Post by Dr. Xavier Foster on Jun 14, 2013 12:15:06 GMT -7
XAVIER FOSTER
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◊ FULL NAME: Xavier Clyde Foster
◊ CODENAME: Doc
◊ GENDER: Male
◊ RACE: Human
◊ AGE: 70 years
◊ APPEARANCE: Xavier is a tall man, but his 6’3 frame is nothing out of the ordinary amongst his family. Everyone, minus his dear mother, was six feet and over. His slight frame however is an oddity and despite being exceptionally tall he weighs only 156 lbs. He hasn’t been called a walking skeleton for nothing. He has a gangly look to him, as if his pale skin is stretched tightly across his body defining each bone and little muscle with frightening clarity. There doesn’t seem to be a ounce of fat on the man’s body but he does take care of himself, making sure to eat the right foods and occasionally work out when he remembers. Sometimes. His job and family keep the rest of him in shape. Long arms, long legs, long neck, everything about him seems to be extended as if he stretched like taffy. His stomach and arms are where his most prominent muscles are and it is more of a marvel that pride that he has retained the tautness of his abs even at his age.
A narrow nose and small thin lips fit his long oval face, his bone structure is prominent giving his eyes a slightly hollowed look and dimpled cheeks when he smiles. With ears that would be too big on anyone else, they are sculpted to fit the curve of his head and don’t stick out as his brothers. His eyes are a soft shade of mousy grey and the deepest lines of his face congregate around and below his eyes. His hairline is receding; he doesn’t give it much thought as growing his hair out to cover it is too much of a bother. He wears it short as it has a tendency to curl and become one big bush. Once a light brown, it is now a very soft grey nearly silver in color. Foster has a large scar near his right hip. He was run through with a double edged sword a decade ago when an enemy soldier had disguised himself as a casualty and was brought in under false pretenses. The scar has healed and goes in just above his hip and out his lower back, just missing his spine.
Xavier is a man of many emotions and though he may not express them all with his voice, his body has become his voice. From his high school years in drama class he has learned to use his body to accentuate his words and is a man that talks with his hands. The rest of his body just seems to follow along and the more excited he becomes, the more entertaining he is to watch. Usually seen with a frown of concentration, that have caused two horizontal lines across his brow, it doesn’t take much to get a frightened rabbit look out of him. From the years working in the medical field he has the perpetual undertone of antiseptics that clings to his skin and hair, no matter how many times he showers.
◊ ATTIRE: Work wise for clothing, which seems to be forever and a day, Foster pulls off a professional form of chaos. He’s retired the three piece suits for casual slacks, sweater vests and tweed jackets. While his jackets are neutral colors, his vests are often argyle in design and a multitude of bright colors with a subdued tie to, for lack of a better word, tie it all together. During work hours he steps into white medical shoes with a enclosed toe in case of fluid spillage. His square black rimmed reading glasses, they’re either perched atop his head or hanging from his mouth and occasionally stuffed into a pocket, are forgotten until he searches for it in a attempted quest to gain its power of sight. Over this he wears a white cotton lab coat that falls thigh length with at least two pairs of disposable gloves shoved into one pocket and 2 ballpoint pens, one black ink and the other blue. He often wears a water proof watch having learned the previous three times.
When at home, his work clothes usually remain on unless they’re dirty, he just looses his tie a little and untucks his shirts. Xavier prefers his brown penny loafers that don’t have actual money in them, but rather circular pieces of wood drawn on by his kids. Very rarely will you see him in jeans and t-shirts unless he’s doing something that’ll work up a sweat. Those few special objects he holds dear to his heart are kept with him on a daily basis. Xavier wears his wedding band, a modest band of gold, precious in rareness. Tabby had the inside engraved that reads, “Till death or madness do us part.” Around his neck he wears a leather necklace, replacing the hemp of years ago, below the hollow of his throat where a single pacific pink and white shell dangles about the size of a quarter. It was made by Elijah for a Father’s Day gift in his youth. Since then, every child has added a little trinket of their own; a precious stone, a microchip, a bottle cap, a small carved wooden figure that looks part bear and part deer, a rounded piece of green glass, and three beads. He has never taken it off and cherishes it greatly; usually when he’s in deep thought he’ll fiddle with it.
◊ FACE CLAIM: Doug Jones
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◊ AFFILIATION: BPRD
◊ PROFESSION: Chief Physician of BPRD’s Infirmary
◊ PERSONALITY: Xavier is a man of many emotions, all jumbled together and confusing. He was a spacey child, easily distracted and absentminded and, as an adult, he never really corrected his faults and it's lead to a semi-chaotic lifestyle. What might seem like an aloof, distant and dreamy man is in fact a sharp calculating mind, musing quietly over work cases and family dinners. The persona of medic and father are two different people intertwined on a single plane of existence. The doctor stumbles rather than falls into a leadership role; he has the smarts and the tenacity for it, but he occasionally gets lost along the way by this way awesome hemoglobin structure. Right, right, sorry. He is resourceful, able to adapt to his surroundings and keep going when the excrement hits the fan. Unconsciously arrogant in the sense that unless you’re a doctor don’t butt into in his work or get in the way. Often a person will be gently shoved out of the door, the doctor is not afraid to use his age and slight bulk to get matters taken care of. A workaholic to the extreme, the dark circles under his eyes aren’t solely from his family nor are they pathetic consequences, but badges of honor. Each careworn line and crease is well earned to further the path of medicine and helping thought, but don’t get this confused with being brave or a hero. Xavier doesn’t consider himself anything special and will stare wide eyed like an owl when any sort of praise is given.
He drives people bonkers for his slow and methodical approach to medicine, he does not sacrifice quality for quantity. It becomes a milestone to patients when you remember their name instead of a disorder. He takes the time to know his people in order to take care of them better and he’s known for not sugar coating anything. Everyone deserves the truth even if they don’t want to hear it. He takes after his beloved nickname Doc; he takes to looking after folks, even those that can themselves. It’s the fatherly role in him that goes beyond his children. He will badger, nag, and even bitch about the stupid things people do nowadays and will comment afterwards on lack of intelligence. Some consider him an oddball due to his contradictory personality; he spazzes at the simplest of things and remains cool in the heat of a moment. He’d rather be the medium between fights and has no qualms of letting others beat the snot out of each other as long as he gets to clean up the mess afterwards and assign whose missing teeth belongs to who. He enjoys being involved in random activities, if only just a bystander, and loves to people watch all including his fellow doctors.
Though slow to anger, it’s easy to rile up him and take advantage of his forgetful manner. Here the old Doc shines through. Even after twenty years of marriage, Tabby still manages to fluster him and her wild charms always make him stutter and become an adorable fool around her. He is still as madly in love with her as he was the first day they met and is a devoted husband to his wife. Xavier's family is his life; it’s the only thing he’s always wanted and achieving it has made him a happy man. While the chaos and disorder of the Foster Clan rivals the greatest of battles and many wonder why the sweet doctor hasn’t gone mad a long time ago, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Despite his demanding schedule, he still finds the time to sit down with each of his children and help with school work, talk about the day, and wrestle with the little ones.
Together medic and father share the same traits of a caring individual. Neither will leave a man behind nor refuse to treat a patient regardless of their history. Xavier is a passionate man who may judge the stupid things you do, but the paternal side of him will make sure you’re well taken care of and ultimately make sure a person is accountable for their actions. If they were brave/dumb enough to do something, own up to it. Overall, Foster is a kind and gentle spirit who doesn’t seem to have a medical filter to his mouth and it’s nothing to talk about the dangers of parasitic worms at the dinner table much to the moans and groans of his older children.
◊ ABILITIES: None
◊ SKILLS: Xavier is a qualified medical doctor who has completed training in anatomical pathology, the diagnosis of disease based on the gross, microscopic, and molecular examination of organs, tissues, and cells. A licensed forensic pathologist, he was board certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Forensic Pathology. He used to determine the cause and manner of death, usually for criminal law cases and civil law cases in some jurisdictions, by performing autopsies on the deceased. Xavier received the same doctorate training, and undergone the same medical licensure process as other physicians, which came in handy when the world upended itself. Twenty years later and mostly self-taught, Foster has become the BPRD’s head doctor, surgeon, local/family practitioner, oncologist, pathologist, if it’s got ologist in the title, he’s your man. He has also had to adapt to supernatural biology, finding not everyone is built like a human. He has a team of doctors and nurses under him and he corrals them wherever he needs them. He buckled down and studied hard while maintaining his family life and can work just as readily in the field as he can indoors.
Foster has the ability to confound and annoy those around him: only he can give a 2 hour lecture on the hemoglobin structure and then when asked a question, completely forget what he was talking about mere seconds ago. He also has the knack to pull through in the end, if by the skin of his teeth on everything he does, working best under pressure. He is a champion sleeper, he can pass out in the midst of his enthusiastic children during a sugar rush and not hear a thing but the moment one cries, he is instantly awake. He gets by on roughly four hours of sleep with the occasional nap in between, but has gotten used to the hectic schedule. An excellent cook, he’s had twenty years to perfect it for a full-size family. An encyclopedia of useless knowledge, he enjoys reading and absorbs any material he can get his hands on. Foster is a good man and hasn’t been cowed by colleagues to drink, smoke or do drugs and does his best to be an upright citizen. He’ll tell you the one thing he’s good at is being a dad, it’s everything he wanted and he will do his best to provide for his children and make sure they grow up right. It took him a second try at being a husband to find out he was quite good at that too.
◊ WEAKNESSES: Xavier is a true blue human with no magical abilities or hidden powers. He was never one for weapons, he’s seen the damage they do and still doesn’t know how to handle a gun properly. He has a high metabolism and while many consider that a strength, Foster is eating constantly to keep himself at his current weight. If he goes half a day without a bran muffin or peanuts, he becomes light headed, shaking and weak and, on occasion, a grump. He has learned in the past to always keep his desk stocked with energy and protein bars. His lower back and shoulders seem to be taking the brunt force of age and when he stands for hours at a time everything starts hurting and aching. A sweet man, he is easy to manipulate with puppy eyes and a lowered lip, something his children are a master at.
◊ EQUIPMENT: While Xavier doesn’t keep a lot of medical equipment on him, he does have really large lab coat pockets and keeps on him at all times a penlight, three tongue depressors, band aids, face shield, plastic gloves and a stethoscope around his neck. He does have a medical bag he travels with and it contains everything a first aid kit would have, including different medicines, painkillers and various instruments.
◊ RESIDENCE: Aptly named The Foster Clan, the huge family resides on their own level for everyone’s sanity sake. Level F, which Xavier adores and Tabby pats him on the arm, is just a long corridor of rooms, simple and straight forward. Every child save for the triplets have their own room. Tabby and Xavier have their private quarters, which the children are strictly forbidden to enter. Of course, this is rarely enforced as their giant lush bed has become a beacon for slumber parties and we had a bad dream can we sleep with you? A private bathroom is off to the left, closets to the right, bed in the middle with a sitting area and television toward the front of their room. Medical books are piled high on Xavier’s side of the bed as he has a habit of reading them late at night. Family photos and drawings are plastered everywhere, there isn’t a wall that isn’t covered by something of their children.
◊ FAMILY: Frederick Foster (Father, deceased), Ruth Foster (Mother, deceased), Nicolette Ackermann (Sister, deceased), Christian Foster (Brother, deceased), Jonathan Foster (Brother, deceased), Maria Prentiss (Sister, living), Amelia Reinhardt (Ex wife, deceased), Tabby Whitman (Wife, living), Elijah Foster (Son, living), Riley Foster (Child, living), Whit Foster (Son, living), Thor Foster (Son, living), Artemis Foster (Daughter, living), Ciaran Foster (Son, living) Bennett Foster (Son, living), Bailey Foster (Son, living) and Bryce Foster (Son, living)
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◊ HISTORY: Xavier was born in Annville Pennsylvania, the second youngest of five children. His great grandparents emigrated from Holland when his grandfather was 5 years old, settling down alone with several Dutch German families to create a community of well knit people. Xavier’s parents were never well-off people, but simple citizens who held simple jobs in town. His father Frederick followed the family trait and was an English professor at the Lebanon Valley College while his mother Ruth remained at home with the children. Frederick helped shaped the passion for knowledge in his children, letting it blossom to offer a world to find their true calling.
As far as he’s concerned, Xavier had a boring and typical childhood. The most exciting thing he remembers at the age of twelve was his brother Christian, a year older than him fell out of a tree and broke his arm. They had been playing after dinner, racing off to the park alone with their youngest sibling, Maria at age eight. Being the eldest of the group, Christian wanted to climb the tallest tree and succeeded in goading his siblings into following. Maria had gotten five feet off the ground before freezing, leaving Xavier to help her down. Unfortunately Christian beat them to the ground first. Maria went screaming for help while the elder stayed with his brother. The trip to the emergency room had been almost surreal but Xavier remembered vividly the brilliant white coat of the doctor that had taken care of his brother. This sparked a new interest in the young boy’s life.
High school was rough for Xavier for he never settled down long enough for a class before becoming antsy. He would always be looking forward and what was next and during his Jr. year he filled his free time with electives from drama, choir, track and field to the local chess club. He learned to deal with chaos coming from a large family and carried it over into schooling. He become fast friends with others interested in the medical world but it wasn’t until his college years that he finally decided on a specific field, centering in on becoming a medical examiner. Xavier moved across the states to go to Stanford School of Medicine in California. First year medical students took Surgery 203 (Anatomy) in which he was to dissect a cadaver. Their Jane Doe had died in a car accident and since names and background were never divulged for student’s sake, Xavier imagined a life for the woman, going as far as to call her Lily. Other than creeping out his colleagues, he made the decision to give the dead one last voice to tell the world about their lives.
Xavier earned a B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree with a major in Biology and minor in English. This allowed him to enter and complete the four years in medical school and dove straight into medical residency. It was a long rough road, paved with hardship and struggles but during this he met a sweet young woman named Amelia Reinhardt. They immediately hit it off and became study buddies but, like any young love, it didn’t last long and the two grew apart over the years and it wasn’t until Amelia was ousted out of school for plagiarism that the two finally separated their ties. It wasn’t until Xavier had received his MD title that he ran into Amelia again; he had just turned 30 less than a week before. It was like rekindling a old fire and Xavier was on cloud nine and the walls dropped and when he proposed to Amelia barely a year later, she accepted.
Xavier was 31 when Amelia bore their son Elijah. He took time off from working to help raise their child. During their son’s first year in life, the couple moved a total of five times, each one bringing them closer to the east coast before finally settling in the Bronx, New York. Xavier took a job at the local morgue while his wife watched over Elijah and worked odd end jobs. Xavier thought life would get better now that they had a stable place to live, but life is hardly fair. In 2001, Amelia filed for divorced. Things had become harder with her; it was as if she had become a different woman over the years. She began drinking and carousing with the wrong crowds when Xavier would work late, and she began to steal from him, using that money to gamble and sneak out behind his back to have affairs. It was all too soon her philandering ways and gambling caught up with her and soon the Foster family was $30,000 in debt.
A mandatory separation period of one year was in order and during this time Xavier took a promotion to work with the New York Police crime lab and moved to Queens. In the end the divorce was granted, but the custody battle was a nightmare. Elijah was eight when Xavier lost the case. Amelia had several attorney friends and they worked hard, pulling strings to gain custody over the boy. Having a father who worked with the dead was not the proper sort of life for a young man. Amelia was the parent who was home the most with their son. Xavier’s absentminded past was used against him; each little forgotten doctor’s appointment or missed school play was laid bare and in the tragic end, Amelia gained custody over Elijah. Xavier retained every other weekend visitation rights and during the summer he had two weeks with him.
Amelia moved a few years later to Trenton, New Jersey to live closer to her mother. To compensate, Foster asked to be transferred and though it took nearly a year, the call was finally put through and Xavier packed up his belongings and made the trek over to Jersey, finding a small rent controlled apartment from an elderly couple. It was a one room, one bathroom but it was a mansion compared to his old life. He had hoped to start anew, but during the second week of settling in there was a familiar knock on the door and when he opened it to a smiling Amelia looking for a handout, his patience grew thin. He gave in, but after she left, he took a long walk to mull over his thoughts, his feet taking him into the older part of Trenton with little tucked away shops and treasures.
Xavier met Tabitha Whitman that night, the young woman falling for him. Literally. He accidentally tripped her while he sat sprawled out amongst a shop of old books and knickknacks and while he still doesn’t remember much of that night, when he woke up with her in his bed the next morning he figured he was going to hell. But before then, he’d enjoy the time he had. The two developed a relationship of coffee outings at odd hours, the movies, dinner, and clubbing (that was new for him), and it was months before he realized he was in a dating relationship. He introduced Tabby to his son, who took an instant liking to her, his ex not so much, and for a while, everything was good.
Then Ragnarök arrived and Xavier’s simple little life exploded. He was exposed to the supernatural side of the world and creatures and races that belong in fairy tales and movies were living and breathing right before his eyes. He found out his colleague Madeny was a skin walker and Joe the delivery guy was a Sidhe. It was a lot to take in and he half-expected his ex-wife to be a troll. Elijah had been staying with him when the Golden Army converged and when they were rescued by Tabby it was only then he found out where she actually worked. He and his son were given refuge, as their apartment building was being overrun by a band of goblins, in exchange for his medical help. The chief physician had perished during an attack and staff was stretched thin with the wounded pouring in. As if on autopilot, Xavier used the medical training he had attained so many years ago, tending to the injured when he remembered his ex-wife. He tried to find her and his family but with everyone scattered about and all forms of communications lost, it would be years before he would find out.
Evacuation plans were set in motion but Elijah refused, wanting to find his mother first. As much as it broke his heart, Xavier had to make a choice. He told him to get on the plane, Amelia would want him to be safe, and he held his son in his arms the entire trip to another base hidden in the Colorado mountains. It was a surreal ride and he felt tired and old, the sleepless nights catching up to him, and when they landed, it only got worse from there. There was no medical team awaiting them and none of the medical staff had been with them when they left. As a civilian, Foster was christened a temporary agent and given full access to their medical ward, which turned out to be older than him with equipment that hadn’t seen the light of day in over twenty years. He had to make due, but before he started anything, Xavier had to tend to his son. While he wished nothing more than to keep Elijah at his side, a hospital ward was no place to be and he asked Tabby if Elijah could spend time with her to give him something to do and away the blood and gore.
Xavier focused on the getting the ward up and running, the dust and cobwebs had to wait save for the makeshift surgery room. Medical equipment was brought in and those that didn’t work were fixed, supplies, though sparse, were streaming in steadily, allowing him to take care of the few injured who accompanied them. As Liz’s due date grew closer, his concentration shifted to her and making her comfortable. He was ill equipped and staff was low with so many men and women on the battlefield. When her contractions started, there was no time to dwell on what they didn’t have. With Tabitha aiding him, he delivered two beautiful and healthy babies, an eyebrow raise his only surprise at the red skinned baby followed by a pink skinned one.
Names were given, whispered tenderly to each child as she held them in turned. Tiredly, she closed her eyes, a smile playing on her lips and the happy quiet was torn apart of by a blaring heart monitor. Her blood pressure plummeted, a sudden pool of blood soaked through the sheets and Trevor was pulled from her arms and passed to Tabby just as Liz stopped breathing. Xavier started compressions, calling for a crash cart unconsciously despite there not being one. He had Tabby stay on resuscitation with a bag mask and knew he had to get Liz breathing and to the operating room before she bled out. With just the two of them, it was a race they already had lost. The wailing cries of the newborn infants rang in his ears, drowning out Tabby’s pleas and he felt his own heartbeat thunder in his chest, his arms down and his hands still pressing down and willing life into the woman.
He wasn’t sure long he tried before Tabby tugged at his arm to make him stop, and it was only then he felt the excruciating pain in his arms and back. Stepping back, he held her tightly before quietly telling her to tend to the twins and he would take care of things here. When Abraham returned solemn and by himself, the future of the children seemed bleak. His heart went out to them and he thought about his own son and what would happen to him if both he and Amelia had perished. He wouldn’t let anything happen to his family, and made the decision to remain with the Bureau where he could ensure his son’s safety and help rebuild what was left of their home. The war was over; they had won, but it came at a great price.
Xavier set to rebuild the medical ward, to not let a horrible fate happen again because of lack of equipment and staffing. Within half a year, he had gained three other doctors and four nurses and equipment salvaged from the surrounding lands. Foster enrolled Elijah in the newly established Broom Institute to give him a semblance of normalcy. The medical ward became the Infirmary; it had its own ER and operating rooms, private patient rooms and he and another doctor shared the spot of family physician as the Bureau was restored into a working facility. He earned the title of Chief Physician when he finally learned what happened to his family. He had lost nearly everyone but his younger sister was still alive and in Canada, she and her husband running a home for war orphans. Amelia, he knew, he had always known what happened to her. Hearing about her death made it final, and he numbly excused himself from work to spend time with his son and he realized there would always be a part of him that loved her.
In the following year after Ragnarök, his relationship with Tabitha grew. Family meals that consisted of Elijah bringing his father a Spam sandwich and water when he was working was equally shared with a hard toiling, grease covered redhead. Smiles were passed through corridors, Bureau Movie Monday’s were spent huddled together, nights were shared, granted it was watching the Bruttenholm twins, but still. Time had changed Xavier; he treasured everything he had, focused more to give Elijah everything he could, but what changed the most was his confidence and new-found boldness, and one evening he found Tabby working alone. Settling himself on one knee, he asked her to marry him. She brought so much joy back into his and Elijah’s life. He adored her, loved her, wanted to spend every day of his life with her.
They had a modest wedding almost a year later, consisting of a few friends and colleagues and the local drunk who really was a nice man and brought homemade pickles as a gift. Abraham gave Tabby away, Elijah was his father’s best man, and the Bruttenholm twins made a great attempt at being the flower girl and ring bearer. Their honeymoon was a simple getaway to a quiet level of the BPRD and life settled back into normal. They were both not quite ready for children and were fine with waiting and instead worked on building their family dynamics.
When Elijah turned eighteen, he was the first graduate from the Broom Institute and choose to become a field agent, taken under Agent Myers’ wing. It was dutifully discussed beforehand and with reassurance from his wife, Xavier gave his blessing. The teen, fresh faced and ready, was paired with several other new agents to be trained. He became fast friends with a fellow teen named Rachel Sumner and three years later he became a full fledged agent.
On an assignment skirting close to Nuada’s borders in search of an X-Ray machine in a dilapidated hospital, Xavier stumbled upon a crying Fae baby tucked underneath collapsed beam. Knowing he couldn’t leave it, he squeezed himself into the impossibly small area and grabbed the child before the rest of the ceiling could cave in. He returned home hopelessly in love with the baby and, in their usual polar opposite way of handling things, Riley was welcomed into their home.
The Bruttenholm twins were getting older and their days of babysitting were still as strong as ever but Foster had to admit, he missed the sounds of a baby. Elijah was in his twenties now, a devoted agent of the Bureau who no longer lived with them, finding most of his downtime was spent with Rachel. Riley was cherished and raised with understanding parents, giving the child the choice of what they wanted to be, if any. Whit followed two years later, their first child together. Thor came along a few months later, aptly named for his strong and robust build, he was a chunky troll baby saved from certain death. Another two years later, their first and only daughter Artemis was born with hair as red as fire and a temper to match. She eventually grew out of it, mostly, and her father’s eardrums thanked her for it. They were a beautiful family, diverse and loved and it only got better from there as rescuing babies seemed to become a running theme when Tabby returned from an assignment with a bubbly boy in tow. They named him Ciaran and got quite the surprise the first night during bath time when a sudsy seal pup suddenly raced throughout the Foster Clan’s level, Xavier desperately on his heels -- er, flippers.
Life was grand, Xavier now had a full staff to run his Infirmary, leaving him more time for his family. Elijah had grown up and become a top field agent with Myers recommending him for a teaching position for future representatives. Though his young family and work consumed his attention, the normally spacey doctor watched his son become closer to his friend Rachel. He hinted in his usual manner, but nothing seemed to come of it, and he was content as long as his son was happy.
Xavier continued on with his work, and one particular day he happened to be in the ER when a group of casualties were brought in. They were civilians traveling to the BPRD in search of sanctuary when they were attacked on the road. Only a handful made it out alive. While patients were being tended to, Xavier noticed a straggler who didn’t seem all that injured, though he walked with a pronounced limp with ragged clothes that hung off his thin frame. He was as pale as the moon, skittish, and refused to take off his goggles or hat. Figuring he was suffering from post trauma, Xavier invited the man to sit on one of the gurneys away from the rush of the ER and let him get him something to drink. He didn’t see the stranger’s weapon until it was in his hands, a flash of steel and the doctor looked down at the sword driven nearly to the hilt through him. He remembered it feeling like fire, a sudden heat blooming from the spot while the rest of his body felt cold. The pain only came when the sword was wrenched out of him as he collapsed. Xavier clutched at the wound, gathering the material of his shirt in a vain attempt to staunch the bleeding, the doctor in him rising up. It did nothing to slow the blood flowing out of the exit wound and as his vision faded, fire danced along the ceiling and a red figure stood over him and he wondered if he’d ever get to see his wife and children again.
Xavier woke up three days later, wrapped up like a mummy and surrounded by flowers and cards and stuffed animals. Tabby was asleep in the chair beside him, Ciaran in her arms. He watched her until she awoke and, disregarding sleeping baby and injured husband, she flung her arms around him in a tight embrace. Ciaran wiggled between his parents and only when he became fussy did they break their hug. Reassuring his wife he still alive, he asked what happened after he was stabbed. The Bruttenholm twins had saved the Infirmary, once the madman started attacking people, a call was put out. The twins with Riley in tow happened to be looking for him to come to dinner and arrived just as he went down. Before he could ask, Tabby assured him they were safe, Maggie had gotten Riley out the moment she saw him fall, Trevor set the man on fire. He would live, but it would be a painful life.
It would be almost a year before Xavier would be back on his feet, recuperation and physical therapy tedious and rough. He made the worst patient ever, according to his staff. He accredits his good heath and healing to his beloved family. With life back on track, his children growing and entering the Institute and work to be done, he found he had a little extra sleep to spare and he and Tabby tried for one more child. As the years progressed and their crib remained unused, he was worried he could no longer give Tabby a child. He was a man already in his late 60’s, and knowing her heart and not knowing what she was doing, he too looked for an alternative. And suddenly, triplets. Xavier rightfully panicked and nine months suddenly seemed so close.
As an added and wonderful surprise, Elijah announced he wanted to marry Rachel. They preferred to keep it quiet with a private ceremony, exchanging their own vows with just their family present. It was a beautiful ceremony and Xavier wept like a baby. Preparations for the triplets were made with the medical staff kept on alert and every scenario was prepared for. Bed rest was enforced once Tabby reached her second trimester and, like all of his children, he would be there to deliver them. The triplets Bennett, Bailey and Bryce were born in the middle of the night three weeks early and, though it was a tense night, everything came out all right in the end. It was a joyous moment severed when word reached them that Elijah’s team had been ambushed and Rachel didn’t make it.
Heartbroken, Elijah's family waited for his return but when he didn’t, worry set in. After Rachel's death, Elijah stayed away from the Bureau, taking assignments that would have him gone for months, and it would be almost a year before Xavier and Tabby would see him. It pained him to see his son suffer so much heartache and the change in him. He was no longer the little boy Xavier held in his arms the day they arrived at the base; he wasn’t the cheerful soul who teased the Bruttenholm twins and could get away with it. He was solemn and forlorn, a wounded soldier who could never be healed, and Xavier knew he had to let him go. He would always be welcomed and loved, but his father could not bring Elijah back from the path he chose.
The last few years have been a mix of madness and bliss. The earth is slowly healing from the scars of a battle from more than two decades ago, and the Bureau is flourishing more than ever. Xavier has his wife, his children, and a means to protect them and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, you know, other than the whole Ragnarök thing.
