This is it. I'm not sure that I want to post this. This is the last chapter. The end of this story. Here it is. Enjoy.

Thankyou to all my reviewers, and to all of you out there who read this and didn't review. shakes fist angrily Why didn't you review? Na. I'm over it. I just hoped that youliked the story.

I don't own the X-Men, just Mattie

And The Beat Goes On

That night Mattie and Bobby stood in the doorway to her room, arms wrapped around each other.

"Mattie…" Bobby steeled himself, and forced himself to go on. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"What?" Mattie looked up at him in confusion.

"I wish I could have got to you sooner and stopped him."

Mattie looked away. "I wish that you hadn't been captured. That they hadn't beaten you."

Bobby dismissed it with a shake of his head. "But-"

"It's the same thing, Bobby." Mattie told him. "We could wish our lives away that way."

Bobby sighed and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "And when did you get all wise?"

Mattie grinned. "I sent off for a pack."

Bobby laughed and captured her lips with his. He kissed her passionately, letting his feeling for her show. Mattie wrapped her arms around his neck, making sure that he stayed with her.

Bobby's hands came to rest on her waist, his thumbs making circles on her stomach. Mattie froze and stepped back from him.

Bobby curst himself for his stupidity. How dumb could you get? He took a step back from her.

"Oh don't." Mattie implored him. "Don't; please don't give up on me."

Bobby frowned.

"Not now." She begged. "Don't give up on me now."

"Not ever." Bobby told her. He took a tentative step towards her and she met him in the middle, kissing him as though she would burst.

X

Bobby and Mattie stood in the foyer of the Institute. Paige and Sam were due back today. They were late.

"Are they ever going to get here?" Mattie sighed.

"Why? Got something else in mind?" Bobby murmured in her ear.

Mattie flushed from top to bottom, at that moment in time she had in fact been thinking of another way to pass the time.

Bobby gave a low hoot of laughter. "Minx."

Mattie, still blushing, glared at him in mock anger.

"And what was exactly that you were thinking of?" Bobby asked, still grinning at her embarrassment.

"Nothing." Mattie told him, turning aside and trying to ignore him.

Bobby drew closer to her and kissed her neck. "Did it go something like this?"

Mattie pursed her lips together, trying not to smile. "No."

"No?" Bobby kissed her neck again. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." Mattie replied, still refusing to look at him.

"Okay." Bobby stepped back. "If you're sure."

Mattie spun to face him, eyes wide at his tactic. That was not how the game should be played.

Bobby roared with laughter. "Shouldn't push your luck, should you."

Mattie frowned at him. Then she coved the distance between them in a blink of an eye. She paused, her lips just brushing his. "What I had in mind." She told him. "It started here."

Bobby shrugged. "I like your idea better." He leaned down to kiss her and found that she was no longer there.

Mattie grinned at him from the other side of the foyer. She saw him glare at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Mats." Bobby growled, making his way towards her.

"Yes?" She replied all innocence.

"I would just like to make it known." Bobby told her, taking step after step towards her. "That I consider that an illegal use of your powers."

"You do?" Mattie asked as Bobby stopped in front of her.

He stood looking down at her sternly. "Further more. I believe that it is very unfair to tease people in that manner. I feel that you should receive proper punishment for your sins."

Both Mattie's eye brows went up as she fought to keep a smile off her face.

"To this end." Bobby continued. "I have devised…"

Mattie cut him off by pulling grabbing a handful of his shirt and pulling his lips down to hers.

"Too much talking." She murmured against his lips.

"Yes Mam." Bobby replied

The door to the mansion flew open and Sam marched in. "Save me." He declared to the open air.

Mattie and Bobby turned, startled by this dramatic entrance.

Following Sam up the steps were Paige and Ray, alternately kissing each other, between arguments over who had forgotten to call who.

Sam caught sight of Mattie and Bobby and threw his hands up in the air. "Save me from romantic couples!" Giving a glare that took in all four of them he started upstairs.

Bobby and Mattie exchanged glances. "You get Sam. I'll throw a bucked of ice over those two." He told her.

Mattie raced up the stairs and came back down pulling a reluctant and grumbling Sam.

"You haven't had to put up with her Mattie." He protested. "All the time we were home. 'Why hasn't he called? When is he going to call? Isn't Ray wonderful? Isn't Ray fantastic.' All the time!"

Mattie struggled not to laugh at Sam's high pitched imitation of his sister.

Paige didn't find it as funny. "Oh just ignore Samuel. He's just a little annoyed at me."

"You failed to mention that we would be joined on our journey home." Sam retorted.

"What business is it of yours?" His sister argued back.

"I had to sit with the two of you!" Sam shouted. "That is something no man should ever have to go through. His hormone crazed baby sister and her equally ostentatious boyfriend. Making out. The whole way home!"

"Baby sister!" Paige cried in outrage

"Ostentatious?" Ray, looking unsure if he should be offended or not, glanced around him as though the meaning of the word would be written somewhere.

"Hormone crazed." Mattie repressed a giggle at Paige's furious face.

"The whole way home?" Bobby asked, in mild disbelief.

"The whole way home." Sam repeated.

Bobby clapped an arm around Sam's shoulders. "Still, good to be back, right?"

Sam gave Paige and Ray one last glare before grinning back at Bobby. "Oh yeah."

Paige slipped an arm around Ray as they followed Sam and Bobby towards the kitchen. "So." She asked Mattie. "Anything much happen while we were gone?"

X

Mattie went to spend two weeks at home with her dad, and when she got back to the Institute everyone else was back as well. And everybody knew.

She could tell by the way that people gave her small smiles of encouragement. Secrets had no place at the Institute, and those that did rarely lasted long. She couldn't blame them. After all she knew about Kurt's mother, and Tabby had told them about her father, Logan had told them some, if not all of his past. And the way that you could see Scott's eyes saddened, even beneath his glasses, every time he said anything about his parents. Who was she to keep her secrets from them?

But it still felt weird to have people offering her sympathy and support.

"When to people stop feeling sorry for you?" She asked Kurt.

He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling. "When you do." He told her.

X

The summer holiday was drawing to a close and the students had taken the opportunity to lounge by the pool.

Mattie lay sunbathing with the rest of the girls, as they watched the boys wrestling each other by the pool, the looser getting a dunking.

"Hey Mattie, this is where you and Bobby met." Paige said.

Mattie grinned.

"And who knew the chaos that would ensure from that meeting." Amara muttered.

"Not me." Paige said, shaking her head.

"Jubes did." Mattie said, sitting up to look at her. "Right Jubes?"

Jubilee shook her head. "Not me. I only thought of you two getting together after something Tabby said."

"Tabby!" The girls chorused in surprise.

"You knew!" Kitty asked incredulously.

"Ah don't believe it." Rouge added.

Tabby held up her hands to ward off their questions. "I didn't know!" She protested. "Jubes! Don't dump me in it."

Jubilee just grinned. "Well you did help me figure it out."

"Whatever." Tabby groaned. "I am taking no responsibility for the Cutesy Couple."

"And we all know where to lay the blame for Paige and Ray." Jean commented as she rolled over to ensure an even tan.

Mattie held up her hands in admission. "Guilty."

Paige glared as the rest of the girls groaned. "I am not that bad!"

"No, that's true." Jubilee conceded. "You and Ray no longer try and kill each other when you've had a fight."

Paige threw the suntan lotion at her.

X

Mattie, Paige, Bobby, Ray, Sam and Jubilee were in the Rec room. Mattie and Paige were trying to find something worth watching on the TV. Sam and Jubes were sitting together, taking about something in the corner. Both Mattie and Paige had noticed how much time the two of them seemed to be spending together. It had become the subject of much interest between the two girls. Bobby and Ray sat at either ends of the room throwing a tennis ball back and forth at each other.

Paige flicked through the channels. "How can there be nothing on."

Mattie laughed. "How can you tell at that speed? I can't even tell at that speed."

"So how were things with your dad?" Paige asked.

"Great. It was really great to see him again. But he's super busy at work, which is good. I mean he's really enjoying it. And… I was kind of worried that he'd be lonely all alone in the house. But he's fine."

Paige nodded. "What did he say about Bobby?"

Out of the corner of her eye Mattie saw Bobby sit up at the sound of his name. She clamped down on a grin and winked once at Paige.

"Well obviously he was really keen to know all about him. I mean, wouldn't you want to know about your son in law."

She heard the tennis ball hit Bobby in the face. She refused to look round. Paige was shaking with giggles, but she managed to pull herself together to ask: "So have you thought about the dress?"

Mattie nodded, giving herself time to get over her own giggles. "Oh, yes. I thought it should be white, off the shoulder, with 'Gotcha' written in big red letters." Unable to keep a straight face any longer she collapsed next to Paige, who was drawing in a deep lungful of air.

Bobby got up and made his way over to them. "Mats."

Mattie looked up at him, unable to answer.

"That is not funny." Bobby said, glaring down at her.

Ray was smirking; Sam and Jubilee looked over to see what they had missed.

"It is a little bit funny." Mattie told him.

Bobby raised an eyebrow then lunged at Mattie.

Paige leapt off the sofa with a shrike, Mattie's limbs thrashed wildly as she attempted to escape Bobby as he tickled her mirthlessly.

X

Mattie stepped into the shower and started the water. The first day of school, the first day of morning Danger room training. She wanted to wash some of the kinks out of her muscles. Logan had pushed them hard today.

She gave a small shudder as the water started to chill. She was the first one in. There was no way that the hot water had run out. The water continued to get colder and colder, until it was like ice.

Ice?

No. He wouldn't.

Turning she watched as first the water and then the shower head iced over.

He would

Jumping out the shower she pulled on her dressing gown and threw open the bathroom door.

"Robert Drake that is not funny!"

A hand grabbed her and pulled her out into the hallway.

Bobby grinned down at her. "Oh come on now. It is a little bit funny." He told her.

Mattie opened her mouth to contradict him, but was silenced when his lips caught hers

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So that's all folks.

Now here's the question. I kinda have an idea floating around in my brain for another story involving Mattie. I've had some positive feedback already, but I want to know what you think. Would you be interested in reading another story about Mattie. Push that little button and let me know. And letme know what you thought about this one while your at it. Many thanks. LMTS