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[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Forge wakes up after being rescued and Moira comes to his side and tries to calm him. Something's missing though and it seems that machine of his actually worked more than he intended it to.



Forge's eyes fluttered open as he felt the acrid smell of antiseptic hit his nose. Taking a second for his vision to adjust, he did a quick mental inventory. He could see out of both eyes, wiggle all ten fingers, move his right foot...

He actually had to lift his head to see that his prosthetic left foot was twitching back and forth. He couldn't feel anything from the thigh down, something was broken, despite seeming to move as he wanted. He'd have to...

That was it. Thinking hurt, and he dropped his head back with a loud groan, hand covering his eyes.

"Forge?" Moira had been ducking into the room anyway to check up on him, but it was obvious that he was awake now. She'd been worried sick--well, since he'd been gone but it hadn't really eased any since he had been brought back in. "How do ye feel, lad?"

Reaching around, she took his pulse and kept an eye on the machines. Normal wake up, nothing unusual, currently, going on.

"I... ow..." He felt his face with his other hand. The scrapes seemed superficial. Probably from collapsing on the floor after he... wait, there had been light, and Lorna, and...

He sat up swiftly, looking around. "Doctor MacTaggart!" he exclaimed, taking in the medlab. "The medlab! The... machine that goes ping!" Wait - that didn't sound right. There were dials, and a low hum, and... what did it mean?

Eyes widening in panic, Forge was hit by a bolt of realization. "The simple machines are the plane, the lever, the wedge, and the pulley. Force equals mass times acceleration. Hydrogen has one proton and one neutron." He wasn't suddenly stupid. He just... "It's gone," he said with a barely perceptible tinge of grief. "I can't do it."

Reaching forward to make sure he didn't fall right off the bed, she sighed. "I jus' finished goin' over yer test results," Moira said softly, keeping an arm over his shoulder even when he was stable. "I know. Wha' ever was used on Lorna also 'it ye because th' read outs are th' same. Bot' o' yer DNA...yer nay longer showin' th' x-factor gene."

"Not showing..." Forge focused on the wall, trying to keep himself from hyperventilating. "I... I did it. Magneto, he wanted me to build it, and I did, but only to get Lorna back, and I used it on her to break Malice and it worked but there was a backlash and..." he paused, gasping for air, on the edge of a full-blown panic attack. "Gone, that's not... I couldn't... is she okay?"

A hand on the small of his back and one on his knee hopefully helped to ground him again. "From wha' I can tell, this machine blocked th' enzyme tha' accessed th' gene. Meanin' 'tis still there but 'tis cut off." Moira smiled a little bit. "Lorna...well, wit' time, she'll be fine. After everythin' tha' she went through before ye were taken..."

Forge shook his head. "Neutralizer. I built it. But I can't... can't THINK right. It's like... it's quiet. I try to think, to build it in my head, but there's nothing." He reached out, grabbing Moira's lab coat, looking at her with fear in his eyes. "Don't you get it? It's GONE!"

"Forge," she said softly, gently, "we'll work ta get it back. Between th' doctors 'ere, we'll fight ta get it back." The sad thing was that she understood , at least in part. Having sudden powers and then having to give them up, she understood. But he didn't need to hear that just yet. "It'll be alright."

Slumping back down against the gurney, Forge screwed his eyes shut, trying not to let tears come. He could always blame them on the splitting headache, anyway. "He said I was going to be his Oppenheimer. Make him the weapon that'd keep everyone in line. But... I got him. Only meant to work once. Didn't expect... two targets. Was stupid." His head was swimming, pain now reduced to this deep grey numbness.

Tucking the blanket around him she sighed. "Nay stupid. Sometimes...soemtimes shit jus' 'appens an' ye an' Lorna were caught up in it." Stroking his hair gently as she used to do with Kevin when he was hurting, she gave him a small smile again. "We'll work 'ard for ye, ye know, ta get ye back ta normal. Once yer up an' around, we'll really go ta work, though I'd suggest talkin' ta one o' th' team leaders, they'll be interested in 'earin' wha' ye 'ave ta say."

Forge nodded, feeling his eyes grow heavy. "...let them know? It's okay. I mean, that I lost... y'know? Don't want any secrets from people, not anymore. Tell them for me?"

"I will, I promise, as soon as I get back ta me computer." Reaching into her lab coat pocket, Moira took out a syringe. At his look, she reassured him. "Propranalol, for yer panic attacks, remember? They'll 'elp ye sleep right now." Gently, she administered it. "Want me ta stay until ye sleep?" she asked, offering him one of her hands. She understood about nightmares too.

Forge nodded. The whole world was going to be different now. But he knew he'd done the right thing. And more importantly, he'd wanted to do it.