Six Years Later

"Lemonade, Charles?" Emma asked her brother as he sat at the patio table. The table was made of steel, just able to fit two people to eat on it on the mosaic covered surface of different colours. Charles had moved himself from his chair and onto a cool, steel seat, grateful for movement after his long journey down to the coast. He looked up at his sister and nodded once.

"Yes please," he responded and Emma picked up the glass jar, pouring the greenish looking liquid into a clear glass and then handing it to her brother. She poured another two glasses before moving across the large lawn, picking up a chair from the main outside dining table and then placing it to the table. Emma took a seat on the other chair, crossing her legs and looking over to Charles.

"So how are things in New York?" she enquired and Charles chuckled once, nodding as he did so and drinking some of the lemonade.

"They are good," he assured her. "We have several new recruits. Sean has left with Amy to travel the world and Alex is helping me to train the others. Hank and Raven...well...I shall let her tell you that piece of news when she comes back from the bathroom."

"Oh?" Emma wondered, her eyes going wide and she rested her clasped hands onto the table, looking giddy with excitement as she did so. "Is it good?"

"I would say so," Charles nodded back to her, looking over to the view on his left. He had to admit that Emma hadn't done badly for herself. The cottage called home was large and white, ivy moving on the walls and windows making it look like something out of a fairytale. And the grounds themselves were filled with trees, nowhere near a main road. Multiple steps led down onto the sand covered surface where the sea washed up and down every day.

"And how are you?" Charles asked, looking back at Emma who was sipping on her drink and she nodded at her brother, a small smile on her face.

"Content," she replied in a whisper. "Could I be anything other than that?"

"No," Charles replied after a moment's deliberation before he saw Raven move out from the cottage and down the stoned path to the paved area where they sat in the afternoon sun.

"I hear you have something to tell me?" Emma checked with Raven as soon as the blue mutant sat down and Raven looked at her sister and then back to her brother before reaching across and hitting him on the arm quickly.

"Could you not wait?" she snapped playfully and Charles rolled his eyes at her.

"I didn't tell her the news. I just told her you had some." He replied quickly to her. "So don't pick on me."

"So go on," Emma urged her and Raven raised her hand up, her fingers straight as she looked bored, putting on an act. Emma looked for a moment, observing what she was seeing and then she squealed in delight, grabbing her hand and admiring the ring which sat on her finger quickly.

"You're engaged?" she checked and Raven nodded, finally smiling widely as she did so and she looked onto the ring as Charles watched the sea, allowing the two women to scream over Raven's news.

"He asked me the other day before we came out here," Raven said. "It was so romantic too. He took me into the grounds of the manor and he had a picnic set up...I couldn't think of anything better..."

"Oh Charles!" Emma exclaimed, looking at her brother who smiled back at her. "Our baby sister is getting married."

"I know," he replied to Emma before the three of them heard a loud scream come from the beach. But the sound wasn't one which made them rush to the cliff top and wonder what it was. Instead, they remained seated for a moment, looking at each other and then Emma stood up.

"He'll be messing around again," she said, her voice trying to show complaint but failing terribly. Emma folded her arms against the breeze from the sea, straightening out her yellow dress and making sure the brown belt was secured around her waist. She rubbed up and down her bare arms as she looked onto the sight on the beach, a smile moving over her face.

The tall man was walking on the sand, a small girl stood beside him, holding tightly onto his hand as he kept her pushed towards the sea, allowing the waves to lap over her ankles and she yelled at him quickly, laughing as she did so. He continued laughing along with her, his arms around her waist before he picked her up into his arms, squeezing her nose and then returning back to walking down the beach.

...

"Mummy is going to kill me!" the little brown haired girl complained. She had her father's hair colour but her mother's long curls which shaped her pale face. The Xavier's eyes were on her face whilst she contained the Lensherr's stubborn chin.

"Oh, I don't think she will," Erik replied with a smile as he set her back down onto the beach and she looked onto her flat shoes which were covered in water and the bottom of her summer white dress was also slightly wet. Erik pulled up his brown jeans, tucking his white polo shirt into them further before he placed his hair back into place. "She loves you too much to kill you."

"But she did yell at me because I didn't tidy my room," she pointed out to him and he smiled down at her.

"She didn't mean it. She just gets annoyed with you, Elizabeth," Erik assured his daughter, grabbing onto her hand and twirling her under his arm.

"She says she gets annoyed with you too," Elizabeth informed her father and Erik grinned once, looking out to the sea and then nodding once.

"I know that," he said and then dropped down onto the ground, dragging her down with him as they sat beside each other.

"Daddy...how...what are they?" Elizabeth asked him timidly and Erik looked at her gaze and onto the numbers which were permanently tattooed onto his arm. He had seen her looking at them before but she had never asked him before. Erik normally donned long sleeved clothes around her but the weather was too warm. He looked at the permanent reminder of his childhood and then at his daughter.

"They...I'll...it isn't really a story for little five year olds," Erik replied to her and she jutted her chin out just like her father did when he was being stubborn.

"I'm nearly six, Daddy," she complained to Erik who raised a brow, still grinning with amusement.

"Are you really?" he teased her and she nodded quickly.

"I'm grown up," she promised him.

"Oh Lizzie," Erik chuckled, standing up and grabbing Lizzie with him, tossing her over his shoulder as she continued to laugh loudly. His aim to distract her from the question had worked as she continued to giggle and he moved her back to cradle her against his chest.

"Should we go and find mummy?" he checked with her. "I think Uncle Charles and Aunty Raven could be here."

...

"He's so good with her," Emma promised her siblings when she had sat back down after looking onto the beach where Erik was with his daughter.

"I never thought it would be possible," Raven admitted, twirling a strand of hair around her finger as she rested her elbow onto the surface. "I didn't think Erik was the settling down type."

"Oh he isn't," Emma replied with a shake of her head. "He still likes to go out and stop mutants from being hurt but...now he doesn't go often...he doesn't feel as though he needs to needlessly risk his life when he has a daughter to come home to."

"And a wife," Charles added on and Emma looked onto the wedding band which occupied her finger and she tossed her hair behind her shoulders before she heard a shrill voice moving up the steps and they all looked across to see Erik setting Elizabeth down onto the lawn.

"Uncle Charles!" she exclaimed loudly, running over to her uncle and launching herself onto his lap, hugging him tightly. Charles smiled widely and Emma stood up as Erik walked slowly over to them.

"Little Loopy Lizzie," Charles replied to her and Raven stood up, bending down to Lizzie's height and raising a brow at the little girl.

"Did you forget about your Aunty Raven?" she wondered and Lizzie jumped off of Charles's lap and hugged her Aunt tightly.

"Of course not, Aunty Raven."

Emma's eyes went wide for a moment as she looked down at her daughter and she raised a brow.

"What happened to your shoes, Elizabeth?" she asked her daughter who stepped away from Raven's hug and pointed over at Erik as she did so.

"It is Daddy's fault!" she yelled and Emma looked at her husband who was smiling still and he wrapped an arm around her waist tightly, pulling her against him and kissing her cheek.

"Don't suck up to me, Erik Lensherr," she said to her husband, elbowing him playfully in the ribs and he continued smirking widely.

"Sorry Mrs Xavier-Lensherr."

"So how are your powers?" Charles asked his niece and she nodded quickly at him.

"Daddy has been teaching me how to use them. I set the table without moving from my chair!" she called out.

"Has he really?" Raven said. "So do you think you can move anything bigger?"

"I can swing myself...watch..." Elizabeth demanded bossily from Raven and Charles. She grabbed her Aunt's hand, dragging her to the swing which was set near the trees and Charles moved himself into his wheelchair, moving through the grass.

"She is as bossy as you," he informed his sister who snorted once.

"I think she is worse," she commented and Erik wrapped both arms around her waist, resting his chin onto her shoulder as they watched Elizabeth sit on the swing. Raven offered to push her but she declined politely, saying that she could make the metal chains move back and forth herself.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Erik whispered in Emma's ear and she moved to look at him softly.

"She makes you wish we could stay here all summer, doesn't it?" Emma replied to Erik. "I wish we could just stay here...instead of going back to Oxford..."

"But you'd be lost without your teaching job." Erik assured his wife. "You're a Professor now."

"I suppose so," Emma agreed. "Elizabeth needs to see me doing a good job so she can follow."

"You already have her down as being a Professor?" Erik enquired with a grin on his face and she nodded cockily.

"Obviously," Emma drawled. "She gets the brains from her mother."

"And the good looks from her father," Erik responded as Raven and Charles clapped the small child for her efforts on the swing.

"Of course, dear," Emma agreed sarcastically.

"No arguing?" he responded and she turned in his arms, resting her hands onto his shoulders as she looked into his eyes.

"I prefer an easy life nowadays," she responded and Erik grinned, his finger curling under her chin as he lifted her face up and lowered his.

"And that's the way it will stay, Mrs Xavier-Lensherr," he promised her, slowly kissing her and thinking about the entire future which they had together.

...

A/N: Finished! Well thank you for everyone who has reviewed this story over the course of its life and thank you to anyone who has been reading it. I do hope you have enjoyed it and please, do leave me one final review. Thank you, very much.