"Hello Moira."

Dr Moira McTaggert had been sewing up a kid who had sliced open his chin skateboarding when Erik spoke, and thankfully for her patient, she'd finished her stitches, or that could have gotten messy. She smiled at the little boy and ruffled his hair before telling him to scoot off and talk to the nurse, who would tell him how to look after it. It wasn't until the boy had gone that Moira looked over to Erik, the smile fading from her face.

"I assume you've heard the news," he continued, ignoring the fact that Moira hadn't said anything in reply to him. "Essex went public. Have you heard from him?" Moira shook her head, busying herself with tidying up the bloodied cotton that had been left strewn around her work area.

"That's funny," he replied mildly, watching her, "I would have thought he would have contacted his biggest contributor. I wonder, do the kids know you send him their DNA? Or was that as surreptitious as you collecting it?"

Her head snapped up at that, disbelief all over her face. "I have no idea what you're talking about Erik, I didn't send him anything." She knew she shouldn't have held onto the samples she'd collected from the kids, but she'd never actually go on and send them to people. Especially not to Essex. He was brilliant, but not entirely stable.

"Interesting. So I suppose there's an explanation as to how everything you collected was part of Essex's research. Perhaps someone else with access?" He cupped her chin with his hand, running his thumb over her chin as he studied her. She jerked her head back, but he held on, his grip getting tighter.

"No. No one else had access. The only person who even knew I'd been collecting them was Charles. I don't even keep them at the hospital."

"Ah." Charles. That would explain it. Erik loosened his grip on her chin, leaning in briefly to kiss her before letting go all together. "I'd take a closer look at your security, my dear." He walked away at that, leaving Moira stunned in the middle of the emergency centre.

That would be Charles' loose end.

"So the geneticist finally went public." Erik Lensherr was sitting at Charles' desk, while the other man paced. Both of them knew this day had been coming - Charles Xavier had been consulting with Dr Essex, and knew how close he was to publishing his work - but they hadn't quite expected it to fall out like this. Or as fast.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this," Charles said flatly. "I was supposed to meet with him tomorrow, go over the final article with him. It's dangerous, letting it get out of control like this. There were things that needed to be taken care of first. Loose ends to tie up. This is just... chaos."

"You can't control everything, Charles. Especially something like this. I know you think the great mind of Charles Xavier can keep everything under control, but even this is beyond you. The world was bound to find out about us. Why not like this?"

"Can you imagine the backlash this is going to cause? Who knows what the media will start to dream up. And the children at the hotel. They had no idea something like this was coming. They're vulnerable, and they don't have the skills to deal with this."

"You constantly underestimate them. They'll be fine, they've looked after themselves so far. They can handle this." Erik pushed himself up out of the chair, fixing Charles with a look. "Relax. Go teach your class. Dream up the next little speech you'll give to Warren, or whoever you speak to at the hotel next. Ask Shakti how they're coping with it. But keep your nose out of it." And while he did that, Erik had a lady he needed to go and see.