Disclaimer:Kurt, Amanda, Kitty, and Pete belong to Marvel. This story is part of the Facing The Music time line, and is a piece of fan-fiction.

**

    Kitty stared at the little stick and dared herself to blink. There was no way she was going to miss this. When her mind had been eased, she would laugh at herself, laugh at the memory of her standing over the bathroom sink, holding a small stick, and hoping against hope that it wouldn't see blue.

    Her rational, logical mind knew that her missing period was nothing, really. She worked hard, played harder and her body had learned to adapt to it. It wasn't the first time that her body had skipped a period. And her birth control was ninety-nine percent accurate-- on non-mutants at least. So it shouldn't have mattered that her period was a month late.

    But it did. The worry had started to gnaw at her at all times of the day and night, making her downright nauseous at times. Logically, she knew it couldn't be morning sickness–- she only threw up in the afternoon. And rationally, she knew that she didn't need to wait to take this test until Pete was out of town, visiting his sister. But it made her feel better.

    Because, if this test came up positive, she wanted time to figure out what to say to her lover. It was an accident, but one that they hadn't made a realistic attempt to avoid since they'd gotten engaged. Last month, for example, they had made love several times without a back up method, knowing that the flu Kitty had made it harder for the birth control to work. Maybe, deep down, they really wanted a child.

    A thin blue line appeared horizontally over a vertical one, proving logically and rationally that the nearly impossible had happened. Kitty stared at the plus and slumped onto the toilet, her hands shaking and her eyes welling up with tears as her world changed.

**

    Janine's chubby little blue face lit up as her father entered the kitchen. Pounding on her highchair's feeding tray, she tried to get his attention. When she saw the small frown on his face, she tried a new method. "Da!" she pointed at him and started to clap her hands, managing to send her applesauce everywhere. Her sister, Katrina, attempted to toss a cheerio his way.

    Amanda looked up in frustration and grabbed a sponge. "You try to feed them," she told him tiredly, looking down at the ground– and the mess that the twins had made. Mustard, the yellow puppy Pete and Meggan had found behind The Chalk and Cheese, wagged his tail and started to do his part in cleaning up the mess. Like the man who found him, the animal ate anything that couldn't eat him quicker.

    "Did you manage to get any unpacking done?" Kurt asked as he picked up the spoon. The quickest way to get her to eat was to distract and entertain her, so he started his airplane imitation. Next to him, Rina picked up a grape and carefully plopped it into her mouth.

    "Some..." Amanda frowned as she admitted it. "Rina and I had to make a quick trip to the doctor– she's got another ear infection– and then Mustard got into the trash. I managed to get the kids to take a nap and tried but..." She trailed off with the helpless smile that reminded him that she was not a happy housewife. "I figured I'd try to get some more done when you had the kids."

    Moving off Muir Island had been Amanda's idea. She felt it was important, especially considering how mutant friendly Kinross had become, for the four of them to act like a real family. To sit around the supper table and talk about normal things instead of trying to explain to their children how Jean Gray had been dead but hadn't been dead at the same time. And, try as they might to fool themselves, Muir Island wasn't the safest place to raise kids.

    At the time, Kurt had been so relieved that Amanda was taking an interest in her family and children, he ignored one key fact– they didn't know how to be normal or ordinary. Growing up with a circus didn't teach them how to socialize with their children's playgroup-- the ones that would talk to them at least. Daddy's job was to be a super hero, and Mommy was an airline attendant, both exotic jobs in the area they lived in.

    "I'll help later," Kurt offered as he slipped his briefcase onto the kitchen counter. He really needed to look over some paperwork about new mutants found in Europe.

    "Later," Amanda said, "I want to talk to you. I've got an idea that might allow me to stay closer to home."

**

    Moira's smile faded when she found Kitty sitting in her office. Something in the tense way her shoulders were set told the older woman that the younger needed a friend. "Ye okay?"

    Kitty let out an anguished sob at that. "I don't... I tried to call my mother and the number's been changed..." she tried to explain. "I need a mother–- my mother." Right now, she needed to hear the calm words of someone who had been in her shoes-- who was supposed to love her unconditionally. Her father was gone, Logan was on a mission, and her mother hadn't even bothered to notify her own daughter of her change of number. The shock mingled with her pain and settled somewhere where her heart was supposed to be.

    Moira pressed a few tissues into Kitty's hand. "Yer the computer genius, cannea ye look her up?" she suggested gently, knowing Kitty had never been one to talk about her feelings, wanting instead to do something.

    "I think..." Kitty started, "I think she said it all..." Tears started to run down her face as she said that. "I needed my mother and she's not here and I need her..." she repeated herself. A mother was always supposed to be there for her child. How could she be a good mother if her own parents cared so little about her?

    Moira pulled the young woman into a hug and whispered comfortingly, "She might—" But there were no words to excuse Mrs. Pryde's actions. A surge of anger ran through the other woman. When the Phoenix had telepathically made Kitty's parents let go of their child, she had done a good job. Her parents had more or less shoved Kitty into the X-Men and gone on with their lives, seemingly forgetting that they had a child. A rabid raccoon had more maternal instinct than this.

    Kitty shuddered and struggled for control. "I'm pregnant and I need my mommy," she whispered. "I need someone to help me to decide what to do, how to tell Pete... I just need my mom..." she repeated.

    Moira inhaled sharply at those words. Kitty had just enrolled at Cambridge, hoping to get an advanced degree in computers. Pete had been working to sever all ties that might come back and haunt him. And then, they were going to move forward together. This baby changed everything.

    And she knew what that felt like, to have your life starting to move in a positive direction, towards a goal that you wanted– only to be stunned by the news that a child was on the way. "I'm here for ye," Moira promised her. She might not be a substitute for Kitty's natural mother, but the woman needed someone to help her in the days ahead.

***

    Kurt's first reaction to his girlfriend's idea was one of shell-shocked surprise. "No!" he whispered.

    "It's the perfect idea," Amanda tried to explain herself. With the kids safely in bed, and her maternity leave running out, this seemed like the perfect solution. "There are enough Wiccans and other groups around for this to work... Julie said that she left her kids in the back room while she worked, so daycare wouldn't be a problem." Buying a part of the magic store seemed like the perfect solution.

    "I don't want–" Kurt started truthfully . He prayed for a second and tried to continued. "Our daughters would pay the price," he tried to reason with her. "People would make fun of them because Mommy was a witch."

    "People will taunt them because Daddy is a mutant," she shot back. "Buying into the store would let me stay at home. Flying back and forth between London and the States wouldn't. And Julie's got a pretty good web site set up. She said she could even give up on the idea of the store and focus on that. This seems perfect."

    Kurt sat down and sighed, praying for some sign to tell him what to say. "Brian and Moira already support us," he pointed out. "You don't have to work..."

    "I don't want to stay at home," she shot back. "It's boring... all I do all day is watch these two kids and I want more... can't you understand?"

    "NO!" The emphatic response to her question shocked even Kurt. "Our daughters have to come first..."

    "And what about my happiness?" Amanda shot back, surprised to hear such traditional thinking from her boyfriend. "Wouldn't having a mother enjoying what she does make them happier as they grow up?"

    "What about mine?" he asked her. "Already... I can't take them to church because that's placing my religion over yours. They couldn't be christened because that would make them prejudiced against your sorcery. Now you want to buy into a Magic store because that would make you happy? What about the joy I'd get from sharing my beliefs with them? What makes yours so much more important than mine?"

    "So it's back to that..." she whispered, not really surprised. It seemed that every agruement they had had in the past couple of months came back to that sore point.

    Kurt sighed, and forced himself to breathe. It was back to that scab. When it had been the two of them, it really hadn't been that much of an issue that he was Catholic and she was a Sorceress. She'd sleep late on Sunday, he'd thank her when her magic saved his life. Now, however, the issue was much deeper... and the stakes higher.

    Their differences in religion had been a small flaw in the foundation of their relationship, one that they had freely admitted existed. Now, however, the girls had forced them to try to build a house on top of that foundation. And, like a house that was built on sand, their relationship was slipping away now that heavy rains were testing it.

    The girls' conception had been a surprise to him, though not to Amanda. Several weeks ago, she had admitted that she had wanted to get pregnant, to have something of theirs live on, even if he died... which, considering the lifestyle they led, was a possibility. The news that the twins hadn't been an accident had devastated Kurt. Even though he still loved Amanda, he didn't know how to trust her again.

    He sighed and turned his back to her. "I know I can't stop you from opening your store..." he started in one of the most broken tones that Amanda had ever heard coming from him. "But if you do," he added softly, "I'm taking the girls and moving back to Muir..." Part of him knew that this ultimatum wasn't like him while the rest of him meant every word he said. "We'll work out some kind of joint custody," he tossed in, nearly as an afterthought.

    "How dare you give me an choice like that?" Amanda asked, stunned. She'd known that he wasn't going to exactly take to the idea, but she had never thought he would reacted like this.

***

    Kitty and Moira talked for several hours about all Kitty's options. What to do if Pete reacted badly when he heard the news, what choices the two had about the child. There were no fairy tale endings, even under the best of circumstances, but there were choices that might prove better than others.

    Until that talk, Kitty had never understood why Moira kept Sean at arm's length most of the time. But, as the older woman started to tell her story, she realized how strong Moira really was, and how hard won that strength was. And how it terrified her to give that up, even a little bit.

    But, as Moira pointed out, her situation was different. Her man loved her totally. This was just a test for the two of them to get past. Now all she had to do was just tell Pete. And, Kitty added mentally, hope for the best.

    They wanted kids, but the timing was off. She had always planned to have Goddess of Computing up and running before she had children. Now, she wondered if that would always be a dream. Pete had wanted to find a more suitable job before having children, one that wasn't as dangerous as Excalibur. If she made the choice to have this child, then he was going to have to find something quick.

***

    Kurt swallowed and grabbed the back of the chair. "And the choices you've given me, they've all been fair, nein?" Anger was starting to boil now, feelings he denied he felt were starting to well up in him.

    Instinctively, he slipped back into his native German. "Don't you dare share something important to you with your daughters but let me turn them against what you believe in! Why are you so against me sharing my Lord with them?"

    Kurt angry was truly a terrible sight. Yellow and black eyes started to narrow as they focused in on his wife, and the hair on his body started to stand out, emphasizing his natural demonic look. "At least," Amanda spat back in German, "my religion works... and it shows."

    Literally, he felt like the ground was slipping away from him as Kurt heard those words. "And mine doesn't?" he asked, trying to give her a chance to recant those words, to try to get something solid under them.

    Amanda's anger blocked the desperate look Kurt shot her. "Do you really think so?"

    Mustard leapt up and started to lick Amanda's hand, whimpering and whining as the tension built in the small house. In the distance, Kurt could hear his daughters crying. All he digested at that moment was the fact that the love of his life couldn't understand something so central to him as his understanding of God, that she didn't tolerate his religion deep down– and, because he didn't want his daughters exposed to Amanda's beliefs, he didn't tolerate hers. And those beliefs were central to who they were.

    A wave of clarity washed over the room and they stared at each other.

***

    Three words totally changed Pete Wisdom's life and he repeated them back to his fiancee. "You are pregnant?"

    Kitty stared into his blue eyes and nodded. Her eyes darting back and forth, she tried to read the emotions hidden there. "I didn't mean to be," she reassured him, "But I am... Moira said that the antibiotic I took for the flu interfered with the birth control and..." Kitty sighed as Pete hugged her. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this," she whispered.

    Pete kissed the top of her head tenderly, still trying to digest what she was telling him. Part of him was scared, another terrified... yet, strangely enough, considering his own childhood, joy started to well up in him. "I'm going to be a father!" he whispered.

    Kitty nodded and stood back from the embrace. There was no disguising the happiness on his face. "I'm scared," she whispered, "I know the timing stinks... And I have no idea about what's going to happen to Excalibur now... and everything else... the timing stinks," she repeated.

    Pete shook his head and kissed her. "It will all work out," he promised her. "We'll make it work out." And he meant those words with every fiber in his being. Even though this wasn't the time in his life he had imagined having children, he would make everything work out fine for his baby.