Guessing (Charles Xavier)

4. Adventures of the Mind

I wake up to a room that I've never seen in my life. It looks like something out of a period drama, with its ornate furniture, embroidered velvet curtains, mahogany bookshelves.

Once my eyes adjust to the light, I see that I'm laid out on a sofa, with someone's jacket draped over me. There's a person sitting next to me, too, and I'm taken aback when I see Erik.

"Welcome back," he smiles. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, actually," I say. "Where am I?"

"You've been out for three days," he sighs, fidgeting with the collar of his turtleneck. "The day you went unconscious was when Shaw and his group of mutants attacked our wing of the CIA. Charles, Moira and I had gone to try to find him in Russia, so we came back to the damage. He killed a lot of innocent people, including Darwin, the taxi driver we had just recruited. Angel crossed over and she's on Shaw's team now."

"Is everyone else fine?"

"The younger ones are just a bit jarred. Charles brought us over to this place, a mansion he inherited. It's our new sanctuary, I suppose, and all of us are to start training."

I shrug the jacket off and get up. Erik's hand flies to my shoulder, however, trying to keep me on the sofa.

"You shouldn't overwork yourself. Everyone was frightened for you."

"Erik, I'm fully recovered," I say insistently, and after looking at me intently, he loosens his grip on my shoulder.

I start to get a bit light-headed as I cross the room for the door, but it's just a side effect of my stunt with Alex and I don't want Erik to get worked up over nothing. When I reach the door, I hear him clear his throat, so I glance back one more time.

"Haven," he says, turned towards me in his chair. "You know, you do belong here."

I just nod in reply because I'm not quite sure if I agree yet. But I suppose it's the thought that counts.

Once I'm out of the room, it hits me that I've no idea where to go or how to get there, but I know that I need to see Charles.

There's a flight of stairs right outside the door. Alex is at the top, and when he sees me he starts talking immediately as I walk up to meet him.

"Haven, I'm so sorry. I've never been able to control it, and to know that you-"

"Don't worry," I smile. "Neither of us can control it. We'll just practice, right? And when we get it, you can try to hit me again. And just me."

"Haven," a familiar voice greets before Alex can reply. "Alex, can I have a moment with her, alone, please? The two of us will resume your training in the bunker in the afternoon."

Alex nods, shooting a quick smile at me, and Charles opens the door to what looks like an living room for me.

"I think it necessary that I apologize for what happened," he says as I sit down. "With the others I know when to stop because I can get inside their minds, but that method doesn't work with you," he tells me, sitting down in the armchair next to mine. Charles's throat bobs as he swallows. "But I had never been more frightened in my life, love."

"It's alright."

"It really isn't, but I'm grateful for your forgiveness. Erik's told you the plan of action?"

"More or less," I say. "I get the feeling that he left out a lot, though."

"Of course. When we were in Russia, Shaw was busy attacking the CIA, but we did get break through to Emma Frost, the telepath who's also his partner. Shaw's planning a World War III, in hopes that the entire human race is wiped out and mutants prevail. I'm afraid that I don't know when it will start, but I know that it will be soon."

"So you're getting us all ready for when that occurs," I conclude. "What's the timeframe?"

"A week, if we're lucky."

"That's not enough."

"It's all we have."

"I know," I say, putting my head into my hands. "I'm sorry I can't be more of a help."

"There hasn't been anything we need help with," Charles claims. I feel a hand resting on my back.

"I just don't know what to do."

"You don't have to know what to do. You just have to know what you want."

I straighten up slowly, rubbing my eyes harshly. Charles is looking at me in the way that he does- the way that makes you feel like he can see straight through you, like mirrors in the blue of his eyes.

"Will you help me? With... Controlling it?"

"Do you even have to ask?" He grins cheekily. "I don't know how much I can do without my telepathy, but I'll do what I can."

"Then tell me how to let you in my head, first."

He turns his chair to face me, and I can see how tired he looks, lifetimes older than that young professor I had met at the pub. But then again, I suppose I must look the same to him, in sweats and a shirt I've never seen before.

He takes my hand gently, and my mind flickers back to when we went to recruit Alex. To the sight of him waiting outside the pub lights as he watched my taxi turn the corner. To him showing up at my flat to bring me here.

"You trust me?"

"Of course," I say without hesitation.

"Then imagine telling me everything. About how you felt that night with your uncle."

Scared.

"How you felt when you decided to run off."

Confused.

"How you felt when you met me."

I couldn't forget you, I think. And I didn't want to.

"And you're surrounded by people who love you-"

Are you included? I think. Could you love me?

"And all have been abused by society. Imagine letting me know your entire life. How you felt and why, how you acted."

I close my eyes and I feel Charles's grip on my hand tighten. It feels like I'm doing something right. It's a weird feeling- trying to let someone inside your head, but when I finally open my eyes, I see a violet force field surrounding the two of us, radiating from our linked hands.

I lose grip of my focus almost automatically, though, and since there's no need to hold on, I slowly let go of Charles's hand.

"Did you get anything?"

"Only flashes," he tells me. "But when I got was pretty beautiful. I didn't expect anything less from you."

I don't know how to react because that's like a compliment, but at the same time, I didn't really succeed. My cheeks flare up nonetheless.

"Can you put the two of us in your force field again?"

I focus my mind, building up enough stamina to open up a bubble that includes Charles. It creates a sort of dome over us, sitting down, and radiates a sort of violet shaded energy that drips in waves from the surface of the globe. Charles reaches a hand up to touch it, and the sound of contact resembles glass.

"Could it shatter?"

"If I stop it too abruptly," I say, and show him as the dome shatters into little splinters that evaporate. "Like that."

"Now just do the same thing- turn off the energy- but this time, do it in your mind," he tells me. I try to implement the same ideas in my head, like flicking off a switch, shattering a vase, and when Charles smiles at me, almost laughing, I know that he can read my mind now. I'm sure it's shaky, but at least it's progress.

This is strangely unfamiliar territory, he thinks to me.

I could say the same, I reply. But I suppose I like adventures.

He smiles at me. As do I.