Healing a broken heart >< Charles Xavier

Connection

Chapter Nine:

Sandy couldn't believe it. Tomorrow they were either going to stop Shaw, or die trying. But that would be better then this never ending wait. This was going through her head so much that she couldn't sleep. She got up to get another one of those delicious hot chocolates. She was wondering around in a simple nighty that went down to her knees. She also wore a cardigan to hide her scars. Having made her hot chocolate she was simply wondering around the mansion admiring it. It really was beautiful. So warm and safe, she's barely been there a week and it already felt like home. She passed by one of the doors only to hear Charles and Erik talking. As usual her heart accelerated at the thought of seeing Charles, so timidly she poked her head around the door.

"Shaw has declared war on mankind, on all of us." Erik remarked to Charles while moving a chess peice.

"He has to be stopped." Charles declared. He knew it was the only way to give Sandy peace, to stop the man that tormented her for her whole life. The man she lived in fear of, and yet couldn't escape from.

"I'm not going to stop Shaw, I'm going to kill him." Erik stated so surely that it made Sandy stop dead in her tracks. The surety in his voice scared her. "Do you have it in you to allow that?" Did Charles? "You've known all along why I was here, Charles." He...he knew? Sandy thought to herself.

"But things have changed. What started as a covert mission, tomorrow, mankind will know that mutants exist." That was the Charles she knew. Always believing in the best of humanity, even when they gave him no reason to.

"Shaw, us, they won't differentiate. They'll fear us. And that fear will turn to hatred." As much as she didn't want to agree with him, she did a little.

"Not if we stop a war. Not if we can prevent Shaw. Not if we risk our lives doing so." Yes, yes Charles, oh please be right, Sandy begged to herself.

"Would they do the same for us?" Erik asked, knowing the answer.

"We have it in us to be the better men."

"We already are. We're the next stage of human evolution. You said it yourself!" Erik was starting to get worked up now, trying to get his point across.

"No..." Charles whispered.

"Are you really so naive as to think that they won't battle their own extinction? Or is it arrogance?" Erik asked leaning towards Charles over the chess set that they were no longer paying any attention to.

"I'm sorry?" Charles asked, offence taking over his face.

"After tomorrow, they're going to turn on us. But you're blind to it, because you believe they're all like Moira." Erik practically spat at Charles.

"And you believe they're all like Shaw." Charles argued. His mind drifting to Sandy as it often did. "Listen to me very carefully, my friend. Killing Shaw will not bring you peace."

"Peace was never an option." Erik declared, thinking nothing of how horrid the statement was.

"And what would Sandy say to this?" Erik looked surprised at the mention of the mutant currently hovering by the door, now listening more attentively. "I am no fool. Since she showed you her scars you two have had something, a connection. A shared pain, a shared suffering. You may not have acted on it, but it's there. I don't need to be telepathic to notice. What do you think she would say?"

"With every thing that she went through at the hand of that man? She would obviously agree with me." Erik commented looking away from Charles, almost as if the answer was so obvious that Charles was a fool to ask the question.