Yeah, that one took longer than I expected. Needed a lot of tweaking and I'm still not perfectly happy.
Let me know what you think. Did I go way out of character? :)
Moira, Anxious
She felt something give in inside her, like a piece of brittle glass, suddenly crumbling under pressure and cutting into everything around it with jagged, sharp edges. The next thing she knew, there was water on her cheeks - was she crying? - and Erik's hands were rubbing up and down the IV-free part of her arm in a comforting motion.
"Moira, please, you have to try to stay calm" he caught her hand again in both of his, covering it completely with his strong, callused fingers and squeezing it slightly to attract her attention. "Now, tell nurse Harrison if there's any pain. And don't try to be brave for my sake, you know you don't have to. If you need anything, it will be done."
She found herself unable to look away from him. Nothing existed in the room except for the two of them and his eyes was the only thing she could focus on. Speaking was suddenly very hard, when her teeth clenched and her body felt too warm and too small to contain the emotions swirling in her mind. She tried breathing slowly, but even that effort seemed too much. Everything seemed to be too much.
"I..." she coughed. "Everything hurts. Inside. Like someone stirred me up and pushed everything back inside. Like I'm bruised everywhere, inside and out. My bones hurt. My joints hurt. I think even my hair hurts."
His eyes darkened and he looked at the nurse who was hastily jotting it down.
"And the incision sites?" the woman asked. "Any itching, any feeling of swelling?"
Moira tried listening to her own body, half-closing her eyes to focus.
"Nothing I can feel specifically, other than the general pain" she whispered hoarsely.
"Can you give her something?" Erik asked the still-writing nurse. "Morphine? Anything?"
She pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head.
"We'll have to wait for the duty doctor."
"Please ask him. I'll pay any additional fees, if you can make this..."
"I understand. I will let you know the moment we have the decision."
As the nurse left, he turned back to Moira.
"I suppose you have questions" he provided cautiously.
"Of course I have" she said weakly. "What- what happened?"
He leaned closer.
"I don't know if there are any audio pickups here, but the camera is definitely still running, I can feel it" he whispered into her cheek. "I'm sorry that we have to do this, but we have to play the adoring, but saddened couple for at least a week more before they agree to release you. Maybe even more."
"What. Happened." she squeezed his hand with all her might. Despite her obvious frailty, she felt some bone move under her fingers and he grimaced.
"You... miscarried. And almost died on Alex's hands. Jean did something to keep you alive, but it didn't help for long, and she had to take care of others. When we brought you in, you were already unconscious again. They had to operate to take the baby out - you were bleeding" he stopped and held her hands again as she began to shake. "you were bleeding out. You almost died, again, on the table. Then in three days you developed fever. It seems there was something wrong... inside. Then the stitches became infected. Then your heart stopped."
Her hand flew up to her chest.
"Then they got you started up again and this moment was what your appendix decided was the best time to rupture. And this they had to attempt twice, so there's the explanation for additional cut. And then your heart stopped again. I'm afraid in some places you're more stitches than Moira."
"What...?" she trailed off, her gaze yet again focused on the flat of her belly. "How could this happen? Everything was fine, the last visit we had was fine, what went wrong?!"
"We don't know" he said softly. "Hank is working on it. I've stolen samples of your blood from the laboratory here and got them delivered to Hank yesterday."
"If anyone can find explanation..."
"It will be Hank."
They fell silent for a minute as she tried to process everything.
"Erik, why are you here?" she asked finally, feeling more and more drained, but she simply had to have that explanation.
"Why, Mrs Stein" he answered blithely. "Your dear, adoring husband is sitting by your bedside all that time and you ask him why he's there for you. In sickness and in health, dear."
She shuddered. Husband. Dammit. I wonder what Charles...
He leaned in slowly, keeping eye contact with her.
"It had to be me" he explained quietly. "Others are too young or too visible. Charles... wasn't able to come. Raven was hurt and he was the only one who could keep her stable. Also, he was unable to drive, and he would have attracted attention himself, if he came to the hospital with you."
"What...?"
"We were hit" he answered curtly. "All of us. Some did better than others - whoever was not using their power, was not hurt. So the ones who actively use their mutation to live, like Raven..."
She bit her lip.
"And Charles?"
He shook his head slowly.
"He's alive. Not much use now, as he spends time mostly keeping Raven asleep and alive or being asleep himself. His range is down, to touch only. But without him and Jean Raven would have been dead by now."
"What is..."
"She was switching. All the time, all the forms, all shapes. So she was using up all her energy and she couldn't even eat. Once Jean found a pattern that made her fall asleep - Charles is training her in this direction now - Beast hooked her up to glucose IV, so she's at least not actively using up her own body right now."
"Dear God" she whispered.
He shrugged.
"I don't think that one had anything to do with the attack."
The nurse came back, bringing the tray with some equipment.
"Now that you're awake, we can start on some tests" she said, a bit too brightly for Moira's ears. "Mr Stein, I'm afraid your time is up. Tomorrow you can come at seven, if you wish."
He half-smiled and leaned to kiss Moira's cheek, whispering quickly "I'll tell Charles you're getting better. But please, do get better. For all our sakes."