xp_logs | LOG: [Laurie, Jean, Haller] An accident

While on the rafting trip things go a little overboard. Also several participants.

Laurie waved to Scott as they passed him on the raft, pulling against the strap on her life vest and forcing herself to stop biting her lower lip as they went over the first rapid. This was going to be an experience and she'd be damned if she was going to let a little fear stop her from enjoying it. Besides, it wasn't like there weren't two teachers just inches from her if anything went wrong.

Jean eyed the rafts going past her - she'd taken a high spot that gave her a view over most of the rapids, although she'd have to head further down the river soon. Being a spotter for this trip was far and away better than being one of the staff on the rafts. And not just because of her fear of water. It was both warmer and dryer off the river.

"You all right back there, Laurie?" Jim asked, glad he'd had enough upper-body training to make this class outing less embarrassing than it might have been. The look over his shoulder brought his cheek hard against the vest, which had the slightly musty smell of damp nylon. Orange vest, orange-tipped oars, and a bright blue inflatable raft. He was having trouble shaking the vague feeling he was in something packaged for ages 5-9. The two younger kids in the back of the raft seemed to be enjoying it, at least.

"I'm fantastic!" Laurie yelled over the sound of the rapids, leaning out to take a closer look at the turn coming up. Now that they'd gone over a few smaller bumps, she felt like she was getting a handle on things. It didn't seem at all hard, a piece of cake really. It was a fateful thought, especially considering the next rapid kicked the boat up violently and sent the precariously positioned Laurie over the side.

She grabbed at the edge of the boat, scrabbling for a purchase, reaching out toward Haller as she did so.

Jean had been watching one of the other boats, making sure everything was all right everywhere, when the sudden shouting started and she was in motion even before she knew what was going on, running towards and then off the edge of the hill. As she got a good look at what was going on, she swore to herself - she couldn't just pick Laurie up out of the water, the girl's grip on the boat was too tight and she'd risk tipping the whole thing. But she looked like she had a good hold, and Jim was already moving to help, so Jean held off, simply tracking the boat's movement and nudging it farther away from the rocks which made up the rapids.

Suddenly his oar was who knew where. He lunged across the raft, the rubber squealing under his knees and vest jammed up by his ears by the motion of his shoulders. "Stay there," Jim called back to the other students. Jean's attention lay on them like a hand on his back, and so he didn't bother to call for help -- his hand was already out, seeking Laurie's arm clinging to slick curve of the raft, though he couldn't help the thought: That's what we get for jinxing it . . .

Only it was too late, Laurie's fingers, cold and wet from the water had already given up their grip on the raft. She scrabbled for it, trying to get a purchase on it but the current was too swift and she was being dragged outwards and away from the boat.

"MR HALLER! PLEASE! I CAN'T SWIM!" she cried, forgetting in the sudden panic of rapids and swift current that she actually could swim, just not very well.

Even as Laurie was being pulled away from the boat, the boat was being shoved closer as Jean worked to keep Jim in range so he could get to her - her grip on the boat had become too invasive, the normal current not affecting its motion enough and she couldn't release it back into the water to grab Laurie without the sudden change in forces endangering the others.

His skin tingling with the sensation of half-felt telekinesis working around him, Jim spared one sending to Laurie -- #I'm coming# -- and slid over the side of the raft and into the water. Jean had gotten him close, and the river was only too happy to take him the rest of the way.

#It's okay, Laurie,# Jim sent, keeping his mouth shut. His clothes, the nylon rivershoes, everything dragged, but the lifejacket kept his head above water. He extended his arms in long strokes, sliding fast along the current. #Paddle backwards -- I'll catch up.#

Her mind was a jumble of panicked thoughts and emotions but she held to the calm words and tried to paddle backwards as hard as she could. She'd already swallowed enough water to last her an entire day and even though the lifejacket kept her head above water, she doubted it would do anything against the rocks rapidly approaching. She was going to be smashed against them before Mr Haller could even reach her, she was sure of it.

'Oh God, I'm going to die, I don't want to die...' she thought, looking back over her shoulder.

In spite of Laurie's hysterical thoughts, Jean could tell Jim was as close to having the situation in hand as it was possible, and so her attention turned to the boat she had in hand. She carefully lifted it up, hopping it over the swiftly approaching batch of rocks - with no adult on board they weren't really equipped to deal with the rafts on their own.

Almost, almost-- Even Jim could feel the girl's panic bleeding over the link. She was so close now, almost in arm's reach. Almost-- His foot kicked against some hidden snag under the surface and river water sloshed into his nose and mouth, Laurie thrashing in the water just ahead. With a final wild stroke, Jim's hand found the girl's arm. #Got you!#

She latched onto him, almost trying to climb him in her panic to get away from the water and the rocks. An almost violet haze had begun spreading out over her skin, a clear indication of active powers use. Laurie didn't even notice, looping her arms around Haller's neck in a death grip.

Jim reached out to grab the girl around her waist and let Laurie cling as he tried to get a better grip. He barely noticed the fisted hand pressed against the bare skin just below his ear. Barely, that is, until his heart started pounding.

Onset came fast and hard. The sharp, sour taste in the back of his mouth hit an instant before the stab of pain in his right arm with a suddenness that had him gasping in water. Blood hammered against the inside of his skull. In his chest, something was beginning to squeeze. Instinctively tightening his failing grip on the girl in his arms, he managed the fragmented thought, Jean--

His hold was painful, it was the first thing she noticed beyond the panic of the moment and as she looked into his face she could see the pain and shock. It was only then that she realised she was touching him skin to skin. It cut through her panic like a knife. "No, oh no. Mr Haller, are you alright?"

Jim barely heard her. Dark edges were starting around his vision, getting worse as his gasps to catch his breath brought in more water than air. From a strange pocket of clarity he was aware of her fear, just as he was aware that his heartrate skyrocketing in proportion to it. Somehow, though, the connection had lost urgency. The only thing he was really aware of was the pressure in his chest and the rough nylon strap of Laurie's lifejacket, still held in one fist.

Whether it was imagined or not, later he could have sworn that just before he passed out the hammer of blood in his ears stopped entirely.

He was slipping away from her, his body now a dead weight against the lifejacket but she refused to let go, wouldn't allow it. Laurie clutched Haller closer and held on for dear life, tears wet against her face as she realised that something bad was happening and she didn't know what to do. "Mr Haller, please wake up. Please, I don't know what to do."

At the touch of Haller's mind on hers, Jean's eyes widened - the pain which colored his tone far too familiar, and not something she'd ever expected to feel here. Out of time for finesse, she lifted the unguided boat out of the water entirely, beaching it on the largest rock she could find, hoping it would hold as she turned back to catch at Laurie's frantic mind, using her thoughts to locate them in the swirling water. In seconds the two of them were up out of the water as Jean tried to calm Laurie. I've got you. I have you both, but you have to let go, Laurie. I need you to let go. Which was not an easy thing to convince her of, seeing as all three of them were simply hanging in midair.

Laurie shook her head violently, clutching at Haller as if to hold him from whatever fate might come for him. "I c-can't, he'll fall. D-d-don't w-want h-h-him to d-d-die." she said, teeth beginning to chatter from reaction.

He won't. Neither of you will. I promise, Laurie. He'd lost consciousness, and without the mental presence she couldn't make a diagnosis without getting closer, but she didn't need to - that horrid tightness and pain she'd felt in the hospitals too often to mistake it now. She assumed it was an anaphylactic reaction to Laurie's power, and if his heart hadn't stopped from the shock it would soon if she didn't get Laurie away.

"I'm s-s-sorry, I'm s-so s-sorry. Mr Haller, I'm s-so s-sorry." Laurie said, crying now and trying to get her breath in great gulps as she let him go, trusting in what Dr Summers-Grey had said.

As soon as Laurie had let go, Jean pulled Jim closer, shifting her grip so he was lying in the air - as she got a good look at him she realized she couldn't even spare the attention necessary to get Laurie's feet back on the ground. His heart had stopped and he wasn't breathing.

It wasn't a trick she had tried often - wasn't one she'd had cause to need often, thankfully - but she knew how. Breathing air into his lungs, Jean oh-so-carefully massaged his heart with her powers, forcing it to beat regularly, keeping the blood flowing.

Laurie hung in mid-air, watching Jean as she performed what looked to be CPR on Mr Haller. She didn't want to look down and see the raging waters beneath them, almost certain it would cause problems with her this close to the other two. She was shivering now, and could feel an almost bone deep chill settling into her joints.

Jean was unaware of Laurie's shivering, or of Scott's frantic worry along the link, or of really anything else besides the primal beat she was imposing on Haller's heart and the flow of air into his lungs. Breathe, damn you, Jim, BREATHE!

'He's dead.'

It was the thought that kept running through Laurie's mind as she watched Dr Summers-Grey working to start Mr Haller breathing again. She'd killed a teacher, and if he wasn't able to be saved she'd have to live with the fact for the rest of her life. If only she'd tried harder to learn to control her powers rather then relying on an outside source.

'Please God, just let him live and I promise I'll do everything in my power to learn to control this. Just don't let him die, please?' she thought, hugging herself to contain the shivering.

Jim couldn't remember a white light, but he was shocked back to consciousness by the sudden awareness of a presence infiltrating his body and mind. Breathe, it told him as a force that was somehow the same worked in his chest, Breathe. Involuntarily, he tried -- and choked.

The telepath's abdomen clenched around the obstruction in his lungs and jerked him upright, his forehead almost hitting Jean in the nose as he hacked the water from his lungs. It tasted and felt like it'd taken half the coating of his throat with it.

Jean flinched back as she felt Jim's heart catch the beat on its own and the surge of awareness within his mind, the recoil actually sending her back several inches in the air with a whispered, "Oh, thank God." Her shoulders slumped in reaction as she briefly buried her head in her hands, but less than a second later she was back by Haller's side. "Get it all out, that's right," she told him, aiming for 'soothing and in control' and not entirely missing. She was suddenly exhausted, but she couldn't let her focus drop yet, not with the three of them still hanging in midair.

Laurie had been staring somewhat blindly at the doctor and her patient, thoughts dull as the shivers turned to a certain detachment from reality. Seeing Haller turn over and start spitting up water brought her back though and she watched as Jean comforted him, feeling a small glimmer of hope that everything would now be alright.

For the first few minutes the entirety of Jim's attention was devoted to making sure the heaves brought up the contents of his lungs rather than his stomach. This was harder than he'd thought. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, then blinked as he became aware of the cradle of telekinesis suspending him. Jim slowly managed to focus his gaze on Jean, his eyes still streaming from the coughing fit. "Well," he croaked, "guess you got the river thing handled."

"I see this as yet more proof that, really, nobody should be near more than a bathtub's worth of water at any time. Maybe a small pool if properly supervised. Maybe." His voice was ragged and hoarse, but it was sure and his mental presence was steady. Reassured, Jean turned to Laurie and offered her a small smile. "Hey, sweetie," she said. "Now that the excitement's over, let's get back on land?" And, suiting action to words, Jean began to lower them towards the bank where Scott was waiting, looking anxious.

"I think I'd like that." Laurie replied with a somewhat distracted smile. She was still coping with the various shocks and wasn't really concentrating on anything other then that Mr Haller was alive and she hadn't killed anyone.

"Solid land. Good idea." Between the lack of appropriate power and the fact his muscletone didn't seem to remember its obligations, Jim gave himself over to the other woman's telekinesis. "The others?" he asked as his knees touched the dirt, looking around for the other rafts. His brain had decided defaulting to the students was a safe filler-occupation while it caught up on processing what had just happened.

A quick glance showed Jean that the raft she'd beached was still on the rock, its occupants staring up at her. "I'll get them in a second," she said faintly. The other boats had been carried on by the rapids, presumably (hopefully) without incident. Setting them all down carefully on the land, Jean staggered briefly before straightening.

"Laurie," Jim said, belatedly remembering the soaking girl next to him. He turned his head to look at her. "You okay?"

Laurie had felt the touch of earth under her feet and quickly sat down in order to save wobbly legs. She'd been rubbing her arms to get some warmth back in them and she looked at Haller now with a wry smile. Now that things were somewhat under control, she felt like she could sleep for a week. "I don't know. At least there was no volcano, right?"

"No. No volcanoes here. Don't jinx us." She sounded all right, but there was something slightly glassy about her affect. Jim tried to move closer, then realized he literally couldn't. It felt like someone had sliced all the strength out from under him. Rather than frighten her with a spill, he brought his knees up and put his head between them in a vague attempt at recovery. #Jean,# he sent as he nestled his forehead against his knees, #she's pale.#

Jean had turned her attention to the boat, but at Jim's touch she refocused, finally really seeing Laurie. "Ohhh," she said softly, and instead reached out and tugged at the stack of blankets she remembered were piled up down the river. "Here, sweetie, sit," she said, gesturing Laurie towards a large, mossy rock. Grabbing the blanket out of the air and swept it around Laurie's shoulders.

Laurie burrowed her fingers into the warm wool of the blanket and clutched it closer in front of her, blinking at the two adults. "Can we go home now?" she asked after a moment, wanting nothing more then to have a hot shower and to crawl into something approximating a bed.

"Yes," Jean promised her. "Let me rescue your stranded classmates and then the three of us are going home, even if no one else. You two need to be somewhere warm and dry." And reassuring.