p class="p1"Chapter 47/p
p class="p1" /p
hr /
p class="p1"br /Kurt was getting dizzy from doing too many ports one after the other. He'd brought in EMTs (most of them dizzier than he was, after the jump) and their equipment, moved a few of the less-injured out to the ambulances stuck at the edge of the crowd, and flickered all over lower Manhattan looking for Scott's visor. He finally found it in the jury deliberation room, and returned to the courtroom in triumph just as Scott was starting to rub his eyes. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Looking for zis?" he asked, putting the folded visor into Scott's hand./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Well, that's a sight for sore eyes," Scott observed, the corner of his mouth twitching in acknowledgment of his own bad joke. He unfolded the visor and gave Kurt one last, grateful look with his own eyes before fitting it onto his face. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"That task accomplished, Kurt looked around, trying to steady his spinning head while he sought out something else that a teleporter could help with. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Underneath one of the benches near the front of the courtroom, someone moaned and moved. Kurt crossed the aisle and knelt down. "Hey, man, you okay?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Too late, he realized that 'man' wasn't the appropriate term of address. The person under the bench was Senator Creed. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""I think," said Senator Creed unsteadily, "that I may need to go to a hospital."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Vell, hey, ve can probably do zat," Kurt helped him out from under the bench. "You're Senator Creed, right?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Unfortunately." Creed leaned against the seat of the next bench and pressed a hand to his forehead. Observing Kurt out of the corner of his eye, he commented, "I'm going to assume that you're a mutant."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Yeah, ze fur kind of gives it away." Kurt took a brief moment to think through the consequences of what he was about to do, then decided to hang the consequences and go with his gut. "But I'm also your brother."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Senator Creed blinked. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Um . . . half-brother. Raven Darkholme is my birth mom. Yours, too, I sink."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed stared at him for a very long moment. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""I have a brother," he said at last./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt nodded. "And a sister." He twisted around and pointed to Rogue, sitting at the defense table with her eyes still closed while she waited for the last of Scott's powers to wear off. "She's adopted," he added as an afterthought. "Zat's vhy, you know, she doesn't look like us."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed looked over Kurt again, then emitted a short, sharp burst of laughter./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt grinned. "Come on," he encouraged. "Can you stand up?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed nodded, and struggled to his feet with the help of Kurt's hand and the bench. Kurt led him up the courtroom to the defense table. "Rogue!"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue put her hand over her face. Kurt could see her twitch as she hesitantly tested to see if she still had light shooting out of her eyes. After a moment, she let her hand fall and blinked experimentally. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Rogue, look! He's our brother!"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He knew right then that this wasn't the best idea he'd ever had./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue's gray-green eyes flicked suspiciously up and down Creed's form. Kurt could see her recoil, curling up into herself as she used to do all the time, when she didn't trust anyone, not even herself. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""It's, um . . ." Creed extended an unsteady hand. "It's a remarkable privilege to meet you." /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue didn't take his hand. She shifted in her chair, turning her back on him. "Don't make me deal with this, Kurt."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt tried frantically to think of something to say, but Creed beat him to it./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""You're right. You shouldn't have to. Certainly not now. I'm sorry." He retreated a step or two, giving Rogue the personal space she was so blatantly demanding. "I know how you must see me. I . . . I see myself the same way. I've been watching, for months, while that woman drove me through my life like a remote control car, undoing everything I'd ever hoped to do. I hate what she made me into, and I certainly don't blame you for feeling the same. But I want you to know that . . . that I'd be glad to know you. One day. If you feel ready."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue turned her head a bit, allowing Kurt and Creed to see her face in profile. She gave a single nod: brief, brusque, but in some unidentifiable way sincere. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed nodded back, then put a hand on Kurt's shoulder and brought him away from the defense table. "Well, then, Kurt . . . that is your name, right? . . . come sit down and tell me about yourself. I want to know everything. I've never had a brother before."/p
p class="p2" /p
hr /
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy ditched his ride in a handicapped parking spot downtown, but just to be sure that it would be returned to its owner, he fished a pen out of the glove compartment and wrote "This Car Is Stolen. Please Call Police" on the back of the registration certificate, which he left on the dashboard. After one quick check to make sure he hadn't left any strands of his hair on the headrest, he got out, locked the keys inside, and walked the rest of the way to the courtroom. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue was still there. The building had been cordoned off as a crime scene, and was now occupied only by law enforcement. To stay out of the way, she'd left the building and was perched on the edge of the roof, sitting alone on the cornice. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy knew to look for her there. She needed height to feel safe./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rather than calling her down, he climbed up he fire escape. The distance from the ground did him good, too./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"She shook her hair out of her eyes as he sat down next to her. Her eyes had that strained, inflamed look of someone working very hard at not crying./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Y'okay?" he asked./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue shook her head./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy gathered her against his chest and held her there for a long time./p
p class="p2" /p
hr /
p class="p1"Logan woke up feeling like death. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He remembered enough to know that he'd never sustained that kind of damage in all his long life. He'd probably been unconscious for weeks. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"The huge round door of the chamber was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of light in. Lying across the beam was a heap of fabric that, when Logan finally managed to belly-crawl over to it, turned out to be a long coat that smelled blatantly of Magneto. Logan dragged it across his shoulders and put it on anyway. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He could feel his internal organs, still newly formed and tender, flare in protest as he eased onto his feet. He could probably use another long rest on this bare metal floor, but now wasn't the time. He had to know what had happened to Jean. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"The space station was quiet and empty. Logan stumbled up the passage with one hand on the wall to keep himself upright, not even perfectly sure of where he was going. His ears hadn't completely restructured yet, so he had no balance to speak of, and the passage seemed to swing drunkenly around him. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"When he caught Jean's scent, he followed it all the way to the medical bay. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Jean was on a medical bed, with an IV in her arm, a pulse monitor on her finger, and an oxygen tube in her nose. She looked as beautiful and as fragile as a porcelain doll-not the fierce, fearless, powerful fighter he'd always known her to be./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan made it to her bed by luck more than anything else. The skin of his fingers was as soft as her cheek. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""She's comatose," said Professor Xavier. "No change for the last six hours."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan had walked past him without even seeing him. He was at the other side of the bed, his eyes sunken from lack of sleep. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Her vital signs are all steady, but I'm not picking up anything from her mind. She may not ever wake up."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""She'll wake up," Logan told him. "She's strong."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He fit his hand into hers and gripped it hard, willing her to grip his back. She had so much strength in her hands, but now the fingers were fragile and unresisting. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Why didn't you tell me that you were in love with her, Logan?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""It wasn't important," Logan mumbled. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Events have proved otherwise." /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan shook his head . . . or, at least, he tried to; the room was still spinning, so it was hard to tell. "It wasn't."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"It hadn't been important. It had only become an issue when she'd decided that she was in love with him. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Why had she loved him? Why had she thrown her life away like that?/p
p class="p1" /p
p class="p1"emBecause she chose to/em, said the voice of reason in his head. emShe wanted to. /em/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1" /p
hr /
p class="p1"br /Kurt was getting dizzy from doing too many ports one after the other. He'd brought in EMTs (most of them dizzier than he was, after the jump) and their equipment, moved a few of the less-injured out to the ambulances stuck at the edge of the crowd, and flickered all over lower Manhattan looking for Scott's visor. He finally found it in the jury deliberation room, and returned to the courtroom in triumph just as Scott was starting to rub his eyes. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Looking for zis?" he asked, putting the folded visor into Scott's hand./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Well, that's a sight for sore eyes," Scott observed, the corner of his mouth twitching in acknowledgment of his own bad joke. He unfolded the visor and gave Kurt one last, grateful look with his own eyes before fitting it onto his face. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"That task accomplished, Kurt looked around, trying to steady his spinning head while he sought out something else that a teleporter could help with. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Underneath one of the benches near the front of the courtroom, someone moaned and moved. Kurt crossed the aisle and knelt down. "Hey, man, you okay?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Too late, he realized that 'man' wasn't the appropriate term of address. The person under the bench was Senator Creed. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""I think," said Senator Creed unsteadily, "that I may need to go to a hospital."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Vell, hey, ve can probably do zat," Kurt helped him out from under the bench. "You're Senator Creed, right?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Unfortunately." Creed leaned against the seat of the next bench and pressed a hand to his forehead. Observing Kurt out of the corner of his eye, he commented, "I'm going to assume that you're a mutant."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Yeah, ze fur kind of gives it away." Kurt took a brief moment to think through the consequences of what he was about to do, then decided to hang the consequences and go with his gut. "But I'm also your brother."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Senator Creed blinked. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Um . . . half-brother. Raven Darkholme is my birth mom. Yours, too, I sink."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed stared at him for a very long moment. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""I have a brother," he said at last./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt nodded. "And a sister." He twisted around and pointed to Rogue, sitting at the defense table with her eyes still closed while she waited for the last of Scott's powers to wear off. "She's adopted," he added as an afterthought. "Zat's vhy, you know, she doesn't look like us."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed looked over Kurt again, then emitted a short, sharp burst of laughter./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt grinned. "Come on," he encouraged. "Can you stand up?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed nodded, and struggled to his feet with the help of Kurt's hand and the bench. Kurt led him up the courtroom to the defense table. "Rogue!"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue put her hand over her face. Kurt could see her twitch as she hesitantly tested to see if she still had light shooting out of her eyes. After a moment, she let her hand fall and blinked experimentally. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Rogue, look! He's our brother!"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He knew right then that this wasn't the best idea he'd ever had./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue's gray-green eyes flicked suspiciously up and down Creed's form. Kurt could see her recoil, curling up into herself as she used to do all the time, when she didn't trust anyone, not even herself. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""It's, um . . ." Creed extended an unsteady hand. "It's a remarkable privilege to meet you." /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue didn't take his hand. She shifted in her chair, turning her back on him. "Don't make me deal with this, Kurt."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Kurt tried frantically to think of something to say, but Creed beat him to it./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""You're right. You shouldn't have to. Certainly not now. I'm sorry." He retreated a step or two, giving Rogue the personal space she was so blatantly demanding. "I know how you must see me. I . . . I see myself the same way. I've been watching, for months, while that woman drove me through my life like a remote control car, undoing everything I'd ever hoped to do. I hate what she made me into, and I certainly don't blame you for feeling the same. But I want you to know that . . . that I'd be glad to know you. One day. If you feel ready."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue turned her head a bit, allowing Kurt and Creed to see her face in profile. She gave a single nod: brief, brusque, but in some unidentifiable way sincere. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Creed nodded back, then put a hand on Kurt's shoulder and brought him away from the defense table. "Well, then, Kurt . . . that is your name, right? . . . come sit down and tell me about yourself. I want to know everything. I've never had a brother before."/p
p class="p2" /p
hr /
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy ditched his ride in a handicapped parking spot downtown, but just to be sure that it would be returned to its owner, he fished a pen out of the glove compartment and wrote "This Car Is Stolen. Please Call Police" on the back of the registration certificate, which he left on the dashboard. After one quick check to make sure he hadn't left any strands of his hair on the headrest, he got out, locked the keys inside, and walked the rest of the way to the courtroom. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue was still there. The building had been cordoned off as a crime scene, and was now occupied only by law enforcement. To stay out of the way, she'd left the building and was perched on the edge of the roof, sitting alone on the cornice. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy knew to look for her there. She needed height to feel safe./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rather than calling her down, he climbed up he fire escape. The distance from the ground did him good, too./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"She shook her hair out of her eyes as he sat down next to her. Her eyes had that strained, inflamed look of someone working very hard at not crying./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Y'okay?" he asked./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Rogue shook her head./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Remy gathered her against his chest and held her there for a long time./p
p class="p2" /p
hr /
p class="p1"Logan woke up feeling like death. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He remembered enough to know that he'd never sustained that kind of damage in all his long life. He'd probably been unconscious for weeks. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"The huge round door of the chamber was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of light in. Lying across the beam was a heap of fabric that, when Logan finally managed to belly-crawl over to it, turned out to be a long coat that smelled blatantly of Magneto. Logan dragged it across his shoulders and put it on anyway. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He could feel his internal organs, still newly formed and tender, flare in protest as he eased onto his feet. He could probably use another long rest on this bare metal floor, but now wasn't the time. He had to know what had happened to Jean. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"The space station was quiet and empty. Logan stumbled up the passage with one hand on the wall to keep himself upright, not even perfectly sure of where he was going. His ears hadn't completely restructured yet, so he had no balance to speak of, and the passage seemed to swing drunkenly around him. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"When he caught Jean's scent, he followed it all the way to the medical bay. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Jean was on a medical bed, with an IV in her arm, a pulse monitor on her finger, and an oxygen tube in her nose. She looked as beautiful and as fragile as a porcelain doll-not the fierce, fearless, powerful fighter he'd always known her to be./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan made it to her bed by luck more than anything else. The skin of his fingers was as soft as her cheek. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""She's comatose," said Professor Xavier. "No change for the last six hours."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan had walked past him without even seeing him. He was at the other side of the bed, his eyes sunken from lack of sleep. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Her vital signs are all steady, but I'm not picking up anything from her mind. She may not ever wake up."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""She'll wake up," Logan told him. "She's strong."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"He fit his hand into hers and gripped it hard, willing her to grip his back. She had so much strength in her hands, but now the fingers were fragile and unresisting. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Why didn't you tell me that you were in love with her, Logan?"/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""It wasn't important," Logan mumbled. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1""Events have proved otherwise." /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Logan shook his head . . . or, at least, he tried to; the room was still spinning, so it was hard to tell. "It wasn't."/p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"It hadn't been important. It had only become an issue when she'd decided that she was in love with him. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Why had she loved him? Why had she thrown her life away like that?/p
p class="p1" /p
p class="p1"emBecause she chose to/em, said the voice of reason in his head. emShe wanted to. /em/p
p class="p2" /p