"Kid!" Logan grabbed the boy by the shoulder. He didn't react. "Hey, come on!" Still nothing. Some sense told Logan the boy was still alive. He undid the seatbelt, pulled the boy in to his arms – God he was small, probably not much over eighty pounds – and ran for the mansion, the woman running at his heels.
"Jean!" He bellowed as he started up from the gate. "Jean!" She probably wasn't in earshot, but somebody yelling for Jean ought to get people to come and look, maybe someone knew where she was.
He made it up to the top lawn, the boy was so light his weight barely slowed Logan down. "Jean!" He didn't see her, but he saw a group of boys who'd been messing around with balls and bats start to come over, Scott was with them.
"What's happened?"
"They just turned up at the gate yelling for a doctor." Logan said. "He's passed out."
"Please." The mother gasped behind Logan. "They say this place is safe for mutants, you have to help him."
Scott nodded. "We will. Come with me. Jean!"
,
Other people were taking up the cry, students were spreading out shouting "Doctor Grey! Doctor Grey!"
Scott turned and stopped Logan where he was, reaching for the boy's neck. "Yeah, he's got a pulse. Come on."
Well that had been unnecessary. Logan followed Scott up the steps at a run, then they were all looking around in the dark of the atrium. She was already there, striding towards them, red hair flaring behind her.
"What happened?"
"Found him like this." Logan said. Jean reached for the pulse in his neck, just as Scott had.
"What's his name?" She asked the boy's mother.
"Ryan."
"Okay. Ryan," She laid her hand on his jaw. "can you open your eyes?" He still didn't move.
"What happened? How long has he been like this?" Jean was still doing stuff around Ryan's head.
"For half an hour, I can't wake him. Before that, he was falling asleep, he said he was dizzy."
"Okay," Jean said softly, her hands moving to Ryan's hand. "we've seen a couple of these recently, he's the fourth this month. All of the others were okay in a few hours, though he's quite deep."
"What is it?"
"Did he take any food or drink that had been prepared by anyone else, or leave anything unattended?"
"He… he was out with friends."
"Long time friends?" Scott asked. Jean had gone very still
"Yes, since middle school."
"Do you know where they were?"
"Logan, put him down." Jean said, dropping to her knees. This was bad. Whatever this was, it was bad. "He's not breathing."
Logan set the boy on the floor in front of Jean, who pinched him hard in the middle bit of the nose.
"Come on. Don't do this." She said quietly. She pressed hard on the boy's chest, then let go. She turned. "Get back, everyone, ten feet clear. Bobby, here, on his pulse. Scott, infirmary. Red box, AMBU bag." Logan got up and backed away, so did everyone else, Scott took off, Storm had appeared from somewhere and was holding the boy's mother. Jean gasped a breath, pinched Ryan's nose closed and forced her breath in to him. Had she had to do this to him, Logan wondered.
"Pulse 110 and steady." Bobby said as Jean came up for air.
"Good, so long as that's true, we'll be okay."
"It's okay." Storm was saying to the boy's mother, over her sobs. "It's okay, it's just the drug. She knows what she's doing."
It seemed to take Scott quite a long time to come back with the stuff Jean needed. Jean didn't say anything about it though.
"Do you know his weight?" She asked the boy's mother, taking a plasticy bag with a mask on it from Scott and fitting it to the boy's face.
"He was seventy-five pounds." She said, as Jean used the bag to push breath in to the boy.
"Call it eighty. Scott, there's a dose for doxopram on the inside of the lid."
Scott opened the box, muttering numbers to himself. "Eighteen." He said after a moment. "Eighteen migs."
"Leave them be now." That was The Professor. Logan looked around for him, he'd appeared behind Storm. "Everyone who's not directly involved, please move away." And people did, older ones shepherding younger ones, Logan turned to follow, but Jean spoke up.
"I'd like to keep you, Logan."
"Okay."
,
Jean and Scott had swapped places, Jean was pulling things out of the box. It was a strange scene. Students were retreating, whispering nervously to each other, Storm was hanging on to the boy's mother, who was sobbing, and trying to keep her quiet, but there was a pocket of calm around Jean and the boy. Logan wondered for a second if Jean was creating that deliberately. He knew Xavier could influence how people felt.
"I'm going to get IV access, get the doxopram in to him, see if he'll breathe on his own, then we're going to move. Bobby, I want your other hand." She set Bobby's hand in place on the boy's arm. "His pressure's actually okay, I think we can do this." A minute later, there was blood at the end of the thing Jean had stuck in the boy's arm and she was taping it to his skin. She reached round Scott for something, drew it up and injected it through the thing in the boy's arm. "Two more breaths, then stop."
It felt like a very long time between Scott taking the bag away and the boy's chest rising, but he did breathe. It just took him a minute.
"I want him to do it again, then we move." As she finished speaking, the boy took another breath. "Okay, Logan, pick him up. Bobby, stay on pulse, Scott, bring that." As Logan gathered the boy in his arms again, his mother started forwards. Storm moved to stop her. "It's alright." Jean said. "She can come, I need to talk to her."
,
They went off like some strange six-legged thing, Logan carrying the boy, Bobby hanging on to his arm, Jean hovering two fingers in front of his nose, one hand on his chest, both of them side-stepping and shuffling backwards ahead of him.
As soon as Logan set the boy down, Jean pulled a tube from somewhere and put it down the boy's throat. She reached out a hand for wires and tubes, which formed a line in the air from which she took them one by one and attached them to the kid.
"You move…" The boy's mother said.
"You asked for a mutant doctor." Logan said. "You got one." Jean didn't seem to hear any of that, she was looking at the screens in front of her, mouth forming words, but she wasn't making a sound.
"And everyone breathe." She said suddenly, looking around. "That was well handled. Well done."
"Is he alright?" The mother asked.
"For now. That might happen again."
Scott touched his hand to Jean's shoulder.
Jean looked up at Bobby, who was breathing hard. "First time for real?" Bobby nodded. "You did well. You kept your head on straight, and we really needed you there."
Bobby smiled for a second. "Thanks."
Jean sighed and closed her eyes for a second. "Right, Mrs…"
"Tang."
"Mrs. Tang, does Ryan have any ongoing health conditions? Diabetes? Epilepsy?"
"No, he… he's healthy. He's always been healthy."
"I'm assuming he's a mutant?" The woman nodded. "Has he actually shown his power yet?"
"Yes, last year."
Jean raised her eyebrows. "How old is he?"
"Fourteen. He was always small."
"And he's not on any medication?" The woman shook her head. "Last set of shots?"
"Last winter." Jean frowned at her. "Since he showed his power, I was scared to take him to a doctor."
"Okay, most doctors in Westchester County will treat us decently. It's not the case everywhere, but in Westchester County, you're reasonably safe. Where did he go today?"
"To the mall with his friends."
"Would he have had anything to eat or drink there?"
"Maybe."
"When did you first know anything was wrong?"
"He called me to come and get him, he said he felt ill."
"What time was that?"
"About half past one. When I got there, he was half awake, I thought it was a virus so I'd take him home and send him to bed, but he passed out in the car and I couldn't wake him so…" She broke off, nearly crying.
"Okay. When you say 'half awake', could he stand, could he walk?"
"Only if I was helping him."
"Because he was weak or falling over?"
"Both."
"Jean, the chair is floating." Scott said quietly. Logan looked round quickly, so did Jean. Sure enough, the chair was floating four inches off the ground.
"Sorry." The chair lowered itself back to the floor. She turned back to the woman. "I think I know what this is, but I need a urine sample to confirm, and I'll have to take it by sticking a needle in to him." Jean poked herself in the low abdomen.
"Yes, yes of course."
Logan watched with morbid curiosity as Jean set about it, pulling the boy's pants down slightly, wetting his skin, then pressing something in to him that made a grainy black and white image appear on a screen, but obviously Jean could make sense of it. She gathered bits from around the room with her power, assembled them by hand and stuck a needle in to the boy's guts. But obviously not his guts. What she got back was clear and yellow. That was quite strange to watch. But Jean obviously didn't care. She just took the sample over to the far counted and started doing something with it.
"Jean?" Storm said, Jean looked round. There was a warning in Storm's voice. Jean walked back up the room, looking at the monitor.
"He's going to do it again." Jean said quietly. The boy's mother gave a squeak of fright. Jean nearly ran back to the red box, drew up a syringe of clear liquid and handed it to Scott. "Keep that. If I say, give it through the IV port."
She went back to the other end of the room. "We were right." She said, turning round again. "Benzos. What I suspect has happened is, like every other mutant hit so far, someone slipped him rohypnol tablets in food or drink and he passed out. The reason we're having problems, I imagine, is that the dose that was used was intended to knock a grown man out, not an eighty-pound boy. He's overdosed. If we can keep him breathing, we ought to be okay, but we can only use doxopram, what we used before, three or four times. Beyond that, we have to ventilate, and I'm not so keen to do that." Everyone in the room was staring at her now. "There is another way, but that's not without its risks either. An antidote for benzodiazepines does exist, and I do have it, I just hate using it. It will keep him breathing, but if he ever has fits, he might have one, it might make him scared, it might make him angry. So I need to ask you: What is his power?"
"Why?"
"Because I'd be willing to deal with an irrationally angry chameleon, I'm not willing to deal with an irrationally angry telekinetic, or a telekinetic having a fit."
"No. Nothing like that. Just his joints. He bends… He bends in ways no one can bend."
"Is he strong along with that?"
"Not more than you'd think to look at him."
Logan looked at the boy. He sure as hell didn't look strong.
"No fits ever? No telekinesis or telepathy shown?" The woman was shaking her head. "No energy powers? No unusual sharp bits?"
"What?"
"Logan, would you..?"
Logan stuck a claw out. The woman flinched and shook her head.
"He has nothing like that. He's not a danger to anyone."
Jean looked at Scott, who nodded.
"Okay then." She said. "I'm willing to try flumazenil if you want me to do it. It is my assessment that it's his best chance of continuing to breathe, but he's not going to enjoy it." She was looking at the boy's mother. That was who she wanted an answer from.
She nodded. "Do it. I can pay."
"Right." Jean said slowly. "Bobby, you can go if you like, this is going to be a long one."
Bobby shook his head. "I'd like to… see this out."
"Okay, but you don't have to."
"No, I will."
"Someone's gunning for X-man." Storm said quietly. Bobby smiled sheepishly.
Scott smiled too. "We're not gonna leave you hanging much longer." He said. "We just need to make our minds up about one or two more things."
"Well, you know what my answer is."
Scott opened his mouth to say something else, but Jean gave him a look that told him to shut up.
"Scott, Storm, Logan, if you wouldn't mind staying for a while at least, I'd appreciate it, just until we know exactly how difficult he'll be."