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

Part 4 Intermission, with Storm

Kurt and Kitty left the room together, leaving Meggan and Amanda sitting with Wisdom. Nightcrawler held the door open for Kitty, motioning her gallantly to precede him, then let it shut gently behind them. Once outside the door, in the silent darkened hallway, Kitty turned away to go see Peter in his holding cell.

Wagner reached out an arm to detain her for a moment. "I should tell you now, Katzchen, I suggested to Peter that he remain here, with us, and I told him we would try to put the best appearance possible on things, although I do not think we can keep everything that happened tonight from the others for long." He could feel her tense under his hand. "I hope you will agree with that decision."

He couldn't make out her expression in the gloom as she replied in a level voice, "You're the leader, Kurt. You have to do what you think best, of course. And it sounds like you think that's best for Peter."

The implication was clear, that he wasn't considering Wisdom at all. Nightcrawler sighed in exhaustion, deciding not to try to explain the reasoning behind his decision now, and simply repeated his earlier plea, "Please, Katzchen, put aside your anger, and try to think about all that Peter has gone through, to come to this sorry state..."

Glancing back over her shoulder at Nightcrawler with an enigmatic look on her face, Kitty replied quietly, "I'll try, Kurt, for your sake if not for Peter's, but I can't promise anything..." as she shrugged off his hand, and moved away down the deserted corridor on quiet feet, fading into the shadows.

Wagner stood there indecisively for several moments, looking after her, trying to decide if he needed to follow, to observe and perhaps even mediate their encounter. But Kurt told himself once more that he should not interfere, that he should rely on Kitty's common sense and her deep feelings for Peter to mitigate her anger and dismay at the night's events.

Turning to walk down the dimly lit hallway in the opposite direction, Wagner debated how much of this evening's happenings he would relay to the X-men. He had told Peter he would attempt to present the best possible interpretation on his arrival and actions, but in truth Kurt found it very difficult to think of words and phrases to mask the ugly reality.

As he decided to say as little as possible at the moment, while he was exhausted himself, before he had a chance to consult Moira, and the others, and especially Kitty, Kurt reached the communications suite. It was very late at night at Muir, which made it evening in Westchester, an unusual time to call, but he would not be unduly disturbing anyone at the mansion.

The call was answered by Cyclops, in casual clothes with a beer in his hand and a sports magazine in his hand. Despite the ruby quartz visor perpetually hiding his eyes, he was visibly surprised to see Nightcrawler appear on his screen. "Kurt! It's good to see you, always, but at this hour? Why aren't you all in bed? Is something wrong?"

It was the first awkward question. "I was still up and awake, Scott, although, yes, I am on my way to retiring after a very long evening, but I wished to let you all know as soon as possible that Peter is here, that he showed up at Muir Island unexpectedly earlier tonight..."

Wagner could hear the other man's audible sign of relief. "That's wonderful news, Kurt. We were all worried about him, when he left here after that confrontation with Gene Nation, with absolutely no indication of where he was going, or what he intended to do..." A look of deep concentration indicated he was in mental communication with his wife. "Wait a minute, Jean is going to fetch Storm, to hear your news firsthand. And we'll be sure to tell all the others. The Professor is out for the evening, but we'll let him know as soon as he returns..."

They spent the brief delay in desultory chatter, until Storm appeared suddenly next to Scott, with his wife Jean right behind the tall, regal, dark-skinned and white-haired woman. "Kurt! Jean tells me Peter is well, he is with you and Kitty. What wonderful news to hear! I'm so glad you called so quickly with the news. May I speak with him, please?"

Kurt hid his grimace, as he wondered to himself just how many more awkward questions there would be. "I'm sorry, Ororo, he's resting now." Wagner yawned ostentatiously. "As will I be, hopefully, in another few moments. But Peter will be staying here, with us, for the foreseeable future, so you will have your chance to speak with him soon."

"I am very relieved to hear that, Kurt. I was, we all were, worried about him, about what he would do when he left us again after coming here with Callisto, when she was seeking help against Gene Nation. I was so afraid he'd turned his back on us again, walked away from us once again." Storm smiled at Nightcrawler, her face radiant. "I am so happy he has finally chosen to go back to Kitty, she will be able to help him cope with his family losses, as he adjusts to being one of us again. And she must be so relieved herself that Peter is no longer holding that deception when the Professor had her lure him down from Avalon against her..."

Grateful that Jean couldn't read his thoughts as easily as she could see and hear him over the vast intervening distance, Kurt was beginning to think this call had been a bad idea, before he'd had a chance to rest and agree with the others on a coordinated cover story, what to reveal and what to leave unsaid. "We will take good care of him, Ororo, you may be sure of that. You have all kept us quite well informed of his more recent problems, beginning with the destruction of Avalon, and we are, of course, quite aware of all the earlier incidents."

Wagner paused to pick his next words carefully. "But I do not think you should assume he will be now back with Kitty, although I am sure she will try her best to help him and welcome him, as will we all. In fact, I believe she is with him right now..." Kurt prayed silently and devoutly that that would indeed prove the case, that she would be able to forgive Peter, as he wondered how Kitty's conversation with Peter was going.

Scott and Jean both had apparently heard something strained in Kurt's voice, because they were each looking at him with puzzled expressions. But, before either of them could say anything, Storm frowned at his last comments. "But why would you say they will not be back together? Why else would he have gone to Muir Island from here? Of course it was to see Kitty, and now they can be together, there or here does not matter..." She smiled again, suddenly, eyes glowing warmly. "And if he has gone to rest, and she's with him..."

Wincing at the erroneous conclusion Ororo had drawn from combining his disconnected statements, Kurt cleared his throat nervously. "We have not had a chance yet to discuss with Peter why he came here. Things were somewhat.. hectic.. on his arrival, although you are most likely correct. But Kitty is involved... elsewhere, which you must understand makes her reuniting with Peter quite unlikely..."

He heard muted exclamations of surprise from Cyclops and Jean both, the pleased and curious look on Jean's face an entertaining contrast with Scott's slightly stunned expression. Ororo stared at Kurt, shaking her head slowly in denial and disbelief. That gave Jean an opening to ask, "We haven't heard a thing about this, Kurt. So you've all been keeping secrets from us, when you know how much we all love gossip?" She smiled, continuing her teasing tone. "Who is it? Someone she met recently? Come on, give with the details."

Before Nightcrawler could answer, Storm interrupted, "But that's impossible. Kitty would have told me, or you would have, Kurt... And there isn't anyone it could be..."

Wagner was very definitely sorry he'd ever started this conversation. His normally quick wits were too sluggish after all the evening's events to cope with the questions he was getting, when all he'd intended to do was just to reassure the X-men of Peter's safe arrival. "We didn't tell you, Ororo, because Kitty just told all of us, earlier tonight. So, as you can see, it is a rather recent development."

"Well, that is no problem, then, if this is something that Kitty stumbled into before she knew Peter was coming back to her. She will be able to simply bow out gracefully, without too much trouble, if this reputed relationship is that new." Kurt sighed inwardly. Ororo would persist in seeing only what she wanted to see, determined to make the world follow her wishes.

"But who is it, Kurt?" Jean asked insistently, more interested in Kurt's tantalizing news than in Storm's reaction, gloating over all the fascinating material she'd have to pass on to the others.

Wagner took a deep breath. "It's Peter Wisdom, Jean. Scott, Ororo, you must remember Moira mentioning him to the Professor, the official observer that Black Air sent us, the agency that replaced WHO, they are. He's left Black Air, apparently due to various suspicious anti-mutant activities he learned about, and we agreed tonight to allow him to join Excalibur, so that he and Kitty could stay together, at her request. And I do not believe Kitty has any intention of terminating that relationship, Ororo, regardless of Peter's presence here."

Jean and Scott looked at each other in amazement. They certainly did remember Moira MacTaggart telling Professor Xavier about the newcomer to Muir. Moira's choleric descriptions and pungent opinions had circulated around the mansion rapidly, to everyone's vast entertainment. But they found it difficult to imagine the man Moira had reviled so thoroughly as someone with whom Kitty would be involved.

Ororo found it quite impossible to accept. "I cannot believe that, there must be some kind of mistake. From Moira's remarks, he is quite a horrible person. And I do not know how old he is, but he's much too old for Kitty. He must have turned her head somehow. Kurt, you should have been watching out for her more carefully. But she's far too smart to be gulled for long, she'll go back to Peter. Kurt, you need to talk to her, or perhaps I should come out there and talk to her myself..."

As Storm kept talking, the Summers couldn't decide if they were more titillated by Kurt's news or Ororo's reaction. Jean had met Kitty a few times, but they'd never overlapped as X-men. Scott remembered Kitty as the enthusiastic young teenager who'd joined the X-men the day they had buried Jean Grey, as they'd all thought at the time, after her apparent self-sacrifice on the moon to stop Dark Phoenix. He was a bit surprised she'd grown up that much since then, for them to be discussing which man she should be with, but neither of them had no difficulty accepting the idea, just one more private soap opera situation for their amusement.

Nightcrawler couldn't share their light-hearted interest, but he couldn't fault their good-natured prying for insensitivity. After all, he knew of Colossus' attack on Wisdom, while the others didn't. But Kurt was concerned about Storm's reaction. They'd all been together in the X-men, he and Ororo and Peter Rasputin and Logan, when they'd been joined by the young Kitty Pryde, in the early days when everything seemed simpler and more clear-cut, and they'd been as tight-knit a group in their own way as the original X-men still were. Kitty's relation with Peter had marked their own group almost as strongly as Scott's relation with Jean was the hallmark of the original X-men. And Ororo seemed determined to recreate their original close group, and perhaps even the clarity of those simpler days, by recreating that early relationship, expecting Kitty and Peter to come back together eventually as inevitably as Scott and Jean had.

As he gave in to another enormous yawn, Kurt wished he could simply tell Storm that, if Peter did come to try to win Kitty back, beginning by attacking her current flame was certainly not a very auspicious approach. But he'd said he'd keep the incident confidential, as much and as long as possible. Wagner shuddered at the idea of Storm arriving in the midst of the current situation, and set himself to talk her out of that idea.

"It is much too soon to plan any such visits, Ororo." He had an inspiration. "And we do not know how Peter would react to your presence. He did refuse to stay with you, after all, and you would not wish him to think you are pressuring him or pursuing him. He came to us, voluntarily, for help, and we would not wish to drive him away. We will talk to Peter again tomorrow, and hopefully find out more in the morning about his thoughts and feelings, when everybody is rested and recovering, and we will be sure to keep you informed..."

That caution brought Storm to an abrupt halt. She'd worried about Peter frequently, since he'd left the X-men during Illyana's funeral to follow Magneto and join his Acolytes on Avalon, and again since he'd left the X-men recently after helping with Gene Nation. She wasn't sure what Peter's attitude to her, to them, would be now, although he hadn't seemed too hostile during his brief stopover with Callisto. "Very well, Kurt. I will trust you, since I must, but I rely upon you, to see Peter is well and happy..."

Continued in Part 5... Lockheed and Colossus