Nothing is mine.

I play with time.

Shit remains real.

I'm sorry for the delay.

Thanks to Hoodoo and moira-mactaggert for their awesome beta reading skills.

Erik, Logan, Moira, and the kids carefully stepped out of the basement and silently made their way to the exit. They stepped over the body of the man who had called down the stairs. He was slumped inelegantly against the wall, mouth hanging open.

Moira still partially under the influence of the mysterious drug could barely focus on what was happening. Something nagged at the back her mind. Something important but for the life of her, Moira MacTaggert could not rememberwhat it was.Moira tried to drag her mind back to the present and ask Erik what it was that she could have have forgotten but before she did, Moira was interrupted.

"Is he dead?" Kitty asked the color further draining out of her face when she saw the man.

No, Charles said, his voice popping into her head. Merely sleeping, my dear.

Kitty gasped.

"Don't be afraid," Moira said softly. "He's our friend."

"Why isn't he here then?" Logan growled. Moira watched in fascination as claws - metal, it looked like - slowly slide out of his knuckles.

"Maybe it's because he's in a wheelchair," Erik snarled back at him. Moira flinched in Erik's arms a piece of memory drifted in her mind. Erik was vaguely surprised when he realized that Logan's entire skeleton was made from metal.

"I put him in that chair, didn't I?" Moira asked so quietly that Erik had to strain to hear her. The question of why she couldn't remember sprang into Erik's mind. But this was neither the time or the place. All things in due time, my impatient little son, his mother's voice whispered in his thoughts. Erik shivered involuntarily and pushed his mother's voice out of his head.

"We put him that chair," Erik snapped at her. Moira turned her head to look at Erik, her eyes large and dark and dewy with unshed tears. Erik was glad that he was not a telepath. He did not want to know what Moira was thinking.

"You can have this lovers' quarrel when we're safely out of here," Logan interjected. He then grunted when he felt the metal in his body begin to shift minutely.

"You will remain quiet unless you hear or smellsomething dangerous coming our way," Erik gritted out. Logan just shrugged his shoulders as he extended his claws further. "Kitty, what is your power?" Erik said changing the subject.

"I-I can phase through things," she said softly as if she wasn't sure of it.

"You can phase through solid objects?" Erik asked surprised. "Why didn't you just leave this place then?"

"They - they kept giving me drugs so I couldn't," she said, her voice quavering a bit. Kitty shivered and pulled the loose hospital gown closer to her.

"When was your last dose?"

"About a day ago, I think," she said. Experimentally, she reached her arm out and tried to phase through the wall. She pulled her arm back wincing. "It still hurts."

Erik nodded. "What about you, Bobby?"

Bobby looked up at Erik with large doe eyes. To anyone else, Bobby looked like he was deeply pondering the question, but in the harsh light of reality, Bobby was fading fast. His skin was pale and clammy; his breathing shallow. There was an unnatural quality in his eyes that terrified Erik. (What was wrong with this boy?)

Bobby opened his mouth to say something when he suddenly collapsed beside Kitty almost taking her down with him.

"Bobby!" Kitty cried out and caught him before he hit the floor forgetting about her own pain.

"We're gonna have to work fast, if we're gonna get out of here alive," Logan said roughly.

"Do you have any suggestions or are you going to just stand there and grunt at us?" Erik snapped back. "Kitty, I know you're in pain but can you support or carry him?"

"I can try," she said and picked him up. Kitty felt her muscles crying out. She had no idea how long she had been held captive. She took a deep breathe and took a tentative step forward stumbling a little. She was not sure if she could help Bobby move but this was a matter of survival. Kitty was sure she would never leave anyone behind. For Bobby's sake, she had to try.

Kitty nodded at Erik trying to keep the pain off her face. For the most part, Erik thought, Kitty did an admirable job.

"There's a car coming," Logan announced. His fist tightened, preparing to fight.

"You can smell a car?" Erik was skeptical of everything associated with Logan.

"No, I can hear them," Logan said sarcastically. Erik just rolled his eyes and wanted nothing more than to rip the metal out of Logan's body.

Steady on, Erik.

He's not making this any easier.

No, but he is an ally of a sorts.

I want to push him out of the Blackbird to see if he lands on his feet.

Charles didn't respond. Erik could feel him thinking hard.

What's going on?

Shh, I'm concentrating. After a few minutes, Charles' voiced popped back into all of their heads. Move slowly, he said. Charles' voice had an eerie, far off quality.

What are you doing?Erik asked in frustration.

Hush, Erik. I have camouflaged your presence for the time being.

"He can do that?" Logan asked, a little awed.

"He can now," Moira answered gritting her teeth. Erik raised an eyebrow at her but Moira did not elaborate. She closed her eyes, trying not to remember a painful memory.

(We are all fucked, Erik thought warily.)

But time is of the essence. You will have to get to the Blackbird quickly. It is located in a nearby field. Hank will be there to take all of you away. This takes extreme amounts of concentration, so please forgive me if I do not respond. Now, go! And with that, Charles cut the telepathic connection. Erik shivered involuntarily. He knew that Charles was more powerful than he let on, he just did not realize how much power he possessed.

"You have no idea," Moira muttered softly.

"What?" Erik blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean, what?" Moira shot back.

"I didn't say anything," Erik said, eyes suddenly narrowing.

"Of course you did," Moira snapped back.

"No, Miss, he didn't," Kitty said, breathing heavy noticing the tense conversation. Moira just sighed, the fight fleeing her tired body. She sagged in Erik's arms, resting her head against his chest. Moira hated feeling so helpless and silently raged.

Erik grunted and sent Kitty a quiet thank you.

"How are you holding up, Kitty?" Erik asked.

"I'm okay," Kitty said and reshifted Bobby in her arms. Logan stopped suddenly in front of them, his body tense. Everyone dropped quickly and quietly. Moira held her breath, feeling her heart rabbit in her chest. Erik's grip on her tightened every so slightly, whether it was as a gesture of comfort or as a warning, Moira could not tell. She felt completely and utterly useless, wanting nothing more than for Erik to set her down. But Moira knew that he would not. Moira could feel the weight of Erik's gaze on her. She did not meet his eyes.

Erik was boring holes through her, as if trying to make her speak.

Moira set her mouth in a thin line and hardened her facial expression, daring him.

(You will keep still, Moira.) Erik knew that Moira was no mutant but that did not stop him from focusing his thoughts hard on Moira.

(What's keeping me from moving, Erik?) Her expression had not changed. Erik could hear the heat in her voice.

(The fact that we might get killed, Moira.) Erik swiftly answered.

(You would love nothing more than to have me dead, Lehnsherr. I don't even know why you even bothered to come after me.) Moira said nothing more, keeping her mind blank and blocking Erik out.
Erik's expression stilled, puzzling over something she said. And then his expression changed, shocked.

"Moira," he said quietly and cautiously. "We just had that conversation in our heads."

"Bullshit," she hissed. "That's impossible."

"Apparently, not so impossible," Erik bit back. (What exactly did they do to you in there?)

(I have no idea.) Moira shut her eyes, trying not to think about what might have happened.

Mid 1962

Cautiously, the group approached the Blackbird, silent as death and night. Alex had taken his younger brother into his arms, carrying him after he stumbled and fell for the third time.

"I can walk," Scott hissed.

"No, you can't," Alex responded and picked up the struggling boy.

"Put me down," Scott said.

"No," came Moira's voice to Scott's left. "Havok is right. We need to move and move quickly. Your...sight has just been taken from you. This is not the time nor the place to experiment with feeling your way to the Blackbird," Moira said calmly and sternly. She was still reeling from what she'd seen in the basement. No matter how well she had been trained for this situation, actually pulling the trigger and actively ending someone's life was not how it was taught in the CIA.

Everyone dropped, once again blending into the shadows waiting for some sort of signal. Moira furrowed her brow and tried to communicate with Charles.

Charles, what is is going on?

Moira received no answer. She waited five more minutes before trying again. Charles? Can you hear me? What is going on? Still Charles did not answer her and the police cars with their flashing lights did not move away from the Blackbird. Moira glanced over her shoulder and saw the first peeking light of the sunrise. Soon, they would all be bathed in the morning light, giving everything away. Something had to be done.

For the first time since Cuba, Moira found herself wishing that Erik Lehnsherr were here with them. He had proved more than capable in raising a submarine from the depths of the Caribbean Sea. Raising a few police cars and placing them (No, throwing them)somewhere else leaving the path clear for them to enter the Blackbird and escape this hellish situation.

But no, the police cars remained in place and Charles had not answered her pleading thoughts. Moira stared at the police cars trying to come up with a plan. She did not want to send anyone to stake out what could possibly be going on, but she was the unofficial leader of the strike team. It was up to her to find out what was going on. Moira crept to where Beast was crouching down.

"Beast," she whispered. "Out of all of us, you possess the most acrobatic skills to remain hidden. Go find out what's going on and let me know," Moria said, not looking at the young scientist.

Beast looked hard at the CIA agent beside him. Eventually, though, he nodded and made his way to the Blackbird. Banshee and Havok looked up sharply when they realized what Beast was doing. Both made their way to Moira and demanded what was going on.

"I haven't heard from Charles. And we need to know what is going on with these police cars. For all we know they could be taking him into custody," Moira said, trying very hard to remain unaffected by their harsh glances.

"The Professor said to remain where we were if anything happened. And you're sending Beast to check things out?" Havok said, disbelieving. He had set Scott down and told him to remain quiet while he went to talk to Moira.

"I haven't heard from him," was Moira's simple answer. Inside Moira, knew that she was playing with fire. Charles had told her in no uncertain terms to remain where they were if anything unusual happened. Moira bit her lip in worry and tried to maintain a calm demeanor.

Moira knew what she was doing. She knew that Charles was going to be upset with her. But she had sent Beast ahead anyway.

Present Day 1963

Slowly, ever so slowly, the group made their way out of the building and towards the spot where Charles had told them to go. They stopped periodically to let Kitty rest from carrying Bobby. Erik had set Moira down a time to give his arms and shoulders a break and immediately regretted it when Moira tried to walk by herself and almost ended up falling.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Erik said when he caught her. He immediately scooped her up and wouldn't let go of her.

"Walking, brainiac," she muttered while trying to unsuccessfully free herself of Erik's arms.

"Well, you're doing a poor job of walking, MacTaggert," Erik retorted and stood up with Moira weakly trying to fight back.

Moria growled. "Put me down," she said, trying to wiggle out of Erik's grasp.

"Make me. You're CIA, you've got the training," he said tightening his hold and immediately regretted it when the fight immediately left Moira. "I'm sorry," he whispered, looking directly in front of him instead of Moira.

Moira did not respond, a myriad of emotions passing over her face. She remained quiet, staring blankly until they were within seeing distance of the Blackbird. "This is much different from the last time we tried to break someone out of a facility," Moira stated simply.

Erik raised an eyebrow, about to ask her the question when Charles' voice popped into their heads.

Stop and don't move, his voice hissed in their minds..

Immediately everyone dropped to the ground and waited for Charles to give them the go ahead. (This was not how it was six months ago, Moira thought idly.)

Surprisingly enough, Erik's voiced popped into her head. (How was it six months ago?)

(Worse. Much, much worse.)

Mid 1962

Beast approached the police cars, hiding in shadows and pausing to listen for any signs of trouble. Closer and closer he went until he could see the Professor. Charles was surrounded by police officers chatting amiably with each other, until one nervous (and obviously new) officer spotted Beast in the reflection of one of the panels. Eyes wide, the officer turned instinctively, pulled out his gun and began shooting in Beast's direction.

From there, everything else went to hell. Other officers pulled out guns and began shooting in the general direction of where Beast was hidden. It had taken all of Charles' power to force them to stop immediately and then even more to make them forget.

By the time the others had arrived to help in the situation, Charles had taken control and was visibly shaking with anger. Anger that was directed straight at Moira.

Moira stood in the middle of the Blackbird. No one wanted to be near her as Charles stared her down. While no words were said out loud, everyone in the plane could hear what Charles was saying, no shoutingat Moira.

And then, Moira passed out.

Present day 1963

All right, everyone move onto the plane quickly, Charles' voice snapped in their heads.

"What happened?" Logan said out loud.

Later. Right now, just do as I say.

Logan nodded grimly. They boarded the Blackbird and settled everyone into seats. Erik helped situate Moira and the kids and when he was finished walked to the cockpit seeing Hank in the pilot seat. When Hank caught sight of Erik, Hank growled softly. Erik merely nodded ignoring the threat and sat down behind him.

"Buckle up," Hank said barely keeping his voice civil.

"You're fucking blue," Logan exclaimed surprised when he came up front.

"And you'll be fucking dead if you don't sit down and shut up," Hank replied and lifted the plane off the ground.

"That was almost too easy," Erik remarked, a very bad feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.

Hank grunted. "It's easier than being shot several times," he growled and glanced back at Moira who wouldn't meet Hank's eyes. Erik blanched remembering the scene in Cuba. His eyes narrowed, flicking back to and forth between Hank and Moira."Did she shoot you?"

"No, but I was the cause, much like I was the one who paralyzed Charles," Moira said staring at her clenched fists.

Not a word was said all the way back to Westchester.

From his home, Bolivar Trask watched as the Blackbird flew away into the night sky. He pulled out a scrap of paper and checked off several names.

Mid 1962

"What are you going to do?"

"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"

"The Professor said to stay put until he told us otherwise but then Moira told you to go and investigate!"

"She did not know that they were going to open fire on me."

"Yeah, but she went against the Professor's orders!"

"Yes, but the Professor was not out in the field with us."

Silence reigned as the statement sunk in.

Moira did not hear the rest as Charles forced sleep upon her.

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