There are other worlds besides the prime reality.
Worlds where things that would not or should not happen do.
They are ElseWhens.
An ElseWhens story by DiScOrD:
After the Genosha fiasco, Excalibur disembarked from their hypersonic transport The Midnight Runner and wearily trudged into the Muir Island Genetic Research Center. Their uniforms were in various stages of damaged and grimy, and most of them simply wanted to eat a quick bite of dinner, then collapse into their beds. Last off the plane was a grumpy Pete Wisdom, official Black Air attaché. No sooner had he stepped onto solid ground than he lit a Marlboro Medium and took a deep, appreciative drag. Sighing, his mood lightened somewhat, he followed the others inside, and once there, headed to his room. He'd have to file a report back to Scicluna later, but right now, he just wanted a shower, a good meal, and a good stiff shot of scotch.
It was almost an hour later when Wisdom tramped downstairs. Though it was still fairly early --8:00 p.m.-- most of the others had already turned in for the night. This was only the second time he'd been inside the complex, so he figured to do a little looking around. He managed to resist the urge to eat for about two minutes, in that time deciding that there was nothing to be seen in the building that couldn't wait until after supper. Heading towards the kitchen, he quickly moved aside as a small boy --Pete judged him to be about three years old, give or take a month-- ran down the hall, Dr. Moira MacTaggert in hot pursuit.
"Matthew! Ye git back heer an' git tae yuir bed, or there'll be nae telly watchin' fer ye t'morrow!"
Pete blinked a few times. 'Huh,' he thought. 'Didn't know the doc had another kid.' Shaking it off, he wandered into the kitchen, where he found Kitty Pryde and Meggan Braddock washing dishes. Nodding at the two as he came in, Pete, being Pete, took the opportunity as they turned back to the sink to scan their figures. Meggan was too stereotypically built for his tastes, but Kitty was, physically at least, right up his alley. Her slender, well-toned body and long brown hair were pretty much perfect as far as he was concerned, and she was one of the most attractive women he could remember seeing in some time. Although, if their working relationship in Genosha was any indication, she despised him. "Evenin', ladies," Pete said as he rummaged through the refrigerator.
Meggan and Kitty had, in fact, been talking about Wisdom prior to his entrance. Kitty had been assured by Meggan that she sensed no duplicity or ulterior motives in him, and this went quite a way towards relaxing Kitty's attitude towards their uncouth government liason. The younger woman had actually managed to surprise Meggan by confessing that she thought Pete was handsome, although she was still too unsure of anything to say a word about it. "Good evening to you, Mr. Wisdom," Meggan smiled at him.
Kitty joined in. "Yeah, good evening, Mr. Wisdom."
Pete didn't even look up from foraging amongst the food containers. "Just Pete, if yer don't mind. Mr. Wisdom's me father." Standing up suddenly, Pete scoffed in disgust. "Bloody hell, ain't there nothin' but health food in this place? It's enough t' make a body go on a hunger strike."
Neither Meggan nor Kitty could stifle a giggle at that. "Pete, there's some sort of German sausuges in the very back....Brian wanted to try them out, but he claims they're so spicy they give him heartburn. They're yours if you want them."
Pete blinked. This type of response was not what he'd been conditioned to expect from Kitty in the short time he'd known her. Still, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth --especially when it was offering real food. "Thanks, Pryde. Got a fryin' pan 'round here anywhere?" Meggan sighed overdramatically and handed Pete the pan she'd just finished drying. Pete grinned. "Don't worry, Meg, I can wash a pan just as good as any of them other gits what live here."
Meggan raised an eyebrow. "That's not saying very much, Pete." Kitty and her both giggled again at that, and Pete scowled at them.
"Yeah, go on with yer then, an' leave me t' eat in peace. Hey, where's the plates an' such?" As Kitty pointed to the appropriate drawer and cabinet, Meggan hung up the dishtowel and left. Pete seized the opportunity to capitalize on Kitty's new attitude. Never let it be said that Pete Wisdom wasted time. "Hey, Pryde...." A small case of drymouth suddenly assaulted Pete, and he turned away for a second before continuing, "Mind keepin' me comp'ny while I eat? You can tell me 'bout the way things get done 'round here." He grabbed a few slices from the bread bin and took down a new jar of hot mustard from the cabinet.
Kitty blinked a few times, making sure she'd heard right. "Okay," she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. "What do you want to know?"
Thirty minutes later, Pete had finished cooking and eating the sausuges -- as well as several slices of toast and a few bowls of cereal -- and was occupied with busily washing the frying pan and dishes he'd used. As he began to rinse them, the image of little Matthew came back into his mind, and decided that now was as good a time as any to inquire about the --pardon the pun-- wisdom of having a child in this environment.
"Hey, Pryde," he said as he finished drying the plate, "Nothin' in Black Air's files ever said that MacTaggert had her another kid after her son Kevin. I mean, we know she adopted that Sinclair girl, but--"
Kitty sat at the table, just a little confused. "Pete, what are you talking about?"
Pete turned around as he put the plate back in the cabinet. "What do yer think I'm talkin' about? MacTaggert's son, that little Matthew bloke. She was chasin' him down the hall when I come into the kitchen, yellin' bout come 'ere an' get into yer bed."
Pete was surprised to see Kitty smile, and then begin to chuckle, and finally begin to laugh out loud. 'God, she's got a beautiful laugh', Pete thought, before responding gruffly, "What's so bloody funny?"
Kitty finally calmed down. "You....you thought that Matthew is Moira's son." A slight burst of laughter escaped Kitty at that, before she managed to stop herself completely. "He's not."
Pete frowned in confusion. "Then....whose? Meggan's?"
Kitty smiled. "No, Pete. He's my son."
That knocked Pete for a loop. He stood there silently for a minute, knowing as he stared at Kitty's contented face that she was telling the truth.
"Yer....his mum....bloody hell, that's somethin' Black Air don't know about."
Kitty's expression darkened immediately, and she stood up, phasing through the table to stand in front of Pete. "And they'd better not ever know about it, if you get my drift. I don't trust them, Wisdom, and to be honest, I don't really trust you." She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Alastaire agreed when Matthew was born that he'd never be put in any government files, and I know for a fact that he never was. The only other people who know he exists are the X-Men and my mom. And frankly, I intend to keep it that way for a good long while."
Pete blinked in surprise a few times. He'd grown so accustomed to referring to things in terms of Black Air's knowledge or ignorance of them that he'd unconciously done the same thing to Matthew. "Now hold on, Pryde, you got naught t' worry about from me on that score. I ain't sayin' nothin' about yer little boy, yer got me word. I wouldn't do that t' yer...." Pete suddenly realized what he'd said, and quickly covered his ass. "....None o' yer. That ain't what I'm here for, an' that's the truth."
Kitty stepped back at that promise from Wisdom, in part because she believed him--for what reason she didn't know; and in part because of the way he'd phrased his pledge. 'Did he mean to say it that way? No, he must have just messed up. He'd be a fool to be interested in me'. As she sat back down, she shook the thoughts from her mind. "Good. Because if they ever did find out about him, I'd assume it came from you." Kitty smiled thinly at him. "And you know what they say about a female who thinks her young are in danger."
Pete nodded his assent. Despite the semi-humourous tone of voice she said that in, the glare of maternal instinct in her brown eyes showed that the warning was not to be taken in jest. He'd seen Kitty fight in Genosha, and knew that he didn't want to be on the recieving end.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Later that night, Pete logged off the computer in his room. He'd just finished e-mailing his report to Scicluna, and he tried to distract himself from thinking about Kitty Pryde by playing a game of Doom 2. However, it didn't work. Finally giving up and shutting down the program, Pete grabbed one of his trenchcoats and a pack of Marlboros and headed out on the small balcony of his quarters. Stepping out into the cold Scottish night, he buttoned his coat closed and lit a cigarette. As he inhaled and blew out a long drag of smoke, Pete thought some rather blunt thoughts about this young girl. He knew from the file Black Air had on her that she'd just turned eighteen a few months before, which meant she would have been barely fifteen when her child was born. Pete flicked the ashes from his fag off the balcony and tried to decide what to do. She was pretty, and he considered her more than a little sexy, but beyond that he was puzzled. If he'd read her correctly, she didn't have much experience with men, no matter that she had a child; and if he played it right, he might manage to hook up with her. He thought to himself that her lack of experience could serve to his advantage should he ever get her in bed, but still, as tempting as that thought was, there was something else about her. He couldn't put his finger on it, and that annoyed him greatly. Finishing off his Marlboro, Pete headed back inside and went to bed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
As the weeks passed, Pete worked on getting Kitty to be more comfortable around him. He was succeeding, although it was slow going. Then, just when he was going to ask her out, he got a message from Ed Culley, a fellow Black Air agent. Pete and Kitty went together to London, all Pete's thoughts about any future relationship with her buried under concern for his friend. Too late, they found out what had happened. After learning the part that his employers had played in Culley's death, and surviving a Black Air hit that would have killed them both, an increasingly disillusioned Pete threw the last shreds of his loyalty out the window, and the only thing on his mind was revenge.
He and Pryde broke into R.A.F. Utterleigh, an air base that Black Air had co- opted and code-named Dream Nails. What they found there was enough to shock even the former X-Man ShadowCat. A violently atheistic race of aliens, captured and used by Black Air to create anti-homo mutatis biotechnology, specifically, the psychically sensitive viral agent Blood Eagle. Pete found out first hand about the virus after he was captured, as a Black Air telepath named Shrine tortured the now-former agent by making him relive stressful memories. Throughout the session with Shrine, Pete was quietly formulating a plan to find Kitty, destroy the entire facility, and escape back to Muir. He manipulated Shrine into reading the most horrible of his memories, things he'd done in the past but had come to terms with. Shrine, horrified by the callousness that Pete treated his old acts with, lost it, and was himself torn to shreds by Blood Eagle. Pete then managed to break out of the interrogation room, almost literally bumping into Kitty as they searched for each other.
To complete his letter of resignation, Pete led the way into the wartime power grid room, where a complete temporary exhaustion of his powers --by releasing a huge number of hotknives into the base's emergency generators-- caused an explosion that not only disintegrated Dream Nails, but also all plant and animal material for an almost one hundred yard radius past the grounds.
The two flew back to Muir that night, and filled in Kurt and the rest of the team on the situation. Kurt then asked Pete if he would consider staying on as a temporary member of the team until the Black Air situation was resolved, and Pete agreed to do so. After a few days of strategizing, Pete decided to go all out, and finally did ask Kitty out on a date --to her delight, he was visibly happy she'd said yes. The two then flew down a few days later to Edinburgh, to a resturant of Pete's choosing.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
To be continued in
Unplanned Parenthood -- Part 4