DISCLAIMER: I do not own X-men Evolution, it's characters or products. I own Jess and I'm not proud of it. If you want to steal her, well, go ahead, but I'd prefer if you asked, yeah? (What? You think I'd NEVER do a real disclaimer? Gimme a break!)

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"I'd like to see Kurt, it's Jess, Jessica Simmins. Please let me in!" Ororo raised an eyebrow at the squeak that came through the communicator, but opened the gates anyway.

Evan smiled. "Yeah, I know her. She's the empath that wouldn't join us?"

She nodded. "I know who she is. But she sounds terrified."

Too fast for anyone other than Pietro, she hurtled through the doors and started dashing around. Finally she came to a hopping stop in front of them. "Whereishewhereishewhereishe?"

"Kurt?" asked Evan. "He's in his room. He and Tabby collapsed there like twenty minutes ago."

"Thankyou!" she cried, already halfway up the stairs.

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"Kurtkurtkurt KURT!" she pounded on the door. "I don't care if you're halfway through the karma sutra! Let me in!"

"S'open!" came the muffled reply.

She burst through to see... nothing. Two yellow eyes gazed at her from what she could just make out as a doona. He yawned. "Was ist los?"

She dove to her knees in front of him. "You gotta help me."

"I'm too tired to crack jokes." He said, pulling a pillow from somewhere and putting it under his chin. "What can I do for you?"

"It's Rogue and Pietro! They're mad for each other and after me!"

"You deserve it, mein freund." He muttered.

"but I didn't do anything! I was gonna, but I didn't yet!" She grabbed either side of his head and pulled him out of the doona a little more. "I didn't do anything! It's all them!"

"That's nice. Explain it to them and I'm sure they'll understand."

"Kurt! Wake up!"

He sighed and waved her hand away. "Hang on." He disappeared back into the bed and had a muffled conversation. From the other end of the bed, Tabitha's head popped up, looking very bedraggled. Kurt turned over and sat up, stretching. They blinked at each other for a few moments, then looked at Jess again.

"So you're telling me," began Tabitha. "That despite your bad press, this time, it was completely natural human emotion that made Pie pie and Goth girl like each other?"

"yes!"

"But they think you did it, or want to believe you did it, because they don't want to like each other?" she asked, holding her head in her hands. "This is too hard first thing in the morning."

"They're currently trying to kill me!" cried Jess. "Telling me to make it go away! I didn't do anything, what am I gonna do?"

"Eat shit and smile?" suggested Tabitha.

"Do us a favour and shut up, Tabs." Kurt said simply. "Jess, this is simple. You might not be able to take back what you do, but you can take things away as much as put them in, can't you."

"Yeah... kinda." She nodded, thinking. "I can take things away, but I can't put em back."

He leaned forward and looked at her like she was brain dead. "Jess, frauline, liebchen, shatze. Think. They think you did this. You can take emotions away. Do I have to spell it out?"

"You think I should just take that away from them? What if they're meant to be together?" she cried. "What if they're soulmates? What if-"

Tabitha grunted and crawled back into the bed. "Then the same thing will happen as last time. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. There you are, now please let us sleep in peace."

Kurt smiled and nodded, then curled back under the covers.

Jess stared at them, then flung the covers off Kurt. "You have to help!"

"What?" he yelped as she grabbed him around the chest and hauled him out. "Hey!"

"You're helping."

"how?" he demanded.

"I'm not doing it! You have to explain it to them! You have to-"

The door banged open again and both Rogue and Pietro glared at them. Kurt groaned. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"

Rogue pulled off her glove. "Fix us."

"Now." Said Pietro stubbornly. He zipped around and held her shoulders. Kurt fell to the floor and crawled back into bed.

"But I swear!" spluttered Jess.

"Fix us or I will!" snapped Rogue.

"Can you do this outside?" asked Tabitha. "It's really loud."

"Rogue! I- I- I didn't-"

"I'm warning you, Jess," she stepped forward. "Now."

"Just do it, Jess." Groaned Kurt.

She stared around at the lump of blankets that was Kurt. "But- oh, man! Come on!" she looked helplessly at Rogue. "Oh, fine."

She closed her eyes. "Just, stay still a second, okay?"

Kurt and Tabitha opened their own eyes long enough to watch as Jess moved their emotions. "Oh, disgusting, Pie pie. Do you really feel that way about- "

"Remember who's holding onto you before you start cracking jokes, okay?" he snapped.

She sighed. The river of emotions was moving about ten times as fast as she'd ever imagined, groping around in his head was just hard. Eventually she snatched hold of a deep red plank of wood. His feelings for Rogue. She grinned. "Pretty."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up a second." She tore it out of the river and put it in her 'keepsakes department'. "That's you done." She muttered, then moved onto Rogue.

Jess swore and Rogue buckled slightly as she entered her head.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph." She groaned. "Rogue!"

Kurt scowled. "Don't blaspheme."

"I assure you, it wasn't voluntary." She growled. "Rogue, how do you deal with all this?"

Rogue glared at her. "With a hell of a lot of painkillers, now just get it over with."

"Do you want me to, you know, take a few other things out while I'm here?" she opened one eye to look at her. "Calm things down a bit?"

"Just get rid of Pietro." She said. "I don't want you in here any more than you have to be, alright?"

Jess sighed. "I was just trying to help."

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Rogue walked Pietro to the gate. "So."

He looked at her coldly. "So?"

"Hope you enjoyed yourself, Pie pie, coz you're never coming near me again."

"Lucky me." He said, then walked out the gate. "And Rogue?"

"What?" she said, turning away.

"I had fun."

"Same here." She muttered.

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Kitty and Lance stood in front of the professor, glancing at him and their shoes.

He folded his hands together and gazed at them silently. "I have a proposition for you."

Kitty looked up expectantly.

"I have complete trust you will be responsible, Kitty, but, Mr. Alvers, you I have yet to come to terms with."

"Yes, Professor Xavier."

"This chaperone business was mostly to put Logan's mind to rest, but considering the events that followed, I doubt it has done anything." He allowed himself a brief smile. "So, as long as you start sticking to the curfew, Kitty, I will withdraw the rule."

She grinned broadly and Lance looked up, amazed. "You mean it?"

"Absolutely." He smiled. "But curfew is still eleven, Kitty, remember that. You too, Mr. Alvers."

"Sure thing." They said breathlessly.

He let them go. As soon as they were outside, Lance picked her up and swung Kitty around. "I knew I liked something about him!"

"Lance?"

They turned toward the voice. Jess was standing, one arm crossed, the other out expectantly. "We haven't finished with payment, yet."

Lance and Kitty glanced at each other. "Uhh..."

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Freddy was taking out the garbage when he saw her. She was sitting, knees drawn up to her chest, on the sidewalk at the bus stop.

He looked around, then waddled down to see her. "Jess?"

She looked up and waved silently.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin'."

"Nothing. Uh huh. I imagine." He sat on the seat and crossed his arms. "Wanna talk?"

"Not really." Her voice cracked slightly. "I'm just feeling."

He blinked. "Feeling? Feeling what?"

"Everything." She looked at him over her shoulder. "Being an empath kinda sucks, you know. You feel everything. All the hate, the pain, the happy, and the love. You get a lot of that. It's kinda depressing, you know?" She sniffed and bowed her head. "I was just thinking the other day about how much I hate couples. But it didn't matter coz Rogue knew how I felt. There was someone else like me."

He didn't say anything. There wasn't really anything to say.

"But she fell in love with Pietro. It wasn't me. I didn't mind, really. But I had to take that away. I had to make them hate each other again." She wiped at her tears angrily. "But I've still got their feelings, and it just... it sucks!" she sobbed. "I don't want to be an empath anymore. I don't want to feel how other people feel if I can't get the same."

He sighed. "Yeah. I know. Sometimes I wish I wasn't the Blob because it means no one will ever like me."

She looked up at him. "What are you talking about? That doesn't stop anything."

"Don't be cute, Jess. No one likes me."

"I like you!" she grinned. "You're the coolest person at the Boarding house!"

He looked at her nervously. "Yeah?"

"Better than Lance." She lied, grinning. He was trying, she knew that. He wanted to make her feel better, she might as well do the same. "And I know for a fact," she said seriously. "that Todd thinks you are the best friend a toad could have."

"Yeah?"

She sat beside him on the bench and lay her head against his arm. "Yeah."

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Mee hee hee! Sap! So much fun! Well, that's it for this story! Jess will probably return one day! But until then, she bids you all fair well, remember to cut your grass and we both say...

Anon.