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perpetual_motionTitle: X and Average Men [3/?]
Author: Perpetual Motion
Fandom: Heroes/X-Men
Pairing: Matt/Mohinder
Rating: PG-13 [swearing]
Summary: Matt, Mohinder, Molly, and the X-Men. Bring it.
Disclaimer: Lies. Lies for which I do not get paid. Lies.
Author's Notes:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amazonqueenkate is an enabler. And she proofreads. So I suppose it evens out. Do note: I have created my own, personal, X-Men team. Because I can. Look, if Joss Whedon can pull Colossus from the grave, I can have Jean Gray and Warren and Kurt all on the same team.
Part One
Part Two
X and Average Men [3/?]
By Perpetual Motion
Molly looked out of the window and watched the lake ripple in the wind. She’d been in that spot for over half an hour, arms wrapped around her knees, knees tucked under her chin, and in that half hour, she’d come up with nothing to explain anything about parents who sucked. She turned as she heard someone come into the room, ready to move if asked, and she saw Kurt, book in one odd-looking hand. He spotted her as well and smiled.
“Hello, Mädchen. Are you done with your tour?”
“We got to the swimming pool.” She smiled when Kurt tweaked the ends of her hair the way Mohinder did sometimes.
“You did not go in,” Kurt guessed.
“Nah. Matt started talking to Scott and…” Molly paused, wondering how to phrase it. “Do you have parents?” She asked Kurt finally, relieved to see him smile at the question.
“Natürlich, but I did not know them as a child.”
“Did they die?”
“No, but it is best we not know one another.” Kurt gestured to the open section of the window seat. “May I?”
“Sure.” Molly rearranged herself to give Kurt more room. She wasn’t sure how much space the tail would need. “So you don’t know your parents at all?”
“I know the people who raised me. That is enough. I traveled mit the circus in Germany. I was an acrobat.” He smiled when Molly smiled.
“That’s cool.” Molly looked out the window at the lake again. “My mom and dad died when I was eight. I was hiding, and Matt found me, and then The Company had me for awhile until Mohinder came and found me. And then he and Matt adopted me.”
“And you are happy.”
“Yeah. I mean, they’re cool, for dads, but Mr. Summers said that you have kids here who have parents who just leave them here, and I guess…” Molly looked at Kurt and gave an expansive sigh. “It’s not that I don’t get that some parents kinda suck, you know? I mean, I have this friend, Jenny, and her mom hit her, and her dad’s just kinda, out there, somewhere, and so she’s with this foster family who are pretty cool, but I mean, it’s just-“ Molly cut off and bit her bottom lip. “I dunno. It just sucks more, I guess, when it’s not because your mom’s always been a jerk but because you have this genetic mutation that isn’t even your fault. Don’t people understand how genetics work?”
Kurt had to force down the smile that he could feel trying to rise up. Nothing like a kid trying to understand the world to make him hopelessly happy. “Even if we explain it, I do not think it will help. Prejudice isn’t science.”
“Prejudice sucks.”
“Yes,” Kurt agreed, deciding that less was more.
Molly put her chin back on her knees and sighed again, the worn-out sigh of a thirteen-year-old discovering that the world was just a bit worse than she’d suspected. “I feel bad for them, you know? I remember my parents being really awesome, and then I got my dads, and they’re kinda dorks, but – I punched this guy at school because he was being mean to my friends, and my dads bought me ice cream. I mean, that’s cool. Most kids would get grounded, and I get ice cream.”
“Ice cream is good, but I do not think that is your point.”
“I’ve had two sets of parents who are, like, really good at being parents, and I get that makes me lucky, but it makes me sad, too, because then there’s all these people whose parents are bad at being parents, and they’re just stuck where they are.”
Kurt considered his words carefully, mindful of the gleam in Molly’s eyes that was begging for a fight. He knew that look well; saw it often amongst his students who wanted to argue about anything if it would mean someone would pay attention to them. “Home is where you make it. We give that to them here.”
“But there are parents-“
“There are parents, Mädchen, and then there are parents. Had I lived with the parents who I had before the circus, I would still be in a village in Bavaria. I would be digging up turnips for dinner if I were not kept in the cellar so as not to scare the village children.” Kurt tipped up Molly’s face with his fingers and gave her a warm smile. “You prove your kindness by worrying, but you’ve no need to do so. Die Kinder are safe here, and they are loved here.”
“People suck sometimes,” Molly said stubbornly.
Kurt laughed lightly. “Ja, they do.” He brushed her hair off of her face and looked around the room. “Where have you put your fathers, Mädchen?”
Molly shrugged. “I dunno. They’re around, I guess. Matt said I could come in here and think.”
“Well, then, I will leave you to the rest of it. I’m going to read mein Buch.” Kurt stood, fingers tapping on his book, and settled himself in a chair facing towards Molly, just in case she still had questions.
Molly leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking of Matt and sending out a careful, quiet, Matt? Not wanting to accidentally yell in his head the way she’d done when she was younger.
You okay, Molly? He sounded worried, just like Molly knew he would. He always worried.
I’m okay. I was just wondering if you were okay.
I’m fine, and Mohinder’s fine, too. He’s with me.
Where are you?
Down in the lab. Want us to come to you?
Yeah.
We’ll be there in a minute.
Molly opened her eyes and unbent her legs, flexing her toes and looking around the room. It was big and open, the way she remembered the living room being when her mom and dad were alive. The apartment in New York had lots of room for what it was, but the living room was tiny. Molly loved it because it meant everyone had to sit close together, just like when they were all trying to get something in the kitchen. Matt and Mohinder had talked about moving, finding a “real house” where they could fit everything more comfortably, and Molly was always secretly happy when those conversations died. She liked the apartment. That was her home. She didn’t need a big fancy house.
“Hey, kiddo,” Matt said as he and Mohinder walked into the room. Molly’s eyes got wide at the sight of the bruise around his eye. “I’m fine. Just a misunderstanding.”
“Someone hit you!”
“Yeah, well, I kind of had it coming.”
“What’d you do?” Molly grinned when Matt looked down at his shoes. “What was it?” Matt kept looking at his shoes. Molly looked at Mohinder. “What’d he do?”
Mohinder looked over at Matt and shook his head. “He insulted someone’s family.”
“That’s mean!” Out before she could stop it, and she felt terrible when Matt cringed. “Sorry.”
“No, I had that coming.” Matt rubbed the back of his head. “Apparently, I shouldn’t take my cues from you.”
Molly put her hands on her hips. “Hey!”
“No baiting,” Mohinder said mildly, smiling. “I think you’ve done enough for one day.”
“Hey!” This one from Matt, but before the conversation could completely devolve, there was a sudden rush of noise from the front hall, and then a handful of children along with two adults walked into the living room.
The kids stared at Molly. Molly stared back. One of them stepped forward and cocked her head at her. “What can you do?”
“I can find people in my dreams.”
The girl grinned. “Cool.” She held out her hand, palm flat, and an apple appeared. “I can do that.”
“Cool.”
The apple turned into an orange. “And that.”
“I can fly!” A boy in the back of the little crowd floated into the air.
Don’t even think it.
Matt grinned at Mohinder. Can’t be. He’s a blonde.
So’s Claire.
Matt started at that, giving Mohinder a bit of a glare. I can’t think it, but you can?
Mohinder just shrugged and turned to the adults who were making their way across the room. One was male, tall and athletic looking; wearing a pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, and a trench coat Mohinder would have guessed a bit too hot for the weather. The other was a redheaded woman, willowy and graceful in a pair of jeans and a battered T-shirt. Mohinder saw Matt’s eyes widen, but before he could ask, the blonde man was introducing himself.
“Warren Worthington the Third,” he said with a professional smile and an outstretched hand. “Dr. Suresh, you may have seen my signature on a few research grants at the university.”
It took Mohinder a moment to place the name. “Worthington Industries, yes,” he shook Warren’s hand. “I can say, personally, that your money has done a great deal of good in my labs.”
“Good to hear.” Warren removed his coat and unfurled a pair of incredibly large wings. “And, yes, they’re real.”
Next to Mohinder, Matt was trying not to let his jaw drop to the floor. He recognized the woman. She’d been on the train the day they’d met Xavier.
Jean Gray. Her voice was relaxed, like she talked to people in their heads every day.
Matt Parkman. How…? He made a vague gesture with his hand, encompassing the both of them, their heads and pretty much the whole situation.
I’m a telepath with some telekinetic abilities. The professor mentioned you were a telepath, and well, you were projecting. She smiled, and there was a bit of a smirk in it, as though she was amused by the whole situation. And I’d like to apologize for my husband’s assault on your person.
Matt shook his head and threw up his hands. “Sorry, I just…you could hear me?”
“You’re not around telepaths much, are you?”
Matt squinted at her and tried to get a read. It was like going up against The Haitian. “…no.”
“I can block you because I’m trained to block you. I can hear what you’re thinking because you’re not trained to block me.” Jean put a hand on Matt’s arm comfortingly. “It’s a trick, like learning to reign in your power in the first place.”
“I…” Matt looked at her hand on his arm and then over at Mohinder. Mohinder was in deep conversation with the blonde man who apparently had wings. He heard ‘lab’ and ‘funds’ and ‘hollow bones’ and decided he’d be less bored talking with Jean Gray. “I’m not strictly a telepath, though. Does it work if I can do other stuff?”
“The same four walls can hold up any kind of roof.” She said it with a small smile, as though she’d heard it a lot. It made Matt laugh. “What else can you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Illusions. I can make people see and feel things that aren’t really there. I have some persuasive powers.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around the room, finding Molly in the middle of the group of kids. “I don’t do it often, but it’s there.” Jean squinted at him, and he wondered what she was picking up. “Crap father,” he said, just to make it easier.
“Ah,” she said, but without the same underlying knowingness from the rest of the conversation. “We’ve had a few of those.”
Matt watched a sandy-haired kid of about eleven or twelve flick balls of light off his fingers. “I’ll just bet.” Mohinder was at his side then, hand warm in the crook of his arm.
“Warren informs me that dinner’s to be served shortly. We’ve been invited to stay.”
Matt looked at Mohinder, eyes bright with whatever conversation he’d had with Warren. He looked at Jean Gray, who just gave him a smile and moved to hustle the children towards the kitchen, and then he looked at Molly, right in the middle of the group, patiently explaining that, no, she couldn’t use her power to find dogs. At least, she didn’t think so. “Dinner?” He glanced at his watch. It was just after five o’clock. "Wow, time flies when you're getting punched in the face."
“Apparently, it’s sloppy joe night.” Mohinder watched the kids along with Matt and waited until they were mostly from the room before asking, “well?” He was blatantly ignoring Matt's jab at Scott, and Matt knew it.
“Well, what?”
“Are we staying for dinner, or would you rather we pull Molly away from her adoring fans and drag her back into the city?”
Matt grinned a little and wrapped an arm around Mohinder’s waist. “Cheater. You just want to see what other toys they have here.”
“Don’t you?”
Matt considered the question while he led Mohinder towards the sounds of the kids and what he assumed was a dining area. “Jean said that she can block my thoughts and that there’s a way to block other people’s thoughts from getting into my head. It’s not a big shiny lab or a bunch of kids with abilities, but it sounds interesting.”
Mohinder smiled. “Well, it’s something, at least. Does that mean you have a slim hold on some trust for these people?”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know yet. They seem okay, but, hell, Mohinder, they left us to twist.” The idea had already lost its shock, but Matt felt it bore repeating. “The just left us to try not and kill someone when they could have helped.”
“They went through something terribly traumatic, Matt. The human brain can only take so much trauma before it becomes necessity to shut down and handle the immediate issues. We can’t hold it against them that they had to take a step back.”
“There’s taking a step back and there’s telling everyone to go fuck themselves.”
Mohinder didn’t get a chance to respond before they were in the dining area, the kids and adults are clamoring around a huge circular table. I think you don’t want there to be a difference.
What? Matt pulled out two chairs and sat in one. Mohinder took the other. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Exactly what it sounds like. I think you started out wanting a fight, and you found one, and now you don’t want to let it go.
What fight? I came here looking for information.
So that you could tell Molly and I why we shouldn’t want to be here.
Oh, that is complete-
Is it? And god, but Matt hated when Mohinder cut him off inside his own head. You’re nervous and scared and afraid that someone who’s tried to hurt us before is going to jump out of the hedges. You’re trying to hide it, but I can see it.
I’m cautious. I think I’ve earned the right to be.
These people have been nothing but gracious-
And yet, they still hung us out to dry.
“Matt?” Molly was watching the two of them from across the table. “Are you two mind-fighting?”
“We’re just having a discussion, Molly,” Mohinder explained before Matt could say something inappropriate. “It’s a bit heated.”
Scott laughed from where he was placing a bowl of green beans onto the table. “Jean and I have had a few of those.”
“All part of a relationship,” Jean countered as she passed the hamburger buns around the table. “But it lets you have a fight in public without causing a scene.” She grinned at Matt who couldn’t help but grin back. “But I’m sure you already know that.”
“We’ve learned a few tricks,” Matt admitted grudgingly, reaching under the table to squeeze Mohinder’s hand. I worry.
I know.
“Tell me, Detective Parkman,” Hank said after the buns had finished their round of the table, “How does your power translate to your on-the-job performance?”
“It’s not as useful as you might think, actually. If I can’t back up what I hear people think with actual evidence, it’s a lost cause.” Matt passed the green beans to Mohinder and took the bread basket from Kurt. “If I know I’ve got something to back me up, I usually use what I can read from someone to get them talking, but most of the time, it’s your basic, boring detective work.”
“I wouldn’t call it boring,” Mohinder said, tone conciliatory and honest. “You work hard.”
Matt gave him a quick smile. “I’m not saying things don’t get interesting, but day-to-day, it’s pretty basic.”
“I would think, Detective Parkman, that you would not consider yourself quite so average,” Professor Xavier rolled into the dining room wearing a suit and tie and smiling softly. “You have done extraordinary things.”
Matt raised his eyebrows, the suspicion he’d been trying to swallow coming up to the forefront again. “How much do you know about us, Professor?”
“Matt,” Mohinder put a hand on his arm and gave him a pointed look. “This isn’t appropriate dinner conversation.”
“You’re not curious about what he knows about us?”
“If you like, Detective Parkman, I’d be happy to discuss it with you after dinner, when the students are otherwise engaged.”
“We never get to hear anything good,” the girl who made apples and oranges whispered to Molly. “They always talk about adult stuff after dinner.”
Molly considered Matt and Mohinder from across the table. “I know the feeling.”
“I heard that,” Matt said, giving Molly a look similar to what Mohinder had just given him. “And we do not leave you out of that many discussions.”
“Yeah. Sure.” She made a face, and Matt made one back.
“Mature,” from Jean, who was smiling.
“I can make a better face than that,” Bobby challenged, pulling one of his own.
Matt grinned. “There’s one in every family.”
Jean gestured to the kids, all who were now involved with the face-making. “Depends on the family.”
Matt laughed at that and put his attention back on Professor Xavier. “I think you should talk to Mohinder. I think he’ll have better questions.”
“Matt, if you have questions-“
“Yours will be better.” And if I’m spoiling for a fight, do you really want me alone in a room with a guy in a wheelchair?
Fair. Mohinder nodded in Professor Xavier’s direction. “After dinner, then.”
“Excellent.” Professor Xavier wheeled himself to the head of the table and looked around the table, smiling at the assembled crowd. “Any sign of Logan?”
Scott shook his head and buttered a roll. “Not since breakfast. I saw his bike in the garage earlier, so I assume he’s around.”
Professor Xavier placed his fingers against his temple and closed his eyes. Matt and Mohinder looked at each other. Molly was too busy entertaining her cohorts to notice. Mohinder looked to Hank, seated on the near edge of the half-circle of children.
“The Professor is locating Logan with a bit of telepathy.” Hank didn’t miss the way Matt’s lips tightened at the information. “He does not do it unless it is expressly permitted.”
“Sure,” Matt said, but didn’t sound convinced. “Who’s Logan?”
“A sehr cranky man.” Kurt said, smile on his face. “Good heart. Very short temper.”
Mohinder thought of Bennet and grinned. “We know the type.”
Bobby shook his head, “Believe me, you don’t know this type.”
“Do the words ‘Napoleon Complex’ mean anything to you?” Warren asked with a laugh.
“I don’t have a complex,” a voice growled from the dining room door. The voice belonged to a short man in a worn t-shirt and even more worn jeans. His work boots were dinged and scuffed and there was the stub of a cigar hanging from his mouth.
“Ah, Logan,” Professor Xavier greeted him like an old, dear friend. “You nearly missed dinner.”
“Pity.” The sarcasm was thick. Logan took a seat next to Kurt and accepted a hamburger bun that Jean floated over to his plate. “Thanks, Jeannie.”
“You’re welcome.”
Logan filled his plate and was about to take a bite when he noticed Matt watching him. “You must be the tour.”
Matt sized him up, eyes squinting as he took in the details. Gravelly voice and a bit of gray in his hair, but no lines around his eyes or any real signs of aging. “And what do you do?”
“What needs to be done.”
Beside Matt, Mohinder snorted and muttered, “Bennet’s got competition.”
Matt chuckled lowly. “Hair’s all wrong.”
Logan bit into his sloppy joe, swallowed, and took a drink of water. “Hair’s just fine.”
Matt looked abashed at being heard, Mohinder just grinned. “Nice to meet you, Logan,” Mohinder said to try and change the subject.
“Sure,” Logan said, taking another bite from his sandwich.
“You will find,” Hank said as he speared his green beans, “that Logan is not a particularly willing conversationalist. Bobby, on the other hand, could entertain a blank wall for hours.”
“Hey!” Bobby grinned while feigning insult. “At least someone around here is amusing.”
“I am sitting right here,” Kurt said with his own grin, and the conversation turned into an attempt for Kurt, Bobby, and eventually Warren to outdo each other with various embarrassing stories of the others.
They’re definitely out to get us. Mohinder’s voice in Matt’s head sounded like it was laughing.
Matt didn’t bother to answer, just finished off his sandwich and leaned back in his chair, laughing as the stories got more outlandish. At one point, as Warren recounted a moment where Kurt was naked in a linen closet, Matt realized that he was being watched very closely by Logan. He raised his eyebrows. Logan squinted and turned away. Matt wondered on it as Scott served up ice cream for dessert and the stories took a decidedly embarrassing turn for everyone who wasn’t Jean.
“I was the first woman to join the school,” she said as she stopped one of the kids from drowning his ice cream in chocolate syrup, “and the boys were rather taken.”
“And why wouldn’t we be?” Scott leaned over and kissed Jean on the cheek. “We all made complete fools of ourselves.”
Jean laughed. “Hank grew me a stunning exotic flower, something from deep in the jungles of Peru, and I found out I was allergic.”
“Hives,” Hank muttered while shaking his head. “She took one sniff, and her neck just broke out in hives.” He laughed. “Of course, I didn’t nearly drop her while flying.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “You almost drop one gorgeous redhead from a hundred feet up, and no one ever forgets.”
“At least you didn’t try to be suave like Bobby and ice the floor in front of my door in hopes of catching me mid-fall.”
The tips of Bobby’s ears turned pink. “Yeah, well, I’ve never said I was smooth.”
Mohidner and Matt were both laughing openly, and Matt raised his eyebrows at Scott. “What about you?”
“I stuttered a lot and didn’t say much.”
“He tripped up the stairs once,” Jean interjected. “He said goodnight to me and fell over his feet. It was really sweet.”
“Yeah, sweet,” Scott scoffed, but he was beaming at her.
Mohinder looked to Kurt. “And you?”
“Nein, I did nothing. I was not part of the original class, as it were. I came later, and by that time Jean and Scott were already well on their way to their very happy rut.”
“We do not have a rut!”
Kurt waved a hand at Scott. “Of course not, mein freund.”
Mohinder considered asking Logan, but there was something about the way his shoulders were set that made him veer over to Professor Xavier. “And were you aware of their antics, Professor?”
The Professor smiled, looking around the table. “Very much so, but they were teenagers, and part of being a teenager is horrific embarrassment in front of the opposite sex.”
“And horrific embarrassment in front of the same sex,” Hank said with a meaningful look at Bobby.
Bobby put his arms on the table and his head in his arms. “I will never live down anything ever in my life,” he mumbled into the table top. The crowd around the table laughed, and then Jean stood up with Warren and started clearing the table.
“You’re on dishes tonight,” Warren reminded Kurt. Kurt made a face but stood to help. “Movie night tonight,” he told Matt. “Molly’s more than welcome to join the kids while you and Mohinder speak with the Professor.”
Matt and Mohinder didn’t have to look over to know that Molly was trying to pretend like she wasn’t absolutely dying to hang out with the other kids. Mohinder raised his eyebrows to Matt and Matt nodded. “Go ahead, Molly.”
She jumped up from the table, grabbing her plate along the way, and followed the other kids into the kitchen. She backed up a step and threw Matt and Mohinder a brilliant smile. “I can stay for the whole movie, right?”
“We’ll see,” Matt said as he and Mohinder stood up from the table. Warren took their plates, and Bobby jerked his head towards the other room.
“Beer?”
Mohinder’s eyebrows shot up. “You have beer here?”
“Not anywhere the kids will go near it.” Bobby said with a grin. “We keep it behind Logan’s room.”
Logan grunted and stepped around Matt. Matt wasn’t quite sure, but he was fairly certain he was sniffed as Logan shouldered past. “I’ll take a beer,” he said after a moment of silence.
“I’ll pass,” Mohinder said. “Professor, if you have a moment now, I’d like to speak with you.”
“Of course,” The Professor wheeled around the table and waved a hand towards the door. “If you’d like to adjourn to my office, we can speak at length.”
You’ll be okay?
I’ll be fine. Mohinder touched Matt’s shoulder, gave him a reassuring smile, and headed after the Professor.
Matt gave Bobby a grin that was mostly un-forced. “Beer?”
Bobby grinned. “Beer.” He led the way through a television room, where the kids had already started to pile up, and out a side door to a small terrace with patio chairs and a wood-paneled mini-fridge.
“Is Logan really so scary that the kids stay away?”
“Yes,” Logan said from behind Matt, making him start.
Bobby and Hank gave Logan a look. “Behave, Logan,” Hank said mildly.
Logan shrugged and opened the fridge, tossing beers to Bobby and Logan before holding one out to Matt. Matt took it, cautious suddenly. “…thanks.”
“Yeah.” Logan retrieved his own beer and they all sat.
“So-“ Matt cut off when a long, thin claw slid out between the middle knuckles on Logan’s hand and he used it to pierce his beer. Matt blinked and glanced at Hank and Bobby, who had both simply popped the top on their beers and seemed to be completely unimpressed by Logan’s trick. Okay. Matt popped the top on his own beer and took a drink. “That’s…something.”
“Adamantium,” Hank said. “An unbreakable metal, as far was we know. Logan’s skeleton is coated with it.”
“Ah,” Matt managed to keep himself from asking if it’d hurt. “That’s something.”
“Said that already, bub,” Logan said as he took a long drink of his beer. “How hard did Slim hit you?”
Matt raised his eyebrows. “You weren’t around all day, and you know about that?”
“Not much gets past me.”
“…yeah.” Something about Logan was throwing Matt completely off his game. He had no idea how to respond to anything Logan might say, so he just sipped his beer and looked over the backyard. After a few moments, Hank cleared his throat.
“Tell us, Detective Parkman-“
“Matt,” Matt interrupted.
Hank nodded, smiling. “Matt, then. How did you save the world?”
Matt snorted and took another sip of his beer. “The first time or the second time?” He couldn’t quite take the edge of bitterness from his voice, but Hank and Bobby seemed willing to ignore it. Logan barely looked up from his own beer.
“Chronological tends to work best,” Hank replied.
Chronological meant starting in Los Angeles and the beginning of the end with Janice. It also meant starting with Molly. Matt smiled to himself. “I missed a lot of the main action in that one; I didn’t make it to New York until the big finale. I was in L.A. at the time. I was a patrol officer. I got a call to assist at a murder scene.”
Bobby leaned forward, Hank settled himself more comfortably in his chair, and Logan shifted half an inch. Matt had an attentive audience.
*
Professor Xavier’s office was lined with bookshelves. There was a couch, two chairs, a coffee table and a wide desk. Mohinder sat on the couch, elbows on his knees, hands clasped loosely out in front of his legs. Professor Xavier rolled into place a few feet from him, placed his hands in his lap and gave Mohinder an inquiring look.
“Where would you like to start, Dr. Suresh?”
Mohinder considered the question carefully. There were a dozen places to start. Molly’s principal came first to mind, but Mohinder rejected the idea. It was a side track to where he really wanted to be in the conversation. He studied his shoes, looked around the room, and finally looked Professor Xavier in the eyes. “Bobby told us that you knew of us because Matt was taken by The Company.”
“That’s correct.”
“How?”
“When he was being held by The Company, his mind reached out for help. I heard his call,” the Professor’s mouth quirked in a small, wry smile, “not that I could have missed it. It was no less than a reverberating scream.”
“Matt was taken by The Company weeks before Kirby Plaza. You knew that he was out there for at least a month.” Mohinder started getting a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. He suddenly understood Matt’s earlier, angry reaction. He took a deep breath and clenched and unclenched his hands deliberately. “Did you try to approach him?” His voice was not as calm as he had hoped, but it felt unimportant to correct his tone.
Professor Xavier broke eye contact and looked over Mohinder’s shoulder at nothing in particular. “We did not,” there was grief in his voice.
“Why not?” Mohinder bit into the ‘t’, pressing his teeth together for an instant. He watched Professor Xavier as the man stared past him, and he was tempted to grab his shoulders and shake him until he got an answer. The barest hints of his usual decorum left him in his seat, but did not stop him from repeating his question. “Why not, Professor?”
“Because I am a foolish man, Dr. Suresh.” The Professor looked at Mohinder again. “Because I am completely and utterly fallible and have no defense for my egregious actions. I had…” Professor Xavier shook his head. “I am afraid that to understand my actions, you must understand what preceded them. What Wanda did-“
“I’ve heard a great deal of Wanda today,” Mohinder cut in, “and I am suddenly out of patience for the sob story of what she’s done to you and yours. I am much more concerned with your lack of care for me and mine.”
Professor Xavier’s jaw set in a dangerous angle, his left hand curled tightly around the bottom of his suit jacket. “Ninety-one percent of the world’s mutants were eradicated by Wanda, Dr. Suresh. The reputation of both this school and my X-Men were erased because Wanda’s power got the better of her. And before all of that, she set in place a reality that made mutants the dominant species. She made a world where they would not have to fear for our safety simply because we are genetically different. It was not a perfect world, Dr. Suresh, not by any standard, but it was liberating in a way, and when that came crashing down and all those innocent people went with it, there was nothing to be done but lick our wounds.”
Mohinder opened his mouth to counter, but Professor Xavier pressed ahead. “I am a very powerful man, Dr. Suresh. My telepathy is rivaled by a very select few, one of them being Jean Gray, and when Wanda dealt her final blow, she took my telepathy, and she gave me my legs, and I was devastated. And then my X-Men found what I had done in my arrogant, stupid youth, and they were only too happy to turn me into the streets. I can not say that I blame them in the least.”
“What did you do?” Mohinder asked before Xavier could keep talking.
“I sent my team on a mission, and they were in dire trouble, and so I put other young mutants at risk to save them, with no thought to their own hopes or fears, and those on the rescue team died, and I used my abilities to lie to my students and convince them that they had saved themselves, that those children had not gone in to rescue them.”
Mohinder swallowed hard to keep from saying something entirely emotionally based. “You’re telepathic now,” he managed, “and you’re in a wheelchair again.”
“Circumstances fell so that I had the chance to regain my power.”
“I see.” There was a long moment of silence wherein Mohinder seriously considered standing up and walking out, grabbing Molly along the way. He breathed instead, in through his nose and out through his mouth, and decided that knowledge was better than ignorance. “Why come to us now? We’ve managed to stop two vicious threats to humanity and The Company without your assistance.”
“I know,” Xavier looked aggrieved; Mohinder couldn’t bring himself to care. “I’ll never forgive myself for making the choice to leave you to your own devices. We have a student at the school with some future-telling abilities. I asked for her input, and she told me that things were shifting and changing, and that New York would still stand.”
Mohinder thought of Hiro, and he smiled for a brief moment. It faded as he considered all the implications of what he was being told. “Did you know of a man named Sylar? He used to be Gabriel Gray.”
“I know of him now,” Xavier clenched his hands in his lap. “During the time frame we’re discussing, we were not aware of him. He was not terribly powerful, you have to understand, merely ruthless and immoral.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Sylar’s power was to take the powers of other people, if I’m not mistaken.”
Mohinder could see it was a token statement, made simply to allow him to confirm and feel as though he had more information than Xavier. It was mildly manipulative but still managed to calm him slightly. Too many years working with Bennet, he supposed. “You’re correct. He would slice open the top of their heads and remove their brains.”
“I knew his mode was brutal, but I was not aware it was quite so…” Xavier shook his head. “It is possible that those murders were completely unnecessary, that the idea of his own power and grandeur caused him to go mad.”
It was an idea that Mohinder himself had considered. “Peter Petrelli has a similar ability to what Sylar had. He can absorb other’s powers without any physical contact. He merely has to be close to them once, and then he has it.”
Xavier smiled. “We are well aware of Peter Petrelli. He is astounding. We’ve spoken of inviting him here.”
“But you haven’t.”
“No.”
Mohinder leaned against his knees and watched the way Xavier’s face went carefully blank. “Why not? Peter would probably come in an instant, simply for the chance to see what you could teach him.”
There was a small smile on the edges of Xavier’s mouth. “Perhaps, but Peter Petrelli does not require our help. We did you a great disservice, Dr. Suresh; you’re correct in that, and we’re trying to rectify it now.”
“By offering to help Molly.”
“And Matt, if he’d like some assistance.”
“Matt has control over his power. We’ve worked on it, built up his resistance to other people’s thoughts filtering in.”
“Matt has made great strides in his control, but we can help refine what you’ve done. His ability is incredibly strong, Dr. Suresh, and with the right training, he could turn it into an amazing achievement with minimal discomfort.”
Mohinder thought about the times Matt would get home in the evenings and go straight for the medicine cabinet and the aspirin. “That would be a conversation you’ll need to have with him.”
“Of course,” Xavier said placidly. “And Molly?”
“What can you do for Molly here that we haven’t done for her at home?” Mohinder leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Refinement aside, what can she get here that won’t be had at home?”
“I’ve worked with clairvoyants, Dr. Suresh. Every teacher here has worked with clairvoyants. You are an intelligent man with a sharp mind, and I’ve no doubt that you’ve helped Molly deal with very difficult subject matter as it comes to her, but we have techniques that we can teach her to help her control her dreams and let her relax when she goes to bed at night.”
“Will you teach me these techniques?”
“Certainly, if you’re willing to learn.”
“I am.” Mohinder watched the smile on Xavier’s face become slightly wider. “And what about the others? There’s a whole selection of people who could use your assistance in learning about their powers.”
Xavier nodded. “We are aware, and it is, in fact, why I wanted the chance to approach you first.”
Mohinder leaned forward again, wary but curious. “And why, Professor, would you want to approach me first?”
*
Kurt walked onto the patio just in time to hear Matt say, “and so I shot her.” His eyes widened, and he caught the beer Logan winged at him with his tail. “You what?”
Matt looked fairly sheepish. “She can heal, for the record.”
“Ah,” Kurt said as he settled into a crouch. “That makes much more sense.” He opened his beer and looked at Logan. “Long lost relative?”
“No,”
Matt looked from Kurt to Logan. “Relative?”
“When you say heal,” Hank deflected, “what do you mean?”
“I mean I shot her in the chest, felt her pulse stop, and then she came back from the dead.”
Bobby chuckled. “Sounds like a relative of Logan’s.”
“She ain’t,” Logan ground out.
“So you?” Matt made a vague gesture, encompassing Logan from head to toe.
“Yeah.”
“So that and claws, huh?”
“And his senses are kind of enhanced,” Bobby said. “He’s like a bloodhound.”
“Robert,” Hank said wearily. “Please do remember what happened the last time you compared Logan to any sort of hunting animal.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Bobby grinned apologetically at Logan.
Kurt gave Matt a questioning look. “And why did you shoot the girl?”
Matt grinned, there was a slightly evil look to it. “Her dad told me to.”
“What?”
Bobby laughed at the shocked look on Kurt’s face. “You should have been here for the first half.”
Kurt shook his head. “Something interesting always happens when it is my turn to wash up. Could you possibly summarize the events up to the point where you shot someone?”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, sure.” He backtracked, starting with the day he found Molly and skimming along to the point where he and Ted were ready to bring down all manner of hell on Noah Bennet. “So I shot Claire to try and get Bennet away from Ted for a few minutes, and Bennet and I came up with a plan.”
“You hung Ted out to dry,” Logan practically growled from his chair.
“Not quite. Look, Ted was messed up, and Bennet was certainly messed up, no question, but Ted was about to go nuclear and kill everyone in the house. Bennet, at least, was willing to get us out alive. He wasn’t less screwed up so much as a different type of screwed up.” Matt tried to make eye contact with Logan, tried to get a feeling for him, but Logan continued to sit with his chin tucked against his chest and didn’t look up.
“What happened next?” Bobby asked, pulling Matt’s thoughts away from Logan.
“Ted went up. Nuclear. Claire walked through the whole thing to tranquilize him. After that, Claire went into hiding, and Bennet, Ted, and I were captured by The Company. We got out, and we headed to New York. Sylar was there. It got ugly. Ted died, and Peter nearly took out the city.”
There was a long, pregnant pause until, finally, Kurt cleared his throat and said quietly, “I wish we could have helped.”
Matt shook his head, his earlier anger having faded out as he re-told the story. “Hell, we managed it. Just barely, but we managed it. I can’t…” he trailed off, took a sip of beer, and tried again. “It’s been a long damned day, and part of that has to do with the fact that I’ve spent it wondering if I’m some sort of fucked up accident thanks to this Wanda person.”
“Wanda never did anything accidentally,” said Logan as he raised his head. “Everything she did, she did on purpose.”
Matt raised his eyebrows. “From what I hear, she went nuts.”
“Being nuts doesn’t make you stupid. She knew everything she was doing, right down to wiping out most of us and setting up you new guys.”
“Logan,” Hank said quietly, “we have no proof of that.”
“And the world don’t have proof of us anymore, doesn’t mean we’re not here for a reason.”
“Logan,” from Hank again.
“She was fucked up, Hank. She still knew what she was doing.” Logan crushed his beer can. “You’re the one who goes on about shit happening for a reason.” He stood up and walked to the fridge for another beer. “She could have done all this just to be fuck with us. She could have given all these people powers just so she could watch what happened from wherever she’s hiding now.”
Matt didn’t miss the way that Hank looked vaguely nervous. Pure instinct was telling him that Hank knew something. He raised his eyebrows. Hank raised his in return. Hell of a poker face, Matt thought, but held his tongue.
“Maybe she did it all just to mess with us,” Logan continued as he stabbed another beer. “Considering her background.”
“Background?” Matt asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.
Kurt looked at Bobby. “You did not tell him?”
Bobby snorted through his nose. “Yeah. Sure. Right after he didn’t threaten me to get the hell out. No, wait, that part did happen.”
The look Hank gave Matt that time he could read clearly. “Didn’t lay a hand on him,” he insisted and held up a hand in deference. “What about her background?”
“Wanda’s father,” Kurt said, eyes on the ground, tail tapping against the slate tiles, “he is Magneto.” Kurt looked up at Matt, who shook his head to show he didn’t recognize it. “Before Wanda, he was very well known for his violent approach to protecting mutants.”
“And when you say ‘violent approach’, you mean that as it says,” Matt said.
Kurt nodded. “Ja. He has stayed quiet since M-day.”
“M-day?”
“What we call it,” Hank said. “The day Wanda wiped out most of us.”
“Oh.” Matt looked around the group. Logan was back in his position, chin against his chest. Kurt was staring at the ground. Bobby was looking at Hank. Hank was looking down at his hands. Matt wasn’t sure what to do. Changing the subject seemed the best strategy. “So, Hank, what else is in the basement besides your lab?”
Hank gave Matt a bare smile. “A few upgrades to this old house.”
Matt grinned back at him. “So the giant circular door with the complicated key pad is what, exactly?”
“You know a lot,” Logan said while giving Matt an appraising look. “And you act like we’re out to get you.”
“I act like a complete stranger showed up and scared my daughter,” Matt shot back. “And I act like someone who spent a lot of time wondering about shady organizations.”
“You act like a telepath,” Logan said disgustedly. “Always have to know more than the rest of us.” He stood up and stalked into the house, the door reverberating when he slammed it.
“Don’t worry about him,” Bobby said before Matt could feel nervous. “Logan’s just a dick sometimes.”
“Yeah, sure,” Matt said, but he didn’t really believe it.
“I think, perhaps, it is time to call an end to this discussion,” Hank said reasonably.
Bobby and Kurt agreed, standing and leaving the patio. Hank and Matt stayed where they were, Hank watching Matt and Matt watching back. Hank looked calm and relaxed, but Matt knew how to read people, and the way Hank stretched his shoulders gave away his nervousness.
“You know something about Wanda,” Matt said after a pause.
“I know many things about many people,” Hank said evenly.
“But you know something specific about her. Something you don’t want Logan to know.”
“I have found in my time with the X-Men that most telepaths forget how to watch people when they want information. Mostly, they just try to find a hole in one’s mind armor and get their information that way.”
“Flattering,” Matt said drily, “but not distracting.”
“I did not assume it would be.” Hank glanced over his shoulder, making sure there was no one hanging about in the doorway or near a window. “Wanda went to ground after M-day, as any wounded creature would do. I found her in a small village in Europe, living as a non-mutant. She had no recollection of who she had been.”
“That doesn’t excuse what she did.”
“Of course not, but how do you convince someone with no memory of their power that it exists and caused decimation?” Hank looked Matt squarely in the eyes. “Imagine yourself a week before your gift manifested. Would you have believed anyone telling you that you were a telepath?”
Matt thought about it. A week before his telepathy manifested he was worrying about the detective’s exam again. He and Janice were in a massive decline. He pictured Mohinder knocking on his door, giving him that warm, professional smile, and telling him that he was very special indeed. “I want to say I would have believed it, but I think I may have slammed the door instead.”
Hank nodded. “You understand, then.”
“No,” Matt said quietly, “but I don’t think I could explain why I think it’s necessary that she be forced to remember.” He thought of his father, still comatose and paying for what he’d done to Molly. He thought of Bennet, still mostly estranged from Claire. He thought of Micah, an orphan because of what his parents could do. He thought of Ted. “I’m happier now than I think I’ve been in my whole life, but I had to go through more shit than most people can imagine to get there.”
“I understand,” Hank said, and Matt thought that maybe he did.
Author: Perpetual Motion
Fandom: Heroes/X-Men
Pairing: Matt/Mohinder
Rating: PG-13 [swearing]
Summary: Matt, Mohinder, Molly, and the X-Men. Bring it.
Disclaimer: Lies. Lies for which I do not get paid. Lies.
Author's Notes:
amazonqueenkate is an enabler. And she proofreads. So I suppose it evens out. Do note: I have created my own, personal, X-Men team. Because I can. Look, if Joss Whedon can pull Colossus from the grave, I can have Jean Gray and Warren and Kurt all on the same team.Part One
Part Two
X and Average Men [3/?]
By Perpetual Motion
Molly looked out of the window and watched the lake ripple in the wind. She’d been in that spot for over half an hour, arms wrapped around her knees, knees tucked under her chin, and in that half hour, she’d come up with nothing to explain anything about parents who sucked. She turned as she heard someone come into the room, ready to move if asked, and she saw Kurt, book in one odd-looking hand. He spotted her as well and smiled.
“Hello, Mädchen. Are you done with your tour?”
“We got to the swimming pool.” She smiled when Kurt tweaked the ends of her hair the way Mohinder did sometimes.
“You did not go in,” Kurt guessed.
“Nah. Matt started talking to Scott and…” Molly paused, wondering how to phrase it. “Do you have parents?” She asked Kurt finally, relieved to see him smile at the question.
“Natürlich, but I did not know them as a child.”
“Did they die?”
“No, but it is best we not know one another.” Kurt gestured to the open section of the window seat. “May I?”
“Sure.” Molly rearranged herself to give Kurt more room. She wasn’t sure how much space the tail would need. “So you don’t know your parents at all?”
“I know the people who raised me. That is enough. I traveled mit the circus in Germany. I was an acrobat.” He smiled when Molly smiled.
“That’s cool.” Molly looked out the window at the lake again. “My mom and dad died when I was eight. I was hiding, and Matt found me, and then The Company had me for awhile until Mohinder came and found me. And then he and Matt adopted me.”
“And you are happy.”
“Yeah. I mean, they’re cool, for dads, but Mr. Summers said that you have kids here who have parents who just leave them here, and I guess…” Molly looked at Kurt and gave an expansive sigh. “It’s not that I don’t get that some parents kinda suck, you know? I mean, I have this friend, Jenny, and her mom hit her, and her dad’s just kinda, out there, somewhere, and so she’s with this foster family who are pretty cool, but I mean, it’s just-“ Molly cut off and bit her bottom lip. “I dunno. It just sucks more, I guess, when it’s not because your mom’s always been a jerk but because you have this genetic mutation that isn’t even your fault. Don’t people understand how genetics work?”
Kurt had to force down the smile that he could feel trying to rise up. Nothing like a kid trying to understand the world to make him hopelessly happy. “Even if we explain it, I do not think it will help. Prejudice isn’t science.”
“Prejudice sucks.”
“Yes,” Kurt agreed, deciding that less was more.
Molly put her chin back on her knees and sighed again, the worn-out sigh of a thirteen-year-old discovering that the world was just a bit worse than she’d suspected. “I feel bad for them, you know? I remember my parents being really awesome, and then I got my dads, and they’re kinda dorks, but – I punched this guy at school because he was being mean to my friends, and my dads bought me ice cream. I mean, that’s cool. Most kids would get grounded, and I get ice cream.”
“Ice cream is good, but I do not think that is your point.”
“I’ve had two sets of parents who are, like, really good at being parents, and I get that makes me lucky, but it makes me sad, too, because then there’s all these people whose parents are bad at being parents, and they’re just stuck where they are.”
Kurt considered his words carefully, mindful of the gleam in Molly’s eyes that was begging for a fight. He knew that look well; saw it often amongst his students who wanted to argue about anything if it would mean someone would pay attention to them. “Home is where you make it. We give that to them here.”
“But there are parents-“
“There are parents, Mädchen, and then there are parents. Had I lived with the parents who I had before the circus, I would still be in a village in Bavaria. I would be digging up turnips for dinner if I were not kept in the cellar so as not to scare the village children.” Kurt tipped up Molly’s face with his fingers and gave her a warm smile. “You prove your kindness by worrying, but you’ve no need to do so. Die Kinder are safe here, and they are loved here.”
“People suck sometimes,” Molly said stubbornly.
Kurt laughed lightly. “Ja, they do.” He brushed her hair off of her face and looked around the room. “Where have you put your fathers, Mädchen?”
Molly shrugged. “I dunno. They’re around, I guess. Matt said I could come in here and think.”
“Well, then, I will leave you to the rest of it. I’m going to read mein Buch.” Kurt stood, fingers tapping on his book, and settled himself in a chair facing towards Molly, just in case she still had questions.
Molly leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking of Matt and sending out a careful, quiet, Matt? Not wanting to accidentally yell in his head the way she’d done when she was younger.
You okay, Molly? He sounded worried, just like Molly knew he would. He always worried.
I’m okay. I was just wondering if you were okay.
I’m fine, and Mohinder’s fine, too. He’s with me.
Where are you?
Down in the lab. Want us to come to you?
Yeah.
We’ll be there in a minute.
Molly opened her eyes and unbent her legs, flexing her toes and looking around the room. It was big and open, the way she remembered the living room being when her mom and dad were alive. The apartment in New York had lots of room for what it was, but the living room was tiny. Molly loved it because it meant everyone had to sit close together, just like when they were all trying to get something in the kitchen. Matt and Mohinder had talked about moving, finding a “real house” where they could fit everything more comfortably, and Molly was always secretly happy when those conversations died. She liked the apartment. That was her home. She didn’t need a big fancy house.
“Hey, kiddo,” Matt said as he and Mohinder walked into the room. Molly’s eyes got wide at the sight of the bruise around his eye. “I’m fine. Just a misunderstanding.”
“Someone hit you!”
“Yeah, well, I kind of had it coming.”
“What’d you do?” Molly grinned when Matt looked down at his shoes. “What was it?” Matt kept looking at his shoes. Molly looked at Mohinder. “What’d he do?”
Mohinder looked over at Matt and shook his head. “He insulted someone’s family.”
“That’s mean!” Out before she could stop it, and she felt terrible when Matt cringed. “Sorry.”
“No, I had that coming.” Matt rubbed the back of his head. “Apparently, I shouldn’t take my cues from you.”
Molly put her hands on her hips. “Hey!”
“No baiting,” Mohinder said mildly, smiling. “I think you’ve done enough for one day.”
“Hey!” This one from Matt, but before the conversation could completely devolve, there was a sudden rush of noise from the front hall, and then a handful of children along with two adults walked into the living room.
The kids stared at Molly. Molly stared back. One of them stepped forward and cocked her head at her. “What can you do?”
“I can find people in my dreams.”
The girl grinned. “Cool.” She held out her hand, palm flat, and an apple appeared. “I can do that.”
“Cool.”
The apple turned into an orange. “And that.”
“I can fly!” A boy in the back of the little crowd floated into the air.
Don’t even think it.
Matt grinned at Mohinder. Can’t be. He’s a blonde.
So’s Claire.
Matt started at that, giving Mohinder a bit of a glare. I can’t think it, but you can?
Mohinder just shrugged and turned to the adults who were making their way across the room. One was male, tall and athletic looking; wearing a pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, and a trench coat Mohinder would have guessed a bit too hot for the weather. The other was a redheaded woman, willowy and graceful in a pair of jeans and a battered T-shirt. Mohinder saw Matt’s eyes widen, but before he could ask, the blonde man was introducing himself.
“Warren Worthington the Third,” he said with a professional smile and an outstretched hand. “Dr. Suresh, you may have seen my signature on a few research grants at the university.”
It took Mohinder a moment to place the name. “Worthington Industries, yes,” he shook Warren’s hand. “I can say, personally, that your money has done a great deal of good in my labs.”
“Good to hear.” Warren removed his coat and unfurled a pair of incredibly large wings. “And, yes, they’re real.”
Next to Mohinder, Matt was trying not to let his jaw drop to the floor. He recognized the woman. She’d been on the train the day they’d met Xavier.
Jean Gray. Her voice was relaxed, like she talked to people in their heads every day.
Matt Parkman. How…? He made a vague gesture with his hand, encompassing the both of them, their heads and pretty much the whole situation.
I’m a telepath with some telekinetic abilities. The professor mentioned you were a telepath, and well, you were projecting. She smiled, and there was a bit of a smirk in it, as though she was amused by the whole situation. And I’d like to apologize for my husband’s assault on your person.
Matt shook his head and threw up his hands. “Sorry, I just…you could hear me?”
“You’re not around telepaths much, are you?”
Matt squinted at her and tried to get a read. It was like going up against The Haitian. “…no.”
“I can block you because I’m trained to block you. I can hear what you’re thinking because you’re not trained to block me.” Jean put a hand on Matt’s arm comfortingly. “It’s a trick, like learning to reign in your power in the first place.”
“I…” Matt looked at her hand on his arm and then over at Mohinder. Mohinder was in deep conversation with the blonde man who apparently had wings. He heard ‘lab’ and ‘funds’ and ‘hollow bones’ and decided he’d be less bored talking with Jean Gray. “I’m not strictly a telepath, though. Does it work if I can do other stuff?”
“The same four walls can hold up any kind of roof.” She said it with a small smile, as though she’d heard it a lot. It made Matt laugh. “What else can you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Illusions. I can make people see and feel things that aren’t really there. I have some persuasive powers.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around the room, finding Molly in the middle of the group of kids. “I don’t do it often, but it’s there.” Jean squinted at him, and he wondered what she was picking up. “Crap father,” he said, just to make it easier.
“Ah,” she said, but without the same underlying knowingness from the rest of the conversation. “We’ve had a few of those.”
Matt watched a sandy-haired kid of about eleven or twelve flick balls of light off his fingers. “I’ll just bet.” Mohinder was at his side then, hand warm in the crook of his arm.
“Warren informs me that dinner’s to be served shortly. We’ve been invited to stay.”
Matt looked at Mohinder, eyes bright with whatever conversation he’d had with Warren. He looked at Jean Gray, who just gave him a smile and moved to hustle the children towards the kitchen, and then he looked at Molly, right in the middle of the group, patiently explaining that, no, she couldn’t use her power to find dogs. At least, she didn’t think so. “Dinner?” He glanced at his watch. It was just after five o’clock. "Wow, time flies when you're getting punched in the face."
“Apparently, it’s sloppy joe night.” Mohinder watched the kids along with Matt and waited until they were mostly from the room before asking, “well?” He was blatantly ignoring Matt's jab at Scott, and Matt knew it.
“Well, what?”
“Are we staying for dinner, or would you rather we pull Molly away from her adoring fans and drag her back into the city?”
Matt grinned a little and wrapped an arm around Mohinder’s waist. “Cheater. You just want to see what other toys they have here.”
“Don’t you?”
Matt considered the question while he led Mohinder towards the sounds of the kids and what he assumed was a dining area. “Jean said that she can block my thoughts and that there’s a way to block other people’s thoughts from getting into my head. It’s not a big shiny lab or a bunch of kids with abilities, but it sounds interesting.”
Mohinder smiled. “Well, it’s something, at least. Does that mean you have a slim hold on some trust for these people?”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know yet. They seem okay, but, hell, Mohinder, they left us to twist.” The idea had already lost its shock, but Matt felt it bore repeating. “The just left us to try not and kill someone when they could have helped.”
“They went through something terribly traumatic, Matt. The human brain can only take so much trauma before it becomes necessity to shut down and handle the immediate issues. We can’t hold it against them that they had to take a step back.”
“There’s taking a step back and there’s telling everyone to go fuck themselves.”
Mohinder didn’t get a chance to respond before they were in the dining area, the kids and adults are clamoring around a huge circular table. I think you don’t want there to be a difference.
What? Matt pulled out two chairs and sat in one. Mohinder took the other. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Exactly what it sounds like. I think you started out wanting a fight, and you found one, and now you don’t want to let it go.
What fight? I came here looking for information.
So that you could tell Molly and I why we shouldn’t want to be here.
Oh, that is complete-
Is it? And god, but Matt hated when Mohinder cut him off inside his own head. You’re nervous and scared and afraid that someone who’s tried to hurt us before is going to jump out of the hedges. You’re trying to hide it, but I can see it.
I’m cautious. I think I’ve earned the right to be.
These people have been nothing but gracious-
And yet, they still hung us out to dry.
“Matt?” Molly was watching the two of them from across the table. “Are you two mind-fighting?”
“We’re just having a discussion, Molly,” Mohinder explained before Matt could say something inappropriate. “It’s a bit heated.”
Scott laughed from where he was placing a bowl of green beans onto the table. “Jean and I have had a few of those.”
“All part of a relationship,” Jean countered as she passed the hamburger buns around the table. “But it lets you have a fight in public without causing a scene.” She grinned at Matt who couldn’t help but grin back. “But I’m sure you already know that.”
“We’ve learned a few tricks,” Matt admitted grudgingly, reaching under the table to squeeze Mohinder’s hand. I worry.
I know.
“Tell me, Detective Parkman,” Hank said after the buns had finished their round of the table, “How does your power translate to your on-the-job performance?”
“It’s not as useful as you might think, actually. If I can’t back up what I hear people think with actual evidence, it’s a lost cause.” Matt passed the green beans to Mohinder and took the bread basket from Kurt. “If I know I’ve got something to back me up, I usually use what I can read from someone to get them talking, but most of the time, it’s your basic, boring detective work.”
“I wouldn’t call it boring,” Mohinder said, tone conciliatory and honest. “You work hard.”
Matt gave him a quick smile. “I’m not saying things don’t get interesting, but day-to-day, it’s pretty basic.”
“I would think, Detective Parkman, that you would not consider yourself quite so average,” Professor Xavier rolled into the dining room wearing a suit and tie and smiling softly. “You have done extraordinary things.”
Matt raised his eyebrows, the suspicion he’d been trying to swallow coming up to the forefront again. “How much do you know about us, Professor?”
“Matt,” Mohinder put a hand on his arm and gave him a pointed look. “This isn’t appropriate dinner conversation.”
“You’re not curious about what he knows about us?”
“If you like, Detective Parkman, I’d be happy to discuss it with you after dinner, when the students are otherwise engaged.”
“We never get to hear anything good,” the girl who made apples and oranges whispered to Molly. “They always talk about adult stuff after dinner.”
Molly considered Matt and Mohinder from across the table. “I know the feeling.”
“I heard that,” Matt said, giving Molly a look similar to what Mohinder had just given him. “And we do not leave you out of that many discussions.”
“Yeah. Sure.” She made a face, and Matt made one back.
“Mature,” from Jean, who was smiling.
“I can make a better face than that,” Bobby challenged, pulling one of his own.
Matt grinned. “There’s one in every family.”
Jean gestured to the kids, all who were now involved with the face-making. “Depends on the family.”
Matt laughed at that and put his attention back on Professor Xavier. “I think you should talk to Mohinder. I think he’ll have better questions.”
“Matt, if you have questions-“
“Yours will be better.” And if I’m spoiling for a fight, do you really want me alone in a room with a guy in a wheelchair?
Fair. Mohinder nodded in Professor Xavier’s direction. “After dinner, then.”
“Excellent.” Professor Xavier wheeled himself to the head of the table and looked around the table, smiling at the assembled crowd. “Any sign of Logan?”
Scott shook his head and buttered a roll. “Not since breakfast. I saw his bike in the garage earlier, so I assume he’s around.”
Professor Xavier placed his fingers against his temple and closed his eyes. Matt and Mohinder looked at each other. Molly was too busy entertaining her cohorts to notice. Mohinder looked to Hank, seated on the near edge of the half-circle of children.
“The Professor is locating Logan with a bit of telepathy.” Hank didn’t miss the way Matt’s lips tightened at the information. “He does not do it unless it is expressly permitted.”
“Sure,” Matt said, but didn’t sound convinced. “Who’s Logan?”
“A sehr cranky man.” Kurt said, smile on his face. “Good heart. Very short temper.”
Mohinder thought of Bennet and grinned. “We know the type.”
Bobby shook his head, “Believe me, you don’t know this type.”
“Do the words ‘Napoleon Complex’ mean anything to you?” Warren asked with a laugh.
“I don’t have a complex,” a voice growled from the dining room door. The voice belonged to a short man in a worn t-shirt and even more worn jeans. His work boots were dinged and scuffed and there was the stub of a cigar hanging from his mouth.
“Ah, Logan,” Professor Xavier greeted him like an old, dear friend. “You nearly missed dinner.”
“Pity.” The sarcasm was thick. Logan took a seat next to Kurt and accepted a hamburger bun that Jean floated over to his plate. “Thanks, Jeannie.”
“You’re welcome.”
Logan filled his plate and was about to take a bite when he noticed Matt watching him. “You must be the tour.”
Matt sized him up, eyes squinting as he took in the details. Gravelly voice and a bit of gray in his hair, but no lines around his eyes or any real signs of aging. “And what do you do?”
“What needs to be done.”
Beside Matt, Mohinder snorted and muttered, “Bennet’s got competition.”
Matt chuckled lowly. “Hair’s all wrong.”
Logan bit into his sloppy joe, swallowed, and took a drink of water. “Hair’s just fine.”
Matt looked abashed at being heard, Mohinder just grinned. “Nice to meet you, Logan,” Mohinder said to try and change the subject.
“Sure,” Logan said, taking another bite from his sandwich.
“You will find,” Hank said as he speared his green beans, “that Logan is not a particularly willing conversationalist. Bobby, on the other hand, could entertain a blank wall for hours.”
“Hey!” Bobby grinned while feigning insult. “At least someone around here is amusing.”
“I am sitting right here,” Kurt said with his own grin, and the conversation turned into an attempt for Kurt, Bobby, and eventually Warren to outdo each other with various embarrassing stories of the others.
They’re definitely out to get us. Mohinder’s voice in Matt’s head sounded like it was laughing.
Matt didn’t bother to answer, just finished off his sandwich and leaned back in his chair, laughing as the stories got more outlandish. At one point, as Warren recounted a moment where Kurt was naked in a linen closet, Matt realized that he was being watched very closely by Logan. He raised his eyebrows. Logan squinted and turned away. Matt wondered on it as Scott served up ice cream for dessert and the stories took a decidedly embarrassing turn for everyone who wasn’t Jean.
“I was the first woman to join the school,” she said as she stopped one of the kids from drowning his ice cream in chocolate syrup, “and the boys were rather taken.”
“And why wouldn’t we be?” Scott leaned over and kissed Jean on the cheek. “We all made complete fools of ourselves.”
Jean laughed. “Hank grew me a stunning exotic flower, something from deep in the jungles of Peru, and I found out I was allergic.”
“Hives,” Hank muttered while shaking his head. “She took one sniff, and her neck just broke out in hives.” He laughed. “Of course, I didn’t nearly drop her while flying.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “You almost drop one gorgeous redhead from a hundred feet up, and no one ever forgets.”
“At least you didn’t try to be suave like Bobby and ice the floor in front of my door in hopes of catching me mid-fall.”
The tips of Bobby’s ears turned pink. “Yeah, well, I’ve never said I was smooth.”
Mohidner and Matt were both laughing openly, and Matt raised his eyebrows at Scott. “What about you?”
“I stuttered a lot and didn’t say much.”
“He tripped up the stairs once,” Jean interjected. “He said goodnight to me and fell over his feet. It was really sweet.”
“Yeah, sweet,” Scott scoffed, but he was beaming at her.
Mohinder looked to Kurt. “And you?”
“Nein, I did nothing. I was not part of the original class, as it were. I came later, and by that time Jean and Scott were already well on their way to their very happy rut.”
“We do not have a rut!”
Kurt waved a hand at Scott. “Of course not, mein freund.”
Mohinder considered asking Logan, but there was something about the way his shoulders were set that made him veer over to Professor Xavier. “And were you aware of their antics, Professor?”
The Professor smiled, looking around the table. “Very much so, but they were teenagers, and part of being a teenager is horrific embarrassment in front of the opposite sex.”
“And horrific embarrassment in front of the same sex,” Hank said with a meaningful look at Bobby.
Bobby put his arms on the table and his head in his arms. “I will never live down anything ever in my life,” he mumbled into the table top. The crowd around the table laughed, and then Jean stood up with Warren and started clearing the table.
“You’re on dishes tonight,” Warren reminded Kurt. Kurt made a face but stood to help. “Movie night tonight,” he told Matt. “Molly’s more than welcome to join the kids while you and Mohinder speak with the Professor.”
Matt and Mohinder didn’t have to look over to know that Molly was trying to pretend like she wasn’t absolutely dying to hang out with the other kids. Mohinder raised his eyebrows to Matt and Matt nodded. “Go ahead, Molly.”
She jumped up from the table, grabbing her plate along the way, and followed the other kids into the kitchen. She backed up a step and threw Matt and Mohinder a brilliant smile. “I can stay for the whole movie, right?”
“We’ll see,” Matt said as he and Mohinder stood up from the table. Warren took their plates, and Bobby jerked his head towards the other room.
“Beer?”
Mohinder’s eyebrows shot up. “You have beer here?”
“Not anywhere the kids will go near it.” Bobby said with a grin. “We keep it behind Logan’s room.”
Logan grunted and stepped around Matt. Matt wasn’t quite sure, but he was fairly certain he was sniffed as Logan shouldered past. “I’ll take a beer,” he said after a moment of silence.
“I’ll pass,” Mohinder said. “Professor, if you have a moment now, I’d like to speak with you.”
“Of course,” The Professor wheeled around the table and waved a hand towards the door. “If you’d like to adjourn to my office, we can speak at length.”
You’ll be okay?
I’ll be fine. Mohinder touched Matt’s shoulder, gave him a reassuring smile, and headed after the Professor.
Matt gave Bobby a grin that was mostly un-forced. “Beer?”
Bobby grinned. “Beer.” He led the way through a television room, where the kids had already started to pile up, and out a side door to a small terrace with patio chairs and a wood-paneled mini-fridge.
“Is Logan really so scary that the kids stay away?”
“Yes,” Logan said from behind Matt, making him start.
Bobby and Hank gave Logan a look. “Behave, Logan,” Hank said mildly.
Logan shrugged and opened the fridge, tossing beers to Bobby and Logan before holding one out to Matt. Matt took it, cautious suddenly. “…thanks.”
“Yeah.” Logan retrieved his own beer and they all sat.
“So-“ Matt cut off when a long, thin claw slid out between the middle knuckles on Logan’s hand and he used it to pierce his beer. Matt blinked and glanced at Hank and Bobby, who had both simply popped the top on their beers and seemed to be completely unimpressed by Logan’s trick. Okay. Matt popped the top on his own beer and took a drink. “That’s…something.”
“Adamantium,” Hank said. “An unbreakable metal, as far was we know. Logan’s skeleton is coated with it.”
“Ah,” Matt managed to keep himself from asking if it’d hurt. “That’s something.”
“Said that already, bub,” Logan said as he took a long drink of his beer. “How hard did Slim hit you?”
Matt raised his eyebrows. “You weren’t around all day, and you know about that?”
“Not much gets past me.”
“…yeah.” Something about Logan was throwing Matt completely off his game. He had no idea how to respond to anything Logan might say, so he just sipped his beer and looked over the backyard. After a few moments, Hank cleared his throat.
“Tell us, Detective Parkman-“
“Matt,” Matt interrupted.
Hank nodded, smiling. “Matt, then. How did you save the world?”
Matt snorted and took another sip of his beer. “The first time or the second time?” He couldn’t quite take the edge of bitterness from his voice, but Hank and Bobby seemed willing to ignore it. Logan barely looked up from his own beer.
“Chronological tends to work best,” Hank replied.
Chronological meant starting in Los Angeles and the beginning of the end with Janice. It also meant starting with Molly. Matt smiled to himself. “I missed a lot of the main action in that one; I didn’t make it to New York until the big finale. I was in L.A. at the time. I was a patrol officer. I got a call to assist at a murder scene.”
Bobby leaned forward, Hank settled himself more comfortably in his chair, and Logan shifted half an inch. Matt had an attentive audience.
*
Professor Xavier’s office was lined with bookshelves. There was a couch, two chairs, a coffee table and a wide desk. Mohinder sat on the couch, elbows on his knees, hands clasped loosely out in front of his legs. Professor Xavier rolled into place a few feet from him, placed his hands in his lap and gave Mohinder an inquiring look.
“Where would you like to start, Dr. Suresh?”
Mohinder considered the question carefully. There were a dozen places to start. Molly’s principal came first to mind, but Mohinder rejected the idea. It was a side track to where he really wanted to be in the conversation. He studied his shoes, looked around the room, and finally looked Professor Xavier in the eyes. “Bobby told us that you knew of us because Matt was taken by The Company.”
“That’s correct.”
“How?”
“When he was being held by The Company, his mind reached out for help. I heard his call,” the Professor’s mouth quirked in a small, wry smile, “not that I could have missed it. It was no less than a reverberating scream.”
“Matt was taken by The Company weeks before Kirby Plaza. You knew that he was out there for at least a month.” Mohinder started getting a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. He suddenly understood Matt’s earlier, angry reaction. He took a deep breath and clenched and unclenched his hands deliberately. “Did you try to approach him?” His voice was not as calm as he had hoped, but it felt unimportant to correct his tone.
Professor Xavier broke eye contact and looked over Mohinder’s shoulder at nothing in particular. “We did not,” there was grief in his voice.
“Why not?” Mohinder bit into the ‘t’, pressing his teeth together for an instant. He watched Professor Xavier as the man stared past him, and he was tempted to grab his shoulders and shake him until he got an answer. The barest hints of his usual decorum left him in his seat, but did not stop him from repeating his question. “Why not, Professor?”
“Because I am a foolish man, Dr. Suresh.” The Professor looked at Mohinder again. “Because I am completely and utterly fallible and have no defense for my egregious actions. I had…” Professor Xavier shook his head. “I am afraid that to understand my actions, you must understand what preceded them. What Wanda did-“
“I’ve heard a great deal of Wanda today,” Mohinder cut in, “and I am suddenly out of patience for the sob story of what she’s done to you and yours. I am much more concerned with your lack of care for me and mine.”
Professor Xavier’s jaw set in a dangerous angle, his left hand curled tightly around the bottom of his suit jacket. “Ninety-one percent of the world’s mutants were eradicated by Wanda, Dr. Suresh. The reputation of both this school and my X-Men were erased because Wanda’s power got the better of her. And before all of that, she set in place a reality that made mutants the dominant species. She made a world where they would not have to fear for our safety simply because we are genetically different. It was not a perfect world, Dr. Suresh, not by any standard, but it was liberating in a way, and when that came crashing down and all those innocent people went with it, there was nothing to be done but lick our wounds.”
Mohinder opened his mouth to counter, but Professor Xavier pressed ahead. “I am a very powerful man, Dr. Suresh. My telepathy is rivaled by a very select few, one of them being Jean Gray, and when Wanda dealt her final blow, she took my telepathy, and she gave me my legs, and I was devastated. And then my X-Men found what I had done in my arrogant, stupid youth, and they were only too happy to turn me into the streets. I can not say that I blame them in the least.”
“What did you do?” Mohinder asked before Xavier could keep talking.
“I sent my team on a mission, and they were in dire trouble, and so I put other young mutants at risk to save them, with no thought to their own hopes or fears, and those on the rescue team died, and I used my abilities to lie to my students and convince them that they had saved themselves, that those children had not gone in to rescue them.”
Mohinder swallowed hard to keep from saying something entirely emotionally based. “You’re telepathic now,” he managed, “and you’re in a wheelchair again.”
“Circumstances fell so that I had the chance to regain my power.”
“I see.” There was a long moment of silence wherein Mohinder seriously considered standing up and walking out, grabbing Molly along the way. He breathed instead, in through his nose and out through his mouth, and decided that knowledge was better than ignorance. “Why come to us now? We’ve managed to stop two vicious threats to humanity and The Company without your assistance.”
“I know,” Xavier looked aggrieved; Mohinder couldn’t bring himself to care. “I’ll never forgive myself for making the choice to leave you to your own devices. We have a student at the school with some future-telling abilities. I asked for her input, and she told me that things were shifting and changing, and that New York would still stand.”
Mohinder thought of Hiro, and he smiled for a brief moment. It faded as he considered all the implications of what he was being told. “Did you know of a man named Sylar? He used to be Gabriel Gray.”
“I know of him now,” Xavier clenched his hands in his lap. “During the time frame we’re discussing, we were not aware of him. He was not terribly powerful, you have to understand, merely ruthless and immoral.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Sylar’s power was to take the powers of other people, if I’m not mistaken.”
Mohinder could see it was a token statement, made simply to allow him to confirm and feel as though he had more information than Xavier. It was mildly manipulative but still managed to calm him slightly. Too many years working with Bennet, he supposed. “You’re correct. He would slice open the top of their heads and remove their brains.”
“I knew his mode was brutal, but I was not aware it was quite so…” Xavier shook his head. “It is possible that those murders were completely unnecessary, that the idea of his own power and grandeur caused him to go mad.”
It was an idea that Mohinder himself had considered. “Peter Petrelli has a similar ability to what Sylar had. He can absorb other’s powers without any physical contact. He merely has to be close to them once, and then he has it.”
Xavier smiled. “We are well aware of Peter Petrelli. He is astounding. We’ve spoken of inviting him here.”
“But you haven’t.”
“No.”
Mohinder leaned against his knees and watched the way Xavier’s face went carefully blank. “Why not? Peter would probably come in an instant, simply for the chance to see what you could teach him.”
There was a small smile on the edges of Xavier’s mouth. “Perhaps, but Peter Petrelli does not require our help. We did you a great disservice, Dr. Suresh; you’re correct in that, and we’re trying to rectify it now.”
“By offering to help Molly.”
“And Matt, if he’d like some assistance.”
“Matt has control over his power. We’ve worked on it, built up his resistance to other people’s thoughts filtering in.”
“Matt has made great strides in his control, but we can help refine what you’ve done. His ability is incredibly strong, Dr. Suresh, and with the right training, he could turn it into an amazing achievement with minimal discomfort.”
Mohinder thought about the times Matt would get home in the evenings and go straight for the medicine cabinet and the aspirin. “That would be a conversation you’ll need to have with him.”
“Of course,” Xavier said placidly. “And Molly?”
“What can you do for Molly here that we haven’t done for her at home?” Mohinder leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Refinement aside, what can she get here that won’t be had at home?”
“I’ve worked with clairvoyants, Dr. Suresh. Every teacher here has worked with clairvoyants. You are an intelligent man with a sharp mind, and I’ve no doubt that you’ve helped Molly deal with very difficult subject matter as it comes to her, but we have techniques that we can teach her to help her control her dreams and let her relax when she goes to bed at night.”
“Will you teach me these techniques?”
“Certainly, if you’re willing to learn.”
“I am.” Mohinder watched the smile on Xavier’s face become slightly wider. “And what about the others? There’s a whole selection of people who could use your assistance in learning about their powers.”
Xavier nodded. “We are aware, and it is, in fact, why I wanted the chance to approach you first.”
Mohinder leaned forward again, wary but curious. “And why, Professor, would you want to approach me first?”
*
Kurt walked onto the patio just in time to hear Matt say, “and so I shot her.” His eyes widened, and he caught the beer Logan winged at him with his tail. “You what?”
Matt looked fairly sheepish. “She can heal, for the record.”
“Ah,” Kurt said as he settled into a crouch. “That makes much more sense.” He opened his beer and looked at Logan. “Long lost relative?”
“No,”
Matt looked from Kurt to Logan. “Relative?”
“When you say heal,” Hank deflected, “what do you mean?”
“I mean I shot her in the chest, felt her pulse stop, and then she came back from the dead.”
Bobby chuckled. “Sounds like a relative of Logan’s.”
“She ain’t,” Logan ground out.
“So you?” Matt made a vague gesture, encompassing Logan from head to toe.
“Yeah.”
“So that and claws, huh?”
“And his senses are kind of enhanced,” Bobby said. “He’s like a bloodhound.”
“Robert,” Hank said wearily. “Please do remember what happened the last time you compared Logan to any sort of hunting animal.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Bobby grinned apologetically at Logan.
Kurt gave Matt a questioning look. “And why did you shoot the girl?”
Matt grinned, there was a slightly evil look to it. “Her dad told me to.”
“What?”
Bobby laughed at the shocked look on Kurt’s face. “You should have been here for the first half.”
Kurt shook his head. “Something interesting always happens when it is my turn to wash up. Could you possibly summarize the events up to the point where you shot someone?”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, sure.” He backtracked, starting with the day he found Molly and skimming along to the point where he and Ted were ready to bring down all manner of hell on Noah Bennet. “So I shot Claire to try and get Bennet away from Ted for a few minutes, and Bennet and I came up with a plan.”
“You hung Ted out to dry,” Logan practically growled from his chair.
“Not quite. Look, Ted was messed up, and Bennet was certainly messed up, no question, but Ted was about to go nuclear and kill everyone in the house. Bennet, at least, was willing to get us out alive. He wasn’t less screwed up so much as a different type of screwed up.” Matt tried to make eye contact with Logan, tried to get a feeling for him, but Logan continued to sit with his chin tucked against his chest and didn’t look up.
“What happened next?” Bobby asked, pulling Matt’s thoughts away from Logan.
“Ted went up. Nuclear. Claire walked through the whole thing to tranquilize him. After that, Claire went into hiding, and Bennet, Ted, and I were captured by The Company. We got out, and we headed to New York. Sylar was there. It got ugly. Ted died, and Peter nearly took out the city.”
There was a long, pregnant pause until, finally, Kurt cleared his throat and said quietly, “I wish we could have helped.”
Matt shook his head, his earlier anger having faded out as he re-told the story. “Hell, we managed it. Just barely, but we managed it. I can’t…” he trailed off, took a sip of beer, and tried again. “It’s been a long damned day, and part of that has to do with the fact that I’ve spent it wondering if I’m some sort of fucked up accident thanks to this Wanda person.”
“Wanda never did anything accidentally,” said Logan as he raised his head. “Everything she did, she did on purpose.”
Matt raised his eyebrows. “From what I hear, she went nuts.”
“Being nuts doesn’t make you stupid. She knew everything she was doing, right down to wiping out most of us and setting up you new guys.”
“Logan,” Hank said quietly, “we have no proof of that.”
“And the world don’t have proof of us anymore, doesn’t mean we’re not here for a reason.”
“Logan,” from Hank again.
“She was fucked up, Hank. She still knew what she was doing.” Logan crushed his beer can. “You’re the one who goes on about shit happening for a reason.” He stood up and walked to the fridge for another beer. “She could have done all this just to be fuck with us. She could have given all these people powers just so she could watch what happened from wherever she’s hiding now.”
Matt didn’t miss the way that Hank looked vaguely nervous. Pure instinct was telling him that Hank knew something. He raised his eyebrows. Hank raised his in return. Hell of a poker face, Matt thought, but held his tongue.
“Maybe she did it all just to mess with us,” Logan continued as he stabbed another beer. “Considering her background.”
“Background?” Matt asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.
Kurt looked at Bobby. “You did not tell him?”
Bobby snorted through his nose. “Yeah. Sure. Right after he didn’t threaten me to get the hell out. No, wait, that part did happen.”
The look Hank gave Matt that time he could read clearly. “Didn’t lay a hand on him,” he insisted and held up a hand in deference. “What about her background?”
“Wanda’s father,” Kurt said, eyes on the ground, tail tapping against the slate tiles, “he is Magneto.” Kurt looked up at Matt, who shook his head to show he didn’t recognize it. “Before Wanda, he was very well known for his violent approach to protecting mutants.”
“And when you say ‘violent approach’, you mean that as it says,” Matt said.
Kurt nodded. “Ja. He has stayed quiet since M-day.”
“M-day?”
“What we call it,” Hank said. “The day Wanda wiped out most of us.”
“Oh.” Matt looked around the group. Logan was back in his position, chin against his chest. Kurt was staring at the ground. Bobby was looking at Hank. Hank was looking down at his hands. Matt wasn’t sure what to do. Changing the subject seemed the best strategy. “So, Hank, what else is in the basement besides your lab?”
Hank gave Matt a bare smile. “A few upgrades to this old house.”
Matt grinned back at him. “So the giant circular door with the complicated key pad is what, exactly?”
“You know a lot,” Logan said while giving Matt an appraising look. “And you act like we’re out to get you.”
“I act like a complete stranger showed up and scared my daughter,” Matt shot back. “And I act like someone who spent a lot of time wondering about shady organizations.”
“You act like a telepath,” Logan said disgustedly. “Always have to know more than the rest of us.” He stood up and stalked into the house, the door reverberating when he slammed it.
“Don’t worry about him,” Bobby said before Matt could feel nervous. “Logan’s just a dick sometimes.”
“Yeah, sure,” Matt said, but he didn’t really believe it.
“I think, perhaps, it is time to call an end to this discussion,” Hank said reasonably.
Bobby and Kurt agreed, standing and leaving the patio. Hank and Matt stayed where they were, Hank watching Matt and Matt watching back. Hank looked calm and relaxed, but Matt knew how to read people, and the way Hank stretched his shoulders gave away his nervousness.
“You know something about Wanda,” Matt said after a pause.
“I know many things about many people,” Hank said evenly.
“But you know something specific about her. Something you don’t want Logan to know.”
“I have found in my time with the X-Men that most telepaths forget how to watch people when they want information. Mostly, they just try to find a hole in one’s mind armor and get their information that way.”
“Flattering,” Matt said drily, “but not distracting.”
“I did not assume it would be.” Hank glanced over his shoulder, making sure there was no one hanging about in the doorway or near a window. “Wanda went to ground after M-day, as any wounded creature would do. I found her in a small village in Europe, living as a non-mutant. She had no recollection of who she had been.”
“That doesn’t excuse what she did.”
“Of course not, but how do you convince someone with no memory of their power that it exists and caused decimation?” Hank looked Matt squarely in the eyes. “Imagine yourself a week before your gift manifested. Would you have believed anyone telling you that you were a telepath?”
Matt thought about it. A week before his telepathy manifested he was worrying about the detective’s exam again. He and Janice were in a massive decline. He pictured Mohinder knocking on his door, giving him that warm, professional smile, and telling him that he was very special indeed. “I want to say I would have believed it, but I think I may have slammed the door instead.”
Hank nodded. “You understand, then.”
“No,” Matt said quietly, “but I don’t think I could explain why I think it’s necessary that she be forced to remember.” He thought of his father, still comatose and paying for what he’d done to Molly. He thought of Bennet, still mostly estranged from Claire. He thought of Micah, an orphan because of what his parents could do. He thought of Ted. “I’m happier now than I think I’ve been in my whole life, but I had to go through more shit than most people can imagine to get there.”
“I understand,” Hank said, and Matt thought that maybe he did.
