Persistence of Memory
folder
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
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Reviews:
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Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,458
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own X-Men Evolution, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.
37
Persistence of Memory Chapter Thirty Seven (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… You get big, huge gold sparkley wings and a
cadre of kilt-wearing muses for being all the above listed titles. *g *
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly and wonderful for
archiving. J ProPhile is corrupting me! And Morgan isn’t helping! But you know…I like it. ;)
Readers/Reviewers: Thank you
soooooooooooo much! You have no idea
how much I appreciate you reading and reviewing these fics! I need to give you all sparkley halos or
something…
“Is she…”
“Seems to
be.”
“Kurt, get
off the wall. Someone’s going to see
you.”
“I think she’s
waking up.”
“Was?” There was a dull thump and Kitty thought she
winced. “Katzchen, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” she
whispered. “I feel like I’ve been run
over.” She felt Kurt squeeze her hand
and chanced opening an eye. “Can I have
some water?”
Beast, or a
reasonable facsimile thereof, smiled down at her. “Here’s the Sprite you asked for in recovery.”
“Recovery?”
Logan
responded. “Yeah, you’re in your own
room now. You kinda came to in
recovery… You asked for a Sprite then
asked why penguins didn’t have knees.”[1]
Kurt
smiled, his blue fur hidden under his holographic projection. “Does it hurt?”
“I don’t
know yet. I’m kinda numb…” She exhaled slowly, a strange cramp
spreading up her belly and back. “Ow.”
Beast
patted her shoulder carefully, mindful of the IV snaking down her arm. “You’re going to be sore for a while,
Kitty. There’s also some things you
can’t eat, like seeds…”
Logan made
a gruff noise. “C’mon. Let Half-Pint rest. It’s almost one a.m.”
Kitty
smiled faintly. “When can I go home?”
Beast and
Logan exchanged looks. “Well,” the doctor said, “because it ruptured, they had
to wash out your entire abdomen and there’s a small drainage tube to siphon off
the fluids…”
“Beast!”
Kurt interjected, seeing the green color wash over Kitty’s features.
“About two
days, barring complications. Then the
recovery should be very rapid.”
Logan
shifted uncomfortably and tried to smile.
“Get some rest, Half-Pint. I’m
gonna stay out in the waiting room and these knuckleheads are gonna go back to
the house for a while…”
After some
protests from Kurt and a few assurances from Kitty, Logan squeezed her knee in
an affection manner and shut the door to her room, leaving her in a sterile
silence. She was coming more awake but
felt the lethargy of anesthesia still coursing through her veins as she fumbled
for the t.v. remote. Shit. I hope that wasn’t nurse call… She breathed a sigh of relief as the
television hummed to life. Last
thing I need is Nurse Ratchet in here asking me to pee in a cup or something…
Lessee…infomercial, infomercial, Springer, televangelist. Ick.
Thank God I’m Jewish. CNN,
ESPN…holy shit. She paused on a repeat of the local news,
broadcast earlier at ten p.m. The story
was well on it’s way, showing an aerial of the Institute and a still picture of
Professor Xavier, taken several years before at some symposium on private
education and the gifted child. “The
shocking pictures out of Bayville earlier this week have led to much speculation. Rumors of mutants have long lingered in our
society and now we must ask ourselves, do we believe? And is this the result of experimentation, overzealous minds,
trickery akin to crop circles, or something more sinister? Something that’s been invading our society
for decades and is now coming to the fore?”
Kitty’s shaking hand hit the mute button as she stared, agog, at a
now-silent scene of a protest rally outside Bayville High School. Dozens of people holding signs damning
Xavier students to Hell, calling them freaks and devils, and apparently
shouting obscenities picketed in the late afternoon sunlight. The image cut to a replay of the security
video and the wild eruption of powers.
“Oh, sink me,” she groaned. As
if her words were magic, one leg began phasing through the bed. “No no no no no!” Frantically, she pulled her leg out of the mattress and struggled
to get out of the bed. She blessed
Logan’s sense of hearing as he slipped into the room with a backwards glance
towards the nurse’s station.
“Half-Pint,
what’re you doing?” he demanded, grabbing her as she tipped floor-ward.
“I’m
phasing! And the news…”
“I know,
Kitty. I saw the news. Me and Beast and Storm and the
other…adults…saw it. The kids aren’t
allowed to watch telly until this blows over.”
“I have to go,”
she said, nearly crying. “I’m phasing!”
It took
Logan an extra second to realize what she was saying. Still clutching her and holding her upright, he peered down at
her. “Half-Pint, are you sure?”
“I didn’t
mean to and I can’t stop it! That stuff must’ve worn off!” As she spoke, her hand passed through
Logan’s chest before she could jerk it back in time. “Get me out of here!”
“Half-Pint,
you’re drugged, you’ve just had surgery…”
“Stop being
the voice of reason, damn it! Beast is
a doctor! He can take care of that tube
thingy!”
“Half-Pint,”
he said carefully, setting her down on the bed, “don’t move. I’m going to see if I can catch Beast and
Kurt.”
She nodded
numbly, whimpering as her left hand phased through her leg. “Shit,” she breathed to herself. Concentrating, she tried to will herself
into full phase until the thought occurred to her that she might not be able to
get back to solid again. “Okay, be calm,
Kitty. Be calm. First things first, take out the IV.” She closed her eyes and peeled the tape off
her hand and arm, whimpering as it pulled out the fine hairs on her skin.
“Katherine
Pryde!”
“Not my
name,” she growled groggily, wincing as she tugged on the IV tube.
Logan
grabbed her hand and pulled it away from the needle. “Well, I can’t say your real name, damn it. Kitty, stop panicking. I couldn’t catch Beast so I’m gonna check
you out AMA.”
“Against
medical advice? Won’t they yell at me
or something?”
“I’ll tell
them it’s some religious reason or something.”
He let go of her hand and said sternly, “If I catch you pulling at that
thing again, I’m telling Kurt that you keep a baby picture of him Astrid gave
you in your wallet.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Bet me!”
“Fine,” she
sighed after a moment, laying back on the bed.
“I’m a little sleepy…”
Logan
nodded vaguely. “Wait here.”
“I’m not
going anywhere.” She was barely aware
as Logan left again, slipping as she was into a deep velvety haze brought on by
the remnants of anesthesia. She knew
her stomach hurt and she felt a throbbing in her hand where she had tried to
pull the needle free. Home soon,
she sighed inwardly. The thought
fluttered across her mind—What if one of the nurses saw the news
earlier? What if they recognize me or
know where I’m from? She did not
have time to panic, though, as sleep overtook her. Kitty felt relaxed and free, not dreaming but wrapped in darkness
and feeling like she was floating. A
faint electrical haze made a nimbus around her and she heard muffled shouts and
voices, but thought nothing of it until she felt something cold and hard
beneath her cheek. Again. She opened her eyes slowly and found herself
in darkness. The whirr and thump of a
generator kicking on flooded her ears as she realized she was in the boiler
room, the close air suffocating. Her
hand bled where the IV had ripped free, her hand not phasing until she fell
through the bed. “Why does this keep
happening to me?” soaneoaned, struggling to her hands and knees. The cement floor was dusty and dirty and the
entire room smelled like a combination of cleaning fluids, burning hair and
hospital. “Oh, hell…”[2]
Kurt yawned
widely, surprised at how tired he was.
He had expected to be wide awake, fraught with worry, but he had not
expected the toll the evening would take on his body. He had gorged on hamburgers from a fast food place on the
interstate after Beast had mercy on his growling stomach and now he was dead
tired. The mansion was virtually silent
as he shut the door to his room, save for Sam and Theresa still talking in
hushed tones in the rec room. He spared
them a curious thought as his clothes hit the hamper and his holo was tucked
neatly into it’s special box in the topmost drawer of his desk. With another wide, jaw-cracking yawn, he
fell into bed naked. Belatedly, he remembered
Lockheed, sonticntically clutched during the ride to the hospital was currently
tucked between the two front seats in Beast’s sedan. Poor Lockheed…his first night without Kitty. Mine, too, for that matter…well, for a long
time, anyway. He shifted restlessly
in bed, turning on his side to stare wistfully at what he had come to think of
as Kitty’s side of the bed. First
thing in the morning, I’ll see her. I’ll
be there as soon as visiting hours start…
The phone jangled him out of his reverie. His heart pounded suddenly and felt as if it fell to his
feet. Kitty…something’s wrong with
Kitty! “Hello?” he practically
shouted down the line, “What is it?
What is it?”
There was a
moment of silence, then, “Kurt?”
“Amanda,”
he sighed, at once annoyed and relieved.
“It’s after two!”
“I’ve been
trying to get a hold of you all night,” she said quietly, sounding tired and
sad. “I wanted to talk about Paolo…”
“Amanda, I
want to help you out, I really do, but I’m very, very tired and Kitty’s had a
horrible night…”
“Can’t we
have one conversation without her name coming up?”
“Amanda,”
he said slowly, “it’s after two in the morning. Kitty’s in the hospital, I’m very tired and I need to sleep.”
She sniffed
sadly. “Okay.”
Kurt felt
guilty instantly. “Look…Why don’t you
come over after class tomorrow? I have
something to do at four, but before then…”
Amanda
seemed to think it over. “Okay. I’d like that.”
“I’m sorry
about Paolo,” he said as an afterthought.
“I’m sure he didn’t want to break up with you but probabloughought it
was best in the long run.”
“Sure,” she
sighed. “Keep a happy thought.”
Kurt groaned
as he hung up the phone. He knew that
whatever sleep he got that night would not be restful at all.
A/N Things
will are start making sense in the next chapter, I promise on the heads of my
ducks.
[1]
Seriously. When I came out of
anesthesia after having my gall bladder removed, I asked my mom why penguins
didn’t have knees. Then I threw up. “Do Penguins Have Knees” is also the name of
some obscure trivia book.
[2] It’s funny
to me b/c my avatar on Nutter’s BBS and some other stuff is K at at the
computer saying “Oh, Hell…” Er…geek
moment. I’m over it.
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… You get big, huge gold sparkley wings and a
cadre of kilt-wearing muses for being all the above listed titles. *g *
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly and wonderful for
archiving. J ProPhile is corrupting me! And Morgan isn’t helping! But you know…I like it. ;)
Readers/Reviewers: Thank you
soooooooooooo much! You have no idea
how much I appreciate you reading and reviewing these fics! I need to give you all sparkley halos or
something…
“Is she…”
“Seems to
be.”
“Kurt, get
off the wall. Someone’s going to see
you.”
“I think she’s
waking up.”
“Was?” There was a dull thump and Kitty thought she
winced. “Katzchen, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” she
whispered. “I feel like I’ve been run
over.” She felt Kurt squeeze her hand
and chanced opening an eye. “Can I have
some water?”
Beast, or a
reasonable facsimile thereof, smiled down at her. “Here’s the Sprite you asked for in recovery.”
“Recovery?”
Logan
responded. “Yeah, you’re in your own
room now. You kinda came to in
recovery… You asked for a Sprite then
asked why penguins didn’t have knees.”[1]
Kurt
smiled, his blue fur hidden under his holographic projection. “Does it hurt?”
“I don’t
know yet. I’m kinda numb…” She exhaled slowly, a strange cramp
spreading up her belly and back. “Ow.”
Beast
patted her shoulder carefully, mindful of the IV snaking down her arm. “You’re going to be sore for a while,
Kitty. There’s also some things you
can’t eat, like seeds…”
Logan made
a gruff noise. “C’mon. Let Half-Pint rest. It’s almost one a.m.”
Kitty
smiled faintly. “When can I go home?”
Beast and
Logan exchanged looks. “Well,” the doctor said, “because it ruptured, they had
to wash out your entire abdomen and there’s a small drainage tube to siphon off
the fluids…”
“Beast!”
Kurt interjected, seeing the green color wash over Kitty’s features.
“About two
days, barring complications. Then the
recovery should be very rapid.”
Logan
shifted uncomfortably and tried to smile.
“Get some rest, Half-Pint. I’m
gonna stay out in the waiting room and these knuckleheads are gonna go back to
the house for a while…”
After some
protests from Kurt and a few assurances from Kitty, Logan squeezed her knee in
an affection manner and shut the door to her room, leaving her in a sterile
silence. She was coming more awake but
felt the lethargy of anesthesia still coursing through her veins as she fumbled
for the t.v. remote. Shit. I hope that wasn’t nurse call… She breathed a sigh of relief as the
television hummed to life. Last
thing I need is Nurse Ratchet in here asking me to pee in a cup or something…
Lessee…infomercial, infomercial, Springer, televangelist. Ick.
Thank God I’m Jewish. CNN,
ESPN…holy shit. She paused on a repeat of the local news,
broadcast earlier at ten p.m. The story
was well on it’s way, showing an aerial of the Institute and a still picture of
Professor Xavier, taken several years before at some symposium on private
education and the gifted child. “The
shocking pictures out of Bayville earlier this week have led to much speculation. Rumors of mutants have long lingered in our
society and now we must ask ourselves, do we believe? And is this the result of experimentation, overzealous minds,
trickery akin to crop circles, or something more sinister? Something that’s been invading our society
for decades and is now coming to the fore?”
Kitty’s shaking hand hit the mute button as she stared, agog, at a
now-silent scene of a protest rally outside Bayville High School. Dozens of people holding signs damning
Xavier students to Hell, calling them freaks and devils, and apparently
shouting obscenities picketed in the late afternoon sunlight. The image cut to a replay of the security
video and the wild eruption of powers.
“Oh, sink me,” she groaned. As
if her words were magic, one leg began phasing through the bed. “No no no no no!” Frantically, she pulled her leg out of the mattress and struggled
to get out of the bed. She blessed
Logan’s sense of hearing as he slipped into the room with a backwards glance
towards the nurse’s station.
“Half-Pint,
what’re you doing?” he demanded, grabbing her as she tipped floor-ward.
“I’m
phasing! And the news…”
“I know,
Kitty. I saw the news. Me and Beast and Storm and the
other…adults…saw it. The kids aren’t
allowed to watch telly until this blows over.”
“I have to go,”
she said, nearly crying. “I’m phasing!”
It took
Logan an extra second to realize what she was saying. Still clutching her and holding her upright, he peered down at
her. “Half-Pint, are you sure?”
“I didn’t
mean to and I can’t stop it! That stuff must’ve worn off!” As she spoke, her hand passed through
Logan’s chest before she could jerk it back in time. “Get me out of here!”
“Half-Pint,
you’re drugged, you’ve just had surgery…”
“Stop being
the voice of reason, damn it! Beast is
a doctor! He can take care of that tube
thingy!”
“Half-Pint,”
he said carefully, setting her down on the bed, “don’t move. I’m going to see if I can catch Beast and
Kurt.”
She nodded
numbly, whimpering as her left hand phased through her leg. “Shit,” she breathed to herself. Concentrating, she tried to will herself
into full phase until the thought occurred to her that she might not be able to
get back to solid again. “Okay, be calm,
Kitty. Be calm. First things first, take out the IV.” She closed her eyes and peeled the tape off
her hand and arm, whimpering as it pulled out the fine hairs on her skin.
“Katherine
Pryde!”
“Not my
name,” she growled groggily, wincing as she tugged on the IV tube.
Logan
grabbed her hand and pulled it away from the needle. “Well, I can’t say your real name, damn it. Kitty, stop panicking. I couldn’t catch Beast so I’m gonna check
you out AMA.”
“Against
medical advice? Won’t they yell at me
or something?”
“I’ll tell
them it’s some religious reason or something.”
He let go of her hand and said sternly, “If I catch you pulling at that
thing again, I’m telling Kurt that you keep a baby picture of him Astrid gave
you in your wallet.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Bet me!”
“Fine,” she
sighed after a moment, laying back on the bed.
“I’m a little sleepy…”
Logan
nodded vaguely. “Wait here.”
“I’m not
going anywhere.” She was barely aware
as Logan left again, slipping as she was into a deep velvety haze brought on by
the remnants of anesthesia. She knew
her stomach hurt and she felt a throbbing in her hand where she had tried to
pull the needle free. Home soon,
she sighed inwardly. The thought
fluttered across her mind—What if one of the nurses saw the news
earlier? What if they recognize me or
know where I’m from? She did not
have time to panic, though, as sleep overtook her. Kitty felt relaxed and free, not dreaming but wrapped in darkness
and feeling like she was floating. A
faint electrical haze made a nimbus around her and she heard muffled shouts and
voices, but thought nothing of it until she felt something cold and hard
beneath her cheek. Again. She opened her eyes slowly and found herself
in darkness. The whirr and thump of a
generator kicking on flooded her ears as she realized she was in the boiler
room, the close air suffocating. Her
hand bled where the IV had ripped free, her hand not phasing until she fell
through the bed. “Why does this keep
happening to me?” soaneoaned, struggling to her hands and knees. The cement floor was dusty and dirty and the
entire room smelled like a combination of cleaning fluids, burning hair and
hospital. “Oh, hell…”[2]
Kurt yawned
widely, surprised at how tired he was.
He had expected to be wide awake, fraught with worry, but he had not
expected the toll the evening would take on his body. He had gorged on hamburgers from a fast food place on the
interstate after Beast had mercy on his growling stomach and now he was dead
tired. The mansion was virtually silent
as he shut the door to his room, save for Sam and Theresa still talking in
hushed tones in the rec room. He spared
them a curious thought as his clothes hit the hamper and his holo was tucked
neatly into it’s special box in the topmost drawer of his desk. With another wide, jaw-cracking yawn, he
fell into bed naked. Belatedly, he remembered
Lockheed, sonticntically clutched during the ride to the hospital was currently
tucked between the two front seats in Beast’s sedan. Poor Lockheed…his first night without Kitty. Mine, too, for that matter…well, for a long
time, anyway. He shifted restlessly
in bed, turning on his side to stare wistfully at what he had come to think of
as Kitty’s side of the bed. First
thing in the morning, I’ll see her. I’ll
be there as soon as visiting hours start…
The phone jangled him out of his reverie. His heart pounded suddenly and felt as if it fell to his
feet. Kitty…something’s wrong with
Kitty! “Hello?” he practically
shouted down the line, “What is it?
What is it?”
There was a
moment of silence, then, “Kurt?”
“Amanda,”
he sighed, at once annoyed and relieved.
“It’s after two!”
“I’ve been
trying to get a hold of you all night,” she said quietly, sounding tired and
sad. “I wanted to talk about Paolo…”
“Amanda, I
want to help you out, I really do, but I’m very, very tired and Kitty’s had a
horrible night…”
“Can’t we
have one conversation without her name coming up?”
“Amanda,”
he said slowly, “it’s after two in the morning. Kitty’s in the hospital, I’m very tired and I need to sleep.”
She sniffed
sadly. “Okay.”
Kurt felt
guilty instantly. “Look…Why don’t you
come over after class tomorrow? I have
something to do at four, but before then…”
Amanda
seemed to think it over. “Okay. I’d like that.”
“I’m sorry
about Paolo,” he said as an afterthought.
“I’m sure he didn’t want to break up with you but probabloughought it
was best in the long run.”
“Sure,” she
sighed. “Keep a happy thought.”
Kurt groaned
as he hung up the phone. He knew that
whatever sleep he got that night would not be restful at all.
A/N Things
will are start making sense in the next chapter, I promise on the heads of my
ducks.
[1]
Seriously. When I came out of
anesthesia after having my gall bladder removed, I asked my mom why penguins
didn’t have knees. Then I threw up. “Do Penguins Have Knees” is also the name of
some obscure trivia book.
[2] It’s funny
to me b/c my avatar on Nutter’s BBS and some other stuff is K at at the
computer saying “Oh, Hell…” Er…geek
moment. I’m over it.