He hated hospitals more than anything, the smell of medicine and fluids in the air, the sense of death and suffering, interrupted by the muffled screams of some patient being put through horrendous procedures to keep them alive. He passed a room where a person was having their blood drained into a packet hanging over their bed and felt nauseous, needing to lean on Pietro's shoulder in order to keep himself even barely composed. Pietro allowed him to with even the slightest argument, unable to comprehend how this must be affecting his friend. Her room was on the highest floor, so he kept away from the windows so the immense height wouldn't make him feel any worse than he did now, if that was even possible of course.
Professor Xavier had explained to him the most basic details of what had happened. Jean and Kitty had been coming home from shopping at the mall when a couple heading home as well lost control of their van and slammed into Jean's SUV only a quarter of a mile from the Institute. So close to coming back to the safety of their home and yet struck down just before reaching it. He still didn't know the specifics, only that Kitty was laying in critical condition in the next room and he was trapped outside waiting to hear on her condition.
The X-Men were all gathered there, sitting in between the rooms where Kitty laid in a comatose state and Jean, barely conscious, remained in serious condition after having lost a great amount of blood. He had actually found himself going to Scott for comfort without a second thought, considering the both of them were in the same situation with their loved ones both in danger of dying.
He was beyond tears now however, sitting in the armchair embracing his jacket tightly to vent his frustration and sadness. It had been seven long hours of night that had passed with Jean's injuries being treated and Kitty undergoing emergency surgery they hadn't even learned about until the procedure was halfway complete. The couple that had struck them were two floors down, both injured but their conditions not life-threatening. Professor Xavier had said it was at least one thing to be thankful for that they had escaped without serious harm. Lance felt like going down there and putting them into the same states that they had condemned Kitty and Jean to suffer.
The other members of the Brotherhood and X-Men paced the hallways aimlessly, sensing and feeling the same emotions of fear and sorrow and confusion. This was supposed to be a happy and joyful holiday, and yet they found themselves here, under an essential truce that allowed them to comfort one another and relate to their identical feelings without the slightest detection of the rivalry that had pitted them against one another for the past two years.
Finally an elderly doctor, who had been going back and forth between Jean and Kitty's hospital rooms, halted before them, and all the X-Men and Brotherhood gathered around him, attempting to read his solemn expression for signs of what had happened. He looked grave and pale, and they all immediately feared for the worst as was instinctive.
"Miss Jean Grey is going to make a full recovery we believe. She sustained a fracture to left arm, several broken ribs and some slight head trauma that caused the bleeding to occur, but she is reacting well to treatment and is beginning to regain consciousness with her injuries under control and monitoring now. We no longer believe that her life is in danger. As for Miss Kitty Pryde, she is still in a coma though she too has been stabilized and her vital signs are becoming stronger. But I am afraid that she has received some serious injuries since she was sitting on the side of the vehicle that suffered the impact of the van. She was lucky that there was relatively no damage done to her brain or other vital organs, but the base of her spinal cord was severed by the force of the momentum. In all honesty, I believe that she will never walk again due to this injury, and will be confined to a wheelchair the rest of her life," the doctor came to the subtle conclusion in a slow and strangled voice as he repressed his own sadness of the tragedy, and all the Brotherhood turned in unison, expecting to see Lance beginning to weep once more with the news of this.
But he didn't and instead he looked simply apathetic and monotone with the final statement, his expression unrevealing of the conflicting relief that she was alive to the utter sadness that she would never be able to walk again.
"I don't believe it," he suddenly proclaimed in an almost robotic voice, surprising everyone around him including the doctor.
"I realize the shock of this is incomprehensible Mr. Alvers, but even with the emergency surgery she has undergone to repair her spinal cord, it is highly unlikely that she will ever gain feeling in her legs again due to the nerve damage and weakness caused by the accident," the doctor concluded once again, trying to convince him it was indeed what was to happen, but he simply shook his head and continued to speak in a disquieting voice.
"I don't believe that there isn't any hope. I know Kitty and that she's not one to simply give up. There has to be something that we can do," he said, and the doctor sighed and rubbed his forehead roughly, looking down upon the clipboard from which he had reported the various injuries of their loved ones.
"There are a few options that can be experimented with in the future, but for right now I think we should be concentrating on what can be done to keep their lives out of danger so their wounds are able to heal as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Now, those of you wishing to visit Miss Grey please wait in front of her room for a nurse to take you in to see her, and those wishing to see Kitty Pryde please follow me," the doctor said, and instantly all the Brotherhood, accompanied by Kurt as well who seemed more worried about her well-being than Jean's, followed him into the generic hospital room silently. The remaining X-Men and the New Mutants followed Professor Xavier quietly into Jean's room, where they could hear her faint voice call to them as she began to wake a bit further.
Lance braced himself for what was to come, hearing only the machines making any sounds at all by her bedside, laboring to keep her alive and functioning, and he shut his eyes as he walked into the brightly lit room before he saw anything, not knowing if he could ever bring himself to open them again and look down upon his fallen angel.