The Best Treatment of All
&&&
Althea stood outside the glass window of the Intensive Care Unit as Catseye sobbed helplessly into Rahne's shoulder as she held her.
It was amazing, Althea thought. She'd known Catseye as a capable opponent, a Hellion. She was tall, strong, and seemingly unflappable. Now…Althea shook her head.
"I've never been so angry in my life." She said to no one in particular. The other Misfits—plus Tabby—sat outside in the hallway with her.
"Yeah…even when Magneto kicked me out he didn't…do that." Todd winced.
"Any ideas about what we can do?" Angelica asked.
"Like what?" Wanda asked. "I mean, who can possibly know what she's going through?"
"I do." Lance said softly, drawing everyone's eye to him, reminding them all that he had been molested, raped as a child by his foster father.
"Oh god…I'm so sorry, I forgot." Wanda apologized. Everyone else nodded.
"I'm going to talk to her." Lance sighed as he drew himself up and walked in. Neither Catseye nor Rahne heard him as he shut the door behind him and headed to her bedside. "Hey…can I have a minute with her?"
"Huh? Lance?" Rahne asked, startled by his 'sudden' appearance. Her eyes were red-rimmed and misty; it looked like she had been crying too. "Why would you—"
"Please." Lance asked her. "I just want to help. Trust me." Rahne nodded reluctantly.
"All right…Sharon," Rahne said softly to her friend. "I'm just going to step outside for a minute. I'm going to leave you with Lance. But I'll be right back." She promised as she gave Lance and Catseye their privacy.
Lance sat down in a chair next to Catseye's bed. "Hey. I know we're not exactly close…now that I think about it we've never even spoken to one another. But the point is: there is someone here who knows what you're going through." Catseye turned to face him her face still streaked with tears but her eyes were curious. Lance continued. "When I was a child I was an orphan too. I lived with a number of foster families like you…and like you someone hurt me very, very badly: My foster father raped me when I was child."
Catseye's eyes widened. To be raped as a child…by one's nominal parent no less—it was horrific. Lance looked away for a moment and sighed. Then he turned back to Catseye.
"I know what you're feeling: you feel vulnerable, you feel dirty, impure…like you'll never be clean…never be safe again. Nothing I can say right now will make you stop feeling that way. But I survived it. It is possible to survive what you've endured and even thrive. You may not believe me now…but I just thought you should know that you can still have a future, if you try."
Catseye didn't say a word. She just nodded to acknowledge that she'd heard him. Lance patted her hand and made his way out. He nodded towards Rahne, who was waiting outside the door. She headed back in and took up her old place at Catseye's side.
"Hi." Rahne said softly. "I…I guess asking if you feel any better would be a waste of time, wouldn't it?" Catseye nodded feebly.
"C-Catseye want m-mother." She sobbed weakly.
"I know you do." Rahne sighed as she hugged her. "But we can't call Emma Frost here. We think that whoever…did this to you is a part of the Hellfire Club. If Emma finds out you're alive, so will her enemies. Then they'll come after her and you too."
"I'm scared…" Catseye admitted.
"I know." Rahne repeated. "But that's why I'm here and the Misfits too. Don't worry, everyone here is real nice. We're gonna take care of you."
"She's right." Rahne and Catseye looked up to see Lina standing over them.
"I came in to talk too." Lina said as she went to the other side of Catseye's bed. "Sharon, there's something I want to tell you about me. When my mutation emerged I suddenly changed overnight. My parents—" She choked but continued on. "My own parents rejected me, disowned me, hurt me. Suddenly I found myself here in this strange place surrounded by people I didn't know. I was scared too, perhaps even more scared than you are know. Then I saw a knife in the kitchen and I thought I could make it all go away…"
Lina's voice grew softer as she gazed into the distance, or perhaps, back in time. After a brief pause she continued. "I don't want you making the same mistake I made Sharon. Please, no matter how bad you feel, how disgusted you are with yourself, no matter how scared you are, please, please don't do anything foolish; for your friends' sake, for your mother's sake. Okay Sharon? Promise me."
"…okay." Catseye whispered. "I promise."
"Good." Lina sighed. "Now, Bree and I need to give you a checking over and clean you up a bit. Rahne, why don't you and the others take some time to grab a bite to eat and maybe get something to make Sharon more comfortable."
"Got it." Rahne nodded. "I'll be back Sharon…Lina and Nurse Bree and really nice and very good at what they do. They'll take great care of you. Think you'll be all right for a while?" Catseye gave a feeble nod. "Good, I'll be back in a very short while."
Rahne headed out of the ICU, giving Catseye one last wave as she went outside and closed the door. She sighed in exhaustion. This was one of the most tiring experiences she'd ever had.
"Hey, let's go grab some lunch while we're waiting." Althea said as she led Rahne away. "Maybe we can pick up something for Catseye too…provided B.A. isn't cooking anyway."
"Hospital food or B.A.s cooking, B.A.s cooking or hospital food…" Wanda tried weighing the options. "Talk about out a no win situation."
"I have to ask…why are you all being so nice to Catseye?" Rahne asked. "You all barely know her and she is a Hellion…"
"Yeah well we trust you to be a good judge of character." Tabby shrugged.
"Isn't she the girl who fell for that jerk wolf who tried to take over Bayville?" Pietro asked. Wanda hexed him face-first into a wall.
"AIIEEEE!" Pietro shrieked as the wall came up to greet him. SPLAT!
"Ignore him." Todd assured Rahne. "That's what we all do."
"Besides, Catseye seems like an okay girl." Fred shrugged. "Okay, sure she's on the wrong side but what do you expect? Her foster mom's Emma Frost for crying out loud."
"Been there." Wanda sighed.
"Done that." Pietro groaned weakly as he pulled his face away from the wall.
"Anyway, we were all on the wrong side at one point…all us ex-Brotherhood types I mean." Lance elaborated when Shane, Angelica, Althea, Spyder, and Trinity shot him a glance. "Doesn't mean that it's gonna stay that way forever."
"And last of all…" Althea's eyes narrowed. "No one…and I mean NO ONE should EVER have to go through what Catseye did. We WILL do everything we can to help her through this and we WILL find the bastards that did this and make them pay…in spades."
"Thanks you guys." Rahne said gratefully. "I really appreciate it…and I'm sure Sharon will too."
As they sat down in the mess hall for lunch, the Misfits brainstormed over ways to cheer Catseye up. "Maybe we could get her some ice cream and chocolates." Fred suggested. "I know it always makes me feel better."
"Imagine that." Pietro snorted. "Food makes Fred happy. Never would've guessed."
"I'll let her borrow Mr. Stupid." Wanda offered. "It made me feel better when I first got here."
"You know, that's a good idea. You guys gather up as many stuffed animals as you can." Althea ordered. "And I'll see if I can find something to liven up her room. We'll meet back in the infirmary in half an hour. Break!"
As they dispersed, Rahne went searching through the Joe's storage locker where they kept random piles of assorted…junk: souvenirs of their various adventures over the years. Gizmos, inventions, papers, broken weapons, wrecked tanks and jets, as well as any number of random stuff the Joes couldn't find any other place for.
Rahne shifted to her wolf form and starting sniffing around and digging through piles of miscellaneous objects. After about ten minutes Rahne gave it up as bad job. She trotted out of the locker and continued sniffing around the base.
Through a stroke of sheer luck, Rahne found a teddy bear in a little army uniform sitting on the windowsill of some office window. Leaping up, she gently grabbed it in her jaws and ran back to infirmary with it.
She spat out the bear and returned to her human form. When she went back into the ICU she gasped. "Wow…this place looks amazing!"
There were flowers everywhere, along with boxes of chocolates, get well cards, new clothes, stuffed animals of every shape and variety, and even scented candles. Rahne stopped to sniff them. They smelled like incense.
"I got those from the dojo." Althea explained. "Some of the ninjas use them to help them relax or meditate…I thought it was a better thing to smell than anti-septic, especially since her sense of smell is better than ours."
"It sure is." Rahne agreed. "I can't believe you guys did this all in half an hour!"
"Us nothing!" Todd chimed in. "This stuff came from regular Joes! Lady Jaye, Cover Girl, Jinx, and Scarlet came by. They brought the flowers and clothes and talked to her for a bit."
"They also offered to go over strategies for getting revenge on mankind." Pietro winced. "I'd be afraid."
"And just about everyone on base sent get well cards, stuffed animals, or chocolate and candy." Wanda added. "We made several donations ourselves and…what've you got there?"
"What this old teddy bear?" Rahne asked as she put the bear by Sharon's bedside. Sharon hugged it to her chest. "Why?" She added when she saw the Misfits' face get pale.
"WHO TOOK SERGEANT SNUFFLES?" A voice bellowed. "I WANT SERGEANT SNUFFLES!" Rahne looked down at the name tag on the bear. Sure enough, it read: Sgt. Snuffles.
Before Rahne could even ask, she felt the presence of someone behind her. She turned around to see the green-masked army ranger, Beach Head. "YOU took Sgt. Snuffles?" He growled furiously.
"I'm sorry I didn't know it was yours." Rahne apologized. "But Sharon really likes it and I know it won't come to any harm if you let her have it for a little while—"
"Sergeant Snuffles belongs to ME! And I am not going to leave him in the hands of some mutant criminal who should be in jail! He's mine and I'm taking him back!" Rahne stood in front of him. "Get out of my way." Beach Head warned her.
"Look," Rahne growled, her voice growing deeper as she slowly started changing forms. "I am a Scottish teenage mutant girl who can transform into a wolf whose best friend is lying in the ICU and I'm having my period. There is NO part of me you want angry at you right now! So if you don't back off and let her have the bear then I will TEAR your limbs off and shove them in EVERY orifice you have until you become AIRTIGHT! GOT IT?"
"Yes ma'am." Beach Head gulped.
"Then get!" Rahne snarled in a deep voice. Beach Head ran.
"Wow…" Althea gaped as Beach Head left skid marks in the floor. "That was…awesome!"
"Way to go furtop!" Tabby whooped.
"Guys keep it down." Lina asked them. "This is an infirmary!"
"Sorry Lina." Althea winced. "Let's talk outside." Just as the Misfits walked out of the ICU, they spotted Lifeline heading their way.
"Hey Lifeline what is it? Any good news?" Fred asked hopefully.
"Well, Bree and Lina gave Sharona complete going over." Lifeline said. "We wanted to make sure there wasn't any other damage done…and that there weren't any presents left for her by her assailant."
"Eh?" Todd asked.
"They wanted to make sure she didn't get any STDs you idiot." Wanda explained. "Or worse, pregnant."
"That's about the size of it." Lifeline sighed. "Fortunately there's no reason to worry about either scenario."
"What do you mean?" Althea asked.
"Sharon wasn't raped." Lifeline stated.
"What?! You're sure?" Lance demanded in shock. Lifeline nodded.
"Positive. Her hymen is intact, there was no sign of any foreign DNA…I could go on, but the gist of it is that there is no physical sign that she was ever raped."
"But in her mind you saw—" Althea started when Lifeline sighed and nodded again.
"The memories were fake." He didn't look any happier as he delivered the news.
"I don't get this…isn't this GOOD news?" Pietro asked in bewilderment.
"The memories I detected in Sharon were implanted. Probably by a psychic or telepath; A powerful one too."
"But couldn't a telepath like Xavier just—" Todd started before Lifeline shook his head.
"You don't understand…Sharon has an eidetic or photographic memory. That's a very rare trait. Basically, she can remember everything, EVERYTHING she sees, hears, smells, and experiences in exact detail. A memory from her childhood is as vivid and real as something that happened ten seconds ago."
"What are you saying?" Lance asked.
"I'm saying that …in this case, she won't get better with time. This will hurt as much in fifty years as it does now."
Lifeline took a breath. "The human mind is very complex and whoever did this job was thorough. Sharon has memories of where she was, what it looked like, what her attacked smelled like and felt like and—" He grimaced and didn't bother continuing. "Anyway, Sharon can't feel the difference between her real memories and the fake one. The telepath was very powerful and very subtle in integrating them.
"And twisted." Wanda said with a snarl on her face, the experience striking a little too close to home. Althea thought aloud.
"What about that Quintin Quire guy? He fits BOTH descriptions for a telepath: powerful and definitely twisted."
"But couldn't—" Fred started to ask what Todd had asked before. Lifeline explained further.
"You just can't get another telepath, no matter how good, to come in and sort it out like THAT." He snapped his fingers "It's like cutting up a ball of thread to get rid of a knot: you might get the job done, but there won't be much left afterwards.."
"Then couldn't we just tell her that it never happened? That the memory is a fake?" Todd asked.
"Todd," Lifeline said gently. "Imagine that you went to bed tonight and woke up tomorrow in the Brotherhood House. Imagine being told by Mystique or Lance that everything you that happened to you: being kicked out by Magneto, meeting GI Joe and Althea, the Misfits…was all a dream or a fake reality some telepath implanted in your mind. Would you accept it?"
Todd shook his head and looked down. "No."
"And we can't expect Catseye to either, especially since her photographic memory makes it seem all the more real to her." Althea groaned. "That is sick!"
"I bet you that the scumbag responsible did this just so it would eat at Emma Frost." Lance mused. "Taunting her, as if they were saying 'you're her mom and a telepath, but even you can't help her.' "
"When I get my hands on the sassanach responsible…" Rahne growled.
"There'll be time for that later." Lifeline said. "Right now…Sharon needs you; talk to her. No matter how hard it is for you to convince her." Rahne exhaled sharply through her nose. She nodded.
"Right." Taking her leave from the others, Rahne went back to the ICU. "Sharon?" Rahne asked as she once again sat beside her friend. "I have something to tell you."
"What?" Catseye asked still looking shaken up.
"I know this is going to be hard for you to believe, but what happened to you wasn't real." Rahne said softly. "You were never…assaulted. Not that way, at least. It was an implanted memory by telepath."
"But—" Catseye started incredulously.
"Sharon I swear I'm telling the truth." Rahne insisted. "I wouldn't lie to you…not even to make you feel better. I promise…you were never—were never raped." Rahne swore. Catseye looked at her. Their gazes' met. Rahne's eyes were steady, sincere.
Catseye sniffed the air, relying on her sense of smell to tell her whether or not Rahne was telling the truth. "Catseye believe you." She said weakly. "But C-Catseye remembers…" Rahne sighed.
"I know…you believe that she's telling the truth but it all seems so real that if that one thing is fake; what else is right?" Wanda said understandingly as she came in. "Trust me I have more experience with this than anyone…I have memories erased, altered, implanted…real memories on top of fake ones until I don't know what's real anymore. It's maddening." She shook her head. "But your luckier than that. It's only one memory…and more importantly, you've got friends to help you through this. I didn't."
Rahne nodded towards Wanda gratefully. "I know I can't get you to believe me that what happened to you wasn't real—at least, not a hundred percent, even in you wanted to. But can you at least believe me when I tell you that I'll do anything to help you and that you will be okay?"
Catseye looked up as the rest of the Misfits surrounded her bed. She looked to Rahne and nodded. "Catseye believe you."
For now…it was a start.
THE END
&&&