The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER CHAPTER TWENTY NINE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Ted is over it. Billy and Joaquin slapped some sense into him and Billy threatened him with a kilt. In the winter. In Northern Europe. He calmed down considerably. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are lovely for archiving. Makes me all googly at the knees. :) Readers/Reviewers: The Art Project of Dooooooooooooooooom (is that the right amount of O's? I'm never sure...) seemsbe vbe veering more towards a diorama... A lot of red paint is missing so it will probably be a gory one.


Tabby did not want to open the door. For one, it was too early in the morning-too early even for morning sickness so she knew it had to be before dawn. And two, she had a sinking feeling who it was. A week of hang-up phone calls had led her to realize that Pietro had found where she was, despite Kitty's assurances to the contrary. She froze in place as the knocking started a second time, more insistent than the round that had awakened her from her nap on the couch that had turned into an all night snooze. _C'mon, be a woman about this... If it's Pietro, just don't open the door. Better yet, open it and make him eat plasma. _ She padded to the door, the first stirrings of nausea making her hurry as the knocking began a third time. Tabby had to simply stare for a momenot not quite believing what she was seeing. Pietro was there but with him was Mystique, though how Tabby knew it was her she would never quite be able to say. The older woman appeared 'normal,' save for her unnaturally red hair. She was dressed in a skirt and blouse, glasses perched on the end of her nose, reminding Tabby of the old fashioned school marms she had seen pictures of. _Oh, this isn't good. _ "What do you want?" she snarled through the closed door, sounding more brave than she really was.
"Open the door, Tabitha," Mystique said calmly but loudly. Through the peep hole, Tabby could see her shove Pietro forward slightly, closer to the door as if to push him in the second the door was opened wide enough.
"No." Carefully, slowly, Tabby made sure the deadbolt and chain were in place, though part of her mind told her that if Mystique really wanted in, those would not stop her.
"Excuse me?" There was a hint of amusement in the woman's voice. "Open this door, Tabitha, or I will open it myself.
_I thought so. _ "Do that." Tabby trotted back several steps, swallowing against the now-persistent nausea. "See what happens." Sparing a thought for her unborn child, rationalizing that her body would not allow her to carry a baby if it could harm the fetus, she produced two handfuls of charged balls and waited.
There was a dull thud and the door jumped on it's hinges, but it did not open. Tabby wondered how long it would take for one of them to figure out there was a window right next to them that could easily be broken. Another thud and this time there was a splintering noise. The charged balls in her hands seemed suddenly heavy to Tabby as she felt the desperate need to be sick right then and there. Sounds of mumbled conversation, a sharp curse from Mystique, then the glass next to the window shattered, sending the potted plant that Kitty had declared would brighten the place tumbling to an ignoble heap on the floor. "Idiot," Mystique hissed to Pietro before turning a full-force glare to Tabby. "I return to Bayville to find the boardinghouse all but abandoned, you're...in trouble, as it were, and to add insult to injury, two of our own have defected to the X-Men. I demand you return to the boardinghouse immediately."
Tabby licked her lips nervously. Pietro did not scare her anymore, but she did not trust him. Now she knew how much she had to lose-her self respect, nascent and fragile, her new realization that she could actually do something with her life other than steal and cheat and create trouble, and her baby, something Tabby thought she would hate but found herself growing oddly attached to each day. She even caught herself speaking aloud to the child, halfway expecting an answer, on several occasions. Mystique growled in impatience, nodding to Pietro to take hold of Tabby. "No. I'm not going back. I refuse to live in a house with that excuse for a human, threatening me and my child. I've got a good thing going here and I'm not going to fuck it up."
"Fuck you, Tabby!" Pietro lunged at her, his hand making contact with her cheek before she could stop him or move ou the the way. Her charges went spilling to the floor, rolling under furniture, landing at their feet, glowing brightly with potential. She was temped to let them go, just blow the place to hell, but she resisted. For the moment, at least. Pietro seized her by the shoulders and shook her. "You're the fucking whore who got knocked up. I told you to take care of it! No way in Hell am I gonna help you out when it's your own damned problem."
Mystique sighed and pulled Pietro off of Tabby, not bothering to apologize for his behavior or ask if she was alright. Tabby straightened, shaking off her dizziness and considering vomiting on Pietro's shoes, just to get rid of him. "Rogue is never going to love you, you know. Even if I wasn't pregnant with your baby. Even if she didn't catch us fucking. She's never gonna love you because you're pathetic, needy, selfish and no better than me. All of us, we're beneath people like her. The only reason she's with Todd is because he was never gonna be one of us in the end anyway. You know it and I know. Little freak had some morals left. You and me, we got none. Get the fuck out of my hor I'r I'll call the cops." She added this last in the full knowledge it was an empty threat. Mystique sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, shifting from pink-toned flesh to her normal blue, scaly self, unnerving Tabby that she would expose herself thusly in an apartment where anyone could walk by and see them. The thought crossed the teenager's mind that maybe Mystique did not plan to be around long enough to be seen, or maybe she was going to leave as a different person as she came. _Looking like me, with my body stuffed in a Hefty sack...Fuck. Kitty's getting to me. Note to self-tell her to stop worrying so much. _ Pietro, for his part, seemed somewhere between seething anger and cowling subservience, glaring and cursing under his breath at Tabby but hiding behind Mystique the whole while.
"Pietro, go wait at the car. And I mean _wait. _ If you're gone when I get there, I will hunt you down and use your skin for my new rug. Understand?" Pietro nodded hastily and let himself back out the way he came, making Mystique groan under her breath. After a moment, she spoke again. "Tabitha," the woman said soothingly, "you don't know what you're saying. You're scared and I can help. Come back to the boardinghouse and you can raise your child there. They can grow up to be a strong mutant, fighting with us to protect our kind..."
Tabby had an epiphany then, not one of those sudden 'I've seen the light!' moments, but one that had been slow in coming. It had been building, in fact, since she had moved into the apartment, since she had started taking her GED classes and even before that, when Kitty did not try to kill her for what she did to her and Kurt, when she had been forgiven when she very well could have been punished deservingly. Tabby laughed, surprising herself with the noise. "Three months ago, I would've jumped at the chance. I would've done anything you wanted me to because I believed in the Brotherhood. I believed in your cause. Now, I don't know. It's all bullshit. The Brotherhood is falling apart, we're kept in the dark by you and Mags. You run off to the hills for God knows what then come back and expect me to come running when you crook your finger? Nuh-uh, sister, it ain't happenin'!" A tiny voice in Tabitha's brain was screaming at her, calling her an idiot and suicidal, especially after the look that crossed Mystis fas face.
Mystique closed the distance between them, pressing so close to Tabby that the younger woman was sure they would pass through each other. "I came back here because I give a damn about the Brotherhood. Magneto is an impotent fool who is working for his own glory. He says he wants to preserve mutant kind, but he wants to secure a place for himself in history. I came back to this godforsaken hole in the ground because I believe in the cause and I am rebuilding the Brotherhood. Pietro and Blob are a foundation but not a team." She was surprised at how nakedly honest she was being, but couching it in fierce tones helped preserve her pride somewhat.
"You may care about the Brotherhood, Mystique, but I don't. All it's ever brought me is trouble, more than I ever wanted. The only way I'm comin' back is if the world is coming to an end and even then, it's iffy. I'd rather be on my own than aligned with you or Xavier. I'm a ronin,1 I don't need you, I don't need them. Please leave." Tabby did not close her eyes against Mystique's piercing gaze. Instead, she jerked her chin defiantly, scowling in her best "fuck off" manner and stared back.
Mystique inhaled deeply, her expression becoming neutral as she nodded curtly and turned, walking to the door and flipping the chain and deadbolt open. Turning back to Tabby, she said, "You will change your mind soon. If not for your own sake, the sake of that thing growing in you. You forget, Tabby-I'm a mother, too. My choices are regrettable-my child is growing up naïve, sheltered, a slave to the world that hates him. You have the chance to make your child strong, give them the chance to live openly, but that will only happen if the Brotherhood succeeds. Remember, Tabby, you can return at any time. But know your place." Mystique shifted back to the school marm appearance and did not look back as she left, slamming the door behind her and sending a rain of glass shards to the floor from the broken window. Tabby sank down into the couch, willing the spilled charges out of existence without giving it much thought, and shaking slightly. _They know where I am and aren't afraid to come in. They know where I am and want me back. I need to leave. I have to get the Hell away... _ She took a deep, shaking breath and forced calm into her mind. _No. I'm not running anymore. I'll call Kitty and see if she can get the landlord to move me to another apartment or something. I hate to depend on her and I hate to like her, but she's not the frigging prude I thought she was last year...she's still a world class geek, though. Okay. Call Kitty. First, though... throw up. _


Rogue knew something was amiss as soon as she entered her room. They had all gotten back late, Jubilee's gymnastics practice running long and Kitty hiding in the library until the jeep was full up, running out at the last minute and cramming into the car with her, Jubilee, Remy, Bobby and St John. Kurt had called to her to that he could make room, but Kitty waved him off, saying she had to talk to Jubilee. As soon as the ride was underway, though, she had fallen silent, speaking to no one until they reached the mansion, and then only to tell Kurt in passing that she'd meet him at dinner and then vanished into her room. Jubilee and Remy had immediately set to arguing about the meaning of romance while Todd and Lance headed straight for the rec room and an unfinished game of Twisted Metal. Scott lurked near Jean, making Rogue uncomfortable in their presence, so she made some excuse about homework, which was a blatlie lie since there was none assigned for that night, and headed to her room. All appeared normal within the room, nothing out of place, nothing strange amidst the usual mélange of books, pillows, the random stuffed animal and CDs. _Damn it...did I leave the bathroom light on again? Storm's gonna get on my ass about that... _ She moved towards the bathroom, still unable to shake the feeling something was not quite right. A chill ran down her spine when she opened the bathroom door, not sure what to expect but an inner voice telling her that what was amiss centered in this room. Feeling stupid, she made a sudden lunge for the shower, flinging the door wide to reveal..._nothing. Damn, don't I feel like an idiot? _ She opened the towel cupboard and still nothing. _Gotta do laundry...overflowing hamper... _ With a sigh she turned back towards the medicine chest and froze. It took a full minute to process what she was seeing. Scrawled in lipstick, two shades because it seemed one stick had broken halfway through the writing, judging by the detritus on the counter top, was a message.
_You don't understand, Rogue. You're mine. _


1 A samurai without a master. Tabby's dramatic. Who knew?