Charlotte Xavier - A Thousand Years

Attack

"I live in a city sorrow built
It's in my honey, it's in my milk."
~ "Sorrow", The National

... ...

Their meeting continued for several hours, interrupted by one or two coffee breaks which Charlotte used to check the news to see if there had been any action from the Brotherhood. There wasn't, which both surprised and calmed her.

Charlotte didn't have to read Erik's thoughts to understand his thinking, that if his Brotherhood caused any serious trouble while a mutant representative was in the White House, it would be too easy for the feds to imprison or hurt said mutant in retribution. There was also the fact that if she was hurt or taken into custody, he could always use that as his excuse to start his war. It was Erik's dual-fold way of ensuring her safety.

Even now, after all these years, Erik was still trying to protect Charlotte.

Which made it all the more difficult for Charlotte to know that she was considering giving Erik away to them.

But the meeting was not all so calm.

They never were these days when they were discussing mutants.

At one point, Charlotte was barely restraining herself from screaming, though the Secretary of Defense seemed to have no such scruples as they fought.

"Mutants are dangerous!" He yelled, slamming his fist on the table, repeating himself for the seventh time that day.

Charlotte's lip curled. "And so are humans." She said lowly. "Every person on this planet has the potential of danger within them, regardless of whether they be human or mutant! You don't need superstrength to be able to kill someone. You don't need to capable of invisibility to rob a bank. You don't need to have control over fire to cripple someone. You don't need to be capable of any of that to shoot a gun, to injure, to rape, to kill! Humans are just as capable of violence as mutants and to argue otherwise is bigoted prejudice."

"No." Defense replied. "But it makes it damn well easier to do!"

Icy silence followed. The other politicians had said nothing, not wanting to involve themselves.

"Do you want to know how I ended up paralyzed and confined to this wheelchair, Mr. Secretary?" Charlotte asked coldly, pulling a desperate card from her sleeve.

"Do tell." Defense replied blandly in disinterest.

Charlotte straightened and glared. "It was in Cuba, during the missile crisis. I was assisting the CIA to prevent a nuclear war with a team of mutants and humans, together. And one of each caused me to take a bullet to my spine." She said with cold fury in her tone. "One fired a gun and the other deflected the bullet accidentally into my back, severing my spinal cord. The human that fired the gun intended to kill another with that bullet. The mutant that caused the bullet to enter my spine did so by accident.

"Humans are just as capable of violence and horrible actions as mutants are." Charlotte repeated coldly. "And if you think otherwise, you are a damned, deluded fool lying to himself."

...

Charlotte left late that evening. The hired driver picked her up outside the White House and dropped her off at a hotel.

After a long phone call to Hank about the meetings and a quick chat with several of the others, Charlotte went to bed exhausted and emotionally drained by the arguments.

Charlotte did not sleep long before a disturbance woke her. Actually, it was more than a simple disturbance.

For all her life, Charlotte was usually a light sleeper but exhaustion nullified that on nights such as these.