Thank you for everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited or commented on this story so thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the last part. Also, all of this chapter is in Charles' POV.

Charles woke up to a thumping headache and an uncomfortable feeling in his spine. Shifting around, he frowned at the position he was in. His legs, which were dead weights beneath Charles' abdomen, had managed to get into a position Charles hadn't been able to since he'd been paralysed. Frowning once more, Charles turned in the bed, grunting at the effort. For some reason all his muscles were hurting as if they'd been through some sort of exertion quite recently. Something like he'd been running, except that was impossible. A sudden flash of memory came to him, causing the telepath to frown once more in confusion. The last thing he could remember was being in Hank's lab and some sort of explosion, he didn't remember getting to bed. Maybe he'd lost consciousness. Then a frightening thought went to the children and Charles used his telepathy to touch the minds of those in the mansion. Everyone was safe. No one was hurt. Charles breathed a sigh of relief on feeling this, except when he brushed across two things that shouldn't be there.

Raven. Raven's mind that was as familiar to Charles as breathing was. She was here. But why? Charles didn't quite know how to react, the last time having seen her being at Washington. A mixture of feelings ran through Charles at the feeling of his sister's brain. Was she hurt? Had he been hurt and that was why she was here? Anger at her for not staying at home. Worry that she might hate him for causing her to come back, though Charles had no idea why she would have come back.

Then there was the blank space. The mind that Charles knew was there but was not. Erik. Erik was sat next to Charles' bed, sleeping crookedly on the chair in the corner in a position that could not possibly be comfortable. Once more Charles was caught in a confusion. Why was Erik here? Had he been hurt? It seemed the only logical reason for both Erik and Raven to be here. More so as Erik was sitting at his bedside. Maybe the explosion had injured him, sparing Hank only because the mutant was mobile and would have been able to get away from any sort of danger. Quite unlike Charles' inability to move in the wheelchair. Which wasn't anywhere in sight.

Erik suddenly started here he stood, his eyes flinging open and meeting Charles' own. "Charles." Erik said and Charles may not have been able to read the metal-manipulators' thoughts but he could quite clearly hear the happiness in the older mutants' words.

"Erik?" Charles asked, a little hesitantly simply because he couldn't understand why Erik was here. Or why he was so happy to see him awake.

"You're okay. You are okay aren't you?" Erik said, jumping to his feet, panic in the edges of his voice.

"Quote alright though…" Here Charles trailed off, unsure of how to put his confusion into words.

"You don't remember do you?" Charles shook his head, wondering what Erik was leading to. "I should…" And before Charles could even think to ask what had happened, Erik had disappeared from the room.

….

It wasn't until morning that someone came back into the room and Charles had been awake for the most part, trying desperately to patch together what had happened. He'd noted the calendar on the side of his bed, showing him the date and that he'd lost a little under a week of time. This had caused Charles' slightly panicked mind to consider going through his students minds, except he had managed to stop himself. He was quite sure they would tell him what had happened; there was no reason to go through their private thoughts.

Of course Charles could very easily have woken the students up, either to ask questions of what he had missed or simply to get someone to find his wheelchair so he could move from the bed where he'd been sat rather uncomfortably for the last few hours. What had stopped him, however, was the obvious tiredness coming from the children's minds so he had simply decided to let them sleep. A little discomfort on his part wasn't such a bad thing if it meant the children were not tired.

"Professor!" Alex's shouted in a pitch that could have rivalled Sean's' as he walked into the room. "You're okay?"

"I am, though I would like to get out of this bed if you could…"

"Yeah sure, be back in a minute." Alex interrupted, running out of the room and once more leaving Charles alone.

By the time Alex had found his wheelchair and brought it back up to his rooms, Charles could feel the excitement running through the minds of all the students in the mansion. He was going to ask Alex what had happened but he didn't manage to as Alex and Sean, who had followed Alex upstairs, were talking none stops about the younger children's antics. Of what Charles could gather from their fast paced talking as he dressed in the adjoining bathroom, they'd been the ones charged with the care of the children while he had been…indisposed was what Alex called it thought Charles could sense the uneasiness in the younger's mind.

Logan, Erik, Raven and Hank were sitting in the kitchen when he finally managed to shut Alex and Sean up enough to get them moving down the stairs. Erik wouldn't meet Charles' eye as he entered the room but Raven jumped to her feet, hugging Charles before backing away quickly with a shy look on her face. Charles felt infinitely guilty then as he knew it was partly his fault his sister felt so uncomfortable hugging him, something she had always done in the past. "Nice to see you as you again bub." Logan replied and Charles picked up on an image of small child from Hank's brain, though the scientist so quickly pushed it away that Charles could have sworn it was his own imagination.

"So…you really don't remember anything?" Sean asked after Charles had eaten.

"No, so if someone would please tell me how I missed nearly a week I would appreciate it." Charles knew he shouldn't have just said that as images from all the minds' the kitchen, except Erik and Logan bombarded his own with images of a small child. A child that Charles can't remember seeing outside of family photos.

"I really am sorry Professor, it was my fault and…" Charles sent Hank a kind look, stopping the scientist in his tracks.

"Do you mind?" Charles asked, waving his fingers up so the children understood what he was going to do. They nodded, allowing Charles to go through the images from the last few days.

When he was done, Charles sat silent for a minute. He'd been reverted back to a child. A 5 year old child with no control over his own telepathy. "I am so sorry my friends." Charles said, quietly as he pulled himself from his own thoughts. The control he had perfected over the years had been non-existent when he had first gotten his powers, and had become non-existent once more having reverted back to being that 5 year old child again. He may not have had any control but he had seen the way he had hurt his friends. Something that Charles hoped he would never do again. Ever.

"It wasn't your fault Professor. You were just a kid and…" Here Sean trailed off.

"I'm just glad no one was hurt." Charles finally said. The guilt at what his 5 year old self had done without the control of his telepathy was still there, and Charles doubted it would ever leave, but he had become accustomed to hiding those feelings and there was no reason to worry the children any more. Not after what they had gathered of his childhood from him being 5 years old again. It wasn't something that Charles had ever wanted them to know but now they did and there wasn't, honestly, a lot Charles could do about it.

"As you can see I am perfectly fine so there is no need to worry any further about me." Charles may or may not have pushed a calming influence over them then, though it didn't work on Logan who only frowned in disapproval. "Now, I believe Erik and Raven had a reason for being here so maybe we should discuss this."

The others didn't seem comfortable with it but left anyway, obviously happy now that Charles was back to normal. "I'll wait outside." Raven muttered and Charles couldn't help the feeling of guilt as he watched her go. He had told her he hated her, even though he didn't. He just hoped there was some way that he could make it up to Raven. "So, this mutant that you came to talk to me about." Charles said, having picked up the reason for Erik and Raven being there from Raven's mind. "I can offer him a place if that's what you want."

Erik didn't answer, only nodded his head. After a short while, he started to speak. "I'm sorry Charles." Charles went to protest this but Erik continued before he could. "I hurt you and I didn't realise that fully until you told me."

"I didn't tell you, a child version of myself did." Charles replied blandly. It didn't matter that those words had been what Charles had felt at the time, but not anymore. "I didn't hate you Erik. I don't hate any of you."

"But you did." Charles couldn't deny that, knowing Erik would see the lie for what it was. "Will you forgive me?"

"Oh my friend, there is nothing to forgive. Not anymore." Charles replied, smiling warmly at the other mutant.

"I want us to work together." Erik suddenly said, making Charles' frown once more in confusion. It would seem that was the running theme today. "I know we can't see the same ideals all the time but I want to stop our fighting."

Charles considered this for a moment before slowly nodding. "I never wanted to fight you but… I will not leave you to harm innocents." Erik might have argued, in fact Charles fully expected him to. Instead he nodded.

"I will not stand by and watch our kind be persecuted for being who they are but… I can perhaps stop killing those you deem innocent if you may push aside your pacifist views."

"A compromise." Charles stated, running through what Erik had said. "I can't promise anything Erik but perhaps in time we will be able to work together."

"That is all I ask for." Erik replied and Charles smiled. If Erik could agree to stop killing innocents then perhaps Charles could stop refusing to kill those who deserve it. "And stop feeling guilty my friend. None of this was your fault."

"I can't stop thinking that I could have hurt someone."

"You didn't." Erik snapped. "Charles everyone is fine and what happened, that wasn't your fault. None of this was so stop feeling so bloody guilty." Charles didn't reply, knowing that wasn't something he would be able to do.

"Thank you my friend, for helping with this…incident."

"This is what you call an incident." Erik laughed. "And it's no problem; you would have done the same for me." Charles nodded, knowing he would have.

Decided to end it here as it was going to into full on soppy, pointless fluff which could very well go on for a few pages without actually ever getting to a point.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed and as always please review