Authors Note:

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised with the response I got from this story! :) Thank you to all who reviewed, and here's your reward! The next chapter is here and is now up and running! Sorry that its a little on the short side, still setting the scene for later chapters! :)

Warnings: Eventual Erik/Charles. Rated M for a reason, eventual adult content and violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any of the characters borrowed for creative purposes contained within. The story and the situations are mine.


Chapter One:

Patience had always been one of his strong suits. Having been learned the hard way after all these years, and yet for some strange unknown reason- he was crawling up the walls. The nurses and doctors of this institution had disappeared with Charles over two hours ago, two hours and twenty six minutes and he was a breath away from storming the back and forcing the doctors to give him an update. He already knew his friends condition, why couldn't they just finish up already and let him see him? The minutes on the clock seemed to drag on, even the second counter was moving at a sluggish pace. All he kept hearing was the steady ticking, a constant like its own version of Chinese water torture. The only good thing about the wait was that he finally had a moment to think. To work this whole thing out in his head. He still had some questions. Things like; what did that mutant get out of giving him a chance to do it all over again? No one ever did anything for free, and he was curious as to what the price for this was. Half of him wished now that he had taken a second to question to motives and the price behind this opportunity. Besides that, he wondered what his next step would be? He already knew that the path he had previously chosen would fail, but in that same vein- Charles path had failed to. Neither peace nor war had worked out in their favor and he had to wonder what would? What would protect the next step of evolution? If it wasn't one extreme or the other, then was there a more subtle mix to be found? He eventually came to the obvious conclusion that whatever the mix was, if he was going to find it, then he was going to work alongside his old friend and not against him.

His train of thought was disrupted when a little blonde nurse came out from behind the double doors and made her way over to him.

"Are you the one who brought in Charles Xavier?" He nodded curtly and she held out her arm to guide him to the back. "Dr. Stevenson would like to speak with you." Erik stood, swallowing the lump in his throat and let her lead the way. As they pushed through the double doors, he couldn't help but scan each and every single room they past by, looking for his fallen comrade. "Sir?" the girl caught his wandering attention again and opened a door to an office. Erik almost felt annoyed. He wanted to see his friend, why were they keeping him from Charles? He had already lost him once to Jean, he was not going to fail in keeping the only person who saw good in him safe again. It was almost comical how it took him an entire lifetime to realize just how blessed he had been for the time that he was given with the professor. Time that he had taken for granted, but never again.

A man in a white lab coat stood when he saw Erik enter and he leaned across the desk slightly to shake his hand.

""Hello, I'm Doctor Stevenson." Erik shook it.

"Erik Lensherr." The man waved off the nurse and she quietly exited the room.

"Please take a seat Mr. Lensherr, may I call you Erik?" Erik slowly sat down and did a one shoulder shrug.

"I don't care what you call me, how's Charles?" Stevenson grabbed a file before flipping it open and casting a quick glance down at the information.

"Well, to start off with, your friend is very lucky. He pulled through surgery and is making a strong recovery already." Erik nodded.

"And? How's the long term prognosis looking?" Erik just wanted the guy to get it out. The gut wrenching truth of his mistake and Charles punishment.

"Well like I said, Charles is very fortunate. Despite this though, there are going to be some tough times ahead. The bullet passed by the spinal column and there was some tissue damage that is very severe. We were able to stop there from being any further damage past what was already done. However, these next few months are going to be vital in his recovery, and he's going to need all the help he can get." Erik nodded.

"Of course." Stevenson flipped another page.

"All of his stats look promising though. With luck, this transition period will just be a minor inconvenience in the long run."

"What do you mean?" Erik asked slightly affronted. How on earth could this man call this a minor inconvenience?

"Well, he'll need to take it easy, and we'll recommend several precautionary measures to be adhered to in order to insure that this doesn't get any worse during the healing process."

"Precautionary measures? Like what?"

"Simple things, I highly advise hiring an at home care nurse in order to ensure that he's taken care of and watched twenty four seven, day and night since there will be medications and such-" Erik waved him off.

"Unnecessary, I'll be there." The doctor gave him a slightly disbelieving look.

"Well, no offense meant, I don't advise that since you might need to be elsewhere or might be doing something else and Charles will need someone's full attention-"

"I said I've got it. I won't leave Charles side, you have my word. Now for these other precautionary measures, what do they entail?" Stevenson looked like he wanted to argue with Erik about the nurse, obviously doubting the mans ability to care for his injured companion, but at the steely glare that was sent his way, and the sure set of the other mans shoulders, he relented.

"You'll have to make sure that he takes his medications, I'll have a nurse write out a schedule for you and directions on how to do certain things. I'll make a check up appointment in four weeks to see how his progress is looking. We can issue him a wheelchair from the hospital that you can return to us at a later date, probably when he comes in for his check-up would be fine."

"I'm sure that we can get our own by that time." Stevenson nodded.

"Well hopefully you won't be needing it past a few months anyways." Erik paused.

"What do you mean?" Stevenson looked up at Erik.

"Well hopefully, in a few months, we'll have him back on his feet." Erik felt like all of the air in the room vanished and he almost didn't want to speak.

"He's not...paralyzed?" Stevenson gave him a small smile.

"No."

-xXx-

It was slightly surreal, and almost unbelievable. He had managed, he had managed to stop the bullets full trajectory and he had saved Charles. The rest of the meeting with Stevenson had been a blur. After that simple word, Erik couldn't find it in himself to pay a hundred percent attention to the doctors words. He of course knew that Charles was in a fragile state, the young man would still be under the restrictions as if he were paralyzed, but it wasn't going to be forever! In a few months he would be running with Hank, climbing to higher ground with Banshee. What would the future hold now that Professor X was no longer contained to the wheelchair that had bound his old friend in that other life?

"Here you go." The nurse from before motioned to a closed door before continuing down the hall past it. Taking a deep breath, Erik turned the knob and pushed it open, slipping in before closing it quietly behind him. Turning around, he instantly felt like someone had hit him in the gut when he saw the pale figure laying motionless on the bed. Tubes and wires crisscrossed everywhere, a soft beeping a constant reminder that the figure on the bed, despite what he looked like, was in fact still alive.

"Oh Charles." Erik exhaled as he called out to his friend, moving along side the hospital bed. "I'm sorry, I should have been here the first time. Never again will I allow something like this to happen to you. I give you my word that I will not make the same mistakes I did in my first youth. I want to be the man that you saw in me all this time ago. I intend to work towards it, and work alongside you to protect the next generation Charles. I'm not going anywhere, I'm not going to take Raven anywhere, I'll never hurt you like this or like that ever again. Not if its in my power to prevent. You have my word." The young man on the bed didn't respond to his vow, not that Erik expected him to. Using his power, he pulled the chair over to the side of the bed and took a seat. "We will get you better Charles, you can be sure of that." He said as he took his place next to his friends side, fully intending to be there when Charles finally made his way back to the realm of the living.

Already, this future was looking so much brighter.


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R.C.