Really, I AM Dying! (pt. 8)

Magneto had gone back to the hospital to see Mystique.

When he got there, she was looking a little better.

"Raven."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if you were all right...."

"Of course I'm not all right! They're threatening to stick a tube up my--"

"Language, Mystique."

"What? We're not in front of the children!"

"But there might be children in the next room."

"Why would there be . . ." She looked around. She didn't know why she hadn't noticed it before . . . the brightly colored wallpaper, the stuffed animals, the cartoon tapes by the TV . . .
"This is the Pediatric Ward, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes. It was the only ward that they had any room for you in."

She gave him a dubious look. "In this entire hospital, this was the only room they had?"
"At the moment."
"It's a big hospital!"
"There was a major accident coming off the highway. Seven-car pileup."

"Seven?"

"Multiple accident victims, possibly as many as fifty or sixty. Some badly injured."
"And I'm just dying of icky-poo."

Magneto looked at her strangely. "Icky poo?"

"Just trying to blend in with my surroundings."

"I see."

"How are the children?" she asked.

"Some of them are starting to turn the corner, but most are still suffering from the virus..."

"All of them?"
Magneto nodded. "That's what they tell me."
"Who's looking after them, then?"

"Storm and Brenda Ellis' grandmother." Magneto said.

"Ah. In good hands, then."

"Especially from Xavier told me about Mrs. Ellis."

"Remind me to send her a nice fruit basket or something." Mystique shifted her position, then shifted back when she realized that her hospital gown hadn't moved with her. "Actually, for putting up with those idiots, I should give her a medal."

Magneto started to laugh.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. It's just that...." He didn't know how to tell her, exactly.

"Yes?"

"Well . . . The way you talked about giving Mrs. Ellis a medal . . .it's been a long time since I've heard you joke like that."

"It's been so long since I've had a reason to joke," she said.

Magneto had to admit she had a point.

"When are they planning on releasing you?"
"I think they said tomorrow, if all goes well."

As far as Mrs. Ellis and Storm were concerned, tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.
On the "getting worse" list were Lance and Scott, not to mention Kitty, and Spyke.

The less-serious ones were helping Mrs. Ellis in the kitchen, looking like a little platoon of spotted elves.

In the middle were Toad and Brenda, who were too sick to help but not quite in the serious range.

All of a sudden, Mrs. Ellis got an idea....

"Why don't we," she said, "all sit down for a minute."

"I can't sit down," moaned Kitty. "I'm gonna barf . . ."

Kurt grabbed a bucket.

"Can I help, Mrs. Ellis?" Lance said.

"No, I'm helping!" Kurt insisted.

"Now, boys..." Mrs. Ellis chided them both.

"I vas here first!" Kurt said.

"No, I was!" Lance insisted.

"That is enough!"

Kurt and Lance flinched.

"If both of you can be civil to each other, you can both take care of her."

"OK . . ."

The most surprising development, though, was Fred rolling out blankets for Brenda and Todd on the living-room floor.

"What are you doing?"

Fred put the blanket down and said, "You've got to stay down here now."

"But my room's upstairs," Kitty insisted.

"It's far easier to keep an eye on all of you," said Mrs. Ellis, with a meaningful glance towards Todd and Brenda, "when I can see where you are."

Kitty had to admit she had a point.

Lunch was served, even though not everyone felt like eating. In fact, most of them couldn't look food in the face. (Not that it had a face, of course.)

Even Fred had trouble keeping anything down. They thought he had it at last, but it turned out to be a bad carton of Chinese food.

"You OK, Fred?"

"Uhhhhhhh . . ."

Mrs. Ellis didn't like the sound of that. "Somebody get a bucket," she said, and Kurt rushed to comply.

"I think we should call the hospital," said Brenda. "We may need a more thorough checkup."

"But how would we get you all there at once?"

"Uh . . . the bus?" said Fred.

"I could try," Kurt said, "but I've never done more zhan vun ozzer person before."

"You can teleport?" Mrs. Ellis murmured in astonishment.

"Ja, but not ten people all at vunce."
"Maybe you could take us one or two at a time," Brenda suggested.

"You'd need a crane to teleport Fred," Lance said.

"If I could get up," the larger boy warned him, "I'd hurt you."

Brenda gave Lance a disapproving look.

"What?"

"You know what."

"We could hire a bus," Wanda suggested.

Finally, though, it was decided that they should contact Xavier and have him send the Blackbird to pick them up and deliver them to the nearest hospital.

Wolverine volunteered to pilot.

He regretted his decision, though, as soon as the kids were all loaded on board.

"Geez, Fred, what've you been eatin'?"

"Shut up!"
"Everyone shut up! I'm getting a headache."

They passed the rest of the flight in silence . . .

Well, mostly silence.

"Stop touching me!"
"I wasn't touching you!"
"You were leaning on me!"

"I was NOT!"

"Shut up or you're walkin' home!" Wolverine called back to them.

That kept them quiet the rest of the way.

When they reached the hospital, Mrs. Ellis and Xavier were waiting for them, along with the doctors.

They hustled the children into a high-security wing.
"This is just a precaution," the lead doctor said. "This virus may not even spread to humans."
At the shocked and angry looks he received, he said, "I meant normal humans. Not like you. Whatever."

"You haven't dealt with mutants much, have you?" Scott asked him skeptically.

"Can't say that I have," the man snapped.

"Good thing you came along, then, Charles," Ororo told the professor.

The hospital staff grouped the cases together by degree of symptoms; unfortunately, this meant that Scott and Lance were cooped up together again.

"Is there any way," Logan asked, "you can put the security guys inside the rooms, where we need 'em?"

The doctor looked at Logan. "Is there a problem?"

"You can say that again . . ."

By a curious coincidence, this happened to be the same hospital where Mystique found herself the talk of the children's ward.

The strain of trying to keep herself camouflaged was wearing her out. Oh, for a private room, where she could be herself!

At last she was transferred . . .

But when she saw where she was, she nearly begged to be back where she had been.
She was in a private wing . . . with Pietro and the others.

"Uh . . . hi."
"What are you doing here?"
"They just brought us in. Uh . . ." He looked at her strangely. "I think someone tried to connect your dots."

"What?" She looked down at herself, and saw red pen marks across her legs. "Oh...my.... God."

"Oh, don't worry, I think it looks good on you."

"Does it wash off? Please tell me it washes off!"

Pietro looked at her legs again. "I'm not sure..."

Mystique panicked and rang for the nurse, who wasn't in a good mood after having to referee the battle in the next room.

"What's your problem?" she grumbled at Mystique.

"Take a look." Mystique gestured angrily at her dot-connected legs.

The nurse stared... "Why did you do that to yourself?"
"I didn't do this! Somebody else did!"
"Come with me." the nurse said, leading Mystique to an empty room." We'll see what we can do..."

As she scrubbed off the ink marks, a near-riot erupted next door.

"Tell him to stay on his side!"
"I am on my side! He's the one moving!"
"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Really, can't you two act your age?" the nurse grumbled.

Both boys sheepishly bowed their heads...

"Sorry."
"Yeah, sorry."

With that, the nurse left.

The room assignments were as follows:

ROOM 1: Mystique and Pietro
ROOM 2: Lance, Scott and Kitty
ROOM 3: Rogue, Todd, and Brenda
ROOM 4: everyone else, including Kurt and Wanda, who were being held for observation even though they hadn't developed any symptoms yet.

In the lobby, Xavier waited with Storm and Magneto for an update.

"Could that doctor have been any ruder?" Magneto complained.

"I doubt it," Storm said.

"Hear hear." Xavier added.

Finally the doctor arrived. "They seem to be responding to the treatment," he said. "The only one who's still on the critical list is Toad. His fever keeps spiking up . . ."

"Up?" Magnus didn't like the way that sounded.

"No matter what we try and do to bring it down, it keeps shooting back up again. It's around 104 this time around."

"What else is wrong?" asked Storm.

"Apart from those other boys fighting all the time, everything's just peachy."

"What is it with those two?"

Logan arrived with Jean in tow. "What's the situation?" he asked.

Ororo quickly reviewed the facts for him.

"Maybe we can move them to separate rooms?"

"If we can find separate rooms for them."

"Maybe one of them can switch with someone."
"I dunno . . . that might just make matters worse."
There was a crash from down the hall, and a nurse came running.
"Can it get worse than this?"

"Probably."

"What's wrong now?" Logan asked.
The nurse said, "They're not responding as well as we'd hoped to treatment."

"What do you mean? What's happening?"

"Two of them are starting to show signs of relapse."

"Which two?"

"Todd Tolensky and Scott Summers."

"What's wrong with Scott?" Jean asked. The last she'd heard, he'd been getting better.

"In his case, the virus appears to have mutated . . ."

"In what way?"

"It's started attacking his lungs."

Jean nearly fainted . . .
"Will he be all right?" asked Logan.

"We don't know yet."

"When will we know?" Magneto demanded.

Just then . . . they heard loud coughing from Scott and Lance's room.

"That doesn't sound good."

As bad as they sounded, though, they looked even worse.

It was spreading (again), and at the worst possible time, too. Just when they'd thought it was over . . .