Disclaimer: If I owned X-Men Evolution, Kurt would be in it more and Jean less.

A/N: I've decided that posting on ff.net is a love/hate relationship. This happened last summer, and complications continued into fall. I got my account right before last summers melt down, and I was wondering if anyone who's been on here longer can tell me to expect this every summer so I can try to wrap fics up faster. I finished a comic short story right before it conked out, and just posted it! Not to mention this story. So for those of you who remembered me after the Meltdown: thanks!

Dedication: to everyone who remembered me!

Chapter XVI

Rogue woke abruptly for the umpteenth time that night.

The darkness mocked her, taunted her with the idea that he could be sitting right there and she'd never see him. Perhaps those two pinpricks were light reflecting from yellow eyes, perhaps that shadow ended in a spade, perhaps --

Perhaps Rogue is losing it because her brother has been kidnapped! She thought angrily to herself. Finally, glancing at her clock and deciding it wasn't worth trying to go back to a haunted sleep, she slid out of bed quietly so as not to wake Kitty. For lack of any interest in what she wore she threw on her uniform and made her way to the kitchen. Eating now would be eminently preferable to eating with everyone else. Assuming I can stomach anything, she thought wryly.

As she didn't bother turning on the lights, Rogue didn't notice the other presence in the room.

"Nice to know I'm not the only one who couldn't sleep," commented a wry voice from the table behind her. Rogue stifled a surprised shriek and whirled.

"Scott? What the heck are yah doing up?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "Same reason you are. There's a pair of yellow eyes haunting my dreams."

Rogue looked around, but didn't see any food out. "So yah came to the kitchen to brood?"

Scott opened his mouth as if about to counter her, then thought better of it. "Yeah. I guess. Couldn't think of anything better to do."

"And you've been brooding in the kitchen for how long?"

Scott shrugged again as Rogue pulled a tray out of the refrigerator. "Probably about half an hour. And, uh, don't eat those."

"Why not?"

"They're Kittys' first attempt at baking muffins."

Rogue sent him a disbelieving look and held up the tray of flat, rocklike results. "They were supposed to be muffins?"

"Yeah."

The southern girl replaced the tray with a shudder. "So," she doggedly resumed the conversation, doing her best not to get trapped in a dark, silent kitchen with Scott. Talk about death by Jeans' jealousy, she thought. "Yah decided the kitchen would be a good place to brood? There are better places to brood in the mansion. Heck, the lounge was made for brooding."

Scott snorted in an attempt to muffle laughter. "You're probably right. It just seems like, after-hours, I just go here automatically. Must be instinct trying to get some food when Kurt isn't in here."

Rogue sighed and gave up, closing the fridge. She then began rooting around in the cupboards. "Ah was planning on eating and getting out of here before everyone came down. Don't really feel like eating with a crowd of people." Rogue finally settled on a box of nondescript cereal and sat down across from Scott.

"I guess that means I don't count as a crowd," Scott remarked dryly.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Not hardly. Technically, you need three for a crowd."

"Consider it a crowd," a voice broke in from the doorway as the lights flicked on. Kitty was framed in the doorway, also in her uniform. "Guess I wasn't the only one who had this idea."

Scott was looking at the cereal. "You know what, I think Rogue has the right idea. I'm finding food."

"D'you, like, want me to cook something?"

"No!" Rogue and Scott said simultaneously. Kitty jumped.

"Alright, alright, I like, get the idea," she muttered as she joined Scott in rifling around the cabinets. They were just sitting down when Evan appeared in the doorway. He didn't even say anything, he just sat down next to Kitty and grabbed some of Rogues' cereal. They were in the middle of an involved discussion when a sleepy redhead cleared her throat from the doorway.

"Is this a party and no one told me?"

Kitty dragged Jean in and sat her next to Scott as the conversation resumed.

Ororo and Logan walked in the kitchen together at the usual time, only to find all the X-Men about to get into a power-fight worthy of the Danger Room, uniformed and fed. They exchanged a glance and a smile before announcing their presence.

"Not in here, please. We need to be able to feed Kurt when he gets back," Ororo ordered. "Or does one of you want to explain to Kurt why we are lacking a kitchen?"

No one volunteered.

"Thought so," Logan growled. "Well, it looks like 'Ro and I are the ones behind, so you wake up the New Mutants and herd them down here while we eat."

The X-Men grumbled, but got up and filed out.

Ororo watched Logan watch them leave. Then she answered his question. "Scott. Then Rogue."

He turned around, a surprised look on his face. Then thoughtful. "You could be right."

"I am right. Scott won't have eaten anything until someone else did, and the only empty box is that flaky stuff Rogue likes." She neatly tossed the empty box into the trash can. "Hmm. I think you got off lightly this morning."

"What, cooking? It's Monday, we don't have to cook for that horde anyway," Logan pointed out as he pulled a pan out from one of the floor cabinet.

"Yes, but now I have to clean up after their escapade. I think I'm going to tell the New Mutants they're on their own," Ororo observed when she studied the mess the X-Mens' argument had made of the kitchen.

"Good idea."

*

Kurt hadn't slept for more than an hour at a time, and his condition was different each time he woke. The first time he seemed normal, but kept forgetting where they were. The second he remembered everything except the last time he'd woken up, and had even been coherent enough to think about an escape plan.

This was his third time, and Amanda couldn't understand a word he was saying. Dammit, what happened? He just woke up and started spouting German! As if he'd never learned English!

Amanda just put her hands up, stopping the flow of words. Confused, frightened yellow eyes looked back at her, as if he hadn't a clue who she was, where they were, or what was going on. Specifically, why she didn't speak German.

"{How do you know who I am? Where am I? What's going on?}" he demanded to no avail.

"Look, Kurt, I think that lump on your head is causing this. I don't know why you can't remember English, but suffice to say that as moving isn't the best of ideas, you're going to have to stay right here," she told him, hoping he could at least figure out that she meant him only good.

He settled down, but glared at her until he fell asleep again, leaving Amanda to wonder what would happen next time he woke. Or if he woke while she was asleep and couldn't remember something.

Her sense of reality was returning, something Amanda did not want to face. She was handling Kurt's condition alright now, while she was careful not to think about it, but his episodes were becoming weirder and weirder. He was the one who was supposed to be doing this, if either of them! He was trained for it, dammit, and while he might have some idea what to do, he was never coherent long enough to tell her. So she pushed her unbelievable reality away.

Time passed unnoticeably while Amanda waited not for rescue but for the next time Kurt woke.

*

Mystique -- as Ritsy -- accosted Rogue outside school that morning as usual, although her daughter was more pallid than usual, and hadn't even bothered with her Goth makeup. "Rogue, is there something wrong? You look like you didn't sleep last night. Got a big test today?"

"Nah. It's just Kurt's -- uhm, really sick," Rogue stuttered over almost telling Ritsy that they had no idea where her foster-brother and his girlfriend were, and that she hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

Mystique glanced over at the other X-Men. All seemed worse for the wear, including Amara. Kurt -- something must have gone wrong! Her mind raced as she tried to pry facts out of Rogue. "Oh? Something bad happen? Like his girlfriend going to that Friends of Humanity fieldtrip?"

Rogue looked startled. "How'd yah know about that?"

"Oh, well, you know, gossip. Especially since it involves Amanda also breaking it off with Candy over there --" she pointed to the older girl. "And now Kurt ends up at home. So, did she break his heart?"

Rogue hedged again, and Mystique wanted to scream in frustration. If only she could outright ask her what had happened to her son! "Or, better yet, did neither of them come home last night?" she winked slyly at Rogue. "After all, it's happened once before."

"Uh -- no, Ritsy, he's just sick. Although where Amanda is, Ah don't have a clue," Rogue shrugged as the warning bell rang.

Mystique, however, had gotten more out of her answer than just what Rogue had said. Instead of going to Ritsys first class she darted out the front doors, running in the direction of FOH headquarters. Once she was out of sight of the school she shifted into a crow and flew.

*

"Jean!"

The redhead winced when she heard Duncan's voice. God, I wish Scott wasn't being so -- stubborn! I could use his help getting rid of this jerk.

"Duncan, just -- just go away. I'm not in the mood for any kind of company," Jean told him, hands on her head in anticipation of the headache he was going to cause.

"Aww, come on babe," he cajoled. "You know I'm not just any kind of company," he slung his arm around her shoulder. Jean just stopped, forcing Duncan to stop, and shoved his arm off her shoulder with both physical strength and telekinesis.

"You just won't take a hint, will you?! Go away, Duncan Matthews, or you're not going to like what happens!"

He didn't get it. Jean was his girl. She went to dances with him, got rides from him, uplifted his popularity. That was how this worked. "Hey! What's wrong with you, Jean?" he demanded.

"Nothing's wrong with me except maybe you! I told you to go away, Duncan, and I meant it!" Jean shook her head, her mind on the event of the night before. "I can't believe I ever went out with you! If I never saw you again, it would be too soon!" Jean (finally, finally, finally!!-Jimaine) turned around and walked away from Duncan.

Once he realized what had happened, Duncan began to get very, very mad.

*

685 Graymalkin Lane.

That was all it was: an address. Ororo discovered it on the steps when she left to begin an aerial scan for signs of Kurt and Amanda. What she had discovered was much more.

"Logan!" she yelled as she ran back into the mansion. "Beast! Wake up Xavier; someone has left us a clue."

Beast, who was on one of the second-story indoor balconies, nodded and raced to Xaveirs' rooms. "What is it?" Logan came up behind her as she handed him the note. "An address?"

"That's right down the street, as well," Ororo supplied. "If this is correct, you were more than right last night. Kurt and Amanda have been hidden right under our noses this whole time."

"Question is: How?"

"Perhaps I have been looking for the wrong thing," Xavier commented as the wheeled into the huge front hall. "I was so tired last night that it never occurred to me to search for Graydon's mind signature, or those of the others he was surely working with. A mistake that has left Kurt and Amanda in their grasp for an entire night."

"Let us not worry about the mistakes that have already been made, Charles, but focus on what we can do to prevent another from happening. Cerebro awaits," Ororo gestured to the elevator that led down to the basement complex.

*

Less than ten minutes after Xavier had reached Cerebro an announcement blared over Bayville High's intercom. "Would those students currently residing at the Xavier Institute please report to the attendance office immediately?"