TangleToy@cs.com

(Marvel): "Big Little Surprises" 1/?

Addition to Disclaimer: Main ones are Marvel characters, some will be mine, too, so don't sue because *looking around her room* I am just a happy, but poor comic book store worker. I don't have the money for those prosecuting and if i do *smirk* you can't have it because i need it for more comics.

Feedback: Very much welcome. This is my first piece to the OTL so I'll welcome any kind of feedback good or bad, but flamers don't make me tie anyone down. I've over and done with that but I'm sure i can find something to stake you down with and some creatures to leave to play with you.

"Big Little Surprises"

~*~*~

"Remember how you said every time you see me, I seem a little more grown than you thought? Mom, you might want to have a seat. Dad, maybe you'd like a cigar?"

The girl took a deep breath. Her eyes that had seen much of this world and others, and only a taste all at once, focused reflecting her emotions inside. What happened would be shocking to them, but then it was still a shock to her. Her fingers touched the Silver Star that hung from her neck, taking strength in it and looked at them trembling inside.

"Mom, Dad I'm pregnant."

The young woman blinked tightening her hold on the long, thin plastic object she was holding in her hands, as she focused on her reflection in the mirror in front of her. That was all she could think of for the first moments, how she would tell her parents that news. She blinked again looking at herself in the mirror, still baring a shower fresh look, but then she had just stepped out of her shower and was wrapped in white towels. One for her body, the other holding the swirl of damp long locks that was her hair.

"I'm pregnant."

The words were a bare still startled whisper in the bathroom's clutter of steam and the already running fan, barely even to be heard, but she heard, she felt the words leave her lips as they were the first since she'd looked at the box afterwards. She looked down at it again with its blue fuzzy line. A replicant from the Hank rather than a generic store brand so the results weren't faulty. She'd given him some phony excuse and still wasn't sure if he'd even bought it.

Beyond a doubt Kitty already knew who he THE FATHER was. There had only ever been him. She hadn't even come to terms with the idea of moving on to someone else, or the idea that someone out there could be better. He was only a void now that she somehow grown to love. One she'd seemingly kept. She had only wanted him, but he'd made his decision. Was it a man's or cowards?

Everything around here at the X-Mansion had been so normal, so much so that she could loose herself in the daily routine of saving the world. She could forget the lost world crumbling inside, if she could save the outer one. She could because there was no time to stop and breath, no less realize something had been happening. Sure, three months ago her monthly had acted up a small bit. First being late, second being shorter and spotty, and third still missing now for the 6th month.

She'd put it off as stress, being an X-Men again was like that. You push off the personal stuff for saving the world, dealing with homicidal maniacs, and remembering to drink coffee so you were still awake when doing computer repairs at four in the morning. It was normal. She hadn't dwelled on it with the whole of the Search for Xavier, Magneto War, and the Twelve, it had been one thing after another happening, and she'd been lucky some mornings if she remembered to eat.

Eating, well that brought up the other thing she over looked. She gained a few pounds, but she'd guessed it was a small effect of the break up hitting her hard. So to counter act it all she taken up doing gymnastic routines in the early hours and evenings when she could and a new modern dance class for weekends to fill her time. Nothing that could have hurt her body, but she hadn't been specifically careful either.

"I'm pregnant," she repeated with hollow tones.

The words still sounded like they weren't coming form her. Nothing that could have hurt her? Kitty's expression fell almost as she put the pregnancy test down and pulled the towel over her hair down, starting to pat her hair dry with it. Nothing that could hurt her body? She risked life and limb everyday for others, for herself, for people who wouldn't give a damn in the end, for a world that wouldn't mourn her passing or realize how often and how regularly she helped save its ass.

God, she missed him suddenly. Walking across the hallway with the test and towels half-dripping, she got back to her room as she always did: fast. That gaping space in her chest seeming hollow and then suddenly in that overwhelming dark memory a light burst forth. She looked up at the mirror a second as she stopped moving the towel to dry her hair to stare at her reflection once more. Letting her arms fall slowly, one held the towel and one hand moved to lie against her just beginning to show stomach on top for a second as she looked up as odd scamp of a smile starting to touch her lips.

"I'm pregnant."

ShadowCat's eyes slid over her dresser and note jotted on a small white card, then her new small black cellular phone. She took off her towel and started rubbing water off her legs and arms and patting her body gently in other places to remove the moisture.

She had this feeling that was reaching down into her arms and legs. This small special person was starting to grow inside her. This little light to shine out of the darkness that had been shadowing her. Would it be a boy or girl? Would it be a mutant? She couldn't help the smile that was starting spread across her face.

Tossing the towel on a chair for the second, she glanced at the room only a second before going to her dresser drawers. The room had two beds, hers; a bit unmade and surrounded by her things, and a second which was made but unoccupied. She used to share the room with someone incredibly close to her and she shared a room afterwards with two other persons, but she wasn't up to another person here yet.

She pulled out a pair of tight black jeans slipping them on not as easily as she used to, and then a crisp white button up woman's shirt that came in at the waist, went a little over her top of the pants and cut down with a collar for medium cut to the first button. It went well with her leather jacket all together. Finishing up her buttons over her stomach she wondered if this feeling was what people called the "glowing" pregnant woman felt. It was a wonder Maddie had walked around in a natural high almost if this was how she felt inside.

So far she was the only person that knew, Jean and the Professor weren't easily adept at getting to her thoughts all the time, and she'd given neither a reason to pry. No one else was a worry for figuring out yet. Logan. She didn't have an idea were the limits of his sense's went or if he knew already. She wanted him to be the second to know not the first.

Picking up her shoes with one hand and then the card on the dresser she read over the note. It was from Remy. Just a number and a quick jot that her small idea of the someone who might know where he was had paid off. The number. No matter how many states, countries, cities, minutes, hours or days he was only a number away.

"I'm pregnant," Kitty said this time with more conviction.

Looking at it the words began to sink in suddenly as if she just finally heard it for the first time. It was his, too. He'd left. He'd chosen to leave of free volition. How would he feel about this baby if he'd already moved on? Her upper teeth lightly bit into her lower lip in a sudden worry as she wrapped her arms around her stomach, the shoes falling from her hands.

'What if he's moved on?' she wondered to herself. 'What he has someone else, and doesn't want to hear from me. What if,' she paused. The though was too terrible. 'What if he didn't mean it when he said he loved me?'

"No. Stop," she commander herself in the silence. She shook her head, letting her damp, dark hair falling around her face like side veils, shivered in the silence of her bedroom. None of that would change the fact he deserved to know right away.

A few moments later she released her arms as she bent down collecting her shoes and picked up the black cellular phone with the same hand that held the card. She moved off away from the dresser and sat down on the end of her bed. Setting the shoes next to her she took a few slow breaths as she looked at the card and dialed the first four numbers.

Her heart was already starting to race, and she stared at the green LSD screen silently. Seven more numbers and the phone would ring. She would have to say those words she said so many times already.

"I'm pregnant," ShadowCat practiced once more, her voice shaking only slightly this time.

She raised a finger starting to dial the real number now, the seven-digit part. Kitty got through the first three before stopping again.

How could she go through with this? She was finally done with crying when she pulled her blankets tight around wishing they were his arms in the middle of the night when she woke up and swore she could almost smell him or felt like she just missed a light, warm breath into her hair during his sleep. Every time that it happened it had been the same and she'd awoken to being alone in her bedroom, so alone.

She tried to swallow, and her throat was parched as she began to push the next two digits of the last four of the phone number.

Over wishing she could just for one second hear him swear, or smell the scent that the cigarette's left on her from being so close inside his arms, locked away from the world in their embrace. Could she get through all this without going through it all again?

ShadowCat pressed the second to last digit. Soon the phone would ring. Soon she would be bombarded by the chance possibility he was actually there. She was her last hope. Either that or he'd vanished into the night like he could, like he had that day. He had floated away from her arms, but never her heart, because he'd taken that with him when he'd sailed away.

She pressed the last digit and raised the phone to her ear slowly. Her heartbeat was like a drum in her ear, almost drowning out the sound of the phone as it began to ring. Leaning it against her ear as it kept ringing she began to put on her shoes.

Maybe they weren't home, or worse maybe they were. She let out a small sigh as she kept on with her shoes till someone finally picked up. She concentrated on her shoes as she nodded as she talked.

"Hello. Yes, I know he's there. Can I please speak to him?"

Her fingers began to tremor. Or was it her entire body? There was no backing down now. Hanging up simply couldn't be done. She crossed the point of no return; she was putting herself back into hands that she wasn't sure would even be open anymore.

As the voice hit the phone with a greeting so small in meaning and so missed it had her ready to clutch her pillow if there was a chance of this going wrong in the next few seconds. She took a deep breath and pulling on all the strength in her body began to speak again.

"Pete. It's Kitty. We need to talk."

To be continued?