Thank god they had a student with super strength or else it would have taken several students to get this man down to her lab. She had James, a strong student, lay the man on the examination table and had him fetch Charles right away.

Harper stood by the unconscious man starring at the heart monitor. His heart beat was normal and none of his vital signs seemed irregular. The man seemed completely healthy and the only conclusion she could come up with was that he fainted from exhaustion. Also, looking at the gash on his temple, he was probably hit in the head. She had already taken scans of his head to check for any damage. She couldn't diagnose him with a concussion just yet. She'd have to wait for him to wake up to do the proper tests.

When the student had left earlier, Harper had checked for more wounds since his shirt had been covered in blood. She hadn't taken the time to unbutton all of the buttons so she just ripped it away. She had made a note to apologize to him later and hoped it wasn't his favorite shirt. She'd thrown the ruined rag on the floor, where it still was now, and had had all the materialize she needed at the ready to clean dangerous looking wounds. But to her surprise, there had been none. His skin looked virtually unscathed except for the bruise that had started to form on his upper right rib cage. After the relief had settled into her, she attached the heart monitor patches to his chest.

Now she waited for Charles, arms crossed over her chest and biting her lip. She glanced down at the man again. He was actually quite handsome, she thought to herself in a non-creepy way. Though she kind of passed the creepy factor because she had no idea who this man was and he was basically half naked on her examination table. She also noted that he was a well dresser as she regarded the grey trouser like pants her wore over his long legs.

She glanced down at the shirt and she had come to the conclusion that the blood was not his and that set off all sorts of warning bells in her head. There was no way that that much blood had come from the scrape on his head. The wound didn't even seem like it needed stitches but she would wait to examine it closer when he was conscious.

"His name is Erik Lensherr."

Harper turned around at the sound of Charles' voice. He was staring on the comatose man with a look that Harper couldn't quite identify: anger, sadness. He wheeled farther into the room and came up beside her.

"You don't seem very pleased to see him."

"That's because I'm not." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you remember the incident in Cuba?" Harper nodded. "And of course, the incident in D.C.?"

"Yes, you know I do," Harper answered, shifting on her feet. She remembered that day as if it happened yesterday, though some parts were fuzzy: the frightened faces, the screaming, running for her life…

"Well you can blame this man for all of those disasters."

"So this is the man that's dubbed the name Magneto?" Harper studied the unconscious man. "For a menace of a man, he's pretty,"

"Handsome?"

Peeved that he had read her thoughts, Harper shook her head and said, "I was going to say that he seems pretty harmless."

"Well, My Dear, part of that has to do with the fact that he's unconscious." Harper laughed slightly and a ghost of a smile played on Charles' lips. "What did he say before he fainted?"

"Nothing. He requested to see you and the next thing I knew, he was out. As far as I can see, he has the gash on his head from being hit with a blunt object. It also looks like he may have a cracked rib or two," she said indicating the bruises on his abdomen.

"Is that his?" Charles indicated the bloody shirt on the ground. Harper nodded.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that blood isn't his." Harper looked at Erik and spotted something on his neck. It was small but it was there. She walked up to the edge of the metal table and bent down. She placed her hand gently on the small red spot.

"What is it?"

Harper shook her head. "I don't really know." Harper quickly rolled over a small cart which held a scientific magnifier that was attached to a stand. She adjusted the lens over the spot and peered at it. She touched the spot lightly and it felt slightly swollen. "It looks like," she paused for a second, "it looks like an injection site of some sort." She ran her thumb over it.

Suddenly, the magnifier flew off the cart and crashed to the ground. A hand knocked her own away and then it was on her throat. It held on tight. Harper gasped and tried to pry the strong hand away.

"Charles!" Harper exclaimed, raspy. She looked at the man who was no longer unconscious and was in fact sitting up. He was looking right at her but she felt as if he didn't see her at all.

"Erik! Erik, let go of her!" Charles yelled. But it didn't work. The grip only grew tighter and Harper started seeing black dots.

Erik! Let go of her goddamit!

Charles spoke telepathically to Erik but somehow Harper was able to her it as well.

Let. GO!

Erik looked at Charles, blinked a couple of times and then seemed to come to his senses.

"Charles?"

Harper made a weak noise and realizing what he was doing, Erik quickly pulled his hand away. Harper sucked in lung fulls of air and stepped away from the man. When she breathed outwards, a coughing fit ensued. She gripped the edge of the medical table as she tried to get the coughs and her breathing under control.

"Harper? Harper, are you alright?"

She heard the urgency in Charles' voice but she couldn't answer him vocally. She nodded her head and waved a hand lazily to signal that she would be okay… eventually.

"Charles."

Charles and Harper turned their attention from one another and looked to Erik. He had managed to swing his long legs over the edge of the table, feet touching the floor, and sat upright. He wore a confused expression.

"How am I here?"

"You mean, you don't remember what happened?" Harper asked, her voice sounding raspy. His cool gaze slid over and connected with hers.

"Not exactly," he answered. Harper detected a slight accent but couldn't distinguish it. He looked away and lowered his eyes towards the floor, half closing them. "Only fragments."

"Well then why don't I help you remember?" Harper was about to warn Charles but it was too late. He was already digging inside Erik's head and the man hunched over in pain, gripping his head with his hands. Harper knew that he was making the process painful out of his obvious hate for the other man. Erik let out a cry of pain and his fingers dug into his scalp.

Harper flung herself in front Erik and looked at Charles desperately. She knew placing herself between the two made no difference but she couldn't help herself.

"Charles stop it. He didn't mean to hurt me, he didn't know what he was doing. Charles please. Whatever there is between the two of you can wait." She was trying to break his concentration but it wasn't working. "Charles! He has sustained injuries to his head already and may have a concussion or something different entirely! Having you dig around in there might make things worse!"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Charles stated. Erik made another sound of pain. Harper's heart beat heavily in her chest. She was running out of options so she did what any sensible woman would do if a man wasn't behaving. She slapped him. Charles' head whipped to the side and he made a pained expression. The room was silent other than Erik's heavy breathing.

"This man is still my patient, whether he be your enemy or Satan himself."

Charles placed his hand on his reddening cheek and looked up at her. She saw anger and also, sadness.

"Harper, you haven't the slightest idea…" but she held her hand out to stop him.

She held up her hand. "Stop. Whatever you say will not give you the excuse to kill him. At least, not at the moment." She glanced over her shoulder to Erik who was still hunched over but was glaring at Charles from half lidded eyes.

"Go." She said.

"What?"

"You heard me. Go."

"Harper,"

"Charles. You've done enough. So please, just go." Charles looked past her at Erik and then back to her.

"Fine. But bring him to my study as soon as you've cleared him."

"I will."

Charles hesitated before turning his wheelchair around and left to head back upstairs. Harper watched until he disappeared out the doorway just for good measure.

"Thank you."

Harper turned around to face Erik. He was no longer hunched and sat straight up. If the bruises on his abdomen hurt, he definitely didn't show it. She was suddenly very aware his half nakedness again and them being alone. She felt his intense blue eyes on her and was very happy her olive skin hid her blush. She cleared her throat.

"For what? That?" she waved a dismissive hand and walked to one of the cabinets and opened it. She grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol, gauze and steri-strips and also snagged the plain black shirt she had stumbled upon in her lab. She walked back over to the table where Erik sat. He watched her every move closely. Harper set the materials down next to him on the table

"Don't thank me. All of that crap about having serious injuries to your head was a bunch of crap. I already took scans of your head and didn't see anything abnormal. I just didn't want Charles to kill someone out of some personal vendetta he has."

A lopsided smile played on Erik's lips, his eyes studying her. "And here I thought you actually wanted to save your patient."

That caught her off guard. She had said that and she also basically said she'd take care of the devil if he got a high fever.

"You owe me a new magnifier," she said, changing the subject. He looked down at the broken medical equipment on the floor. Then his eyes found the bloody, ripped shirt on the floor.

"Looks like you owe me a new shirt."

"Well it is," she paused, taking the time to look at it, "it's a bit… stained. So I thought a few missing buttons would be no big deal. Please don't tell me that was your favorite shirt." She began to remove the heart monitor patches from his chest.

"It wasn't," he said, amusement in his voice. Though the amusement vanished when he spoke again. "That's not my blood." It was more of a statement than a question. She set aside the patches that were still connected to the heart monitor and looked at him, trying to catch his eye.

"No," she said simply before she took her flashlight out of her lab coat pocket and clicked it on. "It probably came from the person who did this to you," she indicated his injuries. "I need to do a couple of tests."

"For what?" his voice sounded guarded.

"For a concussion." She raised the flashlight but an invisible force stopped her from waving it in front of his eyes. Both of them flicked their gazes to the frozen flashlight in her hand and then back to each other.

"I thought you said I didn't have one."

"The scans may have not have shown anything but I still need to make sure." He gave her a skeptical look. She sighed and said, "Trust me, Mr. Lensherr. I'm a doctor." He seemed surprised when she called him by his last name but then he let out a small, humorless laugh.

"The last doctor to say that to me, I killed." It was just a statement, not meant to strike any kind of fear into her but it still made her heart jump. There was a moment of silence before she felt the tension on the flashlight disappear. "Though, in a way, you did save me. Even though you have no idea who I am, what I've done."

"I know more than what's in the papers."

"Because of Charles."

"Yes." She watched him carefully before she moved to check his eye movements with the flashlight without him saying another word. She had him follow her finger as she moved it left, right, up and down. She tested his reflexes and reaction times as well.

When she was done, she leaned closer and set on cleaning the gash on his head. She had soaked some gauze with rubbing alcohol and cleaned the wound with that.

"So you really don't remember anything?" She asked absently, focusing on the wound.

"Like I said before, only fragments." She must have pressed harder than she'd meant to because he flinched. She pulled back her hand slightly.

"Sorry."

"It's alright."

"So you can't tell me how that needle mark got on your neck?" Erik's hand moved to his neck and touched the skin. She set down the bloody gauze and picked up the steri-strips. As she was applying the strips to the gash, he spoke.

"Don't worry. I'm sure Charles will pry it out of my brain later." She applied the last strip and met his gaze. It wasn't easy avoiding his eyes because of how close they were. She gave him a small smile.

"I'll make sure he behaves himself." The corners of his mouth tipped upwards. She picked up the shirt she had brought over and extended it to him. He took it with a small nod as a thank you. She grabbed the bottle of rubbing alcohol and used gauze.

"Are you two together?"

Harper almost dropped the items in her hand when he asked the question. Mostly because he asked it so nonchalantly.

"What?" He gave her a coy smile, his eyebrows raised as he waited for her answer. "No, no. I'm just the doctor here at the school and Charles and I are just friends." She turned and walked to the cabinets to put the materials away. And to put some space between them. She was actually kind of mad he had asked her that. Why did he care? She threw the gauze away and put the bottle back in the cabinet.

"What is your mutation?"

She turned around and saw that he had pulled the shirt over his head. He tugged it down over his torso and the bruises, not to mention the abs, disappeared. He ran a hand through his ruffled brown hair and looked at her expectantly.

"X-ray vision," she said with a smile, giving him a quick up-down look and crossing her arms over her chest. She watched as an uncomfortable expression crossed over his face. A laugh escaped her and she shook her head. "Relax, I'm kidding." She walked over to where the magnifier lay broken on the floor. She hoped he knew that she wasn't kidding about owing her a new one. "I'm just a plain old boring human." She moved to the heart monitor and turned it off. "It's okay if you start to despise me now," she said looking over at him.

It was quick but she saw the change in his eyes. The way he looked at her was different now.

"Charles has a human working at a school for mutants?" He didn't try to hide the distaste in his voice.

"Is that really so hard to believe?" she asked. Erik moved to stand up. Harper could tell he was in pain by the way he clutched his abdomen as he put his feet on the floor and slowly stood.

"I suppose not. He's always had a soft spot for the,"

"For the weak?" Irritation filled her voice. He gave her a startled look. Her own expression turned harsh. "You know I was there. The attack on D.C. four years ago? I was there. Took two bullets from those machines… no monsters," she corrected herself. "One in my leg and the other went through my shoulder. Not once did I think to just give up and bleed out on the freshly manicured lawn of the White House. Even though I was running for my life, I don't think it makes me weak." Charles had told her that this man hated humans but never imagined she's ever meet him. Now she wished he hadn't. She shrugged off her lab coat and threw it on one of the lab tables.

"You hold a grudge against me."

She shook her head. "If I held a grudge like that for four years, I'd be one grumpy person." She noticed he was standing now without holding his abdomen. She didn't feel like continuing the conversation so she switched it back to medical things. "Do you think you can walk on your own?"

He nodded, "I think so."

"Great," she made to move towards the door, beckoning him to follow. "Come on, I promised Charles I'd deliver you to him."

Slowly but surely he made his way over to her. She kept a close eye on his just in case he decided to keel over, even though she'd be more than happy to see him face plant into the floor. When he came up beside her, she has to crane her neck to look at his face.

"Has anyone told you how ridiculously tall you are?"

"Not recently, no," amusement filled his voice again.

"Alright let's go," she said walking away and not waiting to see if he was following. Though she knew he would. When they got upstairs, they had to weave between the students that milled around the halls. Some said hello to Harper and she returned the friendly words, occasionally asking how they were. The quizzical and curious looks on the student's faces as they looked at Erik did not go unnoticed by them both. Some even whispered amongst themselves.

They reached Charles' study and Harper went to knock but the door handle turned and the door swung open before her knuckles could touch wood. Erik brushed past her into the room. Harper scowled after him and followed him into the room. She closed the door behind her.

Charles sat in his wheelchair next to Hank, who sat on the couch. They both looked up from their conversation as they came in. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Harper took a deep breath and took a seat in one of the arm chairs across from the couch. Erik took a seat in the chair next to her.

Hank looked like he was trying very hard not to go all blue and furry on Erik's ass. Charles had a strained expression on his face. Then he took a deep breath and spoke.

"So, want to tell us what the hell you're doing here?"