「 The Professor & I 」Charles Xavier Love Story

(31) They Deserve Better

Xavier's School, August 1963

Lynn's POV

For several months now, all of us were busied with preparations for the school opening which was finally happening tomorrow.

Hank managed to recreate Cerebro a couple of months back and housed it in the basement that was formally the bunker. Charles used it locate our first batch of students and that was almost the only time I ever saw him in his wheelchair for he absolutely needed his powers to make Hank's device work.

Despite all my efforts to regain independence in caring for myself, stripping Charles of the most pivotal reason he had to take the serum, he always managed to find an excuse. Even when he was teaching me to control my powers, he would do it on his feet. Undeniably, though, it did help with the training since he used the exact method with me as with Erik.

"True focus lies between rage, and serenity," Charles said.

Clearly, rage was standing right in front of me.

Under Charles' guidance, I eventually gained better control over my powers and involuntary telekinesis greatly reduced over time. There were a great deal of things that I could do with it now but as much as I was grateful towards him, I really felt like I did not know him anymore.

The others were as worried as I was about Charles and his seemingly endless strutting about the house but none of them dared to speak their minds, given that even I appeared indifferent about it.

The truth was, I just never talked about it with the boys. It was evident that Charles was faced with confidence issues and discussing it publicly, in front of his first ever students, was definitely not going to help my case.

Instead, I used my actions to argue my point.

All these months, I never once took the serum. I did everything I was asked from my chair, hoping to prove to Charles that we were not limited or restricted without our legs. I tried, repeatedly, to explain to him that there was so much more to him even if he was wheelchair-bound but he could never really believe.

He constantly avoided the topic whenever I brought it up and after some time, I got so sick of his attitude I gave up talking about it altogether.

At least until tonight when Charles came knocking on my door as I was drying off from my shower.

A moment please, Charles, I thought as I saw him through my mind standing outside my room.

Despite the fact that he had seen every part of me while caring for me when we first returned from Cuba, our relationship had not progressed to an intimate one. It was gratifying at first, to finally be together after everything we have been through, but bliss eluded me and it never felt like what it was meant to be.

He was simply not the Charles I wanted to be with.

He tried to get close, to humour me, but I never had the mood seeing him on that goddamn serum that cruelly took away his powers.

I was not going to let him see me naked on my chair just after a bath tonight.

After I slipped into my night gown, I opened the door with my powers, letting him in while I wheeled myself over to my bed. As I locked my chair in place, Charles stopped himself in front of me and set down the thin rectangular box he had in hand on my bedside table. He bent over, planning to carry me into bed, but I shunned away from his touch.