Please pardon any differences in the canon bits. It's been a while since I've watched the movie and I'm stuck trying to recall all of the dialogue. Please excuse my lack of photographic memory. The basic idea of the scenes should be the same.
"Wake up," a voice said, calm and insistent. Ssshhhh….she was dreaming and still very, very tired. "Come on, Ellie! Wake up!" the voice said again, this time louder and a little less calm. Ellie swatted at it vaguely. Leave me alone! "Charles, she's not getting up." Who's Charles? Oh, right.
"Alright, I'll get her." A new voice joined the first. Footsteps grew louder until they stopped right next to her.
Charles leaned down and put his hands on his knees until he was nearly nose to nose with Ellie, still sound asleep. He stared at her intently and suddenly, without any warning thought, WAKE! as loud as he possibly could.
Equally as sudden, the girl bolted upright so quickly that he didn't have time to get out of the way before she smacked his face with her face and smashed their noses together painfully.
"Oh my God Charles! What the hell are you doing?" she shouted, clapping a hand over her face to try (in vain) to stem the pain.
"Trying to wake you up! You didn't have to assault me!" he yelled back, doing exactly the same thing having landed flat on his butt from the shock.
"Why were you so damn close?" He didn't answer that.
"The plane's landed. Time to get off," he grumbled instead and picked himself up off the floor, dusting his spotless trousers.
She grumbled back and stood up (a little dizzily) to retrieve her bag from the overhead compartment. She shot Raven a dark look for laughing at her pain. "Just shut up and come on," she snapped. Raven had to clap a hand over her mouth to stifle the barrage of giggles that threatened to escape.
That idiotic, hot tempered girl! How dare she insinuate that that whole affair had been his fault! She was the one who had insisted on staying asleep when they tried to wake her! She was the one who had leapt up and head-butted him! He had more important things to deal with than the nasty headache beginning to spread. He pinched the bridge of his nose and helped Moira from her seat. Damn! Sometimes he really hated living with the beast. She was his friend and he loved her as such, but she really made life difficult to be perfectly honest. Dull anger and irritation simmered in his chest as he quickly led them through the throng of people at the New York airport. They had already reached the front door by the time it occurred to him. Would they be able to go back to Westchester before going to the CIA?
"Do we have time to get home first?" he asked Moira. He had her answer before she spoke.
"No, we have to get to Langley, now."
He only nodded once. He hadn't slept a wink on the plane, unlike some people, and fatigue tugged at the corners of his mind like an old and insistent friend. It promised peace, it promised rest and it sang to him so sweetly that he nearly accepted right then and there. The only thing that stopped him was the constant nervous vibrations coming to him from the three women. He had a duty to them and to his country, and he would be damned before he failed either.
So they now had to get back on a plane. A quick scan of the nearest attendant's mind told him that the next flight to D.C. left in about two hours. Wait a moment, why hadn't they just flown straight to D.C. in the first place? He must have been more exhausted than he thought.
"Charles, you ok?" Ellie asked him, her concern pressing in on him as she approached. He saw himself through her eyes and was fairly shocked by it. The man she was looking at was disheveled with deep, dark circles beneath his eyes. He looked as if he were about to keel over without warning. Yes, he would definitely be trying to sleep on the plane. It would be difficult with the myriad of minds babbling at him from all sides, but he had to try. God, he looked terrible!
He wiped a tired hand over his face and forced a smile. He couldn't afford to appear tired now. "Yes, my dear. Thank you for your concern. I should have spoken to Moira before we left Oxford. Now we'll have to fly to Langley in addition to the flight from England."
"Well, I think we were all a bit preoccupied when we left," she said, her eyes darkening. Questions burned in her mind like fiery snakes, but she didn't ask. "It's not just your fault. On the plus side, we all get another few hours to rest up before we speak to the CIA." She tugged her blazer tighter around her shoulders and shuddered, ice fogging up her thoughts for a moment. Ah, that's right. Serpents are cold blooded and the air was a bit chilly today.
"Would you like another jacket?" he asked, beginning to shrug out of his own.
She shook her head a smiled sweetly at him. Her hair looked lovely when it rippled like that in the rising sun. "I'll be just fine. You need it more than I do." With that, she turned and went back inside to wait.
Moira and Raven were standing just inside the door, whispering anxiously with their heads close together. The scent of the ever-present fear that had shadowed them from England was beginning to cancel itself out in her scent glands. Thank God for that, because she'd been this close to losing what little she'd been able to eat. Fear had a sour, rank smell that really started to grate on one's stamina after a while. If you managed to withstand it long enough, you got used to it.
"You guys alright in here?" she asked them. They jerked apart and clutched their chests as if she'd startled them. Well, that was exactly what happened.
"Yeah," Raven said, giving her a bit of a dark look. "You're so quiet. You really should make some noise when you sneak up on people like that."
"Well, isn't that the purpose of sneaking?" Ellie cocked an eyebrow and offered a sly smile. "Besides, I wasn't sneaking. I only sneak when I'm going to eat small animals." She immediately wished she could shove the words back in her mouth and swallow them.
Moira choked a little bit on the air she was breathing. "What?" she gasped in surprise.
"Shit." Ellie mentally cursed herself. That little slip was going to be hard to cover up. "Joking, dear Moira. I'm a terrible jokester, and Raven and Charles are very much averse to my appreciation for a good rabbit gumbo or stew and I do enjoy teasing them about it." Much to Ellie's relief, the look of incredible shock disappeared from Moira's face and she just nodded like she understood, but the blank look in her eyes said that she didn't. Then again, she'd looked like that since they saw her yesterday. Maybe she was just naturally blank-looking.
They were starting to look a little silly where they were, three women just standing around and whispering near the front door. People were beginning to stare. Ellie heard them murmuring among themselves as they passed and decided that it was time to move. She gently took hold of the other two women's arms and guided them deeper into the airport where there were some rather uncomfortable seats to sit in. Unfortunately, it was all they had so Ellie had to just grin and bear it. She was not going to grin, but she supposed she did have to bear it. She was far too hungry to grin anyway. She thought about going out for a little hunt, but that would probably freak Moira out for real. As if to accentuate her thoughts, her stomach let out a ferocious grumble that had both Moira and Raven leaning over to look at her.
"What?" she said with a shrug of the shoulders. "I'm starving."
"They've got vending machines and food places," Raven said sweetly. She was always just so…sweet. It made Ellie smile.
"Thank you hon, but I don't have any money." Anthropology didn't pay quite as well as genetics and ancient trust funds from parents long gone.
"Just ask Charles, I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Raven said with that perfectly innocent blond haired and blue eyed look of hers. She didn't see anything wrong with mooching off of her brother, but Ellie had never been one to accept charity from others. The only thing she did accept was a place to live, but she was constantly repaying Charles with her spectacular housekeeping skills.
Ellie shot her a withering glance. "No, Raven. I'm not asking Charles for his money."
"I know, but it never hurts to ask." She grinned that blindingly white little grin and Ellie had to return it.
"Did anyone ever tell you how wonderful you are?"
"Yeah, but I'm not averse to hearing it again." The grin expanded and she leaned even further into Ellie's lap.
"You are wonderful, Raven." Ellie laughed, scratching the girl's abnormally blonde and perfect head affectionately. She wished she had the ability to be lovely, to be rid of her scars. They'd plagued her since she was thirteen years old. They'd mocked her every time she looked in the mirror. Weak, they screamed. Imperfect! Ugly! She would never be free of them, and they would forever be the first thing that anyone noticed when they saw her. Moira was looking at it now, she could see the woman out of the corner of her eye. Swiftly, she combed her hair down and positioned it to cover her most visible deformity. Moira looked away.
"I'm going to sleep and I suggest the two of you do the same," she said, curling up on the hard tile floor and doing her best to fall asleep.
Charles didn't go back inside until it was time to board. The steadily increasing number of chattering minds was only adding to the tremendous headache he'd gotten after being head-butted. He found it a little easier to block them when he was outside on his own. He also got the opportunity to go over the events he'd witnessed from Moira's mind a few more times. He didn't figure out anything new like who they were, what they wanted with the Colonel or even who he was, but it gave him something to do and therefore put his mind at ease. Well, as at ease as it could be.
He sat down heavily on the curb as far away from the door as possible and just replayed the scene over and over again in his mind until he was so familiar with it that it was beginning to irritate him. He had every detail memorized to the point of instant recall and still, he hadn't come to a single damn conclusion. He'd never been so completely baffled by anything before in his rather short life. He was a geneticist for crying out loud! He was an expert at putting random pieces together and getting the whole picture out of next to nothing. The problem was, he only had one piece and didn't have a clue as to what the piece might mean. What exactly did Moira want from him? He was fairly certain now that this went far beyond wanting to know about mutations. They had the colonel, (Colonel Hendri, he had finally found out) and she needed to know who they were and why. Beyond that, whatever case she'd been working on when she discovered them still needed to be completed, and he got the feeling that he, Raven and Ellie had just been recruited to help out.
"Charles." A hesitant voice jolted him out of his reverie. It was Ellie, standing a few feet away and looking at him with a guarded expression.
"Yes? Is something the matter?" No one would ever have guessed at the ferocious storm raging behind those Swarovski eyes, as calm and blue as a cottage pond in the summertime.
"You just looked like you were really thinking hard about something," she said softly, casting her eyes down. She was oddly subdued all of a sudden. "It's time to board." She turned to leave but he caught her arm and turned her back around to face him.
"What is it, Ellie? I know something's wrong." He already knew, of course. He only asked out of courtesy. She was guilty for derailing his train of thought and her multitude of questions was beginning to cause some stress. Worry nagged at her like a housewife and dimmed her blazing personality a bit.
"Nothing," she said, forcing a smile and shrugging out of his grasp. He watched her disappear through the door and then the throng of people waiting for a plane for just a moment before following slowly after.
OxOxO
The flight was uneventful to the extreme, and all four of them (managing to get four seats together that time) were asleep within fifteen minutes. By the time the flight attendant woke them with her landing announcements and instructions, Moira was the only one whose entire body had actually remained in its seat. Ellie was lying with her head in Raven's lap who in turn had propped her feet up in Charles's lap who had dropped his head onto Raven's shoulder and was snoring rather loudly. They yawned and stretched and disentangled themselves and gathered their bags in a haze of fatigue and jet lag that was just beginning to catch up with them. No one said a word as they hailed a cab and piled into the back seat. Moira was the only one who spoke, and even that was only to give directions to the driver.
Ellie didn't take her eyes off of the city until the car pulled into the parking lot of a very official looking building. The silence changed as they entered, filing in behind Moira. It pressed in on them, closing off their throats and making it impossible for words to escape. The entire building rang with silence and their hearts began to beat faster as they were stopped just inside the door. They were all frisked (one of the men jumped away from Ellie when she let out a low and very inhuman growl) and appropriately scanned and given tags that read, 'VISITOR'. Once they'd been checked in and checked out by about four different people each, a nameless guard led them off on an adventure through the maze of hallways and elevators that made up the CIA headquarters and Langley, Virginia. The only sounds to be heard were the steady clicking of footsteps and soft breathing, all but inaudible to everyone without an animal's senses. Even their minds were hushed, thinking very little at all. Charles quite liked it for a change.
Just when they were beginning to think that the guard didn't really know where he was going at all, he stopped in front of a large wooden door and ushered them inside. Several stern looking men with salt-and-pepper hair were sitting around a rather small conference table waiting for them and looking bored out of their minds when the four entered the room, taking available seats without a word. The room was small, as conference rooms go, but the chairs were made with genuine leather and weren't uncomfortable to sit on (Ellie discreetly took a gulp of cattle scented air and blanched. She was fairly certain she'd known this bull). The table, polished to a high sheen, held several pitchers and glasses for water (left untouched) and several notebooks and scattered paperwork. It smelled heavily of confidential information and the arrogance of soft men given a false sense of authority by a piece of paper and a title. Ellie would love to see one of them try to order an irascible rhinoceros around using that bit of paper and useless word.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," Moira said politely to the men looking at her from under raised eyebrows. "This is Professor Charles Xavier from Oxford. He's an expert on genetic mutation who just recently finished his thesis on the potential for genetic mutation in human beings today. Colonel Hendri has been abducted by members of the Hellfire Club who, as I witnessed myself, show signs of this mutation. Professor Xavier is here to prove this theory so that we can better understand these people and find Colonel Hendri." She nodded once and sat back down, stoic and poised as the X man himself. Judging by the faint flush in her cheeks, she was embarrassed by the looks of complete and utter boredom on the men's faces. Clearly she'd been hoping for a serious reaction she did not get.
At a grudging word from the man at the head of the table, Charles began to give the same presentation as he had in Oxford, all the while scanning the minds of the men in the room for their reaction. The information he was giving should have startled them, shocked them and shaken them right to the very core, but it didn't. Moira told them of the diamond woman, and the red man who could appear in a puff of flame and black smoke. Charles told them of how radiation had sped up evolution and genetic mutation that was all too possible, and apparently all too real. The men should have been afraid for their lives or wondering how to get the colonel back or at the very least, thinking about looking into the incident, but they weren't. Their thoughts were screaming with laughter or dripping with boredom or wondering what was for lunch later on.
In their minds, Charles Xavier (he was not a professor yet, thank you very much!) was as mad as a hatter, and everything he was saying was absolute gibberish. Damn government officials who thought they knew everything. It wouldn't be until they had a real problem on their hands that they would realize that Charles was not mad and they needed his help. He wouldn't be offering twice, but they wouldn't think about that now, would they?
As he began wrapping it up, the men glanced at each other with ridiculous smiles in their eyes, trying to stifle disrespectful sniggers (that part was what really got him. Disrespect). No one had absorbed any of the information he'd given. Well, he'd tried to warn them. If they weren't going to heed him, it wasn't his fault.
"The advent of the nuclear age may have accelerated the mutation process," he said, glancing over at the girls for support. Ellie winked at him and smiled warmly, and Raven was watching the men at the other end of the table but she was listening. At least someone besides Moira cared about what he was saying. "Individuals with extraordinary abilities may already be among us. Thank you very much." His presentation concluded, and he took his own seat, bracing himself for their reaction. It was about as bad as he was expecting, which was pretty bad.
"MacTaggert," the man opposite Charles addressed her as if she were an errant child. "You really think that some crackpot scientist is going to make me believe in sparkly dames and vanishing men? You just bought yourself a one-way ticket back to the typing pool. This meeting is over." He closed his notebook and rolled his eyes as Moira stood without a word. Her misery washed over him like stagnant water. Thanks to Charles, she'd just been horribly demoted from a job she'd worked her ass off for years for. Not on his watch.
"Please, sit down, Agent MacTaggert," he said calmly, effectively hiding his growing irritation and low anger. She looked up at him with gratitude and slowly returned to her seat. Ellie patted her arm reassuringly. This was getting good. "I didn't really expect you to believe me, given that all you could think about during my presentation is what sort of pie they're serving in the commissary." He paused, reaching out to the cooks several stories below them. "It's apple pecan." An electric shock jolted through Moira's mind as she put the pieces together, a shock that was not visible on her well-trained face. "I haven't been entirely honest with you, love, I'm sorry. You see, one of the many spectacular things my mutation," he drew the word out nice and slow to make sure these simpletons understood, "allows me to do is that I can read your mind." He waited. Still nothing but disdain and contempt.
"I've seen this before in a magic show," one of the larger men sneered. "Are you gonna ask us to think of a number between one and ten now?"
Charles chuckled a bit at the man's utter lack of regard for the situation. For men who hinged so much on the concept of respect, they had no idea what respect truly was. He almost felt sorry for them, cushioned here, away from the true horrors of the world by expensive doors and fine furnishings and paperwork. Stryker, here (the man who had just spoken) had been in the military, but was about as prejudiced and hateful as they come. "No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son William, who you were thinking about, which is very nice, but I think I'd rather ask you about the Jupiter missiles America are currently placing in Turkey," he answered quietly. Alright, so he swore that he would never use his ability to glean top secret information (although technically, he did only swear not to steal from Moira…), but these were dire straits they were heading into and desperate times called for desperate measures.
Electric shocks assaulted him from all directions as the men in the room realized that he wasn't supposed to know anything about that. Moira looked over at the man at the head of the table nervously when he started to rise, yelling "He's a goddamned spy! You brought a goddamned spy!" He reached for the phone, about to call in the cavalry and everyone started yelling at once.
"I would never…!" Moira was drowned out by the several other, louder voices that insisted that she was guilty. Charles got double the volume, in his ears and his mind, and he decided to just stay put until they sorted it all out. Moira was yelling at Stryker, who was yelling at a man in glasses across the room, who was yelling at the man at the head of the table who was punching numbers into his phone with shaking fingers. Charles felt the girls' decisions before they stood and tried to stop them, but it was too late.
At the same time, Ellie leapt up onto the table and tossed her jacket to the side, melting into a large, silvery grey wolf with emerald eyes, and Raven stood, her scales flipping over and turning her into Stryker.
All voices died in their owners' throats.
Stryker looked at himself standing at the other end of the table, and the others glanced back and forth fearfully between the beast that was staring them down and the man that had been a woman a moment ago. Ellie lifted her head and stood tall, wagging her tail as the tension in the room turned to excitement in her wolf brain. Her ears pricked up and she looked over her shoulder at Charles, her tongue lolling out of her mouth like a happy puppy.
Hey, her indignant mind voice said. I am not a puppy, and I'm not really happy either. The wolf's just excited by all the craziness.
I know, my dear, he laughed back. Ellie panted and rolled over onto her back, presenting her belly in a peace offering to the men who were pouring noxious fear-scent into the air.
Tell them I'm not going to hurt them.
They wouldn't believe me if I did. Charles shook his head slightly and turned back to Stryker. Raven shifted into her natural blue self and Ellie leapt down off of the table to stand beside her.
"How's that for a magic trick?" Charles asked.
"The best I've ever seen." A low and thoughtful voice sounded from corner of the room. Another man was there that even Charles hadn't noticed before. His thoughts had been so quiet and introverted and he hadn't said a word until now. Now that he was focused in on them, the man's thoughts were a buzz of activity. He had an idea, but Charles didn't stay long enough to find out.
"I want them out of here," the man next to Stryker growled, pointing an accusing finger at Charles. "And locked down until I can figure out what to do." Stryker himself just looked rather stricken.
Charles and Raven shared a nervous glance. They would fight if they had to, but that was a scenario they would avoid if at all possible. Ellie bumped her head against Raven's thigh. Raven scratched her head and the physical connection allowed Ellie's mind voice to speak to her.
Be ready, kiddo. Stay behind me if I go grizzly.
Ok, Raven replied. She kept her hand firmly on the wolf's head to keep communication open.
The man in the corner spoke up again. "My facility's off-site. I'll take them."
Dun dun dun! Cliffie! But, anyone who's seen the movie knows what goes on from here. How did you like my delivery of this scene? Ellie is a little bit more subdued in this canon scene cuz she knows when to hold her tongue and when some bitches need slappin! Don't worry though, she won't hold back like that much more. Coming up, Ellie's first meeting with one Erik Lehnsherr.
Feedback is much needed!