Thank all of you so much for reading this story, leaving feedback and compliments as well as adding it to your alert and favourite list. It puts a smile on my face every time.

Shout out to Cassie-011, IntotheVoid, guest and Mary-ann.
Extra special thanks to Starksy and WherewasLokiinendgame for their kind words and for helping me out with my use of German in the last chapter. I fixed it as soon as I read your comments :)

I hope you're all ready for this next chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 12 - A mutual understanding

Covert CIA research base

"I see you've decided on taking the casual route today." Raven commented the minute Charles joined her at the breakfast table.

"Considering how you ridiculed me yesterday and in combination with our luck of actually managing to recruit fellow mutants, I decided a little change of appearance couldn't hurt." Charles retorted as he reached for the orange juice.

"You sure it wasn't the attitude?" The blonde questioned pushing an empty glass in het brother's direction.

"Thanks, and no. We were very polite to all of them. It's not like there's a book on how to do this."

"Why need a book when you can simply read their minds?"

Charles arched an eyebrow as he poured his drink. "Didn't you tell me to not do anything of the sort?"

Raven shrugged. "As if you'd listen to me about that. But if you did then I applaud you for it."

She let a little chuckle escape her afterwards. Charles appeared to be really struggling with this. He was rather used to people falling for his charismatic and playful attitude, especially women. But somehow he wasn't having a lot of luck with it at the moment and she bet that him not using his ability was one of the reasons for his failure.

"Laugh all you want. Today I'll prove you wrong." The professor retorted as he set the glass against his lips and took a big gulp.

He was already on edge enough as it was. Recruiting mutants was asking a lot of him and even though he quite enjoyed, most of all using Hank's device to locate them, there was something else on his mind. He caught his thoughts drifting back every now and then to Erik and Ann and how he'd caught them in the hallway last night.

He had to gather himself as finding other mutants was more important today and Charles really hoped that him and Erik would manage to get at least a couple more to join the division. Because he knew time was running out. Moira was busy tracking Shaw and Charles knew she was using Ann's help with that. But there was two small issues. And that was that Ann had no idea that he knew about it and secondly, she hadn't told Erik. Because Charles was convinced that if Erik was aware of Ann helping the CIA with finding Shaw, he was going to have a proper fit.

"Moira is here." Raven suddenly said drawing Charles's attention towards the door behind him.

He turned in his seat and waved at the auburn haired woman. The agent raised her hand and returned the greeting as she smiled warmly at him. She was a beautiful woman, Charles couldn't deny it. Smart, independent, perhaps a bit reserved but that was probably due to the fact she was usually working when being around them. It was nice to be in her presence. She found his abilities intriguing and he'd caught her more than once staring in his direction.

Charles had also noticed she didn't mind the occasional flirt he tended to throw her way every now and then. At least he hadn't lost his touch in that department, because since being in the states there had been times when he thought that he had.

"Good morning you two." Moira greeted as she approached their table. "How are we doing?"

"Just fine. The walls are getting smaller though." Raven commented, ignoring the glare her brother was throwing her.

"Another exciting day awaits us, my dear. How are you this fine morning and might I add that you look lovely today?" This time Raven rolled her eyes at Charles complimenting the CIA agent. He honestly never learned.

"Thank you, Charles. I hope will get some good news today. Fingers crossed." The woman crossed her middle and index finger as she said that. "I'd better locate Ann. The sooner we get this over with the better."

"Please, allow me to accompany you." Charles pushed his chair back and quickly grabbed the piece of toast from Raven's plate in the process.

"Hey!" The blonde exclaimed loudly, as her brother ushered for Moira to start walking. Raven leaned back in her seat and let out a deep sigh. Another tedious day this was going to be, she could feel it.

While the shapeshifting mutant stayed behind prepping a new plate of food for herself, Charles escorted Moira towards the sleeping accommodations area of the base. Last time he'd checked on where everybody was he'd sensed Ann in her room, Raven in the breakfast hall, Hank in the lab and Erik in the gym, though the latter was probably no longer there as they were bound to leave within the next half an hour.

"Any luck finding new recruits yesterday?" Moira asked after they'd been quietly walking through the corridors for a minute.

Charles shook his head. "Only one unfortunately. Hopefully today will bring more luck. How about you? How's the search for Shaw going?"

Moira stopped abruptly and tilted her head sideways. "You don't know? I assumed Ann would have informed you about it last night?"

She most definitely hadn't. In all fairness there hadn't really been an opportunity to discuss the day's events. Ann practically left the second Erik and him returned from recruiting. Charles reckoned she was tired, at least that's what he had been thinking until he caught the two of them returning from a long conversation.

"No. We got back rather late. If it was important I'm sure she would have mentioned it. Although, as you must realize by now, she is not big on sharing. Not with me at least." He muttered that last part under his breath.

"In that case I'll tell you. You're one of the people in charge with this division, you should know things like this." Moira paused, crossed her arms and threw a quick glance down the hall to make sure nobody was listening in.

"Ann can't locate Shaw. She's tried multiple times yesterday but without success. I know you said you're confident that she's able to do it, but I'm starting to have my doubts. And I'm not the only one, I had to persuade her to keep trying."

Charles couldn't help but frown a little. He was rather surprised that Ann had failed to locate Shaw. Oh, he was perfectly aware of what Ann claimed she needed in order to successfully locate a person, but Charles knew this wasn't entirely true. The woman might have said that things such as pictures or simply thinking of the person didn't work, but had she not located Hendry with just that? A simple photograph.

He wondered why she kept telling others that she was incapable of finding people otherwise. Was she deliberately lying or was she unaware of how much she could actually do? Charles suspected the latter, as he hadn't been able to catch her in a lie so far.

"I stand by what I said, Moira. I'm convinced she'll be able to find Shaw if she puts her mind to it. Quite literally. I'm glad you kept pushing her to not give up." Charles told the agent.

"That's mostly due to the fact that you have such faith in her. What if she used the machine Hank built, the one you use to locate mutants?" Moira suddenly asked. "Wouldn't that increase our chances?"

But the professor shook his head. He'd rather not risk it. Not that he thought Ann wasn't capable of using Cerebro, after all Hank had used her mutation to tweak the machine to perfection for Charles. Ann wasn't a mind reader, more like a mind finder or invader based on how you looked at it. Which meant that she would be more than capable to use it. However, Charles did worry about letting her as the device was still in its early stages. He didn't want to put her in such a position.

"I take it Ann will try to find him again today?" He quickly changed the subject before Moira could ask him anything else.

"Possibly. I mean, it's not off the table. But I have asked her to try and locate a top Russian army general named Armivolkoff. We have an inside source in Russia believing Shaw is meeting up with him there, but he hasn't been able to confirm it yet. Perhaps Ann can confirm this quicker than our agent can."

Russia? If this was true and Shaw was in that area, that would explain why he had trouble finding him with Cerebro. Hank's machine wasn't perfect yet and Charles was still learning how to make the utmost use out of it. The further he travelled with his mind, the foggier the results were. His suspicion of Shaw no longer being in the States was slowly but surely being confirmed.

"Let's hope Ann will be able to help you out. In the meantime,-" Charles stopped and turned his head to glance over his shoulder. "I believe she's coming this way."

And sure enough the woman in question appeared from around the corner. Wearing her signature red coat and high brown leather boots. She didn't seemed surprised to see him standing next to Moira, as if she was already expecting him. Either that or she was just deliberately not looking at him.

"Good morning, Ann." Moira spoke first and cleared her throat in the process. "I see you're ready to go?"

Charles's eyes slowly drifted into the brunette's direction. She seemed rather nervous all of a sudden. He couldn't read the agent's mind at this moment, his movements were too obvious when it came to using his telepathy. But she had started fidgeting with her hands.

"I am ready indeed." Ann answered. She finally turned her head slightly and acknowledge Charles, who was standing only a few feet from Moira. "Was I interrupting something?"

"It's not important. We were having a friendly chat, that's all. We'd better get going. We've got a long day ahead of us." Moira smiled before turning her attention to Charles. "Good luck with recruiting today. Let me know how it goes?"

"Thank you, beautiful. I will most definitely." Charles bobbed his head and he winked at her. "I hope there will be some good news with regards to Shaw. And don't let yesterday's results have any sort of influence on your current mindset. I'm sure it will be very different today."

As he wished both of them good luck, the faint reddish blush which had adorned Moira's cheeks quickly faded and her eyes widened. Charles noticed it but instead shifted his gaze towards Ann, however her face remained the same as it had been. He might have just purposely revealed to her that he was in on the whole finding Shaw deal, but Ann seemed anything but shocked or surprised.

"Moira, there is actually something I want to discuss with Charles before we leave. Would you mind giving me a few minutes?" She calmly asked the agent without looking away from the man before her.

Moira's eyes shot from her to Charles where they remained for a couple of seconds, as if she was waiting for him to tell her it was alright for her to leave them alone. Charles simply looked back at the auburn haired woman and threw her a small lopsided smile. That was enough confirmation. Moira nodded at Ann.

"I'll be waiting at the entrance." She turned around and the sound of her heels clicking echoed down the hall. As soon as she was out of sight, the undisturbed expression disappeared from Ann's face and was replaced with a scowl.

"I can see that you are already well informed on what happened yesterday." The warm honey haired woman commented.

Charles shrugged his shoulders a little. "Considering I am the one who was put in charge with most things regarding this Division, it makes sense that I know about such matters, wouldn't you agree?"

"Perhaps. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she told you."

"What you really shouldn't be is upset with Moira for telling me about yesterday. If anything I would have preferred to have heard it from you." Charles countered instead of answering her question.

"Charles, I assure you, I would have told you if we had found Shaw. There were no results to share yesterday, therefore it didn't cross my mind to even mention it. And in all honesty, I was unaware of you knowing about it."

"A negative result is still a result." He continued ignoring her latter comment.

Ann crossed her arms. "You do realize that you could have asked me about it yourself?"

Charles scoffed. "Perhaps. But as I recall you were rather occupied with other, perhaps even more important, matters."

The tone of his voice changed as he said that. Monotone and short. Ann narrowed her eyes. She'd noticed something was a little bit off with Charles after encountering him in the hallway following her conversation with Erik last night. Usually, he was very composed and overconfident, to the point of rude, when he was around her.

But last night he'd come across as almost nervous and fidgety. Even Erik had made a said something about it. Ann hadn't been able to put her finger on it, even now she still couldn't, but clearly something was bothering him and it was also obvious what matters he was referring to.

"When you say occupied with other matters, you mean the conversation I had with Erik, don't you?" She asked as she furrowed her brow.

"I don't know. On the contrary of what most people here tend to believe, I do not always read minds and thus not always know what is going on. For all I know you just happened to meet each other on accident." Charles replied shortly.

Ann shook her head. "You're unbelievable. I fail to understand what us talking has to do with anything,- Unless you're worried about something?"

Charles blinked his eyes as a weird sensation tingled inside his stomach. "And what would that be?"

"That I might have told him I spent time trying to locate Shaw. If that is what has caused you to feel concern, then you can relax. Because I would most certainly think twice before even mentioning Shaw to him." Ann paused and averted her eyes.

The professor fell quiet for a moment and repeated what she'd just said in his head. The thought hadn't crossed his mind at all, but he was happy to hear that she'd been smart enough to not mention any of it to Erik. But he wondered why Ann said she would most certainly think twice before doing anything of the sort.

Charles had a pretty good idea what sort of effect it could have had on Erik if she had told him. The chance of him taking off and leaving the base was higher than him staying behind and waiting for the right opportunity to strike. The man was like a bull and Shaw was his red banner waving in front of his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell him about it, when you know that Shaw is what he wants most of all? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you didn't,- I guess I'd like to understand your reason for it."

Ann didn't answer him immediately. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. As if she was trying to come up with a quick enough answer which would satisfy him. But in truth, Charles wasn't that interested in her reason unless it would provide him with an answer to a different question. One that had been on his mind throughout most of the night.

What had Ann and Erik really shared with each other? The urge to read her mind at this very moment was killing him.

"Because I fear he might do something foolish." Ann told him.

She was right on the money with that, which made Charles wonder if Ann was very good at reading people or if she'd come to that conclusion in a different way. To his knowledge, he was the only one who knew about Erik's past.

But the way the woman before him had looked away as she spoke caused him to come up with another explanation. And that was that Ann knew about Erik's connection with Shaw,- Charles's trail of thought suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Was that it? Was that what they had talked about last night? He licked his lips.

"Ann, did Erik by any chance tell you about his past with Shaw?"

Immediately her eyes shot back in his direction and Charles caught a look of recognition crossing her face. There was no denying the answer to his question was yes, but he was still thankful that she nodded her head once to confirm it. Although a part of him found it hard to believe that Erik had shared one of his darkest memories of his life with Ann just like that.

But then again, she had seen the war up close. She had lost people dear to her, just like Erik had. It wouldn't surprise him if Ann had shared something of her past with Erik too. At that thought the mind reader grimaced.

He too knew bits and pieces from both their pasts, but the difference was that neither of them had confided in him. Charles only knew because he'd seen some of their memories without their consent. If Ann knew about that, she would without a doubt react the same way as Erik had done a few nights ago. Angry and disappointed.

"It seems he trusts you enough to share that part of him." Charles told her.

"I'm not sure Erik will ever trust anyone." Ann replied softly. "But it's nice to be able to confide something with someone in an unfamiliar place."

She then cocked her head and searched his gaze. "You don't sound surprised though? I take it he has told you too?"

Far from it actually, but Charles didn't dare to tell her that as it would once again confirm that he tended to discover secrets without people's knowledge. He wasn't going to lie to Ann about it, but he wasn't going to tell her how he'd come to know about it either.

"I know what Shaw has done to him, yes." He admitted. "And again, I thank you for not telling him. He might do something that could only put himself in danger. It's not that I don't understand his need and desire for getting revenge,-"

"It's because his hatred might blind his judgement?"

Charles frowned as Ann interjected with an observation not so dissimilar from what he had intended to say.

His mouth formed a small smile. "Yes."

"Then I think it's best if we keep this quiet until I actually manage to locate Shaw."

"That would be wise, yes. And even then I would prefer if you'd inform me first?" He said it as a question though it really wasn't.

"I will." Ann promised him. "I'd better go now. I'll see you tonight, hopefully with some news."

Charles bobbed his head and stepped aside. But as she was about to pass him, he cleared his throat. "You know, Ann. If you ever want to talk, about anything at all? I'm a pretty good listener."

"Thank you, Charles. Good luck finding other recruits today. Say hello to Erik for me when you see him."

The upper right corner of Charles's mouth started to twitch a little, but he managed to keep his emotion in check. Quickly he smiled and told her that he would. Knowing fully well that that was something he was most certainly not going to do.

CIA Headquarters

"Moira, for the last time, I am not upset with you." Ann must have repeated herself more than seven times by now and still the agent did not seem convinced.

"I don't want you to be upset with Charles either." The other woman told her.

Ann let out a loud groan and leaned back in the leather chair she was sitting in. "If you mention Charles one more time, I promise you, if that is what you want, I will be upset."

"He is the one Frank appointed as overseer of the division X project. He deserves to know what's going on, especially if it regards Shaw."

"I understand that. The problem I have, is that he knows things and yet he has no problem to pretend that he doesn't."

"Could you just be nice to him. For me?"

"When have I ever been mean to the man?"

"More than I can count on one hand. You punched him when you first met. Not to mention the rude comments you made when you were drunk in that hotel bar,- Every time the two of you are in the same room, you're short with him. I don't understand why?"

Ann arched an eyebrow at the agent. Moira wasn't wrong with what she was saying, but honestly, why was she even bringing this up? She wasn't even that angry with Charles but somehow that didn't land with her friend.

"Do you still want my help? Because if you keep going like this, I may just not help you with confirming the information that source of yours in Russia has."

"I'm not being unreasonable." Moira said as she crossed her arms. "Charles has done a lot for us. He might be a bit unorthodox at times, that I'll admit. But so far he has been very helpful. And kind. Polite,- rather flirty."

"Alright, now I know you are off your trolley. Let's get back to why I'm actually here, shall we?" Ann dropped her hand on the desk in front of her and pulled the picture of the army general name Armivolkoff closer.

A pregnant pause filled the small room Ann and Moira were currently residing in. They'd been in the dull greyish green coloured room for over an hour and most of what they'd been doing so far was argue. Ann was getting more frustrated with each passing second. Mostly because she still hadn't been able to locate Shaw and now Moira kept pestering her about Charles for whatever reason.

She closed her eyes and focused on the image of the general forming in her mind, when Moira's voice once again entered her brain.

"Do you think he is handsome?"

Ann opened one eye and glanced down at the grey and white photograph of the Russian. He was rather old looking. Grey thinning hair and a short but thick moustache.

"That doesn't really influence my success rate with finding a person, Moira." She replied.

"What? No, not him, Ann. I mean,- you know what, never mind. Forget I asked."

This time a deep groan escaped the other woman as she pushed the picture aside. This was turning out to be an unproductive day if Moira kept coming back to the same subject which had nothing to do with why she was here. Why on Earth Moira wanted to know whether or not she found Charles Xavier handsome was beyond her. What an odd question to ask when there was so much going on.

Ann took a deep breath and shut her eyes again. Only this time her mind didn't form an image of Shaw, nor the Russian general she was suppose to also look for. An oval face, vibrant blue eyes beneath a pair of well defined eyebrows and brown wavy hair, appeared before her.

Suddenly she felt that all too familiar jolt and before she realized it, she'd found someone she had most definitely no been looking for. Charles Xavier.

"Where to, fellas?" A warm voice spoke calmly.

"Richmond, Virginia, please."

That was Erik's voice. Charles turned his head to look at the man sitting next to him before redirecting his attention to the image in the centre mirror, giving him a perfect view of the driver.

"Right, so you want the airport, the station, what?" The man asked with a broad smile, though his frown seemed rather sceptical.

"No, we were rather hoping you would take us all the way." Charles said.

"That's a six hour drive?" The taxi driver noted. He looked rather puzzled, probably thinking the two gentlemen were having a laugh with him.

"That will give us plenty of time to talk." Erik replied raising his arm. He moved his hand and the fare meter in the dashboard moved. The driver jolted backwards and turned his head around to stare at the two mutants in the back of his cab.

If this was the way Erik and Charles recruited all those mutants, Ann was beginning to understand why they'd been failing the day before. How many people had they managed to frighten in such a way?

"Ann?" Charles's voice suddenly echoed inside her head.

Was he talking to her?

"Wait,-"

Bollocks.

Immediately she was back in the small dull green room. Her eyes wide, gasping slightly for air as she looked up and caught Moira staring at her with a frown.

"Are you alright? You seem rather pale. Did you see something?" She asked at once.

Ann quickly shook her head and placed one of her hands against her chest to try and steady her heartbeat. She'd just looked through Charles's eyes. And he had noticed it.

Well, that raises some questions, doesn't it? She managed to locate the professor rather quickly...

Hope nobody minded the lack of Erik in this one.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Hope you all enjoyed, until next time and have a great day!