**********Sights and Sounds****************
'Logan?'
No answer.
Jean sighed.
'Logan.'
Nothing.
"I can't believe this." Jean sighed again, leaning back into the chair she had been sitting in for the past forty minutes. "A simple mission and then this random mutant comes out of the woodwork and decimates Wolverine... I mean, did I wake up in some bizarre alternate universe?"
"Wouldn't be the first time..." Hank offered, while sipping coffee from his place at Logan's readouts.. "You'll get through to him Jeanie."
Jean leaned farther back in her chair and gave a small smile to show her gratitude. She looked back down at Logan.
He was gone. Consciously, spiritually, just entirely, gone. It was like a coma, like Havok? No this was different, completely, and she didn't know what to do.
'Logan?'
Nothing.
"Damn it." She whispered sitting back up straight in her chair. She took Logan's hand in hers.
"Come on Logan... Come back." She stared at his closed eyes and leaned forward...
Someone walking through the lab-doors made her lean back again against her chair, but she didn't let go of his hand.
"How is he?" Scott Summers voice came from behind her. He walked up behind the chair and placed his hand on her shoulder towards her neck. With her free hand she placed it on top of his. One hand on each man.
"If you mean 'is he'... as in 'Is he even here?' then I have no idea."
Jean felt the puzzled state of her husband's mind.
"I can't find him Scott! He's not in there!"
"You will... he'll be ok."
Jean forced a smile and, releasing both of her hands, stood up.
"The Professor is still at the Montique's" Scott informed her.
"From what Nightcrawler told us it'll take him a while to sort through all of that." Jean replied looking over to the next medical bed, where a sleeping Kurt could be found.
"A mob? It should've taken him seconds." Scott's voice sounded annoyed.
"To stop them maybe," Jean stretched. "But to get them to all go home and not come back, to get the Montique's house in order, to find out about this mystery mutant, and to deal with the news reporters... he might be back next week."
"Hmmm..." said Scott agreeably. "There was a fire too."
Jean briefly smiled, and placed her head on the shoulder of her husband and closed her eyes.
"Why don't you just use Cerebro and find Mystery Girl? We can get some answers." He asked her.
"I would, but there's just too much unknown, if we did find her then what? Only half of the X-Men are here right now, the Professors off playing "Psychologist" to the masses, and I'd just rather start when we have more force to back it up." She stated, looking up into his shaded eyes.
"You're not force enough?"
"I'm..." she paused looking down.
"Jean?" Looking past her husband to the monitors behind him, Jean faced the Leonine doctor who had said her name. "Sorry to interrupt, but Logan's heart rate is back to his normal baseline. It had been much slower when he first arrived."
Jean looked back over at Wolverine.
She released herself from Scott's arms and sat on the side of the medical bed. Raising her hands to Logan's temples, she closed her eyes and felt the world open up around her as she expanded her psychic powers to envelope him.
'Logan?' she whispered inside of his head. 'Logan, it's time to wake up ok?'
A flash of sight and sound brushed past her mind.
Jean smiling, sitting, talking—everyday things.
Jean smiled on the outside.
'Yeah Logan, it's Jean. You need to wake up now ok?' A small noise, like a collective sigh in the back of her mind, reassured her that Logan was indeed back inside of his head.
'What happened Logan?' Jean asked, trying to give him time enough to organize his thoughts, so he didn't have to wake up disoriented; He hated that.
She let herself relax deeper into his mind, trying to bring up the memory of what had happened earlier this evening. She slipped.
Not expecting his mind to be so open, even unconscious previous times it had been a struggle to break down his defenses to even say hello, she slipped further into his mind then she had intended to.
She felt memories flash by her:
Logan in Japan with Mariko.
Logan trapped in the Weapon X program.
Logan with wolves in the Canadian wilderness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Logan a scared little boy with bleeding hands...
"What?" Jean said opening her eyes and snapping straight up.
"What's wrong? You ok?" Scott asked from behind her.
"I... no I'm fine. I just, I've never seen that in Logan before."
"Well..." Scott began. "Logan has... done a lot of... things... in his life, he.."
"No Scott, you don't understand. Everything was so open. It was almost..."
"Almost what?"
"Almost normal."
"Normal as in... human? Not mutant? Or normal as in..." Scott began, looking for words.
"No, normal as in not a mind with a thousand conflicting emotions. Going into Logan's head almost always ends with me having a headache. It's difficult for him to differentiate between friend or foe inside of his mind... even if he knows who's trying to psychically link with him. It's aftermath of Weapon X training I know, but this time... I just fell into his mind and I don't know... I can't explain it... It's like Logan's mind was horribly concentrated before... but what I saw was the watered down version... it was more like Bobby's or yours or Hank...It was so open..."
"So do you think his mind has healed some? Maybe he can remember things now that he couldn't before..." Hank started, already forming theories, trying to wake up enough to figure them out.
"No... I don't know... it's not completely normal... things are cloudy... I don't think I should look again. We can ask him when he wakes up." She smiled .
"So then, he will? Wake up soon?" asked Kurt hopefully. He had woken up since Jean's initial outburst, and was trying to swipe Hank's coffee cup with his tail.
"Yes." Jean smiled. Settling back down into her chair to wait. "He will."
*******************
Leila had fallen asleep within ten minutes of being inside her glass house. She hadn't slept in two days, not since her powers manifested, and she was grateful for the relief. Only then, she had to... well she... ummm...
She tapped on the glass. No one heard her. Everyone was sitting around Logan, and this really pretty lady with red hair had her hands on Logan's forehead and then she looked like she was sleeping. Suddenly the red- haired woman gasped awake... though Leila couldn't hear it. She couldn't hear anything... which would have been fine but...
She tapped on the glass again.
******************
Jean smiled from her chair. "Hank, Leila has to use the restroom."
"What?" the lion yawned. "Oh! Ok... well, Bobby can..."
"Bobby's asleep and Bobby's a boy, and Bobby's not taking a little girl to the bathroom..." Bobby said from his chair with his eyes closed.
Jean smiled, standing up. "I'll take her."
"Ok..." Hank agreed. "That reminds me... let her try these out." He said holding up what looked like little hearing aids.
"When did you do that?" Kurt asked, leaning on Hank's readout table, sipping his coffee.
"Unlike some of us who have been sleeping, are now drinking MY coffee, and will remain nameless... his initials are Kurt Wagner, I've been working for the past twelve hours and..." he looked at a pretend watch. " Forty minutes on this." Hank glared at the blue mutant.
Kurt took another sip.
"And I haven't just been looking at monitors of Logan... I measured Leila's ears when she first arrived... I think they're ready for a test run. She was asleep... but since were all awake now..." Hank said eyeing Bobby. "We'll give this a try." Hank moved over to the glass entrance of Leila's "room" and motioned for Leila to cover her ears while he opened the door. Once open he helped her with the "hearing aids".
"Leila... can you hear me?" He asked in a normal voice.
She looked at him puzzled... she saw his lips move, but clearly couldn't hear.
He tried again. "LEILA CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
"Hey! What is up with that? Warn a guy first would ya!" Bobby protested, eyes snapping open and turning to glare at the Beast.
"Sorry... anyway, Leila... Jean can you tell her I'm going to adjust the volume to a lower frequency on her auditory modifiers." He said turning back to his lab equipment.
"Of course Hank." Jean walked over to the little girl and kneeled down.
~Hi! My name is Jean. Dr. Hank just wants to let you know that you'll be able to hear in a bit ok?~ Jean thought inside of her mind.
"OK!" the girl answered out loud, very loudly, not knowing her own force because she couldn't hear it. Bobby grumbled from his chair. Cyclops smacked him without looking.
Hank turned a small dial he had picked up from the lab table.
"Leila can you hear me?" He tried again.
"Wow!" she smiled. "Yeah Dr. Hank! I can hear you and... It doesn't hurt anymore! Thank you sooo much!" the seven year old squealed running up to give the blue lion as big a hug as she could give.
He smiled a huge genuine smile. "My pleasure sweetie... Here." He said placing the dial in her hand. "You can adjust it any way you want. Let me know if there is anything I can do to make it better."
Leila smiled... then it disappeared. "Umm thank you so much and all but I was kinda wondering if maybe... I have ta go to the bathroom!" She jumped up and down a little to get the point across.
"Come on Leila, I'll take you." Jean took the young mutant's hand and they walked out of the lab doors.
Hank sighed, stretching out his aches and pains and turned to look at Bobby, asleep in his chair.
Scott and Kurt both looked at Hank. He smiled.
"RRRRRROOOOOAARRRR!" He bellowed at the sleeping form. Bobby jerked from his chair and fell to the floor...
"AHHH! You know what McCoy? You're really CRANKY when you don't get enough beauty sleep!" Bobby yelled standing up and facing him.
"Speak for yerself..." a low voice came from the medical beds.
They all turned around to face it.
"Logan..." Scott whispered.
"Hey Slim."
************************************************************************
'Logan?'
No answer.
Jean sighed.
'Logan.'
Nothing.
"I can't believe this." Jean sighed again, leaning back into the chair she had been sitting in for the past forty minutes. "A simple mission and then this random mutant comes out of the woodwork and decimates Wolverine... I mean, did I wake up in some bizarre alternate universe?"
"Wouldn't be the first time..." Hank offered, while sipping coffee from his place at Logan's readouts.. "You'll get through to him Jeanie."
Jean leaned farther back in her chair and gave a small smile to show her gratitude. She looked back down at Logan.
He was gone. Consciously, spiritually, just entirely, gone. It was like a coma, like Havok? No this was different, completely, and she didn't know what to do.
'Logan?'
Nothing.
"Damn it." She whispered sitting back up straight in her chair. She took Logan's hand in hers.
"Come on Logan... Come back." She stared at his closed eyes and leaned forward...
Someone walking through the lab-doors made her lean back again against her chair, but she didn't let go of his hand.
"How is he?" Scott Summers voice came from behind her. He walked up behind the chair and placed his hand on her shoulder towards her neck. With her free hand she placed it on top of his. One hand on each man.
"If you mean 'is he'... as in 'Is he even here?' then I have no idea."
Jean felt the puzzled state of her husband's mind.
"I can't find him Scott! He's not in there!"
"You will... he'll be ok."
Jean forced a smile and, releasing both of her hands, stood up.
"The Professor is still at the Montique's" Scott informed her.
"From what Nightcrawler told us it'll take him a while to sort through all of that." Jean replied looking over to the next medical bed, where a sleeping Kurt could be found.
"A mob? It should've taken him seconds." Scott's voice sounded annoyed.
"To stop them maybe," Jean stretched. "But to get them to all go home and not come back, to get the Montique's house in order, to find out about this mystery mutant, and to deal with the news reporters... he might be back next week."
"Hmmm..." said Scott agreeably. "There was a fire too."
Jean briefly smiled, and placed her head on the shoulder of her husband and closed her eyes.
"Why don't you just use Cerebro and find Mystery Girl? We can get some answers." He asked her.
"I would, but there's just too much unknown, if we did find her then what? Only half of the X-Men are here right now, the Professors off playing "Psychologist" to the masses, and I'd just rather start when we have more force to back it up." She stated, looking up into his shaded eyes.
"You're not force enough?"
"I'm..." she paused looking down.
"Jean?" Looking past her husband to the monitors behind him, Jean faced the Leonine doctor who had said her name. "Sorry to interrupt, but Logan's heart rate is back to his normal baseline. It had been much slower when he first arrived."
Jean looked back over at Wolverine.
She released herself from Scott's arms and sat on the side of the medical bed. Raising her hands to Logan's temples, she closed her eyes and felt the world open up around her as she expanded her psychic powers to envelope him.
'Logan?' she whispered inside of his head. 'Logan, it's time to wake up ok?'
A flash of sight and sound brushed past her mind.
Jean smiling, sitting, talking—everyday things.
Jean smiled on the outside.
'Yeah Logan, it's Jean. You need to wake up now ok?' A small noise, like a collective sigh in the back of her mind, reassured her that Logan was indeed back inside of his head.
'What happened Logan?' Jean asked, trying to give him time enough to organize his thoughts, so he didn't have to wake up disoriented; He hated that.
She let herself relax deeper into his mind, trying to bring up the memory of what had happened earlier this evening. She slipped.
Not expecting his mind to be so open, even unconscious previous times it had been a struggle to break down his defenses to even say hello, she slipped further into his mind then she had intended to.
She felt memories flash by her:
Logan in Japan with Mariko.
Logan trapped in the Weapon X program.
Logan with wolves in the Canadian wilderness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Logan a scared little boy with bleeding hands...
"What?" Jean said opening her eyes and snapping straight up.
"What's wrong? You ok?" Scott asked from behind her.
"I... no I'm fine. I just, I've never seen that in Logan before."
"Well..." Scott began. "Logan has... done a lot of... things... in his life, he.."
"No Scott, you don't understand. Everything was so open. It was almost..."
"Almost what?"
"Almost normal."
"Normal as in... human? Not mutant? Or normal as in..." Scott began, looking for words.
"No, normal as in not a mind with a thousand conflicting emotions. Going into Logan's head almost always ends with me having a headache. It's difficult for him to differentiate between friend or foe inside of his mind... even if he knows who's trying to psychically link with him. It's aftermath of Weapon X training I know, but this time... I just fell into his mind and I don't know... I can't explain it... It's like Logan's mind was horribly concentrated before... but what I saw was the watered down version... it was more like Bobby's or yours or Hank...It was so open..."
"So do you think his mind has healed some? Maybe he can remember things now that he couldn't before..." Hank started, already forming theories, trying to wake up enough to figure them out.
"No... I don't know... it's not completely normal... things are cloudy... I don't think I should look again. We can ask him when he wakes up." She smiled .
"So then, he will? Wake up soon?" asked Kurt hopefully. He had woken up since Jean's initial outburst, and was trying to swipe Hank's coffee cup with his tail.
"Yes." Jean smiled. Settling back down into her chair to wait. "He will."
*******************
Leila had fallen asleep within ten minutes of being inside her glass house. She hadn't slept in two days, not since her powers manifested, and she was grateful for the relief. Only then, she had to... well she... ummm...
She tapped on the glass. No one heard her. Everyone was sitting around Logan, and this really pretty lady with red hair had her hands on Logan's forehead and then she looked like she was sleeping. Suddenly the red- haired woman gasped awake... though Leila couldn't hear it. She couldn't hear anything... which would have been fine but...
She tapped on the glass again.
******************
Jean smiled from her chair. "Hank, Leila has to use the restroom."
"What?" the lion yawned. "Oh! Ok... well, Bobby can..."
"Bobby's asleep and Bobby's a boy, and Bobby's not taking a little girl to the bathroom..." Bobby said from his chair with his eyes closed.
Jean smiled, standing up. "I'll take her."
"Ok..." Hank agreed. "That reminds me... let her try these out." He said holding up what looked like little hearing aids.
"When did you do that?" Kurt asked, leaning on Hank's readout table, sipping his coffee.
"Unlike some of us who have been sleeping, are now drinking MY coffee, and will remain nameless... his initials are Kurt Wagner, I've been working for the past twelve hours and..." he looked at a pretend watch. " Forty minutes on this." Hank glared at the blue mutant.
Kurt took another sip.
"And I haven't just been looking at monitors of Logan... I measured Leila's ears when she first arrived... I think they're ready for a test run. She was asleep... but since were all awake now..." Hank said eyeing Bobby. "We'll give this a try." Hank moved over to the glass entrance of Leila's "room" and motioned for Leila to cover her ears while he opened the door. Once open he helped her with the "hearing aids".
"Leila... can you hear me?" He asked in a normal voice.
She looked at him puzzled... she saw his lips move, but clearly couldn't hear.
He tried again. "LEILA CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
"Hey! What is up with that? Warn a guy first would ya!" Bobby protested, eyes snapping open and turning to glare at the Beast.
"Sorry... anyway, Leila... Jean can you tell her I'm going to adjust the volume to a lower frequency on her auditory modifiers." He said turning back to his lab equipment.
"Of course Hank." Jean walked over to the little girl and kneeled down.
~Hi! My name is Jean. Dr. Hank just wants to let you know that you'll be able to hear in a bit ok?~ Jean thought inside of her mind.
"OK!" the girl answered out loud, very loudly, not knowing her own force because she couldn't hear it. Bobby grumbled from his chair. Cyclops smacked him without looking.
Hank turned a small dial he had picked up from the lab table.
"Leila can you hear me?" He tried again.
"Wow!" she smiled. "Yeah Dr. Hank! I can hear you and... It doesn't hurt anymore! Thank you sooo much!" the seven year old squealed running up to give the blue lion as big a hug as she could give.
He smiled a huge genuine smile. "My pleasure sweetie... Here." He said placing the dial in her hand. "You can adjust it any way you want. Let me know if there is anything I can do to make it better."
Leila smiled... then it disappeared. "Umm thank you so much and all but I was kinda wondering if maybe... I have ta go to the bathroom!" She jumped up and down a little to get the point across.
"Come on Leila, I'll take you." Jean took the young mutant's hand and they walked out of the lab doors.
Hank sighed, stretching out his aches and pains and turned to look at Bobby, asleep in his chair.
Scott and Kurt both looked at Hank. He smiled.
"RRRRRROOOOOAARRRR!" He bellowed at the sleeping form. Bobby jerked from his chair and fell to the floor...
"AHHH! You know what McCoy? You're really CRANKY when you don't get enough beauty sleep!" Bobby yelled standing up and facing him.
"Speak for yerself..." a low voice came from the medical beds.
They all turned around to face it.
"Logan..." Scott whispered.
"Hey Slim."
************************************************************************