Memories

Chapter Thirty-One

"Absolutely not," Erik declared with finality.

The whole family, save the children, were all standing in the library, having an argument as usual. Ororo was watching all of the younger children, including Jean and Scott, while the rest of the adults had their almost-weekly spat.

This time, though, Charles was determined not to back down.

"Erik, my team and I have handled ourselves just fine before you came along, and we will continue our missions," Charles stated calmly, but Raven knew that tone. It was the calm before the storm.

Charles had secretly been having his Cerebro sessions behind Erik's back for weeks, and it had taken all his willpower not to go looking for students to teach in all that time. At first, he'd openly used Cerebro, but after a particularly grueling session, Erik had ordered him to stop; said Emma could do it, if need be.

Something had broken a tiny bit inside Charles when Erik had said it, but he hadn't let it show.

So he switched to secretly having his sessions, no one knowing. He did it really early, after Erik crept out of bed and went out for his morning jog and everyone else was still asleep. Whenever Erik was returning, or someone began waking up, he could feel it and sneak away from Cerebro in time for them to be none the wiser.

He might not be able to walk, he may be babied by everyone in the house older than Ororo, but they couldn't take away Cerebro, dammit! Charles loved the sensation of touching so many beautiful minds all at once, and he refused to be stripped of that ability. He wouldn't be replaced.

Now, he couldn't resist the urge to go out to help others any longer.

"Charles, you could get hurt, or worse. I won't let that happen. You're staying here, where I can keep you safe," Erik growled, a clear order to everyone's ears.

Half the people in the room cringed.

The other half almost felt pity for Erik.

Emma decided that Charles was similar to Shaw in the way they became enraged. No one could tell when either of their angers would get the better of them and they'd explode unless someone knew the signs after years of knowing them. Okay, with Shaw, it wasn't so much his anger as when the next torture session would be. Emma had soon leaned Shaw's tells, and she could see that Charles was coming undone under the calm facade. She only knew thanks to her abilities, and she stepped back out of reflex.

"Erik, you cannot confine me to a cage; I am not your pet. I may be confined to this God-forsaken wheelchair because of you, but you will not trap me in my home," Charles snapped, and Erik visibly flinched.

Erik knew cages- knew what they did to the mind over time- and that's the last thing he wanted to do to Charles.

Emma also knew that Erik's anger wasn't easy for him to hide. He was the storm you saw coming. He wasn't a fluke hurricane that formed in an instant. His anger was a mountain that you saw miles and miles before hand- the storm front that you saw before you drove into it.

She knew how to avert confrontations with him, knew how to defuse a situation, but she knew that they both needed this argument. If it waited any longer, both choosing to ignore all that pain and anger in favor of enjoying the bliss of their reunion, then when the argument did happen, it would be ten times worse and would end in destruction.

This needed to happen now.

"Charles, it isn't a cage! A protective shield at worst, but not a cage. And do not throw the wheelchair in my face, Charles; you know that was an accident." And no matter how much Erik also knew it was an accident, it didn't lessen his guilt any. He hated himself for what had occurred on that beach, but he wasn't sure if he would change the course of his actions if he could. Not if it meant Shaw was dead.

"That doesn't change what you've done, Erik! We can't keep playing pretend! You paralyzed me and murdered the president! I can forgive killing Shaw- he needed to be stopped- but you killed an innocent man, a good man! You abandoned me! You left me on that beach, hurt, and took my sister with you!" Charles shouted, the lid of his anger finally blown off in a massive display of rage.

Everything stopped. No one moved. They hardly breathed. Raven was overwhelmed with pain, regret, and sadness, all expressing themselves in tears that ran down her face.

Emma wanted to comfort her best friend- her only friend- but couldn't as the weight of the room's emotions and thoughts crashed into her, paralyzing her.

Alex, Sean, and Hank all had varying degrees of pain, rage, and protectiveness running through their systems, all of them wanting to desperately heal their teacher and father-figure. Different memories circulated through their heads, from the time when their family was just forming to when they lost two members of their family to the abandonment by Erik to the months of healing and loss of their great Profession X.

Darwin was at a loss, having not witnessed the pain that Erik had put Charles through. He wanted to protect the man who had introduced him to the man that set his heart afire and filled him with passion and ensured that Darwin wouldn't be a lonely freak, but he wasn't sure what he needed to protect him from.

Angel felt a great deal of regret, feeling she'd caused some of her family's pain. They'd given her a home, and she'd rejected it. She'd left Charles just like Erik, and she'd attacked Alex and Sean. She was the reason Darwin had died. She'd caused them so much hurt, but Charles still accepted her back into his loving arms. In a way, she loved Charles more than Erik, and she wished she could protect him.

Janos and Azazel felt out of place, like they were intruding on a private moment. They were outsiders looking in, like Emma and Logan. They didn't belong in this family feud, but here they were, struggling to follow along like the step-children from the father's second family.

Logan was angry at Erik- Charles had done so much for Logan, so much for Erik, and Logan wanted to return the favor somehow. If that meant kicking Erik's ass, he'd do it. Charles deserved so much better than that metal-bending prick. Charles had pieced the broken Erik Lehnsherr back together, and this was all Charles got back in return. Paralysis and a controlling asshole.

And Erik felt so many things. He knew what Charles said was mostly true. He'd paralyzed him, killed Shaw, abandoned Charles, took Raven with him and had even tried to beat out that wonderful innocent and naivety that Charles had instilled in her. She still wasn't capable of murder, wishing to make her big brother proud, be he'd tried his damnedest to make her his beautiful weapon, his masterpiece. His perfect little spy.

But he hadn't killed the president, and Charles needed to know that.