Chapter 10: Starting Over
"Incredible," Hank said when Kurt had told him what happened in the courtroom. He inspected every inch of Grace's skin, starting at her shoulders and working downward to her feet. Every scar on her body was gone. It was as though she had been reborn, whole and new again. Some of the flaky, scorched remnants of her old skin remained stuck in her hair, and Hank took a sample of that too, as well as another vial of blood.
The authorities came later that afternoon, and Kurt wanted to go with her on the helicopter ride upstate to recover the bodies, but she firmly insisted that she had to do it herself. He watched as the chopper took off.
"She has to do this herself, Kurt," Ororo said gently to him as he stood silently watching the speck in the sky fade off toward the north. "It is closure for her, as well as a sign that she is becoming more independent. Think of it. She no longer has to hide, she is free to do what she likes, and with the cult disbanded, the whole world is open for her now. She is free. If you care for her, you must let her exercise that freedom."
"I know," Kurt said quietly. "But it is not easy."
"Life is never easy, Kurt."
They were watching TV over dinner later when the news came on, and everyone was riveted by the sight of diggers and excavators digging holes in the ground and pulling out skeletons and bodies. Grace was there, too, pale-faced and shaking, but her hands were firm as she pointed out new spots for the workers to dig. Kurt swallowed hard as she paused beside one small body and touched it gently. The body had to be one of the children she had spoken of in the courtroom; it was far too small to be an adult.
The police dropped her off in front of the mansion late that evening, and Kurt opened the door to her knock. She looked exhausted and tired, and her eyes were red from crying. He cut the others' questions off with a shake of his head and took her back to her room to rest, then went to the kitchen to make her some soup. She ate and went to sleep immediately.
She woke the next morning, feeling a little better, and Kurt greeted her at her door with breakfast. Thanking him silently for bringing her breakfast to her, since she really didn't feel like eating downstairs with everyone else. They said their prayers and ate.
"I can't stay here, Kurt," was the first word she spoke when breakfast was done.
'Grace…" he began, but she gently placed a finger in his lips.
"Hear me out. I don't belong here, Kurt. You do. I don't think I could do what you do all the time. I think God is calling me somewhere else, somewhere different. I don't know where."
"Maybe you need direction," he said quietly. "Will you come with me? I'm going to the Saint Francis church today, to help give out food in the homeless shelter. Perhaps you can find some purpose there."
Father O'Malley was all too eager to have extra hands to help dole out the food, and Grace seemed to be happy, standing by the soup and ladling it out into bowls. She had a smile for everyone, a gentle touch for the children, and when the orphans in the church's orphanage started coming in, she welcomed them all and quickly became a favored playmate for the small children.
Kurt was standing there, watching her, when Father O'Malley came up. "She is an interesting girl, Kurt," the old priest said. "I don't believe I've ever seen her before, but she looks familiar somehow."
Kurt decided not to tell the priest about Grace's past. Grace herself seemed reluctant to discuss it. "Just another lost soul, looking for light," he said instead.
The priest regarded him kindly. "Aren't we all?" He turned to look at Grace again, who was sitting down with one of the smallest girls in her lap and showing an older child how to braid the little girl's long brown hair. "The children love her," he said quietly. "And we do have a need for caretakers for the children. Do you think, perhaps, that she might be willing to donate some of her time to the orphanage?"
Kurt smiled at the priest. "She is currently living with me, but has expressed a wish to expand her horizons," he told the priest. "Perhaps she might live here?"
"Live here?" The priest said. "That is a possibility." Kurt caught grace's eye, and she slid a child off her lap and sent them off to play as she came up to them. She knelt briefly before Father O'Malley; old habits seemed to die hard, but the priest didn't seem to mind. He laid a hand on Grace's head gently then told her to rise. She stood.
"Kurt has told me of your search for direction," the old priest said gently. "And I have a need for someone who can care for the orphanage's children. Would you be willing to move in here?"
Her smile was answer enough.
It didn't take long to move what few things she had from her room at the mansion. Everything she had, actually came down to one cardboard box; a few changes of clothes, the Bible Kurt had given her, her rosary, and a small, special gift Kurt had been saving to give to her for a special occasion. This seemed a good time to give it to her.
She sat on the bed with the cardboard box on her lap, and took the small, plain white box Kurt handed her with a curious look. "For me?"
He nodded. She opened it carefully.
Inside the box, on a bed of cotton, lay a narrow, plain, strong gold chain with a gold cross on it. The cross had a small tiger-eye jewel in the center of it, and Grace gasped as she lifted it out of the box. "Kurt! Oh, Kurt, it's beautiful…!"
"For you," he said gently, reaching across the seat to fasten the clasp around her slim throat. "A gift."
"But I have nothing for you," she said, instantly distressed. Kurt cupped her chin in his hand.
"Meeting you, knowing you, has been gift enough," he said quietly. "That day when I first saw you in the graveyard, I had been searching for direction myself. I was asking God what His purpose was for me, wishing there was something that I needed to do, had to do, that only I could do, and he sent me you. He answered my prayers with you. You are the greatest gift I could ever receive."
"Ahem," Hank said discreetly from the door. Kurt and Grace broke off their close contact and Kurt waved the big blue doctor into the room. "I have the results of those tests," Hank said. "As near as I can tell, Grace, you have a secondary mutation, one that we generally refer to as 'husking'. One of our younger members at the Massachusetts Academy has this particular ability, if I recall correctly. When your skin became too burned and damaged, you shed it, or 'husked' it, much as certain reptiles can shed their skins. The scar transference, however…" he took his glasses off and raised his eyes to the ceiling. I would call it a 'unexplained occurrence'. You however, may have a different explanation for it." He replaced his glasses and nodded to Kurt and Grace before leaving the room.
Grace looked at the cross around her neck, then brushed her fingers over the bible in the box in her lap. "Kurt?"
Kurt looked at her. "Yes?"
"Thank you," she said softly. "Thank you for everything." She leaned forward across the space between them, and brushed her lips against his gently.
Kurt couldn't think of a single thing to say.
That's it for this one.
I got the idea for this one from listening to a song from Sara Evans. I don't know what the song is called, but this is how it goes:
When we're torn apart
Shattered and scarred
Love has the grace to save us
We're just two tarnished hearts
But in each other's arms
We become saints and angels…
It stuck, and became the title for this story. It's odd how a line from a song can spark new ideas in my head…
Anyway, thanks to all who reviewed, and I appreciate you all hanging on for the ride!
And what a ride it's been!
I'm going to go on from here, finish up 'I'll Be There', and after that I don't know; maybe I'll post the Ororo/OC fic that's been sitting on my computer for a while (not a romance), or if I get enough favorable comments about the request-only, Logan/Jubilee AU story I'm currently on the fifteenth chapter of (those who have visited www.wolverineandjubilee.com and looked at the recent posts in the Comment Room know what I'm talking about) I'll post that. Oh, and if you don't visit that page but would still like to read it, drop me a line and let me know. Be warned; it's very A/U, PG-13, and there are no mutant powers involved!
Anyway, thanks for reading, and especially for reviewing! I hope I haven't offended anyone with talk of God and religions. I'm a Wiccan myself, but I did go to catholic schools when I was younger, so I drew the info from that experience.
Jaenelle Angelline