Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 20

Chapter 4: The Wait

"Y'know, at the drug store, there's like, pregnancy tests that can tell you if you're pregnant like within five minutes…and like, this piece of shit that the professor orders in is so dated…how can I wait half an hour? I mean how?" Kitty was pacing across her bedroom frantically. "With all this advanced technology and medicine in this whole place you'd think SOMEONE could buy in a pregnancy test kit that can tell you if you're pregnant within five minutes or something…this is ridiculous…how can they expect people to wait that long for a stupid indicator to change colour…and how disgusting is it and totally unnecessary is it to have to PEE on a stick to do it?! I mean, jesus, Psylocke can just LOOK at me and tell me but I have to pee on a stick!?! You would THINK that someone could invent a pregnancy test that you can just shove under your tongue or something or that just gives a quick scan and tells you but noooooo…"

Remy had been listening to Kitty's non-stop complaining about the pregnancy test for the last fifteen minutes. He'd sat on the chair in her room while she'd gone into the bathroom, and he'd brooded. Remy knew that his friend's pregnancy scare was the last thing he needed in his life, but to be honest, he'd rather be concerned about Kitty's problem then having to come up with a way to help Rogue. He wasn't intellectual enough to come up with a solution, and right now, this was probably the only thing that he was capable of – being there for Kitty.

Kitty stopped in the middle of the room, her eyes darting around as she was lucidly thinking, "there was two indicators in the pack, do you think I should do the other one just in case the first one doesn't work? Do you think that happens??" she asked suddenly, she chewed her lip, "I mean…what if the first one says I'm not pregnant and then I take a second one and that says I am…or if it's the other way around and the first one says I am but the second one says I'm not…do you think that happens?"

Remy went to open his mouth, but she began again. She'd barely given Remy any time to respond to the question before she continued to ramble on.

"Wait, if that happens…how would I know the answer…I mean it's like a fifty-fifty thing, right? Maybe I should take THREE tests, just to be positive…" Kitty picked up the empty cardboard box from the dresser, she'd brought it in with her, "it says that the test can be ninety-five percent accurate…ninety-five percent…but like, what about the other five percent?" Her blue eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed, her chest rising and falling in nervous breath. "What if the five percent tells me the wrong answer? What then?"

Remy could finally stand no more, he understood her situation and understood why she was fretting, but he felt she was getting too frantic over an unsure situation. He stood up quickly, and he swiftly moved over, grabbing her by the shoulders, "petit. Calm down. Breathe deeply and STOP talking…stop thinking, and stop panicking," he said, he sighed.

"It's okay for YOU to be calm, this isn't YOUR life…" Kitty said, she put her hands to her head, "this cannot be happening. It just can't be."

"It may not. I wouldn't put much stock into what Betsy says. She's the kind of person who'd fuck with your head just to get the satisfaction of upsetting you," he explained. He sighed, "c'mere…" he murmured, and pulled her to him in a hug.

Kitty slipped her arms around him, and gripped so fiercely onto the back of his t-shirt that he thought it might rip between her fingers.

"Maybe you should be with Piotr right now," Remy suggested, he moved a lock of her hair away from her forehead.

"No…I don't want him knowing…" Kitty moved away suddenly, pushing him away from her at the same time.

"Don't you think he should be involved? This is partly his fault too, right?"

Kitty looked up at Remy with wider frightened eyes, and Remy suddenly felt very stupid.

"Ah…right…so…uhm…it wasn't him?"

Kitty looked away, "no."

"Kurt?"

"No…" Kitty shrugged her shoulders up a little and lowered her head shamefully.

"So it's not Piotr…it's not Kurt…it's definitely NOT me…" Remy paused to think, just to make sure. Occasionally in his past, he'd bedded random women he'd later remembered nothing about, ladies who didn't matter to him that he found not worth remembering. Sometimes he felt bad about it but there was nothing he could do to turn back time. However, despite those occasions, Remy was positively sure he'd never had sexual intercourse with Kitty Pryde.

"Of course it's not you," Kitty sighed, she moved over to the window seat.

"Kitty…you said Psylocke told you about this pregnancy…but…you must have been thinking about it before she confronted you – hence how she got it out of your head – but…what made you think you might be pregnant?" he asked carefully.

"Uhm…" Kitty looked away, "girl stuff," she replied, her cheeks going incredibly pink.

"Kitty, I'm twenty-seven years old. I knew almost everything about the female body before I was in eleven. I THINK I can handle it if you tell me you missed a period," he folded his arms and looked at her in disbelief. He couldn't believe she was choosing now to be timid about it.

Kitty blinked, "Two."

Remy blinked also, "two…" he felt as if suddenly this Kitty Pryde sitting there in front of him might be a clone, because it seemed unlikely this could be his friend there – responsible Kitty Pryde.

"Almost three…" Kitty looked away.

"And you're just realising now?" he gaped.

"I have had A LOT on my mind," Kitty sighed.

"Must have been a hell of a lot. What was so important that you neglected to realise?"

"Looking for you, teaching the kids, working out in the danger room, training the kids in the danger room with Rogue, worrying about my parents deaths…the thing that happened with the Clone that we thought was you…fawning over Piotr and NEVER having him notice me…then getting kidnapped and sent to Genosha…getting out, getting together with Piotr and then of course trying to keep you and Rogue together…"

"You have GOT to stop worrying about us and start focusing on yourself," Remy sat beside her, "it's not good for you, you know…" he patted her arm.

Kitty nodded, "I know."

"So…the guy?" Remy asked, "anyone we know?"

"No," Kitty shook her head. She tucked her hair behind her ear, "there was this guy, his name was Tommy Bloom. A real sweetheart, kind, and funny, and extremely cute…I met him at Starbucks – he said I was too pretty to be buying my own coffee. We started dating, and everything was goin' great. I didn't even mind he had this whole other identity."

"Hmmm?" Remy asked.

"He was a hacker, totally ace at it, he could hack his way into any system in the world just about…he knew all there was. Anyway, the stupid dumbass decided he was sick of small time hacking for the occasional buck, and one night – unbeknownst to me – he hacked three international banks and dropped two point three million dollars into his account…" Kitty sighed, "found out he'd been sloppy 'cause within about two hours, they had his building completely surrounded and he was arrested. He'd gotten sloppy, see, he had this program called a log deleter and he deleted all the system administration logs, but didn't delete the statements, and they traced him right back to his own bank account," Kitty shook her head in disbelief, "he's inside for twenty years – needless to say, I broke off the relationship."

"And it's his baby?" Remy asked. "I mean, if you are pregnant that is…"

"No, this happened a couple of years ago," Kitty stated firmly, "anyway…when I would hang out with Tommy, we'd USUALLY hang out in his brother's apartment…his brother Ryan was also a computer geek, probably a bigger one than he was…"

Remy found it amusing that Kitty could refer to anyone else as a computer geek, she had more computer knowledge than anyone else he knew – except perhaps Hank and the Professor.

"I spent a fortune of the Professor's money buying all this software and hardware so that I could break into the Global Criminal Database to find out info on you – see if we could trace you that way – which is lucky because if we hadn't gotten into there we might have NEVER found out about Genosha – and they wouldn't have traced us back and taken us, but anyway…" Kitty sighed, "there was this one day, I went to Ryan's. I was stuck on cash…I hard like thirty bucks, and he wanted an even thousand…"

Remy looked at her, "PLEASE do not tell me you—"

"Remy…I would have done ANYTHING to find you…you're one of my dearest friends…" Kitty stood up, "I'd made the mistake of sayin' to Ryan, 'please help me out, I'll owe you' or something to that effect, and he said 'owe me what'. I knew what he was talking about and I refused at first, but…he offered to make it fast…and I just wanted to get out of there, I had SO much to do."

Remy shook his head, "Kitty, that's prostitution!"

"Like you're one to talk, Mr Professional Sneakthief," Kitty rolled her eyes, "it wasn't prostitution, it was a favour…anyway, I thought I would be safe because, A: he was a virgin, and B: he didn't technically finish…all of a sudden, he just…lost it, y'know? While we were in the middle of it…and I figured well, hey, he didn't exactly y'know…get all the way there…so…yeah, I figured it'd be fine. He felt bad and I felt sorry for him, so I stayed and played computer games with him until he seemed to feel less pathetic – he even asked me out…but I told him I was going out with Kurt, even though I wasn't…" she sighed, "I just…I don't know…I honestly thought I'd be fine, I even had my period all charted out…I thought I was safe anyway, I wasn't in my fertile period."

"Kitty, you are like, one of the smartest girls I know, how could you be so naïve?" Remy asked.

Kitty sighed, tears building in her eyes again, "I don't know…"

"It doesn't necessarily take a climax for a guy to get you pregnant," Remy sighed, "Have you ever heard the term 'inhibited orgasm'?" he queried curiously.

Kitty looked at him and shook her head.

"I read some of Hank's medical books up on it, I'd never heard of it before either…but basically, the point is…that a guy can still…god I SO don't want to sound like a doctor here, but a guy can still ejaculate without orgasm…it's not too common in young guys from what I read…I am assuming Ryan isn't some fifty year old..."

"No, he's about twenty one," Kitty responded. "Remy…how do you know all this stuff…"

Remy sighed, "I'm pretty sure that's how I got Belle pregnant. Hey…" Remy looked at his watch. "Your pregnancy test should have the answer now."

"Will you look?" she asked, wiping away her tears again.

"Fine," he sighed, he wasn't in the mood to force her to face her problem herself, and he already felt sincerely cruel for having told her she was naïve, he knew he'd take it back later. He stepped into the bathroom, and found the indicator on the counter, he picked it up by the handle, and there was the answer in pink.

"You are pregnant."