Continued from here

She was sleeping, still laying in the infirmary because they felt it was safer to keep her there instead of home for the moment, what, with the mad man running around and everything. The images of the knife flashing and that face leering above her. Sweat poured from her forehead as she tossed and turned in her sleep, whimpering. At some point, she saw him hauling his hand back in his rage and.... She woke up with a scream lodged in the back of her throat.

Nausea was rampant within her, she shuddered heavily, pressing the back of her shaking hand to her mouth and closing her eyes. She sat there for a time, trying to compose herself, letting the hammering of her heart slow down and calm itself. After this, she dropped her feet to the floor and padded to the restroom, mostly just to clean herself up because she was quite messy still.

About a half an hour later, she was cleaned up, dressed in some clothes her mother must have brought, just some of her athletic gear, which was comfortable. She tossed her wet hair into a ponytail and moved to sit back down.

For the moment, the room was empty... perhaps because people wanted to give her a chance to rest undisturbed. Or maybe Artair was making phone calls. She didn't know but she felt ill at ease. She knew he wouldn't be gone long, not when he was worried about her. She knew her mother was at home right now, taking care of Delilah, but she had let people know what was going on for her. Kendra was called as was Derek, and a few others like her siblings to let them all know that yes, she was going to be okay.

And she had brought all that food that Xavia had worked so hard on... But it was left untouched in the fridge in the teacher's lounge for the moment (labeled, of course.) She was bummed that Artair hadn't gotten to try the Hungarian version of the stewed vegetables, she had worked particularly hard on that dish. Hell, she was just... feeling at a loss in general with all that had happened. She was alive, though... And so were the two little ones she wouldn't get to meet until winter. Her hand moved to rest on the mound and she sighed, ”I am sorry t'at your father is a piece of work. I won't let you be sad about him, t'ough.. I can't.”

She felt the bubbly little movements as if in response to her words and she nearly choked out with relief at the feeling. No, their father didn't matter anymore, they were everything to her, and they lived on even through the harrowing experience of the night before. She was okay... She really was. She was scarred a little more, but she had lived to tell another tale, right? Only... she didn't really want to repeat this tale over and over again.

He couldn't blame her wanting to stay at the mansion, it was probably one of the safest places in the city for her right now. Christ he was genuinely considered asking if she'd be willing to stay there for a week or two, with her mum and daughter. Having somewhere he trusted to look after them all and with easy access to Doc was a compelling line of reasoning for him. Not that he was entirely logical at the moment, he anger was building with every passing hour that monster was free. Thank God Xavia was asleep and Doc had firmly removed him from the infirmary, sitting there with her would have just made his blood boil more, make it all way more immediate. Instead he was making calls, arranging protection details and asking Devon to meet with them. They'd need Havens resources and frankly the only one there he knew enough to trust with this was Devon himself.

Artair reflect back to Doc's quiet words after the incident. In his kind way he'd made it clear to the Scot he was in more danger than Xavia right now, more likely to lose himself. Never had he been so close to shouting at the man, wanting to berate him, but Doc had cut his legs out from under him. The Old Doctor had told him he'd scared the children. It wasn't the blood, or the medical emergency that had rattled them, it was the sight of a man, covered in blood with a murderous expression on his face. That was telling.

He hadn't been able to promise Doc he'd do the right thing, but he was damn well going to try. If he meet the guy though, or if he wasn't happy with the answers he got when the captured him, he wouldn't hold back. Sometimes the only way to deal with a rabid animal is to put it down.

Finishing his last conversation in this round of phone calls, he moved back into the infirmary. Trying to put on a more pleasant smile he approached the orange haired wonder, gave her a quick peck on the check before sinking back into his seat. "How're you feeling now lass, any less sick than before?" Among everything else, the stress and the trauma, poor Xavia was also dealing with morning sickness. Sod's law was in full effect today.

"Managed to get a protective detail at your house, so you're family's going to be fine. he won't be able to get to you through them OK?" That was at least something, it was obvious she was worried more about them than herself so at least that was a little bit of stress he could help her deal with, "There anything you want me to grab for you before this meeting?"

"I am glad t'ey are okay," she said softly as she continued to rub her face. Even though the Doc had healed her up, she still had fresh looking scars on her lips, but the bruising was gone and all the little dings and bumps in the back of her head. Her eyes were kind of on the tired side after the weird night of sleep and waking up feeling sick as a dog. Her hand dropped to her lap and she gave him a half assed smile. "I could use some food. Momma got t'e van from t'e park and made sure it didn't get spoiled. Would be a shame for it to go to waste because of some jerk."

After all, she had gone through a lot of trouble to get that food made. She hadn't even told him what stuff she made, she had wanted the stewed veggies to be a surprise more than the rest. It was too bad that it would have to be reheated or eaten cold after all that. But she was alive, so there was that, right?

But more than that, she wanted something else from him before they would be in front of others. She moved off the bed and over to him, moving in for a hug and one of those kisses that let him know that she was most certainly glad to be alive, something she had been too shaken up to do the night before. He had saved her life by getting her out of that park when he did.

Knowing they wouldn't get a chance to do more than that, she reluctantly broke the lipular contact and rested her forehead against his. They had important things to talk about at this meeting, she wasn't going to distract him more than she already had.

Food was a good shout and he was still looking forward to eating what she'd made for them, it had sounded pretty good. Shame some rampant w----- decided a park was a nice place to get stabby. Plus it'd probably make her feel a little better and he hadn't been able to eat since what had happened. The thought just made him sick, each time he tried he kept seeing the blood on his hands. Hard to stomach a sandwich at that point.

Luckily, before he could answer Xavia was on him, giving him a very life affirming kiss. After all the things that had happened something like that set all his neurons firing, sending his brain into over time. Responding hungrily he was more than a little disappointed when she broke it off, his face flushed from the sudden excitement. "Christ lass, that's one way to tell me you're OK. Almost disappointing we don't have a little more private time." Just a little, they did have way more important things to deal with unfortunately. Letting her just rest agaisnt him, it did help dampen his anger down a little, get it a bit more under control, for now at least. Hell there were worse anger management techniques.

It was, nice sitting there, just the two of them, but it couldn't last. Not now at least. "You want me to grab some of the food so we can eat while we wait? Hell since Derek's coming he might want to dig in as well, I know how much he loves having dinner at yours." Good on the lad to be honest. Free, home cooked food with a good friend was kind of awesome. "How was he when you called him by the way?"

It was a lot for friends to take in but he knew how close they both were. God he could only imagine how he'd have felt if he'd been the one getting the phone call. Hopefully he wasn't too angry at him for forgetting too after Xavia was in safe hands. He hadn't been thinking very straight.

Indeed, she would love it if they had somewhere more private to go right then and there, but she was not about to cross professional boundaries by taking him to her office or an empty room or something, and they were waiting on Devon and Derek. Her pulling away was reluctant, of course, but they would have time later, she hoped, because she had plenty of affirmation. Still, it was nice to be able to just stand there having even just a little contact with him. She pictured his worried face above hers as he held her in his arms, willing her not to give up even as it took all of her to just be able to breathe, and she knew that things had shifted between them into something deeper... Even if they were to part ways, she could not imagine life without him, not when he'd held her life in his hands and strove to keep it from being snuffed prematurely.

"Yeah... You go ahead and get all the food. Ummm, some of it needs to be reheated but most of it is cool stuff. T'e stewed veggies can be either or. I like it hot." She nodded. "Derek doesn't know I can cook yet. I am sure he will be surprised to find out..."

And then he asked how Derek took the news, and her brows lifted, "Umm... He was pretty angry. I t'ink it brought t'e ghetto out of him. I've never heard him cuss like t'at and snap his fingers for emphasis." She shook her head and then pulled off some to start leading him down to the teachers' lounge to get the food ready... But she was pretty tired out still, which was normal after losing the amount of blood she lost. Her face was still pale and she was weak, so she had to let him take over.

"I wanted t'e stewed veggies to be a surprise... It's our version of t'at dish you introduced to me at t'e restaurant." she said quietly from the chair she sat on.

Derek leaned against the railing of the sea lion exhibit. In the place full of noises and smells, this seemed to help him with his temperament. He was feeling a lot of things right now: anger, pain, more anger. Mostly anger. Finding out that the guy he was supposed to go on a date with wasn't the real version made Derek feel like he wasn't good enough or didn't "deserve" the authentic version of the two. He was more so angry at not-Devon for what he did if anything. He felt played. Played like a motherf****** fettle. With a scoff, he shook the thought from his mind and watched as the sea lions lounged about on the rocks and took a cool dip into the surrounding water.

Digging into his khaki joggers, Derek pulled out his phone to check for any messages. None. He sighed and stuffed it back into his pocket. He knew that he had to go see Xavia to check up on her. With everything that was going on, she was his main focus. Sistas before mistas, right? The ebony mutant pushed himself off of the railing and exited the zoo.

"Guess who brought onion rin-- oh, hey Artair," Derek smiled some at his best male friend before walking toward Xavia, offering her the greasy brown paper bag, "perfectly cooled," he leaned down and kissed her forehead before folding his arms over his green t-shirt cladded chest. He sniffed and studied her face. With each scar he saw, it made Derek that more pissed off. Derek tried his hardest to keep his emotions under control. "How're you doin? How're my kids?"

"Can do, I'll be back in a bit." Giving her hand another squeeze he set off to get a hold of some food. A few minutes of fumbling for utensils, warming up the things that needed it and more than a little time trying to hunt out a tray for it all. With everything found and the last of the food finally heated up he carried the precariously balanced tray of wonderful smelling food and bowls and carefully returned to the infirmary with it, dodging the occasional child running up the hallway or teacher going from class to class. For once, his luck held out and he managed to get back to Xavia and with an oh so artfully flourish presented her with the food they'd been planning on having earlier.

Earlier, it was like a different timezone after what he'd seen. Some normalcy, something relaxing and human was a damn good way to spend the time waiting for their friends to turn up. It was also, pretty delicious. He had no idea she could cook this well but her skill came across in everything she'd put together, the eggplant salad was great and the Lecsó (as he now knew it was called) was more than a match for ratatouille. Hard to argue with good old fashioned Hungarian cooking, although it made him very jealous of Derek for getting so much of it from her mother. If she was this good, how mouth wateringly good was her mums stuff? Might explain why their friend was over as much as he was, if this was the feasts he was getting a hold of. Made Artair seriously considered also spending more time over there, good food, good company, what more was there to enjoy?

Speak of the devil, halfway through a mouthful said friend waltzed in. Quickly swallowing and grimacing at the slightly to hot food dropping into his stomach, "Hey Derek, thanks for getting here so quick." This meeting wasn't going to be fun, but things needed to be planned, stalkers needed to be found and punishments needed to be decided upon.

"Hungry," she said to Derek as he arrived. She gestured toward all the goodies after accepting the greasy treat, knowing he would probably not turn free food down. "I cooked all of t'is stuff yesterday." And then she went quiet to try and eat. She was more picking at her food than anything, but she would occasionally nibble at her food a little here and there, not looking at either Artair or Derek right then because she was still kind of in brainular overload. Her thoughts were running rampant with thoughts she didn't want to think about... She got so distracted by them that she was silent and staring off until she heard someone walking down the hall. And then she jumped out of her skin, or at least that was how it felt.

With a sigh, she got up and padded to the door to lean against it, her back to the guys for the moment. God, how could she have let this happen? She wrapped her arms around herself, then she took a deep breath and turned back to the duo saying, "I t'ink I need some air." But the thought of going outside right then... just... no.

"It's my pleasure," Derek smiled at Artair, then looked at Xavia, and finally at the food. He could feel his mouth start to water all over again.

"You did?!" Derek asked in exclamation as he made his way over to the food and started to put some on his plate. Of course having a key to Xavia's home, he was able to just waltz in and either cook for Mama and little Delilah or vis versa. Honestly, he felt closer to them than he did his other family. Though, this wasn't the thread for his familial issues. He then turned his head to watch Xavia leave to get some air. After she was gone, he turned his attention to Artair.

"...You know what we have to do that right? No one messes with my herd and gets away from it," Derek's warm brown eyes turned dangerous before going back to normal. With a shake of his head, he started to stuff his mouth full of Hungarian food.

Watching her leave slowly, all the while stuffing the food down his face, it was good to have a appetite back. He needed the energy. Looking up at his friend, it was to not catch the dangerous glint in the eye, the tense body language. Couldn't blame the lad really, he was as on edge. If not more. "Lad, don't worry. He'll be sorted out, I can promise that." No way the guy was getting away without punishment and frankly Artair wasn't sure right now if he'd want the guy dropped into the system or if he'd tear him to ribbons with his bare hands.

"He's made the biggest and most costly mistake of his life, he f---ed with the clan. Hit one of us and we all hurt, cut one and we all bleed. But you've got to be careful. You could easily walk down a road you shouldn't." To late for the Scotsman though. The anger hidden deep down was just below the surface now and it was a raging ocean. No, he'd been broken a long time ago, there was still hope the lad would be fine.

Giving Derek a hard look, "When we find him though, he's mine. Xavia might want to hurt him but she doesn't need that on her conscience, not now." All the while he was planning to harm someone he was still concerned about her in this. She was at least humanising his anger a little. Going a little quieter, so he couldn't be over heard, "She was very close to dying Derek, if I hadn't been there and didn't have the training I do we wouldn't be here." Hands shook a little as he continued, "It's a b----- miracle she hasn't lost the kids. This doesn't happen again. Ever."

She wasn't able to go outside, not without feeling this crippling fear. She felt it hit her deep inside as she opened the door to the outside world and panic welled up within her. All those feelings she had worked on before were back full on, or she thought, worse than before. She started to breathe heavy, and backed into the building again, then shook violently as she pulled her phone out and called Artair right from where she was at. Assuming he picked up, she said into the phone, "I need... *gasp* Help... Can't... *Gasp*
do t'is."

She dropped the phone and ended up on her butt on the floor, shaking violently and starting to hyperventilate. Oh god, she hated this! She was supposed to be strong! And she couldn't be. She felt herself cramp up and she curled up, starting to just, let it out. It didn't matter that she was where anyone could find her, she just couldn't help it.

Derek was highly upset with everything fhats been going on with Xavia and this creepy son of a rat. Thankfully he and Artair was seeing eye-to-eye on what they should do about it.

>> "Lad, don't worry. He'll be sorted out, I can promise that."

Sorted out? Derek wanted him dead. Dead, dead, dead! He took in a shaky breath and shook his head, "I can't believe somethin' like this has happened," he paused, "especially with my nosey ass."

>> "He's made the biggest and most costly mistake of his life, he f---ed with the clan. Hit one of us and we all hurt, cut one and we all bleed. But you've got to be careful. You could easily walk down a road you shouldn't."

Okay, that did make Derek feel better. Artair considered him part of his "clan". "Oh! I'm already down that road. Sh!t, I paved the road myself." He snorted and shook his head. Derek was too far gone to be pulled back down.

>> "When we find him though, he's mine. Xavia might want to hurt him but she doesn't need that on her conscience, not now."

"No, not all yours. Mine, too. I need to get some hits in as well." Derek sniffed and started to stuff his mouth with food. Damn, this was good. Really goood. Though, Mama's was slightly better. She put this Old World seasoning to it that he couldn't explain.

"Mate, trust me when I say, I know anger. I live it everyday. F--- you've seen it and that was barely scratching the surface. I know what I'm talking about when I say it changes you and not for the better." A significant pause hung in the air before he could continue, "You're not a murderer, not matter what you might think. Don't become one now."

Killing in self defence was one thing, horrible but understandable. Choosing to do it in cold blood was something else.

Answering the sudden phone, he quickly started calming her down while moving towards the way she'd gone. "It's alright lass, you're fine. We're on our way." Gesturing for Derek to follow him, it didn't take long to find her. She hadn't managed to get far after all.

Offering a gentle hand and a smile "Let's get you back to the infirmary Xavia. Pushing too far will only hurt you in the end, just take this going forward one step at a time."

She kind of held tight to Artair's arm and put her face into his neck. She was pale, visibly shaken, clammy, and clearly uncomfortable. It was really hard for her. She wanted to go home but the thought of going outside... Well, it really freaked her out! She didn't say anything at that point, she didn't cry, she just... tried to calm herself down while holding onto her unofficial boyfriend's arm and kept herself from looking. Get her away from the open, she thought, please... He was still out there somewhere, still out to get her, he would kill her if he had his chance... Oh god, he almost did kill her! She clung harder.

Derek quickly followed after Artair and to the place where Xavia was at. Something was obviously wrong and Derek wasn't liking it. He wasn't liking any of this. It was all too...horrible and disgusting! Derek felt chills go down his spine as he saw the state that Xavia was in. The twenty-year-old mutant turned his gaze to the floor, giving both his best friend and her boyfriend some privacy. How did things manage to get this bad?

"It's goin' to be alright, Xavia. Artair and I are gonna take care of that parasite."