Subject: [OTL]: Kittens [Pete Wisdom/Shadowcat, G]
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 13:07:26 -0800
From: Joannie Milligan <leora-h@usa.net>

Please don’t be alarmed by the beginning and keep on reading. I’m not a
fangirl and this is not a fangirl’s story – yes, it actually has a plot!
Read and be amazed! :)
Really, this is a nice bit that maybe isn't anything more than nice, but
it's nice, I think. Give it a try...

Disclaimer: I don’t own Kitty, Pete Wisdom or any of the characters appearing
in this story. They’re Marvel’s. This story is a work of fan fiction. I’m
making no money of it. Really...

Kittens

Pete Wisdom was just returning home to the X-Mansion when Kitty Wisdom, a.k.a.
Shadowcat, went into labor.

The exciting news reached him as he walked into the living room and collapsed
into the nearest chair, leaning back, closing his eyes, thinking back of the
mission he returned from, of the poor deformed mutant boy he saved from a
horrifying lynch. Though not the classic super hero type, Pete prided himself
for the deed. The kid was barely thirteen; small and disfigured, looking as
inhuman as a mutant can look. He was safely in the Mansion now. Pete could
relax.

He noticed that the Mansion was in turmoil from the moment he entered, but not
until a somewhat rattled Nightcrawler ran past, muttering in excitement. Pete
leaned forward in his chair, trying to recall what could the big event be – he
was tired and a little confused, and normally apathetic to boot – and then it
came back to him like a bomb. Kitty. His wife was due to give birth every day
now.

Agitated satisfaction and a strange, new kind of joy shot through him. He
virtually leaped from his sit and ran through the Mansion corridors all the
short way to the infirmary. Storm was just leaving the room; he nearly bumped
into her.

"What’s goin’ on, 'Roro??" He blurted out, his excitement making him forget
what little manners he had.

Ororo had the strangest look on her face, puzzled and uncertain. She was
clearly a bit overjoyed, a bit confused, and a bit embarrassed. Pete wasn’t
sure what to make of it. He didn’t try. He only wanted to know if Kitty – 
and the baby, if the big moment has indeed come – were all right.
Storm smiled oddly. "Our Kitten has now a kitten of her own, Pete..." she
replied in an unstable voice. Pete’s eyes were going wide. Something was
wrong. What kitten was Ororo babbling about?

He shrugged and made his way into the infirmary. The place was clean enough,
so the labor must’ve gone smoothly. No anxious visitors – most of the team was
away on a bigger mission – no blood, nothing but a tired Kitty lying in her
bed, with a neat little mass in her arms.

Pete approached the bed carefully. Kitty smiled at her husband. In her
exhausted joy there were traces of the same uncertain embarrassment he saw on
Storm’s face.

"Pete..." she said quietly, as if out of a dream. "Look, we have a beautiful
baby girl... isn’t she amazing?"

Pete’s anxiety accelerated into near horror as he leaned closer and stared at
the tiny, sleeping baby.

It was a girl, all right. A healthy baby girl. Her arms were small but seemed
strong. Her face was angelic. Her little body clean and smelling of newness...
and covered with soft, pale blond fur. Her tiny ears were pointed. Her hands
somehow resembled paws, as did her feet. Her eyes were feline. Out of the
cloth she was wrapped in dangled a short, furry tail, so much like that of a
newborn kitten...

Kitty had a kitten. Ororo wasn’t joking.

Pete thanked heaven that he was already in the infirmary. He felt like he was
going to faint.

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

Three days later, Kitty was sitting in the living room, her newborn daughter,
Illyana Phoebe Wisdom, cooing in her arms. In front of them Pete paced
restlessly back and forth, frowning, even pouting. In the past three days he
had not touched little Illyana once. Kitty told him he was twisted.

Pete remembered the stunning, deformed boy he saved from a certain death the
day their stunning, deformed baby was born. He couldn’t look at Illyana
without a pang of fear and horror at what the child will surely have to
endure. The girl just didn’t belong in the world. Not with the way she
looked.

He remembered that when Kitty first found out she was pregnant, they
considered an abortion. Kitty herself wasn’t sure she wanted to bring a baby
mutant to a mutant-hating world. But she stretched the decision farther and
farther until, in the sixth month, it really wasn’t an option anymore.

'Damnit, Kitty, if only we had...' Pete thought darkly.

Kitty looked up at him with a smile. Illyana waved tiny, furry arms and
blinked slowly, erasing any shade of discomfort her mother might experience.
She was a lovely baby. If only she was normal...

"Come on, Pete," Kitty encouraged him, "she wants her daddy."

"Sod it..." Pete whispered. He took several reluctant steps forward, and then
stopped in his track.

"Kitty, we’ve got t’ talk." He started in what he hoped was an authoritative
voice. He intended to continue, but Kitty’s eyes snapped fire.

"We sure do, Pete!! We’ve got to talk about a father who isn’t willing to hold
his baby because she looks..."

She struggled for the word.

"Freakish?" Pete offered with a flare of sudden anger.

"Freakish?! This child is your daughter!" Kitty stood up now, pressing Illyana
to her lap defiantly. The baby sobbed. Kitty started to walk away, rocking her
arms softly, trying to calm the baby down. Pete followed her in desperate anger.

"I never asked f’r a daughter like this!"

"Live with what you’ve got!"

"Kitty!!" He erupted "Look at her! Do ye think she’ll ever be able t’ live a
normal life?? They’ll hunt her down like an animal!"

"That’s why we should be there for her!" Kitty nearly shouted in reply.
Illyana started crying quietly. "Both of us, Pete!"

"We can’t help her! Look at this tail! Look at her fur! No one can help her!"
He kept pressing. Kitty spun like an angry cat and her gaze shot at him
daggers stronger than his own mutant power.

"God, you’re starting to sound like Graydon Creed and them other maniacs!!"

Pete stumbled backward, stunned by the comparison.

"Just because she looks different," Kitty intoned, nearly sobbing, "doesn’t
mean she’s any less our daughter. She’s going to have a hard and painful life,
and she needs good people to look out for her. We’re going to have to be these
people, Pete. She’s my child, and she’s also yours, and being there for her
should be your – hell, it shouldn’t be your duty, it should be your joy!"

She stormed out of the living room, with the crying Illyana held close in her
motherly arms.

Pete was left behind, staring at the door.

After a while, he was finally able to move again, to walk out the room and out
to the Mansion grounds. Kitty sat on the stairs at the entrance, face buried
in her hands. On the grass Illyana slept, looking as perfectly adorable as
any baby Pete has ever seen. In the afternoon sun, her pale, nearly white fur
shone gracefully. Her tail swooshed around in the green infinity surrounding
her, making soft noises and banishing the terrified crickets. She looked like
a newborn kitten, more than human other than less. He saw her tiny innocent
form, and his heart was wide with yearning.

He sat down next to Kitty and took her in his arms.

"Go away..." she mumbled behind her hands and a mess of brown hair, but did no
move to break the embrace.

"Kitty..." he whispered to her softly.

Gradually, she lifted watery eyes to gaze at him.

He looked deep into the lovely blue of her eyes, as clear and hopeful as it
was when they first met. She wasn’t a girl anymore, but so many other,
different things – a warrior, an X-Man, a wife, a mother. But deep inside she
remained the innocent girl, who hoped for a better future for her children.

And it hurt him so much that he couldn’t assure that future.

He took her hand and they silently stood up and walked toward the sleeping
Illyana. Kitty scooped the baby in her arms and held her close. Pete looked
on. Ignoring his stubborn revulsion, he reached out carefully, and petted
Illyana’s head.

"I’ll try, Kitty, I promise." He said carefully. "I know she needs us. It’s
hard, but I’ll try."

She nodded, and bit her lower lip, as if she was going to cry again.
"What’s so hard to accept?" She asked quietly. "She’s just a mutant, like us.
Why is she any different? Because she looks odd?"

"Because she..."

It was then that he realized he really didn’t have a good answer.
"I didn’t want me baby girl t’ have a mutant’s life..." He found himself
saying, in a hollow voice. "It’s hard t’ accept, that she’s different... the way
she looks an’ all... wot she’ll go through..."

He swallowed hard. Kitty smiled a tired, somewhat bitter smile and toyed with
Illyana’s tail.

"But we’ll have to try, Pete. She needs us."

Pete finally nodded.

He petted Illyana’s head again, speaking to her softly. "Hi there, kid... its
yer daddy... wake up..."

The girl’s eyes remained shut. Kitty smiled at first. She shook Illyana a bit,
gently. "Wakie wakie, sweetheart."

No effect. Pete felt his pulse gathering speed.

Kitty seemed tensed, then gasped. She shook the baby a little harder, moved
her arms, her legs, and her tail. She spoke to her loudly. "Illyana! Wake up!"
But no avail. The feline eyes remained shut. No limb moved on its own. It
wasn’t until ten minutes after the ordeal started that Kitty began to
scream.

*********

"Brain damage??"

The X-Men’s resident medical specialist, Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast, nodded
sadly. His eyes avoided these of the terrified Pete and Kitty. Behind the
trio, on a tiny bed, poked and tangled with tubes and medical instruments,
lay the unconscious Illyana.

"It seems that the labor wasn’t as smooth as it appeared at first." He said,
sighing heavily. "Part of the baby’s trachea was hurt. The injury was slight
enough to be missed when Illyana was born, but put under the right conditions,
she simply couldn’t breath anymore."

"But you fixed that! She’s all right now!" Kitty insisted, her fists clenched,
her eyes tearing.

Beast was looking down now. He seemed helpless.

"An extensive lack of oxygen is known to damage the brain on most cases. One
of these cases was yours, I’m afraid. I’m very sorry, Kitty... I wish I could’ve
done something. But even our technology is insufficient to reverse the damage."

Kitty collapsed, crying hysterically, into her husband’s arms. Pete was
glaring at Beast, sorrow and helpless rage apparent in his expression.
"Will she stand? Talk?" He demanded, trying desperately to hide his own
tears.

Hank sighed again. "There’s no way to tell the extend of the brain injury.
However, I suspect she might suffer from motor difficulties... she will probably
be blind, or deaf... but talk? Understand? No telling."

The words struck Kitty like a cannonball. 'My baby... disabled... retarded...
God, no, it can’t be, it can’t be!!'

She wanted to scream, with the desperation, the horror of a mother to a
wounded child. Illyana will never have a normal life, even among other
mutants... crippled! Retarded! This little angel! How can justice be so blind?
How can this be??

She felt Pete’s strong arms around her, supporting her, leading her to
Illyana’s bed. And then she was next to it, and she wanted desperately to
rip the tiny body away from the machines, from the humming, cold, metallic
instruments and press her close to her warm body, hold her in her loving arms.
Never let go. Ever...

"Kitty..." Pete’s voice grabbed her tumbling soul, and dragged her out,
brought her back from the abyss.

She looked up at him, his eyes like a lifeline... "What are we going to do,
Pete? How are we going to raise her? Maybe it was better if I did the abortion
when I had the chance... maybe I never should’ve brought her to the world –
like this!"

Then he grabbed her trembling hands in his. He pressed her close to him and
looked into her eyes and willed them to dry. And he looked at Illyana, and
loved her, and with that love, he found the words that will sooth the bleeding
heart, words Kitty knew so well...

"C’mon, Kitty..." he whispered to her. "She wants her mommy."

Kitty sobbed once more, and then found the strength to look at him.

"She needs her," he continued "She’ll need her more than ever, now. She’ll
have a hard and painful life. She needs her mommy strong, an’ willin’ to stand
up to the challenge. She needs both her parents, t’ love her no matter what
she’s like – mutant, deformed, crippled – because she’s their daughter."

Kitty nodded.

Her breaths were turning rich and deep, no longer broken by sobs. The
trembling of her frail body ceased finally. Her eyes cleared. She looked at
Illyana, her daughter, and hugged Pete tightly.

"You’re... you’re right..." she whispered. "She needs us both."

He nodded. His arms were strong and loving around her, and her body felt
wonderful against his. They were together and they were there for Illyana.
"We’re here for her." He said, meaning every word. "Because she’s ours. To
care for her and love... 'Till the end of time."

"No matter what? Like this?" Kitty challenged one last time, as if testing.

"Like anything." He replied, petting the girl's head with fatherly love.
"Like anything..."

Fin

It wasn't that bad, was it...?

Here's to the great debate!

Joan Milligan