Guessing (Charles Xavier)

3. Belong

The American CIA wasn't very open to mutants, but things were gradually changing over the days I spent there. Agent Moira, for example, liked us, but I suspect that, because I really couldn't show off my mutation like Raven or Charles, I was the odd one out.

Charles started recruiting mutants from all over after an Erik Lehnsherr had joined the team, as well as a scientist and engineer named Hank. Hank and Raven were getting along, but Erik seemed to have his eye set on Raven as well, which was one of the reasons that I didn't like him as much as I did the other three, but Charles trusted him, and I trusted Charles.

"Erik, there's another- oh, Haven. Do you know where Erik is?" Charles asks me one morning as he rounds a corner in the CIA wing, connecting to a common room. I shake my head no, going back to reading. I had brought my textbooks along to America, and since I didn't have much to do, they had been my main companion for the week or so that I had been here.

"Very well, then," Charles sighs. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to recruit some mutants?"

"You want me to come with you?" I ask. He always goes with Erik, and Raven spends her time with Hank, so I'm the third wheel to everything.

"Of course," he smiles, so I get up from the armchair, dropping my psychology book mindlessly on the seat.

I follow him out, and we drive about an hour before reaching a prison. Charles is a shaky driver, since he's used to driving from the other side of the car, but we make it there unscathed.

"Are you alright?" He asks me as we walk through the parking lot to enter the prison. "You haven't seemed yourself recently."

"I'm alright," I tell him as I pull my coat closer around me. "There's just no one I know around here; at Oxford, I always had Francesca at least."

"We're all your friends," he insists. "Raven, Hank, Moira, Erik. The new recruits, Angel and Sean. Me. We're a team, Haven."

"No, I know. I understand that, I just feel like I don't belong sometimes. Most of the time. You all get along and fit in with each other, but my mutation isn't even like a real mutation. I can't actually do anything-"

"Haven, I'm on good terms with Raven because we've lived together for years. I'm not very close to Hank, but I'm friends with Erik, and it's because I can get in his head, and because he lets me in. I know what he feels, how he thinks, how he reacts. I can't read anything off of you, and it's difficult. But, that being said, your mutation is more incredible than you let on. All of our powers are offensive, but yours is purely defensive, and I do believe that our lives may be in your hands one day."

I look up at Charles, who smiles reassuringly before reaching out to grab my hand. On any other day, I would've been elated to have him show affection, but if I don't belong with humans, and I don't belong with mutants, then I don't see where I could ever fit in.

"Sent by the CIA, sir," Charles says as he pulls a piece of paper- a release form, I suppose- from the inside of his coat and places it before the prison warden. "We're here to take Alex Summers directly to our headquarters.

"Go ahead," the warden says gruffly, and we're led by a guard down a series of hallways. He tells us a bit about Alex- how he's insistent on solitary confinement, and he's personal opinion that Alex is the best criminal in the prison. Best meaning obedient and submissive, of course.

The door is opened to reveal a young man, blonde with chiseled features, sitting with his weight forward on his knees. He could be Raven's sibling- they have the same hair and eyes, but that's as far as the similarity goes. Raven is open and childish, but this kid looks like someone who just grew up too damn fast.

"CIA requests your release," the guard informs Alex.

"I can't leave," Alex tells the two of us. "Got time to serve."

Charles places his fingers on his head again, and the silence makes me think that they're talking mentally, and I am again left out.

"Are you a mutant, too?" Alex looks me up and down skeptically.

"Yeah," I mumble.

"We'll finish introductions on the way back," Charles saves me. "Alex? Please?"

He makes the decision to come with us, though I suspect Charles's hand in the choice, and the guard walks us back out after securing the prison door again.

"Thank you," Charles says to the warden on our way out. The man grunts in reply.

When the three of us get back to the CIA wing, Moira is there to greet us. She likes Charles, I can tell, and it bothers me even though I know that it shouldn't. Charles isn't interested in me- I'm just like one of his siblings, just another mutant.

"Are you finished recruiting?" She asks.

"I think so. Alex, this is Agent Moira, she's a leader of this mutant division of the CIA. I talked to you in the prison about the team, and I think you'll be the last member."

"Erik got one more, a taxi driver," Moira adds.

"Great. We have a good handful now. Moira, could you show Alex his room and his new teammates? I need to have a word with Haven," he says kindly, and Moira heads off after a moment of hesitation.

"What did I do wrong now?" I smile.

"I don't need to be able to read your mind to think that something's wrong," he tells me, taking both of my hands into his and looking me in the eye. "I get the feeling that you don't think you belong here, but you do. No one is forcing you to stay. Francesca is still in the UK, and whatever other mates you may have. But I've told you the situation with Shaw, and I do want you with me."

"I don't think I could ever help." My voice is honest as I pull my hands out of his grip. I don't want him touching me for some reason. It makes me want to stay more than I should.

"Alex!" Charles calls, and Alex comes bounding down the hall.

"The agent woman just left me in my room, she got a urgent call from her boss or some shit."

"Alex, I need you to release your mutation. On Haven."

Alex looks at Charles almost pleadingly. I can tell that he's afraid.

"You're in my head. I can't control it. You know I can't."

"You don't have to. Haven, he's going to shoot you with plasma blasts. He's also going to shoot the building with plasma blasts that aren't aimed well- I need you to protect yourself and the entire hallway we're in right now."

"Charles, I'm not in the mood for games," I mutter, walking off, before I hear him counting down from 3. In a moment of panic, I do exactly as he says, and Alex's blasts are rebounded all around the hallway, but even the hallway is protected so the entire building doesn't fall. Charles is under my protective field as well.

It's fun for a bit until I get tired, and Charles sees it in my face too late.

"Alex, stop!" He says, and I collapse against the wall. It's like my entire life has been drained from my body. It's been years since I had ever done something big like this, and I find myself unable to stay awake.

"Haven, I'm sorry, I pushed you too far." His hand tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. I don't keep my eyes open to watch him do it, but I can hear and sense his panic without seeing his face.

"It'll pass. It did, if I remember right," I say. My throat is thick and rubbery when I swallow, and I hear Charles speaking as if he's farther and farther away until I can't hear him at all, and I lose myself in a dark abyss of unconsciousness.