Winter's Angel

Cassiel Mariana Xavier

June 30, 1962 Just after the events of Cuba

Charles Xavier was slumped over his desk in his study with a glass in his hand and a half empty bottle of scotch in front of him when Hank hesitantly edged into the room. "There's a woman at the door with a baby for you."

Looking up at him in confusion Charles tossed back the rest of the contents of his glass. Why would there be anyone at the door looking for him, let alone a woman with a baby? "Did she say who she was or why she was here?" He asks as Hank shakes his head no. Placing the empty glass on the desk he sighs briefly hanging his head.

Backing up, Charles maneuvers his wheelchair around so he could exit the room with Hank following behind him. In silence they go down the darkened hallway to the foyer where there stands a woman Charles hasn't seen in a year.

"Elena, what are you doing here?" He asks, eyes on the tiny bundle in her arms. He has a feeling her sudden unexplained absence a year ago is about to be explained. His blue eyes finally look up into her piercing black ones and he hears her loud thoughts.

'I know you can hear me charles. She's yours. I can't keep her as much as I want to. It's just not possible. I have dangerous people after me and it's too perilous for her to stay with me. You need to keep her safe and hidden from people who would take her and either use her for evil or kill her.'

He opened his mouth to say he that he couldn't. That after the events with Erik and the failed attempt at the X-Men he couldn't take care of himself, much less a baby. Elena speaks out loud, her eastern european accent soft but scared.

"She's like us, but I have a feeling she takes after me more so." She unwraps the baby's blanket exposing her pale milky white back. There, from her shoulders and down beneath her diaper, are silver markings of wings. Just like Elena. Hank looks from Charles to the unknown blonde woman.

"Charles, who is this woman? Is that your kid?" He asks, his brow furrowed as he pushes his glasses up his nose. Elena looks down at him with pleading eyes and takes a step forward.

"Please dragă. I have nowhere else, no one else, to take her to. You are her father. You can see that it's true just by looking inside my head. She won't be safe with anyone else." He knows she wasn't lying. He had seen it in her head as she was talking to him. With a nod he holds out his arms for the baby.

"What's her name?" Charles asks Elena as he looks down into the sleeping girl's face. She looks like a cherub with her plump pink tinted cheeks and wispy silver hair.

"Her name is Cassiel. Cassiel Mariana Xavier." She says as she runs her hand over their little girls head. Her black eyes fill with tears as she looks from her baby to him. "She can't know who I am." Her voice breaks as she tries to continue. "Don't tell her bad things about me. Just tell her I- tell her I love her, but I couldn't be there for her."

Taking her hand he makes her that promise. "I will Elena. I won't let anything happen to her. If the day ever comes that you can come back, the door will always be open." She leans down and gives him a chaste kiss on the lips.

"Thank you Charles. Love her enough for the both of us." Elena takes Cassiel from him to hold her tightly one more time. Smelling the top of her little head trying to memorize the way she smells. How soft her skin feels beneath her fingers. Cassiel's bright blue eyes open to look up at the person who woke her.

Seeing her mother's face she coos at her happily. Elena can't hold back her tears anymore. Clutching Cassiel to her chest she kisses her one more time before she hands her back to Charles and runs from the house and doesn't look back.