Family Matters

Summary: A powerless Raven returns to only place she's ever called home. Where she finds out that she's not as alone as she thinks. Charles may still be alive.


"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family" - Anthonay Brandt


Ch 2. The Ties that Bind Us

Logan watched her on the monitors. The room she was in was a new addition to the mansion, they had all argued about it for weeks but it was necessary. The Professor may have trusted that everyone would find the right path, but some weren't just a danger to others they were a danger to themselves. And after what happened with Jean, he couldn't allow that to happen again. This room was just a safety precaution. It had chains but Hank had told him they wouldn't be using them. He still thought they should. She may not have her powers but she was still highly trained and dangerous.

He expected her to studying the room so she could plan an escape route. But all she did was get on the bed, curl up and appeared to be asleep. He didn't know what to make of her, he never did. She was exactly what her name implied. She could be anyone at any time; she even turned herself into him. He thought he had killed her once and that affected him more than he thought it should.

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked Beast when he returned to the room.

"It wasn't my place" Beast replied. "Here" he said holding out a picture to Wolverine. "This was taken in 1962 after Charles and Erik had brought us all together."

Logan's eyes scanned the picture looking at the faces of the people in it. They were standing in front of a building there were six men and three women. "That's Erik" Hank said pointing to the tall stoic man dressed in black. He was only slightly older than the rest of the people in the picture. "That's me" Hank says pointing to a tall gangly looking boy with glasses. Logan looked at the blue beast with one eyebrow raised and a smile. He followed young Hank's eyes to see a blonde girl dressed in a tight black dress with boots that came to her knees. "That's Raven" Even in the picture he could see that Hank was enamored with the girl. However the girl's eyes weren't looking back at him but at the young man that had his arms around her shoulders. They were smiling at each other as if sharing a secret only they knew. "And that's the professor" Logan said before Hank could speak.

"She was a different girl back then" He said with an almost wistful tone as he watched her on the screens.

After she heard the mechanics of the door locking Raven walked over to the bed in the corner and lay down. She was used to getting what she wanted but the one thing she wanted most was for Charles to give up his hope in humanity and join them, she knew Erik wanted that too. The three of them together would've been unstoppable. But he wouldn't give up his hope that humanity would accept them no matter how many times they let him down.

If you asked her to name people she cared about she could only name a few. One she devoted her life to and he abandoned her when she needed him most, one she left behind because she didn't share the same views and now he was gone. And there was one other but he didn't even know she existed and it was better that way. She knew it was risk coming here, Wolverine could've killed her after all he almost did before and he had every reason to want her dead. But she wanted to be somewhere familiar, somewhere she felt safe. But without him here it didn't feel familiar, it felt empty. Without him it was just a place. She had heard once when she was younger that a home is only as good as the people you know in it and she didn't know anyone here anymore. She turned to her side and shut her eyes.

"Raven" She heard his voice call her. "Are you asleep?" He asked lightly knocking again.

"No" she replied. She still had trouble sleeping, this house was too quiet. She was used to hearing noises, whether it was the other children in the orphanage whispering and giggling or the sounds of the streets, hacking and coughing, the engines of automobiles, the stench of alcohol stanched men and other sounds that at that time her seven year old self shouldn't haven't heard, the sounds that made her have to sleep lightly in case they came for her. Although maybe she should've done something because they probably would've run away from screaming from a blue skinned child, but she was always too scared to find out. Charles told her she could stay but she was always worried that he would wake up one day and tell her to leave. "Come in" she told him as she rolled over and sat up.

"I am deeply sorry if I've woken you" He said. She smiled at the way he always talked so proper, like an adult instead of the twelve years old he was.

"I wasn't asleep" She told him pulling the blanket up covering her. She still wasn't used to the fact that he wasn't revolted by the sight of her. He was the first person that wasn't scared of her, the first person she's ever had to really talk too.

"You don't have to hide from me Raven" He told her. "Here in this house you are safe" She nods. He laughed. "I almost forgot the reason I'm came here" He reached into the pocket of striped pajamas and pulled out a wooden box and handed it to her. She just stared at it, so he held it closer to her. "It's for you" She hesitantly took it from his hands and just looked at it. "You do need to open it so you can see what's inside"

She looked at the box as if it was going to blow up in her face. "It's not going to explode, it's just a box" She glanced up at him. "Sorry, it's a habit. It's just I really want you to open it." She placed her hand on top and slowly lifted the lid. Inside on a white cloth laid a key with a chain attached to it. She pulled it out and lets it dangle from her fingertips."It's a key" he told her.

"I know, a key to what?" she asked.

Charles laughed. "A key to the house" he answered. "This is your house now too"

"You're giving me a key to your house?" she asks still in shock no one had ever given her anything before and nothing as important as what Charles had just given her.

"Our house" he corrects her

She lets the key fall into her palm. "Our house" she repeated barely above a whisper.

"This will always be your home, Raven"

Raven smileed thinking of the promises of young children before they grow up and realize that promises of forever are hard to keep. Days turned into months and before she knew it forty years had passed. And in that time she stopped going with Erik to see him on the missions where they shared a common goal, she supposed it was the little sister in her that couldn't bear to see the disappointment in his face. So much had happened, so much had changed she didn't think she could ever go back. Now here she was but it was too late. He wasn't invincible, he wasn't immortal she always expected him to be around, she felt lost without him. She wiped the tears from her eyes.


"Moira" she heard him call her name in her head. She excused herself from her colleagues and walked down the hallway towards his room. She was shocked by the huge smile he had on his face or rather the smile of the patient whose mind he inhabited. "Charles?"

"She's come home" he said. He wasn't disappointed in her when he told her to go with Erik. He kept his promise. He didn't have to read her mind to know that's what she wanted. He saw it in her eyes from the night before. How often in life that we are blind to what is right in front of us. He was telling her that the humans would accept them however he made her hide behind a mask of normalcy afraid of what others would think. How would he expect her to believe society would accept them if he made her afraid to accept herself? He wasn't disappointed in her, he was disappointed in himself. He wished so many times that he could take back telling her she had a cosmetic problem. He couldn't believe how dense and naive he had been back then. Erik had succeeded where he had failed her.

Moira raised her eyebrows waiting for him to explain further. He was lost in his own thoughts so she waited patiently for him to continue.

"Raven" he replied softly. He often scanned the mansion to see how things were going. With Ororo in charge things were running smoothly, like he expected. Then he felt her presence, he felt her anguish, her heartache, her loss. He had to stop himself from reading her mind; after everything that's happened he still wanted to know what was wrong; he wanted to know how to make it better.

"Raven?" Moira asked, surprised to hear him say her name. She hadn't gone by Raven in a long time. "Charles" she said and it's all she needs to say he could after all read her mind and know what she's thinking. Xavier just looks at her through someone elses eyes.

"Moira, my dear, years may have separated us, viewpoints may have divided us but I've never stopped being her brother"

Tbc…