Disclaimer: don't own x-men first class, x-men the comics, x-men anything. I'm just using the characters for artistic creativity.

Pairing: BansheexOC,

Hidden Talents

Children should be seen and not heard

In the original form of this proverb it was specifically young women who were expected to keep quiet. This opinion is recorded in the 15th century collections of homilies written by an Augustinian clergyma called [John] Mirk's Festial, circa 1450

There were only a few of life's lessons that little Evelyn (Evie) Hubble knew would keep you alive:

When he got angry; you ran,

when he drank; you hid,

when he yelled; you wished you were invisible,

and when he hit; you wanted someone to come and save you

No one was coming to save you.

Her life hadn't always been like this. Evie remembered a time when there was laughter and sunshine, where love was found in hugs and kisses and a time when she felt warm and safe. After her mother had died the cold came. Her father stopped looking after her so she learnt to adapt, what to cook, how to clean, how to be quiet. But sometimes, like now, she wished so very hard that he couldn't find her, that she would just disappear.

"EVIE! Get back HERE!" the yell reverberated the room and Evie shuffled further into the closet making herself as small as possible, her large green eyes wide with fright and her hands shook as she covered her mouth to stop any sound from escaping. She didn't know what she had done this time, but Evie knew that it didn't really matter; he would always find something that was wrong and blame her for it. That should be another of life's rules: it was always your fault. Sometimes he couldn't find her, sometimes she outsmarted him and if he went to sleep he usually forgot all about it. She hoped that this was one of those times.

BANG! Evie jumped and sobbed as she hit the door accidently in her fright and the door creaked open. Looking up through her dirty blonde hair she watched a sinister grin spread across her father's face, his eyes were bloodshot and he reeked of alcohol, his hair a tangle of grease; he had once been handsome a long time ago. He stumbled towards her, waving a fist in anger.

"Ready or not here I come," he growled. Evie closed her eyes tightly shut, her little hands clenched around her knees and she buried her head against her chest, making herself as small a target as possible.

"If I can't see him he can't see me, if I can't see him he can't see me." She whispered furiously through her frightened tears. Her breathing was so loud in her ears that it took a while before she realised that her father had stopped and was staring straight at her with a strangely stupefied expression on his face.

"Where'd she go?"

XxXxXxXxXxXx

"Charles, are you sure this is the place?" Erik asked, leaning casually against the wall surveying the large crowd of young adults drinking and laughing in the bar. He turned to look at the telepath next to him and rolled his eyes. Charles stood with his fingers against his temple to focus his mutant powers to help him find their next recruit. They already had the girl 'Angel' and the boy 'Darwin' waiting for them back at the base getting the grand tour by Raven and Hank. They had spent the entire day sitting in this bar trying to find the next recruit and were not having much luck.

"She's here, I know it. It's like she's deflecting me or something. Do you think she has a mind shield that is protecting her from me? Like a natural one?" Charles asked Erik as he scanned the room again. It would be fascinating if that was true. He was so excited that they were finding more and more mutants hidden among them. How well they adapted to their surroundings so as not to be caught. It was a dream come true to have the resources and the support to find others like himself and help them to understand that they were not alone.

"There, she's hard to look at, it's like my eyes keep sliding off of her." Erik pointed to the far side of the bar, near the pool tables. A tall skinny girl with dark blonde hair plaited over her shoulder, in clothes a little too big for her stood watching them from across the room. Charles grinned as his eyes did slide away from her and his mind tried to tell him that there wasn't a girl there.

"Shall we go over and introduce ourselves, dear friend?" Charles grinned up at Erik, his blue eyes lighting up like a child's on Christmas. Erik laughed and gestured his friend to lead the way. They both swerved around slightly tipsy people and made their way to the young girl's side. She stared at them with wide green eyes, her face pale and lips thinned into a frown.

"Hello, I'm Charles Xavier and this is Erik Lensherr. We were wondering if we could have a moment of your time to have a little chat about something."

The girl's frown pulled her eyebrows severely over her eyes and she looked first to her left and then to her right before staring straight at them and pointing to herself.

"Me?"She gasped disbelievingly, tilting her head to the side wondering if this was some sort of joke.

"Yes, you miss…?" Charles asked frankly, placing a hand in front of him to shake.

"Ah…I'm Evie." She shook Charles hand hesitantly and then turned to Erik to do the same.

"You have a fascinating mutation; do you know the extent of your powers?"

"Perhaps we should go somewhere more private?" Erik stated, glancing at the crowded bar with a wary eye. Charles nodded his head and tucked Evie's hand around his arm and led her towards the door. Her lips trembled lightly and she turned her head from Erik to Charles several times.

"How can you even see me?" she inquired.

"Here we are, if you'd just step inside the car we can talk all about it on the way." Charles stated, helping the young girl into the automobile. Evie shook her head, trying to come out of the dream she was in.

"Where are we going? Who are you people?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Evie couldn't believe she had even gotten in the car with these men. It was the shock of it she told herself. The shock of people actually seeing her, and talking to her. Usually she had to force people to see her, and here were two men who had seen her, spoken to her and told her she was a mutant. Tonight was going to be a very strange night. They spoke of the CIA and the evil mutant Sebastian Shaw and how they were being recruited to help the government find and capture dangerous mutant criminals.

They spent most of the time talking about themselves, how they had known most of their lives that they were different, special. They spoke of their mutant powers and of the others they had recruited. They even laid ground rules down for while in the CIA off site building, where she could go and what they would be doing while there.

When they arrived the building rose up high into the night sky, tall glass windows shone in the moonlight. Evie could make out the guards patrolling around. She realised as she stepped out of the car that she didn't have a change of clothes with her or toiletries. Frowning at the two men who flanked her sides as they walked towards the front entrance to sign her in she understood suddenly that they had known before hand she was going to come with them. She felt like she had been outwitted or outmanoeuvred in a game she hadn't even known she was playing. These men were good at what they did, that was probably why they were the recruiters.

After signing confidentiality/secrecy papers, having her fingerprints documented and sworn in to the CIA mutant division which Evie hid her laughter behind a shaking hand, she followed Charles and Erik down corridor after corridor before reaching a door that looked like every other door within the compound. Evie frowned again as they opened the door and stepped inside to a small recreation room that housed four other young people.

"Charles your back!" there was a blur of black and gold and then a young women with a bright smile slammed into Charles and swung around in an exuberant hug. Erik smoothly pulled himself away from the others to watch the introductions.

"Yes Raven, now, this young woman whom we have with us is the lovely Evie. Evie this is my dearest, closest friend Raven." Charles introduced, smiling just as happily as the girl wrapped in his arms.

Evie smiled tentatively and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you," she said as the energetic Raven pumped her hand quickly before spinning out of Charles arms and pulling the quiet Evie behind her.

"Come, meet the others." Raven led Evie over to the others who were seated on the couches eating their dinner. "This is Hank, he's really smart and I'm sure you'll get to know just how smart once he starts to talk about all of his inventions. This is Angel, she was the first one that Charles and Erik found and this is Darwin, he used to be a taxi driver." Raven said before pushing Evie down into a seat and sitting next to her. "Everyone this is Evie, our newest recruit, welcome."

"Uh…hi." Evie stuttered, feeling like she must be dreaming. Every single person in the room was looking at her, could see her and was smiling at her. Darwin grinned and shook her hand.

"I felt the same way when they came and got me. Don't worry, we all thought 'what the heck am I doing,' but, it's pretty groovy to be here and not be afraid to be ourselves." He said sitting back in his seat and taking a drink of his coca cola.

"Ha, I thought these guys were a bit off when they came and found me." Angel laughed as she waved at Erik and Charles who were standing off to the side watching the new mutants get to know each other. Both laughed and waved before going back to their own conversation. "But…it's nice to know you're not alone, yeah. We can be ourselves, we don't have to hide while where in here."

Evie nodded her head and accepted the cola Darwin handed to her, taking a drink and looking around the room.

"So how many of us are they going to recruit?" she asked nodding over to the two older mutants by the wall.

Raven grinned and held up three fingers. "Only three more, Charles chose six of you to start with, he said that with the variety of mutations that we have we should be a well rounded team. But-" and here she paused for dramatic effect, sitting forward in her seat and waited until the others leaned toward her before continuing "-we have to wait until everyone gets here for the big unveiling of our mutations." She smiled as the others laughed and sat back sipping at their drinks and eating their dinner. Raven made sure that their newest recruit had something to eat before relaxing back into her seat and letting the small talk wash over her.

"I just have one more question." Evie said, stopping the flow of casual talk. "What am I to do for clothes?" she asked. The others laughed and before she could ask why they were laughing a pile of clothes landed in her lap with a small toiletry case on top.

"Compliments of the CIA," Hank said with a roll of his eyes. "One size fits all."

"Come on, I'll show you to your room." Raven interrupted the laughter and pulled Evie to her feet. "I'm sure you're tired."

The two mutant girls left the room via a back door to the recreation room the others were in, Evie with her hands wrapped around her CIA care package. The corridor was silent and had ten identical doors lining the hall. Gesturing to the number 7 on the door she opened the door and turned the light on then turned and spread her arms out.

"Tada!" Raven sang, sitting down on the small cot within the room and opening the drawers next to the cot so that Evie could put her clothes away. "Home away from home, it's not too bad and we only sleep in here so it's ok, really." She assured after looking at Evie's tentative look. Evie sighed and sat down next to the other blonde and tucked her feet under her and leant back against the wall.

"I don't even really know what I'm doing here." Evie whispered tiredly. "They said come and I came." Shaking her head she closed her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest. Sliding her eyes open and towards Raven she shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. Raven laughed and patted her shoulder.

"Charles did the same with me when I was a child, well we were both children. He said stay and I did…hm, now that I think of it, it may be that part of Charles' mutation is persuasion." Raven shook her head and shrugged back. "Whatever it is, you're here now, your safe and your around others like you. It's hard not to feel excited and happy you know?"

Evie laughed and nodded. "I know. I think I'll go to bed now, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Raven said, standing up and heading to the door. "Tomorrow." Then the door was closed behind her and Evie sat staring at the spot she had just vacated, eyes unfocussed.

"Huh, I think I could get used to people seeing me." Smiling she changed into the CIA tracksuit, brushed her teeth, washed her face and then settled herself into bed. A girl could get used to being noticed.

XxXxXxXxX

Evie opened her eyes and sat up quickly as the sound of raised voices could be heard down the corridor. Rubbing her eyes tiredly she stumbled out of bed, pulled her hair back into a messy pony tail and walked out of her room, down the corridor and into the rec room only to come to a stop to take in the scene before her. Angel stood in the middle of the room, clad in small black shorts and a tank top, hands on her hips and red in the face. Hank was off to the side trying to hide his laughter and failing; Raven stood next to him and punched his shoulder trying to hide her own amusement. Darwin stood in front of Angel, his hands held out to her trying to pacify her and failing miserably by the looks of it as she continued to shout. It was only as she moved further into the room that she realised it wasn't Darwin Angel was yelling at but the young red haired boy behind Darwin, his hands in his pockets, shoulders casually slouched and a wicked grin on his face.

"What happened?" she asked, covering a yawn as she made her presence known. Angel turned to her and pointed around Darwin, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"That, that boy purposely fell into my chest, the pervert!" she screeched. "I thought I wouldn't have to put up with this here." She took a step forward towards the boy and was stopped by Darwin who was whispering furiously, trying to get her to calm down. Evie watched all of this with interest and then laughed out loud as the 'pervert' swung a wink in her direction.

"Who are you?" she asked, moving around the pinball machine and towards the couches before sitting heavily down into one. She was joined by Raven who stared unabashedly at Angel, Darwin and the new boy.

"He's a pervert, that's who he is." Angel snarled in disgust before pushing Darwin out of her way and she stormed from the room in a huff. Raven giggled and swung her feet up onto the couch with her.

"So pervert, you got a name?" Raven asked as the other three males sat down on the couches around them. The red haired boy laughed, pouted his lips lightly and shrugged.

"'Course." He said. "Mutant recruit no.8, but you can call me Sean Cassidy."

"Where are Charles and Erik and how did you get in here?" Hank asked pushing his glasses up his nose.

"They took off as soon as they pushed me through that door and I fell into Miss Hissy Fit." Sean laughed, running a hand through his messy hair.

Evie snorted and then shrunk back into her seat when everyone turned to look at her. It would take some getting used to, she thought, now that people could see her and took notice of the things she did and said. Shrugging awkwardly she pointed a finger at the new guy. "You looked pretty happy for 'accidentally falling into her'." She stated, a smile on her face.

Sean smirked and slid his eyes over to her shrugging. "What can I say? I've just got all the luck."

The others burst out laughing and Evie thought, 'this is what life is supposed to be like.'

TBC