A day before:

He was there when they brought Bobby in. He stood next to Dr. Cornelius looking at some equipment or maybe just chatting the way two doctors can, as Bobby was half-carried, half-dragged in by a pair of guards. He was fairly heavy in his ice form.

The doctors turned, Cornelius' eyes widening. "Get him up on a table!" His voice was excited and slightly fearful.

Bobby was dumped unceremoniously on a dull metal table. There was a subdued sort of clang and a gasp from one of the uniformed men, glad to be free of their burden. They stood uncertainly, knowing they shouldn't leave, but not sure if they should stay. Dr. Cornelius impatiently brushed them aside, trying to get a look at his patient. Bobby curled into a ball and did his best not to whimper. Cornelius prodded him tentatively and turned to get some gloves when his fingers froze. "Relax!" he commanded

Bobby took a shaky breath and tried to unclench himself.

"Amazing," Cornelius breathed. He picked up Bobby's leg with careful hands, grasping it just above where it ended in a splintery icicle, where his right foot used to be. "Does it hurt?"

Bobby looked at the ceiling and wondered that himself. "No, " he said. "Actually it doesn't feel like anything."

"Lack of feeling, numbness, or like it's missing?"

"I dunno," Bobby replied. "Just like…nothing. I don't feel anything."

"Anything where? Your leg, below the waist or nothing anywhere?"

"Um, below my knee I guess." Because there's nothing left to feel there, he thought. A slightly hysterical giggle escaped him.

Cornelius prodded the shattered leg; the other man joined him in the examination. "No feeling at all?"

Bobby shook his head quickly and tried to keep from freaking out completely. It worried him that he couldn't feel anything He almost wished it would hurt.

"This is Iceman, obviously." The other doctor stated, inclining his head. "He can completely transform himself into ice? I thought it was just a covering."

Cornelius nodded. "That's what we thought too. It seems he can do more. Maybe some sort of defense mechanism. When did you become all ice?"

Bobby glanced down the table at the men. Yes, they were talking to him. He expected the sight of his missing foot to make him dizzy or nauseous or something, but there was no feeling and no physical reaction. "I don't know." He laid back down "I didn't think about it. It just sort of happened I guess, when I got hit. Nothing before that was any different from any other time."

"Can you change back?"

Bobby closed his eyes and fought the urge to curl up again at Cornelius' words. "Maybe. But I'd be missing a good chunk of my leg." The hysterical edge was back in his voice.

Cornelius put his leg back down and pondered this, circling the exam table. "True. Well, maybe we can get you an artificial leg. You could stay in ice form. Then we'd lose you as an undercover op. It'll take some extensive surgery and therapy to get you up to speed in human form, he muttered excitedly while pacing. The other doctor cleared his throat. Bobby, who'd felt hope dying and panic rising with each word Cornelius said focused on him for the first time. He was tall, but not huge. Pale, with dark hair and intense dark eyes; same lab coat and nondescript pants as Dr. Cornelius. "If I may make a suggestion?" Again Cornelius nodded. "Perhaps the boy can make a foot. Out of ice."

Cornelius' eyes gleamed. "Yes, that would work while he's in ice form."

"No." The other man said. "I mean he can make an ice-foot and then change back and see what happens. Maybe it will stay ice while the rest of him is flesh and there will be no need of surgeries." He reached out and skated his fingers over the stump of Bobby's shin. His expression was unchanged even as his fingers whitened with cold and raised vapor from the contact without the benefit of the heavy gloves Cornelius and the guards wore.

Cornelius just stared at him for a moment. "I guess…Yes," he jerked his head in Bobby's direction, "try that."

Bobby wanted his mother very badly.

"It might be wise to call a nurse in case it doesn't work." The other doctor suggested mildly.

"Of course." Cornelius flushed slightly, going for an intercom box on the wall.

"It would seem to me that this is precisely the sort of testing one would have done when the boy arrived." His voice was still unassuming, but the look on his face was cold, a cross between pity and disgust.

"Well we obviously weren't fully aware of his abilities." His cheeks burned crimson and the entrance of three silent nurses rescued him. He quickly apprised them of the situation. "Go to it" he said to Bobby.

Bobby took some shallow breaths and leaned up on his elbows. He squinted at his poor mangled leg, and made a new one out of ice. It didn't look right. He sighed and tried again. Still…wrong. His arms started to shake. He spared a glance at the others. Cornelius was starting to look exasperated. The second doctor had his arms crossed, but was watching with interest.

He stepped closer to Bobby. "Don't try so hard. You said it feels like nothing; so try to make it feel like something. Flex you toes."

Bobby closed his eyes and imagined his foot. He tried wriggling his toes, and they did. He opened his eyes in surprise. There, that looked right. Felt right too.

Dr. Cornelius looked supremely satisfied. "Excellent, Dr. Essex. Marvelous."

Essex nodded almost to himself. "Now, change back."

Bobby tried. Power rippled through him but nothing happened. "Um," he said, looking at the dark haired doctor. He was afraid to change back, he was afraid of what his leg would do, or not do, but when he looked at Dr. Essex a new fear swallowed his fear of transforming. He was getting used to being an experiment for the doctors here, a pawn for the people in charge, but none of them had ever looked at him with the base malevolence that he was seeing in Dr. Essex's gaze. He did not want this man's attention, but now that he had it, it would be worse, far worse, to displease him.

Essex lowered his head, eyebrows rising and eyes seeming to faintly glow. "Try again."

Bobby did. And this time it worked, his leg was whole, and like the rest of him made of muscle, bone and skin.

"I'll take him too." Essex pursed his lips thoughtfully before turning on his heel and striding from the room.

Cornelius frowned slightly, but did not argue.

Bobby lay back, his breath still coming his short gasps, and sincerly tried to convince himself that the doctor just meant something plesant and innocent, like 'out for ice cream'. Now his leg was starting to ache, and he missed his friends with a pain that felt like he had a hole in his chest.