12799/Definitely not letting Nature decide

Definitely not letting Nature decide
Date of Scene:	05 March 2021
Location:	Medical Lab - X-Men Base
Synopsis:	Logan waits at Jean's bedside until she wakes up. They have a conversation on morality.
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, Wolverine

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Phoenix has posed:
So that was a night.

No one expected the mission to go off perfectly. They're professionals and cut their teeth on the concept that no plan survives first contact.

But no one had remotely planned for That.

Until the night prior, most of those in the know had little more than a thin bit of information about Jean's powers being different. Only the senior X-Men knew it was something sentient and dangerous. Barely more than a handful of them knew its name. Only four ever saw it, and never even to the destructive extent that it showed.

Maybe not even Jean herself was aware of it.

The woman has been out since just before leaving the battlefield. She's laying still and sleeping in one of the medical beds while the monitors above her head quietly tracking her vitals which look strong and stable. She still smells of fire and ash and blood, though someone at least cleaned her up a little while checking for any wounds.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan couldn't be here for every single second that Jean was in the medical bay, but he sure has tried. Sitting, still in his uniform with obvious signs of battle on the material, if not on the body visible through some of the slashes and cuts. The hood is pulled back, face haggard from lack of sleep, but still focused on the sleeping woman laying just in arms length.

He's slumped down in the chair with his legs acting as stoops for his wrists.

It had been ... a lot. Seeing her tear through so many with so little effort, but he knew it was only nominally her. That's what he told himself... but most of all, he understood. This was a fear they both shared. The possibility that the monster inside them might come out and force them to do something they feared.

His hand reached out to take hers. Squeezing it, just to let her know someone was there. The other rubbed down his face, scratching fabric against his unshaven jaw. "Come on, Red."

Phoenix has posed:
It has to be near twenty-four hours now that she's been out, unmoving and unresponsive outside of just enough reactions to reassure the people with the expensive pieces of personalized paper that she wasn't comatose. Physically, she looks totally fine. Mentally? No one is sure.

Logan was there when Jean had tried and failed to keep it locked in her head. It nearly killed her. What would it do to her now?

He's about to get his answer, because finally something happens to his likely hundredth-odd plea of his vigil.

Her hand faintly squeezes his back.

About a minute later, her eyes slowly begin to open and show a dulled but distinctly Jean green. Not fire. Not stars burning out of her head. Just tired, heavy green. They turn to look to the man sitting beside her and she rasps out a weary, "...can't a girl get a nap?"

Wolverine has posed:
Logan doesn't play into the whole over sensitive, emotional moments as do some others, but with Jean it's always been a little different. Usually he'd grunt something derisive to cover up his genuine joy that his friend had woken, but when Jean squeezes his hand and speaks those words, he actually grins. It might as well have been a parade.

"You're being kind of lazy, Red... you've been asleep for twenty four hours..." He's trying to make a joke, but it's hard for him to muster up the energy for it. His hand tightens around hers, leaning forward onto his elbows against the edge of the table. "I'm just glad you're awake." Last time that beast had come out...

Well it hadn't been great. Not for Jean. It'd nearly killed her trying to contain it, so seeing her well and whole was a supreme relief.

Phoenix has posed:
For a moment, Jean looks relaxed. Happy even. She's got a rest, the blankets are warm, and she's got the company of a dear friend.

Then is all comes rolling in. Twenty-four hours. The assault on DAMT. Getting injected with the Cure. Losing the powers she needed to...

The color in her face drains out until she nearly matches the sheets she's laying on. Her eyes widen as sensors start blaring.

""What happened? Is everyone okay? Are they /alright/?!" She shout-asks of Logan while the machines around her scream, both due to a rapidly rising heartbeat as well as her sitting up and starting to frantically grab and yank for wires and IV lines.

Wolverine has posed:
It was a moment of waiting for the shoe to drop. Logan hoped she wouldn't remember, but it was inevitable that she would.. when she does, he's there to squeeze her hand. At first in silence, but then with a few quiet words and a slow nod, "We're all fine." We're being stressed in this particular statement... He's up as soon as she starts pulling at wires and iv lines, "Jean, slow down." Hands on her shoulders trying to calm her, "Relax..."

Would he?

He squeezes at her shoulders and shakes his head. "Those people were trying to hurt hundreds of thousands of mutants with their cure... they got you with it..." Does he need to go into much more detail? "Nothing that happened was your fault. Th-.." How many times have they had to tell him this?

True that he probably cares a lot less than Jean does, but... he understands her thoughts right now. More than anyone else might, anyways.

"The important thing, right now, is to relax and get better. There will be time enough to worry about what happened once you're back on your feet."

Phoenix has posed:
It's why they always worked well. They may have had differing opinions on war and alcohol. Their tempers were enough to send anyone running out of a room, especially when directed at one another. But they got it. At the end of the day, they knew how the other felt and what that crushing weight felt like to carry.

They also understood just how ridiculously stubborn the other one was.

"I'll be on my feet as soon as you let me up!" Jean snaps quick enough to be reflex, though it seems less at him than the situation as a whole. She doesn't fight him just yet, but that's because she's trying to reassure herself that he's telling the truth. Her eyes sweep over the other beds in the room. Once, twice, three times. Empty. No X-Men, no rescued mutants. Just clean, crisply made beds and silent machines in a room of cold sterilized air. A massacre aftermath wouldn't look like that, right?

In her lap, her hands come to rest as they abandon trying to free herself.

"It was my fault." She whispers as she looks away from the bed and down to her hands. "...I should have stopped them sooner. I could have. She showed me." She curls her fingers in to fists. "All of those mutants wouldn't have had to suffer. I was too afraid to just... protect them."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan isn't soft, nor does he take things as personally when they're directed around him, and not at him. And he's old enough to know the difference, so he doesn't release Jean immediately. Letting her calm down beneath his grip before he finally lets her go to settle back on the medical bed once she's sorted out for herself that there's no other bodies lying on the tables around her.

He too settles back down into his seat, hands on the bed itself rather than trying to keep Jean from getting out of it. Watching her sort through the mental concerns she's having, "Maybe." The fact that he's never pulled punches coming out. He might care for Jean more deeply than any other person around him, but that doesn't spare her the truth. "But so should I. I never should have let anyone tell me not to track these fuckers down and cut their spine out... but we did. We hoped for the best in people, even though we may know that there's no way they'll change. That doesn't make this your fault, Jean. It's still their fault... what matters is that when it was time to act, when they had proven to us that they couldn't be reasoned with and their intentions weren't going to be good ones, we shut them the fuck down."

Glancing up at her, "You did what you had to do... you always do. You've got nothing to feel bad about."

Phoenix has posed:
The hands in Jean's lap unball to dig her fingers into the edge of the blanket and squeeze it in her fists. The pressure is distracting, a subtle aggression to redirect anxiety and try and calm her heart dancing in her chest.

"Still." She begins to say but doesn't continue as her argument dies on her tongue with a sigh. "I know. I know they weren't going to change. We knew from the start this 'cure' would never be used to help mutants. I guess we just hoped it would. So it wouldn't come to this, and us destroying any hope some mutant had to live without powers that would kill them or those they care about. So we wouldn't sound like Magneto, telling mutants we did this to protect them even when everything is on fire around them."

And it all went up in fire anyway, by her hand. "But ending this..." She says as she draws her knees up to hug them to her chest. "It felt good. Part of it felt /so good/ to just show them that no damn needle can stop us. To show them how easily they could just... be wiped off the map, like they wanted to do to us."

Wolverine has posed:
"I wont argue that." Logan agrees on that point, he always knew it would go this route, but he is not an optomist. Never has been and never will be. The glass is always half empty where the Wolverine is concerned. Suffice that he takes his positive lead from people like Jean, which makes seeing her like this a lot harder. Hand ontop of hers, he squeezes it just to remind her that he's there, and that it all is taken care of now.

"We can't fix the past, Red. We can just be glad that we /did/ act when action was finally necessary. What we do now will set the tone. We help those mutants we freed... either by bringing them here or making sure they find somewhere safe to hide until they've recovered.. The work isn't finished, now we do the healing part of it all... which includes you." Serious eyes fixing on her.

"Don't dwell. One of the two of us has to be the smart one, eh?"

Phoenix has posed:
The laugh from Jean is thin and more of a huff of air than anything, but at least she's not panicking out of her bed so it's something.

"Don't sell yourself short. If I make it half as long as you against half of what you tackle, then maybe I'll start considering myself smart. Stubbornness only gets you so far. Besides, you're the one sitting here giving me my own lecture."

Sighing heavily, she tips her head forward to rest her forehead against her knees. "And was it really /me/ who did the acting, or Her?" She mumbles into the blankets from under the sheet of her own hair. "None of you were hurt, but what happens next time? What happens if she doesn't listen to me? You couldn't feel her, Logan. She hasn't paid much of this any attention. The best I explained it once was that she saw it as a natural arm's race. Predator evolves to hunt a specific prey. Prey needs to adapt to the predator's weapons or die. But me? She was so angry. Attacking me was like attacking her, and everything in her was just screaming to show DAMT that they were nothing more than ants who thought they were lions. She wanted to show the world. To shred these silly notions people could overcome what nature intended. That all of their beliefs and hatreds counted for nothing if they couldn't evolve to back them up. If this was months ago, before I tried to understand her... I don't think she would have listened to me. And I don't know what would have happened then."

Wolverine has posed:
"It's not months ago, though." Logan points out, leaning back into his seat to look at Jean as she explains, "Whether through presence inside you or acclimation around us, she decided we weren't an enemy... if that decision was hers to make?" He motions out with both gauntlet covered hands, "Well there seems to be some progress because a few months ago she'd have just vaporized everything and went back to whatever she does, right?"

That part is said only mostly in jest.

"She's part of you now, whether we like it or not. She defended you when you were hurt and for that I'm grateful... because if she hadn't?" He would have. He'd have cut all of those men down in a bloody rampage that ended only once the last of them had stopped bleeding at the Wolverine's feet.

"You've worked hard to establish some kinda connection to her, now it's startin' to show, Red."

Phoenix has posed:
"Since then, I've spent a few hours a day, just talking and trying to learn more." Jean mutters against her knees. "Teach, a bit. Trying to understand The Phoenix is like trying to explain color through taste to someone who's never seen, smelled, or tasted in their entire life. All in another language. I don't know I'll ever "get" her, but... yah, I guess it's counted for something then lost sleep and headaches. You're all here and safe."

"And I think she did more than just protect me." Jean remarks as she glances over one of the neighboring beds and chair next to it. Pressing her lips together, she lifts her head and reaches out a hand. There's nothing just at first, but then the distinctive rose glow of her power begins illuminating the chair that makes some initial fits and starts as it begins sliding across the floor.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan agrees with a nod, smiling in his way up at Jean as she comes to a more amiable conclusion. Satisfied that he's done his good deed by turning around her hard thoughts on the night before, he's wholy unprepared when she reaches out a hand for the chair besid ethem and begins to make it shiver and shake on the floor... One brow perks, eyes cutting up to look at the woman raised up on the bed above him.

"She was able to burn the cure outta you or just pretect you from its effects?" Either option is impressive. Even his healing factor couldn't do that. Once again standing, he leans his palms against the bed and watches the powerful telekinetic, who had lost her powers, use them without being given the cure for the cure?

"Huh..."

Phoenix has posed:
"No idea. That or someone jabbed me when I was out." Jean says with a shrug of her shoulders. She looks more worn for the effort. Logan's known her long enough to realize it was taking her far more effort than normal to accomplish what she'd have normally done with half a thought. "Maybe both? I probably shouldn't test it just yet. You still have a radio on you?"

She lays herself back down and gestures with one hand to the surrounding room. "Scott's not here. I figure you all either locked him in a room to sleep or he's out trying to keep himself occupied. I don't want to push trying to reach out to him, my head's still dizzy as it is and the connection isn't there. I need to rebuild it. Just let him know I'm okay?"

Wolverine has posed:
"Yeah." Logan, now standing, unclips his radio from a small hook on his shoulder and slides it behind his ear, "Hey, Slim. Come by medical.." Pause, eyes on Jean for a second, he shakes his head and holds back a laugh. "Jean's awake." It's unhooked and hung on his shoulder before Scott can do any kind of responding, retaking his seat with a gruff hiss of a sigh.

All the anxiety finally leaving him tired now that Jean's awake and okay. "Take yer time, Red. You'll get your strength back. You're one of the toughest people at this damn school." He looks exhausted, and probably is to be fair. He's not slept since she was brought down here and only left when he absolutely had to.

Phoenix has posed:
"One of." Jean glances aside to him with a fond smile despite the tiredness on her face. "But we'll just take turns propping each other up when we need it and no one else is looking. Speaking of."

The smile turns teasing as she leans over in the bed enough to swat a hand lightly against his arm and then points to the door. "You look like shit. Go sleep. Eat. *Shower*. Or use one of the other beds if you don't feel like walking. I wouldn't. Plenty of them here." It wouldn't be the first time an X-Men stole a med wing bed for an emergency bunk. And just maybe she'd be glad for the company, snoring and all. Not that she says it.

"I'll stay put." She adds grudgingly with a faint purse of her lips, as if already anticipating protests. "Until someone gives me the clear to go. Promise."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan laughs at that, quiet, gutteral, but genuine. "Fine..." Hands on his knees, pushing himself up with a groan of old muscles that aren't nearly as tight as he is just heavy as hell. The plam of his hand rubs across the back of his neck, then points at the bed next to her. "I'll be right here if you need anything. Since everyone's off doin' their... whatever the hell they're doing... I'm as close to a doctor as we've got right now-" That's not injured. "So that's a doctors order."

Walking around the bed, he pats her arm affectionately, then rolls up onto the bed next over from her with a complaint of his costume when he stretches out to rest his fingers back behind his head. Ankles crossed, "Scooter should be around soon anyways. Probably with a brand new puppy... or a pussy ass new cardigan." Murmuring, mostly in jest now. A smirk on his face, partially hidden in the black of his beard.

"If I'm asleep when he gets her, tell him I said he looks like a sissy."

Phoenix has posed:
"Car. You mean car, not a puppy." Jean corrects as she flicks a few dislodged wires off her bed before sorting her blankets and laying back down. She dims the lights the old fashion way, with the button on the side of the bed. "Mm, and rob you of the joy in telling him yourself? We just got done insisting I'm not a monster." She adds teasingly. "Just remember, not everyone has built in sweaters like you and Hank and needs some help."

She closes her eyes to let them rest from even the dim light, though the smile on her face remains as she mutters. "...thanks, for being here. And getting it." A beat before she said. "Thanks for being you."

And so as not to clog up the moment with further sentiment, she adds, "I'll still tell you if he has a new one."