DISCLAIMER:
Pryde and Wisdom, the X-Men and Excalibur all are trademarks of Marvel Comics. DV8 and other Image characters all are trademarks of Wildstorm Studios/Image Comics. John Constantine and any other Hellblazer- and BoM- related characters all are trademarks of DC/Vertigo 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 WILL BE EXPLICIT SEX IN OTHER PARTS OF THIS STORY. I will mark those sections clearly in the individual section headers. If reading sex scenes would offend you, please don't read this story.

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

Epilogue

Kurt and Amanda both had needed only a few moments to fall asleep, after the long and exhausting day. They'd been asleep only a short time, however, when a loud pounding on their door jerked them both out of their slumber so suddenly that only Nightcrawler's instinctive agility kept him from ending up on the floor again.

Back on Excalibur's arrival, when Kitty had cut up rough at the assumption she wouldn't be rooming with Pete, he had quickly offered to give them his larger accomodations and take the small guest room initially assigned to Wisdom, before anybody could put their foot in their mouth by suggesting Colossus might switch so that the new pair could be together. The narrow, single twin bed hadn't been any problem the first few nights, when Amanda had stayed with some old friends in the city but, ever since his own ladylove had rejoined him in midvisit, they'd been just a trifle crowded. Of course, most of the time neither of them minded that too much, but it did occasionally present some gymnastic challenges.

"Was?"

Logan's characteristic growl came through the door clearly. "Open up, elf, I wanna talk ta ya."

"Is Peter all right?" Amanda's first thought matched her lover's.

"You tell me, Mandy darlin'." As Amanda stared at her blue-furred boyfriend at that, biting her lip a bit nervously, Logan beat another sharp tattoo on the door. "C'mon, move it. Open up."

Wagner winced at the impatient demand. "Please, Logan, can it not wait until the morning? It has been a long and exhausting day, and Amanda and I are not in fit state to entertain company at this late hour."

"Nothin' entertainin' 'bout this, elf. Get up and get dressed and open the damn door so we can talk. Unless ya want me ta stand out here in the hall yellin' about what Petey did ta Pete where everybody can hear..."

"Nein!" Kurt was up in a flash, pulling on a crimson damask dressing gown while his girlfriend just quickly pulled the bedcovers up around her lush form, then yanked the door open to encounter his old friend's scowl. "Logan, what happened? What did Peter do to Herr Wisdom now?"

The grizzly Canadian strode inside purposefully. "Why don't ya tell me that, old buddy, huh? Were ya expectin' somethin' ta happen? What did ya think the Russkie did, just now?" He saw Nightcrawler let out the breath he'd been holding and slump slightly in relief, and took advantage of the opening. "Gonna tell me the big deep dark secret ya tol' Cyke an' Jeannie? That Bets got outta her brother just now?" He ignored Amanda's low gasp and plowed on, "Or ya want me ta go ask the kids? I betcha Kitty or Pete'll tell me, 'cept I'd rather not interrupt them right now. See, I figure they're kinda busy, even if I ain't gonna lay odds whether Kitty's busy kissin' him or killin' him for the damn fool stunt he pulled today."

"Or both." Amanda's lips quirked upward slightly, and Logan couldn't help grinning at her in return. "That's very considerate of you, Logan. I know if I were in Kitty's shoes I wouldn't appreciate being interrupted right now." Her expression grew serious. "You may as well tell him, Kurt. You should realize by now you can't keep it quiet any longer. It wasn't your brightest move ever to even try, no matter what Peter wants."

"But I promised..." However, Nightcrawler was a good enough leader to recognize a losing battle. He waved Logan to take a seat in the single armchair, but got a headshake in return, their visitor choosing to stand propped against the door as Kurt fell silent again and paced around the tight space, thin tail lashing unconsciously under his heavy robe.

"Promised who what, elf?" Logan prodded, his growl a bit softer now.

Wagner stopped in front of the other man. Despite their difference in bulk, the slender German matched the stocky Canadian in height and, as their gaze met, Logan could see doubt and guilt in the bright golden eyes. "I promised Peter that we would keep it an internal Excalibur matter, that we'd simply announce he'd decided to stay with our team while attempting to deal with the many blows fortune had dealt him, that the Professor and Storm and the others need not know anything else."

Silence fell again, as did the glowing yellow eyes while Kurt stared down at the floor, wincing at the rumbled, "So what's there ta know?"

Amanda decided to help her boyfriend by breaking the awkward impasse. "Peter almost killed Pete."

"What?!" Deep brown eyes snapped to the young woman sitting up in bed, to see her confirming nod, then shifted back to glare at the blue head now twisted aside to glare at his unrepentant lady. "What the hell happened?"

"We had no idea Peter was coming." Amanda's tactic had worked -- with the worst said, and no more question of struggling to keep one old friend's secret from their other old friend, the rest came tumbling out. "We had just returned from an evening excursion to the mainland. The rest of us went inside, while Herr Wisdom stayed outside for a cigarette. I'm not sure exactly what warned us... We thought we heard a noise, Kitty felt something was wrong... I 'ported outside, and found Peter -- in his armored form -- attacking Wisdom. I tried to stop him, I thought he'd mistaken Wisdom for an intruder, an enemy. But Peter would not listen, he would not stop, until Brian and Meggan were forced to take him down..."

"What started the fight?" Although it was no excuse, Logan knew from firsthand experience just how abrasive and irritating the Englishman could be. "Did the kid put his foot in it?"

Nightcrawler sighed heavily. "Much as I would like to excuse Peter, I do not believe Wisdom did anything to precipitate the attack. Neither of them has talked much about the incident, in public at least, although I do not know what more Wisdom may have told Kitty in private. When I confronted him later that night, Peter told me he had seen a man kissing her, as if that were justification enough. It took some effort on my part before he admitted he had simply snapped from accumulated strain..."

"An' ya thought keepin' this quiet was a good idea?" Logan's tone was as appalled as his expression. "'Specially knowin' all the other problems Petey's had up ta now?"

She'd meant to stay quiet once the two men were talking, but now Amanda felt obligated to defend her lover. "Peter agreed to begin formal treatment, Logan. That was Kurt's price for our silence, and you have to agree he needs that..."

"So, has he gotten any?" Logan interrupted her, harshly. "Or did the Russkie manage ta weasel outta that too?

"He began regular sessions with Dr. Campbell." Kurt rushed to keep the Canadian's ire on himself, waving Amanda to stay out of their debate. "And the first few seemed to be going quite well, too, at least until Dr. Campbell decided to leave Muir to work with Alistaire Stuart..." Seeing Logan's skeptical look, he went on a bit defensively, "We do not have unlimited resources at Muir, Logan, and there are very few other treatment options for mutants, whatever the precise nature of their problems. It is regretable that Peter cannot work with Moira, but that is obviously out of the question, at least on this topic, given his part in her son's death years ago -- or had you forgotten?"

"There's us. If you'd told us, he could be working with Chuck or Jean or Hank right now. There's Emma, too -- she seems ta be stickin' ta the straight an' narrow so far. There's Doc Samson. He's done a lot with X-Factor, Lorna likes him..."

"Dr. McCoy's work on Legacy is too important to interrupt. Rahne did suggest Doctor Samson as a possible replacement. She had seen him while still with X-Factor and apparently shares Lorna's good opinion, but Peter was very concerned that some members of X-Factor might find out about his sessions, and claimed that would violate the strict confidentiality we... *I* had promised him. Emma Frost... it is hard for many of us to trust the White Queen's reformation, and especially for Peter to trust her, as a telepath, after the Shadow King's control of him and Professor Xavier's necessarily brutal breaking of that possession. And you forget -- the whole point was that Peter did not wish for the Professor or you others here to know of the terrible mistake he had made."

"So ya let Petey come over here an' play poor abandoned martyr while everybody dumped on the kids f'r their insensitivity to the big galoot's feelings? Didn't it ever occur ta ya that Kitty an' Pete mighta not had ta put up with some o' the shitty crap pulled on 'em here if we'd known? Didn't ya think they might spill the beans, just ta stop the hassles from Ororo and Charlie? Why the hell didn't they blow the lid off your damn coverup, anyway?" Logan's low bass snarl easily overrode Wagner's sotto voce protests. "Didn't it ever occur ta ya he might snap again, go after Pete again some time when the kid rubs him the wrong way -- which is not exactly hard ta imagine -- or go after Kitty the next time?"

"That is one thing I do not fear. Peter would never hurt Kitty, ever. Of that I am absolutely certain." Kurt's voice was rock-steady. "It was my decision as team leader, Logan, to leave Peter his self-respect at least, if he could not have what he came for." But there wasn't a lot of conviction left in his voice on that, there seemed to be less and less every time he tried to defend what had seemed to be the proper course of action at the time. "They honored my decision, as did the rest of the team, at my request."

"Well, I ain't buyin' your decision, elf. We're gonna get all this out in the open, first thing tomorrow."

The End (glory hallelujah!)