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Nigel has been dead for three weeks when Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr go and throw everything Helen Magnus has worked for out the window by exposing abnormals en masse to the world. Xavier's calling them mutants, and he seems not to realize that there are non-humanoid abnormals, but it doesn't matter, the damage is done. Politicians and pundits are screaming, and though there aren't Soviet missiles in Cuba, the world is still on the brink of war. Just not the war they thought they would be fighting a month ago.
Which, of course, means Helen Magnus has to catch a flight to DC, to sooth ruffled feathers. Her network of informants tell her that both the Americans and the Russians had tried to bomb Xavier's mutants out of existence, a nightmare Helen has been working to halt for the last seventy odd years. They also tell her Xavier is lying in a hospital, paralyzed from the legs down. What they all manage to leave out is that he is a telepath: a telepath without any manners at all.
"You should be old," are the first words out of the boy's mouth. He looks small and tired in the hospital bed: small and tired and very, very young.
"And you shouldn't be sharing secrets that aren't yours to share, but here we are," she replies. Helen sits in the chair beside Xavier's bed, so he doesn't have to crane his neck to see her. Others try to duck telepath's eyes, but Helen knows that is pointless, and besides, she wants Xavier to see her thoughts.
"I thought we were the first," Xavier says, slightly abashed. "Besides Shaw, I've never met a mutant older than Eric or me." He pauses for a second, and she knows he is hearing her thoughts on that word. "Abnormal, if you prefer, though the term seems a bit prejudicial to me."
"It has served me in good stead since the reign of Queen Victoria," Helen replies. "I think I shall keep it."
"I did love Oxford," Xavier says, in the disjointed manner she's come to associate with all powerful telepaths, and those on powerful pain killers. Judging by the IV in his arm, he is both. "I should have taken Eric there, should have shown him..."
Xavier trails off, and Helen can see he'll be back in dreamland in no time at all. "Rest. My people will be in contact with you when you are back on your feet."
Xavier barely nods before his eyes start to close again, and Helen leaves him to whatever peace he can find. She has a meeting in DC after all, and Xavier's Eric to find, before the two of them rip her world apart.