Chapter 6
The mansion – the next day
Rachel couldn't believe the talk surrounding her about how she "absorbed" Scott's optic blast the night before. The last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself this way. The professor sensed all the chatter as well and called her into his study. Hank was there too.
"Hank told me what happened last night, Rachel. Any side effects from the blast you took?" Xavier asked.
"No, not at all. I'm fine," Rachel answered.
"As I expected as well," Hank said. "Because you and Scott are genetically close, being father-daughter and all that, it would make sense that his optic blasts couldn't hurt you. His optic blasts can't hurt him, even his eyelids, thin as they are, easily restrain his powers."
"Yes, in fact I recall a story Alex Summers shared with me some years ago. He said that Scott accidentally blasted him when he first developed his powers and Alex was never hurt from it," the professor added.
"Your genetic make-up allowed you to metabolize your father's optic blast, almost exactly the same way he does. Hence, he could never hurt himself with his own powers," Hank said.
"Everyone who saw what happened last night are speculating," Rachel said. "Their thoughts have been projecting. Some speculate I have powers that absorb kinetic energy. Others think I was able to put up a psionic shield just in time. But they'll realize soon enough that a psionic shield would have radiated my father's blast outwards which would have hurt those around us. Luckily, no one seems to have come to the conclusion that it's because I'm a Summers."
"They can speculate all they want, Rachel. But you can't tell them the truth," the professor said.
"What if they ask me outright how I was able to do that?" Rachel asked.
"I guess you can tell them that it's part of your mutant ability… to absorb energy," Hank suggested.
"No, Hank. That could pose a danger in the future. If the X-Men were to believe Rachel can absorb all kinetic energy, they may not protect her properly if the time comes. The truth is, Rachel can only withstand her father's optic blast, but no other forms of kinetic energy. The team still needs to know that she's not invulnerable to such an attack," Xavier said.
"Then what do you suggest?" Hank asked.
"I suggest they can speculate all they want. Rachel, if they ask you what happened, you'll tell them that you don't know," the professor said.
"Professor, the others don't know who I really am. They wouldn't believe I'd knowingly risk my life to save a teammate I'm only supposed to have known a couple of months," Rachel argued.
"Perhaps not, but I'm not concerned with the credulity of the lie, only that the truth remains hidden," the professor answered, effectively dismissing her. And with that, Rachel left the room.
Meanwhile in the med bay
Jean was exhausted. She hadn't slept all night. She had stayed in the med bay with Scott the entire time. Various teammates have visited and offered to sit with Scott while she got some rest. She refused. She wasn't ready yet to be parted from him. The reality that she could have lost him was still too close to the surface. It forced her to face a lot of things about herself.
The main thing she had to face was the fact that she loved Scott Summers. She'd had for years, and probably always would. What if Scott had died? She never would have gotten the chance to tell him how she felt. That would have been a regret she didn't know how she could have lived with. Suddenly, the thought of him rejecting her didn't seem so scary anymore.
A scary thought however, was that she could have been very badly hurt, possibly worse, when Scott accidentally fired his optic blast in her direction. She knew without a doubt she had not gotten her psionic shield up in time. If it hadn't been for Rachel, who knew what shape she'd have been in now?
And that was another thing she couldn't stop replaying in her mind. Rachel was hit dead on by Scott's optic blast, but she didn't even budge. Now that Scott was on the road to recovery she'd allowed herself to wonder how Rachel did it.
"Jean?" Scott broke Jean out of her reverie.
"Scott? You're awake. How do you feel?" Jean asked, holding his hand.
"… Thirsty." Scott looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't have the energy. Jean quickly grabbed a plastic cup and poured water for him.
"You've been out for almost 14 hours. I've been so worried," Jean said. "What do you remember?"
"I remember waking up, cold… chained, beaten, tasered… nauseated…"
"Shhh… it's okay, you're safe now," Jean said, cupping Scott's cheek.
"Wait! I remember… I shot at you… I opened my eyes… I wasn't thinking… you're not hurt?!" Scott asked, almost in a panic.
"I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Look at me, I'm fine," Jean said firmly, well aware of the self recrimination soon to follow.
"Wait I… I remember Rachel… she jumped in front of you… I hit her, but it didn't even faze her… I remember seeing it… did I imagine that?" Scott asked.
"No, you didn't imagine that. She did… She probably saved my life," Jean said.
"But how is that possible?" Scott asked.
"I don't know. I was so worried about you I haven't even gotten a chance to talk to her… or thank her," Jean said a bit sheepishly.
"I can't believe I'd be so careless! I could have killed you!" Scott yelled, or at least tried to.
"You were drugged out of your mind! You can't blame yourself!" Jean said, not letting him drown himself in guilt.
"I could have killed you," Scott whispered.
Jean just looked at Scott. She knew whatever she had to say would fall on deaf ears at the moment. She had planned to confess her feelings for him the moment he woke up. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen anymore. She hadn't seen Scott this distraught since his brother died six years ago.
"I'm not going to say this again, Scott. No one was hurt. Kurt should have known better than to take those duct tapes off your eyes before asking you first. Your reflexes were affected by the drugs they gave you. You need to let this go," Jean said, not allowing any room for argument.
Scott looked away from her. She sat there in silence with him for what seemed like hours, but in truth it was probably only a few minutes. Finally, Scott asked, "How long have you been here with me?"
"Since they brought you in," Jean answered.
"Have you not eaten or gotten any rest since?" Scott asked, sounding angry.
"I've slept on and off here, and Hank brought me down some food a couple of times," Jean answered.
"Jean, you've got to get some rest! I'm fine, really. You need to get some sleep… proper sleep I mean. I'll be okay."
"I'm not tired," Jean argued.
"Perhaps you should take him up on his offer, Jean," Rachel said, startling her. Jean realized she must have been more exhausted than she thought if she hadn't sensed Rachel approach like that.
Scott added, "You know, Jean. I kinda wanted to talk to Rachel. Maybe you could grab a bite to eat, bring something back for me too."
"You're sure?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine… really," Scott said, squeezing her hand, trying to reassure her.
"Okay then, I'll be back in a few," Jean said. Before leaving, she turned to Rachel. "I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life last night."
"You'd have done the same," Rachel said.
"I'd like to think I would… but…" Jean hesitated.
"No, trust me… you would," Rachel said, giving Jean a hug. Jean sensed Rachel was reluctant to pull away.
"You okay?" Jean asked Rachel.
"Umm… yeah… Anyway, you should get going before there's nothing left from lunch," Rachel said. With that, Jean walked out of the med bay after looking back at Scott one last time.
Scott had wanted a moment alone with Rachel since he woke up but now that he had it, he wasn't sure quite where to begin. How was she not dead, or at the very least, critically injured? He also wanted to get on his knees and offer her his everlasting gratitude for saving the woman he loved. Neither approach seemed right. Instead, he asked, "You look fine, but I still have to ask, did I hurt you last night?"
Rachel hesitated, then answered, "No… I'm umm… right as rain."
"How is that possible?" Scott asked.
"I… ahh… I… don't know," Rachel said not able to meet Scott's eyes, or rather his glasses.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're holding something back?" Scott asked trying his best not to sound accusatory but still wanting answers.
Rachel just shrugged. Scott wished she'd open up to him. From the moment he met her he knew she was someone with secrets. She was a very private person who obviously didn't want others asking questions. Scott didn't sense any duplicity in her, but she really tested a person's curiosity.
Scott pressed on. "I remember a bit more now… the way you looked when you jumped in front of Jean last night. You didn't look like someone who expected to be blown out of the room. You didn't flinch or even shield yourself with your arms. You saw the blast coming, that's why you protected Jean, but if you saw it coming, then you had time to put up a psionic shield… but you didn't."
"A shield would have redirected your optic blast outwards. Raven, Kurt, Peter and Hank might have gotten hurt," Rachel answered.
"Exactly, which leads me to believe you knew exactly what you were doing," Scott said. "I wish you'd confide in me."
Rachel looked torn, she looked like she wanted so badly to say something more, but in the end, all she could say was, "I can't." Scott's heart broke for the young woman in front of him. It was obvious she was torn over something. It was obvious she wanted to confide in him. She all but admitted she was hiding something.
"What happened last night reminded me of something that happened just days after my powers first manifested," Scott said.
"What was that?" Rachel asked.
"Everything was so new to me, I didn't understand yet what was happening. I was with my brother, Alex. He was trying to help me, to figure out if my condition was controllable… You see, he had powers too, not too different from mine actually, just that he was lucky his energy didn't come out of his eyes. Anyway, the professor helped him to learn how to control his powers. Alex wanted to see if he could do the same for me. We were outside when he was trying to teach me when I accidentally blasted him. I opened my eyes at the wrong time…"
"I see… Where are you going with this?" Rachel asked
"What I saw last night when I blasted you was so similar to what I saw when I accidentally did the same to my brother," Scott said.
"What are you implying?" Rachel asked, almost sounding scared.
"I'm not sure… I just… I don't know… I guess I thought I'd share the memory," Scott said, resignedly.
"You and your brother, you were close?" Rachel asked.
"Yes… and no. We had a big age gap, and so we didn't have the same circle of friends nor did we hang out like siblings closer in age tend to do. But he would go out of his way to spend time with me. We both liked to watch the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons. There were afternoons where we would just spend hours watching re-runs together," Scott said, lost in the memories.
After a few awkward moments, Rachel changed the subject. "They never caught the guys who abducted you. After we rescued you, the professor told local enforcement that the FOH were running an illegal operation underground that abandoned warehouse where we got you. They were long gone and although the police are claiming they're continuing to work on apprehending them, I personally doubt it."
"It was Brady Dunn… the guy at the mall. I didn't quite recognize him at first, but I remember now. I accidentally hurt him when my powers first manifested itself. I was in the middle of class when it happened. He followed me into the washroom and that's when I hurt him. Seems he'd never forgiven me for it," Scott said.
"It doesn't matter. You didn't deserve what they did to you!" Rachel said, angrily.
"I know… You can give his name to the authorities, but I doubt he goes by his real name anymore. Someone like that would hide behind aliases anyway," Scott said.
"You've been so concerned about me, I never even got a chance to ask you how you're holding up," Rachel said.
"I've got some fractured ribs, they've put an IV in me and I'm almost fully recovered from dehydration. I had mild hypothermia as well because they left me naked in that freezing cell, but I'm fine now," Scott answered.
"Good, we were all worried about you… especially Jean," Rachel said.
"Really?" Scott asked, hoping he didn't sound too hopeful.
"She was fit to be tied!" Rachel said. "The professor still hadn't come up with a plan to free you yet when we found out where you were being held. We had to hide from Jean the fact you were being tortured. Otherwise, she'd have tried to break you out on her own… Are you mad we waited?"
"Mad? Of course not! You did the right thing," Scott said. "In fact, I don't have the words to thank you for what you did last night."
"You'd have done the same if our situations were reversed."
"I don't just mean coming to rescue me. I mean for what you did… for Jean… Just the thought alone of anything happening to her is enough to make me sick. To think I could have been responsible… that'd kill me," Scott said.
"And if I hadn't jumped in there… if she had died… you'd have never gotten a chance to tell her how you really felt about her. Did that occur to you?" Rachel asked.
"… Yeah… it did," Scott said, sadly.
"And?"
"And what?" Scott asked.
"What are you going to do about it?" Rachel asked.
"Are you suggesting I tell her how I feel?" Scott asked.
"That's exactly what I'm suggesting."
"She's already with Duncan! I missed my chance! For me to tell her how I feel and put her in an awkward position of having to choose between me and her boyfriend would be the epitome of selfishness."
"Oh please! It's not like they're married. Have you not heard a word I've said to you? She was beyond frantic with worry when you went missing. Don't get me wrong, we were all worried, but none of us were ready to break you out of there all by ourselves. Jean had gone so pale with worry it made her hair look brighter than a stop light! Do you not find it odd that someone who only cares about you as a friend would forego sleep and proper nutrition for the last fourteen plus hours to sit with you while you're unconscious?!" Rachel ranted, obviously exasperated.
"I… I just… I'm…"
"You're a coward is what you are. You'd rather pine for her from afar than risk being rejected," Rachel said.
"That's not true!" Scott said, trying to deny the truth in her words.
"Oh, it isn't? You're not afraid of putting her in an awkward position. You're afraid that if you gave her a chance to choose that she might not choose you!"
"And if she doesn't?"
"And if she does?" Rachel countered. "Life is so precarious, we never know if today could be our last day. Why not try to grab happiness whenever the opportunity presents itself… Lord knows the opportunities are so few and far between… Trust me to know."
"… I wouldn't choose me," Scott said, dejectedly.
"Then I guess it's your good fortune she's not you," Rachel said.
Scott was about to say maybe she was right when Jean came back. "Hey, Scott I brought you down some mac and cheese, you okay with that?"
"Umm, yeah that looks good, thanks," Scott said.
Jean looked back and forth between Rachel and Scott, obviously sensing the tension in the air. "Did I interrupt something?"
"Not at all, I was just heading out," Rachel said, heading towards the exit. But before she left, she turned around and said to Scott, "Think about what I said."
Scott could only nod.
To be continued…
