The Xmen do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for a little while. I am not making any profit.







Jean had make several unsuccessful attempts in waking up the girl. Frustrated, she stood there staring at the stranger. She could pick up flashes of an internal struggle, but a wall had been constructed. From what Logan had told her, this girl had powerful telepathic abilities. Jean determined that Dr. Xavier would have to be the one to probe the girl's mind if she was unable to before he returned.

She had been working on this girl for almost eighteen hours and she was exhausted. Since there were no internal injuries and the girl's breathing and heart rate were not compromised, Jean decided she would be able to sleep in her own bed. She took one last check around the room before she turned to leave.

All evening she had a strange sensation that someone hd been watching her. Jean had looked around several times to see if someone had entered without her knowledge. By the time she was ready to leave she was skittish. Deciding this was all part of mental exhaustion, Jean was more than ready to go to bed.

Fighting a childish fear to walk out back wards, Jean went to the door. With almost paralyzing suddenness, she was overtaken by a cold fear. Someone or something was standing right behind her. She could almost feel it's cold breath on the back of her neck. Yet, she couldn't probe it mentally.

Cautiously, she turned around slowly expecting to see some childhood monster staring her in the face. But when she turned, nothing was there. Without taking her eyes off the room she opened the door and stepped out backwards. As she crossed the threshold, she felt a brush of cool air across her cheek and for a moment someone touch her mind with the softest push. Then what it was that had been with her was gone. The feeling of being watched disappeared and she was alone.

Suddenly the alarms of the monitors attached to the girl began to sound and rushing the bedside Jean watched in horror as the body that lay there aged right in front of her eyes. Quickly she looked up at he scanner. Only one heart and on set of lungs were there and both had ceased working. When she looked down at the patient again, the body now had the appearance of a mummy without the wrappings.

Jean reached out and barely touched a finger on its right hand. The finger crumbled into dust. Frantically, Jean did what she could to preserve what was left in order to show the others. She stopped short as she worked, whatever that had been inside the girl was now out loose in the compound.



Logan was smoking one last cigar before he would hit the hay. Jean had not contacted him in last few hours about the girl, so he assumed that everything was the same. There was short rap on his door, only one person would knock like that.

"Yeah." Logan called out, not getting up from his chair. Scott Summers opened the door and demanded without salutation, "Where's Jean?"

Logan gave him a glittering look before he answered with a slight edge, "Well, bub, as much as I would like for her to be here at the present, I haven't seen her since nine this evening."

"She needs her sleep, Logan. She's been with that girl you brought in for almost twenty hours without a break. If you were concerned you would have checked on her yourself." Scott retorted.

With a slight growl in his voice, Logan answered him, "Listen, one eye, we both know Jean. Once she gets involved in something, she won't put it down until she is satisfied. It doesn't matter who it is that is trying to persuaded her to take a break."

Before Scott could respond, Logan cut him off. "The last I saw her was in the med lab. Now, get out." Glaring at Logan from behind his red lenses, Scott shut the door, resisting an urge to slam it as he did so. Stiff legged with anger he went down to the med lab to prove he could persuade Jean to leave.

Logan angrily chewed on the end of his cigar after Scott left. He blew out a cloud of aromatic smoke. What he saw caused him to choke on the remaining smoke in his lungs. The outline of a face hung there in front of him in the dissipating smoke. Releasing his claws on impulse he slashed out, hitting nothing but thin smoke that soon disappeared.

He circled several times with his claws out, sniffing the air. Smelling nothing but his own cigar, he whispered, "Show yourself or get cut." Softly, as gentle as a lover's kiss, he felt cold air caress his cheek and a voice just as caressing press in to his mind, "Your claws can't harm me loup sauvage."

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Logan demanded, his razor sharp claws still out and ready.

He received no answer, except the cold air touching him like ghostly hands. The caresses were gentle and with astonishment he could have sworn one touch on his lips felt like a kiss. Shivering because of the frigid air that was now surrounding him, he tried to give another challenge, but it was frozen in his throat. Then just as quickly, the caresses stopped and he was alone. Shaken, he stood there trembling from the drop in his body temperature. He was disturbed to discover that a part of him was disappointed that whoever it was with him, was now gone.