October 25th, 1962

Vi sunk lower into the plastic chair and sighed. Hank and Moira were with Charles and Alex was with Sean, so she had been all alone for a few hours. She hated hospitals. All of the blindingly white surfaces, and that smell of sickness that was common in all of them. The steady noise of beeping monitors and the steps of the nurses had begun to get on her nerves. A few of them had tried to treat her, but she shrugged them off. Sure, her whole body hurt, especially her wrist, but she could wait.

She was debating on going outside when suddenly someone threw themselves on the chair next to her. "Ow, these things are hard!," Sean exclaimed. Alex rolled his eyes as he sat down across from them.

"So what's the damage?" Vi asked him quietly.

"Couple cracked ribs, some bruises, and a sprained ankle," he shrugged.

Vi nodded and turned to Alex, "What about you?"

"Nothing serious. Have you heard anything about Charles?"

"Nothing. I haven't seen Hank or Moira at all."

Alex nodded curtly, then the three of them sat in silence for awhile, not wanting to talk anymore about the events of the day. For the first time since they arrived, Vi wondered how the team looked to the staff. They were all injured and wearing matching yellow and blue jumpsuits, not to mention that one of them was blue and furry. The CIA was going to have a hell of time covering this up.

Sean looked over to Vi and nudged her arm to get her attention. The movement cause a spike of pain to shoot up from her wrist and she cried out.

His eyes widened, "You're hurt?!"

Vi turned to find a guilty expression on his face, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it, okay?"

Sean's guilty face turned to a small frown, "Why didn't you get checked out?"

"I didn't think it was important." Vi ran her other hand through her hair.

Tired of their conversation, Alex sighed and leaned forward to grab her wrist. She thought about pulling away but knew it would hurt more if she did. Instead she tensed as he pulled off her glove and pushed up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal her swollen and purple wrist. Alex examined it gently before placing it back on her leg.

"You need a doctor." Alex said matter of factly before settling back into his chair.

"Fuck," Vi leaned her head back against the wall.

"I'm going to call for a nurse," Sean said.

"No," she groaned.

"If you don't get your wrist looked at right now, I'm going to annoy you until we leave. Maybe even after," the redhead threatened.

Vi gave a humorless chuckle, "So you're going to be your normal self then?" Alex snorted, causing Sean to give him a glare.

"I'm serious."

She turned to him, "If I go, you'll shut the fuck up?"

"Yeah."

"Fine," Vi sighed. Sean didn't deserve the harsh treatment, but being an ass was her natural response when in pain. She waved over a nurse who helped her up and walked her back to the exam rooms.

The jet hummed as they sped through the air towards Westchester. Thankfully, Vi had been able to keep Riptide from completely destroying the jet, so it was still able to fly. After the doctor released her, Hank finally arrived to take them all back to the mansion. Moira volunteered to stay with Charles, who was stable but unable to be moved yet. Vi poked at the bulky cast that had been put on her arm and sighed

"If they hadn't put that cast on, your wrist would have healed incorrectly. It most likely would have needed to be operated on." Hank pointed out from the the seat next to her as he flew the jet. Sean and Alex fell asleep half an hour earlier so she moved to the copilot seat.

"Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean I have to like it." Vi huffed and leaned her head back against the headrest.

"I have a question," Hank mumbled.

"I might have an answer."

"Did you know that this was going to happen to me?"

Vi thought for a moment. "If I say yes, will you strangle me to death?". He didn't answer her so she turned to him with a sigh, "Yes, I knew," she noticed Hank's grip on the controls tighten. "In 50 years you're still furry and blue. Except that the Hank McCoy I know is proud of how he looks. He's proud of being a mutant. Besides, it was destined to happen. I couldn't change it,"

After a moment, his grip began to go back to normal and he kept silent all the way to the mansion.

Vi stood under the stream of hot water scrubbed her good hand down her face. She had been in the shower for about half an hour and the sand still wouldn't come off completely. Having one arm wrapped in a cast and covered in a plastic bag didn't really help with that either.

She finally gave up and turned off the water. After drying off, she put on her pajamas. She looked at her bed but she wasn't quite sure if she was ready to sleep. Her mind was still racing and she thought the others might feel the same.

Vi slowly opened her door and stepped out into the dark hallway. She walked a few steps until she met Sean's door and knocked. After a few seconds of silence, she assumed he was asleep and turned to head back to her room.

The sound of a creaking door interrupted her. Sean poked his head out of Alex's door, "Looking for me?"

"Yeah."

He nodded his head towards the inside of the room, "Come on in."

Vi walked over and brushed past him into Alex's room. It was extremely neat, the exact opposite of Sean's room. Considering he had been in prison before all of this it wasn't much of a surprise. Alex sat on the floor with his back against the footboard of the bed.

"Looks like I'm late to the party," Vi remarked as she sat across from the blond.

"Not much of a party," he said, handing her a bottle of scotch.

Vi examined the bottle, "Did you steal this from Charles' stash?"

Sean sat down next to her, "Yep, you wouldn't believe how much stuff he has in there. He won't miss it."

"Oh I know his collection well," Vi smirked before taking a drink and passing it to Sean. "Hank didn't want to come?"

"He's working on the jet," Alex answered.

Vi nodded slowly and played with her hands.

Sean broke the silence after he took his drink, "This feels wrong."

Vi turned her eyes down to the carpet and Alex sighed.

"This time yesterday everything was fine. Now Raven and Erik are gone and Charles..." he trailed off and ran a hand through his curls. "How did everything go to hell so fast?"

"I don't know," Vi sighed.

"So what do we do now?" he whispered.

"Well...someone's going to have to fight Magneto and the rest when they go all 'kill all humans'. And they will". She didn't mind being against everyone else in the Brotherhood, but the thought of fighting Raven after all of this made her uneasy. "It might be hard for you, fighting people you know and care about, but we're the only ones who can do it."

Alex finally spoke up, "Just the three of us and Hank? That won't be enough. And Charles might not be up for this either."

"He will. I think we can do it. We just have to train even harder than we have been". Vi looked to both of the boys, "What do you say?"

Sean thought for a moment, "I'm in."

Alex finally replied, "Me too."