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Part 4

The next time Wisdom woke up was to the pleasant, musical tinkling of soft chatter. Even though he kept himself still and silent while he tried to identify the somewhat familiar voices -- not Kitty's, was all he was sure of -- the quiet conversation immediately stopped.

"I'm sorry, did we wake you?"

"How are you feeling?"

Opening his eyes and glancing around, he saw Meggan and Amanda sitting next to each other by his bedside, both women smiling at him reassuringly. He couldn't manage more than a hoarse croak from dry, cracks lips, and the blonde elemental bent forward immediately to slowly and carefully give him a couple of sips from a glass of water, while the equally voluptuous stewardess answered the question he hadn't managed to voice.

"Kitty's sleeping now. She was completely burned out... Moira let her stay with you until you woke up -- however long that took." Pete nodded his head slightly to acknowledge what Wagner's girlfriend didn't say aloud -- that they hadn't been completely sure he *would* regain consciousness. "Then, after you fell asleep again, Moira chased her out and told Rahne to make sure Kitty ate something and then took the stuff Moira gave her to make her sleep -- but only *after* Moira told her her only choice was to go voluntarily, or to get knocked out and put to bed with an IV drip and a stomach tube." Amanda laughed wryly. "I think Kitty might even have taken Moira up on that second choice, if it had meant she could stay here with you."

"But even then she wouldn't go until we promised we'd stay with you," Meggan added in her characteristically soft shy tone, brilliant green eyes misting as she smiled at that touch of soap opera romance.

"So here we are." Sea-green eyes sparkled at him, golden flecks dancing mishievously as the lush sorceress grinned at her companion's sentimentalism. "Glad to see you decided to join us."

A faint smile had softened his haggard features for an instant, but now his expression hardened again into its usual dour, cynical mask, the lines drawn even deeper than usual by worry and pain, as he remembered the news Kitty had given him so reluctantly. "Was she serious -- yer lettin' that bloody wanker loose?"

"Not yet of course -- he needs to cool down, and think... and rest, and heal too. But yes, Kurt told us he would, in a little while--"

"What else could we do with him?" Amanda interrupted Meggan's burbling briskly. "We can't lock him up in a holding cell in the basement forever -- even if I'm sure that's exactly what you'd prefer right now, and I certainly don't blame you! But if you can set aside your personal involvement for a minute, I think even you'd admit that would be a little excessive for a momentary lapse of judgement, a brief loss of control, given all the mitigating circumstances... and Kitty would feel horrid about it, she already thinks it's all her fault! We can't expect the local authorities to be able to understand or to be able to cope, he won't go back to the X-Men -- which might not be a good idea for him anyway... at least, not right now -- and we can't just kick our old and good friend out and let him go wandering off who-knows-where to do who-knows-what because he's having personal problems... At least this way we can keep an eye on him, and try to help him... Kurt made the only choice he felt he could, given all the circumstances," Nightcrawler's foster sister and longtime girlfriend finished up, bristling defensively.

"'Stand by yer man'?" Pete retorted, cynicism dripping from every word. "You by th' elf... an' Pryde by her old boyfriend, that wot you all hopin' will happen?"

"Of course Amanda supports Kurt," Meggan interjected in an unusually firm tone. "Just like I'd stand by Brian--"

"Just like you *did* stand by Brian," the strawberry-blonde interrupted in turn; Kurt had been careful to brief her and Rahne in on Braddock's problem before their trip to the pub, lest either new arrival make any awkward comments about the giant Englishman's current abstention. "And if *you* ever lose control of *your* drinking and put Kitty through something like that, buster," she mock-glared down at the hard-drinking Londoner pointedly, "we'll kick your butt just like Kurt did Brian's, only faster and harder."

"--And just like Kitty's standing by *you*," the blonde changeling added earnestly, ignoring the other woman's sudden digression.

"Look, about Kitty and Peter..." Amanda's expression and tone had eased back to her earlier concern. "All it ever really added up to was a schoolgirl crush on her best friend's older brother."

"That's wot she said..." Wisdom muttered, uncomfortable about having such a personal conversation with anyone, much less a relative stranger such as the recently-met Sefton still was. But the beautiful stewardess had been open and friendly and accepting the few times they'd talked, just as the elfin elemental certainly had been ever since his assignment to Excalibur. And both instinct and training prompted him to gather in any information on offer -- especially on such an important topic.

"I'm sure she did," the recently arrived sorceress nodded. "And I know firsthand -- Peter and Kitty occasionally doubled with Kurt and me, just like before that he dated my friend Elizabeth -- Kitty always fit in better with the older crowd than with the 'X-babies'," a fleeting grin reflected fond memories of the young teenager's outspoken disdain for the New Mutants all near her own age. "And Peter broke even that much off years ago, when he fell in love with someone else -- an alien healer he couldn't even speak to, who died right after their one and only meeting, according to what Kurt told me, which should tell you how much Peter knew about love, for her *or* for Kitty!"

Amanda stopped and took a deep breath, pushing back the memory of how devastated the young fourteen-year-old had been, then went on more calmly, "Anyway, they've been working on rebuilding their friendship ever since -- only natural, since they were still teammates, and since his sister was still Kitty's best friend. What she feels for him now is friendship, and obligation, and guilt..."

Pete nodded slowly at that. "She said somethin' 'bout Xavier usin' her t' get t' him, makin' her tell him she still cared, t' get him back?"

"Oh, yes!" Meggan exclaimed. "Kitty was *so* angry at him about it."

"Yeah, Kurt was just telling me about that a little while ago," the blue-furred mutant's lady said. "And that was on top of Kitty already feeling horrible for not rescuing Illyana from Limbo way back when -- not that anybody would blame her for that, except Kitty herself! And for being mad at Peter for playing dead, she felt that it was his fault Illyana turned to her dark side after that... And maybe she even feels partly to blame herself for what happened to Illyana -- for leaving her and coming here, even though Kitty had to, back then... for not calling her more once she could, even though Kitty and Kurt both were still recovering back then, then busy starting up Excalibur. It's always so obvious in hindsight what we *should* have done instead of what we really did, where we *should* have tried harder than we did, isn't it?"

The dour Londoner snorted in agreement, muttering "Ain't that the bleedin' truth!"

A doubtful look twisted her features as Amanda glanced down at the man lying in the sickbed, not sure how much more to try to explain, waiting to see if he had any questions. Wisdom just nodded again; he hadn't been in any shape to follow all of the sorceress's jumbled words, but he'd gotten the gist -- even though he wasn't at all sure how much he'd retain long enough to ask for eluicidation later, given his current growing headache. But he'd have other opportunities to learn more about Kitty's past, all the little details that weren't in the dossiers Black Air had inherited from the WHO; right now, he had more important things to occupy his limited attention.

"Pryde may not have them feelin's fer that bloody wanker any more, but I ain't takin' odds he don't still want her." With a wince, he managed to hold up a shaky hand, to stop the two women's automatic protests. "I *ain't* talkin' love, I'm talkin' fixation 'ere. You didn't hear 'im -- all this rantin' an' ravin' that didn't make any soddin' sense t' me then, but after Kitty explained... he kept on an' on about his Katya, how he'd come back to his Katya, how I'd stolen his Katya an' he wasn't goin' t' put up with that any more..."

"That's what he always used to call her, yes," Wagner's long-time girlfriend sounded faintly disturbed now, "but it wasn't a *lover*'s endearment, you know -- more like a pet name, just like he always called his sister Illyana his 'little snowflake'..."

"'e didn't sound *nothin'* like a bloke talkin' about 'is sister," the former agent insisted stubbornly. "I know flippin' obsession when I hear it..." His hoarse voice trailed away into a rasping cough.

"You're afraid he'll come after you again?" the strawberry blonde asked, her voice uncertain -- both because she doubted such a possibility and because she wasn't sure how a hardened professional spy would react to her implication he might be afraid of anything... although if the man *were* to be concerned about the outcome of another attack it would only be reasonable, given his current condition and its cause.

Wisdom's thoughts were running in a different direction, though. "The *best* that could happen would be he comes after me again -- wot *I'm* afraid of is he'll take out his frustration on *Pryde* next time--"

"Oh, he wouldn't do anything like *that*!" Meggan interrupted, her expression appalled.

"Like hell he wouldn't!" Pete tried to rear up in the bed, but all he managed was to raise himself an inch or so, then fall back gasping in pain, and start coughing again.

While the fay elemental quickly gave him another sip from the glass Rahne had refilled earlier, the other woman pursed her lips thoughtfully, then said consideringly, "Even if Peter does think he's still in love with Kitty -- which he never really *was* -- that just means he'd never hurt her." She ignored the Londoner's derisive snort and his muttered "Shows wot bugger all you lot o' spandex sapskulls know!" and went on calmly, "Even if Peter does think he's still in love with her -- which I don't think he does, not *really* -- the best cure for him is to stay here, and get used to seeing you and Kitty happy together."

The injured man muttered something inaudible as he shifted around in the bed with a pained wince.

"What...?" Amanda started to ask as she bent down to adjust his pillow, only to be interrupted by the gentle empath.

"Of course she's happy with you! I can *feel* how good you two feel together! And *please* don't worry about Kitty's feelings for Peter -- all she feels for him is sorry and angry and sad and guilty, all muddled up together."

"You promise t' tell me if you ever feel a change?" Bloodshot blue eyes stared up at Meggan's delicate elfin features intently.

"Of course I will. But I won't, because I won't have to," the blonde fay smiled back at him sunnily. Then a faint frown creased the smooth skin of her forehead. "You're tired, and it all hurts more... would you like me to help you sleep some more?"

"Or would you rather we call Moira?" Amanda asked, half serious, half tongue-in cheek. "She could give you something--"

"Hell no!" Even though it hurt to move his head, Pete made sure to glare at them both. "Yer supposed to be ministerin' angels o' mercy, not bloody sadists, you silly twits..." His grumbles subsided as he saw them both laughing at him.

"Then let Meggan help you... or I can try a healing spell, if you'd rather? I can set it up so that a kiss from your beautiful princess will wake you up from your enchanted slumber," the sorceress grinned down at him. "After all, we promised her we'd take good care of you..."

"She's lucky to have friends like you," he chuckled drowsily as Meggan's cool hand on his forehead soothed away his growing headache.

"We're *your* friends too, silly," Meggan said, and Amanda nodded.

It was one of the very few times in his life Pete Wisdom believed someone saying that.