It's not home, but it'll do
Characters: Moira, open to any with reason to be at the Mansion Setting: The Headmaster's Office at the X-Mansion, now Moira's office. Content: Prim Scottish nobility Summary: Moira settles into her new position as Headmistress. Jean finds out that Xavier has gone, and neglects to tell Moira about recent events.
The door shut behind her with an echo, settling noisily in its heavy wooden frame. Things had changed, since last she visited. There had been yet another rebuild for the Mansion, using some of the old, and some new.
The wainscoting was old. Its polished wood still held the scars and memories of generations of students, with the occasional scorch mark from mutant powers gone awry. She ran her fingers over the mars in the carved wood, wondering which mutant had left their mark, and in which conflict. The floors, by contrast, were new. They almost ached with newness, the bright young wood contrasting with the dull polish of the walls.
There was an emptiness to the place. Enrollment was down this year, and Xavier... gone.
His message had been cryptic. He hadn't even stayed to see her settled in. There had only been the communication that he had to leave, and would she come to stay?
It wasn't as if she didn't have other projects, other responsibilities. But he contacted her in a hiatus between projects. The guilt and desperation that had kept her in her laboratory for so many years was pointless now, after... everything that had happened. Her research center on Muir Island had been running itself for years. And she'd wanted to teach, after all. She'd thought of starting a school of her own in Scotland, for the education of young European mutants. Why not take her place here, instead?
She stopped behind one of the visitor's chairs, running her hands over the worn leather. There was no chair behind the desk. No grooves on the floor commemorated the daily passage of a wheelchair. She'd heard that his latest chair hovered, without the need for wheels.
Lifting one of the heavy wooden chairs, she moved it behind the desk. It hit the floor with a thunk, and sat awkwardly. It was too low, and moving it away from its partner ruined the harmony of the whole room.
"What kind of person doesn't leave a chair for the new headmistress?" she grumbled, a smile twitching at her lips. She'd have to find a suitable chair somewhere else in the mansion, and recruit a student to carry it for her.
She'd taught in the school before, and commanded here in times of crisis. But it still felt wrong, to take a seat behind Xavier's desk. As though he might return at any moment, and scold her for taking his place. She almost wished he would; at least then she wouldn't be worrying about what might have happened to make her friend leave so suddenly.
"No time to dwell on such things," she reminded herself. The school was hers now, and there was work to be done.