Chapter Twenty: Apologies NOT Accepted

Serena felt herself lying in a bed with thin, cotton sheets. Her head was throbbing very badly as if someone had knocked her aside the head with a baseball bat. How did she get here? She tried to remember what had happened. They were outside training, it had been her turn. She did… something. And then everything went dark. Did she black out after that? The more she tried to remember the more her head seemed to hurt. In fact she tried so hard that her head felt like it was being split open. She stopped trying to remember. It was probably nothing important.

She slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred and she could not make out what was in front of her. She blinked a few times until two faces came into focus, Kurt and Scott. Oh great. She thought. Just what I need.

"Hey, you alright?" Kurt asked.

"I'm fine." Serena said a little disgruntled. She sat up rubbing her head. "My head just hurts a little."

"Well that's no surprise. You were knocked up against a tree." Scott said.

"Huh?" She looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?" Kurt asked.

She shook her head. "No what happened?"

"What happened?" Scott repeated.

"As in what did I do?"

"Well, uh," Scott was trying to think of a way to explain this to her. "You know you were probably just um, stressed you know? I mean it could've been…"

"Cyclops," she said a bit tenaciously. "What did I do?"

"You… attacked everybody."

Serena's eyes went wide. "I did?" He nodded grimly. She slumped back in her bed in disbelief.

"I'm sure it wasn't your fault." Kurt said quickly. "I mean you seemed a bit distressed."

"But hey, here some good news." Scott grinned. "You passed the training session."

"I did?" Serena said in surprise.

Kurt nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah what you did out there? So cool!"

She gave a slight smile. "Heh, thanks."

There were always times when Serena had been troubled but didn't show it. When she didn't want to admit that there was something bothering her. She would just smile and pretend that nothing was wrong. This was one of those times. She had attacked the other students during training and she couldn't even remember. The very thought was disturbing.

After a few moments of silence Scott decided he should take his leave. "I should go now. I got a lot of stuff to do." Before he left he remembered something. "Oh yeah, sorry about… shooting you and everything." He said to Serena. She merely gave him a simple nod. Then he left.

Kurt and Serena just sat their in a mute silence. To anyone else it would have been a slightly amusing sight. Kurt sitting there, twiddling his thumbs glancing around the room trying to find something to talk about. Serena just sat in the bed staring at her knees with a rather blank expression on her face.

Kurt decided that since Serena wasn't about to say the first word any time soon, he might as well. "So."

"So what?" She said blankly.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

She shrugged. "Nothing really."

He gave a deep sigh. "Serena, I wanted to say that I'm sor--"

"Kurt I really don't want to talk about it right now." She said, her voice suddenly hard.

"But…" Kurt tried to protest.

"No Kurt." She said in a higher volume. "When I say no I mean no."

"Then when?" He asked desperately. "When do you want to talk?"

Serena picked at a lose thread in the blanket. "Honestly, never."

"But why not?"

"Because maybe I don't want to. I have a whole lot of other reasons but I don't feel like naming all of them."

Kurt stood up. "Ugh this is so frustrating."

"Well it's no afternoon on the beach for me either." She replied.

"Then why won't you just talk to me?"

Serena took on a sarcastically playful tone. "Kurt, there's this little thing called free will. It lets me decide what I want to do and what I don't. And right now I don't want to talk to you."

"You never want to talk to me." He said matter-of-factly.

"Then this is a break through for me because I usually never know what I want. At least this time I'm sure of something."

Kurt covered his face. "Why do you hate me?" He moaned.

"I don't… hate you." She said, though with slight uncertainty. "I just don't want to be around you at the moment."

"What did I do to make you feel that way?"

"Well for one you tried to force yourself on me." She pointed out.

"What kind of person do you think I am?" He asked her exasperatedly.

"I used to think you were a very nice person Kurt. It was when you said that you were glad that everything that has happened to me happened, that pretty much adds on to the reasons why I hate my life, that caused my perspective to change. Not to mention you just…" She closed her eyes. "You pretended as if my relationship with Todd never existed. Or like I'd forget about it just like that."

Kurt looked at her and knew that she wasn't going to change her mind soon. He settled on just throwing the towel in. "Okay fine. How about this? You can go ahead and stay mad at me. You can hate me all you like but let's get something straight. I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted you to end up miserable and unhappy. I just wanted you to know that I was here."

"I wish I could believe that." She said softly. "But I can't right now. But someday, I will try to find it in my heart to forgive you."

He laid his hand on hers. "Then, until that day…" Then he teleported out of the room. Serena leaned her head back against the bed frame rubbing the hand he had grasped, leaving a friendly warmth behind. As she thought more and more she began feeling a deep sense of dread inside her.

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Todd wasn't sure where he was. He groaned as he opened his eyes. Pietro's face was about an inch away from his. "Ahh!" Todd screamed scrambling away from him.

"What's wrong?" Tabitha asked. "Are you having nightmares again?"

"Were they scary?" Pietro asked.

"Not as scary as your face is up close." Todd looked around and realized he was in his bed. The Brotherhood had carried him to his room. They were all sitting there watching him. Pietro looked like he had just been in a freak accident.

"What happened?" Todd asked.

"Well, to put it short you almost put Pietro in the hospital." Lance said casually.

"Congratulations Todd, I've been wanting to do that ever since I got here." Tabitha giggled.

"You don't want to know what I'd like to do right now." Pietro grumbled.

"Guys this is no time to be joking around." Lance said critically.

"Wait," Todd said. He was starting to remember what had happened. The images flash by in his mind. Serena, the gunshot, Pietro, Serena dying. The anger he felt a while ago shot to the surface. "You…" He growled at Pietro. He was preparing to leap on to Pietro and finish what he had started. Fortunately Lance caught him by the shirt in time.

"Toad what is wrong with you? You can't kill him!"

"Yeah we don't have life insurance or anything." Tabitha snickered.

"If you don't knock it off with the smart remarks…" Pietro said menacingly.

"What you can dish it out but you can't take it?"

"Shut-up both of you!" Lance yelled at them. "Now Toad, do you think you could tell us what happened?"

"Do you think you could think at all?" Pietro muttered.

"Do you think you could shut up?" Tabitha retorted.

"Do you think we have anymore cereal left?" Fred asked.

"Blob this is not the time." Lance rounded on Tabitha and Pietro. "You two be quiet!"

"Why am I even here?" Todd wondered.

"Okay," Lance said. "Now Toad could you please…"

"Why am I always to blame she starts it." Pietro grumbled.

"If I were you I'd be quiet." Tabitha snapped.

"If you were me I'd be stupid." Pietro shot back.

"Why you little…" Tabitha growled. They didn't even notice that the ground was shaking.

"SHUT UP!" Lance shouted at the top of his lungs. "WILL YOU SHUT UP!? DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SHUT UP!?"

"Lance knock it off man!" Fred said as he held onto the wall for support.

Lance calmed himself and the tremors slowly died. Tabitha and Pietro had both turned paled at Lance's suddenly outbreak. They had finally gotten the message. Both of them went to their corners and didn't even look at each other. Lance gave a deep sigh and looked at Todd who looked a little uneasy.

"Just please, tell us what happened."

"I was out in the front yard lying in the grass yo. I heard someone call my name. I look up, and Serena's there yo, right across the street waving at me. She runs over to me and… and…" Todd swallowed hard.

"What? What happened." Lance urged.

"I hear a gunshot." Todd continued. "Suddenly her face fell, and she went pale. She fell foward, and I caught her. It was then I noticed the blood flowing from the wound on her shoulder. I look behind me and I see…"

Todd pointed a shaking finger at Pietro who looked a little apprehensive. He did not like where this story was going. "…I see him holding a gun at his side." Everyone turned their heads to Pietro to see how he would react to this. He had gone pale and looked as if he was going to be sick.

"Then what happened?" Lance asked quietly.

"She died. Serena, she died in my arms. Her blood was all over my clothes, and on my hands." Lance could tell that Todd meant that in more ways than one. "I was… angry. And then he walked up to me and I just…"

"Say no more." Lance said in an understanding voice. He looked at the others. "You guys go downstairs. I need to talk with Toad."

"About what?" Pietro asked.

"Just go. I'll be down in a minute."

The three of them did as they were told and left. Lance looked back at Todd. Todd tried not to meet his gaze.

"Toad, I know you're going through some… stuff. If you ever want to talk about it…" Todd didn't answer. "Look I know you're still mad at me. And you have every right to be. I'm sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen." Todd kept silent. Lance gave I deep sigh and was about to leave when Todd's voice stopped him.

"Do you think I'm going nuts?"

Lance looked at the small teen sitting on the bed. "No, you're just frustrated that's all. You're mad at all of us. I mean we did do something unforgivable. Why shouldn't you be mad?"

"A part of me wants to forgive you," Todd said faintly, "but another part of me wants to keep hating you until I'm six feet under."

"What about Pietro?" Lance asked.

Todd shook his head. "Honestly I don't see any hope in sight for him."

"Uh huh."

"No offense but I don't think I can forgive you just yet." Todd said with difficulty.

"Well, I'll be waiting." Lance got up to leave. Before he shut the door behind him he called back, "I just want you to know that, we're here for you."

Todd felt guilty with himself. He knew Lance was sorry, knew that Lance would give anything to erase this mistake. Heck it wasn't even Lance he was really mad at. Todd was more angry at Pietro than anyone else. Unfortunately Pietro hadn't to talk to Todd lately so there was really no way to vent his anger out on him. But Todd felt that Lance was partly to blame too. Todd wanted to forgive Lance and just get on with his life. But he felt that if he did, his amnesty wouldn't be genuine, and there would always be this lingering feeling of contempt. And Todd didn't want that. If he was ever going to forgive Lance he wanted it to be sincere. Not a lie.

Lance made his way downstairs to where Fred, Tabitha, and Pietro were waiting for him.

"Well guys," Lance said, "this explains where the blood came from."

"No it doesn't," Pietro argued. "He was hallucinating."

"Or was he?" Tabitha teased.

"Okay first of all I didn't kill anybody."

Tabitha rolled her eyes. "You've only said that a million times."

"Secondly," Pietro continued ignoring her, "Serena is not dead. And thirdly, did any of you hear a gunshot?"

"You gotta admit he's got us there." Tabitha told Lance.

Lance got up. "Well I'm just gonna make sure."

"Where are you going?" Fred asked.

"I'm calling the X-Men."

Pietro slapped a hand on his forhead. "Oh my gaud!"

"Like they're really gonna tell you."

"Kitty will. It's a simple enough question."

"Right." Tabitha mimicked being on the phone. "Hello Kitty, I was just wondering is Serena still alive? No, I wasn't planning to kill her." They all snickered at this.

"Ha ha." He grumbled as he punched in the number.

Thirty minutes later…

Lance hung up the phone. "Well she's not dead." "And you guys are lucky that you're not either."

"We heard." For the past half hour Lance had been fighting with Scott and flirting with Kitty. That is until the rest of the Brotherhood got on the phone.

"Told ya!" Pietro said.

"So now that we got all that cleared up what can we do to help Todd?"

"I've done some thinking." Pietro stated.

"That's a first." Tabitha muttered under her breath.

"I heard that! Anyway I thought maybe he should go through therapy."

"We can't afford that." Lance pointed out.

"I meant with us." Pietro said. "We can be the councilors."

Lance shrugged. "I guess it's worth a shot. I mean what's the worst that could happen?"

Next chapter Todd and Serena have to go through the worst thing a teen could possibly go through… Counseling! The horror!

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