Thanks to hippiechick2112 for reviewing!

Happy new year! I'm sorry for the sporadic posting. Now that the holidays are over, I'll try to update more regularly again.

In their joking about names, Chris repeated three. He always suggested Sam and Matthew for a boy; Alexandria for a girl. As he flies he turns over the names in his head.

Sam.

The plane hits an air current and the controls rattle.

Matthew.

He isn't sure where he is now, which state he is flying over.

Sam.

Then he's not flying over any state but the wide, wide ocean and he focuses on navigation.

Matthew.

And he makes it, finally, with his fingers numb and his back sore and his ears… possibly no longer attached… he climbs out of the plane at an airbase called Pearl Harbor and reminds himself it might be an Alexandria.

He reports in and is advised to take a walk. When he looks around he realizes why. He walks past trees he can't name. He takes his shoes off and wriggles his toes in the hot sand, takes his clothes off and swims out in the refreshing ocean.

He thought the inverse of Alaska was Katherine. To his surprise, it's Hawaii. He spends a few glorious days there, most of it with the planes, some of it on the beaches.

Then he flies in that same plane, thinking those same thoughts: Sam, Matthew, Alexandria, Hawaii. (Can you name someone Hawaii? Can you name them Beach or Pacific or Giant Turtle? …probably not.)

He reports in, if abruptly—the military expects little small talk. Chris expects to report, be dismissed, and go home.

Instead his commanding officer asks him, "You rested up, Summers?"

Not really.

"Yes, Sir."

"Good. Your wife went into labor—"

"But she's not due for another six weeks!" Chris interrupts. "Sir."

"I don't have the details. She's in the hospital."

He might as well fly, he gets there so quickly.

Chris may be late to the party, but the hospital staff know where to direct him. He finds Katherine asleep and can't bring himself to wake her. So he asks to have the baby brought from the nursery and he waits there, holding this impossibly small person, crying because he has never in his life loved anyone this much.

For three days, Charles barely saw Alex. He wasn't certain he ought to think much of this. After all, he rarely saw Hank, either—Hank spent his time in his lab. Alex had been working and spending time with his father.

It felt deliberate with Alex, though. Hank was absent-minded and got lost in his work; Alex was actively avoiding people. He had stopped showing up to dinner, an otherwise accepted routine for everyone. He wasn't precisely rude—but then, the Summers boys were more prone to a simmering sulk followed by an explosion. Both of them, not that Charles would put it to either.

So he was surprised when Alex stepped into his study.

"You got a minute?"

Charles motioned to the chair opposite. He was making notations on the day's activities. Training with Ororo continued and while her control of the wind continued to be less than perfect, she summoned it easily. Meanwhile Charles realized that Scott's training had been lagging, as had his studies—but it was summer, and with construction on the mansion, Scott was gone all day.

The two questions that remained in the margins were, of course, Doug and Laurie. Charles did not know that Laurie would return, although her mother had been quite supportive of her being here. And Doug… an issue for another time!

"What's on your mind, Alex?"

He dropped himself into the chair, took a deep breath, and like he was ripping teeth from his jaw announced, "The way I behaved at dinner a few days ago was wrong and I apologize."

Charles regarded him for a moment.

Alex shifted uncomfortably. "I was immature," he continued, "and I realize that was… um… inappropriate."

Charles wasn't sure how to address that. He had heard half-apologies from Alex before, but mostly mumbled and obligated. This one, as uncomfortable as it made Alex, seemed genuine.

The silence still made him babble.

"And I'm older and should be setting an example."

"Ah. Your father's put you up to this," Charles realized.

Alex nodded. "He was mad," he admitted.

Well, that was more than Charles had expected from Chris. He had to acknowledge, if only to himself, that what he asked of Alex had been quite wrong. He had been upset with Chris as Scott's father, but forgotten to think of him as Alex's.

That didn't justify Alex's behavior, of course. But then, Alex's bad behavior didn't justify Charles's.

"I accept your apology."

"Uh, thanks. I'm not coming back, though. Whatever's going on with you, with Scott, Chris is my dad."

Charles couldn't argue with that. He realized that, once this was sorted out, he needed to have a talk with Alex about his powers as well. Everything seemed to be under control, but there were risks one simply didn't want to be taking. Losing grip on a power like Alex's… that was quite a risk.

More pressing, "I have a better idea. Why don't you and Chris join the rest of us."

Alex looked puzzled and a touch distrusting. "He's un-banned?"

"He's un-banned," Charles confirmed. "That wasn't an appropriate way for me to approach the situation." It wouldn't have been right to tell Alex, but Chris's behavior since then had been entirely right. As much as Charles wanted to remain angry and keep blaming him for Scott's nightmares, he was believed—reservedly—that Chris had changed.

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened?" Before Charles could answer, Alex said, "Yeah, I kinda figured that. At least stop pretending it's not my business."

Charles spent a few seconds phrasing an explanation about how this absolutely was not Alex's business before realizing he was wrong. Outside of Scott and Chris, the only family Alex acknowledged was his adoptive sister Haley. Something that not only involved but to a degree consumed both of them was very much his business.

Did Alex remember that day, too? He had been two years old when he watched his drunk father beat his brother. Was that old enough to remember or too young to understand?

"It's not my decision." Sensing an objection, Charles held up a hand to prevent it. "It's between Chris and Scott. You have to take it up with them."

Alex didn't like it. Charles saw the wheels turning, the desire to openly object and the recognition that his reasons were basically sound. Then Alex nodded. "Okay," he said. "I'll do that."

"Tell me about the orphanage."

"I—I can't."

"You can."

Scott looked around the room for a few frantic seconds, then shook his head. "What about it?"

"Anything."

Charles had debated the best time to talk about the past and chosen evening. He didn't have many options with Scott, which made Charles realize just how busy that boy kept himself. Running in the morning, working at the library all day, krav maga several times a week… and he had been neglecting training his power, they would have to work more at that, too.

Now Scott sat on his bed, knees hugged to his chest, looking very much like that same little boy he had been. It was only a few years ago, after all.

"Why do we need to talk about this?" he asked. "It's in the past."

"Because it's not in the past, Scott. Is it? You're still having the nightmares. I'm not angry," Charles added almost on reflex. It was a learned response to Scott's reflex: apology. "I think you're still afraid of the orphanage. I think you know I will never send you back there, but if there's anyone more powerful than me, it's Mr. Milbury."

Charles was not stating that as a fact. He phrased it as what he believed to be Scott's fear. Charles would never send him back but he could still be dragged kicking and screaming, couldn't he?

"Isn't that right, Scott?"

Scott raised his head to look at Charles. Charles had seen that expression before. The night they met, in the police station, Milbury arrived and put his hand on Scott's shoulder like he was asserting ownership. He was, Charles realized.

Scott swallowed and nodded.

"He's always in the shadows," he said. "He… watches. He knows. Everything and all the time. He's this… this twisted, messed up Santa demon."

Santa, Charles thought, meant saint. Saint Demon. What a disturbingly accurate description.

Scott shivered and rocked slightly, not quite able to sit still.

"You said that it was the worst—not what he did to me, what he said."

Charles nodded. "I remember that." Had it been a month ago already? He wondered when Ororo's cast could come off. The night he and Scott talked about Milbury, she was at the hospital with Ruth.

"You, um, were wrong, actually. You're not, usually, but you said the worst thing Mr. Milbury did was tell me I was worthless."

"When I said that, I never meant to suggest that what he did physically—"

Scott shook his head. "It wasn't that. It was being nice. When he… one time he told me he was sorry. I sat out of school for weeks with a busted-up face. He was really nice until he got sick of me. He gave me a toy for my eighth birthday. Only a couple weeks late."

"Scott…"

None of that sounded like kindness. To Charles, it was all indicative of a diseased mind—Milbury's, although he knew Scott's mind needed to do some healing of its own. At least Scott's mind could. What was wrong with Milbury, Charles didn't think it could be fixed.

"I know. But when I try to hate him, all I can think about is how he told me once that I was special. Before he started telling me I was research. And I just get to thinking that he was… that if I had been better… that, um, that was it my fault. That I was bad.

"I know. I'm not bad. It doesn't make sense! He does this, he gets inside your head. I'm bad. I'm worthless. I'm pathetic. I couldn't even take care of my baby brother. It never made sense, didn't want Alex there, not in that place. Not… cut."

Scott took a shaky breath and concluded, "You have to protect him. Alex. Promise you'll protect him."

"Scott, Alex is not a little boy anymore."

Scott sniffled and shrugged. "But he's not not a kid, is he?" he reasoned.

That dedication had always been one of the traits Charles found most endearing in Scott. He would do anything to protect his family. While Charles wanted to have some modicum of respect for Alex's ability to make his own choices, he decided there was a time and a place for such things.

"I won't let anything happen to Alex."

Charles stayed until Scott fell asleep.

He went to read to Ororo after this, but she had the covers pulled up over her head and refused to budge.