-Chapter Four-
Kurt had decided to take sometime for himself and gone up to his room to put
on his swim trunks, with such wonderful weather he figured he’d take advantage
of the pool. On his way back out, he nearly collided with Kitty. He had just
closed the door and turned around as she came running down the hallway towards
her room but noticed him just before she reached him, and phased through him,
then stopped, turned and looked at him.
"Sorry Kurt… didn’t see you there"
"It’s alright Kitty, I vasn’t paying attention and zese hallvays are much
smaller zen zey seem." He said with a slightly embarrassed smile.
"It’s alright, I wasn’t really paying much attention either…" looking him over
and noticing him in his swim trunks she looked back up at him with a smile.
"Going swimming?"
"Yes I vas planning on it"
"Mind if I join you? I don’t really have anything else to do… other than make
tracks in the carpet of the hallways" she replied with a slightly sarcastic
chuckle.
"I vould love ze company, it can get very boring vhen you svim alone."
"I’ll meet you down there then!" She said as she moved around him and began a
slow trot back to her room to change.
He watched her run into her room and moved towards the elevator to wait for her.
When he saw her walk back out of her room, he was glad for once to be covered
with blue fur so she couldn’t see him blushing. She was wearing a pretty
turquoise bikini with a sheer sarong tied around her waist. As she approached
him she smiled at him again.
"You didn’t have to wait for me Kurt, but I appreciate it all the same. Well
then, shall we?"
Kurt nodded and went to push the button to open the elevator but stopped and
looked at her.
"What?"
"Have you ever teleported?"
"No…"
"Vant to?"
"Sure, as they say, there’s a first time for everything."
Kurt smiled and leaned in to hug her.
*pop* All that remained in the hallway was a tuft of smoke and a slight odor of
brimstone…
*pop* They appeared on the grounds of the pool rim outside near the diving
board.
"That was…interesting" She blinked a few times then looking back at him "So that
was teleporting eh?"
"Yes normally I vont go vere I can’t see, but I know zes grounds well enough to
know vere I’ll end up." He said with a proud smile.
"I’ll have to remember that…" she retorted and then pushed Kurt into the water,
but gave a shriek as his tail wrapped around her waist mid-fall and pulled her
in with him. As they both surfaced, Kitty glared at him.
"I can’t believe you did that!" She said as she splashed water at him
"I am sorry Kitty, It vas a reflex…"
"That’s all right, I’ll just keep it in mind that your tail has a mind of it’s
own…" and with that she grabbed his tail and pulled him under the water with it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As Logan headed up to his room to take a shower, the feral animal in him began
to die down and slowly started to feel a bit bad about Rogue. He knew that he’d
hurt her pretty bad, but if it had been too serious, someone would have told him
by now. He shut the door to his room and started to peel off the layers of
clothes he had fought in and turned the shower on in his bathroom. As he stepped
he felt the hot water begin to relax his muscles, and that’s when the worry over
Rogue really hit him. That’s when he heard Jean’s voice enter his mind.
"Logan… what did you do…"
Logan growled at the sound of her voice in his head. The last thing he
remembered of her, was… he didn’t even want to think about that… dream, but
that’s what it had been, just a dream, hadn’t it? He couldn’t remember… but
hearing her voice in his head also meant one other thing he had gotten a bit to
rough in the danger room. Turning the water off, he stepped out of the shower
and grabbed a towel to dry off with. After he was dry, he pulled on a clean pair
of jeans and white t-shirt and pulled open his door.
"Whoa!" Bobby came tumbling to the ground, as the door was pulled open behind
him.
"What the- Bobby?"
"Ow… don’t you ever knock before opening a door?" He asked, rubbing the back of
his head.
"Not when I’m leaving my room"
"Right, you wouldn’t then… but still, you never know who may be leaning on your
door!" He said staring up at him, then began to gather himself and stood up.
"Which brings up my next question… Just why were you leanin’ on my door bub?"
"Because I wanted to ask you something…"
"Ask"
"Well you see, that’s the thing, I suddenly seem to have forgotten it!"
"Then you’ll have to ask me later kid…" He pushed past Bobby and out into the
hallway towards the elevator.
"Logan… the thing is" Bobby began as he started after him "Scott wanted me to
keep you in one place for some reason, but he wouldn’t tell me why."
As they reached the elevator, Logan turned to Bobby with a look of annoyance
just as the elevator door pulled open.
"Well you can tell ol’ one-eye that he can kiss my-"
"Logan" Just as he was about to finish his statement, the professor cut him off.
"Just who I was coming to see. Might I have a word with you?" At the same time
he sent a message to Bobby *~*I’ll take it from here, thank you*~*
Logan stepped into the elevator "Actually I was just on my way to find Jean, so
if we could talk later…"
"Well how about we head to my office and meet her there?"
Bobby watched the elevator doors close in front of him and pondered what to do
next.
"Now what?" He said to himself, before remembering he had been on his way to
talk to Kitty before Scott stopped him.
"Oh Kitty!" He called with a smile. "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!!" He chuckled to
himself at that one…
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hank had her on the table, her cuts bandaged, and her ankle was now being set
for a cast. Remy stood at the side of her bed holding her hand and watching as
Hank tended to his injured love.
"s’okay Chere… Remy be right here when you wake up…"
Jean had left the lab shortly after they got Rogue onto the med-bed, having been
summoned by the professor, so Scott was doing what he could to assist Hank.
"Scott, could you hand me the gauze?" Hank said without looking up "This is
worse than I had thought…" he said with a sigh. Then he looked back up at Remy
"She’ll be in quite a bit of pain for a few days, can you handle that?"
"If Remy can ‘andle bein’ trown into de wall by de chere… den he can ‘andle her
pain too."
As Scott walked to Hank with the gauze, he winced when seeing Rogue’s ankle. Not
only had the bones broken, but they had also broken through the skin. Feeling a
slight wave of nausea Scott set the gauze down on the rolling utensil table and
then stepped back a bit swallowing hard to keep from vomiting.
"How could Logan have done that to her? He said, his face a bit paler than
normal.
"Well Scott, you know how bad of a temper Logan has, and it’s even worse when he
fights. I’ve seen him in the Danger Room, he looses control of himself…" Hank
replied as he finished setting Rogue’s ankle. "There, now as for her head
injury, she did hit it very hard, but not enough to cause serious damage. She
should wake up in a few hours… Remy do you mind staying with her until then? I’d
like to go look over the x-rays of her ankle one more time for safety."
"Non mon ami, Remy would be happy to stay wit de femme."
"Very well then, Scott would go tell Jean and the Professor that she will be
fine in a few days?"
Scott nodded and happily left the room, not really wanting to stick around for
when she woke up, he knew that she had a temper worse than anyone did when
waking up the med lab.
As Scott reached the professor’s office, he didn’t hear any sounds that would
indicate anyone being in there but he felt compelled to at least try knocking.
He knuckles rapped softly on the door three quick times.
"Come in Scott" Jean’s voice replied. He opened the door and looked a bit
confused at seeing just her in the room.
"Where’s the professor?"
"He went to bring Logan down, they should be here sho-" she cut herself off when
she felt the searing pain in her side as she reached up to grab a book off of a
shelf.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kurt and Kitty had been playing games in the water for almost an hour now. With
her pulling him under the water by his tail, and him teleporting her into the
deep end, Marco Polo seemed out of the question. When the two had grown weary of
the water, and felt a bit water logged, they decided to dry off for a while by
lying on the lounge chairs that surrounded the pool. Piotr had walked out of the
mansion with his trunks on just as the two sat down on the chairs. He smiled at
Kitty as he saw her in her bikini, and gave Kurt a friendly nod. At that same
moment, Jubilee came running out towards the deep end of the pool, directly in
front of them.
"CANNON BALL!!" was all they heard before the water flew at them. Within an
instant, Kitty had phased under her chair, Kurt teleported to the other side of
the patio, and Piotr had activated his exoskeleton. Jubilee surfaced and gave a
rather disappointed look around.
"Man, you guys are no fun… the point of a cannonball is to splash everyone!!"
the young girl yelled at them as Kurt teleported back and Kitty crawled from
under her chair. As for Piotr, his body was just as wet as his skin would have
been, but dried quicker in the sun.
"Whoa Piotr! Are you water repellent? Exclaimed Jubilee
"Nyet, but meytal dries qwicker in du sun"
"Hey Piotr" Kitty started "I was just wondering exactly how far down does the
whole metal exoskeleton thing go, because I mean that just puts a whole new spin
on the term ‘buns of steel. " With a horrified look on her face, she realized
that she had just said that out loud and without taking a breath she continued,
"Ohmigod, did I just say that out loud? Okay I am so going to my room to die of
embarrassment…" she rambled off in one long breath before turning beet red with
embarrassment. Jubilee could only throw her arms over the edge of the pool while
laughing to keep herself from drowning.
"Oh… man…Kitty… that… was…great…" she spurted out in-between crippling laughs
while moving to sit on the steps of the pool clutching her stomach and wiping
tears from her eyes. Piotr, in a lapse of concentration, felt the metal begin to
fade as his blushing face began to appear. Kitty had buried her face in her
hands in an embarrassed laugh and once she found the courage to look at him
again, she felt her face go even redder, if possible.
"Oh Piotr, I am so sorry, I couldn’t stop myself…please don’t hate me for
embarrassing you…"
"Don’t vorry dovirish, eit could ‘ave been vorse, and I’m nyet really all dat
embarrassed." Piotr replied with a sheepish smile on his face as he sat down on
a chair next to her. Feeling a bit left out, Jubilee cupped her hands and ran
them across the water sending a large wave of splashed water at the three and as
it hit them, soaking not only them but also their towels the look of surprise
filled their faces. Kurt, a playful gleam in his eyes, teleported just behind
Jubilee in the water, grabbed her waist, picked her up and threw her back down
into the water, then teleported back to his chair, all in a matter of seconds.
As Jubilee surfaced once more she glared at Kurt, as he smiled and waved at her.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The last thing she remembered was fighting Logan in the Danger Room, and then
suddenly blackness had hit her. Now her vision was a bit foggy, but her eyes
were starting to adjust. She could see Remy standing next to her, holding her
hand, Hank was across the room looking at something, and she could have sworn
that she’d just seen Scott leaving the room. She tried to turn her head, but
found that she couldn’t, but what was worse was that when she opened her mouth
to speak, she had no voice. Rogue began to panic, this had never happened
before… she tried to cry out to Remy, tried to move her hand to squeeze his, to
give him some signal she was awake, but she couldn’t move. Then the blackness
began to fade back in again and suddenly she felt very warm and comfortable.
That’s when the dream overtook her again. She’d had this dream before, only this
time something was different. This time, it wasn’t just Remy in the dream… Logan
was there too. They were fighting over something they were too far away for her
to be able to hear anything. Slowly she felt herself nearing them, but she was
missing something. She looked herself over and all her clothes were on, so it
wasn’t one of those dreams, but she still felt that she was missing something.
Then as she got close enough to them, she could hear what they were fighting
over. Her, they were fighting over her. Remy seemed the most upset, and yet
somehow he didn’t, he almost looked… defeated. Logan was grinning like the cocky
bastard that he was, and Remy seemed sad, his crimson and black eyes seemed to
have lost that spark of life that she loved so much in him. As she neared the
arguing men, she began to feel strange. She cared for these men, both of them,
Remy and Logan. She loved Remy with all her heart, and this only deepened it to
see his eyes so sad over her, but she cared for Logan too, he’d become a friend
to her, she trusted him, or did trust him. She knew he didn’t have anyone to
hold onto, and she felt for him. She too knew what it was like to be on your
own, with no one. She realized that’s why she loved Remy so much… she has him to
hold onto. Suddenly she couldn’t be mad at Logan anymore… and then she did
something she hadn’t expected. She felt herself taking her gloves off… the men
were looking at her, and then… she touched them. She began to hear them in her
head, her body felt a sudden surge as their lives drained into her… and she
began crying. She was killing them, but she couldn’t will herself to let them
go. That’s when she screamed.
* * * * * * * * *
Hank was going over Rogue’s x-rays, making sure everything was in order and
began to file all the paperwork into her file when one of the machines began to
beep like crazy. With a few rather large strides, Hank was back at her bed,
holding onto a long piece of paper with a worried expression on his face. The
machine attached to the wires on her forehead was beeping profusely.
"Hmm, now that’s odd…" Hank said almost to himself
"What be odd Mon ami?" Remy asked, pure worry in his voice.
"This reading… It’s rather strange."
"What you mean by dat?"
"Remy" Hank said in a worried tone "Did she move at all? I mean even just a
twitch?"
"Non, de chere been layin’ dere stiff as a board dis whole time… why?"
"Because this reading shows that she not only should be awake, but also a
serious increase in her brain activity… almost as if she’s got more than one
person in her head."
"But how can dat be? Dere be only one chere…"
"I’d better call upon Charles for this one…"
With that Hank went to the door of the med lab and pressed a button that
activated the two-way speaker system. He had it installed because not everyone
in the mansion was a telepath…
"Charles, I’d appreciated it if you could join me down here, we have a situation
that I’d like your op-"
Just then what sounded like a muffled scream echoed through the med lab, but
when Hank looked at Rogue, hoping to find her awake, he got a surprise. Rogue’s
scream could be heard emanating from her, but her body was still lying on the
med bed, completely unconscious. Hank looked a bit confused.
"Professor, you’d better get down here as soon as possible…"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Just as soon as Jean had clutched her side and Hank’s voice cut off, she let go
of her side and fell to her knees. Her hands went up to cover her ears as she
heard it. Rogue’s scream echoed in her head as if it were her own voice
screaming. The pitch was abnormally high, and seemed to last forever, not the
few seconds that reality let it run. Scott ran to her side and Jean was pleased
that he hadn’t noticed her side, but her reaction to the scream. She was
relieved that someone else had heard it…
"Jean what’s wrong?" Scott asked as he pulled her hands away from her ears
"What was that scream?"
"What scream?"
Jean looked at him with shock written all over her face. He had to have heard
it! She couldn’t be the only one to have heard it. Hank was on the speaker at
the time, it came from there and he hadn’t heard it? She felt like her ears were
going to explode with the pitch of it and he hadn’t heard it?
"That god-awful painful scream… I think it was…. Rogue."
That’s when the door to the office opened and the professor entered followed by
Logan. The speaker clicked back on as the door closed.
"Professor, you’d better get down here as soon as possible…" Hank’s voice spoke
over the speaker system. Jean looked at the professor from her position on the
ground. *~*Did you hear it? Oh please tell me you heard it! *~* She asked him
telepathically, not wanting to scare Scott any more than necessary.
*~*Yes Jean I did, something feels wrong*~* "Well Logan, you wanted to discuss
something with Jean, now would be the time. If you’ll excuse me, Scott I’d like
you to accompany me to the med lab."
Scott looked at Jean, his worried expression plastered onto his face.
"Will you be alright?"
"I’ll be fine, go with the professor"
Scott nodded and stood up to follow the professor out of the room as Logan
stepped aside, then went to help Jean stand up. As he was about to help her
stand up, she quickly stood on her own, but winced as she stood up straight, her
hands going to her sides hoping that the pressure might make the pain go away.
* * * * * * * * *
Jubilee had found a raft in the pool house and had brought it out to float on.
Kurt, Kitty, Piotr, and Jubilee were just taking the afternoon easy and getting
the most out of the beautiful weather that Storm had created for the day. With
Jubilee floating on the raft that held her partially in the water, and the other
three just lounging in the deck chairs, Kitty and Piotr were stealing secret
glances at each other and chuckling when they noticed. Kurt had fallen asleep
somewhere along the line when the sun had lulled him to sleep with the warmth.
Bobby had decided that with most of the others busy in their own doings, he’d
take the opportunity to lounge in the sun as well, but he wasn’t expecting what
he saw when he walked out onto the pool deck. When he saw Jubilee in her black
and red bikini, his jaw dropped. Kitty noticed this and laughed, catching
Bobby’s attention and his eyes nearly popped out as he saw her in a bikini as
well.
"Bobby! Come to join the party?" she said playfully noting the expression on his
face at seeing the girls in their suits.
Bobby could only manage to get one word mumbled out of his mouth. "Eh… bikinis"
"What?" The look on Kitty’s face was priceless… she honestly hadn’t heard him.
"Uh… Wahinis?" was the only thing that Bobby could bring to mind, but somehow it
seemed to fit the occasion. Kitty raised a brow at that one, not really
believing that’s what he had said.
"Excuse me?
"Ah, Wahinis… you know girls?
"Okay…" Kitty rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, and Bobby smirked at the
fact that she hadn’t laughed at him. He always had liked Kitty; she had a sense
of humor like him. Bobby thought about joining the three occupants of the lounge
chairs, but when he saw Piotr and Kitty begin a "poking to find tickle spots"
contest, he figured he’d just go dump Jubilee off the raft and claim it as his
own.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *