Chapter 7

I am SO SO SO SORRY! I'm going to try to update more often I promise! I'd like to give a special thanks to ViolentAlice, T0tallyAwes0me, and EvilPurpleCookiePenkeyMonkey for their reviews, without them I might not have tried to update. Please review because it shows me that people want this to continue.

I don't own X-men I only Own Carrie and Lily.

'He strolled towards her angrily and grabbed her arm.

" What did you say?" he hissed, she yanked her arm away, the bruises quickly disappearing as she stepped back; " I said you're an egotistical ass, and how I could have stayed this long I have no idea." She said calmly as she began to turn around.

He let out a roar filled with rage as he tackled her to the floor. She screamed in agony as his hands wrapped around her throat. She tried scratching at him as he slowly crushed her windpipe, but it was no use. Her vision slowly started to blacken to a sadistic smile.'

Lily shot up in bed breathing heavily, her body drenched with sweat. She felt pressure on her chest. Quickly turning on the lamp next to her, the light revealed a frightened Carrie and a worried Charles sitting next to the bed.

"Carrie? Carrie what's wrong?" She said groggily. Carrie looked up at a Lily in tears when Charles spoke up.

"She heard you screaming and was frightened, so she came to me. We've been trying to wake you up for twenty minutes." Charles said gravely as he watched Lily pulled Carrie close to her, trying to calm her down.

" Is it over?" The frightened look on Carrie's face sent chills down her spine. She scooped Carrie up and got and out and down the hallway, Charles following behind. He sat outside the doorway as he listened to Lily put the terrified girl to bed.

"Yeah, it's over. I'm so sorry I woke you up, I promise it won't happen again." She said quietly as she gently pushed some hair away from the little girls face. Within minutes, Carrie was sleeping peacefully again. Lily quietly backed out of the room and headed towards the library. She heard Charles behind her, but she didn't care. Once in the library, she went to the bar and without hesitating poured herself a drink.

"I thought you didn't like to drink." She turned around to see Charles staring at her as he sat by the couch. She smiled sadly at him as she took a sip of her drink, grimacing at the taste.

"Tonight, I just might need one Charles." She replied as she walked to the couch and took the seat closest to him. They sat in silence for a minute, stewing in their own thoughts before Charles spoke up; "This isn't the first time this has happened, has it Lily?" he watched closely as the grip around her glass tightened. She looked up at him with a haunted look before he continued, "I wish you would tell me what happened." He said gently as he reached out and took the glass from her shaking hands. She stood up and frantically began to pace, trying to collect herself;

"Trust me Charles, you don't want to know. To be honest, if it wasn't for Carrie getting scared tonight, I wouldn't even consider talking to you about it. I don't want to scare her again, or than again, anyone else for that matter." She said. Charles wheeled over to the pacing woman, "Lily whatever happened to you, whatever it is you're ashamed of, I'll never judge." She turned to him.

"Ugh, this is so difficult." she groaned as she sat down next to him, her head in her hands. She quickly looked up at Charles; " You're a telepath." She said more as a statement rather then a question, Charles looked at her with a puzzled expression before realization flitted across his face; "Lily, I promised I wouldn't-" Lily cut him off with something he never thought she would say:

"I give you permission for this." Charles wheeled around, so he could look at her. He saw that she was serious and cupped her cheek, making her look at him; "Are you absolutely sure about this?" he said with uncertainty. She looked at him and nodded

He sighed and posed his finger towards his temple; "Calm your mind." He said before going in.

'Lily was sitting in the library, her books and papers scattered all over the table. She heard a knock on the door and quickly spun around to see a boy standing in the doorway. He was handsome with blonde hair, medium height and build with very dark eyes. She looked at him as she straightened out the mess in front of her; "I'm sorry I didn't know someone was waiting-"

A light chuckle escaped his lips as he looked at her; "I wasn't waiting for the room." He laughed at the confused expression on her face as he entered the room and held his hand out; "I'm Jace Masters and who are you?" he asked politely as she brought her hand out, "I'm Lily Hollingsworth." She said shaking his hand.

"Well Lily Hollingsworth, I'd like to take you out to dinner tonight. Is it a date?" He asked flashing a smile.

"Sure, I gue-"

"Great! I'll pick you up at seven. " He said before strolling out of the room." '

Charles watched the memory fade quickly before he was pulled into another one.

' She stood in a hallway as the party in the next room was in full swing. Suddenly, she felt a hand pull her into the shadows; she started to scream when a hand clapped over her mouth. She felt hot breath in her ear as someone whispered; "I didn't appreciate your behavior Lily. I didn't appreciate it at all." She fought out of the person's grip and turned to see Jace, she laughed "Oh my god Jace you scared m-"

SMACK!

She held her cheek in her hand and glared at him;

"What the hell Jace?" she yelled as Jace grabbed her and pinned her against the wall. He leaned towards her and whispered heatedly,

" Don't ever speak badly about me again or it will be worse." He spat before dropping her to the ground. She stood up quickly; " I'm not going to censor myself just because it bruises your ego." She said smartly as he was walking away. He quickly spun around and hit her again before going back to the party. Lily glared after him as she held her hand to her stinging cheek and looked into the nearest mirror to assess the damage. She gasped as she watched her deeply red cheek, quickly fade back to her original skin tone.'

Charles continued to watch Lily's memories with a quiet horror as they showed Jace and Lily constantly arguing, some of them ended with him hitting her and with Lily fighting back. When he was watching those in particular he would clench his fists in a silent rage. He knew that nobody deserved to be spoken to like that; no one deserved to be treated like that period. He calmed himself down as another memory played out.

'He strolled towards her angrily and grabbed her arm.

" What did you say?" he hissed, she yanked her arm away, the bruises quickly disappearing as she stepped back; " I said you're an egotistical ass, and how I could have stayed this long I have no idea." She said calmly as she began to turn around.

He let out a roar filled with rage as he tackled her to the floor. She screamed in agony as his hands wrapped around her throat. She tried scratching at him as he slowly crushed her windpipe, but it was no use. Her vision slowly started to blacken to a sadistic smile.'

He flinched as the memory faded to black; he opened his eyes and looked over to where Lily was still sitting there her eyes wide. She looked at him uncertainly, "Are you ok?" she asked quietly turning her gaze from his. He squeezed her hand gently " I think I should be asking you that." He said softly grasping her hand.

"I guess I have some explaining to do." She whispered before taking a deep breath, " We were together for six months, six months of backhanded comments and fights." She said indifferently, picking at a loose thread. She snapped out of her thoughts as Charles put a hand on her shoulder, She smiled sadly at him

"That last memory you saw, it was a day before Carrie and I came here. I decided I was done, so when he came home I told him we were through which lead to an argument and well you saw the rest. " She said bitterly, looking away from Charles, who noticed a streak of tears running down her cheeks. He brushed his thumb lightly across her cheek to wipe one away, she sighed, "All I know is that one moment my ex-boyfriend is strangling me and the next I'm waking up in a dumpster a few hours later. I waited for him to go to work and snuck back in, taking as much as I could before he came home and then went down the fire escape." She looked at Charles who still had his hand on her cheek. She choked back a sob "Charles my ex tried to kill me." He moved to get her some water; "Lily if you hated him so much, why did you stay?" he asked in disbelief. She looked up at him, "Because I thought no one else would want me." Before crying. Charles looked at her dumbfounded as she wiped her face; "Damnnit! Now I'm crying over this!" she said through her tears, suddenly she felt a pair of arms around her. She looked up to see Charles hugging her tightly, running his fingers through her hair.

"Did you love him?" she sniffled as Charles asked. She shook her head and sighed; "Then you're crying because you were in a bad situation and now you're safe." He said softly as she brushed her cheeks as she looked at him; "I guess you're right… y'know it feels good to tell someone." She said smiling.

"I'm glad." He said as they looked at each other for a brief moment before Charles shifted uncomfortably; Lily cleared her throat "Well I don't know about you, but I feel kind of wired now." She said sheepishly, Charles nodded in agreement. They talked the night away just as they had when Lily had arrived a week and a half before she talked all about her friends, how they taught her self defense, almost everything about her life that she hadn't told him already including how she recognized Hank from the news (She refused to say for what despite Charles pleading.). Charles managed to tell her about Erik and Raven and how he had ended up in his wheelchair. Neither of them noticed how their hands stayed entwined the whole night.

Charles groaned as he felt the suns rays through his eyelids, he tried to turn, but decided against it when he felt something warm pressed against him. He moved back to where he was before only to smell a light scent of peppermint, wait peppermint? He eyes opened slightly to see Lily's head just below his jaw. Charles smiled as Lily shifted closer to him, his arm wrapped tighter around her, when he heard a click! Charles looked up to see the guys and Carrie standing there. Carrie was giggling quietly, Hank was blushing deeply while Alex was simply staring at them, but it was Sean who was laughing and holding a camera.

"Looking pretty cozy there eh Charles?" Alex said with a grin, Charles felt a blush creep up his neck as they laughed. Suddenly Lily turned her head and narrowed her eyes at the group, " You have ten seconds to get out before a gust of wind blows you out." She said deeply. Within seconds everyone had fled. Lily looked up at Charles, "Well, that was interesting." She said blushing lightly. Charles smiled as they sat up together, " I take it you're not a morning person." He said chuckling, she looked at him smiling.

" That is the understatement of the year." She said lightly before noticing the arm slung over her shoulder, Lily blushed again as she looked at Charles "Thank you for last night." He smiled at her as he absentmindly played with her hair, "Anytime." He said softly. She stood and helped Charles into his chair and together they headed to the kitchen where Hank was making breakfast, as they sat down Carrie ran over and climbed onto Lily's lap;

"It's snowing! Can we go play?" She said with a smile. Lily looked at her and grinned; "Go get your coat." She said, placing Carrie on the ground. Carrie ran from the kitchen happily as Lily stood up " I guess I'll go get ready." She said strolling out of the room. Sean looked around the corner to see that she was gone before grinning at Charles; "Dude, you were looking pretty comfy this morning." He said, wiggling his eyebrows. Charles moved to say something, but Hank beat him to it.

"It's none of our business, what happened last night, so drop it Sean." He said gruffly. The kitchen was silent for a minute before Alex spoke up, "Seriously though what happened?" he said. Just then Carrie and Lily walked back into the kitchen decked out for a day in the snow, as Lily glared at the guys except Charles she spoke evenly, "I had a nightmare and we were talking about it, so drop it." Carrie ran to the door and Lily followed" We're heading out, anyone want to join us?" she said sweetly. Charles grinned at her; "I think we'll stay where it's warm." He said, Lily smiled; "We'll be back soon, have fun!" she said before they ran out.

It had been over an hour and Lily was freezing. She looked over to see Carrie trying to make a snowman with no luck; Lily trudged over to her as she looked on in frustration.

"Tell you what," Lily said kneeling down, "I'll help make Frosty, if afterwards we go inside. Deal?" Carrie smiled "Deal." She said and ran back to her snowman, Lily following on her heels. The next few minutes were spent in silence as they built in concentration. When the body was done, the face was quickly created as Carrie ran around looking for arms. She looked behind Lily and giggled, Lily turned around to see Charles sitting on the patio looking cold despite the jacket and scarf. Lily walked over and sat on the bench beside him; "You look warm." She teased, he smiled at her "And you look cold." He quipped. She laughed while they watched Carrie look around.

"She still wants to be outside?" he said incredously. Lily nodded, "She's hell-bent on finding arms for Frosty." She said, jerking a gloved hand towards the snowman. Before Charles could say more, Carrie ran to them, "May I check over there?" she asked, her teeth slightly chattering. Lily leaned towards her,

"Yes, but if you don't find anything, we're going inside." She said sternly. Carrie nodded and ran over to the edge of the woods. Lily leaned into Charles who wrapped his arm around her as they watched Carrie root through the snow. Suddenly Lily stood up and started going towards Carrie as she saw a man slowly come up behind her. Charles followed her line of vision and felt his eyes widen, Lily quickly ran into the snow, Charles wheeling behind her with difficulty both of then yelling for Carrie. They came to where Carrie was, the man kneeling in front of her; Lily pulled Carrie behind her and glared at the man. He stood up and looked her up and down as if studying her, she crossed her arms self-consciously.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" she said. The man looked at her then grimaced at Charles.

"Charles." He said sadly, Charles moved forward and looked up.

"Erik." He said evenly.