A/N: How lucky are you guys who read my story? Very very lucky, that's how lucky. Right after I uploaded to this site, the electricity man came up to my door, said something about a bill, and shut off our electricity. So you got the story before my house got turned into a non-modern place. At night, my family and I sat in the kitchen, bundled up in our outerwear, eating potato chips by candlelight. Well, middle-class sure was fun!

Muhjaa-ness: All right, another person to whom I can talk about non-important things! And yes, there will be a confrontation, as if that was the end of the story, it would be extremely lame and stupid and you'd flame me. Ta!

Toxic-Beetle: There hasn't been a chapter of this story that you haven't reviewed. So I'd just like to say… FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER! GO WATCH IT! That's a Wayne - someone song, FYI. Danke schoen, too! That means thank you very much in German.

A/N 2: On a more serious note (because you don't want to listen to me whine forever about nothing), Child Abuse Prevention Day is November 19th. The official color is dark blue, so make a shirt or a ribbon and wear it that day. Yeah, in case you didn't realize, child abuse is my concern in this world. So support my story and me and wear a dark blue ribbon! Thank you!

A/N 3: Oh, by the way, my parent/teacher meeting went…less than perfect, let's just say. Nnnghh.

A/N 4: Okay, this is the chapter where you find out some stuff about someone in this story…keep reading to find out who!

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. If I did, I'd use Professor X's money to buy a really fancy laptop, on which I wouldn't do anything but write fanfics (because I'm cool like that).

Chapter Eleven: Comforting Lie

Germany, 1984

Caroline slammed her door, stretching the cuff of her sleeve over her wrist and wiping her eyes on it. Crying was weakness, and she hated herself for showing it. As far as anyone needed to know, she was strong, capable, and nothing could hurt her.

So why did she hurt so much right now?

Her palms still stung from where she had hit that mutant kid. But that wasn't it. It felt like there was a hole going through her, right above her stomach.

It had to be Rolanda. Her mother. Even after her death, Caroline mused, snorting mirthlessly, she was hurting her.

Like all those times when her father had hit her when she was a kid back in America. Rolanda had never stopped him. It had forced him to leave eventually. Caroline couldn't help but miss him, even with his beatings. It was Rolanda's fault.

Or after he father had left. Rolanda had made Caroline leave America and go back to Germany. She had friends there, a life, but in Germany, people had made fun of her American accent and her clothes. She couldn't imagine how anyone could like that place.

And when Rolanda had let her friend Raven and her freak child into the house. How could she let people like that into their home? Blue devil deserved everything he got.

Caroline walked over to her bed, pausing for a moment to stare at her reflection in the mirror on the wall. The darkness made her face seem ghostly in the little sliver of moonlight coming in from her window. She shivered, hating how big and strange it made her eyes look, and threw herself under the covers of her blankets.

She remembered how it all started, her and the kid.

It was amazing, somehow, that she had gone so long without hitting him when he came.

Raven had come in the middle of the night, knocking on their door frantically. Rolanda had let her in, listening to her hysterical mumbles and sitting her at the table, making a cup of tea at the same time. Raven had set down a small bundle of what looked like blankets at her feet and started crying, talking about her and Kurt being chased. Caroline, who had been sitting on the stairs at the time, eavesdropping, didn't see anyone else but her mother and her friend. Who was Kurt?

"…Raven," she heard her mother say, and Caroline tuned in, "slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying."

Raven gulped, once, twice, then spoke. "They…saw…him…and wanted…to kill him." Big breath. "So I ran."

Who was him? What the hell was going on? Who were they?

"I'm such…an idiot."

"Raven, sweetheart," Rolanda said, setting a cup of tea in front of her, "calm down. Tell me everything."

Raven shivered, and sipped her tea. She looked weary, older than she really was. "Do you remember when Eric died? Two years ago?"

Eric. Caroline remembered going to his funeral. One of her mother's friends, extremely old. She remembered Raven, suddenly. Some trophy wife, less than half his age. She listened eagerly.

"That was the last time I saw you."

Raven nodded. "Do you know why he had a heart attack?"

"He was old, Raven." Slight smile.

Raven smiled back, waterily. "No, he was scared."

"Of what?"

"Rolanda, I have a child."

This seemed to surprise Rolanda. She frowned. "What?"

Raven laughed stupidly. "He's a boy. My baby boy. Eric died when he saw him. Right after I gave birth."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because no one can see him."

"Raven"-

"I'm serious, Rolanda. They saw him, and look what happened." She laughed again, and Caroline suddenly wondered if she was insane.

Rolanda seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Raven, do you want to stay here for a while? We have a spare bedroom, you can use it."

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Raven, why don't you just"-

"I'll show him to you. But promise you won't scream, he's sleeping."

Rolanda stared, her frown lines deepening in thought, then nodded. Caroline leaned forward; watching Raven open the bundle at her feet, then pick up something out of it. Caroline couldn't see it, as Raven had her back to her. She cursed under her breath.

She heard Rolanda gasp. "Raven, what"-

"I don't know, Rolanda. But he's mine, I can tell. Same hair as Eric, same nose as mine. His name's Kurt. Don't wake him up."

Rolanda looked shocked, staring at the child on Raven's lap. Caroline tried to send a telepathic message, telling her to turn around. It didn't work.

Rolanda stared at Raven's lap for a few more moments, stunned, then she shook herself out of her reverie. "Raven, why don't you two go up to the bedroom, settle in, and we can talk about this in the morning?"

Raven sighed, then nodded. "All right."

Rolanda stood up, and helped Raven stand, supporting her. They turned around, facing Caroline, and she finally saw the kid.

He was small, and couldn't have been older than two. Curled around his mother's arms with his eyes shut tight, and the tip of his thumb was almost in his mouth, it would have been almost cute, had it not been for his blue-black skin, pointed ears, and a forked tail twisted around in a circle. He looked like a demon child.

He was a mutant, obviously. Caroline felt her heart slam in her throat, then, without a second thought, ran up the stairs and into her room before they could see her.

A year later, and they were still in her house. Caroline wished that she could go back in time, maybe stop Raven from getting in their house. But it was too late. Today, Raven would start word at Rolanda's company, leaving her son alone while Caroline went to school. Afterwards, Caroline would come home, and make sure he hadn't set the place on fire with his breath or caused a mini-apocalypse. She didn't really care what happened to him, actually. She planned to spend as little time with him as possible. His yellow eyes freaked her out. They were big, wide, and gave her the feeling he was reading her thoughts.

That day had not been a good one for her. She could remember some teasing, bad enough to force her out of class to go into the bathroom to cry. Crying was weakness, and weakness made her angry.

At home, the first thing she had noticed when she walked in was the child, sitting next to the window in her living room, staring out of it blankly. For some reason – or maybe a very obvious one – the sight made her angry.

The kid saw her, and jumped, looking wary. He knew she didn't like him, he was cautious around her. He had a right to be. Moving slowly, he walked around her, probably going to wherever the hell he slept at night.

He muttered something, it sounded like, "Sorry," but Caroline was annoyed, she was pissed, and she had had enough of this freak living in her house. She grabbed his arm, twisted him around to face her, and punched him in the stomach. She would have preferred the nose, but if there was evidence, she'd get in trouble. She had a scar on her shoulder from her father to remind her of that. No evidence.

If she had split his skull open with a hammer, he couldn't have been more surprised. He cried out, doubled over, breathing hard. This gave Caroline a weird sense of pleasure, and a bit of sympathy, but she pushed that thought into the back of her head and grabbed his black hair, forcing him up. His eyes were shocked, and scared. She heard choking noises, and realized she must have knocked the breath out of him. She did not mind. Instead, she did it again, and again, and again, until she had taken all of her anger out on him.

Then she went upstairs to her room, turned on the light, and started her homework. She didn't give it a second thought. She was happier than she had been in a while, and actually thought herself stupid for not doing it before.

That was how it started.

Caroline was startled awake from her memory as she heard footsteps on the stairs, and realized the kid was walking up from the living room. She almost went out of her room, maybe hit him with the broom again, but she was too tired, and she felt sick.

Still Rolanda.

Caroline had to admit to herself, maybe it wasn't Rolanda who was making her sick. Maybe Caroline was sad about her death. But she pushed that thought out of her mind.

Thank god for Emmett. Level-headed, smart, and strong, he had come from America to go to college – the same one as Caroline. They had met in a human biology lecture, and after spending five minutes with him, she didn't want to go anywhere without him. He had proposed a few months later, in fact, the night Rolanda had her heart attack.

She loved Emmett, and after they had finished college, they'd get jobs (college drained out her money) and save up to buy a house in America, and get married, and he'd own his own clinic, and she'd be a doctor there, and-

Caroline stopped her train of thought, realizing that it bordered on the edge of a fantasy. But she did want that, and so did Emmett.

He didn't know about the child. She had preferred to keep that a secret. She was planning on tossing him out, anyways, it was her house and he didn't belong there. Any day, he was out.

Just as soon, Caroline realized, wishing she could punch that idea out of herself, as he stopped reminding her of herself.

But it was true. His mother had left him, and he was getting used as a punching bag. He was too much like her in some ways. Caroline hated that.

But she'd throw him out soon, she promised herself. Any day now. Then she could start a new life, with no one hurting her, and with no one daring to try to.

A/N: Gasp! Was Caroline herself abused? Does that explain a lot? Probably!

Yeah, you know the deal: Review, please, and what did you think of this chapter? Did you like the Caroline's-point-of-view thing? Let me know!

A/N 2: Next chapter: Will Gwen join a gospel choir and travel to Prague with them?

Of course not.

Kurt and Caroline will talk, Gwen will go shopping with Storm and co., and I'll be planning a way to convince someone to give me a computer for eight bucks.