Face the Blood - Forge/Kevin

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

While standing watch over Yvette's hospital room, Forge gets a visit from Kevin.



Forge sat outside the hospital room, leaning a chair back against the industrial-white-painted wall as he watched the telemetry stream to his PDA. The doctors had said that the surgery was successful, now it was just a waiting game to see how Yvette would recover.

Idly, he tapped out an email and hit send just as he noticed someone else in the hallway. Rocking the chair forwards, he moved to block the door before he noticed Kevin's familiar black hoodie. Unclenching a fist, he let out a long breath and slumped back into the chair.

"Hey, Kevin," he said weakly, exhaustion and lack of sleep creeping into his voice. "Hell of a week, yeah?".

Kevin's hands were shoved into the front pouch of his hoodie, head down and hood up so far that it partially blocked his view. He shuffled as he walked, dragging his feet in a way that was familiar but that he hadn't done in long enough that he couldn't remember the last time his gait was so. His attention was resolutely on the ground, trying not to think of where he was headed even though he knew or why he was moving in that direction. The voice snapped him out of his thoughts and his gaze took its time raising to look at the owner of the voice.

"Yeah, somethin' like that." He glanced at the door, his expression mingled between fear, anxiety, hope and terror enough that it was hard to sort through the emotions laid bare there easily. "Heard anythin' yet?"

"Surgery went through," Forge replied, "Now it's all up to Yvette. She's on... she's on an inhibitor. It's the only way they could do the surgery." He ran a hand through his hair, staring at the floor. "She's going to have to stay on it for a while, until her system's strong enough to take... if her powers kick in and trigger the same physical changes, she's got to be healed enough for it."

Kevin listened and tried to really understand what Forge was saying. Mostly he stared and he blinked and while he didn't think he really got the full implications of it all what he did understand was that Yvette could end up right where she'd been if they left her as herself normally. He also understood she was going to have to deal with being like everyone else for the first time in a long time. And that she would have to know it was going to go away. His gaze went back to the floor. "That's gonna feel worse'n dying for a while. Having to be like everyone else." His voice was quiet, quieter than usual and barely audible.

"Having to be, or getting to be?" Forge pondered. He stood up, looking through the small window of the recovery room door to where Yvette was barely visible in the hospital bed. "She's always thought of her power as a curse. For this little while, she gets to see what it would be like to be a normal girl. I don't know... I don't know how to feel about that, Kevin."

He turned and leaned against the wall, looking much older than his twenty-two years. "That inhibitor I built, she can't stay on it for long. You just can't mess with someone's genes like that without consequence. As soon as she's cleared by the doctors, I have to destroy it. Because if the wrong people get their hands on that kind of technology..."

He didn't bother voicing the fact that other people - the Nasty Boys, Arcade - already had usable inhibitor technology. An eccentric sociopath was one thing. An untrustworthy government, on the other hand...

"Ah know how Ah feel 'bout it," he answered in the same whisper. "Ah understand not bein' able to be like other people or do the things they do or get to interact the way they do. There's a sorta approximate you can get but it ain't the same. And 'Vette's got it worse'n Ah ever did 'cause Ah at least pass for normal when you look at me. And Ah did that, too. Was normal for a while. It ain't 'getting to be normal,' Forge, it's 'havin' to be be.' 'Cause eventually you still gotta go back to bein' you and it makes it harder knowing what you're missin' out on. At least it is if you let yourself do all that stuff you can't normally. And that you won't be able to ever again." He shrugged, feeling awkward and uncomfortable disclosing that much which was so personal to a guy he hadn't really particularly gotten along with in the past. If Forge couldn't start to understand the perspective from that Kevin was sure he couldn't do it justice with his own explanations. Words weren't really his strong suit.

Forge actually chuckled, unexpectedly. "Flowers for Algernon, it's a book about this guy who gets experimented on, and they turn him from a simpleton to a genius. And he's happy because he understands everything. He gets to be everything he wanted. But then it starts fading, and he has to go through the rest of his life knowing just what he lost."

Glancing up, he could tell that Kevin knew exactly what he was talking about, and exactly what Yvette would be going through in the next few weeks. "She's going to need you there," he said firmly. "Because you understand, don't you?"

For a second Kevin didn't say anything at all. He didn't even move. Then he slowly began to nod, eyes raising as he did. "Yeah, Ah understand. And other people they don't. It ain't their fault at all, they just can't. 'Cause how can ya really understand it without bein' in that position?" He spared a glance at the window in the door for the first time. He didn't look for the bed, just stared at the wall for a moment and his face paled.

"'Vette...we're kindred for that. Cut from the same sorta cloth and all." For the first time Kevin could hear the pain in his voice. It'd been ever present since she'd been injured. Since he'd been thinking about having to watch the one person who understood him at all be put in the ground. Not for the first time, he thought himself selfish for not wanting to lose that sort of link or the person it was with. But then again, not wanting to lose someone was always more about yourself than it was about them. That's how people ended up on life support for so long. People just weren't good at accepting goodbye.

"Yeah, you really are," Forge agreed. "She trusts you, probably more than she does anyone. She'll need you by her side. Which is why I have to trust you."

He stood up and stepped closer to Kevin, without making the gesture at all hostile. "Yvette's important, but that inhibitor... if you're in there with her, and anyone that isn't me or Jean tries to mess with it?"

Forge's eyes were cold as he met Kevin's gaze. "That thing could spell doom for everyone if it falls into the wrong hands. I need someone to keep an eye on her when I can't. Even I have to sleep sometimes. And I know you won't leave her side, will you?"

"No, sir." The tone wasn't mocking, but rather attentive and respectful. It was hard for Kevin not to respect someone who spoke so seriously about Yvette or something so closely tied to her like that inhibitor was. "Not unless she makes me." It was implied he'd find a way to keep an eye on her anyway even if she did.

Forge reached out and laid a hand on Kevin's shoulder. "Good. Well, if you're not going anywhere for the next few hours, I need a shower and some shuteye."

Kevin stood as still as possible when he saw Forge reaching out toward him. It was an automatic reflex, he stilled and watched and simply did not move when he saw the trajectory would avoid skin. Once the hand was on his shoulder his eyes went back to Forge's face and he nodded. "Ah can keep guard for a while. S'not a problem."

"Good man," Forge said in exhausted congratulations. "And Kevin? It's... good to have you back."