Chapter Fifteen
Our flight back to Los Angeles was uneventful, thankfully. About half of the soldiers got off there, and between Charles and me, we got them all on their way home. Each was given the telephone number for the school and a sincere offer of a place for them, and I thought that some of them might actually take us up on it.
I checked in with Lucia, who informed me that Nonno wasn't pleased with me for leaving without telling him, but that the situation in Atlantic City seemed to be nearly taken care of. That was a relief, but I knew that it meant that Lotta and I would have to make a trip there soon. And probably take Erik and Alex with us, if we wanted to stay in his good books. He would want to be able to approve of them for himself, even with knowing that both of us would date whomever we chose. That didn't mean he wouldn't try to intimidate them away from us, but that was how he showed his love. And since we were his only granddaughters, he tended to be overly protective.
After lunch, we all boarded the plane again, though with far fewer than we had started. The last leg of our trip seemed to drag forever, with all of us wanting to get home. Charles and Moira were anxious to see David, and Erik was constantly worried about Kurt. I worried about him, as well, even though I'd only been around him for less than a day. I also wasn't terribly excited about sharing him with Raven, even if she was his actual mother. But as we got closer to the school, Charles contacted Petra and had her drive our small bus to the air field. It would be a tight fit for us all, but we would manage to get us all back to the school.
Most of the soldiers were sent on their way home via another flight, bus, or train. Thompson, Ink, Toad, and Spike all decided to go back to the school with us, so Moira and Charles drove the car back, and the rest of us piled into the bus. Erik pulled me into the seat next to him, claiming my hand in his, and a happy little warmth blossomed in my chest. Even while I laughed at myself for acting like a love-struck schoolgirl again. And I didn't miss the way Alex did the same with Lotta. It made me very happy to see them together, even if it had surprised me.
It was late when we finally got back to the school, but Suzanne stood waiting for us, with two tiny bundles in her arms. David was happily reaching out to us mentally, telling us all about his few days spent with his new cousin. And as soon as Kurt saw the van, he teleported into Erik's arms with a happy squeal of "Va!" Even while the bus was still moving.
Erik hugged his son, pressing kisses all over his face. "Ich habe dich vermisst, mein Kleiner," he murmured, over and over.
Kurt giggled and gave him sloppy kisses back. "Va, Va!" Then, he caught sight of me, right next to Erik. "Ama!" he squeaked, and I found myself with an armful of giggly toddler. "Ama!"
"Oh, il mio piccolo," I sighed, hugging him tightly. "Were you a good boy for Suzanne and Petra?"
He giggled again and shook his head. "I was afraid of that," I replied, grinning as I tickled his belly.
"Kurt?"
A gasp from Raven brought me back to exactly what I was afraid of. "Kurt, it's Mama," she said, hands held out to the boy in my arms. She wore her natural blue form, and no clothes, as per her usual. It was so easy like this to see where Kurt got his own coloring from. But he didn't seem interested in going to her. He did look at her when she called his name, but then went back to carding my hair through his fingers. It fascinated him, and he kept giggling as my tresses slipped through his fingers, over and over again.
"Kurt, come to Mama," Raven repeated, though it was much more of a demand this time. "Give me my child, Bianca. I am his mother," she growled, once she realized Kurt wasn't leaving my embrace.
"Giving birth doesn't make you a mother, Raven," I hissed back. "And I am never forcing Kurt to go to someone he clearly doesn't want to see. If you wanted to be a part of his life, maybe you shouldn't have abandoned him. Just like you did Charles. Clearly, you have a talent for it."
Erik tensed beside me, and I could see Sean, Hank, Alex, and Lotta all straighten up from the corner of my eye. But Raven puffed up like a cat, and even hissed. "I didn't abandon my son, Saint Bianca. I left him with someone trusted, his father, while I tried to make a better world for him."
"You didn't even ask about him once," I pointed out, so angry I could burst. All my issues with her came bubbling up to the top, and with Charles and Moira bringing the car back, I could finally say what I thought without his displeasure raining down. "You have been with us for three days, and you never once asked about him!"
"Because I didn't know he was here!" she yelled, causing Kurt to whimper and cuddle into my neck. Not that it mattered to her.
I cuddled Kurt closer, and Erik put a hand on his back to reassure him. "I've had him for over a year, Raven," Erik said calmly, "because Azazel is dead. And you never once came to check on him. So you don't get to come back and pretend to be a loving mother. You didn't want him when you found out about him, and you only ever used him to garner sympathy or cause a distraction. I won't let you take him now."
Raven blew up. "I'm exactly what you turned me into, Magneto! I was doing-"
"You were doing exactly what you wanted to do, and nothing more," Hank cut in softly, but no less insistently. "You always did whatever you wanted, and damn the consequences. And whoever gets in your way, or gets left behind. Don't pretend you've changed. We've all seen that you haven't."
Raven looked from one unforgiving face to the next, then scoffed. "Of course, you all side with Bianca. You always have."
"Because she cares about more than herself," Alex said, his jaw clenched. "You wouldn't know what that looked like if it smacked you in the face."
She vaulted over the rows of seating and pushed open the door to the van. Petra had just parked, luckily for her, and she stormed into the house like a pouty teenager. In fact, I'd seen Lotta doing the exact same sort of walk often enough over the years after one of our conversations turned into an argument. "How did Charles go so wrong raising her?" Sean asked, to get everyone to laugh. He never did like contention.
"I think that might be the exact thing, thinking he had to raise her when he was only a child himself," Erik mused quietly.
"At some point, Raven's got to take responsibility for her own actions, and not blame everyone else," Hank murmured and shook his head.
"Are you all just going to sit on the bus all night?" Logan asked from the back of the bus, one bushy eyebrow raised at us. "Or are you actually going to go inside?"
…
Suzanne and Petra gracefully showed our newest guests to the rooms they'd prepared for them, which meant that my boys could happily reacquaint themselves with their nephew. David was over the moon that they were back and nearly threw himself at Sean, before Moira was able to halt him. "Just let me sit down, little man," Sean laughed, "then I'm all yours. Promise."
Once Hank set Sean down in a chair, David insisted on being handed over, and he then refused to move from there. And Sean loved it. "I'm so glad I'm your favorite uncle. It means I get to keep you all to myself!"
Kurt, on the other hand, surprised Erik and me when he poofed onto Alex's lap and patted his cheek. "Licks!" he said happily, then waved to Lotta. "Lo!"
Lotta was the first to understand what had happened. "Did your cousin teach you everyone's names?" she cooed and tickled his belly. "We have such smart boys!"
"Well, as your favorite Uncle Alex, we're going to have to start by pronouncing my name correctly," Alex continued, shifting so both he and Kurt were more comfortable and could look at each other. "Can you say Alex?"
"Licks!"
"No, Al-ex."
"Licks!"
Alex shrugged. "I guess that's close enough."
As I watched my big kids play with the little ones, I couldn't help the rush of love I felt for each of them. And they were all safe! I could scarcely believe that we had somehow made it out of Vietnam with everyone still alive, especially since we had gone under the impression that Sean was already dead. But all of my boys were alive, and home, and safe, even if Sean did need some time to completely recover. We would do whatever we needed to do to get him back to full health.
Logan watching the scene from the sidelines caught my eye. Or, rather, the concerned look on his face caught my eye. I squeezed Erik's hand and slipped over to talk to the other man.
"You think something else is still wrong, don't you." It wasn't a question. Somehow, I knew he was thinking it.
"Yeah, I do," he answered anyway. "Otherwise, why am I still here? If saving Havok and Banshee and you was all I needed to do, I would have gone back to my time, right?"
I spoke slowly, sounding my thoughts out loud to him. "I guess saving us hasn't changed enough. What was it you said that you had come back to do? You have to stop Trask's assassination. Which we did. Didn't we?"
Heat at my back warned me of Erik joining us, even before he said, "Unless we simply delayed it. Raven could still try again."
I let my head fall back to Erik's chest. "So, we have to keep her from killing a man who wants to kill all of us. That sounds like fun."
Logan smirked. "Who knows? Maybe she'll listen to reason and agree not to. Though, if either of you two are involved in the conversation, I somehow doubt it'll work."
I snorted a laugh. "I think that no matter who is involved in the conversation, it's not going to have the result we want. I think at this point, she's more likely to do the exact opposite of whatever we tell her, simply to spite us all."
Both men just hummed in agreement. "We could try suggesting she kill him, and see if that stops her from trying," Erik suggested sarcastically.
Kurt's laughter caught my attention, and I turned to see Sean, Alex, Lotta, and Hank gently tossing the little boys from one to the other. I would have been more worried about the children's safety, had the adults (or at least, bigger children) not been sitting less than a foot from one another, and all were on the ground. All of them seemed to be having the time of their lives, and it made me so happy to see them playing together.
"Ya know, Mags, I am a bit surprised that you're not more on Mystique's side on all this," Logan suddenly said. "'Cause from where I'm- well, when I'm from, she was your right-hand lady for a long time. Until she got stuck with the cure to protect you, and you abandoned her, of course."
I stared at him, then craned my neck around to look at Erik. "Just what did you do with her before she left?" I asked, not terribly serious. After all, I had seen the end result of her first attempt at seduction, and that had ended up with me in Erik's bed. And I was the one he consistently sought out, and currently had his arms around. So, all in all, I wasn't terribly worried.
"Nothing, I assure you, at least not anything in that regard," he said hastily. "She's always been a bit… well, a bit not you for my taste."
"Hmmm, good answer," I purred, kissing his cheek.
I could feel Logan's amusement radiating off him. "No, I think you two joined up again once Kurt was taken from you."
"He was what?" Erik's growl was so low, I felt it through him more than heard it.
Logan fell back into his more natural somber look. "I don't know all the details, because Kurt didn't know them, or at least he didn't remember them. And I've never really been friends with you, Mags, and you've always been rather closed off when it comes to details. But you took him to Europe, and… somehow, he got separated from you. He was sold into the circus as an oddity. And yet, he was still one of the gentlest people I've ever met."
"He's never going to Europe," I gasped out, clutching Erik's arm that was around my waist.
"I second that," Erik murmured and pulled me closer.
Logan grinned a bit sadly. "Well, considering he's got Bianca in his life now, I think he'll be a bit safer now, having two people looking out for him. But old you did tell me, just before I came back here, that losing Bianca and Kurt were your two biggest regrets in life. So hopefully stopping you from losing them will keep you from trying to pull me apart when I get back to the future."
"Pull you apart? What do you- How would he pull you apart?" I was morbidly fascinated, despite myself, at the idea. Could Erik use the iron in someone's blood to cause them damage? That was an interesting question, one I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer to.
"Stryker's experiment on me included coating my entire skeleton in adamantium, so Mags had a lot of fun jerking me around in the many times we crossed paths," Logan chuckled darkly. "Which reminds me, around the year two thousand, there'll be a girl in Meridian, Mississippi, name's Marie. She's gonna need your help before her powers develop. Hopefully, with Bianca around, she'll be able to figure out how to control them a lot sooner and won't feel like she has to take the cure. Especially since it don't work, not long term, anyway."
"Hold on, there was too much in there at once," I said, trying to keep up with everything. "There's a girl named Marie in Mississippi who will need my help? Why mine specifically?"
"Her powers are a lot like yours, except she needs skin-to-skin contact. And for the first ten years or so of having her powers, she couldn't turn it off. At all. She nearly killed her first boyfriend with a kiss," he explained.
"Oh, that poor girl," I exhaled.
"That does make sense," Erik agreed. "But what's this about a cure? That's twice you've mentioned it."
"There's a little boy, name's Jimmy, though he goes by Leach," Logan began. "Some big scientist, Warren Worthington, found him and used him to make a so-called cure for mutantism after he found out his own son was a mutant. You'll need to look him up, too, the son, Worthington the third, get him away from his old man. Honestly, you should probably be writing all these names down. But back to the cure, well, that made a lot of people angry, for a lot a reasons…"
AN: It wasn't a year between updates! And I plan on updating weekly (hopefully!) until I'm done with this story. We're definitely in the closing chapters, though I don't know exactly how many it will be, probably not more than five. But we're almost done, so thanks for sticking with me and Bianca through it all, and a big thanks to brigid1318 for your lovely review, as ever!
PS- I'm terrible at remembering to post the translations! Sorry! Erik tells Kurt, "I missed you, my little one." And Bianca says, "Oh, my little one." Maybe someday I'll remember to post the translations on the first go!
