X-Men-First Class: Rise or Fall
Chapter Fourteen
Author's Word: Hi, everyone. Thank you all so much for that incredible feedback. I loved it. Thanks to everyone who added the story to alerts and favorites as well. Merry, merry Christmas to all of you!
Laughter filled the living room that early afternoon. Frank, Becky, and Joey had started up a game of Damsel and Dragon right after lunch. Becky, using her doll Eliza, provided the part of the damsel in distress while Frank acted as the dragon with a giant lizard plush he had gotten on a trip to China Town back in New York. Joey, despite Frank's initial objections, had received the part of the hero and used a fireplace poker for a sword and a throw pillow for a shield.
"You are doomed!" Frank taunted in the raspy voice of a fire-breather. He stood on the couch while the other two faced him from the loveseat.
"You can't get us now," Joey informed him, holding out the poker to indicate the coffee table. "You'll never make it across this bridge."
"Oh yeah?" Frank smirked. He took a jump, knocking over the display of wax fruit on the coffee table as he did.
The kids laughed merrily as Frank attacked Joey with his lizard and Joey attempted to fight back with his 'sword'. Becky, holding onto Eliza protectively, gazed on.
"Ahem." The three looked over and saw Erik watching their performance. "Jumping on the furniture, are we?"
Joey, climbing down from his hero status, ducked behind Frank who immediately got down from the loveseat.
"Who, us?" Frank let off a low chuckle. "Not a chance."
Becky got down as well, going over to the adult with a smile on her face. "We were just playing Damsel and Dragons."
Erik looked about the children, all still in their pajamas and ready to take advantage of the non-school day.
"How do we say doll in French, Rebecca?" Erik asked, tapping the porcelain figure in the girl's arms gently.
"Ummmmm…." The girl thought hard. "… Puppy."
"Pupattola," Erik corrected, complete with perfect accent.
Becky's smile widened significantly. "That's what I meant."
"I'm sure. Did you conjugate those verbs I told you to go over?"
Her voice carried more confidence as she said, "Most of them."
"You have a test tomorrow." Erik knelt to her level. "I expect you studying while I'm gone, understand?" He tweaked her nose, making her giggle.
"Yes, Erik," she replied compliantly.
Out in the foyer, Charles grumbled silently while wrestling with his coat. A small yet vital new part they had ordered for Cerebro had been placed on back order for two weeks. To prevent it from taking much longer, the company had offered self-pickup to their nearest office… in New Jersey. The three hour drive ahead to that particular state had left the Professor slightly on edge.
Raven and Hank stood together before him, offering sympathetic expressions.
Erik soon came over, trusted caramel brown briefcase in hand.
"Make sure to have Joey in bed by nine thirty," Charles instructed. "He'll need a bath about nine and his bedtime story of course."
"See to it that Becky studies her French," Erik tacked on.
"And do not give any of them any excessive sweets," Charles said, "including Alex and Sean, especially Sean."
"Bath, bedtime, foreign languages, and depriving Sean," Raven recounted. "Got it."
"You don't have to worry," Hank assured the two men. "We can see to things around here for the day."
"Yeah," Raven said positively. "It'll be fun."
Erik looked at them with a hard expression. "You two need to keep in mind that you are not here as their beloved older brother and sister. You are filling our roles and are to react as we would."
Raven leaned on Hank as she talked to Erik. "Does that mean we can borrow that stick you use to beat the fun out of the very young?"
"We'll be back no later than eleven." Charles kissed his sister's cheek. "Take care."
When the headmaster pair finally left out, Raven turned to Hank with a beam. "This is going to be great! It's like we're playing house. You're the dad and I'm the mom."
"Does this mean we can put Alex up for adoption?" Hank joked.
Raven jabbed a finger at him. "You be nice to our oldest."
IIIIIII
The antics of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd interblended with The Twist, which currently blasted at the highest ratio possible. Hank walked into the den and saw Becky and Joey parked in front of the set, Sean performing some sort of Hawaiian surfer dance move, and Alex and Frank involved in a game of waste basket free throws with paper balls.
Hank went over and removed the needle, making the record come to a screeching halt. "Louder, Alex. I don't think they heard us on unchartered planets."
"What?" Alex spread his arms out incredulously, still holding the waste basket out for Frank. "We wanted music and the kids wanted TV."
"We're learning about compromise," Sean added.
"Sean," Hank said informatively, "it hurts me to tell you this but the only thing you're learning is bad dancing. Need I reiterate our need to keep a low profile? What if one of the neighbors complains about the noise levels?"
"They'd call the fuzz," Alex surmised to which he, Sean, and Frank all reacted with, "Cool!"
"Not. Cool," Hank countered.
"Hank, we can't hear," Becky told him, pointing at the TV.
"Becca, you're supposed to be studying French," Hank reminded her then looked about the rest of the room. "Sean, you have a paper due in my class. Alex, help Joey with his reading. Frank, Raven needs a hand with dinner."
They all started out for opposite ends of the mansion.
"Who died and made him Erik?" Alex mumbled, gathering Joey.
"Give a guy a little power…" Sean commented lowly.
IIIIIII
Raven watched fondly from where she leaned against the doorway of the living room as Hank moved around on all fours, growling playfully. Joey giggled wildly as he continuously tried in vain to pin the much larger man.
With a smile, Hank got up and announced, "Okay, kiddo, I think it's about time for a bath. In fact, it's pass time."
Latching on tightly to Hank by the back of his neck, Joey protested, "Oh, but I didn't even play outside today. Can I skip it? Please, please."
"I don't think it'll do that much harm, Hank," Raven said.
He nodded. "All right but it is time to get ready for bed."
"Okay," Joey conceded unhappily.
"Come on," Hank said, holding on tightly to the small boy as he carried him out and upstairs.
When they made it to his room, Joey went over to the bed. "You have to do the check the way Charles does. The bed, the windows, and the closet."
Hank obliged and did a thorough check into all of the named areas. "All clear."
"Are you sure?" Joey wanted to know.
"Positive." Hank went to the built in wall shelf to pick out a book.
Joey climbed into bed and listened to the story, unable to get into it. "You and Raven won't go too far, right?" he asked once the tale ended. "In case a monster sneaks in when you're not looking?"
"Right downstairs," Hank promised. "You don't have to worry, Joey. We won't let anything happen to you."
"Okay." Joey settled down. "Night."
"Night," Hank returned. He tucked him in then growled into his neck good-naturedly, getting a chortle out of him. "Sleep well."
With the youngest down for the night, Hank went to check on next in age above him.
"Who is it?" Becky asked the knocker at her door as she helped Ken to kiss Barbie.
"It's Big Bear."
Shifting her eyes suspiciously, Becky tossed the two dolls to the side before dashing madly over to an upright position on her desk chair.
"Come in," she invited sweetly.
Hank opened the door and walked in fully. "You've been up here since we finished dinner. You must know those verbs backwards and forwards."
"Uh huh," she nodded, staring at the papers on her desk.
"I know it must be challenging what with you having to find time to help Barbie plan her date with Ken."
Feeling her hand glued to some kind of intangible cookie jar, Becky wanted to know, "How do you do that?"
"I know you," Hank said simply. "That's why I have four eyes. Two for me and two for you. Now, are you having difficulty."
"Not really." She propped her head up with hand. "It just makes me bored."
"I thought you enjoyed taking French."
"Only the history and art stuff," Becky clarified. "I hate conjugating. Theirs is so much harder than ours and with them you have to say whether it's masculine or feminine. Who cares?"
"I'm sure they have a few choice things to say about our language," Hank reasoned. "And whatever the case may be, you have a test and I want you to do well. Any further monkey business will result in me having to tickle you."
Becky eyed him expectantly. "So?"
"With my feet."
Without another word, Becky immediately placed all of her attention on all things French.
IIIIIII
Raven came through the first floor with a large basket of laundry. She caught Sean jogging down the stairs.
"You need to go pick up the living room," she informed him.
"Why me?" he said. "The younger kids were in there most of the day."
"Your stuff is in there, too and I've had to go behind you and Alex plenty of times," Raven stated matter-of-factly. "If it's not cleaned up, Charles and Erik will have my head, not yours."
Sean sighed, "Fine," before going towards the living room.
Raven shook her head and brought the fresh linens to their rightful closet. Hank met her in the den a minute later.
"Did you get Joey to sleep?" Raven asked.
"With no trouble," Hank responded. "And Becca and Frank are finishing up their homework."
"Laundry's done and the dishwasher is unloaded," Raven smiled. "Charles and Erik can be so dramatic. Running things around here is not rocket science." She spotted the spot beside her on the couch. "So… Casablanca is coming on."
Hank grinned and took up to offered seat.
IIIIIII
Joey stayed wide awake in bed for several minutes. When he felt himself growing sleepy, he climbed down from bed and left out of his room. Making sure to be as quiet as possible when he got downstairs, he checked in on Raven and Hank, both engrossed in the TV. Joey continued on into the kitchen and began searching for the ovaltine.
"Boo." Joey jumped and spun around to see Alex behind him.
"Shhhh!" Joey hissed, putting a finger to his lips.
"Don't "shhhh" me. What are you doing up?"
"You're gonna bug Raven and Hank," the little boy whispered. "They're busy making eyes."
"And you're busy being bad." Alex pointed upward. "You, bed, now."
Joey pouted. "Aw, Al…"
"Nope." The teen shook his head. "You know you're supposed to be asleep. Charles would kick you right in the butt if he knew you were still up."
Hank walked in, clicking on the light. "Joey, what are you doing?"
"Talking to Alex," Joey told him.
"Well, you can talk to Alex first thing in the morning," Hank said. "Right now, you need to go back to bed."
"Can I have ovaltine first? I'm thirsty."
"No, you can't have sweets at this hour." Hank gestured for the sink. "You can have water."
"Okay," Joey agreed with a small sigh.
When he went over to the sink, he had to scan through most of the glasses because they all, according to him, had spots on them. Then he found the water too warm and needed ice added but not too much.
Hank felt his extensive patience dwindling. He brought Joey back to his room and landed a swat as the boy got back into bed.
The unexpected pop startled Joey enough to make his lamp flicker.
"Do not get out again," Hank instructed firmly.
Joey reached out and hugged him. "I'm sorry, Hank. I had fun with you all day."
Hank felt a little guilty now. "And I with you. Let's keep it a good day, all right?"
"Okay." Joey solidified it by drawing an invisible X over his chest.
Hank tucked him back in. "Good night."
"Good night."
"Night night." Joey laid back and tried to be still.
After fifteen minutes, he used his ability to switch his reading lamp on. He gathered all of his nearby stuffed animals together at the foot of his bed then picked up the book Hank had left out. The eight-year-old figured this way he could stay up but keep his promise to Hank not to get out of bed again. He opened the book and began reading to his toy audience.
Raven came in to check on him a couple minutes later and groaned. "Joey…"
"Hi, Raven," Joey returned, the picture of innocence. "I'm practicing my reading like Charles and Erik always tell me to."
"Not at bedtime. You know that," Raven admonished him. "Light off and sleep, right now." Joey put the book down and turned the light off with his power. "Listen, pal, if you get up again or try to read while you're supposed to be asleep, I'm telling Charles when he gets home."
"No, Raven," Joey pleaded. "Please don't. I was good all day."
"Then go to sleep," she said with as firm a tone as she could when it came to electrically inclined one.
Once again, Joey laid down and brightened when he realized it was ten thirty. He only needed a half hour now. Getting out his flashlight from the night table drawer, he held the heated part close to his forehead. Then, putting on as miserable a face as he could, headed downstairs.
IIIIIII
Eyeing the scientist in a very special way, Raven wanted to know, "Why haven't you tried to kiss me?"
Hank turned from the film to her. "Too dangerous. Kissing leads to pregnancy after all."
"Fine," the girl smirked. "I'll do all the work." She sat up, folding her knees underneath herself, then leaned in close until their lips joined.
The kiss got stronger and stronger. Raven could not describe how great it felt not having to worry about not one but two older brothers coming in and breaking up their intense display of affection.
A light pitiful moan broke them apart instead.
Joey came in, holding his stomach. "Haaank, I don't feel well."
The scientist sighed heavily. "Come here."
Joey came around the sofa to them. "I feel hot and my stomach's all heavy."
Feeling his forehead, which felt strangely warm in the middle but pretty cool on either side, Hank said, "Well, let's take your temperature."
Raven went to retrieve a thermometer and plopped it into Joey's mouth.
Once time ended, Hank took a look at the reading. "98.6. You don't have a fever."
"But my stomach hurts," the boy insisted. "I don't want to be by myself. Can't I stay down here with you guys?"
Hank sighed again but gave in. "Fine."
Raven took hold of the fleece throw and wrapped it around Joey. "Isn't it fun playing house?" she asked Hank.
"Oh, extremely," he responded dryly.
Charles and Erik walked through the door at eleven on the dot and at the sound of the television, made tracks for the den.
"Joey." Charles frowned at seeing the child awake. "What's the matter?"
"He's 'sick'," Raven informed him, making air quotes with two of her fingers.
Joey grinned and reached out for Charles.
"Sick?" The Professor lifted him up, checking his forehead and cheeks. "Well, there doesn't seem to be a fever."
"We took his temperature," Hank said. "It was normal."
Erik, holding the paper bag with the new part for Cerebro, tossed out casually, "Well, with temperatures there really is only one sure area for checking..."
Charles nodded. "Raven, get the Vaseline please."
Joey's eyes went huge. "No! I'm sure it's just my stomach."
"Then you'll need castor oil," Charles said.
"No!" Joey reacted again, not sure which option sounded worse. "I feel better now that you're here." He rested on Charles' shoulder. "All better."
Charles carefully entered his mind, getting the truth. Joseph, he scolded mentally, you know better than to deceive people.
Joey whimpered. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to wait for you to read to me."
"Ah, I see." Charles carried him out and up the stairs. "While I understand that, you know better than to be awake so late, especially on a school night."
"I had such a good day today," Joey said excitedly. "Alex helped me with my reading and me and Hank wrestled and my powers only went off once all day."
"I'm glad to hear that, little one," Charles responded honestly, "but you still disobeyed about bedtime." He pulled Joey closer against him and landed three mild swats to his behind.
Joey whimpered. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it a bad day after all."
Charles hugged him fiercely. "It's not a bad day."
The eight-year-old wrapped his arms around the older mutant's neck. "It's not?"
"No day you're here with me could ever be bad, Joey," Charles told him. "Besides, I remember when I was little; waiting up for my dad to read me stories."
Joey felt incredibly touched, mainly because Charles rarely spoke of his biological father in front of anyone. "Um, what was he like?"
Charles thought about that for a moment. "Well, from what I can remember, he was smart and caring and made sure I had the best of everything."
"That sounds like you," Joey smiled.
"Hm, perhaps." Charles sat the child on the bed before crouching down to him. "Though I think I have far better children."
Joey grinned. "Hank read to me but he's the best at wrestling and helping me with my homework. I like it when you read to me."
"Well, then I best get to it." Charles stood and took Jack and the Beanstalk out of the collection. He laid down with Joey and held him close then began the tale.
IIIIIII
Erik entered Becky's room and saw her asleep under the covers , loosely hugging her French book. Erik smiled softly at the sight. He went over and delicately removed the text from her clutch.
She stirred slightly, making out his face through her blurred vision. "Erik, you're home."
"Indeed," he whispered to her. "Go back to sleep, Sweet Imp."
"I studied really hard…" She closed her eyes as she spoke.
"I never doubted you would." Erik turned off the lamp and kissed her cheek. "Sleep."
''Kay, Erik… Love you."
More taken aback than he had been in a long time, Erik took the sleeping child's hand and returned strongly, "I love you, too, Rebecca," though he felt he did not deserve the honor.