Chapter 18: Telling the Story

Logan's eyes narrowed, mouth opened to say something. But the professor cut him off.

"Bobby, please continue."

"That's when I got the call to get out of there. He wasn't sure about coming with me, but I told him that I wanted my roommate back. I still had a hold of his wrist from when I got him off the edge. We ran down the stairs as fast as we could, but we didn't get too far when we heard and felt the rumbling from the bomb. The last thing I remember about then is John slamming into me."

"Then what?" the professor urged.

"I woke up a while later, I'm not sure about the time or anything. I couldn't move, there was a lot of weight on top of me. Then I remembered what had happened, and I knew John had shielded me when the building fell in on us. I moved him a little, checked him over for injuries. I only found a sprained wrist and I knew he had some kind of head injury since he was unconscious. I pretty much just sat with him until he woke up. When he did, I knew he wasn't doing well. But I couldn't find my radio, so I had no way of letting anyone know what happened. I got John to keep talking while I looked for a way out. I finally did find one and I managed to get us out. John had said something about a car, so I went to look for that, leaving him where he could somewhat rest. I had trouble waking him when I got back with the car. There wasn't a lot of gas, so we didn't get that far. By the time the car died, we weren't too far from a general store. But John didn't make it that far, he collapsed beforehand. I didn't want to leave him there, but I needed to get to a phone. I ran to the store, called the professor and went back to him. The professor wanted me to get John to the store, so I carried him there. He woke up a little before the professor arrived, said some things, then went unconscious again. He stopped breathing. I was doing CPR when the professor found us. John was breathing on his own, but still out cold. Then we came here."

"Young mister Allardyce is still in a coma. He had extensive bruising, mostly on his back. He has suffered some kind of head injury, I suspect a concussion, although I will not know for sure until he wakes. But what worries me the most are the internal injuries he suffered. I tried repairing what I could, but I'm afraid I may have been too late. I cannot predict with any certainty what will happen," the professor explained.

"So John's here?" Rogue asked.

"Yes, he is."

"If there's nothing else, professor, I'd like to go back downstairs and stay with him. He'll need a friendly face when he wakes up," Bobby said, standing.

The professor merely nodded, then Bobby walked towards the door.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Logan said as Bobby opened the door to leave.

"I do. You see, even when you all gave up on him, I couldn't. None of you knew him as well as I did. It just took me a while to realize why he did what he did. He has a good heart, I know that. You can hate him for what he did before, but as far as I'm concerned, he saved my life," Bobby replied, then turning away. But before leaving, he turned back, staring right at Logan and warned, "And I won't let anything happen to him."