CHAPTER NINTY-TWO:

An Interesting Bedside Manner

JUST A NOTE TO THOSE WHO MAY NOT KNOW:

"Bedside manner" basically means the attitude someone has when they're taking care of someone else.

For example, if you're sick in bed with a cold and your sister is supposed to be taking care of you (getting you a drink if you need it, taking your temperature, ect.) but she's being really loud and obnoxious and making your head hurt worse, that means she has a "terrible bedside manner".

So, obviously, if she's doing a good job, that means she has a 'good bedside manner'.

Now let's see what constitutes (aka makes up) an "interesting" bedside manner…Seeing as Sabretooth is the nursemaid, it oughta be interesting.

PS: It's 12:51 at night right now and I can't sleep…Danged insomnia.

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XAVIERS SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS

LOGAN/VICTOR/CLARISSE/CASSIE/ROGUE/JUBILEE/RODDY/JONESY/UNCONSCIOUS AVENGERS/ THE HULK/

It looked like the Hulk did indeed know his way to the med-bay because he pounded down the halls with purpose, sending frightened cubs screaming and running for cover, Iron Man and Captain America still in his grasp.

Victor growled low at the panic the green giant was causing and raised his voice so that it echoed off the walls. "ALL OF YA CALM DOWN! EVERYTHIN'S FINE! GET BACK TA YER CLASSES!"

Cassie winced and covered her ears yet again. "I am going to have SUCH a headache when this day is over with….." she mumbled to herself, looking down briefly to make sure Roddy was still at her side.

"No kidding." Jubilee added in. The perky teenager was practically drooping with weariness.

"Has anyone else noticed we've missed first period class?" Clarisse asked.

Victor growled, shifting the red-headed super-spy in his arms. "Yer all gettin' breakfast first, then bed." He ordered. "The lot of ya head to the cafeteria."

Jubilee sighed and cut off from the group, heading for the cafeteria and Clarisse followed her without a second thought. Rogue took Jonesys hand and gave Logan a peck on the check before moving to follow her two class-mates. Cassie however, hesitated.

Victor paused and arched an eyebrow at his mate. "Ya need ta eat, mate. Get move'n."

She huffed and walked over to him, leaning her head against his arm, letting him take her whole weight, Roddy at her side. "I'm too tired, Victor. Just let me come with you."

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SABRETOOTH/VICTOR CREED

Exhausted.

His mate was just plain exhausted.

He hated that. As she was in his care, there was no reason for her to be exhausted, not if he was doing his job right.

He growled low, frustrated that he had to be carting around two unconscious Avengers instead of making sure his mate and cub were eating a proper breakfast before going back to bed. He should make her go to the cafeteria then check on her later…but the way she was leaning up against him…..her tired scent…..besides, he hadn't had enough time with his mate since this whole infinity serum fiasco.

"Alright, mate." He conceded. "Think ya can manage to walk to the med-bay?"

He was amused when his mate glared at him. "I'm not an invalid, Victor. I've gone without sleep before and still been able to manage."

That statement made him growl again. Right. The insomnia. "That won't happen now that you've got me."

She arched an eyebrow at him as if to say 'oh really?'

"You forget already what my purr can do to ya?" he pointed out.

She smiled a little, blushed a touch and shrugged. "I'm still not sure whether or not I like this whole purring thing you can do. Something doesn't seem right with you being able to calm me down just like that." She snapped her fingers in example.

Victor snorted. "There's everything right with it, frail. How else am I supposed ta make sure yer healthy? Didya sleep at all with Jimmys purr?"

Cassie huffed and Logan answered for her.

"It calmed her down some, but I don't think it really worked for her." The Wolverine shifted the unconscious Hawkeye on his shoulders.

"Um, hello, I'm right here?" Cassie mentioned, pausing to bend down and pick Roddy up in her arms to carry him. The blue-skinned mutant cub yawned, showing his forked tongue, and nuzzled his face into her neck to fall asleep. "Besides, it seems like you're not going to be around every night anyways. Not if you're working for this Fury guy. How's everything going on that front anyway?"

It amused her greatly when both Victor and Logan let out matching growls. "The ice-brat is working with a shapeshifter who managed to steal Furys serum. Someone higher-up is masking the brats scent, and now that trouble-making cub is gone and the trail is probably cold by now." Victor almost vented. "And ontop of that I had to deal with this bunch—" he nodded his head to the unconscious Thor he had hauled over one arm "—thinkin' they own the place and have'n ta teach'em a lesson."

"So all-in-all not good." Cassie concluded, sighing a little.

That was when Beast decided to join them, still carrying a sleepy looking Ororo. "I must say that was quite the scenario I just witnessed." The blue-furred scientist told them all grumpily. "And I think I must also point out that was extremely pointless to force Ororo up there to see everything so early in the morning."

Ororo rolled her eyes at Cassie and Victor. "Don't mind him, please. He seems to think I'm suddenly made out of porcelain."

"I think that's a feral thing." Cassie smiled with camaraderie at the weather-witch.

"No, he's take'n care of her like he's supposed to." Logan growled out. "Can we pick up the pace here! Green-butt's gettin' way ahead of us."

"His legs are huge, of course he's getting ahead of us." Cassie commented, but they all picked up the pace none-the-less…..all except Beast.

"I am going to take Ororo to sleep and I suggest no-one interrupt us if they know what's good for them!" Hank said and began to leave when Victor growled suddenly, an alpha growl, stopping the scientist in his tracks.

"Hold yer horses, blue-butt. I'll need yer help checkin' on the Avengers, and yer weather-witch there could do with a check-up as well." Victor ordered.

Hanks blue fur was practically bristling with frustration, but something in Victors voice, in his alpha timbre, seemed to force him to comply, though he obviously wasn't happy about it.

`Tough *#$&` Victor thought. Unless the blue-furred scientist wanted to challenge him for position as alpha, there was no way the Beasts instincts would let him out and out disobey Victor, his alpha. `And doesn't that just rub his fur the wrong way.` Victor thought with a smirk. But oh how quickly that smirk faded.

There was just too much to do; shoring up the school, upping security, tracking down the ice-prick, finding Furys infinity serum, taking care of the multitude of cubs which included hunting and health-care along with numerous other tasks. If it wasn't for the fact that he needed the infinity serum for his mate, Victor would have just forgotten the whole thing and focused mainly on his mate, the cubs, and the school.

The blonde Asgardian over his shoulder let out a low moan, showing that he was coming to, and Victor snorted. Then there were also the Avengers to deal with.

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THE MED LAB

When they finally reached the med-lab, Victor promptly went over to some of the sick beds and, with surprising gentleness, dropped the Asgardian and the Black Widow onto separate beds.

When his little brother wasn't as gentle, simply dumping the Hawkeye onto a bed like a sack of feed-corn, Victor gave him a warning growl. "Watch it, Jimmy."

Logan looked at him in disbelief. "Since when did you care about being gentle!?"

The Wolverine couldn't believe his eyes when his big once-arch-enemy-brother who had threatened to disembowel his enemies (and had even carried it out a few times) was tucking the unconscious Black Widow under the covers of the hospital bed.

"As temporary pack they're under our care, James, and you'd best remember that." Victor growled at him. "Now do ya remember any first-aide from the wars we were in or what?"

Logan growled. Some fragment of memory told him that when his older brother used the name 'James' he meant business. "Some…a little."

"Well, start check'n fer broken bones then." Victor ordered, watching with a critical eye as the green Hulk dropped both Captain America and Iron Man onto the floor without ceremony then began to shrink, his skin fading from green to an ordinary peach.

Once he was fully human again, Bruce Banner staggered a little then dropped to the floor himself, one hand dazedly on his head, the other holding up an extremely loose pair of boxers. "How on earth did you manage to do that!?" he demanded, looking up at Victor with huge brown eyes. "No-one's ever controlled the big guy. NO-ONE!" The poor scientist looked like he had just learned that the sky was actually the ground, the world was really flat, and he was part of a computer (the matrix has you).

Victor growled and moved to haul the scientist back to his feet by the back of the neck, treating him like a cub. "Yer half feral, and yer feral half has accepted me as alpha. Now sit down till ya get yer bearings or help me get these two into beds." As it was, Victor scooped the Iron Man up and moved him to a bed. "How the hell do we get this suit off'em?"

Bruce took a seat on a plastic chair and let his head rest in his hands. "Only Tony can do that. Some kind of device control…"

"Well, it needs ta come off." Victor growled, then quite simply took hold of the metal and ripped it like it was tissue paper, sending up sparks.

Both Bruce and Cassie gaped at him as if they couldn't believe he had just done that.

"Whoa….." Cassie commented.

"Tony is going to kill you for that." Bruce put in.

"He already tried." Victor said, unconcerned, commencing to rip off all of the Iron Mans suit. "He's got some major bruising here. Someone wanna tell me why he's got a glowing ball in his chest?"

Cassie came forward curiously, wanting to poke at the blue orb, but even she knew to control that urge.

"That's his arc reactor." Bruce explained, still rubbing his temples. "It powers his suit. It also acts like a magnet and keeps some shrapnel from going into his blood stream and killing him."

"Huh. Neat trick." Logan commented, drawn to the Iron Mans bedside as well.

Victor, however, wasn't so amused. "And just how did he get shrapnel in his chest?"

Tony Stark, of course, would choose that time to come back to the land of the living. He groaned and brought a hand to his forehead. "Did anyone get a number on that semi?"

They all just looked at him.

Then the genius millionaire seemed to notice that he wasn't wearing his iron-man get-up anymore and began to raise himself up on his forearms. "What the *&^%!? What happened to my suit!"

Abruptly, Victor put his hand on Tonys forehead and quite simply slammed him back down onto the bed. "Shut up, Tin man, and lye still."

Logan snorted. "What was that you said about being careful, Vic?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What the **** is going on here!?" Tony demanded. "What happened to my suit!" The Iron-Man (whose iron was now ripped to pieces) began to hit at Victors bulky arm, but it was like attacking a red-wood tree with a feather, it did no good whatsoever. "What the **** did you do to my suit you *****!"

Cassie quickly covered Roddys ears.

Victor growled low, immediately moving to pin both Tonys arms by his sides. Despite how the millionaire struggled, he was no match for the Sabretooths strength, not beat up and with no suit. "You either calm down right now, Tin-man, or I'll sedate ya!"

When Tony continued to beat at Victors arms, the feral looked to the blue scientist. "A sedative, Hank, NOW."

Despite his annoyance, Hank hurried to comply, very gently setting Ororo down on another bed and moving to take up a syringe and some tranquilizer, rushing to the Iron Mans bedside to inject it into his arm.

Immediately, Tonys fight stopped. His eyes seemed to cross a little and he stared in drugged awe at the ceiling. "Whoa…..now don' fight over me ladies, there's more than enough to go around…."

"That worked fast." Cassie muttered.

Victor rolled his eyes. "He's got some burns here too. Somethin' from his suit maybe, but nothin's broken." With a few quick prods, the Sabretooth had determined that there were no internal injuries as well. The man would be as sore as hades and moving like an eighty-year old man for a while, but he would be alright. "Jimmy, get some ice-packs for Tin-man here."

Logan grumbled at being so ordered but moved to grab several ice-packs from the small fridge in the lab.

Bruce Banner, obviously feeling a little better, stood carefully, hiking up his boxers. "I'm, uh, gonna go get some clothes."

"There's some sweats in that closet there." Hank told him, arranging the ice-packs over Tonys bruised body, and Bruce headed towards the closet gratefully, grabbing some sweats and a hoodie and ducking behind a changing screen.

"Alright," Bruce said, emerging in the standard grey sweatsuit. "How can I help?"

"Check on Blondie over there," Victor ordered, motioning to the Asgardian Thor as he briefly paused to make sure his mate was alright (she was fine, still standing at the Tin-Mans bedside watching Hank arrange the ice-packs) then headed towards the Black Widow who was groaning and putting a hand to her head.

Quickly he started up a purr. "Easy, Red." The sudden spike of jealousy he scented, though, made him look up in carefully masked surprise. Well, well, well…(he smirked inwardly)….what was this? Did his mate not like him looking after another female?

Immediately abandoning the Black Widows bedside, Victor strode up to his mate, purring full-fledged, and pushed his body up against hers, leaning down to rub his cheek on the top of her head. "Easy, mate." He soothed, grinning like the cat that had eaten all the cream. "No need to get jealous."

Cassie growled and shoved at his chest, but of course that didn't work. And that purr was giving her that warm fuzzy feeling again, which certainly didn't help. "Who said I was jealous?" she demanded.

Victors arms came around her and he pulled her up flush against his chest, leaning down to mummer into her ear. "I'm just take'n care of a pack-member, mate, that's all. Yer the only frail fer me."

When she actually gave an annoyed growl of her own, Victors smirk grew into a full-fledged grin and he pushed closer. "Do ya need me ta prove it?"

Roddy squirmed in her arms until he got himself out and went to stand by his 'Uncle Logan' to watch the proceedings with interest.

That was when one of Victors clawed hands came up to tangle in her hair, tugging firmly but gently, and he crashed his lips down onto hers. The kiss started out as brutal and dominating, but slowly turned into something else; reassurance.

Cassie went lax in his hold, going soft and pliant against him, all the fight leaving her body, and Victor growled against her mouth in approval. If it hadn't been for his cub being right there, he would have let his hands go a little further south, the Avengers be hanged, but his cub WAS there and the last thing he needed was his cub trying to grope someones butt (like he had tried to get Victor to kiss him on the lips after first witnessing him kiss Cassie).

When he finally let go and pulled back, breaking the kiss, he was pleased to see her panting a little, her eyes hooded and her lips red from pressure. "Does that convince you, mate?"

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000AN: I still feel there's more to this chapter, but it's now 3:00 in the morning and I want to get this posted.