Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution. I do own the plot, Lorelai LeBeau, Monica and Joey Summers and Lucie Cartwright.

Chapter Forty-Two – Reconciliation?

February 1999

To be fair, Wanda would argue later, no one could blame her. Any young woman walking alone through the back-streets of Bayville – especially if they were mutant and especially after the events of the last few days – was in danger of being attacked.

That was the only reason – she insisted – when a young man appeared seemingly out of nowhere, she hexed him into the nearest wall.

"Ow …"

Wanda narrowed her eyes, realising the voice sounded somewhat familiar, trying to remember where she'd seen him before. Then she remembered. "Shit." She muttered, kneeling beside him. "Evan? Can you hear me?"

With a groan, Evan's eyes cracked open. "Did someone get the number of the bus that hit me?"

"That was me." Wanda admitted. "Sorry."

Evan rubbed his head. "Don't I know you?"

"Wanda." She reminded him. "Pietro's sister."

"Oh yeah." Evan stood up and leaned against the wall.

"Are you okay?" Wanda asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Evan assured her. "It was my fault; I should've looked before I went topside."

"Top …" Wanda glanced down to see a manhole lying open at her feet. "Oh, yeah; Kitty told me what happened. Wait a second." She looked back at him with a double-take. "Shouldn't you be … I dunno …"

"Spiky?" Evan suggested. "Yeah, I dunno what happened. One minute I look like stegosaurus, the next I'm back to normal."

"So you're rejoining the X-Men then?" Wanda guessed, falling into step beside him as he began walking in the direction of the Institute.

"Rejoining?" Evan grinned. "I never really left. Besides, the Morlocks told me to go for it. Callisto's got things covered and they've got my number if they need me."

"Right." Wanda was quiet for a few minutes, debating whether to broach the subject. "So what's the deal with you and Pietro? I mean, you were best friends, then I went to the hospital; I get out and you can't stand each other."

Evan sighed. "I don't know." He admitted. "When you didn't show up to school that day, I asked him where you were and he just blew up at me."

"What did he say?" Wanda asked with a frown.

"God only knows." Evan rolled his eyes. "I don't know when his powers emerged, but he already spoke in super-speed, especially when he was upset. I guess he wanted to take it out on someone and I happened to be there. If I'd known where you were, I'd have backed off, but I didn't, so I fought back. By the time I knew why he'd reacted how he did, we were on separate teams, and we'd been enemies for so long that it was too late to fix what had happened."

It's never too late. Wanda opened her mouth to tell him just that, before closing it again, falling into a thoughtful silence.

As a child, Wanda had had what appeared to be a charmed life. Aside from the unfortunate death of her mother in childbirth, she had a devoted father and a wonderful twin brother who, aside from the occasional argument, she got along perfectly well with. She even got along with his friends and it wasn't uncommon for Wanda to join him at the Evans' for tea; she had come to see Violet Daniels as the mother figure she lacked and – though neither would have admitted it because Pietro was already overprotective and they were at that age – she and Evan were just as good friends as the boys.

When she was nine-years-old, she had overheard a conversation between her father and his friend, Ms. Darkholme – who occasionally joined them for dinner – about the latter's adopted daughter, Anna, who lived with her foster mother. Magneto had advised Ms. Darkholme against telling Anna the truth saying that ignorance was bliss, citing his own children as an example.

Wanda had demanded to know what he meant and, finally, Magneto had admitted that their mother wasn't dead and that he had taken them against her will; she hadn't even left them.

In her anger, her powers had emerged, nearly taking the house with them. Her father had taken her to the hospital the next day.

In her mind's eye, Wanda could still see Pietro at her father's side as they walked out of the ward, neither looking back as she screamed and cried, fighting against the nurses who stopped her from running after her family.

"Hey." Evan's voice broke into her thoughts and she realised, belatedly, that she had begun crying. He stopped walking, turning to face her, and managed to find a relatively clean tissue to give her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Wanda dried her eyes. "Well, no, that's a lie." She admitted, when Evan gave a look that clearly stated he didn't buy that. "Pietro and I have been avoiding talking about the past for that very reason – it's too late. But when you said that, I was about to tell you it was never too late."

"Maybe it's not too late." Evan suggested. When a smile appeared on her face, he backtracked hastily. "At least for you two."

Wanda bit back a laugh, noticing as she did that they had reached the dirt track where they would part. "Evan, do you want me to talk to Pietro for you?"

"No!" Evan protested. "That is … I don't want … you know …"

Wanda rolled her eyes. Boys. "Alright. I'll see you later."

"You too."

Waving absently, Wanda jogged the remaining few miles to the Boarding House. As she hung her jacket up inside the front door, she noted that it was strangely quiet.

Of course, for the Brotherhood, anything less than the amount of noise usually reserved for a drunken audience at a rock concert could be considered quiet, but this evening, the only nose was a soft strumming coming from the living room.

Glancing in as she passed, Wanda stopped, a fond smile gracing her face.

Lucie was curled up at one end of the couch, reading a book. Todd, it seemed, had fallen asleep next to her, and had slumped sideways with his head resting on her shoulder.

Lance was in one of the armchairs, strumming a soft tune on his guitar, a piece of paper on the coffee table in front of him. Every so often, he would stop and jot something down.

Wanda knew from experience not to interrupt 'the process', as Lance called it, so she didn't announce her presence. Continuing, she discovered that Freddie and Tabitha were in the kitchen; Fred seemed to be trying to teach Tabby how to cook something.

"Hey." Wanda called softly. "You seen my brother?"

"He's in his room." Tabby answered, not taking her eyes off the scales in front of her.

"What are you making?" Wanda asked.

"Chocolate chip and peanut-butter cookies." Fred grinned. "My mom's recipe."

Wanda pretended not to notice the spasm of sadness that crossed her house-mate's face, instead thanking them and making her way to find her brother.

She couldn't help feeling quite nervous as she tapped on the door. Despite the front they put up for the rest of the Brotherhood and their family, the twins had never spoken about the past, opting to stay on safer topics.

"Come in."

Pietro's room was like his personality: obsessively neat. Wanda got the impression that Pietro measured the spaces between items, just to make sure they were the same; it was a good thing Lexa had military background and was used to this sort of compulsive neatness, or she'd never put up with him. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Pietro greeted, putting a marker in his book. "What's up?"

"I didn't think it was possible for you to read a book at normal speed." Wanda teased, unable to resist.

Pietro smirked. "Just because I rarely do something, doesn't mean I can't. Sometimes I enjoy taking things slowly."

Wanda took a deep breath. "We need to talk."

"Okay." With a gust of wind, Pietro had returned the book to the shelf and appeared behind her with a chair. "What about?"

"I ran into Evan just now." Wanda began, sitting down opposite him as he returned to sit on the edge of his mattress. "I asked him what happened between you."

"Yeah?" To his credit, Pietro didn't flinch. "What did he say?"

"That he didn't know; you just blew up at him the day after I went into hospital." Wanda answered, holding his gaze.

A pained expression crossed his face and Pietro closed his eyes. "I needed to blame someone … I couldn't blow up at myself, so I chose the next best thing." When he opened his eyes again, there were tears sparkling in them. "I'm so sorry. He was just so insistent that it was the right thing to do and … Dammit, I was scared, alright! Is that what you wanna hear? I was so scared of our father that I let him lock you away!"

With another gust of wind, he was gone and Wanda sighed, massaging her temples. "Well, that went well.

Lexa didn't need enhanced senses to hear Pietro arrive on her balcony. Rolling her eyes, and mentally thanking some higher power that Logan was away, she got out of bed and slipped a robe on, before unlocking the balcony doors. Before she could reprimand her boyfriend, she caught sight of her boyfriend's red-rimmed eyes and immediately wrapped her arms around him, feeling him bury his face in her hair, taking deep breaths to try to maintain some semblance of control.

"You're lucky Wolverine's not here." Lexa murmured, wiping away a stray tear.

"Sorry." Pietro whispered. "I didn't know where else to go."

"It's alright." Lexa led him inside and they sat on the floor, leaning against her bed. "But you still don't have long. It's past curfew and security's a hell of a lot better than it was. What happened?"

The story came out in a rush. Lexa held him close as he confessed how he had abandoned his sister and how much he regretted it.

When he had finished, they lapsed into silence, while Lexa gave Pietro a few minutes to compose herself. Then she allowed another five minutes to compose herself. Then she spent a further five minutes trying to figure out the best way to go about the subject before giving up and smacking him over the head.

"Hey!" Pietro protested. "What was that for?"

"Pietro, if you regret what happened so much, what are you talking to me for?" Lexa asked with a sigh. "Why aren't you talking to Wanda about this?"

"Because I …" Pietro hesitated.

"Because?" Lexa prompted.

"I don't deserve for her to forgive me." Pietro mumbled, almost too quietly for her sensitive ears to hear. Almost.

"Alright." Lexa stood up and dragged him to his feet. "Pietro, you know I love you, but you're being an idiot. Now go and talk to your sister."

"Alright." Pietro kissed her. "Love you."

"Love you too." Lexa called after him as he disappeared. She shook her head with a smile, falling back onto her bed. What am I going to do with that man?

Wanda knew that Pietro would be back – he always was – so she stayed where she was until he reappeared in front of her. "Lexa?"

Pietro shrugged. "I needed someone who wasn't afraid to beat some sense into me."

"And did she?" Wanda asked, knowing the answer.

Pietro rubbed the back of his head. "You could say that. Listen, Wanda, I'm so sorry. I wanted to help you, but I didn't know how and …"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "You always did talk too much."

"So are we good?" Pietro asked hesitantly.

Wanda sighed. "Yeah, we're good. Now give me a hug so we can get the whole 'touchy-feely' thing over with."

Pietro laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, sis."

"I love you too." Wanda pulled away and kissed his cheek. "Now you've got to come and see where Toad's fallen asleep."

"Lucie's lap?" Pietro guessed, grabbing his camera.

"No." Wanda grinned. "But so close."

Two days later, the Brotherhood turned up at the Institute, who – for once – welcomed them with open arms.

Thanks to the publicity Duncan's arrest and the shooting had attracted, the trial had come around much sooner than it ordinarily would have done; in fact, it had only taken a few days.

Not even Scott complained as Tabby, Lucie, Todd and Fred joined the New Mutants in the rec room and Lance went to sit with Kitty, who promptly relocated herself to his lap.

Pietro had put his foot down and told his team-mates to stay there during the trial, although he had resigned himself to the fact that Wanda wasn't going to listen.

It hadn't looked like the others would either, but Lance understood where Pietro was coming from and agreed.

No one was stupid enough not to realise that losing this case would give other mutant-haters the opening they needed.

The rec room was ominously quiet as Professor Xavier, Storm, Wolverine and Lexa joined Wanda, Pietro, Judy and Sara.

After a second's hesitation, Lorna joined them. She and Pietro exchanged a few quiet words before he gave a resigned nod and she and Wanda exchanged a victorious smirk.

Lance snorted quietly. "She's only known for a few days; they're already ganging up on him."

"That's what we do, Lance." Kitty murmured, closing her eyes.

Across the room, Scott gave Lance a glare that clearly told him that the only reason he wasn't intervening was that the twins had picked up on the dismal atmosphere and were clinging to their parents.

"Scott's gonna kill me." Lance whispered in her ear.

Kitty groaned lightly. "Git. You'd think he'd realise Jean being your sister means you're her brother." She opened her eyes again, a frown creasing her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Lance looked a little startled. "Why?"

"Before we knew that Scott was Abby's son, you said you were close as kids." Kitty reminded him. "And now he hates you. He's not even trying."

Lance chuckled. "He's always been stubborn and I don't think it's sunk in yet." Realising that she wasn't going to let it go, he sighed. "Look, you're right. I shouldn't be okay with this, but … he's nothing like the kid I grew up with. Hell, we spent most of the time we were supposed to be doing homework forging sick-notes."

Kitty laughed. "No way! Our Scott?"

Her laugh was just a little too loud and a lot of people looked up, ready for anything to lessen the tension in the room.

Jean smirked. "Telling her baby stories, Lance?"

"Something like that." Lance and Kitty shared a grin.

"Did you tell her about the time Mr. Delaney was trying to get us to try more extra-curricular activities?" Jean asked, a glint in her eye that caused Scott to groan.

"Honey …" He began.

"No." Kitty cut him off. "What happened?"

"Nothing really." Jean shrugged. "It just always makes me laugh." She sat up, adjusting Joey on her lap. "So it's the end of our English Language lesson, we're nine-years-old and lunch is coming up, when Mr. Delaney pulls out a list of activities and tells us he's going to read them out. Scott says, and I quote, "Great; why doesn't he shoot us while he's at it."" Jean broke off, laughing. "Sorry, it's even funnier now."

Lance grinned. "So Mr. Delaney says, "Lance, please …" and I said, "It wasn't me; it was Scott."

"So Mr. Delaney just shrugs and goes, "Same thing."" Jean sniggered. "As I recall, we all signed up for scuba club. Two minutes until lunch-time and Delaney's trying to get us to tell him what 'scuba' is an acronym of."

"I still like mine." Lance commented.

"What was yours?" Kitty asked curiously.

"Duba." Scott answered dryly.

"Better than yours." Lance retorted.

"Which was?" Bobby prompted with a grin.

"Something's Creepy Under Boat …" Jean paused. "… Andy."

Several people laughed, grateful for the relief. Scott didn't laugh. "Monica needs changing." He told Jean quietly. "I got it."

"Thanks." Jean murmured, the smile fading slightly from her face. "Well, it was worth a shot." She commented once he'd left the room, glancing over at her brother. "Sorry."

"It's fine, Jeannie." Lance told her.

"No, it's not!" Jean scowled. "You were best friends! What changed?"

"We did." Lance answered calmly. "Look, Jean, I know you want to fix this, but you need to accept the fact that maybe it can't be fixed. If it can, it'll come in its own time."

Jean sighed, bouncing Joey lightly as he began fussing. "I suppose you're right."

Kitty frowned, glancing up at the clock. It was only ten minutes since the others had left, but it felt like a lifetime. "Lance," she murmured.

Lance followed her gaze and kissed her forehead. "It'll be alright." He whispered. "I'm not letting anything happen to you … either of you."

Kitty nodded, burying her face in the crook of his neck, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.

Across the room, Bobby and Jubilee were in a similar position, though no one noticed that Lance and Bobby were rubbing their girlfriends' stomachs in exactly the same way.

Unable to bear the silence anymore, Kurt cleared his throat. "Did I ever tell you about the time I got the flu?"

Kitty groaned into Lance's shoulder, knowing the story.

"No." Ray answered, playing wingman. "What happened?"

By the end of the story, everyone was smiling, some almost crying with laughter. The Brotherhood had known that Kitty somehow ended up in their living room with the flu in her night-shirt, but she'd never explained how it had happened.

With good reason, apparently.

This story made way for others, as Kurt, Ray and Evan, occasionally helped by Bobby, kept everyone smiling, taking their minds off their worries.

Finally, the door to the rec room opened again and Pietro and Lexa walked in, followed by Wanda and Lorna.

The room fell silent again as everyone stared at them.

"Well?" Lance prompted, his arm tightening around Kitty again. His action was echoed across the room, as Bobby and Sam pulled Jubilee and Rahne closer, Amara gripped John's hand tightly, and Jean and Anna clung to their children.

Pietro's face broke into a grin. "Guilty."

Relief rippled through the room taking with it a wave of emotion.

"Thank God." Kitty whispered, standing on shaky legs and making her way over to the door. "Thank God."

"We owe the DA." Wanda informed her, accepting her hug. "Big time. He made a very passionate closing argument and that was what swung it for us."

"And Pietro was wonderful." Lexa added, giving him a glowing look. "He didn't flinch, no matter what the defence threw at him."

Kitty hugged him as well, kissing his cheek. "Well done."

Surprisingly, Evan had followed Kitty and stood awkwardly for a few seconds, before holding his hand out. "Congrats, man."

Pietro chuckled and grasped his hand. "Hell, Daniels, don't go gettin' all girly on me."

Evan sniggered. "Not in this lifetime, Maximoff."

Jean watched this with a slightly wistful expression and her brother slung an arm around her shoulders. "Relax, Jeannie. It'll get better. We've got time."

"Yeah." Jean sighed. "I know." She smiled as Lance took his nephew out of her arms to allow her to focus on Monica, who had started crying. The boy fussed a little bit and settled down, gazing up at him with serene eyes that were slowly turning his mother's shade of green.

"They love you." Jean commented.

"They'd better." Lance grumbled without feeling. "I am their uncle after all." He adjusted the baby's bib and Joey caught hold of his finger tightly, causing him to smile.

Moving back now, to let the rest of the Brotherhood talk to their team-mate, Kitty watched Lance talk to his sister, holding Joey in his arms. Her hands moved to her stomach and she smiled, knowing that, in eight months, it would be their own child he cradled and assured that he would be a wonderful

AN: Few points. First of all, I took the story Jean and Lance told from a Boy Meets World episode; can't remember which one, but I didn't make it up. Second of all, yes, I know trials and court-cases take a hell of a lot longer, but I wanted to wrap this up quickly. And thirdly, I'm aware Wanda was much too matter-of-fact about the institution, but there is a reason (think The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe) which will be resolved at some point.

Aside from that, you've all been amazing so far, so keep at it and review please!