Kurt, Amanda, Jean, Logan and Cain in the medlab

[x-bamf.livejournal.com]

The healing takes place, and goes exactly as planned. With a little extra.



Cain might have agreed to Jean's monitoring the situation telepathically, but knowing neither he nor Logan were that comfortable with telepaths, Jean wasn't about to exacerbate the situation. Not when the medlab had a perfectly workable intercom system. "All of the monitors are up and running. Logan, would you please stop fiddling with the wires. I need readings off of you and Cain as well, just in case."

"You know I hate this shit." he grumbled, but he forced himself to leave the wires and trodes alone. Then he grinned as a memory hit him. It was on the tip of his tongue to repeat a quip he'd made when he first came to the Mansion, but he bit it back. "All right. You getting your data now?" he asked.

Jean rolled her eyes at the less than well hidden quip, but there was a touch of amusement to the look. Thankfully, Logan could see neither. "Yes, thank you," she said. "Amanda, all lights are green on my end. Whenever you're ready."

The witch had been sitting by Kurt's bedside whilst the two men had been getting ready, murmuring quiet reassurances to him, as much as she could without telling him exactly what was going on - Kurt being Kurt, it was likely he would protest against the healing if he knew where the power was coming from. At Jean's voice, she looked up, face pale but determined.

"All right, Doc," she said quietly, getting up and trying to still the butterflies in her stomach. It was hard, looking Cain in the eye, but she managed it. "You two set?"

Cain fidgeted, ignoring the looks from the doctors as the wires moved. It hadn't been long ago that he'd threatened to rip Amanda limb from limb if she started jonesing on the magic again and using him for a battery. But this, this was different. She'd asked. Honestly and earnestly, to save a life. When it was put that way...

"Ready as I'm gonna be," Cain grumbled, itching at one of the sensors on his arm. "Get your mojo working, girl."

Logan took a moment to fight down an intense feeling of vertigo - and Amanda hadn't even started her thing yet. "Do it." he said, more curtly than usual. This was for the elf, and he'd always been fond of the elf. This wasn't Weapon-X, Jean wasn't Stryker, and Amanda wasn't looking to hurt him, to put him into the tank again.

She nodded. "Thanks," was all she said, before turning to Kurt again. Flowery speeches weren't necessary here, not with these two. And Kurt was in pain. "'kay, Blue, I'm gunna start. I've got the backup here so don't worry 'bout me," she told him, bending over so she could talk quietly in his ear. "You'll feel some tingling, maybe a bit of pain, but I'll be as careful as I can be, all right?"

Kurt just nodded, looking straight towards her voice - it was easier to get it right when she was this close. "Please. Start."

Start. Such a small word for possibly the hardest thing she'd ever done. Letting her hand hover above his eyes - if something went wrong and she didn't have enough power for this, she wanted him to be able to see, at least - she gulped and closed her eyes, before calling up the spell she'd once cast as simply as breathing, without a second thought. Her hand began to glow, a soft golden light that gradually filled the dim room. But it was accompanied by that internal tug, that sensation of her mutant power reaching out and looking for something to fill the gaps with.

Unnoticed, a tear slipped down her face, tracing its own pattern of fire. I'm sorry. It wasn't aimed at anyone. Or perhaps it was aimed at everyone. Including herself.

Logan felt it first - a gentle tug at the core of his being. It made him briefly dizzy, but instead of passing like most dizzy spells do it persisted. Still, Logan grimly held himself still and let her take what she needed. Christ, if this is what she did to folks no _wonder_ she'd had such a rough go at it.

For Cain, the feeling was more familiar but no less unsettling. When Amanda had leeched off of Cyttorak's power before, it was like dipping a cup in a well. This was more like tapping right into a water main, with more pressure on both parties. He had a brief flashback to the snow of Vladivostok, that feeling of weakness and coughing up blood onto the ice. But he shoved it to the back of his mind. Whatever this took, he had more than enough. Kurt was a good man, he thought. Better than most.

"It's okay," Cain mumbled softly, judging the expression on Amanda's face. "Do what you gotta."

And that was what made it different, that simple reassurance that she wasn't taking something, it was being given. Light spilled out from her hand, engulfing Kurt as she relaxed the last last restraints on the healing she'd been keeping out of fear and guilt, blending Logan's vitality with Cain's strength and her own faith in her brother. 'S gunna be okay, Kurt, she thought, and this time it wasn't a platitude.

Amanda knew her own spells well enough, and she'd been dead on with what she told Kurt to expect. He gritted his teeth, eyes squeezed tight shut out of pure reflex, as the light washed over him. It did hurt... but he'd had much worse, and not just this time. He was not going to make a sound, not when she was doing all this for him.

Jean watched as the monitors reflected the abstract idea of an energy transfer between the four people. Logan's readout was the most erratic, dipping and pushing back up as his healing factor replaced the energy as fast as it was drained. Cain's seemed to have simply spiked up, providing so much energy that the drain barely even registered, while Amanda's was a more constant drop, not as sharp as the rise in Kurt's vitals, but clearly there, as she didn't have the extra energy of her two sources. Somehow, seeing that drop was what finally put the last of Jean's reservations to rest. Amanda was giving of herself as much as she could, would have drained herself entirely to do this, had the need been there.

Healing was energy transfer, that was what Selene had taught her. Selene had been wrong about a good many things, but in this, she'd been right. Amanda was a conduit, taking the energy from Cain and Logan and combining it with her own before funnelling it as gently as she could into Kurt. But even going as carefully as she was, it wasn't easy. Cells regenerated, acid-scored skin and lung tissue and corneas were repaired, the light from the spell growing brighter until it almost hurt to look at. Kurt was enveloped in the glow, a darker shape in the brightness.

Cain glanced over at Logan, the smaller man sweating and gritting his teeth, the veins seeming to stand out of his skin. In contrast, Cain was almost shivering and he was beginning to see his breath in the air. But the light that bled out of both Kurt and Amanda was warm. Whatever he was giving up, it was doing good.

Enough, chile. It wasn't a voice so much as commonsense with an accent, but whatever it was, it spoke true. Amanda cut the spell and the drain, plunging the room back into the dimness that after the brightness of the light seemed to be full darkness. Without the masking effect of borrowed energy, Amanda felt bone tired, exhausted in a way she knew only too well, and she struggled to stay upright. "Gotta go, Blue," she told Kurt, leaning over to brush her lips against the unblemished skin of his forehead. "Just tell me you can see, yeah? I'd hate all that to go to waste."

He turned his head to her - really to her, for the first time since it had happened, and smiled. "I can", he said simply. "And you and I will be talking, when you have slept, about how I can thank you for this."

It was easy to tell when the spell ended, simply because the monitors stopped behaving so erratically, and a moment later Jean was back in the medlab, taking in the Kurt's vast improvement. She paused while Kurt and Amanda spoke quietly, giving them a moment and turning her attention to the other two men. "Logan? Cain? How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been running a damn marathon," Cain wheezed out, lowering his head to take a few deep breaths, then standing up cautiously. "Little weak, but it's passing."

Logan looked awful - ashen of complexion, like all of his blood had suddenly been drained away. "Felt better." he admitted. "Could use a beer." Or a nap, he thought while trying to stifle a jaw-cracking yawn.

"You need to rest," Jean said, casting an eye over him. "Let your healing factor catch up." Turning to Amanda, she smiled before moving to Kurt's side to begin a careful examination. "You, too, Amanda. Rest. You did good."

The witch's return smile was weak but nonetheless heartfelt for all that. "I will," she promised. "And... I know I don't need to say it, but... thank you. All three of you." Her hand squeezed Kurt's where she held it. "I know I..." The words failed her then, and she shook her head, turning her attention back to Kurt. "'M gunna go, get some sleep, Blue. Let you get swamped with visitors, yeah? But I'll be back later. Promise."

He nodded, not looking away from her. "I know you will. But promise me you will stay here to sleep, not try to drive." He didn't want her taking that risk, now more than ever.

She shook her head slightly - staying here after what she'd just done? Wasn't something she relished. Better to let some space and time ease things a bit. "I'll get someone to drive me," she suggested. "I always sleep better in my own bed." Bending she kissed his cheek. "You rest
too. Regrowing skin's a lot of work."

"Tell me about it." Logan grumbled, and disguised a near-stumble as he hopped off the table. Truth be told, he felt like death warmed over and wanted nothing more than to sleep for a _week_. He ripped the sensors off his body, not particularly caring about the hairs that came with them, and dropped them to the floor. Unable to stifle it this time, he yawned mightily.

"Go, sleep, both of you," Jean said, making shooing motions at them. "Or at least go so Kurt can sleep." She smiled. "He'll be ok."