Persistence of Memory

Persistence of Memory Chapter Forty Two (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

 

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta…is it a bad sign that
all the glitter is gone again?
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly and squishy and shiny for
archiving. Oy. Sugar.
Gotta cut back on that.
ProPhile—great. Now *everything
* sounds perverted. Readers/Reviewers: If this chapter is weird, it’s because I’ve
got a Tenacious D song stuck in my head.
*sigh * In the meantime…Thank
you sooooooooo much for reading and reviewing!
*throws heaps of flower petals at your feet *

 

 

 





Evan had
the mother of all headaches and he was relatively sure that something had
crawled into his mouth, died and decomposed over the course of the night
before. And, he decided, vodka was not
his friend. One good thing, I got to
see Risty. Risty who likes me. Or seems to… He blinked against the
harsh light in the bathroom and opted not to chance looking in the mirror just
then. Somewhat stiffly, he managed the
stairs and paused in the foyer, wondering at the quiet that seemed to have
befallen the mansion. Maybe everyone
went into town… With a sigh that made
his head throb even worse, he headed into the kitchen, trying to remember what
Remy did the mornings after he drank a little too much. A glance at the clock amended the time—it
was now officially afternoon. Damn…why’d
Auntie Ro let me sleep so long? Ah,
orange juice… He the the
uncomfortable idea he was making a screwdriver[1]
in his stomach and reached for the milk instead. Well, if it’s just me, I may as well go see if I can find
Risty. He had no idea where to
start looking for her but the idea occurred to him to look in places Rogue
might like to go and work from there. Rogue…hmmm…I
wonder what she’ll have to say about me dating her friend? Dating…well, that’s getting a little ahead
of things here but…I think I’ll ask Risty out today. See if she wants to go somewhere and do something. Good, Evan. You’re going to ask her if she
verbs. Great. Plenty of time for a plan.


 

He found
her entirely by accident as he was bumping along the rough sidewalk on his
skateboard past the street the Boardinghouse was situated on. It was his habit to take the long way into
town, the way with the most sidewalks and the least chance of being hit by some
jerk who thought it was funny to try and clip cyclists or skateboarders on the
larger roads. Evan almost missed her,
so intent was he on composing something eloquent to say to her. In fact, the only reason he noticed her at
all was because she turned the corner so fast in an old car that she nearly did
hit him, sidewalk notwithstanding.
“Hey! Stupid bi…Risty?”

She did not
even bother turning off the engine but only opened the door enough to get a
good look at him. “Did I hit you?”

“No…what’re
you doing down here?”

Plastering
a smile on her face, she said, “I could ask you the same thing. I was going to visit someone.”

“Oh…I
was…uh…I was just going into town,” he finished lamely, losing any nerve he
had. “You want to…I mean, uh…”

She had
mercy on him. “I really have to
go. I’m due there in a few minutes and
I don’t want to chanim dim disappearing on me.”

“Him?”
She sighed. Great.
Jealous teenage boy. Just what I
needed to make this day fanfreakingtastic. “Yes, him. Look, Evan,
I’ll call you tonight, okay?”

“Okay,” he
sighed. He got to his feet as she
slammed the car door. Picking up his
skateboard, he noticed her glancing back at him through the rear view mirror
and he waved. Turning to head back
towards the mansion, Evan paused when he heard her pull away. He counted to twenty and turned back the way
he came and headed down the street she had turned onto. It was a blue car…or was it black? No, it was blue. Blue and...what? A lot of
cars are blue… He had made it as
far as the cross street running past the Boardinghouse, having seen three blue
cars since the corner. Okay. Just because there’s a blue car in front of
the Boardinghouse doesn’t mean anything.
Lance left his old car here.
Maybe it’s blue. But it didn’t run
anymore… Maybe Mystique is
visiting. He stared for a moment
longer and shrugged. Who cares what
that old bat does anyway? I wonder if
Risty is visiting that guy Rogue used to like?
I think he lived down here…

 

Mystique
let out a long, tension-laced sighed.
“Is he here yet?”

Fred shook
his head. “Nobody’s come by. Even Pietro ain’t here.”

“Damn it,
if this is some trick…”

“It is no
trick…”

Mystique
turned slowly, organizing her features into a semblance of calm
indifference. “You’re late.”

“I am
exactly on time.”

“Fred,
leave us. We have matters to
discuss. Such as why this sudden
interest in the Brotherhood. You joined
the others for a reason, I presume.”
Cat-like, she folded herself into one of the battered, dusty armchairs
decorating the den. Her graceful
movements were almost enough to distract him from the shoddy appearance of the
house. “Am I correct in assuming it was
the usual moralistic purposes, the desire to do well, the desire to live in
harmony with nonmutants? I suppose
you’ve realized how impossible that tripe is.”

Piotr
nodded somewhat glumly. “Da. Correct on all counts.[2] But now…” he spread his hands, staring at
his nails in abject embarrassment. “But
now…”

“No need,”
Mystique smiled ferally, leaning forward.
“We keep our secrets here.”

Piotr blew
out a breath and nodded. “Thank
you. I am not sure how to proceed from
here. I will not,” he said fiercely,
“betray my friends just because I do not follow their beliefs.”

Mystique
nodded. She had already found out all
she needed to know from Evan, anyway.
“I won’t ask you to. You can
move in any time you want. There’s some
free rooms upstairs since we’ve had a…ah…shift in the team membership. Don’t worry about explanations to
your…friends. It’s best to cut all ties
cleanly, no convoluted apologies for believing something else.”

Piotr
nodded, biting his tongue. He had a
call to make and he hoped she would take it well.

 

“Let me
port her!”

“I have to
keep her bound to keep her from phasing, you twit,” Wanda growled, carrying
Kitty’s legs. “Tabby, go get the door.”

Kitty felt almost
okay while Wanda held her powers bound.
She was not sure, but she thought she may have lost all the staples
holding the outer layer of skin closed and that made her a little happy because
they had itched.[3] She had not realized she spoke aloud until
Kurt responded. “Ja, you did. But Wanda made a bandage out of her shirt
for you.”

“That was
nice of her. Remind me to get her
something nice for Chanukkah.”

“How’d you
know?” Wanda muttered, glancing behind her to make sure she did not trip going
up the stairs to the porch.

“You’re my
aunt, you know,” Kitty rejoined.

“Huh. I am, aren’t I? In that case, as your closest blood relative, clean your room,
eat something healthy and for the love of God, quit dating that weird German
guy.”

“Don’t make
me laugh,” Kitty sighed, ignoring Kurt’s offended grunt.

“I’ll go
ahead and get Beast,” Tabby said, hurrying down the hall with Lucas still
tucked against her hip. The baby was
starting to cry loudly and it had nothing at all to do with Kitty’s predicament,
judging by Tabby’s muted cursing about leaking breasts.

Kurt, Wanda
and Kitty all exchanged glances and emitted a mutual, “Eeeew!”

“Hey,
what’s going…Holy Shit!”

“Jamie,”
Kurt sighed. “Where’s everyone?”

He walked
sideways to keep up with them as they hurried towards the elevators. “I thought they were with you guys or
something. I haven’t seen Rahne since
this morning…”



By the time
they reached the lab, they determined that no one was anywhere to be
found. Not even Beast and Cecilia. “Damn it,” Wanda snapped. “Now what?”


“Put me
down?” Kitty suggested.

Kurt tucked
her into the cot against the wall and patted her hand nervously. “Do you need painkiller, Liebes?”

“Wanda,
unbind me. It didn’t hurt so much when
I was in phase.”

Reluctantly,
Wanda released her powers. “Kitty…I’m
not sure about this. What if…”

“I already
thought of that. Um, can I talk to Kurt
alone for a minute?”

Tabby,
Wanda, and Jamie hustled out the door, Jamie with orders from Wanda to “go find
somebody, damn it.”

“Kurt, I
was thinking earlier, when that stuff of Magneto’s wore off…Were you happy with
Amanda?”

“Was?” Kurt
recoiled. He could not help it. Despite
her weak voice, he could hear the conviction in her tone. “Kitty, don’t…”

“I was
thinking that, if I get stuck like this…maybe you should go back to her.”

Silence
fell, tense and hot. After several
moments passed, Kurt said in low tones, “Katzchen, never, ever suggest
that!” He knew that Amanda would
probably be happy to get back together, if he believed his ego’s insistence,
but he would be miserable. “I promised
you everything would be fine and it will be!”

“Kurt, I
love you more than anything. I do. But I don’t want you to be chained to a
living ghost…” She closed her eyes,
willing herself not to fall through the cot.
“And…and I don’t know how long I could really last in phase anyway. It feels like I’m disappearing but that
might be the fever talking.”

“Fever…”
Kurt broke into a chain of well chosen invectives about missing doctors and
bacteria and the evils inherent in both.
“I’ll get you some ice. We need
to cool you down.”

“How about
you try calling Beast’s cel phone first?
He can tell you what to do.”

Kurt
sighed, trying not to panic some more. “Mein Katzchen. Always level headed.”

“You’re
hallucinating, Kurt. Go call Beast.”

He paused
and bent to kiss her but choked on a cry when he passed through her. “Kitty…”

“Go,” she
sighed, sounding like she was trying not to cry.

 

“Chere,
wait!”

It was
about the tenth time he had called out to her and it was the straw that broke
the camel’s back. “Remy,” she snapped,
turning to face him, “I can’t deal with you being jealous right now! I can’t look at you right now!”

“I tryin’
ta apologize!”

“I don’ive ive a fuck!” she yelled, turning her back to him and striding towards the
lake. She had led him around the front
yard twice, then through the woods, then through the outbuildings. This was her
third pass at the lake.

Remy gave
in to his baser instincts and caught her easily, pinning her to him in a
near-crushing hug. “If you ain’t gonna
stand still o’ yo’ own free will, I’m gonna make ya!”

“Let me
go!”

“Haven’t we
done dis ‘fore?” he sighed. “Lemme say
what I gotta say an’ I let ya go an’ be mad at me, kay?”

She
struggled a little more, then sagged.
“Okay. But run like Hell when
you let go or you’re getting sparklies where the sun don’t shine.”

Remy rolled
his eyes at that last. “D’accord. P’tite, dere ain’t no ‘scuse for me actin’ like an ass. I were jealous you were spendin’ so much time at school an’
forgettin’ dates wid me an’ I jus’ figgered it had ta be cause of un autre
homme cause I hated ta tink you jus’…forget.”
He sighed and loosened his grip, not looking at her directly. “An’ den dis Skin guy show up jus’ when we
startin’ ta get back good again an…I jus’ snapped at ya.”

Jubilee
worked one hand free and laid it gently against his cheek. “Remy,” she sighed, then suddenly slapped
him. “That’s for being an idiot.”

He blinked
in surprise at the stinging impact.
“Guess I deserved dat.”

“Did it
ever occur to you that I might have a lot of stuff going on in my life? Remy, I love you. I lust after you. Worse
than that, I like you. But you need to
understand that this,” she gestured around vaguely, “is important to me. You know what I had to go through to get
here, you know the kind of stuff I had to do just to survive… I get here and damn…people care about me. I’m good at school again…I have the chance
to do something with my life and I thought I’d lost that years ago.” She closed her mouth before she let slip her
most worme sme secret, the one she was sure was going to ruin and change
everything for her. Instead, she sighed
and continued, “Remy, we need a lot of work, the two of us, but I’m okay with
that. We’re not supposed to be in a
rush, right?” He nodded slowly, unsure
of where she was headed. “All I’m
saying is, if I get distracted with other stuff, I don’t love you less. I’m sorry I take you for granted
sometimes. That sucks and I’m sorry.”

After a
long minute of silence, he let her go entirely. “Les’ go back an’ I’ll apologize fo’ scarrin’ Skin like dat.”

Jubilee
stood on her toes and kissed his cheek where she had slapped him. “Make it up to you with sexual favors?”

“If you
insist…”



[1] A drink
consisting of vodka and orange juice.
And milk with a hang over? *gag
*

[2] Before the
yelling begins, in Evo he was with the Brotherhood, unlike in the comics. So…consider this a sidestep into the cartoon
and out of my little AU.

[3] For the most
part, appendectomies are laproscopic procedures now with minimal invasion into
the body and very little scarring.
However, in the case of a burst appendix, they have to wash out the
abdominal cavity to ensure infection doesn’t set in or spread so they go in the
old fashioned way and cut from hip to hip, usually right above the pubic bone
to minimize visible scarring. Sometimes
the cut isn’t so wide but it all depends on how much of the intestinal tract
they have to move out of the way to get to the remnants of the appendix. And they will sometimes insert a shunt to
drain off the excess fluid for the first few days after surgery. More fun.
All that to say that in the case of the more invasive procedure, the
stump is cauterized, the muscle wall sutured and the outer skin is stapled or
glued. Dissolving stitches can also be
used.