If You Pardon, I Will Mend pt 6


"Kitty?" Jean asked as she struggled halfway up from her prone position. She rubbed her eyes, flinching as she brushed against her swollen face. "Ugh," she groaned as she swallowed and sat up. "How long was I out for?" she asked in a whisper.

"Not too long," Kitty answered as she limped over to Jean's side, "like, fifteen minutes or something. What happened?" Kitty asked.

Jean blushed as she recalled what Scott had said. Thought, she corrected herself. What Scott had thought. Maybe I wasn't supposed to hear that, Jean mused. No, she decided, it was sent directly to her. "Scott told me…he said he loved me," Jean said slowly as she tried to clear her head and regain her focus.

Kitty paled. "You mean, he, like, actually said that in front of everybody?"

"Well, no, not exactly. He thought it."

"So you read his mind," Kitty said not doing much to hide the disgust in her voice.

"No, Kitty, you know I would never do that."

"Yeah, sure. Just like you didn't read Duncan's mind today," Kitty blurted out, ashamed of the accusing tone she used.

Jean stared at her for a moment, stunned. Kitty looked away. "I didn't read his mind. Kitty, I can't believe you actually think that I go around peeking into people's heads. He was projecting. When someone with strong feelings or emotions is around me, especially if they don't know I'm a telepath, they push their thoughts and images into my mind. It's not fun, Kitty, I don't especially enjoy it. I don't really want to know what jerks like Duncan are thinking all the time."

"I know, I'm sorry," Kitty apologized as she saw the look of hurt in Jean's blue-green eyes. Kitty suddenly felt very worried that she was `projecting' her thoughts of jealousy. She closed her eyes for an instant. "So Scott said he loved you," Kitty said quietly, each word like a dagger in her heart.

"Yeah," Jean replied softly as she gingerly touched her face. "It was so sudden, I was so surprised, I dropped my hands for a second and Rogue nailed me in the face."

"Like, what a major bitch."

Jean shook her head and laughed, "It was a fight, Kitty, that's what you do in a fight."

Kitty blushed, realizing that she was overcompensating for the accusation she had made earlier. "Yeah, but that seems pretty unfair."

"Where is Scott anyway?" Jean asked suddenly, looking around the infirmary.

"He went to go find Rogue. She absorbed your powers and, like, flipped out big time."

Jean took a deep breath as she thought about how confused Rogue must have been. She closed her eyes and placed her hands on the side of her head. Nothing happened.

Kitty watched in silence.

Jean sighed and opened her eyes, "Guess my powers aren't back yet."

"Oh, heavens child!" Beast rushed into the infirmary, Storm close at his heels, "Thank goodness you are all right."

Jean laughed and lifted a hand to her black eye, "You call this all right?"

Beast chuckled and shook his head.

"The swelling will go down in a few hours," Storm responded with a warm smile.

"That is some shiner ya got there, kid," Logan commented as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Thanks to you!" Jean said as she swung her legs down from the bed.
"Thanks to me?" Logan echoed with a short barking laugh. "You were the one who suddenly decided to take a dive. What the hell was wrong with you anyway? Hands up, always," Logan said as he lifted his hands to block his face in demonstration.

"I got a little distracted," Jean said vaguely.

Kitty giggled.

"Why do I get the feeling we are missing something?" Beast asked as he turned to Storm.

Ororo just chuckled and moved to help Jean off the bed. Jean leaned on her gently.

Beast checked her pupils briefly. He had her answer a few simple questions and asked her to count backwards from 100 to 1. Once he was satisfied that her head was all right he allowed her to leave.

"Purple looks good on you, Jeannie," Logan laughed as gestured to her face. He turned his back to leave. The rug he was standing on was suddenly pulled out from underneath him and he fell flat on his back with a loud crack.

Kitty, Jean, Storm and Beast all burst into laughter. Jean leaned over Logan and looked down at him, "Hmmm, guess I got my powers back," she said as she stepped by him and left the infirmary.

Beast offered Logan a hand up. " You always had a way with women, my friend," Best chuckled as he hoisted Logan to his feet.

Logan smirked and made his way out of the room.

"Do you need any help, my dear?" Beast asked as Kitty struggled with her crutches. Ororo stood directly behind her, just in case she fell.

"Thanks, I think I got it," Kitty replied as she cautiously made her way over to the door.

"Flamin' hell!" Logan's loud voice echoed through the mansion.

Hank and Ororo quickly left the room to find out what was wrong. Kitty followed behind them slowly. She'd only have to use the crutches for a little while but they were already a major pain in the butt.

Kitty sighed as she headed toward the door cautiously. All she could think about was Jean and Scott. On one hand, she was so happy for them. They were like her best friends, and they were made for each other. She knew this wouldn't be some kind of fling, this was serious. Kitty choked as she realized it was quite possible that they would stay together for the rest of their lives.

"Major bummer," Kitty whispered as she halted for a moment. Scott was the perfect guy. All she wanted was to know what it was like to be in love. Am I really in love? She wondered. How will I know when I am? What if I really am in love with Scott? If only he was in love with her, then maybe she could at least know what it felt like. She sighed and turned her head.

She spied Dr. McCoy's workbench and a wicked little idea began to worm its way into her mind. She recalled what Beast had told her about the pheromones he had been working with. Of course! She thought with triumph, that was the answer!

Beast had created a partner pheromone for each of the individual samples. All Kitty had to do was put on a little of the partner pheromone designed from Scott and bam! Instant love connection! The idea began to take off in Kitty's head. They only last for a limited time, a week at most, so Dr. McCoy had told her. And if she wanted to make it stop earlier, all she had to do was use the neutralizer he had showed her. The pheromones were locked in a cabinet below the workbench. No problem with that, Kitty thought with a sly smile. Suddenly she was shocked at herself.

"Get a hold of yourself, girl," she mumbled. What was she thinking? This was dangerous stuff she was playing around with. And of course people would notice. Jean would know that something was up, Hank would figure it out quickly, and Logan, with that amazing sense of smell. "Oh, well," Kitty said with a small sigh, "not such a hot idea after all."

As she made her way out of the infirmary, the idea just refused to leave her head. Never do anything halfway; always go for the whole thing. Wasn't that some kind of famous quote or something? Who had said that? She couldn't remember, but it suddenly made sense. There were samples of each of the student's pheromones, even samples of the three adults. Kitty began to form a plan in her mind, "Oh what a tangled web we weave," she quoted with a small grin.


Hank and Ororo burst into the main hallway, where they located Logan.

Storm took a quick look around, "Oh, Goddess."

Groceries littered the length of the hallway. Boxes of cereal, crackers, cookies, all of the vegetables and fruits Storm had selected with care. The orange juice and the milk spilled all over the floor. Everything dumped out of the ecologically friendly canvas shopping bags.

"Oh, my," said Beast as he walked into the hallway. He stepped in a pool of cran-apple juice and slid to the sticky floor.

"Kurt!" Logan bellowed, terrifying everybody by using the boy's given name.

***BAMF*** "Not me," Kurt shook his head and put a hand over his heart, "I swear, it's not me this time."

Rogue shuffled in to the entrance, Scott following closely behind her attempting to stifle his laughing. "Ah was just trying to help," she said quietly.

Logan tried to swallow his anger.

*Count to ten, Logan* Jean said in his mind, *She needs to be accepted right now.*

Storm had already sensed that. "That is all right, child," she said with a warm smile.

"Ah tried to use Jean's powers. Thought'd get done faster that way."

"Faster is not always better," Beast noted.

"Like, there goes dinner," Kitty giggled as she walked in on the scene.

"Who likes pepperoni pizza?" Logan sighed as he went for the phone.

"Me!" Called out a smiling Kurt.

"No, Logan, no pizza," Storm shook her head.

"Aw, come on `Ro. The Prof. ain't here. I know you two have something against junk food but a little pizza now and then never hurt nobody," Logan flashed her a toothy grin.

"I am inclined to agree," Beast added. "A carefully monitored diet containing the correct lipids can be beneficial."

"Ja! Cheese does a body good."

"That's milk, Elf," Rogue corrected him.

"Milk does a body good," Scott finished.

Kurt just shrugged and smiled.

Storm sighed; she was going to regret this. "All right, just as long as you children clean this up." She followed Logan, hoping that she might persuade him to order a vegetarian pizza. "Broccoli," Storm said and smiled to herself.

"I'll get the paper towels and the mop," Kurt volunteered. ***BAMF***

"Does he ever walk anywhere?" Rogue asked Scott.

"Nope," he smiled and shook his head.

"Kitty, why don't you go sit down in the rec. room. We can handle it. Pick out a movie or something," Scott suggested with a warm smile. Kitty sighed and tried to tear her gaze away from that dreamy smile. She nodded and made her way toward the rec. room.

Jean seated herself on the wood paneled floor and began to pick up various items using her telekinesis and place them into the canvas shopping bags.

Rogue shuffled over to her awkwardly. Scott watched her closely from the other end of the hall. Rogue kneeled down to pick up an ear of corn. "I'm sorry," she said simply.

Jean smiled at her and stopped for a moment. "It's ok."

"No, I mean I'm sorry for everything, for being such a jerk to y'all, especially you. I—I couldn't believe that something good was actually happening to me," she said with a short laugh. "Ah had really convinced myself that ah didn't need anybody, ah forgot that it's great to have somebody there even if you don't especially need them," Rogue smiled cautiously.

"Believe me, I know exactly what you mean," Jean replied as she continued to pick up the groceries with her mind.

"Yeah," Rogue said softly as she recalled some of the memories that had flashed through her mind when she had touched Jean.

"How much did you see?" Jean asked as she paused for a moment.

"Just a little bit," Rogue admitted. "If ya want, we could talk about it sometime."

A slow smile spread across Jean's face. "Sure, I'd really like that. Thanks."

Scott watched the two girls from across the room. He smiled as he watched them hug quickly. Jean looked over to him and he blushed and tried to concentrate on picking up the groceries.

Jean grinned wickedly and signaled to Rogue. Rogue smiled too as she figured out what Jean meant.

"Oh, Scoooooott!" Jean called in an overly sweet voice. Scott looked up and was slammed in the face with half of a smashed chocolate cake. It was supposed to be for Evan's birthday. Before Scott had a chance to react, he was struck in the side by several Oreo cookies. Scott picked up the first thing he could find, a smashed tomato, and hurled it with perfect accuracy at Jean's head.

The tomato sailed through the air and stopped inches in front of Jean's face. Jean delicately lifted an eyebrow and the tomato was sent shooting back at Scott. It struck him on the shoulder. "No fair!" Scott called out.

"All's fair in love and food fights!" Rogue laughed as she turned on Jean with a handful of hamburger buns.

***BAMF*** "All right! Food fight!" Kurt called as he joined right in.

The hallway erupted into an all out battlefield. There were no teams; it was everybody for himself. Jean had the obvious advantage of both the shield and the ability to throw multiple things at once. Rogue proved herself to be very deft with a Ritz cracker. She tossed them like ninja stars at the acrobatic Kurt.

Somewhere in the middle of the fray, Scott found himself back to back with Jean. They bumped into each other and turned around, respective food items poised and ready in hand. Scott dropped his, Jean did the same.

"Did you mean what you said?" Jean asked shyly.

"I sure did, Jean," he replied in a whisper.

She smiled at him for a moment and then threw her arms around his neck. As the food continued to be hurled around them, he placed his hands gingerly around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

Jean leaned in, responding naturally to his touch. She had expected it to be weird, kissing her best friend. But instead, it felt like they had done it a hundred times.

Scott's heart leapt as her soft lips pressed against his. Instantly, he knew he was projecting. All the love, comfort, thrill, happiness he felt, he released it to her.

*Me too, Slim. Me too.* she said in his mind, the kiss never stopping.

Kurt observed the pair with his mouth hanging open. "Did I miss something?"

Rogue touched him lightly on the shoulder, "Naw, you didn't miss anything. It was always there. Let's get outta here."

Kurt nodded his head and ***BAMF*** they were gone in a puff of smoke.

Jean and Scott pulled apart and just looked at each other. They stood together, content with the silence. Scott tightened his arms around her and Jean lay her head on his shoulder and sighed happily.

Kitty looked in on the scene in disbelief. Kurt and Rogue had moments before teleported into the rec. room. Kurt had been blushing like mad, and babbling in non-stop German. Finally he blurted out something about kissing. While Rogue talked to Kurt, Kitty silently made an exit to witness it for herself. And there they stood. She blinked back the tears. It's just not fair, she thought to herself sadly. She let out a small sniffle.

Scott looked up from the embrace, but when he did, the only thing he saw was a pair of crutches lying on the wood paneled floor.