DISCLAIMER:
Pryde and Wisdom, the X-men and Excalibur all are trademarks of Marvel Comics. This story is an unauthorized work done purely for my personal enjoyment, and is not intended to infringe on any of their rights in or profits from these characters. But this story is copyright to me.

WARNING:
THERE IS EXPLICIT SEX IN THIS SECTION. I marked this clearly in the individual section header. The sex is graphic, but all loving and consensual (and not that much worse than a typical romance novel). If reading sex scenes like that would offend you, please don't read this.

If you want to comment, send email to <luba@lubakmetyk.net>

Part 5 Envy

Pete Wisdom was outside on the estate grounds, enjoying a cigarette and some peace and quiet both in solitude after his assorted morning encounters. He was waiting somewhat anxiously for Kitty to join him, to find out if her session with Professor Xavier had gone any better than his abortive conversation with the intractable Storm.

He was relieved to finally hear Kitty's voice through the trees. "Where are you hiding, Wisdom? I know you're out here somewhere." Leaving the mansion to find him, she'd been drawn in this direction, until she could feel his presence nearby, in some way she couldn't explain.

"Over here, Pryde," Pete called out. Putting out his cigarette, he held out his arm as she approached, and she came into his embrace eagerly, slipping her arms inside his coat to hug him to her as he kissed her.

"Isn't it a bit warm for the coat?" she asked him after a moment. "This isn't cold and windy Scotland, you know, or even London, and it is summertime, after all..."

"Yeah, but you never know when a storm may hit," he replied wryly. "I had a little run-in with the mother-in-law-from-hell this mornin'..." As Kitty looked at him in puzzlement, Pete hastened to explain himself. "You did tell me, remember, that your friend Storm was like your unofficial foster mother here, didn't you? An' one woman's goddess is another man's devil, I learned that from a mate o' mine..."

Kitty couldn't help laughing at his rather unique description of Ororo, even as she hastened to defend her friend's protective attitude. "Well, she's actually too much older than me to be like a sister, and not really old enough to be my mother, but, basically, yes, she did try to mother me when I was here with the X-men. And she's obviously trying to save me from a fate worse than death, namely you... Well, it sounds like you had an interesting morning too, while I was with the Professor. So, tell me, what happened?" Kitty asked that question with a distinct feeling of trepidation.

"Well, first, you missed out on some really great-tastin' coffee..." Pete smiled in recollection, then went on to fill her in on the breakfast gathering, and his subsequent encounters with Storm and Psylocke, with their distinctly different atmospheres and endings, winding up his saga with a plaintive "You never told me nothin' about what Braddock's sister mentioned..."

Kitty sighed at the accusatory note in his voice. "Betsy was right, it just hasn't come up yet. There's been so much else to tell you about. And she was right another way, too, I probably avoided bringing it up because I don't like remembering that time. I thought for a while there that I'd be responsible for the X-men owing Dr. Doom bigtime, and I was terrified of what he'd want from them in return..."

Pete hugged her to him, trying to comfort her, even as he fought down the icy chill he felt at the thought that Kitty might have died before he'd had his chance to know her, before she'd had her chance to change his life. Wisdom suddenly realized that there were worse ways of losing her, than simply to a rival. He said, gruffly, grudgingly, "I guess your Professor can't be all that bad, then. He must 'ave cared about you quite a lot, to be willing to deal with Doom. I owe 'im some for that."

Kitty's lips twisted in a wry grimace. "Yeah, except it wasn't Professor Xavier, remember, I told you all this was while he was off in space with Lilandra and the Starjammers, it was Magneto who tried so hard to help me, and it wasn't easy for him to convince Dr. Richards and the Fantastic Four that it wasn't all some great supervillain plot of his."

"So, speakin' o' the old fart, tell me about you an' chrome dome..." Kitty frowned at Pete disapprovingly at that little flight of creative description, then, as Wisdom started another cigarette, she took her turn recounting her second encounter with the Professor.

Summarizing the session for him, Kitty couldn't help remembering all of Xavier's not very subtle innuendos about the credibility of Wisdom's attraction to her, especially given their age difference. Now he'd had the opportunity to meet most of the women on the teams, almost all of them nearer his own age and much more spectacular in appearance. And Kitty thought she'd sensed something from Pete, some unspoken reaction, while they'd been talking about his encounter with Psylocke.

Wisdom had no idea what she was thinking, but he could feel her body tensing in his arms. As Kitty wound down her report, Pete looked at her quizzically. "Somethin' else happen you're not tellin' me, Pryde?"

Kitty didn't know how to tell him what she'd just been thinking, how to ask him if there was any truth in the Professor's sly insinuations. "No, nothing else, really... So, tell me, what'd you think of Betsy?"

Surprised by the apparent sudden change of subject, Pete hesitated, wondering what Kitty was trying to get at, and what she seemed determined to avoid. Mistaking the reason for his silence as an inability to answer her while he searched for a plausible subterfuge, Kitty tried to pull away from him. However, Wisdom felt her abortive little motion immediately and tightened his hold on her, asking in a concerned tone, "What's wrong, Kitty? Somethin' I did? Or didn't do? Or somethin' more did happen with that old sod, Xavier..."

Kitty bit her lip, then burst out, "Was the Professor right, Pete? He said you wouldn't, you couldn't be interested in me, not for real. And you seem quite taken with Betsy and her rather obvious assets..."

Pete snorted incredulously. "Nah, I just couldn't believe she goes runnin' around with her butt hangin' out all the time, a high-class lady like 'er... ruddy embarrassed me, it did, I didn't know where to look." He had forgotten the first part of her outburst, in his surprise at the second, and so he hadn't responded to her reference to Xavier's comments directly. Kitty was silent for so long, wondering whether that omission meant something, that Pete finally asked her, "Penny for 'em, love?"

"I was just wondering, if we'd be together now if Rachel had still been with Excalibur when you joined us... Alastaire could never take his eyes off her long enough to notice me..." There was a wistful quiver in Kitty's voice as she forced herself to put her doubts in words.

Wisdom had studied the files on Excalibur, first WHO's information while still at Black Air and then later their own records on Muir, and Kitty had also shown him her own collection of pictures in her scrapbooks. And he'd met Alastaire just recently, fleeing Black Air, and had not been overly impressed. "Well, of course he drooled all over 'er. Your friend Stuart's a bleedin' wanker, is all, and your Rachel looks like every guy's friggin' wet dream in that outfit," he commented disparagingly, still missing Kitty's real concern.

"That's disgusting," Kitty exclaimed, outraged for her absent friends' sake. "How could you ever say or think such an awful thing?"

"Well, gimme another good reason for anybody to dress that way." Pete responded bluntly. "That's the only purpose for a getup like that."

Kitty's expressive eyes clouded over as she recalled some of her many conversations with Rachel, especially those late at night when Rachel's frequent nightmares kept them both awake. "She told me, to remind herself of the future she came from, and to remember to keep trying to prevent it happening. And, I think also, maybe to keep punishing herself for being a hound and hunting fellow mutants."

"How on earth did she ever get it on an' off, or even breathe in it?" That was a question Pete had been dying to ask for a long time, of most of the heroes and villains all busy running around in skin-tight spandex or leather costumes whom he'd been meeting lately, since joining Excalibur.

"Dai Thomas asked her that once, Rachel told me." Kitty was smiling now in fond recollection. "She told him she didn't need to breathe. And she'd use her telekinetic powers to put on her costume molecule by molecule, like she did with some of her other outfits, too, not like us ordinary folk getting dressed... I had to wear her outfit once, while I was pretending to be Rachel when the Warwolves were after her, and it hung down all over me in these baggy, saggy folds, and I tried stuffing socks and things into the top but that didn't really help any, and then I thought I'd break my ankles trying to walk in those spike heels..."

Wisdom couldn't help his delighted chuckle at the classic image of a younger Kitty playing dress-up in her older roommate's clothes. "God, I wish I'd seen that, I can't imagine you in that getup..."

Kitty crimsoned at Pete's laughter, assuming he was making fun of the thought of anyone with her slim figure trying to carry off a skin-tight leather outfit like that. "What, you louse, you think that's so bloody impossible, that I could pretend to be Rachel, even for a minute?" Then she twisted out of his loose embrace in hot embarrassment as she suddenly wondered if he could be referring instead to her borrowing some of Ray's lingerie to try to seduce him, successfully, their first time together.

"Nah, I just figured you'd be too classy to ever wear such a stupid outfit." Wisdom was still chortling at the mental picture she'd conjured up for him, not understanding why Kitty seemed to be getting upset.

Flushing angrily at his undisguised amusement, Kitty retorted hotly, "Oh, yes, I would too, if I had a body like Rachel, or Betsy or Jean or Rogue, if I could shapeshift to look like anything I want, like Meggan, so you'd look at me like you look at them..."

"Your body is just as good as theirs, in fact, it's a lot better because it don't look all fake, and it comes with your mind included, an' I'm not so sure some o' them others got any minds to speak of..." Wisdom found it hard to believe that Kitty felt she couldn't compete with those other women, or that he'd be interested in any of them, especially when he already had her. "Aw, come on, Kitty, for God's sake, I just look at 'em because I'm tryin' to figure out if they're for real, that's all. I'm not a bloody idiot, I know I already got the best o' the lot... And that Meggan's a nice girl, really, she's just tryin' her damnest to satisfy that wanker Braddock, he's just too thick to know what really matters..."

Stepping in closer to her, Pete slipped his hands under her sweater to delicately touch her bare skin, feeling her tremble at his nearness and his touch even as he shivered himself at its incredible softness. He slid his hands upward to lie over her breasts, murmuring "See, I told you, they're a perfect fit..." Wisdom continued to stroke and massage Kitty's breasts gently as he leaned over to kiss her, feeling the soft nipples hardening against his palms in response. After a minute, he straightened back up, to go on in a serious tone, "Look, love, in real life, any more than a handful is just a waste, unless you're plannin' to go in for a new career in skin flicks... An' big knockers get in the way when you're fightin', they muck up your balance, an' give you backaches, and get you accosted by loonies on the street an' at the pub and in the tube..." Pete kept kneading her breasts gently the whole time he'd been talking, smiling at her sudden fit of the giggles as the ridiculous sense of what he was saying so sententiously penetrated her fog of growing arousal.

He slid his hands over her silky skin, down from her breasts to her waist to hold her lightly, and then around to her buttocks, pulling her to him tightly. He pushed his hands inside the waistband of her jeans to cup her buttocks in his palms the same way he'd just held her breasts. Wisdom smiled down into her beautiful trusting brown eyes and said softly, "See, another perfect fit..." He kissed Kitty again gently, then, still holding her close, grinned at her as he continued his evaluation of her charms. "Now, I admit maybe some more paddin' down there might be nice to have when you fall, but you're too good to go splat very often, not like me..."

Pete was glad to see Kitty chuckling at his seriocomic analysis of advantages and disadvantages of different female body types. He hadn't realized until now that she was so self-conscious and insecure about her looks. Kitty had always seemed so poised, so confident and assured, it still seemed quite out of her character as he'd come to know it. Wisdom wondered with a pang if those feelings of inadequacy had always been there and he'd been too insensitive to see them until this visit had caused her self-doubts to surface enough that he couldn't fail to recognize them.

"An' I don't particularly want you wearing them skin-tight outfits, anyway, 'cept your usual fightin' clothes. Trust me, I think you'd look great in them, so great I'd get run over by all them other tossers comin' after you..." Kitty laughed at the picture he was painting, but she was blushing in pleasure, not deriding the possibility of his hypothetical scenario. "I like your usual clobber best. They make you comfortable, an' I have fun rememberin' what's waitin' for me underneath... an' I can get me hands in under 'em a lot easier, too, like now, not like tryin' to get inside your fighting rig back that first time on the plane..."

Holding Kitty tightly in a comforting embrace, Wisdom thought to himself that he didn't believe he could ever get enough of the sight of her standing in front of him, lying next to him or sitting astride him, wild in a way he would never have imagined possible when he first met her, especially her oh-so pretty breasts with their pert rosy tips quivering before him provocatively enough to tempt a saint. But he knew she'd never believe him if he tried to tell her what a siren she really was. Kitty would never recognize herself in the bewitching woman he saw her to be.

"Y'know, if you really want to run around in skin-tight leather, I'll buy you something from a sex shop next time we're in London. In the meantime..."

Pete let go of her suddenly, leaving her staring at him in surprise. He started taking off his coat, then looked over at her. "Move it, Pryde, lose the clothes..." he ordered, with a devilish grin.

She looked at him warily. "Pete, what on earth...?"

"You want skin-tight leather, I'll do you skin-tight leather..." He spread his coat out on the ground, pausing to root around in the pockets and lay something on a clump of grass next to where his coat was spread out. He yanked off his tie and started unbuttoning his shirt, then paused and looked over at her. "Come on, Pryde, snap it up, time's a'wastin'..."

Kitty looked around the small clearing dubiously, then shrugged. It wasn't really that likely any of the others would stumble over them out here. Only Logan spent a lot of time outdoors, and he could sense their presence from a distance, and would have the manners not to intrude. And Storm and Bishop and Colossus, among others, were all supposedly safely involved in a training exercise in the danger room. Besides, even this early in the day it was certainly warmer here than on Muir, and they could quickly generate more than enough heat themselves to not worry about the actual outdoor temperature, and she was curious to see what new twist Pete had come up with now. She phased herself and stepped sideways so her clothes fell on the ground in a heap. "Ok, now what?"

Seeing Kitty naked could still stop Pete dead in his tracks anytime. Dropping his shirt on the ground, he paused in his undressing to pull her to him, running his hands over her back and buttocks and legs as he kissed her mouth, her neck, her breasts. Then he picked her up in his arms and knelt to lay her on the ground, on top of his trenchcoat. "Now wait just another sec..." He sat down next to her, taking off his shoes and socks and belt, then wriggled around some to remove his pants.

Once he was naked also, he lay down on his coat on the ground next to her, and Kitty saw him reach over to pick up the small wad he'd pulled out of his coat pocket earlier. He shook the wad out, and she could see it was a pair of ratty old leather driving gloves. He pulled them on, and then reached out to run one gloved hand over the soft skin of her breast, pinching the nipple in his fingers. Kitty couldn't stop her gasp as the rough, cracked leather tickled and tantalized her with sensations she'd never felt before on her bare skin. Her entire body seemed to catch fire wherever he touched her.

Pete grinned at her reaction. "So how's this for skin-tight leather? Tight enough? Any particular places you want the leather?" Wisdom was running his hands lightly over her breasts, along her arms, across her stomach and her hips, down her legs, watching the goosebumps rise on her shivering skin as Kitty arched upward in an unconscious attempt to get closer to his hands. As Pete ran his gloved hand around and inside her navel, he could see the muscles of her firm flat stomach jump at the novel simulation. He trailed his hand down between her legs, rewarded by an involuntary twitch of her hips, but didn't try to push inside her, yet.

Wisdom had another sudden inspiration and rolled off her again, while she cried out at the sudden halt to all the teasing stimulation. "Hang on just another sec, we ain't done 'ere..."

He reached over into the tumbled pile of clothes next to them, and straightened up with his belt in his hand. Kitty let out a little gasp before she could stop herself. He saw her flinch and reached down to run his other hand along her cheek, bending over to kiss her forehead and murmuring "Relax, love, I'm not going to hurt you..."

She relaxed at his soft touch and gentle tone, and smiled up at him. "I know that, dummy... I was just surprised, that's all. But just what are you planning to do with that belt?" She was still a bit apprehensive.

"Just a little more skin-tight leather, that's all..." He ran his hand down her face to her neck. She expected him to continue the caress downward but he pulled his hand away instead and used his spread fingers to measure something on the belt, generating a tiny hot-knife to burn a small hole through the belt almost halfway along, while she watched, wide-eyed. He ran his belt around her neck under her hair, then pulled the belt through the buckle and used the new hole to fasten it around her neck.

Kitty was wracked by a terrible shudder. She couldn't believe the sudden, burning craving between her legs as he tightened the makeshift collar on her neck, the debilitating wave of pleasure rushing through her body, from her throat down her breasts and belly to that hidden core between her legs, leaving her open to whatever he wanted to do to her.

Pete wrapped the extra length of belt around his hand and pulled gently, using it as a leash to draw Kitty to him for a long, deep kiss, stroking the smooth flesh of her bare back with his other hand. She was trembling uncontrollably now, the pleasure between her legs becoming an agony, pressing her body against his, twisting and squirming as she moaned her aroused need.

He let the extra belt length drop as he wrapped both arms around her to hold her close. It fell in the valley between her breasts, trapped between their bodies by their tight embrace. They rocked back and forth together where they lay entwined on Wisdom's trenchcoat, until a quick surge on Kitty's part brought her to the top, her legs straddling his hips as she looked down at Pete beneath her through heavy-lidded eyes, licking at her swollen lips with her tongue, as she shifted around atop him in sensuous invitation, teasing his straining erection with intermittent contact with its desired goal.

Wisdom took advantage of Kitty's new position to reach up and run his gloved hands up and down the smooth surface of her exposed back, causing her to shiver and moan again at the contact of delicate skin with rough leather. Expertly varying the simulation, he'd pause occasionally to shift his grip lower down, pressing his palms deep into the firm flesh to knead her buttocks gently, and then running a leather-clad finger along and within the crease between the small globes, feeling her jerk and gasp in response. Twisting around slightly, he could just reach down far enough to caress the backs of her silky thighs, causing Kitty to wiggle her hips even more vigorously against him.

Catching her by surprise, he grabbed her and flipped them back over, his gloved hands pressing her down onto his coat as he chuckled softly, "Sorry, Kitty, but you need to be the bottom again. You're the one wanted the skin-tight leather, so now you keep your skin down on the leather..."

With that said, he dropped his mouth to one of her breasts, and took the nipple in his mouth, pulling and sucking on it with meticulous care and skill. After a little while, Pete felt her other breast was being neglected, and moved his mouth to explore it as well, always making sure to move one gloved hand to knead and caress the other breast.

His other hand was busy now between her legs, which she had spread wide in unspoken invitation. Kitty could feel his leather-clad fingers rubbing at her moist, swollen lower lips, slipping within to tease at the little knob of flesh to send fresh shivers and spasms through her body, then slipping deep inside to probe her depths as she moaned and thrashed about in response, his fingers withdrawing occasionally to smear the scented wetness of her arousal across the satin skin on her breasts and belly where his mouth and tongue then carefully licked it off again.

Kitty reached down to slip her hand between their bodies to hold and stroke his erection, while she continued to run her other hand up and down his back, dragging her short, trim nails over his skin lightly. Her soft cool fingers positioned him at her entrance as she continued wiggling around as before, resuming her teasing of the tip of his shaft with the beckoning promise of ultimate fulfillment. It didn't take too much of that before Pete forgot about tickling and tantalizing Kitty any further. He heard her low-throated laugh next to his ear as he pushed her hand away, and his gloved fingers gently pulled open the soft folds of flesh between her legs to ease his entry.

Kitty cradled his hips between her legs and wrapped her arms around his back and entwined her legs around his. Braced on both arms, Pete slid into her with a loud groan of relief, which she echoed with a softer moan of her own satisfaction at finally being filled. They did fit together just perfectly, Wisdom thought to himself smugly with a small part of his brain, right before that last shred of conscious thought was swept away in pure bliss.

His strokes beginning slow and steady, they moved together as if long-time lovers, both knowing exactly which motion felt best, which caress inflamed the most. Running his arms under her body, Pete pulled Kitty even closer to him, if that were possible, thrusting harder as she moved more urgently under him to meet his strokes until he heard her cry out, saw her body tense and spasm, and then he was climaxing as well, one final loud groan escaping his lips as he lost himself in her.

After a few moments, when they'd both had a chance to catch their breath, Pete shifted to lie near one edge of his coat, pulling her to lie cuddled against him with one arm while he used the other to pull the other side of his coat over her. Kitty snuggled up to him tightly inside the leather cocoon he'd created, enjoying the erotic mixture of warm coziness and sensual abandon.

"You know, Pete, I think my friends are being a bad influence on you..." she said in a musing tone.

"What, you think they're drinking me crackers? Makin' me do balmy things like this? Hate to tell you this, Kitty, but that's your doin', not theirs..." Wisdom stroked her cheek lightly, then brushed some stray tendrils of hair off her forehead before raising her face to his for a long, deep kiss. He was a little worried that he might have gone too far with her this time, had shocked or disgusted her, with the belt collar at least. Once the idea had occurred to him, he just hadn't been able to resist it. But she was right, it had come from a deep-seated need in him to assert his claim to her, his possession of her. "You feel things got outta hand?"

Kitty wasn't indulging in any such deep philosophical queries. "No, of course not, you idiot, I don't think there's anything you'd think of for us I wouldn't enjoy." She smiled at him dreamily through half-lidded eyes. "I was just thinking... You know, ever since we came here, I keep ending up on the bottom. I think you have this secret need to reassert yourself every time my friends beat up on you..."

Pete had to laugh at that quasi-comic, quasi-serious complaint, while wincing at the same time at how accurately she'd pinpointed the forces driving him. "Nothin' so secret about it, love, you winkled it right out..." He continued, in a more somber tone, "You're right, Kitty, I have been takin' it out on you..."

Kitty realized he was taking her joking complaint a little too seriously. She'd forgotten for a moment just how insecure he'd been in their loving the previous night. It had taken her a while to jolly him out of that mood, and she didn't want to drive him back into a blue funk again. "Hey, look, it's ok, Pete, come on, I was just kidding, really..." He still seemed to be worried, so she grinned at him mischievously. "Tell you what, you just owe me a couple times where I get to run the show... turnabout's fair play, after all."

Pete laughed in relief at that blunt demand. "Yeah, I think I can live with that deal."

He stretched out next to her and reached out to unbuckle the belt from her neck, but Kitty took his hand in hers, shaking her head and murmuring quietly "No, don't... leave it a little longer, please..."

"Sure, love, as long as you want, forever if you want..." He kissed her softly and held her close to lie cradled in his arms. "So does this mean we go shoppin' for you next time we hit civilization?"

"No, I don't think so..."

Pete raised his head to look down at Kitty in surprise. "Did I miss somethin' 'ere? I thought you enjoyed this..." He ran a hand along the belt still buckled around her neck, watching her shiver and moan again. "You did enjoy it..."

"Of course I enjoyed it, you stupid git... It's just, you couldn't buy me anything that would get to me like your old coat and gloves and belt... They're a part of you, not just some silly toy or costume..." Her expression suddenly grew very serious. "Pete, promise me, please... any time I start worrying about not being as pretty or attractive or sexy as the others, Meggan and Ororo and Betsy and all of them... promise me to do this again, not with any fake props but just like this again..."

"That's one damn easy promise... but only when you're feeling plain? I don't want you thinking you're not beautiful, you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, even with all them others around..." Pete hated the self-doubt this visit seemed to bring up in her, hated her friends for making her feel inadequate. "Not at any other times?" He leered at her suggestively, succeeding in making her laugh again.

She leaned over to kiss him, running her tongue over his lips. "We can negotiate that..."

Tabitha Smith was outside early that morning, wandering across the mansion grounds with no particular destination in mind, thinking about what had happened with Sabertooth, still trying to come to terms with what she had thought of him being so different than the others' reactions. Whenever she got tired of that particular subject, she would switch to musing on her soi-disant boyfriend, Sam Guthrie, leaving her and X-Force both to go officially join the X-men as a supposed promotion, and apparently losing all his intelligence, leadership and fighting skills, and personality in the process.

Her new Meltdown bad-girl persona helped her get through the days, hiding her vulnerabilities deep enough that no one could get through to touch and wound her, or so she hoped, but she couldn't keep up the facade all the time, she needed to be alone occasionally, to be able to drop her emotional guard down for at least a brief period of time. Tabitha wasn't an outdoor person normally, but right now she didn't want to be around the mansion, she didn't want to be around her teammates and she especially didn't want to be around Sam.

Hearing low voices, Tabitha stopped just before she almost stumbled into the next clearing. Not wanting any company or questions, but still curious as to who'd be out here, she approached quietly. Normally, they would still have heard her coming, but at the moment Kitty and Pete were far too engrossed in each other to take any notice of their surroundings.

Seeing them together, Tabitha stood frozen with bitter jealousy roiling up out of an ineffable yearning. She couldn't remember the last time she and Sam had been similarly enjoying each other, giving and taking both comfort and pleasure, talking and laughing and hugging and kissing, with no hint of tears or recriminations or arguments or excuses. Then, just as her eyes were misting over in envy, she was suddenly shocked to see Wisdom fastening his belt around around Kitty's neck, using it as a leash to control her. The sight generated a roaring flood of unwelcome memories in their secret audience. The sound of their lovemaking, the physical coming together of their bodies punctuated with their sighs and groans, low cries and moans, masked the sound of Tabitha fleeing away blindly.

Tabitha came back into the mansion, vaguely remembering that X-Force had a training session scheduled right after some of the X-men got done with the danger room, looking forward to venting some of her pent-up anger and frustration.

She found most of the members of her team waiting around for their turn in the danger room, Siryn, Sunspot, Warpath, Shatterstar, and the enigmatic Domino. Only Cable and Caliban hadn't shown up yet. Rahne and Douglock were both there too, planning to observe with the aim of joining in future sessions. To Tabitha's surprise, so was Cannonball, in response to Jean's promptings at breakfast.

DaCosta saw Meltdown come in, and noticed she seemed upset. There was a special bond between the two of them dating back to Bobby's days as a runaway with the Fallen Angels, where he'd first met BoomBoom, before she'd been taken in by X-Factor or joined the New Mutants. He asked her what was wrong, and without thinking or pausing to analyze why she was so upset Tabitha blurted out what she'd just witnessed, her jaundiced version of what she'd seen shocking most of her audience in turn.

However, Sunspot didn't understand why Tabitha seemed so disturbed by what she reported seeing. "I think it sounds like a lot of fun," DaCosta smirked lasciviously. "Who'd have thought Pryde the Prude had it in her?"

"Oh, be quiet, Roberto," Siryn snapped at him in outrage. "And keep those disgusting opinions to yeself." Sunspot made faces at her, as she continued, "Blessed saints, Tabitha, how could ye do such a dreadful thing? An' then tell all of us? They deserve some respect and privacy, lass, just like everyone else..." Theresa didn't really know Kitty, or Wisdom at all, but she'd thought Kitty and Pete were sweet and romantic together, always holding hands and so obviously happy to be with each other. And Siryn had had trouble enough worrying about and coping with Tabitha's volatile mood swings and radical personality changes since Sam's departure and her subsequent fixation on Sabertooth.

Rahne also jumped to her teammates' defense, even though she was blushing furiously at the thought of what Tabitha had said she'd seen. "Ah dinna believe ye saw what ye say, surely ye misunderstood. Ah canna believe Mr. Wisdom would force Kitty, he would no' need tae, and ah dinna believe they'd do anything unnatural..." It had taken a lot of courage on Rahne's part to speak up for her friends, especially on this topic. She still wasn't really comfortable with anything related to sex, between Reverend Craig's original warped influence on a young and impressionable child and then being imprinted onto Havok in Genosha, but she'd grown and matured enough recently to accept such feelings and activities in her friends, if not yet for herself, and to realize they represented normal human instinct, not automatic damnation.

"How does this current reported behavior correlate in severity with the various other activities we have observed them engaging in back at Dr. McTaggart's research station?" Douglock tugged at her elbow in fascinated curiosity, but Rahne shushed him impatiently. "Later, Dougie, Ah dinna ken how tae explain," she muttered, then, in sudden inspiration, "but Ah promise Lady Moira will answer all yuir questions when we're back home."

Sulking away to sit huddled in a self-pitying ball of misery near the wall, Tabitha muttered almost inaudibly to herself, "That's rich, that is, two skanks covering up for a third... Little Miss Fearless Leader likes to keep poor Jimmy dangling on her string while she makes eyes at that motor-mouth merc... And Little Miss Pureheart there, she used to positively drool over Rictor, and he even left us to go to Genosha to rescue her, who's she think she is, to act the innocent about foolin' with boyfriends..." Tabitha had been interested in Rictor at the same time that Rictor had been interested in Rahne, which hadn't made for a close friendship between the two girls after Tabitha had joined the New Mutants before Rahne had changed over to X-Factor after the Genosha incident.

Cannonball had been so surprised by Tabitha's odd behavior since her entrance, her profound disturbance at such a seemingly embarrassing but trivial incident quite out of character for their resident free spirit, that he couldn't think of anything to say for a moment. And, before Sam could come up with any reassurances for her or even reach over to comfort Tabitha, the conversation shifted abruptly and distracted everyone from its initiator.

"How can you stand up for her, Rahne, take her side against one of us? Or have you forgotten how Kitty always thought she was too good to be with us X-babies?" Sunspot still harbored a grudge from their earliest days in the New Mutants, when they'd first been recruited by the Professor to replace the missing, presumed dead, X-men. Xavier had tried to force Kitty to join the other students her own age right after the X-men had reappeared, but had soon been convinced to let her remain with the senior team, a recurring sore point with many of the New Mutants.

"That's nae fair, Roberto. We've talked much since then, an' Kitty just never felt comfortable with them her own age. Even when she tried to make friends with us it always seemed tae go wrong for her. And she never looked down on Illyana or puir Dougie..."

"Please explain reference to oneself in this context." Douglock was tugging at Rahne's arm again. She hissed at him, "Nae ye, ye big lummox, yuir... ummm... progenitor, Doug Ramsey. Na' hush, an' listen..."

"Aye, that explains why she goes for an older man, like Mr. Wisdom," Siryn thought that should be obvious, but the others were too busy rehashing ancient history to pay any attention to her, except Douglock who nodded in pleased recognition of her logical deduction. Almost all of the newer members of X-Force were watching the escalating slanging match of the comparative oldtimers with fascinated interest, all except Shatterstar who normally had no strong interest in what he considered irrelevant human mating ritual and who now waited impatiently to get down to business with their training session.

"Relax, Rahne, Bobby just can't believe any girl wasn't interested in him, now or way back then..." Sam Guthrie finally entered the argument, but in defense of Rahne, not Tabitha, forgetting about his girlfriend and her feelings for the moment. He'd spent too much time as co-leader of the New Mutants trying to support and protect the timid and shy Rahne from the gibes of her more assertive teammates to drop that habit now, even though it was clear she'd matured enough since then, first in X-Factor and then in Excalibur, to not really need his help.

"Have you forgotten how she treated us, Sam? Or, no, I forgot, she saved your term paper once after your computer had eaten it, and you went trailing around after her like a little puppy dog, a little lost hound dog, for quite a while after that..." Roberto was not willing to admit to any pique over the way Kitty had usually tended to ignore him, even if there was quite a large dose of truth in Cannonball's snide remark.

"I do not recall such an incident in my scans of Douglas Ramsey's memories." Douglock was distracting Rahne again, who knew he wouldn't stop pestering her until he got an answer. "It was a class assignment from Magneto, the verra day Cyclops an' Storm battled for leadership o' the X-men, ye may no' remember because ye were so mad he wouldnae let ye train wi' the rest of us..."

Still ignored on the sidelines, the original source of the dispute had stiffened in jealous outrage. DaCosta had told Meltdown about Rahne's crush on Sam, and Sam did seem much more concerned about Rahne's feelings in this stupid argument than about Tabitha's. She'd never heard any hint about Sam being interested in Kitty, but she was already more than upset enough to take Sunspot's reference far more seriously than the original trivial incident he was referring to warranted. Tabitha had not been seeing things clearly for quite some time now, and to her Sam seemed much more interested in defending Rahne and Kitty both than in consoling or even acknowledging his current girlfriend.

"And have you forgotten, Bobby, how Kitty came up with the plan that rescued you and Amara from the Gladiators? And then covered for all of us with the Professor so we could go after Karma? And who was the one person to remember us when the Beyonder wiped out both us and the memory of us completely, so that everybody else forgot we ever existed? And who was it who finally convinced Loki ta let us go from Asgard? An' she was always there for Illyana, much more than any of us were, we were all always too afraid of the demon sorceress to accept her wholeheartedly as a friend, like Kitty did..."

Cannonball had never had any interest in Kitty, and had no idea what ideas Sunspot's gibe had started in Tabitha's overactive imagination. He had resented Kitty's superior attitude as much as Bobby and the others in the beginning, but he hadn't been appointed co-leader of the New Mutants and then leader of X-Force without having demonstrated the ability to accept and acknowledge reality, including Kitty's growing cooperation with the New Mutants over time, and her special friendship with the teenage Illyana. Sam still felt some guilt and responsibility over Magik's fate, often wondering if more support and understanding from the New Mutants would have helped Illyana hold off her Darkchylde persona, if using her powers to help the New Mutants so often hadn't hastened her surrender to her dark side and all that happened afterward.

"Yeah, Kitty accepted Illyana so well, she abandoned her, then refused to help her when Illyana went to her for help." Roberto had been one of the ones who had been most uncomfortable with Illyana in her demon sorceress incarnation, although he had always tried very hard to hide that superstitious fear under a careful veneer of insouciance.

"She dinna' abandon Illyana. She was injured, badly, and taken to Lady Moira on Muir for treatment wi' the others..." That was Rahne again, rejoining the debate when she felt her foster mother Moira McTaggart being attacked in some obscure way. Rahne had shared Roberto's fear of Illyana, and had hid it less well than most of the others, and had always been amazed that Kitty could be such close friends with Illyana.

"That's not what I meant, I meant when Illyana went to her later on Muir, after Dallas, and Kitty turned her away because she was too much of a wimp to help Illyana revenge the X-men's deaths on Forge, and Magik went after him alone, and fell deeper into her evil side..." Looking back at that time, Sunspot still remembered Darkchylde unleashed with a shudder.

Douglock was tugging at Rahne's arm again, but carefully obeying her earlier stricture to be quiet. She sighed, knowing what he wanted to know now, and not having the time to think of a tactful way to explain. "Ye dinna have memories, Dougie, because ye'd just died right before..."

"For cripe's sake, Kitty wasn't ta blame for that, 'Berto. She tried ta stop Illyana, just like we did. She always helped Illyana fight against her dark side, not give inta it, an' not just because her sword and her armor and her guardianship of Limbo always went ta Kitty whenever Magik lost them for some reason. Illyana always said that Kitty and her brother were her balance, her anchors to humanity..." Sam also remembered the Darkchylde Illyana had been growing into with a pang of fear.

"And when her brother was gone, and Kitty was gone, we lost Illyana. We lost Magik to Darkchylde during the Inferno long before Illyana died." DaCosta may have feared Magik, and wanted to shun her much of the time, but he'd appreciated having her power in their battles, and the loss of any teammate was traumatic to the others remaining.

"And ye dinna miss her verra long, did ye, Roberto? Ye started drooling o'er that Gosamyr hussy as soon as she showed up, ye and Sam both, an' ye hated Illyana when she showed ye Gosamyr's evil side..." Rahne still felt a strong pang of jealousy, even after all this time, remembering the mesmerizing effect that beguiling alien had had on her male teammates, the embarrassing way she'd exposed Rahne's crush on Sam to the others, and the dissension she'd sown in their ranks.

"I do not recall any such individual, either in my own memory banks or in the records I have studied to date." Douglock interrupted Rahne again, forgetting all her cautions about silence in his frustration at lacking data on the subject at hand.

"She was an alien we met soon after ye... died," Rahne was back in teacher mode. "She had the power tae change our emotions, so Sam and 'Berto both wanted her, while she made Dani and Illyana an' me fight among ourselves. Her master Spyder had kidnapped Lila, and we had tae follow tae rescue her. And Gosamyr wanted us tae save her family, monsters who could destroy worlds, and we couldna, no' on time, an' then Lila had tae teleport them into the sun tae save that world, and we thought she'd died tae stop them..."

"An' Lila almost sacrificed herself tryin' ta save that alien world from Gosamyr's family, an' it was Gosamyr's fault Illyana turned inta Darkchylde more an' more, all the times Illyana hadda take us inta an' through Limbo, an' use her sword an' powers against th' aliens, ta save Gosamyr an' th' rest of us, much more than it was ever Kitty's fault for not being with Illyana, for cripes' sake." Sam was quite conveniently forgetting his own interest in Gosamyr, still guilty over his inadvertent betrayal of Lila and Rahne and his other teammates, unavoidable though such feelings had been given Gosamyr's nature and powers.

Tabitha groaned where she sat huddled in her corner, her arms hugging her knees to her chest. "That's all I need, on top of everything else, Sam mooning over his hotshot superstar girlfriend..." She'd never really gotten over her jealousy of Lila Cheney, who seemed to have everything Tabitha wanted, looks, talent, money, a great career and, for a long time, Sam Guthrie for a boyfriend, even though Lila had assured Tabitha her time with Sam had ended. And she'd forgotten about Gosamyr, how Bobby and Sam and Rictor and Rusty Collins had all competed madly for her attention when BoomBoom and Rictor and Skids and Rusty had first hooked up with the New Mutants during Inferno. Now she had yet another old rival to brood over.

Roberto was smiling reminiscently. "Ah, yes, Gosamyr... there was a beautiful, gorgeous girl, so delicate and feminine, fragile and helpless, a maiden in distress just waiting for a knight in shining armor to rescue her from the evil Spyder and his minions... But I want Sam to take back what he said earlier. I have taste, good taste, and I wanted Gosamyr, of course, who wouldn't? And it wasn't just her powers, I still think we were perfect together. But I could not care less if a brainy scarecrow like Kitty was ever interested in me or not. Only other geeks, like Doug or that sad sack who killed himself, would ever have been interested in Kitty the snob. And it looks like she's still got the same bad taste for wimps and nerds... I can't believe this fellow Wisdom was supposed to be some kind of spy or secret agent, he doesn't look the part and I talked to him this morning and he doesn't sound it, either." Despite the growing sophisticated veneer he usually adopted, DaCosta would never completely shake the shadow of his youthful idol, Thomas Magnum, PI, and still expected to meet such agents in real life.

"You'd do well to learn to judge less quickly, Roberto, and look beyond stereotypes and surface appearances," Domino unexpectedly spoke up from where she'd been listening silently on the sidelines, again ignored by the main protagonists as Siryn and Douglock had been earlier.

Although most of the observers didn't know what Sunspot had meant, Sam and Rahne were both visibly shaken by his reference to Larry Bodine. The death of a boy their own young age, even if only a casual acquaintance rather than a good friend, would have been traumatic enough in itself, but his suicide right after partying and arguing with them had been even more so. And, while Sam and Rahne had not shared the same deep sense of guilt and culpability that Kitty had felt, they still could not avoid feeling at least partially responsible whenever remembering that evening years ago. "Ye should not talk about that puir lad so, Bobby, suicide is a mortal sin, and he must have been aye deep in despair to do such a horrible thing, ye should be prayin' for his soul in apology, an' be grateful ye were no' so alone..."

"But it's still true, only losers ever got interested in Pryde the too-good-for-the-X-babies Shadowcat. She chased after Colossus until he dumped her good and hard, then she started chasing Doug. Remember when she followed him to the Massachusetts Academy and the White Queen got her, and we had to go rescue her? But Doug forgot her as soon as she wasn't around..." Roberto's player ego had also been insulted by Rahne's and Doug's growing relationship just before Doug's death, even though he'd no interest in Rahne for himself. "So now Kitty's trying to hold on to this strange new guy any way she can... You know, if I'd known how far she was willing to put out, I would have given her a try myself. You know, after this, she could try changing her code-name again, to Super-Kootchie, just like when she used to go through outfits and code names like socks, and revamp her costume to have a cape coming out of her pussy too..."

"The devil take ye tongue an' ye both, Roberto DaCosta, ye stupid spalpeen, that's just disgusting, and so are ye," Siryn repeated, just as the watching Domino was coming to the same conclusion that this discussion was starting to get way out of hand. Siryn had enough trouble with Bobby's ill-disguised arrogance and male chauvinism, first as Cannonball's deputy leader and now as X-Force's field leader after Sam's departure to the X-men, and she was secretly jealous of the dreamy look on Jimmy's face as Warpath remembered some things Risque had taught him during their time together in Florida.

"Kitty's love life is none o' your business, Bobby, and she wouldn't have fallen for a stuck-up snob like you in a million years." Domino was, however, quite pleased to see Sam gradually and naturally resuming his usual forceful leadership role among the other members of X-Force, at least temporarily, childish though some of the exchange had been. "And Ah still think it was awful for Tabitha to sneak and spy on them, on anybody, like that..."

Before Tabitha could defend herself to Siryn and to Sam, explain that it had just been an accident that she'd stumbled across Kitty with Wisdom, Storm and the other X-men came in from the danger room, just as Cable finally showed up with Caliban. They could all hear Bobby and Rahne and Sam and the others arguing as they entered.

Cable glanced around at his group. "Dom, what's going on here?" Before Domino could respond, though, Tabitha again blurted out a garbled, warped version of what she'd seen out on the grounds, continuing on to say "And they're all ganging up on me, now, and it wasn't really my fault, I didn't mean to see them really..." Her voice shook, pathetically.

Hearing Tabitha and the other members trying to explain what was going on to Cable, Storm drew herself up in outrage. The temperature in the room actually seemed to drop, and the light in the room grew dim, as the atmosphere reacted to her mood. Without a word, she whirled on her heel and headed for the door.

Logan's superquick reflexes barely gave him enough time to reach her, to physically restrain her from rushing out. "Just hold it, 'Ro. I know Pete pretty well, an' no damn way would he ever do anything to hurt Kitty. I dunno what Lil Miss Big Eyes really saw but sounds t'me like they were just playing." Storm had struggled in his grasp briefly at first, but was now still, so he let her go. "An' I think Kitty can take care o' herself just fine, she don't need you barging in to rescue her. Hell, she could take Pete if she had to, or just phase away..." Giving Ororo a suggestive leer, Wolverine continued, "You never played any games with Forge that you wouldn't want others knowin' about?"

Storm thrust Logan away from her sharply at his last remark, her physical rebuff simply mirroring her mental recoil. "That's insulting, Wolverine, no decent person does such things, wants to do such things." But she couldn't avoid thinking about the mental picture Logan had created for her, and was appalled to find herself being titillated by it for a single moment, until she firmly shut out the seductive temptation.

Caliban hadn't understood much of either the initial arguments they'd overheard on entry or Tabitha's subsequent confused explanation, but he could feel Storm's anger and concern. "Is something wrong with friend kittypryde?" Cable and Domino had their work cut out for a few moments, to restrain him from rushing out to try to find and rescue her, at the same time Logan was deterring Storm.

Ignoring Wolverine and Storm for the moment, and gesturing to Warpath and Shatterstar to escort Caliban, Cable turned to Siryn. "Take Caliban, and Sunspot too, and go start the danger room session immediately. Let them work out their aggressions in there, on robots or holograms or each other..." As Siryn began ushering the others out, Cable glanced over at Cannonball, who still remained rooted and dumbstruck at the edge of the group, then shrugged and went to join Domino trying to calm Tabitha down. "Hell, Dom, that damn Britisher can make more trouble than anybody I know, he doesn't even have to be here to open his big mouth to start it," Nate muttered to his long-time partner, who shrugged and murmured back, "They needed to clear the air, especially Sam and Bobby, and Sam and Tabitha. It doesn't much matter what set them off, it'll be good for the team in the long run."

While Cable was quickly and efficiently disposing of X-Force, and everyone else was engrossed in the byplay between Storm and Wolverine, Colossus slipped out the door quietly. Rahne remained, however, to see what happened next, shushing Douglock yet again and hoping no one would notice them and send them away too.

"Wrong, darlin', lots of perfectly decent people like to play games like that, I don't mind indulging occasionally myself..." Logan smiled at Ororo's stunned indignation. "But, if you're really worried, I'll go and check things out, make sure Kitty's ok..."

"Why did you stop me, then, if you are going to go yourself?"

"Because I can do it quickly and quietly, and not disturb them if everything is ok, and if you go you'll probably end up frying my wiseass buddy with a thunderbolt or two, and if you missed your aim you could hit Kitty by accident..." Logan grinned at Storm, obviously not taking her overblown concerns any too seriously, knowing and trusting both primary participants.

"How will you be able to tell anything, without disturbing them?"

"I can smell the difference between fear and arousal, darlin', from a long way off," he informed her bluntly. Her dark complexion could not not redden as obviously as her more fair-skinned teammates', but Logan could sense the embarrassment rising within her as her anger waned slowly, but Storm had never been one to give anything up easily, including her own mistakes.

"You will side with your friend, two men together..."

Wolverine interrupted her half-formed accusation, growling harshly, "Pete may be a pal of mine, but Kitty is family, and I would never, ever put his needs or desires above her well-being."

"He has convinced her, manipulated her... She would accept anything he wants, do anything he wants..."

"Yeah, she would, but not like you mean." Wolverine was experiencing an almost overwhelming desire to grab Ororo and shake some sense into her. "We didn't raise a sick kid, 'Ro, Kitty is too smart and too savvy to go for anything that isn't good for her."

"She is too young to know what is and isn't good for her..."

"C'mon now, 'Ro, let Kitty grow up, already, for Pete's sake!" There were several snorts of amusement from the silent, mesmerized audience at that Freudian slip. It took Logan a minute to figure out why what he'd said was funny, but Storm remained unamused. However, she didn't stop him or try to accompany him as he felt the room on his self-appointed errand.

Wolverine didn't need directions from Meltdown. He could backtrack her trail easily, until he began picking up familiar scents in the air providing additional guidance, but he was surprised to smell three of them, not just the two he'd expected.

He approached the clearing where Kitty and Wisdom were resting and talking quietly, still cuddled together, snugly wrapped in Pete's coat with the rest of their clothes scattered around them on the ground. Logan could smell the arousal and satisfaction in the air, as he'd predicted to Storm, and he smiled fondly at them from his hidden vantage point even as a small pang of envy stabbed at him. He'd spent a lot of time with Kitty during her first years with the X-men, drawn to the fellow warrior spirit he'd recognized in her from the beginning, and he hadn't been blind to her charm and appeal even then, but his strict moral code hadn't permitted him to make any advances to the young, inexperienced teenager, had required him to suppress his attraction and sublimate his interest in the platonic friendship of a mentor. But he knew things had turned out for the best, that Wisdom would be good for her, and be good to her, as Kitty so richly deserved, and would give her the undivided love and attention she wanted and needed and Logan himself was unable to provide.

After a brief moment, Wolverine turned away and glided silently to a different side of the clearing, where he let his hand drop warningly on Peter Rasputin's shoulder. The massive young Russian was leaning crouched over, fists clenched at his sides, and stiffened at Logan's touch. "Don't even think about starting anything," Wolverine growled, trying to keep his voice down. But then he continued, gruffly but softly, "Let go, Petey, for your own sake and for hers."

"I just wanted to make certain that Katya was fine, that there was no problem..." Colossus defended himself and his actions in coming outside, as Logan drew him away with a steely grip on his arm, but his attempted self-justification sounded lame to both of them. "I do not want him to hurt her, that is all..."

Although they didn't realize exactly what had disturbed the peace and quiet of the clearing, Pete and Kitty did hear the noise made by Wolverine with Colossus, and they reluctantly decided that it was time to get up and get dressed and go back in, as Logan pulled Peter away.

Kitty and Pete came back into the mansion, walking in hand in hand. Wisdom had his trenchcoat slung over one shoulder, and his face had the smug self-satisfied expression of successfully accomplishing a job that needed doing, as he felt he'd finally laid to rest Kitty's ridiculous self-doubts about her attractiveness and his interest, while Kitty was positively glowing with happiness and confidence at the inimitable way Wisdom had reassured her of his attraction to her.

Storm was waiting immediately inside the door. Logan had stopped in for a moment to tell her everything was fine and Kitty and Pete were on their way in, before dragging Rasputin away for a serious heart-to-heart conversation. Ororo had wondered vaguely why Wolverine was accompanied by Colossus, but didn't have much interest in pursuing that question at the moment. And Logan hadn't thought she planned to confront Kitty and Pete directly, he expected Storm to accept his reassurances and let the matter drop, or he would have stayed around, to intervene and referee.

Although Storm had ordered the rest of the X-men on their way, Bishop and Psylocke and the others who'd been training together, to leave her alone to talk to Kitty, Cable and Domino were both still staying around, concerned about Storm's continued over-reaction to their old acquaintance. Domino still had Tabitha with her, and Cannonball had come trailing along also, a useless tail to their procession. And Rahne and Douglock had both sneaked unobtrusively after the others to see the outcome, Rahne concerned about their teammates and Douglock as usual insatiably curious about all forms of human interaction.

"Are you all right, Kitten? Tabitha came in and said she saw you and your... paramour together, and she was terribly distressed by what he was doing to you..." Even as she spoke, Storm belatedly realized that Tabitha hadn't been very clear on exactly what it was that she had witnessed, that had upset her so.

Kitty stared at Ororo, shocked at the public invasion of her privacy, as Pete tensed at her side, equally stunned by what was happening. "What do you mean, Tabitha saw us... and then she came in here and told you all everything?" Kitty's voice rose in outraged denial. "What business was it of hers, or of yours, Ororo? Hasn't it occurred to you yet, that Pete can't do anything to me I don't want, I can take care of myself just fine, or just phase away if I didn't feel like fighting? And he wouldn't ever do anything to me I didn't want him to, anyway..." Storm tried to say something, perhaps to apologize, perhaps to defend her concern, but Kitty rode roughshod over her effort. "It was a very special, a very wonderful time for me, for us... and now you've ruined it for me..." Her large brown eyes shining brilliantly with unshed tears, her anger and turmoil at this unwarranted intrusion showing primarily in the undisguisable tremor in her voice, Kitty turned her back on her old friend and slammed out of the room.

Wisdom paused for a moment to scowl around impartially at all the people in the room, before directing his anger at Storm. "You just can't stand the notion of anyone else sharin' your precious Kitten's love and attention, can you? You're that petty and selfish and small-minded..." Then, glaring directly at Tabitha, he growled in a harsh tone, "I may not be class, but at least I don't get off watchin' other people shagging. You stupid little toerag, you're just jealous because you wish your ol' man could be bothered payin' some attention to you. Take it out on 'im, not on us." He turned abruptly, to go after Kitty.

As everybody stood frozen in shock, Tabitha ran out of the room crying in turn, while Sam stared everywhere except at her. Cable started to go after her, but Domino stopped him. "No, better let me go after her, Nate. I can do more for her than you, I think I understand where she's coming from better than you could."

"What do you believe you understand so well? Tabitha has been a constant source of trouble since her fascination with Sabertooth. And I have not seen any member of X-Force able to deal with her problems, whatever they may be." Storm would not normally criticize Cable's handling of X-Force directly, but she did feel that the team lacked a certain sense of personal discipline, being a more motley collection of misfits than the X-men.

Domino had never been a fan of Storm's, her cynical pragmatism often clashing with Ororo's rigid high principles, but she tried her best to explain patiently to the younger woman what seemed so obvious to her more experienced worldly eye. "Look, Storm, your Kitty can accept and enjoy some kinky games because she's never encountered anything like it for real, only in play. No one's ever hit or abused her, or humiliated her or debased her in that way. To her, it's just fun with someone she loves and trusts absolutely. And believe me, I know that loony Limey, and she's right to trust him, he won't do anything to hurt her."

Sweeping her glance around the room in the growing silence, Domino saw the others all listening to her intently. "But Tabitha shows all the signs of someone abused or attacked in the past, either by a family member or friend while still at home, or by someone she encountered while living as a runaway. It's dangerous out on the streets for a young girl trying to make it on her own, and we don't really know that much about Tabitha's past before joining us. But it's clear she interpreted whatever she saw very differently, through a dark filter of some bad past experiences."

Domino didn't like meddling in anyone's private affairs, but the team had been suffering ever since Cannonball's departure and estrangement with Tabitha, and she seized the opportunity to provoke some self-assessment.

She directed her next few remarks directly at Cannonball. "I don't know any details, and I don't want to know, but I'll guess you've never done anything similar, or anything much out of the ordinary with Tabitha." Sam blushed furiously, speechless, looking down at the floor as he shook his head, mortified at the discussion of his relationship with Tabitha in front of such a large group. He was too embarrassed to admit that there were things he'd wanted to do with Tabitha, but avoided only because they inevitably led to a fight about his experience with his previous older and very much worldly and experienced girlfriend Lila Cheney. "So you've never hit any of her hidden trigger points. But Wisdom's older, has more sophisticated tastes, that Kitty has no trouble accommodating, but that Tabitha takes the wrong way..."

As the silence deepened, Domino began moving toward the door, still talking to Sam Guthrie over her shoulder. "I'm going to go talk to Tabitha, see if I can get her calmed down. But you'd better think about talking to her, too, Sam, pretty soon, about a whole lot of things. If you two weren't having problems lately, ever since you joined the X-men and turned into a virtual stranger, Tabitha might not have gotten so fixated on Sabertooth, she wouldn't be feeling so isolated and cut off from you and from us, and this whole mess might not have happened."

Continued in Part 6 Appearances
As everyone relaxes around the pool, Kurt, Ororo and Logan talk.