Author's Note: Alright, this is it. The final chapter in An Open Doorway. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me all the way. But this isn't the end, only the first leg of Hayden's story. I'll see you all again soon.
With loads of love,
Mundie

Everything

A cool breeze drifts through Kamar-Taj and into the secluded garden, gently stirring Stephen's cloak and Hayden's feathers.

"Stephen, I promised I'd tell you everything when I was ready. I don't think I'll ever be truly ready, but no one ever is." Hayden gives a small sad smile as she slowly sinks down on a nearby bench. She pats the space beside her. He sits and Hayden takes a deep breath.

"It was the night after my parents had this huge fight. Their marriage had already been struggling and I think that fight was the last straw because my dad came home the next evening with divorce papers. My parents start screaming and yelling at each other and my dad goes to the bedroom and comes back with his bag already packed. They resume their fighting and I'm sitting on the living room couch the whole time. Then my dad asks me if I'm coming with him."

Hayden pauses, her face tight. Stephen takes her hand and runs his thumb across her knuckles. Hayden swallows heavily and continues her story.

"I felt sick to my stomach and just really wrong, so I ran to the bathroom, sure I was about to throw up. I locked the door behind me and that's when the pain in my back started. My memory's a little blurry from that point on, but I could never forget how excruciating it was. I remember clearly leaning on the sink and looking at myself in the mirror and just seeing my hair and eyes change color. I thought I was losing my mind. Then the pain kicked up about a million notches. I don't remember screaming, but I guess I was because my parents were pounding on the door at this point. I think that's about when the fire started."

Again, Hayden stops and squeezes her eyes shut, almost feeling the heat of the flames on her skin. Stephen squeezing her hand grounds her, brings her back to the present, and her eyes open again. She stares at their hands between them on the bench.

"I burned my house to the ground. The fire didn't hurt me- they pulled me out of the still burning debris but my parents- my parents- they never got out." She takes a shaky breath, tears brimming in her eyes. "I was taken to Xavier's for a while and the police never figured out what started the fire; they blamed it on wiring. I never told anyone outside Xavier's what I really was and I saved money at my job until I could afford to move out on my own. I was only eighteen when I mutated, I can't believe it's been eight years."

Stephen pulls her into a tight embrace and the emotions she's bottled up all these years finally spill free. She lets herself cry, really feel it, and clings to him, her rock in the storm. He makes small soothing noises and smooths his hand through her hair, the motion calming her. Hayden's tears slowly stop and an imagine rises up in her mind.

She pulls back, wiping the wetness and snot from her face with her sleeve, sniffling. "Just now, I couldn't help but think of an open doorway with light shining through." She reaches out and touches Stephen's face, running her thumb over his cheekbone. She gives him a watery smile. "That open doorway is you, Stephen. And I'm so glad I walked through it."

He places one trembling hand over Hayden's, leaning into the contact as his eyes, alight with warmth and softness, meet hers. "What happened that night is not your fault. It was completely beyond your control and you have grown so much since then. You don't have to be afraid anymore. Do you realize that?" He smiles when she nods her head and leans his forehead against hers. "But you can't possibly realize, Hayden Jones, just how much I've come to love you."

Hayden smiles as tears of a different sort trail down her face. "I love you too, Doctor Stephen Strange. I have for a long time, I was just too stubborn to realize it sooner."

Her eyes flutter shut as she lets herself become lost in the moment. He then leans in and Hayden realizes, like Stephen's hands, her past isn't perfect and that's okay.