"Charles. Come back to bed."

Charles jumped, then gave a washed-out smile.

"Good morning, Erik." Erik sat up in bed. The milky light washed over his face, highlighting the dark circles round his eyes, the deeply scored lines around his mouth. He looked older to Charles; clearly the meagre hour or two of sleep they'd snatched hadn't done him much good.

"It isn't morning yet, Schatz. Come back here."

"Actually, it is, as of about five minutes ago."

The telepath had woken up about twenty minutes ago, been unable to settle down again, so pulled himself into his chair and rolled over to the window, watched the azure sky lighten to ashy grey. Nevertheless, he rolled back to the bedside, allowed Erik to pull him back under the covers, wrap him in a close embrace. He rubbed his thumbs gently under the metal bender's eyes, as if he could rub away the sleepless smudges there.

"You didn't sleep much either, did you?" The older man shook his head, shut his eyes as Charles's hands moved up into his hair. Erik tightened his grip on the telepath, until they were pressed chest to chest. He kissed Charles firmly on the forehead.

"I don't know if I'm scared or excited," Charles whispered. "I can't tell if I feel like a child on Christmas eve – or a man with an appointment with the hangman." He gave a nervous laugh. "And I don't know why I'm whispering."

Erik huffed a laugh into his hairline. Charles rolled his head into the bowl of Erik's shoulder, nuzzled his ear, breathed deeply of the scent of his lover – leather, lemon, something spicy and indefinable that Charles thought of as the essence of Erik. He felt the knot in his stomach loosen a little, and something deeper too – the wall that had been growing between he and Erik falling down.

Ever since Madeline had agreed to the procedure, they hadn't had time or thought for all the persistent arguments that had plagued their peace in recent months. All else was forgotten in the preparation for the cure. Although Charles knew deferral wasn't resolution, he was grateful for their renewed closeness. At this time when so much was at stake, he needed some certainties – and Erik's love kept him grounded when the world seemed to be shifting under his feet. His feet. Hah.

The night before, they had played the worst chess of their lives, neither one able to concentrate for more than two moves together. Eventually, while Erik was in the middle of a caustic remark about Charles's failure to protect his last rook, Charles had seized him by the sweater and pulled him into a desperate kiss, seeking to drown the clamour in both of their minds with a passion that was perversely heightened by their anxiety. But with the morning light, the worry had returned in force, and he felt as if only the borders of their bed kept it at bay. He groaned when Erik rolled away, began to dress.

"I thought you said it wasn't morning yet," Charles mumbled, trying not to pout. Erik rumpled his hair reprovingly. He adopted an avuncular tone that rang a little false, only served to highlight the tension underlying it.

"That was then. Come on, faulpelz – today's the first day of the rest of your life."

"Charles, you're being ridiculous. Please put the gown on."

"My dear fellow, it is simply not going to happen. The very idea."

"You need to put the gown on, it's procedure."

"I don't want to put the gown on. You put the gown on."

Hank pushed a blue paw through his hair. "Erik, you talk to him." Erik held his hands up.

"This is very much a doctor-patient issue. You two work it out between yourselves." Hank snorted, turned back to remonstrate with Charles, when Raven settled the issue by yanking the disputed gown over her brother's head.

"Charles, stop being such a baby. You're having spinal surgery, not going to a cocktail party." Charles made a little moue at her, but acquiesced, allowing Hank to help him out of his clothes and up onto the bed. At that moment, Madeline entered the lab.

Erik had enough work wrestling with his own anxieties, trying to keep Charles's spirits up. When he saw Madeline, his heart sank, knowing that he was going to have to find reserves of strength he didn't have, for her. The girl was white and trembling, had obviously not slept at all. Her hands knotted together convulsively, and her green eyes darted frantically around in her head, like a trapped wild animal seeking escape. He could tell just from looking at her it had taken everything she had to bring her as far as the sick-bay door.

In spite of all his worry over Charles, his heart went out to her. How could they ask this of her? How could she offer? Hank and Raven were still occupied with Charles; Erik seized the moment, strode to Maddy's side.

"You alright?" he asked her. She nodded jerkily, then suddenly gripped his forearm, as if it was the only thing stopping her from falling – or fleeing.

"You'll be here, right? Once he's put me to sleep? You won't leave me?"

Erik closed his other hand over hers, and the vice-like grip eased a little.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be there when he puts you to sleep, and I'll still be right here when you wake up. I promise. Nothing bad's going to happen to you." Let it not be a lie, he begged, not knowing who he asked. She smiled a sickly smile that skewered him through the heart.

"Sure. What's o-one more scar, right?"

The end justifies the means. The end justifies the means. Erik thought that if he just repeated that to himself enough, he might be able to drown out the persistent voice in his head, that wasn't Charles but sounded just like him, saying that this was all wrong. Madeline leaned in to him confidingly.

"Don't let them know I'm freaking out, OK? Charles would only call the whole thing off – and I don't think I could nerve myself up to this again." He nodded, struck speechless with guilt and gratitude. He didn't deserve this gift, this trust.

Maddy took a deep breath, whispered "show time!", then marched into the sick bay, all cheery greetings for her friends. She was a much more compliant patient than Charles, slipping into her gown behind a screen without a word of protest, climbing up onto the cot next to his. It was only when Hank approached her with the anaesthetic mask she balked, involuntarily jerking away. Hank pulled the mask away instantly, put a gentle hand on her quivering shoulder.

"Madeline?"

She gulped, looked pleadingly from Hank to Raven, and then to Charles. Charles was looking at Madeline with an expression Erik recognized – it meant that something was passing between them, some conversation no-one else was privy to. Madeline broke the gaze, looked around for Erik.

"Erik?" He darted to her side. Hank shot the two of them a disbelieving look, to Erik's irritation. He always acted as if Erik had some sort of malign influence over the girl; on other days Hank's misplaced chivalry might have grimly amused him, but not now.

"I told you. I'm right here. Just look at me. When you wake up, I'll be standing right here." She fixed her green eyes on his face, unblinking, like a man walking in the desert stares after an oasis.

"Just count backward from 100 for me please Maddy," murmured Hank, as he lowered the mask over her face.

"Mm-mmm-m, mmm-m-mmm, mmm-m-mmm…" The green gaze wavered, rolled away from Erik. Hank checked Madeline's vital signs, then moved to put Charles under too. Erik reached out to him with one hand, not wanting to remove the other from Maddy's unconscious grip. Charles took his hand in both of his.

"I'll see you soon my love," he said, giving Erik a look so full of warmth and reassurance that you'd think that it was he who was about to go under the knife. "Try not to get under Hank's feet too much – I'd like him at the very top of his game, if it's all the same to you. And that goes for you too, Raven," he added, shooting a fond look at his sister. She bit her lip, then gave him the finger.

"Don't sleep too long Charles; you know what a lazy ass you can be." He smiled as if she'd written him a poem.

"That's my girl." Charles turned to Hank. "I'm ready for my close-up, Dr McCoy. Try to stick the scalpel in the right side, there's a good chap." Hank grinned shyly, then held the mask up over Charles's face. Just before the telepath slipped under, he tightened his grip on Erik's hand and sighed "Eri.."

Hank checked the monitors, then scowled at Erik.

"Right, they're both under. Any chance of you getting out of my way? I'm working here." Erik reluctantly disengaged from Charles and Maddy, rounded the tables to stand beside Raven, and commenced one of the longest waits of his life.

Madeline was thrashing in a net of darkness. It felt as if she should be able to escape, but the more she tried, the more enmeshed she became. The darkness, silence, the helplessness, were absolute. She tried to stop fighting, to stop caring, to let the darkness have her. But her lungs felt starved for air, her eyes for light. She struggled again, although for what and to get where she couldn't remember. She knew there was a reason she was here, but she couldn't remember that either. The horror struck her that perhaps she had always been here, would always be, alone in the dark, weak, powerless. She opened her mouth to scream-

-and choked on a lungful of air as she burst through the skin of her drug-induced sleep and into consciousness. The first thing she saw, just as he had promised, was Erik, his grim expression breaking into a smile as she opened her eyes.

"Welcome back."

Raven shouldered him away and leaned over her.

"Are you alright? You've been asleep for hours. Charles woke up ages ago." Maddy turned her head and saw Charles smiling at her from the other bed. He waved weakly. Hank interposed himself between them.

"Mystique, my patient – do you mind?" Looking chastened, Raven took a step away, allowing Hank to check Maddy over. He looked extremely pleased with what he found.

"Incredible. Just incredible. Your tissue structure is remarkable, you know. The extraction site is already healing over – you could practically watch it repairing itself."

"And Hank practically did," said Raven, tartly. "You couldn't ask for more attentive care, that's for damn sure." Maddy shot her an anxious look, and Raven looked as if she wanted to bite off her tongue. She reached a blue hand out, gently pushed the hair out of Maddy's eyes.

"No more than you deserve. I know what it cost you to do this for my brother. I won't forget." Maddy smiled softly, touched by the emotion in the usually matter-of-fact shapeshifter's voice. She looked at Hank, at Charles.

"So tell me; what happened? Did it-" She found she couldn't complete the sentence, realized she hadn't been able to think beyond the operation itself for days.

"Did it work?" Charles interposed. "Not sure yet; Hank says that the local anaesthetic should be wearing off any time now, and then we'll see. Hank?" Hank checked a dial or two, wrote something on a pad, then nodded.

"Right. We're there. Let's see what's going on." He took out a sterilized needle, moved toward the end of Charles's bed, and gently lifted the blankets away, revealing his feet.

"Now Charles, I want you to remember that we don't know anything about how this thing is supposed to work, or how long it should take. This is just a preliminary test, understand?"

Charles nodded, suddenly pale-faced. Erik was standing behind him, his hands on Charles's shoulders. Charles had absently covered one hand with his, but his eyes were a long way off. Maddy could imagine just where he was – back in a hospital room much like this, being told he would never walk again.

Please, please, let it have worked. Don't let him have to go through that again, she begged inside her head. Charles obviously caught the thought, as he snapped out of his vacant moment, gave her a reassuring smile he then turned upon Hank.

"I understand, Hank. Don't worry. Now go ahead, there's a good fellow."

Hank crouched down, frowning with concentration. The whole room was holding its breath. Raven's hand was knotted around Maddy's, squeezing it hard enough to hurt. The needle shook as Hank applied it to the sole of Charles's foot.

"Can you feel that?"

There was a trembling silence. And then Charles said, sounding nothing like himself:

"Do that again." Hank pricked the skin a second time.

"Charles, can you feel it?" Erik's voice was taut with tension as he moved to the foot of the bed. Charles leaned up on his elbows and stared at his feet with a strange look on his face. Quite prosaically, he looked like someone trying to remember if they'd left the gas on. And then, suddenly, the toes of both feet clenched.

Charles's face split into a smile that Maddy knew she would remember all her life – so joyful it was almost pained; tears were starting in his eyes as he whispered the only name that could mean anything to him just then:

"Erik!"

Erik looked like nothing Maddy had ever seen before; he looked the way that she imagined true believers felt after confession and communion, relieved at last of the burden of sins long carried, filled with renewed faith and hope. It wasn't an expression she had ever hoped to see on the stern, sad face of the metal bender. At that moment, something happened in her heart that she instinctively felt would give her trouble later on. But for now, she just beamed joyfully at the joy of her friends.

Erik only had eyes for Charles as he reached out a shaking hand, and closed his fingers gently around his lover's toes.

"Meine Liebe."

Even Hank smiled. Not even the most cynical listener could have doubted, hearing the tenderness in Erik's tone, how much he loved Charles at that moment. Charles twitched.

"That tickles." He blinked, and repeated: "that tickles!"

Charles began to laugh, a soaring, carefree, joyous young man's laugh, and in that laughter Maddy recognised the Charles she'd never met, the Charles Erik had missed so much, the Charles that she had been able to bring back to him. Tears were running down Raven's cheeks, and Hank's face shone like a hairy blue sun.

They were all startled by the sudden jagged beep from Charles's monitor. A quizzical look came over his face as the machine's bleeping increased its tempo. He looked at Erik.

"Erik-"

And then Charles's eyes rolled back in his head, and he began convulsing on the table.

AN: Dun-dun-dunnnnnn! Probably no surprise to anyone that this has not ended with hugs and puppies - it is our Charles and Erik, after all. The next instalment is mostly written, and will be up shortly - hang on in there!