In the medical room after the girl's surgery

Kara's eyes fluttered open. The bright lights of the room blinded her. She snapped her eyes shut. A moment later, she opened her eyes again, and adjusted to the light. She saw a dark figure loom above her. She couldn't focus on it. She stared at the figure, then all of a sudden, it disappeared. Trying to think straight, but she couldn't concentrate on any one thought. Her thoughts went flying.

Only a minute later, the dark figure returned. With it came more dark figures. Kara slightly lifted her head in hope of seeing these figure's faces, but a sharp pain hit her head, and started running through her body. She moaned at the pain, and closed her eyes. She tried to open her eyes again, but the pain kept them shut. She groaned again. Her eyes flashed open trying to see the people again, but she started to black out. She stared at the figures as everything grew into a black nothing.

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An hour or two later

Kara woke up again. She had an urge to sit up. She pulled herself up, but was halted. She seemed to have been strapped down to the bed. Her head fell back down onto the pillow. She yanked at it. Why does this shit happen to me? she thought.

She had lain there awake for at least n hour when she heard a door open. She looked over to one side of the room. There was a figure near some computers. She squinted. It was a lady's figure. Still squinting, her eyes started to be able to see. It was a lady with shoulder-legnth hair, that had a dull reddish-brown color to it. She was not very tall, but she wasn't short, and she had a slender frame. This lady is kind of pretty.

Still wanting to sit up, Kara pulled at the strap across her arms. The lady walked over to the edge of her bed. "Are you feeling better now?" she asked Kara.

Not sure of what to say, Kara tried to say "Sure" but couldn't. Her throat was too dry to speak. She nodded. She still pulled at the restraint. The lady easily unbuckled her, and Kara started to sit up. A bit of dizziness overcome her and started to lean t o one side. The lady took Kara's arm, to ensure she wouldn't fall off the bed.

"Are you okay," the lady asked her. Kara regained her balance and nodded. Trying to let the lady she wanted something to drink, Kara started to cough and motioned to her mouth and tried to say water. The word did come out but it was barely recognizable. Lucky for Kara this lady knew exactly what she wanted, and walked away and brought back a small glass of cold water and handed it to Kara. Kara gladly took the glass and drank every drop of the water from it. Boy, did that taste good.

After the cool water moistening her throat she managed to say in a hoarse voice, "Where am I?"

The lady responded, "You're at Xavier's School for Gifted Children. You've been in our medical care room since they brought you here," the lady stopped, and saw Kara having a great look of confusion on her face. Then she said, "I'm Doctor Jean Grey, but you can just call me Jean," the lady said,

"Kara," Kara said in reply. "Who's 'they'?" she asked curiously.

"The X-Men. Some of Professor Xavier's first students," Jean said. "The professor would like to talk to you when you get well enough to walk on your own."

Kara heard a noise behind her. She turned and saw another lady. She had snow white hair and cocoa colored skin and she was fairly tall. "Well, I'm glad you are sitting up and looking better," the lady said. She walked over to Kara's little bed, sat down on its edge, and said, "My name's Ororo Munroe. Most people call me Storm though. What's your name?"

"Kara," Kara replied uneasily.

Ororo looked at Jean and said, "Has she tried to walk yet?" And she walked to a computer a couple yards away from the bed.

Jean replied, "No. She had a problem holding her balance when she first sat up," Jean said. Then she smiled at Kara, and walked to the computer.

"All her vital signs are good, her blood pressure is normal, pulse normal," Jean said, as Ororo started to talk to Kara, "Everything's good. Whenever you feel up to it, you can try to walk again. Jean and I removed two bullets from your back. When we did so, we numbed your body so it wouldn't cause anymore pain. So when you get out of bed, you most likely have a hard time keeping your balance at first."

"Okay. May I please go now?" Kara asked.

Jean said, "If you want to stay, I know the professor wouldn't mind," she smiled. "You could stay in one of the empty student's dorms."

"I don't know. I'll have to think about staying permanently, but if it would be okay, could I stay in one of those rooms your talking about, for a day or two so I can rest?" Kara said.

"Of course," Jean replied, and she left the room. Kara tried to stand up but as Ororo said, she had a time keeping her balance.

Ororo walked over to help her, "Here. Put your arm around my neck and I'll help you to one of those wheelchairs," Ororo said.

Kara did so. She felt a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. No one had come so close to her voluntarily, not since before her mother died. She shook her head; she tried to wipe away the unkindly memories. She carefully walked, with the help of Ororo to the wheel chair in a corner of the room. She helped Kara sit in it and made sure Kara's ratty skirt she was wearing wasn't in the wheels, and she easily pushed her out the door.

In the hall, Kara glanced around.

This is way too high-tech looking to be a school .

She glanced around, hoping to see inside one of the rooms. All the doors where closed. They came to a really big door at the end of the hallway. Ororo pushed a button beside it.

This must be the elevator.

She was right.

After coming out of the elevator, Ororo pushed her chair along this new hall. The hall looked close to either a fancy hotel or fancy apartment hallway. Ororo opened one of the doors halfway down the hall. She left the door open, and walked to a little closet in the hallway. Kara wheeled herself into the room.

Ororo returned. "Here are some clean sheets and a blanket. There are already some clean sheets on the bed, but these are just in case you decide to stay. There's a private bathroom over there," she pointed to a door in the room, "also here's a communicator for you. It's sort of like a walkie-talkie, in case you need anything. So you don't have to try to walk all the way downstairs to ask me something," Ororo said with a smile.

Kara wheeled around in the room. "This is ... nice," she said. "Thank you,"she finished and turned to the closet. She wheeled herself there and opened the door. It was a rather spacious closet.

Too bad I don't have anything to put in it she thought.

Almost as if reading her thoughts Ororo said, "Jean said you could borrow some of her clothes if you don't have any. If hers doesn't fit, you can try mine," Ororo smiled again and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

A fter a minute Kara said aloud, "This is a nice place but I don't want to stay casue they might find me out," she stopped, scared there might be some spy camera or something in the room. She tried to stand her self up enough to get onto the bed. After a couple of tries, she managed to get ont the bed. She pulled back the covers, got underneath and fell asleep.