I apologize for the length in updates. I've been having a lot of real life crisises lately and haven't had a whole lot of time to sleep, let alone write anything intelligible.

So, I give you lots of injured Erik and some sibling love between Charles and Raven. Hope you all like it.

The Perks of Being a Telepath

Chapter 52: Frightening Occurrences

The rest of the half an hour flight back to Westchester was relatively uneventful. Sean kept sending rather dark glares toward Charles, who proceeded to ignore them, and Hank kept having to be reminded to look at his navigation panels and to quit looking at Scott.

Scott, for the most part, enjoyed all of the attention, though he wished he were able to see them.

When Charles very carefully asked what had happened to him, the younger Summers merely shrugged and muttered something incoherent.

Years of dealing with Erik had taught Charles not to pry. If there was something important that he should know, then he would know it. For now, he had to live and let live.

The other mutant children were frightened, and a bit leery of their rescuers. Sure, they had Scott's reassurances that Charles and the others were safe, but what was the word of a child after all of the torture they had been put through?

Charles was quick to use his powers to soothe the worst of the fears, though there were some concerns that he would have to address, sooner rather than later.

Questions like, where were they and would they be allowed to go back to their families? Were their families even alive? Would they ever be safe?

He should have been used to this part of the job by now, but it never failed to shock Charles just how much Stryker had destroyed these innocents' lives.

Hank interrupted much of Charles' inner monologue to announce they were going to be landing shortly.

Barely a heartbeat later, pain and fear and please god not her slammed into Charles' mind, fast enough to give him whiplash and leave him gasping for breath.

"Professor?"

Sean's anxious voice barely registered in the telepath's ears as he immediately recognized who that mental voice belonged to.

Erik!

The strength of his mental shout made those around him wince and look at him with wide-eyed fear. Sean visibly froze as he realized what it meant.

Hank growled from the cockpit.

"What's going on?"

Charles clenched his eyes shut and shook his head.

"I don't know."

He cast out his powers, searching for anything, that would give him a hint as to what was going on. When he had left—and the last time he had checked in—everything had been fine. Raven and Erik had been in Erik's room eating supper. There had been nothing suspicious going on.

Either fortunately or unfortunately for Charles, he didn't have to look very far before his mind slammed into a wall of pure hatred.

There had only been three minds Charles had ever encountered that had felt like that. Two were dead, one by a coin through the skull, the other by an out of control telepath.

That left only the third.

Cain.

Miss me, dear Charlie?

Charles' hands clenched into fists, his physical surroundings melting away as he delved into Cain's mind.

What have you done?

He couldn't get a location. Cain was purposefully blocking that out.

Cain mentally smiled.

Come and find me and I'll tell you.

The connection between their minds was severed painfully, practically drop kicking Charles back into his own mind. The force of it left him breathless.

Hank was the first one to notice.

"Are you all right?"

Charles shook his head and clenched his teeth.

"We need to land. Immediately."

Raven felt like she should be more alarmed over the fact that her brother and Erik were missing. She really did.

But the sad fact of the matter was that this was starting to become all too common of an occurrence, ever since Charles decided to get his school up and running.

It would start with an all day session in the newly designed Cerebro, which would inevitably be followed by an argument between Charles and Erik whether Charles was pushing his powers too much. Then, there would be a lot of shouting, followed by dramatic door slamming, and then, bam. Charles and Erik would disappear. When they returned, sometimes a few hours later, others, a few weeks, they always had a new mutant with them.

It should have been a little more annoying that they didn't tell her—or anyone else, for that matter—where they were going.

But truth be told, Raven was just glad that her brother was all right and that Erik wasn't itching to leave.

She was perched on a kitchen counter now, sipping absently at a cup of tea. Hank and Sean were seated at the table, with a few dirty dishes between them. Hank had a very complicated looking schematic in front of him, and Sean was reading the newspaper.

This was another common occurrence. Hank was constantly upgrading Cerebro and Sean liked to keep an eye on the world at large to make sure they weren't being discovered.

Things were quiet, almost peaceful, which was rare now at the mansion, with over a dozen mutants under the age of ten running around the place. Luckily, it was well past nine o'clock at night, which was their bedtime, and they were all asleep.

It was Hank who noticed first. He was sitting quietly one moment, and then the next, he looked up with a sharp growl.

Raven heard the front door open, followed by a strained curse.

Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the voice as Charles'.

She was leaping off the counter and heading for the front entrance before she was ever fully conscious of her decision to move. Hank and Sean were right behind her.

Raven skidded to a stop as soon as her eyes rested on the scene in front of her.

Erik was leaning heavily against Charles, his left side drenched in blood. His eyes were at half-mast, and his face was twisted with pain.

Charles looked little better, with his usually immaculate hair in a tangled mess, and dark bruises beginning to form on his face. He was obviously favoring his left shoulder, while using the other one as a crutch for Erik.

Hank let out a startled growl.

"What happened?"

Charles shook his head and gestured to Erik.

"Help me get him to his room."

Hank and Sean both immediately moved to assist, easily taking Charles' place at Erik's side. It was a testament to how injured Erik was that he didn't even protest.

Raven fixed Charles with a concerned look.

"Are you all right?"

The last mission went wrong was still too fresh in her mind.

Charles closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

"Not particularly."

Raven filed away that response for later.

"What happened?"

Charles shook his head again.

"I should—."

"Don't even start, Charles. Tell me what happened, now."

Her brother gave her a surprised look, clearly not expecting her to be stubborn about it.

Raven folded her arms and waited.

He let out another sigh.

"We were going after a fire mutant. He held such potential. But Angel and Azazel were there and it wasn't long before it turned into a fight."

Raven's mouth fell open.

"Angel and Azazel did this to you?"

Charles gave her a long suffering glance, one that spoke to just how much he had been keeping from her. Clearly, there was something else going on here, because this hadn't been entirely unexpected.

The telepath closed his eyes.

"I need to go check on Erik. Azazel almost gutted him and I should have taken the stubborn idiot to the hospital."

There was a large amount of guilt in Charles' tone, which made Raven guess that Erik had done something stupid in her brother's defense.

It was her turn to sigh.

"I'll go call the doctor. But Charles?"

He was already halfway to the stairs when he paused and turned.

"Yes?"

Raven glared at him again.

"When we know that Erik's all right, you are going to tell me everything."

Genuine sadness showed in Charles' eyes.

"Yes. I'm afraid I'm going to have to."

With that, he turned and climbed carefully up the stairs, leaving Raven to wonder what exactly was going on.