "At least he's not like Cyke!"

Nathan growled, "What do you mean?"

"Duh! He ditched the X-Men! He left you!"

Nathan's eye glowed, and his arm reverted to its metal form, "He didn't ditched anybody. Logan leaves all the time. Scott was in distress. He had to leave. I know him."

"How did ya know? Ya barely visited the guy. You two were never all that close."

"Why I outta..."

Banshee ran in between the two. "Nathan, Jubilee, please don't fight."

Chris regained his strength and said "You two should calm down. Jubilee please don't fight him. Nat-- I mean Mr. Summers please don't hurt her."

"I can handle myself just fine Shifster!" Jubilee put on her sunglasses and prepared to defend herself. Cable's eye glowed brighter. He telekinetically flung Banshee to the side.

He pulled out his primestar. Jubilee warmed up her fireworks. They meant business. Chris ran in between the two and yelled, "Stop it!" He concentrated and absorbed the light that was scattered in the small diner and teleported Nathan to a deserted alley."

What did you do?" He demanded as Chris catches his breath.

"I teleported you away from Jubilee. We need to talk."

"I don't need any lecture about getting along with others. Especially from some kid."

Chris looked angrily up at Nathan. There was fire in the lad's eyes, despite the fact he was exhausted from the teleport trips. If he was scared of Nathan, he wasn't showing it.

"Some kid!" He angrily yelled, "I am not 'some kid'! I am--." He stopped and hit himself on the head, "I mean I know many things! You need to calm down Mr. Summers or people are going to get injured or worst!"

Nathan looked down at him. He angrily gazed into the young man's eyes, "You don't know Logan like I do!"

Chris looked up and crossed his arms, "You're right. I don't. But, you don't know Logan like Jubilee does. She constantly talks about him. She talked about how she was trained by him, how her life got saved many times by his heroics."

Nathan interrupted, "Did she ever tell you about the people he killed? About the blood he shed without guilt?"

"Yes!" Chris yelled. "She did. She knows about the animal within Logan. But, she sees him in a different light than you do. She also knows about what he did with your mother. Jubilee's not stupid. She is aware of the bad blood between you and Logan. Everyone knows about the bad blood, even me, and I'm just the new kid."

Nathan scowled, "What does that have to do any of this?"

Chris stared at him, "You are continuing the feud with Jubilee because she is like a daughter to him."

"I am not!" Nathan denied as he telekinetically lifted Chris up. The alley was dark and he was still unable to teleport. Chris maintained the calmness that he had been showing all day.

"Oh yes you are! Why did you attack Jubilee like you did? Insulting her surrogate father like that?" Chris pointed out.

"She insulted Scott too!" Nathan rebolted.

"That's because you started it." Chris spatted, "You hated Logan for what he did. And you're channeling that hatred to Jubilee. She was just defending herself."

Nathan lifted Chris up higher and said, "I didn't 'channel' hatred at anybody."

Chris looked down and said, "Yes you are. Right now, you're channeling all of that hatred that you're channeling at Jubilee that you're channeling at Logan towards me. All I did was save Jubilee's life. And tell you about what you're feeling." Nathan stared at Chris for a long second. He saw Chris's calmness and levelheadness. He saw Chris, a strange kid that he just met, in a different light. He slowly lowered the kid down.

"You're right kid." He said slowly.

Chris brushing himself off said, "I have a name."

"What is your name?" Nathan inquired.

"Chris, Er...My name is Christopher Alexander."

"Nice name." Nathan said as the pieces of the unexpected puzzle started to click in.

"Thanks," Chris said as he brushed himself off, "so what are you going to say to Jubilee?"

Nathan asked, "What do you mean?"

Chris put his hands on the his hips, "I mean you've got to apologize to Jubilee for what you said about Logan. You're the 'role model' here.""

I don't apologize."

"Oh, I forgot. The phrase 'I'm sorry' doesn't fit in your vocabulary."

"You don't understand Chris. I-I can't say tell Jubilee that Logan is good." Nathan explained.

Chris smiled, "I didn't say good things about Logan. I just say apologized to her about what you said. You don't have to praise the runt. Just...well...say 'I'm sorry'. That's it."

Nathan pondered and said, "We better go back to the diner. The others would be worried about us."

Chris deadpanned, "Or worried about me being beaten up by you."

"Oath good point." Nathan said as they went to the diner.

Banshee went up to them and asked, "Christopher, lad are ye all right?"

"No, I'm a ghost of my former self," Chris deadpanned. "Of course I'm alright!"

Jubilee added, "Well, that's a pretty bull headed of ya Shifty. I mean teleporting Cable like that."

Nathan said, "I didn't hurt him. We just talk." He looked down, "I'm sorry Jubilee. I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

Jubilee stunned said, "Yeah, well I'm sorry too for insultin your dad like that. He's cool. It's just well the way you talk about Wolvy, it makes him sound like a supervillian."

"Well Jubilee, I forgot about how much he meant to you." Nathan explained.

"Thanks Cable, dude."

Stacy went up to the four and asked, "What is going on? I went to the back and I heard some shouting and when I got out, Jubilee was crying and Mr. Cassidy was talking to her. And where did you two went?"

Nathan blushed and said, "We went to talk for awhile."

Chris suggested, "Look, why don't you two kiss and make up and end this stupid fight?"

"Kiss?" Jubilee and Nathan asked eyeing each other.

Chris put up his hands defensively, "I mean shake hands. If Logan heard about Nathan kissing Jubilee he would blow a gasket."

Jubilee held out her hand. "Shake?" she asked

"Of course, Jubilee." They shook hands in agreement.

"Buuuttt, if you ever kill Wolvy, I will hafta hurt ya." warned Jubilee

"Then, I better be careful if I ever see him."

Banshee and the others watched the two. Banshee whispered, "Watch closely lad. Two very stubborn people actually making peace." Chris watched and smiled a smile of achievement. Banshee, Jubilee, and Stacy didn't pay any attention to him. But in the distance, Nathan saw the grin and the final pieces came together.

Later...

The Fantastic Four picked up later, Chris, Jubilee, and Sean. Chris kept on keeping his distance from Cable. The damage was considerate to the school. They will be spending some time at the Pier until the building can be repaired.

*****

Cable trudged into his apartment. He slammed the door. He was alone. He looked around and shuddered. He believed that he founded Scott. But is he really Scott Summers? Is his own father, really this 'Christopher Alexander'? He shook his head in disbelief. **How could that be possible?** One part of his mind asked, **How could a thirty some year old man turn into a teenager? There are many ways for age reversal these days.** His mind answered **But, how did he lost his optic blasts? How did his mind become totally unreadable?**

Cable looked outside. He reached out to Jean to find...nothing. He still couldn't call her. Suddenly his mind whispered, **Sinister could have a hand in this.**

He refused, "No," he said out loud. "Why would he agree to be Sinister's pawn? He wouldn't. Would he?"

Cable sat down and stood up. His mind was reeling. He didn't know what to make of this revelation. He needed a drink.

*****