Tabitha shivered in her cell. What if? She demanded of herself. What if it can't happen? What if it doesn't? She ached inside. Kurt… I want to believe.

She sighed and realized she had broken out in a cold sweat. She was having a serious nervous attack.

I've done this so many times before… She dropped her head. I just can't be disappointed again.

I… I don't know what I'll do… If you don't come Kurt… Please…

Kurt sat melancholy and staring out the wide windows of his bedroom.

Amanda would like this view. He pursed his lips for a moment. What a gyp!

"Kurt?" Alistaire peeked in around the corner of the door.

Kurt smiled. "Oh, sorry Alistaire." He sighed. "I was just …" She swallowed slightly. "Missing simpler times."

Alistaire was flattered that Kurt would share such a thing with him.

"Simpler times…" Alistaire looked thoughtful. "I wonder if everyone has them if they go back far enough?"

"Probably." Kurt agreed. Then he thought of X23, Logan, and to some extent himself as he looked down at his hands. "Although … Maybe not everyone."

Alistaire slowly lowered himself down to sit on the very corner of Kurt's bed so that he could share the view out the window.

"Mine are a good ways back." Alistaire said, watching the waves. "And very, very recent of late."

Kurt shot him a slight sideways glance and then returned his eyes out the window. "Recently?"

Alistaire smiled. "Sure. I've no money – so I don't worry about paying the bills. I like my job so much that I'm doing it anyway." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's a lot like going to camp when I was younger."

Kurt smiled but kept watching the waves. "I thought of staying here as being a lot like camping." He volunteered.

"In a minefield?" Alistaire prodded at the thought of the lighthouse's explosion problem.

Kurt was back to smiling. "It was more like living in someplace that had flood problems… that were made of fire." He started chuckling.

Kurt looked over at Alistaire and Alistaire met his eyes.

"I know how I got here Alistaire, but how did you?" Kurt asked him.

Alistaire smiled a shy, subdued smile. "I'm a nobody Sir." He said at last. "The bottom rung of a latter always gets dirtiest you know. Because people clean their boots on us. And if you make a large enough mistake…" He looked grimly at Kurt. "Then they keep that boot on you for the rest of your life, and you can't go any higher."

Kurt wanted to ask what he had done, but there was no need as Alistaire could read it on his face and he obliged.

"I was at my first high-end function. All of London's elite were there. It was a welcoming function for the graduates of my school who had taken jobs with the government." He swallowed. "And every couple of years, this function got the attendance of Prince Henry, one of the royal family."

He looked lost in the memory as he continued. "And I couldn't believe our luck. A chance for our group to meet with a royal. If he took a liking to anyone, it was quite possible that any one of us could be tapped for higher positions. It was a real good opportunity."

He swallowed. "And I had a nervous stomach. So, I had a glass of champagne to try to settle it."

Kurt narrowed his eyes. "Oh no."

Alistaire smiled. "Yes. When I met Prince Henry, I vomited on him. Practically in the face."

Kurt stifled a laugh and smiled sympathetically.

"And he never came back to one of those functions again." Alistaire added. "And they all blame me. To this day."

Kurt smiled. "Cowards." He commented off handedly.

"How so?" Alistaire prodded.

"Big mistakes come from taking big risks." Kurt told him. "And if you can make a big mistake and get up and keep going, then you're just the kind who has to learn things the hard way, and they should have let you learn at your own rate. But they were cowards. They knew that if you could recover from that mistake you'd be a serious threat. So they never gave you the chance."

"You think so?" Alistaire wondered.

"I know so." He said. They were just like Amanda's parents… "They shouldn't hold something you couldn't control against you. They only do it to feel superior in the face of the unknown."

Alistaire smiled. It was like a great weight had come off his shoulders.

Kurt saw the change and smiled.

"I wouldn't know what to do without you Alistaire. You're indispensable."

"Thank you." He smiled. "Do remember that if we're ever put back on the payroll and I've the chance at a raise."

"I will."

X23 pressed her forehead against the glass as she stared down at Forge as he stripped Alistaire's car.

He's funny. She thought. Always doing something.

He smiled as he hit his head on the hood and came out grumbling and rubbing it.

And he talks a lot. There isn't even anyone there and he's talking now. Someone should stand next to him to make him look more normal.

Forge was smiling, half covered in grease.

He likes it though. Doing things. And he does help more than anyone I've ever seen. She shifted to watch him go around the other side of the car. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of smelling all that grease. He's a different kind of helper than the woman on the boat. She thought.

Forge was reprogramming the vacuum robot to grind the paint off the car and then molecularly alter it to a red, glittery paint. Once complete, it would do the project on it's own and repaint the car.

"Maybe we should go down and see if he needs any help." Kitty smiled knowingly from the doorway.

X23 didn't look away from Forge while she spoke. "I never understand what he's doing." She paused. "Or saying… sometimes."

Kitty leaned against the doorway. "Why do you think he did your room first?" She asked.

"I don't know." She kept peering down.

"I think he was being nice." Kitty said after a moment. "To you."

X23 hesitated and then looked to Kitty carefully. "Why?"

Kitty hesitated in turn. That could turn in to a big question. She cautioned herself. "I think it was his way of saying that he was around – if you wanted to spend some time together or anything, he would too. Kind of an invitation."

Please… X23 thought. He was saying 'please'… She nodded. "Maybe."

She was quiet for a moment before she turned around and sat down, facing Kitty. "Can I ask you something?"

Kitty nodded and leaned in to the room, slowly crossing to take a chair opposite X23.

"I have this…" She swallowed and looked awkward and nervous. "… Name."

Forge looked perplexed as he drew an odd bit of metal out of the engine. What the…? This isn't even a car part!

He tossed it over his shoulder and it landed with a clang.

Followed by another clang that caught his attention.

And a few moments after that, another clang that made him turn around.

Another random bit of metal in the driveway had flown out of place and connected to the random bit from the engine as though they were magnetically linked.

And now, the two pieces were locked in some form of dance as they fluttered and banged around together.

What could… He approached slowly and curiously.

Then he heard the noise. It was coming from under the small wooden steps of the lighthouse. It was a long scraping noise.

And then a third odd bit of metal shot like a bullet out from under the lighthouse and in to the other two pieces. Now that all appeared bonded together and fighting for dominance.

The 'bullet' piece was a short pole and when it hit the right position it resounded with a "Click!"

"What?" Forge looked at the metal.

"Click!" It went again.

And now the pieces were connected as though they were one piece.

"Weird!" He thought. How could I make my robots do that when they're broken? He wondered.

And then the three pieces hesitated, hummed for a moment, and then began tumbling end over end until it went off the edge and in to the ocean.

"Hey!" Forge had called as he ran after it.

But it was too late. It was gone.

Across town there lay a psycho.

In a box.

And in his head, he was singing.

I'm…

He was excited. He had been packed for shipping. And was in the back of a speeding truck en route to its destination.

The man…

And if he was getting gout today, to kill and maim, then he felt he had good reason… To sing.

In the box!

-

Authors Note To: The one and only Hunter S. Thompson – Before your time is never the right time you gutless prick. Now I have to honor you in words and in life. To be honest, I could have waited some. Lucas