Chapter Text
It was weird, Erik thought, as he walked around the schoolyard. Charles wasn’t in the normal place waiting for him, as he sometimes was. So Erik had waited a few minutes, hoping he would show up. Then the bell rang and he had to abandon that idea. He made a quick lap of the grounds around the school, looking for the other boy, but was unable to find him, leaving him with no choice but to go on inside or else be late for class. Normally he wouldn’t mind being late, but the thought occurred to him that maybe Charles was already inside, talking to one of their teachers about a grade or upcoming assignment, but when he sat down in the classroom, he realized that wasn’t true. The other still was nowhere to be found.
It was Monday morning and Erik had spent the day before and the whole night worrying, leaving him exhausted and tired, having to fight to stay awake in class. He hadn’t heard from Charles since Saturday night, no matter how many texts he sent him and no matter how many times he called or checked his phone, nothing from Charles. It was unheard of.
Since the two of them had met when Charles was five and Erik six, they had been practically inseparable. As children, most people had asked if they were brothers, they were always by each other’s side, most of the time with Edie right behind them, fondly shaking her head and rolling her eyes at the sight of them, muttering ‘boys’ under her breath. As they got older, people had changed what they suspected, and more than once Erik had heard whispers from the other kids, asking if Erik was gay.
Strangely enough, it was never Charles, though Erik has always suspected that had something to do with how often he flirted with the girls in their grade and often the ones older than them as well. Erik had never felt the need to do that or hide what his true interest was. Even if Charles still hadn’t figured it out yet.
When they were fourteen Erik first found himself glad the suspicions had switched from brothers to boyfriends. What had, at first, been an annoyance, had become a comfort. At that age, he had realized his true feelings for his best friend and was thankful people didn’t really see them as brothers any longer. But that hadn’t stopped him from worrying that Charles was still annoyed with the change.
So they had known each other for twelve years and Erik had been sure in his feelings for Charles for five of those. And this is the first time he’s ever made it a day and a half without hearing from him, at least without some kind of warning. Normally if Charles was going to be out of town he would message Erik and let him know, or send him a quick text saying he was feeling sick and ask Erik to pick up his make-up work for him from school. Never before had he just disappeared without a word. It left Erik worried and feeling sick.
He couldn’t help his thoughts from spiralling to the point that he wasn’t listening to the teacher at all throughout the class. Was it something that he had done? Was Charles mad at him? Maybe something bad had happened? He knew that Charles’ stepfather and stepbrother were both abusive and he worried that maybe one of them had finally gone too far. Wouldn’t Raven let him know if that was the case though?
Of course not, if it was something so bad Raven would have been a mess as well and wouldn’t be able to think well enough to message him, right?
Still, there was nothing he could think of that would bring any comfort. Even if Charles had just lost his phone, he would have been at school. Or Raven would have let Erik know about it over the weekend. It had to be something bad. That was the only explanation.
Before he knew it the bell was ringing, signalling the end of the class and he had to pack his things away and leave the room. The page on his notebook where he was supposed to be taking notes for both him and Charles was blank but he couldn’t be bothered by it too much, his mind still on everything else.
The world suddenly came to a halt as soon as he walked out of the room and heard the whispers from the other kids. It was impossible to ignore and he began to wonder how he had missed it all morning. They were talking about a wreck that happened over the weekend and it apparently had been a bad one, from the words being thrown around.
Erik had known there had been a party Saturday night, but that wasn’t really his thing. In his years in high school, he had only been to two of them, both thrown by Charles who really was a social butterfly. Erik would rather be in his room by himself, alone. Or, perhaps, with Charles, but certainly no more than the two of them. So, any parties that came up, Erik would miss out and Charles tended to go, unless he already had plans with Erik or didn’t really like the person throwing them. Not that there were many people Charles didn’t like.
The reason he missed the party and the wreck were obvious, but hearing the rumours had made everything else become more clear as well. Especially when the talking continued while he made his way to his locker.
“Dude,” He heard one of the boys near him whisper, “Did you see Xavier’s car? It was smashed. Like it flipped a few times and everything. Landed on the top. I honestly don’t know how he survived.”
“From what I hear he might not. I mean he’s not here today and some of the freshmen were saying his sister is out too. Not a good sign, is it?”
Erik slammed his locker shut and then ran down the hall. Technically, they weren’t supposed to leave the school or have the ability to check themselves out, Erik didn’t care though, he didn’t even bother to go by the office. He ran out the back door and just hoped none of the teachers heard the door and decided to investigate. He kept running through the parking lot, past security cameras, waving his hand to turn them away from him so he wouldn’t be seen. Then to the pavement and then took off in the direction of his house.
While he was running, his mind was working, trying to remember his mother's work schedule. If she was home he would certainly have some explaining to do, but once he explained, he knew she would understand. Plus, he would be able to get her to take him to the hospital or he could drive himself. If she was not there then it would be public transportation and a much longer trip than he would hope for, but in order to see Charles, and make sure he was alright, he would do anything.
As he turned the corner and onto his street, he could see his mother's car in the driveway and so he only ran faster, up the street, then the driveway. The only time he paused was to open the door and immediately he called out, “Mama, I need to go to the hospital.”
Edie rushed to the door and for a moment, Erik felt bad for scaring her, but then realized that it was the exact time to be scared. He might be fine, but Charles isn’t and she would be just as worried as he is.
“Is something wrong, Schätzchen? What happened?”
“I’m okay mama,” He assured her quickly, her hands were on his face and she looked him over, as though checking for injuries.
“Then you should be at school. What are you doing here, Erik?” She asked, scolding him as soon as she realized that he was fine. “And what is this about the hospital? If you are fine, you do not need the hospital. You know that. What has happened?”
“It’s not me, mama, it’s Charles,” Erik replied, quickly before his mother had the chance to start with the questions again. It was a rush to get the words out, “He didn’t message me at all yesterday, he went to a party the night before. He wasn’t at school today and I was worried. After my first class, I heard a lot of kids talking in the hall. There was a car accident over the weekend. Saturday night, it was Charles. No one seemed to know how hurt he is, but that he’s definitely hurt. Raven wasn’t there either.”
They both knew it was unusual for Charles to miss and Edie knew that for Erik to be back from school it had to be something bad. She nodded and immediately walked away, returning a moment later with her bag over her shoulder and keys in her hand, “Come on, let’s go see how he is.”
Erik let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. Really, he had known his mother would agree to take him, but he had worried. She sees Charles as her own son, and over the years, he had spent as much time with her as he had with his own mother, Sharon, his entire life. Edie had practically raised the boy and Erik often said she loves Charles more than she does him, it might not be true but he would say they were damn close.
Either way, he knew from experience that when something was wrong with him, his mother could be overprotective and a force to be reckoned with. In this situation, with Charles the one who was hurt, he knew it would be no different.
It didn’t take long before they were both in the car and heading towards the hospital. If Edie was driving a little faster than she normally would, he wasn’t going to be the one to mention it.
“So how did all the kids at school learn about this when you didn’t even know about it, Erik?” She asked a few minutes into the drive.
“I think it must have been around the party. They were talking about the car. They said they didn’t know how he was still alive with how bad it was and one of them added it wasn’t looking good since he wasn’t at school and neither was Raven,” Erik replied. He wished there was more he could be doing, just sitting in the car while he waited wasn’t enough. His legs started bouncing, his hands were fidgeting in his lap. The energy was building up and there was no way for him to burn through it in the car, nothing for him to do to help.
“It’s going to be okay, Schätzchen,” His mother told him, as she reached over and gave his hand a squeeze, “You know Charles, that boy has already survived so much. This won’t be the thing to take him down.”
“I hope you’re right, mama,” He mumbled while looking at his hands. She took her hand away, returned it to the wheel and continued driving.
They were silent for the rest of the trip. As soon as Edie had parked the car, Erik was out and ran for the front door, as fast as he could. He ignored her calls telling him to wait or to slow down. There was one thing on his mind and that was Charles. He needed to know where the boy was and make sure he’d be okay. Nothing else mattered at that moment.
“At least watch the traffic, we don’t need you both in the hospital at once,” Edie called to him in an exasperated voice. He didn’t slow, but reached out with his powers and tracked the vehicles that way. His mother did have a point, after all.
As soon as he was inside the building, he ran straight up to the front desk, “Charles Xavier, can you tell me his room number?” He asked, sure he sounded almost frantic, he was though.
The man behind the desk typed at his computer for a moment before he responded, “Three eighteen.”
“Thank you,” Erik replied and turned to rush toward the lift, his powers were already working to find one and bring it down to the ground floor. As soon as he turned though, he almost ran into his mother.
“What room?” She asked, her hand going to his arm and he knew it was an attempt to slow him down.
“Three eighteen, come on, there’s an elevator right over here,” He replied and guided her over to it, forcing himself to go slow enough that he didn’t hurt her in the process.
Edie followed along behind him, thankfully she walked a little quicker than normal until they were standing side by side in the lift. He pressed the button for the third floor and they waited.
The rush and worries had, so far, been enough to keep Erik occupied, but now that he had a moment to stop and think, he realized just where he was. He’d had a fear of hospitals since he was a child. Constantly, he and his mother were in and out of them with his father, watching as he became worse and worse until, inevitably, he died. Since then, he had done everything in his power to avoid going back into a hospital. Of course, it would be Charles that made him break that streak and walk, even run, willingly back into one.
His mother’s hand found his arm and squeezed, he looked down at her and knew she was thinking about the same thing. He wrapped an arm around her, giving her a half hug. Soon enough, the doors were open again and he took off down the hall, eyes scanning the room numbers once again.
It wasn’t really something he had needed to do, he realized soon enough, when he saw a young blonde woman sitting out front of one of them. He stopped quickly and looked down at her.
“Raven?” He asked softly, taking in how she looked, red eyes and streaked face, circles under her eyes. Any annoyance he had felt for her for not contacting him vanished in a split second.
It only took a moment for Raven to be on her feet, and her arms were thrown around Erik. Neither of them had ever been much for physical touch, certainly not with each other, at least. And nothing so affectionate as a hug, that was always Charles, his hands on them, an arm thrown around their shoulders. Not them. But he couldn’t bring himself to care about that as he hugged her back.
“How is he?” He asked softly, pulling back a little to look at her, needing to know but afraid of what the answer could be. Just looking at her had told him that it was nothing good.
“We don’t know yet. He hasn’t woken up. The doctors keep talking, but won’t tell me anything and Sharon and Kurt are out, they won’t be back for another week. I don’t know why they won’t tell me, I mean I’m his only family here. They should have to.” Raven replied rapidly, anger mixed with the pain.
Erik glanced over at his mother. “Mama, could you go ask about Charles? Maybe they’ll tell you something?” He asks, thinking it might have something to do with Raven’s age. Maybe they thought a kid didn’t need to know what was going on. “If I can, I would like to see Charles.”
Edie nodded, “Of course, I can, Schätzchen. I’ll come and let you both know as soon as I find out anything.”
“Thank you, Mrs Lehnsherr,” Raven said softly with a smile. She looked more than a little defeated.
“I’ve told you to call me Edie, dear, and it’s no problem. Now take Erik in to see your brother before he has a fit,” She replied, giving the younger girl a smile.
Raven nodded and Erik watched her take a deep breath before she opened the door to Charles’ room. Unknowingly, he had copied her action of taking a breath and then followed her into the room.
Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that was on the other side of the door. Charles was laying back on the bed, IVs and monitors hooked to him, the steady beeping that Erik could find grating as much as comforting. There were multiple bags hanging, an IV tube that led from one to Charles’ right forearm. He looked pale, unusually so and had a few cuts and bruises on his face. Beyond that, he could tell that the arm without the IV was swollen, and so was the left side of his face.
Erik hesitated, then looked over at Raven. He didn’t know what to do. In the years he had known the man he had never seen him look so broken or hurt before. Part of him wanted nothing more than to hold Charles in his arms, wrap him up in a blanket and never let the world get to him again, but he knew that wouldn’t help anything.
For a moment, he wondered if he looked as helpless to Raven as he felt at that moment. Without wanting to, his mind went back to all the times he had told Charles he would protect him, be there for him. It hadn’t gone nearly as well as he had always hoped. More times than not he hadn’t managed to help him at all. He could patch him up after, providing a distraction of some kind, but he never had been able to stop him from being hurt to start with.
“I’ve gathered that it’s worse than it looks,” Raven said, quietly, “There’s a lot of talk about his back and swelling. Some of them were wondering if he was drunk, I don’t…Charles can be irresponsible at times, especially when it comes to his social life, but I don’t think he would do this. From what I could hear the police said he wasn’t that drunk. Not enough to…the other two were, though, in the other car.”
Erik only nodded, his eyes had gone back to Charles while she was talking and he just stared at him, unsure what to do. If he had been there with him he could have driven Charles home, or back to his place. This wouldn’t have happened, they would have been safe. It’s just another way he had failed his best friend.
“Moria was with him, you know?” Raven continued, and that sentence alone was enough to make it feel as though a knife had gone through Erik’s heart. “She said she saw him drinking earlier on in the night but not for a long time before they got into the car. He had switched to water.”
After that, Erik stopped listening. It became too painful to think about. Charles had talked about Moira, the two of them had been hanging around each other for a few weeks, though normally Erik had been there as well. At first, it was just a science project for a class Erik wasn’t in. He had opted for physics, Charles had taken an advanced Bio class which Moira had happened to be taking as well. Talk always got around quickly in high schools and Erik had heard from some of Charles’ other friends and people in the class that the two were crushing on each other.
Hank especially had talked about Moira joining their lab table recently and Erik hadn’t been happy about her since then. Every time he saw her it was like his body turned cold, anger rose up inside him and he wanted to scream, fight, yell. He wanted to make sure Charles knew how he felt and make sure Moira was nowhere near the two of them ever again. Maybe he was jealous, but he would never admit to that.
The sick feeling continued to rise as he found himself wondering what the two of them had been doing Saturday night, in Charles’ car, alone, when the wreck had occurred. Quickly, he had realized that was a terrible idea and looked around the room. It only took him a moment to locate the door to the bathroom with the help of his powers and he ran for it. As soon as the door was closed behind him, he threw himself to his knees and got sick.
For a moment, he just sat on the floor, trying to calm himself down. The mix of his thoughts and worry for Charles had become too much and he knew it was a mixture of both. When he felt steady enough, he found his way back to his feet, flushed, and then walked over to the sink, washing his mouth out the best he could with a handful of water. After taking a couple of deep breaths, he walked back out of the bathroom.
“Now I’m just glad he has a private room,” Raven commented from where she was sitting next to Charles’ bed.
“Sorry,” Erik replied, then cleared his throat when his voice came out scratchy and rough. “It’s just a lot.” His eyes went back to Charles, going over his body from head to toe, then sighed.
“It is,” Raven agreed with a nod, “That wasn’t just friendly worry though, was it?”
Erik frowned, then looked over at her, "What do you mean? Of course, I’m worried about him. He’s my best friend.”
“But it’s not just that is it?” She asked again but they both stopped then.
The door opened and Edie walked in, interrupting the conversation. Erik was thankful because he knew what she had been getting at and he knew she was right. He had only been able to admit that to himself though, never to anyone else and he didn’t feel this was the time to start.
“How is he, mama?” Erik asked as he turned to look at her.
Edie sighed and walked over to sit down on the seat by the window that Erik would bet on being a fold-out bed. “Come over here, Schazi,” She said, patting the cushion next to her and he did as he was told, taking the seat next to her without a word. He knew immediately it wasn’t going to be good and just wanted her to start talking as soon as possible.
“The doctors believe he’ll be waking up soon,” She started and Erik didn’t like the pause before she started to answer. It was the same one she always used when he would ask about his father. A pause while she decided to start with something positive. There would be worse news to come, he knew.
Raven seemed to lighten at the news and he wanted to tell her not to. It was cruel for him to do that, but it wasn’t the best tactic for his mother to get their hopes up either.
“They mentioned there being some swelling around his spine, they’re waiting for it to go down some to do more tests, that way they’ll know more.” Erik watched her as she chose her words carefully but then he sighed out loud and rubbed his hands over his face.
“Mama, get to the point, bitte? What’s wrong that they’re testing for? What’s worrying them?” He asked, needing to know. Part of him wanted to shake his mother until he got an answer, part of him wanted to curl up in her lap the way he had the last time they were in a position like this and be kept safe from the world.
Edie reached out, taking his hand in her right and Raven’s hand in her left. “They worry about the damage done to his spine. They know it’s at least fractured, but they can’t tell how bad it’s going to be until they do further testing.”
“And if it’s worse than a fracture? What does that mean?” Raven asked and he looked at her. He knew the answer, suspected she did as well, but either way, he didn’t want to be the one to say it so he kept his mouth shut. There’s no way that could happen to Charles, and saying it out loud would only make it more real.
Edie didn’t get the message, “If it is worse, they worry he’ll never be able to walk again.”
Erik wasn’t sure who broke first, nor did he care. He could hear Raven sobbing but he didn’t look. His hands were covering his face as he cried into them. The heels of his palms muffled the sound and his fingers covered his eyes so no one could see the tears as they slid down his face.
“Come here, come here, both of you,” Edie said and Erik could feel her push against him. He scooted over and she did as well. There was some shuffling and then he was pulled in against his mother’s side. His fingers parted for a moment and he could see Raven being pulled in on the other side, his mother sat between them as she tried to comfort them both.