After All This Time…
Author's Note: Yay for chapter 2. I'm really liking this story so far. Hope you are too. I would really quickly like to say thank you to Doglover500, JesusLover13, Guest, PhoenixScootaloo, DragonCat, Kaizer617, and UKnowWho for reviewing my story, especially JesusLover for leaving long, funny, wonderful reviews. Thank you, guys. You're the best. :P
And now, for the story….
Chapter 2:
"How is he?" Angel asked Logan. He, Logan, Kurt, Kitty, and a few of the other students were standing outside the infirmary, anxiously awaiting any word on Forge's condition. Until recently, Logan had been inside the infirmary while Hank worked, but he'd decided to leave when the blood and gore got to be too intense for him. It wasn't that Logan couldn't handle blood—he could—, but it was hard to see one of his students suffering and being chopped to pieces.
Logan glanced at Angel, and then at his other students. The sadness was clearly visible in his old grey eyes. "Not so good, kids," was his reply. He stopped there. How could he tell his students—Forge's friends—that Forge was doing a lot worse than 'not so good'? From what he'd last seen, the poor boy was fighting for his life, and it was going to cost him his arm. Kitty was clearly the most distressed of the group. She and Forge were close friends, and for a long time, she'd had a crush on him. When she awkwardly tried to wrap her arms around him, Logan just sighed and patted her as comfortingly as he could manage.
"It's going to be ok Kitty," Bobby said reassuringly, though he didn't believe it himself. He tried stroking Kitty's hair gently, almost jealous that she was looking to her teacher for comfort instead of him. He shook his head and backed off, realizing what a terrible thought that was.
Logan carefully unwrapped Kitty's arms from his chest. "C'mon half-pint. Waiting 'round here and bein' sad ain't gonna help anything." He addressed all the students then, "Off to bed, all of yeh. It's late." Slowly, unwillingly, the student's dissipated and went their separate ways. Kitty sniffed and took Bobby's hand when he offered it. She looked back over her shoulder sadly. Her eyes moved from Logan to the infirmary door. Please be ok, Forge, she thought, hoping that somehow he would survive in one piece. Only Bobby's distant tugging at her wrist pulled her away from her thoughts.
oOo
"Man, I hope Forge is ok," Angel said as he unmade his bed and crawled under the sheets. Kurt was sitting on his bed at the other end of the room, staring at his hands. He didn't appear to hear Angel's remark, and Angel noticed it.
"Hey, Kurt, you alright buddy?" Angel got out of bed, treaded over to Kurt's bed, and sat down beside his friend. Kurt looked up slowly, as if in a daze. He looked up at Angel with wide eyes. "Kurt?"
"Did you see zat woman?" Kurt asked. Angel scrunched his eyes, confused. He'd thought Kurt was upset over Forge, so this was an unexpected conversation turn for him.
"Um, which woman?"
"The one vith red hair und blue skin. From the fight today,"
"The one who snuck up on me and kicked me in the back? How could I forget?" Angel had lived with Kurt long enough to know when something was really eating at him, and he felt like this was one of those times. "Why? What's wrong?"
Kurt fidgeted and twisted his hands together in his lap before responding. "She vas about to attack me, but then she stopped, und she looked at me."
Angel bit his cheek, more confused now that before. "So?"
Kurt flicked his hands open, as if he could cast the answer into Angel's face and make it blatantly obvious to him too. "Because. She looked at me. Into me, like she knew me from somewhere….It vas like she knew me und wanted to say something to me. But zen she didn't…."
Angel didn't really understand, but he could see Kurt was upset about it, so he wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulder and said, "It's ok, Kurt. I'm sure she was just crazy or something. You're probably just over thinking things, ok?"
Kurt nodded slowly, convincing himself Angel was right. "Ok," he agreed. Angel smiled, glad he'd been of some help.
He sat up and said, "Logan was right. We need some sleep. Don't worry about that blue-lady. I'm sure in a week or so, this whole thing will be behind us." And with that, he retreated to his own bed.
Kurt sighed and curled up on top of his sheets. "I doubt it," he muttered. This time, he was talking about Forge.
oOo
The next day at breakfast, everyone was eager to know how Forge was. The Professor stopped by the infirmary early in the morning to make sure he'd have something to tell the students at breakfast. When he arrived in the kitchen, five different students asked at the exact same moment, "How's Forge?" The Professor wheeled up to the table and laced his fingers together, like he did when he was about to say something serious. All the students picked up on it and immediately quieted down. "The good news is that Forge is stable for now, but I have some rather bad news. Hank tells me he'll probably be in the infirmary for a while—his injuries were extensive."
"How bad?" asked Angel.
"What happened to him?" asked a boy named Lee.
The Professor sighed. "Hank wasn't able to save his arm."
There was a loud, nearly simultaneous gasp or groan of pity from everyone at the table. "No!" Kitty breathed. Bobby patted her thigh comfortingly.
"As for your question, Lee, I'm not certain," the Professor replied calmly.
"It was that freaky big-mouthed woman," Angel interjected helpfully. "I saw it—well, part of it, at least. I don't know exactly what happened, but she just….nevermind," he trailed off, realizing he'd seen more than he wanted to see that day, and that he wasn't comfortable sharing what he'd witnessed. Everyone nodded understandingly.
"The point is, everyone, that Forge will be alright, but he won't be running the Danger Room sessions for a while or teaching Phys. Ed with Logan, and I'm hoping you'll all be supporting and gracious towards him as he recovers," the professor said with a mildly harsh tone to his voice. The students understood that he was serious and nodded, agreeing to help Forge in any way that they could.
After breakfast, Kitty grabbed Kurt and Angel and said, "Come on. I asked Hank before breakfast if we could see Forge for a minute and he said it would be ok."
Kurt stuffed the rest of a bagel in his mouth. "But Hank told us last night zat we couldn't visit him."
Kitty half-smiled. "Well, I managed to talk my way around that. We're in."
So the three of them ran down to the infirmary, and Kitty knocked on the door. She felt a deep sense of dread, and it surprised her. After a minute, during which all three students help their breath in suspense, Hank opened the door and stared down at them. His annoyed frown turned into a small smile. "Oh, you kids," he said.
"Yeah. Us kids," Kitty replied quietly. "You told me I could bring Kurt and Angel to see Forge."
Hank wiped his hands off on the edge of his shirt. Kitty saw and Kurt smelled the blood. The three of them followed Hank into the infirmary, taking slow, purposeful steps, as if they were about to approach a dead person. All three of them were extremely conscious of their hesitant actions, and it made them shyer and more timid. Hank approached the bed first and gently touched Forge on his good shoulder.
"He's unconscious right now, I'm afraid," Hank explained. "He's on some serious sedatives."
Kurt, Kitty, and Angel circled around Forge's bed. For a long time, they were silent, for there was nothing to do but stare and feel bad. Forge's entire right arm was missing from the shoulder down. What was left of his shoulder was heavily bandaged. Two or three different tubes were snaking from his remaining wrist to an IV nearby, and there was a thicker, whiter tube that plunged down his throat in one direction and hooked up to a breathing machine behind him. The rest of his body—what wasn't bandaged or stitched up one some way—was covered in dark, painful looking bruises.
Angel finally broke the silence. "So, he'll be ok, right? I mean, he's not going to be ok, obviously, but he'll live right?"
Hank nodded. "Yeah, he'll live. But he's not going to be very pleasant when he comes to. People tend to suffer a lot of depression when they recover from serious injury."
Everyone nodded in understanding. "What's he supposed to do?" Kitty asked. "Forge loves his mechanic work. Can he still do it?"
Hank shrugged uncertainly. "I'll be pretty hard, I imagine." He put a hand on Kitty's small shoulder. "Don't worry, Kitty. Forge is a flexible guy. He'll cope."
Kitty didn't seem very comforted by this, nor did Kurt or Angel. The boys slipped out of the room after a while, sensing that Kitty would prefer to be alone. Hank, too, withdrew from the room and sent Kurt and Angel on their way. "Come on, boys. Out you go. I think Kitty would like to be alone. You know how she is." Hank put a hand on both of their shoulders. "I know Forge is your friend, too. I promise I'll do everything to make sure he recovers quickly. That's all I can do right now." The boys nodded and walked out the door.
Angel sighed. "Well, this situation couldn't get any worse."
oOo
It was the evening of the following day. Most of the students were in bed—a few were still hanging around the kitchen and rec room. Storm was doing an evening check on her garden. Logan was patrolling the school grounds, keeping extra careful watch. He'd sensed ever since the fight in the mountains that something (or someone) had followed them back to civilization. He didn't have any evidence, just a strange feeling in his chest.
The professor was in his study for the evening, unwinding with a cup of tea while he finished filing some school paperwork. Unbeknownst to most of the students, it took an awful lot of paperwork, negotiation, and cover-up activity to keep the school running. As the professor turned to put something in his file cabinet, he telepathically sensed someone entering the school grounds. His initial temptation was to alert Logan, if he hadn't already smelled it, but the professor then decided against it. He read the person's thoughts long enough to determine they weren't an immediate threat, and they wanted to talk with him, specifically. As the mind grew closer, the professor, much to his contempt, recognized the approaching person.
"Raven," he said, turning around and facing the large window across the room, which he always kept unlocked. The window was slightly open, and in stepped the red-haired blue-skinned woman from the mountains. She left the window open a little, out of paranoid habit, and approached the professor slowly. She kept her face down, as if ashamed, and a light pink tint colored her cheeks.
"What do want, Raven?" the professor asked calmly. Raven hadn't spoken to him in a one-on-one setting in years. He knew if he wanted this to be a successful conversation he had to do things her way, and that meant acting like everything was normal.
The woman stood a few feet away from him and crossed her arms, signaling that she was uncomfortable and would probably be defensive if pried. "Charles, I need to talk to you about what happened a few days ago," the woman said in her deep, clipped tone. Her yellow eyes were hard, sharp, as if she could stab someone with her gaze.
"What could you possibly have to say for yourself?" Xavier replied, changing his tone to something more serious and cold. "One of my students lost a limb because you and your soldiers attacked them."
"They were looking for things that were not intended to be found," Raven snapped back. "I am sorry for any unnecessary damage we caused, but it couldn't be helped. Your students were in the way." He voice softened as she spoke.
"What could possibly be so important that you'd be willing to attack a group of teenagers to keep it hidden?" Xavier replied coldly.
Raven drew back, and her eyes narrowed again. "I didn't come here to be interrogated," she said.
"Why did you come here?" Xavier asked, exhaling to calm himself.
Raven glanced at him shiftily. "You don't know?"
"I have my guesses," the professor responded.
Raven looked down at the floor. Her posture changed to something a little tenser, and her face flushed bright red now. "I think one of your students may be my son."
Charles nodded, unsurprised. He'd suspected this ever since he'd first met Kurt and noticed the resemblance. "You knew?" Raven accused. Charles put up a calm hand in defense.
"It has crossed my mind before. Kurt—that is his name, so you know—is the right age to be your son, and the physical similarities you two share are quite strong." Raven relaxed a little as the professor spoke, taking in his words.
"I….I attacked him, back in Canada. Is he alright?" Raven asked. For the first time, kind emotion filled her voice, and it lit up the darkest part of her eyes with life.
"Yes. Fine, thankfully. He and the other students are…..having a hard time with a loss right now, but—ah, I think nothing more needs to be said about that," the professor trailed off.
"He has no idea, right?" Raven wondered. "About any of this? About me?"
Charles shook his head. "None that I'm aware of. He'd never seen you, until a few days ago, and I don't think he made the connection then."
Raven nodded and swallowed before saying: "I know this may be very inappropriate of me to ask, after…..all that I've done, but could I see him? Just talk to him and explain things to him?"
If Xavier could have risen out of his chair he would have. His face darkened defensively, and his fingers curled into fists. "Absolutely not, Raven. That's out of the question!"
Raven recoiled, a bit shocked at the intensity with which Charles spoke. At that moment, Logan opened the door and stepped in, snarling. "Charles, what's going…..what the hell?" he growled, catching sight of Raven's slender, dark form. Xavier turned to Logan and dismissed him with a few words of assurance. Reluctantly, Logan stepped out of the room and closed the door loudly, to show his displeasure. Xavier turned back to Raven.
"I'm sorry, Raven," he said, having calmed down a bit, "but I cannot allow you to see the boy. Not after all this time of ignoring him. And abandoning him."
Raven's mood shifted from angry to desperate, and she took his words like a slap in the face. "Charles, I am trying to do something right, here. I know I've made a lot of mistakes, but please, what I did all those years ago was the act of a child. That's all I was. I didn't know what to do. But, I want to fix things now. Please…."
"Raven, I'm sorry, but my answer is still 'no'. Your son doesn't even know his real mother is alive, and it's probably better that way," Charles said firmly, his tone implied that he was done arguing. Raven turned away from him and gritted her teeth in anger and frustration.
She turned to leave, and as she moved, her sadness and guilt showed in every step she took. Her shoulders hung and her feet dragged along the cold floor. She opened the window and turned to look at Xavier. "I'm sorry, Charles," she whispered sadly. With that, she slipped out the window into the night.
When he was sure she was gone, Charles let his defensive posture and rigid expression fall. He sighed and put his face gently in his hand. He wasn't sure if he should be angry or guilty himself, and in the end, the guilt won out.
After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door. Charles was too caught up in his own thoughts to reply, so Logan let himself in. He crossed the room and stood beside the professor. "Chuck, you ok?"
Xavier nodded.
"You wanna tell me what the hell that woman was doing in this school?"
oOo
Chapter 2. Done! Hooray! I didn't even have writer's block. I have another story I'm working on (a one-shot, I think) and that's been taking up a bit of my time, but I'm trying to devote most of my free time to writing this. Chapter 3 coming soon, guys. Please keep reading and reviewing and being awesome.
-The Ember Raven