Disclaimer: Same as previous chapter.

Chapter 2

Andrew woke up in a strange house he panicked and looked around fearfully, where was he? Daddy hit him because he wouldn't stop crying. He felt like he had been sleeping for years, he looked around and the place seemed nice, 'Maybe I died and went to heaven, though mommy told me that only good boys would go to heaven and I wasn't good, with the way I cried all the time.'

There were needles in his skin and he looked pale; 'What is going on?' he was terrified as he looked around desperately, 'Where am I? This doesn't look like the hospital in Sunnydale," he was afraid of pulling the needle out and sat there alone in his bed.

Up in his office Charles was doing his work when he felt a wave of fear, his eyes brightened; it seemed their sleeping guest had woken up, he wasn't happy that Andrew was afraid but he understood why. He looked Ororo and said, "Please retrieve John, I believe his brother has just woken up."

She nodded while Charles went down to the medical bay to make sure that Andrew didn't panic, he had Jean come with him so they could start to remove him from the machines.

Andrew sat in the bed and muttered that he was probably going to be sent back to Mommy and Daddy, as he looked around he saw that it seemed a bit nicer than the hospital in Sunnydale; he heard the door open and saw a woman with red hair and a bald man.

Jean looked at Andrew and smiled, "Hello Andrew, how are you feeling?"

"Umm, kind of sore and sleepy," Andrew said, puzzled on where he was.

"My name is Charles Xavier; I run a school for mutants and you have been asleep for five months."

Andrew looked at him confused, 'I was asleep? Then why am I still sleepy?' Then he wondered, 'Why am I at a school for mutants?' He heard the door open again and saw John, who looked at him and rushed over and hugged Andrew tightly.

"God, Andrew," John nearly sobbed, "I'm sorry I didn't protect you, that I didn't take you with me."

Andrew simply returned John's hug and sniffed, "I missed you," and clung to John, who looked at the shocked looks on Jean's and Ororo's faces and he gave them a look as Andrew hugged his favourite brother.

John looked back and muttered, "What? Can't I hug my little brother?" and smiled again as Andrew let go and begin to wipe his eyes, John said, "What did I tell you about crying?"

"Try not to do it so often," Andrew said as he wiped his eyes again.

"It's alright," John said as he held Andrew.

Jean moved over and begun to remove the needles from Andrew's arms and unhooked him from the machines, she smiled to calm him down but she winced when he made a face as they removed them.

Andrew got out of the bed and felt weak, he tried to walk but started to wobble and nearly fell when John grabbed him and said, "You're going to be a bit weak little brother."

Charles smiled; John seemed a lot happier now that Andrew was awake and they could both begin their healing. Charles rolled over and said, "Now Andrew, this place is a school for mutants but we do offer a good academic program too, I would like you to begin to take classes here too."

"I guess so," Andrew said looking at his feet, not sure about things.

Good Charles said now John can show you around the grounds

Andrew got up and John grabbed his hand and said, "Come on Andy, you'll like this place."

John sighed as Andrew hugged him again, he saw a couple of the other students look at him surprised as he had kind of earned a reputation for being a tough guy and now his little brother was hanging off him and hugging him, he looked down at his brother and sighed again; his brother loved hugs and not that he blamed him, he liked Andrew's hugs.

As John showed him around Andrew realized that he loved this place because it was so cool: the basement looked like something out of Star Trek with all the sliding doors and bright metal walls.

"Okay," John said, "You're going to be staying with me as I don't have very much luck with roommates right now."

Andrew got into the bed that John said was his and yawned as he was so tired and went to sleep. John snuck over and put the blanket over him and kissed his forehead whispering, "I'm going to do my best to raise you Andy, I promise.

The next few weeks surprised the staff, even Charles was surprised as Andrew had a very good influence on John's behaviour; he wasn't as moody or as angry towards other people, Scott asked him and he said that he had to be a good example for Andrew, for his little brother.

John made sure that Andrew was also protected; he knew that some of the newer students, particularly those who had been rejected by their so called 'normal families,' would take it out on Andrew, who was particularly weak. He made a point of sticking around Andrew until they noted that if something happened to Andrew then something would happen to them.

Most of the new students liked Andrew as he always treated them with respect and he also loved hearing about what their powers were.

But there were troublemakers; people who hated humans and especially Andrew, they had the idea that no normal human should live with them and would glare at him hatefully, to which John would simply glare right back, pull Andrew away from them and put Andrew with his few friends and meet the troublemakers somewhere in the grounds where the professor wouldn't see and show them what an angry overprotective big brother was like.

Andrew also liked to hang out with Hank McCoy, first of all he loved how furry he was and he always learned something new with Hank and Hank enjoyed Andrew's company, especially when things got tough or Mutant rights went through another setback or, on one occasion, they had gone to bring a young mutant in and found out that her parents and their church group actually tried to exorcise her and their efforts killed the young woman.

When Hank left the mansion to go into politics Andrew took it hard as he had a few friends at the mansion but Hank was one of his more favourite people at the mansion, he loved to talk to Hank.

John was doing his best to help Andrew get over Hank's disappearance and would take him on his little excursions to the local clubs, making sure he never left Andrew alone though and Charles was more than a little miffed that John took Andrew along with him.

One day Andrew was listening to John come in and his big brother was angry, apparently they had to share their room with someone coming in soon. Andrew smiled and tried to cheer John up.

"Maybe you'll like him," Andrew said hopefully, "I mean you do like some people, right?"

"Yeah, maybe," John growled, "But he better not try to do anything bad to you."

Andrew walked over and hugged him, John sighed, 'My brother was a hugger, nothing wrong with that,' he thought, 'Just as long as the other students or teachers didn't see me being hugged.' He still got looks from Mr Summers about Andrew hugging him and he swore that four eyes was personally enjoying it when he got hugs in public.

A couple of days later Andrew was in his and John's room alone when the new student came in and he looked up, the guy didn't look like a bad guy. He smiled brightly and said, "Hi."

"Oh yeah, hi, I'm Robert but you can call me Bobby, everyone else does. Are you John?"

"No, I'm Andrew; his little brother. John wasn't exactly happy that you were coming so he's blowing off steam in his own way."

Bobby raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh, okay," as he looked at Andrew, "So, what's your special power?"

"Umm, I'm not a mutant or at least I don't think I am, Mr Xavier took me in when he took John in," Andrew said, "My family hated John and I love him, he used to protect me from bullies and I never cared what he was."

"Cool," Bobby said, "Umm, my parents don't really know that I'm a mutant, the Professor said that this school was for gifted students so my parents think this is a boarding school."

Andrew smiled again and said, "Don't worry, this place is so neat. Come on, John's not going to be back for a bit, do you want me to show you around? And maybe we can find John, I'm sure he wouldn't mind meeting you."

"Sure," Bobby said, "I didn't get much of a tour before," and then he looked at Andrew and asked, "Is it true that your brother is a bit violent? I mean the teachers told me that he's a good student and he does his best to follow the rules but…" he never finished his sentence when Andrew cut him off.

"No," Andrew said, "He's my brother, I mean he's always been there for me but if he is violent it is because someone set him off."

Bobby frowned, 'Those other students might have lied to me,' he thought, 'But maybe Andrew didn't like seeing the bad parts of his big brother, I suppose I will have to see it for myself.'

TBC

Poll question: Should Andrew be a mutant? And if he is, then what powers should he get?

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