The Purpose of Hope
Chapter Two
By: Lily Handle
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Author's Note: Any medical information that I use is usually from the internet, so please forgive any errors, you people who know medical stuff. Also, I'm gonna try and start something new here, thanking my reviewers individually! Raphaella, Mooopower and Maddison Avenue, thanks for reviewing! You (and reviewers in general) make my day every time!
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When the phone rang in Logan's room Hope groaned and pulled the blankets over her head. Logan reached over her and grabbed the phone of the nightstand.
"What?" He grunted, flopping onto his back next to her. He growled then pulled the blankets off her head with one hand, "For you."
"What?"
"Phone's for you."
"How did they know to call here?"
"Chuck, take it." And he pressed it against her ear and let go. She scrambled to hold on to it then sat up and glared at him.
"Hello?" Hope called on her ability to wake up quickly managed to sound almost conscious.
"Dr. Chandler, my name is Janice, I'm a nurse at Charity hospital," A rather breathless voice said. "Dr. Dominguez asked me to call you." Through the phone Hope could hear terse orders shouted over the frantic beeping of machinery and the shouts of a patient's status.
"What's going on?"
"Hope!" Dr. Dominguez's voice burst through the phone, causing Hope to jerk it away from her ear. "We need you here, now!"
"What? Why? What's going on?"
"We've got a mutant here and we can't get him stable. No one here can figure out what's going on. You're the nearest expert!"
"What's wrong with him?" Hope asked as she scrambled from bed.
"We don't know! He came in with what looked like an anaphylactic reaction, we gaved him epinephrine and then he starts convulsing. Anti-sezier medicine didn't make a dent, now he's going tacky and nothing's steadying his heartbeat."
"Uh…" Hope grabbed up her skirt from the floor and shimmied into it, "Describe the patient to me."
"What? Why?"
"Because I can't even begin to help you unless I know what kind of mutant I'm dealing with," Hope yelled into the phone, stuffing her arms into the sleeves of her shirt.
"Uh, skinny male of about 18, 19, um, silver hair…"
"Pietro!" Hope's fingers flew as she buttoned her shirt, "I'm on my way." She threw the phone down and turned to tell Logan where she was going, but he was already up and buttoning a pair of jeans.
"How quickly can you get me there?" She asked, sliding on her shoes.
"Quickly enough," He said pulling on a shirt, "We'll borrow Scott's car."
"Works for me." Together they sprinted for the garage and Scott's Cobra. As they roared off into the night Hope tried to think of what she could do for Pietro. She put herself in Dr. Dominguez's place and started running the scenario. For an anaphylactic reaction, or allergic reaction, anti-histamines would be the first choice. If those didn't work a shot of epinephrine would usually do the trick. In Pietro the epinephrine had caused him to go into seizures, which didn't make any sense to Hope. Seizures were triggered by a any varying number of things, but in Hope's best guess Pietro had suffered a grand mal seizure. Grand mal seizures were triggered by abnormal electric activity over a large area of the brain. There were varying causes for this as well, but Hope had a theory. Rapid rising of body temperature could cause a grand mal seizure, and since Pietro was having an anaphylactic reaction just before the seizure it stood to reason that the reaction had raised his temperature enough to cause a grand mal seizure. Then why the ambormal heart rhythm? Was it a result of the seizure and the increased electrical brain activity or was it the anaphylactic reaction? There were too many what ifs and too many links between symptoms, Hope thought. One thing could cause another, but another thing could cause the same reaction. Most disturbing she had never heard of these type of symptoms in one person before. Could it be Pietro's mutant DNA that was the wild card here? She figured yes, and if it was how was she going to help? She couldn't remove Pietro's DNA.
Logan sped into the ambulance bay at Charity and Hope jumped out. The guards looked confused, but didn't stop her as she ran past them.
"Dr. Chandler!" Dr. Dominguez tried to grab her as Hope dashed past, "You can't go back there!"
"Then why did you call me?" Hope asked, wrenching her arm away from her fellow doctor.
"To consult! You can't treat patients at Charity anymore, remember?"
"Yeah, well I may be the only chance that boy has, I need to see him, and his chart," Hope drew herself up to her full height. "You are going to let me back there, you are going to turn control of the trauma room over to me and if you do it soon enough we may save this boy's life, got it?" Dr. Dominguez stared, temporarily speechless that Hope had thrown her non-existent clout around. She took the opportunity to slip around him and head for the sounds of beeping machines and yelling doctors and nurses.
"Dr. Chandler!" One of the nurses exclaimed when she burst into the room. It was indeed Pietro who was laying on the bed, still twitching slightly every few seconds. His body was covered in large red hives and he shone with sweat. Looking away from the boy she read the machines, taking in heart rate, rhythm and oxygen levels.
"Gloves, now," She ordered, holding out a hand. A pair was slapped into her hand and she pulled them on, smiling at the nurse who had handed them to her. "Someone give me a stethoscope, and give me the complete run down of what happened here." Another nurse pulled the stethoscope from a watching doctor's neck and then started giving a detailed description of Pietro's treatment.
"Temperature, some one take his temperature," Hope ordered, listening to the off beats of Pietro's heart.
"105, Doctor! And it's rising!" A nurse called out.
"Ice! And cold saline, fast as it can get here!" She ordered, then jerked her head up when the heart monitor went flat. "Crash cart! And someone start compressions!" One was wheeled to her side and she stared at the monitor as it charged up. Come on, come on, you bastard, she thought, watching the little line inch closer to the full side of the meter. When it beeped, she grabbed the paddles, told everyone to step back and slammed 50 volts into Pietro. The line stayed flat. She upped the volts to 100. The line stayed flat. 125. The line stayed flat. She ordered adrenaline and other heart starting medicines. The line stayed flat. Ice was piled around the boy and his temperature started to fall. Still, the line stayed flat.
"Oh, don't you dare die on me," Hope grumbled to herself as she set the paddles down, "Your father's already tried to kill me, I don't need that experience again." She ripped off her gloves.
"Dr. Chandler what are you doing?" A nurse asked.
"Just keep everyone back!" And she pressed her hands over Pietro's heart and pushed her power into him. Dimly aware of the heart monitor beating again she swept her power through Pietro's body. Too many histamines, too much heat. She shut down the parts of the body releasing histamines, and forced the hypothalamus, the organ in the brain in control of regulating body temperature, to keep the body cool. Maintaining Pietro's heart beat, she waited for his body to level out and then withdrew her power from his body. She staggered back from the bed, dizzy from the drain on her powers. Panting she glanced at the monitors. His heart beat was steady, his temperature was level and he had stopped twitching.
"Clear the ice away," She ordered, but no one moved. All eyes were fixated on her. Hope once again drew herself up and glared, "Clear the ice away before his temperature drops dangerously low and do it now!" Suddenly the crowd moved, grabbing the bags of ice and pulling them off Pietro.
"What did you do?" Hope turned to see Dr. Dominguez standing in the doorway, staring at her.
"Nothing serious," Hope explained, "He'll be unconscious for awhile, but that's normal for when I heal someone."
"Healed him?" This was said with a heavy level of disbelief.
"Well, no, not healed," Hope looked at Pietro, "I just stabilized him."
"But, but…you're powers, they're lethal." Hope would have winced if the urge to smack Dr. Dominguez hadn't have popped into her head first.
"Only when I want them to be," She snapped and pushed past him again. This time when he grabbed her wrist he pulled her around sharply.
"What you did you do to him?" He demanded, "We have to explain this to the boy's parents."
"He's not hurt, all I did was temporarily block his histamines and keep his temperature down by redirecting his bioelectric impulses. Look," Hope tried to tug her wrist away, but Dr. Dominguez held firm, "He's alive and I'd bet my medical license that his father won't give a flying pig that I used my powers on him. Now let me go."
"I don't think so."
"You know, bub, I think you will," Logan said, coming up behind Hope.
Dr. Dominguez glared at Logan, "It's none of your business sir."
"Rodger, I'd do what he says," She warned, knowing how protective Logan could get.
"I have to explain what happened in that room to Adams, I will probably have to explain what happened in that room to the heads of every department in this hospital. If that boy doesn't wake up, I'll lose my job. I called you here to consult…"
"And I saved that boy's life. You want someone to blame if he doesn't wake up, you call the medical review board and you give them my name. Now, if you're done threatening me, I'd like my arm back."
Logan placed his claws close to Dr. Dominguez's throat, "And she means now." Dr. Dominguez released her and quickly back peddled away from Logan's claws.
"That's better, now if you can stop worrying about your career and point me in the direction of his friends," Hope said, rubbing her wrist.
"How did…"
"This way, Doc," Logan said, cutting off Dr. Dominguez. "They're sitting around in the waiting room."
"And I can safely assume you called Charles to tell him where we are and what's going on?"
"Chuck's gonna try and get in contact with Magneto, though I'm thinking ol' bucket head knows what's going on here already." Hope made a noise of agreement as she followed Logan to the waiting room. Sitting and standing in the back corner was the Brotherhood. They looked nervous and a little frightened. Hope put on a reassuring smile and stepped away from the hand Logan had placed in the middle of her back.
"Hello," She said, addressing them all, "First off, Pietro's stable but unconscious right now."
"What happened to him?" Wanda asked.
"He had a severe allergic reaction, what's medically known as anaphylactic shock. The medicine that is usually administered in this situation wasn't working, probably because of his mutation. That's why they called me."
"So, um, what caused him, to you know, have one of those anaphy-whatever reactions?" Toad asked, shifting in his seat.
Hope was taken aback for a second, "He's never had a reaction like this before?" The Brotherhood all exchanged a look.
"Not since we've known him," Lance said stiffly. "So what?"
"Well, based on the severity of the reaction, he should have a long standing history of anaphylaxis. He's never mentioned any allergies to any of you before?"
"No." Wanda said, "But he's okay now, right?"
"Yes," Hope smiled brightly, "He'll be fine."
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Charles Xavier looked up at Eric Lensherr when he stopped in front of him outside the hospital. While outwardly there was no flicker of emotion on Eric's face, Charles knew the man was worried for his son.
"Good evening Charles," Eric said smoothly, "Any word on my son?"
"Yes, Eric, he's stable, but you should talk with Dr. Chandler, apparently she saved your son's life." There was a subtle tick in Eric's cheek for the second then he was controlled again. "I can call her out here, if you'd rather not go inside," Charles offered. Eric nodded stiffly. Charles placed a hand to his head and relayed the message to Hope. He wasn't surprised when Logan followed Hope outside and stood at her back ready to spring to her defense.
"Hello, I'm sorry, I don't know your real name," Hope said, offering a hand to Eric as if they had never met each other before.
"What happened to my son?" He demanded and Hope took a deep breath.
"He had an allergic reaction to something, a very severe one at that. I asked his friends who came in with him if he had any preexisting allergies and they said no, is this true?"
"Yes, this has never happened to my son before."
"Well then, he's developed a reaction to something. His histamine levels were extremely high, too high for this to be a first time reaction."
"What happened to my son?" Eric pressed.
Hope sighed, "I haven't gotten the full story yet, but from what I've gathered so far your son started gasping and broke out in hives, so his friends drove him here. By the time they got here he was in anaphylactic shock, which is doctor speak for a severe allergic reaction. The original doctor who was treating your son gave him histamine blockers and when those failed he gave your son a shot of epinephrine. He went into seizers and they called me. I got here maybe ten minutes later and took over treatment." Charles was quite impressed by Hope. She faced Eric with only a little fear. She was becoming more confident in herself. It was a good sign.
"Your son went into a seizer because his body temperature had risen too quickly, it caused a small electrical storm, in a sense, in his brain. I ordered ice, and then your son went into cardiac arrest."
"What!" Eric grabbed Hope, "Charles said he was fine."
"He is, sir, I promise your son is alive."
"His heart stopped."
"Yes, and when administering increasing levels of electric shock failed to bring him back I started his heart with my own abilities. Using my powers I reduced your son's temperature, which stopped his seizing. I also block the histamines his body was producing and that stopped the allergic reaction," Hope soothed, "However your son will be unconscious for some time, though I did no permanent damage to his nervous system." Eric released her and Charles breathed a sigh of relief. Hope took a step back from Eric and took a steadying breath.
"When you go to see your son, a Dr. Dominguez will basically tell you the same thing I told you, although he may leave out the part about my using my powers. He's in one of the beds, just go to the front desk and explain you're his father and a nurse will show you the way." Eric brushed past and disappeared into the hospital.
"An interesting story, Hope," Charles said, turning his chair to face her, "But something's troubling you."
Hope shook her head, "It's probably nothing, but when someone gets an allergy to something the first attack is mild, usually just difficulty breathing until the histamine levels return to normal. The second time is the serious attack. This attack falls into the serious range, so logically Pietro's had a reaction before, so he should know that he has this allergy and avoid whatever causes it."
"Could be the kid got stung by something," Logan offered.
"Could be, but if he was allergic to bee stings he would have definitely known by now," She shook her head, "I have a hard time believing he's gone this long without being stung."
"What does it mean?" Charles asked, understanding why Hope would feel uneasy about what was going on.
"Off the top of my head, there's something reacting to his mutant DNA. We need to find out if he's eaten or drunk anything new today. Maybe some genetically altered fruit or some sort of energy boosting drink. If he has, we can run test to see if that's what caused the reaction."
"Just like Pow-R8." Charles considered the possibility. Hundreds of mutants in the world, hundreds of genetically altered fruit shipped to every part of the globe. How many mutants would end up in hospitals but without Hope's aid? The numbers would be staggering, "If you hadn't of been here, would it have killed him?"
"I can't say for certain," Hope shrugged, "The medicines may have helped, and with a big enough shock, they may have started his heart, but from what I was able to discern while using my powers on him, I don't think so."
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Author's Note: Wow! Wasn't that thrilling? There will be more with the Brotherhood in the next chapter too! But I'm not going to give you the gory details. What I'd like to tell you about is an art conest I'm holding! Winner gets a drawing done by the official Hope Series fanartist. For more information and rules, email me!