Vie woke to Wolverine napping in a chair next to the bed she was in. "Didn't want to leave my side. How sweet," she couldn't resist.
Wolverine woke. "I ain't sweet, girlie. Rouge wanted me to keep an eye on you while she was at school."
"I stand by my 'how sweet'," she mocked.
Wolverine snarled. "I still got some questions for ya."
"Ask away," she said, starting to sit. Wolverine put a hand on her shoulder to hold her back.
"Stitches already popped once," he explained. Vie smiled slightly. "Why were you sneaking around here?"
"Meet my sister."
"Why not come to the front door?" Vie shrugged. He snarled. "We'll come back to that. What's with the coughing?"
"Hm. That's pretty personal," she mocked.
"Your sister is worried."
"Well in that case," she smirked. "My mutation is to reject others' mutations."
"Explains why Rouge can touch ya."
She nodded. "But that's not my only mutation. I can read peoples hormones and feelings almost to the point of mind reading. My first mutation is trying to reject the second one. It's like I have an autoimmune disease."
"Short version," he growled.
"I'm dying, Wolverine."
XxxXxxX
"This is indeed serious," the professor mused. "If you're willing, we may be able to help you."
"What could you do?"
"Henry was able to suppress his mutation for many years with a serum. Perhaps he can modify it in such a way that your mutation won't attack the other."
"Hm. It is possible. I'll need to do some tests and get some information," Beast pondered.
"Could you really do that?" Rouge asked. She had been attached to Vie's side since she got home from school. Rouge looked expectantly to Vie for her approval to the idea.
"Alright, we can try," she told Xavier. "But don't get your hopes up," she directed at Rouge.
XxxXxxX
Scythe sat in a bra and underwear on the hospital bed for Beast to do a complete physical exam. Vie had sent Rouge away to do her homework. Wolverine had stuck around, he didn't trust her. While Hank was being completely professional, viewing her as a patient and not a nearly naked woman, Wolverine couldn't help some of the thoughts crossing his mind. And he knew Vie was clearly picking up on it by the look on her face. He tried to distract himself by going over Danger Room drills in his mind. Hank was listing off statistics as he went. "Height: 5'3", weight: 108, body fat: minimal, age…" he trailed off.
"I know, hard to tell. 19," Vie said. Wolverine cocked his head.
"Only 19?" Hank repeated.
"Yes. Although I have fourteen fake I.D.s that say otherwise." Hank continued with his observations. Skin: white, eyes: black, hair: blue, etc.
"Why all the fake I.D.s?" Wolverine questioned.
"I'm an assassin." Wolverine snarled. "No worries, Wolverine. I'm not here for any of you. My last job was in Mexico." This didn't calm him. She held out a snowy arm for Hank to draw blood and continued holding it out for Hank to take her blood pressure. "How many more tests you got?" she asked.
"I'm nearly finished." After a few more baseline tests, Beast had her lay back on the bed. "Let's take a look at your dressing while we're here." Wolverine got a full view of her body. Navy hair hanging about her slender neck and sloping shoulders. The outline of her collar bone and the mounds of her breasts. The definition of her ribs and stomach, the peak of her hip bones. Her pale thighs and…
"See something you like?" she teased seductively. Hank had gone to gather supplies, leaving them temporarily alone. Wolverine growled in response. Vie put a finger to her purple lips to quiet him and winked as Hank reentered. "How's it look, doc?"
"It's deep, but a clean cut. The stitches are holding nicely. It should be closed within three weeks and healed in a month but it will scar," he rattled off, cleaning the stitches and redressing the wound. "Just be sure to rest."
"I don't think tough guy over there will let me leave the bed," she said jerking a thumb in Wolverine's direction. He snarled. Hank left. Vie sat back up.
"You aren't putting much thought in this 'cure'," Wolverine said.
She shrugged. "My death's been a long time coming. You can't live a life of killing people and expect to live very long. Not all killers heal like you do."
He snarled. "You seem to know a lot about us."
"I know a lot of things, Weapon X," she smirked. Wolverine growled and popped his claws instinctively. He stalked up to her and stared her down.
"How do you know about that?" he growled threateningly.
She shrugged. "I know a lot of things." He put his hands on either side of her thighs on the bed, claws still out. "You're really quite impressive," she said, stroking one of his claws. He growled in warning. Vie just moved on to stroking his hand where the claws came out of his flesh. Her hand was warm and her touch light. Something about her brought out the animal in him. And right now, instinct said to take her right there.
Scythe could feel his hormones race and something very primal in him stir. She found him rather intriguing. There was something very predatory about him. "Listen here, girlie," he said, trying to keep up his intimidation but was now interested in something else.
"You want it, Wolverine," she purred. "Take it." He ducked his head down and kissed her savagely. Scythe tangled her hands in his hair and held his head to hers. Their tongues danced as Wolverine gripped her against him. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pressing his bulge against her pelvis. Vie caught herself as she was about to say 'Remy'. She pulled her lips away from his and rested her forehead against his. She stroked his hair and Wolverine ran his hand over her back while they caught their breath. "I need some rest," she lied.
"It's the Cajun," Wolverine said, righting himself.
"I don't know," Vie admitted.
XxxXxxX
"How is your new found sister doing?" Kurt asked Rouge as they walked side by side from the school. Kurt carried his backpack by the straps in one fist. Rouge held a few books in her arms.
"She's good. Hank said her side should be healed in a few weeks."
"Look, Rouge. I don't want to be the one to say this but…" he paused. "How do you know she's really your sister?"
"Her story makes sense and she knows all about me," Rouge shrugged.
"I know you want to believe her. I want to too. I guess it's just hard to trust someone that Wolverine won't let near anyone. No one other than you and Jean have even met her."
"Logan left for the day. Ah'll introduce you to her when we get home."
XxxXxxX
Vie lay on the bed, Wolverine had locked her in when he left. He didn't trust her when not under his supervision. She stood up and walked over to the attached bathroom. She shed her shirt and took off the dressing on her side. Vie splashed some water from the sink over her stitches and examined her wound in the mirror.
The three parallel gashes puckered angrily around black stitches. The puckered skin was a deep red and the surrounding flesh was pink, the pink faded out to a normal flesh color before turning into her natural white.
"What de hell happened?" came a familiar accented voice. She looked from her wound in the mirror and saw the reflection of Gambit over her shoulder. She'd never seen him angry before. "What did dey do to you?" he demanded, walking up to her. Vie turned to face him.
"Wolverine caught me sneaking in," she shrugged. Gambit examined the wound carefully. Vie sensed a large amount of anger and testosterone along with a little bit of regret and guilt. "Something you want to tell me, LeBeau?"
XxxXxxX
Rouge and Kurt stood outside the door to the infirmary. "Ugh, Logan locked it," Rouge growled in frustration.
"No problem for the fuzzy man," Kurt smiled.
"You what?" came Scythe's voice from inside followed by a crash. Kurt and Rouge looked at one another before Rouge grabbed onto Kurt's arm and they teleported inside. They landed just on the other side of the door and saw Scythe arguing with Gambit.
"What are you doing here?" Rouge asked. Kurt was ready for a fight when he saw the acolyte.
"Get out, Cajun," Scythe snarled.
"Chère, I can explain," he said to Vie.
She stepped up to him and got in his face. "Explain what, diable? How you set me up?"
"It's not like dat, petit. You're sick. You need help. I knew de only place you could get any was…"
"Damn it, Gambit. Why didn't you just tell me?" she interrupted, shoving his chest.
Gambit grabbed her hands and held them against his chest. "Would you have accepted help, chère?"
"Help? No. But I would have used the excuse to come here." Gambit looked at her confused. "Rouge's my sister."
"Vie, I didn't know," he said, removing one hand from hers and using it to place under her chin and tilted her head up to face him. She felt the regret inside Gambit and her anger dissipated.
"You need to get out of here before Wolverine gets back," Vie said softly.
Gambit smiled sweetly and kissed the top of Vie's head. "Au revoir, petit."
"I need to redress my wound and get a shirt on before you introduce me to your friend," Vie said to Rouge before heading into the bathroom. She reemerged a few minutes later. "So who's your friend?"
"This is Kurt. Nightcrawler."
"I thought Nightcrawler was blue and furry?"
Kurt looked down at himself and realized he still had his watch turned on. "Oh, right." He turned it off.
Vie smiled. "Much better." She shook Kurt's fuzzy hand. "Nice to meet you, Kurt." She hesitated a moment as a wave of pain spread through her head. "Anna," Vie started. She began to cough. The force picked up and she was soon forced to her knees.
"Kurt, go get Beast or the Professor," Rouge ordered.
Kurt returned with Beast. Rouge was kneeling on the floor beside Vie. Beast ran to a cabinet and pulled out a vile and a syringe. He filled the syringe and plunged it into Vie's good side. Her coughing soon subsided. "What was that?" Vie asked between coughs.
"A prototype for your serum," Beast explained.
"Well, it seems to be working," Vie said getting to her feet.
"So far. We need to observe you closely for side effects and how long the serum lasts."
Wolverine had returned and came to the infirmary to make sure Scythe was still where she should be. "What's goin' on?"
"Trying out some of Beast's medicine," she said sitting down on her bed.
"It work?"
"So far," Vie shrugged. "You got homework?" she asked Rouge and Kurt. They both nodded. "Get to it. I'll see you two later." The two left and Beast went to record his initial findings. "You ever going to let me out of this room, tough guy?"
"Don't see no reason," he growled.
"Why's that?"
"Ya still haven't told me why ya were breakin' in."
Vie chuckled. "You are quite persistent. Alright turns out I wasn't actually sent here. LeBeau set me up."
"Why do that?" he asked suspiciously.
"To get 'help' for my 'condition'," she said, leaning back on her elbows.
"You got a death wish or somethin', girlie?"
"Not a 'death wish' per say, just accepting of the fact I'm going to die."
"Why are you so accepting?" He had led a violent life and killed more people than he could count, but he never stopped fighting. Even though his healing factor kept him alive, he had never resigned himself to death. Vie was giving up, but she wasn't fighting either.
"I was raised by thieves and assassins and trained to kill from the beginning. They always taught me to get the job done or die trying. I've always been close with my mortality. Why would that change just because it's my body killing me?"
"What about this cure?"
"Why get my hopes up? Beast suppressed his powers only so long before his 'cure' magnified his mutation and covered him in blue fur. If anything happens with this, it will only be a temporary fix."
Wolverine sat in a chair next to her bed. "What about Rouge?"
Scythe's oil black eyes went to her lap. "Anna Marie is with good people in a good home that's all I wanted to know."
"The kid is startin' t' get used to the idea of having some blood family. What'll ya do when all this is done?"
"If this doesn't work, I'll stick around. I probably don't have much time left. If it does work," she paused. "I'm leaving."
Wolverine growled. "You'd leave Rouge?"
"I don't belong here, Wolverine. I'm an Acolyte. Rouge is family and her well being will always come first, but I honor my loyalties and I've already agreed to work with Magneto." Scythe leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees and stare down Wolverine. "I'm no X-Man, Logan. I'm not a good person."
XxxXxxX
Thanks for reading and all the reviews and the patience. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.