Chapter 15

A/N: This is the final chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and everyone who stuck through the entire story.

It had been a month since Conner had come to visit and over two weeks since Becy's death. Life had returned to normal, for the most part. Conner still had an occasional nightmare, but they were becoming less frequent.

Adam found Brennan, Shalimar, Jesse and Conner in the dojo. Brennan was giving Conner another martial arts lesson while Shalimar and Jesse sparred.

"Brennan, there should be a package waiting for you at the post office. You'll need to go pick it up this afternoon."

"What package?"

"Well, it's actually for Conner. From the school."

Conner's face lost some of it's color. "You mean that school we talked about. . . before. I'm going?" He asked in fear.

Brennan quickly knelt on one knee to look his son in the eyes. "Not until next year. The package should be the books you need so that we can teach you here at Sanctuary this year."

"So you aren't sending me away?" Conner asked, wanting, needing, to be sure.

"No. Of course not. And you won't have to next year if you really don't want to, but I think it would be a good idea. In a year, not now. And we'll come visit and you can come back here and visit. We'll still see each other all the time. But for right now you aren't going anywhere." Brennan tried to reassure Conner. It worked and Conner relaxed; the blood returned to his face.

Shalimar walked up and ruffled Conner's hair. "We want you here with us for a while. That way we can have you all to ourselves instead of having to share you with all the friends you're going to make at school."

He grinned up at her, then looked back to his father. "Can I come with you to get the books?"

"Sure. After our lesson. We can get lunch while we're out."

Conner looked up at Shalimar. "Want to come with us?"

"I'd love to."

Brennan stood back up and smiled at her over Conner's head. He'd been relieved at the bond he'd seen developing between his son and the woman he loved. He wanted them to be a family one day in the future, but knew it wasn't the right time yet.

Shalimar was also pleased. She knew how much Conner meant to Brennan, and that their relationship could be in trouble if Conner couldn't accept her. From him getting them together she didn't think it would be a problem, but worried that Becky's death might have changed things, but it hadn't seemed to. If anything he seemed to be looking toward her as something of a mother figure. She knew it would be a very long time before he called her Mom, if he ever did; but she didn't mind, her feral nature had given her the patience required of predators and she'd slowly learned to apply it in other areas. She also wanted time to get used to the relationship. Being a mother was a somewhat frightening prospect, mostly because she hadn't been close to her mother since childhood and had no example.

"So how is this going to work with you guys teaching me?" Asked Conner a couple hours later as they ate lunch.

"Well, Jesse will teach you computers and math. Adam can teach you science and history. I'll take the reading and writing classes. Shalimar can teach you about plants, animals and the outdoors. Emma will help you with Social Studies and understanding people. I know a lot of this sounds pretty advanced, but we'll make sure to keep things so that you understand. Considering how smart you are, that won't be a problem."

Conner beamed at the compliment. "Sounds great. You guys won't give me a ton of home work, will you?" Asked Conner in a teasing voice.

Shalimar teased him back. "We'll give you so much home work you'll drown in it."

He groaned dramatically and then went back to eating.

That evening when they opened the box as a group they discovered that the teachers editions (with the answers) had been sent for the adult members of Mutant X. Each took the appropriate books and began to plan how to help Conner. Adam, having spent his life in research, found himself looking forward to a bit of teaching. Especially with a student as smart as Conner. Jesse discovered that he'd already, informally, taught Conner much of what he needed to know about the computer class. He was sure they'd be ahead of it by the following year, since he had no intention of restricting Conner to the class material if he was ready for more. Emma and Shalimar got together to look over their material. Brennan was pleased that he'd have a chance to share his love of reading with his son.

The End. . . . For now

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's stuck through to the end. I'll start thinking about the sequel. But I do have another story I'll be posting first. Hope you'll like it.

Fiery Feral: Thanks, yet again. I'll start posting the new story by the end of the week. Glad you liked this one.

Frida: I'm going to have Conner begin to call Shal "Mom" in the sequel. I figured it would be WAY to soon for that in this story.

Petite Cat: I can't seem to do a story that's not B/S, so yeah, I admit, the next one is. I'll try to get to work on the sequel. Thanks for the compliment. Hey, at least Becky will be gone in it. . . . he he he

Lornein: Sorry, it took longer to post. I had a hard time ending the story. Thanks.

Black Panther: Thank you for the honest opinion. I'll keep it in mind for the next stiry.. It will be a Jesse/Emma pairing, so I hope you'll like it better. I think I did OD a bit on the romance in this one.

Carrot: Glad you liked it. Thanks. To bad the series ended the possibility of A/E. OH well, that's why we write the stories we want to.