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Part 1 Moira

The door opened silently, and Moira MacTaggart stepped out into the shadowed hallway. She was exhausted, brushing sweat-soaked hair off her haggard face with a shaking hand. The pills she'd taken had counteracted the cloud of alcohol in her system long enough for her to function as the outstanding doctor she was, but she was now paying the price. However, she had a few more things she needed to do, before this long night would finally be over for her.

Moira came up the spot where Kitty Pryde sat huddled on the floor. The younger woman was leaning her back against the wall, and hugging her knees to her chest. The others had all offered to stay and share the wait with her, but she'd asked to be left alone, feeling she couldn't take their sympathy now, couldn't cope with good wishes and intentions, couldn't deal with their efforts at conversation. This wasn't a villain or monster they could help her defeat, there wasn't even any enemy she could fight, and Kitty didn't handle passive waiting well at all. She desperately wished there was something, anything, that she could hit.

Kitty looked up at Moira with a dazed look in her eyes, afraid to ask the obvious question. She'd sat out here for the entire time MacTaggart was operating, wondering bitterly if she'd have to learn to live with the responsibility for a man's death, for her lover's death, at the same time fearing that she'd also have to learn to live with the responsibility for turning her old friend and former teammate into a murderer. Moira didn't leave her in suspense for long. "Unless something unforeseen happens, he should make it. But, I willnae lie ta ye, it was verra, verra close..."

The slim, brown-haired girl scrambled up to her feet ungracefully, her muscles all stiff from sitting so long, and clutched at Moira's arm for reassurance. "You're sure? He really will be all right?" At Moira's confirming nod, she let out a long sigh of relief, then asked hesitantly, "Can I see him? Please, Moira, just for a little bit..."

Opening her mouth to veto that suggestion, Moira took in Kitty's trembling lips, gouged where she'd bitten at them repeatedly while waiting, and her large brown eyes brilliant with the tears whose damp tracks were visible on her cheeks, and changed her mind, swallowing the lecture she'd been about to deliver. "Aye, lass, ye can go in t'im now, if ye want..." MacTaggart still wasn't clear on exactly what was going on between these two, due to the large quantity of Guinness she'd imbibed in her aborted effort to unwind, but it was obviously much more than just a mistaken sense of responsibility for inspiring the attack on Wisdom.

She turned back and opened the door she'd just shut behind herself a minute ago and ushered Kitty into the room. Moira followed her in, even though she had other things she needed to see to, including going to check on how Peter Rasputin was doing. But she knew from long experience that the first sight of Wisdom would be a shock to Kitty, and she'd likely need to repeat and expand upon her reassurances.

The girl was indeed stunned to see Pete's condition, coming to an abrupt halt as soon as she was far enough into the room to take in the details. He was lying in the bed, covered to the waist by a white sheet, with an enormous bandage visible around his entire chest and another large bandage around his head. What she could see of his arms and shoulders was covered with large, multicolored bruises, cuts and contusions, and she was pretty sure his lower body under the sheet was in the same state. Tubes of various kinds ran into different points of his body, mostly carrying gurgling unknown fluids of various colors, a few more simply carrying signal readings to various sensors and monitors scattered around the room, alien Shi'ar devices next to the most advanced human technology available, with a few of Moira's favored antique instruments also near at hand.

Pete himself was white and still, and for one long moment that seemed to last an eternity Kitty thought he wasn't breathing, until she crept closer and saw his chest moving almost imperceptibly. She came nearer still to the bed, until she could reach out a hand and touch him gingerly, as if to verify that he was there, he was warm, he was alive. Then she took his hand, clutching it in hers tightly as though she could force him to feel the contact despite his unconsciousness.

Turning to Moira, who was standing back slightly watching Kitty carefully while giving in to several enormous yawns herself, she asked, "Are you sure he'll be all right, Moira? He looks so..." Her voice trailed away, as she couldn't bring herself to put her fears in words.

"I repaired the head trauma, moved the skull fragments that were causing internal bleeding an' relieved the pressure in his cranium 'afore any permanent damage was done. An' I got his lung reinflated after I got his broken ribs back in place." Moira's accent lessened as she recited the medical details, knowing Kitty would find bluntness more believable that a more delicate account. "It'll take a while, an' he'll spend some time in a wheelchair, but he should recover fully. But I willnae lie ta ye, it was a very close thing. One more blow might hae finished him beyond anything I could hae repaired..."

"And that would have solved a whole lot of problems for all of you, wouldn't it, Moira?" Kitty's voice was bitter, now. "You've never wanted Pete around, or accepted him, and that would have been such a convenient way to get rid of him..."

"Dammit, lassie..." Moira's retort started out hot and angry, but she calmed down quickly as she took in Kitty's strained face, the pupils in her eyes still dilated in shock. MacTaggart realized suddenly that Kitty herself had been quite traumatized by seeing Colossus beating Wisdom to a pulp, on top of the drinks she'd had at the pub, and wasn't thinking straight, and she went on in a softer, gentler voice, "I will do ma best f'r 'im, Kitty, ye know A would f'r anyone, but he's one of us now..."

Moira knew Kitty needed to rest and recover herself, but she realized it was probably a hopeless task to try to get Kitty to leave Wisdom's side now. She pulled a chair over next to the bed, and pushed Kitty to sit down in it, which the young girl did with a grateful sigh, still hanging onto Pete's limp hand.

"He may be officially one of us now, yes, Kurt and Brian did both agree to that back at the pub, but you don't still really accept him, do you, Moira?" Kitty couldn't believe it had been just a few hours ago, that she and the renegade Black Air agent had announced their feelings for each other, and his desire to join Excalibur to stay with her.

"A mind when ye dinnae trust him either, lassie, an' that were no' sae long ago..." Even in her own deep exhaustion, the Scotswoman noted Kitty's spirited defense of Pete and had to wonder to herself when she remembered all the bickering between those two when Wisdom first joined them on the Genosha mission, and all the fervent mistrust Kitty herself had expressed repeatedly about the Black Air man. Something had certainly happened during their brief trip down to London, and Moira very definitely wanted to know what had changed Kitty's opinion of Wisdom so drastically and so quickly, but she was much too tired to try to find out any further details now, despite her own almost overwhelming curiosity.

She settled for simply answering the question, as the fastest way to end the discussion so she could leave. "We, Charles an' A, were worried because it were obvious that the leak aboot the Legacy virus infecting humans came from Muir. Rory helped me search the computer logs an' found that there had been unauthorized access t' our files. An' it looked like there weren't that many people who might ha' got access tae our system. We couldnae suspect ye, or Kurt or Brian or Meggan, t'would be ludicrous. Wisdom was the only newcomer in that time period, except for wee Dougie just before. Rahne came after, an' A'd never consider suspecting her anyway, jis' like A'd never suspect ye, or Amanda either. It wasn't until later that we realized that destroying the X-men's computers during the Phalanx attack took oot their security systems, which would hae let anyone break intae our systems through our satellite link tae Westchester. So anyone could ha' stolen the data, they dinnae have tae be here tae get it..."

Moira was pleased to see Kitty recovering her usual ebullient spirits enough to give her an exasperated look. "I know how the computer security suites work, Moira, better than you do, probably. So why keep picking on Pete?"

"Because he was here. Because A dinnae trust Black Air, an' because A dinnae expect that smelly Sassenach tae come back here after you all got back fro' Genosha, or after ye took 'im down tae London. An' A dinnae ken he stayed around because o' ye, was interested in ye an' no' ma research." Moira yawned again suddenly, swaying on her feet, and tried to break off the conversation, which had veered away from urgent medical matters to other issues which could be addressed better after a long period of rest for everyone. "Nay, A dinnae think nae more Wisdom is the leak, A told Charles meself he dinnae have the time here tae break into the files..."

Kitty laughed weakly and assured Moira, "He doesn't have the skills either, I had to break into Black Air's computers for him, and he was pretty grateful, too..." Moira was interested to see her sudden blush, as Kitty privately remembered how close they'd come to kissing for the first time while she was downloading the alien-research data Wisdom had been looking for. "Please, Moira, believe me, trust me if you don't trust him, Pete's all right, he doesn't have any hidden agenda..."

The older, more experienced woman snorted cynically at that naive assurance. "Nae one is completely trustworthy, lass, everybody is hidin' something. Charles trusts me, aye, but I kept the secret of Proteus from him, and from ma husband too, an' A kept Gabrielle Haller's secret aboot her son David, that Legion lad, e'en though I ken he were Charles' son. An' A played god with Magneto's DNA when he was a wee bairn in my care..." Moira saw Kitty was getting upset again, and she felt her own exhaustion cresting over her in a great tidal wave, so she gave up for the time being, just shrugging to finish gently, "But I hope ye're right, Kitty, I hope he's different, f'r yuir sake."

Moira yawned again, another jawbreaker, saying, "Will ye nae go now, an' get some rest yuirself? A promise ye, yon Sassenach will be fine..." But she knew it was pointless even as she spoke.

Kitty shook her head, clutching Pete's limp hand even more tightly. "I want to stay here with him, Moira, please don't make me go..."

Nodding in surrender, Moira turned and left in pursuit of her own well-deserved rest, as Kitty pulled her chair up even closer to the bed, gently holding Wisdom's hand and talking to him in a low crooning voice even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

Continued in Part 2... Brian and Meggan