Very much NSFW fic continued from yesterday:
Fracture Thirty-Three: Recovery
They’d had to give him a painkiller so that he’d sleep.
To the outside world, Kurt had stared at the tile, and then fainted. When he came to, an hour later, he’d cried like a child.
Bluebelle was understandably upset.
Kitty tried to comfort her by telling her that her Daddy was just sad about something he’d just remembered.
They had to give the child a painkiller, too.
Professor Xavier and Jean also took painkillers, but their reaction was far less severe to the chemicals than Kurt’s and Bluebelle’s.
Guilt settled over them like a dark cloud.
Logan carefully put the tile back in its envelope and muttered, “That bitch is goin’ *down*.”
“Thanks for the sentiment, old friend, but I’d rather the law handled things for now.”
“Too bad she can only die once,” he muttered.
There was a general murmur of agreement.
Xavier spoke. He sounded as if he wished he were also asleep. "Recovering a hidden memory is always traumatic, but a memory like this one – Kurt may not be himself for a few days, at the very least. We must be on guard for randomly emerging personas - or a complete psychological breakdown.“
"OmyGod,” said Kitty. Her eyes were red and puffy from tears.
“Principal Kelly’s gonna *flip*,” said Evan. “He’s gonna go nuts for *sure*, this time.”
“And how,” said Rogue. “Not only did he hire a predator, but her *friend* just up and attacked Kurt on school grounds. In broad daylight.”
“Lots of things happen in broad daylight,” said Kitty. “We think we have to like, shut out the night, because that’s when the bad things happen, but we’re like, wrong. It happens in the day, and people let it because they’re like, too busy to bother trying to help.”
Jean gripped her shoulder. “Hess worked all hours,” she said. “She took pains to go unnoticed. Nobody could have done anything.”
“I should have been able to do something,” Kitty sobbed. “I should have seen it…”
“We *all* missed it,” said Hank. “There’s no blame nor guilt in not finding a secret.”
“We still have to inform Mr Murdock. Stunts like this to sabotage key witnesses are illegal.”
“Like I said,” rumbled Logan, “Pity she can only die once.”
Kitty picked up Mr Peeper in his nest/box. “I’m gonna like, keep him company, okay?”
“He won’t wake up for a while,” said Scott. “He mightn’t even wake up until the morning.”
Kitty phased through the wall.
“Didn’t look like she cared much,” said Rogue.
*
Kitty sneaked her shoes off and crept under Kurt’s blanket, but not the sheets. Sure, he was in his PJ’s, and Kitty was still in her street clothes, but after Lance and Hess, nothing much felt safe.
She’d put Mr Peeper and his nest on his dresser, not knowing where Kurt usually kept the bird, and figuring he’d be safe there.
Kurt was whimpering in his sleep, one hand looking for something to hold.
Kitty gave him her hand.
His fur was soft and wonderful. His hand didn’t get sweaty-clammy like most hands did. So what if it only had two fingers?
Okay, one thing felt safe.
Being with Kurt.
Kitty snuggled up next to him and closed her eyes, listening to him breathe.
*
She woke with his lips against hers.
“Heh,” he said, “Always works a charm. Now, my lady, shall we work on your appalling lack of direction, mmm?” He reached over the sheet to caress her thigh.
Waitasecond…
“Back off, Hure,” she warned. “I came her to comfort Kurt, not entertain *you*.”
“You want *him*? That crybaby? And by the by, you have it backwards. *I’m* the entertainment. For a modest fee.”
“Nobody paid for you,” she explained. “This is like, your *room*. You *live* here.”
“But this is a predator’s place,” Hure whispered.
“No,” said Kitty. “It’s a safe place.”
Flight flickered to the front. “The tile. We remember the tile. We remember the bad times. The Archivist couldn’t hold onto the memory any more… This is a bad place. We have to get out of here.”
“No, no, no. Shhh… This isn’t a bad place, Flight. Ask Kurt. Ask Kurt if he knows where he is.”
“Kurt’s crying. Kurt only cries in the Bad Places…”
“It’s Hess,” Kitty explained. “She sent a - memento here. A tile with blood on it.”
“…pretty, pretty tiles…” whispered Flight, and he flickered away. Kurt flickered back. “I’m sorry, Kitty. So sorry.” Tears filled his eyes and he fell into her arms. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
Kitty got herself comfortable. How many times had Kurt done this for her? Now it was her turn to be strong for him.
Hess was a genius at opening old wounds.
The bitch.
He shuddered to a halt after an eternity of Kitty thinking up creative deaths for Hess. She just petted his shoulder and gently stroked his face.
His lovely fur was wet with tears.
“You okay, now?”
“I’m all cried out, at least,” he sighed. “Sorry I got your shirt wet.”
Kitty gave him another hug. “Like, forget about it, you silly elf. Wanna like, go show Bluebelle you’re like, okay?”
“Ja. I think I can handle that.”
“Can you like, handle being alone for like, five minutes? I’ve *got* to like, change. These clothes have been *totally* slept in.”
He grinned. “I think I can survive without your company for a while, meine geliebt.”
“I’m like, going to *have* to get a bilingual dictionary.”
“Get revenge,” suggested Kurt as she phased through the wall. “Start speaking Hebrew at me. Or Yiddish.”
Kitty skipped down the hall to her room. Silly elf.
Silly her.
How could she feel so fantastic after sharing the same bed as someone who could be locked away in an asylum?
Because the whole world was insane, that’s why.
*
Kurt showered quickly, but brushed down hard. He needed to remove the echoes of the Lieutenant’s touch. He knew the woman as surely as he knew any of Hess’ creations. The Lieutenant didn’t have an original bone in her body. She did as she was told, or echoed what she saw. Nothing more, but often less.
The Lieutenant was nothing without Hess. A puppet with no-one at the strings.
Therefore, to deal with her, he had to be rid of Hess.
He let Mr Peeper out of its nest for breakfast, dressed, and headed down the hall to Bluebelle’s room, brushes in hand.
*
Kitty heard their voices before she realised what was up. What with all the excitement, she’d completely forgotten to break the news to her folks.
They must have seen her on the news.
It didn’t sound like they were believing the Professor, much, when he repeated that yes, Kitty was fine. She’d just managed to get away from Hess with nothing more than a scare and a few lingering nightmares. She was *fine*. Honest.
Kitty decided to take mercy on him and make an appearance. She also decided to act dumb.
“Mom. Dad. Like, what are you doing here?”
“We came as soon as we could,” said Dad.
Mom had already crossed the distance between her and caught her up in a hug. “My poor little girl… Did she hurt you? Did she make anyone else hurt you? We can hire you a therapist–” her senses caught up with her mouth and Mom hugged her again. “Kitty! You’ve been *eating*… I'm so relieved!”
Thin didn’t equal love after all. Thin equalled fear. Kitty hugged her back. “I’m sorry I like, scared you. Compared to all the others, I hadn’t been through all that much. I just like, forgot to tell you.”
“You *forgot*?” Dad blurted. “We saw you on the news, Kitty. What were we supposed to think?”
“CNN’s been showing her - collections for the past forty-eight hours," said Mom. "We were so scared for you.”
“She didn’t get to do anything to me, okay?” Kitty sat between her parents on the couch. “When I was abducted, she like, drugged us with ether and –”
“Us?” quoted Dad. “There’s an ‘us’ now?”
“She took Kurt when she took me,” said Kitty. “We were like, in the same mess together.” She explained, as best she could, about the basement and what Hess had done. It was frightening at the time, but compared to some of the video testimony that was being leaked to the media, her horror story wasn’t that frightening at all.
Mom and Dad both went pale at the mention of Kurt’s kids.
Dad held her shoulder while Mom held her hand.
“Honey,” said Dad just as Kurt came in the door. “We don’t want you to have anything to do with that Kurt boy any more.”