DA Revelations

Episode 19 – Taken Off

Chapter One - Excruciating

The pain was excruciating. She was sure she'd felt pain worse, but only in the nightmares that haunted her in the dark. But this...this had to be the worst pain she'd experienced while being fully awake.

Jessie Crowell stared at her throbbing right arm, which was resting atop of an examination couch in the emergency unit of Bayville General. The arm was swollen and misshapen. Something seemed to be jutting out of the top of the arm trying to pierce through the skin. Just looking at it made fresh tears burn the seven year old's eyes.

"It'll be fixed up soon," Miss Grey promised, she ran her fingers through Jessie's long tawny hair and sighed. "You have to be a big brave girl now..."

"Hello," said the Doctor who'd been appointed, he stepped into the small examination room holding a folder – he looked too young to be a doctor. His hair was pale gold and shimmered slightly silver in the harsh overhead lighting. "I'm Dr. Walton."

"Dr. Walton," said Miss Grey, she pushed her hair out of the way of her face, "I'm Jean Grey, vice principle at the Xavier Institute," she introduced.

"I know you by reputation of course, you and Professor Charles Xavier are heavily involved in Mutant rights campaigning," he shook her hand. "This must be..." he glanced at his chart. "Jasmine Crowell?"

"Jessie," said Miss Grey, "she prefers to be called Jessie..."

"Ah," he nodded, "Well, Jessie...lets take a look at this arm..." he leaned down to examine the arm she had lying on the table. "Oh dear..." he gently took a hold of her elbow, "that is a break, isn't it? But don't worry, we can save it..." he smirked.

Jessie whimpered, "it hurts..."

"Yes, I imagine so...I'm gonna give you a little shot of something to help with the pain. It's going to make you a little sleepy though, okay?"

"Okay," Jessie chewed her lip.

Dr. Walton went about drawing something from a tiny bottle into a delicate looking hypodermic. "How did she obtain the injury?" he asked of Miss Grey.

Miss Grey didn't even miss a beat, "she fell out of bed."

Jessie looked up at her; why was she lying about that? That wasn't what had happened at all. She frowned.

"If you could just get her up onto the exam couch, please..." Dr. Walton instructed Miss Grey.

Jessie yelped in pain as Miss Grey lifted her onto the couch and lay her back. Jessie watched the Doctor roll up the sleeve of her pyjama top on her left arm, he dabbed her with something that felt cold and wet, then she felt the hard prick of the needle go into her and she gasped.

"It'll all be over soon, sweetie," Dr. Walton promised. Almost immediately she felt the strangely drowsy effects overwhelm her tiny body.

"Does she need an X-ray?" asked Miss Grey.

"Yes...we'll take her through in a moment. Most likely a clean break...but needs reset, and then we can arrange for a cast to be set on her arm. This is an extreme break...how high is her bed?"

"It's a bunk bed...she sleeps on the top...I told her not to jump around on it," said Miss Grey with a sigh.

Jessie gazed at Miss Grey in confusion. She wondered why so many lies were being told – it didn't seem right. Why not just tell the doctor the truth? That it had been an accident? That it was her own fault for trying to touch Rogue...that it wasn't Rogue's fault because she was too strong? The tiredness swept over her again, closer this time, like the warm breeze of wind in the sun, it was inviting. "I feel sleepy," she mumbled.

"That's fine, sweetie," said Dr. Walton. "Just you close those eyes...when you wake up, it'll all be over..."

Even if Jessie hadn't trusted the doctor, she couldn't have fought the intense exhaustion that settled within her.

Jean Grey put coins into the hospital pay phone in the hall outside of the waiting room. She sighed as she dialled the number of Kitty Pryde's cellphone.

Kitty answered almost immediately, "hello?"

"It's Jean," Jean replied with a sigh.

There was a shuffle from the other end, and she heard the whimpering of Baby Caleb in the background. "Oh, hi. How's Jessie?"

Jean shifted her weight from foot to foot, she was exhausted and could have done without the hospital trip. "She's sleeping; the doctor put her out...she's out like a light," she replied.

"Her arm?"

"It's what I thought," Jean answered after a moment, "it's a break – quite extreme. Bone had nearly broken through the skin. It's painful but it'll heal. They're resetting it as I speak..."

Kitty sighed, "Just as well she's been put out...the pain from that would be pretty excruciating..."

"Hopefully once her cast is on there'll be minimal pain," Jean said, she then sighed.

"You sound kind of upset," Kitty admitted.

Jean leaned against the wall, "just the Hospital's checking up on how she got hurt. I don't think the doctor believes my story that she fell out of bed."

"Does he know that Jessie is a mutant?" Kitty queried.

"He knew about my work with mutant rights campaigning so he probably knew that Xavier's Institute is a school for mutants," Jean said quietly. "I didn't actually admit to being a mutant myself though...or that Jessie is too," she added a few more coins into the slot to pay for her call.

"Just tell him the truth...we can't have social workers sniffing around the institute. I'm sure he'd understand how easily a kid can get hurt in a school of mutants..."

"If she was that prone to being hurt, they would just take her away from us," Jean reminded.

"And put her where? Back in an orphanage, where they would separate her from the other kids until eventually some mutant hopefully came along to adopt her?" Kitty asked incredulously. "There's no way they'd even care once they figured out Jessie is a mutant."

"No...but don't you get it...if they found out that a bunch of mutants were raising this child irresponsibly...they'd take us to task. They'd take Jessie away and then unceremoniously shut us down!"

"It's not gonna happen. Social services haven't been out here once since the institute was founded; How many orphans have came to live here that social services haven't even bothered to check up on?"

Jean sighed, "I guess you're right. I'm just stressing far too much...if this is how much I'm stressing I can't imagine how badly Rogue feels right now..."

Kitty responded with a sigh, "she's upset..."

"Did I smell drink on her as I passed?" Jean asked in a soft whisper so she wouldn't overheard.

"Yeah, but she only had like three beers she said...and I believe her. Logan came back shortly after you left with Jessie and he said he'd been with Rogue at McDuggins. He'd have mentioned surely if she was sloshed. Besides...she seemed perfectly sober to me when she was standing there when the thing happened..."

"I know she wasn't drunk," Jean said softly, "I just...know how it looks."

"We can hardly be making judgements on Rogue when Remy was getting through a bottle of Jack Daniels near every night," Kitty remarked, there was an edge of bitterness in her tone. "Doesn't matter how it looks; Rogue would have never put any kid at risk, especially not Jessie."

"You should go let her know it's alright..." Jean reminded.

"Yeah, I will – in the morning...well...in a few hours, anyway. She looked exhausted when I left her in her room earlier. She's probably sleeping."

"Okay. I'll be home with Jessie just as soon as I can...then maybe we can get all this mess cleared up."