Kyle has an ... er... accident.

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

What's more embarassing? Your boyfriend's older brother knowing you're having a whole lot of sex? Or accidentally cutting your own toes off? Kyle finds out!



He hadn't been actively looking for Kyle, but after his discussion with Jay that morning, Sam had been keeping an eye out for the feral youngster.So, when he noticed the boy carrying a large empty basket out of the laundry room, he turned to greet him. "Kyle. Got a minute?" he asked.

"I got... about forty." Kyle said. "Then I have to go put my stuff in the dryer before somebody tries to call dibs and moves my wet stuff around or something." Or Forge took it out to try to wire the washing machine to page him when it was done or something. He wouldn't have put it past his roommate. "What's up?"

This was the part that Sam hadn't exactly thought out. How to address his concerns without totally embarassing them both? "Ah was...um...talkin' ta Jay this mornin'," he explained, "an' he mentioned that you've been kinda...restless, lately. Like you've had a lot of energy an' not really any way ta burn it off."

Kyle was very, very glad for hair long enough to cover his ears, because he was positive they were bright red. Bright beet red, and possibly glowing in the dark."Uh..You...talked to Jay?" he stammered out. ~Well, fuck. I'm so dead.~ "This is the part where you drop me off the roof without the snowboard, right?" He said nervously. "Because, I totally get a head start with the running..."

Sam crossed his arms and looked stern for a moment, then shook his head and chuckled."No, Kyle, Ah ain't gonna drop ya off the roof or nothin'. Jay said ya wouldn't hurt him on purpose, an' Ah believe him." He paused for a moment and leveled a stern look that said 'but if you do hurt him on purpose, I will be forced to take steps'. "Just mentioned that ya got more energy than ya seem ta be able ta burn off. So Ah...thought Ah'd see what Ah could do ta help."

"How do you mean?"Kyle asked carefully. "This isn't where I have to go do like, eightynine hojillion pushups or like, get up at five in the morning to run, because dude, I totally heard about that, and five in the morning is not a cool time to get up in the morning for anything, much less running."

"No, this ain't about punishin' ya, Kyle," Sam said kindly. "Just tryin' ta help ya find a way ta get rid of all that energy. Ah was thinkin'...well, when Ah'm feelin' like Ah'm spinnin' my wheels, Ah try ta find productive things ta do, chores an' the like.Ah dunno if it'd help, but Mr. Marko usually has a big pile of logs for splittin'. A half hour or so of that, an' Ah'm usually tuckered out."

Kyle gave Sam a dubious look."Like, with a hachet and the chopping and all?" Sam didn't look like he was trying to yank Kyle's chain. "Dude, that's not work, that's awesome." Yeah, it looked hard, but there was an axe involved, and hitting wood with it, and how could that -not- be cool?

A barely audible sigh of relief came from Sam. He'd been worried Kyle would think the idea was dumb, or that he'd remain convinced that Sam wanted to punish him because of his relationship with Jay. "Ya mentioned ya got about forty minutes until your laundry's done. Ya could give it a shot while you're waitin', see if ya like it or not..."

Kyle grinned and showed Sam his watch. "Works for me. As long as I get back before this goes blinglyblinglybeep, I'm good. I have, kinda a thing about the laundry and the stinky dead pond smell if I leave it around." And then he'd have clean underwear and maybe he could actually sit still for five minutes and enjoy them. Because the whole "Can't seem to keep still" thing he'd been doing was starting to drive him nuts.

There was no time like the present, and so Sam walked Kyle out the back door and down towards the boathouse.Rapping briskly on thedoor, he called out "Mr. Marko?Ya in?"

Opening the door, Cain looked down at Sam with a grin. "Hey, Hayseed," he said, "You ain't about to tell me you and the runt here broke the roof with one of those damn fool snowboarding stunts, are you?"

Sam shook his head with a wry chuckle."Nah, nothin' like that."He indicated Kyle. "Kyle's been sufferin' from a whole bunch of extra energy, an' Ah suggested choppin' some wood as a way ta burn it off, since it always seems ta tucker me out. An' he seemed okay with the idea, so Ah figured there ain't no time like the present."

Remembering the events of the past few weeks, Cain nodded at the two young men. "Right then. There's a cord of wood back under the tarp that needs splitting into kindling." He looked Kyle over briefly. "Figure you ought to be able to get through most of it before them spindly little arms give out on you." He flexed one massive bicep for emphasis. "Gimme a holler if the kid passes out, eh Sam?"

"Who you calling spindly?" I'm not spindly. Forge is spindly." He crossed his arms over his chest, grumbling. "Man, you can't go calling a guy spindly when he can do pullups for like, an hour. That ain't right.."

Sam laughed heartily. "Compared to Mr. Marko here, we're _all_ spindly, Kyle."Looking at Kyle assessingly, he turned back to Cain. "Actually, Ah was wonderin' if Ah might trouble ya for a beer, Mr. Marko. Supervisin' seems like it might be thirsty work.." he trailed off with a wink.

Venturing quickly into the kitchen, Cain returned with two longneck bottles of beer, handing one to Sam and keeping the other for himself as he sat down in his porch chair. Reaching down to the small table, he turned on a portable radio, letting the echoing strains of some 1960s classic rock echo over the porch. "Go supervise, Sammy. Put the kid to some use."

Kyle had no trouble finding the woodpile on his own, and was in the process of examing the tarp by the time Sam got outside. "Dude, there was like, a centipide the size of my foot over there..." He said with no small amount of amusement. "Like, Mr. Marko-ipide. Thing was -huge-." He bounced on the balls of his feet and grinned."Okay, so ... I get like, a hatchet?"

Sam indicated the long-handed axe sticking out of the chopping block with his beer as he took a long pull on it.It took Kyle a few false starts, with demonstration from Sam, but after a while he was chopping away, leaving Sam with nothing to do but watch.

Finishing his beer, he shrugged and headed back towards the front of the boathouse. He figured Kyle could look after himself for a minute or two. Waving Cain to stay seated as he ducked inside the boathouse, he called "Don't get up, Ah know where the fridge is. "Bringing out a fresh pair of beers, he handed one to Cain while opening his own.He smiled wistfully as the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" came on."Ya never woulda guessed it ta look at him, but my daddy was a big Stones fan," Sam reminisced."He had all their albums, an' he used ta love to play them when he'd come home at night from the mines."

Noticing the past tense, Cain just nodded as he looked out over the lake. "Hard work does that. Makes you appreciate the rest a little more than normal folks." He looked over at Sam, sizing up the younger man for a good long moment. "Far as I can tell, you ain't never had a problem there. World could use more of that, little less of the whiners and complainers." Jerking his thumb towards the sounds of splitting wood, he grinned. "That one's off to a good start. Just needs a little push to get his nose a little closer to the ol' grindstone."

The wood chopping was kind of neat, Kyle decided. A few thunks and he had pieces of wood splitting off to the each side. But it was -slow-, and the hatchet was so little. It felt like barely nothing in his hands and it took too many chops to split the logs. But off to the side of the boathouse was an Axe. Kyle figured it had to be half again the size of his arm. Or maybe not, but it was Big. That -had- to make this go faster. He could probably split the logs one chop at a time with that. Be all like Karate Kid, with the nails and the hammer, only with the wood and an axe instead. That'd be awesome.

The axe was heavier than he expected, he couldn't lift it with one hand. So he wrapped both hands around the handle and pulled. And then pulled again harder when it didn't budge.

The axe moved, certainly, much faster than Kyle expected, falling towards him. He yelped, and leapt back, startled.~okay, Gibney. Bad idea. Now put the axe back where "OW -OW- OW FUCK OW OW!"

The thunk and yelp were audible over the strains of the radio, and Sam set his beer down hastily before rushing around the back of the boathouse, swearing under his breath."Damn damn damn, Ah was just gone for a minute..."

Cain moved to get up, then reached over to drain the last of Sam's beer before pulling himself off the porch. "Damn fool kid..."

The axe was on the ground. Kyle was also on the ground, clutching his foot with both hands, and swearing up a storm."Jesus FUCK this hurts..."he swore loudly.

It was obvious at first glance what had caused the accident, and the blood leaking out from between Kyle's hands definitely had Sam worried. Even with a healing factor, it looked like Kyle had really done a number on his foot. "Cain, get Kyle to the Medlab," he ordered quickly, shifting easily into 'XO mode'."Ah'll go on ahead and warn 'em we're comin' in."The words were no sooner out of his mouth than his blast field ignited, taking him back towards the mansion at high speed.

Hooking one large arm under Kyle's, Cain lifted the boy off the ground with ease. "What in the sam hell did..." he looked over at the smear of blood on the ground, Kyle's bare feet, and the huge axe laying in the sawdust. "Oh, you dumb little bastard," he said lowly, unable to keep a smirk off his face. "Couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? That thing weighs a good hundred fifty pounds. I use that to take out those big-ass tree stumps up by the quarry."

Hefting Kyle up, Cain began loping across the back lawn. "And quit the squirming. I swear, Moira didn't whimper this much going into labor."

"Hey! Leave a guy some dignity here..."Kyle protested.The throbbing in his foot was starting to dull, and he struggled trying to look down at where it hurt.There was a whole lot of blood, and a whole lot of empty space where two of his toes used to be.

"...shit..."


It's definitly the toes. Once Kyle is all cleaned up, Jean gives him some interesting news about his healing factor, and how the loss of toes will be ... not so permanent.



"Ow!" Kyle protested. "Man, that -stings-." He rubbed his arm where he'd gotten the shot and frowned. "It isn't right when the shot of whatever that is hurts more than the foot!" His foot had stopped screaming at him before Mr. Marko had gotten him to the infirmary. It still ached and throbbed, but it wasn't agonizing anymore.

Jean smiled wryly as she set the needle back on the tray. "Sorry about that," she said, "but at least I didn't try to claim it would 'only sting for a bit'. But your healing factor ought to do away with this pain fairly quickly, too."

The stinging was already fading, so Kyle nodded. "Still doesn't mean I have to like it... " He craned his neck, trying to look down at his feet. "Or that. Stupid axe. How was I supposed to know it was gonna weigh like, ninetynine billion pounds?

"Intelligence guided by experience." Jean's tone was perfectly mild, but there was the faintest hint of a smile in her eyes, although she kept her face serious and moved on. It was hard not to be amused by Kyle sometimes, although if it weren't for his healing factor this would have been a much bigger issue. "Now, Kyle, you've got to be careful of the bandages. I know they don't feel tight enough, but don't pick at them or shake them too much. We had to leave space for your healing factor to work."

"What? That doesn't make sense?" Kyle said, still trying to look at his feet. "What, like so it gets enough air and doesn't get the rot or something?" He'd heard about injuries needing to be aired out, though, admittedly, that had been his mom, and it might've been because he'd had an early obsession with Elmo band-aids. "What if they come off in the shower? Or, like, just walking around?" And then a terrible thought occured to Kyle. "I'm gonna have to wear shoes until this heals, aren't I? God, that's gonna suck."

Jean blinked. Oh, heavens, he hadn't realized. "No, Kyle, shoes are right out. They are secure, I promise, although if they come lose stop back down here and we'll rewrap them. Try to keep the bandages dry when you shower, but I'm not going to require you to do sponge baths or anything - it's not a plaster cast. But, Kyle, have you realized just how strong your healing factor is? That you're going to recover from this?"

Kyle shrugged. "You mean like, walk around normally? My dad's dad lost a toe to the diabetes when I was a kid, and he walked around okay, and he was like, sixty, so I kinda guessed I'd just limp around until it healed." He was very carefully trying not to let Dr. Grey know how weird it looked to look at his feet and see two less toes than he was supposed to have. He'd get used to it, he figured. "Dry during the shower? Do I need to like, put a plastic bag on my foot?" He couldn't remember what Forge had done after his surgery. But then he wasn't paying attention to Forge in the shower in the first place.

"A plastic bag will work fine, or you can bring a chair and set it up so you can keep your foot out of the shower and just clean up the water that drips on the floor. As for the other, no I don't mean just walk around normally. I mean a full recovery. Your healing factor isn't the strongest I've seen, nor the fastest, but it's very effective, and regrowing small damage like this is easily within its scope."

If Kyle had been a cartoon character, the light bulb going off over his head would've been a 90,000 candlepower spotlight. "Waitasecond... " He stared at Jean openly. "They grow back? Dude, like a lizard with the tail and the falling off and then it grows back?" Kyle held up a finger to try to question that, then rethought it. Dr. Grey was a -doctor-, and you weren't supposed to argue with them. "I think that freaks me out more than the missing toes in the first place..." he said quietly.

"I can understand that," she said gently. "You never met Logan, but you know the sort of damage that Jay's healing factor is capable of dealing with. This is much the same thing. And, not that you need to hear it, but please, no experimenting to see how far it goes."

"I didn't know Jay could regrow stuff!" Kyle protested. "And Logan's the knives in his hands guy, right? I've heard stories, and Doc McCoy said that my healing factor wasn't half as strong as that Logan guy's was. Is. Um." He crossed his arms and scowled. "And I'm not gonna go cutting off toes just to watch them regrow. That's gross, and cutting off toes -hurts- and I'm so not into like, freaky emo self cutting or whatever."

"Yes, that's who Logan was, and no, your healing factor is not nearly as strong as his, but it's quite up to coping with this. And I'm very relieved to hear you're not planning on testing this all out. In the meantime, though, don't put a lot of weight on your foot, and generally be careful. Come down if it starts hurting excessively, or two days from now, whichever comes first. And no scratching."

He'd known she was going to say that. Just hearing that he wasn't allowed to scratch made his foot itch. Or made him aware of it. Kyle bit back a frustrated growl and tried not to think about his foot. And how weird it felt. And how much it -itched-. "What if it itches?" He asked. Maybe he could get an exception. Not that it had worked -ever- before with any doctor, but it was worth trying.

"It will itch, but you still can't scratch. When you come back in two days, if the skin's properly grown back, I'll give you a topical cream. In the mean time, do your best not to. If you scratch it'll just take longer, which will mean it will itch longer."

"I have to go two -days- without scratching?" Kyle was horrified. More importantly, he wasn't sure he could actually make it an hour, much less two days. "I'm gonna go insane. It already itches. On top of, you know, feeling crawly. What if I start going all scaly? I mean, like, lizardy? Because I totally heard about that. Forge was babbling about some thing where they use newts or something to help people regrown limbs and how it wouldn't work because to do it you'd have to have lizard DNA and I don't -want- to turn into a lizard. So, I'm not, right? This isn't like, a lizard thing?"

"Kyle, ya'll don't need ta be botherin' Jean. Ya gonna be just fine, ya ain't gonna turn into a lizard." Sam had stayed around the Medlab to make sure Kyle was going to be okay, and it looked like he was. "Ah'll make sure he gets back ta his room an' such," he told Jean. "C'mon, Ah'll help ya get to your room if you're havin' trouble walkin' on that," he told Kyle.

Kyle carefully slid off the edge of the exam table and tested his weight on his foot. It hurt to stand on it for too long, but he found that he could take careful limping steps. "Not so worried about the hallway, but stairs are gonna be kind of a pain.." he said. "And I'm not dumb enough to try to go up 'em on my hands..."