xp_logs | The Problématique: Plane Ride

The rescue team returns with Vanessa. Things take a turn.

Emma's jet wasn't as well stocked as the X-Men's in terms of medical supplies. After all, X-Force lacked an in-house doctor or in-house medical facilities. It had the basics, though, and other necessary supplies such as an IV pump, vitamin additives and catheters had been found by the others at Jean's direction. Still, it was far from ideal. Jean couldn't run bloodwork to see how bad the infection Laura could smell on her was, nor could she check for toxins, liver damage or myriad other things. All she could do was try to keep Vanessa alive long enough to get her back to the medlab and take care of her properly.

Silence was more common than one would think when it came to medicine. In the meridian hours between life and death all there was was quiet, save for the little rhythmic things: a breath, the beeping of a heart monitor, the tick of a clock. This was, still, ever still, something Jean had experienced before, in Madripoor. Something she hoped not experience again but yet she was: holding someone's life in her hands on a plane thousands of feet in the air. It was an overwhelmingly helpless feeling, especially when it came to that life being that of a friend.

Jean placed the tape over the IV she had inserted into Vanessa's hand, then worked on checking on the wounds. There were so many, it was hard to keep track. The bandages crisscrossed her body, making her look almost like a mummy. She didn't say anything, she couldn't. She had to keep focus. It was all she could do, do her job. If she could do that then it wouldn't get to her, it wouldn't sink in.

"I'm going to take a picture of this. I want to send it to Nelly when I tell him this is what I see when he wears that damn band-aid." Bishop offered to break the silence.

Glancing up a moment, Jean found herself too distracted to do much else than just stare up at him. It was not a frown, or a scowl, or a smile. If anything, it was a look of a surprise, almost as if she had forgotten he was there even if he'd been there the whole time.

She looked back down, gently removing the surgical tape around the gauze covering the wound on Vanessa's head.

"Which one's Nelly again?"

Her jaw set at what she saw underneath the gauze and a darkness overtook her eyes. They didn't even take the care to mend her properly. She forced herself to look away, only to pick up antiseptic to clean the wound. She was far too delicate to even try to fix the job they'd done.

"The joke's gone." Bishop said dismissively. He didn't know how to help in this situation and so he watched all the stress pile onto Jean helplessly. "Thank you for this. I doubt you'll hear that enough."

"You're welcome," Jean said softly as she pulled out some antibiotic and antiseptic so she could clean the wound as best she could.

She fell silent for a few moments while she worked, lightly dabbing the blood away.

"It makes me feel less....powerless to be able to able to help when this happens." It was the whole reason why she went to medical school in the first place. She wanted to be able to ease all the pain she sensed in the minds of others.

Her eyes flicked down. "But it also means I'm right in the thick of it."

Sometimes hard to do when it was a friend. Actually...it was always hard. But she still did it. There was nothing else she could imagine doing. She couldn't NOT help.

Jean finally glanced up. "How are you doing?"

She knew he, like Warren, got wrapped up in every aspect of the search for Vanessa for a long while. She felt a little guilty, even if she knew she had to find some water in the proverbial desert after her own experience. She had to find some happiness lest she go deeper in to the well she'd dug herself into before after waking up.

"Haven't had time to, yet." Bishop admitted with a slight shrug. "Once we're done I'll take some time to feel something about it." He didn't expect those feelings to be good. He tortured, they killed anyone that got in their way, and they left a lot of mutants behind. At least for the moment.

Once the wound was clean, Jean started to apply the antiseptic. It was already showing some signs of infection judging by the redness around the suture site. She knew there was probably more infections out there by what Laura smelled but it was impossible to tell the full extent without a more thorough examination. She wanted to find all of the ones who did this and hurt them in exactly the same way. The leaders weren't there. They wouldn't be. That meant they were still out there.

"Just don't bottle it up. It usually makes things explode when there's too much pressure," Jean said. She tilted her head.

"Or at least, that's what science says. Seems to apply pretty evenly to people too." There was almost a smile in that statement.

Bishop changed the topic abruptly when it focused on him. "Speaking of bottling things up, shouldn't she be taking my mimic?"
Jean looked down, staring at Vanessa for a few moments. The silence almost threatened to swallow.

"She...might not be able to. From what she told me before, she used to be able to passively take on other people but...she hasn't done that in a long time. Years. And even before, I'm not sure if she could ever actually do it while unconscious," she said, reaching out to gently put her hand on Vanessa's arm.

"Which is why if there's a chance, it would need to be when she's awake. The problem is... I don't know if..." The words trailed off, hanging in the air like her hopes, delicately balanced. One false step....

"We'll see." Bishop's voice was detached, not hopeful or worrisome, more vacant.

Jean let out a breath. "Lucas, I have every hope that she will, but I have to make provisions in case she doesn't. And so do you. But until the eleventh hour I will still fight for her. She's strong. So if she even looks like she isn't going to make it through this I will personally kick her ass myself. "

She closed her eyes, feeling a tidal wave of emotions wash over her: hope, fear, despair, rage. All of them swirled around her, vying for dominance.

"You have to make provisions, I don't. Everyone else might have to think about her not making it, I don't." Bishop relayed his position factually. In truth, he was glad that no part of his life required him to even entertain the possibility; at least not at the moment.

- - - - - - - - -

They were well into their second hour of the flight home and the tension had only turned down a few notches. They had Vanessa back, Jean had her stabilized but they weren't sure she'd ever wake up again. It was possible they didn't get there in time. It was possible too much damage had been done when they had opened up her head. They still didn't know why those people had opened her head, whether it was necessary for medical reasons or for their own experimentation. It undercut the relief of having found and retrieved her. And at her side was her partner. He hadn't moved since they'd found her, nor had he let go of her since Jean had finished doing whatever it was she had done to stabilize Vanessa. Curiously, though, her skin and hair seemed to be slowly growing darker.

Bishop wasn't very familiar with medicine but he seemed to remember hearing physical contact could help. He wasn't sure who it was supposed to help but if there was a chance it was Vanessa, he'd take it. The back of the plane's cabin was very quiet beyond the noise of the engines and the man didn't seem to mind, he just sat vigilantly and held his partner's hand.

The color change had been so gradual it didn't catch Bishop's eye until the light flickered through the window across Vanessa's hair. "Laura. May I see you for a moment please? In fact, longer than a moment. Bring something to drink and read." He said loud enough to be heard but forcing himself to sound calm enough to not start a panic.

A second later, more or less, Laura was there, a bottle of water in one hand and a novel -a particularly thin one, given she couldn't stay put reading for too long- in the other. "Yes?" she asked in a tone that was half demanding good news and half fearing horrible, bad news. She wasn't even looking at Bishop, even if he was the one talking. "Something happened?"

Bishop kept Vanessa's hand in his as he stood. He didn't want to break contact out of fear of losing what was happening, as if it were precious and magical. "Sit here, give me your hand." He gave his instructions, quick and demanding despite trying to control his excitement.

Laura did as told, quickly taking in the little details. "She's picking up stuff right? My healing factor!" She was already next to Vanessa and extending her hand to take Vanessa's from Bishop's hands. "Ok, ok, let's do this." Laura felt like it was the first time in her entire life she was about to hyperventilate.

As Bishop's hand released Vanessa's it was like someone turned the brightness up on her. Her skin regained color, the dulling of Bishop's slowly absorbing brown skin fading away quickly, and her hair bleached back to solid, brilliant white. Breaking contact had caused her mutation to let go of what it had absorbed from the man instantly and made the difference between the two states immediately noticeable. With Laura's hand now taking the place of his, Vanessa's mutation went back to work trying in a sponge-like fashion to pull the girl's mimic in.

"You can't let go or she'll lose it." Bishop stood next to Laura for a moment, looking down at her and watching her excitement for a moment before turning to head back toward the front of the cabin. "Don't tell anyone until we're sure it's going to work like we think. I'll let Jean know."

"Hey, I'm not letting her go." She watched Bishop leave, and sighed of relief. She was going to hold Vanessa's hand as long as it took. Turning to look at the woman, she nodded. “I'm not letting you go."