Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER FORTY SIX (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), the Mermaid replaced herself with Dodo. I'm not sure how it happened, but he's not happy. He feels betrayed and a little hungry...InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are glitterbunnies for archiving. *g * Readers/Reviewers: Oh, you so all deserve big licky kisses...but I'll refrain. I can't make the same promise for the ducks, however.

Forge had given into temptation and was drinking deeply of one of the cold beers hidden in the back of the fridge, behind the questionable cottage cheese and the outright wrong head of lettuce. It was just past noon on Thursday and the Professor had ensconced Emma in one of the new guest rooms under heavy lock and key (courtesy of Forge himself); as soon as the woman had been locked away, he had ordered the Wagners back to the boathouse and suggested as firmly and gently as possible that Erika try and get some rest as she was looking peaked. When the non-mutants had gone, the Professor had taken Cecilia and Forge into his study and told them that something was going to happen and soon, and to prepare for the influx of the missing students. Cecilia had immediately gone to the infirmary, preparing for any injuries that might have been received and Forge had gotten a beer. As he took his second pull from the bottle, Forge reasoned with himself, _It's not like anyone has claim to it here and besides, I do better when I'm relaxed... _
"Enjoyin' that, bub?"
Forge froze, the bottle to his lips as a metal claw tapped the glass. He managed a sound between a grunt and a cough as the claw retracted. "Wolverine, I presume?"
"Damn straight. And that's my last cold beer..." Logan stalked past Forge, looking as if he had been rode hard and put up wet. "The kids are with Storm and Beast. I'm advance guard."
"All of them?"
Logan sighed. "No. Just some. I don't know about the others. I'm taking the Blackbird and going out..."
Forge made a "slow down" motion with one hand. "Banshee and Warren went to the others. I just wondered if you had all found each other."
"Banshee?"
Forge sighed. "Sean Cassidy...he's...well, you have to meet him to understand. I'm Forge, by the bye..." He held out his bionic arm, proffering a handshake.
Logan looked for a moment at the hand then shook it gravely. "Chuck told me he was bringin' on some more staff since we're turnin' this place into a school." He paused and cocked his head to one side. "Here come the kids."
A parade of bedraggled teenagers began streaming through the mudroom door from the garage. Lance and Piotr dragged in first, dark circles ringing their eyes and each seeming to look worse than the other. Amara and Jubilee followed, Remy close on their heels with the Wagner girls, Kitty, Roberto and Jono brining up the rear as a unified front. Beast and Storm followed a moment later, each with deeply etched lines of tension around their mouths and eyes. The group drew to a halt as if on cue, mid-kitchen, and turned vague eyes to Logan. "The Professor already knows you're here, I'm sure," he said as kindly as possible. "Go do what you need to do...Shower, rest...whatever. He'll call you when he thinks you're ready."
Kitty asked, her voice tinny from lack of sleep, "Shouldn't we see him first? While everything is still fresh?"
Beast put in, "I would like to see you all in the infirmary before the day is done..."
"That lady doctor is down there already," Forge said helpfully.
"Lady doctor?" Beast's face underwent a transformation. "Cecilia!" He rallied then, excusing himself with half-formed apologies and knuckling out of the kitchen at a brisk pace.
"He snapped to," Amara said somewhat tersely, though she was too tired to do much more than make a token effort at bitchy.
Forge felt his eyes widen slightly as he took in the teenagers. Most of them bore burn marks on exposed skin and even smelled faintly of burned skin. "I think," he said slowly, "if it isn't too presumptuous of me, that they need to get some salve on those burns..."
Storm raised her brows. "Bright Lady...how did I miss..." She closed her eyes and bit back a curse. Pressing her fingers to her eyelids, she said, "All of you, go to the infirmary before anywhere else. Kitty, get your head checked."
"I didn't hit it," she protested.
"Well, you must have done _something _ to it to make you think running from federal agents is a good idea!"
Forge suppressed his snort until they had cleared the kitchen. _I think I'm going to like it here... _ He reached for the bottle of beer that he had set on the counter when the kids had come in and raised it to his lips again, closing his eyes in anticipation of the drink, only to have it jerked out of his hand.
"I think I need this more than you," Logan said over his shoulder as he exited.

Kurt was bone weary from worry alone by the time the car pulled to a stop under the porte cochere. Empath was stiffening beneath his feet and Roulette had managed to work the gag loose enough to make mumbled threats and was growing even more annoying than before. Rogue tumbled out of the car as fast as she could, running into the mansion as if the Hounds of Hell were on her heels. Banshee started after her but Jean put out her hand to touch his arm and said, "No...the Professor."
Scott spoke up, "What's going on?"
"We're here...Rogue made a beeline for the Professor," Todd said under his breath. "I'm going after her."
"No, she needs to see the Professor on her own!" Kurt said, worried anew.
Todd's face was set in grim lines and his voice was as harsh as anyone had ever heard it. "I love her and I'm not going to let her do this alone. There's no way in _Hell _ I'm letting her do this alone!" Without a backwards glance, he stormed into the mansion, through the still-open door.
Bobby, Jamie, St John and Rahne spilled out in uncomfortable silence, Rahne still in lupine form with her tail hanging low as a testament to her mood. Kurt lingered with Jean, Scott, Banshee, Roulette and the corpse of Empath. "Now what?" Kurt finally asked.
"Now," Jean sighed, "go see your family. Go see Kitty."
"Kitty?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
Jean closed her eyes and seemed to think hard for a moment. "She's here. Go find her." Kurt warred momentarily between going to Kitty or his family but Jean settled it for him. With a world-weary sigh, she said, "Erika's asleep, so is your mother. Your father is awake but tense... the other two girls are asleep in the downstairs study."
Banshee raised his eyebrows. "Psychic?"
"A little," she sighed as Kurt bolted from the car.
"She's telekinetic more than anything," Scott said from the back seat, feeling left out.
"I can move things...all kinds of things," she said preempting what was surely Banshee's next question. 1
Scott snorted. "Some help here?"
Jean shook off the creeping fatigue threatening her mind and body and moved to help Scott from the car. "Where's your visor?" she asked, even as it came to her as if in a vision, moving towards her soon after that. By the time she had extricated Scott from the car and made sure he was steady, the visor was in her hands. "Here..."
Scott blinked into the red colored world that he called his own. "I have never been happier to see you in my life," he finally sighed, dragging her to him and kissing her fervently. Jean was too weary to respond, instead sagging against him and sighing when he picked her up. "Come on...I'll take you to the med lab."
"I don't need the doctor," she protested.
"Then I'm taking you to bed...don't give me that look. To sleep, love, to sleep..."
"You'rttintting mushy," she said weakly, already drifting away.
"You won't remember in the morning." He hoped that all she needed was rest and no irrevocable damage had been done. He had his doubts about Evan, the teenager lingering on the steps, staring into space as Scott passed. "Ev, man...wanna come in?"
"In a minute," he whispered. "Need to think..."
Jean said softly, "I know the feeling."

Kitty was honestly afraid. She had managed to evade trouble so far but she knew from recent and overt experience that trouble would not let her go for long. Her body was almost begging for rest but she was too het up with nervous energy to do much more than pace and contemplate scenarios, all of which seemed to end in bloodshed or her death from sheer mortification. She felt sick with worry about Kurt and the others, but, she admitted to herself, mostly for her boyfriend. She finally forced herself to sit on her bed and wondered for the first time in what seemed like a decade about Baby. _I hope he's at the boathouse...I haven't seen him around...Great, I'm a neglectful mother! _ That almost silly thought sent her over the edge into a crying jag; she slid onto the floor and curled into a ball with her head pressed to her knees, sobbing loudly and brokenly.
Kurt found her like that, wracked with tears and shaking with tired stress. "Katzchen," he managed to say without crying out or outright pouncing on her out of relief.
Kitty jerked in surprise. "I didn't hear you port," she managed in a watery voice, not daring to move.
"I know," he said, taking one hesitant step towards her then closing the distance rapidly, pulling her to her feet and nearly crushing her to his chest in his desperation to hold her and assure himself that she was alive and okay. "I was so scared, Kitty...they were looking for you at the border..."
Kitty felt Kurt's arms around her shaking and she did not know if it was from relief or something else. A loud rumble of his stomach gave her the answer. "You need to eat," she said accusingly.
"Not now," he breathed, bending to kiss her. She tried weakly to push him away but gave in, letting the kiss deepen as she tightened her fingers on the back of his neck. Her moan sounded alien to her ears as his hands gripped her hips and held her tightly against him, his arousal, surprising because of his state and hers, pressing against her abdomen. She scarcely felt it as he laid her down on the bed, peppering her face with kisses and nips, his tail wrapping itself tightly around one of her legs as if to anchor her to him, as if he were afraid she would disappear if he did not hold on to her somehow. Kitty gasped and came crashing to reality when he pushed against her, making her aware of her own aroused state.
"We can't," she said between kisses,
"Have to," he insisted.
"Kurt..." she trailed off into a moan as he latched onto one peaking nipple through the fabric of her shirt. She shook herself as he lifted his mouth to move to her other breast and she said, "I want to, baby, but now...we can't."
Kurt sighed and rested his forehead against her shoulder, pushing against her again just slightly with his obvious erection. "I don't know what I would've done if you were dead or hurt..."
"Me either," she sighed. "I'm so tired, Kurt..."
"I know, Liebes..." He rolled to one side and pulled her to his chest. "We still have to sort thil oul out... Katchzen, Rogue...she killed someone on accident."
Kitty's fingers flew to her lips and she cried out softly. "Oh, God...is she...is she okay?"
"I don't know," he responded quietly. "I guess that's one more thing we need to figure out before we can rest."
1 Random sidefling to the first movie.