A/N: This is the last chapter and I am proud to say that it was a long but
fruitful journey. I say thank you to all who read this and have further
enjoyed my labor of love.
Family Forgotten
Chapter 10: All Good Things Must Come to an End
I couldn't believe it the wedding was only three days away and I was nervous as shit, we had everything planned or I should say that Ororo and Kitty planned everything, my father and I kind of sat back and said either yes or no to their proposals. But that wasn't it, it was the fact that I was going to marry a woman that I would be spending the rest of my days with; it's a bit to think about. Sure through our time together we have had our peaceful and our troubled but we have conquered it all and still not broken from each other, this is true love. To think that I almost left, left it all behind because I was scared of what others thought of me.
I was working on the altar setup and preparing it for a dark mahogany stain that would boast the craftsman that assembled such a gem. My father and Ororo were out gathering the flowers for the bouquets and the lapels, it wasn't like he wanted to go it was just Ororo told him he wanted to go. Kitty was...was...somewhere I don't know, I mean I can't keep track of that girl all the time. But I'm sure that she was doing something that had anything to do with the wedding.
"Lookin' good there kiddo," came a voice from behind me as I turned to find my father and Ororo back from the woods.
"Thanks, I guess fifty years of building my own homes has paid off after all," I told them climbing off the stepladder.
"Well people will be impressed, we just have to garnish it with a few lilies and it will be perfect," noted Ororo holding one from her basket. "We assembled the bouquets and we have found enough lapels for four guys and enough corsages for four women so I guess you guys have some choices to make."
"Sure thing, I think Hank, Kurt, Scott, and probably Bobby. I think that those four should do it," I said looking to my father. "What about you dad?"
"Well yeah I think that will do, they have been really good to us and are close friends," my father noted. "By the way have you and kitty gone to talk to her parents yet, I know that they know about you and getting married and all but they don't know about the recent change from human to that."
"No we haven't. It really makes it bad in the fact that we have only talked over the phone we haven't really met face to face even though we have sent pictures," I told them.
"You got three days Jack I best say that you take care of it now and let them in on the big picture," Ororo told me.
"Yeah you're right we should just take the plane down there and go there for a day and that way we can iron the wrinkles out. I just hope that they aren't upset, I know that having their girl marry an animal just seems illegal," I told them chuckling a bit at my own joke. "Yeah speaking of illegal, she's 25 and I'm 100, oh sweet statutory."
"Yeah, I'm in the same boat boy, but people would think that she's after money or somethin'," may father noted turning to head back to the mansion. "See ya around kid."
"See ya dad." I told him fastening the last screw and then proceeding to gather my tools.
I grabbed the last of my stuff and brought it back to the garage, from there I left inside to see if I could find Kitty and sure enough when I entered our room, there she was, on the phone with her mother, chit chatting about the wedding and how the day will go through.
As she turned she saw me and put her mom on hold for a quick sec, "you know we need to still talk to them right?" I noted to her.
"Yeah, actually that is what I was going to arrange with her, I figured that they could stay with us here in the mansion for the last two days before the wedding and we would just fly them back when it was over," she told me/
"Oh, well that sounds as good as any, we'll do that then," I replied letting her get back to the phone call. "By the way we'll leave later this afternoon."
She then gave me one of those, yeah yeah waves as I proceeded to head out of the room and down to the hanger. On my way past I had noticed that the professor happened to be working with Cerebro and I decided to stop and inquire what he happened to be up to.
"Hi there Charles what you up to this early in the day?" I inquired taking a place beside him.
"Oh nothing too much I have been keeping tabs on my brother, Kane Marco. A couple weeks ago he broke out of prison with a little aid from our friend Mystique," he explained setting his helmet down.
"I see, do you think that he'll come here?"
"Well it wouldn't surprise me, he always tries," spoke Xavier.
"What really happened between you two that has left him so angry?" I asked. "Or is it not my place to know."
"No he was jealous of my mutant abilities and I was jealous of his parental attention. It eventually drove us apart but it was when he obtained the power of the Ruby of Cittorack than I forgave him and sought to maybe make amends but now that I have found peace between us his anger still remains."
"What stops a being with such brute force?" I asked him as we proceeded out of the chamber.
"Well I guess someone of equal strength or I have found that mental bursts can break him down from the inside out and render him harmless," he explained.
"He wasn't born with an X- gene was he, it was simply the ruby that gave him all this power am I correct?"
"Almost, he was born with an X-gene but it only went active after he obtained the ruby that gave way for his added strength to be multiplied leading to what you see before you, a walking, breathing juggernaut."
"Huh, well as long as he doesn't come here within the week we'll be alright I guess," I told the professor as I left the room.
From there I made my way down to the hanger and began to prep the jet for our trip to see Kitty's parents over in Washington. Pretty much all that we needed was a change of clothes and to fuel the plane up everything else was usually taken car of during the regular maintenance schedule. Her parents lived maybe half an hour outside of Seattle so we could land close without getting in the way of local air traffic. I left the hanger and proceeded back to our room so that I could gather a few things, as I opened the door I found Kitty standing before me luggage in hand.
"You have the Blackbird ready?" she asked shoving the suitcase into my chest.
"Yeah, I was just about to go and grab a few things..." I noted as she cut me off.
"No, no need I got everything already here so we are all set to go."
"Oh ok then I guess we'll just head off then, that is if it's alright with you,"
"Sure," she said passing through me and back into the hanger, man I hate it when she does that.
From there we took off from New York and made our transnational flight in about 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Soon enough the shapely figure of the Seattle skyline appeared and we knew it would only be a matter of minutes before our arrival. Kitty's parents lived in a suburb, one that was newly developing, so there was a large field behind us we could use as our landing area. Slowly we descended and planted the plane down atop a soft grassy knoll. We shut down the computers and gathered our bag and then proceeded off the craft. The grass was cool and a bit damp, the air itself was humid giving reason to believe recent rainfall. Steadily enough we made our way to the house only to be greeted at the door by a middle aged man with a well trimmed moustache and goatee followed by his distinctive round rimmed glasses. The man's face lit up as he saw Kitty leading me to only assume that this would be her father. Then from around a corner came a woman about the same age, she had a book in hand and carried a light scent of lemon on her clothes probably from a drink or air freshener. It was only then that my attention was brought from my surroundings as my name was spoken...
"Dad I would like for you to finally meet Jack," Kitty spoke as she pointed to me.
Her father was speechless, he looked over me again and again and I could tell he was looking for someone human in appearance but it never came.
"What happened to the photos? This can't be him," he spoke stepping back a bit.
"Well I'm sorry to say that I am Jack and that I'm a little shocked to be looking as I am as well," I answered dropping down onto all fours. "Oh yeah that's better, much more comfortable."
"But how can you go from human to that in such a short amount of time?" he asked letting through the door. "We have no problem with mutants, at all, we would like our Catherine to have a normal life as anyone else would. Having such an extreme alteration in physical appearance is like throwing a wrench into a well oiled machine. If you catch my drift."
"Yeah I know what you are saying and I guess that we'll have to put up with it and see it as another hurdle to overcome," I told him moving into the living room and taking a seat on the floor next to Kitty who was sitting on the couch.
"No matter how you look at it it's still there, but I think that we can manage to work on this and we can think of some things that will make the adjustment more manageable," he noted taking a seat in an arm chair just opposite the two of us. "What causes a change like that anyway?"
"Well it is that same little thing that gave Kitty her abilities. Those pesky X-genes seem to do all the damage."
"I've looked into the whole gene thing and once they are used up, or when they become active, doesn't that mean that all your changes are finished?" her mother asked.
"Well last year my father and another mutant were training in our danger room when something went wrong and I had to go in there to try and help them. I got caught and was knocked into a coma for three days, the machine threw me into a steel wall denting my adamantium spine and crushing my old tail. For some reason my healing ability went and regenerated new genetics, since my tail was crushed and removed my body sought to grow it back and I guess couldn't do it because it wasn't in my original genetic makeup. So now I have this new DNA and I can't use it, of course containing new and dormant X-genes. From there they stayed dormant and were watched via wrist monitor, only a year later they went active after exposure to radiation and I am now as what you see before you," I explained as Kitty began to scratch behind my ear. "Oh I'd tell you to stop but it feels soooo damn gooooood."
"So these X-genes are completely random?" asked her mother.
"Yeah, really anything can happen. My father and I are odd examples of this though..."
"Why"
"Well to look at our genetic mutations we are almost identical, we both heal fast, have wrist bound claws, and animal senses. But I have gone even further with having increased strength and better dexterity as well. The government had us both for their weapon X program and coated both of our skeletons in adamantium..."
"You mean that indestructible alloy?" her father asked.
"That's the one."
"How do you manipulate it if you can't break it down?"
"You have to maintain a liquid state in order for it to work properly, but enough about that crap I think that we have to talk about more pressing issues, and in the wedding for example. For we all know that it is coming up here in a couple days," I said moving to a cross-legged position on the floor.
From there it was all business, we chatted about the wedding, or I should say that Kitty and her mom chatted about the wedding, her dad and I made our way out onto the deck and had ourselves a beer. We kept chatting and soon enough dinner was ready and we had sat down to eat. From then on the evening went like a summer's breeze and I found myself looking across from me in the bed at my wife to be and questioning where in the hell all this time we had spent together had gone. For me it felt like only yesterday that I had stumbled upon the institute battered and bruised not knowing what in the hell to do. But I guess life does that to you and you have to take each moment with a grain of salt. It was the next morning that we all flew back to New York for the wedding and the rest of our life together.
. . .
The big day was here, the tables were set the people were ready and the whole mansion was a buzz as people were getting ready and getting places set. My father and I got ready in one room while Ororo and Kitty were changing in another. Then came a knock at the door...
"Y'know that y'all got five minutes before the walk up to the altar right," Rogue questioned.
"Yeah we know we'll be out in a jiffy," said my father finishing up his tie. "This will be the last monkey suit that I will ever wear, I will make sure of it."
I just chuckled and made the final checks on my hair and fit before walking out of the room. "See you out there dad."
"Sure thing."
Before too long he and I were both up there waiting and then came the music as the bride's maids and the best men approached the altar then followed by both of the brides. Kitty and Ororo looked both incredibly beautiful.
"So which one am I marrying again?" I asked my father stupidly.
"Yeah, yeah just shut up and grab your girl alright," he told me taking Ororo's hand as I took Kitty's.
It was then like a flash of light had struck and it was over, you know it took that long to get through it but it was done and all we had to do was say the magic words "I do".
"If there is no opposition as to why these people should not be wed let them speak now... no... then we can continue. From this I now pronounce you husbands and wives, gentlemen you may now kiss your brides," the pastor said.
"Come here you," Kitty told me grabbing my tie and laying a good one on my lips.
The End
Family Forgotten
Chapter 10: All Good Things Must Come to an End
I couldn't believe it the wedding was only three days away and I was nervous as shit, we had everything planned or I should say that Ororo and Kitty planned everything, my father and I kind of sat back and said either yes or no to their proposals. But that wasn't it, it was the fact that I was going to marry a woman that I would be spending the rest of my days with; it's a bit to think about. Sure through our time together we have had our peaceful and our troubled but we have conquered it all and still not broken from each other, this is true love. To think that I almost left, left it all behind because I was scared of what others thought of me.
I was working on the altar setup and preparing it for a dark mahogany stain that would boast the craftsman that assembled such a gem. My father and Ororo were out gathering the flowers for the bouquets and the lapels, it wasn't like he wanted to go it was just Ororo told him he wanted to go. Kitty was...was...somewhere I don't know, I mean I can't keep track of that girl all the time. But I'm sure that she was doing something that had anything to do with the wedding.
"Lookin' good there kiddo," came a voice from behind me as I turned to find my father and Ororo back from the woods.
"Thanks, I guess fifty years of building my own homes has paid off after all," I told them climbing off the stepladder.
"Well people will be impressed, we just have to garnish it with a few lilies and it will be perfect," noted Ororo holding one from her basket. "We assembled the bouquets and we have found enough lapels for four guys and enough corsages for four women so I guess you guys have some choices to make."
"Sure thing, I think Hank, Kurt, Scott, and probably Bobby. I think that those four should do it," I said looking to my father. "What about you dad?"
"Well yeah I think that will do, they have been really good to us and are close friends," my father noted. "By the way have you and kitty gone to talk to her parents yet, I know that they know about you and getting married and all but they don't know about the recent change from human to that."
"No we haven't. It really makes it bad in the fact that we have only talked over the phone we haven't really met face to face even though we have sent pictures," I told them.
"You got three days Jack I best say that you take care of it now and let them in on the big picture," Ororo told me.
"Yeah you're right we should just take the plane down there and go there for a day and that way we can iron the wrinkles out. I just hope that they aren't upset, I know that having their girl marry an animal just seems illegal," I told them chuckling a bit at my own joke. "Yeah speaking of illegal, she's 25 and I'm 100, oh sweet statutory."
"Yeah, I'm in the same boat boy, but people would think that she's after money or somethin'," may father noted turning to head back to the mansion. "See ya around kid."
"See ya dad." I told him fastening the last screw and then proceeding to gather my tools.
I grabbed the last of my stuff and brought it back to the garage, from there I left inside to see if I could find Kitty and sure enough when I entered our room, there she was, on the phone with her mother, chit chatting about the wedding and how the day will go through.
As she turned she saw me and put her mom on hold for a quick sec, "you know we need to still talk to them right?" I noted to her.
"Yeah, actually that is what I was going to arrange with her, I figured that they could stay with us here in the mansion for the last two days before the wedding and we would just fly them back when it was over," she told me/
"Oh, well that sounds as good as any, we'll do that then," I replied letting her get back to the phone call. "By the way we'll leave later this afternoon."
She then gave me one of those, yeah yeah waves as I proceeded to head out of the room and down to the hanger. On my way past I had noticed that the professor happened to be working with Cerebro and I decided to stop and inquire what he happened to be up to.
"Hi there Charles what you up to this early in the day?" I inquired taking a place beside him.
"Oh nothing too much I have been keeping tabs on my brother, Kane Marco. A couple weeks ago he broke out of prison with a little aid from our friend Mystique," he explained setting his helmet down.
"I see, do you think that he'll come here?"
"Well it wouldn't surprise me, he always tries," spoke Xavier.
"What really happened between you two that has left him so angry?" I asked. "Or is it not my place to know."
"No he was jealous of my mutant abilities and I was jealous of his parental attention. It eventually drove us apart but it was when he obtained the power of the Ruby of Cittorack than I forgave him and sought to maybe make amends but now that I have found peace between us his anger still remains."
"What stops a being with such brute force?" I asked him as we proceeded out of the chamber.
"Well I guess someone of equal strength or I have found that mental bursts can break him down from the inside out and render him harmless," he explained.
"He wasn't born with an X- gene was he, it was simply the ruby that gave him all this power am I correct?"
"Almost, he was born with an X-gene but it only went active after he obtained the ruby that gave way for his added strength to be multiplied leading to what you see before you, a walking, breathing juggernaut."
"Huh, well as long as he doesn't come here within the week we'll be alright I guess," I told the professor as I left the room.
From there I made my way down to the hanger and began to prep the jet for our trip to see Kitty's parents over in Washington. Pretty much all that we needed was a change of clothes and to fuel the plane up everything else was usually taken car of during the regular maintenance schedule. Her parents lived maybe half an hour outside of Seattle so we could land close without getting in the way of local air traffic. I left the hanger and proceeded back to our room so that I could gather a few things, as I opened the door I found Kitty standing before me luggage in hand.
"You have the Blackbird ready?" she asked shoving the suitcase into my chest.
"Yeah, I was just about to go and grab a few things..." I noted as she cut me off.
"No, no need I got everything already here so we are all set to go."
"Oh ok then I guess we'll just head off then, that is if it's alright with you,"
"Sure," she said passing through me and back into the hanger, man I hate it when she does that.
From there we took off from New York and made our transnational flight in about 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Soon enough the shapely figure of the Seattle skyline appeared and we knew it would only be a matter of minutes before our arrival. Kitty's parents lived in a suburb, one that was newly developing, so there was a large field behind us we could use as our landing area. Slowly we descended and planted the plane down atop a soft grassy knoll. We shut down the computers and gathered our bag and then proceeded off the craft. The grass was cool and a bit damp, the air itself was humid giving reason to believe recent rainfall. Steadily enough we made our way to the house only to be greeted at the door by a middle aged man with a well trimmed moustache and goatee followed by his distinctive round rimmed glasses. The man's face lit up as he saw Kitty leading me to only assume that this would be her father. Then from around a corner came a woman about the same age, she had a book in hand and carried a light scent of lemon on her clothes probably from a drink or air freshener. It was only then that my attention was brought from my surroundings as my name was spoken...
"Dad I would like for you to finally meet Jack," Kitty spoke as she pointed to me.
Her father was speechless, he looked over me again and again and I could tell he was looking for someone human in appearance but it never came.
"What happened to the photos? This can't be him," he spoke stepping back a bit.
"Well I'm sorry to say that I am Jack and that I'm a little shocked to be looking as I am as well," I answered dropping down onto all fours. "Oh yeah that's better, much more comfortable."
"But how can you go from human to that in such a short amount of time?" he asked letting through the door. "We have no problem with mutants, at all, we would like our Catherine to have a normal life as anyone else would. Having such an extreme alteration in physical appearance is like throwing a wrench into a well oiled machine. If you catch my drift."
"Yeah I know what you are saying and I guess that we'll have to put up with it and see it as another hurdle to overcome," I told him moving into the living room and taking a seat on the floor next to Kitty who was sitting on the couch.
"No matter how you look at it it's still there, but I think that we can manage to work on this and we can think of some things that will make the adjustment more manageable," he noted taking a seat in an arm chair just opposite the two of us. "What causes a change like that anyway?"
"Well it is that same little thing that gave Kitty her abilities. Those pesky X-genes seem to do all the damage."
"I've looked into the whole gene thing and once they are used up, or when they become active, doesn't that mean that all your changes are finished?" her mother asked.
"Well last year my father and another mutant were training in our danger room when something went wrong and I had to go in there to try and help them. I got caught and was knocked into a coma for three days, the machine threw me into a steel wall denting my adamantium spine and crushing my old tail. For some reason my healing ability went and regenerated new genetics, since my tail was crushed and removed my body sought to grow it back and I guess couldn't do it because it wasn't in my original genetic makeup. So now I have this new DNA and I can't use it, of course containing new and dormant X-genes. From there they stayed dormant and were watched via wrist monitor, only a year later they went active after exposure to radiation and I am now as what you see before you," I explained as Kitty began to scratch behind my ear. "Oh I'd tell you to stop but it feels soooo damn gooooood."
"So these X-genes are completely random?" asked her mother.
"Yeah, really anything can happen. My father and I are odd examples of this though..."
"Why"
"Well to look at our genetic mutations we are almost identical, we both heal fast, have wrist bound claws, and animal senses. But I have gone even further with having increased strength and better dexterity as well. The government had us both for their weapon X program and coated both of our skeletons in adamantium..."
"You mean that indestructible alloy?" her father asked.
"That's the one."
"How do you manipulate it if you can't break it down?"
"You have to maintain a liquid state in order for it to work properly, but enough about that crap I think that we have to talk about more pressing issues, and in the wedding for example. For we all know that it is coming up here in a couple days," I said moving to a cross-legged position on the floor.
From there it was all business, we chatted about the wedding, or I should say that Kitty and her mom chatted about the wedding, her dad and I made our way out onto the deck and had ourselves a beer. We kept chatting and soon enough dinner was ready and we had sat down to eat. From then on the evening went like a summer's breeze and I found myself looking across from me in the bed at my wife to be and questioning where in the hell all this time we had spent together had gone. For me it felt like only yesterday that I had stumbled upon the institute battered and bruised not knowing what in the hell to do. But I guess life does that to you and you have to take each moment with a grain of salt. It was the next morning that we all flew back to New York for the wedding and the rest of our life together.
. . .
The big day was here, the tables were set the people were ready and the whole mansion was a buzz as people were getting ready and getting places set. My father and I got ready in one room while Ororo and Kitty were changing in another. Then came a knock at the door...
"Y'know that y'all got five minutes before the walk up to the altar right," Rogue questioned.
"Yeah we know we'll be out in a jiffy," said my father finishing up his tie. "This will be the last monkey suit that I will ever wear, I will make sure of it."
I just chuckled and made the final checks on my hair and fit before walking out of the room. "See you out there dad."
"Sure thing."
Before too long he and I were both up there waiting and then came the music as the bride's maids and the best men approached the altar then followed by both of the brides. Kitty and Ororo looked both incredibly beautiful.
"So which one am I marrying again?" I asked my father stupidly.
"Yeah, yeah just shut up and grab your girl alright," he told me taking Ororo's hand as I took Kitty's.
It was then like a flash of light had struck and it was over, you know it took that long to get through it but it was done and all we had to do was say the magic words "I do".
"If there is no opposition as to why these people should not be wed let them speak now... no... then we can continue. From this I now pronounce you husbands and wives, gentlemen you may now kiss your brides," the pastor said.
"Come here you," Kitty told me grabbing my tie and laying a good one on my lips.
The End