A second chance...

[ihearyouthink]

Charles was spending some time in Cerebro, doing his daily search for new mutants. As his mind flicked over the thousands within his reach, he found himself wondering about the man he met a few days ago. Such a tortured soul, Charles couldn't help but wonder how he was doing

Comments

[eidetikerwill]

Will was precisely where Charles had left him: Quantico. Right now, he was studying a board with gruesome pictures pinned to it, depicting both of the crime scenes. He was worried about the moon coming in two weeks. That was when the Tooth Fairy had chosen to strike twice before. They had no idea yet where he would next because Will hadn't stepped behind the killer's eyes yet enough to tell them.

“When are you going to Atlanta, Will? Have you been to Birmingham yet?”
“Soon, Jack. Soon.”
“You need to get down there now. We're running out of time.”

He knew it. Every time he went to pick up his ticket and fly out, he'd find himself a half hour later doing something else. The time between was empty and blank, like a drunken blackout.

“Hello, this is Special Investigator William Graham with the Behavioural Sciences Unit. There was a gentleman here a few days ago by the name of Charles Xavier. I need to get his information, please

[ihearyouthink]

Charles smiles to himself in the darkened room of Cerebro. It was irony that the man was searching for him as well. He could help him along...but he is hesitant to reveal himself and his abilities just yet.

It wouldn't be just himself he would expose, he has to think of the children and their safety. If the FBI knew of the existence of mutants...

Those blackouts are curious though. Charles wouldn't be surprised if they were stress related, considering all that Will is exposed to on a daily basis.

He waits a moment or two longer, the environment around Will coming into sharper focus as he senses his surroundings through his minds eye.

[eidetikerwill]

Will hadn't been lying when he spoke of using people with abilities. Jack Crawford had emotionally blackmailed him into taking this task up when no one else could complete it. Before that, Jack had set Will on the trail of not one but two killers as easily as he would have a bloodhound. The first had ended with Will doing time in a psychiatric institute as his sanity slipped away from him. The second had ended in his death and revival. Yet Jack had called him up from a life of retirement and set him on the trail of a third

[ihearyouthink]

Now that definitely wasn't normal. Charles had come across many a mental block, this one was stronger than anything he'd seen to date. Someone had been picking at this man's mind long before he had met Charles.

He couldn't leave it at that. Charles was all too willing to help, but it might be tricky work. Mental barriers could be forced open but the damage it resulted in had to be worth the risk before attempting that.

It may be that he didn't need to help, Will was narrowing down the search nicely. He was in that list of paraplegics, a gunshot wound to the lower back as recently as a year ago. Perhaps if he thought to cross reference that list with the University of Oxford's alumni list....

[eidetikerwill]

Will Graham tapped the top of his pen against his lips, scanning down over the hundred or so entries that had come up with those search perimeters. He wasn't thinking along the same lines as Charles, what would have most likely been the way anyone else would have done it

[ihearyouthink]

Charles was fascinated, watching the man becoming more like himself from memory alone. He'd never seen this technique before outside of his own telepathy. There was no linking of minds, this was all from Will's imagination. And he was very close if not spot on with the truth each time

[eidetikerwill]

It was the 'sorry' that came back. That word was out of place with everything else. But why

[ihearyouthink]

And Will knew, in some strange way, that he was being used. As a tool. That insight made Charles wonder if he would be sympathetic to their cause or not.

Charles' grades at Oxford were there but not much else. A straight-A student with a few pictures in the yearbook. Even the younger pictures couldn't hide the fact it was indeed the same Charles Xavier.

There was a classified and sealed file reference to a Xavier within the CIA database, but they were keeping that locked up really tight. Mostly because they didn't want anyone else knowing that they had worked with mutants....and it had nearly started WWIII.

What if you can't find him? Charles gives him a quiet suggestion. He's curious to know.

[eidetikerwill]

“There you are

[ihearyouthink]

That case seemed to be weighing Will down though. That line of work would do that to you. If he wasn't careful, it would likely be the end of him

[eidetikerwill]

'Weighed down' was understatement. About ninety-five percent of his waking time was spent on it and about fifty of his sleeping. Time was running out. If he didn't do something soon, another family was going to die. After that, he'd have another three to four weeks, then another would die. And another

[ihearyouthink]

An idea was forming for Charles. Will was extremely suggestible, that much was apparent. And since he had been trying to become Charles, it was a small matter for Charles to take over for a moment.

Having Will lean over and pick up the phone, dialing a number he won't remember later. Right before he leaves him to himself, Charles pulling back to turn off Cerebro. He lifts off the headset as Dr. McCoy in the next room asks if he should get the phone. "No, that's ok Hank, I'll get it."

He wheels out of Cerebro's room and into the corridor picking up the phone to answer it. "Hello. I believe you've been looking for me, Mr. Graham," he says, smiling into the telephone.

[eidetikerwill]

Finding himself doing something else when contemplating leaving hadn't been new to Will. He'd 'woken up' so far in the basement of the barracks, on the kerb outside the base and standing at the ten foot edge of the base pool. The last had been a little disturbing. Finding himself on the phone with his drink still at hand wasn't bad.

"Mr Xavier?"

He stared at the phone before him, utterly lost on how he'd gotten ahold of a number. Had one of the interns called back and told him? Had he found something? The idea that he'd had a conversation and didn't remember it didn't sit well.

"How did you know?"

A glance at his watch told him it was still the same day, so he hadn't blacked out for too long.

"Did I call you or you call me?"

[ihearyouthink]

"I could be completely enigmatic and say it was both, but that would take awhile to explain on the phone.

I would prefer if you stopped asking about me to my friends, they're going to start to wonder if I'm in some kind of trouble with the FBI." Charles doesn't sound upset in the least, he's quite genial about the whole situation. So long as it kept the FBI away from his school and the children.

"You have my attention now, what is it I can do for you, Mr. Graham?"

[eidetikerwill]

That confirmed some of what Will had suspected no matter if it didn't feel right: Charles was a government spook. He wasn't the first Will had met.

"I was curious."

No use in lying right now. Xavier could probably pull up all the searches he had done, the checked he had conducted with the guards, and most likely had access to the cameras even here in Quantico. There was no limit to resources they had.

"I wondered why you were here, really here."

What else was there to say?

"Who is your monster, Mr Xavier?"

[ihearyouthink]

He was bad as a cat, and you know what people said about cats and curiosity.

Charles is quiet for a moment before answering his question. "A very good friend of mine." Or he used to be.

"Perhaps I could satisfy your curiosity to a point. If you pick the time and place, I will make a point of being there." He's giving the choice to Will, simultaneously keeping him away from the mansion.