(I'm not a doctor, so I don't know anything really about coma, and the effect it has on people after 10 days. So, if you're a doctor and you're gagging over my miss-representation of this medical situation I'm really sorry.:-S)
"Nothing?" Hank asked as he deftly juggled four medical instruments with one hand.
"Nothing." Xavier sighed and rubbed his temples. For ten days, Xavier had come to the infirmary and telepathically scanned for Jean in her own mind. "Empty, like a blank slate."
Hank replaced the IV drop and tapped on a monitor.
"Maybe, our young Marie has..."
"Absorbed Jean completely?" Xavier suggested when Hank failed to continue the sentence. "I don't know. I didn't think so, but as more days pass, I begin to wonder. I will try again in an two hours."
---
Marie sat with her knees clasped tightly to her chest. She spent her days now hiding in secluded areas of the Mansion. Today, it was a corner in the Library. Marie had gone often to see Jean, but it only served to make her feel sicker with confusion and guilt. For the past ten days since the training accident, Rogue kept herself from the others, save for the ones, like Xavier and Hank, who tried to help her and Jean. The mental scream emitted from her brought everyone clamoring down to Cerebro. Thankfully, Xavier had been there first to see the aftermath. He closed the door to Cerebro, locking out the other students so they would not see the spider web of veins that were still stark and ugly on the two women's face and body. Still, the other students knew Rogue was the one who incapacitated Jean.
I touched her. Marie thought to herself for the millionth time. I touched her.
Marie closed her eyes and shuddered as her body relived the electrifying feeling. Jean's memory of the event bubbled forth and merged with her feelings, and Marie had to hold her breath against the onslaught of memory. Marie shifted uncomfortably as Scott entered her thoughts. The memories of Jean showed she still felt something for Scott. So why did Jean feel like that towards her?
I should have pulled away. Everything would have been better. Marie sniffled. She needed to rationalize what the hell had happened in Cerebro. Jean is twenty-seven. No one figures out they're gay at twenty-seven! She probably, just misses Scott. And I'm the closest person to her so far. Marie thought sternly to herself. And I'm not gay. Just... caught up in the moment. Touching... everything went too far. I was just caught up in the moment.
There, she had rationalized it to herself. Whether Marie believed it or not, was another story.
---
Jean stood at where the Cerebro helmet should have been. She was confused. A moment ago, she was with Rogue, and now Jean was alone. Jean turned in a circle and looked all about her. Cerebro was quiet and still like always. The lights were dimmed, but that was because Jean had played with the settings to make it easier for Marie.
"Hello? Marie?" Jean called out.
Silence was her answer.
Jean turned to look at the door. A moment ago she was alone, but then she saw herself and Rogue kneeling on the floor, pressed against each other and kissing. Jean walked around the image of herself and Rogue, and saw Rogue pulling at her bracelet. She saw Rogue start to panic, and then Jean saw the veins appear on both their skin. A minute later, she saw herself collapse into Rogue's arms and then the image ended.
"I must be in coma." Jean said out loud.
But why am I still doing here still? What I'm doing now must register as brain activity, so why hasn't Xavier been able to help me yet? She wondered.
Something caught her eye, and Jean looked up. The tiles on Cerebro shrank, and in their place images started to form. They were images of Rogue and Jean training, but the images were of every time Rogue's power activated on her. Jean turned around again and again as the images became stronger. Often, Jean had her mind linked to Rogue and the memories of what was happening in Rogue's mind surfaced too. Jean scratched her head. She was getting at something, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Jean had stopped turning, but Cerebro continued to whirl around her.
Fear. Oh no. Jean's shield... I'm touching her. Can't touch her.
Jean turned once more around in her own mind and then stopped. The room stilled, the images vanished and the memories evaporated.
"I know." Jean said.
The door of Cerebro then opened, and Jean walked out.
---
"Jean. Sit. You've been in bed ten days; you can't be just running around the halls yet."
"No, not yet. Professor, I know." Jean held a wad of tissue to her arm. She had ripped the IV out of her arm as soon as she woke and then went stumbling through the halls to find Xavier. In the office, Jean clumsily bumped into almost everything.
"Jean. Sit." Xavier lifted his hand and Jean sat under the telepathic command placed in her mind.
Jean was giddy. And very hungry, but that was something she would deal with later.
"I know. Charles, I know!" She stood again, wobbling around on her long legs. " Rogue's power. It developed while we trained, but we never knew. She and I were always so busy getting her to mentally focus on blocking it when her body was doing it already."
"But she hasn't. She absorbed you." Xavier frowned. Jean, his first student, was pacing about his office. Her mind seemed a little weak and Xavier didn't want to intrude on her mind yet.
"No she has! But she was afraid of hurting me. She was scared and didn't know her power already developed. Charles, it's an adrenaline reaction. Activated by fear. I think it has been for a couple months now, but we were all convinced that it was a power that was something constant, like the beating of the heart. But it's not. When we become scared, we sweat. With Rogue, it's her power."
Xavier raised his hand again. "Sit."
Jean sat.
"Charles, Marie needs to know."
Xavier nodded.
"Yes, but you need to rest."
"Later."
"Then contact Scott. He knows you were in coma, but it would reassure him if it was you who told him you are better."
Jean nodded and stood up again. She moved to open the door, but when her hand touched the doorknob, Xavier spoke again.
"Now, with you and Rogue, what about Scott?"
So he knows. Marie must have told him.
Xavier read her mind.
"Hank and I needed to know why you two were in physical contact for so long. We thought it was only for a second, and that Marie's power had increased exponentially, which would have made her more of danger to others, but it didn't."
Jean looked a deep breath, and returned back to the subject of Scott.
"I'll deal with this with Scott when the time comes."
And then she left.
---
(The next morning.)
Marie was called to Xavier's office the next morning. Hank was there too. The gentle giant carefully monitored Jean's health even though she was awake. Marie didn't know that Jean had woken and couldn't stop staring at her as she entered the office. Jean smiled weakly at Rogue. She looked a little pale, but was neatly dressed in a light blue tank top and light khakis. Again, this woman proved she could go through hell and still look great. Xavier had explained what Jean had found out about Marie's power, and now Jean, Xavier and Hank waited for her reaction.
"I don't know. It's good I guess." She mumbled, not looking at any of the adults now.
"I can help run some tests to see if this idea is true." Hank suggested. "I'm sure I can dig up some scary movies from under my bed and that'll give you a spook or two." The newest schoolteacher made a scary face and accented the fangs he had.
Rogue couldn't help but smile.
"Sure. We should try on flowers again." Rogue met Jean's eyes briefly. "Don't want to hurt anyone else."
Hank grinned.
"So it's a date then. Maybe tonight? A dinner with movies, flowers and a beautiful young woman; I better break out my good shoes."
Rogue smiled again. In class, Rogue sometimes found it hard to focus on Dr. McCoy because he tended to juggled test tubes and beakers dangerously with one hand while lecturing. But his good-natured demeanor was something she definitely needed. Xavier adjourned the meeting and Rogue left. Like so many months before, Jean followed her.
"So this is good news." The red head said a little too happy.
"Yeah." Rogue slowed her pace, but kept on walking. She didn't know how to deal with Jean yet. Only an hour ago did she find that Jean had woken up, and Jean's memories and some of her powers were still strong in Marie.
Jean reached out with her mind to try to touch Rogue's mind but stopped mid-stride; Rogue blocked her out.
"Marie...?" Jean, a little dismayed, called out.
Rogue turned and looked at her.
"This is weird." She said bluntly. "I'm... confused. I don't know what I feel. Nothing is mine. I feel what you feel for me in my head. I feel what you feel for Scott."
"Scott has nothing to do with this."
"I know. Jean... I..." Marie paused and fumbled for a quick fix to this situation. She needed to deny everything. "I don't think..."
Jean's shoulder's dropped a little. She had been in Rogue's mind when they kissed. She knew what Rogue felt and although Jean didn't want too, she had delved deeper into Rogue's mind without Rogue's consent or knowledge. Rogue was going to deny what she felt, and Jean didn't want that to happen.
"Rogue," Jean rarely called Marie by her coded name outside of their training, but the situation seemed to make it more appropriate. "Don't. Look, you know how I feel about you because I am in your mind. Don't lie to yourself about it. And I know I am in there, confusing you. And I know that think you reacted the way you did because you could finally touch someone."
Marie flinched. Jean and gone passed the flimsy mental blocks Marie had put up.
"Yeah, I probably would have kissed the Professor if he was in your place." Rogue mumbled a little incoherently.
Jean sighed, and suddenly felt weak.
"When I am gone from there," Jean wanted to touch Marie's forehead, but opted for her own. "And when you are sure of what you feel, and know that nothing and no one is influencing your feelings, tell me what you feel. Tell me even if you think it will hurt me. I will wait."
Jean walked away from Rogue. She couldn't force Rogue to realize the truth about her feelings, and for a second she wished that she didn't love Rogue the way she did, but that was just sad, wishful thinking.
(What? Couldn't make it a nice Disney flick could I now. Gosh, I can so see people flaming at me for this chapter. Heehee. I'll update maybe tonight or Tuesday.8D I wonder if i've hit 10k words yet.)