The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Chapter Twenty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, Uberbeta and German Kitty Poker… Bagel? InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly kittens for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: Happy now, lol? Morgan: *squeeeeeeeee *


Kitty pressed the heels of her hands over her eyes for a moment as Storm sighed. “I know what I’m doing,” she repeated to her chaperone and mentor. “Just trust me!”
Kurt shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, on the verge of antsy. “Liebes, you don’t have to do this. Let’s just go home. He’s not worth your time. None of them are.”
“I know,” she replied, straightening her spine and uncovering her eyes. “But I’m worth the effort, god damn it.” She strode forward, shoving the door to the hospital room open and eliciting an ‘eep’ of surprise from the nurse on the other side. Kitty did not stop until she reached the edge of her father’s hospital bed, then she only ceased progress because she would not phase in a hospital room. Her father’s eyes opened and went from bleary near-sleep to anger in an instant. “Shut up,” Kitty breathed. “Don’t even try to talk.”
Her mother, half asleep and looking like hell in the chair near the window, rose to her feet. “Katherine, leave. He said all he had to say to you and we are done!”
Kitty jerked her chin in defiance and stood her ground. “Shut up,” she repeated. “You have no right to talk to me, period. You gave that up over a year ago.” She glared at the nurse who was lingering near the door. “Don’t you have someone to medicate?” She did not know where she found the voice to her anger, but it was not about to let her silence it. “Go! This is family business!” Only her biological parents caught the tinge of derision in the word ‘family’.
“Katherine,” her father said in a raspy, low voice, the tube that had been inserted in his throat the day before a ghost in his present tones, “go.”
She sensed rather than heard Kurt standing in the doorway and knew that Storm was standing near, at a tactful but ready distance. Kitty inhaled slowly, counting to ten, then exhaled in equal measure before speaking. “I am a mutant. I am not normal and never will be. I won’t be cured, I won’t learn how to not be one, I won’t change to save your face and I will not,” she said, her voice rising as she repeated, “will _not _ play dead for you!”
Her mother clenched the bedrails and hissed a breath through her teeth. “I’m calling security. You’re not welcome here!”
“I’m your last chance at a future,” Kitty snapped. “I’m the end of the line for you, Mother.” Kitty turned a suddenly cold, appraising gaze on her father. “I know what you’ve been trying to do. I’ve known it for months. I wouldn’t have come here if I hadn’t. A stupid part of me thought that maybe…” she trailed off, the tears that had been prickling behind her eye lids finally spilling, unwanted, down her hot cheeks.
“Why,” he breathed to his blood daughter, “would we want you back? We disowned you once. We can’t do it again…”
Kitty cringed slightly, the words being spoken somehow more painful than simply knowing the truth. “You can’t have the inheritance. I won’t step down. It’s not yours.”
Kurt felt his eyes widen and saw Storm stiffen beside him, at her place against the wall where she leaned as if causally waiting for her turn to visit a patient. “Liebes,” he said softly. “Come on. Let’s get going.”
“And you brought the entire freak brigade,” Kitty’s father said ruefully, though the words were tinged with malice.
“I beg your pardon,” Storm intoned pacifically but with authority, stepping into view. “We prefer mutant-Americans.”
“Mutant-Germans,” Kurt murmured unhelpfully.
Mister Pryde was already hitting the nurse call button as he glared at Kitty. “You’re not family, little girl. You’ve got no right to that inheritance!”
Kitty narrowed her eyes, but a sound in the hallway made her jerk her head around. “Katzchen, come on!” Kurt said urgently. “The nurse is coming and she’s got a security guard with her!”
Kitty nodded again. “Fine. You had your chance and now it’s gone.” She turned sharply on one sneaker-clad heel and barely kept herself from running from the room for a second time that morning. Instead, she marched sedately past the nurse, guard, Kurt and Storm and headed for the elevators that would lead to the parking garage.
Kurt did not linger. He was three steps behind her all the way into the elevator, Storm no where in sight. Briefly, he wondered why their teacher had stayed behind but he did not have much time to contemplate it as Kitty jabbed the elevator button viciously and proceeded to curse in every language she knew. “Liebes,” he began, reaching out a tentative hand to touch her shoulder. When she did not pull away, he became more bold, pulling her closer to an embrace as the doors slid shut. “Want to tell me what happened?”
She shook her head but pressed her face against his neck, her breath tickling him beneath the illusion of his holograph. She sniffled mightily and swallowed a rising sob. “I’ve known,” she began without preamble, “for a month or so now that they were trying to get the inheritance from me… and you know, it’s just money. I don’t care. I mean, it’s nice to have and all but it’ll never bring Yaya back.” Kurt nodded and started stroking her back, soothing her. “And you know what? I’d give it to ‘em if they weren’t so… so…”
“Ja, I know,” he murmured, brushing a kiss across her forehead as the elevator slowed.
“But they are so…” She pulled away and took a deep breath, looking around as if just realizing where she was. “I need to call my lawyer and possibly your mother.”
“My mother?” Kurt blinked rapidly, surprised. “Why?”
“I’m between the devil and the deep blue sea here… I need all the help I can get.”