Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER TWENTY SIX (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm)--thanks for all the energy and I'd be warned...the trio sent kilts to your menagerie. Short ones. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink...mille mille grazie for archiving and I will do eternal happy dances in your honor because of it! :) Readers/Reviewers: I'm going to pick up the pace on some things and slow others down a bit, so roll with it. ;) And the ducks send their regards...




Cecilia watched Tabby with some amusement. The girl had only been working for her for a week and alreahe she seemed to have control of the front office, the files arranged to her liking and the reception area rearranged for "better flow," according to the teenager. As Cecilia watched, Tabby quickly filled out an insurance form for a patient, a young woman showing the first signs of mutation though she did not realize it yet, from everything Cecilia had gathered on her, and sent her to sit in one of the chairs in the wai are area. "Doctor Reyes, your eight thirty is here," she said without turning around. "And your nine o'clock canceled."
"Thank you, Tabitha...is Kitty coming by to take you to your appointment with Doctor McCoy today?" she asked, taking the proffered chart and flipping through it idly although she already had the information practically memorized. Cecilia had to admit to herself that she was a little excited to come across another mutant out in the world as she was, not insulated behind the walls of an institution, even one such as the Xavier Institute. She did not know exactly what she was going to say to the young woman or even if she would tell her right away what she suspected, but she knew that this was a rare opportunity to help someone who would otherwise be cast out or worse, just because of an accident of biology.
Tabby sighed and stretched before answering. "Yeah, around two. I swear, if it were up to him, I'd be in bed all the time! I'm pregnant, not sick!"
"He is recommending more rest because your blood pressure is high, especially for someone your age. And you're verging on gestational diabetes," Cecilia pointed out, moved to defend Beast's diagnoses. He was a bit uncomfortable dealing with the pregnancy but as it had been pointed out many times, this child would be a mutant and no one was quite sure what form this mutation would take. A busy labor and delivery room would not be the best place to find out your child had gills or green skin or an extye. ye. Tabby made a noise that may have been agreement or maybe just clearing her throat and shrugged. "I'd listen to him if I were you," Cecilia added when it looked as if the girl were dismissing her.
"I know...it's just more of a pain in the neck than I would have thought, being pregnant. I didn't think it was possible to puke this much."
"In my professional medical opinion...ew."
Tabby laughed then. "Angelica Jones is waiting out there...want me to send her back?"
"Sure, get her set up..." Cecilia, still smiling, went to put on her white coat and get her stethoscope before heading to the exam room as Tabby was exiting it. "What's that look for?"
"Cuckoo!" she murmured under her breath. "Muy loca." She made the well-known gesture for crazy near her temple and trotted back to thent ont office as the bell over the door rang to signal another patient.
"Good morning, Miss Jones! I'm Doctor Reyes...what seems to be the problem?" She looked up from the chart as she entered only to draw up short. The red head was sitting on the paper-covered exam table, but the paper beneath her hands was smoking, the table beneath them charred. "Oh."
"I've come to you with a problem, it seems," Angelica said, her voice older than her years.
"So I see...how long has this been going on?" Cecilia put the chart down on the rolling stool near the door and cautiously approached the girl. "May I see your hands?"
Angelica held out her hands, palms down, then turned them over for Cecilia to get a better look. "It's been going on for years...but this isn't my problem."
Cecilia was starting to feel very, very warm. Hot, actually. She could feel trickles of sweat starting to run down the back of her neck and making her blouse stick to her back. _I'm too young for hot flashes...maybe it's nervous tension...I'll get some ice water in a minute. _ "If this isn't it, what is it, then?" She had the uncomfortable feeling that she was being cooked, like in a microwave. She felt hot inside and out and the sensation was getting to be too much to bear.
"My problem is that my partner in crime, as it were, is dragging his feet...we should have been out of here already!" As she spoke, there was the sound of something crashing to the floor in the front of the office and Tabby's scream cut short.
Cecilia took a shallow breath, feeldizzdizzy and sick as Angelica hopped off the table and tried to push past her. "No," she breathed, holding out her hand to focus her ability. Angelica looked startled for a moment as Cecilia felt blessedly cool, her powers reflecting Firestar's back on her. The damage had been done, however, and Cecilia could not hold up long. She felt her efforts ebb and the heat return. "What are you doing?"
"Leaving," Firestar said shortly, shoving Cecilia to one side, making her collapse to the floor as she hastened away. "Would you fucking go?" she called to her unseen accomplice as she tore down the hall.
_Core temperature is too high...I need help...Tabby needs help... _ Cecilia tried to push herself up but her arms did not seem to want to work properly. _ Brain damage is possible at...damn it...I can't remember. on'ton't feel so well._ There was some more clattering noise from the front and the sound of something that sounded like it could be the computer falling to the floor and breaking. Cecilia felt a wash of cool air as the clinic's air conditioner came on and she sighed, still feeling hot inside and out. The floor beneath her was reaching her body temperature now and she tried to roll onto her back. As she closed her eyes, giving in to the urge to rest, she felt her muscles start to spasm and her body try to revolt against itself. _Febrile seizure1. Great. I knew I should have hired a nurse when I had the chance. _


"So where's your mom and sister going to stay?"
"Well," Kurt said, taking one of Kitty's fries and addressing Rogue at the same time, "Mama and Erika are going to stay at the boathouse and Paige and Sam will shift over to the main house since the new rooms are done. Papa, Katja and Anja are staying either in the main house or in a hotel again in town, if Papa has his way. He feels like they're imposing."
Kitty slapped his hand lightly to prevent further fry-theft and said, "The Professor wouldn't have invited them if it had been an imposition. She can't travel yet but she doesn't need to be in the hospital anymore..."
Lance slid down in his seat, eyes bleary from lack of sleep. "How long are we gonna be here again?" he asked under his breath to Todd as the girls fell into chatter about the new rooms and Kurt purloined more of Kitty's fries.
Todd elbowed his lanky friend and hissed, "Shhhh! Ixnay on the alk-tay!"
"Dude, just answer the damn question," Lance hissed back. "How long?"
"We gotta stay out until seven. She doesn't know we remember..."
"Remember what?" Rogue asked suddenly, brows creeping upwards in suspicion.
"Uh..." The other teenagers looked at each other, vaguely pand, ud, until Todd said, "Amara thinks we don't remember her and Lance's anniversary."
"Why should you? I mean, ain't that Lance's problem?" Rogue asked, not quite believing him.
"You'd think," Todd sighed as if much put upon.
Lance rolled his eyes and stood, shoving his chair back with a clatter. The food court was thrumming with bored teenagers, the mall the only thing in Bayville that offered a distraction from the incipient summer. "I'm goin' to the arcade, kay?" He did not wait for an answer, rather stalked off through the maze of tables and chairs towards the blinking lights of the arcade.
"He's tense," Rogue said without much interest.
"Amara wants her break," Kitty pointed out. "He's going to explode before the week's out."
Kurt snorted and took one of Lance's abandoned onion rings. "I didn't."
"But Amara's _really _ holding out. No hanky panky. She hasn't even _talked _ to him in days. Says it's too much of a temptation to throw him on the floor and do things that are illegal in the continental United States and parts of Canada," Kitty said matter-of-factly.
Rogue gagged theatrically. "So did not need that image!"
Todd hid his smile in his paper cup of soda. "At least you don't have to hear him relieving tension," he muttered.
"Okay, that's it. I'm not hungry anymore," Kurt said, making a face and shoving all nearby food away from himself. "Let's go see a movie or someth"
"
"We're so broke we can't pay attention," Rogue said, standing and gathering her trash. "Let's go back to the house."
"No!" Kurt, Kitty and Todd snapped at the same time.
"Um...okay? What the fuck?"
"Nothing, nothing..." Kitty tittered nervously. She hated this, tricking Rogue and knowing that she was not going to be pleased in the end. "Uh, so...want to do some shopping?"
"Not really," the Goth sighed. "Todd, let's go. We'll send Scott back for them..."
Todd was proud that he was able to resist Rogue's charms then and there. "I kind of wanted to go get CD's..."
Kurt nodded furiously. "Let's go..." He all but dragged Todd away, leaving Kitty to deal with Rogue on a slow burn.
Kitty bit her lip and smiled nervously. She was not actually scared of Rogue but more scared of slipping and telling about the surprise party. They had all given Scott and Jean money and a list of gifts to pick up and Jubilee, Amara and Rahne were decorating the rec room even as she stood there with Rogue's hard glare piercing her. "So...you meet Tarot yet?"
"Yeah. She's skulking down in the med lab...weird chick, that one. Won't talk to anyone and just sort of...waifs around."
"Waifs around...that's a word for it." Kitty looked around, half hoping for a distraction but finding none. "I wonder who beat her up and how she got there."
Rogue found herself being drawn against her will into the conversation. "Well, I heard the Professor telling Beast that he couldn't get much from her, even scanning her, because she had thrown up some mental shields like Kurt does. He thinks she's been around teeps before. Really strong ones."
"How so?"
"I didn't hear that part. Amara came in, all freakin' out because she'd cut her finger on that dagger she keeps in her room and Beast had to kiss it make it better."
"Ew."
"Figuratively, Kitty. Figuratively." Rogue grabbed Todd's trash and added it to her pile on her tray before heading towards the nearest trashcan, leaving Kitty to follow. "Hey, why are you and Kurt doing an anniversary thing this week? I caught y'all before Spring Break."
Kitty felt her face turn crimson as she stuffed trash into the nearly overflowing can. "Uh...we kind of celebrated that anniversary already. This is the official one, where he actually asked me to be with him."
"Like he ever had to ask," Rogue snorted. "Hey...I thought Tarot was still out of it or some shit...what's she doing here?"
Kitty followed the direction of Rogue's gaze and saw the newest boarder at the mansion standing just inside the sliding glass doors leading to the parking lot. She was bruised, sure, but nowhere near as frail as she had appeared at the institute. She looked around for a moment and headed directly towards the arcade. Rogue slapped Kitty on the shoulder and made a beeline for the blinking lights and faint pinging and mechanical voices of the game room. Lance was coming out as Tarot gained the entry way and he stopped her with a hand on her upper arm. Kitty nearly ran into Rogue's back as the taller girl stopped short, mouth agape. Lance leaned over and kissed Tarot on the lips and took her hand. Tarot smiled up at him and said something that made him laugh, then led him within a few yards of Kitty and Rogue, out into the parking lot. "Fuck me hard, did we just see that?" Rogue breathed, sounding angry and shocked at once.
Kitty stared at the disappearing figures and nodded. "Amara's gonna kill somebody."

A/N Next chapter, more smut! I promise! But who will it be? *evil laugh here * Roberto comes back, Paige angst, Jono moping, a fight and possible bloodshed.


1 A seizure that occurs with a high fever or when the body temperature gets too high in general. Like super high, not just "I feel sick".