PRS 4: Stained Glass
It's not like I'm abandoning them. I'd never leave them if I didn't think I had to. And I'm leaving them in...good...
God, what kind of hands am I leaving them in?
Jubilee slowly wandered down the hallway. Rogue stood alone at the other end, staring through the nursery windows.
"Hi Rogue."
The older woman didn't acknowledge her.
Jubilee didn't expect a response.
"What are the kids doing? They playing together?" Jubilee peeked in at her babies. Five year old Emma stood over three year old Logan, waving a dump truck over his head. Logan, clearly not pleased with this development, launched himself at her and knocked her down. Both children scrambling for the truck, Logan emerged triumphant, running from Em, squealing as she pursued him. In the center of the room, Rogue's son sat unnaturally silent watching the spectacle. Jubilee rapped sharply on the glass and shook her head at her errant children. Both smiled, waved at her and resumed chasing each other. "What am I gonna do with them?" Jubilee mumbled and grinned wryly.
The two women continued to watch the scene in silence.
"That's Remy, y'know." Rogue stated flatly.
"I know." Jubilee closed her eyes. They may not be good hands, but they're safe ones. She won't anything happen to them. "I wanted to ask you something, Rogue. Ev and I had a talk last night and...we have to go away for a while. There's some things we need to do. Things we have to take care of. And we can't take the kids with us." She opened her eyes and looked at Rogue.
Rogue watched her boy wander over to the now exhausted Logan and pluck the truck from his hand.
"We want you to watch the kids for us while we're gone. Make sure nothing happens to them. That they're okay." Jubilee's voice strained as her throat started to close up. "I don't know how long we're gonna be gone, but we have to stay 'til we're done. It could be a while," she finally whispered.
Jubilee looked over at Rogue. The older woman continued to stare intently at her son. After a moment she nodded, almost imperceptibly.
Jubilee pressed her forehead to the window. "Thank you." Logan ran up and banged on the window, giggling at the horrible face his mother made. "I guess I'd better tell them then, huh?" She gave Rogue a weak smile and went into the nursery.
Rogue watched from the window as Jubilee gathered her children into a hug.
I haven't seen her in days. 'S funny. You don't see someone for years and while you still miss them, you move on. You don't spend every waking moment thinking about them. And then they waltz right back into your life and you can't get them out of your mind. That's how it is for me, with Paige. Except I'm not just missing her now, I'm worried about her as well.
And angry with the both of us. I can't believe that she could do that, that she *did* do that, sit in my church and never give me a sign as to who she was.
And I can't believe I didn't know it was her. I should have known, somehow, that it was her.
Angelo smoothed his hand over the altarcloth and looked out over the church. His church, every inch of it. He loved the way the light filtered through the glass into the pews, over the parishioners during mass, their jewel colors bright. It was as if God was offering a special benediction just for them.
He started to step down from the altar when a shadow detached itself from the confessionals.
"Hello? Can I help you?"
A tall, pale man emerged from the side, dressed in a long slate colored jacket and fedora and immaculate suit. "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...It's been..." the man paused and tipped his head to the side, "Why, I don't believe I've ever gone to confession." He chortled nastily, a wild, high pitch slicing through the air. "Well, well, well. I can see we'd misjudged her. Perhaps she is the religious type."
Angelo tried to make out the other man's features as his voice skittered over him.
"I mean why would she risk her self to come here, eh? I mean truly, she wouldn't want to give up an advantage. Or a weakness. Are you a weakness?"
"I'm sorry, I don't I know what you're talking about." Angelo began to edge back towards the sacristy. "If you're looking for spiritual-"
"Let it go, Father. Just a thought. Your loyalty is about to be questioned. You can save yourself, or be damned." The man paused to consider this and let out another piercing cackle. "That does sound dire, doesn't it? I should have gone into the theater. Although I sincerely doubt it would have been as much fun." An oily looking leer oozed across his face. "Nevertheless, forget your misbegotten ties to the stray lamb. You've a bigger flock to tend now." He crossed himself and started down the aisle.
Angelo stared after him as he left the church.
Everett dropped his bag into the trunk and slammed it shut. Coming around to the driver's side door, her leaned over. "You sure you want to drive?"
Jubilee gave him a wobbly grin. "Proven fact, men can't take directions and women can't give them. Hence my driving and your navigating. Now get in."
Grumbling lightly, Everett shuffled over to the passenger side and climbed in. It wasn't that he wanted to drive that badly, but Jubilee had spent the day, the previous few days, actually, alternating between tears and a strange sort of calm. If driving would keep her happy, so be it. He reached over and switched the radio to his preferred station.
It didn't mean she had to have everything her way.
Jubilee snickered at his little rebellious display. She quickly shifted the car into gear and they took off down the driveway and onto the access road, pushing seventy miles an hour.
"Wanna slow down a bit? Maybe?"
"Nah. The faster we go, the faster we'll get there." Jubilee sped up a little. "Um, we are going to Seattle, right?"
"No, LA. Seattle was taken by the government, remember?"
"Not really. I kinda skimmed that part of the file," her eyebrows drew together in a frown as a thought struck her. "Hey, how'd you get that out of Kitty's room? She couldn't have known about that."
Everett waved his hand back and forth in a non-committal gesture. "Maybe, but you're right. I got it off of Pete's computer. It looked like he'd duped most of Kitty's files, judging from the dates, but he must have pulled it from somewhere else." He glanced nervously at the speedometer. "I couldn't track the source. Anyway, I figure that they probably went to the LA office after Seattle went down. It would have been too unexpected to plan a cross-country trip to Atlanta."
"Don'tcha think it's interesting that she's got offices on the opposite sides of the country and then one so conveniently in Los Angeles?" Jubilee mused in a not-so-innocent voice.
"Yeah, well, it could be a strategic thing," Ev defended half heartedly, "She could have a contingency office in say, New Orleans as well."
"Sure. And the fact that Ange has a church there has no standing."
"Not unless you suddenly wanna go to church. Actually, I want to stop there first. He ought to be told what's going on."
"'Kay." Jubilee grinned at him cheekily, taking her eyes off the road. "D'ya think Ange knows about her being in LA? " The car swerved into the left lane.
"I- Jubilee, watch out! You're gonna hit-!"
"What?" Jubilee yanked the vehicle back into the right lane and continued on, catching a glimpse of the other car's passengers.
"Um, Ev?"
"Hold on, my heart's still stuck in my throat."
"That wasn't the Summers' car, was it?"
Jean pulled the car over to the side of the road and set the parking brake.
"Jean? Jean? Are you all right? Jean?" Scott turned awkwardly in his seat and groped for her shoulder. "What happened?" Having found her arm, he ran his hand upward to catch her chin and turn her toward him. "Jeanie?"
"I'm okay." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "I'm going to kill Jubilee when I get my hands on her."
"She was driving the other car?"
"Yeah. Everett was with her. He didn't look too good." Jean chuckled and dropped her head against the backrest. "I knew we shouldn't have let Bobby teach her to drive."
"Jean?"
"I know, hon. Just give me a second."
"Not that. Are you nervous?"
"About the whole 'infiltration-and-incrimination' thing? Yeah, a little." Jean looked over at her husband. "But it has to be done, doesn't it?" She asked softly. "Where did things go so wrong, Scott?"
"I don't know."
The pair sat silently for a moment. Then Jean let a wisp of a smile pass across her face. "All right. So what do you want to see?"
"You."
"Aww. How sweet. Now seriously..." Jean took his face in her hands and closed her eyes.
The clock flashed 5:00 and began to squeal like a stuck pig. Not that she'd heard one recently, Paige reflected, flinging her arm out and slamming the sleep button. She retracted her arm and huddled under the covers a moment more before sitting and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. As she shook her head to clear it, the day's plans began to emerge from its sleep blurred depths. She crawled back into bed and grappled for the covers.
No. We're not gonna to hide in bed all day. Paige forced her feet onto the floor. We're gonna get up and go out and raise some hell. Damn straight. Umhm. Yeah.
She yawned and pulled her nightgown off over her head.
The past week had been a trial.
"Ah don't want to talk about it."
Paige Guthrie sat at the kitchen table with a stubborn expression on her face. Rahne sat across from her, nursing the last of the coffee.
"Paige..."
"No. Ah changed m'mind, Rahne. Ah'm fine. Ah went to church, saw Ange and that's that."
"Paige, you came in last night bawling your eyes out. Obviously something set you off badly. You said you got into a fight with him, what did he say?" The red-haired woman glared at her impatiently as Paige sat sullenly. "This isn't healthy. You do realize that."
"Just drop it for now, Rahne. It wasn't anything...Look. It's not like Ah'm going to see him again. Ah'm not going back to the church." Not now that he'll be looking for me, she added silently. She wrapped her arms around herself, remembering the anger and the hurt and the concern she'd seen in his eyes.
And the guilt gnawing at her stomach. Maybe, just maybe if she ignored it, it would go away.
"Where is everyone? Ah thought we were having a meeting at nine." Paige stood up and began to agitatedly make another pot of coffee.
"We're coming, we're coming," Patrick called as he and Simon hurried down the hallway. Simon stiffly levered himself into a chair, blearily watching Patrick as he bounced around the table to draw Paige into a hug.
"She lets him do that?" Simon whispered to Rahne, as he realized that Paige was not about to gnaw Patrick's head from his shoulders.
Rahne gave a distracted chuckle and leaned over to him. "They're friends from way back," she murmured in his ear. "He joined Generation X just before she left, knew her brother fairly well..." she trailed off as Patrick released Paige and wandered to a seat.
"So, what have you got?" Paige poured herself a cup of coffee before going back to the table. "Somethin' useful, Ah hope?"
"Um, yeah." Patrick shuffled through a folder. "To start with, I managed to crack the files we picked up in Denver. There's not a hell of a lot there, but you remember the referral list we picked up in Joliet?"
Paige nodded.
"I don't think it was complete. One of the things I managed to get out of the Denver stuff is a list with all of the sites on the Joliet list, plus about ten more." He looked up at the others.
"Are the referring 'physicians' listed as well?" Paige's voice soured in disgust.
Patrick nodded. "They're being taken care of. But that's actually not the important thing, Paige," he paused a moment as if unsure where to begin. "They're using a new numbering system to identify the sites. I mean, I had an idea what the codes meant because I'd seen the other list, but I've never seen this on anything else before."
"Let me look." Paige took a sheet from him. "Did you see this, Rahne?"
Rahne glanced over at the page and her eyes widened. "Here now, let me see that. Patrick, go get me bag. The one with the green binder in it." She snatched the paper out of Paige's hands and eagerly read though it. "I think I'm right..." she crooned.
"Ah'm gonna hit you over the head with your green binder in a second if you don't tell me what you're talkin' about." Paige warned.
"You remember the stuff I'd gotten into in Seattle right before we left? I swear there was something in it that looked like this. I really didn't get to look at it much before..." her voice trailed off as Patrick came back into the room bearing the requested bag. She grabbed it and began to rummage through it. "Aha!" She ran over to one of the computer with the small scandisk in her hand and fed it in.
"Ah thought you said there wasn't anything there?"
"Apparently I was wrong." The screen began to scroll with lines of unbroken code. Tapping a few commands, it quickly dissipated leaving a list of familiar looking codes and addresses. "We had to get out of there before I'd done much with it. But look at this!" She held the list up to the screen for comparison as the others crowded around her.
"There's got to be about fifty sites listed here." Simon shuddered.
Paige tapped the screen. "This one. L-4-23. South Bend. That was the holding site that we broke up a few months ago. And this one here, L-3-17 is the one that..." Her gaze slid over to Simon who was wandering away from them.
Patrick nodded, understanding. "That site in York, G-47 was a referral site." He skimmed the lists. "Actually, both of the lists use 'G' as a prefix in the referral sites."
"So 'L' is the prefix for what?" Rahne asked, "The holding sites?"
"Yeah." Paige pushed the other woman's hand away and began scrolling down the list. "Any ideas what the numbers stand for?" She punched a few buttons and went over to the printer to collect the pages. "It looks like the referrals may be numbered sequentially, but that doesn't explain the why the holding sites would have two numbers."
Rahne studied the screen for a few moments before beginning to manipulate the information there. "Huh. That's funny."
"What?"
"I can pretty much make the second number list sequentially, there aren't any doubles. But the first number repeats a lot. They're mostly threes and fours. A couple of ones, a couple of sevens, but nothing higher."
"Strange."
Simon's voice whispered from far side of the room. He'd settled against the wall with his chin on his knees. "They're the inmate numbers. L-3-17. There were two other kids in the one I was in, wasn't there? The girl who made fire and the boy who had gills. I remember them," he looked up at Paige. "Right?"
She crossed the room and sat next to him. "Right. And the other one had four people in it."
"The numbers are so small because they don't want us to get out. They think they can control us if there aren't many of us."
"Makes sense." Paige flipped through the papers in her hands. Finally she looked up. "There's a holding site not too far from here. If you're right, there's only one person in it. Feel like doing some sight seeing?"
A small, swirling oval appeared on the edge of a tree lined driveway. It wavered and widened and eventually two figures stepped out. The portal held for a moment more before silently shrinking down and disappearing.
//Meta? Nuance?//
"Right here, Wolfsbane. Right where we're supposed to be. Ah can see the entry gate from here."
// Remember, it's just in and out. We'll figure out what we want to do about it after you get back.//
"Ah know," impatience tinged her voice. "We're going in now." She held out her hand to the other figure who took it with a firm grasp.
"Ready?" He asked.
She nodded.
The two figures stepped into a shadow and melted.
"Ah hate this," she whispered as they slithered up he driveway under the cover of the tree's shadows.
"I dunno, I kind of like it myself," he returned in a slightly amused tone. "I think it feels kinda neat."
Nuance grunted quietly as he slid under the gate. On the other side was a small courtyard that led up to a tall, ivy-covered brick building. There were several small windows in the front, giving it a vaguely academic look. The pair followed the shadows up to it's front door. "Do you wanna go under it?" He asked.
"No. Let's check out the windows first."
The first few windows offered nothing of interest and no real means of entry, all being brightly lit, fairly sterile looking rooms, devoid of any sign of human inhabitance. It was the second floor that offered access. The pair slid into a small room outfitted with a stainless steel sink, cot and a host of small, sharp-looking scalpels.
"Did you see the cameras downstairs?" Meta whispered as she materialized from the shadows.
"No." Nuance rose from a crouching position beside her.
"Front hall, one or two in the smaller rooms downstairs. The way that front hall was lit up we'd have been spotted the moment we went under the door."
"Oh."
"Never mind. Wolfsbane. D'ya think you can patch me into the video security system?"
//Minute.//
"See if that'll give us any idea what's going on. Why don't you slide under the door a bit and try to get a look out in the hall."
"All right." He flattened himself against the wall and melted into the shadows.
//Meta?//
"Yeah?"
//I got it. You're not going to believe what I've found.//
Meta reached into a bag, pulled out a goggle-like visor and put them on. "What?"
Then, "Oh mah God... Shit. Where the hell is he?"
Nuance rematerialized at her side. "What is it?"
//You can't get him out now Meta. They're doing tests or something on him right now. The whole place is crawling with shades and other assorteds. //
"Ah can see that. He must still really worry them to have all of those guards on him though, huh? What room?"
"Meta?"
She made a shushing motion with her hand.
//Maybe. He's got to be drugged out of his mind. Who knows what kind of condition he's in? I doubt he can go anywhere on his own.//
"Ah know. Stop worrying. Ah just want to see what they've got him in for mahself. Ah won't try anything. We're gonna need more than just me and Nuance to get him out anyway. Now what room?"
Wolfsbane sighed. //Room 12-W. Don't go up the stairwells, they're too brightly lit. Even the undersides.//
"Thank you."
Nuance looked askance at her.
She turned back to the window. "We're going up to the twelfth floor."
Two nights later, Angelo sat at the kitchen table picking at his dinner. The mashed potatoes were still frozen. He stabbed at it halfheartedly and shoved it away. Fingering his bottle of beer, he sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Damn it Paige, what have you gotten yourself into?"
"Ah thought you said you knew."
Ange bolted upright and his eyes widened as he took in the ice blonde girl in the doorway. Her pale skin took on a yellow pallor under the fluorescent light and her eyes had a hunted look to them. "I know some," he offered.
She nodded nervously.
"Would you like to sit?" He indicated the chair across from him, trying to put her at ease. She looked ready to run at any second.
"Thanks, but I'll just..." she motioned to the counter. "Over here."
"Sure." He watched as she slunk over to the counter and hopped up onto it.
He studied her a moment. "How are you?"
"Fine, just...fine. You?"
"I'm doing good."
"Good."
The light buzzed above them.
"Why do you have such an interest in this, Paige? Did they come after one of the Guthrie clan?"
She gave him a strange look and took a moment before answering. "Because it's wrong."
He took a swig of his beer. "Fair enough. Lots of other things are wrong too, you know."
"No one should be able to just lock someone up to try to figure out how to steal their powers."
"Is that what they're doing?" He asked with mild surprise. "I thought they were cloning them."
Paige shook her head. "Not quite. They're taking kids from their homes, making it look like they ran off or killed themselves so's their parents don't look for them. Then they try to figure out how exactly their power works, so they can try to make one of their li'l engineered superagents do the same damned thing. When they figure out how t' do it, they get rid of the poor dumb kid who was unlucky enough to have a power they wanted in the first place."
"Christ."
"Ah've got a kid working with me now. He was a member of Gen X, just like us. Second set. Melts into shadows, real useful talent for the government, y'know? Somehow he ended up in one of the holding centers. He was half-dead when Ah found him, Ange. All tied up to wires and drugged… It isn't right to do that to anyone."
"No..." Angelo agreed slowly, "It's not. But it doesn't really explain why you've made it your crusade, Paige."
She swung her feet back and forth. "It... it seems like everyone Ah know keeps getting hurt because they're mutants. And it's not just the adults, it's the kids. You, me, Jono, all of us, we were thrown into it early on. We never had a chance." She pressed her lips together and swallowed before she continued. "But at least they tried to prepare us. These kids are being taken just 'cause they're easy targets. Notice you don't see any of us 'superheroes' disappearing," she gave him a grimacing smile. "At least not anymore. And Ah'll be damned if it isn't unfair. Some of these kids haven't even realized that they've manifested and they're being taken. So Ah'm trying to stop them," she said simply, "because they deserve a chance."
Angelo stood in the doorway of the rectory an hour later as he watched her disappear down an alleyway. He was still slightly stunned at her impromptu appearance.
She's changed.
She's changed a lot.
And she's hiding something.
Not that I'm surprised. She's probably hiding a lot of things. More surprised that she told me as much as she did. It's not like it used to be.
Fuck. What did I think? That she'd just tell me everything that'd going on 'cause I'm her old amigo Angelo and we just...
Mm, no.
He lit a cigarette and leaned his shoulder on the casing.
He laughed at himself. She'd never told him everything. Ever.
A frown creased his face. She never did say why she suddenly appeared in my kitchen, did she? Not that I questioned it.
It was almost if she belonged there.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow moving. Turning towards it, her realized it was a man...but that wasn't quite right. He could see right through him.
A chill ran down his spine.
What the-?
The tall, pale man was standing across the way, his teeth flashing and his eyes dancing in an unholy parody of a smile. He whispered one word.
Angelo heard it clearly.
"Weakness."
They were just in time to see the church go up like a Roman candle.
"Oh my God..." Jubilee whispered. "Shit. Oh, shit." She scrabbled with her seat belt and then lunged out of the car, Everett right behind her.
Paige was unlocking the car door when she heard the dull explosion. The sky colored orange briefly as flames shot into the air and then settled into an all-consuming blaze. The blood left her face as she realized where it had come from.
No. Not again...
She ran back to the church. The stained glass windows had been blown out with the force of the explosion and the fire was roaring out of control. She ran up to the doors and touched the handle. The metal burned in her grasp. She quickly pulled her hand away and ran toward the rectory. It was just beginning to catch fire from the debris that had struck its roof and had been blown in its shattered windows. The side that connected to the church had a gaping hole in it, and Paige could see the remnants of a television set inside.
"Jesus Christ. Angelo!" She ran towards the destruction.
"Get out of here."
It was faint, but it was all she needed.
"Angelo! Where are you?" She began to look in the direction that his voice was issuing from.
She found him crumpled among some bricks across the street, his skin sagging and puddling around him, blood running down his face.
"We've got to get you out of here."
He looked up at her, his eyes bright with pain. "You've got to go, he' s waiting for you."
She knelt by him and began to prod him, looking for obvious wounds. "I'm not leaving you here Ange." He began to shrink back. "Stop it! Do you think you can get up?"
He nodded hazily.
She slung his arm around her shoulders and began to support him as they stood and made their way across the street into the alley.
Everett was the one who saw them first, hobbling into an alleyway, backlit by the blazing church. He and Jubilee had tried to get into the church but to no avail.
"There he is. Over on the other side of the street."
The fire silhouetted the two figures, the man leaning heavily on the woman's arm as she tried to keep the both of them standing.
"That isn't who I think that is, is it? Christ, I should have known she'd be involved in this!" Jubilee raced after them, finally halting some ten feet behind them.
"...hurt, Rahne. He needs to see a doctor, or something. Can ya lock onto me?"
"What the fuck is going on here, Paige?!"
Paige jerked around. She stared wildly at the two familiar faces before her. Everett gazed at them neutrally, while Jubilee's face was study in anger.
Her face whitened. "I-"
Angelo slumped on her shoulder a bit more. He'd slipped out of consciousness several minutes earlier and was now leaning is full weight on Paige. He moaned quietly, which snapped Paige out of her shock.
"Somebody get me a portal right now!" She yelled into her communicator. A trash can fell over at the other end of the alley. She held out her arm to Everett. "Grab my hand," she said urgently.
"What?"
"Just do it now!" She seethed.
He grabbed her fingers without further argument. She yanked her arm back and her hand ripped off, revealing a blue light that seemed to burn cold at her wrist.
"Jubilee, behind you!"
The blue fire burned brightly and shot past the other woman, obliterating the head of the shade behind her.
Two shades were aiming their neutraguns square at the young woman. Jubilee turned and her eyes widened. "What the hell do ya think you're doing?!" She shrieked in outrage before sending off a blinding volley of explosions at them. Ev's fingers began to lengthen and he whipped them down the alley to wrest a gun from one of their grasps and strike the other shade with it, knocking him unconscious.
A portal slowly appeared behind Paige and began to enlarge.
"Who are these fuckers, Paige?" Jubilee released another burst of pyrotechnics on the remaining figure. It quickly became a ball of fire.
"Shades. They're shades." She glanced back at the portal which finally reached its full size. "Come on, we've got to get out of here." Three more shades materialized from the sides of the alley. She fired another blast at them. "We've got to get Ange out of here."
Jubilee glanced over at her husband who had since glommed onto her powers and was setting a ring of concentrated explosions around their location to try to keep anyone from intruding. "Ev, go help Paige."
"But..."
"I'll be right behind you." Jubilee took out the supports on a fire escape and it came crashing down. She began backing toward Paige and Angelo.
"All right." With a few final sprays of light, he turned and took Angelo's other arm and began to help him into the portal.
A bullet breezed by Jubilee's face. She aimed a few explosions in the direction it had come from and continued backing toward the portal. Everett was all the way in it, supporting Ange. Paige turned as she stepped in. "Come on, Jubilee!"
Jubilee stood at the threshold of the portal.
"Leaving us so soon? I so hoped you would play."
The voice drifted down from overhead. Looking up, Jubilee caught a glimpse of a man in a long grey coat standing on one of the few remaining fire escapes.
He grinned at her with a mouth full of knives.
The last thing she did before she stepped in the portal was bring the sky down on him.
Rahne sat at the 'porter, wildly tapping in coordinates and cursing. "Damn it! Paige? Paige? What happened!"
Patrick hovered behind her, issuing directives that she was ignoring. "You've still got a lock on her last location, right? I think you should send me out there. If she's in trouble I can at least try to..."
"No. I'm not sending you out there until I find out what's going on out there."
"But what if she needs back up?"
Simon sat on the couch watching the door. Rahne had gotten it into her head one day that it would be cute if she programmed all incoming 'ports to drop off at the door.
Paige had just gone out for a moment. Her stomach was bothering her, she'd said.
She'd wanted to get some air.
Simon cracked his knuckles, nervously. What had she gotten into?!
The door vanished in a violent burst of light and four figures tumbled onto the room. Paige struggled to her feet first. She began to shove Jubilee and Everett away from Angelo's prone form.
"C'mon, someone help me get him into a bed!"
Patrick ran over, recognizing the panic in her voice. He lifted Angelo from the floor and carried him into Paige's room. Rahne and Paige followed, carrying a small box and slammed the door behind them. Rahne ran her hands over the unconscious man, checking for broken bones. Finding none, she grabbed a small grey device out of the box. A red glass panel gleamed at the top of it and issued a warm glow as she ran it down Angelo's body.
"Is he okay?" Paige nervously tried to grab the machine from Rahne. "What's wrong with him?"
"Stop that." She looked at the digital readout on the machine. "He's not bleeding internally. No organs appear to be damaged and none of his bones are broken. But he's bruised all to hell and he's cut up pretty badly as well. He's probably going to be all right, Paige." Rahne looked up at her. "I'll take care of him. I didn't spend all those years with Moira and learn nothing, ye ken? Here." She handed a bottle of aspirin to Paige. "You look pretty bruised yourself."
Paige set it down on her dresser. "He's gonna be okay?"
"I think so."
Paige nodded and went over to sit in a chair by the bed. "Ah'll just stay here for a bit.."
Rahne turned to pull a bottle of antiseptic out of the makeshift first aid kit. When she turned back, Paige was asleep.
Jubilee stared at the closed door in shock. "She can't just.." her voice choked in outrage, raising her fists to hammer on the door.
A dark skinned hand gripped hers, stopping it. "Yes she can."
Jubilee turned to see a familiar young man behind her. "And you're gonna stop me?"
He grinned. "You don't remember me, do you? I'm Patrick."
Something clicked into place. "I do too. You were the kid who made the earthquakes." She tried to twist away from him. "You wouldn't shake the house down around me now would you? I want to know how Ange is doing and I'm gonna find out."
"He's in good hands with Rahne. She's been patching up the rest of us for years. Let them be."
Jubilee felt her arms beginning to shake uncontrollably where he held them, the uncomfortable sensation slowly running down her body. Suddenly Patrick yelped and let go of her.
Everett stood next to him, sparkles dancing around his upraised fist. "That's enough."
"Ev-" Jubilee started back for the door but Everett shook his head.
"I'm sure Patrick will tell us if something happens to Angelo, Jubilee. All of us crowding in there won't help matters any." He grabbed her by the shoulders and gently steered her away from the door. "Why don't we go sit down somewhere." Turning to Patrick he gave him a pointed look. "Where's your room?"
Paige sat in the kitchen stirring her coffee. She had woken up again around four thirty and hadn't even bothered to try to get back to sleep. She'd sat there watching Angelo sleep fitfully in her bed. A note from Rahne had been propped on the dresser, reassuring her that he was going to be fine and reminding her to let him sleep. As if she intended to wake him. The sunlight was slowly streaming in the window and the coffeemaker had long begun to click and hiss before she could bring herself to leave him.
So now she sat in the kitchen with her coffee trying to decide what to do. Take the fight to Daneson over what he'd done to Angelo, or try to keep tonight's plans on track.
On one hand she really wanted to rip off Daneson's head and stomp it flat with one steel clad foot.
There would be a great deal of personal satisfaction in that.
There would be a great deal of satisfaction in that, period.
But...
Ange was going to be fine. As much as she hated to admit it, going off half-cocked and overly emotional wouldn't help anyone but herself, and possibly not even that. Killing Daneson wouldn't really solve anything, either. He was only a soldier and she knew it. Another one would come up in his place. Goddamn fucker was wholly replaceable.
And she just might get killed in the process.
If she stuck to her original plans, she'd help someone who God knew had been hurting for years.
That is, if God still looked after mutants. She wasn't always sure about that anymore.
The plan was still good. Might even work better if they thought she was wrapped up in what happened to Angelo. They wouldn't expect her. That and she had some extra bodies to work with.
Jubilee whirled into the kitchen followed by Everett. She poured herself and Everett some coffee and settled into chairs on either side of Paige.
Speak of the devil.
Surprisingly, Everett spoke first. "What's going on, Paige?"
Jubilee leaned forward anxiously.
Paige looked up from her coffee and gave her a studied look.
"Have you ever wanted to know what happened to Bobby Drake?"
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