Truths
A/N Hiiiiii! By the way, the stuff in italics is Charles' flashbacks. Thanks for reading and please review!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Marvel!
Charles stares wide eyed at Gaia. He's confused, and he needs answers. He needs them now.
Gaia bites her lip. She wants to tell him, spit it in his face, rage about how upset she is that he never noticed. But she just needs to find the way to say it. Not that it really matters. If Logan succeeds, this reality will be erased.
She's scared about what this will mean. Will it destroy her relationship with Will and the other X-Men? If her mother meets Charles again, Lena could end up fighting with Charles, and then Gaia could have never have come to Westchester. Even she's got to admit, she prefers living under her father's nose for years and losing her mother to never meeting Will or Lorna.
She wishes now she hadn't told Logan about Lena. It seemed like such a good idea five, ten minutes ago. Now, she's not so sure.
She feels all the expectant eyes on her, and she's suddenly overwhelmed by the presence of all the X-Men, and she wants to run away and hide, like she did when she was small. Come to think of it, she feels very young at the moment.
Charles finds his voice, and repeats his question.
"How did you know Eleanor Richards?" He asks, and his heart breaks slightly when he sees the pain in Gaia's eyes. Lena was obviously special to her.
"I.. I knew her. When she was alive." Charles frowns in confusion.
"She died before you were born." He replies simply. Gaia laughs darkly.
"Sorry, Professor. Eleanor Richards died two month ago."
Charles stares at her, his heart breaking and mending in one swift move. Why did she leave then? He thought he knew her, loved her. Did he perceive her feelings all wrong?
But, he realises, he knows nothing about Gaia. Only that she turned up one day, with her wonderful mutation, infectious smile and a desire to make a difference.
What did she say her surname was?
Barton.
That's the name of Lena's best friend, Charles remembers. Is Gaia her goddaughter?
Dammit. He really needs answers.
He sense how uncomfortable Gaia is, and sees her nervous glances to the others, who are all staring at her in confusion. Apart from Will, who must know.
"Follow me." He says softly, and some relief crosses Gaia's pale face. She still looks uneasy though, and Charles supposes she must be nervous about explaining to him of Lena's survival.
He wheels his chair towards the doorway, as wary as Gaia of the eyes following them.
He pushes the door into a side room, and wheels in. Gaia closes the door behind her, and leans against the wall, where she looks comfy for a second, then she slides down to sit on the floor, legs crossed, fiddling with a thread on her shoe.
Charles looks pityingly at her.
"Eleanor." He says softly. "How did you know her."
She smiles slightly, but doesn't look up from her boots.
"She.. She was my mother." She replies.
Charles feels like someone's hit him in the stomach with a hockey stick. He lifts a hand to his forehead, and stares at Gaia. But.. But.. Clint was her friend..? Millions of confused thoughts sprint around Charles' head, like over excitable springer spaniels. They crash into each other, causing him a dreadful headache.
"Your mother?" Charles asks. She nods. He takes a deep breath. "How old are you, Gaia?"
Still she doesn't look up.
"Twenty seven."
He could do the maths, but he's focusing on other things right now. He pushes her age aside. He doesn't really know why he asked anyway. Probably to work out I she already had a daughter when he met her. Which he knows now that she didn't.
"What happened to Lena?" He asks, and he sees from her stance tensing that she finds this answer difficult.
"Aiysha James transferred her mutation to heal, and it worked. She survived and went to live with Clint Barton. Then, I left her to go to a school for mutants. I left her and she was killed by sentinels."
There's self hatred in her last two sentences, and Charles sympathises with her. But, his Eleanor. She was alive, after all those years? A small part of him wants to be angry, but he's filled with such relief that she had that chance at life he thought he'd denied her. But also, he feels terribly sad. She really is dead, and he never got that chance to see her again.
For the past twenty eight years, he'd have given his life to see her one last time.
"She was alive." He mutters, aware of how silly he must sound to Gaia. She's told him she was alive at least 3 times.
Gaia just nods her head, still looking at the grubby floor.
Charles doesn't speak for a few minutes, just goes over his thoughts in his head. For some reason, he knows he is waiting for Gaia to say something, and he knows she's simply preparing for what she has to say.
She reaches up, and pulls a silver chain out from under her top, and lifts it into the light, head bowed. Does it pain her that much to look at him?
But then his breath catches in his throat at the silver locket which glints in the light.
[][][][]
Charles smiles as Lena enters, and she sits down opposite him at the table. She gives him a confused look, but he just smiles at her.
"Hey." He says.
"Hey." She replies.
He reaches and pulls a box out of his pocket.
Lena's eyes widen when she catches sight of it.
"Charles." She begins, but he cuts her off.
"Relax. It's not that." Her shoulders loose the slight tension they gained, and she leans back against the chair. He slides the box across the table.
She picks it up gently, then snaps it open. She gasps.
"Charles..." She says, lifting a hand to her mouth. She looks up at him, eyes large.
She lifts out the chain. "Charles.. It's beautiful."
Charles shrugs, embarrassed.
"It was my mothers. I want you to have it."
Lena puts down the chain.
"Charles.. I can't." She protests, but Charles ignores her.
"No, I want you to have it. To remember me by."
Her eyes snap up to meet his, a slight storm brewing there. She sees his face, and her eyes soften.
"You think you're not going to make it."
Charles shrugs again.
"Shaw is powerful. There's every possibility I might not."
Lena shakes her head.
"Of course you're going to make it."
Charles looks at the table.
"We'll do it together, okay?" She asks, and Charles looks up sadly. "Together?" She repeats.
He nods, taking her hand in his.
"Together."
[][][][]
Gaia fiddles with her shoes. How does she tell him?
She's spent years practising this moment, years of waiting and planning. Thousands of ways she could do it, each more dramatic than the last.
She glances up quickly, just long enough to gauge his emotions. Her heart stops.
He's looking distantly somewhere over her left shoulder, eyes filled with sadness. Something inside him is shattering.
Then all the ways she could tell him vanish except one.
She imagined herself screaming it in his face, or telling him through a riddle, then laughing cooly as he worked it out. She imagined herself feeling better about it than this.
Seeing him broken like this, she can't even contemplate telling him through the witty, sarcastic methods she envisioned. All that's left is the simple truth.
[][][][]
Charles hears Gaia's footsteps walking towards him, and that's what wakes him from his daydream. However, he doesn't look towards her until she's kneeled down in front of him.
Then, he gasps.
It's quite dark in the room, but the space in front of him is lit up by blue eyes.
How could he be so stupid?
He supposed some part of his brain had subconsciously pushed any thoughts of it aside, thinking it was impossible.
But even so, how did he never notice? The blue blue eyes he sees every single day when he looks in the mirror, and he didn't see them staring right at him?
And suddenly, everything clicks.
Why Hank looked so disappointed in him after his meeting with Gaia.
Why Will was always attempting to persuade Gaia to talk to him.
Why Gaia and Aiysha were so close from the very beginning.
Why Gaia looked so crestfallen after their first meeting.
He puts his head in his hands, and starts to sob.
Lena had his little girl. All those years he chucked his life away, he could have looked after a little girl? Oh ,it would have been wonderful. What did he do to not deserve her trust? To his surprise, he finds himself putting no blame on Lena whatsoever, only on himself.
"Oh, Gaia. I'm so sorry." He whispers. "I'm so sorry."
He feels warm hands on his, and his hands are pulled away from his head, forcing him to look at her. She smiles, and Charles is confused.
He feels a wave of self loathing.
"No, I'm sorry." Gaia replies, and Charles realises she's crying too. "I should have told you."
"I should have noticed."
Gaia chuckles slightly.
"Looks like we're both in the wrong."
He lifts his hand to her head, and she leans her cheek into his hand.
"My daughter." Charles says proudly, tears still running down his face. "My beautiful daughter." He doesn't know whether to feel happy or sad. He appears to be capable of feeling both at once.
Gaia smiles.
"My silly old dad."
"Tell me your full name."
Gaia blinks in surprise, but then smiles. She shrugs her shoulders slightly.
"Gaiathryn Lucinda Barton."
Charles smiles, a little ballon of pride rising within him.
"Nice to meet you, Gaiathryn."
[][][][]
Charles pushes open the door, carrying a bowl of popcorn. He lifts it up to show Lena, who smiles. She's sitting curled up on the sofa, blanket tucked around her knees and writing a letter, chewing the top of her pen.
Charles walks over, and sits down next to her. She lifts the blankets over his knees and then leans against him, signing of the letter. She folds it neatly then drops it on the coffee table in front of them.
"Who are you writing to?" Charles asks, and Lena sighs.
"My friend Gaiathryn."
"That's an unusual name." He replies. Lena laughs, and tilts her head to look up at him.
"She's not from around here." She winks.
Charles laughs, and winks back, catching her drift.
"So, what film are we watching?" He asks. He files the vague information he's received about Gaiathryn away for later use. He should notice if anything about her comes up again. It isn't a very common name, after all.
[][][][]
Gaia takes off the locket, and drops it into Charles' palm.
"You should have it." She murmurs softly, but he is shaking his head before she even finishes the sentence.
"My mother," Charles replies, "told me to give it to my daughter. And, although it happened accidentally, looked like it happened anyway." He smiles slightly, perhaps sadly. His cheeks are wet, and in some ways he feels happier than he he's been in years, but he still feels hot, wet tears rolling down his face.
He gives the locket back to her, and when she looks up at him, he realises there are tears in her eyes.
She squeezes his hand.