Mommy Mystique

(Disclaimer: all characters belong to Marvel Comics/Kids WB.)

(A/N: this is just a bit of weirdness that crept into my mind. Set in its own universe, meaning it does not connect with my other stories the way some of mine do.Slightly AU Season 1.)

He had his head in her lap again.
Mystique sighed, put her work aside, and shoved Toad away.
He snuggled back up to her again.
"Get off me," she growled, and pushed him away again.
Again he came back.
"I'm not a pillow," she said, attempting to remove him again.
"Actually," Pietro said, "you have been taking on pillow-like proportions lately."
Mystique glared at him. "I have not!"
"Yeah you have. You've been eating more than Fred!"
"I have not!"
"And with swimsuit season coming up, too. Gotta cut back on those carbs." He nudged her flabby stomach.
To his great surprise, it nudged back.
"What the--?"

"What the...?!"

Pietro and Mystique both cried out at the same time, and then looked at each other.
"What was that?" the silver-haired speedster asked.

"Beats me." said Toad.

"That's never happened before," Mystique gasped. Her mind was whirling. No, it couldn't be--could it?

Toad gave her a puzzled look. "Maybe you should go to the doctor or something?"
"Why?" she asked. "I'm not sick."

"Not for that, man! For . . ."

None of them could even say it out loud. It was such a bizarre concept it boggled their minds.
Mystique pushed Toad off her lap and stood up. "I'm going to bed," she said. "I'll see about making a doctor's appointment in the morning."

Toad followed her. "So who has to give up their room?" he asked.
Mystique shook her head. "I'm not thinking that far ahead yet. Just leave me alone for now, okay?"
Toad looked crushed. "Sheesh. I was only trying ta help."

She did concede, however, that things might be changing around here--as if they hadn't been already.

Once she was safely in her room with the door closed, she pulled up her shirt and looked at herself in the mirror.
No, she didn't look that big yet.

"Perhaps I should contact Xavier." Mystique said to herself . . .

On the one hand, it would save her having to explain her situation. On the other . . . well, things were complicated enough already. Not to mention the fact that her son was living there . . .

Finally, she picked up the phone. Awkwardness aside, there was no one else she could trust with this thing. She'd just have to swear him to secrecy, that's all.

Xavier was surprised, to say the least, by Mystique's request. He understood the need for secrecy--after all, her personal life was her business--but felt a morbid curiosity all the same. He arranged for her to come during school hours, so there'd be less chance of the children finding out.

They met in the Institute's sickbay.

"Don't ask me how this happened," Mystique warned him. "Don't tell me I should have been more careful. And don't ask who the father is!"

"Easy, Mystique." Xavier said; she was clearly in an agitated emotional state. "Just tell when you first noticed you were pregnant."

"I guess that would have to be about a month ago--where are you going with that thing?"

"I want to check your temperature." Xavier said, placing the digital thermometer's tip in her ear.

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone about this just yet. I'm trying to think of a way to break the news."

At that moment, she felt a slight jolt inside her stomach . . .

"Ooh."
"Something wrong?"
"No. He or she just moved."

"Is this the first time?"

"No. It happened last night. I wasn't expecting it this early. I think it's still early. Can you tell?"

"One moment." Xavier wheeled over a portable ultrasound scanner.

At that moment, Kurt came home sick from school . . .

"Muzzer?" he called.

She looked up at him. Oh, no . . . "Kurt?"

"Vhat are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
"Zhe nurse sent me home. She said I have a temperature."

"A temperature?" This was the last thing Mystique needed.

"But I don't feel sick at all--ACHOO!"

Xavier winced--and so did Mystique. "You were saying?" she questioned Kurt.

"It's nozhing. Just a little cold. Vhy are you here?"
Mystique sighed. She had been planning to tell him anyway, so she might as well get it over with. "I'm pregnant."

Kurt couldn't quite believe his ears at first. "You're VHAT?"

"Pregnant."

The word didn't sound any better the second time.

His head was spinning. Mystique with a baby? The idea boggled his mind. To say nothing of how Rogue would react....

"How . . . vhy . . . who?"

Precisely the questions she was hoping he wouldn't ask.

"I really don't want to talk about it right now, and besides, you're not really up to a long conversation. You just lie down here, and we'll talk later."

"But, Muzzer . . . ACHOO!"

She gave him her stern "I'm-the-mother" look. "You get in that bed right now. I'll come back and check on you later this afternoon--"
"Vhere are you going?"
"Home. I have things to do. Rooms to clean out--I wonder if I can move Toad into Rogue's old room so the baby can have his?"
"We haven't finished your examination yet," Xavier said.

"I'll be right back." Mystique assured him.

"Don't lift anything or move anything heavy," Kurt advised her.

"Kurt...."

"I just don't vant you to hurt yourself."

"I'll be all right, really." Mystique insisted.

She drove herself home and found that Kurt wasn't the only one who'd been sent home from school that day.

NEXT: the reaction at the Brotherhood house.