Anote: Hey everyone. I will be going on vacation soon so please put me on your story alerts for future chapters.

Chapter 29- A day out part4

Being a weekday, the food court was pleasantly empty and the trio could take their pick of seats, finally settling on a curved cushy booth in the corner to better conceal the kitten from any curious tattle tales. Leaving Jean to stand guard over all their shopping, the boys purchased and quickly returned laden down with trays of the selected food items. Charles could feel Erik's tension as he pulled out his wallet to pay for his lunch but the older man kept his opinions to himself and the professor didn't try to reassure him again. It was just something that the other man would have to come to grips with somehow. However, he knew the older man still had his credit card and the Englishman was so busy pondering how to convince Erik to hold on to it (in case of the inevitable emergency that always seemed to crop up when you didn't have any money) that he failed to notice that his friends had protectively squashed him in the middle of the communal seat.

Erik silently saluted Jean with an approving nod but then looked on with growing irritation as the professor inhaled his food like there was no tomorrow. 'If you were so hungry, why the fuck didn't you tell me before now?'

He paused in the middle of his angry rant when Charles held out a raised palm, unable to respond at that precise moment as his cheeks were packed with McDonald fries. Uneasily Jean's eyes flicked between the two of them as she tentatively chewed a bite of her meatball subway. This was clearly a real fight that was brewing infront of her; not the playful banter from before.

The small man swallowed hurriedly and smiled gleefully down at his Happy meal, 'Calmly Erik, you are scaring Jean.'

'Pay him no mind,' the Englishman informed her with a cheeky twinkle, 'I don't think he can go an entire day without yelling at something or someone.'

Somehow, the young woman was not entirely surprised when Erik turned purple.

'Xavier, please stop eating so quickly before you make yourself sick,' he warned the smaller man in a deceptively calm voice that hinted he was moments away from committing premeditated manslaughter.

Unconcerned by such a potential threat to his life, Charles tossed another handful of fries in his mouth and took another large sip of his strawberry milkshake before answering.

'I can't help it,' he replied almost inarticulately around his mouthful of fast food, 'they have the most wonderful fries.'

Jean shrugged helplessly as the older man turned to her for some explanation as to why the professor was suddenly acting like an over sugared toddler. Together, they looked on with bemused wonder as furtively, Charles looked over his shoulder before grabbing at his kiddie burger, 'Any minute now I am expecting Cook to come out of nowhere and rap me on the head. She would never let me eat this normally. You are not going to say anything to her, right?'

When the young man looked at him with a panicked expression, Erik didn't know if to laugh or if to reach over and slap Charles in the head for his own satisfaction. He would never understand this bizarre relationship that the professor had with his staff.

'I will tell her you had the salad,' the larger man reassured him, 'IF, you slow down a bit.'

Obediently, Charles slowed his rate of munching.

Reassured now that she wouldn't be reading the professor's obituary in the evening papers, the red head subsequently excused herself to use the ladies. Erik drew her camera closer to his hand for safekeeping even as he carefully checked that she was out of hearing.

'What happened?' he whispered anxiously to the professor, titling his head in the direction that Jean had vanished in.

The other man wiped his fingers absently on his napkin trying to find the right words.

'Her husband was killed in a car accident about 18 months ago.'

'Why do I feel there is an "and" attached to what you are saying?'

' …and,' Charles raised an unhappy eyebrow, 'she was driving.'

The older man leaned back, unconsciously stroking the kitten's spine as she butted her face in his side. (It was a her, Charles had checked)

'Physically Jean has recovered from her injuries but the doctors say she is possibly suffering from…'

'Survivors' guilt?' Erik interjected questioningly.

The professor stared curiously before the older man suddenly realized what he had done.

'So are you going to tell me how and why you know about survivor's guilt?' the young man inquired when Erik looked at him in silence.

'Yes Xavier. I have much to tell you but not now,' he replied quickly, 'we are in the middle of a food court.'

Agitatedly Charles tapped the table top with his plastic fork; another topic to add to the long list of things that Erik didn't want to talk about. They couldn't go on like this. HE couldnt go on like this.

'Erik love, don't let the cat lick milk off your fingers!' he remarked hurriedly. 'I am not carting you to the emergency room in the dead of night because she takes a bite out of your hand. Use the dropper in the bag.'

The kitten immediately stopped stalking the toy from Charles' happy meal as her new favorite human waved a dropper full of milk above her. The professor felt an irrational stab of jealously when the older man gifted the animal with a gentle smile. However, seeing that he was now in such a good mood, Charles thought he would try again.

'Has it occurred to you Erik, that there may never be a good time to "talk about it"?'

The older man scowled at his tenacity although he agreed in theory with what the Englishman had just said. He would let Charles judge for himself. 'It was suggested to me because I was standing next to my mother when she was killed'.

To Erik's surprise, the small man didn't flinch as he had expected him to. Most people did.

'Alright there?' he inquired just in case. Charles nodded vaguely, wondering if there was some significance to Erik saying 'she was killed' instead of 'she had died'.

'I'm fine. What about you? Do you think you can talk to Jean a bit? She doesn't talk to ANYONE, not even John!'

The older man blanched at his request. 'I'd rather not.'

'If you mother was here…'

'Well she is NOT here!'

'If your mother was here and she had to do it all over again, I am sure she wouldn't change a thing. She wouldn't want you to be unhappy that you are alive while she is not.'

As Jean took her seat, the older man rose with an undecipherable mumble and stalked away to the McDonald's counter.

'What happened?' she asked in some surprise, wondering what could have possibly occurred within the last five to eight minutes to put such a black look on the man's face. Logan had gossiped to her that he thought the two men were a couple but she was beginning to have some doubts. They really seemed to have a lot of issues.

'I don't think Erik is coping with his mother's death as well as he think he is,' the professor answered cunningly, suddenly hit by a risky but inspirational idea, 'don't tell him I told you.'

She nodded readily in agreement, feeling a wave of connection with the other man because of his tragic loss. Was his mother's death recent? Did it happen when he still in prison? Dear god, how terrible!

'I wish he could find someone to talk too!' Charles sighed dramatically. His heart was pounding erratically as he tried to keep a straight face, 'I am so worried about him but I just don't understand what he is saying!'

The professor narrowed his eyes as a large group of serving girls all crowded Erik trying to pet and cuddle the small kitten that had poked her head out He thought he would lose his lunch right there and then as they giggled and cooed in tandem. However, he quietly rejoiced to see Jean also watching Erik with a contemplative expression. He couldn't believe he was meddling in Erik's personal affairs like this! The older man was going to kill him when he found out what he had done, but it would be worth it in the end if he could get his two friends to open up and talk.

Suddenly, the Englishman became pale and turned his face away.

'Jean, Erik and I are not together. Don't say anything,' Charles begged in an agonized whisper as the tall man sat down.

He had placed a large portion of fries on the professor's plastic tray and then sat back with a confused expression. While he didn't expect the young man to jump into his lap and kiss him, he had thought that he would at least get a bright thank you.

'What's wrong?'

Charles nibbled on the edge of one of the fries with a marked decrease in enthusiasm for the tasty treat.

'I think the professor was wondering if you were going to use that phone number the counter girl just slipped you,' Jean replied as casually as if she was telling him the time.

The older man cut his eyes to Charles' mortified expression with a frown, 'Sorry you had to see that, she took me by surprise.'

The young man nodded quickly but still didn't look up from where he was studying his Heinz ketchup packet.

'You didn't REALLY think that some chit of a teenage girl would interest me?' Erik retorted angrily. He searched his pockets to find the bill on which she had scrawled her phone number, before crushing it into a ball and pelting it in the professor's direction.

'Thanks,' he sneered sarcastically, 'Thanks for nothing!'

The two men ignored Jean who was making little 'okay-let's-try-to-be-calm' gestures with her hands.

'Don't take that tone with me! I'm not the one who admitted that he shags everything that moves!' the young man volleyed back nastily. He dropped the ketchup and clapped his hand against his traitorous mouth. He didn't say that…no, he didn't. That was obviously his evil twin dropping by for a surprise visit.

In the meantime, Erik looked across at him with an unreadable expression and after a heavy pause, in which the ground did NOT conveniently open up and swallow him whole, Xavier tried to apologise.

'I think I've already warned you about putting words in my mouth. I never said any such thing,' Erik interrupted him in a tight voice, 'and I do NOT appreciate this!'

The professor closed his eyes in misery. Over the last couple of weeks he had gotten quite adept at teasing Erik out of his little bouts of bad humor but he could tell he wasn't going to be successful now. He hated when they fought like this, it made him feel ill and even now he could feel his tummy churn uncomfortably with all the greasy food that he had perhaps unwisely consumed.

'That girl really doesn't do anything for me Charles,' the older man added in a remarkably calm voice given the circumstances. 'So …um….don't worry about it, okay?'

'Mrow?' came a hopeful purr from his coat pocket.

'I like you a lot,' Erik addressed the animal that was looking up at him, 'but sorry, you don't do anything for me either. For reasons I can't explain, I fancy the jealous guy over there with the ketchup smeared on his cheek.'