Family Ties

Family Ties Chapter Forty Three (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

 

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse and Hamster Witch: I’ve gone one better than the
Geometrignats. I’ve found Hexagolizards… InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are
wonderful people for archiving! J ProPhile gets porciones y porciones de condolencia for having
technical difficulties. Jubilee (yay!),
Tex and Ramsey are groovy little people for being helpful. J
Readers/Reviewers: You people are fanfreakingtastic, you know that? Thank you thank you thank you!!!! And the platypi send their love, too.

 

 

 

“Now, can you tell me your name?”

“Tabitha Smith,” she sighed for the
tenth time that day. “Just like it was
an hour ago. The president is still the
same, the year is still the same and I’m still hungry.” She stretched her legs idly and was
satisfied to hear her knees pop. “How
long have I been here? No one will tell
me.” I miss Wanda. I miss Lucas. Let me out of here...

“Do you remember what happened
before you came here?” the psychologist continued as if Tabby had not spoken.

“No,” she sighed, resigning herself
to another round of questioning. “I
remember feeding my baby, him crying, then,” she paused, not willing to divulge
the, for lack of a better word, vision, she had experienced of Lucas as a
teenager, “then nothing until yesterday.”

“Miss Smith, you have to understand,”
the doctor said suddenly, setting aside her notepad. “Your recovery is not only unusually rapid but damn near
miraculous. You were at death’s door
when you came in here and to be honest, if they had been able to find
next-of-kin, they were going to see about pulling the plug.”

“Should you even be telling me this?”

“No.” She leaned forward intently.
“I would like to start a case study on you.”

“Pardon?”

“Your EKG showed some unusual
patterns...”

Shit. Mutation! “I was in a coma...isn’t that unusual in and of
itself?”

“These were never-before-seen
unusual. And your blood work...” She paused and let out a low whistle. “Miss Smith, you are a remarkable
patient. You seem to have your full
facilities and, aside from a gap in the events of the past few days which is to
be expected due to the massive amount of trauma you received, you have no signs
of brain damage at all.”

I should panic now. That might work out for the best... “I’m not so healed. I’ve got all these stitches...”

“Internal injuries aren’t my
specialty. I deal with the mind, dear.”

Tabby bit her lip and fiddled with
the IV line feeding glucose into her veins.
“Do you think,” she said slowly, though she was thinking fast, “I could
call my own doctor to come see me? I’d
feel more comfortable if I had my own therapist here. No offense.”

The psychologist smiled. “I don’t mind at all. I’d love to compare notes with him... What’s
his name?”

“Charles Xavier.” Oh, please let this work...

 

“Why’d he talk to you and not me?”

“For the last damned time, I don’t
know!” Wanda stopped and turned to
glare at Fred. “And can you walk any
faster?”

“Not really,” he mumbled. “Caliban never talks to anyone...”

“Except you.”

“Right.”

“Why you then?” she asked,
exasperated beyond belief. She was so
hot she had stripped off her overshirt and boots, carrying them both as she
tramped along the roadside in New Jersey.
Her feet were killing her and she was inches away from pummeling Fred
with her bare hands if he complained one more time about Caliban coming to her
in the tunnels, and she told him so.

“You don’t have to be so bitchy!”
she yelled, throwing her boots and shirt down to land in the grass. “God damn it, Fred, why are you here? Yeah, you like Tabby, big fucking deal, but
why are you here?”

He blinked and shuffled his feet
idly. Fred was miserable. He was not made, he decided, to walk very
far at all. Or to do much other than be
unmoveable. “Cause.”

“Cause why?” she sighed, dropping to
sit in the grass. “Give me one good
reason not to hex you into the next county.”

Fred eyed the ground warily and decided
it was best not to sit if he wanted to be able to keep moving later. With a mighty sigh, he said, “Tabby treated
me good, ya know? I don’t got a real
family any more and she was kinda like a sister or something to me. Even when she knew how much I liked her, she
didn’t make fun of me or nothin’. Not
like the others did.” He toed the
ground, digging a rut beneath the toe of his boot. When Wanda did not reply, he forced himself to continue. “She was the only one who ‘membered my
birthday. She’d make me cupcakes and
stick a candle in one of ‘em. And she’d
get me somethin’ for Christmas...not a big deal, usually somethin’ she stole or
whatnot, but still...” He sighed again
and chanced a look at Wanda. “You cryin’?”

“If you tell anyone, I’ll kick your
ass.” She stood and gathered her
things, dusting the dry grass and dirt off her jeans as she did so. Looking both ways down the road, she
frowned. “Doesn’t look like there’s a
lot of traffic this way.”

“More walking?”

“Until someone comes by we can hitch
from, yeah.”

Fred nodded glumly and followed
Wanda down the road. If it wasn’t
Tabby, I wouldn’t be doin’ this...Hey, maybe I can get a kiss outta this... He looked sideways at the Scarlet Witch and
felt another sigh rising. Not freakin’ likely with her around...

 

Rahne waited until Sam was well
distracted by Jean before she snuck back to the hangar. The older girl had been in a high snit about
something, probably Scott, the younger girl decided, and Sam felt moved by his
recent turn for the beneficient to help her as he could. That left Rahne with at least an hour by her
reckoning to figure out where Banshee and Forge had gone and find a way to get
there herself before anyone came looking for her. She exercised every facility at her disposal to ensure stealth,
hiding once in an alcove behind a large potted palm when St John came by,
looking for Bobby, she guessed. They’ve
been nearly insufferable since Bobby’s parents got that stick out of their
collective ass... She paused to
make sure the hall was clear before dashing full-tilt towards the hall leading
to the underground hangar, the cold snick of the metal door sliding shut
behind her almost too loud for her liking.
She paused and inhaled deeply, frowning. Perfume...sweat...something else...Ew! Someone’s being doing things in
here... Cocking her head to one
side, she strained to hear the tell-tale sounds of people in flagrante delicto
or even just talking. Alone...I
think... She cleared her throat
datelately and took seveal steps into the open space before pausing again. Cameras...can’t forget about the
cameras... She glanced up to check
the locations and what she saw gave her pause.
The cameras she could see were disabled, the lenses blacked out and in
one case, the whole kit hanging from bare wires. The Hell? Rahne’s
desire to find Jamie was waring with a rising fear that somehow, security had
been breached at the Institute. She let
herself shift into her other form, something she found made her senses more
acute, and sniffed the air again, trying to detect any foreign scent that would
alert her to danger. Slowly, she paced
the length and breadth of the hangar, pausing when the scent became especially
strong near the lockers housing emergency gear and extra uniforms. A careful nudge made one of the cabinets pop
open, unlocked as always, and Rahne yelped in surprise, transforming to human
form again hastily. She grabbed one of
the uniforms out of the locker and hurriedly put it on, staring at what lay on
the floor of the cabinet. A pile of
what appeared to be human skin was in a wrinkled, translucent heap on the floor
of the locker. I’m gonna be sick... Even as she thought it, she heard a faint
shuffling behind her. Whirling and
dropping into a protective crouch, Rahne nearly hurled herself at her friend
before she realized who it was. “Paige! What the Hell are you doin’ in here?”

“Um,” Paige, flushed and breathless,
could not meet Rahne’s eyes. “Had an
accident...you know, that time and all...Had to come get my extra undies from
my locker...”

Rahne’s gaze narrowed. “I didna’ smell blood.”

“Oh...um...well...”

A metallic clanging made them both
jump. “Show yourself!” Rahne growled.

Jono edged out from behind Logan’s
work bench, his dark clothing making him seem part of the shadows until he
stepped directly under the hanging lamp.
Hullo...

Rahne looked from Paige to Jono and
back again. “Oh.”

“It’s not what you...Oh, Hell. Yes it is.”
Paige did not seem upset at all but rather grinned like a fool.

Jono shifted uncomfortably. I have to...um...yeah...

Rahne could not help herself. She snickered. “Don’t leave on my account...”
Another sound, this one loud
and grating, made them all spin to face the large doors leading to the
outside.

“Is that...”

Rahne nodded.
“Jamie,” she breathed, forcing herself not to run. Paigeno ano and Rahne all backed into the
safe-zone and waited as the Blackbird landed.
Finally, as the door opened, Rahne allowed herself a whoop of joy and
bounded towards the pla

Paige...

“Jono, don’t even start. Not now,” she sighed, watching Rahne fling
herself at Jamie as he eased out of the plane.
“Please?”

We’ll have to talk later.

“I know. I know...”