Scott padded back in to The Danger Room, as though he was afraid of waking her. Hank was still crouched over her, a hand on her neck. The Professor was next to her. He could see her breathing. She was alive.
"I want to correct her hydration," Hank said. "but-"
"Not until we know the outcome." The Professor said.
"She'll cope." Hank said, gathering Jean in to his arms. She didn't move at all. She was completely limp. She looked like she was dead. "Midazolam's as safe as they come." Hank started towards the wheeled table Scott had brought with him.
"Did she hurt you, Hank?" The Professor asked.
"No." Hank said quietly, lowering Jean on to the table. God, she looked awful. Apart from the fact that she was limp and unmoving and if she hadn't been breathing Scott might have thought she was dead, her skin just… wasn't sitting right somehow. Even closed, her eyes looked sunken, and there were dark shadows underneath them.
Should he have let her talk? Risked The Phoenix to talk to Jean, maybe for the last time. If this went badly, she might die thinking that he didn't want to talk to her. Thinking that he was sure she'd come through, surely that was better. But he was scared of her, scared of what was inside her, what she was holding back. That was why he'd said no, really. He was just scared she'd hurt him again. She might die in the next hour and that was what he'd been worried about. She deserved better.
Hank laid her straight on her back, like Scott had seen Jean do with dead bodies.
"I won't be far." He said. "I'll wait in the infirmary." Scott watched him go. Part of him just wanted to avoid looking at Jean.
He heard The Professor sigh. "I know what I'm asking of you." Scott looked back at him. He was looking at Jean, not either of them. "But if she kills me outright in spite of all we've done to weaken her, there will be no hope for her, not for the Jean Grey we know. The other is psychopathic and unspeakably violent. Both of you know why we cannot permit such a telekinetic to live. She should feel very little. Both of you are strong enough, even indoors and underground, that she wouldn't even have time to realize what was happening." Logan nodded, made a fist and set it over Jean's breastbone, his wrist dead straight. If he sent his claws out, he'd go right through her heart.
Scott looked at Jean's face and raised his right hand towards the side of his head. If he hit her, even once, there'd be almost nothing left of her head. He almost gagged at the thought. If the moment came, would he actually be able to do it? How the hell would he walk away from that if he did? He'd be de facto head of the school, because if it came to that, Xavier would be dead. And he'd be expected to cope with that. And he knew how losing her would feel, but before he hadn't been the one to deal the blow, not the final blow anyway. This was the stuff of nightmares: killing someone he cared about with his eyes. But on purpose. He didn't know how anyone expected him to walk away from that.
Scott could feel The Professor looking between him and Logan. He didn't look back. He breathed too deeply so the pain in his back spiked and broke his concentration. The Professor laid his hands on the sides of Jean's head and closed his eyes.
,
Kurt stood outside The Danger Room, his Bible in his hands. The Phoenix, to his mind at least, was like an impure spirit. It lived within a woman who, by rights, was gentle and good, gave her greater power than nature had afforded her, but made her mad and dangerous, like the man living among the tombs in Gerasenes. And had she not been exiled from among them, like that man, for days?
"And God," Kurt began, aloud. "Did you not help that man? Did he not sit at your feet in his right mind the very hour you met him?"
He thumbed his Bible open. The start of the Gospel of Mark. That was what he was looking for.
"Und es war in ihrer Schule ein Mensch," He began, aloud, "besessen von einem unsauberen Geist, der schrie und sprach: 'Halt, was haben wir mit dir zu schaffen, Jesus von Nazareth? Du bist gekommen, uns zu verderben. Ich weiß wer du bist: der Heilige Gottes'. Und Jesus bedrohte ihn und sprach: 'Verstumme und fahre aus von ihm!'Und der unsaubere Geist riß ihn und schrie laut und fuhr aus von ihm." Kurt paused for breath. "And God, will you not do the same here? You who called earth in to being by speaking, will you not help us here?"
Kurt's words hung in the air around him.
,
Logan had no idea how long it went on. He was that weird phase of tired where he was almost too alert and not alert at all at the same time. He was standing over an immensely powerful, mad, telekinetic. She could rip any one of them to bits at any moment. But could she actually? She'd been getting weaker; the last couple of times she'd flipped out she hadn't been anything like as violent. Xavier was still scared stiff of her.
If he was right, he could drop down dead at any moment. If that happened… They were supposed to just kill her. Logan didn't think Cyclops actually would if it came down to it. It would be on him to do it. It would be on him to protect everyone else. He would have to do it. She wasn't right. She wasn't really Jean any more, if this was how life was going to be for her from now on, never mind how many other people she might kill…
She was twitching. Not all the time, not big movements for the most part, but her eyes, her mouth, her hands… Sometimes Logan felt his claws shift inside him in response. They were just twitches. It probably had something to do with what Xavier was doing to her.
,
"-denn die unsauberen Geister fuhren aus vielen Besessenen mit großem Geschrei." Kurt drew a breath. "Lord, you have done so before. You command evil spirits out by speaking alone. Father, I entreat you: Do so here. Set her free and save us from her!"
,
Suddenly, she jerked and shouted. Was this it? Was this her breaking out? Logan set his jaw and –
"Don't!" Xavier shouted, reaching out a hand. Logan drew his claws back. They'd just broken his skin. It stung. He saw Cyclops make a fist and lower his hand away from his visor. All three of them were panting. Xavier curled forward and put his head in his hands.
"How do I know you're…"
"Far easier to kill me than to force me, Scott. She wouldn't have had the strength." Xavier took a couple of breaths, then carried on. Jean had gone still again. "I think I've done it." He took another breath. His voice had gone thin. "I think The Phoenix is gone. My concern is-" He took another couple of breaths. "Is how much damage I may have done in the process." Logan waited. "My hope is that this is a Morgan's Response and she'll recover in her own time, but," He took another breath or two. "We won't really know how it's gone until she wakes."
"How long?" Cyclops asked quietly. He'd gone back to standing dead straight.
"I don't know, Scott. I've never attempted anything like this before. Take her to Hank."
Scott stooped to lift her. He had broken bones.
"Don't be dumb One-eye. I'll take her."
"I can-"
"Scott," The Professor started. Logan scooped Jean up in his arms. She was heavier when she wasn't awake. "And Logan, get to bed as soon as you've passed her to Hank. I'll make sure no one disturbs you for at least eighteen hours." That'd be good. He felt like he was about to break out laughing or crying. Neither felt like a good idea.
,
Scott watched Logan stumble out of the infirmary as Hank started to examine Jean. He listened to Hank's doctor-babble about Jean's hydration and hypoglycaemia.
"It's most likely the hydration that's flattened her, I'm not even going to do bloods to measure it. That's what we need to correct first. Then I'll worry about lytes and sugar." Scott helped him get access to Jean's vein – he sort of forgot how much of an advantage telekinesis was for this stuff sometimes, it took Hank three attempts – then just stood there, waiting to be told what to do. "Let's start with a shock bolus, so six fifty straight off and… ECG. I do want an ECG, don't I?" Scott wasn't sure if Hank expected an answer. He just didn't want to take his eyes off her. If he hadn't been able to see her breathing, he would have thought she was dead. She'd stopped twitching now, she was just still. And pale and… her skin still looked like it had before.
"Do you know what the plan is now?"
Scott startled. "What?"
"Did Charles explain? Do you know what the plan is at this stage?"
"No." He hadn't been aware there was one. He'd just been told to come and stand ready to kill Jean.
Hank sighed. "We can't leave her alone. The problem is, we have no idea how long it'll take her to recover. This looks to me more like a coma than sleep, the drugs I gave her will be wearing off over the next hour, so she might wake up then or she might not. She was out for nearly twenty-four hours after The Professor placed the blocks in the first place. I'm going to stay until the drugs I gave her are out of the picture, then it's not really a medical job anymore. It's just a matter of someone being here when she wakes up."
That time, he did want an answer. "I'll stay." Scott said. He didn't think he could bear to take his eyes off her. He was not going to lose her again.
"Thank you."
"Will she...?" Scott swallowed. "Can you tell me she'll be okay from here?"
Hank sighed. "Well, she should be. Nothing we did to her to weaken her is irreversible, the real question is how much damage Charles had to do to contain The Phoenix." Scott waited. Hank glanced back at him. "There might be none, Scott." Scott kept waiting. "If there is damage, it might be… tracts of memory, it might affect her powers… I don't know. The Professor's the one to ask. But he might not know either."
There was a silence.
"What might she forget?" Scott asked quietly, not trusting his voice with more.
Hank looked up at him. "You've been with her ten years, Scott. If she remembers anything, she'll remember she loves you."
Scott's hackles prickled. Would she still? He closed his eyes firmly. The Phoenix had planted that in his head. He should disregard it. He was trying to disregard it. But somehow it kept creeping back in, the suspicion that Jean didn't love him anymore, that she hadn't for a long time.