ooOoo

Adjustments

ooOoo

The man's eyes had fluttered shut again, the ghost of the smile fading. Moira MacTaggert blinked hard at him, glanced at the monitors that showed him sleeping peacefully once more, and hit the intercom button. "Doctor Waters, please come to Suite A. Immediately."

Although the scientist had attempted to keep her voice level, Ariel clearly ran the distance to the hospital room. "Moira?" She panted breathlessly. "What is it?"

The older woman carefully closed the door behind Ariel and pointedly faced away from the man in the bed. "Ariel. You must do something for me."

"Anything. What's wrong?"

Moira's expression as she attempted to compose herself concerned Ariel even more. The telepath resisted the impulse to grab her and shake her. Eventually the woman took a deep albeit shaking breath. "I'd like you to check on him."

Ariel frowned. "Of course. I was planning to today anyway –"

"Now."

Ariel's frown deepened, but she watched Moira's eyes and nodded slowly. "All right." She gave the older woman's hand a gentle squeeze before she stepped over to the chair beside the hospital bed. Mentally, she asked permission of the man, as she had every time she attempted to make contact. Sitting down and settling herself, she took a breath as she reached over and laid a hand on the man's arm –

And jumped back up with a gasp, staring down at the bed.

"Ariel?" The younger woman stared at her. "There's someone there?"

"Yes. Unconscious, but…"

"Can you tell who it is?"

Ariel simply nodded, staring.

"Then it wasn't my imagination."

"What?"

"He said 'hello'."

"He did? My God, Moira. How could he possibly have done this from that distance –" She glanced at Moira in disbelief, then leaned over the man, placing a soft hand on his forehead and whispering, "Forgive me, Professor." Closing her eyes, her lips moved soundlessly for a few moments, then she was still once more.

Moira waited as the telepath concentrated for several minutes. Eventually the younger woman stood upright again, brushing the man's hair back carefully.

"So?"

"It's Charles. But I think you knew that."

"I hoped, I suppose. Is he really here, though?"

"He's weak, but it's the Professor, all right. Even unconscious he has the strongest guards in place that I've ever experienced. I think he has to settle in to this body, this mind."

"Would it help to keep him sedated?"

"Can you do that without dulling his mind?"

Moira bit her lower lip. "Tricky." She shook her head and looked back at Ariel. "What would you suggest?"

"Intentionally or not, I think he's put – himself – into a coma. Whatever protocols you have for that…"

"Aye." The scientist got a grip on herself, briskly took readings from the machinery, made several notes in his chart, and hung it again on the bed. "What he's done here is amazing, but there's no guarantee that even he can make it work for good… and he must have known that when he tried."

"Dear God. It must have been quite the battle for him to take this chance."

MacTaggert brushed her hand over his foot as he lay there and her expression became less professional. "I don't think we can tell the others yet, love. It wouldn't be fair."

"But –"

"Think about it. We might lose him twice… it's hardly fair to put the rest through it as well."

Ariel frowned for a moment, but then nodded slowly. "You're right. It's not like there's anything he could do in this state anyway – and knowing the Professor, if the whole school was waiting for him to come back, he'd feel it from here. We'll just have to wait and see. "

ooOoo

The next night Ariel was sleeping fitfully in her personal quarters in the lab complex, wondering why the bird in her dream suddenly made such an odd noise. A second later, she was blearily answering her cell phone that was buzzing insistently on the night table. "Dr. Waters speaking."

"Um… Doctor?"

Ariel sat up, rubbing her eyes with one hand as she recognized the voice. "Rogue? Is that you, Marie?"

"Yes."

"Ah. It's good to hear from you... How are you holding up, dear?"

"I…" The girl's voice was quiet, and barely composed.

Ariel tried to relax and figure out what was going on. This was beyond grief over the Professor… and then it came to her abruptly. "Oh… You've taken the cure, haven't you."

A sigh that was certainly relief for not having to say it came from the other side of the globe. "I did. I think it was the best thing to do. I think it was the right thing. I think…"

"All right." Ariel paused, and smiled thinly when the moment stretched. "And are you feeling better, now?"

"I'm just not sure… I mean, I'm back at the mansion, but I don't feel like I belong here anymore."

"You'll always belong there, Marie. They love you."

"Yeah, well, that's the thing, isn't it?"

The telepath put a hand to her forehead as she thought about how complicated even non-mutant teenage relationships were. "And how did Bobby react?"

"He said it wasn't what he wanted. But it's not about him."

"It isn't?"

"No! It's… about me. About being able to ever be close to anyone, not just him."

"Of course…"

The conversation went on for half an hour, as the counselor got a feel for what the girl really felt about what she had done. She kept to herself her own opinion - that Rogue might have eventually learned to control her powers – and simply listened. The call ended with Marie promising she'd talk to her again in a couple days.

Ariel put the phone back on the nightstand and looked at her watch. It read four thirty in the morning. With a chuckle, she closed her eyes again, exhausted, but pleased that the teenagers she worked with felt that they could call her anytime… despite a little detail like time zones.

Three hours later she woke again, showered, dressed, and wandered down to Suite A before getting some breakfast. Nothing had changed. The man – the Professor, she reminded herself – was still comatose, his vital signs steady. Brain scans showed somewhat unusual but sporadic activity. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.

"Professor," she whispered, "You will let me know if there's anything I can do?"

Her mind teased her with a flutter of response, which she assumed she imagined. "All right. I'll be around."

She walked out into the hallway and found Dr. MacTaggert heading toward the room. "How is he?"

"The same."

"Well, I guess that's the best we can expect, for now."

"I suppose. Did you eat?"

"Oh, yes, I'm afraid I've been up for hours. Ororo called. She wanted me to talk to you first..."

"First? Is anything wrong?"

Moira looked at her steadily. "I'm not sure yet. Walk with me, love, and we'll talk about it."

oooOooo

On the other side of the ocean, Logan stared out the window. The dark afternoon had melted into a drizzling evening, and the damp seemed to seep through the very walls of the mansion and into the professor's silent office, the empty wheelchair sitting like an abandoned throne in its center.

His fists clenched as he leaned against the glass. "Damn." He felt, rather than heard, someone enter behind him, and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Logan?" He steeled his reaction against the concern he heard in her voice.

"I'm fine."

"I didn't –"

"Ororo. I'm fine."

One eyebrow lifted as Storm looked at Wolverine's back. Rarely did he resort to using her given name. "Logan…"

He turned, reluctantly, and looked at the floor. "I'll get out of here if you need the space. I didn't think you'd be taking over his office."

"I'm not. I wouldn't, and you know it."

The Wolverine nodded again, reluctantly, and shrugged. "Sorry."

She uncrossed her arms and her expression softened. "It's all right."

"No, it's not."

"Listen –"

"I said, I'm fine." He moved abruptly toward the door.

"Wait." There was a touch of the Amazon queen in Storm's voice. Perhaps that was what made the Wolverine freeze in his tracks. "Logan, I need to talk to you about something."

Logan dropped his head back, then turned slowly on his heel to face her. "Fine. What?" Even as he said it, hearing the tone of his own voice, he knew he had pushed his luck, being surly too long. She stalked closer to him, tilted her head, and waited. Eventually her stare won. "Sorry." When she moved to give him a sympathetic squeeze, he didn't stop her. "It's just…so much happening."

"I know. That's part of what I need to talk to you about." They broke the hug and she looked uneasy. "I've inherited this mess, but you realize you're second in command now, right?" His eyebrows lifted, but he shrugged a nod. Storm looked relieved as she went on. "All right. You know we're keeping the school going. Well, I really think, with everything that's happened, that we need someone here for the kids – well, for everyone to talk to."

He nodded slowly. "Everything's… turned on end. Some of the kids are just... more confused than ever." He cracked his knuckles and exhaled heavily. "So who do you think …" His eyes narrowed as he watched Storm, who was staring quietly at the floor. "Aw, no. No. You've got to be kidding." His head dropped once more, and he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck before looking at her again. "You want to call her back to the mansion, don't you?"

"She's good, Logan. You know it."

"Yeah." Wolverine thumped his fist several times against the professor's desk, although not very hard. "Yeah, she is."

"You going to be okay with this?"

He looked into her eyes, his fists clenching and unclenching unconsciously. "It's not about me, is it? It's about the school. It's about the kids." She nodded with a tight smile, and he shrugged again. "But hey. You know she may not want to come back."

She favored him with a wry grin. "Right. I think we both know Ariel better than that. She knows what's happened, how much the children need her…"

"Yeah."

He turned toward the door, ready to leave once more, when he stopped and looked back at Storm. "But… you'll make the, ah… arrangements, right?"

She smiled at him like a sister. "Don't worry, Logan. I'll call her."

ooOoo