As always, I own nothing.
And I am a complete review hog...I love'em...remember that, please :)
"Jubilee, strap yerself in, something's coming for us!"
Jubilee's head whipped up and she quickly made sure her harness was fastened tightly.
"Do you want me up there?" She asked, hand poised over the emergency release, preparing to dash up to the cockpit.
"No time, it's about to-"
Logan was cut off by a loud bang followed by an explosion, and the cockpit seemed to explode in a riot of colour and flame. The feeling of weightlessness was suddenly replaced with intense pressure as the skin of the jet was ripped apart, and a loud scream in her ears was quickly followed by a painless darkness…
Waking up was not a nice, gentle affair. A flare of agony brought her back to her senses with all the shock of a pile of bricks landing on her. She couldn't open her eyes. Even the thought of lifting her eyelids hurt and she settled for flopping over onto her belly, feeling the leaves and sticks scrape against her skin through the thin material of her uniform.
After what felt like an eternity, she groaned and her eyes fluttered open, immediately squinting against the faint light of the moon high overhead. "What. The. Hell. Just. Happened?"
There was no answer and she slowly pushed herself onto all fours and then onto her knees and took her first look around. In the corner of the rainforest clearing, propped up against the trunk of a massive tree, lay the smoking wreckage of the jet. Or at least, some of the jet. Half the fuselage and a wing did not constitute an entire jet.
"Wolvie?"
There was no answer and she slumped until she was sitting, staring around her in a half-daze. Her brain was muzzy, which made the headache she was experiencing feel odd. A careful check of her body showed no serious injuries and she rolled her eyes when she realised that the five-point harness was still draped around her shoulders. She pulled it off with disgust – it hadn't exactly been very useful – and absently wondered where the seat she had been strapped onto had gone. Her top was singed and half-ripped off, and her leggings were no better.
"Wolvie, are you there? You alive?"
There was no answer and she clambered clumsily to her feet, scouring the area with her eyes for any sign of the burly Canadian. "Get a grip, Lee." She muttered, scrubbing her fingers through her hair anxiously. "It's Logan. Logan doesn't die. Logan makes other people die. He's got a healing factor and he's probably a helluva lot better off than you are right now."
Gritting her teeth, she lurched towards the remains of the jet and slipped inside. The small compartment was badly damaged by the fireball that had ripped through the jet moments before it had plunged into the jungle canopy. She moved aside some debris and her breath caught in the back of her throat when it revealed the toe of a boot poking out from beneath a charred section of seating.
Cringing, she touched it and practically collapsed with relief when it came away easily in her hand. Shaking her head, she summoned a handful of sparks and illuminated the area properly.
"Figures. It's the back of the plane. Storage." She grumbled, aiming a deliberate kick against one of the warped metal panels. It broke open and tumbled away to reveal a scorched heap of uniforms and clothes that had once been packed neatly onto rows of shelves.
Rifling through the remains she came up with one miraculously undamaged set of Logan's civilian clothes. Putting them behind her she reached back in and found a pair of leggings and the only undamaged top. Sighing, she pulled on the leggings and stuffed the ends into her boots, thanking god that Remy had a trim figure – especially his waist. He was only a couple of inches wider than her. A spare belt from Beast's shorts would fix that problem and she held up the top of Ororo's uniform. It was blinding white and had long stretches of material beneath the arms that made her feel like something out of a science fiction comic. It was too long, but she belted it like a tunic top and wished she had a mirror to see the result. She had a feeling she looked kind of cool in it.
Finally decently clothed, she began to scavenge the wreckage for anything useful, but came up practically empty handed. A flick-knife was located wedged between two seats and she tucked it underneath the belt along with a lighter with half the patterned cover picked away. Well, Logan didn't bite his nails but he did need some way to get rid of nerves that didn't involve skewering Cyclops. There was nothing else around and she ducked back outside, the deep ache from the impact slowly ebbing away. Outside, the darkness seemed even more oppressive, and she knew it would be madness to go through the jungle on her own at night. Slipping back inside, she grabbed one of the damaged seats and began to tear the stuffing out of it. It was dry and would burn easily. Within twenty minutes she had a good fire going and she settled down to wait out the night and hoped that dawn would herald Wolverine's return.
XXXxxxXXX
Logan woke up wedged firmly between a branch and the trunk of a tree, pain tearing through him as ripped muscles and deep cuts began to knit together as his body repaired itself. "Shoulda been strapped in…" He groaned, opening his eyes only to be confronted with a vertigo-inducing drop. The branch he was on was high up in the air. Closing his eyes, he swallowed and opened them again, looking only at the tree trunk. Swinging his legs up and around the branch, he popped his claws and jammed them into the bark, confident they would hold his weight. It wasn't the first time he'd scaled something high using his claws, but it wasn't the most comfortable way. The adamantium was tough, but his muscles protested angrily as they supported the entire weight of his body.
Soon enough, his feet were back on terra firma, and he massaged the muscles in his forearms with a grimace, feeling them knit back together. Looking around, he spotted a light in the distance, and began to ghost his way through the trees. Hopefully, it wasn't the wreckage of the plane burning. Hopefully it was Jubilee and the kid had gotten a fire together. Hopefully the kid was able to get a fire together. Hopefully she hadn't been in the same kind of position he'd been in when he'd woken up. Hopefully…hopefully she was still alive.
A snapping branch made Jubilee's eyes snap open, and she rolled to her feet, hands blazing. "Who's there!? Come out with yer hands up and I won't hurt you!"
Logan grinned and walked into the pool of light, hands held up in the air. "Easy, kid. I won't hurt ya. You ok?"
"Oh thank God!" Jubilee was in his arms in an instant, hugging him tight. "I knew it'd be a bad idea to go looking fer ya in the darkness. I just hoped you were ok. Yer ok, aren't ya?"
Logan nodded, drawing comfort from her embrace, even though he tried not to show it. "I'm fine, kid. How about you?"
Jubilee drew back, and smiled up at him. "I'm ok. Singed with bumps and bruises, no broken bones." She gestured to the fire, and led the way back. "I couldn't find food in the jet, but there are clean clothes in there for you. All yours."
Logan grunted gratefully and disappeared into the darkness of the jet. "Ororo's uniform looks good on you." He called out as he buttoned up his shirt.
"Thank god it kinda fits. If I was any smaller, it'd be indecent." She plucked at the white fabric and wrinkled her nose as he reappeared.
Logan paused, watching as she reclined back in the padded seat, closing her eyes. She was right. If there'd been any less of her, he'd've been seeing a lot more of her. She was sixteen now, and had filled out in all the places she needed to. Not that he was looking at that. Not that he ever would. But his little girl was definitely growing up on him.
"Whatcha thinking about?" She asked, having opened her eyes again, catching him staring.
"Jus' wonderin' what happened to the kid who found me in the Outback." He grunted, grabbing one of the chairs that littered the clearing and plonking it down beside her. He sat with a sigh, feeling more than seeing the smile that crossed her face.
"She grew up. I'm not all grown yet, though, Wolvie. Have no fear."
"You'll never be grown up." He admitted frankly, and suddenly her head was on his shoulder as she flung an arm over his chest. "Not to me."
"I know." She yawned tiredly, closing her eyes again. "You take first watch, wake me in a couple of hours."
XXXxxxXXX
When dawn arrived, Jubilee was pacing around the clearing, overturning pieces of wreckage.
"Anything interesting?" Logan asked as he stretched in the chair.
"Nope. No food, no water – found a couple of canteens but I can't find the purification tablets…"
Logan nodded and looked up at the trees. "What about the radio?"
Jubilee cocked an eyebrow and gestured to the plane. "If you can tell me where the cockpit ended up, then I'll tell you about the radio."
"Touché." He muttered to himself, clambering to his feet. "The cockpit could be anywhere. The jet started to break up before we even hit the trees. We'll head down the mountain. If we come across it, all fair and good. With any luck, we'll hit a village or somethin'."
Jubilee nodded and stuck the penknife into her belt, tossing the lighter to Logan. "In case we get separated."
A couple of hours later, Logan judged they'd travelled less than half a mile. "Sit for a few minutes. We need to rest."
Jubilee nodded, sitting down on the trunk of a fallen tree. Even though it was still early in the day, the heat and humidity was sapping her strength. While she rested, he scouted the terrain ahead of them, slipping over the slick rocks and mud with less grace than he'd hoped for.
"There's some kind of a building ahead of us." He grunted when he returned, dropping down to sit beside her. "Feels deserted, but I think we should check it out. What do you think?"
A warm feeling spread through her. She could always trust him to include her in the decision making, showing he trusted her judgement as much as his own. Though he had the final vote, if she could give a valid enough reason not to do something, or to do something different, he would take it into account.
"Sounds good. Just gimmie a couple more minutes and I'm good to go. This heat's a killer."
In truth, he looked like he needed a breather as much, or even more than she did. She could hop over the fallen trees and rocks easier than he could, and with his heavy bulk, he was feeling the heat much more than she was.
He closed his eyes, and after a few minutes she realised he'd fallen asleep, and fluffing her fringe out of her eyes, she decided to take a quick look and see what was beyond the trees that had caught his attention.
Pushing through the undergrowth, she soon burst out into a clearing and stood with her mouth open. She was not someone that was usually impressed by large structures, but the fat, pyramid shaped, ornately carved ancient structure seemed to disappear up into the clouds and her jaw hung slack for a moment before she caught the action and closed it with an audible clop.
Blinking in the harsh sunlight, she walked forwards until she was standing in front of one of the corner stones that were higher than herself, and probably Logan. It had strange carvings curving around it, and catching her lower lip between her teeth, she reached out to touch it.
//LEAVE//
The hair on the back of her neck began to rise and she stepped backwards, colliding with him as he emerged from the foliage.
"Where do you think you're going?" He caught her as she went to fall, and she looked up into his eyes.
"We gotta go." She declared, righting herself and turning back to the trees. A large hand clamped on her shoulder, holding her in place.
"Why?"
When she looked up at him, a stab of apprehension struck his heart. He'd never seen her look frightened before. Worried, yes, but never frightened. Never the wide-eyed, boogieman is in the closet, frightened. "Something just told me to get out of here and I've a bad, bad feeling about this. I'm not going in there, no way, no where, no how."
Still holding onto her shoulder, he looked back at the giant structure. "What?"
"It's giving me the heebie jeebies, Logan, and someone just told me to Leave. As in 'Amityville Horror' Get Out! We gotta leave. We gotta leave now…"
He was about to reply when an ominous rumble heralded the ground shaking. Though he felt nothing from the structure, the fear in her eyes was enough to remind him that when she was frightened, it was time to get the hell out of dodge. Above anything else he'd learned about her over the years, he knew her instincts were as good as, if not better than his own at times.
"Ok. We'll keep going." He stepped around a bush, his boot glancing off a skull buried in the undergrowth. But his concentration was on Jubilee, and he didn't even notice. Only his hand on her shoulder stopped her from haring off into the jungle, and even when he let her go a safe distance away, she quickened her pace.
Hours later, when darkness had fallen again and she'd paffed a fire into being, he broached the subject again. "Want to explain what happened back there?"
Jubilee shook her head, shrugging as she turned the small creature she couldn't identify over on the embers. "No idea. It wasn't like Charles or Emma or Jean talkin' to me. And it was bad...Not evil, just that it'd be a real bad idea to go in there. I felt it in my bones, Wolvie. I'm not imagining it, but thanks…thanks for listening to me."
He grunted, throwing another piece of wood onto the fire. "Kid, I told you before, I'll always listen to you if you can give me a good enough reason. And the look on yer face was good enough for me. I'll trust yer instincts as much as my own."
He was rewarded by a tight but grateful smile, and they settled down for the night, Jubilee taking the first watch while Logan slept. It was nowhere near time for him to take over when the first drops of rain began to fall, and within moments they were in the middle of a deluge, the fire quickly going out with a sizzle. The first rumble of thunder woke Logan, and he opened his eyes to find Jubilee holding a huge leaf over her head, and another over his upper body. "Welcome to the Rainforest." She grumbled as the sky lit up with lightning. They spent the rest of the night huddled together as the wind picked up and howled around them, making the trees sway wildly. "Next time Scooter asks me if I want to go on a simple trip, just drop off a package in Buenos Aires, remind me to tell him to stick it up his a-" A rumble of thunder drowned out the rest of her sentence, along with his snigger, and he tightened his arm around her.
XXXxxxXXX
A few hours after dawn, Logan's eyes widened as Jubilee suddenly faltered and raised a trembling hand to her temple.
"Jubes?"
Before he could reach her side, her legs collapsed from beneath her and she dropped like a stone, lying limply across a fallen tree.
"Jubes!" Lifting her gently, he cradled her in his arms and carefully checked her over for punctures in her delicate skin that would herald a snake or spider bite. Finding none, he put his hand on her temple, biting at his lip when he felt the heat radiating from her.
"Dammit, kid, why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well."
Thumbing back her eyelids, his worry increased at the glazed look, and he shook her roughly to try to rouse her.
An hour later, he had a small shelter built and was trying to cool her down with little success. He could feel her temperature rising, and racked his brains trying to work out what was causing it. Realisation dawned on him and he sat back on his heels with a groan. The water in the last pool hadn't tasted quite right. It was passable, and in his worry about making the hill in the distance before nightfall, he hadn't even thought about the taste. His healing factor had taken care of any illnesses the tainted water might have been carrying, but it seemed that Jubilee hadn't been so lucky.
Cursing himself he looked back down at her flushed face and rubbed his hand across his mouth. He should have thought of it. He was the great woodsman. He was the hunter, the tracker, the outdoorsman. She was a mallrat from LA, and even though she would probably survive if you dropped her in the middle of the wilderness in Canada, the jungles of South America were not the Rocky's. Even though he'd taught her a lot, it was his responsibility to take care of her in this kind of environment. She could handle almost any situation you could throw at her, but being stranded in the jungle was not an eventuality he had ever considered.
"I'm sorry, pumpkin." He whispered, resting his fingers on the nape of her neck, feeling her pulse thrumming beneath the sensitive pads. "I gotta get you help…"
There was nothing else for it. He couldn't leave her behind, and though moving her in her fevered state was risky, there was no other option. The shelter was quickly dismantled and in no time she was slung across his shoulder, her head and arms dangling down his back, shrouded by the white material that flowed from Storm's uniform top.
The going was hard, but he pressed on through the dense undergrowth, climbing massive fallen trees and having to skirt around chasms in the ground. As the light began to fade, he stopped and put her down, drinking deeply from a pool of clear water. He waited a while to see if it did anything to him, and when the smell, taste and healing factor tests confirmed it was drinkable, he cupped some in his hands and let it trickle into her mouth. She screwed up her face and turned away, mumbling incoherently, but when he gently touched her face, she turned back and allowed him to help her drink some more. At one point, her eyes fluttered open, but didn't focus on his face hovering over her. "I have to find him." Her words were clear for the first time since she had collapsed and he frowned.
"Find who, kid?"
"Logan. He's not in the wreckage and I gotta find him." She went to sit up, but was too weak. She stilled when he put his hand on her shoulder and she tried to grip his hand, staring up at him but not seeing him. "He might be hurt bad. His healin' factor could fail. We gotta find him. I gotta help him."
"I'll find him, sweetheart. You just close your eyes and rest."
She obeyed, but a few seconds later, her eyes flew open again. "Scott says I have to go away."
Logan immediately felt his anger begin to rise. When had one-eye declared that!
"Gotta go to some lame-assed school in Mass. I don't wanna go. I can handle mysel….." she trailed off and her eyes fluttered closed again, dragging her back into her fever addled dreams.
"Awwwh, Jubes…" He shook his head and picked her up, cradling her close. While her fever hadn't dropped any, it didn't seem to have risen much either. He spent until nightfall using his jacket to pick up water and bathe her in it, dropping her temperature down as far as he could before they set out again.
Through the night he trekked, his keen eyesight showing him the way, and on past dawn, until the humid heat of midday made him seek shelter in the undergrowth. Laying her down on a bed of leaves, he curled up beside her, resting his hand on her neck so he could feel the reassuring beat of her heart, and the gentle rise and fall of her chest.
XXXxxxXXX
Trevor Makepeace sat on the edge of the back porch and lit a cigarette, idly watching the plume of smoke as it drifted into the cloudy sky. It had been a long couple of days. First the generator for the lab had gone down, and just after they had gotten it up and running again, a storm had hit. Short and sharp, it had wreaked havoc on the small village beside them, destroying two huts and putting a tree limb through one of the upper story window openings of the Company house, shorting out their radio and satellite links, cutting them off from the outside world. If Pete couldn't get it up and running again, they would have to wait for the mail plane to arrive to be able to get any kind of an order in for a replacement.
Two of the native kids ran up with a ball, but he lazily waved them away. He wasn't in the mood to play. He'd just spent the last 9 hours analysing plants and all he wanted to do was sit and smoke and enjoy the sunshine while it lasted.
Something tapping his shoulder twenty minutes later made him jump, and he flashed a smile up at the bottle of beer as it appeared in front of his face.
"Thanks mate." He snapped the top off and drank deeply. It was nice to have something cold again.
"No problem." Pete sat down beside him, letting his legs dangle over the side. "Amapa is getting big." He gestured with his own beer towards where the two kids were playing with the football.
"Told you bringing the ball was a good idea." His friend added with a happy grin. After six months in the Rainforest he was looking forward to his two-month break. But he was enjoying the work. Not many pharmaceutical companies would pay for this kind of research, let alone situate you out in the middle of nowhere, but it gave him the isolation he liked, along with the perks of civilisation. Mainly, satellite TV, phone and Internet services…when they worked.
"How's the phone coming on?"
Pete glowered at him and shrugged. "It's coming. Let's just leave it at that…"
He trailed off with a frown and put down his beer, hopping off the porch onto the hard-packed earth. "Trev, there's something in the trees …"
XXXxxxXXX
Logan wasn't tired. To be tired means that you remember a time when you weren't. And he was more than exhausted. His brain seemed to be functioning on minimal power, and all that was keeping him going was the dead weight of Jubilee over his shoulder. From time to time, her hand would hit him, or her head would bounce against his back and it would spur him on. He couldn't let her down. He couldn't let her die.
They were on flat ground now, and had left the foothills of the mountain. He was barely sleeping, content only when walking or trying to cool her down or get some food – mainly berries – into her. But water was getting scarcer, and he knew that if he didn't get her help soon, it would be too late. In fact, he was worried that yesterday was too late. Or the day before. In truth, he couldn't remember how long he had been walking. But she was still breathing, and that was what counted, right?
Suddenly a scent on the wind caught his attention and he stopped in his tracks. It was wood smoke. Wood smoke meant people and people, hopefully, meant help. Turning, he angled himself towards the wind and closed his eyes. He could barely identify the smell of humans beneath the heady scent of burning wood, but it was there. Picking up his pace, he hurried through the undergrowth until he burst out onto a large grassy clearing. In front of him was probably the nicest sight he'd seen in years. A two story, Western style house made out of local materials was in the corner, happy beneath it's grass thatch roof, and clustered to the side were small huts with smoke emerging from the roofs. Half-naked children played in the shade, and here and there pigs and chickens grazed.
Trevor frowned as the man came closer and slid off the porch, joining Pete on the ground. "What's he carrying?" He asked quietly, his hand going for the knife he usually wore at his belt, but was currently sitting on the kitchen table.
"Christ, it's a kid!" Pete broke into a loping run, covering the ground between them and the stranger quickly. When he reached the man, he seemed to give up, collapsing down to his knees.
"She needs help. Please…" His voice was cracked and strained, and Trevor helped ease the girl off his shoulder, lying her down on the ground while Pete caught him as he began to topple forwards. "She drank bad water…I think she drank bad water…"
Turning, he began shouting for help in Portuguese, calling some of the women from their huts. Emerging from the shadows, they saw the strangers lying on the ground and ran over, calling out for their husbands to join them.
"Maja, please, help me carry her inside. Ask your good husband to help Peter to carry the man in."
The woman he addressed nodded and began babbling to her husband, pointing at the burly white man.
"Maker of Peace, what are they doing here? What is wrong? Where did they come from?" she asked, taking the girls legs as Peter grasped her beneath her arms.
"I do not know, but they need our help. But do not worry, Trevor will help them. He is a good doctor."
Maja nodded and picked up her pace, almost tripping over her feet in her haste to get the girl inside and out of the sun. She could feel the young one's skin burning underneath her fingers and knew instantly what was wrong.
"She has drank from tainted water, Maker of Peace." She cautioned him as they laid her gently down on one of the daybeds. "Her body is trying to fight the bad spirits off. She needs to be cooled down and quickly, lest there be damage to her body. Sit with her, and I will fetch water and cloths."
Peter nodded, taking in the appearance of the girl now that they had her settled inside. She had Asian features, and she was travelling with a white man, which was strange, especially considering the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere in South America. He couldn't work out how they had gotten there, or where they had come from. He didn't have long to dwell, as Maja's husband, two other villagers and Trevor entered, all red-faced from the effort of carrying the man.
"Christ, Pete, he must be made from rocks!" The doctor dropped the limb he was holding unceremoniously once they had him positioned over a mat. "He's just exhausted and a little dehydrated. Move over and let me have a look at the kiddie."
He gave Amapa a smile as the eight year old barrelled in with his medical kit and handed it over. "Muito obrigado, Amapa"
Pulling out his stethoscope and a thermometer, he began to check her over, searching her limbs for wounds or bites, just as Logan had done. Finding none, he pulled her up until she was sitting and pulled up her top, feeling over the skin for the same. "I think he was right. Bad water. Amapa, go to the locked cab...never mind. Pete, go to the medicine cabinet, get the vials on the top shelf next to the syringes. I need to draw blood too…"
As Peter began to run out the door, he called him back; "And get a move on with fixing that damned phone. We might need to get her airlifted out of here…"
Pursing his lips, he pressed his stethoscope back to her chest and listened intently as she breathed. It sounded like she had no fluid in her lungs just yet. If they could just lower the fever…
XXXxxxXXX
Logan woke up slowly, feeling like a heavy weight was sitting on his chest. After a while, he hazarded opening one of his eyes a crack and got an eyeful of a something at very close range.
It took most of his self-control not to heave whatever it was off of him, and risked opening his other eye, blinking until he could focus. The heavy weight on his chest was a young South American kid wearing nothing but a loincloth, five or six at the most, straddling his torso, and he grinned down at Logan bouncing up and down.
"Jeeze, easy kid…" He reached up and gently moved the child away, sitting up slowly.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." An English accent greeted him. "Muopa, go play."
The boy giggled but ran out of the room as the owner of the voice came into view. "Hi, I'm Peter."
Logan swallowed, trying to work some moisture into his mouth to speak. "Easy, there. Here." Peter quickly held a canteen of water to his lips and let him drink. After a few gulps, the man stopped and pushed it away. "Thanks. Don't wanna throw up. I'll have some more in a few minutes if you'll let me."
Logan hadn't a clue where he was or who this 'Peter' guy was. And more importantly, he didn't know if he was a prisoner or not.
"You guys scared the crap out of us when you arrived through the trees like that." Peter continued conversationally, putting the cap back on the canteen and handing it over to Logan, who gripped it tightly.
"Jubes? The kid…?" he cleared his throat gruffly and took another sip from the canteen as Peter began to stuff cushions behind his back.
"My colleague is a doctor. He's taking care of her. What happened? Why are you two trekking through the Rainforest in the middle of nowhere?"
Logan took another sip and sat back. His healing factor was taking care of him, but he was feeling weak from lack of food and water. "Jet went down. Broke apart. We couldn't find the radio…How's the kid?"
Peter sat back and looked at the man carefully. He seemed to be telling the truth. Cautiously, he waggled his hand. "So so. She's not well, but you were lucky. We work for Jensen Pharmaceuticals…doing research on cures for virus's using the local plant life. Trevor thinks he knows what she's caught, but he's basically giving her every drug under the sun he can think of to try to break her fever. Once that's broken, she should be fine."
Logan bit at the inside of his lip, hearing the wealth of meaning behind the should. "You got a phone?"
Peter suddenly looked away, his cheeks reddening. "Technically, yes." He admitted finally. "But we had a storm…I'm trying to fix it, but I'm not exactly Mr. Techno-gadget. If all comes to all, the mail plane is due in two weeks and we can order the parts then. If the girl –Jubes?- is up to it, then you two can leave on it if you need to. In the meantime, I'll keep working on the phone."
Logan nodded and went to get up, stopping as the room began to spin. He ignored Peter's protests and stood, hunching over slightly as his abused body protested. "I want to see her." he growled lowly.
Peter could see it would be useless to try to stop him, and ducked underneath the man's arm, helping him walk. "How old is she?"
"Sixteen."
Peter realised he must have made a surprised sound when Logan stopped and looked down at him.
"I thought she was a lot younger!"
"She's definitely sixteen." Logan explained quietly. "And considering I already bought her sweet sixteen present, I'll kill her if I have to buy her another one in a couple of years."
Peter smiled and guided him into another room where Jubilee tossing and turning on a bed, perspiration streaming from her face.
"Fever's broke, but she's been calling out for something called 'Wolvie' for the past hour." Trevor muttered, taking the stethoscope out of his ears. "I dunno…how's the guy?"
"Better now I'm up an' about." Logan growled, stumbling towards the bed. As he got closer, he could hear the whisper coming from her lips, his name over and over. Dropping down onto the bed, he laid his hand on her forehead, relaxing as the intense heat was no longer there. "I'm here, sweetheart. Go to sleep."
"'Wolvie…." Her eyes fluttered open and she shifted uncomfortably on the sheets. "Feel sick…"
"I know. Go to sleep and it'll all be better when you wake up, pum'kin."
"k…" Her eyes drifted closed and she turned her head towards him with a small sigh.
Both men watched on as Logan took Trevor's seat, hovering over her.
"C'mon. We'd better get a move-on with that phone."
XXXxxxXXX
It took another two days to repair the phone and by the time Logan could get a call through to the Mansion, Jubilee was back in the land of the living, though terribly weak and prone to falling asleep in the middle of a conversation.
Pete left him alone to make the call, and he paced as he listened to the dial tone.
"Xavier Institute."
"Gambit, it's Logan. We need a lift."
In the control room of the base, Remy rolled his eyes. "You lose de jet mebbie?"
"Someone or somethin' shot us down; Jet broke apart before we even hit the ground. Took this long to get out of the jungle and find some help. Kid got sick. Tell Cyke to fire up the jet and come down and get us. He might wanna bring McCoy with him. Kid's still not a hundred percent."
Remy had already hit the alarm button, and as Scott skidded into the room, he flicked it onto speaker and asked "What's wrong with her?"
"We think she drank tainted water. She was delirious for a while. I stumbled across some pharmaceutical company's research station, and one of the two guys here is a doctor. Her fever's broke, but she's weak as hell." Clearing his throat, he gave Remy the co-ordinates and hung up, not waiting to hear the affirmative.
"As pleasant as ever." Scott grunted, taking the piece of paper with the coordinates written on it. "What excuse did he give?"
"Somethin' shot'em down." Remy shrugged. "You might wanna take Beast with you."
XXXxxxXXX
Bringing the jet down further, Scott shook his head as Hank peered out of the cockpit window. "Well?"
"I would advise you to bank sharply to the right." Hank snapped as something in the canopy moved and his keen eyes caught sight of a gun barrel swivelling around to take aim. "We are being targeted."
Scott obeyed his orders as a barrage of red lasers fired up into the sky. "Well, that's what brought them down." He murmured, bringing the blackbird around in a large sweeping circle, well out of the range of the gun.
"Scott, there's no life signs down there." Jean murmured from the seat behind them.
"I'm taking it out." Scott flipped a switch to activate the lasers and took another pass. Beast's sharp shooting quickly took out the turret, and after another handful of passes and two more gun instillations destroyed, they were all happy that there were no more hidden dangers in the trees.
A few minutes later, they were landing in the large empty space in front of a cluster of rude huts and a large house.
When Jean stepped out of the jet, she found Logan standing on the porch, dressed in civilian clothes and smoking a cigar.
"Jean." He called out, stepping into the harsh sunshine.
"Logan, we saw the wreckage."
Logan was glad to see that she too was dressed in civilian clothes, and when Hank stepped out of the jet, he saw he was wearing an image inducer. "Glad to see you, Red."
"It was an unmanned cannon. We took care of it." Scott called out, from behind Hank. "Where's Jubilee?"
Logan jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Lazin' on the couch. She's got an audience."
He didn't explain any further, but when Scott stepped into the small sitting room he found two bemused scientists staring at a long line of young native boys and girls, all staring silently at the sleeping teenager.
"They've never seen an Asian before." Pete explained quietly, standing to shake his hand. His smile was friendly, and Scott began to relax. "They're a little bit obsessed. It took us a week to persuade them to stop staring when we got here first."
Scott nodded as Hank made a beeline for the couch, opening his doctors bag as he walked. Trevor joined him beside her, murmuring quietly in medical jargon.
Hank smiled when her eyelids fluttered open, and after a half-second of confusion, she recognised the digitally induced image and smiled. "Hank…"
He grinned and brushed aside a lock of hair gently. "Jubilee. How are you feeling?"
"Tired, and a bit like something out of a freak show. They're still staring at me, aren't they?"
His smile grew, and he nodded. "Ready to break out of this joint?"
She nodded emphatically and wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him pick her up.
They said their goodbyes to Peter and Trevor, and were soon winging their way home, leaving new friends and bad memories behind them.