xp_logs | Jean, Scott, Marius: Sight for Sore Eyes (backdated)

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In the medlab Scott gets some news from Jean and Marius.

Scott took a deep breath, and another his hands clenching and unclenching at his side, "I'm not sure I can do this," he admitted softly.

"Marius can set bones and rebuild people but this is making a new organ from scratch. It's completely different." He shook his head before turning to face Jean guided by the psychic link, "What if it doesn't work? Or worse, what if it does but my body rejects it? What do I do then?"

"It'll work," Jean said reassuringly, resembling Charles in that moment as she sat in a wheelchair, complete with her own IV.

What repairs Marius was unable to finish had been left to Cecilia and Amelia to care for. The shattered bones and internal bleeding were gradually healing but it'd be a few days, a much better prognosis than it had been if his temporary abilities wasn't in the picture.

Now they were being called upon to do a few more miracles before they were gone for good.

"We did it for Fred. We...well...Marius...rebuilt his entire face. I was in the driver's seat. Fred's doing well too. There's going to be some recoup time but that's normal...." she said, putting her hand on his.

"He'll be working with your own cells. Your body won't reject it."

Scott's hand wrapped around Jean's as he sent gratitude along the psychic link. Without Jean he wasn't sure he'd have even been able to make it through this far.

"Fred's ok?" Scott was glad that his team-mate was doing better. By the sounds of it his injuries had been horrific, but at the same time he was slightly ashamed to admit he had a selfish reason to be glad at the news. He was nervous enough about letting Marius fleshcraft his eyes, but the fact that the previous operation had been successful went a long way to relieving the X-Man's worries.

"He is," Jean said, squeezing Scott's hand. It was slow going, but Fred had been making remarkable progress.

Jean herself was out of the Box long enough to be with Scott and the others to help Marius fix any lingering issues. It was a gradual thing, trying to reintegrate back with the mansion, and she was doing it slowly, with Charles's help. He had put up some temporary walls so that she could build around them and replace them with her own over time.

"So's everyone else Marius has worked on. I know you're scared, love but...this is the only chance we have. If it doesn't work? We'll figure out something. But if it does..."

Marius lingered in the doorway, trying not to feel like a voyeur as Jean reassured her husband. He couldn't fault Scott for having reservations. The suggestion certainly seemed ludicrous, but after Jean had used her medical knowledge to allow them to rebuild Fred's face the proposal had seemed simple enough.

"Why only fix the one eye?"

Jean studied Scott's face at the question. She and Marius had discussed things earlier, the possibility of using Marius's fleshcrafting ability to regrow both of Scott's eyes even though the eye had been gone for some time. Now it was up to Scott to decide.

"What do you think?"

Scott had gone stock still, barely willing to breathe, "You can do that?" His voice cracking through the silence, "Both of them..." Scott swallowed, it didn't seem possible after all these years a chance...it didn't take him but a heartbeat to come to a decision, "Do it, go for both of them."

The decision made a smile spread across Jean's face. She had hoped he would agree, but wasn't certain. It was a life altering decision, to be back to the way he was again.

"Okay."

Taking this as confirmation, Marius moved out of the doorway. "Just do us a favour and keep your eyes closed, eh?" he said. "Not sure where the energy's been going since, but your body's not been lacking for sunlight since you came back, so . . ."

"We'll take it slow," Jean said. "There'll be a couple of days where you'll need to keep your eyes covered with sunglasses since these are basically brand new eyes that haven't been exposed to sunlight yet."

"What about my powers?" came the hesitant question, Scott knew that he should be grateful just to have the opportunity to have both his eyes back, that was a miracle in itself. He knew it was selfish but he couldn't help himself, he had to know if there was a chance he'd get them back or not.

"Couldn't say for sure," Marius admitted. "Then again, I'd never rebuilt a face before until I did. For what it's worth Jefferies' powers are quite like Masque's and no one's powers were the worse for it after I fixed them."

"It's probably a 50/50 chance..."Jean said. "Somehow you regained control when you lost your eye originally. We're not sure how. It's possible you might still have that control when you get both eyes back...or you might be back to how you were before. It's pretty much a wait and see."

Scott nodded slowly. "Sounds like it's a a toss-up, could end up either way." But that was often the case when to came to dealing with mutations. No matter how much they learned they could never predict anything accurately. There was only one thing he knew for sure, "We won't know if we don't try right?"

"Indeed." Marius turned to Jean. "Ready when you are."

This was an understatement. Marius was grateful Scott couldn't see him; he didn't know whether it was the combination of Jefferies' power with Yvette and Kyle's, but his body had not stopped twisting. Initially it had been his right arm and chest, likely because these had been the first areas affected by Jefferies' ability to self-repair, but the deformation had slowly spread. Currently the side of his jaw had begun to bulge with a bony growth, and his speech was slightly mushy thanks to something like a tumor forming under the skin. That both appeared benign was small comfort. He was happy to help, but moving was uncomfortable and he was tired. The sooner this was done the sooner he could sleep. If he was lucky maybe he could get something to head off the nightmares.

Jean had caught herself watching Marius occasionally. She had worried about him after the mission and continued to do so still. Even though they had come up with the idea to try to return Scott's sight back to him she didn't want it to be detrimental to Marius himself.

She caught Marius's gaze, studying him for a moment or two with hesitation.

~Are you sure you're still up for this? ~ She knew if Scott knew he might try to call it off.

~Absolument,~ Marius replied in the same fashion, automatically walling off the other more unpleasant thoughts. ~Kyle's been kind enough to keep me topped off. I would merely prefer this be taken care of before Jefferies' power has a chance to clear my system.~

Glancing away, Jean nodded. ~Just be careful.~

Marius attempted a head-toss. ~I resent the implication I am ever anything but measured and reasonable.~

Jean's voice did not betray the faint smirk on her lips. "Okay, We'll do like we did before...telepathic puppet strings, if you're okay with that," she said. Luckily at this point Charles had been trying to help her to rebuild some of her walls so she was getting back the foundations.

Marius nodded. "You're the expert. Do as you will."

Turning back to Scott, Jean rose from her chair gingerly to stand next to Marius. "Alright...Scott, we haven't tried to do this on a conscious person before...so it will be very....strange. Especially since you're suddenly getting sight back again. And this..." she said, gently removing the gauze over Scott's eyes. A pair of make-shift goggles that would serve as a barrier just in case floated into her hand, and she put them in place. "Is just in case your powers go off. We don't want to land anyone else in the medlab this week."

"Alright..." Jean said, taking in a deep breath. "Here we go."

Her mind reached out, wrapping itself around Marius's. This time, with stronger walls, the transition was smoother. She lifted Marius's hands, placing them on Scott's temples. She didn't quite have to put them over Scott's eyes. It made it easier to visualize, but she could also do it this way.

The goggles were transparent, made of a hard dense polymer. Jean doubted Scott's powers would go off this quickly but she wanted to take the precaution just in case.

It took a few moments longer than last time they'd grown back a pair of eyes together, but it was easier this time. The tiredness was present, but it wasn't coupled with massive waves of pain and misery.

The damage to Scott's eyes was more unique than Fred's. One eye had years old scars and a hollowed out socket that hadn't been in use for awhile, while the other was fresh, and red and raw. She took the newer socket first, as it had shown evidence of inflammation and needed to be addressed more quickly. The damaged sections were gently coaxed into being repaired, and soon a white ball the shape and size of a ping pong began to blossom, forming the pupil and the iris in the center.

As the optic nerve connected to the brain, Scott would notice muted flashes of light, like staring at something from behind a dark cloth.

It didn't exactly hurt, it was more of a pinch at the back of his eye socket, a brief second of discomfort where he'd never expected to feel anything followed by white. He'd expected, prepared to see the world through a red lens, the haze he'd seen the world through for his entire early life. He didn't know if he should be disappointed or happy, He could see light, for a man who had been living in darkness for over a week even just the light was overwhelming. Scott blinked away the tears which had sprung up in his eye...his eye..."I have an eye." There were no words, to describe how he felt at that moment, it was almost as if he was floating.

The elation he felt spread through their link and in that moment he didn't have to. Jean found herself smiling, a goofy grin, and she bit her lip.

"You do," she said, glancing up to Marius with a grateful look on her face. Her attention turned back to Scott then, and she took one of her hands in his as she took control of Marius again, then moved his hands back onto either side of Scott's temples.

"Now let's make you another one to complete the set," she said.

The next eye was the one that had been damaged the longest so it took a little longer to coax back into being, His prosthetic had been removed during the mission, and the new eye sprung up where it had been, slower this time, like a small balloon, until it soon took on the shape and form of Scott's other eye.

"Close your eyes please," she said, hating to say it since he'd only just gotten them back but precaution was a good thing. Marius's hand moved out to smooth over Scott's scars around the eye while she was at it, working the skin like clay.

The younger X-Man's mind was strangely quiet in hers. It wasn't just the focus required; in a way Marius found being under Jean's control was a relief. By focusing on the tactile he was given some respite from everything else gong on. Even the mouths on his palms, safely wrapped with gauze, were still.

A few minutes later, after checking to make sure there weren't any lingering issues, Jean relinquished control back to Marius and she sunk back down in her chair.

"I think that's it," she said with a great sigh of relief. "Everything seems to be done. It's going to take a few days for your body to adjust to your new eyes, though...just take it slow."

Scott blinked repeatedly, he still couldn't see anything, not clearly, it was still white light and blurred shapes, but it was something, It was everything. "You know me, Red. When have I ever done anything but take it slow?"

Scott looked over in the direction of the moving haze he knew must be Marius, "Thank you," he told the younger man sincerely. Scott couldn't think of any embellishment that could express the gratitude he felt to the other man.

"No worries," Marius replied. Shaking off the lightheaded feeling left by Jean's disengagement, he turned to the doctor. "Call me if there's a problem, eh? I think we've a bit of time to fine-tune yet, if necessary."

"Of course. Hopefully we'll have gotten it right the first time," Jean said with a grateful nod. She would've put her hand on his shoulder but she knew he felt uncomfortable about being touched. "Thank you," she added, echoing Scott's sentiment.

The younger man returned the nod. "As I said, not a problem. You know where to find me should my services be further required."

"I owe you some wine, for starters. Good night," Jean said with a smile, turning her attention back to Scott as Marius left. The medlab had finally cleared out after being in capacity for a couple of days, though Fred was still unconscious a couple of rooms away.

"How do you feel?"

"I...I'm not sure" Scott replied honestly, catching his hands as they rose towards his face and forcing them down again, "It still feels pretty surreal to me, I was just getting used to the idea of not being able to see and now," Scott smiled at Jean, "I guess this is the part in the movies where I'd say 'Pinch me I'm dreaming'."

"We were fortunate," Jean said, nodding thoughtfully, resting her chin against steepled hands. "At least some good came out of it despite all the bad."

"Yeah, that's something at least," Scott sighed and balled his fists in his lap, "It's been a long time since we felt this way about a mission. I'd hoped we were done with it."

"With what?" Jean said curiously, betraying just how tired she had been the last few days with the question of confusion.

"This," Scott gestured around the room, "a med-lab filled with X-men, missions where we come away more hurt than not. A victory that isn't quite a victory, just a not a loss."

Jean rubbed her forehead. "You're right, it's been awhile." She hoped never again but the nature of what they were doing made it impossible for that hope to ever come true, no matter what the planning.

"I think we should just...enjoy the small victories while we can take them," she said, lifting up his hand, clenched in his, to kiss it.

"Wise words those," Scott noted, turning his head over to face Jean. She was still a blur right now, but he could make out an identifying feature. "Hey Red," Scott smiled as he pulled Jean's hand up to his lips, "I see you."