Professor X and Sue: Waking up

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

Sue wakes up in the infirmary and finds out what her father had decided while she was unconscious.

<i>There was light</i>. It was a totally misplaced thought decided Sue as her eyelids fluttered open but the first thing that struck her was the light. And then the pain hit, it wasn't the overwhelming pain she had felt in the tunnel while trying to hold back the falling ceiling but it was more of a dull ache. Like a bruise but all over her body. There was something she was missing Sue mused as her eyes adjusted to the light, she was lying in an hospital somewhere, not the tunnels. Tunnels..."JOHNNY!!" the girl shot up in her bed, letting out a moan just a second later as her body reminded her that she shouldn't be making any sudden moves.

A hand rested gently on her shoulder and a soothing - familiar! - voice pierced the pain. "He is fine, Sue. You both are. You saved him and yourself both."

Sue started and the sudden contact, twisting around to try and see who had spoken. The sight of a friendly face elicited a sob of relief from the girl, "Professor, where am I? Where is he? Can I see him?" she asked in a rush, aware she was babbling but unwilling or unable to stop herself. 

"Shhhh, Susan, calm yourself. You're at my school - some of my people came and found you and brought you here." Charles kept his hand on her shoulder, his voice as soothing as ever. "Johnny is here as well, just in the next room. You can see him shortly. But first..." He paused. "Do you remember what happened in the tunnels, Susan? What you did?"

Some of his people had found her? Sue's eyes darted around the room as she tried to figure out how much the professor knew. Those two people who had come to rescue her, were they his people, she sighed deciding that honesty was probably the best option here. "I tried to stop the ceiling from crushing us," she said in a small voice wrapping her arms around herself as she remembered those few seconds of pain and terror. "Did, did everyone make it out ok?"

"They did." He smiled gently. "You were very brave, Susan. You saved them all." He patted her shoulder again. "How long has it been since your powers manifested?"

"Almost 3 years now," Sue replied with a mixed note of anger and sadness in her voice. "He was there then too."

"Molekevic?" Charles frowned. "He knew you are a mutant already?"

"Yes! No! I don't know!" Sue scrubbed away the tears that the mixture of relief and bad memories had started. "He chased me but when he cornered me he couldn't see me. I didn't think he knew who I was." she clarified. "But he...he...his experiments were on mutants. So he must have known about me."

Fishing a handkerchief from the pocket of his suit, Charles handed it to the weeping girl. "It's all right, Susan, you'll be safe here," he soothed. "And it's all right to talk to me about your powers. In fact, I've been keeping a secret too."

Sue gratefully accepted the handkerchief, wiping at her tears, "What do you mean you've been keeping a secret?" she asked, vestiges of her natural curiosity peeping through.

"I am a mutant as well," he told her, again with that slightly amused smile of his. "And this school of mine, it's a school for mutants to learn how to use their powers, among other things."

"A school for mutants? Does a school really need a fully equipped hospital ward?" the girl replied. "Infact why am I here and not in a hospital?"

"Accidents happen, and our staff are trained to deal with mutations. Ordinary hospitals are not." Charles explained. "As for why you are here... your father felt it was safer. Unfortunately, Molekevic escaped and at this point we don't know where he is or what he might be planning. The school has... specialized security."

Sue shot up in bed, "He got away!." This had to be a dream, she thought desperately, a horrible nightmare. She was going to wake up at any moment at home. She looked over at the professor, the dull ache and the sad look on his face confirmed her greatest fear. This wasn't a dream at all. She fell back onto the bed: "IS he....Do you think he'll come back?"

"I hope not," was the professor's honest answer. "But I have found, especially of late, that hope cannot substitute for caution. Your father and I have talked and we... <I>he</I> has decided that the best thing for you at this time is to remain here, at my school, as one of my students."

Sue froze for a moment after the professor had finished speaking before turning her head to face him. "He decided that did he?" she asked, quietly, ice literally frosting every word. "And why not, it'd make life that much easier for him, one less thing to worry about. I'm surprised he didn't bundle me off to boarding school sooner."

"He wants the best for you, Susan," Charles admonished gently. "He was deeply worried when you and Johnny disappeared and keeping you safe is at the top of his mind right now. Not to mention he wants you to not have to feel you need to keep your powers a secret. You'd be able to learn about them here, use them, not hide them - and who you are - away."

Sue shook her head, "He doesn't care, not really." she corrected the professor. "if he did then he'd be there for us instead of handing us off to babysitters so he could focus on his 'important' work. I never felt that I had to keep my mutation a secret, but why should I have told him? He didn't even notice anything was ever wrong. What about Johnny? Will he be staying here too?"

Charles sighed, but didn't push the point. Teenagers were teenagers and it wasn't like she'd believe the protestations of her father's friend. Franklin wasn't the world's best father, but there was no doubt he loved his children. Charles didn't need his powers to know <I>that</I>. "Johnny will be going to stay with your grandparents for now," he said, knowing Susan wouldn't like the news at all. "While we have had non-mutant students before, there have been some recent events that inclined me to suggest he would be safer elsewhere."

The world seemed to crystallize and shatter for Sue, "NO!" she exclaimed vehemently shaking her head. "You..He..you can't. Not after everything. You can't do that" she begged the professor hysterically. "He was kidnapped because of me you can't send him away. Please don't do this." She might hate him at times, but her brother had been the one stable point in her life ever since their mother's accident. She was supposed to look after him and protect him, and now he was being sent away as a further sign of her failure.

"You didn't fail, Susan." Charles couldn't help but speak to the thoughts barraging him in her panic. "And I know you take care of him and protect him, but you also have a life to lead too."

"So he gets sent all the way across the country so I can live my own life?" Sue retorted bitterly before shooting Charles an apologetic look, "He's all I've got Professor." she said in a small voice. "And now he's going away too."

"You have more than you realize, Susan." Charles reached over and squeezed her hand. "It will be hard, I know, but give me, give <I>us</I> a chance." He smiled slightly. "And it isn't like you can't visit Johnny sometimes - we have a young woman here who can teleport you there in the blink of an eye."

"You have a teleporter here? How does she do it? That's pretty awesome." Sue caught herself and gave the professor a rueful shrug. "If I'm going to be somewhere I guess there are less interesting places to be."

"We have several. And in time, you'll meet them. But first.." Charles inclined his head, sending a telepathic summons to the anxiously-waiting father and brother. "You have some visitors. Your father and Johnny want to see you. Shall I let them know it is all right to come in?"

Conflicting emotions chased one another across Sue's brain. Her urge to see her brother before he left won out over her antipathy about her father and she gave the professor a silent nod. Talking a deep breath she sat up in the bed pasting a smile onto her face and doing her best to ignore the ache which still suffused her body.

It pained Charles to see the way Sue composed herself, but he didn't speak of it. <I>~She's ready to see you,~</I> he told Franklin and as the father and his son came in, he took his leave. This was family business.