Rising to the Sunset

Disclaimer:  I don't own these characters.  Marvel does. 

Chapter 6

Overhead they heard a great whoosh heralding the arrival of the Blackbird.  It touched down and Bobby and Rogue came hurdling out, followed by Hank. 

"Have we forgotten out landing procedure?"

"Dr. McCoy," Rogue argued.  We're only going to be a few minutes".

Hank smiled and let it go.  He walked over Kitty who staring at the laptop.  "Do you have Jeannie's vitals up too?"

"Yeah.  She's hypothermic, but all her vitals are improving.  It's weird.  Look at this!  They're EEGs are completely synched".

"They have a very interesting connection".

They walked over to where Scott sat holding Jean.  He was deeply in his mind. 

"Be careful.  You don't want to shock him," Hank warned. 

Kitty lightly placed her hand on Scott's shoulder.  Gradually, he recognized it. 

"Are they here?"

"We're here Scott," Hank replied. "How's Jeannie?"

"Alive".

"That's great.  Kitty said she was hypothermic"

"Yeah.  She's still soaked, but I didn't want to take her out of her wet uniform yet because its does provide some extra insulation," Scott said.  "Her left leg is broken from the fight inside".  Their fight, he left out. 

**I'm sorry, honey.  I did that to you**

**It's ok.  You were Stryker's puppet.  I know that**

"Okay," Hank announced.  "Let's get her inside where we can get her out of the drenched uniform, and I can get an IV into her to slowly re-warm her.  Raising her temperature is a top priority, but we have to do it slowly.  What is it now, Kitty"

"95".

"Still hypothermic.  Not dire, but still not good".

Peter bent down to get Jean and Scott resisted a little.

**I can do the short trip to the Blackbird**

**Scott…**

He relented and let Peter take Jean inside and lay her on the emergency bunk. 

"Okay," Hank smiled.  "I have raised the temperature inside the bird to, say, August.  It's going to be warm.  Uh…Iceman, Colossus, come outside with me while I contact the Professor and update him.  Shadowcat and Rogue, help Cyclops change…uh…Jean…into one of the dry sweat suits.

The younger boys reluctantly followed Hank outside.  After a few minutes, Rogue poked her head outside and indicated that they could come inside now.  Jean was settled into the bunk, wearing a pair of blue sweatpants, t-shirt, and a sweatshirt.  Hank pulled up one of the sleeves and inserted an IV.  Kitty came over to the bunk, disappointed. 

"I could have done the IV".

"Really? I didn't know you could do IVs".

"Yeah, I've done it once before.  I've watched her do a number of them though".

"Allrighty, then.  Hook up this bag and set the meter to a constant drip.  I'm going to get prep the engine".

"Okay".

Kitty set to work finishing Jean's IV.  When she looked up, she was startled to see that Bobby and Peter had unzipped and removed their uniforms to their waists. 

"What?"  Bobby asked.  "It's hot in here".

"They're lucky," Rogue muttered. "They can do that".

"Well you could too," Bobby laughed. 

Rogue shot him a dirty look.  Scott followed the other guys' lead, only he took a dry t-shirt and put it on.  He then proceeded to climb into the emergency bunk and snuggle up to Jean. 

"Wow," Kitty marveled.

"What?" Rogue asked, looked at the jumble of lines on Kitty's laptop. 

"She really shows much more improvement when he's attached to her.  Look. Everything improves when Scott is near her.  Oooh.  Including her temperature.  Hank!  She's up to 96 degrees.  She's out of the hypothermic range".

**She is so astute.  That girl will make a great doctor someday**

**You've begun training her well. She was amazing when we started this search**

**Kitty's an extremely smart young lady**

**Mmm**

**Tired**

**Very**

**Don't let me keep you up**

Slowly, Scott fell asleep, his head against Jean's breast.  It was the first time he had really slept all week.