Snow White and the Poisoned Flower

A voice jerked Kitty Vics from her sleep. Her hospital room was dark and Kitty saw on the clock by her bed that it was just past two-thirty in the morning. Her eyes swept the room, but saw nothing out of place. She shut her eyes again, concluding that what she had heard had been a dream...But then she heard it again.

"Dahlia."

Kitty sat up fast, ignoring the intense pain radiating through her body as she looked for the intruder. It was too dark to see anything, though, and the light coming in from the hallway wasn't bright enough to give her peace of mind.

"Dahlia."

Kitty's head whipped around in the direction that the voice came. "Ashley?" She whispered, her voice unsure.

Laughter flowed through the air as Kitty clenched her teeth. She patted her hand on the table, feeling around for something to use as a weapon without taking her eyes off of the corner. She grasped a pen and held it tight enough to whiten her knuckles, ready to use.

"Hello, cher." Ashley Sinclare Roux walked out of the shadows, clad in an emerald green suit and purple gloves with a purple tie. He looked like Jack Nicholson's Joker and Kitty would have laughed if he didn't make her so frustrated. His chronic five o'clock shadow was in place, but Ashley's dirty blond hair looked messier than usual. There were just the faintest hint of dark circles under his tanned skin, as if he hadn't slept the past few nights. He had a vase full of beautiful flowers in one gloved hand and a book in the other.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't scream." Kitty demanded.

Ashley stepped closer to her bed and set down the book and flowers. "Because I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

"And yet, here I am." Kitty waved to the hospital room with one hand while pressing the nurse call button with her other hand.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Ashley's moss colored eyes fell on the cast on her leg. "I was worried 'bout you."

"You blew me up, Ashley." Kitty said bluntly. "I'm obviously not okay."

Ashley paused. "I didn't know it would be this bad. I tried to get you out before it exploded. I only meant to blow up the other ones. The one with the claws."

"Oh, well that makes everything okay." Kitty's voice dripped with sarcasm and she nodded her head slowly. "I mean, you didn't mean to blow me up. Just my friends and family, so that makes everything better."

"I didn't know they were that important to you," Ashley admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just figured they were colleagues."

"Well, they are that important to me." She retorted. "You really expect me to be able to work with you when you're okay, even excited, about killing people I love?"

"Do you?" Ashley asked quietly, his eyes cast downwards. "Do you love him?"

Kitty's eyebrows drew together in confusion and she asked, "Who?"

"The man with the claws." Ashley explained as he tucked a strand of dirty blond hair out of his face. "He was at the fundraiser, then in the buildin' with you. I also know that he's been here at the hospital a lot."

"I don't think that's any of your business, Ashley." Kitty said softly, uncomfortable with the straight-forwardness of his question.

"I guess you're right. I'll leave these flowers here since I'm not welcome." Ashley said sadly as he set down the flowers. "I'm real sorry for this, Dahlia." He whispered before disappearing back into the shadows.

A nurse opened the door and flicked on the switch, sending light into every inch of the room. He poked his head in and asked, "Can I help you Ms…" He reached over and took her chart from the end of the bed. "Stark?" He replaced the chart and smiled down at her.

Kitty glanced over at the empty corner and said slowly, "I was just wondering if anyone has come by."

"Do you mean your father? He wanted me to tell you that the big, dark haired guy would be in soon. Said they were running patrols, looking for someone? Is that some sorta cop thing?"

"Yeah, sorta." Kitty said, laying back down in her bed. She coughed a few times before asking, "When did Tony leave?"

"Uhh…" The nurse looked down at his watch. "About an hour or so ago, so that other guy should be here any minute."

"Okay, thank you." Kitty nodded her head, thinking fast. "Hey, wait a second!" She said, watching as the nurse turned back around to face her. "Could you hand me that book?" Kitty pointed to Ashley's book.

"Yeah, here." The nurse picked it up and read the cover before handing it to Kitty. "Is it any good?"

Kitty sighed. "I wouldn't know. Thank you."

"I'll send that man in when he gets here, but try to sleep, okay?" The nurse said before slipping out the door to the hall.

Kitty flipped open the cover of the book and saw that it had writing on the first page. "In this book, the girl falls for the bad boy, but sadly, life is not like the books and we will not live happily ever after". Enraged, Kitty threw the book across the room as hard as she could, nearly hitting Logan in the process.

"What'd the book ever do to you, princess?" Logan asked, bending down to pick up the offending object. The cover of the book had a young, blonde woman in an old fashioned, red dress, looking over her shoulder with a sultry, knowing glance. Logan noted that woman heavily resembled Kitty.

"Read the damn cover page." Kitty ordered. "And don't call me princess." She coughed a few times and felt lightheaded as more anger built up in her.

Logan opened the book and read the inscription. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Ask Ashley LeRoux. He just dropped it off a few minutes ago with those flowers." Kitty pointed at the arrangement and coughed again.

"He was here?" This came out as more of a growl than a question.

"Yeah." She pressed her hand to her mouth and drew it back to see that she had coughed up bright red blood.

"Logan?" Kitty asked in a shaky voice as she looked at her bloody hand. Her chest ached and she continued coughing, only this time, she couldn't catch her breath. The monitor hooked up to her started beeping loudly and Kitty felt like she was suffocating as she fought to breathe. She looked over and saw Logan doubled over and it dawned on her: Ashley had delivered her the poisoned flowers she had mentioned all those days ago.

"Poison!" Kitty gasped. She quickly scribbled "poison flowers" on her arm with her pen before pressing the call nurse button. Logan was shaking and still coughing as he kneeled next to Kitty's bed. "The flowers are poisoned, Logan, I'm so sorry." She whispered to him before falling into a seizure.

Kitty's memories from that moment on were fuzzy and confusing. At one point, she saw men in yellow suits prying open her eyes, shining a light in them as she flew down the hallway. The hall smelled like bleach and it burned her nose. Her chest had a fire raging in it and she recognized that sort of pain from the explosion. Kitty idly wondered if she was dying again. They were asking her questions, but Kitty couldn't remember how to open her mouth to speak, so she just remained silent until her mind drifted away.

The other memory she had was of her looking over and seeing someone familiar laying on a bed next to her. "Logan?" She whispered just before she ripped an oxygen mask off her face.

The people in yellow suits were sticking needles in him and using silver paddles on his chest to restart his heart.

Kitty, in a rare moment of clarity, screamed, "Logan!" She scrambled on the bed to get to him, but doctors held her back. She flailed her arms, not noticing the pain in her leg and lungs as she fought to get closer to his unmoving body.

Kitty saw Logan's chest and back jolt up unnaturally. The doctors recharged the paddles, much to her horror. "Logan!" Kitty heard the loud whine of his heart monitor telling her that his heart had stopped. "No! No!" Kitty wailed, fighting off one of the doctors holding her down. "Logan, wake up!" Her voice broke as she begged, tears streaming down her face. "Come back, you bastard." She whispered.

Kitty finally got close enough to touch his face with her trembling hand. She couldn't help but cringe at how cool his skin felt before a nurse dragged her off of him. "No, no, no! Give him back, goddammit, give him back!" Kitty commanded, grabbing one of the hazmat-suited doctors. "Bring. Him. Back." She growled, her teeth bared as the doctor fought to get out of her grip. She saw them shock his heart again before a nurse jabbed her in the arm with a needle and she floated off again.

There were a couple times when she heard her name, but Kitty was too tired to deal with them, so she just listened to the voices.

"It looks like the B12 treatment is working." One of the voices, clearly female, said positively. "Her vitals have improved dramatically over the last two days."

"But it's not cyanide poisoning." A second voice responded. "The symptoms weren't fast enough for acute poisoning and none of them fell into comas."

"Maybe it's a mutated strain." Voice #1 suggested. There was a rustling sound before she said, "They think it was homemade. Whatever it is, it's powerful."

"What about the other patient?" Voice #2 asked, and Kitty tried to concentrate on hearing their conversation. "I heard he's been giving the nurses trouble."

"He's been demanding to see her, driving the nurses insane. I heard them talking about sedating him so he gets some sleep." Voice #1 sighed. "He had the most contact with the poison. The nurse said that Ms. Stark told him that she thought the flowers were poisoned, so he put the flowers in a bag then tied it off before his seizures started. He went into full cardiac and pulmonary arrest, but he made it." The voice sighed. "We tried to X-ray him. That was fun." She said sarcastically. "His body lit up like a Christmas tree and our machines started breaking down. I'd never seen so much metal in a person before, covering his entire skeleton. Even the EKG leads didn't respond to him. But then he woke up a day or so later, healthy enough to immediately start bugging the nurses about her."

"Really? Do you mind if I take a look at his scans?" Voice #2 asked, his voice dripping with curiosity.

"Yeah, I think they're being passed around the second floor break room. Almost no one can believe that he's awake. They said he's a Mutant and that's why he recovered so quickly. It's amazing, I wish all our patients healed like that."

"What about this one?" Voice #2 asked. "You think she's some sorta Mutant?"

There was a long pause before Voice #1 said, "I think she can hear us. Ms. Stark? Ms. Stark, can you hear me? Nod your head if you can hear me."

After some determination, Kitty managed to nod her head. She tried to talk, but found that she couldn't due to something being in her mouth and throat.

"No, no, no. Don't talk." Voice #2 said. "You're intubated. There's a tube in your throat to keep it open so you can breathe."

Kitty's eyes fluttered open and tried to understand her surroundings. The room was bright white with yellow biohazard signs scattered around. There was very little in the space beside her bed and the machines she was hooked up to. The two voices were in yellow hazmat suits with masks covering their faces and gloves to protect their hands. A panic set in at her inability to talk or move her legs and her heart monitor peaked again. Kitty raised one of her hands and started twisting it around, trying to get her point across.

"Is she signing?" Voice #2 asked his colleague.

"I think so." Voice #1 nodded her head. "Do you know any sign language?"

"No, but I think Malik Phillips in Peds does. Let me go see if he's available." Kitty watched as Voice #2 left the room. It wasn't long until a different person in a white hazmat suit walked in.

Kitty started signing again, slowly, to make sure the man she assumed was Malik could understand.

"She wants to know if someone named Logan is okay." Malik translated to Voice #1, who seemed to be the main doctor.

"He's the patient who was infected along with her." She explained to the translator before turning to Kitty. "Yes, Logan is fine. He's still in quarantine, but otherwise he's doing okay. He's been asking about you."

"And now she wants to know…" Malik watched Kitty's signs carefully. "If that nurse is okay. Wasn't it Kenny working?" He asked Voice #1, who nodded.

"Yeah, it was Ken. He's okay, his exposure was minimal and because he's a very healthy person, it wasn't too bad. He didn't even have any seizures."

Kitty nodded and signed "Thank you" as her eyes slid shut and she passed out again.