warning: excessive cursing. You probably already spotted it.
"He's STILL fucking moping?" Logan may not be described as "shrilling," but it was close as far as Hank's ears were concerned.
"Really?" Hank said, rubbing his ears. "He probably heard you."
Judging by Logan's sudden wince, Charles did hear him.
"And pissy," Logan muttered, as an afterthought.
It was officially a week and a half since Charles came into the office distracted and somber, to the stunned silence of the whole department. It took hours of weak "no, we didn't break up"s from Charles before concern receded even slightly, and even then the whole department was feeling the effects of their chief being … under the weather? Brokenhearted? Pissy? Whatever it was, Hank was in the silent majority that hoped it resolved quickly.
In the meantime, Magneto's case had stalled entirely while steadily growing in importance. Hank picked as much data as he could from "Jewish, good grammar," but there were a surprising number of identified gang members that fit that description, let alone the ones they didn't know of. He supposed if the boss was Jewish it may attract more members of that affinity, and a majority of the gang were well-behaved. They had no more leads and Magneto was making more appearances, travelling at ridiculously high speeds and occasionally outright performing tricks in the middle of the road.
Needless to say, this combo was not reflecting well on Logan's mood.
"I think it's time that we ask the public for any information they may have," Hank suggested.
"Fine, whatever," Logan snarled, "but we've tried your way, now we do mine. We're getting on bikes, and we're getting out there, and we're catching him."
"That's…dangerous," Hank tried to argue, but he had to admit they were out of options. Just yesterday Magneto personally led the largest gang ride they'd seen so far, with at least 80 motorcycles cascading down the interstate, police helpless to stop them minus a complete roadblock, which only succeeded in causing them to scatter and slowing down traffic further.
"So is letting them continue this shit," Logan growled, fists balled at his sides, mouth twisted. "Me, Scott, Raven. Out on patrol, but specifically waiting to capture this bastard."
"Good luck," Hank said meekly, nausea boiling in his stomach at the fact he was condoning the act.
"Only problem," Raven said, startling them both as she sat on a nearby desk, "is that there's no way Charles will approve it with the mood he's in. He's not ready to pull out all the stops yet."
"So then get him in a better mood." Logan crossed his arms now.
"I thought you'd never ask."
"Hey," Raven started casually, plopping herself into the chair across from Charles and carelessly tossing her legs onto his desk.
"What do you want, Raven?" Charles asked immediately, in that "disappointed dad tone" that suggested he expected her to turn tail and leave.
"The details. You never told me what actually happened," Raven said casually, waving a hand back and forth.
"I never told you simply because I don't want to." Charles didn't look up from his papers.
"Seriously, what happened? He didn't hit you, did he?" Raven was mostly joking as even though Erik was an asshole that didn't seem to be something he'd do, but she also knew that domestic abuse was a major problem and not even a police chief is immune.
Charles paused, as if he had to think about it, "He didn't hit me, no." The pen was put down in favor of holding his head. "I'm not mad. At him. At anyone, really."
Raven nodding, making sure to keep her thoughts positive and encouraging. Hook, line, and sinker.
"I don't know what to tell you, Raven, because I don't actually know what happened." Charles rubbed his face briefly, before looking up at her. He hadn't been crying, but the stress and tension of the shone in his eyes. "It was going well, and then it wasn't. There's something wrong with him. He just … got up and left," Charles said, disjoint sentences slowly forming a whole.
"Just left? Didn't say anything?"
"He said it was time to go and then left. I had already expressed my intentions to pay, but he just … left. I don't know if it was something I said or—oh God, we were talking about family. We were talking about the family he didn't have and I kept pressing—"
"Charles—Charles!" Raven quickly got up and joined Charles's side. Unbeknownst to most of the force and community, it was a fairly common occurrence. Charles was naturally a loving person and coupled with his telepathic/empathetic tendencies, many situations and failures hit him hard, especially when he realized he could have taken a different action than he did in the heat of the moment. Raven doubted Erik was the sole cause of this particular meltdown, but he just happened to be what Charles had been focusing on recently. Raven carefully rubbed his back and the back of his hand. "Charles, I doubt you did anything wrong, and you definitely didn't intend to do anything wrong, but you need to go talk to him. If for nothing other than your conscience."
"He hasn't contacted me," Charles said eventually, the distress fading.
"I might be wrong, but I don't think he ever has, has he? It was always you visiting or starting the conversation." Raven continued rubbing his back.
"You're right," Charles admitted faintly.
"I think you're just inexperienced with relationships and need to take a few crucial steps. Oh, I told the force about Moira by the way—"
"You what?!"
"—and you need to talk to him, and get things straight. The two of you come from completely different walks of life, and you likely don't have much, if any, insight into how he thinks without cheating," Raven flicked Charles on the side of the head and got swatted away, "and the simple cure to that is talking. You might have upset him, you might not have, but sitting here grieving over it isn't going to help."
Charles heaved a long exhale.
"Break up with him if you have to—I did, sort of, force you into it, but leaving it hanging like this isn't helping anyone and is hurting everyone." Raven pulled away from Charles and returned to the opposite side of the desk.
Charles weaved his fingers together and rested his chin atop his knuckles.
Raven rolled her eyes, "Last time you refused I talked to him myself, is that what you want?"
"I do not." Charles leaned back against the chair, face taut as he grabbed his pen to return to his work, "I'll go when I get off, I suppose."
"Speaking of work," Raven spotted her opportunity, "Logan wants to take a physical approach to catching our biker."
"Too dangerous," Charles declared instantly, the pen scratching harshly across the paper as he processed the request.
"Yes, but what's even more dangerous is this guy tearing up the streets," Raven argued, disappointed that Charles was putting up so much resistance. But she supposed that's just how Charles was—no matter how he was a moment ago, he was always ready to do the right thing, caring for and loving everyone around him. Erik would be lucky to have him and Raven might just have to force that point across.
"Hnnn," Charles made a noncommittal noise.
"Besides, he said he'd take Scott with him—"
"Willingly?"
"—so he wouldn't do anything too crazy." And the pause from Charles told Raven that she had him on the edge.
"I don't want to agree to this," Charles said, mouth twisting to the side.
"I know you don't," Raven sympathized, tapping her hand on the desk. "But ignoring it will just encourage the behavior and Hank's reached the end of what he can do."
A moment of tense silence ensued as Charles refused to look at her, before finally, "Fine."
As you can probably tell, you didn't get these chapters as soon as I was done with them. I've been dealing with major confidence issues regarding my writing recently, plus a lot of other stress, and bitterness over the new movie. Oh well, hopefully it'll make some people happy.
Please feel free to give me your opinions on their mental states. I always thought the movies never paid much attention to the emotional aspects of what happens (admittedly because they're primarily action movies) and felt that there should be more of a fallout, but am aware that doing it well is very difficult.
I've also been working on a different (alright, a few) Cherik fics, so this one got ignored recently. Hard to say if those will ever see the light, but if you're interested let me know.