Ororo soared above the earth, looking for any indication of who might have take her children, her family. She couldn't travel far, but they couldn't have either, not with the number of captives they'd taken.
Kitty, Jubilee, Hank, Millie. Doug, John, Bobby. Where are you? For the first time, she wished to be telepathic. If she were, she would have been able to use cerebro to locate them and they'd be home by now.
She looked down at the ground, and saw nothing but miles of earth and houses and buildings and roads. Nothing to indicate where they'd gone or where they'd been taken. It took several calming breaths and a few moments to keep herself from either breaking down or giving into frustration. Neither would have helped and neither would have been good.
Reluctantly, she turned around. There was nothing this direction. Tomorrow she would try again, and head southeast. Mayhap, she would find something that way.
Gods of my people, please help us to find them. She prayed fervently to herself, hoping that someone was listening.
* * * * * * *
Jamie couldn't believe it when he'd overheard the grown ups talking. They'd thought he was in bed, but he'd come down for some juice and had heard them. The group that had gone to the museum hadn't come home. They were missing, captured is what he heard Mr. Logan say.
Jamie was very quiet as he crept away. Millie couldn't be gone. She was with that group, though. But she had to come back. She just had to.
He snuck outside and over to the girls dorm. He wasn't supposed to be there, but he didn't care. He wanted Millie. It was dark and he was sure that he would find her in her bed, no matter what the grown ups said.
But she wasn't there. He walked over to her bed, carefully made with her old "Cookie" doll on the pillow. It hadn't even been slept in. Jamie sniffled and reached up to wipe at his eyes, frightened and alone.
Without thinking about it, Jamie took off his pyjamas and shifted into his brown puppy form. He clambered onto the bed, feeling better as soon as he could smell her. Now she was real again, and she would come home. He would just wait for her until she did.
He laid his head on her pillow with his nose snuffed against the doll. He didn't realize when he had fallen asleep again, still waiting for her.