CHAPTER 19 – A Hit from the Wolverine
She hissed out an angry “Shit!” The pain seared up her wrist and past her elbow. Her face stung madly from where she’d slammed into the ground. “Shit, shit, shit!”
She rolled to her back and squeezed her eyes. God, she was getting nauseated again. Must have broken my damn arm. Where had Jubes gone off to?
She heard the door slam open. “Fuck!” Logan's voice was low and dangerous.
Ah, that's right. She felt her skin itching. Felt her mutation tingle inside her, ready to take the hit. She shoved it aside. Not without me, she told it.
“Chica?” Jubes’ voice, right behind his. “Wha...?”
“Go get Hank!” Logan ordered. A second later, she felt his hand on her pain-tensed face.
“Marie?” His voice was surprisingly gentle.
The pain was pretty damn bad for a broken arm. It was making her short-tempered. “I'm okay,” she hissed. “Just fell.” She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes yet. She was getting dizzy even with them closed.
“No shit,” he ground out. “Your face is all scratched up.”
With a strained whisper she said “My arm, Logan. I think I broke it.”
She felt his warm hand gently move down her elbow. When he pressed gently, she cried out in pain. “Dammit. I think you’re right.” He grunted. “Turn on your mutation, Marie.”
It was incredibly tempting. “Logan...”
“You fuckin' try and argue with me about this, darlin', and you’re gonna find yourself on the receivin’ end of my temper. Now turn on your Goddamn skin, Rogue.”
“Get over yourself, Wolverine,” she said, trying not to kick him.
She heard him growl menacingly, as if he could scare her into submission. Ha! He may be the dominant one in the bedroom, but she had no intention of backing down about this. This would be on her terms.
She heard the door open again. “Oh, my stars and garters. Rogue. My dear, what happened?” He quickly made his way down the steps.
“She fuckin' fell, McCoy. What's it look like?”
Furry hands quickly checked her over. “Rogue. Can you open your eyes?”
She opened her eyes and the world spun. “Oh, man...” She felt like she was going to be sick.
He pulled her eyelids back one at a time, shining a light into them.
“Doesn't appear to be any trauma to the head, other than these nasty scrapes.” He moved down to the arm she held clutched to her body.
Logan's form hovered protectively over her.
“This may be quite uncomfortable, Rogue. I apologize.”
When he started pressing on her arm, she just about flew out of her skin.
“Aaargh!” She bit her lip to keep from screaming bloody murder.
“Jesus, Hank. Take it easy.” Logan growled.
“Oh, my. It appears to be a compound impacted fracture.” He grimaced. “And it is displaced. It will require reduction.”
“Require what?” Jube's asked.
“Reduction. I'll have to set it.” Hank sighed. “It will be rather uncomfortable.”
“Doesn't fuckin' matter.” Logan growled. “Just turn on your skin.”
“Logan, it may not be that simple. This break is displaced. If she uses your gift to heal the bone, it may fuse wrong. I need to set it first.” Hank sat back.
“Okay,” Marie finally said through gritted teeth. “Just, set the arm and then Ah'll turn it on. This fuckin' hurts too much to keep bein' stubborn.” Jeez, but was her accent thick, or what?
“'Bout damn time,” Logan growled. “Thought you'd gone and lost your mind.”
“Shut up,” she growled. He chuckled humorlessly.
Logan pulled her up by the shoulders and sat behind her, laying her back against his chest, cradling her in his embrace. Hank positioned himself in front of her, gently moving her arm to prepare. She laid her head back against Logan's shoulder and gritted her teeth.
“Logan, you'll need to hold her steady,” Hank said quietly.
She felt him nod. He wrapped one arm around her upper chest, gripping tight as the opposite hand came to rest on her forehead, pushing down firmly.
“Are you ready, my dear?” Hank said.
“Yeah. Don't count or anythin’, Hank. Jus’...”
She heard the snap. It felt like a knife was ripping up her arm. She screamed through her gritted teeth, her body struggling against Logan's firm grip. He whispered softly into her ear as she felt the tears leak out her eyes.
“Dammit!” she said through heaving breaths.
“You done yet, furball?” Logan ground out.
Hank felt around again, making sure everything was in place. She moaned in pain at his ministrations.
Finally, he laid her arm down carefully and sighed. “All set. We should do the rest down in the lab though. I want to monitor both of you for the transfer.”
“She's taken hits off me plenty of times before, Hank.”
“Yes, but...”
“No fuckin' buts. Now.”
Hank sighed. “Very well. Just let me get my stethoscope so I can be ready in case you lose consciousness.”
“Go ahead, darlin'.” He whispered into her ear again. “Take it.”
She sighed and her fingers itched again in anticipation. His face was closely pressed to hers. There was no need to find contact. She closed her eyes and re-prioritized.
“Healing...” She said to herself. “Just healing.”
She pulled.
It was so easy. So controlled. She started out gently. She sifted through his gifts until she found the one she wanted, pushing aside the heightened senses, the feral instincts. Pushing aside his thoughts and memories. She pulled the thread in her head that was his healing. She made it go slow, so as not to overwhelm him. She heard his grunt in her ear as he felt her take. She pulled a little more.
Her face itched as the scrapes closed up. She felt her bone knit together painfully. It was a throbbing blunt pain that slowly, slowly, faded away.
When she clenched her fist and felt no pain, she let go. She pushed her mutation down, ruthlessly suppressing it.
She opened her eyes and looked to see how Logan was. When she turned her head, he was breathing a little quickly, a little raggedly. But otherwise, he seemed fine.
“You okay?”
He smiled. “Fine, darlin. You?”
She raised her arm and made a fist with her hand, turning it to show him. “All better.”
“That was pretty impressive there.” He said softly. “I hardly felt it. You're gettin' pretty fuckin' good at this.”
She smiled.
Hank spoke next. “We should get you down to the lab and take some x-rays, Rogue. Just to make sure everything healed correctly.”
She nodded. She pushed herself up to her feet and helped Logan stand. He didn't really need it. But she wanted to make sure.
“We'll be right there, Hank.”
Logan pulled her aside. “Tell me what happened.”
Marie looked down at her feet. “I fell, Logan.”
“What was that shit Jubes came tearin' into the TV room shoutin' about?”
“Umm...” She didn't really have an answer.
“You were talkin' to yourself, Chica.”
Marie glared at Jubes.
“It was nothin'. I just think out loud to myself sometimes.” The lie sounded stupid even to her own ears.
“Nuh uh,” Jubes said, ratting her out. “Not unless your inner you is a man named Erik. In which case, Wolvie, I'm sorry to break the news to you that your girl’s battin' for the other side.” She grinned widely. “But I'm free.”
“What?” Logan had been looking at Jubes while she spoke, but turned to Marie in alarm now.
“Thanks a lot, Jubes.” She glared daggers at her impish friend.
“No prob. I'm just gonna go hop off while you handle this, Wolvester.” She patted him on the back and turned to walk off. “Oh, and Rogue? We'll finish our conversation later.”
Rogue swallowed as she watched Jube's retreat. Bitch.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Ok. So I was going to wait until this evening to post the next chapter, but then thought you all might get a bit antsy. So here you go. BETA-ed by doctorg! Hehe.
Chapter End Notes:
:-D Enjoy. And I sort of get really happy when I see reviews...sooooo....you know what to do!