(Pryde/Wisdom) the Greatest Miracle of All 9/?
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 college student. 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. 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 Tangles, Luba, and Winter, who all were ecstatic that there was finally more to this story.
To Luba, my present beta, cause her praise is enough to make me want to write more. To Winter, cause he loves her and sometime makes me think of things Pete would do. And Tangle Toy who is my push behind me getting to finish this story, because she loved it so much way back when I started it. Love to you all, you're the BEST!
And, of course, dedicated to Terry Moore and my second largest obsession behind Jean.
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Part VII: "Do You Know a Stranger in Paradise When You See One?"
--------------
"Quack! Quack! Quack, yourself! I haven't anymore!" She said laughing, as she threw the last part of the crust of bread to the ducks about a foot from her. She only had a few near her right now, picking at the ground, making sure, and then looking up and quacking at her, as if in disbelief or as if they were pleading.
"Okay! Okay! One more!" Producing another piece of bread from her pocket, still smiling brightly she started throwing little pieces to the ducks and laughed, watching them dive for pieces and turn to look at her. "I missed you, too!"
He'd been standing there a while. Just about five steps from the built in bathrooms that most people would agree were an offense to society. Pete Wisdom on the other hand, didn't mind them; he'd even done his business in a lots of worse places than a packed wall, that actually had toilets, even if it smelled like crap. Had he ever done it worse places, places that would make this aforementioned hellhole of a bathroom look like a five star.
He had meant to walk out and stand with her, but he'd been struck, by surprise, into just watching her. Here she was, this person he'd come a dozen hours or so on a plane because she'd said "it was important" without any other explanation, running around, laughing like a child, while ducks chased her. She didn't look at all what Pete would have wished.
What did he wish though? That she'd be so heartbroken her life would have completely stopped and that once he appeared again, her life would suddenly be on the right track and the world would have sunshine suddenly since he was there? The world would have sun- where the hell did that come from? No, of course, he didn't wish that, and that would never happen.
She was Katherine Pryde, nicknamed Kitty, though not be mistaken as being gentle, naïve, and innocent, which the name sometimes seemed by comparison. Once a long time ago his "Pryde". She wasn't anyone to sit by and let the world go on without her. She'd probably recovered masses of times faster than he had from their break up. Just looking at her, joy and smiles, it made an ache inside his chest surface.
And she accomplished amazing feats against all odds. I mean, most of all, hell, she'd turned him around, hadn't she?
Joined up with Interpol, who were supposedly the good guys, till you go through enough it doesn't matter who's the good guy or the bad guy. It was just about who could kill whom faster, in larger masses, before the other person(s) would suspect. It was sickening, like taking over the task of keeping Big Brother from being born. Except in their infinite quest they had simply become Big Bother, an infection inside a body that soon took it over, and even one thought of cleansing it was enough to put you on the other side.
And then this girl, with such a bright enthusiasm, sharp wit -- and temper, at times -- had come along and grabbed his hand. She'd dragged him away from the people who had promised him no more, that he was out of it, and took him straight into the line of fire. She made him understand, along with her colleagues, what true goodness was and she did that....
....through her love.
He couldn't stop the smile that formed as she ran around two ducks coming after her, untill she was right at the waters edge. And then she was a foot in the water and her feet were phased. He could see the faint difference between where she was solid and where she wasn't, then, with a glance around shortly, saw that no one else could.
"You can't have it!"
She was laughing and holding her peanut bag away, as he started down toward her. Just as she was about to fall backwards, spurned back by a duck, he dashed out and grabbed her hand. Water splashed his shoes and the bottoms of his pant legs. She laughed and walked forward with him out of the edge of the pond, glancing at him, her cheeks still flushed, her smile still bright, holding out the peanut bag.
"Maybe *you* can. So long as you don't die, clutching it in a box, whispering my name as your last dying breath"
"Cute, Pryde," Pete said, the curling at the edges of his lips the only hint of his amusement while he looked at his pants legs and shoes dripping water.
"I am, aren't I?" Kitty replied to him with a residual laugh existing, as she looked at the pond and the ducks that were swimming to the other side where another girl was feeding a group. She was a brunette who, though a little overweight, had an animated face that made you want to smile at her. Another girl, this one with short blond hair and a leather jacket, seemed to be talking to her.
She was facing the wrong direction for Kitty to get a look at her face, and a guy had showed up, carrying tamales. He was taller than both, lean and helpful looking, with dark eyes and hair. Smiling she turned as Pete spoke again of something in what she'd been watching.
Cute. Adorable. Attractive. Fair. Comely. Good-looking. Lovely. Pretty. Alluring. Appealing. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Stunning. Sexy. Captivating. Enticing. Entrancing. All things an answer to a question she hadn't asked. She was kidding, her tone said so, and he pushed the thought away, even as one last word came before he could dislodge it from his mind. Heart breaking.
"Do you want a tamale?"
"I'll wait for lunch. Stomach's a little woozy still," Kitty said with a smile, as she turned to face him and held out a hand, trying to still her gut and heart, and have some courage. "A walk would be nice though. Fancy coming with me?"
~*~*~
"This IS lousy."
"You could try and be hopeful," Kylie responded from where she sat in the kitchen of the small town house they'd taken on. She was wearing a rainbow- blurred tank top, with red at the top and purple at the bottom, with a pair of cut off shorts that were too short anyway. She was curled up Indian style on the far kitchen counter, a bowl of grapes to her right and her laptop on her lap.
For me, was left unspoken, but he heard it all the same, and she knew he would.
"Why?" He was raging she noted, as she peered over her laptop screen before looking back down. Pacing back and forth, about to take off for work, his dark trench coat flapping behind him. "What's there to hope for? You're having worse migraines by the day, getting more repressed memories and I'm having blackouts! Tell me, Kylie, what there is to be hopeful for?"
Her smile caught him and he almost laughed, as he caught a wave of love sent from her at the same second as she spoke. "Because you still have me."
Kylie set her laptop on the counter left of where she sat and slipped off the counter still smiling impishly. She couldn't think to worry right now. He needed her to be strong. He stopped pacing and hugged her, and she hugged him hard right back.
{Anything for you, Lee.}
{Good. Then smile and make sure you're not late.}
Kyle's hand raised her chin and he kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner so sweet it made her smile, as he grabbed the keys to the bike and went for the door. He turned around partially and looked over his shoulder, to see her raise her hand and wave, even as he hesitated.
"Go. I'll call and leave a message for Mr. Essex again."
"I love you, Lee." He said with a smile as he slipped his sunglasses down to cover what would have bothered anyone else on sight except her -- pure white, pupilless eyes.
"Bet your ass, you better." She exclaimed and he left with a laugh inside him and she held onto it, as she felt him leaving for work. She needed to hold on it, or she'd forget that she wasn't as hopeful as she was trying to make him.
She was starting to think Mr. Essex wasn't going to be calling them back, since this was message ten, and that they were screwed. For now, though, she was the foundation. She was Kylie Anne Summers-Chartez and, Goddess willing, if she could be strong for him, she'd never falter a step. Just for him.
Besides she had an idea. From her computer. About another man that might be able to help them.
~*~*~
"So, what you said?"
"Hmm?"
"In the car?"
"About?"
"About bein' too late."
"No," she corrected him, with a some what firm tone which in itself worried him. "What I said was, it was good you came back before it was too late."
Not a very impressive answer. She was being roundabout on this subject. He'd brought it up since she was calming and becoming quiet, and having another thing left in the silence before them might make it explode.
"When is too late?"
"Tomorrow."
She had been walking with her hand in her pocket almost a full step in front of him fast, but this conversation seemed to make her slow down. They'd been walking a long way, to a spot she vaguely remembered. It should be around a turn anytime now, if she was right. If it hadn't changed. Glancing at him, her voice wasn't at all warm.
"Got back just in the nick of time, didn't you?"
"Don't make it sound like you've commissioned a parade in my honor, Pryde," he said just as dryly, before taking a drag of the cigarette in his hand, even though he was wondering what was under her skin. He bet it did have something to do with what she'd said, because bringing it up had set her on the defensive as she hadn't been in since he'd seen her again this round.
"Why?"
"Because if I'm going to keep this baby-" she started bravely, just to be pile drived by an astonished voice that repeated her.
"You're keeping it?"
Not amazed, not overjoyed, simply astonished, and it made her turn on her heels, even though she'd just spotted what she'd been searching for. But that had stopped her cold. What'd he think? Was he insane?
"What? Yes, of course, I'm keeping it." How could he be so insensitive to think she might not? How could he---- Her temper was beginning to rise, it being only so far below the surface since he'd reappeared. "Did you expect me to get rid of it it? Is this all some problem you simply haven't found a way to get out of yet so you can go back home?" She wasn't giving him room for anything. Her finger shot out and it waved in the air. "Go home, Pete. I can handle this myself."
"Claws in-" Pete had reached out and grabbed the hand that had been waving at him. But the second his fingers had landed on her wrist she'd phased straight through his grasp. "Sod you. I never said a word about you doin' a thing. This is the first time you've said anything about what you were doing with it. I'm allowed a moment to let it sink in that you're keeping......the baby."
Bloody...had he almost said our child?
"Fine. I'm sorry."
But she didn't sound it and the way she turned around and stomped off to the bridge over the river in front of her, she didn't look it either. He stood there watching her go, wondering if she honestly thought he was going to ask her to get rid of the child like it was a bleedin' mistake. What was going through her head? What had she meant?
"So?" he managed after he finally got up to the bridge after taking a minute to snuff out a cigarette with his foot, but she turned irritably from looking at him, looking down at the river..
Kitty stared at the water contemplating life. This was getting to her. Perhaps spending time with Pete was a bad thing, but...no, she refused to have her child grow up with two parents who couldn't stand each other. She wouldn't put her child through that kind of life if there was a way to help it. If he hadn't wanted her to get an abortion, and she had reacted so vehemently, was their some part of her that wanted her to? A shiver ran through her, but neither seemed to notice, and she finally turned to look at him a second later, raising an eyebrow as if to ask what he meant.
"The reason?"
"Because..." She sighed looked back at the river and pushed herself up from leaning on the railing, leaving her hand on it, her eyes on the movement of the river. "Because you're too good at running away now."
"Running? The git had a-"
"I know."
"He was in the bleedin'-"
I know."
"You know? Of course, you know! You told me to go to him." Pete was starting to get annoyed at her talk. She was still avoiding things. Staring at him as if he should just read her mind. He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her. Her not talking wasn't helping at all.
"I know."
"What do you know, Pryde? Since you seem to 'know' everything," his voice was sarcastic in reply as he pulled out another cigarette, and fiddled with it, trying to ignore the instinct that said not to even pull one out near her. She'd let him have the earlier one as long as he didn't get too close.
There was an awkward pause before she finally moved to look at him. Her eyes were clouded and she stared at him for a moment before she started talking. Her demeanor was resigned, but her voice was controlled, neither angry, nor sad, somewhere inside of brittle and tinged by hurt she couldn't eliminate from her words.
"I know I never told you to go away for two weeks. I never told you not to call. To not let me know what was happening or how long you might be. I know I never asked you to abandon this-- child, even if it was a surprise to everyone. I know I never asked you to make me stand through everyone looking at me like I had gone out on a limb just to have you never return and had been foolish to even try."
"Pryde, I-" but the sentence stopped there. What did he have to say for himself? He hadn't done anything. He'd avoided being near a phone and someone who knew so no one could pressure him into doing it himself and the one time he'd called, he'd hung up before anyone had picked up. "I'm sorry."
He'd waited too long, and he saw the spark of cynicism that touched her expression when he said those words, but she shook her head.
"You're sorry? Do you know what that was like, Pete? I defended you to them, even in front of you. To people who have raised me, taught me, and hold me dear still, who would have rather turned you out than help you now and they stared at me in silence for a week and a half. Have you ever had a silence that was worse than the words you know they're not saying, because they aren't speaking? Because they don't want to hurt you but they can't stop that look in their eyes?"
Kitty crossed her arms, quelling the urge to punch him. She was damn good and ready to. She was saving herself with simply imagining reaching in and pulling out his inner organs and leaving them still attached when she unphased. "I didn't want their pity and I refuse yours."
Her deep brown eyes drilled into him with an intensity he'd missed a long time, and had rarely seen directed at him since their first meeting. It would have made him flinch if he was anyone else, but he wasn't and at times like this he wondered if he worried more in his past about facing people or about the idea of having to face her full on. He had survived those, he wasn't sure he could survive her. Especially not emotionally.
"I already bloody well apologized, Pryde, what more do you want?"
"For you to mean it."
to be continued
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 college student. 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. 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 Tangles, Luba, and Winter, who all were ecstatic that there was finally more to this story.
To Luba, my present beta, cause her praise is enough to make me want to write more. To Winter, cause he loves her and sometime makes me think of things Pete would do. And Tangle Toy who is my push behind me getting to finish this story, because she loved it so much way back when I started it. Love to you all, you're the BEST!
And, of course, dedicated to Terry Moore and my second largest obsession behind Jean.
--------------
Part VII: "Do You Know a Stranger in Paradise When You See One?"
--------------
"Quack! Quack! Quack, yourself! I haven't anymore!" She said laughing, as she threw the last part of the crust of bread to the ducks about a foot from her. She only had a few near her right now, picking at the ground, making sure, and then looking up and quacking at her, as if in disbelief or as if they were pleading.
"Okay! Okay! One more!" Producing another piece of bread from her pocket, still smiling brightly she started throwing little pieces to the ducks and laughed, watching them dive for pieces and turn to look at her. "I missed you, too!"
He'd been standing there a while. Just about five steps from the built in bathrooms that most people would agree were an offense to society. Pete Wisdom on the other hand, didn't mind them; he'd even done his business in a lots of worse places than a packed wall, that actually had toilets, even if it smelled like crap. Had he ever done it worse places, places that would make this aforementioned hellhole of a bathroom look like a five star.
He had meant to walk out and stand with her, but he'd been struck, by surprise, into just watching her. Here she was, this person he'd come a dozen hours or so on a plane because she'd said "it was important" without any other explanation, running around, laughing like a child, while ducks chased her. She didn't look at all what Pete would have wished.
What did he wish though? That she'd be so heartbroken her life would have completely stopped and that once he appeared again, her life would suddenly be on the right track and the world would have sunshine suddenly since he was there? The world would have sun- where the hell did that come from? No, of course, he didn't wish that, and that would never happen.
She was Katherine Pryde, nicknamed Kitty, though not be mistaken as being gentle, naïve, and innocent, which the name sometimes seemed by comparison. Once a long time ago his "Pryde". She wasn't anyone to sit by and let the world go on without her. She'd probably recovered masses of times faster than he had from their break up. Just looking at her, joy and smiles, it made an ache inside his chest surface.
And she accomplished amazing feats against all odds. I mean, most of all, hell, she'd turned him around, hadn't she?
Joined up with Interpol, who were supposedly the good guys, till you go through enough it doesn't matter who's the good guy or the bad guy. It was just about who could kill whom faster, in larger masses, before the other person(s) would suspect. It was sickening, like taking over the task of keeping Big Brother from being born. Except in their infinite quest they had simply become Big Bother, an infection inside a body that soon took it over, and even one thought of cleansing it was enough to put you on the other side.
And then this girl, with such a bright enthusiasm, sharp wit -- and temper, at times -- had come along and grabbed his hand. She'd dragged him away from the people who had promised him no more, that he was out of it, and took him straight into the line of fire. She made him understand, along with her colleagues, what true goodness was and she did that....
....through her love.
He couldn't stop the smile that formed as she ran around two ducks coming after her, untill she was right at the waters edge. And then she was a foot in the water and her feet were phased. He could see the faint difference between where she was solid and where she wasn't, then, with a glance around shortly, saw that no one else could.
"You can't have it!"
She was laughing and holding her peanut bag away, as he started down toward her. Just as she was about to fall backwards, spurned back by a duck, he dashed out and grabbed her hand. Water splashed his shoes and the bottoms of his pant legs. She laughed and walked forward with him out of the edge of the pond, glancing at him, her cheeks still flushed, her smile still bright, holding out the peanut bag.
"Maybe *you* can. So long as you don't die, clutching it in a box, whispering my name as your last dying breath"
"Cute, Pryde," Pete said, the curling at the edges of his lips the only hint of his amusement while he looked at his pants legs and shoes dripping water.
"I am, aren't I?" Kitty replied to him with a residual laugh existing, as she looked at the pond and the ducks that were swimming to the other side where another girl was feeding a group. She was a brunette who, though a little overweight, had an animated face that made you want to smile at her. Another girl, this one with short blond hair and a leather jacket, seemed to be talking to her.
She was facing the wrong direction for Kitty to get a look at her face, and a guy had showed up, carrying tamales. He was taller than both, lean and helpful looking, with dark eyes and hair. Smiling she turned as Pete spoke again of something in what she'd been watching.
Cute. Adorable. Attractive. Fair. Comely. Good-looking. Lovely. Pretty. Alluring. Appealing. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Stunning. Sexy. Captivating. Enticing. Entrancing. All things an answer to a question she hadn't asked. She was kidding, her tone said so, and he pushed the thought away, even as one last word came before he could dislodge it from his mind. Heart breaking.
"Do you want a tamale?"
"I'll wait for lunch. Stomach's a little woozy still," Kitty said with a smile, as she turned to face him and held out a hand, trying to still her gut and heart, and have some courage. "A walk would be nice though. Fancy coming with me?"
~*~*~
"This IS lousy."
"You could try and be hopeful," Kylie responded from where she sat in the kitchen of the small town house they'd taken on. She was wearing a rainbow- blurred tank top, with red at the top and purple at the bottom, with a pair of cut off shorts that were too short anyway. She was curled up Indian style on the far kitchen counter, a bowl of grapes to her right and her laptop on her lap.
For me, was left unspoken, but he heard it all the same, and she knew he would.
"Why?" He was raging she noted, as she peered over her laptop screen before looking back down. Pacing back and forth, about to take off for work, his dark trench coat flapping behind him. "What's there to hope for? You're having worse migraines by the day, getting more repressed memories and I'm having blackouts! Tell me, Kylie, what there is to be hopeful for?"
Her smile caught him and he almost laughed, as he caught a wave of love sent from her at the same second as she spoke. "Because you still have me."
Kylie set her laptop on the counter left of where she sat and slipped off the counter still smiling impishly. She couldn't think to worry right now. He needed her to be strong. He stopped pacing and hugged her, and she hugged him hard right back.
{Anything for you, Lee.}
{Good. Then smile and make sure you're not late.}
Kyle's hand raised her chin and he kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner so sweet it made her smile, as he grabbed the keys to the bike and went for the door. He turned around partially and looked over his shoulder, to see her raise her hand and wave, even as he hesitated.
"Go. I'll call and leave a message for Mr. Essex again."
"I love you, Lee." He said with a smile as he slipped his sunglasses down to cover what would have bothered anyone else on sight except her -- pure white, pupilless eyes.
"Bet your ass, you better." She exclaimed and he left with a laugh inside him and she held onto it, as she felt him leaving for work. She needed to hold on it, or she'd forget that she wasn't as hopeful as she was trying to make him.
She was starting to think Mr. Essex wasn't going to be calling them back, since this was message ten, and that they were screwed. For now, though, she was the foundation. She was Kylie Anne Summers-Chartez and, Goddess willing, if she could be strong for him, she'd never falter a step. Just for him.
Besides she had an idea. From her computer. About another man that might be able to help them.
~*~*~
"So, what you said?"
"Hmm?"
"In the car?"
"About?"
"About bein' too late."
"No," she corrected him, with a some what firm tone which in itself worried him. "What I said was, it was good you came back before it was too late."
Not a very impressive answer. She was being roundabout on this subject. He'd brought it up since she was calming and becoming quiet, and having another thing left in the silence before them might make it explode.
"When is too late?"
"Tomorrow."
She had been walking with her hand in her pocket almost a full step in front of him fast, but this conversation seemed to make her slow down. They'd been walking a long way, to a spot she vaguely remembered. It should be around a turn anytime now, if she was right. If it hadn't changed. Glancing at him, her voice wasn't at all warm.
"Got back just in the nick of time, didn't you?"
"Don't make it sound like you've commissioned a parade in my honor, Pryde," he said just as dryly, before taking a drag of the cigarette in his hand, even though he was wondering what was under her skin. He bet it did have something to do with what she'd said, because bringing it up had set her on the defensive as she hadn't been in since he'd seen her again this round.
"Why?"
"Because if I'm going to keep this baby-" she started bravely, just to be pile drived by an astonished voice that repeated her.
"You're keeping it?"
Not amazed, not overjoyed, simply astonished, and it made her turn on her heels, even though she'd just spotted what she'd been searching for. But that had stopped her cold. What'd he think? Was he insane?
"What? Yes, of course, I'm keeping it." How could he be so insensitive to think she might not? How could he---- Her temper was beginning to rise, it being only so far below the surface since he'd reappeared. "Did you expect me to get rid of it it? Is this all some problem you simply haven't found a way to get out of yet so you can go back home?" She wasn't giving him room for anything. Her finger shot out and it waved in the air. "Go home, Pete. I can handle this myself."
"Claws in-" Pete had reached out and grabbed the hand that had been waving at him. But the second his fingers had landed on her wrist she'd phased straight through his grasp. "Sod you. I never said a word about you doin' a thing. This is the first time you've said anything about what you were doing with it. I'm allowed a moment to let it sink in that you're keeping......the baby."
Bloody...had he almost said our child?
"Fine. I'm sorry."
But she didn't sound it and the way she turned around and stomped off to the bridge over the river in front of her, she didn't look it either. He stood there watching her go, wondering if she honestly thought he was going to ask her to get rid of the child like it was a bleedin' mistake. What was going through her head? What had she meant?
"So?" he managed after he finally got up to the bridge after taking a minute to snuff out a cigarette with his foot, but she turned irritably from looking at him, looking down at the river..
Kitty stared at the water contemplating life. This was getting to her. Perhaps spending time with Pete was a bad thing, but...no, she refused to have her child grow up with two parents who couldn't stand each other. She wouldn't put her child through that kind of life if there was a way to help it. If he hadn't wanted her to get an abortion, and she had reacted so vehemently, was their some part of her that wanted her to? A shiver ran through her, but neither seemed to notice, and she finally turned to look at him a second later, raising an eyebrow as if to ask what he meant.
"The reason?"
"Because..." She sighed looked back at the river and pushed herself up from leaning on the railing, leaving her hand on it, her eyes on the movement of the river. "Because you're too good at running away now."
"Running? The git had a-"
"I know."
"He was in the bleedin'-"
I know."
"You know? Of course, you know! You told me to go to him." Pete was starting to get annoyed at her talk. She was still avoiding things. Staring at him as if he should just read her mind. He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her. Her not talking wasn't helping at all.
"I know."
"What do you know, Pryde? Since you seem to 'know' everything," his voice was sarcastic in reply as he pulled out another cigarette, and fiddled with it, trying to ignore the instinct that said not to even pull one out near her. She'd let him have the earlier one as long as he didn't get too close.
There was an awkward pause before she finally moved to look at him. Her eyes were clouded and she stared at him for a moment before she started talking. Her demeanor was resigned, but her voice was controlled, neither angry, nor sad, somewhere inside of brittle and tinged by hurt she couldn't eliminate from her words.
"I know I never told you to go away for two weeks. I never told you not to call. To not let me know what was happening or how long you might be. I know I never asked you to abandon this-- child, even if it was a surprise to everyone. I know I never asked you to make me stand through everyone looking at me like I had gone out on a limb just to have you never return and had been foolish to even try."
"Pryde, I-" but the sentence stopped there. What did he have to say for himself? He hadn't done anything. He'd avoided being near a phone and someone who knew so no one could pressure him into doing it himself and the one time he'd called, he'd hung up before anyone had picked up. "I'm sorry."
He'd waited too long, and he saw the spark of cynicism that touched her expression when he said those words, but she shook her head.
"You're sorry? Do you know what that was like, Pete? I defended you to them, even in front of you. To people who have raised me, taught me, and hold me dear still, who would have rather turned you out than help you now and they stared at me in silence for a week and a half. Have you ever had a silence that was worse than the words you know they're not saying, because they aren't speaking? Because they don't want to hurt you but they can't stop that look in their eyes?"
Kitty crossed her arms, quelling the urge to punch him. She was damn good and ready to. She was saving herself with simply imagining reaching in and pulling out his inner organs and leaving them still attached when she unphased. "I didn't want their pity and I refuse yours."
Her deep brown eyes drilled into him with an intensity he'd missed a long time, and had rarely seen directed at him since their first meeting. It would have made him flinch if he was anyone else, but he wasn't and at times like this he wondered if he worried more in his past about facing people or about the idea of having to face her full on. He had survived those, he wasn't sure he could survive her. Especially not emotionally.
"I already bloody well apologized, Pryde, what more do you want?"
"For you to mean it."
to be continued