Rogue, struggling to maintain her grip on the infuriated Sabertooth, glanced up to where Logan was struggling against Magneto's hold on him. She gritted her teeth in frustration, not wanting to take any part of her foe into herself, but not knowing what else she could do to subdue him so that she could fly to her friend's aid. McCoy lay in a senseless heap on the ground nearby, having been surprised and bludgeoned down by Sabertooth just minutes ago.
She glanced back up at Logan and saw a peculiar sparkle hanging in the air between him and Magneto. Dozens, then hundreds of tiny, shining tendrils rose from all over his body, shredding his clothes. She gaped in horror as his body crashed to the ground and massive, gaping wounds tore through his flesh to release sparkling tendrils of liquid metal into the air.
"Logan!" She cried out in horror.
His ravaged body quivered in helpless agony, and his mouth opened impossibly wide in a soundless scream of torment. From his open mouth, his nose, his cheekbones, from everywhere, bloody gashes spewed forth great, glimmering gouts of his precious admantium, leaving behind a flaccid, boneless mass of the once-indestructible man. She could hear the desperate but weak wheezing of his lungs as they battled against the weight of muscle, flesh and sinew to breathe.
Her horror was such that she lost track of herself, and was taken off guard when Sabertooth seized her by the head and hurled her into a boulder. The impact stunned her, and the rubble of the shattered stone crashed down around her, momentarily blinding and trapping her.
She shook her head, dislodging some of the rock blocking her view. Sabertooth stood before his Master, caressing the gleaming lines of stolen metal that whirled and circled Magneto in restless serpentine patterns.
"Remarkable metal, this." Magneto murmured as he caused the admantium to consolidate into one shining mass. His brow furrowed and it shifted into dozens of razor-sharp discs, and then into solid pellets that he flung out to shred a nearby tree to ribbons.
"It's mine Erik." Sabertooth growled. "Give it to me, now."
"Easier said than done, old friend." The aged villain purred condescendingly. "If I were to attempt to impregnate your body with this marvelous substance, you would be dead before I was through." He called the tiny projectiles to himself and formed them into a platform for himself to stand upon. The remainder flowed around him restlessly like protons around his nucleus of power.
"Our work here is nearly finished. Kindly dispose of our blue friend here and his boneless companion, and I will see you upon your return." With that, he lifted himself into the air and soared away.
Sabertooth snarled in fury and whirled on his helpless victims.
Rogue flailed, sending shattered rock flying in every direction and staggered to her feet, just in time to see Sabertooth standing over Logan's shattered body.
"You shoulda stayed with me, Jimmy. It never shoulda ended like this." He was muttering sullenly as he loomed over the bloody, torn form of Logan.
Without hesitation, she seized a huge piece of rock and hurled it with blinding speed at him. The rock struck him square in the chest and sent him flying into another rock pile with a horrendous snapping of bone. He sank to the ground and collapsed unconscious onto his side.
She flew to Logan's side and recoiled in revulsion. Logan's wounds were not healing. Huge rents in his skin and muscle oozed blood, and where she should have been able to see bone, there was none. She could find no safe place to touch him. She could only stare, horrified as his deflated body struggled to breathe, despite its missing skeleton.
She glanced at his ruined face, and was nearly sick when she saw that his eyes were wide and spinning about in agony. She scuttled away with a cry of terrified disbelief, frightened and sickened that he was still alive and aware throughout his horrendous wounding and suffering. It was too much to bear. She bumped into the wakening Dr. McCoy and sent him sprawling again, in her mindless flight from such unthinkable fear and torment. He groaned and struggled to his feet.
"You have to help him!" Rogue said, fighting back the bile rising in her throat. She seized his arm and hauled him bodily over to her fallen friend. "He's in agony! You have to DO something!"
McCoy stared at the mound of torn and broken flesh that had once been his most invincible colleague, and she could see the shock and horror that she felt, mirrored in his expression. He knelt beside Logan and began a quick but meticulous examination of his injuries. He glanced up at Rogue, and she could see the helpless frustration and hopelessness in his eyes.
"His bones are…gone." He gasped in a tortured whisper. "His wounds aren't healing..." He stifled a retch when his eyes met Logan's "How can he still be alive!"
She grabbed McCoy by the front of his shirt. "DO something!" She hissed.
"My dear," He said, gently laying a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing I can do."
She stared at him in disbelief for a long moment, then released him. They stared at one another, their eyes filling with hopeless tears, and turned back to their dying friend.
"Wait a moment," McCoy muttered suddenly. He bent closer to one of the gaping wounds on Logan's chest and stared into it. Rogue forced herself to look, and there she saw a sliver of white that grew as she watched, and forced itself into its proper place. The two eagerly searched his other wounds and saw similar slivers of white slithering through the gashes and filling those horrifying gaps with clean, white bone.
"Marie!" McCoy cried urgently. "Go fetch an ambulance! Right now! Carry it if you have to, but get it and its EMT's here NOW!"
She stared at him in surprise.
"Go!" He roared, grasping her by the shirt and belt and hurling her bodily into the air.
She righted herself and streaked off, suddenly feeling the faint stirrings of hope.
To say the EMT's were surprised would have been an understatement, but once they saw the torn and mutilated figure of Logan, they went straight to work, never questioning the presence of an ambassador to the United Nations, nor the presence of the beautiful but impossibly strong woman whom had picked them up, ambulance an all, and flown them to this spot.
By the time she'd returned, Logan's bones had fully regenerated, but his wounds were still open and oozing blood. He was blessedly unconscious, and his body seemed wasted away to almost nothing. In minutes, the stricken man was intubated, and an IV had been started. They hurriedly loaded him into the ambulance, and Rogue was obliged to carry them all to the nearest hospital.
As Rogue alighted in the ambulance bay of the ER, dozens of people crowed windows and rushed out onto the sidewalks to watch as she gently lowered the ambulance and Logan was unloaded. McCoy followed him in, shouting instructions and overriding objections to his commands with the assertion that he was the man's physician.
Rogue was politely but firmly told to stay behind, and though she knew she could bully her way in, she allowed the nurse to take her back into the waiting room.
She leaned against a wall and sank to the floor, suddenly weak and feeling nauseous. The entire place was abuzz, but it was a long time before she realized that everyone was focused on her. She lifted her eyes and looked around to see everyone staring and whispering. She winced, and felt like her soul was shriveling in despair. Her mind was too full of Logan's plight to spare any thought for quelling any anti-mutant sentiment and mindless bigotry that these people were probably feeling.
She closed her eyes and drew her knees up to her chest. She buried her face in her arms and let the tears flow. She gasped and shuddered under the crushing weight of the day's events and the horrifying memories of her friend's injuries.
The sound of footsteps approaching intruded on her tears, and she tensed for the onslaught of hatred she knew was coming.
There was a small, hollow plunk as something was set beside her, and a light hand rested hesitantly on her shoulder.
"Hey, you gonna be alright, lady?"
Surprised, she glanced up, and saw a boy, not much younger than she was, crouched next to her and looking her over compassionately. He reached down between them and pulled a tissue from the box he'd brought over.
She took it gratefully and dutifully wiped her nose. "Thanks," She sniffled, still a little wary.
"I saw your friend, when you brought in the bus," He said softly. "And you look like you could use a friend right now."
She glanced up at him in surprise. "Mutant?" She whispered.
He just smiled and shook his head. "Nah, but that was hella cool the way you flew that bus in and just set it down all careful, like it was your baby inside or something. " He shook his head incredulously and laughed. "Pretty damn heroic, too. Everybody thinks so." He said, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder.
She stared at him in disbelief, and risked a glance around the room. Everyone's eyes were riveted on her, and her face flushed. Instead of the expressions of fear and disgust that she was expecting, there were smiles of encouragement and…approval. Most just nodded or smiled gravely for her, but a few offered fist-pumps and thumbs up.
Tears of gratitude welled up in her eyes, and she lowered her gaze, embarrassed and warmed by their unexpected support and admiration.
Her newfound friend sat with her for a while and did his best to distract her from her troubles. He was there with his brother, who'd been shot when members of a rival gang had shown up to a party someplace. He wasn't terribly worried, as the bullet had hit him in the shoulder, but he was totally disgusted with his brother's idiocy.
"About the only good to come from all this is that he's 19, so they can't come after my mom for the bill." He shook his head sadly. "My brother's a good guy, but he's got a totally screwed up idea of what real life is all about. Hopefully getting shot will be the kick in the ass he needs to get his head on straight."
"I hope so too," She said, smiling gratefully at him.
At that moment, a nurse came out, calling for the Ester family. Her friend jumped immediately to his feet and waved her over. They conferred for a few moments and then the nurse moved to lead him back to his brother's room.
He stopped and offered Rogue his hand. "Nice to meecha, Supergirl!" He grinned "I hope your friend is alright."
She shook his proffered hand. "Marie," She murmured with real gratitude for his companionship.
"Terrance," He said with a smile. "T.E. to my friends."
She watched him hurry after the nurse, until the doors closed behind him. She shifted uncomfortably on the hard floor and leaned her head back against the wall warily. Things had quieted down noticeably, and before she knew it, she was dozing.
A gentle touch on her arm brought her suddenly awake, and her head snapped back, cracking the tiles on the wall behind her.
"Shh...it's alright, Marie. It's just me."
Dr. McCoy was crouched in front of her, his face lined with fatigue, yet alight with hope. "He's going to be alright, Marie. You got us here in time."
He gently helped her to her feet and led her to a different floor and Logan's room. Along the way he explained that once Logan's bones had started to grow back, he knew that he could get him stabilized so that his natural healing ability could keep working. Logan had lost massive amounts of blood, but once they were able to get in IV into him, his body was able to take over. They had been pumping Logan full of IV fluids and whatever helpful nutrients they could force through his veins. They had been working on sewing up the various gaping wounds all over his body because he was too weak after regenerating his entire skeleton and mending the ruptured veins and arteries, to continue healing the lesser but still dangerous wounds to his muscle and skin.
When they entered the room, Rogue was surprised to find a team of nurses and doctors surrounding the bed and suturing the remainder of Logan's wounds. They could not hold her attention for long. She hardly recognized the frail, shrunken man in the bed. His skin was gray and cold, and there was not an inch of skin anywhere on his body that hadn't required mending. He was still bleeding, though the very worst of it had clearly stopped. His body seemed shriveled and skeletal beneath the glaring lights, and more than anything, he looked fragile as if he would shatter at the smallest touch.
He was still unconscious, and had tubes running in and out of every available patch of skin on his arms and neck. There were several bags of Ringer's Solution suspended from the stands attached to the bed, and several free-rolling stands stood around the bed, all hung with various bags and infusion machines.
The people working on him universally wore expressions of horrified disbelief as they worked feverishly to stitch him up. There were constant murmurs and exclamations of shock at the depth and extent of his wounds. One of the physicians approached McCoy as he and Rogue entered.
"We'lll probably finish suturing the worst of his wounds in the next couple of hours, but our biggest fear right now is infection and blood loss. Frankly, I can't see how he's even alive at this point." He scrubbed his hand tiredly against his cheek and sighed. "I trust that you know what you're doing, as I've never treated a mutant with his caliber of ability, but I must say that in any other situation, my prognosis would not good."
The burly blue man gazed grimly at their patient and laid a reassuring hand on the doctor's shoulder.
"If he were any other man, I would agree with you. But I believe he will make it."
The doctor looked dubious, but he didn't argue. "Well, if anything, it gives the med students plenty of practice in deep tissue injury repair."
McCoy patted the doctor on the back and strode to Logan's bedside. He picked up a stethoscope and began an examination of the battered warrior's vital signs.
"Heart rate is approximately 50 beats per minute, pulse is weak, pupils are equal and reactive. Breath sounds are still moderately crackly but improving. Femoral pulse is weak, but getting stronger…"
The voices of Hank and the Doctors droned on and on, but Rogue could only focus on the still form of the man whom she considered her closest friend and most trusted confidante. She wanted nothing more than to take his hand, but he looked so very frail, and she was terrified that with her enormous strength, she would break him. So she settled for sitting close and watching over him.
For days Rogue sat by his side, leaving only to go to the bathroom. There were dozens of phone calls and at one point or another, everyone on the team stopped in to check on him, though they had to return almost immediately to the school. Once McCoy felt he was stabilized, he too was forced to return to his own work, though he set up a direct virtual link to Moira McTaggart on Muir Isle so that there would always be someone familiar with Logan's physiology on hand in case of any emergency.
Anna came by every day, bearing homemade meals, clean clothes and other little comforts to make Rogue's stay a little easier. She came early in the morning and left late at night, offering welcome distraction and gently holding Logan's hand. She remained cheery and optimistic, despite the many setbacks and crises he had those first few days.
A week passed, and finally, there seemed to be some visible improvement in Logan's condition. As the nurse was injecting the various massive doses of vitamins into his IV, Anna was pulling open the curtains on a beautiful, sunny morning. Rogue happened to be watching his face when she noticed his brow crinkle in a small grimace as the sunlight fell across his face.
"He moved!" She cried out, jumping to her feet and sending her chair careening across the room. "He Moved!"
Everyone rushed to his side as the nurse hurriedly checked his vitals.
"Are you sure, Marie?" Anna asked eagerly. "What happened?"
"He frowned!" She said excitedly. "When you opened the curtain, he frowned!"
The nurse gently lifted his eyelid and shined a little flashlight into them. There was no mistaking the grimace in his expression.
The two crowed with delight and bent over his bed eagerly. The nurse shook his head in amazement and moved to the computer to enter the information into the uplinked database.
"Logan," Rogue called softly. "Logan, it's Marie. You're in the hospital. You've been hurt real bad, but they're taking real good care of you."
Anna took his hand carefully and Rogue reached out and delicately brushed his arm with her fingertips.
"Me and Anna McCoy are here with you, so you'll never be alone. You just rest and get better, and we'll be here when you wake up."
Logan's recovery was slow for him, but rapid in comparison to anyone else. He regained full consciousness ten days after the attack, though he tired easily. Within two days, his doctors felt he was ready to try a liquid diet.
"What the hell is this?" He demanded irritably when they set a tray of broth, juice, milk and jello in front of him.
"It's your first meal in almost two weeks, Logan." Rogue explained patiently. "They gotta make sure you can handle eating first."
He lifted the bowl of broth in one shaking hand and took a swallow. He grimaced in distaste, but fell to it with surprising appetite. Within minutes, it was all gone. He sank back into the pillows with an unsatisfied sigh.
"You alright?" She asked solicitously.
"No," he grumbled "Now I'm really hungry. What's a guy got to do to get a steak around here?"
She laughed. "I'm not so sure your system could handle that yet."
Logan's stomach snarled then. Something it hadn't done since he'd been injured.
"What I can't handle is this bullion-flavored water they're trying to feed me."
She thought for a minute, and then another snarl from Logan's stomach decided her. She got up and typed in an inquiry to Muir Isle. There was a response a few minutes later, and she immediately got on the phone with Anna.
his doctors quickly determined that the IV nutrients and vitamins were not doing enough, and that a liquid diet was also not getting him the nutrition he truly needed to heal.
Logan was sleeping when Anna arrived. She shut the door behind her and set her bags on the floor next to the bed. She tenderly brushed his hair out of his face and looked closely at him.
"He does look a little better, doesn't he?"
Rogue nodded with a smile. "His heart seems stronger, but he's still really tired all the time."
Anna nodded absently as she started opening the bags she'd brought with her. "His healing factor is starting to kick into high gear," she muttered thoughtfully. "He's going to need a lot of calories over the next few weeks."
She pulled out a large plastic container full of homemade beef stew and laid it out on his table. A moment later, Logan's nose started to twitch and his eyelids fluttered open.
"Logan, can you eat?"
His stomach snarled, but he couldn't keep his eyes open. "Damn, I'm tired." He murmured in a barely audible voice.
Anna carefully tucked a napkin under his chin and took up a spoon. "Open up, Logan" She commanded, lifting a spoonful of the broth to his lips.
The first spoonful he swallowed weakly, but with each mouthful, he seemed to regain some of his strength. After a few minutes, she paused to let him wake up a little. His breathing slowly became stronger, and his stomach started to growl again. He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes, more alert this time.
Rogue and Anna were watching him very carefully. "Are you ready for more?" Anna asked with a smile.
"Hell yeah," He said weakly.
Anna lifted out a chunk of meat in the next spoonful and watched him closely as he chewed it. As he ate, he strength began to visibly return. His body quickly took over and he impatiently took the spoon from Anna and started greedily shoveling it into his mouth. When the bowl was empty, he practically licked it clean. He laid back, breathing heavily. The two women watched in amazement as color seemed to flood back into his face and his features began to look less gaunt. The healing work that would take a normal body weeks or months to repair was accomplished in a matter of minutes. And then, his stomach growled again.
Rogue stared at him, shocked. That hadn't been a small container of food. Anna just laughed and pulled another, identical container out of her bag and set it on the table in front of him. Logan went through that quickly and then a third before he finally laid back in his pillows and sighed. A few minutes later, he fell into a deep, healing sleep.
For a week, Anna, under the close supervision of Muir Isle continued to prepare enormous amounts of protein-rich food for Logan, and his recovery progressed exponentially by the day. All of the doctors were baffled by the speed of his recovery, including Muir Island. Moira had been monitoring all of his blood tests personally, and contacted him with a startling revelation.
"By all accounts, despite your mutation, you should absolutely not be regenerating at the rate that you are. Though it may seem a slow process to you, compared to what you're used to, but the level of trauma you suffered should have almost cancelled out your healing ability."
She clicked some things on her keyboard and called up some test results on a graph. "Now I'm sure this is all rubbish to you, but this is an analysis of your blood when you came into the hospital. As you can see, there is an abnormal level of an unknown toxin in your blood. Here is an analysis of blood drawn a week later."
This graph was in a different color, and the level of toxins was noticeably lower. She clicked some more on her keyboard and a third graph overlaid the first two. "This is the analysis done yesterday. As you can see, the toxins are almost nonexistent."
"So what does that mean, exactly?" Logan grumped.
"The admantium," Anna muttered almost inaudibly. Rogue shot her a quick look and saw a wide-eyed expression of "ah-ha!" on her face. She was about to say something when Moira continued.
"I had the toxin analyzed by a colleague at Bembridge University and he found traces of admantium. I believe that the metal was slowly poisoning you, and the process of fighting off those toxins was actually retarding your healing process to a startling degree. From what I've been able to determine, once you are completely recovered, you will be able to heal nearly instantaneously."
"Will that stop the pain when I get hurt?"
She smiled wistfully. "I'm afraid not, but any pain you suffer will likely subside even more quickly than before.
Logan grunted and shifted on the edge of his bed. "So when can I get outta here?"
"I don't see any reason for you to stay in the hospital any longer, but I would prefer that you stay someplace relatively quiet where there will be someone to watch over you. "
"You can stay with me and Hank, Logan." Anna offered from behind him.
"Actually, that's a fine idea. Dr. McCoy would be ideal as he's familiar with your mutation." She shifted her attention to Anna. "I'd rather he have ground-floor quarters where he won't have to navigate any stairs for a while. Is that possible?"
"Absolutely."
"Good. Mr. Logan, I recommend that you allow yourself to rest whenever you begin to feel tired. I will send you a program of physical therapy to help you rebuild your strength. It will be a long while before you're back to your old strength again." She warned. "It will do you more harm than good to push yourself faster than your body is able to cope with, so don't overdo it."
"Yeah, yeah, alright." He groused, getting out of bed.
Moira smiled knowingly and began typing rapidly. "I will forward the release papers to your physicians there at the hospital, along with instructions on vitamin supplements and orders for weekly blood tests."
Rogue handed him his clothes with a grin and flopped a towel on top of the pile. "You might wanna shower first."
"You now, I'm still pretty weak," he smirked. "I probably shouldn't shower alone."
"That's alright," Rogue said sweetly. "I'm sure Jacob will be glad to come in and keep an eye on you. "
"Yeah, thanks, but no thanks."
Logan showered without incident, and came out a half an hour later. He was putting his shirt on as he left, and his friends were shocked at how skeletal he was. Then the discharge nurse came in with his paperwork.
Rogue rode home with them and helped Anna to get him settled in. Storm called right after they ate a massive dinner with Dr. McCoy and asked Rogue to take over the physical training course that Logan had left empty.