Lick The Pavement
Chapter Twelve: Adjustment and Recovery
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//Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am home again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am whole again//
Lovesong- The Cure
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Jean sighed, rubbing her tired eyes with one hand, and flopped gracelessly onto the large armchair in what was serving as their lounge.
Scott was sitting on the other armchair.
"Rough time?" He asked, as he ran his hands across Lance's shoulders, massaging out the tension. Lance, who was sitting between Scott's legs, arms on his knees, groaned pleasurably as his shoulders were rubbed, and practically purred.
Jean sighed.
"You have no idea. How come you and Lance got to bunk off putting those kids to bed?"
"Easy Red." Lance grinned, eyes still closed, concentrating on Scott's hands. "You don't give massages like Scott does."
Jean snorted and Scott actually giggled, smacking his lover across the back of the head gently.
"You moron." He told Lance. "Easy Jean. I masterminded the whole thing, Lance took a beating bringing the house down, now it's you and Logan's turn to do something."
Jean cocked her head at him.
"You mean you're too lazy and too comfortable where you are right now to get off your butt." She said dryly.
Scott laughed. "Pretty much yea."
Jean sighed. "Well, you weren't missing anything."
"Problems?" Scott asked, half-serious.
"Well, some of the kids are still in the infirmary. They're all asleep right now though, they were all pretty exhausted. That boy with the long red hair, Lukka? He was the worst. His injuries were extensive, although it looked like someone had given him a little bit of medical attention before leaving him in that freezing cell. A few broken ribs, numerous contusions, bruises, major and minor cuts. Someone whaled the tar out of him."
Lance broke in. "Probably those bastard guards at that place."
Scott nodded and Jean carried on.
"It looks that way. He's got boot-shaped bruises all over him. Some of his injuries were infected and he was running a pretty high fever. We put him on antibiotics and Logan is keeping an eye on him. He still hasn't woken up though, which is vaguely worrying.
That Brian kid isn't doing too well either. He's alright in terms of infection, but he's in a lot of pain. His ribs were cracked too, but that last guard back there broke them with that kick. We're lucky he didn't puncture something. Anyway, we wrapped them for him and gave him something for the pain."
"Personality wise, what is he like?" Scott asked.
Jean thought back.
"He seems very quiet, very mature for his age. We didn't really talk much, but from what I've seen he seems like he's been through a lot. Most of those kids do actually, never mind that prison."
"How long can we expect them to be in the infirmary for?"
"I don't know. It depends if one of these guys has some kind of healing power or something. It could be anything from a few weeks to a few months, so I'm not expecting Logan to do any training with them."
"Ok. Who else is in the infirmary?"
"Well… one of the girls, Tone, had a pretty nasty cut across her face which was also infected. We cleaned it out and stitched it for her, but she might have a nasty scar there. The oldest girl is Liz Blake. She was apparently in shock before we reached them, but she's settled down a lot know, and she's been really helpful in keeping the younger girls together. She looks like she could be a real help to us once she settles in."
"Were you having problems with the other girls then?" Scott asked.
"Not really. They were just a bit shaken, especially after all the excitement of being broken out of that place so fast. We gave everybody some hot milk and something to help them sleep, so most of them are doing alright."
Jean was quiet for a minute, tilting her head and un-focusing. She snapped back to attention a few minutes after.
"Yep, everyone's fine."
She didn't mention to the other two guys that Kegan had freaked out until she had told him that he could have a light on. It was his secret to tell if he wanted to.
"I put the girls in a room together, except for Rae, who wanted her own space. I offered Liz her own room as well, but she opted to stay with the younger girls."
"How are the others?"
"Well, Bryn and Kegan have their own rooms. Bryn's really sweet, a real gentleman. He told me he'd been betrayed by his maid Rosa, so he won't be going back home, the MDSC know where he is now."
"That's what I was gonna ask." Lance sat up, dislodging Scott's hands. "Are we keeping them all here or are some of them going back?"
Scott took that one. "We'll talk about it with them in the morning babe. Now get your ass back here, you were keeping my feet warm."
Lance stuck his tongue out at Scott playfully, but sat back down. Scott moved his hands from Lance's shoulders to his head, and combed through his hair lovingly.
"Anyway..." Jean continued. "We were having some trouble with Gabriel. You guys probably know that some of the guards there… uhm... molested him while he was there. We tried to get near him to check out his injuries, but he freaked. He wouldn't let Logan anywhere near him and he got so wound up I couldn't control him either. In the end I had to hold him down with my telepathy and then sedate him chemically.
He had massive internal injuries, but not all of the… damage… seemed new. He had quite a bad infection coming on as well, so we've given him antibiotics and something to knock him out. It looked like he tried to chew that cuff off as well; his wrist had teeth shaped chunks out of it."
Scott looked concerned. "He doesn't sound…"
Jean cut in. "Sane? I know. I didn't go near his mind in case he's contagious or something. Hopefully he'll be better when he wakes up away from Logan tomorrow. But I think we have to keep an eye on him… he seems unbalanced, and if he turns out to be a danger to the others we might have to… well… send him elsewhere."
Lance winced. "Surely we could…" He trailed off, then looked up at Scott for help.
Scott shrugged sadly. "It's difficult to say this Lance but Jean's right. We won't have any other choice." After a long silence Scott squeezed Lance's shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, you never know. He might be as right as rain tomorrow."
Lance grunted, but his face was still dark. Jean sighed and stood up, stretching.
"Well, it's been a hard day and I'm off to bed; night guys."
Lance and Scott called goodnight to Jean in unison, then stayed, staring at the fire for a while. Finally, Lance tilted his head back onto Scott's knee.
"You know I love you right?" He said softly.
Scott smiled down at him, then bent to give him a kiss.
"I know."
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Meh… I had this typed up, but then I LOST IT, so had to type it up all over again. Kinda annoying.
But yea, here it is.
Please email me you guys… I get sad and lonely otherwise. Pairing ideas, helpful criticism, anything you want your chara to say or do or ANYTHING, please mail me.
Love you all…
DCJ