Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution. I do own Lorelai LeBeau, Monica and Joseph Summers, Cindy Drake and Lucie Cartwright.

Chapter Forty Seven – Tunnel Vision

July 29th 1999

As her mind and body slowly became numb with shock and fear, Kitty slipped into auto-pilot, finding herself cast back to that horrible day in Northbrook as she stared at the remains of a building brought down by an earthquake. Only, this time, the stakes were higher and she could do something about it.

"Get Belladonna. We're going to need a medic." She told Pietro calmly. "You know where she is, right?"

"Er, I think so." Pietro answered, seemingly taken aback by reaction. "Next to your infirmary, right?"

"Right." Kitty turned back to her main problem, even as she felt, rather than heard, him depart. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Wish me luck."

Diving into the rubble, she swam through it as easily as if it were water. If anything good had come from her extended training sessions, it was that she could now stay intangible for almost as long as she desired, but, just as with normal swimming, oxygen was still an issue, so she was forced to return to the surface every so often to take a breath.

After what felt like hours, Kitty caught sight of Lance and took one more deep breath from the surface and 'swam' back down to pull him up with her, dragging him to the edge of the rubble-pit.

Tabby and Fred ran forwards and helped her get him up onto the road, just as Pietro returned with Belladonna.

Not bothering with greetings, Belladonna knelt beside him, immediately checking his vitals. "Breathing's stable; pulse is steady. No broken bones that I can see." She looked up at Kitty with a grim smile. "He's damn lucky. I'll know more when we get him back to the infirmary."

Kitty nodded, touching Lance's face tenderly, wanting nothing more than for him to open his eyes and look at her. When that didn't happen, she looked up at Pietro, who was standing nearby. "Don't even think it."

"Where are we gonna go now?" Pietro asked, ignoring her.

"You thought it." Kitty sighed, straightening up. "Why don't you just come and stay with us? We're all on the same side anyway."

"Come on, Kitty!" Tabby protested. "We're not X-Geeks!"

"Would you describe Lexa as an X-Geek?" Kitty asked.

"And choose your answer carefully." Pietro inserted dryly.

Tabby rolled her eyes. "No, but I wouldn't call you an X-Geek either. But we're left with the problem of putting up with Scott …"

"Look, if I can do it, you can do it." Kitty told her. "I can't make you go anywhere; this is an offer, that's all. But we're taking Lance back with us; there's no hospital that can do anything. Ignore Scott; we've got plenty of room and he's the only one who's got a problem. Please."

Wanda put a calming hand on Tabby's arm and gave Pietro a significant look. The twins seemed to hold a silent conversation before he sighed and nodded.

"Alright. But only because you said please." Pietro insisted, with a hint of a smile.

"Kitty." Belladonna prompted.

"Right." Kitty lifted Lance telekinetically and put a hand on his arm. "Do you guys mind walking?"

"No, that's fine." Lucie assured her, wiping her eyes. "We'll meet you there."

"Okay." Kitty took Belladonna's arm and teleported to the infirmary, floating Lance to one of the cots.

For a second, she hesitated, but she felt helpless, unable to do anything but watch as the man she loved was hooked up to various machines, and she turned and fled from the infirmary, tears beginning to cloud her vision.

As she emerged into the main part of the mansion, she collided with a solid body, but didn't look up to see who it was, or even phase through them.

Her legs gave out and she broke down, finally conceding her battle with tears. Arms wrapped around her comfortingly, rubbing her back and stroking her hair, as she told them, through sobs, about the power surge, about the repeated training sessions, about how exhausted she was, about how worried Bella was getting, about how guilty she felt that she hadn't noticed anything strange about Lance's headaches.

It wasn't until much later that she realised she hadn't even mentioned the baby; she ran out words and motivation, and she lapsed back into silent sobs, feeling the person rock her gently.

Another hand pressed against her shoulder and she vaguely heard a female voice ask what had happened. A male responded in hushed tones, but Kitty couldn't summon up the presence of mind to realise who was holding her.

Her mind just went black.

When Jean walked downstairs, somehow juggling both of the twins, she was met with the sight of Scott standing in the Entrance Hall glaring at the Brotherhood. "Good morning."

"Morning." Lucie responded, looking slightly amused, but with red eyes that caught her attention. "Can we stay here?"

"No, you cannot!" Scott snapped.

"Kitty said it'd be alright." Pietro scowled, crossing his arms. "She also said to ignore you. Which, in case you were wondering, is what I plan on doing."

"Not that I've got any problem with this," Jean broke in, before her husband could respond, "but why are you here?"

"Kitty didn't tell you?" Wanda asked.

"I haven't seen her since the training session." Jean admitted, beginning to worry.

Todd sighed. "Can we stay here or not?"

"Yes." Jean answered.

"What?" Scott turned to look at her, disbelief etched into his face. "Are you freakin' kidding me?"

"Scott, it's been like three years since we had a proper fight with them." Jean pointed out with a shrug. "Get over it."

Scott threw his hands into the air. "Am I the only person who has a problem with this?"

"Yes." Alex and Bobby answered in tandem, one emerging from the hallway leading to the kitchen, one standing at the top of the staircase.

The latter – Bobby – was rubbing his eyes. "Scott, it's not even seven in the morning; I got a two-day-old daughter who won't sleep, so would you just shut up before Jubes kills me for not killing you."

Alex was focusing on something different. "Aren't you one short?"

Jean, about to berate her husband, froze, her attention snapping back to the Brotherhood immediately. "Oh God … where's Lance?"

"He's had a power surge." Taryn answered before the others could, flying down the staircase towards them. "Kitty just told us."

"I'd better talk to her." Jean murmured, dropping Joey into Pietro's arms and Monica into Taryn's.

"That'll be difficult." Taryn told her grimly, bouncing the child she'd been handed. "She just passed out."

"And I think you and I need to have a little chat, Cyclops." Warren added from the landing.

Jean breathed a sigh of relief. Warren was possibly the only person Scott would listen to as an equal and would do a far better job of scolding Scott than she would.

"What do we need to talk about?" Scott asked, jogging alongside him.

Warren stopped, turning to face him incredulously. "What do we … You know what? She can wait. In here." He seized Scott's arm, opened the nearest door and dragged him into a spare room. "You have got to stop."

"Stop what?" Scott asked blankly.

Warren waved an arm. "This. Kitty's worried about Lance, yes, but that's not enough on its own to make her as hysterical as she was earlier and it's definitely not enough to make her pass out."

"Then what did?" Scott sounded worried.

"Exhaustion." Warren told him bluntly. "You've stopped the extra training sessions, which is good, but she still can't handle the pressure you're putting on her. None of them can, but Kitty's not built for that much extensive physical training that fast; you have to build up to it and she didn't. She's still recovering from that, and you're running the team into the ground. And your only excuse for putting her through that was to keep her away from …"

"He's going to hurt her!" Scott interrupted, finally having something to focus.

Warren scoffed. "Oh, play a new record, Cyke; this one's broken! That's pretty much all I've heard since I moved here. Have you paid them even any attention at all? Because anyone with half a brain can see that he's utterly devoted to her. The only person doing her any arm, Scott, is you.

"And another thing," he added, holding up a hand to stop Scott from interrupting again, "Lance is Jean's brother. Ever heard of the phrase 'blood runs thicker than water'? You owe to your wife and yourself to get over whatever the hell it is you have against Lance, because I haven't seen him give you one reason to hate or mistrust him. You might be the leader of the X-Men, but you need to get off your pedestal and remove the pole you've got stuck up your ass, or you're going to lose the trust and respect of each and every one of them."

For a moment, there was silence, as Scott stared at him. For a moment, Warren thought he would dismiss his warning.

But then there was a quiet voice from the doorway.

"Thank you, Angel. You've just exactly what we've all been dying to say for months."

Both men looked up to see Anna standing there, one arm around Kitty's waist, her younger team-mate leaning heavily on her.

For the first time in several months, Scott looked at her.

Really looked at her.

Kitty hadn't lost weight, but her face was pale; she looked ill. Her hair lacked its usual shine and her eyes had ceased to sparkle.

"Kitty …" Scott began, not really sure what he was going to say.

"Don't." Kitty cut him off wearily. "I don't want to hear it."

"How's Lance?" Warren asked quietly.

"I don't know." Kitty admitted.

Anna caught Warren's eye and he nodded, lifting Kitty into his arms. "C'mon, Shadowcat. You need to sleep."

"What a day to turn eighteen." Anna commented, watching him carry her down the hall.

Scott frowned. "Anna, you're nineteen today."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Scott, Kitty and I share a birthday, remember?"

Scott closed his eyes and dropped onto the bed, his head in his hands. "I am a complete and utter git."

Anna's response was far too cheerful to sound insulting. "Just as long you realise that."

AN: I promise, I'm not going to kill Lance off; I don't really do angst and I definitely stick to happy endings. But I still want to hear what you think – I'm on 272 reviews; let's see if we can get it up to 300 before this one finishes XD