We Can Explain...

We Can Explain...Chapter Twenty (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... Now I need a nap! *sigh * And everyone says COME TO STONEHAVEN! Lol... InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are squishy goodness for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile:py npy now? Morgan: *glomp * Readers/Reviewers: And now... plot! :) *huggles of thanks for reading * And beware...the Killer Kitties (tm) are dissenting among the ranks...


Professor Xavier gave a very good performance, pretending to be a morning person. He blessed Logan's painfully strong coffee as it warmed it's way down his throat to his empty stomach, creating a new burning sensation as it hit his ulcers. The brief flare of pain made his attention sharpen, something he sorely needed as Kitty phased into the study, pulling Kurt behind her. "Sit down," he said without preamble. "Tell me what is bothering you."
Kitty blinked, momentarily surprised, then nodded. "Right. We," she glanced at Kurt, including him, albeit reluctantly on his part, "we wanted to talk to you. Alone."
"So I gathered," he murmured, taking another sip of the rapidly cooling coffee and making a mental note to see Beast about antacids later. "Emma has...apprised me on the details of last evening so I feel I am sufficiently up to speed." He set the cup down regretfully. One more bout of heart burn and he would swear off the stuff entirely.
Kurt winced at Emma's name. "Herr Professor, please don't be mad at Emma...we...we...encouraged it." He did not feel guilty about the event but felt moved to defend Emma. "She was just..."
"Trying to get to the bottom, yes, I know," Professor Xavier sighed. "I apologize for seeming abrupt, but I have to leave soon for a meeting..." He glanced quickly at the ormolu clock across the room and smiled tightly. "But I have time for you..."
Kitty suppressed an irritated thought about adults and irrational time frames and instead smiled pleasantly. "Good. See, we wanted to tell you this before anyone else found out..."
Kurt nodded agreement. "We did not tell the others because...well, because it would be difficult to explain to them. I mean, Scott would want to go off on a mission over it, and Jean..."
Kitty sighed. "You know how we all get," she muttered to the Professor, not quite meeting his amused gaze.
"Why don't you tell me then?" he urged after a tense silence fell. "And I will keep it in confidence if at all possible." He could not feel embarrassment coming from them so abandoned his theory that this conference contained an admission of sexual activity or something illegal. "Start from where Rogue and Todd arrived."
"Can't you just...you know?" Kurt gestured towards his temple, smiling hopefully.
"I'd rather hear it from you. It sets a dangerous precedent. Using your own voice will make you all the stronger in the end, having to defend your words should the need arise." He smiled more genially. "Indulge an old man."
Kitty sighed wistfully and turned to Kurt. "I did it last time." She was honestly tired of being the talker in this situation. She wished she could just shake her friends and spill their secrets out, gather them up and dump them on the Professor's lap for him to sort out.
Kurt sighed loudly. "Ja, ja, I'll do it this time..." He closed his eyes, trying to gather the threads of memory into a coherent weave. "Okay, so Rogue and Todd came into the room..."

Kitty shook her head in disbelief. "That's impossible...there's no way you could've gotten here so fast!" She narrowed her gaze at Rogue. "Are you sure that's what happened?"
Rogue groaned and flopped back on the bed. "Yes, positive. For the last time, that is exactly what happened... Hey, where you going?"
Todd was lurching towards the bathroom, doubled over in apparent pain. "Gonna ralph!"
"Kurt, go with him!" Kitty began, already rising. "Wait, no, you sit down, Rogue, you go with him..." She ignored her own orders, though and followed Todd into the small, mildewed bathroom. "Todd, do you want a...EW!" The sound of Todd retching violently interrupted her solicitations. "My shoes!" she wailed.
Kurt hurried to her side, his nose wrinkling at the stench. "Dude, aim for the toilet!"
"Sorry," Todd managed before heaving dryly and painfully. "Ow..."
Rogue shouldered past Kurt and Kitty and carefully dropped to her knees next to Todd. "You done?" She rubbed his back through his shirt, studiously avoiding looking down at the puddle spreading away from them on the floor. "Want some water?" She did not feel very well herself, but she had a strong notion most of her nausea was from terror.
Kurt made a muffled noise. "I don't mean to sound gross or anything," he spoke over the sound of Kitty drawing some rusty water from the tap beyond the door, "but...is that metal?" He pointed down at the vomit and swallowed a gag.
Todd frowned, bleary eyed and cramping, in the direction Kurt pointed. "I didn't eat that," he said finally. A glimmer of silver was showing through the vile substance, slipping towards the floor drain.
"Ew! Ew Ew Ew Ew Eeeeeeeeeeeeeew!" Kitty, returning from her water mission, squeezed her eyes shut tightly and shoved the plastic cup of faintly brown water at Kurt. "EW!"
Todd rocked back on his heels. "Um...I hope you don't think I'm goin' in after it..." He knew, with great certainty, that the silver blob was the cause of his stomach ache. "I shouldn't have eaten that fly," he groaned. "Damned flies..." Rubbing absently at his belly, he groaned again. "Damned silver flies."
"Todd, are you okay?" Rogue asked softly. His comment was not made in it's usual flippant tone. Rather, he was sounding very shaky and ill. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his normal greenish tone was subdued by a waxy pallor. "Todd..." She gripped his elbow tightly with her gloved hand. Kurt and Kitty were silent watchers in the doorway. "Todd, say something..."
"I think," he said after a long moment, "I need to lay down..." His eyes rolled back and his head and he began to sway backwards.
Kurt dashed forward and caught him by the shoulders before his head hit the ground. "Get his legs," he barked to Rogue. "Help me carry him to the bed! Kitty, throw a towel over..that!" He did not pause to see if she did as he ordered but busied himself with transporting Todd.
It was easy enough, getting his dead weight to the bed, but Todd was not quite unconscious as they deposited him atop the covers. He sat up suddenly, gasping. "Lance? What the Hell..." He was staring at some point in space they could not see. He tried to get to his feet but could not. "Where's Marie?" he shouted to no one.
"Todd," she said with a note of panic in her voice. "Todd, listen to me..."
"Get away!" he howled, swatting at them blindly. "Stay away from them!" He fell to the floor beside the bed and there was a sharp cracking noise, then silence.
Kurt leapt over the bed in the dead quiet that followed Todd's fall, dropping to his knees as Kitty and Rogue hurried to the side. "He's gone," he breathed. "Unglaublich...he's gone!"
"No," Rogue snarled. "Move, he's just under the bed..."
"Nein...he's gone!"