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As soon he arrived in the room, he leaded toward the bed and leaned her on it:
- "Here, easy" he said before covering her with a blanket and sitting down on the chair placed near the bed.
Jean kept on casting him some haggard looks, staring at him only briefly, seeming to be like on a cloud.. She had forgotten how much a mattress could be comfortable, overall when all your body was aching, how it was agreeable not to have cold. It was too good to be true. They had made her live a living hell by drugging her into oblivion and then violently brought her back into reality, laughing at her hopelessness. If she wasn't drugged, then it meant that they were allowing her to heal so that they could use her again. After one week or two, everything would start again.
Seeing that she had trouble to swallow, Scott spoke at Hank who he knew was still at the door.
- "I think she's thirsty, can she drink?" he asked.
- "Of course, I'll fetch her a glass of water"
He returned some instants later and Scott left briefly Jean's bedside to take the drink. When he came back near her, he helped her to draw herself up a little, and made her drink some sips, which she swallowed mechanically, before leaning her again on the bed. Water, she had in her cell, but in the end she hadn't even the strength to go to the rudimentary bathroom anymore, overall the last two days with her fractures at her legs, she had stayed half-unconscious the most part of the time as the pain was awful; as a matter of fact, she could barely remember the last men who came to rape her when she had a bone at the open, she must have passed out a few time after they had begun their business and had, as they used to, extinguished their cigarettes on her skin.
If Scott hadn't been aware of all the rapes she had undergone, any doubt he would have covered her with kisses and would have held her for a long time; but he had to stop himself from doing it, he knew she wouldn't bear it. So, he was contented by resting by her sides and wanted to take her hand and caress her cheek, but she escaped his contact as lively the sedative was allowing her.
- "Jean, I'm so much sorry for what they've done to you…" he breathed "I love you more than my own life, I can't bear the simple idea that they'd have hurt you, I'd have wanted so much to spare you it…"
"Jean", they kept on calling her like that instead of "mutie", "bitch", "riffraff", "red" or "red-head". Why? Was it her name? They were scaring her, she was so tired, she would want to sleep, but she had to stay vigil.
She didn't react, some tears were carrying on falling silently on her pale and swollen cheeks.
After some twenty minutes, taking advantage that the sedative was plainly efficient for not making her panic again, Hank came closer to replace the drip on the young mutant's wrist.
- "This risk to hurt you a little" said Beast in a soft voice before inserting the catheter in one vein, but Jean didn't blink, she had endured so much worse pains that she might not have felt it at all.
He turned himself to catch a captor which he placed at the extremity of one of the adolescent's fingers, and switched on the monitoring. Then, he began to put in place the protections-bars on the sides of the bed –to prevent what had happened before from arriving again– which provoked a new gasp of fear from Jean who moved back like she could and adopted a self-defence attitude by protecting her face with her valid arm. Scott went on the other side of the bed for preventing her to fall down, and the fact of being stymied didn't settle down the adolescent, on the contrary. Looking down, Hank understood immediately, he knew that, according to the bruises, her fractures may have been caused by a rod of metal or a base-ball bat, and overall that she had been often violently beaten. Suppressing his emotions, Beast tried to settle her down:
- "No Jean, don't be afraid, I won't hit you, it's for protecting you, only for protecting you" he told her before repeating again, "don't be afraid Jean"
But she didn't relax, it was too much for her and this even if Hank had removed his hands from the metal. Scott on his side was bewildered, he had just made the link between the two and sighed to stand this umpteenth reality, before quickly putting in place the protections-bars on the other side of the bed.
- "Scott, I think we have to leave her alone now, I believe she won't calm down and won't sleep as long as someone will be in the room, and this even if the sedative will push her into it the more and more" Hank told him
- "But…"
- "He's right, Scott" supported the Professor.
- "Yes, I know…"
He had again to stop himself from kissing her although all his being wanted to feel her alive against him.
- "I love you Jean" he breathed before standing up and leaving the room reluctantly.
This voice, this sensation which was provoking her, was evoking something deep inside of her. But quickly, the sleep took over her.
At the entrance of the room, the others Institute's members were wearing a drawn look, Logan was comforting an Ororo crying silently, the Professor had the glance down, the students were feeling powerless in front of what they had just seen and what they had learned. Everybody went to the common-room more or less silently. It's here that Scott let go his anger; without warning, he sent a vase crash on the ground and cried out with rage and pain:
- "Bunch of bastard, I should have killed all of them !"
- "Scott…" tried the Professor.
Rogue, Kurt and Kitty had looked up, so Cyclops and Logan had well killed during the rescue mission… even if it should have, this confirmation didn't shock them.
- "No, I'm sorry Professor but that's all they deserved ! They…but look at what they've done to her !"
- "This is revoltin' us too Scott !" said dryly Logan; but the adolescent kept on his way :
- "They've literally massacred her, they've branded her like cattle; and, they may have not raped her one or two time, but about fifty, do you realise that ! about fifty !" he cried out "How do you want her to recover from that ? Have you seen her gaze ? She's afraid of us and doesn't recognize us for crying out loud ! She's afraid of us… and she's afraid of me…" he ended in a broken voice, sinking on the sofa, his face on his hands.
- "We know it Scott, but unfortunately we cannot change anything" supported Storm more calmly, "Scott, you've to hold on, she'll need you, even if for the moment she rejects you like all of us."
- "She'll regain her memory about us and her life here" added Beast "she only has a slight cerebral commotion, not a brain-trauma, we've to give her time".
Charles resumed:
- "I understand that you could feel anger and rancour Scott, this shows how much you love her, and I would have you know that I don't judge you for what you have done" he began before speaking at everybody "Those men had laid their hands on her in the worst way possible, now we will have to teach to her to trust again, to accept our presence and the contacts, and this will be long ; we don't know how she will evolve and we will have to be extremely careful and patient toward her"
All of them gravely nodded.
- "We can't do something for making those monsters pay ?" asked Tabitha.
Logan shook his head.
- "The government'd denied their existence, the most part of its members are against us"
- "I will inform my contacts" said Charles "But I am well afraid Logan is right, at least for the moment, as long as the repercussions of the Sentinel'story won't be over"
- "And what if we track them down by ourselves?" proposed Evan "Scott's right, that's all they deserve!"
- "We're not assassins Evan" said Ororo.
- "But Wolverine and Cyclops have, like, killed" noticed Kitty.
- "It was different, they have been pushed by their anger, it wasn't premeditated" answered the Professor "If we were hunting down on purpose the survivors and the ones who weren't there at the moment of the rescue, this would make of us criminals"
- "But what if we only bring them to the justice?" asked Rogue.
- "That is what I will do Rogue, but with the help of contacts who won't let them out of their sight and will arrest them when the time will come. I will have to make a list of identities by brushing Jean's mind"
- "All the best" muttered Logan.
- "And as for myself," said Hank. "I'll keep a diary and have taken pictures of Jean's state on her arrival which will be added into the examination's file. We can use it as evidence for the eventual trials. Besides, there's Kevin who had been kidnapped too"
A hubbub took place in the room, the students chatting between themselves. The Professor asked for the calm and said:
- "It is late, go to bed"
Only Scott was authorized to stay.
Cyclops couldn't sleep, no more than Logan, who in any way only slept rarely. After having spent the first hours to go check if Jean was fine, Scott ended by leaning himself on one of the sofas where he finished dozing like the other until the break of dawn before waking up with a start.
- "What's up ?" asked Ororo.
He had felt something through the bond he shared with Jean, she was terrorized, briefs flashes of terrible images appeared in his mind and he immediately understood.
- "Jean's having a nightmare" he answered by standing up to go in a hurry to the room.
He had to wake her up, she was reliving something horrible, he knew it. He switched on the light and went to the bedside of a Jean, moving and moaning in her sleep, whose he took the hand as much tenderly as he could.
- "Jean, Jean ! Wake up, that's a nightmare"
The young mutant awake with a start and, when she saw she wasn't alone and that she felt hands surrounding hers, panicked and tried to move back like she had done the first time, but Scott stopped her by her valid forearm.
- "Jean, settle down, I mean you no harm !"
In her gaze, a light of terror and pain was accompanying the quivers and the sudden acceleration of her cardiac and breathing rhythm's, she was still struggling to set herself free, but still without pronouncing a word.
- "Jean, you can read in me, remember our bond Jean" he told her in a soft and reassuring voice " read in me, you'll see how much I love you, how much I would be incapable of hurting you"
What was he talking about? About what was he talking? She didn't know him, she wanted him to release her…Suddenly, she felt something entered her mind, a kind of connection with this young man, something soft and agreeable. He wouldn't hurt her. He was worried, he wanted to take her in his arms for…for comforting her? He loved her?...She was everywhere in his mind, well and smiling, in love with him…Yes, here is, some recollections were coming back to her mind…but he was a man, he was a man, they were cruel and violent even more than the women…but not him… He was angered but not against her, against them, the ones who had destroyed her.
For an instant, Scott thought she wasn't going to calm down, that he'd have to leave her again, but Jean ended by slightly steadying herself and the adolescent could release his grips without she take advantage of it for trying to move away.
- "Nobody here will hurt you Jean, we'll protect you, I will protect you" he carried on in a soft voice "You're secure now and I want you to know that I'd give my life for nobody to attack you anymore, and I'd have done it if it could have spared you this"
- "Scott" said Hank's voice.
Jean startled and moved back again. The monitoring witnessed the new brusque acceleration of her heart-beat and, if the protection-bars of the bed hadn't been in place she would have probably fell on the ground again.
- "Shhhhh, it's nothing, don't worry…"
Understanding that he was the cause of this sudden burst of terror, Beast went out of Jean' sight, reassured to see her seemed to be tolerating Scott's presence. For not breaking the charm, he used the Professor as a telepathic messenger whose voice didn't be long to resound in the adolescent's mind.
Scott, Hank has a dose of tranquilliser for Jean, it would be good if you could administer it to her by her drip
Scott nodded, he was well seeing that the simple fact of breathing was hurting Jean; he breathed to her that he'd come back immediately, and went to fetch the drug which he injected as asked, relieved to see that it seemed to quickly soothe the pains the young mutant was enduring from all her physicals wounds.
When, some minutes later, its effect was whole, Charles'voice was projected again in his mind:
Scott, Rogue will come in, she has something for Jean
The X-Men leader's was somehow surprised, but didn't show it. Rogue entered slowly in the room, Jean tensed up, but Scott achieved to quieten her down with words, the young mutant being in any way knocked by the sedative.
Rogue cast a glance at Scott. To Rogue, Jean looked as if she had been disfigured, but Hank had told them that the bruises would disappear. She spoke at the telepath with a bad assured voice:
- "Jean, we…Ah dunno if ya remember me…we weren't really friends… but yesterday night me and the others have gathered together an' we made ya this…" she declared by placing in front of her a frame of pictures where had been put together all kind of photos recuperated in all the Institute representing Jean, smiling, radiant, with all the students and professors of the establishment. On the glass they've marked each person'name and some details "We've told ourselves that it may help ya to remember us and that we're yar friends…to remember that we're here for ya…"
Jean briefly put her glance on the frame, but her face stayed neutral of all kind of emotion, the sedative had let her in a woolly-world where the pain, at least the one of physical order, seemed to have left her a little alone. She was groggy, but she recognized the one who was near her on one picture, the one who was inspiring a relative trust to her even if she wasn't seeing his eyes. Below, it was noted: "Scott Summers, your best friend and even more, the one you love and who loves you more than anything in the world"
Outside of the room, the Professor Xavier slightly smiled, the events seemed to have erased the resentments of Rogue toward Jean. He was proud that his students had had such a good idea and realised that he was so much preoccupied by the young telepath the day before that he hadn't even noticed that his others students weren't sleeping.
During the month and a half which followed, Jean's psychic state didn't get better, she seemed to tolerate only Scott even if this one was also scaring her when he was appearing, but she always ended by settling down even without sedative. It turned out quickly that she didn't fall asleep without tranquillizing given probably of the numerous pains she was feeling and of the perpetual fear which was haunting her. She was in a lot of pain, but wasn't complaining, as if she didn't feel it at all, but with the bond she was sharing with Scott, it wasn't going unnoticed. She was also refusing to eat, but Hank found a method: by feeding her under sedative, her resistance was weakened and she swallowed by automatism which Scott gave her.
It's Ororo who was taking charge to clean her, and that only under general anaesthesia, without which the young mutant would never accept to be touched; Hank had preferred to do it like that rather than letting her conscious because she could have thought that they were taking advantage of her vulnerability and would have lived it as new rapes. Her bruises took a violet/yellow colour before disappearing progressively, Hank was right, she had recovered her pretty face, some thin scars in addition, and its light in less. He had made the chirurgical repairing needed and erased, between else, the horrible "FOH" mark on her skin.
All sudden movement was banished because they were immediately making her take a self-protection attitude due to the several beating she had endured. She didn't speak anymore; Beast hadn't found any medical reason, but everybody knew that this was due to her traumatism; Jean would maybe speak again when she'd be ready, even if this block might now be more unconscious than linked to her simple will. As a matter of fact, she wasn't communicating in any way and stayed most of the time like in another world, her glance lost in space, without answering to Scott's encouragements for making her look or talk at him. But if he moved, she was pulled off her lethargy with a start. In these moments, Jean wasn't as much lethargic as she has been when they had found her, but she wasn't for all that receptive, that's only from the fifth week that she began to pay a little more attention to Scott.
As a matter of fact, these six first weeks, the last of her sequestration, Jean had seen it melt away rapidly and by intermittence, going out of her drugging sleep only for some hours a day.
The holidays being finished, the students had had to return at school since a week. Even if Scott had difficulties to spend the day far of Jean whereas she needed him, he knew the Professor was right, if they missed the classes for too long, the principal Kelly would made no bones about expelling them and would probably not listen to their reasons. Jean's absence was now official due to her physical and mental state. The members of the Institute knew that Jean's kidnapping was known to everyone because of the researches the X-Men had done but they didn't know what had happened to her.. It was obvious that she would never come back to school again. The only comforting news Scott had was from Hank who told him that Jean was sleeping during almost all his absence. Thanks to the sedative he injected into her.
The math session had just touched at its end, it was the last one of the day and Scott was about to rush out when….
- "Scott, can I have a word with you?" asked professor Malcom, one of the rare human being who hadn't had a change of heart since their identities as mutants were revealed.
To be continued
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