XMM Fic: Dead Letter Drop (Rated PG, Charles/Erik, Scott/Jean)

[st_aurafina]

Title: Dead Letter Drop
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse, set after X2
Rating: PG
Characters: Charles/Erik, Scott/Jean
Notes: Written for the jeannie_x_slim "Letters" challenge. Thank you to lilacsigil for the beta.



Erik,

I doubt that you are using this drop-box any more, but, if you are, I think you should know that Jean was killed at Alkali Lake.

I'm sorry to tell you this in this way, but I have no other means of contacting you.

Charles

***

Erik,

I don't know whether you received my last letter. If you did, you may want to know that we are holding Jean's memorial service on Sunday at 2pm, on the school grounds.

It's not impossible for you to attend, if you would like. I can make arrangements. If you are worried about Scott and the others, I can telepathically mask your presence. Nobody need know that you are there.

I know that you and Jean did not part on the best of terms. Despite what she may have said to you before you left the school, I think that Jean would have liked you to be there to say good-bye.

Charles

***

Erik,

You don't visit this contact point anymore, do you?

It's very hard to see the students getting on with the rhythms of daily life. I am proud of them, but it is a bittersweet feeling. I wish that there had been more time before they had to learn that terrible lesson – that people we love will disappear from our lives, and that we will survive, and go on.

I wish I had words to comfort Scott. I don't know what to say to him. I don't know if I have the right to say anything. I have never been bereaved in that way.

Charles

***
Erik,

I thought they would have a long life together. I know perfectly well the expression that you will be making right now, and how you will think that I was being hopelessly optimistic. It is painful to think about it now, but I will not pretend that I did not wish them happiness. I am not ashamed of my hope, nor do I think that it somehow doomed them.

I also know how easy it will be for you to use Jean's death as proof of your own dedication to the cause that I refuse to follow. You did not abandon Jean to her fate, no matter what you are telling yourself and those that surround you. I know that, had you been aware of the danger that we were in, you would have saved her. There is nothing in you that would allow you to walk away from the helpless without reason.

You always had so much faith in their abilities, even more, I think, than I did.

Charles

***
Erik,

I visited this post-office, once, a long time ago. I couldn't quite bring myself to ask the team to keep it under surveillance, but I wanted to see the place from which you had chosen to collect my letters. There was a rather nice restaurant on the corner, if you ever decide to revisit this drop-off point. Don't be dissuaded by the head waiter, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of wine. He just doesn't like customers very much.

I was in telepathic contact with Jean in the moments before she died. She needed a conduit for communication, and I was the only person able to do that. She said good-bye to Scott with my voice. My mouth still remembers the shape of those words.

I have a better understanding, now, of the way that crisis forces us to be succinct and fearless in the way we talk to our loved ones. Limited words make one choose wisely.

I wish you were here.

Charles

***