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~`~`~`~
An hour later, Jean decided to start an autopsy on Ebony's sister. She hoped to find some way of keeping Ebony's powers under control without the help of drugs. She remembered that Hank had said something about already trying that, but Jean was determined to help the girl.
Hank walked out of Ebony's room right before Jean started to perform the autopsy.
"What are you doing?" he cried, rushing over to her.
"I was hoping to find some answers about how these girls are genetically put together," she answered, putting down the scalpel she had in her hands.
"You have to do that by playing coroner?" he asked.
Jean sighed and hung her head. "I want to be able to help Ebony keep her powers in control without the use of drugs. If performing an autopsy on her sister is what it costs, I'll pay the price. I'm sorry." She raised her head to look him in the eyes.
Hank sighed himself. "I should be the one apologizing," he said. "I'm still in shock over her death."
"I'm sorry," Jean said as she reached to take one of Hank's hands in silent comfort. He gave a small smile at her. Jean cleared her throat. "I hope this isn't too much to ask, but do you think you could help me? I mean, you know a lot about these girls obviously and maybe you could answer some of my questions."
Hank went silent for a minute. "I've taken care of both girls since they were babies. I've saved both of their lives on more than one occasion. Renee many more times than Tatiana. Renee always was the most trouble of the two. And I'm rambling," he said with another small smile. "Yes, I'll help you. It's another time that I have to save my dark-haired friend. I honestly thought she was dead by now without the drugs."
"Thank you," Jean said quietly. She picked up the scalpel again. "Okay, question number one, how are they able to shape shift with Adamantium screwed to their bones?"
"The scientists behind this whole operation came up with a flexible form of Adamantium," Hank said as he handed Jean the next tool she needed. "The girls can shift into any form that keeps the Adamantium within a certain length. They can shift into someone shorter or taller than themselves but the Adamantium can't shift into anything less then or bigger then half the original size of its length. The scientists found something in their genetics that allows them to stretch and constrict the metal to a certain length."
Jean paused in her procedure to absorb this new information. She shook her head. "Sounds like they were trying to create the ultimate mutants. I've never heard of anything like this before. Other then Logan that is. But the scientists that strapped Adamantium to his bones didn't create him. They found him and realized his mutation would allow them to create a weapon that doesn't get injured…at least not for long."
"Logan?" Hank asked.
"The one that carried Tatiana in here," Jean said. "He's standing next to…Remy was it?"
"Ah, Remy," Hank said with a small smile. "He's something else."
"How does he fit into this?"
"I'm not quite sure what they wanted with him," he said. "He'd only been there for a few months. I wasn't assigned to his case. I think it was something to do with his ability to change potential energy in nearly any object and change it to kinetic energy, which is usually explosive."
"So that's his mutation," Jean said nodding. She stared at the exposed rib cage of Ebony's sister. "I think we should take this Adamantium from her bones so we can study it a bit. What do you think?"
Hank took a minute to respond. He cleared his throat. "I think that would be a smart move."
Jean decided to change the subject as she carefully removed the Adamantium from the girl's body. "How much longer for the drug?"
Hank looked at her gratefully. He walked over to the tube. "I think another half hour should do it."
"Would you mind going to check her vitals?" Jean asked. "I'm worried that they'll become a danger for her."
"Sure thing," he said.
"Thank you, Hank."
He nodded and went to the room. Jean watched him, then went back to the autopsy. She lost all track of time, but glanced up at Scott and Ororo when they walked into the med lab.
"Hey Jean," Scott said. When he saw that she was covered in blood up to her elbows and noticed she was holding a scalpel, he paused in trek to her. "What're you doing?"
"Performing an autopsy," she grunted as she struggled to get a strip of Adamantium off of one of Tatiana's legs.
"On who?"
"Ebony's sister," she said as she finally got the strip separated from the bone. She added to the other strip she'd gotten off the other leg.
"Oh," he said. "Where are the others?"
"With Ebony."
"How is she?"
"Her vitals are still unstable," she said. She was about to say that the drug had half an hour left, but she wasn't sure how long ago Hank had said that. "Hank!" she called.
He came out moments later. "Yes?"
"How much longer does the drug have?"
He went over to the tube. "It should be ready now," he said, tapping it a few times.
"Should we put it on an IV drip, or just give her a shot?"
"A shot works best. It takes a few minutes to work and the way her powers are now, her healing ability should get rid of the sedatives in her system if we take the IV out now."
"Okay," Jean said. She took off her elbow length plastic gloves and threw them away. She grabbed a sheet and covered Tatiana's body. When she looked up at Hank, he had the needle ready, blue contents inside ready to be administered. "Let's do this," she said.
~`~`~`~
All conversation stopped when Jean and Hank walked into the room with Scott and Ororo behind them. Remy and Logan stepped away from the bed to give the two doctors enough room. Jean took the IV out of Ebony's arm. She was careful not to move the glove too much, seeing as it only went to her wrist and not to her elbow due to the IV. The other arm's glove went to her elbow as a precaution. She also checked the ruby quartz glasses over the girl's eyes. They hadn't wanted to be caught unprepared by anything.
She glanced up at Hank and nodded to him. He injected the drug into her veins. They both stepped back and waited. A few moments went by.
"Why ain't anythin' happenin'?" Logan growled.
"It takes a few minutes to take affect," Hank explained. Logan growled again.
"Patience, homme," Remy said. "Chere be okay. Gambit seen 'er get dis shot 'afore. Everyt'ing be fine."
Logan grunted in response. All was silent again. All eyes were focused on the young being who lay motionless on the bed before them. All ears strained for any sound that might slip from her lips. All, whether they were aware of it or not, were holding their breath. When the dark eyebrows of the being who held their undivided attention came together to form a frown, all their breath was released at once so that it seemed that the whole room sighed. When the young girl groaned quietly, some worry lifted from their shoulders. The mood in the room almost visibly lifted.
~`~`~`~
What's goin' on here?, Ebony thought drowsily. After several attempts to frown she finally achieved her short-term goal. She wasn't, however, prepared for the pounding in her temples that resulted. A small groan escaped her pale pink lips. Deciding to add to her headache, she tried to open her eyes but found that too was too difficult. She was getting frustrated. Openin' mah ahyes shouldn' be this much work!, she thought. Ah feel awful!
With a sudden burst of daring and will, she tried to "scan" the room telepathically to try to find out where she was. Her eyebrows shot up at all the people she sensed. What shocked her more were two particular beings that she hadn't sensed in months. A small smile played across her lips. Beast!, she thought happily. An' Remy! With more determination than before, she opened her eyes.
And was alarmed to see that everything was tinted red. She couldn't tell one color from another. She began to panic. What did Ah take this tahme?!, she wondered. Ah've ne'vah hadda reaction lahke this 'afore!
"It's okay, Ebony," someone said. She turned her eyes to the sound of the voice. Unable to tell who it was through the red haze, she reached out telepathically to determine who it was. Jean. Jean was talking to her. So tha's how Scott sees 'er, she thought. Her gaze shifted to someone standing to her right. It had to be Beast. No one else was that tall, that big, and that purple. Ah mean blue, she thought. Her smile returned.
"Beast!" she exclaimed. "How'd ya get here? An' Remy too!"
"Long story, Chere," Remy said as he kissed the back of her gloved hand. "'S good ta see ya 'gain."
"Lahkewahse," she said with a smile. She turned her attention to Beast. "Ah'm assumin' ya made th' drug fer me?"
"That's correct my pale friend," Beast said with a smile.
"Where's Tatia?" she asked, suddenly excited at the thought of seeing her sister. Beast lowered his gaze. She instantly knew something had happened. "She's dead ain't she?" Silence was her answer. "How?" She began to get angry when an uncomfortable silence answered her again. Frustrated, she searched Beast's mind, knowing he would understand in this case. She gasped when she "saw" her beloved sister hanging from the light fixture through Beast's eyes.
"I'm sorry, Renee," Beast said, having felt her in his mind. "She was very distraught after you left. She was convinced you'd come back for her."
"So it's mah fault?" she asked, near tears.
"No," he said quickly. "I think she became alarmed when she couldn't 'feel' you telepathically because you were sedated. She could always tell where you were be seeking you out."
Ebony nodded, her guilt of her sister's death not leaving her. Looking to change the subject, she asked, "Can Ah take these glasses off? Ah don' lahke red."
"Can you control your blasts?" Scott asked, speaking for the first time since entering the room.
"Now Ah can," she said. She felt a brief pang of guilt at being able to control the same power he in turn was cursed with. He didn't have the option of taking off his glasses. Not unless he wanted to give the mansion a sunroof anyway.
Jean, having sensed Scott's hesitation about Ebony's glasses coming off, intervened. "I think it would be best to keep the glasses on for now. Just as a precaution," she added.
Ebony nodded. "Ah understand." She took a moment to study everyone in the room. She quickly became accustomed to the red haze and even began to tell the colors apart. The professor wasn't hard to pick out; he was the only one that was that low to the ground. Logan wasn't that hard to distinguish either, not with hair that messy. He was next to the professor at the end of the bed. She knew Jean was next to her; she could feel the telepath. Ororo's hair still stood out, even through the red haze. She stood near the door, behind Scott. She focused on Scott for a minute. She could almost see through his glasses, but not quite. She sympathized with him even more than she had before when she'd had her glasses on. Earlier, she'd known she'd be able to take the glasses off, but now she wasn't sure if they'd let her.
Remy stood next to Hank. His long auburn hair was pulled back into it's usual ponytail. He also wore his sunglasses to hide his eyes. They had connected over their eyes. Tatiana hadn't had eyes like her sister. Remy had seemed to be comforted by the fact that he wasn't the only one with "freaky ass ahyes" as she called them.
She sighed. She was tired. She usually was after she got a shot of the drugs she depended on. Hank recognized the sigh.
"I think we should let her get some rest," he said, giving her a private smile. She responded in kind.
Jean did a quick check of her vitals. Pleased that they had stabilized, she nodded. Remy gave Renee a quick kiss on the back of her hand. Hank squeezed her hand. Logan nodded at her. Ororo smiled, as did Jean. The professor gave her a quick telepathic reassurance. Scott remained stoic.
::Thank you Beast,:: she said in Hank's mind.
::No problem, as usual, Renee,:: he responded. She smiled at his statement and closed her eyes to try to get some much needed rest.
To be continued.