Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the story line itself. Hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think.

A Covert Rescue

Doing his best not to squirm or fidget, which was no easy thing considering how nervous and hopped up on caffeine he was, Charles contented himself with lightly drumming his fingers on the van door for a few minutes before roughly running a hand through his hair, the new length of it startling him anew. Something it had been doing since he'd had it cut and styled a week ago, Charles acknowledge silently with a smirk, the stylist his mother had once used had actually blanched a little when he'd come in, wanting the best rather than just his normal barber. He now had his old hair cut back, as well as zero facial hair thanks to the close shave he was currently sporting. Both the shortness of his hair and the lack of beard or even stubble was shocking after not giving a damn about his looks for so long, but when he'd looked in the mirror after finding out about Arthur he hadn't been able to help but remember all the times he'd spent as a boy watching his father shave and groom himself, his father telling him how important one's appearance was. And while his former look had actually been pretty fashionable, in certain circles, it wasn't how a dad was supposed to look in Charles's books. So he was back to the boyish haircut and a baby face he'd never appreciated and still didn't.

But that wasn't what he should be thinking about, Charles reminded himself, especially since he was on his way to rescue two little boys from a well secured location that might not be guarded at the moment, but would have the best security money could buy. Not to mention the fact that it was situated in a wealthy residential area that wouldn't be easy to enter without being noticed by others, even given the late hour. It also didn't help that even if they got in and found the boys without incident, the two might be terrified and try to fight them. Might fight to stay where they were, having no idea who Charles was or that there could be any life aside from the one they'd lived as the property of the CIA. And even if Arthur had been told his biological father's name at some point, the other boy was genetically Emma Frost and some other mutant's offspring. He couldn't even tell his son's adoptive brother that he was on friendly terms with the boy's biological mother. Though hopefully the other boy liked Arthur enough to stay with them, especially since Charles couldn't see a woman like Frost being interested in being a mother to him. And the other mutant donor had apparently died while in CIA custody, so that wasn't an issue either. They'd feared his ability, and he'd killed two agents and wounded four before they'd shot him to death according to the file he'd read. Ergo James would most likely end up in his custody as well, provided the extraction went well.

But how hard was it going to be to parent two kids? He had no idea if he could be a proper father to one, much less two. His father had died when he was still only a boy himself, and after losing his father his mother had crawled into a bottle when she wasn't throwing parties and spending money to try and fill the gap that his father had left in her heart. He did still remember how it had been when his father had been alive, one of the benefits of being a telepath who could mine his memories and keep them fresh, but was that enough? He'd sorta raised Raven, or at least tried to act as a male authority figure when she got older, and that had exploded in his face to say the least. Would boys be better? Easier? Would the fates cut him at least that much slack here?

Mentally Charles thanked God for Hank, who was postponing his trip home to help get the kids settled first. Apparently his friend had been roped into babysitting his next door neighbors' five kids growing up, so Hank had experience with kids and was willing to lend his expertise until Charles had his feet under him. Or as much as they could be seeing as he was a cripple in a wheelchair, which was going to make parenting twenty times harder for him. Ugh.

"We're here, Charles."

Blinking in surprise, dammit but he should have been paying better attention to his surroundings, Charles straightened in his seat and looked out the van window at the large house surrounded by a six foot tall metal fence. The first bit of security they'd have to get past.

Or more accurate to say the first bit the others would have to get past, Charles amended bitterly, seeing as he couldn't very well break into the house in his chair. He'd be nothing but a liability. But Hank came and opened the side of the van door, so that at least Charles could see out while he and Alex and Sean broke into the house which he appreciated.

"So this is it, huh? Well at least Charles can get us the best lawyers there are." Sean's voice squeaked a little as he said it, which made Alex punch him lightly in his shoulder. "Ow."

Rolling his eyes Charles was about to remind them to act their ages for Christ sakes when Alex turned and gave him a questioning look.

"Aren't you going to try to talk to him first? Your son."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a telepath, he's a telepath. Maybe you can talk to him before we get in there. I figured you'd have thought about this already."

"I could probably find his mind and speak to him, if he's not sleeping too deeply, but it's unlikely at his age that he'll be strong enough to answer back even if he was awake. Plus I'd imagine he has some natural mental shielding in place, and I don't know if his is powerful enough to keep me out, or if it would hurt him if I could get through." He still wasn't sure if it was the injuries Erik had given her or his own actions that had caused Frost pain when he'd forced his way into her strong mind in Russia.

"Do you think I should try, Hank?"

"Couldn't hurt."

Raising a hand Charles touched his fingers to his face as he concentrated on the minds inside the house, recognizing two adult minds and then two young, somehow pure minds that were situated on the other side of the house from each other. One mind he could sense a hint of telepathy, but it was very weak, while the other child…was strong. So strong.

'Arthur. Can you hear me?'

At least a minute of silence passed, and then a sweetly childish, cautious voice slipped into Charles' mind, asking who he was.

"I've reached him and he can hear me. Give me a minute to see if I can get some information from him." And that said Charles turned his attention back to speaking telepathically with his son.

'My name is Charles Xavier. I'm your-' 'You're my dad!' Swallowing hard against the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat, Charles was grateful he didn't have to use his vocal cords to respond as he told the boy that yes, he was his father. And he'd come to take him away so that they could be together, if that was okay with him. 'Only if James can come too. I can't leave him.' 'We've come to get James as well.' 'Okay, good. Just let us get our stuff together and we'll come to you. That way you won't get caught. What side of the street are you on?' 'The west side. Is it safe for you to come to us? We can come in and get you both.' 'No, it's safer for us to come to you. We sneak outside all the time, so we know how. We'll be out soon so just wait for us. Bye.' The mental bond severing, Charles didn't bother to try and reconnect it to tell Arthur to be careful, trusting that his son knew what he was doing since apparently the boy had done this before. Not that that stopped or even calmed down the butterflies in his stomach. But there was nothing he could do but wait now. Oh, and tell the others what Arthur had said.

)

It was Hank who either heard or spotted the two boys first as they came around the corner of the building, the scientist pointing to them so that they could all watch as the two moved with covert precision that suggested that yes, they were very aware of the cameras on the property that they needed to avoid. In the dark it should have been difficult to tell which boy was which, but the light of the moon happened to hit one of them just right for a moment, giving the boy's light hair a shine that made it clear that the larger of the two was James. It also became apparent in that moment that the boys were both wearing backpacks, but that didn't seem to be slowing them down at all so Charles tried not to worry that the sacks would increase the boys' chance of being caught somehow.

And then all of their attention turned to the fence at the sound of metal being manipulated, the grinding noise immediately reminding Charles of training with Erik, the lump in his throat getting that much bigger at the mental comparison.

But it wasn't Erik who was slowly widening the gap between the bars of the fence, making a space that would be big enough for a child to slip through. No, it was their son, showing that while his abilities in this area weren't as strong as Erik's the boy's control over the metal manipulation ability he'd inherited was leagues ahead of Erik given his much younger age. It was impressive as hell.

As soon as the space was wide enough the boys were at the fence, Arthur pushing James to go out first with Sean scooping the blond boy up as soon as he was through, the two heading towards the van as they'd practiced while Alex revved the van's engine a little prematurely. Hank meanwhile waited to grab Arthur, his friend spinning around as soon as he had the boy to run over to pass Charles his son before Hank moved to close the van door before hopping into the front passenger seat.

Charles didn't even hear the door slam or notice as they pulled away and started their getaway, all his attention on the boy sitting on his lap, staring at him with just as wrapt interest.

And then the boy glanced around, lingering for a moment on the opposite seat where Sean sat with James on his lap before Arthur turned back to meet his gaze with a questioning look on his adorable little face.

"My other father didn't come too?"

Oh. He knew about Erik too.

"He's traveling at the moment, and I couldn't get ahold of him in time for this. But when we get home I'm going to write him a letter about you, and you can write him a letter too if you'd like. We can write it together." A pause. "He's going to be so happy to meet you."

Actually he still hadn't been able to decide whether Erik would allow himself to be a father to Arthur, instead of just using the boy's existence as another reason to hate regular people, but he had decided earlier that he would have to trust Erik enough to tell him, knowing that if the situations were reversed he'd hate Erik with all his heart for keeping his son from him.

"And I'm staying with Arthur, right?"

Turning his attention to the other boy, and feeling like a complete heel for not at least acknowledging the other child before, Charles gave James what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Yes. I don't know where your biological mother is, but I'll make every effort to find her so that you can meet her. But you will most definitely be living with Arthur and I for a while."

Considering his words carefully James nodded, but gave Charles a look that was oddly adult in his young face that hinted at his mother's beauty, though was boyish enough that the kid probably wouldn't get beaten up for looking like a girlie boy either. "Arthur and I are a team. We're ALWAYS together."

"Understood."

The feel of a soft, small hand on his cheek made Charles close his eyes for a moment, absorbing the touch before opening his eyes again to give his son his attention again.

"We have trackers on our legs you need to remove."

"Shit." Alex said from the front, Charles and Hank both automatically telling the man not to swear in front of the kids while Sean just smirked and wisely said nothing.

While Alex mumbled about having to start watching his language Charles and Sean both shifted the boys around so that they could easily access the boys' legs, lifting up pant legs to reveal that yes, there were trackers attached to their little legs like they were criminals that needed to be kept track of.

Charles had to force himself to keep his swearing all in his head as he asked Hank for his Swiss Army knife or something similar to remove the trackers with.

Handing it over Hank also retrieved a flashlight from the glove compartment and handed it over so that Sean could hold it over the boy's leg so that Charles could see what he was doing as he studied the device, which was thankfully not that hard to get rid of since the CIA had obviously struggled to stick both boys with trackers that didn't have much metal for Arthur to manipulate and get rid of. It was actually a pretty crappy design, and Arthur explained that the reason they hadn't removed them themselves was that they hadn't seen any point in taking them off until they were ready to escape.

"We didn't know your phone number." James added helpfully while Charles handed the device over to Hank to smash to smithereens.

"So you knew about us all this time?" Sean asked with interest as Charles handed the Swiss Army knife over to Hank since he couldn't remove James's tracker without letting Arthur go, which he wasn't willing to do at the moment. For safety reasons. And because the kid was his son and this was his first time holding him, so sue him.

Both boys nodded.

"They showed us videos." James told them.

"They're really scared of my other father." Arthur added knowingly, his brows scrunching up a moment later. "If I call you Dad, what should I call him, Dad? My other dad, I mean."

Clearing his throat loudly, Charles's voice sounded husky and emotional to his own ears as he stated that there were a few other forms of father Arthur could use, and that Erik had called his own father Papa, so he could use that if he liked.

Saying Papa under his breath a couple of times, testing it out, Arthur nodded after a few moments of consideration before stating that yes, Papa was good.

"So where are we going to live now? Do you have a yard? A pet? If not can we get a dog? Arthur and I really want a dog, but they wouldn't get us one." James gave Charles a big eyes look that Charles thought was extremely effective and did not bode well for the future. He was the type to spoil children under normal circumstances, and now that he was going to have two of his own that he felt he had to spoil for missing the first five years of their lives…oh boy.

"We have a really big house, and an even bigger yard. But no, no pets, though we can talk about getting one later. My mother never let my sister and I have pets either, and I always wanted a dog too."

"Yes!" James crowed in delight, while Arthur just smiled at the idea before yawning, James yawning right after.

Hank crushed James' tracker in his hand and then told the boys that they should both try to get some sleep. It was way past their bedtimes, and they'd be home before they knew it.

"Who are you, anyway?" James asked, obviously not wanting to sleep just yet.

Lips curving in amusement Hank told them that they could call him Uncle Hank.

"And who's our aunt? Why isn't she here too?" Arthur asked as he yawned again, Charles instinctively shifting his hold to press the boy up against his body to encourage Arthur to curl up and go to sleep because yeah, this would be a lot easier if the boys were asleep so that he could deal with everything he was thinking and feeling now that he had his living, breathing son in his arms. He was real now, not just on paper or a picture.

"Your aunt is named Raven, and she's with your Papa right now. You'll get to meet her soon too, hopefully." And to distract the boys Charles reminded himself of his manners and introduced Sean and Alex, who he didn't add uncle to since it would be up to them if they wanted the title. He didn't have a problem with them calling Hank uncle of course; the scientist was family to him at this point. And he'd need all the help he could get with the kids.

Alex and Sean said hi, and the kids echoed the greetings before James asked what their abilities were. Sean naturally started to brag immediately, the redhead looking a little annoyed when both boys were asleep before he was finished describing his flying ability and the epicness of his vocal cords.

The men in the van were amused and fought back smirks the rest of the way home.