Dedicated to Tina and the Gal(you know how to spell the rest, lol, I'm sorry), Third chappie's the charm! Tho this one's kinda sad... ah well, cookies for you, girls!
Ice Lynx
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Hank was thrown roughly into the small cell he, Steph, and Ruhko had woken up in, his whole body aching with pain and weariness and the cut on his chest was burning, as if they had poured some kind of chemical on it. For a moment the large man lay where he was, shredded clothes hanging off him and broken glasses smashed in his pocket. For a while all he could hear was his own ragged breathing, but then he heard the soft, slightly irregular breathing of another behind him.
Willing himself to turn his head and roll over Hank saw, to his amazement, the beaten and half clothed form of Steph, lying in a heap. Quickly he crawled over to her.
"Stephanie? Stephanie!" he said, eyes widening in disbelief as he saw that Steph's shirt was in total ruins, hanging on her by a few threads and revealing a mass of bruises and cuts covering her upper torso. The slave collar was still around her neck, but Hank could see the bloody marks made by her nails from trying to rip it off. Her eyes were closed, but Hank was relieved to find her still breathing, at the very least.
Gently Hank started to pick her up when she suddenly gasped out in pain, eyes shooting open as she blindly struck out in front of her.
"No!" she cried out in a broken voice, struggling against Hank's hold, one arm clearly damaged and lying over her chest and the other swinging out wildly, trying to hit him.
"Stephanie," Hank said urgently, "It is only I, Hank- Stephanie please, be calm!" Steph gasped as her eyes widened further. Her lips were dry and partially covered in blood, which was traced back to her nose, and the other bruises were only shown up by a long cut on the side of her face.
"Hank!" she gasped, breathing quickly. "Hank- you're- you found me!" all at once she choked and fell limp, hand falling to her side.
"Shh," Hank said quickly. "Oh Steph- what have they done to you? My sweet Stephanie...."
"Hank, oh god- they took Ruhko," Steph said, shuddering as tears started to pour down her face. "I tried to stop them- but they took her- I couldn't stop them- they kept hitting me even after they got her-" Hank shushed her gently again, taking her slender hand in his and stroking it gently, noting that her little finger was horribly bent out of place, obviously broken.
Hank's mind reeled, it didn't look as if they had done anything but beat her savagely, but then he noticed that her pants were slightly torn around the zipper, as if someone had tried to rip them off as well. And who knows what they were doing to Ruhko? Hank's anger was growing at a rate matched only by what Logan's reaction would have been. 'But he's no longer here to get angry', Hank reminded himself, which only made him more furious.
"Have you broken anything besides your finger?" Hank asked instead, trying to calm down and look after his Stephanie first. Steph looked up at him.
"Dunno," she rasped, quieter now. "Can't see my own back-"
"I need to check," Hank said, and when Steph nodded he slowly rolled her over as she winced in pain. Hank's breath caught in his throat as he found what appeared to be whip marks covering her back, her blood covering the floor beneath her and now all over his hands.
"Hank?" Steph asked, making him look at her blood-matted hair, which hid her face now, what little of the braid that had survived the beatings was falling apart quickly. He gently rolled her back over and tried to look comforting, but the shocked expression must have stayed on his face, for Steph looked down.
"It's that bad, huh?" she said softly. Hank could think of nothing to reply to this, but Steph spoke quickly again, her good eyes focusing on the large, now bandaged cut on his chest. "What's that?" she demanded. Hank looked down at himself.
"Nothing," he said hastily, "nothing at all-"
"Don't lie t' me," Steph snapped, looking as angry as Hank felt at the moment. "What thehell did they do t' ya?"
"I can only guess," Hank said, shrugging slightly. "Some sort of surgery perhaps- I don't know."
"Surgery? Oh crap, what if they did somethin' t' ya?" Steph said, looking scared again. "What if they took somethin', like a lung or something else that'll kill ya?" Hank smiled.
"I think I would notice if one of my lungs were missing," he said.
"This ain't funny!" Steph cried, voice horse. "They could have really messed y' up bad!"
"My dear Stephanie, we would not be able to do anything right now even if we knew the intent and achievements of these people," Hank reasoned. "But we can help you- this may hurt a little bit-" he said as he carefully lifted her up, sitting cross legged against the wall and putting her on his lap with her head resting in the crook of his neck as a brief look of pain crossed her face. He stroked her cheek gently with one hand, then ripped off a piece of his own shirt.
"What are you doing?" Steph asked blearily.
"Your finger is broken," Hank explained. "If you let it sit it will never heal correctly, I'm sorry if this hurts you-" he had picked up her hand again and as he spoke she felt Steph's broken finger for a moment, then quickly he pushed the jutting bone back into place.
"Ah!" Steph gasped, eyes widening again as Hank quickly wrapped the strip of cloth around it and her index finger and tied them together firmly.
"My apologies," he said again, holding her bandaged hand between both of his. Steph, whose breathing had momentarily quickened again, nodded and sighed, looking up at him.
"Do ya think we'll ever see Ruk again?" she asked, eyes watery. Hank looked down and stroked her lower cheek and neck, carefully avoiding the bruises and scratches.
"I am sure," he said softly, "That if we cannot find some way of locating and rescuing young Ruhko, the child of the wolf with locate and rescue us." Steph would have nodded, but the pain in her head was throbbing terribly, so instead she carefully turned it, snuggling into Hank's neck and enjoying the feel of his fur on her own aching skin.
"I can't believe I let her out of my arms-" she whispered, eyes closing.
"You would not let her go for the world," Hank said seriously. "I imagine it took many blows and lives of men before you weakened, my fair warrior, and knowing you soon we will most likely get rid of this entire place and rescue young Ruhko soon...."
"I'm not exactly 'fair' now, am I?" Steph said, avoiding the comment, not even able to force out a wisp of a smile out. Hank shook his head.
"By the stars, you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever had the pleasure to meet," he said softly. The arm and hand Steph wasn't holding closely to her now rested on Hank's chest, and she stroked his fur, tracing her finger close around his cut. To Hank it felt oddly comforting as the arm Steph was leaning on wrapped around her and his other hand stroked her face.
"I told ya not t' lie, fur ball," Steph said, though she was smiling now. Hank noticed her eyes were unfocused slightly, and worriedly he took off his shirt and pressed it on her back to slow the ever-persisting bleeding. Steph didn't even flinch, still smiling softly to herself.
"I do not lie," Hank said. There was a moment's silence before Steph sighed.
"Ya know what I always thought would be cute?" she asked, looking up at Hank, who shook his head. "A lil' house- ya know- with flowers n' a white picket fence, close t' the mansion but far enough 'way t' escape the others sometimes. Found one almost jus' like that on the other side o' Westchester, thought 'bout buying it before all this happened...."
"You would have taken up residence away from the mansion?" Hank asked, looking down at her. Steph shook her head.
"Nah, well, maybe," she said. "I dunno. Jus' a place t' get away from everythin', ya know? But anyway- house sold a week ago, and there's nothing else anywhere close by. It might've been more like a getaway, ya know, a place to escape all of the people.... memories...." she trailed off, a pained look on her face. Hank suddenly understood what she meant but said nothing to further it. Steph, however, was not finished on the subject.
"Jus'- well, I always thought Ruk would be there, n' Bucky n' Little Steph too, playin' in the yard, with a big tree swing for them- n' I'd make 'em cookies jus' t' see their faces get all bright and expectant," Steph had a far away look in her eyes now, gazing at the wall beyond Hank's chest and chin but obviously seeing only her younger sister's faces as she smiled. "Accourse Little Steph'd be awake n' up by then, she wouldn't need that bubble neither, n' the three of them would be up 'till the next mornin' on a sugar rush, laughing and giggling. Ruhko would be talkin'...."
"And wouldst thou allow me to visit?" Hank asked, smiling also. Steph looked up, looking slightly surprised.
"No," she said. "No, you'd be there livin' with me n' the midgets, right?" she suddenly looked hopeful but slightly afraid of his answer at the same time.
"Of course," Hank said, chuckling. Steph nodded, smiling. "If you were able to stand the young ones after they raided my Twinkie drawer." Steph laughed, her dry throat making her voice raspier than Hank liked. If nothing else, he wished that he had something, anything, to give her right now, be it proper bandages or especially water, he would have gladly gone back into the surgical room willingly for anything to ease Steph's physical pain.
"Yeah, well, they did that then n' we handled 'em," she said. "N' we could set up the basement as a lab for ya, t' finish all that gene testing ya do, n' we'd have Kurt n' Xavier n' Bobby n' all a them over all the time." Hank nodded.
"We'd have barbecues," he offered, and Steph's smile broadened. "And we could watch the stars at night-"
"Make a camp fire n' make s'mores," Steph added, her voice becoming softer though it was obviously not by consent or, apparently, knowledge. Hank looked down again. "We'd have t' make sure Ruhko stays outta the fire though- ya know her fascination with the stuff-"
"I'm sure young Robert would freeze it over before anything happened," he said gently. "Are you feeling alright Stephanie?" Steph slowly blinked and Hank saw his shirt was now full of blood, though the bleeding was slowing considerably as he pressed it.
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," she said as Hank looked back into her eyes worriedly. "Jus' tired, ya know.... N' we could sleep under the stars... like we did back at Bobby n' Rogue's weddin'... ya remember? Ya had too much wine 'cause I got Fluffy all worked up...." Hank looked at her as she slipped off into memory, the exhaustion on her face clearer than the florescent lights above them as she shuddered again.
"I remember," he said softly, head bowing in grief as the images came back to him, his cheek resting on Steph's sweaty forehead.
"N' the moon was so big n' full, n' all the others were as drunk as love birds on New Year's Eve, a bunch a' them actin' like it too...." she was barely whispering now. "We were talkin' bout the rumors goin' round, ya said I spent too much time tryin' t' touch your fur when I was a kid n' that's why there were the rumors now... ya were so off but too tipsy t' notice...."
"How was I mistaken?" Hank asked, thinking back to the night. He remembered most of the conversation but as Steph had pointed out, the wine he had chugged had obscured it slightly. Steph giggled silently.
"Ya thought I was only in love with your fur," she said. "I had the biggest crush on ya back then."
"But of course, like a child outgrowing her teddy bear you realized there are far better men for yourself," Hank smiled, momentarily surprised at the news. He had heard it as rumor of course, and Kitty had always told him that Steph liked him but he assumed it was merely an attempt on Kitty's part to start anything, the girl's hobby of matchmaker dwarfed only by her hobby of hanging off of Peter....
"Yeah," Steph agreed, bringing him back to the present. "Yeah, that was only a lil' girl's crush back then, I knew it was too." She smiled and Hank nodded.
"People grow out of things," he said. Steph's eyes narrowed slightly and she looked up at Hank quizzedly.
"Grew outta-" she said, then smiled. "Yup, I did, 'cause the title 'crush' is too juvenile. I've never stopped liking you that way, Hank, never." Hank looked down, shocked at what he was hearing.
"Stephanie?" he said. Steph snuggled in deeper as she drifted off, her exhaustion and lack of blood getting to her at last.
"Ya always saved me from everythin', ya always were there t' help me with everythin'," she murmured. "I told ya stuff that dad woulda never been able to comprehend and ya helped me work it out, bein' a sweetie n' a gentleman at the same time, always. What else could I do but fall for ya like a ton o' bricks? I love ya Hank, I always have n' always will." Hank was momentarily speechless and he wondered if Steph had been given any type of drug along with the beating. Finally he closed out his doubts and hugged Steph closer to him, shutting his eyes.
"I love you to, my sweet Stephanie," he whispered before they both drifted off into a soundless sleep.