When Strange and Ilyanna arrived that afternoon, it was to find not one but three little girls running around the living room of the mansion, each holding a little bamf doll and shouting "bamf" at the top of their lungs as they jumped from one place to the next pretending to teleport around — and occasionally being teleported by real bamfs, who seemed totally entertained by the game and were joining in the jumping around and shouting their favorite word. Occasionally, Kurt would call out to one of them to be careful or not jump from anything too tall, but otherwise, the girls seemed to have the run of the living room, if not the mansion as a whole.
Scott had been the one to answer the door when the two magic makers arrived, with Billy scrambling down the stairs to be there too with a look of anxiety plainly written across his face. Ilyanna, of course, wrapped Scott in a hug as soon as she saw him, and after Strange shook his hand as well, the two magic users turned to Billy, who turned visibly pink at their attention and just sort of waved at them.
"I'm really, really sorry I caused so much trouble," Billy started out sincerely.
Strange approached him with a broad, understanding smile. "These things can happen with less experienced casters," he told him. "Of course, we have much to discuss before we start."
Billy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. Anything you want to know," he said quickly.
"It's more to what you should know," Strange replied. He lost a bit of the warm smile as he looked over the young man for a moment. "Are you aware that your abilities are expanding at an exponential rate?"
Billy grinned sheepishly. "Um - well, it's been easier to cast spells lately," he said. "But... I guess... with the whole..." He leaned forward and whispered, "With the whole Demiurge thing? I always figured it would happen."
"You need to learn to focus your mind before you have another accident," Strange told him. "The first time — you were lucky. This time has yet to be determined."
Billy nodded. "Just tell me what I need to do to get Kate back to normal," he said. "And I'll do it, whatever it is."
"It's not just about getting her back — but making sure you keep your abilities in check at all times so this doesn't happen again," Strange said with one eyebrow raised at Billy.
"Yes, sir," Billy said quietly. He took a deep breath and gestured for Strange and Ilyanna to follow him, though he paused and glanced at Scott. "I thought maybe we could go somewhere like — a study or something? Somewhere the kids won't go?"
Scott nodded and led the way to Charles' old office. "This should do," he told them as he gestured at the empty room, though he stopped short of entering it himself, standing just outside the door. "It's the quietest spot in the house, and no one will walk in."
"Thanks, Cyclops," Billy said earnestly, obviously still nervous as he shifted from one foot to the other.
"You'll do fine," Scott told him as he rested his hand on Billy's shoulder for a moment. "Just focus and listen to Strange. You got this."
.....
The screaming and giggling had quieted down for lunchtime as all three little girls filed in to have sandwiches made by Leslie Ann's mom — because "they are the best PB&J's ever, Katie!" And even though Katie laughed at them because they didn't make their own sandwiches, she had to admit that it was very yummy.
As the other X-Men came down to the kitchen to get their food, the girls all but tumbled out into the halls and met Logan on the way. He had grease on his hands and arms, and Katie giggled delightedly. "Were you working on your bike again?" she asked.
"How'd you guess?" he asked with a little wink.
She giggled. "You have motorcycle goop all over!" she informed him, gesturing at his hands before she turned to see that Leslie Ann and Mary Beth were looking at her strangely. "Oooh, Mr. Logan, have you met my new friends?"
"Katie," Leslie Ann said, wrinkling her nose, "that's Wolverine, not Mr. Logan."
Katie shook her head and put a finger to her lips. "Shh!" she said insistently. "Nobody's supposed to know. It's a secret! That's his other name!"
"She's right, girls," Logan told them as he started the water in the kitchen sink, where they had followed him. "That's like calling Scott 'Cyclops' all the time."
Leslie Ann nodded with her eyes wide. "Oh, yeah. We don't do that," she agreed, and Mary Beth nodded enthusiastically beside her.
"Mr. Logan is a superhero," Katie told her new friends proudly. "He's the best."
"Shh, it secwet," Mary Beth said, putting one chubby finger up to her lips the way Katie had done earlier, and Katie giggled and nodded and put her hands over her mouth.
"What are you girls up to?" Logan asked, scrubbing the last of the grease and dirt off his arms.
"Miss Rachel — you know, the one without all the spikey things on her shoulders? — she made sandwiches for lunch!" Katie told him. "They were really yummy, and she cuts off the crusts in a circle."
"Sounds like a neat trick," Logan said with a smirk, watching the girls dance in place. "Now what are you up to?"
"Bobby said he'd have a water fight with us," Katie explained, and Leslie Ann giggled with delight.
"He's my favorite," she told Logan.
"I remember," Logan said with a nod.
"Well, my favorite is Mr. Logan," Katie said in the tone of someone who had argued the point before. "He's the best, and he's really, really cool."
"You just say that because I took you for a ride on the Harley," Logan told her with a little frown.
She shook her head. "Nu-uh," she insisted as she bounced around and tried to grab his hand. "You're my favorite 'cause I said so."
"You got to ride on a motorcycle?" Leslie Ann asked with wide eyes, seemingly unable to wrap her mind around something so cool.
Katie nodded and looked proud of herself. "It was really loud," she told the other girls. "Mr. Nightcrawler had to get earplugs for me."
"Was it scawy?" Mary Beth asked, very quietly.
Kate shook her head. "Only a little bit," she said, very seriously. "But I had Mr. Logan with me."
"That doesn't sound scary at all," Leslie Ann agreed.
"Nope!" Katie giggled. "Mr. Logan isn't scary — at all! He only scares bad guys!"
"So where are you girls headed, or do I need to have Bobby start a snowball fight with you?" Logan asked when the girls had thoroughly concluded that there was nothing to be scared of with him at all.
"Water fight, silly!" Leslie Ann corrected him. "We're gonna get water guns."
"Snowball fights are more fun in the summer," Logan pointed out.
Katie stuck her tongue out at him. "No - snowball fights are for Christmas."
"Not when you have Iceman in the house," Logan told her. "Snowball fights are for any time."
"That's true, Katie," Leslie Ann told her with a big grin. "It can be Christmas whenever we want if we ask really nice."
Logan crouched down so he was eye level with the three girls. "You don't have to ask him that nice," he said quietly, as if it was a secret. "Bobby likes to show off, so he'll do it even if you forget all the pleases and the eyelash batting."
Leslie Ann giggled impishly, but Katie looked wide-eyed. "But you gotta say please and thank you!" she protested.
"You should, yeah," he agreed. "But — I'm just telling you that so you know you can get it. He'd probably bring snowballs into the water fight anyhow. Might take you sledding if you ask nicely."
"Oooh, I love sledding!" Leslie Ann declared. "Uncle Scott can get us to go really, really fast!"
"I'll bet he can," Logan agreed before he gestured down the hall. "You girls can find Bobby down in the game room. He was playing pool with Spidey a little while ago, and Spidey is really good to get in a snowball fight too. You should take him with."
Katie bounced a little bit on the balls of her feet. "Spidey says Storm is the best in a water fight," she announced. "Does she play snowballs too?"
"She plays in snow. But she doesn't like snowballs," Logan said. "She doesn't like throwing."
"Maybe she's not good at it yet," Katie suggested helpfully before she admitted in a sheepish whisper, "I can't hit anything either."
"She just doesn't like throwing things at people," Logan told her. "She doesn't think it's nice."
"Well," Leslie Ann said, shifting a little bit. "It's not very nice to throw things. But it's okay if it's snowballs."
"It's okay if they know what's going on," Logan said. "Still not nice to hit someone that's not playing."
All three girls shook their heads seriously as they agreed with him. "No, only hit people who are playing," Leslie Ann agreed.
"Are you gonna play with us?" Katie asked.
Logan shook his head. "No. You'll have Bobby and Spidey. That's plenty for a good fight."
"But if we have you, then we'll win," Katie pointed out with a bit of a pout. "It could be us against Spidey and Bobby!"
"But that would be cheating, wouldn't it?" Logan asked.
Katie giggled and shook her head. "No," she said, still giggling. "You're a secret weapon. That's not cheating!"
Logan looked to the other two little girls to gauge their reactions. They were both nodding excitedly, though Leslie Ann leaned over to him to whisper, "It's cheating a little bit. But Katie and Mary Beth are little, so sometimes you gotta help with someone bigger."
"I tell you what," Logan said. "You guys go ahead and play. I'll watch where they can't see me. If you're losing — I'll help. That's how secret weapons work."
"That's true," Leslie Ann told Katie very seriously. "It's not a secret if they know he's on our side."
Katie seemed to consider this for a while before, at last, she nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "You can be super, super secret."
"Alright, I'll watch. Go. Play."
......
Katie had whined a little bit when Annie's nieces went home for the night before dinner, because she had been obviously enjoying herself having friends that were closer to her age. But then Peter had asked her if she wanted to know a secret, and of course, she couldn't possibly resist.
"Did you know Mr. Nightcrawler can walk on the ceiling like I can?" he whispered.
Katie's eyes widened, and she shook her head. "Does he give piggyback rides like you do?" she whispered right back, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
"You should ask him," Peter suggested. "But we have to eat dinner first. We can't walk on the ceiling while we're eating!"
Katie nodded her understanding at that, giggling, and just climbed up into her seat, promising to eat everything on her plate to prove that she was being "really good" so that she could get piggyback rides.
Which meant, of course, that as soon as she'd scarfed down her food, she jumped down out of her chair and tugged on Kurt's sleeve, regardless of whether or not he was done eating. "Spidey says you can walk on the ceiling," she said with wide eyes, and Kurt just broke into a little grin.
"Yes, I can. Would you like to see?" he offered, and as soon as she started giggling, he knew that was a 'yes.' He grinned widely at her and teleported away from the table, reappearing over her head and waving down at her as she broke into another round of giggles.
"I want to walk on the ceiling!" she announced, holding her hands up for him to pick her up, and he dropped down to the floor to land in front of her with a chuckle.
"Are you sure?" he teased, booping her on the nose as she broke into more laughter.
"Please! Pretty please!"
Kurt laughed and picked Katie up as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't drop me," she told him sternly, and he nodded.
"I would never let you fall," he promised, and she just giggled and nodded at that.
Kurt took her through several rooms in the mansion as she excitedly told him stories — "That's where I scared Spidey because he thought I was a ghost!" — and he supplied a few of his own — "And here is where Bobby accidentally broke his chalkboard his first day teaching. To this day, we still don't know how."
Eventually, though, Katie started to turn a bit pink from all the blood rushing to her head, even if Kurt tried to keep her right-side-up as much as possible, and Kurt set her back down on the ground, giggling, so that she could reorient herself.
Kurt was still standing on the ceiling, grinning at her upside down as she came down from the giggle fit, and when she looked up at him, she burst into giggles again. "Let's do it again!" she declared, which only got Kurt grinning wider.
"Shall I take you back to the others, Kuken?" he offered, and she nodded, holding up her arms to be picked up again.
This time, Kurt didn't bamf down or drop down to get her — instead, Katie burst into surprised and delighted giggles when his tail wrapped around her under the arms to pick her up to his level, and for a few steps, he simply walked around with her in his tail, pretending not to be able to reach her. He'd bring her up nearly close enough that he could boop her nose, and then he would lower her again, and she'd burst into a fresh round of laughter.
They were on their way back to the others when they passed Scott and Annie as they came back in the mansion from dropping off Leslie Ann and Mary Beth. Katie couldn't stop laughing as Kurt let her down just far enough that she could look at them both upside down and wave delightedly. "Hi, Mr. Scott! Hi, Miss Annie!" she said through her giggles.
"Hi Katie," Scott said with a smile. "Are you having a nice walk?"
She nodded and giggled again. "Everything looks different upside down," she told him. "It's really funny!" She reached up and floofed her hair as it was hanging down above her. "See?"
Annie smiled at her and reached over to floof Katie's hair as well. "Are upside down tours more fun than the ones you give?" she teased.
Katie looked very thoughtful for a moment, her face scrunched up in concentration. "Different kind of fun," she decided at last.
Kurt pulled Katie back up and then somersaulted down to the floor, with Katie squealing with delight the whole time, before he grinned at Scott and Annie. "We were just getting back to the others," he explained. The hopeful tone in his voice was clear as he added, "Everyone is nearly finished with dinner, and Wiccan would like to try and apply what he's learned."
"I'm going to guess this is a fairly closed session," Scott said, the smile slipping a bit.
"I would assume as much," Kurt agreed as Katie climbed down so she could walk on her own.
"Tell me when you're ready to start, I'd like to stay close, if there aren't any objections."
Kurt nodded his agreement as Katie tugged on Annie's sleeve. "You gotta eat food," she told Annie seriously. "Everybody else cleaned their plates, and you gotta join the Clean Plate Club!"
"We already ate with Leslie Ann and Mary Beth," Annie explained kindly. "But maybe later we can have dessert."
Katie beamed and nodded. "We have lots of candy! Jubes has a whole lot of it hidden just for me!" She bounced on her feet. "But maybe if we ask her really nice, she'll let you have some too."
"That would be very nice of her," Annie agreed as she let Katie led her back toward the kitchen, with Scott and Kurt following close behind and talking in quiet tones about the spell, about Strange, and about Wiccan.
When they arrived, most of the X-Men had left to give them some privacy for the spell, though Logan was still there, sitting quietly with an increasingly nervous-looking Billy, who only looked more terrified when Katie walked in.
It was pretty clear to Scott that they'd missed the tail end of one of Logan's 'pep talks'.
"Hey Katie, you remember Billy, right?" Logan called out, his focus never wavering from Billy.
Katie nodded and waved at Billy. "Are you still scared of me?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"He's having a really hard day, Katie. Think you could give him a hug? Cheer him up a little bit?"
Billy shot Logan a look, but it did absolutely nothing to deter the little girl who skipped right over to climb up in his lap and hug the stuffing out of him. When she finally let go of him, she giggled and booped his nose, very carefully, with one finger. "You shouldn't be sad," she told him. "I'm not scary!"
Billy shook his head with a weak smile. "No, you're not," he said, but he was looking past her at Kurt until she booped his nose again to get his attention.
"Do you want to play?" she asked him. "Playing always helps me feel not sad. You can share my toys if you want. I'm good at sharing."
"Maybe later," Billy said quietly. He glanced over at Logan in a silent plea for help as he added, "Right now, I'm getting ready to do a magic trick."
Katie giggled with delight. "I like magic tricks!" she said. "Gamble showed me some really cool magic tricks with cards, but I don't think I can do them like he does."
"Well, this one's really hard to do, and I'm scared I'll mess it up," Billy admitted.
She wriggled around until she was right in his face. "It's okay, Billy," she told him seriously. "My dance teacher says sometimes you mess up, but it's okay, because that just means you're learning."
Billy glanced over at Logan for just a moment before he looked back at Katie, swallowed, and nodded. "Yeah. You're right," he said, and he even managed a little smile at her and gave her a quick hug, though the adults in the room could see he was still a little pale.
She nodded seriously and then climbed back down out of his lap to go tug on Logan's sleeve. "Are we gonna play now?" she asked him. "We should play."
"I think we need to stick around for Billy," Logan told her. "But if you want to play in a little while, we can."
She thought it over for a while and then nodded. "Okay. We can do that too," she said. She looked over to Billy. "Are you gonna stay in the kitchen all day? You should do your magic trick somewhere else. We eat here."
"What about the living room?" Kurt suggested Katie's way, and she nodded and grabbed Billy's hand to try and pull him behind her.
"C'mon, Billy," said the determined little tour guide. "I can show you how to get there!"
With that, Katie led Billy to the living room and ordered him to sit on the couch so she could climb up beside him, with the other adults not far behind watching the entire thing with little smirks as Katie told Billy how it was going to be.
"You'll do really good, Billy," she said as she kicked her feet beside him. "If you practice really hard, maybe you can pull a quarter out of my ear!" She giggled at that and leaned over to whisper, "I had a guardbody who could do that one time. He was my favorite besides Mr. Logan."
Billy gave her a weak kind of smile and then glanced over at Kurt and Logan before he muttered something under his breath, reached behind Katie's ear, and handed her a shiny new quarter. "Like that?" he asked, and she giggled with delight.
"See? You're really good already!" Katie told him, and Billy gave her a genuine smile at that.
Katie then launched into telling Billy stories about some of the other guardbodies she'd had — a surprisingly large amount, considering her age — before Strange and Ilyanna slipped into the room as well. Katie had been so engrossed in her storytelling that she didn't notice at first, but when she did see Strange, she stopped babbling and just sort of watched him with a frown on her face.
But Strange tried to give her a kind, weary sort of smile in an attempt to reassure her. "How are you today, Katie?" Strange asked in his best gentle voice.
She kept frowning at him as she shrugged. "I'm okay," she said quietly. "I'm cheering up Billy."
"That's good, he's been very hard on himself lately," Strange told her. "But I think he's just nervous."
Katie looked over at Billy and gave him a little smile. "He's gonna show me a magic trick, aren't you, Billy?"
"Yeah," Billy agreed, very softly. He took a deep breath and looked over at Strange. "Yeah, I'm going to show you a magic trick."
As Strange sat down in a chair close to the couch where Katie and Billy were sitting, Katie looked over her shoulder at Logan, who just sat down carefully on the other side of her, where he could be within reach as Billy turned to face her.
"Katie, is it alright if I hold your hand?" he asked. "This magic trick is easier if I can hold your hand, but you don't have to."
"Will you be less scared?" she asked, her gaze on Strange.
Billy nodded. "Yeah, I think so," he replied, and she just nodded and gave him her hand to hold.
As soon as Billy had a good hold of her hand, he shifted to face her better and then took a deep breath and closed his eyes, chanting Kate's name over and over again in a low whisper as his hands started to glow.
Katie let out a bit of a whimper when the light around his hands traveled up her arms and seemed to envelope her, and she clearly started to try and get the energy off of her as she kicked at it and tried to rub it off with her hands until she just closed her eyes and curled up in a little ball, unable to stop the spread. The light surrounding the two of them just seemed to get brighter and brighter, and when Kate cried out, for just a moment, it wasn't the tiny, little-kid scream that they'd gotten used to.
Billy peeked one eye open to see that it looked like Katie was quickly growing — he could see his friend in the middle of the steadily brightening light, the correctly-aged Kate curled in a ball as her younger self had been. The sight encouraged him, as he could see that the spell was, in fact, working, and he closed his eyes again, and the light got more intense before, very suddenly, every single light in the mansion went dark.
There was a little thump, and Katie — small and shrill and terrified — started to scream bloody murder before Strange was able to get the lights back. When they could all see again, Kate was back to being four years old and terrified, and Billy had slumped over, completely drained and passed out on the floor by the couch.
Logan didn't wait around before he scooped Katie up in a bear hug and just got her out of the room without a backward glance while Kurt tried to attend to Billy, crouched down beside the incredibly pale-looking young man as he tried to rouse him.
When Billy finally started to stir awake, he had hardly opened his eyes before he croaked out, "Did it work?"
"The spell itself was a success," Strange explained in a calm tone. "But you lacked the focus and energy necessary to complete it." He was frowning to himself, his chin resting on his folded hands as he watched Billy come back to his senses.
"No more magic until you're fully recharged," Kurt warned. "And then you can do it for real. You will stay here in the meantime." His tone left absolutely no room for argument as he helped Billy to sit up and lean against the couch he had slipped off of, and while he was definitely caring for the exhausted young man, he looked more severe than Billy had ever seen him look before.
Billy nodded tiredly and brought a hand up to his head, looking a bit worried at Kurt's expression. "It was working. I saw her," he muttered. "The real Kate."
"Yes," Kurt agreed. "But you didn't see the part where the spell didn't work and she fell apart. If there is another false start, she may become permanently attached to Logan."
Billy winced and nodded, unable to meet Kurt's gaze. "I'm really sorry. I'll try again as soon as I can. I'll fix this, I promise."
"No." Kurt glared at Billy until the young man looked up to meet his gaze. "You will rest until you are sure. Then, you will rest a bit more until I am sure."
"You will need at least 72 hours before you have enough energy to attempt the spell again," Strange told him calmly. "Three days without magic — we'll spend our time tuning your focus in the meantime and teaching you how to draw from energies other than your own to aid you."
"Then we'll see you back here in four days," Kurt replied.
Billy looked between Kurt and Strange with wide eyes before he just swallowed hard and nodded his agreement. "Is Katie okay?" he asked quietly. "Can I ... do anything to help?"
"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," Kurt told him, softening his glare for the first time as he glanced to the door that Logan had taken Katie through. "Logan snatched her up and left — I'm sure it was to take her away from all this."
Billy nodded carefully and then covered his face with his hands. "I really screwed up," he muttered. "I'm going to fix it. I promise. I just — I'm really sorry."
"Until then, you need rest," Strange said with a frown. "You're still drawing too much from your own energies." He let out a sigh as he looked Billy over. "When we're done here, and your friend is returned to normal, I'd like to continue working with you, or you will drain yourself dry of your emerging power before you come into your own."
Billy just nodded and muttered, "Yes, sir," very quietly before he pushed up to his feet using the couch and just tried to leave the room as quickly as he could, trying very hard to ignore the looks the others were giving him.
.....
Kurt was right. Logan had taken the absolutely terrified Katie out of the living room and into a quieter corner in the teacher's lounge, where he sat down on the couch with Katie and just tried to do what he could to soothe her.
It had taken her some time before she stopped screaming, though it had helped significantly to get her out of the living room and to somewhere just the two of them as she grabbed a tight hold of Logan's shirt and just refused to let go. Somewhere in the crying fit she was having, Katie had decided she'd had enough, and once she was able to speak again, she made sure to tell him so — "No more X-Men. I wanna go home."
Logan didn't know what to tell her short of just nodding his head as he snuggled her tightly and muttered out 'I know' and 'it's gonna be fine' over and over.
Katie was still sniffling and crying when Scott poked his head in the door with an open look of concern, though that expression quickly shifted to one of surprise when he saw the deep snuggle that Katie had tucked into with Logan as he was calming her down — and the fact that Logan didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable about it only seemed to raise Scott's eyebrows further in surprise.
Scott took a breath and looked over Katie's head to Logan. "Our sorcerer supreme says it'll be another 72 hours at least before they can try again," he said quietly and carefully.
"We'll talk about it later," Logan told him.
Scott nodded. "I just ... thought you might like something concrete," he said.
"She's done," Logan said quietly over Katie's whimpering. "She wants to go home now."
"I'm not surprised," Scott said with a soft sigh before he edged a bit closer, looking at Katie now instead of Logan. "Katie," he said gently, "Katie, we're going to take you home in one week. That's how long it'll take to get everything cleaned up, alright?" He watched the crying little girl for a moment longer before he added, "And then you don't ever have to come back here again if you don't want to."
Katie just held onto Logan tighter and sniffled for a little while before she simply nodded her head. "No more scary stuff," she mumbled into Logan's shoulder.
"No more scary stuff," he agreed with a soft rumble.
"And then we can go home," Katie added, picking her head up just enough so that Logan could see the full force of a very determined look.
"You got it," he agreed, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
She nodded a couple time before she just snuggled back into him, finally starting to calm down as she just curled into Logan's chest and seemed determined to stay there.
"Should we... get her to bed?" Scott asked.
"I've got it, Scooter. Go on," Logan rumbled.
Scott couldn't help but look surprised again before he just nodded and slipped back out of the teacher's lounge, leaving the two of them in peace as Katie settled in deeper and seemed to be content to fall asleep right there on the couch with him.