Howdy all! This is my first X-Men fic and it is a little bit AU and may get a little confusing at times so I'll give you a little bit of info you need. This story is a pairing between my OC, Ellaina Hawkschild (Ellie for short) and the young Charles X. Her mutant ability is a surprise but I'm sure you'll figure it out pretty quickly if you pay attention. This story is set partially DURING First Class and partially after. Charles meets her at fifteen years old and she sticks with him until that fateful day at the beach and beyond. I'm essentially adding a new character to the story. This will hopefully set up for later stories to come involving Ellie and Charles and their adventures, as well as act sort of like a wish fulfillment thing for me and a way to get it out of my head. The length will depend on feedback, which is always more than welcome. I promise that there is some very original stuff in here, but for those of you who really loved the movie there's a lot of that in here too. I'm not breaking any rules either because that's what fanfiction is for right? With that in mind, I own absolutely nothing about this, therefore copyright is safe, and the story commences!

Of the many things that should have and did cross the fifteen year old mind of Charles Xavier-albeit at such a small scale that he paid no attention-as he was roused from sleep by a strange and desperate new presence in his home for the second time, the only thought that really stood out was: Why do frightened and hungry mutants always seem to find my bloody house!

With a somewhat exasperated sigh, he threw back his bed sheets and gently reached out to Raven, prodding her awake.

What is it? her groggy mind voice asked. He also received an image of the azure young woman tugging on a fluffy robe and rubbing her eyes.

Another runaway mutant in the house I'm afraid. I'm going to see if I can talk to her. He receded from her mind, allowing himself a tiny bit of smug satisfaction. He didn't even have to press his fingertips to his temple to focus that time. He was getting stronger. He could sense the other mutant effortlessly, all the way in the kitchen, her mind a bright emerald flare on the edge of his mental vision and the sweet taste of apples on his tongue. Curious.

But what was perhaps even more so was the nature of the mind itself. Charles frowned as he descended the stairs. It was like no other mutant mind he had ever encountered before. There was something strangely…primal that overrode any rational thought that may have formed there. All he was getting were instincts, animal urges to feast, pause, search for danger, repeat. The thoughtless compulsions grew stronger as he neared. It was a good thing he'd chosen a room so close or could take nearly an hour to wind his way through the palace of a home.

A new taste joined the rather pleasant flavor of apples, one that contorted his face into a grimace at its bitter sting. A hot, fiery fear emphasized the chaotic swirl of emotion and incoherent, animalistic babbling that caught him up in its ferocious need. The light from the refrigerator came into view as well as the sounds of a nice ransacking going on. He did press two fingertips to his temple then, just to keep himself firmly rooted in his own mind. The raging ocean emanating from whatever was beyond that threshold threatened to sweep him up, savage him and spit him back out in pieces. Not a very pleasant idea to be perfectly honest.

"Charles," Raven's voice startled him from nearby, causing him to hop several inches into the air. Damn, he should have been able to sense her coming. "What's in there?" Her eyes were wide with apprehension. If it came to a fight, the two of them may be at a disadvantage if the mutant had any considerable amount of power.

His calm, serene expression never wavered even as his heart continued to hammer quite loudly in response to his fright. He had become an expert on concealing his own thoughts and feelings, possibly due to the overexposure to everyone else's he got daily. "A mutant, I believe. Her mind is just so…odd. I'm not quite sure about anything else." Then he noticed the bat Raven was wielding with unsteady hands. Her fear left a light kick of sulfur in his mouth. "I pray it does not come to that my dear." He placed an assuring hand over hers and stepped calmly into the kitchen.

Well, he could quite honestly (for once) say he was surprised at what he saw. "Hmmm," he said. He dared not press into the creatures mind any more, lest he be overwhelmed. He would just have to wing it then.

You're sure that's a mutant? Raven asked, fixing him with a puzzled expression. He nodded once in reply.

Her mind is so bizarre, I can't get anything else from her. To be honest I'm a bit nervous to try. Her thoughts seem to be purely instinct and raw emotion. I'm going to get closer.

Charles, don't-he cut her off and moved forward anyway. The scrawny, bloodied gray wolf with its front half buried in a mountain of food on the floor seemed too preoccupied with filling its starving belly to notice his silent approach. Well, it certainly didn't look like any mutant he'd ever seen before. Most of them were humans, but could it be possible that animals were being affected as well? He stopped that train of thought before it could go any further. The consequences did not bear thinking about.

He was only about three feet away now. One more step would put him directly in the path of the light from the refrigerator. Surely the beast wasn't that oblivious. His heart rate sped up again. Being so very near a wild animal that was so obviously starving and half-mad and frightened really wasn't his brightest of ideas, but honestly, he'd never picked up a manual on handling stray wolves in your kitchen for a bit of light reading. The possibility that he'd ever be in this peculiar situation had never crossed his vast mind, and therefore left him defenseless.

Charles Xavier had been called a lot of things. Freak, nutter, nerd, but the word coward had never been one of them. With a deep breath to steady himself, he took that final step into the light and the beast's line of vision. Yep, this was definitely not one of his more brilliant ideas.

As if someone had thrown a switch, the animal froze. Its raging tornado of sensation and instinct picked up speed (if that was at all possible). Slowly, painfully so, its matted and mangled gray head swiveled around to face him. That was when he saw it. Her eyes were a vibrant green that shone with a strangely intelligent light. Beautiful twin pools of emerald on a stark face. They were not wolf's eyes. No, wolf's eyes were amber and on rare occasion, crystalline blue (much like his own) but never this clear green of the deep forest.

She's a shape-shifter as well. Charles projected almost reverently. It seemed to be a rare gift among mutants, but somehow two of them (both female, mind you!) had managed to find their way to his house. Again, curious.

Raven gripped the bat tighter, her thoughts gearing up for a fight.

Stand down, Raven. We don't want to frighten her further. She did not acknowledge him.

The wolf stared warily up at him through her brows, her head lowered and a ridge of fur along her neck rising slowly. He needed to calm her and quickly. While he was loath to submerge himself in that stormy inferno inside her head, he needed access to whatever humanity may be left, at least a name. Apart from that, (as difficult as it was for him to admit to himself) he wasn't near strong enough to tackle a wild wolf. Particularly one so desperate. A low growl rumbled deep in her solar plexus, making the air around them vibrate. Her lip curled back to reveal dirty and unhealthy sabers for fangs. Blood steadily dripped from a myriad of gashes in her disgusting fur. All in all, she was a menacing sight. Charles had a sneaking suspicion that his fear of her was justified.

He felt the shift in her instincts with mere moments of warning. The subtle turn from fear, eat, fear, hungry to fear, hungry, fear, panic, flight, fear, fight bumped his alert level from red to flaming just in time for him to dive into her mind (which, in his lack of preparation and concentration, ended up as more of an awkward and quite unattractive belly flop) and hurl his body to the side before the animal lunged. He felt those fetid teeth nick his forearm, but he didn't have time to even register the pain before he was swept away by the turbulence that was her mind.

Somehow, he got the vague impression that he was spinning, which was incredibly strange as usually being inside someone else's psyche didn't really feel like anything. He felt the things the body felt, but the mind had no feeling to speak of. Once more, curious.

He did indeed feel the things her body was feeling, his own quivering on the periphery of his mind vision. She was wracked with pain on the inside and the outside. Her hide was laced with deep gashes that dripped steadily onto his hardwood flooring and sent a constant stream of stinging fire throbbing through every muscle fiber and cell in her body. Her inside was riddled with disease and starvation. The poor creature was broken and dying. Now he just needed to find out why.

Charles took a metaphorical breath and figuratively steeled himself for the turmoil that he knew awaited him. As prepared as he felt he could ever be, he turned (metaphorically, that is) and focused his attention on the dark cyclone that was her mind.

Another vague impression, but this time it was slightly less so. He felt the spinning sensation again, but it wasn't him this time. It was her. Her instincts buffeted him like hurricane force winds, bits of half formed thoughts pelting his face like stinging droplets of rain. Every emotion flashed like lightning in her terrible, mindless rage and fear, illuminating crumbling ruins of memories on a blood-red landscape that reeked of agony. Cinnamon and sulfur overloaded his figurative mouth and nose.

He still wasn't where he needed to be, so he dove in further and for a moment lost himself in the excruciating memories.

The bars are cold under my fingertips. Such a contradiction to the stifling air I struggle to drag into my lungs under the thick collar around my neck. My keen night-sight is the only thing that allows me to see. If only there was anything to see. There are no lights here. They do not want us to feel hope.

Silence is deafening. She screams in my ears and sets them to ringing with her insistent voice. I almost can't hear her anymore. I'm numb. Numb to the sweat that drips slowly from my skin. The fan kicks on and I feel it again. Damn you for reminding me of its presence! Damn you all. Damn you…

On my knees before him. He has no face, he has no name. He has but eyes and claws and teeth. With a word he can punish, and he speaks a thousand in my ears. I can't even hear the sound of my own shrieks. They don't want me to. They don't want me to know that I'm still here. Oh, God, I wish I wasn't. Dear God, take me from this place. Give me the strength to just give in.

Why do I not just fall? Is it because I've sunk too low already?

He whispers again, this time a million words burning their secret curses into me, into my soul. Nameless words that have no meaning to a deaf mind ruined by pain. Wait, not meaningless. I hear them now.

Retreat. Draw away from me. Curl in upon yourself. Lose yourself. Forget who you are. Forget who you were. You are an animal and you deserve to be beaten.

Such soft, sweet words to speak. Like tiny golden feathers in an ocean of blood, lifting me, buoying me. The feathers lash at me, slicing and dicing and drawing black blood from a body that has so little left to give. You've taken it all.

I deserve to be beaten. I am an animal. I am an animal. I AM AN ANIMAL!

Skin bursting, water dripping, what remains of skin itching, long appendage growing from the tip of spine. Stubby fingers. Claws. Fangs. Blood. Rage. Kill. KILL! KILL! KILL!

Ripping tearing running running running leaping ripping tasting sniffing rejoicing drinking drinking drinking running always running. Running. Running running…black.

Bright beacon in the distance. It promises food. It promises rest. It promises peace. Sniff sniff. Listen…Two bodies…one massive stone structure…should be safe…should be safe…

Out. Charles needed out and he needed it now. He felt himself slipping, being drawn in by the relentless pain and chaos. He almost didn't have the strength or the know how to toss out a lifeline. As if he was watching himself through a glass tunnel, he saw himself throw the line. It pulled him in deeper.

Deeper…

Deeper still…

Deep…

There! A bright light flickered before him. He grabbed it and yanked. He was pulled free with an earsplitting shriek that rattled back up to his physical body, but he was in so far now that he barely even felt it. This was bad. He had to get what he needed and get out fast.

At last, he'd reached the human beneath the animal. He felt her here like a ghost. A small girl sat hunched over in a corner.

What is your name? he asked her.

Ellaina Hawkschild. She didn't even look up at him.

Are you still here Ellaina?

I don't know.

I need you to do something for me. I need you to change back.

To what?

Human.

I cannot.

Charles had what he needed. He had her name, and a name was a powerful tool for controlling the beast inside. He knew that he should leave, get back to his body while he still could, but something stopped him. This bereft girl needed help. Her name would cage her beast again, but it would get out and when it did it would tear him apart. Aside from that, she was still human. He wouldn't leave her here to wither and fade to nothing.

Before she could protest, he lunged forward, grabbed the tiny thing around the waist and jumped.

Up he soared, past the beast and into the storm. He set the girl down then, taking her face in his hands as the hurricane raged around them. She gazed at him with those emerald eyes, and he saw in them something he had not seen since he submerged. Hope. A spirit of a smile flickered across her lips as she stood up, hair flinging about her wildly and shoulders rolled back with pride.

Come back now. She nodded once, and he surfaced.

His own head greeted him like a slap in the face, its cool familiarity in such stark contrast to the turmoil in Ellaina's mind that it sent him into a brief shock. A violent shaking motion was what finally brought him all the way back. He opened his eyes to Raven's frantic face dominating his line of vision and her hands shaking his shoulders with as much zeal as she could muster.

"I'm alright, stop that!" He waved her off and sat up straight. Well, he tried to sit up straight. Before he got halfway he was assaulted by a migraine from Hell and a sudden dizziness so powerful that it had his stomach clenching painfully. He had time to shout, "Bucket!" before his dinner from earlier that evening came back to greet him with a bloody vengeance. Thank God Raven was quick. She may have just saved his mother's precious hardwood with that cool bowl she thrust into his hands in the nick of time. Unfortunately, she sacrificed the life of his mother's favorite Waterford crystal bowl. Ah well. It's not as if she were around anymore to notice.

Raven's steady hand on his back holding him upright helped him to anchor himself to his body. The taste of bile was ripe in his mouth and throat, and with each rapid beat of his heart his head throbbed with agony.

"Water." He croaked pitifully, clutching the bowl for dear life as another tremendous pang of nausea hit him. This time he was able to hold onto it, thank God. Although perhaps that had more to do with the fact that he had nothing left to give up than actual strength on his part?

Raven traded the ruined bowl for a glass cup filled with ice cold water. Honestly, that glass was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and Raven was positively and angel. The healing liquid slid down his throat so beautifully that he knew he'd found Heaven on Earth right then and there.

Thank you, he projected. He didn't think his voice could take anymore abuse tonight. He sensed a million questions on the tip of her tongue but she had the decency not to ask, and he was not, repeat, NOT going into any more minds for a month! He, however, did have to know, What happened?

Raven smiled softly and wiped the sweat from his brow with a damp cloth (when had she gotten that?). You were in there for nearly two hours. I thought about getting you sooner, but then she started to shift. She looked up at me for just a moment and said, "Thank him, he brought me back," before conking out on the floor right next to you. Just after that you moaned really loud and started thrashing, so I tried to wake you up. It took ten minutes. You know the rest. She shrugged sheepishly at his embarrassment. He knew she'd never tell anyone about any of this. His sister truly was a godsend.

He glanced over at the young girl on the floor then, her body covered with horrendous wounds made even worse by the lack of concealing fur. Every inch of her was either black, red or blue and she was nothing but skin and bones. But she was human again, and peace issued from her like a sweet vapor. He found himself smiling down at her.

You are most welcome, my dear. He pressed the thought into her slumbering mind, knowing that she'd find it in the morning. Ellaina Hawkschild.

The last thought that stumbled through his weary mind as Raven carried him back up to his bed was, Well, at least I now know how they keep finding me.

You. Yes you, migraine. I'm afraid you've overstayed your welcome in my head. Please leave and go back to whatever dark crevice you spawned from. Thank you very much.

He waited. And waited. And waited a little bit more. If at all possible, the horrendous pounding on the inside of his skull seemed to intensify. Charles let out a long and weary sigh, gently rubbing his closed eyelids in the hopes that something (anything!) would banish this persistent cephalalgia. He really hadn't believed that conversing politely with it would do any good what-so-ever, but in his defense, it was beginning to drive him more than a little insane. He thought about popping another pill, but that would bring the running total for the past six hours up to nine and he was beginning to think that he shouldn't have had the last four anyway. Then he thought about turning off all of the lights and shutting the curtains and just going back to bed, but a moment later he realized that the lights were off, the curtains were shut and he hadn't even gotten out of bed to begin with. After that he just sort of ran out of ideas.

Charles had never been one to dwell on the negative aspect of anything, so instead he thought about the bright side of his pain and suffering. At least the girl was alright. Well, no she wasn't, but she was human again and likely to remain so. He did, however, get the strangest sensation that he needed to do something. What exactly it was that he needed to do had managed to elude him for the past day as he drifted in and out of consciousness. It was always there, nagging at the back of his mind with an insistent fervor that he couldn't quite place.

Damn him and his weakness! Never before had exploring another's mind left him so ill. He only hoped that it would be worth it when they got the girl back on her own two feet. Emphasis on two. She'd need a hospital that would treat mutants first and-

Wait a minute! That was it! That was the thing he needed to do! The poor girl needed a hospital desperately! Ellaina, he told himself. They must start referring to her as Ellaina.

A wave of apprehension washed over him when he thought about her. What exactly had Raven done with her while he struggled to retain his sanity and what little food he'd managed to force down his throat? He'd been nearly delirious since he came back into his own body, and-he was ashamed to admit-he hadn't thought of Ellaina one time since then. He trusted Raven implicitly, but medical training was not among her many qualifications.

Raven, he thought, prodding her gently with his mind. Ellaina needs a hospital and I've been too far gone to even consider where. Could you-

I've already got it taken care of, Charles, she cut him off. I was just waiting for you to come back to yourself. That's the first lucid thought I've gotten from you all day. She sent him an image of Ellaina's yet unconscious form snuggled firmly in one of the spare beds. The sheets were already soaked through with scarlet. They didn't have much time.

Alright. Be gentle and bring her to the front door. I'll meet you there, he thought before severing the mental link and lurching to his feet. There was absolutely nothing in the world right now that he wanted more than to just lay back down and sleep for six months, but there was a dying mutant in his home right now who needed him, and by God, he would do everything within his power to see her well again.

Even he had to admit that he had not been full of brilliant ideas lately. As opposed to valiantly landing on the floor and taking off sprinting for the front of the house like some kind of superhero, he just sort of wobbled for a moment before toppling forward onto his knees, then onto his face. Another sigh and a mighty groan of strain had him back upright and half-stumbling, half-running to catch up to Raven.

It took him about ten minutes longer than normal, and Raven was tapping her foot impatiently by the time he managed to reach her. She may have been carrying a large pillow for all the effort she showed lifting the thin, wraith-like girl. Another pang of pity struck him. What had happened to her? What had she done to deserve such treatment? He planned to find out. After she was good and healed.

I'll get the car. A firm hand on his chest stopped him before he could take a step.

"Like hell you will! I'm driving." Raven's 'normal' face in stubborn mode did not allow for argument. So with yet another sigh, he wobbled off after her.

Though neither of them were old enough to drive yet and the chauffer had taken off when Charles's mother had, Charles had read enough minds over the years to understand the basic concept of the vehicle and the road. He'd meant to start practicing soon, but never really got around to it. Add that to the already massive list of things he'd 'never really gotten around to' while he was busy working on his degree from Harvard, and you would have yourself a nice thick book to pass the time. Usually, he could just get one of the landscapers or house maids to take them where they needed to go, but all of the staff had recently resigned after finding out about his mutant nature. So he was forced to sit in the passenger seat and feed Raven a steady stream of instructions as he tried to keep as many people as possible out of their way.

Fortunately, they made it to the nearest 'mutant friendly' hospital without much incident. Unless you count that bloke back on 7th, but he got out of the way in time. Unfortunately, the closest place that would even see mutants was about an hour away. By the time they arrived, both kids were trembling slightly with nerves frayed from the drive over. They did not have time to linger on their discomfort, however, and Charles put on his brave face and got out of the vehicle.

The woman at the front desk was both shocked and disgusted by the sight that greeted her when two teenagers in their nightclothes walked into the building, a filthy and wounded young girl supported between them. Before she could even blink, Charles had his fingers to his temple, his mind reaching out for hers.

"Inform Dr. Carmichael that Mr. Xavier is here with an emergency, please," he told her as he pressed the compulsion to obey into her psyche. Without a word, the nurse picked up the phone, pressed a few buttons and relayed the message.

"He's just down the hall, first door on the left," the woman informed them with a somewhat dreamy quality to her voice and eyes cloudy and blank.

"Thank you. Forget our faces." He and Raven disappeared from her memory as they circled the desk and took the first left door on the massive hallway of doors. How anyone ever found where they were going in a place like this was beyond him.

The man that was patiently awaiting them on the other side of the door was enormous, approximately six foot five with a hulking body that ruined any and all semblance of personal space in the tiny room. They'd stationed the mutant doctor in the smallest space in the entire hospital, judging by the disgruntled tang to the doctor's thoughts. Of course.

Dr. Carmichael's reaction to Ellaina was somewhat more agreeable than the nurse's, but Charles knew he didn't think she had much of a chance. Well, he'd damned well better try anyway. "This young woman was found in my home last night. We thought you may be able to help." He didn't even have to put the man under compulsion; he'd already resigned himself to doing whatever possible for her. It wasn't necessarily out of pity or compassion. He was just bored. Not exactly promising, but at this point beggars could not afford to be choosers.

"Put her there," he said gruffly with a vague gesture at the table behind him. Charles and Raven had to inch their way around the man with their backs against the wall to get there. He would need to have a little chat with that nurse again on the way out. "You guys can't be in here while I'm workin'. I ain't got enough room for ya. You can just go back out to the waitin' room. I'll call ya when I'm done."

Raven looked at him suspiciously. What the hell? Is this guy some sort of quack? Should we really be leaving her with him?

He'll do all he can, but the hospital gives him very little to work with. He is a highly skilled physician. His mutation aides with his practice, I believe. She'll be fine here. He tried to reassure her as he tried to reassure himself. With one last look at Ellaina's sleeping face, he took Raven's hand and led her back out to the waiting room.

Charles hated hospitals. Part of it was the sheer volume of overwhelming sadness and pain leaking from every mind in the vast building, and part of it was the smell. That horrid, chemical odor that clung to everything like it was clinging to the back of his throat. His eyes closed as his head throbbed once again. Damn, he thought he'd gotten rid of the headache. The stark fluorescent lights that were beating down on his eyes even as they were closed didn't help much at all, and the weary babbling hitting him from every direction was only making it much, much worse. He enjoyed living out in Westchester where the only other mind voice besides his was Raven. It was quiet there, and he liked quiet. It was usually easier to concentrate on his studies that way.

Oh no, he had that exam coming up after break that he needed to study for! Why couldn't he have thought to bring it?

"Are you ok?" Raven asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You look even more pathetic now than you did ten seconds ago"

"Thank you for that bleak assessment, Raven. I've completely forgotten to study for that big exam after we get back from break." He rubbed a hand over his face and slumped forward in a most uncharacteristic manner. "I'm certain I'm going to fail."

"Well, you could always just pluck the answers right of Professor Idiot's head." She had started referring to his quantum physics professor as Professor Idiot purely out of spite, but that was just Raven.

He cast a withering glance her way before catching his head in his hands and staring at the floor. "And you know bloody well that I won't do that."

"Yeah, but it was worth a shot." Her hand moved to his back and began to slide up and down, the friction sending a most delightful warmth right down to his weary bones. Has he said how wonderful Raven is yet? "Do you know what's going on in there?"

Without even lifting his head, Charles cast out for the massive doctor and began a sarcastic running commentary on his every motion. "He's raising his right hand now. He's moving it to the left. Now he's moving it down. He's grasping some sort of saline solution. He is taking the solution to a wound on her left forearm. He is lightly squeezing the solution. The solution is running onto the wound. The solution is cleaning the wound. Now he's-"

"Ok, I get it!" Raven said, leaning down to clap a hand over his mouth. "Just give me the big picture."

"So far all he's done is try to clean out her wounds. They were filthy from her little romp through the woods to get to our house. He's gotten what he can, but he's still thinking that there might already be an infection. We'll have to watch her closely," he paused, probing. "After that, he'll stitch up the lacerations and apply a healing ointment to the smaller ones. She's not going to a pretty sight for a while, I'm afraid. He thinks she'll have extensive scarring on top of scarring that's already there. Good lord, what on Earth have they done to her?"

"Do you think she'll ever want to tell us?" Raven asked.

He barked a humorless laugh. "I highly doubt it, and I'm not ever going that deep into her mind again."

What time was it? He brought his wrist up to check…and his watch wasn't there. Lovely. A quick scan of the walls revealed a standard clock as plain and boring as everything else in there. Another thing he hated about hospitals: they were all the same and all so…so…sterile.

Eight o' clock. Blast it! There would be very little sleeping going on at home that night. A quick check on the doctor's progress revealed that only about half of the wounds had been cleaned. Time enough for a nap then. Wordlessly, he migrated to one of those chairs that's actually two chairs put together without an armrest, curled up as best he could and did his utmost to fall asleep.

Restless dreams plagued him in his fit-full sleep. Visions of ravenous beasts, their slavering maws reaching for him, danced around his brain. A man with onyx eyes stood over him then morphed into a creature that was but skin and bones. Everywhere, the chemical odor of the hospital permeated even his nightmares. The clock loomed above him, warped and twisted as it ticked and tocked at him mockingly. The whole world was shaking, back and forth, back and forth…

Charles! it shouted. Charles! It demanded his attention.

"Charles!" His eyes snapped open and Raven let him go, kneeling to look him in the eyes. "Wake up, the doctor's finished."

Charles hauled himself upright and onto his feet once again. The prospect of going home soon was the only thing that kept him going.

Without a single word, his thoughts shut down tightly, the doctor handed Charles a supply bag with a list of instructions and Raven the girl. Before they could even thank him, he turned and lumbered away. Charles moved toward the nurse who was snoozing on her desk. Pressing a compulsion into her mind he said, "You will find some way to give that doctor a larger room and better supplies. You will forget we were ever here."

Again, Charles helped Raven navigate her way back to the mansion and kept the few drivers they encountered well out of their way. It was after midnight when they finally arrived back home, and for a moment, Charles simply reveled in the sweet silence that greeted him. Neither he nor Raven said anything as they carried Ellaina and their things inside, and the whole affair took on a calm and peaceful aura. As long as they did everything right, she'd be ok. The fact that sleep was near put their minds at ease as well.

For now there was still work to be done. He checked the list. The top item was: Get her clean and comfortable. He could handle that.

"Raven, could you bring her some of your old pajamas, please along with undergarments and a brush for her hair," he asked, taking Ellaina and carrying her to the nearest bathroom. Raven nodded and vanished up the staircase.

He laid Ellaina down on the small couch, (yes, he had a couch in his bathroom) set about gathering things and preparing a warm, soothing bath. He couldn't lay her in it unless he wanted her to drown and all of her stitches to fall out (which he most certainly did not), so instead he moved the couch close enough to reach the tub and waited for Raven to return. She appeared shortly, an armful of affects clutched to her chest.

"I'll leave her in your capable hands, my dear," he said as he handed her the medicine bag and instruction list and respectfully withdrew.

Charles? Raven's mind voice asked when his foot touched the bottom stair.

Yes?

Go get some sleep. I'll take care of her. Warm and gentle concern saturated her thoughts, but it wasn't directed at him. She pitied Ellaina yes, but it was more than that. She'd decided on the drive home that no matter what happened, the girl was a part of their family now. In Ellaina she sensed a kindred spirit, a defenseless, beaten girl forced to take refuge wherever she could find it, and she had no intention of turning her away. Good, Charles thought. I hadn't either.

He found that he rather enjoyed this new, softer side of his sister and was able to go to bed with a light heart. Ellaina was in good hands now. She may never be quite as close as he and Raven were, but when she'd stumbled upon their kitchen, she'd stumbled upon a home.

Slightly cheesy ending, but I rather enjoy a little bit of cheese now and again. In case you've already read the first chapter and are now confused as to why it's twice as long as it was yesterday, I sort of decided after I started writing this to make it into a kind of prologue. However, I didn't want to have a two chapter prologue so I just mashed the two chappies together to make one large chappie. I apologize now for any mistakes. I'm editing this at about eleven and my brain is starting to go a bit fuzzy.

Thank you so very much to all of you who have subscribed or favorited this already! You are my inspiration and I cannot express my astonishment or gratitude enough. I didn't think the story would be this popular, so once again thank you! I couldn't do it without your support! Now you just have to take that last step. Scroll down a little more and click that innocent little review button! Your reviews are what keep me motivated! :)