"All right everyone," Scott called from the front door, "Be good. Learn something. I'll see you this evening."
"Bye dad!"
"Bye daddy!"
"Yep, see you, dad."
"Bye Scott."
"Goodbye daddy."
The children shouted their farewells from throughout the house.
"Are you nearly ready?" Rachel asked Kitty, as she very roughly brushed her hair.
"Just one moment," Kitty said, grabbing a book off the desk, "I just - I'll meet you downstairs."
Kitty left the bedroom and headed downstairs to find Nathan more or less emptying the cupboard under the stairs.
"What are you doing?" Kitty asked.
"Looking for my football boots. We have practice today."
"Oh. Have you checked your bedroom?"
"No," Nathan said, "But I don't... actually, good thinking, Kitty," he said, and raced up the stairs, two at a time.
Kitty knocked on the door to the study. "Kurt? Are you awake? Can I come in?" She spoke in German, though speaking in her native tongue almost felt strange after these past few years. At school they learnt French and Latin, and Kitty had few opportunities to practice speaking German.
Kurt opened the door. "Du sprichst Deutsch?" he smiled.
"Ja," Kitty said, trying not to stare too much as she still found Kurt's blue exterior a little troubling. He was wearing cream pyjamas and a maroon knitted jumped. Kitty continued in German, "I, umm, I guess you guessed I'm not actually one of the Summers children. I..."
"Warren told me that Scott and Emma had adopted a child."
Kitty nodded. "I was part of the Kindertransport."
"I heard about that," Kurt said, "It has saved many lives."
"You did too," Kitty said. Last night over dinner Kurt had filled them in on a few more details of his life, despite his challenges with the language, he made it all sound like one epic adventure with only a little hiccup that landed him in the camp.
"Ah, that was nothing," Kurt said.
"It was more than a thousand people, all by yourself. That's not nothing."
"I became careless and was caught. I - "
"Here," Kitty said, holding out the book she'd brought down. "I need to go to school now, but, umm, I don't need this anymore. You might find it helpful. See you after school."
Kurt took the book. "Danke, Kitty."
Kitty nodded awkwardly and backed out of the room. It was too early to feel sad. She had to go to school. She wished she could go back upstairs and close the bedroom door and talk to Rachel, but she could hear the Summers siblings clumping down the stairs.
"Is it always this noisy in the morning?" Rogue asked, poking her head out from the kitchen.
"No," Kitty said, pulling on her coat, "It's usually worse."
Kurt sat down on the camp bed made up for him in Scott's study. Scott had apologised profusely about the lack of space, but having an actual bed, however small, plus pillow and bundle of blankets was a luxury compared to his living conditions of the recent past. There was food in the kitchen, clean running water in the taps, a flushing toilet in the bathroom. Doctor McCoy was due to visit him and Rogue again later that morning. Kurt looked at the spine of the book, where in gold letters it was printed "Wie man Englisch spricht". He opened the book, and saw a handwritten note on the first page.
Dear Katherine,
Welcome to England. We are very glad to have you with us, and hope you enjoy your stay.
Love Emma, Scott, Rachel, Nathan, Sophie and Celeste Summers
March, 1939
...
//Emma?//
//I know.// Emma responded, before Elizabeth could even ask.
//Should we ask someone?// Elizabeth asked, skipping to what would have been her second question and ignoring the fact that Emma was likely skimming everyone's thoughts.
//Why? It would only look suspicious.//
//We have to tell the others.//
//Not yet. Let's get to Arras and make sure.//
Elizabeth nodded and looked back out the window. They'd caught the morning train from Laon to Amiens, and had been able to connect onto a train to Arras. However, from the passing thoughts of station staff and other passengers, trains were not currently running any further north or west. Betsy could feel a trap closing in on them.
The team sat in a compartment of the fairly empty train travelling to Arras. Soon their luck would run out. It had to. Emma sat opposite her, and Elizabeth prayed that she had one more trick up her sleeve.
Betsy looked out the window across the fields racing by. Thirty years ago, these fields had been a wasteland of mud and trenches and barbed wire. A veritable hell on earth. And but a few days prior, the team had been amongst man's latest incarnation of hell.
Elizabeth swallowed. "My father was killed around here somewhere." Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Braddock been piloting a Bristol 22 Fighter Plane, and never landed. There was no official grave. Elizabeth imagined that somewhere out amongst these fields was a small cemetery with headstone reading "An Unknown British Officer" below which her father lay.
Warren wrapped his arm around her and Elizabeth allowed herself to lean into him. Logan puffed at one of the few cigarettes he had left. Remy swallowed and seemed to sink even further into the seat. He had hardly a handful of words to Emma since Rogue had left.
Emma didn't move at all.
...
While walking home from school, Rachel and Kitty had decided that that evening once everyone had gone to bed, they would sneak down and speak to Rogue. It was almost impossible to speak to her alone the rest of the time, and Rachel had picked up on Rogue's feelings of loneliness and of being overwhelmed.
Once the girls heard Scott close his bedroom door and go to bed, they donned their dressing gowns and slippers, and grabbed a half-jar of sweets. Christopher Summers, a captain in the merchant navy, may have been generally unreliable, but always sent a hamper full of goodies to his respective child or grandchild for their birthday and at Christmastime. With Christmas just around the corner, the girls decided to share the last of their lemon sherbets with Rogue.
"Rogue," Kitty whispered, knocking on the drawing room door. "Are you awake?"
Rogue opened the door, and in the dark could just make out the figures of the two girls. "What's going on?"
"We just want to talk to you," Rachel said, "If that's all right."
"We brought lemon sherbets," Kitty said, rattling the jar.
"Y'all better come sit down, then," Rogue said.
"Oh, it's lovely and warm in here," Kitty said, sitting down on the couch. There a few embers still smouldering alway in hearth. "Oh, sorry, I'm sitting on your bed," she said to Rogue.
Rogue chuckled. "It's all right. So, what did you girls want to know?"
"We just want to talk," Rachel said, taking the jar from Kitty and handing out the sweets. "Like, what exactly are your powers? When did they manifest and how do you control them? And, how did you loose them, if you don't mind us asking?"
"Or if we're even allowed to ask, or is it all classified?"
"Ah'll tell you what Ah can," Rogue said, "But there are gunna be chunks missing. Ah guess y'all know that Emma's work is pretty good secretive." Rogue gave the girls a very sanitised version of the mission, and of her past and powers. It felt good to talk, even if it was to a couple of school girls. They soon fell into easy conversation, and Rogue tried to think of the last time she'd opened up with anyone other than Remy.
ooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO
The girls jumped at the sudden siren.
"What the blazes...?"
"Air raid! Come on!" Rachel said, jumping to her feet. "Rogue, have you got a dressing gown?"
"Mah suitcase hasn't been delivered yet," Rogue said.
"But Mrs Jones returned the clothes you wore to France today," Kitty said. Scott had sent Rogue's clothing to be washed and mended. "Get your coat, we have to move."
"But what - "
"It means the Luftwaffe are coming. Come on!"
ooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO
'GET UP!" Scott shouted. "Come on, QUICK!"
No lights were turned on, no one argued, and no one mucked about.
"DAD, KITTY AND I ARE DOWNSTAIRS WITH ROGUE," Rachel shouted.
"GOOD, GO," Scott called in reply.
"Come on," Rachel said, grabbing Rogue with one hand and Kitty with the other.
ooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO
"I'm here, dad," Nathan said to Scott, "I've got the girls." He handed one of the twins over to Scott, and the other climbed up onto his back.
"I know, darling," Scott said.
"What about Kurt?" Nathan asked.
"Just go to the shelter," Scott said, "The older girls are ahead of you."
"I know, I can hear their thoughts. They're with Rogue."
"Yes. I'll get Kurt."
ooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO
A few minutes later, the eight occupants of the Summers household were crammed into the Anderson shelter in the back garden, the air-raid sirens still blaring nearby.
"Are they coming close tonight?" Nathan asked as Scott secured the door.
"We'll be safe," Scott said. Only now did he turn on a torch. "Into position, everyone." In the shelter was a single bunk-bed with the legs removed, the twins crawling into the bottom bunk which was more or less just a mattress on the ground, and Kitty and Rachel squeezed into the top bunk. Nathan sat down beside Scott on the old couch against the other wall, with Rogue and Kurt squeezing in too. Scott handed out blankets and turned off the torch.
"Y'all done this before, Ah can tell," Rogue said, her heart pounding.
"A couple of years back we were in here pretty much every single night," Rachel said. "It's not quite so bad now."
"Just we're all bigger so it's more of a squeeze," Kitty said.
"And y'all safe in here?"
"Safe as anywhere," Nathan said.
"Yes," said Scott. "Also we have - other measures."
"If we get a direct hit, Nathan and I can create telekinetic bubbles to protect the shelter from collapsing on top of us," Rachel explained, "Also Kitty can phase this whole bed, including me and the twins."
"We've practised," Celeste said.
"Ah bet y'all have," Rogue said.
"Betsy Braddock believes that Nathan and I could use our TK to disable the exploding mechanism on a bomb if it was close enough," Rachel said.
"And slow the speed," Nathan added.
"But it's kind of hard to practice, especially without Betsy to guide us."
"That's Lady Elizabeth to you two," Scott said. "And it's extremely dangerous."
"I think we could do it," Nathan said.
"Wasn't Lady Elizabeth at St Paul's the night that big bomb fell on the roof? But it bounced off, created one almighty crater in the road, but it didn't explode."
"Divine intervention?" Kurt suggested.
"It was definitely Betsy, she just can't say. It's probably classified or something. Right, dad?" Rachel asked.
"Me and Rachel could definitely save more buildings and people and things," Nathan said.
"You can't save everyone and everything," Scott said, closing his eyes and silently praying for Emma. "It isn't possible. Lady Elizabeth knows that. You know that."
"But we can help," Rachel grumbled.
"Try to get some sleep," Scott said, ending the conversation, as the sirens continued on, only partially masking the sound of the planes dog-fighting above their heads.