Sooooooo...here's what's happened. I went over most of this story to improve it and I made changes in nearly every chapter starting with chaper 23. Some changes are minor, some are bigger, so I would advise you to re-read the story if you can be bothered. You'll have the time cause I am not sure how fast new chapters will be coming. Sorry for the delay. Thank you for reading.
Below is not a new chapter. The story is longer now because there is new stuff in prior chapters, mainly extra scenes with Logan, Scott, and Emma.
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Logan parks the car near a lake.
Charles gets the kids out of their seats and tells them to stay close by. They bound off to the nearby playground and Charles sits down on a bench so he can watch them.
Logan stays by the car, maybe doing something specific, maybe just giving him space. Charles can't bring himself to look, probably because that would require reflecting on what the hell he is thinking.
There are people about, couples, parents with their own children, enjoying a normal day out in the frosty sun. Charles thinks that that should make him feel better on some level.
It doesn't.
It's not that he really thought Logan would drive them off somewhere and hurt them in the first place. Even if the man was like his brother, he still works for Erik, and Erik would hardly tell him to do anything bad with his son involved.
No, whatever the reason Logan is doing this, he's relatively safe for now.
Charles breathes deliberately, trying to clear his head, to pull himself together. This too is only postponing the inevitable, pointless, but he is nontheless grateful for the respite, the break.
He stares at the frozen lake, the sunlight glinting off it blurred in his sight for a moment. Then, he looks back at the kids playing, wipes away a tear before it can freeze on his skin. How much longer will they have to play and be carefree...how much longer till reality will come crashing down on them as well?
Raven, he thinks, heart aching. Will he ever see her again?
He misses his sister so much, despite the pain she has caused him. He could always talk to her and he needs her so much right now. It's for the best, he tries to tell himself. Raven could be a sounding board, a comfort, but in the end she is also Raven. Any solution she would come up with would be fueled by anger at Erik and the reckless urge to protect. She would do something stupid and get herself in trouble for him, and he can't let that happen, not when all he wants is to protect her.
That leaves him with no one, and only his own mind reeling as he pointlessly goes through his non-options over and over again. Nothing. He just can't-
Something heavy lands on his shoulders suddenly and Charles jumps, forced out of his head.
Logan is standing next to him out of nowhere -god, he's blanked out again- regarding him with a frown.
"Your coat wasn't in the car," he says and Charles realizes belatedly that the man has dropped a jacket, his jacket, around his shoulders. He doesn't realize he is freezing, skin already numb and slightly violet, until that very moment.
"I left it," he mutters, distracted by the feeling of warmth that the fur-lined leather around him exudes, "...at the office, I think-"
He doesn't finish. No casual way of saying that he forgot to take it when he stormed out of Emma Stone's office because he was so upset.
"Better close it, your lips are starting to turn blue," Logan says in a non-answer. He looks like he doesn't feel the cold at all even now, but then, he is reasonably dressed in multiple thick layers while Charles was wearing nothing but a thin dress shirt.
Charles hesitates before moving to comply but Logan doesn't push.
As always he doesn't seem inclined to ask prying questions. He is just standing there, at a little more than normal distance, almost as though he is actually trying to give him space, and after endless days of Erik continuously forcing his presence on him, even the illusion of space is a relief.
It is likely just Logan's personality, or pragmatism, just him doing his job and not wanting to get too involved, and not wanting to get in trouble for letting his charge freeze to death, and yet to Charles the warm jacket suddenly feels like a hug. Something tightens in his chest, as much as he tries to push it away with reason, and he clutches the jacket tightly around himself.
He needs someone, someone there for him so badly, and he knows it's not Logan, it can't be – but still, something in him grasps desperately at the tiny morsels of perceived comfort. He wants to believe that the man might care, that he is not completely alone, even though he knows, he knows-
Logan is one of Erik's henchmen. He was there when Bennet died, likely helped bring him there. He didn't hesitate at all when stopping Charles and dragging him back to what he could only assume would be death. He is no better than the other two. There is no reason to feel any safer around him than around Erik.
Charles tries to hammer that fact into his head...and yet, all that happens is that he gets stuck on the memory of Logan's alarmed expression when he recognized him. Of how he let go- and how he practically jumped in front of a potential bullet for him...
It makes him feel like he understands nothing at all.
He looks up at Logan, into his unreadable face, and the question is out before he can check himself.
"Why did you bring us here?"
