Fractals

Fractals Chapter Eleven (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…try the henna yet? InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are wondermous for archiving/hosting! ProPhile: Smut in twelve! Morgan: *gloke * Readers/Reviewers: The Ducks are surly. I think. It’s hard to tell with ducks. Thank you thank you thank you for reading/reviewing!!!!

“Well, this day just couldn’t suck any mmmmph!” Jubilee glared up at Rogue as the taller girl’s gloved hand covered her mouth.
Rogue shook her head. “Never, ever, ever say that.” She narrowed her eyes. “Promise me before I take my hand off you won’t finish that sentence OR ever say that phrase or a similar one again.”
Jubilee rolled her eyes and nodded. As soon as Rogue moved her hand, she blew the Goth a raspberry. “All I’m saying,” she paused, scooting out of Rogue’s reach, “is that today had such promise…”
Emma snorted. “Well, suck it up,” she replied inelegantly. She was functioning on less than three hours of sleep, her emotions in unaccustomed turmoil thanks to Sean and his decree that not only was he not going to go to Boston with her, he felt that she needed to give their relationship definition. He did not define definition, however, and she refused to peer into his mind to find out, as she knew he wanted her to. “Charles, everyone is here. Can we begin?”
Professor Xavier raised a brow at her but did not comment. “We’ll make this as quick as possible so that we’re finished before the new students begin the day… As you are all now aware, we have problem.”
Kitty rubbed at her eyes blearily. Her lack of sleep was suddenly catching up with her, much to her disappointment. She had hoped to be able to keep going on an adrenaline buzz but she could not stifle the yawn that rose from her chest. “Keeping you up?” Lance muttered beside her.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Wake me when we save the world. Again.”
“Somethingadd,add, Kitty? Lance?” Professor Xavier paused, fixing them both with a quelling look. Lance looked aside and Kitty blushed. “Good. Now, I have received a few phone calls from parents already, mainly the ones living in the area who are sending their children here during the week rather than full time boarders. They’ve seen the story in the Daily Planet and the speculation in the Bugle and are…concerned.” The full import of the understatement was clear in his tone, the verbal equivalent of handling dirty, wet socks. “I have done what I can to assuage their fears this morning but I’m afraid it will not last, especially if the papers insist on continuing this… exploitation.”
Remy raised a brow but otherwise appeared unconcerned. “So…what we gonna do? Deny all knowledge?”
“No, Mulder,”1 Jean said tartly, “we spin.”
“Pardon?” Amara opened one eye. She had been dozing lightly, dreaming of an island that smelled of cassia bark2 and myrrh and never seemed to fall into shadow, but Jean’s odd phrase snapped her out of her reverie. “We…spin?”
Scott spoke up. “We dazzle them with bullshit.”
Amara opened her other eye and blinked. “Again…pardon?”
Professor Xavier looked only vaguely amused. “We need to develop and maintain a cover story for what is happening. The simplest is that the pictures are fraudulent and designed to ensaensational, treat it as if it’s an urban legend and deal with the press and public accordingly. It is very likely that the general public will find this to be little more than a tabloid style story and some might even feel moved to defend us through letters to the editor, et cetera.”
Kurt had never known any one to actually say “et cetera” before and for some reason, it made him want to giggle, but he restrained himself. “What about those that don’t? What do we do then?”
Logan, Professor Xavier, Storm, Emma, Sean, Mrs Wagner and Beast all exchanged significant looks. “Fake it till you make it3,” Jee see suggested blithely, eliciting a soft snort from Paige and Theresa.
“In other words,” Storm said in a slightly strident tone, “do your best. Do not offer any information, do not let yourself be tricked into doing so, trust no one off the grounds, even if you think they are your friend.”
“So the order of the day is paranoia? Got it.” Jubilee nodded firmly and stood. “It’s Saturday. I need my sleep, cartoons, sugary cereal and gym practice, in that order.”
Professor Xavier frowned. He felt as if the full import of the situation was lost on them all. “No doubt word of this will reach the new students by the end of the day. Do your best to calm any fears, do not feed them with sensationalism or speculation. Find one of us,” he added, indicating the adults, “if any questions you cannot answer arise.”
“Are you going to call the papers?” Kitty asked, leaning forward. “Demand they retract?”
Logan sighed roughly. “He did, Half Pint. They gave him the runaround.”
“The Daily Planet was a bit easier to deal with,” Professor Xavier noted. “They are going to print a disclaimer in the evening edition about the photos and story being speculation and of unknown veracity, but The Bugle…” He sighed, looking distinctly pinched, “Jameson was damn near impossible.”
“That rag,” Emma seethed, “isn’t fit to line a birdcage.”
“I’ll call my lawyer this afternoon and get him to come up with some legal options,” Professor Xavier added. “Now, it’s almost seven. I suggest everyone get their breakfast and start their Danger Room sessions and various trainings…” The group took that as an order and straggled from the room except for Kurt, Kitty, Logan and Mrs. Wagner.
“Professor…” Kitty looked distinctly uncertain. “Do you think… should I move back home for the time being? This isn’t going to clear up overnight…”
“I think that it would be unwise to give up your life on campus now, because you have been looking forward to this for a long time. However, if you would feel better moving back in and commuting, I won’t stop you.” He spread his hands in an “up to you” gesture.
Kurt frowned. “You don’t think it will be a problem?” He took Kitty’s hand surreptitiously, laciheirheir fingers together. “What if people at her school decide the stories are true?”
“Then,” Mrs. Wagner said firmly, “she deals with it then. Professor Xavier, I have some questions about your lawyer friend Kitty and I are going to see today…”
Kurt found himself shooed from the room unceremoniously. Hood ood in the hall and glowered, nearly scaring Jamie spitless as he came down the hall at a quick pace. Kurt’s head snapped up at the sound of the younger teenager’s foot fall and he snapped, “Was?”
“Nothing!” Jamie replied hastily. “I was just coming to ask the Professor a question…” He was blushing, he knew, but he could not help it.
“You’re going to have to wait. He’s in there with my girlfriend and my mother, not telling me things.”
Jamie stared as Kurt vanished, sulking. “Wow,” he breathed. “Must be the fur…”

1 Feeling random… Deny all knowledge was sort of the key point for the government on the X Files and is even part of the opening credits in some seaons.”
2 Often confused with cinnamon but it isn’t. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassia It’s a bit more earthy.
3 The phrase is used most often in reference to the fact that some women fake orgasm.