A/N - Thanks for the marvelous reviews. You guys keep me rockin'. For those of you who don't like the Charles/Jean response, if they were back at the mansion within an hour, then all the angst and drama in the desert between Jubilee and Scott would be down the toilet. Half of the story was wrapped around that struggle. And with Cerebro, Xavier would have found them within just a short while. I couldn't save them too early now, could I?
(PS….I'm thinking Jubilee is about 17, give or take a couple.)
Commercial over, now back to the story!
Chapter 5
"We're here. But you have to be very, very careful. The glass is very jagged."
"Yeah, I know. I feel every cut and scrape from flying through there initially. Now aren't you glad you had your harness on?"
Scott got down on two hands and one knee, letting his broken leg drag behind him. He chose the placement of his hands with care crawling through the busted window and razor-sharp shards. Since he couldn't see, he worried about accidentally puncturing the aircast.
"Wait Scott."
Jubilee noticed how carefully Scott was trying to get his injured leg through the knife-edged glass. She was right behind him and gingerly shifted his leg over a few inches. "If you pull your leg straight in, you'll miss all the sharp pieces."
"Thanks Jube."
He disappeared with a thud. "Jubilee, thanks for telling me about that last step."
"Shit! I'm sorry Scott. I was worried about you hitting your leg. Are you ok?"
"Ok as in 'ok over all'? Or ok as in 'ok from the fall'?"
"From your sarcasm, you sound fine to me. Just stay still until I get inside and I'll show you the pipes that I thought would make a good crutch."
The chill had already started to settle into the desert as then made their way to the ship and Scott immediately noticed the warmth inside. "Jube, why don't we stay here tonight? It's plenty warm."
"Because it gets way too hot during the day."
"Well, then we stay the night, rest up and can make that long journey in the daylight first thing before it gets too hot."
"Great idea. That's why you're the bossman. Now come over here, this is the pipe that I thought would make a good crutch. Gimme your hand." She took hold of Scott's hand and guided him to where she thought the cut should be made. "You can feel where I tried working on it."
Keeping his eyes closed, he undid the bandages, placed his hands near the spot, and with the precision of a diamond cutter, sliced through the first section of pipe. He felt his way to the other side of the T junction and made the second slice. The part that would fit under his arm was complete, but he still had to cut through the main section.
He stood up, "Jube, take a rough measure from the floor to here," he said as he pointed to where the crutch should come up to on him. "Can you judge where on the pipe that should come to?"
"Yeah. Gimme your hand again."
He finished the job and tried the jerry-rigged pipe on for size, "This is perfect. Good choice. Where're my bandages?"
After handing him the wraps for his eyes, she guided him to a chair. "Sit here while I go do some more rummaging in the back."
He listened to her fiddle about, sometimes being able to tell what she was doing, other times completely lost.
"Do you want to eat sitting up or on your bed?"
"Huh?"
"I put some blankets on the floor for you. I also heated up some of our food packs. You know the ones that all you have to do is break a seal and the chemical reaction heats up the food inside?"
"I'll stay here for now."
"So, what do you want, the stew or the ala king?"
"Whatever. By the way, thanks."
"For what?" Jubilee sounded genuinely surprised.
"For taking care of me like this. I couldn't survive on my own. Not in this condition."
"Scott, believe it or not, I couldn't survive without you either. Distressing about you took the worry about myself away from me. If I were alone, I probably would have curled up and given in."
They sat in silence for a while, eating out of the food packs.
Scott broke the silence first, "How much food and water do we have?"
"Well, I think there is supposed to be enough here for 4 days. But in this heat, I think we may go through the water faster."
"Did you see any signs of a watersource outside?"
She shook her head forgetting he couldn't see.
"Jube?"
"Oh, sorry. No. There are some plants outside. In fact one of the big cacti bit me."
"A saguaro? The really big ones?"
"Uh huh."
"Good, that's a source of water. How many were there out there?"
"A few, but in the opposite direction we're going tomorrow."
There was more silence. Then he spoke again. "I think we can stretch our supplies easily enough to make it a week. Maybe even longer."
"Don't you think the others will come for us sooner?"
"I'm hoping they find us tomorrow morning! But, I'm thinking how long we can last before they do find us. Uh, Jube, can you show me my bed now. I'm tired."
She helped him out of the chair and onto the bed of blankets she arranged for him. His weakness scared her. She could not remember ever seeing the powerful leader of the X-Men so frail and incapacitated. She looked down at him as his breathing slowed and deepened. He was asleep already. She sat on her bed and opened her laptop. She looked at her list. She added 'travel to shelter'. Then thought 'How'? Suppose Cyc can't walk the distance? How else can I get him there? I can't carry him. Drag him on a litter? What would I make a litter out of that would be fairly easy to drag over this terrain? Not a blanket. A sled would work, too bad I don't' have one. Maybe Scott can cut a slice off the plane that would slide over the sand and rocks. I need to carry all of our water and food with us. I'll ask him in the morning.'
She closed her laptop and lay down, locking her fingers behind her head. She didn't think sleep would come quickly, but before the thought finished, she was deep in slumber.
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"I have had enough of this waiting. I'm going to look for Jubilee and Cyclops," bellowed Logan.
"If you take the Black Bird, you will be leaving us without transport out there. Remember, the Professor has the other plane and that's only a two-seater."
Glaring at Hank because he knew he was right, he said, "Then I'll take the cycle. The way Cyc's got it souped up, I'll still beat you out there, anyway."
Storm entered the room, "Logan, the Professor is flying in tomorrow morning. With the help of Cerebro, we should be able to get a much better fix on their location. Please wait. I know we'll need your help when we find them."
Wolverine looked around the war room. In the few hours since they received the first hint of trouble, everyone but Jean and Charles had returned. "Why can't Xavier fly back here tonight? The meetin's over, ain't it?"
Dr. McCoy answered, "Generally speaking it is. But several of the delegates want to meet with him for an hour or so in the morning to finalize a few details on the charter that they drafted."
Rogue stood up and headed towards the door, "Wolverine, Ah'm going to set up the Black Bird as if we are going to have two injured people on board. Wanna help?"
"Go ahead Logan. It'll keep you busy," urged Storm.
Begrudgingly he left.
Orora turned to Hank. "Are you holding something back?"
"I didn't want to argue with Logan. But I fear that our friends are probably already gone. The emergency beacon on a ship should put out a signal when the plane goes down. It is supposed to survive pretty horrific crashes. If we can't receive a signal because it is damaged, then I don't think they survived."
"But didn't Jean say she heard from Scott?"
"She did. But that could have been in the last second of his life. Remember, she also said it was followed by a deep unending blackness."
"What could have happened to bring down their plane?"
Beast shrugged.
"How close have you pinpointed their location?"
"It's still a very wide area. But I've narrowed it down to New Mexico."
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"Jean, have you tried contacting Scott?"
"Yes. But I get nothing. I don't know if it's the distance, if he's unconscious or…" she hesitated, "…or if he's dead."
"Damn those Umbraga delegates. They are the last of the holdouts. What is so important that they couldn't have signed it tonight."
Jean looked at her mentor. She never heard Charles speak out like that before. But she knew under his façade he was dying to leave and get back to base. She knew deep down he would love to throw all this to the wind in order to get to Scott and Jubilee. But the lives of so many people, mutant and humans alike rested on this one conference. It took Xavier over a year to get these people here. He had to stay.
"Professor, I have faith that you will be able to locate them with Cerebro and we will get to them on time."
"I hope so, Jean. I surely hope so."
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Jubilee was up before Scott and walked quietly around so as not to wake him. She was specifically looking for something that she could use as a litter. Even if Scott walks the distance, she still had to carry all the food, water and supplies. Dragging it would be a whole lot easier. And it would allow Scott a last minute ride should he find that he is unable to finish the walk.
She went outside and started along the scarred earth that the crash created. There was plenty of debris in this area, maybe something would make a good makeshift sled. She had not gone 100 feet when she saw something rose-colored glint in the sunlight. "Scott's glasses!" she screeched with delight. When she turned to look back at the ship, then beyond where she first found him, she sobered up. "Oh my God, he must have been catapulted through the windshield all the way from back here. I'm surprised he has only the one broken leg." She snorted softly, "I'm surprised he survived!"
She ran back to the ship with his glasses held tight in her hands, "Scott, Scott, guess what I found!"
The smile melted from her face when he didn't move. She knelt down beside him, feeling his forehead. 'He's got a fever.' Gently she shook him, "Scott, wake up."