"Reason"
A good or obvious cause to do something.
French Translations
Mon loup - My wolf
Est-ce à propos de vos pouvoirs? Sont-ils- - Is it about your powers? Are they-
Les devoirs - Homework
"Ms. Ouellet, I'm afraid - I don't think you understand-"
"No." Marianne turned back to the men in her living room with a calm smile. "I do. And I'm saying no."
"We understand that," said Erik, looking and sounding less confused than his partner. Perhaps he just hid it well. "But we need you to understand; you are powerful. You would be -"
"What tips the scales in your favour, yes, I understand. You don't seem to understand that I am saying no."
Charles stood and approached her kitchen counter. "Shaw is dangerous," he stressed. "Going up against his team will be dangerous and we need all the help we can get. I just-" he had to take a deep breath before he continued. "I don't understand why you are saying no when we are giving you the chance to not only meet other people like yourself but also realize your full potential."
"You say you don't understand," Marianne said, "after explaining exactly why I am saying no. This Shaw man is dangerous, and he has his underlings who, as you have said, are equally dangerous. To join you would be risking my life." She placed her hands on the counter and leaned forward. "I'm sorry, I truly am, but I cannot put my life on the line for this."
"I understand your concerns-" Charles began, but he was quickly interrupted.
"Do you?" She questioned, a challenge in her tone. He couldn't look her in the eyes and say that, not when he had to know why she couldn't do this. She looked at him - took in how he stood and how he dressed and even the look in his eyes, and she knew. He would never understand, even if he looked through every memory she had from the past twelve years.
Charles could read her mind, but he didn't know how she felt.
"How is your fear for your life more difficult to understand than anyone else's?" Erik challenged, getting to his feet. "Everyone we've recruited understands the danger, and are willing to risk their lives to defeat Shaw. What makes you think your life is more precious than any of theirs?"
She looked at the two men. Charles, though he did a fantastic job of hiding it, was looking at her with judgement in his eyes. He seemed close to glaring at her. Erik, on the other hand, made no attempt at hiding his annoyance with her. A muscle in his jaw clenched and his eyes were hard. If she had been a lesser woman, with no experience with a threatening man glaring at her, she would have been shaking. They thought she was selfish, these two men. They had found people unafraid of risking their lives, and they themselves were unafraid of risking their lives in this... whatever this mission was. She wasn't, and they thought her selfish for it.
Perhaps she was, but even so, she wasn't ashamed of it. Not when she had every reason to be selfish. Before Marianne could respond, tell Erik that no, she didn't think she was more important than anyone else, and why exactly she was saying 'no' to him and Charles, her attention to the conversation was diverted as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. The front door opened and then slammed shut.
"Hey, mom, sorry I'm late, I was-"
Henry stopped, mid-sentence, as he walked into the living room and realized Marianne was not alone. Erik and Charles, both of whom had turned to look at the door when they heard it open, stared right back at him. After a moment, they turned to each other - Charles with dawning understanding, while Erik looked a little miffed.
"Hello, mon loup," greeted Marianne, smiling at her son. "How was your day?"
Henry didn't answer. He walked into the kitchen, staring suspiciously at Erik and Charles the entire time. When he reached his mother's side, he glanced at her for a second to give her a smile, before going back to glaring at the two men. "Who are they?" He demanded.
Marianne wrapped one arm around Henry's shoulders, cupping his cheek with her other hand as she kissed his forehead. "They're safe, sweetling. Don't worry." When she looked back at them, they were still staring at her. Something about the way Charles looked at her had changed, while all of the tension lining Erik's shoulders seemed to have left him.
"But who are they?" Henry repeated, though his glare had softened. Marianne couldn't repress a smile. Her boy had always been so protective of her, even though he knew she could handle herself just fine.
Charles shook his head, coming back to himself. He took a step forward and stretched out his hand over the counter. "Charles Xavier, it's a pleasure to meet you, Henry."
Henry hesitantly reached out and took Charles's hand, giving it a shake. When he looked at Erik, Erik seemed to snap out of a daze. He had been staring at Henry with an odd expression, a melancholy look in his eyes. Coming back to himself, he offered his own hand for Henry to shake, introducing himself as well. To Marianne's surprise, Erik then proceeded to give Henry a smile. Not a smirk, but a soft, gentle smile, but the melancholy in his eyes hadn't left, and Marianne couldn't not notice it. Charles had noticed something was off about his friend as well and turned to look at him, concern in his eyes.
"What do you want with my mom?" Henry asked, edging more towards open hostility with every second someone didn't tell him what he wanted to know.
Charles opened his mouth to respond, but Marianne swiftly cut him off before he could speak. "Mon loup, I will tell you later." She looked up at them with piercing dark blue eyes. "They were going to be leaving soon, anyway. Do you have homework?" When Henry reluctantly nodded, Marianne ruffled his hair once more before lightly pushing him in the direction of his room, which was right through a door off the kitchen.
Henry looked up at her, then looked at Erik and Charles. After a moment, he decided to trust his mother, though he still looked suspiciously at them as he closed the door to his bedroom.
After a moment of silence, Charles's voice echoed in her mind. Does he know about you?
"About my powers?" Marianne asked, guessing what he had meant. When he nodded, she did as well. "He's my son, it would hardly make sense for him not to know about them."
Henry's bedroom door cracked open, and a shaggy brunette head popped out. "Est-ce à propos de vos pouvoirs? Sont-ils-?"
"Les devoirs."
"But-"
"Now."
Henry disappeared back into his room.
Erik chuckled, and when Marianne gave him a quizzical look, he turned a smile in her direction. "How old is he?" He asked.
"He's twelve," she answered, after a moment. "Do you have kids, yourself?" The way he had gone from cold to warm when Henry had come into the room suggested he had some experience with children.
Erik shook his head firmly. "No, never had the time."
"You have a son." Charles said it with the air of someone who had finally made sense of the world.
Marianne looked at him. "You did not see it before?" Just how useful is telepathy if he could not see something as obvious as that?
"Must have skipped over that part." He shook his head as if to clear it. "Although this does explain a lot."
"Does it?" She lifted her chin. "Do you understand now? I could die on this mission. I cannot leave my son, my only son, an orphan. I'm all he has."
"We understand," Erik said. "Believe me, we understand."
Marianne looked him in the eye - the melancholy was still there, and she knew he really did understand. She glanced at Charles. The same understanding was not present in his eyes - though he did seem to understand - and she wondered what his mother was like.
Charles averted his eyes. She wondered if he had heard her. "Well, Ms. Ouellet, since you are clearly not going to change your mind anytime soon..." He looked at Erik. When Erik looked at him, Charles gestured his head in the direction of the door. "Sorry to have bothered you, and thank you for the tea," he added as he and Erik began their exit. "As an Englishman, I've found most Americans cannot, for the life of them, make a decent cup of tea."
"Let me escort you out," she offered. She followed them to the door, slipping past them and opening it for them. No need for the neighbours to see two strange men leaving her store without her leading them out (especially since one of them looked like he could have been a member of the Mafia). If the wrong person were to see, there would be either a panic (which would likely end with the police checking to see if she or Henry were dead) or the spreading of rumours (which would likely paint her as some sort of harlot). And, besides that, her mother had raised her to have manners.
"Truly," she said as she led them out of the backroom, "I'm sorry for all of this. I would join you if I could, but I can't."
"Don't worry about it," Charles said, waving off her apology. He looked at her desk as they passed it, craning his neck to see what she had been reading most recently. "We understand, and while I must say it is disappointing to have to go without your talents-"
"We'll live," Erik interrupted, shooting Charles a look.
Marianne smiled. They had been surprisingly understanding, once they had learned the reason for her unwillingness to fight. "Thank you, for understanding."
They had stepped out the front door, and Marianne was leaning on the doorframe when Charles suddenly turned around. "You know, the CIA would be willing to pay you for your services."
She frowned at him. She thought he had given up.
Charles gave Erik - who had raised an eyebrow - a side-glance, before taking a step towards Marianne. "I know you have a lot of financial problems at the moment-"
Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, right before they narrowed into slits. How dare he-
"-And I want to help you," Charles finished. "The CIA can and will pay you as much as you need, they can pay you for helping us. You just need to help us." He looked at her, staring into her eyes and not looking away, despite the anger she was directing at him.
Marianne glared at him, fire blazing in her chest. How dare he waltz into her life and - and after she had refused him, he thought giving her a paycheck would make her say yes?
He was looking at her so earnestly, though - maybe he really did want to help. After a moment, the burning sensation faded, and her gaze softened. She chewed her lip, looking back into the store. She thought of the bills on her desk, hidden in a drawer to ensure Henry wouldn't see them and worry.
Charles held out a small, rectangular card. "This has the address and the phone number of the hotel Erik and I are staying at. If you change your mind, just give us a call. We're leaving tomorrow."
She stared at the offered paper for a moment, weighing her options. She reached out and took it. As she did, he put his hand over her own and held it, and when she looked into his eyes, he looked into hers. She searched his eyes, trying to find any hint of ulterior motives. She found nothing.
He could just be a good actor.
"If I really wanted to convince you to join us," he said, and she wondered if he had read her mind or if she was just easy to read. "I could do so with far less morally correct methods." He drew his hand back and tapped his fingers against his head. "We really can help you. But the choice is yours."
She watched the men walk down the sidewalk until they turned a corner and disappeared. She stood there for a minute, maybe longer, wondering, what if...
Then she stepped back and shut the door.
Even as she made dinner, she was distracted.
Not distracted enough that any of the knives floating around her posed a threat - no, she had learned a long time ago to not get too distracted when she was using her powers. Bad things could happen if she lost focus. Her mind could wander, but if she completely slipped away and didn't pay attention, she made mistakes.
Luckily, she had learned how to focus on multiple things at once since having Henry.
Henry, who sat at the dinner table now that the men were gone, seemed to have noticed her distracted state of mind. He kept glancing up at her from his algebra homework. He kept to himself, but she knew he would question her at dinner.
Marianne had said she wasn't going to do it, and so she wasn't going to do it. She couldn't risk it. As she had said, she was all Henry had, and she couldn't risk her life. She couldn't leave her son an orphan. No matter how much they were willing to pay her for her help. That should have been the end of it.
But it wasn't, because her mind kept going back to the offer. As much as she needed. All she really needed was enough to pay the bills for this month, maybe the next month, and that would be enough. Her bookstore was popular in the city, there were always people coming in, but she often came up just short of what Henry and she both needed. There was always more to be done, new things to get, Henry was growing so quickly, and with her being the only one providing for the family, there was never enough.
It wasn't like it was guaranteed she would die. Shaw and his henchmen might have been dangerous, but she was strong enough. Her powers were strong enough.
But there was still the chance, and it was too big of a chance to take.
But they needed the money.
And on and on her thoughts spun in circles, each possible reason for joining them quickly followed for a reason not to join them, and vice versa.
Several times she found herself looking at the picture of Lawrence, staring at her from his place on the bookshelf. If he were here, she thought, he could help. Lawrence had always known what to say to calm her or to help her make almost impossible decisions. But he was not here, not anymore, and she was the only one who could make the decision.
It wasn't until after five minutes of eating in silence that Henry finally asked her, "So, what did they want?"
Marianne chewed her piece of carrot. What to say...?
"Was it something about your powers? Were they from the government or something?"
She swallowed. "Yes, to both." It was better to tell him the truth. Perhaps saying it out loud would clear her mind. "They were both like me."
"They had powers too?" Henry leaned forward, staring at her with huge eyes. "I didn't know there were other people like you!"
"Neither did I," said Marianne, smiling slightly. "What a shock it was to find out, too."
"What could they do?"
"The short one, Charles, he can read minds." And apparently could do other things, too, she thought, remembering what he had said before they had parted ways. "The tall one-"
"Erik?" Henry asked.
"Yes, he can control magnetic force." She took another bite of her meal. "His powers are a bit like mine, but only with metal."
"He was cool."
"You barely talked to him."
"Yeah, but he looked cool," he said, in a matter of fact, 'I can't believe you didn't notice it' tone. "Like he was in the mafia. Do you think he's ever killed a person?"
Marianne laughed. "I thought the same thing when I first saw him!"
"He looks like he has!" Henry exclaimed, grinning. "So, what did they want?"
Marianne sobered quickly. "They wanted me," she said, fiddling with the locket around her neck, a nervous habit of hers, "to join them and some other people like me, on a mission, to take down a man, also like me. They told me he was dangerous, and that he needed to be taken down, and he's so dangerous only people like us can do so."
Henry nodded, absorbing in this information. "What did you say?"
"I told them I couldn't do it."
"Oh." He took a bite of his mashed potatoes, chewed and swallowed, before he asked, "Why not?"
Marianne shrugged. "I have too much to do here. I have you." She leaned forward. "I told them I couldn't leave you." That could have been the end of it, but then Henry said:
"Then why do you look like you've changed your mind?"
She blinked; Henry stared at her. "You were distracted all before dinner. You wouldn't be so distracted if you hadn't changed your mind." He leaned forward, no accusing look in his eye - just open and honest curiosity. "Did you change your mind?"
What could she say to that? She didn't know. She hadn't changed her mind - but she was thinking about changing her mind, and she didn't know what to say. Marianne worried her lip a bit. "Charles said something that may have made me... reconsider my choice." She looked at Lawrence's picture. Give me strength. "He offered - well, he said the CIA would offer me any amount of money I needed in exchange for helping them." She set down her fork and put her fingertips together, pressing them to her lips as she put her elbows on the table. "And I know I never talk about it with you, Henry, but we do need more money."
"I know." Henry looked down at his plate. "I've seen you staring at the bills, sometimes. I know you're worried. I've been thinking about maybe getting a job, like a paper route or something, to help out." It wasn't fair his mom was the only mom he knew who had to worry about paying for them both to live all by herself. All of his friends had both parents to help pay the bills, and even if only their dads worked, at least their moms were around, so the option of a second paycheck was there. His mom was the only mom he knew who had to do everything alone, and it was not fair.
Marianne resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. Another reason to accept the offer. Her son should not have to be worrying about their financial struggles. His biggest worry should have been whether or not he would have homework to do over the weekend. "Thank you, mon loup. If I decided to accept their offer, we would have more money, but I would be gone for an -" she paused. What was the word- ah, yes. "An indeterminate length of time." She glanced up at Henry. He nodded, letting her know she had gotten the word right.
"And," she continued. "It would be a risk. I don't know if I would be coming back at all. If something were to happen-"
"Is this guy really that dangerous?" Henry interrupted.
"Erik and Charles believe so."
"How dangerous?"
"Dangerous enough they think he put missiles in Turkey."
Marianne looked up in alarm as Henry's fork clattered to his plate. He stared at her with huge blue eyes, panicked. "There are missiles in Turkey?" He whispered.
"I-"
"Thomas said that his father said there might be a war - is that true?" Henry demanded, leaning forward, eyes searching hers desperately for some sign that it wasn't true. "Mrs. Carter said we've been at war with the Russians since the second war, is that what this is? And Angela said her mother said-"
"There's not going to be a war," Marianne interrupted, speaking firmly so to get Henry to listen to her. "America and the Soviets are too scared of destroying the world to start a war, and if they haven't blown each other up in more than a decade, they're not going to start now." She stood and picked up her plate, hoping that was the end of that conversation. She brought it to the kitchen and dropped it into the sink. When she looked back to Henry, he was staring at his plate with the expression of someone who had just been faced with his own mortality.
She glided over to him and squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "There's nothing to worry about," she said firmly. "I promise you, sweetling."
Henry nodded, not looking convinced. As he took his own plate to the sink, she heard him mutter, "Obviously there is, or they wouldn't need to stop him..."
Marianne could only sigh.
She looked at Lawrence again. The card with the hotel's information on it was right next to the photo.
"She's not going to call us, Charles," Erik told his friend. Charles had not stopped glancing at the telephone in their room since they had arrived at the hotel. "She's made her decision."
"Yes, she's made her decision, but she could still change her mind," Charles declared. "We certainly gave her enough of a reason to."
"You gave her a reason to," Erik corrected, jabbing a finger in Charles's direction. "Don't drag me into this. I had nothing to do with it."
"Yes, I gave her a reason to, but really, if you had only seen what I had seen..." Charles shuddered in elation at the memory. When he had tapped into her mind with Cerebro, he had seen everything she had to offer (though he had obviously missed some of her key memories, he noted with annoyance). She was more powerful than she could possibly imagine. It was glorious, feeling the power she possessed, and she used it for nothing more than sorting out her store and taking care of everyday chores. "Believe me, my friend, we need her on our team."
Erik sighed and shook his head before he returned to his book. "She's a mother, Charles. She should stay with her son." He remembered the way the boy, Henry had gone right to his mother, had glared at them both, obviously a boy used to protecting his mother. Ms. Ouellet only kissed her son's forehead and Erik's view of her had transformed; from a woman refusing to help them defeat evil to a woman with every reason to reject them.
"I agree. However-"
The phone rang. Charles took a second to grin victoriously at Erik before he ran to answer it. "Hello, love," he greeted.
"How much will I be paid?" Ms. Ouellet asked on the other end. Charles winked at Erik, who sighed again.
"As much as you need, I can make arrangements as soon as you have a number." Charles listened to her tell him the amount she wanted and quickly wrote it down on the pad of paper next to the phone. "Yes, yes, I can definitely arrange this."
"I would hope so, since you told me you could," Ms. Ouellet remarked. "Do you need to give me any more information, or will I have to find the CIA's building on my own?"
"No, no need to worry about that, we'll come by your store tomorrow to pick you up - will sometime around nine in the morning work for you?"
He heard rustling on the other end. "That works fine for me, thank you, I just need to make arrangements with a friend."
"Yes, of course. Thank you so much for your help, Ms. Ouellet, we really appreciate it. You're doing your country a great service."
"First, Charles, call me Marianne," she responded.
"Second," she continued, "I'm Canadian." And with that, she hung up.
The next chapter is when we start connecting to the movie's plot. I don't think that chapter will be quite as long as most chapters have been so far, just so it takes less time to write.
Hope you liked this chapter! Don't be shy, leave a comment, please. Let me know what you thought - if you liked it, why you liked it, whether or not you thought Charles and Erik were In Character (That's definitely important, so let me know your thoughts on that), your thoughts on what may come in the future? Anything. I appreciate all and any comments left on my stories.