disclaimer: All characters are the property of Marvel, except Jenny who is MINE.


Human in a Mutant World
by Dizi


Chapter 6

Hank listened to the steady beep of the heart monitor while silently thanking Lilandra and the Shi'ar technology which had assisted him in saving Jenny's life. She died once on the table but he and Jean were able to bring her back. It was only now that she was finally stable he was able to take time to wonder what had caused the attack in the first place. He had been very busy the last week or so, but he couldn't help but wonder why Jenny hadn't come to him if she had a problem. Hank knew she considered him her friend and he had assumed she knew he would help her in any way he could. He needed answers but it would be some time before Jenny would be able to give them to him.

"Hank. Hank!" Jean called, finally getting his attention. "Would you like me to inform the others of her condition?"

"No, I..." Hank took a deep calming breath. "I simply needed a moment to compose myself, Jean. I shall inform the others. I have some questions of my own." He took another deep breath before going out to meet with those waiting for information.

It seemed all the mansion's residents were waiting in the hall. All the ones who hadn't met Jenny wanted to know not only out of concern but curiosity about someone involved with such a varied individuals on their team. Someone associated with Logan, Remy, and Bishop was odd enough but the same person friendly with Hank was somewhat unusual. Not to mention Bobby, Ororo, and Jubilee singing her praises. Even Scott knew and seemed to have a genuine liking for her. All eyes were on Hank as he exited the med-lab.

"Jenny is currently in stable condition," he announced. "I would be happy to go into details with those who are in close association with her. Ororo, I will need to speak to you privately. Logan, if you would reassure Jenny's employer of her condition I am sure he would appreciate such knowledge. She has informed me of his previous concern and affection for her."

"Does she have any relatives we should contact that anyone is aware of?" Charles asked the room in general.

After a moment of silence, Remy said. "Jenny never talk about family."

"Not to me either." Logan inserted. "We can call Jubes in the mornin', she mighta said somethin' to her."

"I had not realized until now but though I have discussed my family briefly with Jenny she has never brought up her own during our conversations." Hank had not considered it unusual as many team members did not like to discuss their families.

"There are some questions that will need to be answered, Hank. When will we be able to speak to the young woman?" While waiting Logan, Remy and Bishop had informed Charles of the recent happenings including the dead man in Jenny's apartment. They had decided to let her neighbors report his suicide and wait to see what happened in order to give Jenny time to recover before dealing with the police.

"She may be somewhat lucid tomorrow but I recommend waiting until the next day for any coherent information from her. Now, I must speak to Ororo but would appreciate the three of you," he gestured to his teammates who had brought Jenny to the mansion, "waiting to give me an explanation of the events leading to the injury of our young friend."

They exchanged guilty looks before nodding, and Charles sent everyone else to bed while Hank drew Ororo aside to speak to her privately.

"Jenny's clothes will need to be replaced. We have hospital gowns she can wear for the time being but they will leave her back exposed and I do not believe she would feel comfortable in that situation. If you could possibly procure some article of clothing for her to wear which would not interfer with her current injury but would cover her previous ones..."

"I will try to find something appropriate, Henry." Ororo understanding immediately Jenny would not be comfortable with the chance of someone seeing her back. "Did Jean not see...?"

"No, I was able to keep her from viewing the scarring and avoided looking myself. If you would be willing to dress her, we will be able to continue to keep the issue private for her." Hank normally would not come her with such things but she was the only one aware of Jenny's scars and he didn't feel free to involve someone else nor to do it himself knowing Jenny's feelings about him seeing them. "I understand it is a burden and Jenny will not be sanguine about your assistance but would most likely prefer it to the alternatives."

"I understand and will assist all I am able." She hurried to find the mentioned clothing, steeling herself for a sight she knew would not be pleasant, but determined to help the brave young woman.


Hank checked on Jenny briefly before going to join his other teammates for the answers he needed on her attack. Charles joined them as well and Hank was grateful for his presence as Logan explained about the phone calls that lead to Jenny's attack. He was stunned to learn she hadn't wanted him to know about her problems. He took it personally until he was told about the photographs and Remy handed him the one showing her mutilation.

"I'm thinkin' she didn't want ya to know about her past, Hank." Logan told him, trying to explain what he had come to believe was her motives. "This guy mighta been part of it an' that's why she didn't tell anyone what was goin' on. If we hadn't'a taken it on ourselves ta protect her he probably woulda killed her tonight."

Hank stunned him when he explained, "I was aware of the scar tissue on her back but I do not believe she understood the depth of my knowledge. Both Ororo and I have become aware of them and she made herself clear in her opposition to the possibility of me examining her."

Charles interjected. "She didn't want you to see them? But you're a doctor, Hank, that doesn't make sense."

"As I previously explained to Ororo, not everyone is comfortable having close relations to their doctor. You should be able to appreciate her feelings, Charles. She considers me to be her friend and rejects the idea of my seeing her in a medical capacity."

"And now you have done precisely that in the saving of her life."

"I believe she will find it acceptable to the alternative." Hank said dryly. "Jenny seems to be above all a survivor, of which we now have photographic evidence. Though she may not be receptive under other circumstances imminent death is something else entirely."

"I'm sure." Charles was shocked by what had been done to the girl and didn't want Hank's assistance to have jeopardized their growing friendship when she might need it more than ever.

"How do we now proceed in the capture of the individual responsible for Jenny's attack? I assume you are now unable to track him, Wolverine, or you would be doing so currently." Hank wanted him found as soon as possible to eliminate future threats to Jenny.

Bishop took up the explantion. "Before he called me about Jenny's attack, I witnessed someone going into her apartment and was going to follow him out, but he tore up every single item in her apartment and then shot himself in her livingroom. We believe he was the one responsible but from the description Logan gave me of the men in the pictures, he wasn't one of them. So we can't be sure and will have to wait for Jenny to tell us."

"Were you able to discover his identity? Perhaps we can be looking into him for further explanations." Hank wanted to do something in the meantime, unwilling to wait the length of time necessary for Jenny to recover.

"His drivers liscense listed him as Phillip Notheis. That's all I could get before leaving to avoid the police."

Phillip Notheis. Genevra Grenislavich. Jenny Green. Hank couldn't speak as it all suddenly came together in his mind. He had inadvertently told that monster where to find Jenny - Genevra.

"Hank?" Charles could feel waves of guilt coming from him.

"Oh my God." he whispered. "It's my fault. He located her because of me."

"Please try to explain, Hank."

"Prof. Phillip Notheis. I called him in the course of my inquires into Genevra Grenislavich's current whereabouts. I put the phone down to converse briefly with Bobby and mentioned Jenny and Harry's when I informed him I would return her to her apartment when she was ready to depart on the day she visited. I lead him to Jenny." His voice was anguished, he couldn't believe he had done such a thing even by accident.

"What are you sayin'? You ain't bein' clear." Logan hadn't gotten the connection.

Remy was quicker to catch on. "He saying Jenny dis Genevra he lookin' for."

"He seemed so concerned for Genevra's well being I promised to advise him of my progress in the search for her." Hank continued.

"You couldn't have known they were the same person, Hank. You are not at fault." Charles was quick to assure him.

"My ignorance does not absolve me of responsibility, Charles. I told him where to find her. I should have been more guarded in my conversation with him."

"But why did he want to hurt her? He wasn't in the pictures." Bishop knew Hank would never intentionally do anything to bring harm to Jenny and attempted to bring the conversation back to the question at hand.

"The envelope the photos came in was addressed to her apartment. We didn't check the rest of her mail. Did you get it, Remy?" Logan couldn't believe they hadn't thought to check the rest of her mail. They had concentrated only on the one Jenny had opened.

"Oui, Remy got it." He said reaching into his trenchcoat. "Dis one from de other doctor addressed to her apartment too." he said handing it over to Logan.

"Jenny told Ororo she intended to have the scar tissue removed. Perhaps it is in reference to having the procedure done." Hank infomed them.

"Dey came to Harry's but had Jenny's address on dem. If dey was from de doctors dey maybe got tampered wit'." Remy said, knowing how easy it would be to do it.

Logan swore seeing more pictures in the new envelope. Picking a one with a good image of the man in them, he showed it to Bishop, holding it so he would only see the man and not what he was doing with Jenny. "This him?"

"Yes, that's him." he answered, grateful to be spared the full effects of the image.

"It's some time after the other's and it's not the same place." Logan reported after examining the pictures, not letting the others see them. He was sorry the bastard was dead because he wanted to kill him himself. In one he was deliberately hurting her by digging his fingers into her back while having sex with her and it looked like she was screaming. "Her back's scabbed over in places a little. Maybe you can tell how much longer, Hank, but I'd say only a couple days. We're gonna hafta talk to her to be sure, cause I ain't showin' these to ya. She don't even know I looked at 'em."

"It is not necessary for me to view the images and Jenny would not wish me to do so. They have no bearing on my treatment of her current injuries and I will not betray her confidence in me by actively seeking knowledge of her past." He wanted Jenny to tell him if she wanted him to know.

"In your research on Dr. Grenislavich did you find any other relatives who should know about Jenny's condition?" Charles hadn't inquired recently into Hank's search and didn't know if there had been any new developments.

"Jenny seems to be the last living member of her family. I was unable to find any information on Genevra Grenislavich since she ran away from school at age fourteen. But that information was from Phillip Notheis and is suspect. He cited her as wild and stated she would have been expelled."

Ororo returned with the clothing for Jenny. Hank excused himself saying he would send Jean to bed and took Ororo with him into the med-lab.


The next morning, two policemen came to the mansion enquiring after Jenny. Charles had Scott put them off, telling him to say Jenny had been sedated due to being upset about a foiled attack at the bar. They informed him Jenny was not in any trouble but they needed to take a statement. They had been informed by Harry about Jenny being stalked and that she was staying at the mansion for protection when they looked for her at the bar because of the suicide in her apartment.

Scott reported later that the police had told him Phillip Notheis had been dismissed from his position at Bueller's School for Girls due to incriminating photographs of him being sent to the school's board of directors. They assumed she was in the pictures and he blamed her for losing his job. He had been under investigation for the rape of several other girls who had later come forward and they had been about to bring charges against him when he disappeared and was then found dead in Jenny's apartment.

They were sure it was suicide but wanted to get a statement from her and left their information for Jenny to contact them at her convenience.


Later that afternoon, Jenny slowly opened her eyes and started to panic when she didn't recognize where she was until she saw Hank asleep in the chair beside her bed. He woke himself a couple minutes later to find her staring at him.

"Would you like some water?" He asked reaching for the cup with a straw in it he had waiting on the small bedside table.

She was barely able to nod, still weak and groggy.

When she finished, she whispered "You look tired." before falling asleep again.

Hank reached over and took her hand, unable to believe her first words were concern for him after all that had happened to her.

to be continued.


note:
B Oots- I firmly believe only someone seriously deranged could do what he did, answers are coming but in Jenny's own good time.
Beany- That would have been good but I'm just not that complicated. Give me awhile. But all will be revealed. Swear.
GothikStrawberry- The explanation of the pictures will be coming too.
Jinxeh- Is that bad enough for him? I thought about siccing Wolvie on him but just couldn't do it. There would have been a big fight between Wolvie, Gambit, Bishop and Hank about who got to do it and that might have been... well, bad. Right?
SabeyBaby- I guess you can tell I am one of those people who understand to get rid of an infection you gotta cut it open and squeeze out all the gunk (yeah that's a medical term). I'm squeezing for Jenny.
S- Thanks!

In case you all didn't know I have been greatly honored in Jenny making a guest appearance in Elizabeth Robbins 'Of God and Chaos' ch 7. Check it out! Yeah, Jenny!

Next chapter Jenny meets everybody and squares things up with Hank.

Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi