This isn't the end yet - just thought I'd let ya'll know that first. Another chapter or two to go, not sure how much yet. Anyhoo, I hope ya'll are still enjoying it and I can't wait to hear from you! Thanks!
Chapter 23
Now
Before the day is out Charles is able to see the children, and the children who haven't already been able to meet their grandfather. Jean, who has already spoken with Brian for a while, seems to find their reactions amusing. Charles has to admit that he can't help grinning.
Everyone Charles sees comes to him; Erik and Brian won't let him out of bed.
"I almost lost you. Again," Erik whispers at one point. "That I had no control over. The least I can do is make sure you get the rest you need to recover. Otherwise you'd push yourself too hard, too soon. I know you. So just trust me, all right?"
Charles can't really argue with that.
Nicole comes to see him again, too, and spends a few minutes brushing up all of the work she did on him the day before.
"That's everything I can do, I'm afraid. The rest is up to you," she tells him apologetically.
"Please, you've done so much already. I feel almost as good as new. There isn't any need to sell yourself short," Charles assures her. He isn't lying. He feels all right—not sick at all, just rather exhausted, which is something only rest can cure. He knows he'll need to let himself recover his strength—as Erik keeps telling him. Hank and Brian and pretty much everyone else have already voiced their opinions on the matter as well.
Well, at least he knows how much they care.
The beds in the barracks are metal-framed, which makes it easy for Erik to move one of them into Brian's room next to the one that's already there, so that he and Charles have more room to sleep. That night with his husband' arms around him Charles dreams about the boy and the point of light—the memory that had been lost before. When he wakes smiling to himself it's still dark, but there is just enough light that he can see Erik looking at him strangely.
"What is it?"
Erik shakes his head slowly, unsure. "I don't know…I thought I was dreaming, but it seemed like more than that. I could feel you."
Charles blinks, and remembers that he hasn't had the chance to let Erik know about any of it yet. "I'm sorry…I must have been projecting. I was dreaming." He smiles. "But it's something I wanted you to know anyhow."
His husband is still trying to make sense of it. "What do you mean? I was…I was at home. Home before the war. In Poland, with my parents. And I saw…someone. I felt something. I thought it was you, but that doesn't make sense, and what does that have to do with—"
"It wasn't a dream, Erik. It was a memory, buried for both of us by years and worse memories that crowded it out. We were so young…I suppose its not surprising." Erik still seems helplessly confused, and Charles chuckles quietly and brushes his mind, helping him to unlock the images and to know what they mean. A hand brushes his husband's face, and Charles pushes up on his other elbow and waits for everything to sink in. "Now do you understand?" he asks softly.
Erik pulls in a breath, and their eyes lock, like they did so many years ago on a street so far away. "This is…it's what you meant, back in that storage room." It was you…it was always you. "It's what you wanted to tell me. We—"
"We were always meant to be together. Even before the war happened. Something bonded us, that day. Or maybe it was there even before that, and we only had to find each other. I doubt we'll ever know exactly what it is, or where it came from or why, but it doesn't matter. We did find one another. I think we would have with or without Shaw's interference."
Erik doesn't have much to say to that. He can only stare, with an odd awed smile, and soon enough he pulls Charles close again and kisses him. "We don't need some grand destiny to be in love, you know." It's almost a laugh in the dimness.
"I know," Charles answers. "I agree. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting."
Erik snorts. "'Interesting'…you do have a talent for understatement."
"Maybe."
It's early morning when Kurt gets up to make his way to the restroom—or the clock on the wall says so, though underground it's impossible to tell. He doesn't expect to run into anyone. Nicole told them that no one comes this way anymore, which was necessary at the beginning when they needed to stay out of sight. Now everything in the compound in under control, as far as he knows, but there was no reason to move anywhere else.
All of that is why it surprises him when he hears movement behind him on the way back. He thinks he smells something like sulfur, too—the smell that's left behind after he teleports. But he hasn't teleported in nearly two days.
Her spins around, but there's nothing behind him. However, the corridor does turn a few feet back.
"Come out; I know you're there." Kurt knows who to expect, but what he doesn't understand is why the other teleporter is there. He hasn't been seen for days. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"
The red-skinned mutant shakes his head as he steps into view, denying an answer to either question.
"Well…don't just stand there."
The teleporter looks at him for a long time, and Kurt really just wants to turn and run. But there's still a part of him that…doesn't want to. There's a part of him that cares that this man fathered him.
"Why did you just leave?" Kurt asks eventually.
"I could not harm you or your mother, but neither could I directly disobey Shaw. Instead…"
"You ran anyway, so he couldn't give you any more orders." The silence after that is Kurt's answer. "What will you do now?"
"Sebastian Shaw is no longer in control here. I must go."
Kurt hesitates before he says anything to that. "Do you have to?"
"I am not welcome here—or anywhere that knew Shaw's rule."
"Does that mean anywhere? Or are there places he didn't get to?"
"There is no civilization organized since the war he did not exert some degree of control over, no. And once the leaders that knew of him know that he is dead I will no longer be tolerated. Neither will any that followed him willingly."
Kurt blinks in confusion. "But how will they know? Last I heard the planet was a big place."
The teleporter looks at him without speaking for a while again. "They will know because I will tell them."
"You—what?"
"It is the least that I can do."
Kurt has a pretty good idea what that means, but he asks anyway, and again he is met by silence.
"I must go," the other mutant says finally. "I only wished to—" He stops abruptly, and goes in a different direction with that. "You will not see me again."
The part of himself that cares at all hurts when Kurt hears that, but he swallows it back. His only response is a nod.
Then the teleporter is gone.
"Kurt? What are you doing out here? Are you all right?"
He turns around, and Hank is coming from the direction of the barracks. He looks groggy, but the concern in his voice is real.
Kurt closes the distance between them and hugs his stepfather, which is something of a surprise for Hank considering that Kurt is usually the typical pre-teen boy who doesn't do such things. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Okay…" Hank returns the embrace, and Kurt decides that the word 'step' is highly overrated anyway. Why bother with it anymore?
"Yeah, the kid's still recharging and we don't wanna put too much on him anyway—so I'm taking a truck back to town to bring Nicole's family back here now that it's safe. I can bring some of the others home if they want to go."
Logan is saying this late the next morning, and Kurt pops in as he's finishing. "Yeah, sorry…I can only go that far on my own right now. But anyway, Mom wants to come here, Uncle Charles, if you and Uncle Erik have to stay a while. Ororo said she'd go back to watch the little kids, and I think Alex and Sean and Moira want to go home too. Well, and Scott has to go home or his parents are gonna have a cow…"
Erik laughs once. "Hank and Jean refuse to go on ahead too, then?"
"Of course they do," Charles says. "They're both stubborn, and without my usual doctor here I presume that Hank considers himself the next best thing." What he doesn't say—because Logan and Kurt don't know anything about that situation—is that Hank has also begun working with Nicole and the doctors here on deciding the best way for the frozen embryos Shaw had removed to be returned to their parents and born.
Kurt shrugs, and Logan only rolls his eyes. "Well tell whoever's coming to get ready to go; I want to be outta here in a couple of hours."
"Okay," Kurt nods. Then he disappears again.
"It's not far driving. I should be back before dark," Logan adds.
"Thank you, for ferrying the children home," Charles nods. "And if at all possible, please convince my sister that I am perfectly all right and that there isn't any reason for her to come."
"I can try, but I doubt it'll do any good," he smirks. Erik is grinning in agreement.
"Yes, well…thank you anyway. For everything."
Logan shrugs. "Hey, it was worth it—town wouldn't be any fun without you two and your crazy kids. Besides; now I don't have to move again."
Raven heard some of what happened from her son—what little he knew—and she hears more from Logan when he comes to pick up Nicole's family to return them home. Ororo, Alex, Sean, and Moira are with him.
Though she trusts Ororo and Moira promises to stay and help look after the little ones Raven still has a hard time leaving. But despite Logan telling her that Charles would rather she stay home, she can't. Because Logan also told her enough for her to understand how close it came to losing Charles. Again.
She can't wait. She needs to see him now, and she wants to be there for him whether he thinks he needs her or not. She wouldn't mind meeting the woman who saved him, either.
Nicole, of course, is waiting for them when they arrive because her family is with them. Raven doesn't get a chance to talk to her then, but that's fine. She'd rather get to Charles anyway.
Logan takes her there, and Erik is with him, which of course isn't at all surprising. Erik gets up and retreats to leave brother and sister alone once he sees who it is at the door, though, and she's grateful.
Then she's laughing, when as soon as Erik is gone Charles is out of bed and up on unsteady legs trying to come to meet her. "Whoa, down boy." She hurries to him and hugs him, gently tugging him back down onto the edge of the bed to sit with her so he won't be up.
"I've been horizontal for more than a week now," Charles grumbles. "I'm bloody tired of it, and while I've promised Erik I won't push myself too far too quickly, I don't think standing up falls into that category."
Raven drops her one bag onto the floor by the bed and readjusts her hold on her brother. "Oh be quiet." Surprisingly enough, he obliges, and she doesn't want to think about everything that happened here. She knows she probably isn't aware of the half of it.
That, of course, makes her all the more upset that she wasn't able to be here to help before now, but she pushes those thoughts away and sits back. She's glad enough that everyone is finally safe. She looks Charles over, trying to reassure herself that he really will be all right. The lack of hair doesn't help, nor the lines around his eyes, but he's Charles and he's smiling at her and that is so much better than nothing.
"You've got to stop trying to leave me, you know," she says, her throat suddenly tight. "I don't care if you were eleven; you promised you'd be there for me forever, and I plan to hold you to that."
"I'm sorry," he answers, smiling weakly.
"Don't apologize; just don't do it again." She sighs and looks at him, wincing a bit not so much because his hair is gone but because of what she knows caused it. "Do you get cold like that?" she asks. She doesn't have to add anything else for him to know what she means.
His eyebrows go up, and so do his eyes, but of course he can't really see the top of his own head. "I hadn't really thought about it. I've been sleeping too much to really notice, I suppose…talking to everyone who comes to see me when I'm not sleeping…I don't know. But there are people who are bald usually, so seeing as it isn't completely abnormal or anything I suppose I'd get used to it." He frowns then. "Though I'm certainly not used to it now."
Raven shakes her head at him. "Do you have to overthink everything?" She lets out a breath and leans down to open her bag and dig through it. She brought one of his hats from home, from the chest of winter clothes packed upstairs, and she finds the knit cap and pulls it over his head. "Here. Merry Christmas-in-July."
"Oh…well, that's better." He pulls it off for a moment to see which one it is, straightens the thick fold at the rims, and then puts it back on and adjusts it himself. It's navy blue, and he chuckles lightly. "I suppose it's fortuitous that I have one that matches most of my sweaters. I may have to wear it for a while. Nicole said that my hair should come back, but didn't give an indication as to how long that would take. I don't think she knows." He pauses. "It is July, isn't it?"
"Something like that," Raven answers. "I'm too tired to care right now. While everyone else has been off getting into trouble I've spent all week watching two hyper six years olds and a one month old with no one to change shifts with." On the up side, the past couple of nights Nicole's daughters helped her and she managed to get more sleep. She still hasn't quite caught up, but it did help.
"I know, and I'm sorry. Pease don't let me keep you if you need to get some rest—"
"No, no—I'm fine right now. Talk to me." Charles shifts uncomfortably, and she narrows her eyes at him. "What? There's more I need to know—I know there is. I can tell."
He tells her, and it isn't all bad, not like she suspected. In fact, the news that Charles's father is alive is more than welcome. The rest isn't exactly bad…just hard to hear. He tells her about the pregnancy he didn't know about himself, because it was too early. He tells her what Shaw did, but that the people here are willing to help them. But there are also Nicole's predictions about his health in the future.
"I don't know what will have to be done. I…I don't particularly want to think about it," he admits.
"Charles…if you don't have a uterus anymore you know what'll have to be done. You'll have to find a surrogate."
He doesn't seem to like that answer, and his sentences become to come out faster and tumbling over each other. "If there aren't any other options, yes, I know that, but…and they haven't told me anything yet, but—but perhaps Nicole can…fix me. So I could carry them. I don't know. I know she can't make me any healthier in general, but it is isn't as if I'm horribly bad off, especially once I've got my strength back, and maybe she could at least do that. And then…if she was able to make sure the tumor wouldn't return when I was exposed to the radiation Shaw dosed me with, then I'm sure she could do something to make sure it wouldn't return if I were to carry one more pregnancy to term, and—and it's only one. Two children, I know, but one pregnancy. Twins. It isn't as if I haven't done such a thing before. I've done it twice. Nicole is a healer and the doctors here have more medical advancements at their call than anyone even before the war. Don't you think they could find a way? How hard could it—"
"You almost died last time, Charles. And that was before you got hit with a fatal dose of radiation poisoning," Raven says firmly. "You are not doing that again. I would carry them before I'd let you do it. Now or after anything they could do to 'improve' you."
"Raven…"
"I'm serious."
He lets out a breath, looking like he wants to say something else. Raven pulls him into an embrace again, not letting him go so easily this time. "There's nothing you can do about it right now, Charles. Just…focus on getting better. We need you at home."
"I feel fine," he sighs. "Just tired, but I could rest at home. I'm waiting for them to let me leave."
"Well I'm here now. At least you won't be bored."
Charles chuckles against her shoulder.
"We found something today."
Charles props himself up on his elbows and raises an eyebrow. "Like what?"
Erik toes his shoes off and drops onto the bed on his back, an unreadable look on his face. "Shaw's office—his private rooms. Well…everyone here knew where they were, but no one had ever been inside. Maybe the teleporter and the other telepath had…some of the other higher-ups, but none of them are saying anything."
"And what did you find that has you in such a mood?"
"Maps. The location of every post-war settlement on the planet that he knew about, population estimates…other files…everything. He really did control the planet. He really did have what he wanted. Maybe it wasn't all the way he wanted it yet…but he would have gotten there if we hadn't stopped him."
Charles swallows. "I just wish there had been another way to do it—other than killing him. If I'd been strong enough I—"
"You did what you could. You did what you had to. So did I," Erik says, shifting a hand across the mattress to hold one of his. Charles squeezes back and lets his arms out from under him. He lies down again and turning his head he's still able to see his husband.
"How many are out there?" he asks quietly.
"We knew about the five settlements here in England, which has grown from the original two. In the rest of Europe combined, nearly twenty…dozens more each in Asia and Africa and the Americas. Two or three along the coast in Australia. All with the pairing system imposed on them—Shaw trying to breed the perfect mutant race to serve him." Erik makes a face. "I don't know how we're going to tell them all that they're free."
Charles is quiet a moment, trying to grasp the enormity of the situation. "Surely there's some means of communication…we haven't lost everything, after all, and he can't have relied solely on the teleporter…"
"No. Still no telephones or lines put back up anywhere, but plenty of radios. All of the settlements had them—he simply made sure that the councils didn't allow the general population access to them. Or to any vehicles. He wanted the settlements as isolated as they could be, while still making the pairing system as valuable as possible. So only small groups of town were allowed to communicate and travel between each other…everything restricted and moderated of course, while the people were led to believe it was all for safety and because of loss of technology."
"But there IS a way to contact the other settlements. They can know—"
"But after being subjugated by the same powerful tyrant for thirty-five years, would you believe he was gone simply because someone told you over a radio? How do we make them believe it?"
"I don't know…but it has to be attempted. They have to know. After Shaw, those councils are the ones in power. Only they can release the people from the laws Shaw imposed on them and give everyone the freedoms they deserve."
Erik sighs. "I know that. You're right. But I don't know how it's going to work. Though it turns out that Shaw actually has several aircraft stashed elsewhere—another base. If all else failed…"
"We would need pilots," Charles chuckles. "And I don't happen to know anyone who can fly a plane. Not even Logan can do that, as long as he's been about."
"True, but to be fair we wouldn't absolutely need more than one. You could pass the knowledge on to anyone else."
"It would work, but real experience is better. And you're getting ahead of yourself, Erik. No one has even tried calling any of the other towns yet, have they?"
"No…we were going to try tomorrow."
By 'we' he means himself and Jean and Brian and some of the other residents of the compound and the village below, who have been helping to scour Shaw's home base for any useful information and to find out just what technology is here that the settlements weren't allowed to have. Most of the group are the local leaders, who want to help formulate a plan of action—to decide what needs to be done and how now that Shaw is gone.
"Good. Try."
An older mutant woman from the village's small council is at the radio console in Shaw's quarters the next day, when they try to contact the other settlements on the island that was once Great Britain. The rest of the village's council is there, and Nicole, who is one of them. Erik is there, and Brian and Jean and Kurt are with him.
"Too bad telepathy wouldn't work through this thing," Jean mumbles. "Anybody who had trouble believing, I could just zap them."
But her sentiment isn't needed. They reach all five of the settlements, and while they seem surprised to be getting a call from someone who isn't Shaw or one of his top two or three followers…the members of the towns' councils that answer say they already know that Shaw is dead.
"The teleporter…the one who worked for him…he told us," one man says, sounding more bewildered than anything.
They go beyond England. They get the same response. Most of the call recipients thank the radio operator for confirmation. Hearing the information from a second source makes it seem more real, they say.
Everyone is quiet, stunned more and more as it goes on, so Erik doesn't notice the look on Kurt's face until the boy tugs on his sleeve and whispers.
"Uncle Erik…I think there's something I need to tell you."
It feels like there are far too many people in here, crowded around the small exam table Charles is sitting on the edge of. A curtain is pulled, and the space seems even smaller. Erik is with him, of course, at his side, an arm around his shoulder. And Hank and Nicole and one of the compound's doctors they've been collaborating with. Then there's Raven, and Brian. Raven is holding one of Charles's hands and his father doesn't seem to know quite what to do.
The people here are the only ones that know about the embryos, besides a few of the other doctors. But they don't really know Charles and Erik. Anyone they care about who knows is here. Well…maybe Jean knows. Charles isn't sure whether or not she's picked that up.
It isn't that he minds that they're here. It's just that he doesn't like what he's hearing. Maybe that's why it feels too hot in here now.
"You're sure? There isn't any other way?"
Nicole shakes her head apologetically. "I can't regrow entire organs, and the ones that were removed weren't saved. Even if they had been…it would be too dangerous. You know that."
"You're in no condition to support a pregnancy, even if it were possible," the doctor fills in again, only repeating what they've already told him in more detail.
Charles resists looking at his sister; she would never say 'I told you so' on an issue this sensitive, but he would hear it anyway even if it were only in his own imagination.
They've said everything there is to say already. All Hank can add now is, "I'm sorry, Mom…"
So there isn't going to be any miracle. Still, it isn't the end. The children can still be born, it's just…
It hurts.
"No, it's all right, I understand, I uhm…" He trails off, and he knows it all comes out weak and unconvincing. Erik is squeezing his shoulders reassuringly as Nicole and doctor retreat, leaving the family alone in the curtained-off corner of the infirmary. After a while he does look at Raven, when she squeezes his hand.
"I'll do it," she says gently. "I told you days ago I would. I meant it."
Charles lets out a breath. "Don't be ridiculous. You've only just had Lorna, and—"
"And what? You didn't wait much longer between Jean and Ororo, and besides—I'm a lot sturdier than you. It's not your fault; it's just genetics."
He shakes his head. "But I couldn't ask you to do something like this…"
"Who else is gonna do it? And you're not asking me; I'm volunteering."
"She's already talked to me," Hank adds, which puts Charles out of excuses.
Raven sits beside him on the exam table and kisses his forehead. "You're my brother, Charles. You found me, you took care of me…you've always been there for me, just like you promised you would be. You going to let me do this one thing for you, or are you just going to be stubborn?"
She's right. There isn't any other choice, really. He looks up at Erik, and his husband's nod is just perceptible.
So Charles nods too, but it still hurts.
Charles is quiet until they make it back to the room they've been using, but once they get there he doesn't even make it to the bed. He lets his knees go out from under him as soon as they're through the door, and Erik only has time to catch him enough to lower him carefully to the floor.
"Charles? Are you all right?"
He worries Charles has been up for too long, until he realizes his husband is crying. "Charles…?" Erik closes the door without touching it and sits with him on the cold metal floor, holding him close and maybe he's rocking a bit; he isn't sure. He's more worried about Charles. "What is it? What's wrong?"
There's no answer, just quiet sobbing muffled into his shoulder, but it doesn't take long for Erik to be sure about what's bothering him. "I'm so sorry…did it really mean that much to you?"
It's another minute or two before Charles can answer, but finally he does. "Before…when I told you to find another way…when I thought I wouldn't be here…that was different. If I was going to die anyway I wanted them to have a chance to live, as long as you could get them away from Shaw. It wouldn't have mattered then. Now, I-I…I'm here. It's not the same for someone else to carry them when I'm still here."
"You'd rather it were Raven than someone else, wouldn't you?"
"Of course; th-that's not…what I mean…"
Charles's head is tucked under his chin, the hat scratching a bit. Erik doesn't care. He holds on. "Then what do you mean?"
"I mean it hurts, Erik," Charles whispers miserably. "It…it makes me feel…useless. And I can even blame anyone. Not myself. Not even Shaw. It isn't anyone's fault. I wouldn't have been able to do it no matter what anyone else had or hadn't done and…and…." He ducks his head even farther. "It just hurts, and I don't know how to make to stop."
Erik swallows and peels Charles off of him enough to get his husband to look up at him. "You told me not so long ago that we could get through anything, as long as we did it together. Were you lying? Did you make that up?"
"No…" Charles answers weakly.
Erik strokes his cheek with a thumb and looks him in the eyes. "Then why would this be any different?" he says softly. "Yes, you're still here—so am I. And I'm not going anywhere. I love you…"
There's a quiet choked sound, maybe almost like a laugh. At least Charles is trying to smile now. Erik kisses him, and that goes quite a lot better.
They're still all but tangled together on the floor, but neither of them are inclined to move just yet. "I suppose you're right," Charles mumbles. "We've made it this far, after all…" He pauses. "I want to go home."
Erik nods against his cheek.
Enough has been done here. There are plans being made, strategies for redistributing the recovered technology Shaw kept from the settlements, for getting vehicles and more radios and other thing from his hidden bases to the people.
The world is on its way to reconnecting. It's on its way to learning to grow and improve again. Now the people left on Earth can take back the reins, and there will be more to do, but…
Right now, it's time to go home.
