Persistence of Memory

Persistence of Memory Chapter Fifty Two (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

 

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta…I talked to “her” last
night after the email-o-rama and she’s in a much better mood now. No one’s gonna be a frog, lol. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly
people for archiving. JoPhioPhile…er…well. Hm. Hi? LOL.
Readers/Reviewers: *sigh* Hmmm…confused? I hope not. Lemme know
and I’ll fix it. Thanks so much for
reading and reviewing and I hope y’all like the next fic, too! J And does it bother anyone else that they’re
still making those Land Before Time movies and the dinosaur isn’t aging?

 

 



Jubilee slipped
into Kitty’s room unnoticed, but not due to any of her thieving skills. Kitty was propped in bed, Kurt rubbing her
feet, her lap top open and humming softly as she tapped the keys so rapidly
Jubilee was surprised she did not get finger cramps. “I got what you asked for,” she said softly, a shadow of her
usual flamboyant self.

“Jubes!”
Kitty sighed with relief. “You
okay? Seriously? Kurt, take that from her, please.”

Kurt did
not stop rubbing her feet as he took the small packet in Jubilee’s hands with
his tail. “What is this?”

Jubilee
made a fluttering motion with one hand, almost as if she were embarrassed. “That hair and stuff. Actually, there’s a toothbrush in there
that’s Pietro’s. Remy got it.”

Kitty
smiled thinly. “What was all that about
anyway?”

Kurt
finally abandoned his foot rubbing and leaned back on his elbows. “Remy take a turn for the Brotherhood
again?”

Jubilee
sighed and sat down at Kitty’s desk, fidgeting slightly. She tried to speak twice and each time
snapped her mouth shut with a rueful expression on her face. Finally, haltingly, she told them about
seeing Piotr at the Boardinghouse and what Remy did. “I couldn’t just leave him, though,” she complained. “I mean…he’s good, but he’s not that
good.”

Kurt was
now sitting up ramrod straight, his eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re serious about Piotr?”

“Yes…”

“Pardon me,
Liebes, but I have to make a phone call.”

“Kurt, it’s
five a.m. in Germany!”

“Past time
for her to get up,” he growled and disappeared.

“This won’t
be good. I expect an email from the
sisters in the morning,” she sighed to Jubilee.

“Kitty,”
Jubilee said urgently, leaning closer.
“Never mind that,” she whispered.
“Look, I’m in trouble here.”

Kitty
frowned and looked for all the world like a concerned teacher, her contacts out
for the night and her glasses perched on the end of her nose, her hair in a
messy bun held in place by a purloined pencil.
“What is it? Do you think Remy’s
cheating or something again?”

“Nothing
like that,” Jubilee hissed. “Kit…I
looked under my sink the other day and…”

“Unglaublich!” Kurt’s sudden reappearance made both girls
jump. “She told me to shut up and hung
up on me!”

“You woke
up your family before dawn…what do you expect?” Kitty shook her head and returned her attention to Jubilee. “What were you saying?”

“Nothing…
I’d better get. Logan’s doing bed check
for me and Remy and I’m in so much trouble I don’t think I’m gonna see the
light of day ‘till I’m sixty. Night,
guys.”

Kitty
sighed again and tried to return her attention the computer before her. “That girl really needs to relax.”

“How can
you be so calm?” Kurt whinged, not quite rubbing her feet but certainly
distracting her.

“Drugs. Beast has me on painkillers until
tomorrow. I feel all kinds of
sparkley.” She crossed her eyes and
stuck out her tongue at him, earning a snort.
“You over reacted to your sister, didn’t you?”

“Nein…well…ein
klein…” He held his fingers almost an
inch apart to demonstrate.

“Liar,”
Kitty said, smiling faintly. “And I
don’t kiss liars.”

“Let me
rephrase then…I did not overreact but merely exerted my skills as an older
brother to explain to her why continuing this long distance thing with Piotr is
a bad idea.”

“They just
trade emails, Kurt! They’re not eloping!”

“My family
marries young,” he shrugged.

Kitty
absently twisted the silver band on her finger with her thumb. “Don’t get any ideas, sweetie,” she
murmured, trying to go back to her selpoinpointed work.

“I have all
sorts of ideas, Liebes, but we can’t do anything about them for several weeks
yet…” He made a moue of regret and shifted
to his feet. “Jubilee did have a point…Logan
is bedchecking us all, not just them. I’ve
never seen the Professor so mad before…”

“He had to
pay some insane amount of money to get them not to run the tape on the news,”
Kitty replied, shutting her lap top with an air of finality. “He told Beast he’s writing it off as a
donation but still…That’s so sad that we’re making him do that!”

“Katzchen,
we’re not the ones making him do anything.
It’s those people out there,” he said sharply, gesturing in the
direction of her window, “the ones who’ve been on the news calling for us to be
sterilized, the ones who’re protesting at the high school…all of those people
who’re afraid of what they don’t understand.
It’s their fault he has to bribe the local news!”

Kitty had
the horrible thought—Maybe Magneto’s right—before righting her mental
tumble. “ mig might be true, but I don’t
have to like it. Besides, I’m the Guilt
Zen Master. Be one with the angst.”

Kurt rolled
his eyes. “Go to sleep, Liebes.
Everything will look brighter in the morning.”

As if of it’s
own volition, her hand drifted to her computer. “I know…I’m sure of it.”

 

 

Warren
peered around the corner and smiled warmly at Psylocke. “How is it?”

“Good. Better than the crap Magneto fed us. He can’t cook.”

“I’m glad
you liked it. Picked it up from the
drive through myself.”

She laughed
thinly, giving Warren the encouragement to enter the room fully. “There’s another woman there I want to go
back for,” she began in a rush, pushing the remains of her food to one
side. “Her name is…”

“Firestar. We know.
Emma Frost is here.”

“Firestar
spoke of her,” Psylocke murmured. “Not
kindly.”

“She’s…an
acquired taste. Like stinky cheese.”

“So I
gathered.” Idly, she fingered her fries
and looked into the middle distance. “I
should go back there.”

“Why?”

“If I’m
there, I can foul up the works with this machine. Block it out or something.
Keep him from using it…”

“He wouldn’t
let you,” Warren sighed. “Has Professor
Xavier spoken to you yet?”

“Briefly. He told me about the school, briefed me on
the situation going on upstairs and told me not to worry, he wouldn’t drag me
into it. But I don’t think he really
realized…I’m already into it. It’s my
fault, in a way. I was the one Magneto was using to operate the machine when
the kids…went haywire.”

“What’s
your real name?” he asked suddenly.

“Betsy.”

“Betsy. I was expecting…Michelle or Jennifer or
something. Betsy.”

“Psylocke
to difficult for you?”

“Asking a
woman named Psylocke if she would like to take a walk around the grounds sounds
infinitely more intimidating than asking a woman named Betsy,” he smiled.

“I’ll agree
to go if you tell me why you’re wearing that enormous coat inside.”

Warren
sighed. “Fair ‘nough.” He shed his coat smoothly, a single feather
drifting to the ground in it’s wake. “Hard
to hide these…”

“Could be
worse,” Psylocke said after a moment. “Could
be large breasts or something.”

Warren felt
his eyes go wide for a brief moment before her deadpan delivery made him
laugh. “Do you feel up to a walk? Get some fresh air?”

“Can you
tell me more about this place while we’re out?”

“I’ll tell
you everything I know,” he promised, offering her his elbow. “And even some things I don’t.”

 

Beast
sorely wished for something stronger than his tea as he watched the late
news. Amanda’s portion of the interview
was played endlessly on the three local stations, but “an exclusive” to channel
four in an apparent misunderstanding on behalf of the anchor as to just what
exclusive meant. Second to his desire
to get nicely drunk was the desire to make Cecilia come back to the Institute
rather than insist on staying the night at her apartment in town. He did not care that she promised him she
would be fine. He would much rather
have made sure of that himself by having her right there with him, sharing the
cold peppermint tea that was a le tle too sweet to really enjoy. “Beast?”
Kitty asked softly from behind him.

“Ah…Kitty. Is something wrong?” he asked wearily,
regretting his tone the instant he voiced it.


“Not with
me, no,” she said a bit embarrassedly. “I
just…well, I’d like for you to look at some stuff for me if you can. It might have to wait until tomorrow and
Cecilia can help or maybe even take it to the hospital lab for me or something…” She toed the ground nervously, her stature
stooped from the staples and her exertions in getting down the stairs.

“What is
it, Kitty?” Beast motioned for her to
come into his sanctuary within the lab, his tiny office made all the more small
by his size.

“Well, I
was wondering how long it would take to compare some DNA samples and check them
for abnormalities.”

“That all
depends…” Beast took the proffered
packet from her hands and frowned. “What
is this about, Kitty?”
“I was thinking and…” She sighed.
“It’s going to sound weird.”

“Nothing
will sound weird to me after this week.
I promise.”

Kitty
haltingly relayed the theory she had been working on, down to the last
detail. “I brought all the stuff I
found and saved and made up…” From the
pocket of her robe, she produced a stack of discs neatly rubber banded
together. “It might be a little dense
in some parts…I sort of went off into technogeek. But you went to med school...don’t you have, like, classes in
technogeek there?”

“It’s an
elective, like bad handwriting and illegible prescriptions. “

“Can I stay
here while you look at it?”

“It’s best
that you go get some rest, Kitty.
However, I promise you that, as soon as I find anything even remotely
weird, as you would call it, I’ll come awaken you.”

“You’re the
best!” she said, her face showing a new hope.
Carefully, she threw her arms around his neck in a painful embrace. “Promise you’ll wake me up?”

“Blue fuzzy
guy’s honor.”

“I get that
a lot…”