Institutionalized: Chapter 2-Down
*****
I hear sound echoe in the emptiness
All around but you can't change this lonliness
Look what you've found
I've fallen down
*****
Her fingers twitching nervously as she approached the Professor's study, Rogue forced herself to calm down before opening the door and stepping inside the big room. As she walked in she found herself looking at the concerned faces of Jean, Scott, and Ororo, the Professor holding a grim smile. "Um..what's..wrong?" Rogue asked slowly, suddenly feeling very awkward and nervous.
"Please sit down with the rest of the team Rogue." the Professor asked her calmly, folding his hands over the oak desk.
"A'right." sitting herself between Ororo and Jean in the empty chair, Rogue's thoughts began to drift. 'So what is this? Am I really considered part o' the main team now? Why wasn't Bobby told ta come? He an' I joined at the same time...This is really weird, somethin's gotta be wrong...'
The Professor cleared his throat, a forced smile on his face. "As you all know, I've sent Logan back to Alkali Lake to check it over. That was about 7 days ago, and he should have returned yesterday."
Everyone in the room stared at the Professor, waiting for him to get to the point, and fearing what it may be. Even Scott seemed to care, though he wasn't making his concern as obvious as the others.
Rogue suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Something really was wrong, and it had to do with Logan not coming back when he was supposed to.'Oh God...' she thought, gripped with fear as she chewed at her lower lip and began fidgeting with her gloves. 'What's wrong...what's happened to Logan?'
"Charles, what is it?" Jean prompted after his long silence as the Professor collectively gathered all their expressions, trying to block out everyone's emotions from penetrating his mental barriers. She was especially worried something was very wrong. Jean could sense it, even though Professor Xavier was trying desperately to hide what 'it' was.
"Yes Charles, please go on." Ororo said, trying to get with Jean's line of thinking.
The Professor leaned forward, his voice low and serious. "I have found him, but...he's not in a place that I would call safe."
Rogue furrowed her brows, then finally spoke exactly what she was thinking. "What do you mean Professor? Where is he? Where's Logan??"
"Is he in some sort of trouble?" Scott asked with a bit of sarcasm, figuring only Logan could find himself in trouble on a simple scouting mission.
Jean shot him a look and the fearless leader shrunk back slightly in his chair. Ever since Alkali Lake, she and Scott had been in an 'on and off' relationship. She could tell that Scott had since been very careful what he said in front of her, he didn't want her upset with him.
Xavier sighed. "He's in a psychiatric institution for mutants."
"What?!" Rogue, Jean, and Ororo asked in unison, though Rogue's shout was much more vocal.
The Professor shook his head sadly. "I need one or two of you to go down there and see what's going on. But I have a feeling it's not going to be an easy task to get him out if he's been committed."
"I want to go." Rogue said quickly, wanting to make sure she was there for him. She knew that no matter what, Logan would be there for her.
"I'd like to go too Professor." Jean said with a nod toward Rogue.
"What?!" Scott exclaimed with a bit too much enthusiasm. "Jean, I don't know if that's such a great idea."
"Why Scott?" Jean stared at him with a hint of anger in her tone. "Just because you aren't on the best terms with Logan?!" she nearly shouted. Jean was sick of Scott's jealousy, especially since he'd been against Logan since the day he arrived at the institute. "This is about helping out a teammate, a friend. Your rivalry with Logan has no part in this!"
"No, it's-" Scott began defending himself quickly, desperately wanting to get back on her good side.
"Enough." Ororo said forcefully, causing everyone to look her way. "Jean is right Scott, she should go. It may be best to have a telepath there, to detect if we're being lied to involving the reason Logan is at the institution. Besides, those Logan feels closest to should be there, just in case something really is wrong."
That last bit touched a nerve with Scott. Jean was someone that Logan felt closest to? He didn't like that at all.
"Jean, you and Rogue are to leave immediately." Charles agreed, making the decision that the two were to go. "We don't want any unnecessary attention, or for the people at the hospital to suspect anything, so you'll have to take a Commercial flight.
"Where is this place?" Rogue asked, standing up.
"It's actually a few hundred miles from the Alkali Lake base."
*****
Taste the saline
Rolling down your cheekbone
Tell me that you're alone
Tell me on the telephone
Feel your heart
It breaks within your chest now.
Try to get some rest now
Sleep's not coming easy for a while
child
*****
The room was quiet, so quiet in fact that it seemed as if a pin being dropped could wake the dead. It was cold too, which made the awful place seem more like a place for the dead than anything. Cell Block-C was where the more dangerous patients were kept. It was where Logan found himself at the moment. He was lying on a cold metal bed, strapped down by heavy metal restraints cuffed around his ankles and wrists, and his chest was strapped down with a thick leather strap. He had specially made adamantium cuffs on his knuckles to keep him from releasing his claws, and a mask over his mouth, supposedly to keep him from biting.
The orderlies and doctors treated him like some kind of animal, and he wasn't sure that they were too far off. Logan didn't remember how he'd gotten himself in this place, and he had a very vague recollection of where he'd been living before this. He remembered a large building, but not like this. It was more like a home and wasn't an institution really. He remembered lots of people, and he remembered caring for a few of them like they were his own family. Why couldn't he remember clearly? What happened to him? He didn't belong here, he wasn't crazy. Or was he? Did he deserve being treated this way? All he could remember incredibly clearly was that his name was Logan. Then there were the nightmares. He had torturous dreams, but somehow he knew the dreams didn't originate in the Psychiatric Hospital, they were from somewhere much, much worse.
Logan knew that the people here were drugging him, making him act all crazy in some back-asswards attempt to cure him, though there was nothing to cure. Atleast, he didn't think so. Something had convinced him that this place was driving him crazy, he wasn't supposed to be here, and he needed to get out and find that warm house, the one with people that cared for him. The hardest thing to think about, was that there was no one that cared for him, no big warm house with a bunch of people like him. Mutants. He was afraid that none of the wonderful things he thought he barely remembered existed, and it all came from his imagination.
Logan lay there, unmoving, trying to fall asleep and dream of that big warm house, even if it was only in his mind.
*****
