Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 24

Chapter 1: Sometimes

"Piotr," Kitty Pryde said softly as she glanced up to the clear blue sky above the Xavier estate, there was barely a cloud hovering, and the sun's warm rays touched down on everything.

"Hmm?" Piotr asked, he had Kitty's head resting against his stomach as he lay soaking in the sun, back pressed against the cool lush grass of the field.

"Can I ask you something?" Kitty queried, she continued to gaze at the sky, she touched her stomach thoughtfully, wondering about the baby inside of her.

"Of course," Piotr said, he caressed her short brown hair tenderly, "what is it?"

"What do you think about single mothers?" she chewed her lip, waiting for the response, their was a long silence and the only sound was the faint laughter from the students playing basketball on the mansions court less than half a mile down away.

"Why?" Piotr asked.

"Just curious," Kitty responded quickly, realising her question must have sounded even slightly suspicious. "my cousin, she's pregnant – and her husband just left her." This was a lie, of course. Her cousin's husband had not left at all – the two of them were completely co-dependent and more than likely too scared to leave each other.

"I think…in all honesty…that single mothers are…" Piotr paused to find the right words.

"Irresponsible? Stupid? Mooching off welfare?" Kitty sucked in a breath after saying this.

Piotr finally spoke, "brave."

"You do?" Kitty leaned up to look at him.

"They have such responsibility, being the soul caretaker of another human being, this tiny and frail individual…it takes a special kind of person to do that, I guess," Piotr responded.

Kitty raised an eyebrow, "that would make every woman brave, Piotr."

"Women are brave," Piotr gave a soft laugh, "they have things so much more complicated than us men…do you not think this?"

"I guess," Kitty sat up, and shrugged, "I mean women have periods, PMS, babies, child rearing and not to mention menopause when they get older. What do men have? Wet dreams. I guess women do have it a little more complex than guys. But guys still complain about how hard their lives are from time to time. They should try being a woman."

Piotr gave laugh, loud, from the belly.

Kitty smirked, "But I mean seriously, I mean what if one girl, like, told you she'd gotten pregnant to some guy she only had sex with once and now she was like, totally clueless...?" she asked.

Piotr fell silent again, trying to decide a response to this.

"Would you…I dunno, feel like it was her own damn fault for being so irresponsible, or would you think that maybe it was just fate or…"

"I think it might depend on the situation…if she was very young I might think she was a little irresponsible…"

"What if it were the most level headed person you ever knew who told you she was pregnant?" Kitty asked.

"What are you getting at?" Piotr asked, looking concerned all of a sudden.

"I'm just talking in theory here…what if, y'know?"

"Is Illyana pregnant?" Piotr quickly asked, growing more concerned, his eyes squinting in anxiety at the thought.

"No, of course not, damn, she's fourteen, Piotr."

"This is nothing. My cousin Ninotchka had a child at thirteen, she now has four children and she is only nineteen."

"Well, Illyana isn't knocked up, I can assure you," Kitty said, "That girl is smart, and too good to go and let something like that ruin her life," she added, and she then thought at herself, like me.

"Alright," Piotr lay back down.

Kitty sighed silently to herself and looked away, she realised this was going to be even harder than she'd already thought.

When Rogue first opened her eyes, the room was in total sunlight, beams of bright light shining across the room, reflecting onto the cheval mirror in the corner and bouncing onto the wall nearby in a perfect oval.

She leaned up, Remy was sitting on the edge of her bed looking at her as if in slight mystification, yet complete concern. Rogue smiled for a second to see him, then a blinding pain hit her in the centre of her brain, and right behind the eyes and she squeezed her eyes shut again, hand to her head. "Oh god…" she groaned.

"Chere…are you alright?" Remy asked worriedly, she felt him touch her leg just over the covers.

The first thing that entered Rogue's mind was that she must have been drinking the night before – although she couldn't remember it, but this meant nothing, as she'd had a few hangovers in the past following nights of drinking she couldn't remember at all. The pain was very much like the pain of hangover, except several times worse. Perhaps, she had drank more than usual.

"Chere?"

"How much did I drink?" Rogue asked groggily falling back into the pillows, she kept her eyes tightly shut. The light in the room seemed to only intensify the pain.

Remy got up, and closed the drapes, "You weren't drinking

Rogue pulled the blankets over her head, "Then why is it I need an aspirin?" she moaned.

"I'll get you aspirin, just stay where you are, alright?" Remy said softly.

"Alright."

Kitty and Piotr had just returned from sunbathing in the field when Remy entered the kitchen. "Hey," Kitty said softly.

"Hey," Remy said indifferently, as he was pouring a glass of water, Kitty limped over.

"Well?" she asked quietly, Piotr had gone over to the fridge to get himself a cold soda.

"She's back," Remy said quietly under his breath, "at a price, but we'll discuss that later," he mumbled almost incoherently.

"Who's back?" Piotr asked, he had not been quite of earshot.

"Rogue is," Remy said, "Kitty, I need some aspirin…"

"Okay," Kitty took a set of keys out of her pocket and located a key for a small cupboard on the wall, she unlocked it and pulled out a packet of aspirin, "here."

"You still keep aspirin under lock and key here?" Remy asked casually.

Kitty gave a shrug.

"Rogue is back? In her own body? How did this happen?" Piotr's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"It just…happened…I was as surprised as you were," Remy responded, "listen, I have a favour to ask of you both," he turned to them.

"Name it," Kitty pulled herself up onto one of the counters and sat there, legs dangling over the edge, she crossed the leg with the broken ankle over the other, and examined the strap-on support boot casually.

"I haven't told her yet," Remy said. "Right now she doesn't know anything, it's like Carol told us all, Rogue was asleep inside her own mind, she doesn't suspect a thing…"

"So what's the favour?" Kitty asked.

"I want to break the news to her slowly…I don't think she's ready to know absolutely everything Carol did yet…I want to let her adjust to being herself again before breaking any big news to her…" Remy explained.

"So you want us to stay quiet and just not tell her anything?" Piotr asked looking grim.

"I'll deal with it, if she asks any questions, then just be vague as possible and don't tell her what Carol did. I'll deal with it when I think she's ready."

"Okay…" Kitty nodded.

"I do not agree with that," Piotr announced, "it is wrong to withhold important information from someone like that…"

Kitty felt this somewhat touched a raw nerve within her, "uhm, actually, I agree with Remy, she might not be ready to know. Not telling her would be protecting her, really."

"How can you say this…? Not knowing might be hurting her…" Piotr stated, quite firmly.

"She'll be hurt more if she knows too soon, trust me," Kitty said, "she might not be prepared to know that Carol was flaunting her body, spending her money and being a complete bitch to everyone in the mansion, plus the woman threw out most of her belongings!" she reminded.

"But still…" Piotr frowned, "if he loves her as much as he says he does, he will not hide the truth."

"Sometimes LOVE is why you keep things from people," Kitty said quite heatedly, and suddenly she wasn't sure if she was arguing about Rogue and Remy or herself and Piotr.

Remy seemed to sense what Kitty was thinking also, he touched her shoulder tenderly, "ahem?" he asked.

Kitty felt her cheeks flush and she looked away, "sorry…"

Piotr folded his arms, "I do not agree with this, but I will not say anything. I do owe you for helping me and Kitty fall in love. I guess it is the very least I can do," he grumbled.

"Thank you," Remy sighed.

"Of course, I'll do it, I owe you a lot more than I can ever repay," Kitty looked at him meaningfully.

"Pass on the info to the rest of the mansion if you can."

"I can try, but there's no way I can ensure that the student's won't say something to Rogue about it…"

"Well…tell them I'll give them a hundred dollars each if they'll keep things quiet, or something…" Remy shrugged, he picked up the glass of water.

"Can you AFFORD to fork out three thousand and four hundred dollars?" Kitty raised an eyebrow. There were thirty four students in the school all between the ages of seventeen and ten.

"Kitty, I have seven bank accounts and more money than I wish to divulge."

"Then why do you do shitty handyman work here and dress like a bum??" Kitty asked.

"Because it'd be too easy to take advantage of all that money. Besides, do you know how truly satisfying it can be to spend money that isn't stolen, or gained from selling stolen merchandise? And besides, it gives me the satisfaction of having at least interacted with the mansion somehow."

Kitty raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"I'd love to stand here and talk all day," Remy sighed, "but for the first time in three weeks, the woman I love is here again, and I better take these up to her before she starts wondering where I am," Remy added, shaking the aspirin packet. "I'll talk to you later."