We Can Explain...

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... Has Watari decided to take up the lessons for himself yet? ;) InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, and Dracena are loverly for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: *glomp * Readers/Reviewers: Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! And I hope this is starting to make some sort of sense, lol...



Professor Xavier cut off Emma's steady feed of images with a sharp snap of mental gates. He ached all over and wanted nothing more than to get into bed, pull the sheets over his head, and not come out for a day or so. And, he amended, take his bottle of scotch with him. He was not normally a hard drinking man, at least not in over forty years, but this was shaping up to be a very good excuse to take a nip or ten. Emma merely returned his pinched expression with one of cool regard. She remained as she had begun, leaning against his desk, her arms folded and ankles crossed. "Well," he began slowly, his low voice seemingly too loud in the previously silent room. Emma raised an eyebrow at his pause. "Well, I think that this can no longer be contained as a private matter."
"What do you mean?" She unfolded herself from her position at the desk and started towards him, seemed to think better of it, and veered towards the cold fireplace. "I think the inclusion of your little friend in the matter brought an end to the idea it was private. The Brotherhood is not known for its secrecy. In fact, I think it's one of their tenets, to be loudmouths."
Professor Xavier smiled ruefully, making a "perhaps" gesture with his hand. "Emma, there is more going on than you realize. I need to gather the involved parties for a final meeting on this matter this evening."
Emma raised a brow, toying with the poker's brass handle as she regarded the old bricks lining the fireplace. "Charles, I must admit that I am more confused now than I was when they first returned. I thought reading their minds, as it were, would clear things up but all I am finding is a maze of a story. What is going on?" She looked up from her fidgeting with a near plaintive expression on her usually carefully neutral face. "I wish you would put some measure of trust in me, like you used to."
He sighed and folded his hands across his stomach, a posture warning of a forthcoming erudition. "Emma, there are things that happened here in the past year and a half that are hard to explain, even to someone such as yourself. There are situations which the Institute and it's students were involved in that are hard to believe even to someone who has seen it all, as it were."
"Do you mean Kitty and her god thing?" Emma shrugged. "Not so hard to believe. I have had people swear I made them see a deity before..."
He cleared his throat. "Not the time for such humor, Emma."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Charles." She abandoned her inspection of the fire tools and moved to sit in the overstuffed armchair across from the desk. "Do go on."
He bit back the urge to slip into his old Professor mode and upbraid her for being so flippant and instead told her as briefly as possible about the major events of the past year and a half, hitting the highlights in all their gory, fantastic detail. Despite his attempt at synopsis, it took nearly half an hour to get it down to a coherent explanation.
Emma raised both brows, leaning back in the chair in a most unladylike fashion when he wound down. "Well...that is fascinating and does explain some things I've heard and...er...picked up, but what the Hell does it have to do with the current situation?"
"I believe," he said slowly, pausing as if he could not quite believe he was about to say the words, "this is related to something that happened several months ago, something that is trying to be revived that should not be, something that...desperately wants to live." He was loathe to use such melodrama but it suited the gravity of the situation well. "Emma, if you don't mind, could you go ask Beast to prepare a report on his findings immediately and have them ready for a seven p.m. meeting in my private study?"
"Of course," she replied dryly, rising gracefully without taking her intense gaze off of the Professor's worried features. "Shall I hunt down the concerned parties while I am at it?" She wondered idly if Sean was back yet and if she could find him before Sam felt moved to confess his dalliance with Theresa and if she would have time for a dalliance or two of her own before this infernal meeting.
The Professor's shift in expression let her know her thoughts were clearly received. "You have several hours. Do as I ask and the rest is all your business."
Emma knew a dismissal when she heard one. She let herself out of the study and made her way down the quiet hall to the elevators, waiting for the carriage to arrive. She sighed and stared off into the middle distance down the hall as she waited, pondering many things. _I wonder if my own school is going to be this much trouble... _ she mused as the elevator doors slid open. She turned and expected to see a student there, probably, she thought as she moved, Scott or Jean coming to talk to the Professor as per their usual. She very nearly tripped over her own high heels when she turned to face herself, staring back in surprised horror. The doors started to slide closed and Emma lunged, grabbing for the shifting form before Mystique could get away. She barely managed to get inside the elevator before the door closed off the hallway, her nails biting into Mystique's skin as she became blue again, then disturbingly like Rogue, then Kitty, seemingly panicking into choosing a random form. Emma was thrown off, hitting the opposite wall forcefully as Mystique finally gave up and decided on her true form. The shapeshifter snarled wordlessly and grabbed for Emma again but the blond woman kicked hard, driving her now-shoeless foot into the other woman's stomach. Mystique fell back and hit the emergency button, making the elevator come to a rocking halt and a shrill claxon of warning echoed down the corridors outside. "Took you long enough to get here," Emma panted, getting to her feet.
"Bitch," Mystique growled, glaring.
"As accused," Emma acknowledge, tilting her head to one side. "You're getting sloppy, Mysti."
"Never call me that," she snapped, half-lunging for her again.
"Never make me." Emma felt like laughing as she leaned against the wall. Things around here, she thought, never get dull.