Disclaimer: I own nothing and I admit it despite my pride.
Rating: PG for now.
Distribution: Sure just tell me where.
Okay, second chapter. The first one went all angsty on me, but this one may see things getting better. Maybe anyway, or maybe I'll want to torture my readers for a little longer. As I write this, I'm supposed to be doing revision for my exams, but as I haven't started and the exam is tomorrow I have a feeling I'm not going to be ready. Oh well, who said a girl can have everything?
* * *
She wouldn't meet his eyes. She just wouldn't, if she did she'd see it. And she didn't want to see it. Every time she looked at him and saw the hurt that she had caused in his eyes it made her heart sting. She looked up. He tried to smile at her but it got lost on the way and didn't look like a smile. She saw the intention though and tried to smile back. She was equally unsuccessful.
Six days, and it wasn't getting any better, every time she looked at him she wanted to cry. She wanted it to stop hurting, she wanted it to ease off just for a few hours, but mostly she just wanted Bobby.
* * *
Bobby kept staring at her. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. He knew that she had only done it for him, because she loved him and felt so unbelievably guilty about him kissing her and nearly dying. Sometimes he felt so sorry for her that he could have cried for her hurt as well as his other times he was so mad at her for putting him through this that he could have just killed her.
Sometimes he felt both. Either way though he would forget it all in a second if she would just come back to him and let them go back to the way that they were, in love.
* * *
"Well, the best we can do is tell her and give her the option. There's a chance that she may not be interested, especially not at the moment."
Professor Xavier looked at Ororo and frowned, "Why now especially?"
Scott looked at him, "Didn't you know? As soon as Bobby regained consciousness she broke it off with him."
The older man sighed, "Oh dear. Do you think we are too late?"
Ororo shook her head, "No. She only did it cause she was afraid of hurting him. We might be able to try and help them with that."
"Okay. Scott, go and call her to my office. The last lesson should finish in around five minutes."
Scott nodded.
* * *
Rogue had very definite plans for her evening. She was going to go back to her room. Crawl into the bath, soak there for at least an hour, then after she got out she was going to crawl into bed and eat a lot of comfort food. "Rogue?"
She turned round at the sound of Scott Summers' voice; she hadn't even seen him since the tragedy at Alkali Lake, "Hey, something wrong?"
"No. The Professor asked that you come to his office to speak to him."
Rogue was surprised but followed Scott to the big double doors. Scott opened them and she walked into the office when Aurora and the Professor were waiting, "Okay, this is getting kinda scary."
The Professor smiled, "We wanted to speak to you. There is no real delicate way to begin this conversation, so it'll be more practical to just begin. I am given to understand that you and Mr. Drake are no longer a couple. Is that correct?"
Rogue flushed, wondering where this was going, "That's right Professor."
"Would you mind terribly telling me why?"
Rogue was embarrassed and couldn't see how this was any of the Professor business, not that she didn't want him to know, but it hurt to talk about Bobby, "After what happened, I decided that it was too dangerous for us to continue seeing each other."
The Professor nodded, "I commend your sense, I can imagine that it wasn't easy. But, I believe that we may be able to help you personally Rogue."
She frowned, "How's that Professor?"
The Professor indicated to Ororo to take the floor, "Well, we have found ways for those among us to," she hesitated searching for the right word, "Cope with their mutation. And we would be more than willing to try and find out if there is a way to combat yours."
Rogue wasn't exactly sure that she was hearing this correctly, "Are you saying that there may be a way to get rid of this?"
The Professor shook his head, "There is no way to dispose of a mutation Rogue, but there may be a way to control it. It would involve a lot of testing and it may be very time consuming. We would be willing to try but of course only if you are."
Rogue laughed, "Of course. When do we start?"
The Professor smiled, "As soon as possible."
* * *
Rogue flinched as the fourth needle was pushed into her arm. Ouch! This was not pleasant. This whole process had started about three weeks ago and the 'testing' was hard. Everything about her was being monitored and tested. She had had to do all kinds of things. The first things they had done was tested her responses to exercise. She had done an hour on a treadmill, and then on a rowing machine, then they had tested her reactions to all kinds of muscle stimulus. Now they had moved on to blood tests, skin samples, everything about her. She was missing lessons to do all this, but she was managing to keep up after wards. The teachers all knew her circumstances and they helped her with anything she didn't understand on a one to one basis.
It didn't matter. She honestly didn't care about how hard she had to work, because there was the fact that afterwards, she might be able to touch Bobby without killing him. She wasn't exactly sure what they were hoping to produce, maybe a medicine of some kind or a pill. But either way it was going to be worth it.
All the same, she was only getting through this because of Logan. He wasn't participating in the testing, but he was helping her. He didn't really do anything that she could put her finger on, but he was there. He was supportive even when she was tired, in pain, or just feeling down. She smiled to herself despite the pains in her left arm when she thought about how jealous Bobby had been of him. He really had no need to be and she had told him so. Logan was her friend. The closest thing she had to a parent and as such, he was invaluable, but he was not more than that. She almost chuckled when she thought of the way Bobby had frozen his hand and made it very clear that he was her boyfriend. Then she stopped smiling.
Bobby wasn't her boyfriend anymore. She hadn't told him about this. It might not work for ages and she didn't want to get his hopes up. It hurt her more that she couldn't share this good news with the person who mattered most in her life
* * *
Bobby sat on the floor in his room. He was sculpting a model of Rogue out of ice. He was trying to capture the light that used to appear in her eyes every time she saw him. He didn't want to forget it. He hardly ever saw her anymore and when he did, she was always with Logan. Logan. Bobby scowled to himself. He hated the fact that he felt this way about the older man. But he couldn't help but be jealous.
It was weird. In theory, Rogue wasn't his anymore. But she would always be his, because he'd always love her. And yet, he couldn't stand seeing her with Logan.
Maybe he'd ask her about it. After all, in theory they were still friends.
* * *
Rogue walked down the hallway with Logan. They were laughing about something they'd seen on the TV when Bobby came toward them.
"Rogue, can I speak to you for a minute?"
She was taken by surprise, "Um . . . yeah sure."
Logan shrugged, "Maybe see you later?"
Rogue nodded, "Yeah."
A Logan walked away Bobby indicated to a chair, "I wanted to ask you . . .if everything's okay."
She looked confused, "Yeah, everything's fine."
Bobby wasn't about to be put off though, "It's just, you haven't been coming to class, and you're not hanging out with your friends, something's up. Does this have something to do with me? I don't want you to have to miss out on stuff because you're avoiding me."
Rogue smiled, "I'm not. Really. I'm just . . .spending some time with Logan. That's all." She hated lying to Bobby but thinking on her feet, she couldn't come up with another excuse.
It was apparently the wrong excuse, "Oh. Right."
He had been right. There was something. Something that she couldn't tell him but that she didn't mind telling Logan. Well fine. "Okay, I'll see you around."
Rogue got the distinct impression that she had said the wrong thing, maybe she should have told him the truth from the start. She just wasn't sure.
* * *
Kitty frowned, "Are you serious?"
"Yeah I'm very serious."
She thought for a moment. There was really no harm in it, "Yeah that'd be nice. Saturday?"
"Sure. How about around eight? I'll pick you up."
Kitty smiled and nodded, "That'd be great. See you then."
"See you then." Bobby walked down the hall and went into his room.
* * *
Rogue pushed open the door of the room she shared with Kitty and Ju. She'd had a rough day. More tests. She was looking forward to a girly night in if she was honest. Wow wasn't her social life great? She was looking forward to staying in on a Saturday night. Rogue looked around her room and saw to her surprise that Kitty was not there. Ju was sat on her bed, but there was no Kitty, "Hey, where's Kitty?"
Jubilee looked up at her but looked down again quickly, "I don't know she didn't say where she was going."
Rogue frowned but she didn't have time to answer, as there was a knock on the door. Rogue opened it and saw Ororo stood there, "Hey, is everything okay?"
"Can we see you in the Professor's office please?"
Rogue smiled, "Sure I'll be right there."
* * *
Rogue sat down in the leather chair, "So? Good news or bad?"
Professor Xavier smiled at her, "Good news we hope."
"So?"
"Well, when we started your testing we took all kinds of readings, but we discovered that the main results were actually obtained from your skin cells."
"My skin?"
"Yes. Now every human being on the planet has porous skin. If a cold person touches a warm person, they will feel warmer; they absorb the heat slightly. Now our original thought with regard to your mutation was that somehow you used electricity to pull energy from living things. However, it would now seem to be the case, that your skin is extremely porous. You don't just absorb heat you absorb life."
Rogue flushed, "Yeah, I got that part."
The Professor noticed her discomfort and quickly moved on, "Well, our next step was to figure out how your skin did that. Our answer was in your blood. Every body's skin has two layers. Yours only has one. Using the earlier example, blood as well as skin recognise heat. Your blood comes very close the surface although you look no different. And it is this proximity that causes the problem."
Rogue thought for a minute, "So because my skin is very thin, my blood is able to absorb more from people than is normal. It that right?"
The Professor nodded hesitantly, "Very close. Your blood is more . . . think of your blood cells being charged. That would get you closer. This would make no difference if it were not for your skin."
Rogue nodded, she was surprised at how much relief actually understanding her condition gave her, "So is there anything that can be done about it?"
The Professor smiled, "We have developed something that we want you to try."
She nodded, "Will it hurt?"
For the first time since she had entered the room Ororo spoke, "No. There would be no point if it hurt you."
"Okay."
* * *
Rogue sat on the bed in a hospital gown. Ororo had said that they needed access to her back.
There was a knock at the door, "Come in."
The Professor, Scott and Ororo came through the door, "We thought that we'd come too if you don't mind. We really want to see if this works."
Rogue smiled at Scott, "Sure. You guys did this you should be here."
Ororo walked over to her, "This may not be what you expected."
As the woman opened a box, Rogue looked own into it. There was a small round metal disk about two inches across. It had twelve holes running round the sides of it and a small red circle in the centre."
"Wow. I thought it'd be a pill or maybe an injection. This looks better. Um . . .not to sound like an idiot. But what does it do?"
The Professor smiled, "If it works, and you should know that there's no guarantee that it will, it will coat you skin from the inside. That's why we needed to put it on your back. The base of the spine is where the skin breathes from most."
The Professor looked to Ororo, "Ready?"
She nodded, "Okay. Rogue if you'll lie on your front."
Rogue did so without hesitation. She felt a blanket laid over her bottom half and when she was covered for modesties sake, Ororo pulled the gown apart along the cut up the back.
"Brace your self this may be a little cold."
Rogue laughed slightly, "Okay."
Ororo took a deep breath, "Here goes. We've set up a camera so that you can watch."
She turned on a screen in front of Rogue and Rogue saw her back and Ororo's hand.
She lifted the small disk out o the box and placed in on the small of Rogue's back.
Rogue watched in astonishment as thin pieces of wire came out of each of the twelve holes around the side. They were so thin that they looked like hair. Apparently, each one was hollow and a droplet of liquid came out of each, as soon as the liquid dried the wire pressed down into her skin and pierced. She expected to feel pain but she did not. Just slight warmth.
Ororo took another deep breath, "Well, so far so good. Now the red circle is like a button. You press it and the disk will activate. Are you ready?"
Rogue nodded, "Yes." Ororo pressed the button firmly but not hard.
A very strange sensation passed through Rogue's entire body, as though something was moving quickly over her skin. Rogue took a sharp breath in, in surprise, the Professor spoke, "Are you alright Rogue?"
Rogue nodded, "Yes I'm fine. It was just a strange sensation. Like something was passing over me."
He smiled, "Something was, in a way. But in wasn't passing over you. It was passing through you. It coats your skin from the inside if it works properly. And then it maintains the coat. You can move it'll stay on."
Rogue held the gown together behind her and sat up, running her fingers over the mysterious new lump on her back, "How do we know if it works?"
The Professor smiled, "Like this." And he reached out and grabbed her bare arm.
Rating: PG for now.
Distribution: Sure just tell me where.
Okay, second chapter. The first one went all angsty on me, but this one may see things getting better. Maybe anyway, or maybe I'll want to torture my readers for a little longer. As I write this, I'm supposed to be doing revision for my exams, but as I haven't started and the exam is tomorrow I have a feeling I'm not going to be ready. Oh well, who said a girl can have everything?
* * *
She wouldn't meet his eyes. She just wouldn't, if she did she'd see it. And she didn't want to see it. Every time she looked at him and saw the hurt that she had caused in his eyes it made her heart sting. She looked up. He tried to smile at her but it got lost on the way and didn't look like a smile. She saw the intention though and tried to smile back. She was equally unsuccessful.
Six days, and it wasn't getting any better, every time she looked at him she wanted to cry. She wanted it to stop hurting, she wanted it to ease off just for a few hours, but mostly she just wanted Bobby.
* * *
Bobby kept staring at her. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. He knew that she had only done it for him, because she loved him and felt so unbelievably guilty about him kissing her and nearly dying. Sometimes he felt so sorry for her that he could have cried for her hurt as well as his other times he was so mad at her for putting him through this that he could have just killed her.
Sometimes he felt both. Either way though he would forget it all in a second if she would just come back to him and let them go back to the way that they were, in love.
* * *
"Well, the best we can do is tell her and give her the option. There's a chance that she may not be interested, especially not at the moment."
Professor Xavier looked at Ororo and frowned, "Why now especially?"
Scott looked at him, "Didn't you know? As soon as Bobby regained consciousness she broke it off with him."
The older man sighed, "Oh dear. Do you think we are too late?"
Ororo shook her head, "No. She only did it cause she was afraid of hurting him. We might be able to try and help them with that."
"Okay. Scott, go and call her to my office. The last lesson should finish in around five minutes."
Scott nodded.
* * *
Rogue had very definite plans for her evening. She was going to go back to her room. Crawl into the bath, soak there for at least an hour, then after she got out she was going to crawl into bed and eat a lot of comfort food. "Rogue?"
She turned round at the sound of Scott Summers' voice; she hadn't even seen him since the tragedy at Alkali Lake, "Hey, something wrong?"
"No. The Professor asked that you come to his office to speak to him."
Rogue was surprised but followed Scott to the big double doors. Scott opened them and she walked into the office when Aurora and the Professor were waiting, "Okay, this is getting kinda scary."
The Professor smiled, "We wanted to speak to you. There is no real delicate way to begin this conversation, so it'll be more practical to just begin. I am given to understand that you and Mr. Drake are no longer a couple. Is that correct?"
Rogue flushed, wondering where this was going, "That's right Professor."
"Would you mind terribly telling me why?"
Rogue was embarrassed and couldn't see how this was any of the Professor business, not that she didn't want him to know, but it hurt to talk about Bobby, "After what happened, I decided that it was too dangerous for us to continue seeing each other."
The Professor nodded, "I commend your sense, I can imagine that it wasn't easy. But, I believe that we may be able to help you personally Rogue."
She frowned, "How's that Professor?"
The Professor indicated to Ororo to take the floor, "Well, we have found ways for those among us to," she hesitated searching for the right word, "Cope with their mutation. And we would be more than willing to try and find out if there is a way to combat yours."
Rogue wasn't exactly sure that she was hearing this correctly, "Are you saying that there may be a way to get rid of this?"
The Professor shook his head, "There is no way to dispose of a mutation Rogue, but there may be a way to control it. It would involve a lot of testing and it may be very time consuming. We would be willing to try but of course only if you are."
Rogue laughed, "Of course. When do we start?"
The Professor smiled, "As soon as possible."
* * *
Rogue flinched as the fourth needle was pushed into her arm. Ouch! This was not pleasant. This whole process had started about three weeks ago and the 'testing' was hard. Everything about her was being monitored and tested. She had had to do all kinds of things. The first things they had done was tested her responses to exercise. She had done an hour on a treadmill, and then on a rowing machine, then they had tested her reactions to all kinds of muscle stimulus. Now they had moved on to blood tests, skin samples, everything about her. She was missing lessons to do all this, but she was managing to keep up after wards. The teachers all knew her circumstances and they helped her with anything she didn't understand on a one to one basis.
It didn't matter. She honestly didn't care about how hard she had to work, because there was the fact that afterwards, she might be able to touch Bobby without killing him. She wasn't exactly sure what they were hoping to produce, maybe a medicine of some kind or a pill. But either way it was going to be worth it.
All the same, she was only getting through this because of Logan. He wasn't participating in the testing, but he was helping her. He didn't really do anything that she could put her finger on, but he was there. He was supportive even when she was tired, in pain, or just feeling down. She smiled to herself despite the pains in her left arm when she thought about how jealous Bobby had been of him. He really had no need to be and she had told him so. Logan was her friend. The closest thing she had to a parent and as such, he was invaluable, but he was not more than that. She almost chuckled when she thought of the way Bobby had frozen his hand and made it very clear that he was her boyfriend. Then she stopped smiling.
Bobby wasn't her boyfriend anymore. She hadn't told him about this. It might not work for ages and she didn't want to get his hopes up. It hurt her more that she couldn't share this good news with the person who mattered most in her life
* * *
Bobby sat on the floor in his room. He was sculpting a model of Rogue out of ice. He was trying to capture the light that used to appear in her eyes every time she saw him. He didn't want to forget it. He hardly ever saw her anymore and when he did, she was always with Logan. Logan. Bobby scowled to himself. He hated the fact that he felt this way about the older man. But he couldn't help but be jealous.
It was weird. In theory, Rogue wasn't his anymore. But she would always be his, because he'd always love her. And yet, he couldn't stand seeing her with Logan.
Maybe he'd ask her about it. After all, in theory they were still friends.
* * *
Rogue walked down the hallway with Logan. They were laughing about something they'd seen on the TV when Bobby came toward them.
"Rogue, can I speak to you for a minute?"
She was taken by surprise, "Um . . . yeah sure."
Logan shrugged, "Maybe see you later?"
Rogue nodded, "Yeah."
A Logan walked away Bobby indicated to a chair, "I wanted to ask you . . .if everything's okay."
She looked confused, "Yeah, everything's fine."
Bobby wasn't about to be put off though, "It's just, you haven't been coming to class, and you're not hanging out with your friends, something's up. Does this have something to do with me? I don't want you to have to miss out on stuff because you're avoiding me."
Rogue smiled, "I'm not. Really. I'm just . . .spending some time with Logan. That's all." She hated lying to Bobby but thinking on her feet, she couldn't come up with another excuse.
It was apparently the wrong excuse, "Oh. Right."
He had been right. There was something. Something that she couldn't tell him but that she didn't mind telling Logan. Well fine. "Okay, I'll see you around."
Rogue got the distinct impression that she had said the wrong thing, maybe she should have told him the truth from the start. She just wasn't sure.
* * *
Kitty frowned, "Are you serious?"
"Yeah I'm very serious."
She thought for a moment. There was really no harm in it, "Yeah that'd be nice. Saturday?"
"Sure. How about around eight? I'll pick you up."
Kitty smiled and nodded, "That'd be great. See you then."
"See you then." Bobby walked down the hall and went into his room.
* * *
Rogue pushed open the door of the room she shared with Kitty and Ju. She'd had a rough day. More tests. She was looking forward to a girly night in if she was honest. Wow wasn't her social life great? She was looking forward to staying in on a Saturday night. Rogue looked around her room and saw to her surprise that Kitty was not there. Ju was sat on her bed, but there was no Kitty, "Hey, where's Kitty?"
Jubilee looked up at her but looked down again quickly, "I don't know she didn't say where she was going."
Rogue frowned but she didn't have time to answer, as there was a knock on the door. Rogue opened it and saw Ororo stood there, "Hey, is everything okay?"
"Can we see you in the Professor's office please?"
Rogue smiled, "Sure I'll be right there."
* * *
Rogue sat down in the leather chair, "So? Good news or bad?"
Professor Xavier smiled at her, "Good news we hope."
"So?"
"Well, when we started your testing we took all kinds of readings, but we discovered that the main results were actually obtained from your skin cells."
"My skin?"
"Yes. Now every human being on the planet has porous skin. If a cold person touches a warm person, they will feel warmer; they absorb the heat slightly. Now our original thought with regard to your mutation was that somehow you used electricity to pull energy from living things. However, it would now seem to be the case, that your skin is extremely porous. You don't just absorb heat you absorb life."
Rogue flushed, "Yeah, I got that part."
The Professor noticed her discomfort and quickly moved on, "Well, our next step was to figure out how your skin did that. Our answer was in your blood. Every body's skin has two layers. Yours only has one. Using the earlier example, blood as well as skin recognise heat. Your blood comes very close the surface although you look no different. And it is this proximity that causes the problem."
Rogue thought for a minute, "So because my skin is very thin, my blood is able to absorb more from people than is normal. It that right?"
The Professor nodded hesitantly, "Very close. Your blood is more . . . think of your blood cells being charged. That would get you closer. This would make no difference if it were not for your skin."
Rogue nodded, she was surprised at how much relief actually understanding her condition gave her, "So is there anything that can be done about it?"
The Professor smiled, "We have developed something that we want you to try."
She nodded, "Will it hurt?"
For the first time since she had entered the room Ororo spoke, "No. There would be no point if it hurt you."
"Okay."
* * *
Rogue sat on the bed in a hospital gown. Ororo had said that they needed access to her back.
There was a knock at the door, "Come in."
The Professor, Scott and Ororo came through the door, "We thought that we'd come too if you don't mind. We really want to see if this works."
Rogue smiled at Scott, "Sure. You guys did this you should be here."
Ororo walked over to her, "This may not be what you expected."
As the woman opened a box, Rogue looked own into it. There was a small round metal disk about two inches across. It had twelve holes running round the sides of it and a small red circle in the centre."
"Wow. I thought it'd be a pill or maybe an injection. This looks better. Um . . .not to sound like an idiot. But what does it do?"
The Professor smiled, "If it works, and you should know that there's no guarantee that it will, it will coat you skin from the inside. That's why we needed to put it on your back. The base of the spine is where the skin breathes from most."
The Professor looked to Ororo, "Ready?"
She nodded, "Okay. Rogue if you'll lie on your front."
Rogue did so without hesitation. She felt a blanket laid over her bottom half and when she was covered for modesties sake, Ororo pulled the gown apart along the cut up the back.
"Brace your self this may be a little cold."
Rogue laughed slightly, "Okay."
Ororo took a deep breath, "Here goes. We've set up a camera so that you can watch."
She turned on a screen in front of Rogue and Rogue saw her back and Ororo's hand.
She lifted the small disk out o the box and placed in on the small of Rogue's back.
Rogue watched in astonishment as thin pieces of wire came out of each of the twelve holes around the side. They were so thin that they looked like hair. Apparently, each one was hollow and a droplet of liquid came out of each, as soon as the liquid dried the wire pressed down into her skin and pierced. She expected to feel pain but she did not. Just slight warmth.
Ororo took another deep breath, "Well, so far so good. Now the red circle is like a button. You press it and the disk will activate. Are you ready?"
Rogue nodded, "Yes." Ororo pressed the button firmly but not hard.
A very strange sensation passed through Rogue's entire body, as though something was moving quickly over her skin. Rogue took a sharp breath in, in surprise, the Professor spoke, "Are you alright Rogue?"
Rogue nodded, "Yes I'm fine. It was just a strange sensation. Like something was passing over me."
He smiled, "Something was, in a way. But in wasn't passing over you. It was passing through you. It coats your skin from the inside if it works properly. And then it maintains the coat. You can move it'll stay on."
Rogue held the gown together behind her and sat up, running her fingers over the mysterious new lump on her back, "How do we know if it works?"
The Professor smiled, "Like this." And he reached out and grabbed her bare arm.