Going through my DVD collection and had the urge to do a quick story for (mostly) Alex and Hank set after the beach divorce. Probably a two-shot and assumes the same background as 'A Dangerous Man,' including that they spent longer than a week training together at the mansion before everything happened, but it shouldn't matter whether you've read that or not. Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews.

"Oh." Hank stared at the heavy double-doors in front of them, suddenly at a loss. The CIA agent that had dropped them off in front of the mansion had barely given them time to step away from the car before peeling away with a squeal of tires, and Hank hadn't even thought about locks or keys or anything like that until this very moment.

"Guess I can break a window."

He looked back at Alex, who shrugged.

"Well, I haven't got any lock picks on me, so either we break something or we somehow get back to the hospital and go through the professor's stuff. Or track down R..." He grimaced. "Never mind."

Hank's mind shied away from any hint of his second idea as well because even if Raven—Mystique—probably did have a key, she'd walked away. Not just from him but from all of them, even from her own brother. She'd just left him there, bleeding in the sand. No matter what Charles had said, Hank couldn't even begin to wrap his mind around that. And now the professor was in the hospital in a medically-induced coma while some specialist from somewhere examined scans and x-rays of his back courtesy of Moira and the CIA, and Hank couldn't even be there because he was big and blue and furry and even in a CIA hospital with military security everywhere that was just a little too much for everyone.

He'd spent last night huddled with Sean and Alex in a storage closet before Moira had confronted them all with the fact that he—well, they, technically, since Alex had all but assaulted a couple of the hospital security types who'd made an ill-advised comment about freaks—couldn't stay. Couldn't consult with the specialist, couldn't review the professor's charts with him or anyone else except maybe over the phone... They'd thrown Hank into a trench coat and a ridiculous hat for the six-hour car ride back out here with a driver who'd very carefully not looked at him at any point during the trip, and all of the fear and pain and rage he'd been fighting down since the island was suddenly too much and a wave of anger overtook him.

When the roaring in his blood finally subsided and he'd choked off the snarls that had come along with it, he found what had been two solid oaken doors shredded nearly to splinters, one torn completely from its frame and the other hanging on a single twisted hinge.

Alex scoffed from somewhere behind his left shoulder. "And people say I have anger management issues."

Hank felt his lip start to curl again, fingers—claws—biting into his palms, and he clamped down on that instinct hard. He and Alex might not have an entirely adversarial relationship these days, but the other boy still grated on his nerves, and with this new thing inside of him that he had no control over and no professor to intercede—

"Come on, you two, knock it off," Sean said, stepping past Hank. "We're here. The door's...open. Let's just go inside."

He sounded as defeated as Hank felt, and Hank nodded and followed him through the doorway. The remains of the doorway. Alex was the last one in, and if he poked at the splinters of wood that were all that remained of the doorframe, at least he didn't actually say anything before he finally shrugged and followed Sean down the hall.

"I'll go find some plywood or something to block that off," Hank said to their backs.

Neither said anything in reply, and by the time he'd hauled up a couple boards to form a rough blockade they'd both disappeared. To the kitchen, to their rooms, it wouldn't be hard for Hank to find them with or without their cooperation—along with his body becoming big and blue and furry his senses had also gotten an upgrade recently—but Hank had a feeling that keeping his own company was the safest thing for everyone right now.

When he finally braved Charles' office he found it exactly as they'd left it, without even any messages from Moira, but that wasn't a surprise. Hank doubted that the specialist would even consider operating on the first day that he arrived, especially since Charles was stable. Most likely he had a whole selection of scans he'd want the hospital to run first to guarantee the best chance of success. Hank would, if he was allowed to have any say in anything.

He wandered from the office to his lab, which was somehow even more of a mess than he remembered, and spent some time trying to set things right with the vague notion that he could get started on a few experiments targeting the reversal of this damn serum. 'Mutant and proud' was all well and good when you could hide it in your interactions with the general population who had no idea that mutants even existed, but he didn't have that option anymore.

Unfortunately by the time he'd finished clearing away the debris he couldn't keep his hands steady anymore, which made drawing a blood sample a nonstarter, and with a sigh he gave up and turned for the stairs. As much as he might not want to, he had to get some sleep.

He was upstairs before he remembered that he should really eat something as well since the last food he remembered was a tray shoved in his general direction in the hospital yesterday evening, but even the idea was enough to make his stomach roll, and he continued his trek towards his room. He'd make himself eat bowl of oatmeal or whatever they still had on hand tomorrow morning.

Sean or Alex were probably going to have to go into town sometime soon to restock supplies, though, from what he remembered of the professor's discussions with— He shook himself. From what he remembered. He'd confirm tomorrow.

He smelled Sean's presence as he passed the other mutant's room, heard his quiet snores, and as much as he didn't want to think about his enhanced senses right now he was glad that at least someone was managing some rest.

Alex's room was next, and Hank hesitated because because unlike Sean's it seemed to be empty. Nor were there any sounds coming from the bathroom at the end of the hall. But since it was probably safer for all involved that he stayed clear of Alex anyway, he continued on to his own room.

Unfortunately despite his exhaustion sleep wouldn't come, and with a sigh he eventually gave up and rolled back out of the bed. With the professor and E—

Another thought that he cut off with a shake of his head. With the professor gone he was basically the only responsible adult left, the remains of the front doors notwithstanding, and he should probably at least make a token effort to ensure that the others were safe.

He paused outside Sean's door again, but there was definitely only one person inside, and if his sleep didn't sound very restful anymore it wasn't like Hank wasn't expecting some nightmares too.

Alex wasn't in the kitchen, the office, the library, the lab—not that that last was any kind of a surprise—and Hank turned slowly in place as he tried to figure out where else Alex could possibly be. Even if he didn't have a good handle on these new senses yet he didn't think Alex was anywhere near him right now...had he gone into town? It wasn't likely, especially given the hour, but it wasn't impossible either. Charles had several cars here and Alex had made at least one offhand comment about hot-wiring in the past. Still, Hank hadn't gotten the impression that Alex had been interested in human interaction earlier either.

Alex had always joined them for morning runs but had never really seemed to enjoy them, and him going running in the middle of the night seemed even less likely.

Maybe he'd gone up to Raven's room to use the weight set? It was a couple stories up and might be out of Hank's range, and they'd all made use of it at one point or another during training.

Hank turned towards the stairs but only managed one step before his nerve failed. If Alex was up in Raven's room he could just stay there because right now Hank couldn't even bring himself to think about going near her space.

With a lack of any other ideas Hank started to turn back towards his room, only to halt again. He hadn't checked the bunker. He had no idea why Alex would have gone down there, but it was somewhere maybe-reasonable to check that wasn't Raven's room, and...well, as tired as he was he still didn't feel like he'd be able to fall asleep any time soon.

The bunker door was shut when he reached the bottom of the stairs and he almost turned around again, but when he focused he could hear a low heartbeat from the other side. He hesitated for a moment and then tapped lightly.

There was a moment of silence, and then the door opened a crack. "What?"

"Alex? What are you doing down here?"

"What do you think, Bozo?"

"Don't call me that," Hank snapped.

Alex looked a little surprised at the vehemence in his tone, but better he finally take a hint than this thing inside Hank take over again. He'd already attacked one of his teammates, although thinking back he wondered if his instincts had recognized something about Er—him that his conscious mind had never processed.

Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

"Fine, whatever," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "What would you like on this lovely evening, Hank?"

His mocking tone was no better than the obnoxious nickname, and Hank bit back a growl. "I was just wondering where you were. I mean, since you weren't in your room."

A snort. "Yeah, because torching his house would be a great welcome home present for the professor."

"What?"

He shook his head, stepping back into the darkness. "Nothing. Forget it. I'm fine, thanks for looking, go to bed."

Hank's hand on the door kept him from shutting it, and Alex's eyes narrowed.

"Was there some part of the implied 'get lost' that wasn't clear? I thought you were supposed to be the genius here, but I can be more blunt if you'd like."

This time the growl escaped his throat, and it took more effort than Hank liked to choke it back. "Alex, please, I don't know what's going to happen if you keep..."

"Keep what?"

"Being—" What he wanted to say was 'an asshole,' language that somehow only Alex ever seemed to drive him to use, but he didn't see than improving the situation any. "Antagonistic," he decided.

"Huh?"

"It means acting in—"

"I know what antagonistic means, asshole," Alex snapped. "I'm not stupid."

"I didn't—" Hank shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that. I know you aren't. But this...whatever I did to myself, I don't have a very good hold on it yet."

Alex blinked.

"I'm just afraid something bad is going to happen if you keep poking," he muttered. Alex was confident and quick-tongued and everything that Hank wasn't and envied, and while in the past he'd always been able to squash his less than polite urges, he wasn't at all confident about that anymore. "Could you just come back upstairs, please? We all need sleep."

"No." Alex caught the door again and tugged against Hank's grip. "Like I said: thanks, I'm fine, go to bed."

Despite his pulling it still didn't take any effort for Hank to keep the door open. "You can't sleep down here."

"For fuck's sake, why not? I mean, you know Charles and—" Alex's jaw tightened. "You know Charles pulled me out of solitary in a maximum security prison, right? If I can sleep on a concrete slab, I can sleep on a steel slab just as easy. Go away."

"Alex, come on, your room is—"

"Full of shit that burns. What are you not getting about this?"

"You're being ridiculous. You are not going to burn the house down."

"I have a nightmare and yes I fucking will," Alex snapped. "I've done it before. I mean, did you think they put me in prison because I cussed out the principal one time too many?"

Hank opened his mouth and then shut it again. He'd known that Alex had been found in a prison, it would have been hard for him not to know since he'd been the one translating the coordinates Charles had provided into actual locations, but he hadn't actually thought about why before.

"So I'm telling you yet again, fuck off to your own room and let me torch the one place on this damn property that I can't actually hurt."