Dust and Blood

Legal Stuff: Don't own them, only borrowing them.

Rating: Not intended for children, story does contain mature subject matter. Injury and femslash.

000

Day 26

Three days later the girls remained in the infirmary. Stable now but still in need of careful attention to get their bodies back into a state where they can eat and function properly on their own. The girl's beds remained pressed together and 80 of the day the girls spent asleep, fingers laced tightly together. Ororo and Beast took turns keeping watch over the girls, bringing them their food and water, charting their stats on the monitors. On top of that the Professor made frequent visits to assess the girls on a psychological scale to see if the ordeal had left any permanent trauma to their psyche.

Jean stirred slowly and moved, lifting herself up she slid up the bed into a sitting position. She looked around and saw Beast scribbling something down in one of his numerous notebooks. Just to her side was Rogue, asleep and beautiful as ever. Her hair was almost red in the spring, and that white strip was the color of snow. Jean gently brushed her fingers over it. Rogue sighed softly at the brief contact and curled onto her side. Jean leaned back against the wall and licked her lips.

"Beast, could I have some water please?" Jean's voice broke the silence and Beast's concentration. He jumped a little.

"Oh… yes of course. Nice to see you awake Miss Grey." Beast hopped over the desk and filled a glass with water from the cooler next to the door. "Here you are then."

Jean accepted the offered glass and thanked him before sipping on the chilled liquid. Her attention moved once again to Rogue who lay there peacefully. Something was still different about her… about both of them. When Jean had connected with Rogue telepathically Rogue's powers still somehow managed to activate. Something had happened to them both. Jean should have known better than to try and make contact that way, its still very un-researched what can happen when mixing telepathy with other powers.

000

Day 30

Rogue stood at the kitchen counter looking at the blood running through her fingers. Bits of glass where everywhere and water as well as blood now were mixing on the floor. Rogue could not understand it… that was the fifth glass she had broken since waking up just by lifting it. Kitty entered through the swinging door when she heard the break.

"Rogue? What happ… WHAT HAPPENED?" Kitty rushed forward and grabbed a dish towel off the hook and grabbed Rogue's hand with it wrapping it up. "You're bleeding!"

"Yeah…" Rogue just looked at her hand in disbelief. She snapped out of it when Kitty dropped them both through the floor and into the infirmary.

"Beast! Rogue cut herself!" Kitty practically dragged Rogue over to where he stood.

"Well now… let's take a look." As he pulled back the cloth he was met with a stream of blood squirting from the hand. "OK!" He covered it back up and applied pressure. "Just let me get some gloves on… you need stitches young lady."

Rogue frowned and winced when Beast squeezed her hand. Her free hand gripped the metal table and held on tightly. Beast pulled on some plastic gloves and snapped a very tight elastic band around Rogue's wrist to slow the blood flow. He then removed the towel and Rogue's glove.

"Hmmm… this is a nasty gash… what happened?" he didn't look up as he lifted the needle and medical thread and began to patch the injured goth girl.

"I broke another glass…" She replied. Keeping her eyes off her bloody palm, she had seen too much blood these past weeks.

"Seems like you don't know your own strength young lady." Beast smiled as he backed off and washed the hand clean.

"Like, you can say that again…" Kitty pointed to the table where Rogue had been holding on. It was crushed into an almost perfect impression of her hand.

000

Rogue and Jean both sat in the professor's office only an hour later. The remained quiet as the professor examined both of them telepathically. He pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair. He thought carefully about how to proceed before speaking. The girls squirmed in their chairs, eager and nervous to hear what the professor had discovered.

"Jean… Rogue," He began. "You both have made a very deep connection with each other, the stress that your bodies and minds underwent while being trapped for so long with no real food or water, as well as the heightened emotional stress of your feelings for one another have triggered additional mutations." He paused to let them think that over.

"You mean, we have more powers now Professor?" Jean asked.

"Yes, something like that. You Jean by having your body so close to death and then submitting it to a high dose of stress from Rogue's life draining ability have unlocked a second part of your gift. All I can see of it is that it is incredibly powerful and you will need to be very careful when exploring its potential. As for Rogue…" He stopped again. "Rogue's additional powers were not unlocked. They were… received."

"Received Professor?" Rogue furrowed her brow. Not understanding what the Professor was implying. "You mean I borrowed them like I would any other time?"

"Not quite. You received them through coming into contact with Jean's other gift. You remained in contact with it for so long that you received them permanently." He explained.

"You mean I stole them…" She frowned.

"Something along those lines yes…" He nodded.

"But… why… I have never kept any powers I borrowed before…" Rogue questioned.

"I would have to assume it is because Jean was coming into contact with you through your psyche. You were connected on a different level than a physical one. Something in how your powers are activated changed there… and though they may still function normally here, on a mental level your powers are much more versatile. We're probably lucky you're not a telepath." He offered a small smile, one which was hard for Rogue to not return.

"So, what do we do now professor?" Jean asked.

"Well, we move on. You girls will be healed up fine for school when it begins again in September until then do what you would normally do. There is still a month of summer vacation make the best of it. Go to the movies, have dinner… this is a budding relationship is it not?" He motioned to the door. "Go now, enjoy the rest of your break."

000

TBC: See what happens next when the girls put their new powers to the test in the danger room… all I can say is… poor danger room. Also… a budding relationship blossoms. Next and possibly the final chapter to come. Review!