AN: Wow! I haven't updated this story in like an age and a half. I'm truly sorry for not doing so. Life has this weird way of getting in the way of doing everything else. Let's see if I can't get myself back on track and get this story updated and stuff. Please, everyone out there in fanfiction land read and review my little work. I don't care if it's good, bad, or indifferent. It's reviews that make writing stuff out worth it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except a handful or two of made up characters. All of this wonderful stuff belongs to the geniuses at Marvel Comics. I'm just playing in their world. I'm broke and in college. All I own are my Pointe shoes.
Nick wasn't quite sure how he had gotten through the throng of interviews and the post game photo opts that came part and parcel with pitching a good game. Maybe he'd said everything by rote, using clichéd phrases that were older than baseball itself.
At this point, he really didn't care. All Nick wanted to was go home, go back to Rose and his friends. The closest thing he had to a real family.
Equally unsure was Nick on how he managed to get from Shea Stadium in Queens to his home in Westchester in one piece. All he remembered was the blur of cars passing him by on the road as he tried to speed his way back to his place of residence.
Though he couldn't really remember how, Nick eventually found his way back home.
His home was quite different from any other big leaguer's home. They lived in mansions, bought with their six figure salaries, in quiet communities that were far removed from the real world. Maybe it should have been expected of Nick- just a rookie in the big leagues as he was- but Nicholas made his home in a school
The very same school he had attended when he was just a boy--- The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. The pitcher had all intentions of moving out, eventually, maybe after he got married. Not out of Westchester, per see, since all of his friends lived there, but out of the school. He wanted to remain under the protective umbrella the Xavier School had created.
Parking his car in one of the school's many garages; Nicholas Giacatore followed the familiar route to the underground medical facility.
"Now this is a shocker to say the least," he mused, as he entered the cooled hallways of the school's underground area.
Sitting and standing along the corridor, in many states of disarray, were a large portion of the school's student population. Some looked genuinely concerned about what was taking place just behind the cold metal doors of the medical facility; others looked to be down there for the gossip. Still others were just there to see what all the excitement was about.
"Nicky? Is that you?" came a shrill female voice, as it carried over the din being created by the student population in the hallway.
Continuing to wend his way through the vast crowd, Nick made his way over to the owner of the shrill voice. Many of the gathered students looked at him with a mixture of awe and confusion. He was rather well known in the school as being the first mutant to play a professional sport. At least, the first one they knew about. He'd become something of a cult hero to a few of the boys in the school, much to Nicholas' chagrin.
"Rose," he mumbled, embracing his long time lady love and giving her a quick kiss, "you don't know how good it is to see you. I worried about all of this the entire game."
"But you played like I asked you too, right? None of that silly being taken out in the sixth inning or something," Rose challenged with a tired grin on her face.
"Of course I did! Far be it for me not to bring my A-Game every time. I don't want to be the person to spoil our play off dreams. Let like Wilpon or Minaya take that role," he retorted with some mocking in his voice.
Lowering his tone, he asked, "Who are all these kids? Has there been any change in the situation?"
"These kids are most of Angie's class and their friends. They're worried about her, well, her class is anyway," Rose responded in an almost whisper, "There's no new news really. I can tell you that the baby is a girl and Angie's out of it so she has no name. The professor's going to try to wake her up because you know how Angie is about keeping up traditions. She would want to get all the important ones in just in case the worst happens."
Nick nodded, knowing Angie's dedication to the traditions she'd been raised with. They all were to some degree really since it was the only way to preserve what past they had left and what humanity they could keep close to them.
"Can I go see them?" he asked, "I want to talk to Matt and stuff."
"Yeah, you can. I'm sure Matt could use your friendship right now anyway. He's having a rough time with all of this, you know. This was the last thing he expected and he really isn't getting what's going on. Has no science mind like Angie," Rose answered, starting to lead Nicholas to the door into the facility proper.
"Heya, Miss Addeo, can we go in too?" asked one of the kids lining the hallway.
He was a burly boy with a messy of curly brown hair and equally brown eyes. It was those features that earned him the nickname of "Chocolate" among the rest of the student population.
"Not yet, Chester, maybe later, though," Rose answered, addressing the boy by his given name and making him wince as she did so.
"When she wakes up will you tell her we were asking about her?" proposed a lanky blond haired, blue eyed girl by the name of Trina.
"I'll make sure of it," Nick confirmed as Rose pulled him through the door to the medical center.
Walking about halfway down the suddenly vast room, Nick paused. Though he tried to mentally prepare for what he might see, the reality of it was a strong shock to his system. To see it in person hurt him physically.
Towards the end of the long room was Angelina. She was still very much unconscious and was hooked up to far to many machines, in Nick's opinion. She wasn't the lively, animated person he'd been use to growing up, in the state she was in at the moment.
At the head of the bed sat a familiar bald man. The man responsible for the school and, as such, its namesake: Professor Charles Xavier. If what Rose had told him was true, he was making every attempt to wake Angie from her slumber.
Near the foot of the bed stood three individuals. One was blatantly Matthew- Matt- Angie's husband. He seemed to be trying to watch what was going on with his wife and something in front of him at the same time. At the distance he was standing at, it looked to Nick like he was failing in both endeavors.
His squeaking and flapping sneaker clad feet became direct competition for all the noisy medical equipment in the room. There was an oppressive sort of malaise on the room, a strange silence that seemed to incorporate the noises being made by the medical machinery. A silence that Nick didn't want to break until it was completely necessary.
"Look who turned up, Matt," Rose stated, when they were close enough to the newly minted father in the room.
Obviously distracted and ignoring the falsely happy tone in Rose's voice, Matt turned to face the pair. Matt was the generally happy-go-lucky, loving life type of person that everyone knew existed but did not want to believe it to be so. He loved life no matter what was happening to him. That, though, seemed to have been driven out of him by what had just taken place. His face was grave, set like stone and his usually friendly and happy eyes were wet with unshed tears. Nick knew he was making every effort to be strong for everyone around him, including his newly born daughter.
"I'm so sorry buddy," was all Nick could muster as he shook Matt's hand.
A few beats passed before Matt broached, "Do you want to see her?"
There was a hint- just a touch- of fatherly pride in his voice, making Nick reply, "Of course I do."
Taking a step over, Nick found himself gawking at the same…thing…Matt had been staring at moments prior. In what he recognized to be an incubator, a very small baby lay. The baby was hard to see since she was just a wee bit of a thing and there were many wires and tubes coming out of every available inch of her skin. A white mask covered her eyes and a cap of the same color covered her head. Now that he was closer, Nick found he could make out the familiar snap-hiss of the baby's respirator.
In sharp contrast to the bleak surroundings, someone had taped a garishly pink "It's a Girl" sign to the side of the incubator. It was someone's- Nick wasn't sure whose- attempt to lighten the grave situation up even by the smallest of degrees.
"Who delivered her?" Nick, curiously, asked as he attempted to get over his initial shock at seeing the child for the first time.
"With some help from Dr. Gray, I did," said a voice off of Nick's shoulder.
Turning away from Matt for a moment, Nick recognized the other two figures standing vigil over the child. Next to him was a creature covered in blue fur with an almost ape-like appearance. If Nick hadn't know him for most of his life, he would have been afraid of the blue furred monster. Of course he knew better; Dr. Hank McCoy- also known as Beast- was no monster. Instead he was a skilled researcher and, it seemed, a defacto surgeon.
Next to him, drawing a sharp contrast to the blue furred doctor was a tall red headed woman. Nick recalled her name as Jean Gray. She lacked a codename which had always struck Nick as odd. Now, though, he found he lacked the time to reflect on that little oddity.
"What's the outlook right now, doctor?" Rose asked, slipping into the smallest of spaces between Nick and Dr. McCoy.
"Truth be told, with the infection in her blood and the fact many of her systems were not prepared for the outside world, her chances aren't very good. Even if she does manage to pull through somehow, chances are great there'll be some type of long lasting damage. If she's anything like her parents, though, she'll be fighting like the devil until the very end," Beast answered.
"If the infection does take what little strength she has first," Matt lamented miserably.
"Don't worry," Jean offered, "you'll see that it'll be alright."
"I hope you're right, Jean. I really hope you are," Matt mumbled, eyes going back and forth again from his wife to his daughter.