X-Men: The Gifted Ones

21a: TROPP HOME, ST. LOUIS, MO

Jane was excited for her parents to finally meet the man who had stolen her heart. She had convinced Charles to take a few days away from his work at the mansion and meet her family in St. Louis. He was eager to meet her sister, Judith, and her husband, Randall Collins, and their new baby daughter, Jacqueline. There was her oldest brother, Steven, who had just finished high school; Jimmy had just started driving, and the youngest sister, Rose, who was about to enter high school. It was clear that the family was a comfortable, middle-class family.

The family was so different from what Charles had grown up with. He tried to comprehend that Jane's parents, Marion and Russel, would have never hired a nanny and that they were very much involved in the lives of their children. Russel Tropp had been drafted into World War II when Jane was a baby. She did not get to see him again until she was almost four years old. Judging by the ages of the other Tropp children, the Tropps were eager to add to their family once Mr. Tropp returned from war. He seemed to take pride in his children, especially his oldest. The children had attended a public school, and came home at the end of each school day. What a difference from Charles' boarding schools and coming home to spend time with the nanny rather than his own parents.

Charles couldn't help but compare his upbringing to his wife's. Everything was new to him. He wondered if all Americans were like this. His telepathy picked up the strong energies of the people in the room, the energy they felt toward one another. He realized it was love. Deep, familial love and pride.

So much was different for Charles. He had been raised in large mansions in the United States and England. The Tropp home was simple, modest. It was smaller than the modest flat that he and Raven had lived in during his days at Oxford, yet the family seemed comfortable. The boys shared a bedroom and didn't seem to mind. Rose seemed happy to have her own bedroom. The family had one large room where they gathered and the furniture appeared comfortable, well-used, but not handed down like the furniture he was used to. Photographs of the family were on the walls and in frames on the tables. The decorations seemed new, modern. Charles was used to formal portraits and antiques that had been in his family for generations.

The contrasts between his experiences and Jane were clear in how the family had dinner. They ate their meals at the same table. That was different for Charles. He never recalled eating dinner with his parents until he was an adult. He could never imagine his mother wanting her children at the dinner table. Rather than being a formal, rigid occasion it was relaxed, calm, and happy. Marion and her daughters treated cooking as if it were a happy occasion, and he noticed even Russell and his sons joined in to help while Charles and Randall spent time with the baby. Charles never recalled a time when his parents would step foot in a kitchen, much less prepare their own food. Jane's parents seemed to enjoy making food for everyone.

He found himself feeing envious of Jane and her normal, all-American upbringing. She seemed to know her parents, and they seemed to enjoy having a family, having their children around. Jane's parents didn't have children for the sake of having an heir to the family wealth. The family lacked a formality that he had grown up with. Children mingled with adults, and the adults cared what the children had to say. He wondered what it was like to grow up with parents who wanted you around, who didn't trot you out only on socially necessary occasions.

He suddenly realized why Jane had wanted the school. She wanted to give mutant children, especially those who were cast out from their families, a taste of the life she had known. Charles couldn't give her what she had grown up with, but he could at least give her a chance to provide a home for other children.

Jane watched Charles with her family. She wondered what kind of culture shock he had to be experiencing. They had grown up in such different ways from one another. She was glad that her parents seemed to like him. He was such a likable man. She knew it was difficult for them to accept that she had married in such a small ceremony rather than a large occasion, but surely they understood. She was in love, she wanted to be married, not go through the whole show of having a wedding. It was odd for the family to hear about Jane's special abilities. They always knew she was special, she always had that knack for wanting to help the sick, but to find out she could heal had taken them aback. Marion Tropp couldn't help but notice the look of pride in her son-in-law's face as he gazed upon Jane.