Kurt and Scott

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As planned, Kurt kidnaps Scott and teleports him to the middle of a forest, somewhere in New York State. Scott is Not Pleased.



As they'd discussed in the team journal, Kurt went in search of Scott. He had a fair idea of the first few places to look, and so it didn't take him long to find him.

Scott saw Kurt coming down the hall towards him and managed a nod, hoping the other man didn't want much in the way of conversation. He had to see Lee again, and besides, he didn't really want to talk about his conversation with Jubilee, or anything else of that sort, and Kurt had that look on his face. "Kurt," he said briefly in greeting as he passed him.

Kurt, however, didn't allow him to pass, bamfing into Scott's path and keeping pace with him. "Scott", he replied, a mischievous edge to his voice.

What is it with people and getting in my way today? "Kurt," he said tightly. "I've got to see Lee. Can it wait?"

Kurt shook his head. "You are not going to see Lee today. We are staging a mutiny, I am afraid. I have been sent to kidnap you - your evening's work has been reallotted."

Scott stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw actually dropping. "You're going to do what?" he demanded, his voice raising. "And my work has... what? The hell it has!"

"Kidnap you", Kurt answered calmly. "I have been instructed to take you elsewhere for a few hours. Everything is in hand."

"Instructed by who?" Scott demanded. Or started to, at least.

He didn't complete the sentence - or not in the mansion, anyway. Before he was halfway through, Kurt had stepped quietly to his side, laid a hand on his arm, and teleported them both away. The next thing Scott knew, they were standing in a forest clearing.

Scott wrenched away, glaring. "DAMN IT!" He looked around wildly, unable to identify where they were. "Kurt," he snapped, turning back to his teammate. "Take me back. Now."

"No", came the simple but firm answer. "You have a choice - you may attempt to find your own way home, as we are still in New York State, and risk getting lost. Or you may wait until I say it is time, and guarantee your safe return."

Punching Kurt in the jaw would be bad, Scott told himself. First, he liked Kurt, however bizarre all of this was. Secondly, Kurt would just teleport. "Fine!" Scott snarled at him instead, knowing he sounded petulant but not caring. He looked up to see the position of the sun and then started walking east.

Kurt rolled his eyes and followed him - Alison would kill him if he let Scott get lost, and he had promised to bring him back safely.

"What the hell is this all about, anyway?" Scott demanded angrily after a few minutes of walking through the forest. Still no sign of anything resembling a road. Where could Kurt have taken them? "Kidnapping me? Realloting my work?"

"We decided it was necessary", Kurt replied tranquilly, keeping pace with him. "It was something of a conspiracy."

Scott stopped, turning to face him. "So you kidnapped me?" he shouted, his voice echoing. His hands clenched into fists at his side. "Today of all days!"

"Today of all days was precisely when it was so necessary, Scott", Kurt countered, refusing to rise to the bait. "Others are taking care of what is essential, and we felt you needed some time away, which you would not have taken voluntarily."

"So I'm not needed, is that it?" Scott whirled away and kept stalking forward through the forest, keeping up a deliberately fast pace.

"Of course you are needed", Kurt shot back. "But you are needed well and whole, not driving yourself into the ground. We have talked about this before - I told you then I would kidnap you if I had to, do you remember?"

Scott stopped again. "DAMN IT!" he raged, almost beside himself with frustration and anger and a strange sort of fear whose source he really didn't understand. "I'm FINE! Do I look hurt? Sick? Where the hell do any of you get off telling me I'm not well?"

"You are fine, now", Kurt agreed. "You are not hurt or sick yet. But I am not the only one who feels you are trying to take the world on your shoulders, and Scott, you do not need to. Let us take some more of the weight."

"I do what I have to do!" Why couldn't any of them understand? "Where the hell did this all come from?" he demanded of Kurt, who gazed back at him calmly. "Just because I yelled at Jubilee?"

"That is part of it, yes. Regardless of how much she deserved it, it is not like you to lose your temper with the children, or not to that extent. But more than that, it is the reasons I have already told you."

"And wonderful nebulous reasons they are, too," Scott snapped and started walking again. "This is so... mindblowingly presumptuous, you know that?"

Kurt shrugged. "I do not think, right now, you would accept any reason we could give you for what we have done", he observed. "But we are acting as your friends, please believe that."

There were any number of responses Scott could have made to that, but he refrained. For a few minutes, at least. "So what's this little diversion in aid of?" he asked, almost bitterly. "What's going on back at the mansion that I'm not allowed to be there for?"

"They are raiding your computer, locking your files, and sharing out the work on it", Kurt answered cheerfully. "You will not be left out of the loop, though - you will still be given regular detailed reports of what is going on, and the names of those who are taking on each task."

His computer? His... they'd see the files. Scott's anger ebbed all of a sudden, leaving him feeling shaken and tired and damn it, afraid. Of their reactions. "So what does that make me?" he asked, trying for the bitter tone he'd managed only a moment ago. "A figurehead?"

Kurt looked at him, oddly saddened by something in his tone. "Not at all - as I said, you will still be kept fully up to date with everything that is going on, still a part of the making of decisions, and you will no doubt be asked to oversee and coordinate the work. You will just not be doing all of it, any more."

Scott laughed a bit bleakly. "I don't think that's going to work, Kurt," he said. "I really don't. We can't run the team by committee."

"It does not have to work in the long term", Kurt allowed. "In a little while, things may return to something closer to what they were. But for now, we will see how it works."

Scott stopped, yet again, and stared at him. "Why don't you all just replace me, then," he gritted, his chest so tight he could hardly force the words out. "Save yourselves the need for all this experimentation. You all obviously think that I'm not strictly necessary."

"We do not want to replace you", Kurt said again, patiently. "But neither do we want to see you push yourself to a breakdown, which, to put it bluntly, is what we are afraid will happen."

"I don't believe you," Scott said, almost without thinking, and went on, despite the look Kurt was giving him. "And before you point out that I should trust you all, given that the plan involved kidnapping me and dumping me in the middle of nowhere to get me out of the way, I'm not feeling the comradely love. Sadly." Hearing the acid edge in his own voice, he clamped his jaw shut before he could say anything more hurtful and started walking once more. There had to be a road somewhere.

"You were not 'dumped'", Kurt pointed out, following him doggedly. "I brought you here, I will stay with you, and I will take you back when the time comes. You would not have left the mansion tonight any other way."

"Which should tell you something!" Damn it, where the hell could they possibly be? Had to be within Kurt's teleportational range, somewhere he'd been before...

"It did. Just not what I think you think it does."

Scott stopped, one last time, and noticed a handy rock right to his left. He sat down, still glaring at Kurt. "How long?" he asked tightly.

"How long... must we be gone? Until late in the evening, I was told. We need not remain here, though, if you will not try to return to the mansion."

"I--" Scott tried not to grind his teeth. "All right," he forced himself to say. "I won't. But could we please just go somewhere other than the middle of nowhere?"

Kurt nodded, satisfied with the assurance. "Of course. Would New York City suit?"

"That's fine," Scott said under his breath. He might as well save the real fireworks for when Kurt brought him back.