DISCLAIMER
None of these characters were invented by me except the kids(big
suprise), and I'm not making dime one off this, it's only done
for the enjoyment of myself and others.  Please don't sue.  All
character places and names are copyright to Marvel Comics, but
this story is copyrighted 1999 LuNaTiC Publishing.

NOTES
This story was written to satisfy the fans who wrote to me
requesting a followup to 'Heav'n Makes Means To Kill Our
Joy With Love', and is set nine years after Kitty's death.

An ElseWhens story by DiScOrD;

Dust In The Wind

                 ************

I close my eyes
only for a moment
and the moment's gone
all I see
pass before my eyes
a curiosity

                 ************

Nine years.

Nine years, eleven months, and twenty-nine days, to be precise.
That's how long it had been since a freak occurence during an
otherwise textbook birth had taken his Kitty.  Losing his young wife
hadn't killed his soul, but it'd come damned close.  If the baby had
died too, Pete didn't think he'd even be alive today.  He would have
ended up in a gutter somewhere, another poor sod who drank himself
to death four or five decades too early.  But the baby had lived,
had thrived under his care, and every day with her was another day
that he felt a new hope.  Little ladylike Katherine Emerson Wisdom
was turning ten tomorrow.  It would be, like all nine of her
previous birthdays, a bittersweet time for Pete.  Kath's tenth
birthday would be the tenth anniversery of Kitty's death.

And Pete knew, with all the questions that she'd been asking in the
past few months, he had to tell her the whole story.  He had to tell
her the complete truth.  He went and got her coat out of the closet
and took her with him as they walked around the base.

"Kath....I wanna tell ya a little story....'bout the night I asked
yer mum ta marry me....the night she made me the happiest bloke
in all o' soddin' England...."

                 ************

dust in the wind
all we are is
dust in the wind

                 ************

"Kitty, love,"  he said, "I need you to be quiet for just a minute,
okay?  I love you, and I don't ever wanna take a chance on losing you,
'specially cause I was too damn stupid to say what I feel.  This's
been the best year of me whole life, and I wanna make sure it's just
the first."  As Pete said this, he reached into his pocket and brought
out a deep sapphire blue ring box, her favorite color, and Kitty's
eyes teared up as he opened it to reveal a blue diamond on a white
gold band.  She certainly hadn't been expecting this when he came back
in.  "Katherine Pryde," he asked, "will you marry me?"   That did it.
Kitty began crying in earnest, and by the time she found her voice
several seconds later, Pete was getting very nervous.

"Yes," she whispered, then repeated as her voice gained strength.
"Yes, I *will* marry you."  A wide smile threatened to split Pete's
face, and he slid the ring on her finger, then pulled her off the sofa
into his arms to kiss her.

                 ************

same old song
just a drop of water
in and endless sea
all we do
crumbles to the ground
though we refuse to see

                 ************

"Da," Katherine said, "Why are we going to mum's grave?"

Pete took a long drag off his herbal cigarette before responding.
"'Cause I need to be straight with you, Kath.  I need to tell you
everythin' what happened the day you was born."  He smiled suddenly.
"God, when we found out you was on the way...."

                 ************

dust in the wind
all we are is
dust in the wind

                 ************

Pete and Kitty both looked up as they heard a small oven timer ding,
and Kitty took a deep breath to steady herself as she got up and
went into the bathroom.  Pete almost got up to follow her, then he
decided to wait.  He didn't wait long, as Kitty came back out a few
seconds later with a huge smile on her face.  Pete's worried frown
changed into an answering smile, and the two of them began to laugh
as he stood up to hold her close.

"Well, love, here we go again."  Pete's voice was matching his grin.

"I'm gonna go and see Moira for a checkup."  Kitty turned to leave,
then stopped.  "But, I've been thinking about names...."

                 ************

now, don't hang on
nothing lasts forever
but the earth and sky
it slips away
and all your money
won't another minute buy

                 ************

"See, yer mum had one miscarriage before she got pregnant with you,
an' she was so bleedin' terrified it'd happen again.  She settled
down a little in her eighth month, an' then, 'bout a week after you
was due...."

                 ************

dust in the wind
all we are is
dust in the wind

                 ************

Kitty Wisdom moaned.  "Oh, God, Moira, give me some demerol!"

"Hush, now, lass, A tol' ya, it's too late f'r that."  Moira sympathized
with the young woman wanting natural childbirth with her
first delivery, but she couldn't help grinning a little at remembering
Kitty's refusal of an epidural five minutes ago, the last time it
would have worked.  "Women hae been gettin' through this for thousands
a' years, e'en before Shi'Ar technology."

"Yeah, Moira, that helps."  Kitty glared at her friend, while also
grinding her husband's hand to a pulp in a grip of steel.  Suddenly,
Kitty's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell limp on the bed.
As Wisdom looked on in horror, her skin began to turn blue, and she
stopped breathing.

"MacTaggert!  What the bloody hells goin on?"  Pete's voice was
panicked.

"Quiet!  I've got tae examine her."  Moira's mind scrolled through
all the possible complications as she began.  The baby's head was no
longer applied to the cervix, and every muscle in Kitty's body was
completely relaxed.  "No blood from the uterus, it can't be a
placental seperation...." she muttered to herself.

"Mum!"  Rhane Sinclair, who was assisting, looked over from the Shi'
Ar diagnostic database.  "Her whole vascular system's shut down.  The
computer thinks it's an amniotic-fluid embolism!"  Moira blanched.

"Oh, God.  Wisdom, get yuir arse out o' the way!  Rhane, grab the GYN
tray.  We're gonna do an emergency Caesarean, right now!"

"C-Section, why?"  Pete was confused as well as terribly worried.
"What's wrong with her?"

"Wisdom, she's got amniotic fluid in her pulmonary artery.  Even with
her heart beatin, her blood isnae gettin' any oxygen.  Now get oot,
we got work tae do, and A don't want ye in here!" With a firm shove,
Moira ran Pete through the door into the waiting room, where the rest
of Excalibur was on vigil.  An anxious Kurt started to ask how things
were going, but he stopped as he saw the tortured expression on
Wisdom's face.  Meggan Braddock flinched, the emotions assailing her
like a physical force, shock and an icy fear from Pete, and panic from
Moira and Rhane.  But worse than that, she couldn't feel anything from
Kitty.  Pete finally came to himself.

"Somethin' went wrong....Moira and Rhane are workin on Kitty...."
Wisdom sank down slowly into a chair, holding his head in his hands.

               *************

"Mum."  Rhane's voice was breaking.

"Shut up!  An' keep squeezin that bag every five compressions!"
Moira's voice was near despair.

"Mum, it's been forty-five minutes."  Tears were rolling down the young
woman's cheeks.  "Ye did every thing ye could.  There's been no heart
rythym, no pulse, no brain activity, nothin'.  There ain't no more ye
can do."

Moira finally stopped, her head hung in exhaustion and grief, as tears
rolled down her face.  Looking up, she made the final entry in her vocal
medical log.  "Time of death, 2:47 p.m."  Then she turned to walk out to
the waiting room.  "Get the baby ready, Rhane.  Pete'll need tae see her
in a minute."  Then she turned toward the waiting room.

                *************

"No."  Pete Wisdom's voice was wooden, no emotion.  Then his eyes
began to glow red.  "NOOOOO!!!!"  A string of expletives shot out
of his mouth as he began picking up the chairs, table, anything that
wasn't bolted down, to throw it against the walls of the waiting
room.  Pete incinerated the door to the medlab with his pyrokinetic
powers, and the others, even Brian, drew back as they felt the intense
heat radiating off of him.  Before Moira could stop him, Pete was
kneeling beside Kitty's body, holding her hand and stroking her long
brown hair, as quiet sobs racked his thin frame.

"Wisdom....Pete, ah'm sorry.  I did everything I could, ye know that.
There jist wasnae anything I could do f'r her."  Then she decided to
play her hole card.  "But ye need tae pull yeself together, ye daughter
needs ye."  Moira hoped that, at least, would penetrate through the haze
of pain Pete was mired in.

Pete's blue eyes were pouring tears.  "D....daughter?  She's alive?"

"Aye."  Moira allowed herself a comforting smile.  "But it was
verra close for her as well.  She's in wi' Rhane right now.  Come on."
And Moira MacTaggert led what was left of Pete Wisdom into the anteroom.

The baby was lying in an incubator, holding onto her left arm, her
big brown eyes-Kitty's eyes, Pete thought to himself-were skipping
all around the room through half-closed lids.  A thin layer of silky
smooth hair crowned her head, and-Pete looked again to be sure-she
looked just like one of the old baby pictures of Kitty he had seen
when they visited her mother last year.  The child was like a copy
of his wife.

"She looks just like Kitty, don't she."  Pete's voice was almost a
whisper, and Moira had to strain to hear him.  "Brown eyes, brown
hair....just like Kitty."

"Aye, ah suppose she does."  Moira's voice was gentler then it had
ever been talking to Wisdom, and he noticed that.

"MacTaggert....I know ya did everything ya could.  How long will she
have to stay here?"  Pete asked, staring at his daughter.  Looking at
the man's haggard expression, Moira sighed.

"Ah want tae keep her at least overnight, for observation.  Ye should
be able to take her in the mornin.  Ah'll leave ye wi' her f'r now,
ah've got tae go help Kurt break the news to Charles an' the others."

Pete looked up from his daughters face.  "No.  I'll tell 'em."  Moira
was taken aback at that.

"Wisdom, are ye sure ye're up ta this?  Ye've just had a terrible
shock-"

Wisdom cut her off.  "And I'm bound to not be thinkin' straight.
I've heard that before, MacTaggart, but you know what?  I don't know
if I'm ever gonna be thinkin' straight again.  I'm gonna tell 'em.
An' then I'm gonna call Kitty's mum and dad an' tell them.  You wanna
help, start makin' plans for a funeral."  Wisdom's voice was hard,
angry, and sad, all at the same time.  Then he turned towards the comm
suite.

                 ************

dust in the wind
everything is
dust in the wind

                 ************

Kath looked at the black granite marker, knowing fully for the first
time what the story was behind it.  She'd never known her mother, so
she'd never really felt sad about her death, but hearing the story
from her father, seeing pictures of them, seeing how happy they'd
been together, she couldn't help but feel cheated, somehow.  And
guilty, as well.

"Then....if I hadn't o' made it, if she'd o' lost me, you'd still
have her--"  Kath got cut off as her father grabbed her a little
roughly.

"Stich that, right now."  Pete looked into his daughter's brown eyes
and made sure she understood.  "I wouldn't trade your life for hers,
even if I could.  People die.  Sometimes that's the only reason, an'
it took me a long time to figure that out."  A tear ran down his
cheek as he kept talking.  "Bloody hell, love, don't you ever be
thinkin' anythin' like that, that I loved her more than you.  Yer
my daughter.  OUR daughter.  An' every time I look at you, I see her
starin' back at me."  He stood up, pulling her into a deep embrace.
"Straight up, love, I wouldn't change a bleedin' thing if it meant I
wouldn't have you.  Not one bleedin' thing."

                 ************

Finis`

Song Credit
               "Dust In The Wind"--Performed by Kansas
                Music and lyrics by Kerry Livgren