"Do You Love Me" 4/? (XMFC Charles/Erik AU)
Title: Do You Love Me
Word Count: 3,800 (Chapter) - 15,000 (Whole Fic)
Pairings: Charles/Erik, Raven/Hank, Sean/Moira, Scott/Jean, very brief Raven/Azazel
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Charles and Erik have been married for 25 years, thrown together by a mandatory post-apocalyptic pairing system attempting to increase and strengthen the population. They have seven children. They have never spoken of love, but change is on the horizon.
Warnings: mpreg, underaged characters for part of it but in their society they're adults, and it's a bit of a dystopia but with a happy ending
Now
Before any of them can say anything else they're interrupted by a commotion outside the house, and Charles raises his eyebrows and Raven and Hank look over the backs of their chairs at the door. None of them move because they know what it is, and it's nothing to be alarmed about.
In a moment the front door is pushed open and Erik stumbles inside, Bobby on his back and Kitty and Marie hanging from each leg. The girls are giggling and Bobby is apparently some sort of monster, trying not giggle himself while he growls and pretends to claw at his father's shoulders. Erik is grinning, and over the years he's grown to be not the least bit hesitant about it.
Fatherhood has suited him well.
"I've been ambushed," Erik smirks.
"We got him, Mom!" Kitty giggles.
Charles chuckles. "A good thing, too. I was afraid he was going to be late for dinner."
Raven is smiling in amusement, but stands suddenly and it falls. "Oh! What time is it?"
Hank squints across the table at the clock on a shelf by the wall. "It's just after…oh, it's almost five." And he stands, too. "We should go."
"Sorry to say hi and run, but that was kind of the plan. We were killing time. They said the results should be in by five," Raven explains. "That, and we wanted to ask if Kurt could stay here for a few hours…"
"Of course," Erik says, lowering Bobby from his shoulders.
"Go on," Charles nods, standing now as well. He smiles at his sister reassuringly, and she squeezes his hand and follows her husband out.
"When is dinner?" Bobby asks then. "Can we play some more?"
"You have a bit. I'll call you. Make sure you ask Marie's mother the same; let's not get her into trouble," Charles tells him.
"Okay!"
And the girls release Erik's legs and the three of them shoot back outside.
Erik watches them go and shakes his head. "Those three are almost more rowdy than Sean and Alex were."
"Almost. But not quite, thank goodness." Charles goes back to the stove to check the soup, stirs it a bit, and it's nearly cooked enough. "Despite the comment about dinner, you're actually home much earlier than had been usual lately, as I assume you've noticed. I'm beginning to worry about how late they're keeping you."
Erik sighs. "What can I say? We're finally having more metal to work with, we're processing it again, we're still preparing to expand the city walls, and now the rest of the council is saying they want to rebuild the public buildings, too. I mean, I agree with them-they were built so quickly; they need replacing-but there's a lot to do, and they want it done quickly."
The city is finally crowded, after twenty-five years of growth, and it's becoming a more and more serious situation by the year. The city is confined within the stone walls built at the beginning, and needs room to grow. More and more technology is being recovered, travel and trade outside the walls is a bit more common-there are now five settlements in what was England, rather than two-and there is more metal to work with now. The city officials want to build the new walls in metal, if it's to be done, but preparing to do it is taking time, and Charles knows Erik is right about the central buildings needing a good remodeling.
The whole city needs remodeling, really, if they're going to move forward…try to recapture society the way it was before the war.
Though it will be different, of course, with most of the surviving population being mutants.
"I know all of that, but you're gone later and later, and it becomes particularly frustrating when they ask for you nearly every weekend, as well."
Erik leans against the counter that stretches over the cabinets. "I'm the only one who can do what I can do, Charles. What do you want me to tell them?"
"You've been on the council for more than two years now; can't you…put your foot down? Tell them you can't work so often?"
He scowls into the distance. "I don't have as much influence as I'd like. I'm beginning to think it's all a joke."
"You were able to do what you did for Raven and Hank…"
"And that's about all I've done, really. I want to do more-this place is still so damn backwards in so many ways-but I don't know how to make it happen. They don't listen to me. To either of us." Erik pauses, winces. "I really think they only gave me the position to placate me. They know my powers are useful, and they don't want to lose that." He scoffs now. "Without me they couldn't continue their precious projects at the rate we're going now. It would take them years to rebuild everything."
It isn't prideful at all, the way he says it. It's only truth and discouragement.
Charles lets out a breath and reaches to touch Erik's arm in sympathy. "Is there nothing you can do?" he asks gently. "Jean and Ororo will be out of the house soon enough, and Bobby and Kitty ask after you so often…"
Erik nods a bit in understanding, but then he looks up slowly and cocks his head a bit at Charles. "Are the children the only reason you don't like it?"
Charles blinks at him. "What?"
Erik looks at him for a long moment, something unreadable on his face, and Charles tries not to intrude but he gets a sense of from his husband's mind, and he doesn't understand it. He doesn't quite know what the stirring in his own chest is that grows in response.
But he knows it certainly is not the first time he's felt it.
-
Twenty-Three and a Half Years Ago
Charles is a week shy of nine months pregnant, and the hormone injections have, indeed, made the rest of pregnancy easier to deal with. The doctors, however, are not sure if he will go into anything resembling labor or not. They don't think he will. But a date has been set for the C-section.
There are five days to go, and Charles is nervous. He knows he won't have to give birth in the usual fashion, but it hardly matters. Something could still go wrong.
And once the procedure is over, he'll be a parent.
He and Erik will be parents.
Charles is still sixteen, and Erik is nineteen now. Others are younger, he knows, but he still doesn't know if they're ready for this. Erik is the picture of calm outwardly, as he always is anyhow, but Charles can sense what he feels. He knows Erik is just as nervous as he is, just as he knew it the day they married. He's grateful for Erik's composure-it helps-but at the same time he's glad he knows the truth, too. It also helps, but in a completely different way.
Erik has been gone most of the day, working he said, before he left. It's warm-as warm as it ever gets, with the seasons struggling to recover from the devastation, though it's better here than in the badly irradiated areas, of course-and Charles and Raven have spent the day downstairs in the main room with the front door open to let in the breeze.
They haven't done much. Erik has refused to let Charles do much in the last several weeks, despite the fact that the pregnancy is progressing safely and normally-or as normally as it can, considering the circumstances. When it isn't frustrating it's rather endearing, and Charles wishes, still, that Erik would open up to him more.
Either way, he's rebelled before, but today he's obeyed Erik's something-of-an-order not to bother trying to cook or see to any of the housework. Charles is at the table in one chair with his feet propped in another and a book propped on his stomach, and Raven was practicing her reading. But now the other book is abandoned on the table, and she is playing in the floor-games of imagination with the few dolls and toys she's gathered over the years made of anything she could find.
There is a reason Charles hasn't tried, at least, to do something today. He feels more than a little uncomfortable, and he isn't sure when or how it started. He's thinking about moving into the bedroom to rest on the bed, but he would rather not do that until Erik is home to watch Raven.
But then the discomfort is worse and is, quite clearly, pain.
Charles lets out a surprised breath and groans a bit, pushing the book onto the table and gripping the edges of the chair instead.
"Charles?" Raven is on her feet now. "What's wrong?"
"I uhm…" He grimaces, and after a moment it stops. The discomfort hasn't let up all day-has gotten worse-but still he thought, perhaps, he'd simply slept wrong, until now. This isn't muscle soreness or back pain. This is-
Charles swallows and slowly gets to his feet, leaning on the table.
"Charles? Are you okay?" Raven rushes to his side and grabs his arm, and he holds onto hers.
"It's all right. I'll be all right. I just…" A hand presses over his swollen abdomen, and he can feel the soothing background noise of the small mind inside him. "I think whoever is in here may need to come out now."
Erik? Where are you? Please come home; something is happening.
"Are you calling Erik?"
Charles nods and focuses more closely, calls out again with the same message, and quickly enough there is a response.
What? What do you mean? Is something wrong? Worry.
I wouldn't say wrong, but- Charles pulls in a sharp breath when the pain starts again, a little worse this time, and he's not sure it's supposed to be like that-get worse so abruptly. Then again, I don't know. But they were wrong when they assumed I wouldn't go into labor. That must be what this is. It hurts. Please come home. Please hurry…
He sensed it when Erik began moving, when he began to head back here. Erik began moving the moment Charles asked him to, the first time. But he redoubled his speed when Charles told him it hurt. Charles can feel the concern and anxiousness radiating from him now, even from wherever he is in town.
I'm coming, Erik says.
-
Erik hurries home, and as he nears the house there is another burst of thought in his mind, more urgent this time.
Erik, hurry! It's-oh god it shouldn't be happening this fast, should it?
I'm almost there!
The front door is open, and Erik hurries in to find Charles on the floor against one of the table legs, Raven at his side.
"What's wrong with him!" she cries.
Charles is nearly doubled over gasping, one arm clutched around his round middle and his other hand clamped on the edge of the table above his head.
"Erik-" he gasps.
Erik quickly crouches to one knee at his husband's side, grips his shoulder. "What happened? When did this start?"
Charles relaxes a bit, and the pain, contraction, whatever the proper name for it is seems to have stopped. Erik really can't remember now. The doctors didn't go over it extensively. They didn't think it would happen at all.
"When I called you…I suppose it's been coming all day, but it's only been…I can't explain it. We have to go. To the infirmary. Now…"
"Charles-" Raven is asking.
"I'll be fine," he tells her. "It's all right. Erik, the neighbors..."
Erik nods, and reaches for Raven's hand, but she doesn't want to take it.
"I want to stay with Charles!"
"He'll be fine, Raven. We just have to go to the infirmary to get the baby out. It's just telling us it needs to be born. It's okay."
"But-"
Charles is doubled over again now, as much as he can be in his current state anyhow, and his eyes are half clenched shut. "Raven, please go with him," he says tightly. He manages to smile a bit, and Raven finally nods, and reluctantly takes Erik's hand.
"But come get me as soon as you can!" she says.
She and Erik hurry two houses down, to the Summers home-a young couple who were married shortly after he and Charles were. Only the wife, who is pregnant herself but not as far along, is home, but she quickly agrees to watch Raven.
"Take care of him," Raven insists, and Erik promises before he rushes back home.
Charles is gasping again when he makes it there, and reaches up immediately, getting his arms out of the way so it's easier for Erik to pick him up. When he stands with Charles in his arms Charles's own arms settle around his neck, holding on tightly, and Charles buries his face in Erik's shirt.
It's clear it's getting worse already, and Erik swallows and hurries out into the lanes, the front door of the house closing and locking behind them thanks to his powers.
Charles is groaning.
"Hang on. Hang on…" Erik murmurs, over and over, and he doesn't know if it helps at all. "I'm sorry. I should have been at home-"
"Erik, its all right; please just get us there," Charles gasps.
He does, and soon enough they're bursting through the front doors into the lobby, Erik shoving the doors by their metal handles. The nurse at the shoddy excuse for a front desk takes ones look at them and jumps to her feet.
"Bring him in here. I'll get the doctor."
There's a sense of urgency, but not of alarm, in the way she says it, and Erik relaxes a bit. She shows them to the first exam room and disappears, and he doesn't think she would leave them alone if something was really wrong. She would at least say something. No, nothing is wrong. This is just different than they thought it would go. That's all. They didn't think this would happen at all-that the mutation allowed for it-but it's happening and even though it's still a bit different than the usual that doesn't mean anything is wrong.
Charles seems to sense it too, that there is nothing to be overtly alarmed about, and Erik feels some of the tension in the body in his arms release. Charles had probably read the woman's mind; if there were anything to be worried about, really, he would know.
Erik lets out a breath and lowers Charles to the exam table. It isn't as comfortable as a bed, but at least it's padded. Charles seems grateful to be more stable again, but he won't let Erik let go, and Erik slides onto the table behind him to let his young husband lean back into his shoulder.
"It'll be all right; we're here. It's all right," he says, because he doesn't know what else to say.
Charles is sweating by now, the fingers of one hand digging into one of Erik's legs, and he pushes out a sharp breath. "You feel this, and then tell me it's all right!" he all but growls. It ends in a frustrated groan. "Actually, I could probably make that happen but I'm not that cruel even though I do hate you rather implicitly at the moment."
Moving quickly from worry to this then. Well.
"I've heard that's normal," Erik deadpans.
"This is not funny," he grates out.
"Am I laughing?"
"You never laugh. You're thinking it."
Maybe. One small part of him. The sudden shift in atmosphere and Charles's comment had done that. The rest of him is not enjoying this at all. Charles is in pain and Erik doesn't like it any more than he liked it when Charles was so ill in the beginning. It caused an odd, painful tugging in his chest then and the feeling is there now, and worse.
"I think your powers are a little off right now, Charles."
Charles is quieter for a few moments, and he doesn't answer. But then he's tense again, and this time he shouts.
"Is there anything I can do?" Erik asks anxiously.
Charles responds by reaching up to grasp the hand holding him steady against Erik's shoulder. He squeezes, and Erik abandons holding the shoulder to squeeze back.
"I'm here…" he says tentatively, after a moment.
Charles can't answer, because he's groaning loudly, but the answer comes in Erik's mind. Yes. Just that. You can do that. Please do that…
And when the answer comes Erik can feel that at least some of the fear is still there. It makes him feel a bit better about his own.
I'm not going anywhere, he thinks back.
The doctor comes in soon after, telling them that the operating room is being prepped, and asks Charles questions about when the pain began and how it's behaved and other things.
"It's acting like a normal labor, mostly, but you're right; it's progressing faster than usual. I don't know that there's any way to know why-it must have something to do with your mutation-but as long as you're not in danger that isn't important. We'll deliver the baby, and everything is going to be fine. I promise."
"You're sure?" Erik asks insistently, and he realizes that Charles asked the same thing at the same time.
"I'm sure," the doctor says. "However, we'll have to put you under, Charles, and Erik is going to have to wait out here.
Charles protests. "But-"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time to do it any other way. We weren't prepared, and labor is too far along to wait. We'll plan better next time."
Charles's hand squeezes his more tightly. You're not getting out of this next time. Next time you aren't leaving me.
I'm not leaving you. I'll be right out here.
-
When Charles wakes he isn't sure where he is at first, but he is aware of his middle feeling sore and-
He remembers where he is, and his eyes open quickly, but when he tries to move he grimaces, grunts a little. Sore. Right. He imagines one would be, after being cut open and sewed back together.
Charles forces himself to relax into the pillows, and only then does he realize that there are two more minds in the room-both familiar, both content. When he blinks to clear his vision he sees the figure across the small infirmary room, at the window. It's dark outside, though. There isn't much to see.
Erik is already turning; he must have heard it when Charles woke. He turns around slowly, eyebrows raised, and the corners of his mouth twitch up.
"Look, Mom's awake."
He's speaking to the bundle in his arms.
Charles pulls in a breath and tries to sit up, but Erik shakes his head quickly, though he doesn't move anything else-not wanting to wake the sleeping infant. But Charles understands, and stays where he is propped against the pillows, not quite lying down. Erik comes to the side of the bed, and Charles huffs quietly and shakes his head.
"'Mom?' Did we really never think of anything better?" he asks.
"Biologically you are his mother."
But they've already had this conversation, and Charles doesn't protest any further. "Fine, but when Raven has children they are not calling me aunt. They can have two uncles."
That bit of a smile again. "Fair enough." Erik lowers himself to sit on the edge of the bed at Charles's side, the baby still asleep in his arms, and Charles watches them for a moment.
"Him," he says quietly. "Henry, then." They'd had to be prepared for both. There were no sonograms, that technology still lost for now.
Erik nods, and when he moves Charles's knows what he's doing and opens his arms to let his husband place their child in them. Erik stays by him, to make certain he's steady, but Charles is holding him now-the little boy named Henry that they've decided they'll probably call Hank. It would have been Jean were it a girl.
But Hank it is, and Charles smiles as the infant yawns a bit. He chuckles softly, surprised by the overwhelming feeling that hits him as he takes in the small face. He thought he'd already bonded with the child quite thoroughly, being able to feel the little mind inside him and-if not quite communicate, really-send feelings of warmth and safety and caring. The child had bonded to him that way, but this is different. This is more than the deep telepathic connection forged of nine months together and sharing blood and genetics.
This is love, he decides. A form of it. It has to be. It is. It's every bit as powerful as what he feels for Raven, for his sister, and then some.
"Charles?" Erik asks.
"Hmm?" He looks up, and there is concern on Erik's face, and Charles realizes that his eyes are quite damp. "Oh, I'm uhm...fine. I'm fine," he chuckles. He looks down again, and the next time his eyes come up Erik is still watching him. "What?"
Erik shakes his head a bit. "Nothing." But after a brief pause he leans forward and places a tentative kiss to Charles's forehead, before moving into the chair beside the bed that Charles hadn't noticed there before.
Charles's cheeks flush, and he covers it by looking down at the bundle in his arms again. He wonders at the reaction from such a small gesture. Then again it isn't so small for Erik, is it? And if he knows he loves this child, why then, he wonders, can't he understand the feeling in his chest right now, when he looks at his husband?
-
Now
"Nothing," Erik says, and the moment is over and Charles isn't certain what just happened. But before he can say anything there's a burst of emotion in his mind-relief and joy and relief and elation-and he remembers that he'd kept tabs on his sister when she and Hank left.
"Oh dear lord, thank you," Charles breathes, looking into the distance now, and he senses Erik stand from where he'd leaned on the counter and move closer to his side.
"Raven?"
He nods, and Erik sighs. "Thank god."
They're both quiet for a moment, until Charles speaks up softly.
"This doesn't change anything. Raven and Hank may not need to fear it now, but the system is still there; it's still wrong."
"I know."
"We have to do something."
"I know."
Word Count: 3,800 (Chapter) - 15,000 (Whole Fic)
Pairings: Charles/Erik, Raven/Hank, Sean/Moira, Scott/Jean, very brief Raven/Azazel
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Charles and Erik have been married for 25 years, thrown together by a mandatory post-apocalyptic pairing system attempting to increase and strengthen the population. They have seven children. They have never spoken of love, but change is on the horizon.
Warnings: mpreg, underaged characters for part of it but in their society they're adults, and it's a bit of a dystopia but with a happy ending
Now
Before any of them can say anything else they're interrupted by a commotion outside the house, and Charles raises his eyebrows and Raven and Hank look over the backs of their chairs at the door. None of them move because they know what it is, and it's nothing to be alarmed about.
In a moment the front door is pushed open and Erik stumbles inside, Bobby on his back and Kitty and Marie hanging from each leg. The girls are giggling and Bobby is apparently some sort of monster, trying not giggle himself while he growls and pretends to claw at his father's shoulders. Erik is grinning, and over the years he's grown to be not the least bit hesitant about it.
Fatherhood has suited him well.
"I've been ambushed," Erik smirks.
"We got him, Mom!" Kitty giggles.
Charles chuckles. "A good thing, too. I was afraid he was going to be late for dinner."
Raven is smiling in amusement, but stands suddenly and it falls. "Oh! What time is it?"
Hank squints across the table at the clock on a shelf by the wall. "It's just after…oh, it's almost five." And he stands, too. "We should go."
"Sorry to say hi and run, but that was kind of the plan. We were killing time. They said the results should be in by five," Raven explains. "That, and we wanted to ask if Kurt could stay here for a few hours…"
"Of course," Erik says, lowering Bobby from his shoulders.
"Go on," Charles nods, standing now as well. He smiles at his sister reassuringly, and she squeezes his hand and follows her husband out.
"When is dinner?" Bobby asks then. "Can we play some more?"
"You have a bit. I'll call you. Make sure you ask Marie's mother the same; let's not get her into trouble," Charles tells him.
"Okay!"
And the girls release Erik's legs and the three of them shoot back outside.
Erik watches them go and shakes his head. "Those three are almost more rowdy than Sean and Alex were."
"Almost. But not quite, thank goodness." Charles goes back to the stove to check the soup, stirs it a bit, and it's nearly cooked enough. "Despite the comment about dinner, you're actually home much earlier than had been usual lately, as I assume you've noticed. I'm beginning to worry about how late they're keeping you."
Erik sighs. "What can I say? We're finally having more metal to work with, we're processing it again, we're still preparing to expand the city walls, and now the rest of the council is saying they want to rebuild the public buildings, too. I mean, I agree with them-they were built so quickly; they need replacing-but there's a lot to do, and they want it done quickly."
The city is finally crowded, after twenty-five years of growth, and it's becoming a more and more serious situation by the year. The city is confined within the stone walls built at the beginning, and needs room to grow. More and more technology is being recovered, travel and trade outside the walls is a bit more common-there are now five settlements in what was England, rather than two-and there is more metal to work with now. The city officials want to build the new walls in metal, if it's to be done, but preparing to do it is taking time, and Charles knows Erik is right about the central buildings needing a good remodeling.
The whole city needs remodeling, really, if they're going to move forward…try to recapture society the way it was before the war.
Though it will be different, of course, with most of the surviving population being mutants.
"I know all of that, but you're gone later and later, and it becomes particularly frustrating when they ask for you nearly every weekend, as well."
Erik leans against the counter that stretches over the cabinets. "I'm the only one who can do what I can do, Charles. What do you want me to tell them?"
"You've been on the council for more than two years now; can't you…put your foot down? Tell them you can't work so often?"
He scowls into the distance. "I don't have as much influence as I'd like. I'm beginning to think it's all a joke."
"You were able to do what you did for Raven and Hank…"
"And that's about all I've done, really. I want to do more-this place is still so damn backwards in so many ways-but I don't know how to make it happen. They don't listen to me. To either of us." Erik pauses, winces. "I really think they only gave me the position to placate me. They know my powers are useful, and they don't want to lose that." He scoffs now. "Without me they couldn't continue their precious projects at the rate we're going now. It would take them years to rebuild everything."
It isn't prideful at all, the way he says it. It's only truth and discouragement.
Charles lets out a breath and reaches to touch Erik's arm in sympathy. "Is there nothing you can do?" he asks gently. "Jean and Ororo will be out of the house soon enough, and Bobby and Kitty ask after you so often…"
Erik nods a bit in understanding, but then he looks up slowly and cocks his head a bit at Charles. "Are the children the only reason you don't like it?"
Charles blinks at him. "What?"
Erik looks at him for a long moment, something unreadable on his face, and Charles tries not to intrude but he gets a sense of from his husband's mind, and he doesn't understand it. He doesn't quite know what the stirring in his own chest is that grows in response.
But he knows it certainly is not the first time he's felt it.
-
Twenty-Three and a Half Years Ago
Charles is a week shy of nine months pregnant, and the hormone injections have, indeed, made the rest of pregnancy easier to deal with. The doctors, however, are not sure if he will go into anything resembling labor or not. They don't think he will. But a date has been set for the C-section.
There are five days to go, and Charles is nervous. He knows he won't have to give birth in the usual fashion, but it hardly matters. Something could still go wrong.
And once the procedure is over, he'll be a parent.
He and Erik will be parents.
Charles is still sixteen, and Erik is nineteen now. Others are younger, he knows, but he still doesn't know if they're ready for this. Erik is the picture of calm outwardly, as he always is anyhow, but Charles can sense what he feels. He knows Erik is just as nervous as he is, just as he knew it the day they married. He's grateful for Erik's composure-it helps-but at the same time he's glad he knows the truth, too. It also helps, but in a completely different way.
Erik has been gone most of the day, working he said, before he left. It's warm-as warm as it ever gets, with the seasons struggling to recover from the devastation, though it's better here than in the badly irradiated areas, of course-and Charles and Raven have spent the day downstairs in the main room with the front door open to let in the breeze.
They haven't done much. Erik has refused to let Charles do much in the last several weeks, despite the fact that the pregnancy is progressing safely and normally-or as normally as it can, considering the circumstances. When it isn't frustrating it's rather endearing, and Charles wishes, still, that Erik would open up to him more.
Either way, he's rebelled before, but today he's obeyed Erik's something-of-an-order not to bother trying to cook or see to any of the housework. Charles is at the table in one chair with his feet propped in another and a book propped on his stomach, and Raven was practicing her reading. But now the other book is abandoned on the table, and she is playing in the floor-games of imagination with the few dolls and toys she's gathered over the years made of anything she could find.
There is a reason Charles hasn't tried, at least, to do something today. He feels more than a little uncomfortable, and he isn't sure when or how it started. He's thinking about moving into the bedroom to rest on the bed, but he would rather not do that until Erik is home to watch Raven.
But then the discomfort is worse and is, quite clearly, pain.
Charles lets out a surprised breath and groans a bit, pushing the book onto the table and gripping the edges of the chair instead.
"Charles?" Raven is on her feet now. "What's wrong?"
"I uhm…" He grimaces, and after a moment it stops. The discomfort hasn't let up all day-has gotten worse-but still he thought, perhaps, he'd simply slept wrong, until now. This isn't muscle soreness or back pain. This is-
Charles swallows and slowly gets to his feet, leaning on the table.
"Charles? Are you okay?" Raven rushes to his side and grabs his arm, and he holds onto hers.
"It's all right. I'll be all right. I just…" A hand presses over his swollen abdomen, and he can feel the soothing background noise of the small mind inside him. "I think whoever is in here may need to come out now."
Erik? Where are you? Please come home; something is happening.
"Are you calling Erik?"
Charles nods and focuses more closely, calls out again with the same message, and quickly enough there is a response.
What? What do you mean? Is something wrong? Worry.
I wouldn't say wrong, but- Charles pulls in a sharp breath when the pain starts again, a little worse this time, and he's not sure it's supposed to be like that-get worse so abruptly. Then again, I don't know. But they were wrong when they assumed I wouldn't go into labor. That must be what this is. It hurts. Please come home. Please hurry…
He sensed it when Erik began moving, when he began to head back here. Erik began moving the moment Charles asked him to, the first time. But he redoubled his speed when Charles told him it hurt. Charles can feel the concern and anxiousness radiating from him now, even from wherever he is in town.
I'm coming, Erik says.
-
Erik hurries home, and as he nears the house there is another burst of thought in his mind, more urgent this time.
Erik, hurry! It's-oh god it shouldn't be happening this fast, should it?
I'm almost there!
The front door is open, and Erik hurries in to find Charles on the floor against one of the table legs, Raven at his side.
"What's wrong with him!" she cries.
Charles is nearly doubled over gasping, one arm clutched around his round middle and his other hand clamped on the edge of the table above his head.
"Erik-" he gasps.
Erik quickly crouches to one knee at his husband's side, grips his shoulder. "What happened? When did this start?"
Charles relaxes a bit, and the pain, contraction, whatever the proper name for it is seems to have stopped. Erik really can't remember now. The doctors didn't go over it extensively. They didn't think it would happen at all.
"When I called you…I suppose it's been coming all day, but it's only been…I can't explain it. We have to go. To the infirmary. Now…"
"Charles-" Raven is asking.
"I'll be fine," he tells her. "It's all right. Erik, the neighbors..."
Erik nods, and reaches for Raven's hand, but she doesn't want to take it.
"I want to stay with Charles!"
"He'll be fine, Raven. We just have to go to the infirmary to get the baby out. It's just telling us it needs to be born. It's okay."
"But-"
Charles is doubled over again now, as much as he can be in his current state anyhow, and his eyes are half clenched shut. "Raven, please go with him," he says tightly. He manages to smile a bit, and Raven finally nods, and reluctantly takes Erik's hand.
"But come get me as soon as you can!" she says.
She and Erik hurry two houses down, to the Summers home-a young couple who were married shortly after he and Charles were. Only the wife, who is pregnant herself but not as far along, is home, but she quickly agrees to watch Raven.
"Take care of him," Raven insists, and Erik promises before he rushes back home.
Charles is gasping again when he makes it there, and reaches up immediately, getting his arms out of the way so it's easier for Erik to pick him up. When he stands with Charles in his arms Charles's own arms settle around his neck, holding on tightly, and Charles buries his face in Erik's shirt.
It's clear it's getting worse already, and Erik swallows and hurries out into the lanes, the front door of the house closing and locking behind them thanks to his powers.
Charles is groaning.
"Hang on. Hang on…" Erik murmurs, over and over, and he doesn't know if it helps at all. "I'm sorry. I should have been at home-"
"Erik, its all right; please just get us there," Charles gasps.
He does, and soon enough they're bursting through the front doors into the lobby, Erik shoving the doors by their metal handles. The nurse at the shoddy excuse for a front desk takes ones look at them and jumps to her feet.
"Bring him in here. I'll get the doctor."
There's a sense of urgency, but not of alarm, in the way she says it, and Erik relaxes a bit. She shows them to the first exam room and disappears, and he doesn't think she would leave them alone if something was really wrong. She would at least say something. No, nothing is wrong. This is just different than they thought it would go. That's all. They didn't think this would happen at all-that the mutation allowed for it-but it's happening and even though it's still a bit different than the usual that doesn't mean anything is wrong.
Charles seems to sense it too, that there is nothing to be overtly alarmed about, and Erik feels some of the tension in the body in his arms release. Charles had probably read the woman's mind; if there were anything to be worried about, really, he would know.
Erik lets out a breath and lowers Charles to the exam table. It isn't as comfortable as a bed, but at least it's padded. Charles seems grateful to be more stable again, but he won't let Erik let go, and Erik slides onto the table behind him to let his young husband lean back into his shoulder.
"It'll be all right; we're here. It's all right," he says, because he doesn't know what else to say.
Charles is sweating by now, the fingers of one hand digging into one of Erik's legs, and he pushes out a sharp breath. "You feel this, and then tell me it's all right!" he all but growls. It ends in a frustrated groan. "Actually, I could probably make that happen but I'm not that cruel even though I do hate you rather implicitly at the moment."
Moving quickly from worry to this then. Well.
"I've heard that's normal," Erik deadpans.
"This is not funny," he grates out.
"Am I laughing?"
"You never laugh. You're thinking it."
Maybe. One small part of him. The sudden shift in atmosphere and Charles's comment had done that. The rest of him is not enjoying this at all. Charles is in pain and Erik doesn't like it any more than he liked it when Charles was so ill in the beginning. It caused an odd, painful tugging in his chest then and the feeling is there now, and worse.
"I think your powers are a little off right now, Charles."
Charles is quieter for a few moments, and he doesn't answer. But then he's tense again, and this time he shouts.
"Is there anything I can do?" Erik asks anxiously.
Charles responds by reaching up to grasp the hand holding him steady against Erik's shoulder. He squeezes, and Erik abandons holding the shoulder to squeeze back.
"I'm here…" he says tentatively, after a moment.
Charles can't answer, because he's groaning loudly, but the answer comes in Erik's mind. Yes. Just that. You can do that. Please do that…
And when the answer comes Erik can feel that at least some of the fear is still there. It makes him feel a bit better about his own.
I'm not going anywhere, he thinks back.
The doctor comes in soon after, telling them that the operating room is being prepped, and asks Charles questions about when the pain began and how it's behaved and other things.
"It's acting like a normal labor, mostly, but you're right; it's progressing faster than usual. I don't know that there's any way to know why-it must have something to do with your mutation-but as long as you're not in danger that isn't important. We'll deliver the baby, and everything is going to be fine. I promise."
"You're sure?" Erik asks insistently, and he realizes that Charles asked the same thing at the same time.
"I'm sure," the doctor says. "However, we'll have to put you under, Charles, and Erik is going to have to wait out here.
Charles protests. "But-"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time to do it any other way. We weren't prepared, and labor is too far along to wait. We'll plan better next time."
Charles's hand squeezes his more tightly. You're not getting out of this next time. Next time you aren't leaving me.
I'm not leaving you. I'll be right out here.
-
When Charles wakes he isn't sure where he is at first, but he is aware of his middle feeling sore and-
He remembers where he is, and his eyes open quickly, but when he tries to move he grimaces, grunts a little. Sore. Right. He imagines one would be, after being cut open and sewed back together.
Charles forces himself to relax into the pillows, and only then does he realize that there are two more minds in the room-both familiar, both content. When he blinks to clear his vision he sees the figure across the small infirmary room, at the window. It's dark outside, though. There isn't much to see.
Erik is already turning; he must have heard it when Charles woke. He turns around slowly, eyebrows raised, and the corners of his mouth twitch up.
"Look, Mom's awake."
He's speaking to the bundle in his arms.
Charles pulls in a breath and tries to sit up, but Erik shakes his head quickly, though he doesn't move anything else-not wanting to wake the sleeping infant. But Charles understands, and stays where he is propped against the pillows, not quite lying down. Erik comes to the side of the bed, and Charles huffs quietly and shakes his head.
"'Mom?' Did we really never think of anything better?" he asks.
"Biologically you are his mother."
But they've already had this conversation, and Charles doesn't protest any further. "Fine, but when Raven has children they are not calling me aunt. They can have two uncles."
That bit of a smile again. "Fair enough." Erik lowers himself to sit on the edge of the bed at Charles's side, the baby still asleep in his arms, and Charles watches them for a moment.
"Him," he says quietly. "Henry, then." They'd had to be prepared for both. There were no sonograms, that technology still lost for now.
Erik nods, and when he moves Charles's knows what he's doing and opens his arms to let his husband place their child in them. Erik stays by him, to make certain he's steady, but Charles is holding him now-the little boy named Henry that they've decided they'll probably call Hank. It would have been Jean were it a girl.
But Hank it is, and Charles smiles as the infant yawns a bit. He chuckles softly, surprised by the overwhelming feeling that hits him as he takes in the small face. He thought he'd already bonded with the child quite thoroughly, being able to feel the little mind inside him and-if not quite communicate, really-send feelings of warmth and safety and caring. The child had bonded to him that way, but this is different. This is more than the deep telepathic connection forged of nine months together and sharing blood and genetics.
This is love, he decides. A form of it. It has to be. It is. It's every bit as powerful as what he feels for Raven, for his sister, and then some.
"Charles?" Erik asks.
"Hmm?" He looks up, and there is concern on Erik's face, and Charles realizes that his eyes are quite damp. "Oh, I'm uhm...fine. I'm fine," he chuckles. He looks down again, and the next time his eyes come up Erik is still watching him. "What?"
Erik shakes his head a bit. "Nothing." But after a brief pause he leans forward and places a tentative kiss to Charles's forehead, before moving into the chair beside the bed that Charles hadn't noticed there before.
Charles's cheeks flush, and he covers it by looking down at the bundle in his arms again. He wonders at the reaction from such a small gesture. Then again it isn't so small for Erik, is it? And if he knows he loves this child, why then, he wonders, can't he understand the feeling in his chest right now, when he looks at his husband?
-
Now
"Nothing," Erik says, and the moment is over and Charles isn't certain what just happened. But before he can say anything there's a burst of emotion in his mind-relief and joy and relief and elation-and he remembers that he'd kept tabs on his sister when she and Hank left.
"Oh dear lord, thank you," Charles breathes, looking into the distance now, and he senses Erik stand from where he'd leaned on the counter and move closer to his side.
"Raven?"
He nods, and Erik sighs. "Thank god."
They're both quiet for a moment, until Charles speaks up softly.
"This doesn't change anything. Raven and Hank may not need to fear it now, but the system is still there; it's still wrong."
"I know."
"We have to do something."
"I know."