The Price We Pay for Love

Posted on Mon Apr 14th, 2025 @ 2:43pm by Kennedy Kelly & Drew Williams & Angela Williams
Edited on on Mon Apr 14th, 2025 @ 2:59pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Episode 6: X-Fernus Agenda
Location: X-Mansion
Timeline: December 21, 1990

Kennedy shifted and carefully continued to balance the breakfast tray as she knocked on the door to her and Angela’s room. The Williams twins had gotten terrible news yesterday and had taken refuge in their room. Thankfully, the Professor had intercepted and warned Kennedy of the situation and she slept in another room of the girl’s dormitory last night. She knew how much these things hurt, how dramatically your life changed in a lightning strike of a moment. So she had given them space and privacy to better process the initial shock of it all.

After announcing her presence she opened the bedroom door and invited herself inside. Using her foot to shut the door behind her, she held on tightly to the tray she carried.

“I brought you guys something to eat.” Kennedy was quiet and calm in her demeanor as she floated like a ghost through the room and the palpable grief that filled it. “It’s oatmeal… but don’t worry, I didn’t make it. Along with some juice and fruit.” She was just talking now, in an attempt to fill the air. “I did however make the coffee, I don’t know if you guys like coffee or not but it’s from my personal supply not the mud that is made for everyone in the morning.”

Kennedy set the tray down on her desk, not looking to pester them to actually eat. She had hardly eaten during her own bereavement period, adding to her already willowy build. It was there if they wanted it, as would lunch and dinner.

“I’m going to grab some fresh clothes, then I’ll be on my way.” Kennedy announced before she headed over to the massive trunk at the foot of her bed.

Drew looked up wearily from where he sat on Kennedy’s still made bed. He hadn't slept at all the night before. He had just kept silent watch over his sister after she had fallen asleep. He stood up and retrieved the tray and carried it to Angela’s bed.

Angela lay on her side facing the wall. Her eyes were puffy and stung fiercely from all the crying from the night before. She rolled around on the bed and looked at Kennedy. "Please stay."

Drew also nodded as he took the coffee mug and sipped. "Thank you." He gestured at the tray of food and drink and to Kennedy’s bed. "For everything and...," he took a deep breath and released it with a heavy sigh, "...sorry about commandeering your bed last night."

“Don’t worry about it,” Kennedy said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I ended up french braiding everyone’s hair and painting their toenails. It became like a mini-sleepover,” she said before sitting down on the foot of her own bed after Angela requested her to stay.

Angela sat up. She had only known Kennedy for a month, but Kennedy had proven to be one of the strongest people she knew. "Does it get any...?" She couldn't finish the question for fear she would not receive the answer she was looking for.

“Better?” Kennedy dared to finish her sentence for her. “Yes and no.” She squared her shoulders and considered her own grief for a moment before she continued. “At first, my emotions overcame me in waves. I fell apart from such overwhelming sorrow before being blinded by rage. Other times I felt such incredible pity for myself while missing him terribly… My father wasn’t a great person but once upon a time he loved me and I longed for that love to return, his death made that loss of his love permanent, there was no hope of reconciliation and that hurt a lot. Then the numbness came and all of it turned off. I stopped feeling and just started doing, I worked and I moved until my body was so exhausted that it couldn’t do anything else but collapse. It was a survival tactic but it helped. Then the waves of emotions became smaller and less frequent and I was able to regulate myself a lot more. Don’t get me wrong, there are still times when I feel all the things I mentioned above but they don’t consume me like they did in the early days.”

“You’re going to hear it a lot over the next period of time… so much that you’ll hate the words… but I’m sorry for your loss.” Kennedy continued. “I think the best advice that I can offer is to lean on people when you need it. You’re not less for needing help. I didn’t when I was first grieving… I regret that.”

Both siblings looked at one another for a moment. It wasn't going to be easy, but they did have their friends here...and they still had each other.

Angela sat up and reached a hand out to Kennedy. "I know you would tell me you're here for me, to help me through what's to come. I want you to know that I am here for you too."

“Thanks, Angela.” Kennedy nodded her head in agreement. “We all need to lean on one another, we need to be each other’s life lines.”

Drew looked at his sister and her new best friend. Angela was lucky to have Kennedy in her life. He glanced at the breakfast tray and realized how hungry he was, He hadn't had dinner the previous night, nor his usual one or two nightly kitchen raids. He turned to Kennedy. "Hey, I greatly appreciate you bringing us something to eat, but I really need something with more protein and carbs. How about we all meet downstairs in fifteen minutes and I will cook us all something? Anything at all."

Kennedy appeared to be slightly wounded by Drew’s suggestion, “I guess if you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it.” She shrugged her shoulders in defeat over his rejection, it wasn’t so much about the meal itself but what her efforts represented. “I’ve already had my breakfast but if this isn’t good enough… you can eat whatever you want.”

“I need to shower and change anyway,” Kennedy replied, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in her own room. She stood up and went back to selecting her fresh clothes for the day. “If you need anything else other than meal deliveries, let me know.”

Drew could tell he had hurt Kennedy’s feelings. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. He stood there for a moment before turning to Angela. "I'm going to head to my room for a bit. I'll see you downstairs."

Angela nodded as Drew left. She looked at the door for a moment and got up from her bed and started getting fresh clothes to. She stopped and turned to look at Kennedy. "He didn't mean to hurt your feelings. He just...eats a lot and quite often. He hasn't left my side since Professor Xavier told us...." She couldn't say it. Saying it would make it real and she wasn't ready for that. "He does appreciate the gesture." She looked at the food. "Quite honestly. I didn't eat last night and I am starving."

“He could have eaten this and then gone downstairs for seconds. For someone who is starving and needs to eat all the time, rejecting an already made meal for another sounds like a weak excuse…” Kennedy threw up her hands in defeat before standing up and helping herself to the cup of coffee she had made from her personal stash for Drew. She had been raised in a world of manners and etiquette, social expectations and civility that seemed out of place when compared to how the average teenager lived. “But whatever. He’s weird all the time anyways.”

She took two long sips from the coffee before setting it down and bringing the tray over to Angela. “Please, eat. The fact that you have any appetite at all is good.”

Angela didn't need to be told twice. She tossed a few books off her desk and put the tray there. She dug into the food greedily. She had all the fruit eaten and downed a glass of orange juice before she looked at Kennedy. "What do you think will happen to Drew and I? Will the Professor let us stay? I want to stay, but we don't really have any other family. We won't be shipped off to an orphanage. Will we?"

“I’m sure you will be allowed to stay, the Professor has a reputation for taking in wayward mutants…” Kennedy reached out for her coffee and took a sip while she formed a mental list. “Cyclops was an orphan that he personally adopted, Bobby killed his father on accident and his mother disowned him because of it, Connor and Rahne are Moira’s wards, Bliss was an emancipated minor, Aurora was a runaway living in the sewers, Jace and I were abandoned by our parents when they found out we were a mutants. Based on his track record I think you’re in the best place possible for two mutants without a support system.”

Kennedy shrugged and considered her own situation. “I just graduated high school and I’m eighteen. By normal school standards, I shouldn’t be here anymore. But I don’t have any place else to go and I like it here, so the Professor made me a resident assistant. So I really wouldn’t worry too much about leaving unless you want to, Charles Xavier appears to be more than happy to help you.”

Angela felt a momentary relief for the words Kennedy conveyed. She felt safe at the school. She had not brought the subject up earlier, but now she felt she needed to. "So. When were you going to tell me you were a member of the X-Men? Drew and I had a long conversation last night."

“I didn’t know that I needed to.” Kennedy said with a small laugh, “I think it’s the worst kept secret around this place. The same ten students go missing all together for days at a time, then people with similar features labeled the X-Men make the news. There are rapid transport tubes hidden all over this place, while a non-existent jet comes and goes from a hidden hangar on the school grounds… when Drew was injured and you saw that highly sophisticated medical bay - that wasn’t just for skinned knees.”

Kennedy took a sip of her coffee before she continued. “We aren’t really supposed to shout it from the rooftops but anyone living here usually figures it out without having to be told. As far as the student body goes, it’s more a matter of admitting it once they put it together rather than openly telling people.”

“But if you want me to tell you, I will.” Kennedy set her cup down on her desk, “I am an innate marksman who can accelerate the kinetic energy of objects and use my own kinetic energy to form objects - both of which explode upon impact. My codename is Artemis, I am an X-Men.”

Angela gave Kennedy a small smile as she finished off the oatmeal. "My roommate, the superhero. No wonder all the boys fall over themselves trying to get your attention." She sighed and then gave a quiet chuckle. "Except Drew. I think he's absolutely in love with Jennifer."

“Yeah, guys are great, they use you and leave you.” Kennedy said with an excessive amount of sarcasm before her pretty face soured over Angela’s mention of Drew being in love. “He’s known a girl for four weeks, half of which was spent apart from one another and he’s already in love with her… he’s more of a rube than I realize.”

Kennedy gave Angela a small incredulous smile as she realized they were talking about her brother. “I just mean it’s awfully fast to be making such a big statement, especially with a girl who might not even want to stay here and after such a terrible thing happened to you guys.”

Angela sort of waffled her head in a sort of half nod/half shake. "I didn't mean love love, just that for the first time he can really be himself with someone. He spent the last few years hiding what he could do, who is really was. It's just that he has opened up a little more. Like he is discovering who he really is or maybe who it is he wants to be. Before we came here he couldn't even talk to a girl one on one without stumbling over his words. He's changing and I really think for the better."

“I don’t know if he’s changed that much.” Kennedy teased and laughed a little, Drew either looked at her with a gaping mouth or ran away anytime she was in the room. “But in all seriousness, finding yourself and finding the things that make you happy are what matter… When I lost my family and my future, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I felt really lost and alone. At first, I focused on the things that made me happy; dancing, reading, archery. Most of that stuff I abandoned as I was getting ready for college. Then I found my purpose. I like being an X-Men. It feels good to be the force of change… I don’t really have the rest figured out but I know I’m happier because of those things. I’m taking it day by day and just seeing what happens.”

Angela laughed a little herself. The one way she and her brother were opposites was when it came to members of the opposite sex. When Angela saw a cute boy, she went to lengths to flirt or garner attention. Drew, on the other hand, was lucky if he could even say hello much less carry on a conversation with a beautiful girl. "He probably feels intimidated by you. He was the same way with Jennifer at Thanksgiving dinner. I have always been the more fearless out of the two of us."

“Two sides of the same coin, I guess.” Kennedy took another long sip from her cup and finished what was left of her coffee. “I’m glad you guys have each other. Out of all the things that were taken away from me, I miss my brother and sister the most. I thought they were annoying a lot of the time but now…” She shook her head in an attempt to free herself from those gloomy intrusive thoughts. Neither one of them could change their pasts, they could only look towards the future. “I try to find the good in these moments, like you said about Drew, it’s kind of freeing to just be yourself without any hesitation. We have a place to stay where that’s not only allowed but it’s celebrated.”

Kennedy set down her cup and began to pick out clothes like she had tried to do earlier. “I’ll take the tray downstairs after I take a shower. I can bring you lunch and dinner up here too. When Jace… Shinobi… when he left here I was a wreck and I didn’t leave my room for five days. My former roommate brought me food up here until I was ready to face the general population. I figure it’s the least I could do for you.”

Angela gave a waning smile. "I don't to hide in my room." She reached out and placed a hand on Kennedy’s arm. "What I would like is for you to sit with me at meals. Just keep me company."

“Oh sure, it would be my pleasure.” Kennedy agreed as she collected her toiletry bag along with her clothes, “That is when I’m here, as X-Men we go away for long periods of time if a mission requires us to be. Did you know there is a hidden jungle heated by volcanoes in Antarctica? It’s filled with dinosaurs and wild men and mutant tribes. We spent three weeks there a few months ago.” She shook her head in disbelief even though she had lived through the fantastic adventure. “But that’s not the point, you’ll always have a seat next to me if you need one.”

Angela’s smile grew a little as she released Kennedy’s arm. She grabbed her robe, a towel and toiletries bag. "Let's get cleaned up. Tonight, I think I'd like it if you stayed in the room. If you want. I don't think Drew slept at all last night. He could use the rest."

“Of course, I wasn’t going to stay away forever. I just wanted to give you two the space you needed. Thanks to Drew’s aversion to me, I knew it would be pretty easy to come back.” With items in her arms, Kennedy made her way to the door. “I’m glad you’re wanting to get up and move again, you’re handling this much better than I did.”

Angela shrugged. She really wasn't sure what was going to happen now. She stepped out of the room and walked with Kennedy to the girls shower room. She paused as they reached the door. "Thanks for being a good friend."

"I think we would all be in a much worse place without our friends, so you're welcome," Kennedy said with a small smile as they entered.

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