shackett@nctimes.net, winter_oak@yahoo.com, outsidethelines@topica.com,
TangleToy@cs.com,
(Pryde/Wisdom) the Greatest Miracle of All 4/?
Disclaimer: Main ones are Marvel characters, some will be mine, too, so don't sue because *looking around her room* I am just a happy, but poor comic book store worker. I don't have the money for those prosecuting and if i do *smirk* you can't have it because i need it for more comics.
Feedback: Very much welcome. This is my first story the OTL so I'll welcome any kind of feedback good or bad, but flamers don't make me tie anyone down. I've over and done with that but I'm sure i can find something to stake you down with and some creatures to leave to play with you.
Adoration's, Praise and Acknowledgments: To the wondrous Kielle is a terrific beta reader. To Luba for dedication char wise and wanting more story wise. But first and foremost, to Winter Oak and Tangle Toy for pushing me to finish this piece, hint at the goings on of it, beg and prod me at points to get me going and writing. Love to you all, you're the BEST!
~*~*~*~
The Greatest Miracle of All Part IV: "Don't Try and Tell Me You Even Care"
"I DID IT!!!!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, as the gates to the mansion stood open and she drove straight in.
Her bright brown eyes had a gleeful shine to them, and her hair flew behind her in ribbons due to the speed of the jeep beneath her legs. The strain in her legs could not even compare to the joy leaping from her inside chest. Rainbows raced across her skies, and the sun seemed brighter than normal.
Kitty jumped from the jeep as she put it in park, yanking the keys out and grabbing one of her blue backpacks long straps. Going through the opposite door, passengers seat, and part of a wheel, she became solid again as her feet hit the ground. Sprinting for the middle and main entrance of the mansion, she bounded up the stairs in two long stride-jump-leaps, and phasing, went barreling straight through that door, too.
She didn't stop in the hallway, as she was too excited now. She'd done it! She hadn't even been there long and she'd gotten it! She paused a moment later, stopping to think a second atleast. Mansion was oddly quiet, but there was music coming from her left. People were in the game room! She smiled freely, impishly, for that moment and dashed in the direction going straight to the room. Jotting out from a wall on the side, she offered enthusiastically again:
"I did it!!!!!"
Kitty looked left and right. The bar was closed up, and the couch empty. The virtual game system in the middle, the TV and the games system connect to it were all off. Slipping the backpack from her shoulder, she let her opposite hand catch it, standing by the wall, she let it slide to the floor. Classical music played softly but the room looked so bare she was surprised that a movie tumbleweed didn't blow on through.
Where was everyone today? A mission? A call for help from one of the other teams? She attempted to not let her expression damper in the slightest. It was a lovely Saturday; she truly did hope no one had demands of 'World Saviors' for atleast a few more hours. Oh, well, the smile resurfaced bright as it had been, they could be in the upstairs Rec. Room.
"Did what, Katya?"
Kitty laughed softly as she spotted the large Russian man, surprised by the voice before she'd found the face, having been so sure she was alone in the room. He was coming from a back bathroom using what appeared to be wash cloth on his hands. The smile on her face lit her deep brown eyes on his state for the moment without hesitance, due to his face.
In some ways Piotr would forever remind her of a young child. He wasn't immature, and the life of an X-man had changed him greatly. He wasn't as child-like as when he joined, even before her.but somehow, in a way she was beyond fathoming, he had kept that sparkle untouched and his youth unjaded. That innocence had transposed all age, time and situation. Looking at him now, she couldn't help a silly smile.
"You've been painting." It was a statement, not a question, because he already gave himself away, or atleast the brown splash on his left cheek and the blue splash on the right side of his nose did.
"Da," he said with a natural softness to his voice as the response was in Russian while he glanced back in the direction he'd come for a moment. If it wasn't for Kitty being multilingual and knowing Piotr tended to slip back and forth into his native language (as his sister and her late best friend had, too) it might have sounded like he said 'Duh'.
That was another thing those who knew him knew he wouldn't do.
"Can I see it?"
"It's not...ready yet," Piotr said a bit uneasily as he finished working off most of the paint on his hands. At her curios expression, one eyebrow raised, he added, "It's new. A memory painting."
"That's terrific! I hope it works out."
He nodded as he finished wiping off his hand with the wet rag. She took time to realize it was a lazy day for him; she noticed that he seemed relaxed but not at rest, as if peacefully annoyed at something beyond her present fathoming. He wore jeans and a school shirt, his hair was getting longer. She wondered for a moment if she liked the idea of Piotr with longer hair.
"What did you do?"
"Hu-? Oh, that!" Kitty blinked and then smiled blindingly again, looking at him and taking a step back into the reality in the room, instead of thinking about one of the newer details around here, since there were a handful now. "There were second level try-outs for a performance the dance class I slid into is putting on and" she said triumphantly emphasizing her words and impulsively gave him a hug wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him with all her joy and feelings of triumph. " I MADE IT! I'm in!"
"Congratulations," he said with an odd air as Kitty set herself down from hugging him. Not that he minded that part at all. They way her lips curled into her smile was radiant as if wasn't glowing enough already, her deep brown eye flashing. "Second try-outs?"
"Today." She said with a nod, trying not get an impish expression, as she turned heading for the door. She didn't want to give away all her details yet. She wanted to tell Pete first, oddly enough, and the feeling she did gave the giddy "head in the clouds" sensation another boost.
"I didn't want to get anyone too excited at the possibility 'til I knew for sure that i was in and now I am! The dates of the rehearsals and all information on what the preformed piece will be is to be given at an extra set class for all of us who got passed both sets of try-outs. I have to tell everyone now! Any messages i should tell for you?"
"You should celebrate," Piotr said lightly, looking towards the leaving shadow of a girl. Kitty stopped a second to look at him and he wondered what his thoughts could be as his eyes seemed to have focused and been concentrating one something. "There's a new restaurant that features the works of new artist opened up a few miles into Salem, near Stevie's old Dance Studio."
"I can't right now. Piotr, I'm--" the world stopped spinning as her stomach lurched as if to remind her, and she stopped, meeting his eyes. The same old curios, nervous schoolboy expression from her teenage years, so deeply intense, causing her hand resting, to grip, on the back of a couch. She couldn't bring the words out, her throat choking on them and swallowing them. "I have...some stuff to deal with."
Grabbing her backpack again, Kitty dashed out, pushing off the queasy feeling in her stomach. It was just morning sickness she told herself over and over as she dashed towards the grand staircase. It felt like the moment before she'd ended it with Rigby. After giving him a chance when Pete had run off. It was the 'oh, no, I'm the only person who wants out of this' feeling. It was a hard pill telling Rigby, and with Pete here, and Piotr suddenly wanted.what? A relationship with her? Why didn't she just tell him like she started?
I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. It's not like he and the rest of the mansion won't realize it soon. But isn't that just an excuse for a more persistent problem of liking? No.
No, that wasn't it. That couldn't be it.
She was going to tell Logan and Ororo first anyway. That was why she couldn't say it. That was it.
It had to be.
"Oh my, Stars and Garters!"
She looked up at the same second realizing that without watching (as she could have walked this house blind) that she'd tried to go straight through the lovable blue fuzzball Hank. He looked a bit startled and she rubbed an arm barely, as she became partially solid. It was an odd feeling, almost like she'd had fur for a second.
"I wasn't looking." Kitty said apologetically as she caught the melody of the music inside the game room again. Mozart's Seventh Symphony, if she wasn't off on her count. "Piotr's still in the game room. Where is everyone today?"
"Rogue, and Remy are out on a picnic," he said straightening his spectacles. "Bobby's in the study, Sarah is downstairs, along with Kurt who's in the Gym, Elizabeth and Warren are still on their trip, Jean is in the study with the Nathan and I believe Logan and Ororo are in the seconds Receiving Room with our unexpected guest."
Remy and Rogue on a picnic. That was good, maybe they were working out all those kinks in the relationship lately that all of the X-Men and immediate family of the X-Mansion had focused on tiptoeing around without talking about it. Bobby studying or reading a book? Maybe someone should check him for a temperature. Maybe she could stop by the gym after she found Logan and Ororo and do a warm down with Kurt.
Jean and Nathan; together? That didn't boast well of good times. Not with what had obviously been left hanging between the two them. Anger, passion, regret, denial, hurt and loss. As a team they made up over a good ninety- five percent standing of the greatest telepathic people in the entire world. Against each other, they made war and holocaust seem incredibly light in comparison.
Kudos to Warren and Betts and their cruise and little vacation in Jamaica. They had something good and they hadn't let anything stop them. They hadn't let distance or fear, or small doubts poison their...
STOP IT, she commanded herself.
"Unexpected guest?!?" Kitty barely whispered the question barely seconds after he'd replied.
"Pete!" Her voice screeched a little bit louder than the first whisper, as the situation dawned -- or was it CRASHED? -- on her. He was being taken care of by Logan and Ororo -- Logan AND Ororo -- because he was an unexpected, undesignated and unrecorded visitor WITH an 'X-men team- member's' gate pass that enabled him onto the grounds without activating the security system!
"Kitty," Hank started getting her to look up even though her thoughts were starting to drown his voice out. "I think we should talk about the test you- "
The pass! A pass SHE had given him at lunch the day before yesterday when she'd told him! She'd forgotten to write it down or pass the message that she'd given a pass out. She'd been both too excited he was around and that she had her try-outs.
"Hank, I can't!" She said turning and going down the hallway with her bag, calling back over her shoulder. "Later, I promise!"
Kitty sprinted her way, her shoes sliding as she stopped, and her phasing causing her when she thought she might loose her balance, her phasing simply sent her half an inch through the floor. She moved into the doorway, but the part she caught made her both incensed emotionally, and she winced physically.
"What does tha' have to do with it? Where's-" Pete being offensive, of course was the beginning of the part she saw. Was he ever not? It was an adorable quirk.
"She didn't ask that, Bub, she asked where you got it."
The small man with his loud of attitude was much shorter than Pete and far more in years. He wore a pair of deep blue ruggedly-worn jeans, a red patterned flannel shirt, and too-old cowboy hat. The greasy stains on his hands, jeans, and the under of one side of his chin told her he'd probably been in the garage lately.
Hey, maybe her car was fixed.
"Bloody hell!" Pete grumbled under his breath, and she could see he looked confused and on guard from the way he was standing, but like many of the men her life he wasn't about the give up so easily. Wasn't that what made them so damned lovable?
"I'm sure you want to answer her." *SNIKT!*
Logan may have been short, but he was his full height time atleast three for attitude. He gave aggression off like it could have been a smell or a color in the air around him. Any sane person realized no other normal person just popped out claws that long from the back of their hands and started threatening you like you were a foot tall from the ground.
But then, that was Logan for you.
"I can. I'll give you a clearer answer than he will, too," Kitty spoke up as she moved into the room, again leaving her bag by the door, towards the three of them in the middle of the room, not sure who's she was exactly talking to.
"To begin with the security pass is mine."
"We know that part, Kitten." The woman next to Logan was Storm, or was better known as Ororo to her. She had deep brown skin, a pair of sky-fresh blue eyes and a shocking amount of long pale white-silver hair. Today she was clad in a pair of cut off shorts three inches from her knees and a two- inch strap tank top. In her hands she still carried a par of gloves so she must have been gardening before having been called in. "What we're struggling to under-"
"I can explain that part, too." Kitty cut her off, with an offered half- quirked attempt at a smile, as she moved near to Pete. "Pete, this is Logan and Ororo Monroe, otherwise known as Wolverine and Storm of the X-Men. Logan, Ororo, I'd like you to meet Pete Wisdom. He's an ally, and another member of the disbanded Excalibur team from Scotland."
"This is..." Ororo's blue eyes had frosted white and widened so much that Kitty fought hard not to wince, and then turned speculative as if she was taking the boy apart in a much worse way than if he had simply stumbled into here by mistake.
"Pete." Logan finished her sentence in a grunt all his own, as the claws sheathed his hand going behind his back. Weather anyone else noticed it or not, she heard the claws come out and sheath themselves again. A shudder ran through her insides, centering in her belly, and she found herself praying reverently.
Lord, please hear me out! Get me through right now without any scenes, and I swear I'm going to do anything anyone asks of me in the next 24 hours that's good and just without complaining. I'll tear myself from downloading the new software or reading my book, and do dishes or take out trash. Just please, please, please, let us all leave this room in one piece.
"Ruddy grand to meet ya, too," Pete groused with some semblance of a sour good humor more than outraged venom in his voice for being accused of sneaking on the grounds. He remembered them vaguely from Pryde's ramblings from the past.
Neither of them looked too happy suddenly, that they had seconds ago. The man, if you could call that, had the look of an animal. It would have run a shiver down any normal man's spine. Pete Wisdom wasn't a normal man, but it did make him uncomfortable slightly. The woman much less so since she'd gotten his name. If he remembered, then she was the weather witch-- practically Kitty's mother?
"I gave my pass to Pete, because," Kitty said taking their attention back to her, instead of letting them keep pulling the tension in the room tighter than it already was. She thought she knew how Logan and Ororo felt, they'd seen her sulk and become childish for the longest time. Honestly, it seemed she'd begun to wallow, much unlike any of her actions' prior to that day, when Pete had sailed away. It was like the Kitty who everyone had known and loved just vanished, and maybe she did. Maybe she wasn't there at Muir Island anymore or even with Excalibur.
Maybe Katherine Pryde has sailed off on that same boat while her body had held a curtain, watching the light of her life vanish before her eyes while tears fell from them.
"-because a situation arose," she said, trying to keep control of her tongue. This wasn't like running away from telling two other people for the reason they needed to know first. This was THEM. "And I called him, because- "
AGGH! Listen to yourself, you're letting yourself begin to ramble! It's only Logan and Ororo. They'll understand! They will. They've always been there to help you thru whatever happens to you and they will again. They would. They should. Right?
It was something she didn't want brought up though and it seemed inevitable. Something she didn't want him to know she's gone through, something that happened just because of her loss of him. She had fought her way back from that dark place to find herself, to put all the broken pieces together and move on. So far she'd done pretty good. She was finding sunshine again in places she'd once only seen shadows, and it was giving her a new look at the world.
Kitty felt in a small hollow place inside her still he didn't *deserve* to know that it had been that bad.
"Kitten?"
The light seemed to shift, and she felt to hands settle on her arms, and she blinked to see Logan looked at her almost like he had an answer even though she hadn't asked a question. She felt fuzzy again, and she glanced to her side, noting the hands on her arms, and looked up at Pete confused who seemed as concerned as the others. It was an odd feeling suddenly, so comfortable, so right, to be this close to him.
"What happened?"
"You started swaying," Ororo said coming forward to place her hand against Kitty's forehead. The Windriders fingers were cool against her skin, cool in a way Ororo was usually when she used her powers, even unintentionally. "Are you not feeling well?"
"Sod," she mummered under her breath, but so close that Pete could hear and took a second to look at her. For the moment was only the graceful fall of her dark hair a few inches from his chin. She was still swearing, and here he'd wondered if she'd forgotten everything and gone back to being the normal, cute team member she'd portrayed so well when he first met her.
"I---'m alright," Kitty said shortly, as she stood up, moving her back from against Pete's chest. She already felt like she'd touched enough electric outlets today, and been shocked. She wasn't ready for that one. Her stomach suddenly turned upside down, throwing a revolt on her body. She winced uncomfortably as small as she could make it.
It wasn't morning, her thoughts groused. That was stupid. It was called Morning Sickness. It should *only* happen in the morning then. Not like this over and over during the day, each and every day till I...
Kitty reaching her left hand, setting it lightly over Pete's hand on her right upper arm gently, as she looked at Ororo and Logan evenly. She felt two or three of Pete's fingers move to cover her hand, and she felt a boost of confidence and bravery enter her like a tiny trickling stream.
"I'm pregnant."
She half expected the world to stop turning, the planets producing oxygen, and that she'd simply blink her eyes and find herself waking up in her bed in the middle of the night. Kinda like that dream with Pete and the blonde bookstore guy. Now that was way more odd than this.
She blinked, but all she heard was Ororo gasp suddenly, unable to control her reaction.
Kitty thought for a second she might have heard a very light amused chortle from Wolverine. She glanced at him, but all he did was push his old beaten needs-to-be-put-to rest Stetson hat back and grin. It was almost as if he wasn't surprised. Had he known already?
She looked back at Storm, holding her breath and hoping for the best. She wasn't sure she was going to get it with the sound that caught her ears suddenly. Rain was beginning to cascade the windows of the mansion. Plink, plink, plink, plop, plot.
CRASH!
There went the thunder, a bright flash showed the world there was thunder. It was surprising that the person it was all coming from looked too aloof to be connected to the terrifying display which was going on outside -- this storm that had appeared in the middle of a blue sky and warm perfect day.
Ororo cast a glance over Kitty's shoulder to Pete standing there. It didn't take a genius to figure out what piece went where, and suddenly how the "why's" made sense. "Enraged" wasn't the word. ShadowCat was thinking of watching her eyes flash, and the nagging dread in her made her want to slide through the floor right now.
She couldn't leave Pete to this though. It was their.....mistake? Responsibility? Joy? Gift to world? Child.
It was their child.
"Mayhaps, your guest should leave, Katherine."
Kitty felt the urge to wince as Ororo began to speak. She knew she was about to get the badgering from hell. That made her angrier than she could have imagined. She wasn't a child to be chastised at her actions anymore!!!! Her fingers tightened over Pete's on her forearm, defensively.
"Why? Anything that's said with effect to him, or, she faltered only a second before she forced the words, forced herself to talk. "O-ur child, he'll hear about, too."
"I would speak to you alone," the African women said, as the rain behind them all on the windows battered the glass like a torrent of some hidden fury the world couldn't see. Her voice was tense, though, giving no one the chance to think she meant different. "Right no-"
A clap of thunder and a crash of lightening all at once, were only broken in the room by the sudden ringing of a cellular phone.
One small black one -- Pete pulled from his pocket and flipped back to look at the number. Damn. What does she want now? Did I forget something last time? If it was anyone else he would have left it ring until it stopped, but he took a step back from all three of them.
"Wot do you want?" He said with an aggravated tone as Kitty turned to watch him, to heed the sound of the rain and the way his expression was changing. She was wondering who wanted him, of all those masses of "great dead friends" he had. What was he up to anyway?
"He-You did wot? Bloody Hell," he breathed with an annoyed and commandeering frown. "Yes. I'll come, Rom'."
Pete looked up to meet Kitty's eyes watching him. Concern mixed with confusion and wonder dancing hand in hand within the deep brown, making him wish he hadn't said those words, and also wishing that he didn't have to follow through with them. He had he only so long he wondered on this chance to try and even patch up whatever they had left? Was there anything more between them than word of pain, hurt and anger left unsaid?
**Senior-Alumni Staff please report to the War Room** the comm. System suddenly through out and the words echo as if the room was made for the silence.
Ororo started to move off coming towards her, before standing in front of her. She was afraid in the pit of her stomach, which was churning enough without that added strain, as she looked up silently without giving away any trace of that feeling.
"We'll talk after the meeting."
Kitty kept the gaze of the blue-eyed weather woman for a few moments before she simply nodded looking down. She felt ensensed and ashamed inside all at once, the feeling swirling coldly around her stomach and chest. She wasn't sure how many seconds passed or what happened till Logan put a hand on her shoulder.
His hand squeezed it lightly, and she offered him an incredibly small half- smile. She wondered if he knew how she felt. Those experiences and long talks with him when she'd gotten drunk on his beer had been a new bonding moment for the both them since her return. He nodded, moving a lock of her hair, his blue eyes neither angry, nor chastising. Simply expectant.
Moments later he was gone and all that was left were the sounds of rain on glass panes.
"Pete?" she called softly as they left, even as it felt like a great divide had fallen between the both of them in the room. He looked like he'd actually gotten lost in his own thoughts because he hadn't moved from and the phone was still in his hand; closed.
"The dirty, old coot just had a heart attack and he hasn't woken up." he said with an uncaring air, but Kitty could tell by looking at him that it had shaken him. In the back of her mind she remembered Romany telling her about him paying for his fathers bills for years, even while telling her she should look after him for him.
"You better..." Kitty said softly, in a bare whisper. She met Pete's eyes from across the room, neither of them moving for a second, but both seeming to want to take the step to help each other and unable to. He slipped the phone in the pocket of his trench coat.
"Pryde," he said, but she turned to the window closest to her, staring at the pelting rain as it struck the glass.
"Go. Your father needs you." Kitty said hoarsely, but her words were more of an order than the plea screaming inside her not to leave. She wouldn't let him see that, not if he could even possibly read her as well as he had when they were together.
Silence vanished into the room, and steps vanished away from her seconds later.
She turned around to look at the room. It was easier to handle than the suddenly torn feeling which overwhelmed the inside of her chest as she dropped herself down on a couch. She picked up a pillow, falling back against another, hugging it to her tightly.
That wasn't how she wanted any of it to go. At all. A harsh sight left between her lips, and she whispered softly to the room around her as she looked at the pillow in her arm fighting to urge to just punch it and pull it into pieces. She put above her with one hand punched it up into the air anyway.
"I got the lead in Swan Lake."
Somewhere in the back of her mind, and in the hollows of a memory not so well kept because of its turn out the jinxed words echoed in her mind as gentle as the torrent of rain outside, and sharp as the glass it pounded on, she remembered.
'I was happy.'
"Katya?"
She stiffened at the name as she sat up looking over the back of the couch at Piotr standing in the doorway. She was thinking oddly for a second what was alike in her and him. 'Don't make any demands of me right now.'
"Would you-"
"No." Kitty said cutting him off. Personal talks were out of the consideration of conversation topics. She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to go anywhere with anyone. She started phasing straight the couch, after she threw the pillow in her arms at another chair -hard- and through the floor in the first subbasement once she looked over at him again, with a lower sound and articulate level to her voice.
"I promised I'd find Hank when this was over."
To Be Continued?
(Pryde/Wisdom) the Greatest Miracle of All 4/?
Disclaimer: Main ones are Marvel characters, some will be mine, too, so don't sue because *looking around her room* I am just a happy, but poor comic book store worker. I don't have the money for those prosecuting and if i do *smirk* you can't have it because i need it for more comics.
Feedback: Very much welcome. This is my first story the OTL so I'll welcome any kind of feedback good or bad, but flamers don't make me tie anyone down. I've over and done with that but I'm sure i can find something to stake you down with and some creatures to leave to play with you.
Adoration's, Praise and Acknowledgments: To the wondrous Kielle is a terrific beta reader. To Luba for dedication char wise and wanting more story wise. But first and foremost, to Winter Oak and Tangle Toy for pushing me to finish this piece, hint at the goings on of it, beg and prod me at points to get me going and writing. Love to you all, you're the BEST!
~*~*~*~
The Greatest Miracle of All Part IV: "Don't Try and Tell Me You Even Care"
"I DID IT!!!!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, as the gates to the mansion stood open and she drove straight in.
Her bright brown eyes had a gleeful shine to them, and her hair flew behind her in ribbons due to the speed of the jeep beneath her legs. The strain in her legs could not even compare to the joy leaping from her inside chest. Rainbows raced across her skies, and the sun seemed brighter than normal.
Kitty jumped from the jeep as she put it in park, yanking the keys out and grabbing one of her blue backpacks long straps. Going through the opposite door, passengers seat, and part of a wheel, she became solid again as her feet hit the ground. Sprinting for the middle and main entrance of the mansion, she bounded up the stairs in two long stride-jump-leaps, and phasing, went barreling straight through that door, too.
She didn't stop in the hallway, as she was too excited now. She'd done it! She hadn't even been there long and she'd gotten it! She paused a moment later, stopping to think a second atleast. Mansion was oddly quiet, but there was music coming from her left. People were in the game room! She smiled freely, impishly, for that moment and dashed in the direction going straight to the room. Jotting out from a wall on the side, she offered enthusiastically again:
"I did it!!!!!"
Kitty looked left and right. The bar was closed up, and the couch empty. The virtual game system in the middle, the TV and the games system connect to it were all off. Slipping the backpack from her shoulder, she let her opposite hand catch it, standing by the wall, she let it slide to the floor. Classical music played softly but the room looked so bare she was surprised that a movie tumbleweed didn't blow on through.
Where was everyone today? A mission? A call for help from one of the other teams? She attempted to not let her expression damper in the slightest. It was a lovely Saturday; she truly did hope no one had demands of 'World Saviors' for atleast a few more hours. Oh, well, the smile resurfaced bright as it had been, they could be in the upstairs Rec. Room.
"Did what, Katya?"
Kitty laughed softly as she spotted the large Russian man, surprised by the voice before she'd found the face, having been so sure she was alone in the room. He was coming from a back bathroom using what appeared to be wash cloth on his hands. The smile on her face lit her deep brown eyes on his state for the moment without hesitance, due to his face.
In some ways Piotr would forever remind her of a young child. He wasn't immature, and the life of an X-man had changed him greatly. He wasn't as child-like as when he joined, even before her.but somehow, in a way she was beyond fathoming, he had kept that sparkle untouched and his youth unjaded. That innocence had transposed all age, time and situation. Looking at him now, she couldn't help a silly smile.
"You've been painting." It was a statement, not a question, because he already gave himself away, or atleast the brown splash on his left cheek and the blue splash on the right side of his nose did.
"Da," he said with a natural softness to his voice as the response was in Russian while he glanced back in the direction he'd come for a moment. If it wasn't for Kitty being multilingual and knowing Piotr tended to slip back and forth into his native language (as his sister and her late best friend had, too) it might have sounded like he said 'Duh'.
That was another thing those who knew him knew he wouldn't do.
"Can I see it?"
"It's not...ready yet," Piotr said a bit uneasily as he finished working off most of the paint on his hands. At her curios expression, one eyebrow raised, he added, "It's new. A memory painting."
"That's terrific! I hope it works out."
He nodded as he finished wiping off his hand with the wet rag. She took time to realize it was a lazy day for him; she noticed that he seemed relaxed but not at rest, as if peacefully annoyed at something beyond her present fathoming. He wore jeans and a school shirt, his hair was getting longer. She wondered for a moment if she liked the idea of Piotr with longer hair.
"What did you do?"
"Hu-? Oh, that!" Kitty blinked and then smiled blindingly again, looking at him and taking a step back into the reality in the room, instead of thinking about one of the newer details around here, since there were a handful now. "There were second level try-outs for a performance the dance class I slid into is putting on and" she said triumphantly emphasizing her words and impulsively gave him a hug wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him with all her joy and feelings of triumph. " I MADE IT! I'm in!"
"Congratulations," he said with an odd air as Kitty set herself down from hugging him. Not that he minded that part at all. They way her lips curled into her smile was radiant as if wasn't glowing enough already, her deep brown eye flashing. "Second try-outs?"
"Today." She said with a nod, trying not get an impish expression, as she turned heading for the door. She didn't want to give away all her details yet. She wanted to tell Pete first, oddly enough, and the feeling she did gave the giddy "head in the clouds" sensation another boost.
"I didn't want to get anyone too excited at the possibility 'til I knew for sure that i was in and now I am! The dates of the rehearsals and all information on what the preformed piece will be is to be given at an extra set class for all of us who got passed both sets of try-outs. I have to tell everyone now! Any messages i should tell for you?"
"You should celebrate," Piotr said lightly, looking towards the leaving shadow of a girl. Kitty stopped a second to look at him and he wondered what his thoughts could be as his eyes seemed to have focused and been concentrating one something. "There's a new restaurant that features the works of new artist opened up a few miles into Salem, near Stevie's old Dance Studio."
"I can't right now. Piotr, I'm--" the world stopped spinning as her stomach lurched as if to remind her, and she stopped, meeting his eyes. The same old curios, nervous schoolboy expression from her teenage years, so deeply intense, causing her hand resting, to grip, on the back of a couch. She couldn't bring the words out, her throat choking on them and swallowing them. "I have...some stuff to deal with."
Grabbing her backpack again, Kitty dashed out, pushing off the queasy feeling in her stomach. It was just morning sickness she told herself over and over as she dashed towards the grand staircase. It felt like the moment before she'd ended it with Rigby. After giving him a chance when Pete had run off. It was the 'oh, no, I'm the only person who wants out of this' feeling. It was a hard pill telling Rigby, and with Pete here, and Piotr suddenly wanted.what? A relationship with her? Why didn't she just tell him like she started?
I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. It's not like he and the rest of the mansion won't realize it soon. But isn't that just an excuse for a more persistent problem of liking? No.
No, that wasn't it. That couldn't be it.
She was going to tell Logan and Ororo first anyway. That was why she couldn't say it. That was it.
It had to be.
"Oh my, Stars and Garters!"
She looked up at the same second realizing that without watching (as she could have walked this house blind) that she'd tried to go straight through the lovable blue fuzzball Hank. He looked a bit startled and she rubbed an arm barely, as she became partially solid. It was an odd feeling, almost like she'd had fur for a second.
"I wasn't looking." Kitty said apologetically as she caught the melody of the music inside the game room again. Mozart's Seventh Symphony, if she wasn't off on her count. "Piotr's still in the game room. Where is everyone today?"
"Rogue, and Remy are out on a picnic," he said straightening his spectacles. "Bobby's in the study, Sarah is downstairs, along with Kurt who's in the Gym, Elizabeth and Warren are still on their trip, Jean is in the study with the Nathan and I believe Logan and Ororo are in the seconds Receiving Room with our unexpected guest."
Remy and Rogue on a picnic. That was good, maybe they were working out all those kinks in the relationship lately that all of the X-Men and immediate family of the X-Mansion had focused on tiptoeing around without talking about it. Bobby studying or reading a book? Maybe someone should check him for a temperature. Maybe she could stop by the gym after she found Logan and Ororo and do a warm down with Kurt.
Jean and Nathan; together? That didn't boast well of good times. Not with what had obviously been left hanging between the two them. Anger, passion, regret, denial, hurt and loss. As a team they made up over a good ninety- five percent standing of the greatest telepathic people in the entire world. Against each other, they made war and holocaust seem incredibly light in comparison.
Kudos to Warren and Betts and their cruise and little vacation in Jamaica. They had something good and they hadn't let anything stop them. They hadn't let distance or fear, or small doubts poison their...
STOP IT, she commanded herself.
"Unexpected guest?!?" Kitty barely whispered the question barely seconds after he'd replied.
"Pete!" Her voice screeched a little bit louder than the first whisper, as the situation dawned -- or was it CRASHED? -- on her. He was being taken care of by Logan and Ororo -- Logan AND Ororo -- because he was an unexpected, undesignated and unrecorded visitor WITH an 'X-men team- member's' gate pass that enabled him onto the grounds without activating the security system!
"Kitty," Hank started getting her to look up even though her thoughts were starting to drown his voice out. "I think we should talk about the test you- "
The pass! A pass SHE had given him at lunch the day before yesterday when she'd told him! She'd forgotten to write it down or pass the message that she'd given a pass out. She'd been both too excited he was around and that she had her try-outs.
"Hank, I can't!" She said turning and going down the hallway with her bag, calling back over her shoulder. "Later, I promise!"
Kitty sprinted her way, her shoes sliding as she stopped, and her phasing causing her when she thought she might loose her balance, her phasing simply sent her half an inch through the floor. She moved into the doorway, but the part she caught made her both incensed emotionally, and she winced physically.
"What does tha' have to do with it? Where's-" Pete being offensive, of course was the beginning of the part she saw. Was he ever not? It was an adorable quirk.
"She didn't ask that, Bub, she asked where you got it."
The small man with his loud of attitude was much shorter than Pete and far more in years. He wore a pair of deep blue ruggedly-worn jeans, a red patterned flannel shirt, and too-old cowboy hat. The greasy stains on his hands, jeans, and the under of one side of his chin told her he'd probably been in the garage lately.
Hey, maybe her car was fixed.
"Bloody hell!" Pete grumbled under his breath, and she could see he looked confused and on guard from the way he was standing, but like many of the men her life he wasn't about the give up so easily. Wasn't that what made them so damned lovable?
"I'm sure you want to answer her." *SNIKT!*
Logan may have been short, but he was his full height time atleast three for attitude. He gave aggression off like it could have been a smell or a color in the air around him. Any sane person realized no other normal person just popped out claws that long from the back of their hands and started threatening you like you were a foot tall from the ground.
But then, that was Logan for you.
"I can. I'll give you a clearer answer than he will, too," Kitty spoke up as she moved into the room, again leaving her bag by the door, towards the three of them in the middle of the room, not sure who's she was exactly talking to.
"To begin with the security pass is mine."
"We know that part, Kitten." The woman next to Logan was Storm, or was better known as Ororo to her. She had deep brown skin, a pair of sky-fresh blue eyes and a shocking amount of long pale white-silver hair. Today she was clad in a pair of cut off shorts three inches from her knees and a two- inch strap tank top. In her hands she still carried a par of gloves so she must have been gardening before having been called in. "What we're struggling to under-"
"I can explain that part, too." Kitty cut her off, with an offered half- quirked attempt at a smile, as she moved near to Pete. "Pete, this is Logan and Ororo Monroe, otherwise known as Wolverine and Storm of the X-Men. Logan, Ororo, I'd like you to meet Pete Wisdom. He's an ally, and another member of the disbanded Excalibur team from Scotland."
"This is..." Ororo's blue eyes had frosted white and widened so much that Kitty fought hard not to wince, and then turned speculative as if she was taking the boy apart in a much worse way than if he had simply stumbled into here by mistake.
"Pete." Logan finished her sentence in a grunt all his own, as the claws sheathed his hand going behind his back. Weather anyone else noticed it or not, she heard the claws come out and sheath themselves again. A shudder ran through her insides, centering in her belly, and she found herself praying reverently.
Lord, please hear me out! Get me through right now without any scenes, and I swear I'm going to do anything anyone asks of me in the next 24 hours that's good and just without complaining. I'll tear myself from downloading the new software or reading my book, and do dishes or take out trash. Just please, please, please, let us all leave this room in one piece.
"Ruddy grand to meet ya, too," Pete groused with some semblance of a sour good humor more than outraged venom in his voice for being accused of sneaking on the grounds. He remembered them vaguely from Pryde's ramblings from the past.
Neither of them looked too happy suddenly, that they had seconds ago. The man, if you could call that, had the look of an animal. It would have run a shiver down any normal man's spine. Pete Wisdom wasn't a normal man, but it did make him uncomfortable slightly. The woman much less so since she'd gotten his name. If he remembered, then she was the weather witch-- practically Kitty's mother?
"I gave my pass to Pete, because," Kitty said taking their attention back to her, instead of letting them keep pulling the tension in the room tighter than it already was. She thought she knew how Logan and Ororo felt, they'd seen her sulk and become childish for the longest time. Honestly, it seemed she'd begun to wallow, much unlike any of her actions' prior to that day, when Pete had sailed away. It was like the Kitty who everyone had known and loved just vanished, and maybe she did. Maybe she wasn't there at Muir Island anymore or even with Excalibur.
Maybe Katherine Pryde has sailed off on that same boat while her body had held a curtain, watching the light of her life vanish before her eyes while tears fell from them.
"-because a situation arose," she said, trying to keep control of her tongue. This wasn't like running away from telling two other people for the reason they needed to know first. This was THEM. "And I called him, because- "
AGGH! Listen to yourself, you're letting yourself begin to ramble! It's only Logan and Ororo. They'll understand! They will. They've always been there to help you thru whatever happens to you and they will again. They would. They should. Right?
It was something she didn't want brought up though and it seemed inevitable. Something she didn't want him to know she's gone through, something that happened just because of her loss of him. She had fought her way back from that dark place to find herself, to put all the broken pieces together and move on. So far she'd done pretty good. She was finding sunshine again in places she'd once only seen shadows, and it was giving her a new look at the world.
Kitty felt in a small hollow place inside her still he didn't *deserve* to know that it had been that bad.
"Kitten?"
The light seemed to shift, and she felt to hands settle on her arms, and she blinked to see Logan looked at her almost like he had an answer even though she hadn't asked a question. She felt fuzzy again, and she glanced to her side, noting the hands on her arms, and looked up at Pete confused who seemed as concerned as the others. It was an odd feeling suddenly, so comfortable, so right, to be this close to him.
"What happened?"
"You started swaying," Ororo said coming forward to place her hand against Kitty's forehead. The Windriders fingers were cool against her skin, cool in a way Ororo was usually when she used her powers, even unintentionally. "Are you not feeling well?"
"Sod," she mummered under her breath, but so close that Pete could hear and took a second to look at her. For the moment was only the graceful fall of her dark hair a few inches from his chin. She was still swearing, and here he'd wondered if she'd forgotten everything and gone back to being the normal, cute team member she'd portrayed so well when he first met her.
"I---'m alright," Kitty said shortly, as she stood up, moving her back from against Pete's chest. She already felt like she'd touched enough electric outlets today, and been shocked. She wasn't ready for that one. Her stomach suddenly turned upside down, throwing a revolt on her body. She winced uncomfortably as small as she could make it.
It wasn't morning, her thoughts groused. That was stupid. It was called Morning Sickness. It should *only* happen in the morning then. Not like this over and over during the day, each and every day till I...
Kitty reaching her left hand, setting it lightly over Pete's hand on her right upper arm gently, as she looked at Ororo and Logan evenly. She felt two or three of Pete's fingers move to cover her hand, and she felt a boost of confidence and bravery enter her like a tiny trickling stream.
"I'm pregnant."
She half expected the world to stop turning, the planets producing oxygen, and that she'd simply blink her eyes and find herself waking up in her bed in the middle of the night. Kinda like that dream with Pete and the blonde bookstore guy. Now that was way more odd than this.
She blinked, but all she heard was Ororo gasp suddenly, unable to control her reaction.
Kitty thought for a second she might have heard a very light amused chortle from Wolverine. She glanced at him, but all he did was push his old beaten needs-to-be-put-to rest Stetson hat back and grin. It was almost as if he wasn't surprised. Had he known already?
She looked back at Storm, holding her breath and hoping for the best. She wasn't sure she was going to get it with the sound that caught her ears suddenly. Rain was beginning to cascade the windows of the mansion. Plink, plink, plink, plop, plot.
CRASH!
There went the thunder, a bright flash showed the world there was thunder. It was surprising that the person it was all coming from looked too aloof to be connected to the terrifying display which was going on outside -- this storm that had appeared in the middle of a blue sky and warm perfect day.
Ororo cast a glance over Kitty's shoulder to Pete standing there. It didn't take a genius to figure out what piece went where, and suddenly how the "why's" made sense. "Enraged" wasn't the word. ShadowCat was thinking of watching her eyes flash, and the nagging dread in her made her want to slide through the floor right now.
She couldn't leave Pete to this though. It was their.....mistake? Responsibility? Joy? Gift to world? Child.
It was their child.
"Mayhaps, your guest should leave, Katherine."
Kitty felt the urge to wince as Ororo began to speak. She knew she was about to get the badgering from hell. That made her angrier than she could have imagined. She wasn't a child to be chastised at her actions anymore!!!! Her fingers tightened over Pete's on her forearm, defensively.
"Why? Anything that's said with effect to him, or, she faltered only a second before she forced the words, forced herself to talk. "O-ur child, he'll hear about, too."
"I would speak to you alone," the African women said, as the rain behind them all on the windows battered the glass like a torrent of some hidden fury the world couldn't see. Her voice was tense, though, giving no one the chance to think she meant different. "Right no-"
A clap of thunder and a crash of lightening all at once, were only broken in the room by the sudden ringing of a cellular phone.
One small black one -- Pete pulled from his pocket and flipped back to look at the number. Damn. What does she want now? Did I forget something last time? If it was anyone else he would have left it ring until it stopped, but he took a step back from all three of them.
"Wot do you want?" He said with an aggravated tone as Kitty turned to watch him, to heed the sound of the rain and the way his expression was changing. She was wondering who wanted him, of all those masses of "great dead friends" he had. What was he up to anyway?
"He-You did wot? Bloody Hell," he breathed with an annoyed and commandeering frown. "Yes. I'll come, Rom'."
Pete looked up to meet Kitty's eyes watching him. Concern mixed with confusion and wonder dancing hand in hand within the deep brown, making him wish he hadn't said those words, and also wishing that he didn't have to follow through with them. He had he only so long he wondered on this chance to try and even patch up whatever they had left? Was there anything more between them than word of pain, hurt and anger left unsaid?
**Senior-Alumni Staff please report to the War Room** the comm. System suddenly through out and the words echo as if the room was made for the silence.
Ororo started to move off coming towards her, before standing in front of her. She was afraid in the pit of her stomach, which was churning enough without that added strain, as she looked up silently without giving away any trace of that feeling.
"We'll talk after the meeting."
Kitty kept the gaze of the blue-eyed weather woman for a few moments before she simply nodded looking down. She felt ensensed and ashamed inside all at once, the feeling swirling coldly around her stomach and chest. She wasn't sure how many seconds passed or what happened till Logan put a hand on her shoulder.
His hand squeezed it lightly, and she offered him an incredibly small half- smile. She wondered if he knew how she felt. Those experiences and long talks with him when she'd gotten drunk on his beer had been a new bonding moment for the both them since her return. He nodded, moving a lock of her hair, his blue eyes neither angry, nor chastising. Simply expectant.
Moments later he was gone and all that was left were the sounds of rain on glass panes.
"Pete?" she called softly as they left, even as it felt like a great divide had fallen between the both of them in the room. He looked like he'd actually gotten lost in his own thoughts because he hadn't moved from and the phone was still in his hand; closed.
"The dirty, old coot just had a heart attack and he hasn't woken up." he said with an uncaring air, but Kitty could tell by looking at him that it had shaken him. In the back of her mind she remembered Romany telling her about him paying for his fathers bills for years, even while telling her she should look after him for him.
"You better..." Kitty said softly, in a bare whisper. She met Pete's eyes from across the room, neither of them moving for a second, but both seeming to want to take the step to help each other and unable to. He slipped the phone in the pocket of his trench coat.
"Pryde," he said, but she turned to the window closest to her, staring at the pelting rain as it struck the glass.
"Go. Your father needs you." Kitty said hoarsely, but her words were more of an order than the plea screaming inside her not to leave. She wouldn't let him see that, not if he could even possibly read her as well as he had when they were together.
Silence vanished into the room, and steps vanished away from her seconds later.
She turned around to look at the room. It was easier to handle than the suddenly torn feeling which overwhelmed the inside of her chest as she dropped herself down on a couch. She picked up a pillow, falling back against another, hugging it to her tightly.
That wasn't how she wanted any of it to go. At all. A harsh sight left between her lips, and she whispered softly to the room around her as she looked at the pillow in her arm fighting to urge to just punch it and pull it into pieces. She put above her with one hand punched it up into the air anyway.
"I got the lead in Swan Lake."
Somewhere in the back of her mind, and in the hollows of a memory not so well kept because of its turn out the jinxed words echoed in her mind as gentle as the torrent of rain outside, and sharp as the glass it pounded on, she remembered.
'I was happy.'
"Katya?"
She stiffened at the name as she sat up looking over the back of the couch at Piotr standing in the doorway. She was thinking oddly for a second what was alike in her and him. 'Don't make any demands of me right now.'
"Would you-"
"No." Kitty said cutting him off. Personal talks were out of the consideration of conversation topics. She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to go anywhere with anyone. She started phasing straight the couch, after she threw the pillow in her arms at another chair -hard- and through the floor in the first subbasement once she looked over at him again, with a lower sound and articulate level to her voice.
"I promised I'd find Hank when this was over."
To Be Continued?