"You really were going to come searching for me?"

Erik looked to the side. After being left alone Liesel had settled down and laid on her back. She had covered herself over with the thin cover present, she'd even placed the mask back on. And to be even more shocking, she even let a replacement doctor look her over. The other that she had attacked had been taken elsewhere and was fine, which was a massive relief. Liesel merely raised an eyebrow at him as he turned and looked at her fully. He looked torn between actually answering, just staring at her blankly, or just ignore she even spoke at all. To be honest, she was inclined to say all three.

"Yes." He replied eventually after a lengthy silence. Liesel sat up slowly, she pushed her tangled hair over her shoulder and tucked her legs underneath herself. "Truthfully," he started and paused to think over his words. With a frown he shook his head, "Truthfully I did have a moment where I thought he had taken you with him."

"I'm no use to him." Liesel stated obviously. She was not strong, she wasn't much of a fighter, she didn't really have any particular skills that she could think of right now. Compared to Erik himself, she was rather low on the grand scale of things. If Schmidt had taken one of them for the purpose of getting them on board, he would surely go for Erik not herself. But then...the differences between them is that Liesel actually listened to the man, whereas Erik would not, ever listen to him again. All these thoughts caused her head to suddenly hurt, so she gently rubbed at her temple with her eyes shut.

Erik shook his head again, "You are more use to him than you know." He looked at her with a knowing look, which she returned with a confused look of her own. "He...he has this habit of taking away anyone who was and is ever close to me." He painfully admitted in a low tone in case anyone who was loitering out in the corridor could hear them.

Tilting her head to the side, Liesel shuffled up and put an arm around his shoulders. "Me too." She patted him on the arm and even tightened her hold on him.

"You know, you can be really quite annoying at times. You have a horrid habit of questioning everything, you always have to have an opinion. Despite thinking otherwise, you are strong. You faced two fears today and came through it. You would be useful to him, because without you, I..." Erik explained in more detail, seeing as how she wasn't fully grasping onto his earlier words, he trailed off letting his words hang in the air. "I am sorry for pulling you into this. But I have a horrid feeling that even if I didn't, he would've sought you out regardless." Erik shrugged loosely and looked to the doorway, he redirected his sentence to go in another direction to where it was going.

"Erik?" Liesel swung her legs over the bed and leaned her head against his shoulder. She seemed to notice this, her tone quite clearly stated so. Yet she didn't comment and call him out on it, she just left it be. If he wished to tell her something, even more so if it was on an emotional personal level; he would tell her when he was ready.

"What is it?" He answered bluntly trying to backtrack any moment of emotional admittance.

She was silent for a few moments before shutting her eyes and smiling lightly behind the oxygen mask. Truth be told she was amazed at how long the lead was. "I really thought I had lost you earlier, you know? And...I think that hurts more than anything else that has happened to me today. Because...because, I really do care deeply for you, you know?" Liesel whispered out quietly while just enjoying the moment. She couldn't easily say she loved him like Schmidt believed, because she was not sure that what she felt was that particular emotion. She hadn't really felt something like she felt for him, for anyone else. Not even her family, they were naturally on another level, but what she felt for him was close. Whereas he may struggle to easily come out with such a quietly spoken admittance, Liesel however did not.

"I know." It wasn't a self-conceited answer. He was quiet, and honest. To give attention, help, and to understand someone so willingly and fully was something which could be contributed to love, he presumed that was what she was hinting at. Only someone who loved another would do the things Liesel did. Erik had had his presumptions to her feelings, but never really dwelt on them. His own feelings towards her were confusing enough, though he did feel himself feeling the same, even more so after seeing her lifeless body earlier. It cemented how precious and fragile life, her life could be. As yet he hadn't reciprocated, but she didn't seem to mind at all. She simply nudged her head against his when he leaned it on top of hers.

"Do you trust them?" Liesel's voice piped up again after a few moments of silence.

Erik frowned in thought. Turning his head so he could quickly kiss her on the forehead, he retreated and stood. He could hear calls from above about coming to the dock. "I don't know."

"Yet." Liesel smiled and pulled the mask off and jumped off of the bed.

"Yet," he confirmed with a nod and led the way out of the room. Liesel cringed slightly at the sight of dark waters around them. Erik sent her a look and held out a hand, shutting her eyes she easily slipped her hand into his and allowed herself to be led to where she presumed Charles and Moira were.

"Are you okay?"

Recognising Charles's voice, Liesel smiled. "I can't deal with looking at anymore water today. If I did I may faint." She replied with a small chuckle. Though confused by her answer, Charles left it at that. It seemed though that as soon as solid ground was beneath her, Liesel was fine. She looked sceptically at the black sleek car which was waiting for them though.

Sliding into the back she was wedged in between Erik and Charles, which was a little awkward considering all three of them were still drying off. "I'm sorry." Liesel looked to Charles, he looked confused again before she merely pointed to the damp material of her dress which, because of the close proximity back here, was actually pressing against his trousers. It was going to be impossible to dry off back here with the three of them all in different stages.

He laughed quietly and waved a hand at her. "It's fine. Honestly," he smiled, Liesel raised an eyebrow and looked to Erik. He just looked at Charles oddly, it seemed both were inclined to think he was slightly odd, overly enthusiastic yet of a kind disposition. With a shrug, she didn't reply, instead she merely took to shutting her eyes and resting her head back against Erik's shoulder. She suddenly felt rather exhausted, the rocking motion of the ship had made her feel unwell; whereas the motions of the car made her feel tired. Within moments she was asleep, she murmured slightly in her sleep now and again, but otherwise she had a dreamless sleep.

----

Being bleary eyed was the least of Liesel's troubles when she got out of the car and looked to the large building before her. She rubbed her eyes and tilted her head to the side. It was so big. And so...intimidating. Black suited people flitted to and fro, she could spy some now in the foyer even as they all stood outside in the morning sun. All standing in fresh clothes that had been given to them, they had a pit stop before continuing here. By that, it was more of a mini briefing, allowing everyone to recover before the drive here. 

Liesel had been most happy to accept the change of clothes given to her. The white three-quarter length sleeved top was comfortable and managed to slightly tuck into the loose black legged trousers she'd speedily changed into. She kept her boots though, even if it took ages for them to dry out. Much like herself, Erik had accepted the clean clothes politely, standing with replacement sunglasses, he straightened out the dark brown leather jacket he wore. Underneath the blue top he had on contrasted the dark colours of the coat and trousers rather well, Liesel had nodded, and as they met up again; yet again told him it suited him, the whole leather jacket thing...yeah, he looked good. He had rolled his eyes at her, yet had returned the favour, by in an indirect way of saying how she looked better now she wasn't shivering from sea water...Liesel had sighed, he tried, bless.

The man who had driven them here seemed rather proud of this building though. She could see it in his eyes. He rubbed his hands together once they were all out of the car and by his side. "Welcome to my facility." Liesel's nose scrunched up at that. She didn't quite like the word facility. "My mission has been to investigate the application of paranormal powers in military defence." He explained while moving forwards, they all naturally followed after him as he walked up the steps.

"Or offence," Erik chipped in while glancing to Charles who walked by his side with a troubled look on his face. Beside him Moira just nodded slowly, seems she was actually paying attention to the man.

"This guy, Shaw...Schmidt, whatever you wanna call him. He's working with the Russians. We might need your help to stop him." The man furthered on as they all neared the glass double doors which led into the building. Liesel wasn't at all surprised to hear that Schmidt had one, changed his name, and two, was causing problems only this time on a much bigger scale.

"Marvellous. So are we to be the CIA's new mutant division, yes?" Charles asked while glancing up at the man. He squinted slightly against the sun, yet a firm frown was on his face. Charles wasn't wholly sure how he felt about this really. He was up for helping, but something didn't settle well with him. Although he was uncertain what that feeling constituted towards yet.

He paused for a moment before giving a slow nod. "Something like that." He replied at length and side stepped when a blonde appeared through doors.

Raven hadn't exactly been pleased about being left behind. She had been stuck in her room with very little to do. But upon hearing that her brother had returned safely, she had naturally slipped past any guard which was watching her for the sake of greeting him. Of course her attention did shift though when she spied the other two who were with him. She didn't know them, and they certainly did not look like they worked for any sort of organisation unlike the other two present.

"Wait...we are being recruited to fight, yes? Fight against that man? Could you not have chosen an easier task to fulfil?" Liesel questioned as they walked into the building and down a corridor.

"It is no different task to what you were doing before we came along." The man seemed to state.

Liesel hunched her shoulders at this. "Touché." Shaking her head slowly she simply decided to shut up. Truthfully to begin with, she thought taking Schmidt, Shaw, down would be relatively easy. But he proved to be much more than he appeared, which was not a surprise of course. He was strong, she knew that already, which was why she knew that this was not going to be an easy task to complete.

----

Edited: 7/June/2019

Reedited: 16/August/2021