Old Friend

Story Title: Old Friend

Rating: One NC-17 rated part, other parts mainly R rated.

Pairing: Charles/Erik

Fandom: X-men movieverse, post X2

Summary: Charles gets beaten and abused, and is saved by Erik.

laimlaimer: I don’t own the characters, Marvel and 20th Century Fox do. I’m making no money from this. Is that enough?

Archive: My website http://www.geocities.com/henrika_amanda/Index.html and list archives. Others, please ask.

Feedback: Please? It will be much appreciated and I will answer all feedback. No flames, please.

A/N and warningsis sis story deals with mature concepts like abuse, violence and torture; nothing terribly graphic, but if you’re sensitive, I would advise you to stay away. And yes, sex as well, but I needn’t warn you about that, do I?


Chapter 1

//HELP ME//

Erik knew it was Charles as soon as he heard the voice inside his head. He had heard the same voice many times before, but never had it sounded like it did now.

Erik sat in his car, on his way home to the mansion he rented on the Chesapeake coast, and almost forgot to step on the gas when he heard Charles – it could be no one but him. The driver behind him hooted angrily before he regained control over his car, and Erik silently cursed him.

“Be careful, I can throw your car into the woods…” he muttered to himself, but intended to keep a low profile whenever he appeared in public. Besides he had more important things on his mind.

Charles. He had sounded terrible. Or rather like something terrible was happening to him. He had sounded like he was being murdered. Suddenly Erik heard it again.

//Help me… Please help me…// a voice whispered in his head, that had to belong to his old friend. He sounded weaker now, and Erik started to believe he wouldn’t hear anything more from Charles.

“Charles…” he whispered. “Is that you?”

It was ridiculous, of course. Erik didn’t know if the cry for help was meant for him solely, or anyone close. All mutants? Charles’ telepathic abilities were so vast.

The cry had sounded stronger the first time and weaker the second, but that probably depended on the fact that Charles, who sent it, was weakening. What if Charles was dying?

The whole situation made Erik extremely worried and troubled, because there was nothing he could do. Despite all that had happened between them, Erik still cared about his friend and to know he was in pain was awful.

“Charles…” Erik murmured. “Tell me where you are, so I can help you…”

No more voices reached his head, but when he suddenly spotted a narrow gravel road turn into the woods from the highway, it was like something told him to turn in there. Not a voice in his head, but something, that could have been described as a “gut feeling”.

e Ere Erik was driving pretty fast, and since it took his brain some time to make the decision, he had to stop in the middle of the road and back. He had to take some angry hooting from hillowllow road users now too, but he didn’t care. All he could think of was that this decision might mean life or death to Charles.

The gravel road, surrounded by forest on both sides, looked dark although it was day. Erik parked his car on the roadside and stepped out of it. When he lookowaroward the road he thought he saw a large dark object towering some yards away.

He approached it and soon discovered that it was a car. A dark blue, dashing Honda, judging from the way it looked. Probably new as well.

Erik kept walking toward it, because a new, dashing car standing alone at the end of a dark gravel road didn’t seem to make any sense. No house was nearby, and when Erik got close enough he saw the car was empty.

This was not what he had expected to find, but it was odd anyway.

“Charles?” he asked into the air, and felt silly afterwards. This car surely had no connection to Charles’ cry for help, and standing there and staring at it wouertaertainly not help.

Erik brushed his grey hair back and considered whether he should go back to his car and drive away or take a closer look. To ignore it would be the most logical choice, since the mystery of this car probably had nothing to do with him. But on the other hand… it wouldn’t give him any peace before he examined it. That settled this matter.

Erik went to the passenger door – which was locked, of course – and unlocked it with the help of magnetism. Thast ast he could do was to see who this car belonged to, provided that the registration papers were in the glove compartment.

They were. And when Erik took them out and studied them, he got himself a shock that made his heart take one extra beat.

The car was registered on Charles Xavier. This was Charles’ car.

Erik bounced up from the passenger seat and dropped the papers like they’d been snakes. One million questions rushed through his head simultaneously. What was Charles’ car doing out here? Had this something, and if so, what, to do with the telepathic cry for help before?

The car was empty, and no one was here. The ignition key was not in the ignition lock, so someone had removed it after driving the car here. And who had done that? Not Charles anyway; Erik was sure of thae ree really started to feel anxious.

Where was Charles? And what had happened to him?

Suddenly Erik recalled that there was one place yet to check. The trunk.

The thought made his blood freeze, but it was possible, no matter how awful it was.

Stiff as a board, Erik walked to the trunk and looked down at it. No, please don’t let it be so… he prayed. Please…

It was locked too, of course, but that was no problem for Erik. With a click the lock withdrew, and the moment of truth was near. He opened the truck painfully slowly and tried to mentally prepare himself for what he might see.

When he finally looked downo tho the trunk he saw what he had feared. Charles lay there, naked and bloodied, full of bleeding wounds and swellings, motionless, with his abused body curled in a fetal position.

Erik believed he would faint. He had expected the worst, but the shock was still great. His first thought was that his old friend was definitely dead. He almost looked like a heap of abused and bloody flesh. But Charles was alive.

When Erik reached down his trembling hand to check his pulse, Charles slowly turned his head and opened his confused eyes.

Erik gasped and his hand froze in the air.

“Help me, Erik… please, help me…” the severely injured mutant whispered, while looking into his old friend’s eyes.

Erik had not expected Charles to be alive, or conscious, and he definitely didn’t expect Charles to recognize him.

“Oh Charles…” Erik whispered in shock and carefully touched the telepath’s bloody cheek. But he wasn’t late to react. This could be a matter of life or death.

He didn’t know if moving Charles would be bad, but now it had to be done. Nothing could be worse than leaving him in the trunk. Erik reached his arms down under Charles’ naked and bloodied body and lifted him into his arms. Charles gave a weak sound that expressed pain when he was lifted, but then lost consciousness and his head fell slackly against Erik’s shoulder.

Erik started running toward his car. Normally he wouldn’t have been able to run with Charles in his arms – the telepath was his size – but now all the adrenaline had increased his muscle strength and he barely felt Charles’ weight. He opened the back door to his Mazda with magnetism and gently lowered Charles’ body onto the backseat. The injured mutant was shaking, and Erik realized he might need something to keep Charles warm with.

Feverishly he ran back to his own trunk to see if there was a blanket or something to wrap around Charles’ naked body. He found a red blanket made of fleece cloth, and it had to do although it was dirty.

Erik leaned in again and wrapped the blanket around his friend’s body. He briefly rested his hand on Charles’ bloody forehead, and whispered, “Hold on, Charles. I’ll take care of you. Just hold on…”

Then he jumped into his car and tore off.

Where would he take Charles? Not to any pu hos hospital anyway; that much was clear. Most hospitals no longer accepted mutants, and both Charles and he were too well known to pass as normal human beings. Besides, Erik didn’t trust hospitals. They could very well leave Charles to die only because he was a mutant.

He would have to take Charles to his own home. Erik was not a trained physician, but he knew a whole lot, and he was sure he’d be able to take better care of Charles than some bungler at a public hospital. But he was still an hour’s drive from his house, and Charles’ condition was all but good.

Erik could see him in his rear-view mirror. Charles lay motionless, wrapped in a blanket. He wasn’t dead already, was he? At least Erik couldn’t hear him breathing. No, he mustn’t die. Erik wouldn’t allow it.

After some time Erik realized he was driving much too fast. It would only aggravate this situation if he was stopped by the police; or worse – had an accident and drove into a tree.

Erik slowed down and nervously looked at his watch. About half an hour left. He could hear Charles coughing in the back seat. Just hope he didn’t have a punctured lung and was drowning in his own blood!

I’ll kill those who did this to you, Charles! Erik swore in his mind. I will kill them!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When he finally reached his current home; a grand 19th century residence, whose basement level had been remade into a research compound, Erik was trembling so much he could barely stand up. He wobbled out of his car and opened the back door to see how Charles was.

The telepath was still alive, but he was unconscious. Wrapped inside the blanket, Erik carefully tried to lift him into his arms again, without aggravating his injuries.

Charles felt heavier now, but Erik had no problems carrying him. He wondered if anybody was home. Mystique was home more often now, when she no longer had to appear in public as the late senator Kelly. St. John used to be home on weekdays as well – today was Tuesday – and Sabretooth… Well, that was actually someone Erik didn’t want to have around now.

Mystique met him at the steps. Her blue face looked shocked and surprised when she saw the bloodied bundle in Erik’s arms.

“Erik… What happened?” she asked quietly, aware that Erik was in a state.

“I don’t know, I found him like this,” Erik replshorshortly because he didn’t have time to give any fuller answer at that moment. “Is John at home?” he then asked.

“Yes, we were just eating.”

“Keep him in the kitchen,” Erik ordered. “I don’t want him to see Charles like this. Alright?”

“Yes, okay,” Mystique said and held the door open to let Erik in. She ran back into the kitchen and Erik could hear her say something, and then the boy’s voice, but he didn’t have time to hear what they said.

Erik couldn’t think of any other place to bring Charles than his own room. They had no sick-bay like Charles had on his institute, only laboratories.

On the way to his chamber Erik met someone he had hoped to avoid – Sabretooth. He had reunited with Erik and the Brotherhood two months ago, and Erik had hesitantly let him back in. The big mutant’s temper and carnage had always been uncontrollable, like himself.

Erik said nothing when they met in the hallway – he hoped that the situation would explain itself.

A thick wrinkle formed between Sabretooth’s eyebrows when he saw Xavier’s abused body wrapped in the blanket. The smell of blood was strong, and the man was very weak. Sabretooth, alias Victor Creed, hated Xavier and his X-men with all his heart, and strongly felt like finishing what someone else had already started. How dare Magneto take that traitor here?!

They exchanged a look when they passed each other, and Sabretooth managed to control his urge to lunge at them and slit Xavier’s throat. He simply growled and his menacing face grew even sterner.

Later, he thought to himself.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Erik knew that Charles would stain his sheets with blood, but he didn’t care about that. Carefully he lowered his old friend onto the large bed, and couldn’t help being appalled when he looked at him.

Charles had really been beaten. Now Erik only needed to see how serious his injuries were. He left Charles for a moment and ran into the adjacent bathroom to get some disinfectant to clean his wounds with. When he returned with the bottle in his hand he suddenly heard a knock on his door.

“Who is it?” Erik called nervously. In case it was Pyro, Erik wouldn’t let the boy in, because he didn’t want him to see the professor in a state like this. But it was Mystique.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

“Yes, come in Raven,” Erik sighed.

“Oh God…” she said from the doorway. “Is it that bad? Can I do anything?”

Erik pondered. “Yes, you could bring me some morphine from the lab. In case he wakes up now, he will be in a lot of pain.”

“I will,” said Mystique, and Erik heard her steps withdraw. At least she remembered to close the door.

Again Erik gave Charles his undivided attention. Examining him wouldn’t be fun, but necessary. It had to happen with extreme caution, because Erik didn’t know the extent of his injuries. If Charles had broken ribs Erik had to make sure they didn’t puncture any internal organs. To be honest, the telepath’s injuries looked severe.

Charles had a large open wound in his left temple, which still bled, probably caused by a blunt object or a strong fist. Perhaps a shoe. Had someone kicked Charles in the head? Dear God.

His right eye was completely swollen shut, and would remain like that for some time, and his lips were cracked and swollen too. Erik wasn’t sure if he had a skull- or bone fracture, but he could only hope for the opposite. A concussion could almost be guaranteed.

Charles’ body looked even worse. He was completely covered with large bruises and abrasions, probably caused by fists or blunt objects. He might have gotten the abrasions from being dragged on the ground. Erik wasn’t sure.

After some careful feeling, Erik could state that Charles had at least one broken rib, although he found nothing that indicated internal bleedings, since Charles’ belly and chest felt soft and pliant. Erik found a half, knocked-out tooth in his friend’s mouth, but no blood from his lungs. Good. At least that was something fortunate.

When Erik had wiped his old friend’s body with a warm, damp cloth to get all the clotted blood away, he made a terrible discovery. Whoever had done this, was surely a sadist. A cruel such. Charles had burn marks, caused by a cigarette, all over his body. They were small, and certainly not life-threatening, but upset Erik more than anything. Someone had even pressed a burning cigarette against the old man’s sex, Erik noticed, when he found a burn mark on Charles’ penis.

Erik clenched his teeth and almost considered counting to ten in order to calm down.

Who – what animal – had had the guts to do something like this? he thought. To a wheelchair-bound old mA muA mutant, but still? If Erik ever found the person responsible for this, he would kill him.

“Charles?” he whispered to see if there was any reaction, but there was none. He remained unconscious and Erik was happy that he did.

Slowly and gently Erik started washing the telepath’s wounds with the disinfectant and a soft, clean cloth. Then he smeared some bactericidal ointment on his wounds and bandaged his chest and head. Besides that he couldn’t do much. Time would show. Now he could only let Charles rest.

A knock sounded again, and Mystique entered with the morphine syringe Erik had asked her to bring.

“I’m sorry for the delay, but I had trouble finding the morphine,” she explained apologetically. “It wasn’t where it used to be.”

“It is alright,” Erik sighed. “He hasn’t woken up, but I’ll give it to him anyway in case he does.”

He took the syringe from Mystique and injected the drug into Charles’ arm. It was a small dose, but at least it would reduce his pain if he woke up. Erik suddenly felt Mystique’s slight hand on his shoulder. She had noticed how upset and nervous Erik was, but wasn’t really sure how to comfort him.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

“I found him like this in the trunk of his own car,” Erik replied and told her everything that had happened since he first heard the telepathic cry for help.

“You don’t know who did it?” Mystique asked.

“No,” Erik said shortly.

“John keeps asking what’s happened,” Mystique remarked. “I don’t know what to tell him. I told him to wait till he could speak with you. Or do you want me to tell him?”

“Yes, tell him, but I don’t want him to see him. Make sure he understands that.”

“I’ll try,” she promised.

“Charles was tortured,” Erik said.

“What?”

“With cigarettes. He’s got burn marks everywhere. When I catch the cowardly bastard that did this…”

Erik’s voice broke and he was dangerously close to crying.

“I swear I will kill him. Or them. Charles… you know, he… Charles was more than my friend, Raven. We used to share a bed…”

“I know,” Mystique replied mildly and stroked Erik’s silver hair. Erik had told her about the time when Xavier had been his lover as well as friend, and she realized why Erik took this personally. Maybe he even had feelings left for the wheelchair-bound telepath?

“Do you still love him? Is that why you’re so upset?”

“No… I don’t love him…but I care very much about him. And the thought of somebody… Oh, Raven…” Erik sighed and leaned his head against Mystique’s blue belly as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He wasn’t crying – not yet – but that didn’t lessen his grief.

Mystique hugged him back and stroked his hair. She loved Erik very much, and although she wasn’t mad about Xavier, she hoped he would recover for Erik’s sake.

“Please leave now, Raven, I want to be alone…” he finally murmured and pulled away.

“Alright, I’ll go and speak with young Pyro. Now take care of him,” she finished and left Erik’s room.

When she had left Erik looked at Charles’ abused body again. He wasn’t awake, but his heart rate and breathing were strong and even. Maybe the shot of morphine had made him even deeper unconscious?

Reluctantly Erik remembered that he had one thing left to check. He didn’t want to, but it had to be done. Had Charles been raped? If they had tortured him they might as well have assaulted him sexually too, just “for fun”.

Erik fervently hoped that it wasn’t the case. He hadn ran raped himself as a child, and knew the feeling, hoping that Charles didn’t have to go through it in his old days.

Please, please…

But when Erik checked, he found no blood between Charles’ legs, and the sphincter around his anus seemed unharmed, and nothing indicated that anyone had assaulted him like that. That was a huge relief. At least he hadn’t been raped, although that didn’t improve his condition in any way.

Erik covered his friend with a light yet warm quilt and hoped it would keep him warm without burdening him too much. Then he looked at the watch. It was already nine o’clock in the evening. Time had passed quickly despite that he hadn’t exactly enjoyed himself.

Erik was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and he was sure that his body later would object to carrying Charles around. He decided to go to bed. Charles would most certainly feel both frightened and confused if he woke up in the night, and it might calm him – at least subconsciously – to be close to a warm and alive body instead of just fabric and pain.

Erik went into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. Really he should take a shower too, but right now he didn’t have the strength to do it. So he just undressed and crawled down into his large double bed. He always slept naked and was going to do it now too, hoping Charles wouldn’t think he would rape him in case he woke up during the night and found a naked man next to him.

Very well, Erik thought. I have nothing that Charles hasn’t seen – or touched – before. He wished he could hold his old friend, but considering Charles’ injuries it was too risky. He could just sleep next to Charles, without pressing up against him.

“Good night…” Erik whispered and pressed a light kiss to Charles’ forehead before he sank back against his own pillows and fell asleep almost at once.