xp_logs | Kitty and Scott

After seeing Jean come back from her inadvertant lake-exploding, Kitty manages to have a healthy emotional reaction regarding the not-so-late Dr. Grey and goes to see if she's ok. Of course, God forbid she do this by talking to Jean.

Kitty was real good at hiding just out of sight. It was a skill. She'd seen the flash of fire outside and had gone to investigate, but less than halfway to the lake she'd just managed to avoid running into Al and a rattled looking D. Grey. Following them back to the school without being seen had been rediculously easy, although Al might have known she was there. Al usually did.

But Dr. Grey had gone straight to Mr. Summers' office, and Kit was not about to intrude there, for a lot of reasons. But now that she'd left...

Kitty tapped on the office door. "Mr. Summers? It's Kitty."

"Come in," was the distracted-sounding reply. Scott looked up as Kitty came through the door. "Hey," he said, a bit more shortly than he might have on another day. "What's up?"

Kitty hesitated slightly. "Um, I just... just wanted to see if Dr. Grey... if, you know, if she was ok. She looked, um, a little rattled when I saw her."

Kitty was worried about Jean? Kitty was acknowledging Jean's existence? Scott managed to limit his reaction to a surprised blink. "She's got a bit of a headache," he said after a moment, "but she should be fine. Just... a bit of a panic reaction to, um, falling in the lake." He didn't feel the need to explain what Jean and Alison had been doing to Kitty.

Kitty nodded slightly, accepting the answer before it fully percollated in. Of course Dr. Grey would not take well to falling in... the... lake. Kitty's eyes widened. "Oh," she managed. "Um, yeah." It struck Kitty once again how completely unequipped to deal with anything relating to her ex-late-teacher she was. "I'm... glad to hear she'll be ok?" She hadn't really meant that to come out as a question.

"She'll be just fine," Scott said, still quietly but very firmly. "Kitty... you could have asked her, you know?" He made the suggestion gently, but didn't break eye contact with her as he made it.

It was amazing, really, how even through the glasses you could tell that he was staring at you with that 'I'm the head of the school, I don't have to be psychic to know what you've ben up to' look. Kitty blushed, feeling very much the young girl who used to get called on the carpet for hacking her way into the city offices instead of doing her homework. "I, um... didn't want to, you know... disturb her." Yeah, right.

Scott raised an eyebrow. "And my head is made of cheese."

Kitty's mouth fell open, and she couldn't quite supress the giggle, although she clapped her hands over her mouth a second later and the blush deepend. "That's not fair, sir. I'm too old to be melting through the floor in embarassment." Or running away from conversations with her teachers. Or, really, avoiding them in the hall. Blast. How did he manage that effortless guilt trip thing?

"Yeah, you and Terry are doing a really good job of making me feel old," Scott said amiably. "Both so grown-up these days..." He eyed her for a long moment, almost pensively. "I wish I knew why you run from Jean, though," he said, not beating around the bush.

"Hey, at least Terry's not going to college next month." Without even realizing she was doing it, Kitty scuffed her foot in the carpet, not really wanting to answer. Not really knowing how to answer. "I just... I don't know how to... how to deal. And that's the lamest excuse, ever, yeah, but... It's something Dr. Samson and I've been working on. When it comes to people, I lack coping skills in the extreme." And the resurected-but-not-really Jean Grey took a coping or dealing, or something.

"If you're working on it, that's the important thing," Scott said with a sigh. "Look, this is not me trying to tell you to get over it or something. Jean wouldn't, either. I just... hate to see you having such trouble handling this." Or anything, really, but he didn't need to be getting mushy.

Kitty ran a hand through her hair, sort of shrugged, biting at her lip. "I... yeah. Thanks. It's... well, you know, working on it, and all. Yes. Um, and I really am glad she's ok. And that she's back."

Scott gave her a half-amused, half-pensive look. "I wasn't all that... delighted to see her when she first returned either," he confessed.

This definitely was going to win the award for Most Unexpected Coversation of the Year. "It was a weird month," Kitty managed.

"Tell me about it," Scott murmured. Between Jean and the Youra mission... "But we got through it," he said, gently but firmly, "and a few months since then."

"Life's never really boring here at Xavier's, but at least it's been quieter. No crises at all, really, or no big one. Plus Billy and Rachel came. It's been downright normal-ish."

Well, except for the jet coming out and back with increasingly regularity... But what was important was that it was more normal for the kids, here. Hearing Kitty say that was kind of a happy thing, too, Scott reflected with a slight smile.

"Nothing like babies to make a place feel like home, I guess," he said lightly, then tilted his head a little, gazing at her. "You're going to be all right, you know," he said. "The college thing. The people
thing. All of it."

Kitty sighed, then smiled. "Thanks, sir. Not worried that much about the college thing, really, but, it's nice to hear."

"Have I mentioned how proud I am of you lately?" Scott chuckled softly, almost wistfully. "Don't think I have. I need to say things like that more often."

The smile widened into an outright grin, the blush returning faintly. "Thank you for that, too," she managed, holding the impulse to go whee and babble in check. Mostly. She couldn't quite avoid bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. "Oh, speaking of college, I got all the paperwork finished for Jamie and I to have permission to live off campus. I'll bring copies for your files later."

"Ah, good," Scott said wisely. "Because all the paperwork must be in order." He made a shooing gesture. "Out of my office, Pryde. Go amuse yourself with Jamie or something. It is summer vacation, remember?"

"Am still mostly managing to not go crazy that I'm not taking any summer classes. How do people do this every year? Don't they
get bored?" She giggled slightly. "Rhetorical question," she added,
heading for the door. "I'll see you later, Mr. Summers."