Hank, Forge, early Wednesday evening.

[x-beast.livejournal.com]

Forge stops by to see Hank, and is shocked at how much he's deteriorated since the last time they talked. He tries to be encouraging, and so does Hank, although neither of them are really sure that there's a happy ending in store.




Hank was staying down in the Medlab, now, a little afraid to wander around the Mansion in case he got lost again. And he didn't want to frighten the younger students by letting them see him like this. So he was sitting in his office, surrounded by computers he couldn't work, books he couldn't read, and research he couldn't do... he'd found one of his candy-stashes, though, by sniffing out the nice chocolatey smell, and a pack of cards. He really had to work at it to make the numbers make sense, now, but his agility and nimbleness of fingers wasn't impaired yet. So he was building a house out of cards. It kept falling down, but at least it gave him something to do.

Standing in the doorway, Forge watched Dr. McCoy for a minute, holding his breath every time a card was placed atop another, and letting it out in time with Hank's disheartening sighs. Finally, he walked through the doorway, knocking absently as he went.

"Hey, Doc," he said, trying to put on a cheerful facade. "How's it going?"

"Going okay," Hank said, giving Forge a rather sad smile. "Still not better." He managed to get a few cards balanced together on top of the ones he'd already put up, and beamed. Two levels of cards! "How you?"

Forge coughed to cover a shocked gasp. This wasn't Dr. McCoy. He was losing words out of sentences now, just one step above baby talk. Summoning all his willpower, Forge walked in and shut the door, sitting across from Hank. "I'm, uh, I'm good. Wanted to say... um... thanks for giving me the advice last week. About, you know, Pa- girls and stuff." Shaking his hair away from his eyes, Forge looked at the ceiling and blinked, trying not to tear up. "We went out for coffee, talked for hours. It was really nice. I mean, I know there's nothing serious there, but... it's kind of nice to be noticed as something more than just the guy who's in the lab all the time, right?"

"Yeah. Always nice." Hank nodded. He remembered talking to Forge about girls... he hoped it'd helped. Forge was a nice kid. "Glad... went well." It was a bit of a struggle to put sentences together, now, but at least he could still make himself understood. Mostly. "Saw Dani," he added, brightening a little. "Felt baby kick. You felt?"

Forge rolled his eyes. "Dani's being a bit of a royal pain in the ass right now. Kind of like the crazy big sister you never asked for but seems to have adopted you anyway?" He shrugged. "More crazy than usual this week. Been a bit of a crazy week. How... everything okay after the other night?" He noticed the small shaved areas around the stitches on Hank's shoulder. "You got hurt."

Hank looked down and scowled. "Bad man. With a knife," he agreed. "Hit him. He wanted hurt Maddie. NOBODY hurts Maddie." And she'd said he was very brave, he thought happily. She'd been glad he was there.

Despite the simple language, Forge smiled at Hank. As brilliant as he was, it was sometimes easy to forget that his body was as powerful as his mind ... was. Finding himself thinking in the past tense, Forge dropped his head into his hands.

"She's a great doctor," he agreed, "and she said that they'll know what's wrong soon." He hoped Hank wouldn't see through the lie, and that it'd be true if they both believed it. "Any day now."

"Hope so," Hank said a little sadly. "But if not... told Dani tell you, look after her." His house of cards fell down, and he sighed, and leaned two against each other to start over. "Someone gotta. With baby, an' all..." He frowned. "An' Alison, a bit? Haroun... no help, now."

"Oh, Mr. al-Rashid's all better, or he's going to be," Forge replied. "Paige and I, we figured out what was wrong with his endocrine regulator, making him all cranky. All we had to do was take a baseline, reconfigure for appropriate biomass, and stage the flashable I/O system to be upgraded each filtering until the levels are balanced, and..." He stopped when he saw Hank's attention drift away. Shit.

"We're all going to look after each other, Doc," Forge croaked out, trying to keep his jaw from quivering. "You too, you know that."

"I know." Hank reached out to pat his shoulder gently. "Get... reg'lar miracles, here. Due 'nother one, 'bout now. Be okay." He hated to see the kids upset... maybe he shouldn't let them visit anymore, now that he was getting bad.

"It's going to come," Forge whispered, more to reassure himself than Hank. "You'll see. Everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to be all right." He raised his head up to glare past Hank at the wall, eyes passing over all of the diplomas and awards. "These kind of things don't end this way."

"Do, sometimes." Hank smiled wryly. "Usually when old, though." He sighed. "Life as X-Man... hard. Dangerous. I knew risks. Did anyway." He took a deep breath, trying to focus. "Wanted... help people. Always. An' did. That...helps."

"No!" Forge lashed out, weakly hitting Hank in the arm in frustration. "Cut that out! Stop talking like things are over, because they're not. You're the smartest guy I've ever met, Doc. You're going to get better, and there's still so much more I need to learn. So you're not going to let this beat you, because I need to keep learning from you, you understand?" Forge wiped his hand across his eyes, clearing his blurred vision. "And there's everyone else, Doc Maddie, and Ms. Blaire, and Mr. Summers, and everyone here. You can't..." Die? Of course he can. Anyone can, and that's what scares you, isn't it?

Forge bit down on his lip, holding back the words he was afraid to say. "We need you, sir. So you can't lose to this, and that's that."

Hank blinked, and then reached out, gathering the boy up into a gentle hug. "Will be okay," he said, choking up a little himself, but trying to hide it. "Always is, mostly. We're X-Men. Too stupid... to know when we beat." He patted the thin back gently. "I holding on. Long as I can. Promise."

"I'll remember that, you know," Forge said with a small laugh. "And if I have to come in here every day to remind you, I'll do it. You know I will, too."

Hank nodded. "Visits are nice," he agreed, not letting go just yet. Hugs were good, too, and he wasn't sure if Forge was getting any right now. "An' glad you're here. Help with Haroun, an' stuff.... couldn't do that. Needed you."

"'s what I'm here for," Forge mumbled, wiping off his glasses on his shirt. "I do what I can." Slowly wiggling out from under Hank's arm, he straightened his shirt and coughed a few times into his hand. "You won't tell anyone I... you know? Don't want to be, well, laughed at."

Hank touched his fingers to his lips. "Not a word," he promised, smiling. "Sometimes... need to let go, a bit. Nobody needs know."

Closing his eyes and breathing deeply in and out, Forge managed to compose himself, and put on the face everyone else could see. The one that knew the answer to everything, the unflappable one. The one Dr. McCoy needed, the one that was useful.

"No one needs to know," he repeated. "I'll... I'll let folks know you're doing okay, all right?"

Hank nodded. "Could maybe get me sandwich?" he asked hopefully. He was always hungry, but he thought he was eating a bit more, now... Maybe his body needed extra food to fight whatever it was. "Or something? Know food a bit... hard, now, but I'm hungry..."

Forge chuckled at that. "They're grilling deer tonight, out back. Rahne and Kyle went out hunting, since the kitchen's still all broken. I'll bring you some."

Hank nodded eagerly. "Deer is good," he agreed. "Got lots of candy an' Twinkies, but not the same as food."

"Says you," Forge joked, a smile cracking his face. "Red Bull, multivitamins, and Slim Jims. Real genius food. But I'll bring you dinner, I promise."

Hank nodded. "Thank you." He smiled back, giving the boy another gentle pat on the shoulder, before going back to his house of cards. "Take care, Forge. Of you, well as Dani."

"Speak of the devil..." Forge breathed, seeing Dani stop to talk to Doctor MacTaggart out in the lab. "Will do, sir. I'm, uh, going to just slip out of here. See you with dinner?"

"Okay. I be here." Hank nodded, and very carefully balanced a card across two pairs of standing-up ones. Success! Now, to stand some more up.....

Comments

[x-mirage.livejournal.com]

*sniffs*

hank needs to get better yesterday! amazing log.

[x-rahne.livejournal.com]

*is crying, for real*

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

But... WAH!