HUDSON46: Thank you for your lovely reviews. Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Because I too love Erik - well the Fassbender edition anyway. Who doesn't love him? And there aren't nearly enough stories out there about him finding love and happiness. I just had to dabble and try my own version.


CHAPTER FOUR

One would think that you would at least be warm after being squeezed at the back of a small truck with nine other men. Well no… That's not the case for Marianne. Moscow is just so damn bloody cold that Marianne wonders if she can ever be warm again.

There is a rapping sound and Erik and Charles turn to open the wooden ledge that separates them from the driver.

"We got a problem," Levine, the other CIA agent with Moira, informs them.

"What?" Charles says.

"I'm so sorry. This wasn't on the map." Moira hurries to explain the situation. And it's not looking good for them at all. There is a checkpoint up ahead and the there's no doubt that the truck will be stopped and searched. Of course, it'll all just end up in one bloody mess when the Soviets find a truck full of armed U.S. soldiers.

"No matter what happens, act normally," Charles suddenly instructs. It seems that the young professor– bless the man– has a plan! "I'll take care of this, all right? Now, listen to me…"

Marianne can feel the truck slowing down before coming to a complete stop. They have just reached the checkpoint. She can hear dogs growling. There's an exchange in Russian, but Marianne does not understand. Then, the faint sound of the front door opening can be heard. The Russians must have told Levine to disembark. They are probably going to search the truck now.

Quietly, Marianne reaches for the hands of the two sitting closest to her – Erik and Birkhoff. This is Plan B– at least if Plan A fails– she can save her best friend and the person who can do the most damage.

Erik gives her a nod and squeezes her hand in what he probably means as reassurance.

Marianne then turns to Birkhoff, who is trying to get her attention by shaking her hand. Annie, he mouths. Marianne frowns, trying to lip read.

What? She mouths back.

YOU. CAN. PHASE. THIS. WHOLE. TRUCK. He mouths slowly to her while making some hand gestures.

Oh. Right. She can do that. How can she forget? Time travelling sure messed her brains up. But then again… She's suddenly uncertain. She hasn't tried it here yet. What if time travelling messed up her powers too? Crap. She should really stop second guessing herself.

"Whoa, whoa," Charles interrupts her moment of self-doubt as he tries to calm the trigger-happy soldiers down. "Easy, Easy, take it easy, chaps."

Giving Birkhoff a nod that she understands, she lets go of his and Erik's hands, and grips onto the wooden seat instead. Perhaps he too doesn't have the confidence in her being able to phase the whole truck and its occupants, because Birkhoff then decides to grab on to her arm at the last moment. He also quickly motions for Erik to do the same but the metal bender does not quite get his gesture.

No matter, Marianne thinks.

She hears foot steps and she gets ready to activate her power. She can't use it now or their guy will never be able to open the back door; his hand will just phase right through. And that will just create more problems for them.

The doors open and Marianne holds her breath in trepidation.

Charles' mind trick must have worked. Because the Russian does not see them. Even Levine looks confused for a moment.

The doors close and everyone lets out a sign of relief. Erik pats Charles' leg a few times; Charles did great just now. They continue driving as far as they are able to before having to ditch their ride and hike the rest of the way to the Russian Military Retreat.

They set up their stakeout some distance away from the villa, hiding among the shrubs and bushes. Marianne settles herself beside Erik and he passes her a pair of binoculars. It's a waiting game for now; they have to wait for Shaw to make his appearance.

From a distance, they hear a helicopter flying above them, landing in front of the Russian estate. Marianne looks into the binoculars, seeing a lady in white walking past the Soviet guards and heading straight into the compound. There's no one else.

"Where's Shaw?" Erik finally addresses the issue.

"I don't know," Charles responds. "But if she's a telepath and I read her, she'll know we're here. Let me try something else."

Marianne returns to her binoculars, leaving Charles to his abilities. She observes quietly as the Soviet Chief walks out of the house to greet the woman in white. Emma Frost, Marianne deduces.

"He's not coming." Marianne shifts her attention to Charles, who has just confirmed her suspicions. "So what now boss?" Charles turns to Moira.

"Now nothing," Moira simply replies. "We're here for Shaw. Mission aborted."

"The hell it is." Erik moves to get up.

"Erik," Moira tries to reason with the metal bender. But Marianne already has an idea of where this is going to go. Erik is rather single minded. He will stop at nothing to get to Shaw and he will make do with what he has.

"She's his right-hand woman. That's good enough for me."

"The CIA invading the home of a senior Soviet official? Are you crazy?"

"I'm not CIA," Erik smirks, his eyes flickering briefly to Marianne, gauging her reaction. But she already expects this.

"Erik!" Charles yells the same time as Marianne instructs Birkhoff. "Stay with them!"

She runs after Erik, taking the shortcut by phasing through the trees and shrubs. She won't be able to catch up with him otherwise. Erik is fast and already has a head start. She passes through several soldiers whom Erik has already taken down with his powers. Some look like they are in pretty bad shape but Marianne does not have time to check.

She phases through the gate and finally catches up to Erik at the front porch. He has just disabled two more guards.

"We should wait for Charles," Marianne says, near breathlessly.

But the metal bender is particularly impatient today. He throws his hands out, forcing the door open with his powers. He stalks into the mansion, like a feline about to pounce on its prey. Marianne hardly has to do anything as Erik steadily and effectively knocks out the Soviet guards one by one with his powers.

Although he seems to have completely disregarded her, Erik does slow down enough for Charles to catch up to them. And the three of them are greeted by a very strange sight upon bursting into last room.

The Soviet Chief is… Well, Marianne isn't exactly sure how to describe what he's doing. He is making the strangest of noise as he's…cuddling air?

"Nice trick," Charles says and they all look to Frost, perched on the sofa and ready to strike. Unfortunately, as soon as he says it, the Russian snaps out of whatever daze he's in. He gives them a look of bewilderedness before he shouts something in Russian at them and at Frost. Marianne is pretty sure that the Russian did not just say 'welcome to my humble abode' or the like because he then pulls out his gun at them.

"Got to sleep." Charles reacts quickly and does another of his mind tricks.

Perhaps Frost is waiting for this opportune to strike as she jumps to her feet, changing into her diamond form."You can stop trying to read my mind, sugar." Marianne glances towards Charles who suddenly flinches. "You're never going to get anything from me while I'm like this."

No, but she's definitely up to something, Marianne thinks. And she's right. Frost makes a bolt for it, dashing towards them. Fortunately, Charles and Erik are quicker still and both are ready for her. Marianne observes quietly as Frost is caught and dragged to the bed post. Erik bends the metal around to restrain her.

"So then you can just tell us. Where's Shaw?" he demands. Frost ignores him, choosing instead to struggle against her metal binding. Erik, not one of patience, straps a piece of metal from the bed around her neck.

"Erik," Charles cautions as Erik tightens the metal around her throat. "Erik, that's enough!" But Erik does not loosen his hold. If any, he increases his chokehold on her.

Worried that he might actually strangle her to death, Marianne decides to also intervene. After all, they can't interrogate a dead person. "Erik, that's enough please." Marianne moves in front of him. She grasps his hand, searching his eyes for some sort of rationality. He finally looks down at her, and she holds his gaze. Her eyes are pleading for him to stop. "Erik, please."

She sees a small nod, it's real small but it's there. He agrees and releases his hold. Marianne turns around just in time to see Frost return to her human form. She lets out a small sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

"All yours," he motions to Charles. "She won't be shifting to her diamond form again. If she does, just give her a gentle tap." Erik moves to grab himself a biscuit. He offers her one as well but she shakes her head.

As Charles starts to scan Frost's mind, Marianne settles herself on the settee beside Erik. The metal bender has truly made himself comfortable by helping himself to the Scotch.

Oh to hell with it, she thinks as leans over to pluck the Scotch from Erik's hands. She can feel his eyes on her as she drinks from his glass. This is actually good stuff, she thinks after taking a sip, the whiskey moving smoothly down her throat. She briefly contemplates bringing the bottle back. It wouldn't do to waste such good alcohol. And she definitely needs the booze.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Marianne snaps out of her thoughts as soon as Frost begins to speak.

"This is worse than we previously imagined," Charles frowns. "We're taking you with us. CIA will want to question you themselves," he tells Frost.

"I doubt it. They have bigger things to worry about right now." It's probably the alcohol speaking, but Marianne just wants to punch that pretty little smirk off Frost's face and make her ugly.


A headcount is the first thing that Marianne does as she takes in what happened at the facility. Her heart immediately sinks.

Two are missing.

She swallows the bile going up her throat as her eyes search the remaining kids automatically for any injuries. They look visibly shaken but other than that, they seem to be physically unharmed.

She releases a breath that she's holding and her mind wonders to the two who are missing. She doesn't want to think the worst, but it's really hard to be positive right now. The CIA facility is in a mess; the dead bodies of agents are littered all around.

It's a massacre; they did not stand a chance.

She casts her eyes away from the corpse of that agent in black–she never did get his name. He was good. He was their ally. He was on their side. But he's gone and it's all just a bloody mess now.

"We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately," Charles says.

"I'm not going home," Alex tells them.

"What?" Charles asks.

"He's not going back to prison," Sean asserts.

"They killed Darwin," Alex spits out. No one mentions Angel. But she sees from their faces that death is not all that they experienced last night.

A betrayal… A betrayal from a friend.

Angel left them. The girl left with Shaw.

"All the more reason for you to leave," Charles says to them. "This is over."

"Darwin's dead, Charles. And we can't even bury him." Raven interrupts.

"We can avenge him." Erik watches Marianne as he speaks. He does that a lot–watching her. What did he say again? Avenge Darwin? Her frown deepens.

"Erik, a word please." Charles pulls Erik to the side. But she can still hear them. "They're just kids."

"No. They were kids," Erik corrects. "Shaw has his army. We need ours."

She can't help but to feel hypocritical of herself. She started when she was even younger than them. So why doesn't it sit well with her for these kids to join them? Maybe this was what the others felt of her then. Maybe that's why they always looked out for her especially.

Charles relents, logic and rationality probably winning out. They really do need help against Shaw. They need a team. He turns to them. "We'll have to train. All of us. Yes?"

"Yeah," Alex is the first to agree.

"We can't stay here. Even if they re-opened the department, it's not safe. We've got no where to go," Hank speaks out suddenly.

"Yes we do," Charles is quick to reply, and rather confidently too.

Marianne and Birkhoff look at each other. They know where they are going.

Home.


Well, home does look a little bit different now. There's quite a few things missing. The extended garage, the basketball and tennis courts, the swimming pool etc.… The mansion hasn't gone through the extensive renovations yet to turn it into their school. But nevertheless it is still their home. And Marianne and Birkhoff are glad to be back.

"This is yours?" Sean cannot help but to ask Charles as everyone stands outside to admire and gawk at the Elizabethan country house. The old X-mansion is really still quite an impressive sight.

"No," Charles corrects. "It's ours."

"Honestly Charles, I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship," Erik tells him, sarcasm rolling off his tongue.

Although Marianne manages to reign in her laughter, Birkhoff falls short and instead comes up with a ridiculous choking noise.

"Well, it was a hardship softened by me." Raven comes to Charles' aid. "Come on, time for the tour."

The mansion has remained uninhabited for quite some time. But the nine of them are quick to work together, removing all the white covers from the furniture.

As the rest are finally left to their own devices – the younger ones doing an exploration of the mansion and its grounds, Marianne is all alone in the kitchen, taking note of pantry inventory.

The task has fallen onto Marianne, seemingly that no one else is interested to take charge of household matters. She does a raid on the last cupboard and lets out sigh. They really do need groceries; there's nothing in here. But who can she rope in to go to the supermarket with her?

Erik enters the kitchen at the right moment and Marianne smiles. Perfect.

"Hey Erik." He gives her an expectant look. "You're here just in time. Catch." She tosses him the car key and his quick reflexes does not fail her. But he does raise that darn brow of his again at her. "You're coming with me." Marianne all but declares. "We're going to do some groceries. Unless of course you plan on starving everyone for the next few days." She gestures to all the empty cupboards.

"I'm sure Charles wouldn't let it come to that."

"He won't." She hums in agreement. "But you're still coming with me. You're not going to pass this one out." She hooks her arm around his and drags him away to look for Charles.

They really should let the telepath know that they are leaving the estate so he wouldn't worry. Well, that and they do need some dough and directions to the nearest supermarket. It's not like she can google for it.

It isn't that hard to figure out that Erik is not one for idle chitchat. The car journey has been quiet. Marianne figures earlier on that Erik really doesn't need help with directions. So she sits silently while making a list of items that they need to purchase. Shopping for nine people is not that simple. She has to make sure that she buys enough to feed the lot of them.

Grocery shopping with Erik is a quite a pleasant and thankfully uneventful affair. And by uneventful, she means that they both get back to the mansion in one piece. She is really not hoping for much.

Erik pushes the trolley and quietly follows her around as she goes through each aisle, retrieving everything on her list. The two of them must be quite a sight, buying enough food to feed an army, no pun intended. But an elderly lady takes it the other way.

"Just moved in to the neighborhood?"

You can say that. "Why, yes," Marianne replies with her award winning smile that always seem to charm the old ladies. Meanwhile, Erik remains silent beside her.

"Oh, you two are such a lovely couple. How many children do you have?"

"Come again?" Did she just hear the old lady wrong?

But before the lady can repeat herself, Erik moves to put his hand around Marianne's waist. He throws the stranger a quick smile and interjects before she can speak.

"It's been a pleasure talking to you, but my wife and I are in a little bit of hurry. We can't really leave our children behind for too long."

"Yes, who knows what sort trouble we'll find them in when we return home," Marianne chimes in, meanwhile raising a brow at Erik. He shrugs it off.

"Why, of course," the elderly says to them kindly. "Don't let me keep you. It's just that, it isn't every day that you see a husband helping with the groceries. You're a good a man." She regards Erik.

"I know," Marianne gushes, completing the charade by leaning in against against Erik's shoulder in an affectionate manner. "I'm lucky to have married him." She throws Erik a knowing smile and he returns it with a rather stiff one.

"We'll be leaving now," Erik nods curtly at the old lady.

"This way to vegetable section, husband dearest," Marianne tells Erik when he leads her in the wrong direction. He removes his hand from her as soon as they get away from the old lady's line of sight. Marianne cannot help but to be amused at the metal bender's sudden discomfort. But she decides to give him a break. "Pick up some vegetables, at least three different kinds. I'll get the milk and then we can go," she tells him.

She gives him a simple enough task. Or so she thinks, until she comes back to check up on him and the vegetables that he has selected.

Cabbages, cauliflower, cucumbers. REALLY?

She throws him a look of disbelief. It's like he knows all the vegetables that she doesn't eat and picks them all out on purpose. And cucumber is not even a vegetable; it's a fruit!

"Are we done–what's wrong?" He catches her frown.

"Haven't you heard the song about cabbages?" And when he gives her a blank look, she breaks into the Pocahontas tune. "Cabbages, cabbages, barely even tasty! Cabbages, cabbages, stab them with a fork! They're not like other veggie! Which means they must taste awful! We must drive them with our forks!"

He looks at her incredulously, as though he can't believe that she has just started singing in the middle of a supermarket. Thankfully for him, it seems that the other shoppers pay them no heed.

She lets out a little sigh of exasperation. "Okay, never mind. Let me just pick out a few more vegetables."


TBC.


A/N: Thoughts anyone? Cabbages cabbages! They're not even tasty! I chanced upon the cabbages parody of the Pocahontas song 'Savages' online and it just stuck to me. It's been years- mind you- and I still can't get it out of my head. I tried finding it again but I just couldn't find the original that I saw. There are other versions out there though. Feel free to leave any of your thoughts behind...