Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution. I got some inspiration and dialogue from this chapter from a Boy Meets World episode, Angela's Men.

Chapter Forty Four – Don't Get Mad; Get Even

February 1999

John's mind went blank, even as he grasped his team-mate's hand in a weak form of comfort. "It'll be okay." He heard himself whisper, trying desperately to make himself believe his words.

"Not again." Kitty whispered shakily. "This can't be happening again." Her voice broke on the last word and John wrapped a brotherly arm around her shoulders.

"We'll be okay." John insisted weakly.

A cry from down the hall startled him from his daze and he tightened his hold, shaking her lightly. "Snap out of it, Shadowcat!"

"Right." Kitty turned from the screen to face him, shaking off his arm as she did. "First things first, what was that?"

John quickly explained about Amara's powers, the law they'd come to explain and the loophole they'd found.

"Right." Kitty stood up and strode towards the elevator. "Pyro, find Magma and tell her what's going on. Then I want you to tell Iceman that I'm running a training session; I want all the New Mutants there, including his girlfriend. Only excuse I'm accepting is labour or death."

"Why can't you tell him that?" John asked, slipping into the elevator beside her. "You're telepathic. Unless you've lost it."

"No, I haven't." Kitty rolled her eyes. "He's with Jubes and I don't need the mental images. Besides, I'm going to go and tell the Brotherhood about this little development; I'll meet you in the DR in …" she checked her watch as they emerged into the hallway "… two hours. If the baby hasn't been born yet, Magma's excused."

"Excused from what?" Amara asked, catching the last sentence as they reached the living room. "And what baby? Wait, is Mother …?"

"Yeah, Belladonna's with her." John jerked his head back towards the elevator. "And we've got a training session in two hours."

Amara pulled up short, putting a hand out to stop the doors closing having dragged her father into the small room. "Bobby didn't mention that this morning."

"That's because I'm running it." Kitty told her with a smirk, and John got the impression she was looking forward to taking Bobby down a peg or two.

"But if the baby's not born yet, I'm excused?" Amara checked.

"Of course." Kitty rolled her eyes. "Get going." As the doors closed, she turned to John. "I don't come off as that heartless, do I?"

"Of course not." John assured her. "You can just be a little … intense sometimes."

Kitty sighed. "Iceman, Pyro; go. Two hours."

Kitty stood for ten minutes outside the Boarding House, trying to work up the nerve to walk in and give them this awful news.

Finally, she let herself in, finding everyone in the living room, watching TV.

"Guys," she said quietly, "we have a problem."

"That sentence never bodes well." Pietro frowned, tilting his head back so he could see her.

"Kitten?" Lance asked, standing. "What is it?"

Kitty walked into his offered embrace and buried her face in his chest, taking a deep breath. She couldn't see it, but she knew that Lance had given his team-mates a silent, worried look that spoke more than any words could, because she then felt a soft hand on her back that didn't belong to her boyfriend.

"Kitty?" Wanda prompted.

"There's something funny going on and Apocalypse might be coming back." Kitty told them, getting it out as quickly as possible.

Of course, since she still had Pietro's powers, 'as quickly as possible' was actually 'incoherently fast', which wasn't helped by the fact that her words were absorbed into Lance's shirt.

Only Pietro seemed to have any inkling of what she'd said and he grasped her shoulders, pulling her out of Lance's arms and turning her to face him.

"Hey!" Lance protested.

"Stay out of it, Avalanche." Pietro warned. "Kitty, did you just say what I think you said?"

Kitty nodded, feeling tears sting her eyes. "Uh huh."

"Oh God." Seeing her struggle to keep her composure, Pietro pulled her into a hug. "It'll be okay."

"Pietro …" Lance began.

"Apocalypse might be coming back." Pietro told him darkly.

"Oh God …" Wanda whispered, grasping Lance's hand tightly. "This can't be happening."

The two men exchanged a glance and Pietro wordlessly coaxed his sister into his arms and gently transferred Kitty back into Lance's.

Lance kissed her forehead, stroking her hair tenderly. "Alright, Kitten; how exactly do we know this?"

"We don't." Kitty admitted, shifting so the others could hear her. "But there's been really weird energy spikes at the Sphinx and the signature's similar."

"Who are you talking about?" Lucie asked, confused.

Lance took the opportunity to get Kitty out of the room into the relative privacy of the hallway. "You okay?"

"No, I'm not okay, Lance; how can I be okay?" Kitty released her grip on his shirt to slide her hands down to her abdomen. "I don't know how Jean and Anna handled it; I don't even know if he's coming back and I'm freakin' terrified."

"Kitten, honey, everything's gonna be fine." Lance soothed, rubbing her back. "We'll be fine."

Kitty sighed. "I hope you're right."

That lunch-time, the X-Men had four extra mouths to feed. To everyone's surprise, including Miranda, Edmund Aquilla had arrived just a few minutes before his twin sister, Susan.

The mood, despite this happy event, was dark and slightly depressed. Belladonna sat in one of the armchairs, mending a hole in one of Jamie's socks, the student himself sitting at her feet, playing his Gameboy with the sound muted; like Lexa, she had a habit of observing every little detail of her surrounds while looking like she wasn't paying a single bit of attention.

Kitty had told them all over lunch about the strange disturbances in Egypt and everyone was clearly shaken. Even the babies had been noticeably disquieted by the tension, though none were crying.

Scott had argued with Kitty about the necessity of involving the Brotherhood, but her response had been to drag him down to the Danger Room and play a simulation of the battle in Mexico the previous October, altering it to assume the Brotherhood hadn't shown up. It was clear the results had shaken him and he had fallen silent, holding his fiancée and children close as though they might disappear.

Amara's parents, in Belladonna's opinion, were taking the whole thing very well. They were sat with their eldest daughter and – if her instincts were any indication – soon-to-be future son-in-law – Bella gave it a month or two before he proposed – cradling their new children. John himself was holding Amara close, his chin resting on her head.

In fact, all the men were holding their girlfriends close to them. Even Kurt – in Amanda's absence – had an arm around Kitty's shoulder, comforting her as best he could.

However …

Belladonna frowned, no longer bothering to hide her observations. On the other side of the room, Bobby was sitting with Jubilee in his lap, but his attention – and glare – was focused on Kitty.

Jubilee lifted her head from his chest. "Bobby?"

"She beat me up, Jubes." Bobby stated, gaze not shifting.

Jubilee sighed. "Bobby, would you just let it go?"

Bobby finally looked down at her. "How can I let it go when it haunts my every thought? Do you realise how humiliating that was?"

Kitty had pushed the team much harder than he usually did and she had, well, beaten him up.

"You know, if you weren't so damn chivalrous all the time, it wouldn't have happened." Jubilee pointed out. "Not all the bad guys are going to be men, you know."

Bobby ignored her. "She'll pay for it when I have my revenge and I will have my revenge."

Jubilee groaned. "Oh, this isn't going to end well."

About an hour later, Kitty had decided to distract herself from her worry by doing something constructive, so she was jotting down ideas on how to nip this newest threat in the bud.

A shiver ran down her spine and she glanced over her shoulder. Seeing that no one behind her was paying any attention to her, she turned back to her work.

Nearby, Jubilee broke her conversation with Sam and Rahne, and stared as Bobby popped up behind Kitty once again, glaring at her.

Sam shook his head. "They should lock him up."

The three New Mutants watched in a state of disbelief as Kitty got up and jogged over to the desk against the wall to get a new sheet of paper. Bobby ran after her and seated himself at one of the small tables, glancing at a report Scott showed him. As soon as Kitty's back was turned, he looked up and grinned psychotically.

When she turned round again, Bobby quickly looked down again, nodding in agreement as Scott pointed something out to him.

Kitty narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, but said nothing, heading back to the couch. Bobby looked up again and smirked viciously.

"I'm tellin' you," Sam put a supportive hand on Jubilee's shoulder, "padded walls so he can't hurt himself."

Eduardo and Miranda were sitting with Belladonna by the fireplace, enjoying a cup of tea, but, as they chatted, Belladonna couldn't help noticing Eduardo's gaze kept drifting to Amara and John.

"You're worried." She stated after a while.

"I can't help it." Eduardo admitted. "She's my little girl."

Belladonna sighed and put her cup down. "Look, I know John Allerdyce. And he is many things. He's annoying, reckless, often unkempt, destructive …" she wrinkled her nose "… a trifle gassy …"

"Is there a 'but' coming any time soon?" John asked loudly, looking over.

"And a pain in the butt." Belladonna finished.

John rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

Belladonna smiled. "But he is a good man. And he loves your daughter so much."

"I do." John confirmed, kissing Amara's forehead.

As Kitty passed them, the five noticed Bobby outside, his face pressed up against the window mouthing 'I'm going to get you' at her back.

Belladonna sighed again. "Under no circumstances, however, let your daughter go anywhere near him."

That evening, Sam and Jubilee walked into a loud, talk-filled rec room, engaged in a spirited discussion about the pros and cons of reading her unborn child the latest football scores.

"I just think that …" Sam stopped mid-stride and mid-conversation. "Jubes? Do you find something weird about that painting?"

Jubilee turned and observed it. It was a painting of an Amish farmer and his wife outside their house, except … it seemed to be 3D. Closing her eyes, she prayed that she was seeing things, before peering at it again. "I beg you. I beg you to seek help."

The 'farmer' chuckled. "Oh, this is gonna be so sweet. Bye-bye, Shadowcat."

Sam rolled his eyes. "You know what, Iceman? Kitty is to smart for you! Anyone is!"

"Stay out of this, Sam." Bobby told him. "This is a one-man mission. Will you help me?"

"No!" Sam bent down to address Jubilee's stomach. "Sorry, Lump. Just pray you get your mother's brains."

"Honey?" Bobby asked sweetly.

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "I'm not even going to credit that with a response."

Bobby sighed. "Fine. I'll do this myself." He glanced at the painted woman standing next to him as Sam and Jubilee joined Rahne and Roberto. "You have a very large head."

As the noise level rose, Belladonna put her book down and whistled sharply. "Alright, that's enough! I know it's been a trying day, but it's also been a very long day, and I know I'm not the only person with a headache."

"Thank you." Ororo seconded from beside her. "I want forty minutes of peace and tranquillity starting now!"

At that moment, Kitty walked in and Bobby leapt from his frame with a war-cry, missing Kitty by inches and landing heavily on the floor. "Oww …"

"God help me …" Belladonna groaned, trying not to laugh.

A week later …

No one paid that much attention when John and Amara arrived back; they had accompanied Eduardo, Miranda and the twins back to Nova Roma and had stayed for a while so Amara could show John where she grew up.

However, it wasn't long before Kitty noticed that both were grinning madly.

"Uh oh." She commented, gaining everyone's attention. "What did you do?"

"Well …" Amara gave Jean an almost guilty look and the redhead gestured for her to continue.

"We got married!" John finished.

There was a second of shocked silence then …

"I thought so." Jean got up, passing Monica to Kurt as she did. "Congratulations." She hugged both of them, and that seemed to open a floodgate for everyone else to follow suit.

"When did he propose?" Kitty asked when she reached them.

"The night Edmund and Susan were born." Amara answered with a smile. "He told me he'd spoken to Mother and Father, and wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with me. Sorry, Jean," she added, "I know you're in the middle of planning and we didn't want to steal your thunder but …"

"Hey!" Jean gave her another hug. "Don't worry about it; I couldn't be happier. You deserve each other."

"Yeah, Jean would have to be a complete Bridezilla to get upset over this." Kitty agreed. "And she's not that bad yet."

"Thanks, Kitty." Jean said dryly.

"I am so glad I didn't make that bet." Belladonna commented. "I was sure it would take another month."

"If it's any consolation, I think that's the first time you've been wrong in all the time I've known you." Remy told her.

Belladonna rolled her eyes. "I wasn't upset. Just making an observation." She stood up and beckoned to Kitty. "Chaton, I need some advice."

"Okay." Kitty got up and followed her out of the rec room. "What's up?"

"I just wanted a chance to talk to you without the others overhearing." Belladonna admitted, leading her down towards the infirmary. "You're going to have to make a choice at some point, Kitty. Either you tell Scott about the baby or you find some other way of getting out of these training sessions. You're alright for the moment, but as you progress, it's going to get risky."

Kitty frowned, her hands drifting down to her stomach. "I know. I'm trying, Bella; I am. He's not listening to me. And I thought you said there was no threat."

"For the moment." Belladonna repeated gently. "I know you keep a shield around your stomach and that's enough, but when the baby gets bigger, strenuous exercise is not a good idea."

"What do I do?" Kitty asked quietly.

"Let's give it to your second trimester." Belladonna suggested. "Then I'll tell him that the repeated training is potentially detrimental to your health. If he doesn't listen, either tell him or go and stay with your boyfriend."

Her wording made Kitty smile resignedly. "Go ahead." She sighed. "Ask."

Belladonna flushed slightly, caught off-guard. "Has Lance asked you?"

"To marry him?" Kitty checked, just to make sure they were both on the same page; her companion nodded. "No."

"And that doesn't …" Belladonna hesitated "… bother you at all?"

Kitty chuckled. "No. I know Lance well enough to trust that he would never leave me and he knows me well enough to know that, if he proposed now, I'd forever wonder if it was because of the baby."

"Wow." Belladonna murmured. "You know, I don't think I've ever met a couple as in tune as you two. Not even Scott and Jean, and God only knows what goes on in their heads."

"We shouldn't be." Kitty conceded quietly. "The odds have been against us from the start. But we're both stubborn, so every time someone told us we wouldn't work, we became more intent on proving them wrong. I love him dearly, but it hasn't been easy to fight against the current."

"I bet." Belladonna agreed sympathetically. "You're a good fit though. And he adores you. I don't know why Scott can't see that."

Kitty smiled wryly. "Because he's stubborn too."

AN: By the next chapter, Jean and Scott will be married. If you want to read about their disastrous attempts to plan a wedding, check out my oneshot 'They're Killing Us'! Review please!