Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men or Anything Related to The X-Men.
Thank you to everyone who looked at the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your day to take a look at this chapter. Thanks to my guest reviewer and to Mrs. Jehilew for being so nice. This chapter is odd to me, for some reason, but hopefully it reads okay for you guys and gals:
Once upon a saner time, four years might as well have been forty decades to Anna Marie. When she stormed out that fateful night, the young woman made what she sincerely thought was her final peace with the X-Men. But the sudden realization people actually considered you their parent could dash whatever reservations any breathing person could hold against seeking help in a heartbeat.
Besides, she attempted to reassure herself, as she skidded to an undignified stop in front of the looming mansion, who knows if I ever left them in this freaky world?
After the third set of brash knocks (despite the soaring panic she just couldn't bring herself to burst right through the front door), the door opened to reveal a petite woman sporting a chin-length bob, sparkling blue eyes, and a chubby baby perched on her hip. Despite the years and various physical changes she'd undergone, Anna recognized the woman instantly. Without a shadow of doubt in her foggy mind, the woman standing before her was none other than Kitty Pryde.
"Kitty?" Anna questioned the young mother with such a surprised tone; the woman gave a cheerful laugh.
"Since when do you knock?" Kitty adjusted the baby on her hip and didn't seem to mind the small girl was busily gnawing on her tiny fist.
Did they all have families in this world? Anna silently pondered the far-fetched idea her high school friends were all grown up; as she bit back the urge to inform anyone in ear shot this must be an epidemic of some sort.
The baby in Kitty's arms pulled her hand out of her mouth and held it out towards Anna. She babbled unintelligibly before stretching her other arm out as well in a determined attempt to be noticed.
"Addison sure loves her aunt," Kitty giggled and hugged the baby, while Anna merely stared apprehensively at the long strands of drool being flung at her.
"Yeah…" She concurred half-heartedly, trying to ignore the few drops that landed on her sleeve. "Look, what's going on here?"
"You mean like a party or something?"
"No." Anna shook her head somberly and leaned close to her once best friend's face, "You know," If anyone would tell her the truth, surely Kitty would. And even if she didn't want to, Anna knew exactly how to make the woman spill secrets. "There is something going on here. I mean, I woke up and suddenly Remy's kids are everywhere. I didn't even know he had k-"
"Oh yeah," Kitty nodded her head and covered her mouth as if to hide her lips from any possible onlookers. It foolishly raised Anna's spirits until she let out another good-natured laugh and ushered the woman into the mansion, "They are always Remy's kids when they're in trouble."
Anna lingered in the doorway unable to process the conversation. She knew Kitty, past or freaky present, like the back of her hand. It was something bound to happen when a person never stopped talking. Of course, Anna knew far more than the casual acquaintance. She hadn't merely listened to the valley girl's long-winded tales of shopping exploits and why mustard actually belonged in cookie recipes; she'd lived with (or, sometimes, just barely survived by the grace of God) Kitty, day in and day out. Anna knew each annoying habit, top favorite foods, and, most importantly, when she was telling the truth. Disappointing as it was, Kitty was telling the absolute truth with each statement.
"Just going to stand there all day?" The oblivious young woman motioned for her friend to step further into the house with her free hand then shut the door behind her. "You look like you could use a little me time anyway."
"Hank," The sudden outburst broke Kitty's blissful mood and forced her forehead to wrinkle in confusion.
"Excuse me?"
"Hank," Anna repeated quicker, the idea arriving in her head like a flash of light.
The whole event started with one big injury. A truck crashed into her, she played waiting room trivia, and won a throbbing headache and an all expense paid ticket to la-la land. Sounded like prime mental breakdown with a side of traumatic brain injury material to the flustered Anna. If anything, Hank McCoy might be able to tell her if this could all be some crazy coma dream. It was a long shot, but it was all she had left to try.
Instead of waiting for the baffled Kitty to catch up to her train of thought, Anna powered through and raced off to the medical wing of the mansion. She could hear faint calls from her friend, desperate for some sort of explanation, but they died out with each foot she put between them.
There was no way to tell if the medical bay would still be where she remembered, but her feet raced down the familiar paths without a single urge to stop and question the trail. It wasn't as if she lacked people to ask for directions. Each hallway Anna maneuvered through was crawling with mutants of various ages, who were going about their days as if they had no idea the world was completely off kilter. Few, if any of these strangers bore a resemblance to her old teammates, a shame since her ex-teammates knew to give her a wide girth when she passed by.
Instead of the usual outlandish leaps to the opposite side of the hall or the insultingly phony attempts to look too busy to acknowledge her, these mutants actually attempted to stop her. With smiles on their faces and flashes of recognition she couldn't begin to try processing with the strangeness of the day still swirling through her over-clogged brain, they waved and motioned for her to step closer to their groups. At first, she ignored them, keeping her head low as if something completely captivating was racing across the carpet, but they nearly knocked her flat on her butt when the faint calls of, 'Wait up, Mrs. LeBeau!' reached her ears.
"Real busy!" Somehow, through strength Anna never knew existed in her body, she managed to eek out the small response before sliding into the safety of Hank McCoy's personal office.
Thankfully for the mutant pacing like a caged tiger, Hank entered the office no less than ten minutes later. He was still an extremely large figure with well-groomed fur and a comforting grin, but he too had aged significantly. Small sprouts of white hair had taken up residence around his temples and even the lenses of his glasses appeared a little thicker then she remembered.
"Well now," He smiled at her, but faltered a moment when Anna's eyes offered a shade of reminiscing that seemed wholly out of place. "Are you alright, my dear? Kitty chased me down in the hall and said you weren't feeling well. By the look of your eyes, it appears she was correct."
"I…" She sputtered for a moment, feeling the outright madness of the day catch up to her as she was swallowed by the stillness of the first quiet moment in the strange world, "I think I hit my head…"
"Oh my," He softly mumbled then ushered her gingerly through the side door and into his main exam room. After convincing the wide-eyed woman to take a seat on the metal table, he shined a bright light into her eyes and started the basic concussion protocol, "Can you tell me what happened, Anna?"
Could she tell him? Could she actually make it through the whole story about trucks, sunglasses, annoyed kids, and being married to the Cajun without wanting to personally commit herself to a loony bin? If she didn't believe her own story, there was no way Hank, despite how earnestly concerned he appeared, would ever take her seriously. No, she was going to have to think of something much simpler.
"I fell." Wasn't so far from the truth.
"Where exactly did you hit your head?" He moved a finger in front of her face, never doubting the story.
"Uh, the back? I think…" At least that was where the pain seemed to be the strongest. Speaking of, "You think I could get an Advil or something?"
"Not just yet." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully while staring at her cranium with unblinking eyes; "I need to get something from the other room. I want you to stay right here, Anna. Don't move a muscle."
She nodded her head slowly and waited until he left to close her tired eyes and let out a very exaggerated sigh "Should have just run away again…"
"Don't you ever get tired of running?"
That voice!
Anna's eyes shot open and focused straight onto the mysterious sunglass woman. Still decked out in her unusual outfit, the lady leaned casually against the opposite wall with an outdated magazine clutched in her hands. She flipped another page before casually looking up to find Anna seething with anger.
"You!" Anna leaped off the table and threw an accusatory finger at the lady, "This is all your fault! You did something to me!"
"I didn't do anything." She countered coolly and had the gall to smile brightly at her unamused companion, "You, my friend, did something."
"Yeah," Anna grumbled, feeling her head pound harder due to the sudden movement, "I got hit by a bus."
"Truck."
"Whatever!"
"You're right." The woman nodded her head and finally took on a serious tone, "That isn't important. What is important is you are not a lost cause." Anna interjected a drippingly sarcastic thank you, but the woman ignored her, "You were willing to risk your life to save another and that is why you were given a blessing."
"First off, we ain't friends." A thick southern accent smeared over each word as Anna's anger rose to higher levels, "Second, I never asked you for anything."
"Really?" The woman dropped her magazine on McCoy's moveable stool and strolled slowly across the room, "See, I seem to recall a young woman who was lost. Someone who wanted, no, needed, a chance to change her life."
"Well, your radar must be broken, 'cause I ain't interested in anything you're sellin'."
"Too bad. It really is too, too bad." She sighed forlornly.
"What?" Anna snapped, "You gotta creepy quota to fill?"
"Oh no, I am fully focused on your case."
"Goodie."
"The shame," The woman shrugged her shoulders and gave the nails on her right hand an irritatingly slow glance, "Is you're stuck here."
This line caught Anna's full attention instantly. The sarcastic grumbles and pouting expressions were cast aside for far more livid growls, and to be honest, terrified looks.
"Whether it was what you wanted or not, you earned a second chance."
"A second chance at what?" Anna questioned the woman now peering uninterestedly through the glass doors of Hank's medicine cabinet.
"Weren't you paying attention? At life, of course!" The woman turned her head back to Anna and grinned, "All you have to do, is find it."
"It? What the fuck is it?" Anna groused, "Look, I'm not going to be some weird pawn in your stupid alternate universe checkers game!"
"I saw you more as a chess person. But checkers does have a more instantly fierce nature."
"Would you just shut up and let me out of here!"
"Find it and you will see." The woman smiled and waltzed to the door. She twisted the handle and gazed at the stupefied Anna once more, "By the way, if you want a little piece of advice," A deep glower answered her question negatively, but the sunglass woman continued calmly, "I recommend playing along with everything."
Without another word, the woman sauntered out of the room and into the hallway. Anna raced the two feet to the door and ripped it wide open, fully intending to tackle her strange acquaintance to the ground, only to discover a very startled Hank standing on the other side. He immediately ushered her back to the metal exam table and refused to entertain a single protest until she sat down.
"Did you see her?!" Once her butt was solidly parked on the table, she ripped the manila folder from the man's hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
"See who?" The puzzled fellow questioned back and tried to take his files from her iron grip.
"The woman in the sunglasses and puffy vest! She was just there. You couldn't have missed her!"
"Anna," Hank dropped the file he'd wrestled back from her and put both his hands on her shoulders, "Breathe. I need you to take slow, deep breaths."
The lungfuls were sporadic at first, but slowly she maintained a rhythm stable enough to please the doctor. While Anna focused on her breathing, Hank placed a hand to her forehead and attempted to gauge if there had been any rise in temperature.
Anna's eyes widened in true shock as she felt the furry hand rest on her flushed face. Would the surprises of this place never stop? Was she actually able to touch people in this world!?
"How did…" She stammered awkwardly, then cleared her throat, "How can you touch my skin?"
"My dear," Hank's voice was more concerned than ever as he took his hand away and stared into her large emerald eyes, "You've been able to control your mutation for years now, thanks to a lot of hard work. Well, you always say it was your hard work and a little of Remy's help." He took a moment to raise his eyebrows and smile hopefully as if waiting for her to answer a joke she'd never heard before. "Don't you remember?"
It can't be true, Anna assured herself before any ill-fated hopes could grow. There was no way she could've learned to handle her mutation. If there were even an iota of a chance she could manage anything as wild and unpredictable as her powers, she would've figured it out during the thousands of hours spent with the professor. What could be so different in her life here, that she supposedly unlocked the secret of her powers?
Remy.
That was the only factor that was different. How could he help her anyway? All the Cajun could do was charge things. It wasn't like he had some kind of power negation ability. No, it couldn't have been Remy, she presumed mainly since she was unable to fathom any possible scenario that supported such an outlandish claim. She couldn't deny that something, whatever it was, had definitely changed in her life, though. Their supposed kids must have come from somewhere.
"Remy helped me wi-"
"Anna!" The deep voice that busted into the room startled her , but the warm pair of muscular arms that immediately encircled her upper body was far more shocking.
"And in record time." Hank ever-so-softly chuckled to himself before patting Remy on the shoulder to ask him to back away from the patient. "You were at least fifteen minutes out when I paged you."
Remy LeBeau, her husband for the day according to everyone, stepped back for a moment and looked Anna up and down. She couldn't really blame him for the action since she followed suit. It was hard not to look him over after the way they'd left each other ages ago; soaking wet on the shores of a lonely bayou.
Like the rest of the X-Men, he too looked older, but it did little to take away from that rebel-without-a-cause quality he'd radiated at their last meeting. Thankfully, he'd abandoned the silly haircut from their youth, and settled on an appealing look that allowed his longer locks to be styled in what she could only assume, since she'd never been the type to know much about hair trends, was called a windswept style. The one thing time hadn't touched was his physique, for as far as she could tell, through his crimson sweater and black pants, he was more muscle than anything.
What was completely captivating about the old and new mister LeBeau, in Anna's humble opinion, was his eyes. The ruby colored irises sparkled like a pair of brilliant stars against a backdrop as dark as the night sky. It was that same unnervingly bold pair, which studied each rise and fall of her chest and every expression that traipsed across her face. She could barely begin to identify, let alone try to dissect, what emotions were shining back at her.
She blinked her eyes a couple of times in an effort to both free herself from the spell of those orbs and regain what was left of her lucidity.
"Hey," Remy's calloused hand tenderly cupped the side of her face, while his thumb gently rubbed her flushed cheek. The expression on his face as he gazed into her eyes, made her breath catch in her throat. "What happened, Chere? You left the kids and then I get a call from Hank that you hurt your head."
"I left them with a… Jubilee." Before she could formulate more of an answer, the young woman was surprised by another tight hug and a tender whisper into her ear.
"Just glad you're okay, mon coeur." He sweetly kissed her full lips then pulled back to look once more into her emerald eyes, "Let's try to keep votre belle tête en toute sécurité, oui?"
Once Remy let go of her and interlocked the fingers of her right-hand with his, Anna found herself at a complete loss for words. It was one thing to be told you have a husband somewhere out in the world, but being cuddled and kissed so lovingly was another story altogether. The index finger of her free hand absentmindedly touched her lips, as if she expected the strange warmth racing through her chest would heat them up as well.
This was real.
The whole, unbelievable, impossible show playing out before her eyes was as real as anything she'd ever known. She took a deep breath through her nose and remembered the only semblance of a clue she had been given; play along.
Okay, she nervously thought as her hand tentatively squeezed Remy's own and another peculiar tingle of warmth shot through her frame, then I'll try and play along…
French Translation: Your beautiful head safe, yes?