"Charles we have to do something. This isn't a problem we can just ignore like we do with everything else in this house."

Once Hank had calmed Y/N enough so she could lie down and get some rest, he went off to find Charles and Logan. He knew how urgent it was to get Erik and stop Raven, but he also knew how much his friend was hurting. Besides, they really did need Y/N if they had any hope of getting Erik to listen. The two had always had a special bond, so much so that many people that didn't know them thought they were father and daughter. It wasn't like they were particularly affectionate towards each other like a father is to his daughter, but Y/N had a way of understanding Erik when nobody else could. If anybody could convince him to help the ongoing mission, she could, and Charles and Logan knew this too.

"Hank, I understand and I wish I could help her, believe me it's all I want to do. But we don't have the time to find him as well as breaking Erik out." Charles tried to sympathise with Hank. After all, he knew better than anyone how Y/N and Alex felt about each other. He had seen the love they shared long before they knew it themselves all those years ago.

"He's right." Logan chimed in, "I don't know exactly how much time we have, but it's not a lot and the sentinels could have already found my team by now. I'm sorry, but if this Alex kid is fighting in Vietnam like you said, then it would take weeks to contact his superiors to get them to send him home. That's if he's even still at his base. Who knows what's happened to him by now, war is a rough place to be for any guy. It can break you."

"I know that. But Y/N is already broken and I don't think I can stand by and let her stay like that much longer," Hank turned to Charles as he continued, "and there's a way we can find out where he is without even having to leave the house."

The three knew what was being referenced here and in the right circumstance it could have worked, but Charles hadn't been able to use Cerebro since he started taking the serum a few years ago.

"Hank, you know I can't."

"You can if you stop taking the serum."

"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned in a chair?"

"I think you, needing the use of a wheelchair for the rest of your life, in return for Y/N getting her life back is a fair sacrifice on your part." Hank was beginning to release the frustration he had been holding in for years at the man who he thought was his hero. The guy he looked up to, who he always thought was going to make a difference in the world, now hooked on injections and cheap whiskey. He took the easy option. Avoiding all problems and hiding away in the giant mansion whilst the people he once promised to protect were captured and tortured to death for being born mutant.

Charles looked at Hank in both shock and shame before looking to the syringe on the desk in front of him. He could feel it was time for another dosage. His legs were beginning to ache and his mind was spinning with the whispers of voices that he was so used to being silenced. At one last look at the yellow liquid, he turned back to the two other men in the room.

"It won't be easy for me. It's been so long, I'm not even sure if it will work the same."

Hank released a breath of relief he didn't even realise he was holding in.

"What do you need me to do?"

It took Charles many attempts and a harsh reality check from Logan before he was able to gain control over the room he was in. The feeling was so nostalgic to him that he wondered how he could of ever given it up in the first place. Seeing Alex through Cerebro was the easy part, but finding out exactly where he was took a little more time. Eventually Charles removed the helmet from his head and turned to face both Logan and Hank who waited in anticipation to find out how far they needed to travel to get to Alex.

"Well," Hank ushered "where is he? Can we fly to him?"

"No." Charles' words sounded almost saddened at first before a small smile of disbelief and confusion appeared on his face, "No, we don't need to fly to him at all."

"He's in the country?" Logan questioned the Professor.

"Oh, he's in the country. He's in the city, my friend."

It was Hank that volunteered out of the three to go and get Alex. They didn't want to tell Y/N what they were doing incase Charles had mistakenly identified where he really was, only to find he was still in fact in Vietnam. Neither of them wanted to risk getting her hopes up for nothing.

When Charles said the building Alex was currently in, Hank knew immediately how to get to it. After all, he was one of the people who had helped move most of the furniture in to the flat when the couple first bought it together. Of course, Alex knew nothing about what had happened to Y/N whilst he had been away and must have gone back to the last place they were planning to move into before he was drafted overseas.

It was dark by the time Hank arrived at the building. By now, the for-sale sign had long since fallen down, and the smashed windows and rotting walls didn't exactly invite many new property owners for a viewing. The apartment block had been empty for years after a fire that broke out on the third floor. The whole place was evacuated until a full refurbishment was to be done, but with the strain on the government funding it was never carried out. Y/N had used the money she made from the place to buy the cafe she was living at when they found her a few days ago.

Making his way up the stairs to floor 2, apartment 6, he notices a small light coming from underneath the door that looked like it had been recently forced open. Pushing past it, Hank spotted him straight away perched on the edge of the worn cotton sofa in the centre of the room. He had his face in his hands and his knees bounced up and down as his hands pulled at his now messy hair.

"Alex." The man jumped at the call of his name and turned to face the door, stepping back in shock when he noticed the face standing in the opening.

"Hank. What the fuck has happened. Where is she?"

On the ride back to the mansion, Hank told Alex everything that had been happening, from the moment he left, to Y/N being taken by Striker, all the way up to the arrival of Logan just a few days ago, only leaving out the detail Y/N told him in her bedroom earlier that morning. Alex seemed be taking it in as well as anybody could, also offering the information that he had recently had a visit from Raven, who was the reason Alex and a few other mutants got out of Vietnam. When they pulled up to the driveway, the pair wasted no time in jumping out of the car and running inside. It had been nearly two years since Alex had last seen Y/N, and now it was like he couldn't stand not to see her another minute.

The sound of a door slam woke Y/N up. She had been resting for the entire day after the events at the cafe and was only just starting to get her energy back from the overload of power she used. Slipping an old cardigan on from her wardrobe, she approached the top of the stairs to see who it was returning.

When she saw who it was standing in the entrance of the house she thought she was going to faint. Either that or she was still dreaming. The pair stood frozen for a few moments before either of them spoke. It was Alex who finally broke the silence.

"Y/N."

The sound of her name coming from his mouth was all it took to snap Y/N back to reality as she simultaneously let out a laugh and a small sob before running down the stairs. Alex laughed as he held out his arms for the girl he loved to jump into.

Getting to finally hold his girlfriend after all these years, Alex wasn't sure if he would ever be able to let her go again. He didn't want to, and she didn't want him to either.

"I'll leave you two to it then. Come find us later." Hank spoke out to the two, not that he expected any kind of response as he slipped away to the kitchen to find Charles and Logan.

Y/N and Alex stayed holding each other for a few minutes before Y/N pulled back slightly to look at the man she had been missing for so long. She cupped his cheek with one hand whilst she used the other to run her fingers through his now overgrown and untamed hair. Alex kept his hands around her body as he pulled her even closer and leant down to bring their lips together. They moved together so perfectly it was like they had never been apart. One of his hand made his way to cup Y/N's cheek and tilted her head back to push their lips together even harder.

It was Y/N that pulled away first, letting out a breath as she did. Alex gripped his hands on her waist and pulled her into his chest as their foreheads rested on each other.

"God, I love you so much Y/N."

"I love you too."

The pair made their way back to their old room as they lay down on the bed, Alex on his back as Y/N curled into his side, head resting on his chest and strong arms holding her tightly to him.

"I missed you so much. It's not been the same without you here. Everything felt so empty." She balled his shirt in her fist tightly when she spoke, too afraid Alex would slip away again at any moment.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to do this with you. As soon as I got back I got a cab from the airport to the apartment. Of course I didn't know what had happened since I'd been away. Not until Hank told me of course." He sat up slightly to face Y/N as he continued, cupping her cheek in his hand. "Y/N I'm so sorry. I should have been here. I never should have gone with Striker and his men. I should have done more to stop them drafting me. Fought to stay with you. And what they did to you. I wish somebody would have told me."

Y/N stiffened at these words. Alex said Hank had explained what had happened, but she was unsure how much he truly new. Would he have told her about the baby? No. Hank wouldn't have done that before she had the chance to, which meant it was finally time to tell him the secret she had kept from him for so long.

"Alex," Y/N sat up and grabbed Alex's hands as they both faced each other on the bed, crossed legs and fingers interlocked. "Striker did a lot to me, Hank told you that, but there was something else he took away from me. Well, from us."

"What are you talking about." Alex had begun to rub circles on Y/N's hands, something he did without realising whenever he comforted her.

"The day that you left for Vietnam I wanted to tell you something. I never really knew how to, and by the time I had worked up the courage it was too late. They already had you packed and out the door. I figured I would just wait until you were back, only expecting you to be gone two weeks for training like they said you would. But then two weeks turned into two months, and when Striker came back and you weren't with him, I knew something was wrong. He told me he wanted to take me too. That I was special and he wanted to train me. I was supposed to be joining you and the rest of the mutants straight away. I knew it would be the only chance I would have to see you before it was too late. But Striker lied. About an hour into flight something was placed over my head and I woke up what must have been days later on an operating table. My whole body ached. I looked around for anybody to explain what was happening. My first thought was that we must have crashed and I was in the hospital, until I saw Striker walk in unharmed in full uniform. He was holding a clipboard and glancing at it every time he approached a different table. That's when I realised I wasn't alone. A dozen other mutants were in the same situation as me. I looked to see if you were there too, but obviously you weren't. When Striker approached my table he explained that what was happening was 'necessary for the survival of the human race'. Basically a twisted way of letting me know he had been planning to capture and experiment on us all for years. For days I was injected and cut and tested on. All I could do was lay there helpless as the mutants around me were wheeled away in body bags one by one. It was one day during a shift change that I noticed there were less guards than usual. I took my chance and ran and somehow made it out. I still don't know how, but I did, and I never stopped to look back." By the end of her story, tears were covering Y/N's cheeks. Alex just sat there listening carefully to every word that came out of her mouth. It broke him to hear how much more she had suffered than he ever did. He wanted nothing more than to go back and swap places with her so that he would be the one with the scars and not her. But that was impossible.

"Y/N. I'm so sorry. If I... If I knew. I could have. I could have stopped it. I should have stopped it. Hell, I should never have even let it happen in the first place. But hey, look at me." He wiped away the tears from her cheeks as he stared straight into her eyes as he spoke, "You got out. You survived and I swear I will never let him hurt you ever again. It's all just a memory. Just scars that fade. They may not ever go away, and the memory will always be there, but that's all it is. You won and he lost. You..."

"I was pregnant."

Alex blinked and stared at the girl in front of him, not sure if he had just imagined what she said.

"What?"

"Alex, I'm so sorry. I should have... I wished I would have told you. I was stupid. I thought if I just waited until things got a little better then... God, I don't know. But I kept it quiet. Nobody else knew. Not even Striker. Well, until the blood test they did came back. There was no way I could hide it then. I begged him to just let the baby live. That he could do whatever he wanted with me if he just let the baby be born safely. Of course that didn't work. I tried to fight. Did everything I could to stop the needle going in but I couldn't. Alex I'm so sorry. I couldn't... I couldn't..."

By now Y/N was crying hysterically. Alex pulled her into his lap and just let her as he held her against him as tightly as he could.

"It's okay. It's going to be okay Y/N. I love you. I will always love you. This isn't your fault. This is the fault of one man and one man only, and I swear to God, I'm going to fix this. I'll do whatever it takes to stop him, even if I have to kill him with my bare hands. I'll kill him for what he did to you and our baby." By now, tears of his own were threatening to spill out and all he could do was press his lips to her forehead and pull her in even tighter to his body.

Striker had destroyed so many lives. Slaughtered so many friends and family. He had taken the one thing nobody ever deserved to lose, mutant or not, and he was going to pay for it.

Y/N and Alex had each other now, and that was all they needed to finally make things right again. For the first time in a long time Y/N felt like she had a part of herself back. Alex was back. She may have lost everything, but she knew now there were some things she could get back.

She was going to get them back.