Logan paced the hall by the med lab, nervously flecking his bright blue eyes towards the large round metal doors McCoy had disappeared through a few minutes before with the small they had picked up in a northern New York forest. McCoy had taken the child directly to the medical lab, Logan close on his heels, leaving Storm to settle the jet and inform the Professor of what had happened. Logan was going for another pas when the doors slid open with a hiss, revealing Henry in his white medical jacket.
Logan turned on the spot heading straight to him and the room behind him. "How is she?" he questioned, staring Hank right in his eyes.
Henry smiled at the man before him. As much as Logan put up the 'tough-man' act, he did care for people. And now this little girl in the school's medical bay had his undivided attention.
"She is fine, Logan," Hank said, turning to head back into the large medical room. "In fact, she will be perfectly fine in about an hour, if not a few minutes. Her mutations are quite fascinating. Come, look."
Logan moved to followed, but hesitated a moment before following the blue Beast to one of the padded bed tables. The child he had pulled from the woods was face down on the table, covered with one of the warm stock blankets. Her injured shoulder was left exposed. Hank had moved to her right side and started checking vital signs, indicating to Logan that he should move to her left.
"What do ya mean she'll be fine in an hour? She was shot, Hank. People just don't heal from that overnight." Logan stated, watching as Henry moved about, his task undeterred.
"Ah, yes. Normal people do not 'heal overnight.' But some mutants can. Just take a look at her shoulder. It started a few minutes after I pulled the bullet out." Henry turned to write something on a new patient chart and moved to find a light pen.
Logan, brow knit in confusion, looked down at the small bullet hole in the child's shoulder; the bullet hole that was slowly closing itself. He stared in disbelief. That was a healing factor, without a doubt.
Hank had found his light pen and moved back to the girl's side. "It doesn't appear to be as strong as your healing factor. It could not push the bullet out by itself. It is possible that she is too young but once it was out, all of her injures started to heal. Observe that the bullet wound is already completely healed," Henry stated while he again wrote something in the patient file.
He put the pen light down picked up the ink pen, picked up the light pen and moved towards the girl's head. He began to lift the girl's eyelid to flash the light in her eyes, looking for a reaction. With the first sweep she flinched. The second pass, she tensed up. Before henry could move for a third sweep, the girl's eyes flashed open, gold ovals wide.
Hissing, canines bared, she leaped off the table trailing the stock blanket to the floor, landing in a defensive crouch. She glared, gold eyes burning, at these two strangers with her clawed hands ready to strike should either decide to approach.
Both men stood rooted to their spots, watching this child hiss and snarl at them. Logan, without moving his head, turned his eyes to Henry. He had done the same, not sure as to what a doctor or normal, loosely put, person should do.
"Hank, slowly back out of the room and get the Professor," Logan said, turning his blue eyes back to the golden slits glaring towards them. "We'll need ta snap 'er out of it." He took a slow steady step forward, immediately drawing the child's complete feral attention.
"And what, pray tell, are you going to try?" Henry whispered, unsure of why he felt the need to be quiet. He started to inch towards the door as Logan took another step forward, enticing a very loud snarl. He returned the gesture, loosing a deep growl from his throat and curled his lips slightly.
"Show 'er who's boss," was his reply, voice raspy and gruff as he continued his growl.
Henry reached the doors and pressed the large button to open them, an audible hiss announcing their opening. He slipped out but not before the sounds had drawn the girl's attention to the new source of sound for a few short seconds.
Seconds in which Logan moved closer, growl turning to snarl and fangs fully bared. He stood tall, well over the girl's bent form. He glared down at her, demanding her submission to him, the Alpha, the Leader and, therefore, the stronger. She did not flinch away with immediate submission. No, she would put up the fight. She stayed in the crouch, only sinking an inch or two. This brought an even louder snarl from Logan and brought him one step closer. Come on kid. I don't want to hurt ya. He stepped closer, less than two and a half feet from each other now, hands balled into fist.
The girl started to sway a little and sunk closer to the floor, still hissing up at him. Her tail, twitching side to side, moved closer to her back. She was losing this battle for dominance because of exhaustion, the primal part knew. This man from before was demanding she submit to him, let him lead. He looked like a man but did not act like it. Smelled like a man, but at the same time did not. He was and was not. Just like her. Her vision began to blur and her movement off. Her hands were dropping to her sides and she was sinking to the floor.
Again the movement caught Logan's attention. The kid was losing but not without a fight. He slowed his growl to a low rumble and watched the girl quiet her hissing and sink fully to the floor, eyelids trying to blink the tiredness away. Logan caught her before the child hit the floor, sleep taking her to a safe place. And he sat there, back to the wall, the child in his arms. All of his attention was on the small bundle in his arms, so the three on lookers standing in the doorway went by unnoticed.
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"The child has certainly made an impression on Logan," Strom observed once the doors to Professor Xavier's private study were closed and she and Henry were seated.
"She has indeed." Xavier commented once he had maneuvered his wheel chair behind his great mahogany desk. "She has indeed and that very fact may help us handle the girl without serious problem or injury. Henry," far too intelligent blue eyes on the blue furred mutant, "What do we know as of this moment?"
Hank leaned forward in his chair. "Right now, all we know is the extent of her mutations. The physical change in and of itself is the primary mutation." He took off his glassed and began to clean them, a nervous habit. "The amount of damage caused by the first mutation required that the secondary, the healing factor, to manifest early. This may, or may not, have influenced the feral qualities that the child exhibits." He placed the cleaned folded glasses in his jacket pocket as he leaned back in his chair. "But we cannot be sure."
"The healing factor's not the reason for the feral-ness. It's what happened to 'er that caused it." The three occupants turned to face the new arrival to the discussion.
"Logan!" Storm gasped when she saw the burly man leaning against the door. "How is the child?"
"She's just fine. Went right back ta sleep," Logan announced like the battle for dominance had never happened. "I'm guessin' that when she wakes up again, the kid's gonna be starvin'."
"How long do you think the child will sleep, Logan?" the Professor inquired as he once again rotated his chair out from behind his desk.
"I'd give 'er 'bout thirty more minutes before she starts sniffin' out the kitchen."
"Well then, I suggest that we head back to the medical laboratory before she does just that. We shall worry over the mental or emotional damages later." Charles turned to the weather witch before exiting the room. "Ororo, would you be so kind and have something ready for the young one? Nothing large. Maybe a lunchmeat sandwich?" the Professor asked, turning to look for the gruff Canadian's approval of food.
The edges of Ororo's mouth turned up in a small smile as she left the room with a small "Of course."
"Now," stated the wheelchair bound man, "let us greet our newest arrival."
Wow, so it's been forever since I've written anything. Hopeful this will snowball into my other stories. Anyway, I hoped you like it and will offer some kind reviews or critiques? Anything would be nice. And thank you to the wonderful reviewers who really inspired me to actually keep this plot bunny going. Thanks guys!
LD out