xp_logs | Kurt and Madelyn, Thursday morning

Kurt visits her for breakfast and they talk about Meggan, her previous "owners" and holiday gifts.

Madelyn was humming under her breath as she waited for the coffee to finish brewing, something cheerful and quite possibly 80s-oriented. She'd been down to the kitchen and raided the fridge, snagging fresh fruit, juice and some danishes from the daily delivery. Her suite was something of a mess, with luggage half-unpacked and a pile of official-looking papers strewn over the desk in the corner, but she seemed unworried by it, projecting an aura of happy, relaxed calm. Certainly she looked the part, dressed in her favourite faded jeans and a pale blue blouse that accentuated the tan and the blonde highlights in her hair well.

Kurt knew she was expecting him but knocked anyway, putting his head around the half-open door and smiling at the sight of her. "Good morning."

"Good morning!" she practically chirped back in reply, stopping what she was doing and coming over to open the door more fully. As Kurt came in, she surprised him with a hug. "There, I've been wanting to do that ever since the brace came off," she said with satisfaction.

He laughed and hugged her back, after a brief moment of surprise. "I am sorry we were not in the same place when that happened, then", he told her mock-solemnly.

"Since it was on one of many fabulous little islands, I'm sorry too," she teased, pulling back just enough to draw him into the room and closing the door behind them. Holding him at arm's length, she looked him up and down. "You look much better than last time I saw you," she said with some satisfaction. "And what's this about Amanda adopting a kid? Come and sit and tell me all about it. I have healthy and non-healthy food."

He smiled at her, sitting down obediently on the couch. "I feel rather better, too. The time away was what I needed, it seems. And yes, Amanda has adopted a child we found while with the clans. Her name is Meggan."

"Tell me all about her," Madelyn urged, going over to the coffee maker and pouring two cups before coming back and sitting beside him. "I have to say, it's seems... strange. That Amanda's the one to adopt her. Why not your family? Or even the Professor? Someone more adult and stable than she is, at any rate."

His smile softened at the thought of Meggan - he was clearly completely won over. "She is such a sweet child. And Amanda adopted her simply because she was the first Meggan trusted. It was not a good situation we took her from, and she latched onto Amanda as her way out, somewhat. And Amanda loves her."

"Well, at least she's here, where we can help..." Madelyn smiled at Kurt's expression - it was good to see him so much happier. "How did you find her?"

The smile faded slightly, but only slightly, because after all, Meggan was safe now. "My mother heard rumours of another clan with a demon for sale. When she went to investigate, it was Meggan she found. For lack of any other way to get her out, we - well, Amanda - bought her."

"For sale?" Madelyn's expression darkened, and she halted in her reaching for a danish. "How could anyone believe something like that?"

"I do not know if they really believed it. But the Grgics, the men who had her... I have known them all my life. They are ignorant, and superstitious... and greedy."

"Unfortunately there are men like that everywhere," Madelyn said with a sigh as she sipped her coffee to soothe herself. "But at least you got Meggan away from them."

Kurt nodded. "All will be well for her now. Amanda brought her here as the best possible place she could think of to learn more about Meggan's powers and help her with them."

"What about the people who had her, these... Grgics?" Madelyn stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "I take it the local authorities were called?"

He shook his head grimly. "The police do not always look kindly on my people, and once we had removed her from them - it seemed a priority - there was less evidence of what they had done. It would have courted trouble for the clan, from others... I will be speaking to the Professor about it, though."

"So Meggan was the only mutant they had?" Madelyn asked, already calculating what could be done in terms of law enforcement. Local police could be bribed, she knew, but higher levels not so much...

"The only one I saw. There may be others, but without proof, I doubt the police would have taken our word for it."

"A difficult situation all 'round," Madelyn said. Still, if there were no others there, there wouldn't be a lot to be done.

"I do not think so for a minute", he said sombrely. "The brothers are known for running a freak show, but until now I had not realized they were actually keeping prisoners. They had the child in a cage."

"A cage?" Madelyn frowned. "Sounds like that place Alison found Miles..." She considered the situation for a moment, then asked. "These people - they're fairly well-known?"

Kurt nodded. "Among the clans, at the very least."

"Then they're trackable." Madelyn paused, obviously considering it. "I'm guessing the local authorities, besides the whole difficulty for your family, aren't very helpful?"

"As I said - they tend not to be well-disposed towards the Rom. And it would be known, or suspected, that we had reported them. They have their friends, there might be... consequences."

"Not giving me many options here, Kurt," Madelyn said, still pondering the situation. She hadn't even thought about whether she should be involved or not, just that there was potentially mutants - and particularly mutant children - being exploited. After her dealings with Mistra, the thought of not trying to help others in trouble hadn't occurred to her. "What about other illegal activity aside from the false imprisonment?"

He smiled thinly. "Yes. Well, rumoured at least. The word says that they deal in drugs."

"Drugs? Now that I can work with. Or Sean can, since the Interpol connections are his." Madelyn reached for the journalist-size notebook she used as a memory aid and began making a few notes before looking up at him. "Oh, I just realised... did you want me to do something about this? I'll be sure to stress the whole issue with your family, make sure they're safe."

He nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I do not want to see them get away with this."

"I'll talk to Sean - like I said, he has the Interpol connections. Give me the names of the people involved and we can run a check on them and see what comes up." She wrote down the names as Kurt listed them, and set the notebook on the coffee table, finally snagging that danish. "It might take some wrangling, but we'll find something to get people in there, and then it's only a matter of time."

There was satisfaction in his smile. "Good. I am sure there will be something to find - these are not pleasant men."

"They never are." Madelyn nibbled at the danish, although her appetite wasn't the best, given the topic of conversation.

Since they'd covered everything relevant on that topic, he changed it. "How was your holiday?"

"Wonderful," she said with a far more natural smile. "Worth every moment, and I'm relieved nothing terribly untoward happened while I was gone, or I would have had to feel guilty and that would have just spoiled the whole thing." Her tone was teasing. "Oh, and I have something for you, too. Terribly tacky, but that's the point of presents from tourist resorts."

He tilted his head, smiling. "Tacky presents are fun. What is it?"

"I'll just get it, won't be a minute. And eat something!" she admonished, getting up. "Otherwise I'll have to eat it all and I'm already having to get back in shape again after weeks of lying around."

He chuckled and dutifully picked up a danish, starting to eat it. "Heaven forbid I should fail to help you in that."

"Damn straight," came Madelyn's reply from her bedroom, and she came out with a small tissue-wrapped package which she handed to Kurt. Inside was a small gold coin, on a chain. "Not exactly a dubloon, Captain Jack, but it was brought up from a shipwreck off the coast of some island I can't remember right now. The locals dive for them and make them into souvenirs."

Kurt grinned, delighted, and set down his danish to put the pendant on immediately. "Thank you, Madelyn. I will wear it with pride."

Re-joining him on the couch, Madelyn beamed, pleased by the reception. Gift-giving was one of her favourite things to do. "You should count yourself lucky I found that before I hit the place I found most of my presents - clothing of the eye-searing kind. Nathan and Haroun got the worst examples." She grinned wickedly. "Although if you see Clarice running around in a purple sparkly starburst shirt, you'll know where she got it from." Not to mention the bikini she'd gotten Jubilee - revenge for the Vegas present.

He laughed out loud at that image. "Are you going to insist that Nathan and Haroun wear theirs? I do not think much insistence will be needed with Clarice."

"Nathan will wear his at least once - he loves a joke as much as anyone. And Haroun's is boardshorts, which means another opportunity to run around without a shirt on, so no, it shouldn't be difficult." She reached over and snagged a piece of sliced apple. Yum, healthy - her diet had improved while on vacation too. "I found this really pretty sarong for Alison - the blue almost matches her eyes perfectly."

Kurt nodded. "Have you seen her to give it to her yet?"

"Considering it's only eight in the morning and you're the first person I've seen? No, not yet," she teased.

He laughed. "Point taken. Although Alison is an early riser."

"That's because she jogs - and now I have this image of me chasing her down the running trails waving a package over my head at her." Madelyn snorted with amusement, and then reached over to squeeze his hand briefly. "It's good to be home."

He smiled, hand warm around hers as he squeezed back. "Yes. It is."