Once again, I don't own any part of the X-men franchise, Lily and Carrie are mine though. Shout out again to tesselation for all of her help!
Chapter 6
Lily and Carrie headed towards their room to get ready for the day. It ended up taking Lily about ten minutes to convince Carrie to put on the clothes she had worn when they had shown up, but she kept refusing. Lily sighed and sat down next to Carrie.
" I know you don't want to wear the same thing two days in a row, but we're going out to get new clothes!" Lily said trying to sound enthusiastic when in truth she really hated shopping. She heard Carrie sigh.
"I know," she said glumly. Lily turned to her questioningly.
"So what's going on? Do you not want the guys to come?" She asked Carrie. Carrie shook her head.
"No! I like that everybody's coming, but does it have to be shopping?" She asked. Lily laughed and hugged the small girl.
"Want to know a secret?" Lily asked, Carrie quickly nodded for her to continue.
" I don't like shopping either, but we need to go so that you can have clothes to wear, ok?" Carrie nodded and skipped away to get dressed. Lily sighed and started to get ready.
Meanwhile the boys were waiting for the girls in the entryway, except Sean who was fidgeting.
"What's taking so long? It shouldn't take girls this long to get ready!" he said, almost on the verge of whining. The others simply rolled their eyes as he began to move down the hallway. Hank quickly jumped up and grabbed Sean.
"Don't, they're probably almost ready, besides Lily has to try to get a energetic five year old ready. That seems like a feat in itself," he said, staring Sean down. After a few seconds they both sat down with Sean pouting. Laughing at his expression, Alex looked at Charles, who looked deep in thought; he decided to break the silence.
"So, how did she take the news, Charles?" he asked, looking at Charles. This caught everyone's attention as Charles deeply sighed and turned to address the guys.
"She took it pretty well, considering the circumstances," he said remembering the events that had only occurred a few hours ago. He saw that they wanted more details.
"She was fine until she realized that she and Carrie don't have any sort of documentation to prove that they're from here, no birth certificates, social security, nothing," he told them with worry laced in his tone. Then he remembered what else had happened and grinned.
"Although it helped me figure out her mutation. Not only can she heal at a rapid rate, she can control elements, quite fascinating really." He turned around to see the guys staring with wide eyes.
"Holy shit." They all turned to Sean who looked fascinated and scared at the same time.
"Good thing you didn't try to rush her, eh Sean? She could've set your hair on fire!" Alex chuckled. Sean glared at them before standing up in front of his teammates.
"Please, like she could beat me up, she's like a midget!" He laughed at his joke while the others simply shook their heads.
"Man, I wouldn't push it. She seems laid-back, but she seems like she could beat your ass in less than a minute," Alex said while everyone nodded in agreement.
"Why don't you fu-"
"We're ready!" They all turned to see Carrie running towards them. She had on what looked like the clothes she'd worn yesterday and a large sweatshirt.
"Carrie! Slow down!" they heard as they saw Lily rushing down the hallway with her coat and purse in one hand and a pair of gloves in the other. She was wearing jeans with a sweater and a dark green tank top that showed off her curves. She bent down in front of Carrie and handed her the gloves.
"We're not going anywhere until you put these on," Lily said as Carrie slid them on. She stood up and looked at the guys. Alex and Sean were both wearing jeans and t-shirts while Hank wore khakis and a white button down. Charles sat erect with his blue button down and dark pants, Lily smiled at this.
'He looks very handsome'
"Thank you." Charles replied, chuckling at her expression. She began to blush as she turned to Hank.
"Hank, are you going to be ok? What if someone asks about your…fur?" she asked, concerned. Hank simply grinned and started playing with his wrist.
"We won't have to worry about that, in public at least." He said happily. The others exchanged confused glances as he showed them what looked like a wristwatch. They watched in amazement as Hank' s fur was replaced with pale skin, his hair changed back to brown, as did his eyes. He looked like his old self. After a moment of silence, Charles wheeled forward.
"How?" He asked with a mixture of shock and curiosity.
"I've been working on this in secret for a while. I didn't want to tell anyone until I was positive it would work," Hank said as everyone came up to congratulate him. Carrie gently tugged on his sleeve to get his attention.
"Is it permanent?" She asked quietly. Hank's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Like Charles and his wheelchair, no one ever brought up what had happened to him and it was touching to see someone liked the fur.
"It's only temporary, I promise when we get back then I will go back to being my blue fuzzy self, ok?" He said as Carrie grinned. With that they headed to the car with Hank driving. After an hour of driving they parked in front what looked like a Macy's, but was called Gimbels. They piled out and headed in, after a few minutes of wandering they found the kids section. They decided to split up to see what they could find. The guys actually found some outfits. What surprised Lily was how put together they were. Alex had gone at it alone and had mostly come up with jeans and t-shirts, Sean, who also went at it alone had clothes that Lily called "hippie wear" which Carrie was downright terrified of. Charles and Hank had apparently teamed up and found several types of blazers, button-downs, and skirts that Carrie loved. They left about an hour later with the stuff, with Carrie thanking Charles the whole way. They got back in the car and headed towards the grocery store. On the way Charles felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned to see Lily looking at him clearly focused, when he heard:
'Thank you so much for this…I promise that I'll pay you back when I can' He blinked at her in shock before firing back:
'You don't need too, I really wanted to help, please let me' Lily quickly moved to object, but Charles beat her to it.
"No buts, I won't take no for an answer." She glared at him before sighing in defeat.
Charles and Lily quickly came to realize that bringing a five year old and 3 guys who could eat a lot to a grocery store was a horrible idea. If it wasn't the guys randomly piling junk in the cart, it was Carrie trying to sneak candy in. After a few minutes Lily got fed up and took Carrie to help her pick out some vegetables. As she was browsing she felt a hand on her ass. She quickly turned to see a man leering at her. He was quite large and smelled vaguely of sewage, he slowly began to creep closer; Lily had to resist the urge to plug her nose and gag. She began to slowly grab Carrie to go, but he stopped her.
"Hey pretty thing, where are you going?" He sneered at her. Thinking quickly she bent down to Carrie:
"Find the boys and get back here. Do you understand me?" She whispered forcefully. Carrie nodded and ran off, the pervert following her with his eyes.
"Should learn how to control your kid better," he said snidely. He moved closer, leaving Lily no way out unless she wanted to be grabbed.
"How about the two of us get out of here?"
"No thank you," she replied curtly as she thought of a way out. She moved to leave, but he grabbed her arm. He held her up so that they were face to face.
"I think someone needs to teach you some manners," he growled. She thought about what to do when she had an idea. Closing her eyes she focused on her body becoming hot. As she thought about it she heard a shout. She opened her eyes to find herself on the ground and the pervert holding his hand and screaming in pain. She turned to see Carrie and the boys running or wheeling around the corner. She quickly stood up and ran towards them; they met halfway and Carrie launched and latched herself onto Lily's legs, while the guys crowded around her.
"Are you ok?" Charles asked worriedly. Lily simply nodded, grabbed the cart and moved on. Everyone just looked at each other and followed Lily. About thirty minutes later they were checking out and heading back towards the car when they heard a shout of pain. Leaving Carrie with Charles, everyone else quietly came around the corner to see something that disgusted Lily.
A young African-American boy was curled up in a ball with someone kicking him repeatedly in the stomach. She couldn't watch anymore and grabbed the man by the shoulder, yanking him off the boy. While the guys pulled the boy back and over to Carrie and Charles, Lily held her grip on the perpetrator. He turned towards her and Lily's blood ran cold, it was the perv from the supermarket, the one that had grabbed her. He recognized her as well as his eyes turned into angry slits.
"Well, well, couldn't get enough, could you?" He leered at her. Lily quickly stepped back, avoiding his grasp.
" If I wanted to be near scum I would be going to a sewage plant," she fired back. With a howl of rage he charged at her, Lily swiftly grabbed a nearby shopping cart and shoved it towards him. With an oof! He sprawled out on the pavement; he quickly got up and proceeded to push her roughly to the ground. Remembering some of her self-defense, she quickly moved to kick him; with a smirk her grabbed her leg mid-kick. Returning the smirk with one of her own, she swiftly turned her body so that her mobile leg could move and with that she kicked him in the face. Hurtling backwards the man landed with a thud, however before he could get up she moved towards him and pinched his neck causing him to fall asleep.
Lily stood over him panting, when she heard a distinct cheer. She turned around to see Carrie jumping up and down cheering while all of the guys simply stood there looking shocked. She moved towards them, tired as anything.
"Are the kids ok?"
"Yes, and in a few minutes Jeremy's mother will hear the announcement to come find her son in the parking lot." Charles replied, pointing to the boy who looked no more then seven standing up and trying to walk, Hank stepped forward and helped him out, addressing Lily at the same time.
"He also called the cops so we probably should be leaving soon." He said, moving back and forth worried about someone seeing what happened.
"Thank you for helping me," Jeremy mumbled. Lily began to answer back, when a shriek was heard. Everyone saw a woman rushing towards the parking lot. She cried out her thanks as she and her son headed back to the market. As she watched them walk her hearing aid picked up a low whistle, with Carrie with her they saw the boys standing over the body.
"Jesus Lily, you freaking knocked him out!" Alex said in amazement. Hank and Sean could only nod in agreement and Charles, well she couldn't tell what he was thinking, which scared her.
"Well, we should get going he'll probably waking up soon," Charles said calmly and with that they got in the car and drove off. The ride home was silent and tense, even Carrie could tell something was wrong. Sean slowly pulled into the garage and everyone unloaded the bags. They stood in the entryway awkwardly when Hank broke the silence.
"Um, Charles?"
"Yes, Hank?" He asked as Hank cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"Where should Carrie go? We didn't exactly figure that out last night." He quipped. Charles knew that there were only two rooms near everyone, both belonging to people who clearly weren't coming back anytime soon. He turned to everyone else, sadness spread lightly across his face.
"Guys, will you go clean out Erik's old room? I don't think we'll be needing it anytime soon," he said slightly depressed. The guys nodded their heads, faces solemn; they quickly headed off to fix up the room, with Carrie on their heels. Lily moved to follow, but Charles stopped her.
"Lily, could we talk for a minute?" He asked rather curiously, she merely nodded as she followed him to the library. They sat across from each other in utter silence until Lily couldn't take it anymore.
"I know you're upset about what happened today," she said quietly, Charles came around so that he was next to her.
"It's not so much upset, more of shocked and worried, you could have gotten very hurt." He replied gently. She merely looked down when she answered:
"I wasn't worried about me, I can heal remember? Besides I think we both saw today I can handle myself in a fight if necessary." She said smirking to herself. With that Charles chuckled and Lily knew everything was ok. He quickly came back to the subject though;
"Where did you learn to fight like that? It was incredible, not that I condone violence," he added jokingly, he noticed immediately how her face fell when he mentioned it, but he listened for the answer.
"Remember what I told you last night? About telling you soon but not being ready to talk about it? This is one of those things," she said almost wistfully, Charles merely nodded his head and together they went to help the boys with everything.
As Lily lay in her bed trying to sleep, she couldn't help but think about the past, the future, she didn't know what to call it. She thought of everyone she had left behind: Marissa, Jared, Lizzie, Roscoe, and of course him. She knew that she would have to tell everyone soon, and maybe then could she begin to remember the good times. She rolled over to see that it was about three a.m. knowing she wasn't getting to sleep anytime soon, she quietly got out of bed and looked through her books to find exactly what she was looking for. With book in hand, she crept down the hallway to the library, turning the lights on she laid down on the couch, opening her tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet as she immersed herself in the idea of star crossed lovers and revenge.
Carrie woke up early and decided to get Lily up as well. She quietly snuck down to Lily's room and opened the door to find Lily not in the room. Alarmed, Carrie did the first thing that came to mind: she told an adult. She quickly ran to the next door and knocked lightly, after a few minutes the door opened and Charles came out and looked down at Carrie.
"Carrie do you know what time it is?" he asked, words slightly slurred from waking up.
"Yeah, but it's important! Miss Lily's not in her room!" she said worriedly. This snapped to Charles' attention and together they went to find Lily. They searched all over until Charles noticed the light in the library was on. With Carrie behind him, he wheeled in to find Lily sprawled out on the couch, asleep with book in hand. Carrie started moving to wake her up when Charles stopped her.
"Let her sleep a little bit longer, ok? And while she does that we'll start making breakfast, does that work? " he whispered to her. Carrie grinned and nodded and began to leave, but not before Charles grabbed a nearby throw and tossed it over Lily. They left the library and went to start making breakfast.
An hour later the entire house was awakened to the sound of smoke detectors going off.
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