Anote: Happy Christmas to all my readers

Chapter 48 –'Tis the season part2

Matt softly wolf whistled as Logan drove past in another Bentley, 'Man I wish I was out here parking cars with you guys.'

Erik glanced across from where he was recording the new car's position and right on cue his small comrade began sneezing his head off. 'That's why you are not out here helping us. You're a classic hot house flower. Get back inside where it's warmer.'

'Being a waiter is borrrrring!' the young man whined as he turned around and obediently trudged back to the ball room, where Charles' charity event was in full swing.

'And don't come back out here without a hat!' Erik yelled at his retreating back. He watched until the man walked through the French doors before uncovering Logan's Sig Sauer that he had hastily hidden, when Matt had bounced out for a cigarette break.

'Everything all right?' Logan asked as he approached their work station, staring at Matt as he was swallowed up by the crowd inside.

'You better take this,' Erik warned, passing him his weapon. While he appreciated that Logan didn't want the professor to catch him with the gun, he didn't want Charles to catch him with it either.

'I hear that congratulations are in order,' the big man rumbled as he tucked the piece into his jacket pocket.

Erik ignored the unstated question by asking one of his own, 'Do you think we should get any more latecomers? The party has been going on for an hour now.'

John gave him a smile that had more teeth than goodwill, 'you don't know these people. There will always be latecomers.'

The men lapsed into a bit of a tense silence as they stared up the dark and silent driveway, before the handyman lumbered away to a nearby snow bank. Erik stared blankly as the big man pulled out a six pack of now, ice cold beers, from under a rose bush.

'Take it,' John offered the man beside him, quickly opening two bottles with a flick of his wrist, 'Your parole's up in three hours. I hardly think it makes a difference.'

Erik hesitated but then reached out to gladly take the drink. He downed half of it in one go, before slumping over their workstation/podium with a satisfying groan, 'God, that's good!'

Sheepishly, he clinked his remaining half with Logan's full bottle, 'Sorry, I didn't see you holding out your beer.'

'Not a problem. Congratulations on making it to this point. Not sure if I could have done any better in your position.'

'I had strong motivation,' Erik muttered quietly, as he cut his eyes to a hedge of thick bushes that was blocking his view of most of the ball room; including that of the slight figure of his professor.

As Logan sipped his beer he watched where the man was looking at from the corner of his eye. 'Charles was also excitedly telling me that you past a heap of exams. He's bursting with pride that you nailed it!'

Erik picked at the label of his bottle contemplatively, while staring at the ground beneath him, 'Are you going somewhere with this John?'

The handyman nodded his head appreciatively. This was something he always valued about his employer's current boyfriend. He wasn't much for idle chit chat either.

'Hike up on the third bench over there,' he ordered Erik with a casual wave of his hand.

Erik was so used to the way the handyman changed conversations midstride that he didn't even blink at the odd request. With the additional inches, he could now see straight into the ball room through a convenient gap in the hedge. He couldn't help but smile as the professor unexpectedly came into view.

The two temporary valets/security guards stood side by side, drinking and silently taking in the stunningly beautiful scene before them. Everywhere there were lights, Christmas trees and garlands all decorated with the most beautiful decorations that Erik had ever seen. He could also spy Hank, Matt, and a whole host of Charles' students along with the rest of the mansion staff, weaving around the guests in their tailored white coats, bearing platters of drinks and foods. Off to one side, Parole Officer Gerard stood plastered against a wall, looking suspiciously at any of the fashionably well dressed party goers that happened to get too close. On another counter, Emma and Charles' next door neighbour Raven, were happily chatting up a storm as they manned the coat check section. But through it all, like a column of light, the professor with Jean at his side, walked through the crowd, touching everyone they spoke to with their brilliant presence.

Erik glanced at Logan and would have laughed at the completely besotted expression on the other man's face, if he was certain that he hadn't looked just like that a moment ago , 'if you want to go in for a few minutes, I am sure I can cover here.'

His voice seemed to break the spell that Logan was under.

'Nah...I am good,' he remarked gruffly, 'Still can't believe sometimes that she even looks at me twice.'

Erik nodded his head companionably. He knew exactly what the older man meant.

'I bet you never thought sitting in prison a few months ago, that you would have ever seen anything like this?' he inquired.

Not even in his most ludicrous of dreams.

'So what are your plans for the future?'

It was a casual enough question but Logan observed the man beside him go rigid like a post.

'Did Charles put you up to this?!'

The way Erik blocked the question made him snort in disbelief, 'you can't possibly be serious!? You would give all this up? What's so blasted important out there that you would want to leave a guy who is shit face in love with you?! People search all their lives for what you two have.'

The handyman gestured vigorously at the scene before them, 'This is just the tip of the iceberg you are seeing here. Charles' interests are global. Do you know how many thousands of people he helps with his fortune? You could be part of something special.'

Erik gave him a sidelong glance of suspicion at this sudden interest in his welfare, to which Logan rolled his eyes.

'Alright…I see Charles' frighteningly insightful nature is also starting to rub off on you,' the sometime chauffeur retorted, 'Fine…enough BS. There is a rumor going around that you have been sighting some suspicious investments that the Board wants to get Xavier tangled up in. I've had a bad feeling for years about them. I don't like the way they dress, the way they smell and I especially DON'T like the way they talk to the professor!'

'And what way is THAT?' Erik inquired sharply. 'Why the fuck is this the first time I am hearing about this?!'

'The Board knows he struggles with financial concepts and they completely demoralize him when he asks a question. The professor is as smart as a whip but I am not surprised that he has developed some sort of mental block against all this investment stuff. I know it bothers Charles because he gets all quiet after board meetings. I guess he didn't want you to know because of your parole conditions.'

That was true. Gerard had warned him to stay away from his old life or forfeit the chance to shave five years off his jail sentence.

'Let me know next time there is a meeting,' Erik requested in a soft deadly voice. 'I think I need to see this for myself.'

Logan sighed in relief, 'I will feel a lot happier if you are there; someone I can trust!'

Erik gave him a feeble sort of smile. He knew Logan's opinion mattered to the professor and although he never went out of his way to court the man's favor, he was pleased to have it all the same, 'You do remember what I was imprisoned for, right?'

The big man proceeded to crack his neck to release some of his tension. 'Yeah I remember but it's not like you are going to steal from the professor; not when he will just give you any amount you can name.'

A wave of depression suddenly swamped Erik, 'Charles seems to think that a few sessions with some doctor is going to fix everything. Pull this, snip out that and I will be as good as new.'

'It couldn't hurt to try,' Logan remarked cautiously, wondering where the man's mind had suddenly veered of to.

Erik turned to face his companion at his side. While he didn't naturally come out and speak about personal matter, he knew with deep clarity, that even though Logan didn't love Charles in the same way that he did, the man cared for him deeply and had been doing so for far longer than he had.

'I'll be alright for awhile but eventually I'll leave. There are forces in my life, impulses too strong to ignore. The last thing I want to do is hurt Charles but I fear it will be inevitable.'

'If you don't want to hurt Charles, then just don't.'

Erik closed his eyes in misery. It sounded so simple when Logan said it like that.

The handyman cleared his throat, 'Maybe its time you told me a little more about Shaw?'

In the deafening silence that followed, Erik's beer bottle slipped straight out his hand and hit the grass with a muffled thud.

'Don't get all excited,' John said sharply, handing him a fresh beer like a peace offering, 'Charles told me because I can help. I think you know I am ex-military.'

As Erik's eyes narrowed, Logan jumped right in before the situation could explode.

'I have a general idea of what's going on. There's a guy named Shaw and basically, the professor tells me that you don't think you can live with yourself if that guy is still out there breathing. So, I am to help you with logistics, weapons and back up, in the event that you do decide to go haring off after him, which I sincerely hope you don't. Charles doesn't have his head buried in the sand as much as you think he does.'

'Apparently not,' Erik agreed in a feeble mutter, a bit bowled over by this sudden turn of events. He had to remind himself that the professor trusted this man; and if he couldn't trust Charles then he couldn't trust anyone. 'Why would you help me?'

Logan snorted at such an obtuse question, 'Because it's my job to protect the professor and what matters most in the world to him and right now that includes you. And besides, you're one of us now. I understand a bit about revenge, you can talk to me.'

'You understand nothing,' Erik muttered under his breath, as he shakily drank the rest of his beverage from his new bottle.

'Perhaps you are right. I don't think there is a magical formula out there that can be applied like a rubber stamp on everyone, but I think that you need to put your own full stop on the shit that has gone on in your life.'

The handyman jumped down from the bench, forcefully dragging the other man down with him. He then grabbed the front of Erik's jacket to pull him forward for a more intimate discussion.

'But just to be clear,' he whispered threateningly in Erik's ear, 'if you leave here to follow this obsession you have with Shaw, you can't ever come back. I will not have Xavier mixed up in a possible homicide. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you think carefully about this.'

Erik then staggered back as Logan neatly cuffed him on the jaw.

'And that love tap is so you don't forget what I've said,' John explained cheerfully, even as Erik in turn rushed him.

The handyman pushed him off towards the direction of the bench. This wasn't very hard to do as Erik's initial flash of temper had sufficiently diffused in the interim. The big man watched as Erik crumpled into a pitiful heap on the garden bench and hid his face in his hands. With a silent sigh, John sat next to him and pulled out another beer.

'You are a good friend to Charles,' Erik confessed in a tight whisper. 'He's lucky to have you.'

Logan grunted conversationally to let him know he was listening.

'I thought love was supposed to make you strong?' Erik eventually spat out in a frustrated hoarse voice as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve, 'What a load of dung!'

Erik raised his head to look over at his drinking companion as the silence continued.

'Are you going to sit there like a bloody statue or give me some blasted advice?!' Erik roared unreasonably, to which Logan only smirked in amusement. He wondered if Lehnsherr realised that he was even beginning to sound a little like the professor.

Schooling his face in a more neutral and compassionate visage, he prepared to give a few emotional nudges as requested.

'How long have you been hunting Shaw?'

Erik skewed him with a sideways look, 'Why? Seventeen years. He's a slippery bastard.'

Logan raised his untidy eyebrows at this admission. That was a long time to hold a grudge and he began to ponder about this mysterious personality who was suddenly having a big impact on their little family.

'It takes a lot of courage to move off a path that you have been on for so many years and go on another,' he rumbled quietly, 'That takes a strength that's hard to find but you've found it, here with the professor.'

Erik sighed. He was more thinking along the lines that he was beginning to realize that rationally, he couldn't have Charles' heart and his revenge on Shaw at the same time. For the first time, in a long time, Erik wanted something more from this life than just revenge.

With another sigh of disgust he reached over for another beer, only to have Logan nudge the carton away with his foot.

'Two beers in less than ten minutes, I think is more than enough. I don't want Charles giving me the 'John- I-do-not approve stare'.

Erik guffawed at this, 'you sound like if you are afraid of Xavier.'

'…as if you're not!' the handyman quipped with a knowing smirk. It hadn't escaped his notice that Charles seemed to have gotten over his initial awe of Erik's temper and was now holding his own when they had disagreements.

Despite his earlier admonition Logan leaned over to grab another beer for Erik, 'just don't go off on your own. It would completely ruin my Christmas if you went and got dead.'

'Happy Christmas, to you too,' Erik replied in amused sarcasm.