Nightcrawer has just returned to his room in Studio X after some harrowing events at a secret club, only to find a blue-skinned woman with dark red hair in his room. He demands how she got past security. Taken aback, she replies she is not a fan. She is his… Never mind. She’ll go. He’ll learn the truth soon enough.
He grabs her arm before she can leave and demands what she was doing here. Did Regan send her? She warns him and he scoffs, which earns him a knee in the unmentionables. She runs. Nein! he vows and teleports in front of her. He hits her in the face. She fights back and finally manages to flee.
Kurt teleports outside but she is gone. He wonders who she was and reminds himself to inform security. He notes the envelope that she left behind. In it are several documents and a photo file showing a four-year old girl named Tenia Jean who looks like a small female version of Kurt. He realizes that, even though he has never seen her, he knows this girl. Somehow, he knows she is his. All children are made in the same genetic facility. They are all genetically unique and have no family connection. But how can she look so much like him, if she isn’t his? When did the world stop making sense?
Studio X, the next morning:
Magma gives Kurt hell for being unprofessional during scenes. He could get someone hurt! He apologizes and promises to do better. She asks for a repetition of the scene.
The fight scene starts. Kurt dodges his attackers while urging himself to do better. They are the example for everyone. He beats his foes finishing the scene flawlessly. Magma is pleased and orders him to do it again six time. Yes, Brandstifter, he tells her.
Later, he takes a break and runs into Meggan. When he begins talking about last night, she apologizes for pushing him. He admits he shouldn’t have run. He notices her coolness and asks if they can talk for real somewhere. She agrees.
He teleports her to the roof, then disappears again to come back with some the file. He asks her to look at it. She is surprised to see the little girl who resembles him so much. Kurt flails to explain. There was a woman in his room last night. Meggan waspishly interjects it wasn’t her. He made his position on that quite clear. Not trying to argue, he continues that she got past security somehow. She was carrying this.
She wanted him to know about the girl? Meggan muses. That doesn’t make any sense. Nothing about this makes any sense, he agrees. Tenia is a beautiful name, he muses and asks what he should do. Why is he asking her? she retorts. She’s his friend, he begins. Meggan cuts him off. He thought she’d tell him to find this child who is scheduled for relocation and looks a little like him. He corrects her. Tenia doesn’t look a little bit like him. She looks almost exactly like him. That woman… He means the one who broke into his room? she asks waspishly. Who brought him this? Is that the woman they are talking about?
Defensively he asks why she’s reacting like this. He thought she’d understand! She understands that maybe all those people who say there is something wrong with the Cuckoos have a point, she retorts unexpectedly. What do the Cuckoos have to do with this? Kurt bursts out. Everything, she retorts. They remind people of the bad old days. But they do it here. Surrounded by people who care about them. They make them think: “Oh, maybe family wasn’t so bad.” Well, was it? Kurt asks, challenging her. Yes and no, she replies evasively. They are opposite sides of the same story. They were going to hate him no matter what. She could hide. He knows what he looks like, everyone knows. Before things changed, people saw him and judged him and he had to live with that.
Kurt interjects, the world changed. No one gets judged like that anymore. The Cuckoos do, she replies. The Cuckoos are different, he admits. The Cuckoos are family, she clarifies. Having a family means people will judge you for things you never did. They judge you because they heard a story once, heard a lie and believe it. They’ll judge you for being a dirty gypsy and that word won’t burn their lips the way it burns yours. They’ll judge you for existing and they’ll judge your parents for having you at all! She was Romanichal in England. She has always, always known what it meant to be judged for things you couldn’t control!
Kurt still doesn’t understand. The girl would be judged, too! Meggan insists. He is an X-Man, Kurt points out. What would they judge her for? Whatever they like! she replies. That’s the thing about judging. It doesn’t have to make any sense.
Meggan presses on that their world is perfect. No one judges anyone for what they are. Why would he want to change that? Nonplussed, Kurt retorts why would meeting the girl change that? Because she knows him. He cares about his people. Maybe more than he should. She doesn’t think she could love him if he didn’t love her and he does love her. He shows it with is actions… and with apples. His heart is too big. If he met the girl, he’d love her. And then he’d never let her go.
He hugs her but insists he has to meet the child. He knows she is not his, that parents are a thing of the past. But he also knows she is his. Can she understand that? Reluctantly she agrees and asks him to be careful. He grins. He is an X-Man. They are always careful.
Celeste Cuckoo is in her office working and scared out of her wits when Kurt and Meggan surprise her by teleporting in. He asks for a favor; he needs her to find a fan. Tenia Jean. She is four years old. Celeste smells something is wrong. Four is too young for his movies. She orders him not to lie. Don’t tell her but don’t lie. She starts searching on her computer and soon locates Tenia at the Nursery Creche in Portland, scheduled for a transfer to an educational crèche in Cleveland, Ohio at the end of the week. Kurt thanks her and teleports him and Meggan away. Speaking to herself, Celeste hopes he hurries, because she isn’t the first one to access that file…
Kurt wants to move at once. Meggan wonders how the mystery woman got into the studio and if Regan Wyngarde is behind all this. Kurt thinks it unlikely, as the picture was real, not an illusion. Meggan still fears a trap. They are risking everything. He reminds her he is a hero, risk is what he does!
They are close to kissing when a knock at the door interrupts them. It’s Irma, sent by Celeste. Kurt teleports outside to meet her. Irma tells him that Meggan can come too and reminds him she is a telepath.
Meggan joins them and Irma assures the two of them the Cuckoos will not give them away. They owe them too much. They thank her. She tells them Celeste said they wanted to visit Portland. How do they feel about a little good PR?
The next day, they are all smiling big in a Portland Mall, though Magma makes it clear she would like to kill him for the stupid idea. The Cuckoos sent tickets to the Tenia’s crèche in the hope she would show up.
Suddenly, though, things become complicated as they face Regan Wyngarde’s group, who claim they have an appearance this day and Studio X is on their stage. Kurt tries to calm them. They’ll be done soon… Regan cuts him off. They are not here for their leftovers. This is their stage! This doesn’t have to get ugly, Magma warns. Seen a mirror lately? Surge shoots back. Another comment by Regan about them being cowards and Magma and Kylun attack.
