xp_logs | Kurt and Terry, Friday afternoon

Kurt goes to see Terry on his way out, to both offer and receive reassurance.

He'd packed his bag, delivered Triscuit to Alex, and now Kurt was almost ready to go. That said, there were people he had to check on, at the very least, people he couldn't leave - however temporarily - with just a few words on the journals.

His knock on Terry's door was oddly tentative for all that.

She was working. Of course she was since the only alternative was failing to deal with this in any sort of professional manner and she'd had enough of being disgusted with herself for the time being. She was revising her report for the 800th time, though what she'd submitted to Scott in the first place was entirely adequate if not perfectly polished. Terry wasn't fooling herself. It was busywork and nothing else. Maybe she should try for a DR session instead. Blowing things up might make her feel better. "Come in," she called at the knock, setting aside her laptop and getting up out of her chair to put some tea on. Every conversation she had recently required it.

This wasn't likely to be any different, though Kurt would try his best not to upset her any further. He opened the door and stepped just inside the room. "Hello, Terry."

This was going to suck. "Hi," Terry managed despite the sinking feeling in her stomach, "Would you like some tea?" It wasn't his fault that his relative was a sociopath that threatened her team, her home and her loved ones. Terry knew a thing or two about having a black sheep in the family after all.

"...if you were making some", he answered after a half-second's hesitation. "I thought I should come... it would be a very stupid question to ask how you are, but it is the only one that occurs to me."

Terry nodded and got out another mug. "I'm fine," she told him, as she'd told everyone else that had asked, "Just a couple cuts and bruises. Had worse falling out of a tree. You've seen the report though, so you know that. Honestly, I don't know what else to say about it. I made a lot of mistakes, my team paid."

"I did not ask if you were badly hurt", he said quietly. "And I do not think you could name one person on the team who has not made mistakes."

She leaned on the counter, facing him. "Can I ask you a really rude question?"

"If it will help? Of course." He met her eyes as steadily as he could.

"Are you here as an X-Man or as Mystique's son?" she said bluntly.

"I..." He fell silent, thinking. "I would never speak to you as Mystique's son, especially not now. But I do not think I am here as an X-Man, just now. Perhaps I am just here as your friend."

The kettle clicked off. She busied herself pouring it into the teapot, watching the leaves float on the rising water. "I guess that I don't really have a lot to say about it to my friends," she said finally. "I don't know what there is to say anyway."

"It is difficult, when we were not there", he offered. "I remember that. If you would... have more to say to Mystique's son, and it would be a good thing for you, then I can be that..."

Terry shook her head, "I don't, I only wanted to know why you'd come. I asked because I wondered if you did. Had questions or something, I mean. You're not her, and you're not responsible for her. It's just an accident of birth." It was easier now to keep her thoughts focused and her emotions reined in. Kurt didn't push her buttons in the same way that Scott could.

Kurt winced very slightly at that. "I do not want to know more of what happened than you are willing to share. As for responsibility... that is only partly true, you may have read in the files, and still less in feelings."

"I've read the files." Religiously. "I also grew up with criminal for a caretaker and I know how hard it is to reconcile wanting to believe in them with the choices they make. The things that she's done aren't your fault. You had the chance to stop her and you didn't. That's the only thing that you're guilty of. Not what's happened since."

"Thank you for saying that", was the sincere response. "It means a great deal, and more since you have suffered by her actions. I try to believe it, most days."

Terry shrugged, "Like I said, I've been there. And there are days when I wish I'd taken your way." She poured the tea and offered him a mug.

Kurt accepted it with a sad half-smile. "There are many things most of us would do differently, I think."

She shrugged again and wandered back to her chair though she didn't sit just yet. "So if that's what you're worried about, it should ease your mind. I don't blame you. It never even occurred to me."

"Nobody has said anything to make me think they do." He leaned against the door. "But then, those here are eternally forgiving when they wish to be."

"No reason to be forgiving when there's nothing to forgive. And no use dwelling on might have beens. The fact is that she's a threat and it doesn't matter in the least why that's the case, only that we've got to remember that it is." Terry's jaw firmed. "I don't like making the same mistakes twice."

"Only fools do not learn from their mistakes", Kurt agreed quietly. "I will be trying not to repeat mine, also."

Terry sipped her tea and slipped back into her chair, tucking her bare feet under her. "Good then. That's all any of us can ask."