Jeanelle Angelline: I've tried e-mailing you, but my computer's gone haywire with viruses and crap, so I have to mail from another computer. But I'll get to it.

C-Wolf: Thanks. I will

- - - -

Logan hovered over the body of the young woman like a guardian angel of death, his face obscured by shadow, hiding the sorrowful expression on his face.

"L...Logan?"

As the heart of a dead person can spring to life at several hundred volts, Logan sprang to life with a jolt as he heard the quit whimper from the bed next to him.

They looked at each other's eyes for an instant, and seconds later the girl lay in his waiting arms, sobbing for all her life's worth

"Oh god, he died! They...they...it hurt, a-and then he...blood all over and he...he...shot, b-but he..."

The events of the previous nights spilled out of her like a waterfall from a cliff, and Logan was dumbstruck at her terrified state, so he tried to soothe her to the best of his abilities

"S'okay, darlin'" He buried his face in her hair and whispered at her, his voice thick with emotion

"S'okay"

His vocal chords constricted like a snake around his neck, his voice stuck in his throat, and all the pent up rage and frustration in his heart spilled out from his soul through tears of joy.

And so they sat for several minutes, just holding each other, seeking comfort in each other's presence, creating a sanctuary from the harsh reality, if only for a moment.

But the real world caught up with them soon enough, they split their embrace and Jubilee wiped her eyes. She tried to get out of her bed when a sharp knot of pain formed I her lower regions, like someone were ravaging her most delicate body parts with coarse sandpaper, and she fell back on her bed with a cry of pain.

Logan cringed visibly at this. The wounds on her were still fresh in his memories, dancing on his retina when he closed his eyes.

"Easy darlin', Hank said that you shouldn't walk fer a couple o' days 'cause you have some..."

Logan felt sick in his stomach

"...Some pretty bad cuts down...down there, and they might re-open if ya...

His voice betrayed him, fleeing from the awful words it just said, and he fell silent, shoulders hunched.

Jubilee looked at the pained Logan. The brutish, nonchalant and indifferent macho-man who didn't need anybody's help. The father figure of her life, the gentle man hidden under the many layers of anger, formed to protect him from others, and others from him.

He had just thrown his façade to the floor and was putting his emotions in full display.

Jubilee felt a great happiness and almost...pride. Pride that Logan had allowed himself to show her his emotions, and pride that she had gained the love and trust of a person as hard-shelled as the Wolverine.

She reached out and gently squeezed his hand.

Logan smiled and squeezed back, and a though suddenly stuck him.

"He didn't die y'know"

Jubilee looked at him, baffled to say the very least

"B...But I saw him get shot. Right before I called you. He got shot twice. Right there"

She pointed sharply at Logan's' chest. He smiled at the mix of relief and confusion in her voice.

"No, he's fine. He's one tough bastard, that's fer sure" Logan inwardly grinned at this. He was quite sure that Frank had been shot almost as many times as he had. He knew how to handle himself, even without mutant powers.

Jubilee looked at Logan in wide-eyed surprise.

"Wow, can I go see him?" She almost bounced up and down.

Logan felt like laughing out loud at the sudden resurrection of her old self, but he put on a straight face and spoke sharply.

"Yer ain't goin' nowhere, and neither is he, and that's final."

They sat for several minutes, just chatting and small talking like the previous night had never happened, but when Logan rose from his chair and turned to the door, Jubilee immediately grabbed his hand again.

"Don't go! Please!"

Logan inwardly winced at her frightened tone; he could clearly hear that the ordeal was still too fresh in her memory, so he cupped her head in his hand and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm just gonna go down an tell Chuck that yer awake, okay? It'll only take a few minutes."

- - - -

For Frank, the days melted together in a jumble of seemingly random happenings; Hank walking in and out, monitoring screens, giving him injections, Xavier wheeling in, trying to start a conversation, the fluorescent light flickering occasionally. The anaesthetics in his body made the logical confusing and the concrete intangible. He drifted in and out of consciousness, and it was difficult for him to distinguish dream and reality.

The jungle was a claustrophobic labyrinth of green. The steady thump of boots treading on the dirt was the only noise to cut through the dense silence. No birds were singing. Nothing.

He raised his hand, and the thumps stopped, the boots frozen in their tracks. A clearing. The enemy was there. Strange little men with hearts like tigers, crooked eyes narrowed under the rice-paper hats, looking for the villains that had dared invade their native soil. He got down on one knee and prepared his gun. He made a sign with his raised hand, and hell rained down on the adversaries.

They never stood a chance; the red-hot lead tore through their bodies leaving gaping, jagged entry- and exit wounds. The jungle greenery became red and slick with blood and intestines, and the mangled corpses piled higher and higher...

Frank bolted up from his bed, and managed to curse himself as a sledgehammer of pain rammed into his solar plexus, pulverizing his chest completely. Or at least, that was what it felt like to him.

He decided that he needed to relieve himself, and despite strict orders from Hank, he got out of bed and headed out in the hallway. He was in the main building; they hadn't dared to bring him into their 'top-secret basement hideout', and was quite happy that way. This place was big enough without a huge basement complex to get lost in. Now how was it? Down the corridor to the right and then the first door...

He stopped in his tracks.

A beautiful red-haired woman stood in the corridor. She was wearing a lab-coat and had a notepad in her hand. She was probably five-foot-ten and, as any of the X-Men, athletic and finely toned. Only now, the looked pale as a ghost, her knees quivering like lukewarm jell-o and she had to hold on to a doorframe to keep her from falling.

"You all right?"

Her breath came in forced gasps, as if she had just run a marathon, but with an effort she managed to regain her speech.

"I...I..."

She looked sick, and seemed to fight hard to keep her stomach contents from spilling out on the floor. The sound of a person running like a madman shattered the heavy silence, and the man with the red sunglasses came skidding around the corner at breakneck speed.

"Jean! Oh god, what happened?"

He ran and embraced her tightly, and the poor woman exploded with tears on her husbands shoulder.

Scott turned his gaze to the other man standing in the corridor. Could his eyes have been seen, they would betray a steel-hard glare, and even with the glasses Frank could still tell that he was fuming.

"What did you do to her?" His voice was laced with ice.

Frank was rather dumbstruck by this accusation. "I didn't do anything, I found her like this" He retorted, a little sharper that he intended.

"Don't lie, Castle" Scott all but yelled,

"I have a psychic link with my wife, I can FEEL her emotions, and I just felt extreme fear and disgust, so I'm asking you again. What. Did. You. Do?"

"Scott, don't"

A tiny voice overthrew Scott's ranting, and both men looked at the bleary-eyes Jean, looking Scott directly in his eyes.

"Leave him alone!"

A look of utter perplexity planted itself on Scott's face, but before he could draw breath, she interrupted him sharply.

"Scott! Leave him! Let's just go, alright?"

The pair disappeared in the corridor, the redheaded beauty leaning on her loving husband for support. They almost looked like they were talking wordlessly.

Frank just stood alone in the corridor in the uncomfortable hospital garments.

"What the fuck was THAT all about?"

- - - -

Sorry for the long delay. I've been wrestling with some viruses, and my computer's not running optimally.

Please review, and to those who already did; Big thanks, you all have a special place in my heart. Or something.