"This is going to be veeeery interesting".
Ororo couldn't stop smirking at Scott.
"Ok, ok, I know that you think that I am an infantile, short-tempered teeny ---"
"Don't tell me you aren't !"
"Ro, just stop it ok!"
The red light behind his shades flashed up, he jumped up from his chair and grabbed his keys.
"I'm outta here."
He hadn't seen Jean for three days. Maybe she was hiding somewhere around the mansion, brooding about the incident, thinking up thousands of reasons to avoid him. Jeah, right, he nodded at himself. This pathetic and erratic woman certainly likes to spend the whole day pitying herself. He imagined that she would crouch in a dark corner, hiding her face, her tears…no sunbeams to enlighten her hair… Oh my god, stop it.
He got his motorbike up to speed and tried to forget her for a while. Landscape beside the street became blurred, but he was still able to focus on the track. Within 20 minutes he had covered a considerable distance without a clue where he was heading for. Then things happened very quickly, even he couldn't have prevented himself from crashing into the tractor which was crossing the street while Scott were looking at a sign to determine the small town he was just entering.
The motorbike hit the side of the vehicle, throwing him up in the air. For a few seconds it felt like flying but then Scott saw the ground approaching, asphalt harder than steel. Pain burned his skin when he touched the street, slithering on the ground, without control. His helmet almost choked him as it bruised the glass of his shades. Shards cut his skin, the taste of blood in his mouth became unbearable. At the end of his strength he pressed his eyelids together and passed out.
A few garbage cans in the corner of a house stopped his fall not very gently.
Will you let me in?
"He must have had a guardian angel".
The professor was shaking his head.
"Professor, he broke his right forearm, half of his ribs and the collarbone."
Ororo grimaced with the pain she imagined Scott would have once he'll wake up from the coma.
"Not to mention the multiple skin abrasions, the concussion and the harm the shattered shades did to his face. Must have been kind of a sadistic guardian angel."
She fought back her tears and glanced again at the young man who was lying lifeless on the bed.
"You owe to yourself to take a break", the professors voice sounded a lot softer.
"You were taking care of him the whole morning, now it's my turn."
"I am still of the opinion that we should bring him to the hospital, professor. I mean, we do not have medical education, if something happens…."
"Ororo, the surgeons who operated him are probably the best in the U.S. You know what will happen when we bring him to a public hospital. In case they do not reject him because of his mutation, they will immediately start to treat him like a guinea pig."
She sighed.
"Promise you'll inform me if anything happens."
"I promise."
It was far after midnight when the professor felt Jean approaching the sickroom.
"Come in." He sent to her mind.
She entered the room and he was surprised: She didn't wear the blindfold anymore.
When she looked at Scott her green eyes showed her nervousness and worry.
"Oh my god".
She whispered, reaching out a trembling hand to touch Scott's cheek. She ignored the professor, staring fearfully at the young man's tortured body.
"Will he be alright? He will wake up soon, will he?"
"I don't know, Jean. For now, it is better for him to be protected from the pain."
"How could this ever happen?"
Her voice trembled, then she lost it. Gazing at Scott's face, blindfolded, littered with scratches she felt something melting in her heart. It was not like pity, but rather a feeling of closeness. In this very moment, when he couldn't either speak to her nor see her he was closer to her than ever before.
"Professor, could you please remove the blockade of my telepathy?"
"Jean, don't overexert. I know this is a very sad situation, but if you overestimate your current state, you will.."
"I am no longer afraid of it", she interrupted him. "I want to help him. I want to enter his mind and try to safe him from this coma."
Actually, she was wondering, why the professor hadn't tried this before.
"Protection from pain is not a plausible reason for a coma. It cannot be compared to an ordinary sleep, actually, it is NOT an artificial coma which can be controlled at any time."
She looked desperately at the professor. He sighed. He knew she was a medicine student and quite advanced in her studies and his own medical knowledge was not that profound. Entering Scott's mind to free him from his coma seemed dangerous to him. Above all, he didn't know exactly, what powers Jean had. The professor frowned, moved his wheelchair to the door.
"I am not Scott's father, I cannot take the responsibility for that. However, I cannot allow you to do this, Jean, we both do not know the risk. I am confident, that he will wake up within the next few days, till then please let the two doctors take care of him. I know them very well, they are very talented and reliable."
And as Jean neither moved nor said a word, he sent to her mind:
"Let him go, I appreciate your helpfulness - we all do. But calm down your feelings and wait, please Jean."
She closed her eyes, trying to hide her thoughts from the professor. Then she left the room silently.
"Ororo, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure. What is it, professor, how is Scott?"
"Unchanged. But at least no sign of worsening. But I have another concern now: it's Jean."
"Jean!"
"Yes, I fear she is going to concoct a plan to somehow help Scott out of his coma."
"How on earth could she do this?"
"She talked about entering his mind and rescuing him from this state."
Ororo shook her head.
"I am not a doctor, but this sounds dangerous to me."
"I totally agree with you, no one knows what could happen if she did that to him."
"And now you want me to watch over him, don't you?" Her smile was a bit afflicted.