Ch. 19 – Losses
The team got to the perimeter, and all but Wolverine continued
on to the plane. Wolverine, however,
turned and saw that their two leaders were down, and then saw the sniper.
"I'm not about to lose my second friend without spillin'
some blood." SNIKT! "You did the wrong thing there bub." He rushed straight at the building. He climbed the wall using his claws and ran
towards the sniper. The scared sniper
tried to fire, but Wolverine was on top of him, and he slashed off the sniper's
head. Blood dripped from the headless
corpse and Wolverine's claws, as the rest of the team returned to the gate to
see what happened. Rogue, Beast and
Gambit rushed to help their fallen comrades.
"PSYLOCKE! Get
the gurneys!" She ran back to the
airplane. Meanwhile, Gambit gently
peeled Slash off of Cyclops. Gambit looked
him over and saw a shot to the stomach. Beast directed him to place gauze on the wound. Beast looked over Cyclops and saw a massive
hole in his chest. Slash came too as
Psylocke arrived with the hover gurneys. Slash sat up, and told everyone he was fine. As Gambit, Rogue, Psylocke and Wolverine lifted Cyclops onto the
gurney, Beast wrapped up Slash, and Slash stood up with Beast's help. He slowly walked along with them as they got
Cyke onto the plane. Despite the pain,
Slash began to warm up he engines. Beast got their prisoners and wounded, Archangel, Jubilee and Cyclops,
hooked into health monitors and tried to help Cyclops. Slash took the plane off with one hand (the
other was attempting to stop the blood loss). Once airborne, Beast came and talked to Slash.
"You need to rest."
"I'm getting them home damnit." Beast motioned to Gambit, and then injected morphine into
Slash. "OW! What'd you do that for?"
"Doctors orders." Slash grudgingly turned the controls over to Gambit, and headed to the
rear to join the other wounded. He sat
next to the bloody mess that looked like Cyclops. Archangel and Jubilee were resting comfortably next to Cyke. Slash looked at Cyclops, and had seen that
kind of injury before. He knew it would
be close. On one of his SEAL missions,
a Serbian sniper took down his second in command in almost the same spot on his
Lieutenant JG as the current sniper had with Cyke. He didn't make it in that case, and chances for Cyclops making it
were fading fast in Slash's mind. Cyclops stirred and grabbed Slash. Slash was surprised by this and turned. Cyclops began mouthing something. Slash leaned down.
"Remember…remember…Jean…" Slash clenched his fist and then tears welled up.
"On my honor as a Navy SEAL, you will not have to worry
about Jean. She will be well taken care
of if you should pass on. But you've
got the best damn doctor in the world." He grabbed Cyke's hand and stayed there as the plane headed into the
hangar. Cyke made one final attempt
at speech.
"Tell…Jean…I…love…her…" It seemed to drain him of all his
strength. Slash readied him to be
transported to the infirmary.
"You're gonna get to tell her yourself." He let go, as Beast and the rest of the team
rushed Cyke, Archangel and Jubilee off the plane. Shadowcat was waiting in the hangar, and saw them take the
wounded and rescued off. She waited for
her husband to come down the ramp, but he didn't. She boarded the plane, and saw him kneeling on the floor, crying,
and then saw the bandage. She came over
and wrapped herself around him.
"You know you should get that looked at." He looked up into her eyes.
"It's nothing compared to Cyclops." He paused and more tears streamed down his
face. "I don't think he's gonna make
it. My XO was hit in a near identical
spot on a mission to Serbia. He didn't
make it." Shadowcat caressed his hair,
kissed him on the forehead, and helped him up. As they got to the bottom of the ramp, Jean was there waiting for
him. Her eyes were red from the
tears. Slash left Shadowcat's side and
wrapped his arms around Jean.
"He wanted me to tell you that he loves you. I tried to take the shot for him. Just a few more seconds and it would have
been me. But…" His voice trailed off as
his lip began to quiver. He held onto Jean
for a few more minutes. Then he put his
arms around his wife.
"Jean, he needs you right now. Get going." She took his
advice and headed for the infirmary. Slash and Shadowcat slowly walked towards
the hoverlift to get back to the mansion.
Slash and Jean never left the outside of the surgical
ward all night. Beast worked long into
the night attempting to mend Cyclops. At one point Jean and Slash leaned on each other and fell asleep, but
they were never more than ten feet from the infirmary doors. In the morning Wolverine found them still
asleep. He woke them up.
"Hey bub. Go get
some sleep. I'll stay with Jeannie
here." Slash shook his head.
"My man…my responsibility. Besides, I've gone days without sleep in the teams. Over the course of the seven days of Hell
Week, I probably got a maximum of 10 hours sleep. I can hack it old man." Normally, Wolverine would have been offended, but given the current
situation, it got a laugh out of all of them. It was then that Beast came out of the infirmary. Despite being completely exhausted, Jean and
Slash stood up.
"Well…how is he?" Asked a quivering Jean. Beast
took off his surgical gear.
"It's not good. He has taken much internal damage. I had to remove most of his left lung, and a section of his heart. However, I cannot replace his heart. I'm sorry Jean. I have done all I can." He let his head hang for a second, then looked Jean straight in the
eye. "We can keep him alive, but he
will never be able to leave the infirmary again. And he is calling for you." Jean walked in, and the door shut behind her.
"Man, I never thought I'd see Slim like this." He stopped, and turned away. "DAMN! It should have been me." Slash
came over to him.
"I said that too. Don't blame yourself. We all
take these risks when we go out every time." Jean came back out, this time with tears filling her eyes.
"What do we do now Hank?" she asked.
"Not much else we can do. We can let him live out the rest of his life, or we can pull the
plug." At this suggestion, they all were
staring off into space. Xavier arrived
unexpectedly.
"I believe Scott should have the final say on this. But I believe it would be in his best
interest to end it. He can never be the
same again. I scanned his mind and he
is in excruciating pain. I feel it best
that he make the decision. I will ask
him telepathically." They entered the
room and Xavier concentrated.
'Scott, how are you feeling?'
'Argh. The pain
is overwhelming. What's the prognosis?'
'Not good Scott. Beast has done all he can. There
is nothing more we can do. I am asking
you whether you want to…end it. You will
be in this pain until you die. What do
you want us to do?'
'I think it would be in the best interest of the team…if
we end this now. I've already made
peace with Jean. And Xavier, could you
please grant Slash leadership over the team now? He's my choice to lead the team.'
'I will take that into account when selecting a new
leader.' He called the rest of the team
in to tell them of Cyclops' decision. "It
was not an easy decision for Scott to come to by no means. Scott has decided to end it. He feels the team should grieve now. So I will leave you all here to make your
final peace with Scott. Then we will
all reenter…" His voice faded off. They all could tell that losing Cyclops was
a hard blow, but it was the right decision. They all went in individually. All could tell that they all would be losing a great friend, but it was
for the best. Slash already talked to
Cyke on the plane, but felt he needed to talk to him one last time.
"Hey Scott. No
hard feelings at all man. As much
tension as there was between us, I held a deep respect for your talents and
abilities. Jean was lucky to be married
to you, as I was lucky to be married to Erin. You're lucky Slim. You get to go
first. I wanted to, but never got to." He stopped and searched for the right words. "I'll take care of Jean for you; until she's
ready to move on, and it will take a while. But let her go Scott. It will
help her move on when she is ready." Cyclops nodded.
"I'll…tell…her…that…" Tears came to Slash's eyes as he
spoke his last words to Scott.
"You're a brave man Scott. Braver than I am. Godspeed, and your place in Heaven is secure. God be with you." Slash
grasped his hand, and then walked out. He immediately went over to his wife for comfort. Jean was next, and last in. After she came out, they all came back
in. Beast walked over. They all mumbled, "Good bye Scott." Beast turned off the lifesupport systems. Minutes
later, Scott Summers was dead.
Sorry about the delay. Been on a planning session for where to go
next. Hope you aren't to upset over
this twist.