Notes: And here is the long awaited sequel for Anchored. I am SO sorry it took me so long, my lovelies! Life knocked me off my writing feet, but I am back. I hope you enjoy!
Reviews make for happy Sprites!
Rogue lifted her head up from where it had been buried face first in her pillow when a knock sounded at her door, however, before she could do more than that it opened to reveal Remy LeBeau.
"Cherie?" he asked softly.
"Have they? Did she…? I couldn't…" the girl dissolved into tears and her face resumed its place in her pillow.
"Professor Logan pulled de femme out again, but Remy don' know, Cherie…"
"The first time was awful," she sobbed. "I knew what she'd done as soon as Laura came in here carrying that second dinner tray and asking if I'd seen Kitty. She hasn't asked for anything or went farther from her room than the bathroom since she got back."
"How did y' find her?"
"The scarf she carries around was trailing out of the wall. The second time Laura found her somehow, I don't know. This time…I saw a bit of the heel of her foot."
Rogue shuttered a bit before rolling on her side and curling into a ball; Remy moved to sit beside her and stroked her hair while softly murmuring to her in French.
The door creaked a little as it opened wider to reveal Storm standing in the doorway. Her eyes were red and puffy and she appeared pale. "Rogue?" she murmured, sounding very much as if she had a head cold.
Rogue rolled over so that she could look at the woman.
"Kitty's alive," she told her.
Rogue closed her eyes and sighed in relief.
"She's down in the med bay. I…I think you need to go see her."
Rogue sat up and grabbed a tissue from the box by her bed, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose.
"You should know," Storm continued, "we administered the Cure."
"You what?" Rogue asked, mouth hanging open.
"It was the only way. We almost lost her this time."
"Does she know yet?"
"Yes. She is….upset."
"She's going to hate you for this," Rogue told her nastily.
"Most likely, but at least she will be alive to do so."
Rogue pushed past Storm and ran down the hall and steps until she finally reached the med bay in the basement, with Remy on her heels. It appeared deserted at first, but then at the far end Rogue spotted a bed with the covers turned back. Once she reached it she saw Kitty huddled in the floor beside it, still wearing her pajamas, holding her hand out in front of her and staring at it in shock.
"Kit?" she murmured softly.
The girl jumped and stared harder than ever at her hand, after a moment she burst into tears.
"Kitty," she whispered, kneeling down in front of her. "Oh, it's going to be all right, sugar."
"I'm solid!" the girl wailed. "Oh, god, what am I going to do? I can't…I can't…" she looked around rapidly, panic in her eyes.
"Kitty, nothing is going to hurt you here," Rogue soothed.
"But what about later? What if he comes back?"
"Who, Kitty?"
"No…no one…" she muttered, burying her face in her hands.
"Professor Munroe had to stop you, Kitty," Rogue whispered. "She couldn't let you kill yourself."
"But I want to die! I want it more than I've ever wanted anything."
"Why?"
"Because it should be me! It should be me dead instead of John!"
"You dyin' won't bring him back!" Rogue yelled.
Kitty blinked at her. "Of course not. But I might see him. I don't know…I don't know what happens after you die but if he's there….if he's there how can I stay here?"
"And if he's not then how can you go?"
"Everything reminds me of him… It's like knives in me every day."
"It'll get better, Kit. It'll get better, you just have to try."
"I don't want to try. I want to lie down and sleep and never get back up. I want to fall into the wall and let it stop my breath. I want to lie down in the earth beside him."
"What if it's just a black nothing?" Rogue asked.
She shrugged.
"Well…your easy escape was taken away."
"Knives, guns, pills, poisons, cars, cold…water…fire," she listed off, voice breaking.
"One month," Rogue countered.
"What?" Kitty asked.
"Give me one month," Rogue repeated.
"For what?"
"For you to try to really live. No trying to hurt yourself for thirty-one days. If after that you still feel this bad, you still want to die this much, I won't stop you. But give me thirty-one days to prove to you that there's still something left here for you."
"One month?"
"One month, but you have to try, Kit, to really try."
She was silent.
"John would want you to do this; he wouldn't want you to kill yourself. My god, Kit, he died trying to save you!"
She started crying again.
"Easy, Cherie," a voice rumbled behind them, causing both girls to jump.
"Remy! I didn't know you were here," Rogue exclaimed.
"Remy is, Cherie. Give the femme some time t' take it all in."
"What would I have to do?" she whispered after several long minutes.
"Normal things. Shower, eat with other people, get dressed, go to the library," Rogue listed off slowly.
She began to shake her head.
"We could go into town, take a walk and go shopping. We wouldn't have to stay in the school."
She paused and looked at Rogue.
"We could go somewhere. Visit your parents? You haven't been home in a long time. They're really worried about you, though they don't know about your trips into walls. They know about you running away and about John and that you're back."
"Were they mad?"
"No, not at all. Your mom was actually kind of proud of you. Plus, you're a legal adult, but they would like to see you. Storm wouldn't let them come up - she was afraid of what they would find."
"I miss Mama," Kitty whispered.
"If you give me the month we could go see her."
"Thirty-one days?"
"Yes," Rogue affirmed. "For thirty-one days you try to really live and you don't try to kill yourself."
"Okay, I can do that," Kitty murmured. "Starting tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Kitty slowly gained her feet and resumed staring at her hand, willing it to phase. "I'm Cured….how can I be Cured?"
"You fit in with me now," Rogue joked.
"There's no counter Cure?"
"Maybe one day, Cherie," Remy interjected.
"What if I need to escape? I won't be able to escape!" Kitty began to panic.
"You'll be stuck with the rest of us," Rogue said jokingly.
"You won't leave me?" Kitty whispered.
"No, sugar, being Cured won't make you an outcast, it'll help you get better."
"I'm so tired," she murmured, swaying on her feet.
"Come on, we'll get you back upstairs," Rogue said. "Laura is moving your and her stuff into my room. Professor Logan's getting the furniture."
Kitty nodded, still staring down at her body like it was a foreign object. As the three teens made their way upstairs Storm, who was lurking unseen in the hallway, breathed a sigh of relief. For now, Kitty was safe from herself.