Wirklich ein Engel(truly an Angel)

~*~*~*~*~*Author's Note~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once again my thanks goes out to you, Sassy. I’m glad you noticed all the little things I’ve been dropping in. Lets see if you notice the historical allusion I make in here. ^_^ Your loyalty is a wonderful thing, but don’t worry about bad reviews. I just want people to enjoy the fic. If they don’t, that’s alright too. This website has plenty of other fictions and writers. So long as my review board doesn’t erupt in a flame war the most I’ll do is delete the reviews that I find hurtful. This story isn’t going anywhere unless people get really malicious.

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Martha Wilhelm watched from between her lace curtains as the blue devil crouched on the stairs outside the Buckland girl's house. She had always known the girl and her little friends were odd, the way they dressed and came and went like the house was some sort of hippy commune. But, now she was housing muties too? What had the city come to? Where had all the good, law abiding, god fearing Christians gone? It was as though this city was becoming the new Saddam or Gomorra, taking the rest of California with it. She watched as he flicked his tail and glanced about, watching a few kids scamper by. She watched, holding her breath, as a little girl paused to stare at him and then offer a small wave. She wanted to rush out there and scoop up the foolish girl before the beast hurt her. Bile rose in her throat as the monster waved back, baring his teeth, sharp fangs they were, in the semblance of a smile. Something had to be done to get rid of that unnatural creature.

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"What the hell took you guys so long?" Asked Jake, the tall, broad shouldered quarterback who had initiated the attack on the blue mutant they had found sprawled in the ally. He looked on Bobby and Jeffy with disdain as they approached the bench they were sitting at near the Ferris wheel. Next to him Derrick, the biggest of the group, was intent on getting a glimpse up a few skirts as the female passengers on the ride passed overhead.

"Some fuckin' mutie jumped us on the Muni!" Jeffy snapped indignantly, wiping a few more flecks of blood from his nose. "He was looking for the blue bastard."

"Had these fuckin' big metal claws, man. Smashed us both in the nose. was like getting punched by a brick wall!"

"Shit man.." Jake muttered. "We need to go after him?"

"Fuck that man! I don't ever wanna see that mutie freak again!" Jeffy said earnestly.

"Whatever." Derrick said, sounding disinterested. "Lets go find something ta do."

Jake nodded his assent and soon the four were walking the hard packed dirt grounds of the dingy little circus. The air smelled of dandelions and cotton candy, the disjointed music of a calliope playing in the background. It was pretty fun, showing off at the midway and giving a bunch of clowns a hard time. Nearly everyone from their High School was there and they were shown a great deal of respect. Not one word was said about muties until they came to the freak show. Then they couldn't help themselves, Jeffy and Bobby cracking jokes about the one mutie they could beat up, mostly to restore their egos after the thrashing they received on the Muni. None of them seemed to be paying attention to the bearded man with the round belly as he listened in, leaning on his cane. He stood unobtrusively behind them, nearly hidden between two wagons whose fronts were fashioned like a cage.

"Man, I bet if we'da just brought the blue freak here we coulda got rid of him and made some cash." Derrick joked as they paused by a tent to play hackey sack.

"Ya might still be able to do that, Boys." The old man said suddenly with a wide grin. "If this blue freak is the one I think he is."

"Whaddaya mean, Old man?" Jake asked, though his interest was piqued. "Who the hell are you and who said you could listen to our conversation?"

"Name's Jardine." He said, a hint of mirth in a gravelly voice thick with a Cajun accent. "And I own this here circus." He paused as a family strolled by, a suburban looking mother and father with a stroller and a little boy with ice cream and a balloon. He didn’t want his next words to frighten off paying customers.

“Come with me and we’ll talk business.” He said at length, grinning through his beard, yellow teeth bared more like a wolf that had scented prey than a man about to ‘talk business’. He didn’t wait for a reply, turning about on his heel and limping towards another wagon, this one away from the circus proper. It was a rather woebegone looking thing, with worn wood and faded lettering displaying his name above an old cracked door on the narrow side. A few of the wheels looked a bit wobbly as well. The young men looked amongst each other for a moment before following. It wasn’t like they had anything else to do, and the promise of cash was too tempting to ignore. Snickering amongst themselves they followed Jardine inside. It wasn’t much better than the exterior. Papers and junk littered an old desk. Battered chairs and other furniture crowded the already small room, but the old man seemed neither to notice nor care.

“So what do you want from us, old man?” Jake asked at last while the others hovered uncertainly in the room, arms crossed defensively. Jardine didn’t reply until he had settled comfortably into the rickety chair behind his worm eaten desk.

“Mutie goes by Nightcrawler.” He said at last. “Used to be part of this very circus. I want him back.”

“So...what?” Jake asked, feigning disinterest. The other boys looked amongst each other, shifting their weight uneasily. “You sayin’ you had him locked up in a cage and he...what, got out?”

“Used to be I had this Circus in the everglades. Made some nice money.” Jardin replied gruffly, lighting a cigar. “Freak show was popular cos I had real freaks, y’see. Had this ‘mutant suppressant drug’ that I paid I don’t even wanna tell you how much to get. Kept him from teleporting and made sure he was nice and docile for the masses.” He leaned back in his chair and smirked. “I still got some. You bring him back and I’ll make it worth yer while.”

Jake paused a moment as he stared down the arrogant old fool. The others waited, poised behind him like a pack of hyenas as they watched for their leader’s reaction.

“We’re listening.”

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When Ivy finally found Kurt once more he was sitting out on her front steps, his head bowed over the cordless. She chewed her lower lip, hovering uncertainly in the doorway. She knew he didn’t want to get too deeply involved with her, was probably angry he had gone so far. He was probably waiting for her to start making demands of him like some sitcom mistress. Maybe that was it. Maybe he had cheated on someone and she had helped him do it. Maybe he really couldn’t be trusted, like Rachel and Anakalia had said. She was about to turn around and leave him be, but froze as he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I am sorry, Liebchen.” He sighed, glancing over his shoulder at her. Ivy hesitated. She wanted to be angry with him, but knew also she had no right. She had known it was only a fling, had assumed he had a well. Why else would he be acting so distant? Why else would it have happened so quickly. It didn’t mean anything. Why then was she so hurt?

Wordlessly she seated herself next to him, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

“Why?” She asked at length, resting her chin on her knees as she regarded him. He averted his gaze, staring somewhere past the oak tree in her front yard.

“I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you.”

“Is that what you think?” She demanded, rage, white hot and terrible welling inside her. “You think I’m some poor defenseless damsel who can’t be trusted to make her own decisions?”

He winced and refused to look her in the eye, shoulders slumping in the face of a sudden scolding. He had expected her to weep, to ask why he would do something so careless. He did not anticipate this diminutive pixie to be so fierce. Nor did he expect her to take his chin in her hand and force him to look at her.

“I made the choice to have sex with you.” She said bluntly. “I knew you’d be leaving and I did it anyway. So did you.” It was strange for her to be speaking to him like this. She barely knew him, would most likely never see him again after he had left, and yet she still cared about how he felt, was in fact amazed to find the reason for his sudden withdraw was guilt. No man in her life had ever done anything but tell her to shut up and put out. And, here, this complete stranger was wallowing in guilt over a harmless fling.

He blinked up at her, surprise and chagrin evident on his blue furred face. Belatedly, she realized she was still cupping his chin in her hand and let go, looking away and running a hand through her hair in frustration. she was letting herself get drawn in again.

“I called some friends of mine in New York.” He said suddenly, handing her the cordless. “They should be coming for me soon.”

“How soon?” She asked softly.

“Tomorrow. One may be arriving tonight. He was already in San Francisco apparently.” He replied, chancing a sideways glance at the little red head. She nodded, eyes on the phone in her hand as she stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back, supporting her weight on her free hand.

“Come on back inside.” She murmured at length. “The Princess Bride is on. We can watch that while supper’s in the oven.” She added as she rose, turning once more for the doorway. He gripped her wrist to keep her from getting too far away from him.

“You are not angry?” He asked, almost pleaded.

She stared at him in silence for a moment, mental scale dipping and weighing and dipping again. She wanted to be, wanted to rage and rant and whine, but he had done nothing wrong. Maybe that was it. He had done everything right and was leaving, reminding her of her solitary existence. Sure she had her friends and her pets, her family in Nevada. But, she wanted what Dimitri and Aislyn had and Kurt would soon be just another story about the perfect guy she let get away.

“Not with you.” She assured him finally, leading him by the hand back inside when she noticed old lady Wilhelm peering at them from between her tacky lace curtains.