It was the very next day when news of the fourth ticket being found reached Erik and his family.

"Those tickets are really being found fast." Mrs. Lehnsherr commented, amusement clear in her voice.

Erik had gotten back from a long day of shining shoes and helping Mr. S with some heavy stocking. Business tend to grow slow in the winter months because everyone starts to wear boats instead of leather loafers. Not to mention that with his fingers bandaged to all hell it was hard to maintain the brush, so he ended up losing business with his painful fumbling.

"Well what do you expect? To be able to enter Mr. Xavier's factory after all these years…it's amazing. Everyone wants that opportunity." Grandpa Joe said dully.

Erik wasn't fooled though, he knew that his grandfather wished that he himself could go. But it was impossible, even if by some miracle, he'd found a ticket he wouldn't be able to go because his legs were so wasted away that even walking a few steps was agony.

"Who is it this time?" Erik asked.

Mrs. Lehnsherr went around and wacked the set a few times so that the picture would come back instead of the weird static channel it had been on since last night. After a few hits the screen was back even if there was some light static. It took them a few more minutes to find the news station.

"Hello fans! Well you've heard it first here! The fourth golden ticket has been found! We're in the house of Alex Summers, the lucky winner of the fourth ticket.

The camera panned to an older teen sitting in front of a huge screen TV, he was holding a game console controller and seemed to be ignoring the reporters.

You could see the reporter frowning at the kid. Clearly, he was annoyed by being ignored. So, he ended up turning his attention to the older looking man standing near the couch, looking completely bored out of his mind.

"Mr. Summers! Why don't you tell us your thoughts about this exhilarating moment for you and your son?"

"What for? I don't know a damn thing about what this is about. Is the little bastard in trouble again? Last time we had you leeches over was when Alex hacked the pentagon. Why don't you vultures just leave me out of this!"

The man stormed off screen, you could hear the clanking of glass bottles echoing faintly in the background. The reporter looked speechless at the man's utter rudeness.

Alex finally paused his game and stared at them, a dull, bored look upon his face.

"Look just ignore the old man okay? It was easy enough to hack into the shipments and calculate which one had the ticket. In the end, I only had to buy one candy bar."

"And how did it taste?"

"How should I know? I'm allergic to the damn things!"

"Well it's a good thing then that you're going to a chocolate factory you little shit!"

Erik's mother smacked him upside the head before he could continue his rant.

"What?!"

She just sent him the look which had him flushing, ashamed at his display of anger.

"Sorry mother."

Grandpa Joe just watched them silently, a sad gleam in his eyes. He'd been getting steadily worse as winter began to fully set in and it seemed that all this excitement about Xavier's factory was getting to him as well.

Earlier today Erik had gone out and purchase some tea with his savings to try to halt the rough cough that plagued his grandfather since the previous night.

So not only was his grandfather wasting away from his illness he now seemed to have acquired a cold.

Erik could feel the familiar burn of anger deep inside of him, burning like a large fire in his chest. It seemed that the anger was the only thing that keep him warm anymore. Even his family's smiles could only bring a small warmth to his chest nowadays. Maybe it was the stress of the large job that Mr. Shaw had given him and his grandfather's health but Erik was getting tired of only feeling angry all the time.

It may also have been the overly creaky and uneven floorboards and the badly patched roof that leaked even in a misty rain. He would love to fix the whole house up, keep it more insulated from the cold outside but even if he had the time to salvage the goods from junkyards he didn't have any practical knowledge of how to do such a large project.

Currently his mother was knitting a quilt for Joe with some used materials she had begged off from some people over the past few months or salvaging whenever she saw someone throwing out old and motheaten cloth. It made Erik's blood boil to think of his mother having to beg at all but he knew he couldn't say anything to her about it.

Just as she didn't question him about his work for Shaw he couldn't question her about what she did at times in order to try to bring in materials to patch their clothing.

"Erik, come here." Grandpa Joe patted the spot next to him, Erik walked obediently over and sat down lightly, after Erik was comfortably stationed his grandfather pulled something out from under his pillow.

"Grandfather?"

"Here, I want you to take this, I've been saving it for a long time and I can't think of a better way to spend it. I want you to run to the nearest store and buy a Xavier bar." Grandpa Joe handed a confused Erik a silver dollar.

"What? But grandfather, this is your money. I can't take it." Erik tried to give it back but his grandfather was having none of it

"No buts! Please do this for an old man, I know I don't have much time left in this world but by the gods I will give this thing a good old Lehnsherr try! Now go out there and bring back the chocolate, we can all share it if you still feel guilty."

Erik had gotten up and was out the door before he even realized what he'd done.

He looked at the small coin in his hand and sighed in defeat. Maybe ten years ago it would have bought a chocolate bar but nowadays chocolate sales have gone up, especially Xavier's chocolates.

It would take a bit more than a dollar to buy a Xavier bar for his grandfather and he didn't really see the point of it all.

But it seemed to matter to his grandfather so he'd go to the store and use a small bit of his own money to get a bar for him.

He placed the coin loyally in his pocket and set out to the nearest corner mart.

When he got back to the house he saw that grandpa Joe had fallen asleep while waiting for him.

He paused in thought, he could always come back when his grandfather was awake to give him the candy bar but he knew that grandpa Joe would be disappointed in him if he didn't wake him up immediately.

Not that this Xavier bar would have a ticket in it. Erik didn't believe in getting your hopes up only for them to be dashed horribly. He was a realist that way while his grandfather was a dreamer.

It was something that his mother and grandfather mourned because apparently as a child he had quite the imagination before the death of his father.

Walking forward he carefully and gently shook his grandfather's shoulder.

"Grandfather? Wake up." Erik spoke softly.

"Hmm?" Joe woke up groggy, his eyes fogged with sleep.

"You feel asleep."

"Oh, did you get it?" Grandpa Joe asked excitedly once he'd woken up properly.

"I did, now grandfather you mustn't be too disappointed if you don't get it." Erik said firmly.

"I know, now open it."

"But I thought you wanted it?" Erik tried to hand the bar of chocolate to his grandfather but the old man just pushed it back firmly in his direction.

"No, it wasn't for me, I wanted you to have it. You haven't had any chocolate since your younger years. So now's your chance to indulge in childhood fancy." Grandpa Joe said with conviction and a spark in his eyes.

"Grandfather." Erik felt stunned, he could feel the sharp sting of tears burn eyes but he refused to let them fall. He looked down at the bar in his hands, it wasn't just a bar of chocolate, his grandfather wanted him to regain something that he had once lost.

Realistically Erik knew better but that didn't stop the slight shake of his hands as he ripped the paper and foil off the chocolate bar.

In truth, it wasn't like he was expecting to see the golden tint of a golden ticket but even so, Erik couldn't explain the pain in his chest when he saw the plain chocolate bar was inside the foil.

"Oh well then…I guess that's that." Grandpa Joe said resignedly.

Erik looked up at his grandfather who was just staring at him with warm eyes and before he knew it he'd dropped the bar on the quilt and was leaning forward.

Joe seemed to realize what he needed because he wrapped Erik into a big hug, whispering smoothing words into Erik's hair as he clung to his grandfather.

He didn't know why he was so disappointed, there was a reason why he didn't believe in the impossible anymore, since it only caused him to feel like this.

He'd long ago stopped letting life disappointed him.

He knew now that he must have been harboring some foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, life could have given him something nice. It crushed something fragile in him to have that hope extinguished.

Erik stayed in his grandfather's arms until well after the chocolate melted and became practically uneatable. But that was okay, Erik didn't think he could have stomached it without throwing up.