Scott heard the thunderous footsteps outside his door. He furrowed his brow and crept forwards, uncertain as to what was going on. Were people racing each other? He was sure that wasn't allowed, especially so late at night.
Feeling nervous Scott approached his door. He knew he shouldn't feel so scared. The Institute was his home. He was safe there. The only time he hadn't felt safe was when they'd handed him the goggles and pointed him towards the targets.
His face burned in shame when he thought about it. He'd cried like a baby in front of the Professor, Hank, and, worst of all, his brother. Why couldn't he just keep his tears in, tell them that he didn't want to do it without sobbing?
Scott had expected his brother to be disappointed in him. Alex had simply accepted the situation, although he'd become more withdrawn lately. Scott knew it was his fault, but he couldn't talk about it. He couldn't cry again.
Taking a deep breath he cracked the door. He was able to peer out just in time to see Alex running down the hall at full speed with the Professor. Scott's eyes widened as he watched them. What was going on?
Despite himself, he opened the door the rest of the way. He told himself that he was an idiot, but he continued down the hall after his brother. What was he doing? Where was he taking the Professor? Why was he in such a hurry?
He managed to get to the garage just in time to see Alex and the rest take off in a car. They'd forgotten to lock the door behind them. Scott watched them drive into the distance until the garage door closed.
For a moment Scott just looked after them, his mouth slightly open. What was Alex doing? What were any of them doing? It was late at night, and they'd just rushed off in a car. He could only suppose that they were going towards the hanger.
Where did they need to fly to though? Was another mutant like him in trouble? Did they need to get there in fast before the horrible people from juvenile hall came back? It couldn't be something simple. If they were just recruiting, then they wouldn't have all gone. Scott blinked at the garage door, trying to order his thoughts.
He sat down in a corner of the garage. Confusion still blared through his mind. Scott didn't know what to do. He looked down at his blue pajamas and plucked at the hem. There were too many questions and not enough answers.
Scott bit his lip. He knew that he should get back to bed. Whatever was happening was beyond him, and he wasn't going to get any answers by staring at his pajamas. His brother would get mad if he found him down there. The Professor would get mad too. Everyone would get mad, and he didn't want to get into trouble.
He began to get up, and then he thought about the gash on his brother's back. He stopped. Did this have anything to do with that? Was his brother doing something that would get him hurt? Was something going on that Alex wasn't telling him about? Something dangerous?
Scott sat back down again. He scooted until he had his back against the wall. It would work as a decent support. He looked around and made sure he was well-hidden before settling in. The floor was hard, and it was a little cold, but he didn't mind too much.
A towel hung off the corner of a work table. Scott pulled it down and wrapped it around him. He didn't know how long they were going to take and, while he was staying alert, he needed to stay warm too.
Scott forced his eyes to stay open. He was going to be awake when they came back. One way or another, he was going to get answers.
"Alex, you still haven't answered my question."
"Yeah, okay, I got that," Alex said.
He cleared his throat. Alex wished that he didn't have to answer, but he needed to let the Professor know what was going to be waiting for them when they landed. It would be dangerous to let the Professor be surprised by Moira's presence. Having him distracted couldn't end well.
Even so, he wished he didn't have to answer.
"Um...do you remember Moira?" he said.
Alex wanted to die as soon as he spoke. The Professor went rigid. One of his hands gripped his armrest.
"I've never forgotten her," he said, his voice low.
"Right. Um, well, we've been...for the past year or so..." Alex said.
The Professor closed his eyes. He could see the tension in his face, the way his teeth were grinding together.
"What?" he asked.
Alex gave up.
"We've all been in contact with Moira for the past year or so," Alex said, "Ever since she got Scott out of going to juvie. And she called me tonight because she's being hunted by members of the Hellfire Club because she's rescued someone they're trying to recruit."
The Professor's eyes flew open.
"What?"
The word came out harsh, and he could see the fury on the Professor's face.
"I was desperate," Alex said, trying to explain, "It was either go to her or give up on finding a way for my brother-"
"That much I understand. I don't approve, but I bloody well understand!" the Professor snapped, "But what I don't understand is why you didn't see fit to tell me!"
The pure force of the Professor's wrath made Alex sink in his seat as low as he could go. Sean and Hank exchanged worried looks. Alex didn't understand what they were so worried about. They weren't the ones undergoing the Spanish Inquisition.
"I mean...I didn't know if it would work at first and then-" Alex tried.
"Then you made the deliberate attempt to hide this from me," the Professor said.
The betrayal and hurt were thick in the Professor's voice. Alex suddenly realized just what it was he'd done. He hadn't just disobeyed orders to get into contact with Moira. Before he might have been able to ignore the fact that he was betraying the Professor's trust, but now it was impossible.
He gripped his armrests tighter as shame stole through him.
"After everything I did to keep her out of this, you dragged her back into it?" the Professor said, "I sympathize with your desire to save your brother, but why did you have to remain in contact with her afterwards?"
The Professor's words sparked something deep inside him. He pushed himself up further and threw aside the shame. He wasn't going to be talked to like that.
"You're right," Alex said, "I should've just used her and then gotten rid of her like you did!"
There was a long silence. The Professor's eyes narrowed, his breath coming in short pants.
"Oh shit," Sean muttered.
"Don't talk about things you don't understand," the Professor said, "I made the decision to-"
"Exactly!" Alex yelled, "You made the decision! Not her, not us! You left us out of it!"
"I hardly see why I had to involve children in the steps that I took to protect them!"
"Children?" Alex snapped.
"Yes, children!" the Professor said, "Despite everything you've done, you are seventeen years old Alex! At the time you were fifteen! As was Sean!"
"And Hank was eighteen!" Alex said, "You didn't involve him!"
"If I told one of you I would've had to tell all of you!" the Professor said, "You wouldn't have understood!"
"Well we'll never know now, will we?" Alex snapped, "You never asked."
"Your behavior now tells me that you wouldn't have," the Professor said, "All you're doing is proving me right!"
Angry tears built up in Alex's eyes. He remembered all of the anger that he'd struggled to keep bottled up when Moira had first been sent away, mixing with the shame over betraying the man who'd taken him in. There was no point in holding any of it back anymore, and it surged through him.
He needed the Professor to understand.
"We didn't get to say goodbye!" he said, "None of us did. You just threw her out without telling us. We didn't know until the next day. What the hell kind of idea was that? We didn't even get-"
"Neither did I!" the Professor said, "Alex, I know you cared about her but I..."
Pain flashed through the Professor's eyes.
"I cared for her and I didn't get to say goodbye either," the Professor said.
"But you made that choice," Alex snapped, "We didn't. And I don't see why we had to cut her loose just because you made a choice that concerned all of us without our consent! Why shouldn't we call her?"
"Because we'd put her in danger!" the Professor said, "Alex, think about tonight. She's being chased because she's-"
"Because she's doing what she'd do anyway," Alex snarled, "She's helping people because that's what she does. She's...don't you..."
He choked on his words.
"Don't you get it?" Alex said, "She's going to be doing this dangerous shit anyway because that's who she is. The only thing you did when you threw her out was prevented her from getting our support."
Alex shook his head, his whole body trembling with a myriad of emotions.
"You...you made it even worse for her," he said, "She didn't have us to help her. Yeah, maybe it would've been dangerous in the beginning, but she was either going to turn us all in or lose everything she's worked for. We all know she would die before doing the first, so she was left with nothing! And worse yet, she was left with no one to turn to! Not the kids she'd helped train and not, not..."
His tongue seemed to be twisted, but the words were flowing too fast to be stopped.
"Not the man she loved either," Alex hissed, "She was left with nothing."
The Professor looked like he was going to speak, somehow protest his innocence, but Alex wasn't going to hear it.
"You and me, we both know what it's like to end up with absolutely nothing!" Alex said, "We both know what that feels like to twist and turn with nowhere to go. But it didn't have to be that way. Not for her, not for you either! You could've had each other-!"
"I would've lost her!" the Professor shouted.
Once again, the force of his words knocked the wind and the courage out of Alex.
"I would've lost her," the Professor said, "To someone, to something. she was safer back where she was. She was better off without me, before me, without us."
He bowed his head.
"You don't understand," the Professor said, "The people's lives you've been in, everyone people you care about, you've made their lives better."
The Professor's words were soft, almost as though they were being forced past his lips.
"You have no idea what it feels like to look back on a relationship, a partnership, and realize that you have given the other person nothing," he asked, "That you have made their life worse by being in it. Wasn't it better to give her the chance to start over, no matter what that meant?"
The Professor looked up at Alex.
"If you could spare your brother suffering by getting out of his life, wouldn't you?" he asked.
The words struck him silent. Alex swallowed. His eyes met the Professor's. For a moment he saw understanding there. Alex wanted to tell him that he wished things could've gone a different way, that he could have made it easier for the Professor to learn who he was going to have to face that night. He didn't think that there was.
"Guys, we're almost at the intersection," Sean said.
Alex's eyes flickered back to the front of the plane. He couldn't meet the Professor's eyes anymore.