Acceptance

            Scott was lying in his bed, awake as usual. The sorrow he had felt at knowing his search for sight was useless had lessened a little bit; now there was only a dull, persistent ache. Instead, he was too busy thinking about what had happened the rest of the night. When the tears had finally stopped, he and Xavier talked long into the night. Scott had found out more about Xavier than ever before, and his respect for the man grew even more. He had told Scott about his past and about his dreams for the future - a future of peace and acceptance between mutants and non-mutants. Just listening to Xavier speak about his vision inspired Scott.

            He wanted to be a part of it.

            Which is why now, just a few short hours after finding out that he'd never be able to open his eyes again without causing horrible destruction, he began to feel hope. He may be virtually blind, but that didn't mean he couldn't learn how to function. And once he learned how to function, he could start helping Xavier make his dream the reality.

            Scott smiled, turned on his side and fell asleep.

                                                *                      *                      *

            Xavier sat in the dining room, eating breakfast and waiting for Scott to join him. Thinking about his ward, his heart filled with pride. The disappointments he faced this last week, culminating in the horrible discovery last night, were enough to break any man. But not Scott. He dealt with the pain and anger and had moved on.

            Xavier was ecstatic that Scott turned out to be so brave, so mature, so resilient. When Cerebro had shown him a young, scared mutant heading his way, his first and only thought had been to help him - teach him and show him kindness that very few other people would have. But something happened this last week that he hadn't expected. He had found a son.

            He heard Scott's slow steps making his way down the hall and into the dining room. Smiling, Xavier wheeled himself down the table to pour Scott a cup of coffee.

            "Good morning, Scott."

            "Good morning, sir." Scott stretched his hand out in front of him, reaching out for the dining room table he knew was there. Finding it, he followed it down to the chair at the end and sat down. He heard Xavier place the coffee cup in front of him and could smell the eggs and bacon sitting on the plate next to the cup. But, for the first time since he got there, he didn't start digging into the food immediately. He just sat there, facing straight ahead, obviously deep in thought. Xavier didn't need his telepathy to tell that he needed to talk about something.

            "What is it Scott?" The boy started, looking a little embarrassed.

            "Uh, sorry, sir. It's just - I - I thought about a lot of different things last night. And...I have a proposal for you."

            Xavier hesitated for a few seconds, confused about what Scott was talking about. "Okay."

            "Well...you're a licensed teacher, right? And you also want to help mutants."

            "Yes."

            "So...why don't you do both?"

            Xavier paused again. "I have considered establishing a private school for mutants. But I wouldn't be able to help more than one or two children at a time. And I would feel horrible trying to use Cerebro to decide who those children would be."

            "Which is why you need help." Scott exhaled nervously. "I want to help. Obviously, I won't be qualified to teach for quite a few years, but I figure it will take you a little bit of time to get everything figured out anyway. And, while you're doing that, I'll work at finishing my high school diploma and start learning how to be a teacher."

            Xavier started feeling a tiny sliver of hope that someday his dream really could come true, but he tried desperately to keep control of his thoughts. He desperately wanted to listen to Scott's words and forget all about the problems associated with enacting them. But he couldn't do that to Scott. How could he tie a boy as bright and amazing as Scott to himself and to a school for who knows how long? He had seen inside Scott's brain and knew that the boy hadn't wanted to be a schoolteacher before his mutation manifested. Just because it had didn't mean he should give up on his dreams.

            Xavier sighed, his heart wrenching as he made up his mind against the one plan that might have helped make his dream come true.

            "No, Scott. I can't let you do that. You don't want to be a teacher."

            The smile that had tentatively growing on Scott's face quickly faded, and his mouth set into a grim line. His shoulders sagged momentarily, but he almost immediately resumed proper posture.

            "Read my mind."

            "What?" Xavier almost choked on his tea.

            "Read my mind. I don't have the words to describe how much I want this, how much helping you fulfill this goal means to me. I couldn't do my feelings justice with mere words...and, I kinda doubt you'd believe just mere words."

            "Scott..."

            "Read...my...mind."

            Xavier sighed, but complied, reaching the tendrils of his mind out of his brain and slowly across the space between the two men. Strangely, he was afraid of what he'd read in Scott's mind, but, in a way, he also couldn't wait. He lightly brushed Scott's mind and was almost thrown backward by the sheer intensity of Scott's desire to show him how he felt about a possible school.

            "Okay, Scott."

            "Okay." Scott smiled and finally put a bit of his breakfast into his mouth. Shoving it to the corner of his mouth, he spoke around the food, too excited to care about table manners. "Which brings me to the next part of my proposal. In order for me to help, and to finish my schooling, I have to be able to function. Controlling my mutation is out of the question, so I'll just have to do what non-mutant blind people do. I would like to go to some sort of camp or school or something for blind people. Would you be willing to help me pay for that, and you can keep it out of any paycheck I would get from you once we start the school?"

            "Of course," Xavier said, fully intending to never accept the money from him. His heart burst with admiration for the boy and his rolling with the punches. It was hard for Xavier to remember sometimes - you don't have to have special mutations to be able to solve some problems, and he was grateful that Scott reminded him of that. After all, if his school was to become a reality, they would be teaching the kids not only how to use their mutations, but also how to live in a non-mutant world.

            With that taken care of, Scott quickly dispatched the rest of his food, while Xavier excused himself to go research schools for the blind in the area.