Kitty took the empty hall in long, purpose-filled strides. Both Scott and Storm had let her go on alone from the hangar. It was a blessing and a curse. Thankfully no one else was trying to orchestrate this little event. It could unfold naturally and of it's own design.

Unfortunately this also meant that she had to find the will power to push open that last door on her own.

She laid her hand against the rich grain of the dark wooden door. It was cool and comforting it it's own way. This door was the last line of defense. When she passed through it she would have to admit that she was a mother. The very next words out of her mouth would be her first experience as a parent.

Kitty took a deep, slow and labored breath. She exhaled quietly, with her eyes closed, as her knees threatened to give beneath her.

She applied a gentle pressure to the door and felt herself begin to phase out of some vague insecurity.

Kitty swallowed hard, pulled herself together and pushed the door wide open.

To find Logan standing, arms folded, against the far wall. Between where Kitty stood at the door and where Logan stood across the room, there was a small man, wrapped in bandages and laid out unconscious on one of the metal infirmary beds. Through the occasional gap in his sterile dressings she could see his skin was a soft shade of deep blue.

Logan lifted a finger to his lips to indicate silence. He then motioned to the next bed.

Kitty stepped in to the room so as to see the other bed as well. A young blonde girl was sprawled on the bed as though she had fallen asleep while being blasted through the air by an explosion, and simply slept on where she had landed.

Kitty smiled despite herself. There was once a time when she too had fallen to sleep in this house. A time when she was young and tired enough to sleep in any position at all. "It must be this place." She thought silently.

Kitty spied Hank McCoy's large, shaggy frame sitting in a lab coat and glasses, hunched over his desk, off to her far right. He was holding a pen in each hand and appeared to be writing on (at least) two different sets of forms; each set atop an open file folder.

He looked up at her and she saw him register a look of incredible delight. A second later his right hand finished what it was writing. He nimbly twirled the pen through his fingers, somehow pulling the cap off the back end and plunging it down over the point as he finished the flourish. He then looked distractedly at his left hand. It was still writing.

Hank sighed loudly and simply dropped the pen on top of the unfinished file. He swept out from around the desk and across the room in two graceful bounds.

Then, smiling majestically, and taking her by the hand to draw her towards the boy he whispered "Congratulations Kitty."

And there was no more fear, no more worry or concern, and no doubt at all.

She could see his face now. It wasn't angular like Kurt's face. It was more rounded, like hers. He had Kurt's high forehead, coloring and small frame but wasn't as thin as Kurt. He was beefier and rounded with thick muscles about his shoulders and chest.

Kitty reached out almost absently and brushed a hand full of his thick blue- black hair away from his face. The hair was thick and rough like a horse's tail. For just a moment the boy's eyelids fluttered, perhaps in response to her touch. The eyes beneath were a milky silver-blue imitation of Kurt's golden orbs. Kitty reached out again and lifted his left hand. It was blue and a rougher texture than it appeared with five square, thick fingers. His fingernails were four or five times thicker than normal and formed small talon like claws at the tip of each finger.

Kitty raised her eyes to Hank and Logan who were now standing together and watching her. There was an odd, almost electric, form of relieved delight that seemed to radiate from them. And it was quite obvious that neither of them wanted to fracture the moment.

But the moment was not to last. Kitty could feel the heat of anger coursing through her in a horrid contrast to the peace and calm of the moment.

Logan suddenly stiffened and drew himself up to his full height. He could sense the change in her.

The Beast however seemed blissfully unaware of any change.

"Take her to Chuck now Beast." Logan whispered softly, but it was not a request.

Hank seemed to be considering Logan for a moment, as though trying to read some sleep-blurred passage of a familiar book that he should know by heart yet couldn't recall.

"Of course." Hank breathed softly and nodded once, aware now that he had missed something but unsure of exactly what.

Yet he couldn't help but smile as he offered Kitty his arm and escort.

Kitty took his thick warm arm and squeezed affectionately as they exited through the large main door.

"He's going to be fine." Hank assured her "It was real touch and go at first. I was even afraid to medicate him for the pain." Hank shook his head and Kitty suddenly wondered when he had last slept for more than a distracted minute.

Hank continued "Logan's been with him ever since I authenticated the first strand of DNA. He refuses to leave the room. It's sweet of course, in a deadly, threatening, cigar-smoking and starting-accidental-fires-in-my- wastebasket kind of way."

And Kitty's anger was momentarily held at bay. "Oh, poor Hank." She teased him, and then hugged his arm tightly as they walked.

"Thank you Hank." The soft and honest words brought bitter tears with them.

"Kitty," The Beast looked at a loss for words. "What?"

But she was two steps ahead of him. "Who did this to him Hank? You have to tell me where I can find whoever did this."

And it suddenly became clear to him. Whoever had hurt Kitty's son was about to face one dangerous Mother.

"You'll have to talk to Charles about those matters." The Beast lowered his eyes briefly to the floor and once he had steadied himself and ordered his thoughts he spoke. "There is always someone, Kitty." He had her full attention and once he saw that he continued. "Someone doing something beyond their rights for selfish or shallow purposes. And beyond a healthy disdain for such behavior, even with all our victories, technology, equipment and training; We are almost powerless to act."

Hank shook his head sadly, dropped his eyes and then brought them again to meet hers.

"And that's as it should be. Because we are who we are, and that forces us to be better than those who would wrong us. Because without our daily efforts to be the better people we wish to be, and the efforts of everyone who commits themselves to the same goal, " A lump seemed to catch in his throat. "Without that, Kitty, there's no point in saving anyone's life. Because it would be a world who's greatness and perfection would be forever lost to us all."

His great wide eyes were now glazed over and sheeted with threatening tears.

Kitty threw her arms around his neck and took hold of two great handfuls of fur as she squeezed him tight. A moment later they slowly pulled apart and Hank could see that she had been crying.

"You've had to remind yourself of that, haven't you?" Kitty sniffed, and absently wiped at her eyes.

"For almost two hours strait." Hank admitted, "While I was working on your son." Hank smiled as though he had said too much. "When you're done with Charles I want you to come down to the infirmary and call Kurt." He said plainly. "Scott's almost never down there. He's afraid of Germs. So you can say whatever you want without receiving the mandatory lecture."

"I wish now that he had come." Kitty didn't want to meet Hank's gaze. She was sure that he would see how awkward their intimacy had made them. "That I had made him come."

"I believe they call that hindsight." Hank patted her hand, lifted her chin, and wiped away the last telltale remnants of her recent tears. "Now off you go." Hank smiled again and it betrayed his exhaustion.

"I'll be back down as soon as I can. In the mean time I need to know, when can Kent be moved?"

"Provided it's a properly supervised move, I'd say, maybe half a day, so we can flush his system and get him conscious again." Hank shrugged slightly "Once I felt it was safe I gave him quite a heavy dose. He was in a lot of pain for quite a while before he got here. I thought that sleep might help him shake the trauma of it all."

Kitty nodded appreciatively, although she was unsure if that were sound medical advice or simply an overt act of compassion.

"Thank you again Hank. For everything." Kitty felt lighter and cleaner now. More alive and more connected to life than she had ever felt before. "Now go lay down before you pass out Hank." Kitty paused just a moment with her hands on her hips "Because if I come down there and you're not napping on that last bed mister, so help me, I will put you in that bed for real Mr. Hank McCoy."

Hank's smile had extended sideways through her whole tirade and threat and he responded in his best Valley-Boy voice. "You're just, like totally, the best Mom ever!" Hank threw his arms around her and spun them both twice around before planting her back before Xavier's door.

"I was serious Hank." She said as he went ambling back the way they had come.

Casting just a glance back at her, he softly confessed, "So was I." Before yawning so loudly and suddenly that half the doors up and down the hall opened in all manners of alarm and confusion.

"G'night!" Hank called out half-embarrassed and half-amused as he retreated to follow some good advice.