Never Forgotten – Chapter Eleven
The tactics room, the room where they always went over plans and procedures of the next mission they were about to embark on, it was one of the biggest rooms in the mansion. Yet at the moment sitting there with both Jean and Scott in the room with her, Marie felt like it was one of the smallest and getting smaller by the second. Sure the professor, Jubilee, Strom, Kitty, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Hank were all there, but it still felt as if the walls were closing in on her. She was doing her best to focus all of her attention to the details of the mission they were about to take, but every once and awhile she would feel Jeans eyes on her and she couldn't help but look that way. Not the mention it was kind of hard to not watch them standing there next to each other, with Jeans hand rested on his lower back, especially since Scott was the leader and in charge of doling out the information that was going to be needed. Then once the meeting was over and it was time for them to suit up and board the X-jet it took everything Marie had not the up and run out of the room. The ride to the abandon factory that was reported to have a group of young mutants that had gone into hiding with no real adult to care for them, wasn't really all that bad since Scott and Jean were flying the jet and Marie opted to sit in the back all the while silently cursing the Professor for choosing Logan to be the one to stay behind with him to protect the mansion. Logan had been her saving grace for the past couple of months since Jean had come home, she didn't know how she would have ever made it thought any of this without him, and he seemed to be making every day a little better for her. Holding her when she needed to be held, getting her out of the house for walks even when she didn't want to go, making her laugh when she became too quite somehow knowing she needed it. That was something else she couldn't think him enough for, not just him simply being there but showing her all the softer side of himself that he probably hadn't know existed. It was just like old times between them, as if he had never left for over two years, slowly but surely she was falling for him all over again… No, she wouldn't think that, not only was she still in love with Scott. She couldn't hurt Logan that way, like he had said he wouldn't be a replacement and she couldn't live through having her heart broken yet again. Feeling the jet make it's landing only twenty minutes later, Marie snapped herself out of her thought and was the down the ramp before all the others were even unbuckled, as soon as her feet hit the ground she shifted her mind entirely on the mission.
"Ok. We all know the layout. Storm will stay here and keep the jet ready, remember stay alert. And as we went over back at the mansion, due to some type of shield being cast over this place the professor could not confirm or deny that there are actual mutants in there, so this could be some kind of trap. Kitty and Colossus you two go in the left side of the building. Nightcrawler and Jubilee go in through the right side, Hank and Rogue take the back entrance, and Jean and I will go through the front." Scott laid out in short for them, then giving a nod he watched as everyone started out of the wooded area they had landed in to carry out the orders he had just given them. He couldn't help but be a little uneasy as his gaze drifted to watch Marie walk away with Hank not far behind this was the first mission they'd had together since Jean had come back a couple of months ago. And even though Scott knew Hank would die before he let anything happen to Marie, he still wanted to be the one to protect her. Shaking the thoughts from his head he went back into leader status as he and Jean came up on the front entrance of the abandon factory. The place was quite, and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Hopefully they it wouldn't take long for them to collect the four or five young ones that were reported to be living here alone. And just as he and Jean had walked through the door that was when he heard it.
It had all seemed to happen in slow motion; just as Marie and Hank entered the building they saw four young children none of them older then the age of six in some sort of a cage not more than ten feet away. Then she felt it on her the back of her neck, the cold steel of the barrel of a gun, without a second thought Maries training kick in and she lifted her leg back to kick the armed person in the knee cap while grabbing the barrel of the gun with her hand pointing the air as the man fall to his a knelling position as the gun went off nearly deafening Marie. Seeing Hank starting to turn towards her as two men come out from behind a stack of wooden carats in front of him she yelled a warning. "Hank, in front of you, don't worry about me. Get the kids." Pulling off a glove she touched the mans face was now trying to stand once again, she felt the rush of his thoughts and let go quickly to make sure she only put him out for a couple of hours. Turning she ran to help Hank dispose of the two man he had now disarmed. Around the building you could here shots being fried and grunts of people fighting. It was strange how fast everything was happening, yet at the same time how slow it seemed. She took down one of the man attacking Hank by surprise as she walked up and placed her hand on his face from behind him, and she can safely say he had no idea what hit him, or touched him before he was out cold on the floor. By that time Hank had knocked out the other man he had been struggling with and was now breaking the lock on the cage the children had been in, walking over to him she saw him grab two kids in each arm.
"I'm going to get them to the jet, go and help the others."
She didn't have to be told twice, she took off in the diction she still heard the shooting going on. Seconds later over her com device she could hear Scott telling everyone to get to back to the jet, but knowing with the guns still going off the way they were they had to have someone trapped, so if her could sneak up on the shooter all it would take was a touch and they would get the hell out of there. One by one Marie heard over the com her team members reporting in, Kurt and Jubilee were the first to report back safe on the jet, Hank was next with the kids, and then Kitty and Colossus weren't far behind. So that left Scott and Jean, damn, where the hell is he. She was close to the bastard that much she was sure of but for some reason he had stop shooting, probably to reload. She turned the next corner around a pile of wood to come almost face to face with Jean, and the glint of a gun being raised at both of them from only a mere fifteen feet away. Again Marie instincts took over, she lunged at Jean wrapping her arms around her waist and threw both Jean and herself into the pile of stacked wood and then to the floor. She didn't the remember hearing the gun go off but she swore she heard the bullet fly by, the next thing she knew she was pulling her self up as Scott came up to her side. She looked down only see her effort was in vain, as she saw the blood coming out of the top of Jean black leather suit.
"Marie… Jean are you…" Scott yelled terrified. He had been only a second to late in blasting the man with the gun before he could get of that last shot. He didn't even know if he had killed the man and for the first time on his life he really didn't care. All he cared about at that moment was making sure the two people that meant the most to him in the world was ok. When he reached them Marie she had pulled her self into a standing position above Jean who laid unmoving face up on the floor, blood smeared along her throat and chin. Knowing they had to get out of there and now Scott pick her up as gently as possible in his arms. "Storm meet us at the front entrance now. Jeans been shot." He shouted into the com as he started to make his way out the door. Looking back to make sure Marie was close behind him.
Seconds later Marie boarded the jet after Scott and Jean; there were no words, she should have moved faster, now Scott was facing losing the love of his life again, except this time they all knew she wouldn't be coming back. And it was her fault, she had tried to save her, she really had but they probably wouldn't think so. She bowed her head partly in shame and partly because her neck was in searing pain and right arm had gone completey numb. "Probably from the force of hitting the concrete floor wrong or something." Marie thought as she took a seat in the closest spot to her since the pain in her neck was starting to burn. "God is the jet always this cold" she thought as she leaned back against her seat feeling weak, drained and dizzy. Her eye lids felt heavy so very heavy. "Rest I just need to rest" she thought before she let herself drift into darkness.
Scott laid Jean down across the bench in the back and striped her in as the jet took off. Once she was safely secure he unzipped her suit slowly and tenderly, then careful started to peel it from her flesh while his eyes, along with Hank's who had just stepped up behind him searched for the bullet wound. Realizing at the same time the there was nothing there after a good half minute of examining her front side they glanced at each other it was clear she had been hit the was blood covering her neck and chin.
"Here let me turn her over, the bullet could have gotten lodged in her back." Hank stated before he took Scott place leaning over her. After Scott undid her strapping Hank gently lifted her as Scott again ever so slowly pulled the black leather away from her skin, off of her arms to hang around her waist. It only took a second the see there was nothing there, no blood this time, no wounds, not even a burse. "Where the fuck did the blood come from." Hank cursed out of frustration as well as worry.
The sight of Jeans unmarred back caused Scotts mind to go blank, but as soon as Hank spoke the words he winced, and he head snapped around in search of Marie. She couldn't be, she was fine, she was up and walking he though rapidly before finding her sitting in the back of the jet just across from them. He had always loved the color red, for years before the professor was able to modify his specs to be able to tune in real colors, red was all he saw. But now, at this very moment he couldn't hate the color more, it jumped out at him so out of place running down on the creamy white porcelain skin of her right hand and dripping off her forefinger. His gaze followed the thin flowing trail of HER blood up her right arm, up the front curve of her shoulder and it was there, even now hardly noticeable. The hole directly in the center of the small X that rest on the lower part of the right side of her throat which her crimson life now was now trickling out of. "Hank." Was all he could get out in a mere whisper, as he stared at her sitting there looking so fragile, her hair stringy with sweat, moisture on her pale brow and cheeks, her breathing so shallow it barley even existed. He quickly snapped out of his brief shock, and was instantly on his knees in front of her. "Marie, baby open your eyes. Come open them sweetie… Marie…look at me… please just… ROUGE… OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT ME… THAT'S AN ORDER!" Scott yelled at her holding her face in his hands as he lost his well know control, right along with his sanity when she didn't respond.
"Scott, Scott let go of her… I have to… Scott move…" Hank said having to all but push him away from Rogue in order to tend to her. Zipping her suit just a mere inch and then he pulled back the collar the hoping and praying to find that the bullet somehow missed her artery but she was still losing too much blood to fast, he couldn't tell and without the proper utensils. "I need glaze to help apply pressure and try to slow the bleeding, but I afraid that we… Oh, god…" Hank than lifted Rogue out of her seat more roughly than he would normally and laid her in the floor and started performing CPR.
"What… what happened?" Jean asked rubbing her head as she sat up. Once her vision was in focus, the sight before her had her instantaneously in doctor mode; it didn't take her but a moment to find herself next to Hank helping to try to save the very life that was put in the jeopardy while saving her own. "Hank… I don't … shit we need to be at the mansion… she already…" she caught herself before she could go any further as she saw the look Hank had given her out of the corner of her eye. Yet she couldn't help but realize that her bare hands were on Rogues face, who never wore her bracelet during mission, yet Jean wasn't feeling her pull, there was no drain, not to mention the fact that her temperature was already dropping.
Scott felt like his life was fading away with hers; he wanted to hold her hand, to run his fingers through her hair, to whisper in her ear how he never stopped loving her. However with as narrow as the jet was there was only enough room for Jean and Hank to work on her. All he could do for the rest of the ride home was stand there gazing at her face that was slowly losing more and more color and will her to stay with him. As soon as the jet landed Hank picked up Marie and headed straight to the Medical Lab with Jean and Scott both following closely behind, everyone else not much further behind them. Scott continued towards double doors the OR portion of the med lab that Hank had rushed Marie into, only to have Jean step in his way.
"Scott, no, you can't go in there." Jean order before walking in behind Hank.
Scott not giving a damn at the moment took another step towards the doors only to his arms grabbed by that of Colossus. Scott then took a step back, and with a murderess look on his face he informed Colossus, that if his didn't get out of his way he would have no problem killing him. In turn Colossus released him and stepped aside. Scott then rushed to the doors and looked through the windows to see Marie lying on the table with tube coming out of her mouth, and both Hank and Jean working frantically over her. As he was about to go inside the room, Jean ran to lock the doors, and then pulled the curtain so that he couldn't even see what was happening. Raising his hand ready to blast his way in he suddenly found Ororo's hands on his arms this time.
"You don't understand she needs me… I have to be with her Ororo… Marie needs me..." Scott yelled as he struggled against Ororo, to be at Marie's side.
"Scott, stop…" Ororo could see that she wasn't getting through to him so she did the only thing she could think of, she raised her hand and slapped in across his face. Which got his attention sure enough, but now he was looking at her with so much hurt written on his face that she didn't think she would be able to bear it. She then took Scott in her arms and hugged him to her, waiting for the brake down she knew that was sure to come but didn't. "It will be ok… you know as well as I do how strong she is… she will be fine…"
"Your damn right she'll be fine." Logan said as he walked in the room claws ready to be bared.
Logan walked up to stand face to face with Scott and the sight of the man fueled him with fury as he yelled at him," What the hell do you let happen to her Summers?"
"Fuck you Wolverine you don't know what you're talking about?" Scott shouted back at him, thinking the idiot must have lost his mind to try and push his buttons now of all times.
"I know exactly what am I talking about, Scout leader. Where the fuck is Marie lying right now, it sure as hell isn't at home in our bed were she is suppose to be" he said as grabbed Scott by his shirt and slammed him against the wall, pinning him there with a murder in his eyes.
"You're what?" Scott roared enrage at Logan confirming what some of his coworkers and students had been speculating about the how close he and Marie had become since his return home. Then shoving the man hard in the chest pushing him back a few steps, Scott held himself back wanting nothing more than to blow off every part of him that might have touched Marie.
"I swear to you if she doesn't make it through this…" Logan started to threaten, pointing a finger in the boys face, then was knocked back again as Scott's fist connected with is face. At that point they both were ready to kill; Logan unsheathed his claws as Scott raised his hands to his visor, each one daring the other to make a move.
"That's enough, both of you… and to think I thought that the two of you above all would show a little respect here when the one you care so dearly about is in there fighting for her life." Xavier said firmly as he wheeled in the room, this was out of control and never out of the endless lists of bad ways this could have ended up did he think for a second that Rouge would be facing losing her life while Logan and Scott wanted to end each others in the next room. This had to end and end soon because he could not face another death of one of his children, his heart just couldn't take it again. "Now, if the two of you would like to behave like adults and sit here and wait with everyone else please do so. But if you want to continue to act like children then I will gladly send you both to yours rooms where you can get word of her condition along with the other young children in the mansion."
"I'm not leavening her." Logan stated, still scowling at Scott.
"Neither am I." Scott replied forcefully, doing his best not to raise his hand and blow a hole through the man that he would never be able to heal.
"Little late for that don't you think, bub." Logan added as he took a sit across the room, at least if he couldn't beat the shit out of the cocky son of a bicth he could still hurt him.
"Yeah, but I guess I should thank you. After all I picked up that move from you." Scott said taking a seat on the opposite side of the room.
"Yes, this is much better." Xavier said with a sigh as he parked himself by the door.
Authors Note: I would just like to say that this is my first time to write any kind of action scene. Hopefully it was not to disappoint for all of you, any how I did try. I hope you all loved the chapter and I next one will be up as soon as possible.