At three o'clock in the morning on New Year's Day,
the phone rang at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Cyclops answered sleepily.
"Is Mr. Xavier there?" the woman asked, hesitantly.
"He's asleep, ma'am. Can I help you with something?"
"I am sorry for calling so late. My name is Maudie
Friedlander. My husband I run a little diner in Andrewsville. Anyway,
there's been an accident." Cyclops was wide awake now. "Logan
mentioned Mr. Xavier once or twice and I thought maybe you'd know how
to get hold of his family."
"Scott, what is it?" Jean asked silently.
"I don't know yet," he answered. "Mrs. Friedlander,
we are Logan's family. What has happened?"
"There was a fire and Logan was badly burned getting
a little girl out. He's in the hospital in the next town." Cyclops
caught Jean's flash of apprehension and turned to her for a moment.
"If he's alive, Jean, he'll be all right."
"I know, Scott." She paused, "What about Star?"
"We'll be up as quickly as we can, ma'am. Um," he
paused, "there was a young woman with Logan, Mrs. Friedlander," he began.
"You must mean Star. Frankly, I'm worried about that
child. She didn't want to go to the hospital with Logan, now don't
worry, she wasn't hurt, but she wouldn't stay over with us either.
Insisted that we take her home. I hated like the dickens to leave her
up there all by herself, but she just wouldn't hear of anything else."
"She can be quite...strong willed ma'am. Thank you
for calling us. We will be on our way shortly."
"Now you folks be careful coming up here. It's been
snowing on and off since Christmas and its lookin' to blow up a blizzard right now."
"We will, ma'am. Good-bye." Cyclops disconnected and
turned to Jean, taking her in his arms.
"He'll be fine, my love."
"I know, Scott. I just..." she sighed.
"I understand." He released her, "I'll get the blackbird, you wake the Professor and
the others." In fifteen minutes,the X-Men were on their way.
Using the image inducer, Beast introduced himself to
the hospital staff as Wolverine's private physician. He was given
Wolverine's chart and went into the room to check his patient.
Wolverine was heavily sedated, common practice with a patient as badly
burned as he had been. Beast gently peeled back the bandages to peer
at the rapidly healing tissue beneath.
"Yes, indeed," he said to the nurse. "Since you have
done such an admirable job stabilizing the patient, I believe we will
go ahead and transfer him to our clinic now."
"All right, Doctor. Shall I arrange an ambulance?"
"That's not necessary, nurse. We have our own
transportation." With the willing assistance of the others, Beast
moved the unconscious X-Man out of the room and down the hall to the
elevator. A man approached them as they waited for the car.
"Excuse me. I understand that you are Mr. Logan's doctor?"
"That is correct. Can I help you?" The man looked
with regret at the bandage swathed figure, lying motionless on the gurney.
"Will he be all right? You see, it was my daughter,
my Miranda that he pulled out of that building. And I just...needed to let him know..."
"I quite understand." The elevator opened and Jean
and Storm wheeled the gurney inside. "He will be fine. His injuries
are not nearly as severe as originally believed. And your daughter?"
"Oh, she's fine. Doc says she inhaled a lot of smoke, but that she'll be OK."
"I'm certain Logan will be pleased to hear that."
Beast entered the elevator as the man returned to his daughter's room.
"Hank?"
"He's healing nicely, Jean. He's out because of the sedation, nothing else."
By the time they reached the blackbird, Wolverine was coming around.
"How are you feeling, Logan?"
"Can't answer that in mixed company, Jeanne," he said. "What happened?"
"It seems a burning building fell on you, my friend," Beast told him.
Wolverine struggled to sit up.
"There was a kid," he started.
"The child is fine, Logan," Jean hurried to assure him. "Minor smoke inhalation,
but no burns. You got her out of the building before you collapsed."
"No way. That ceiling hit us like a ton o' bricks."
Storm carefully removed the remaining bandages. Wolverine shook his
head, still groggy from the sedatives. "Wait a minute. Star was there.
She got us out." He looked around. "Hey, where is she?"
"Mrs. Friedlander said she and her husband took her back to your cabin."
"Damn. 'S not a good time fer the kid ta be alone. We had a ... misunderstandin'."
"You care for her very much Logan. I am happy for you."
"So'm I, Jeanne. So'm I."
"I shall fly to your cabin, and wait with her until
the rest of you can arrive." Storm said, stepping back out into the
early morning darkness.
"Is there anyplace nearby to land the blackbird,
Wolverine?" Cyclops asked as he prepared to take off.
"Yeah, there's a meadow about mile from the cabin that's big enough."
They were setting down in the meadow Wolverine
indicated when Storm called over their private communication
channel.
"Cyclops, the child is not here."
"What d'ya mean, she ain't there. Where else could she be?" Wolverine put in.
"There is ... evidence ... of a struggle," Storm replied. Wolverine was out the door
as soon as it opened, moving quickly toward his cabin.
Storm met Wolverine as he neared the cabin.
"She is not within, Wolverine. Nor was I able to
find her anywhere nearby." Wolverine entered the cabin through the
damaged back door. His nostrils flared as he picked up a familiar scent.
"Creed!" he snarled, "And that no good cop, too.
They were both here." He paused by a dark stain on the open front
door, touched his fingers to it and brought them close to his nose.
"Blood. Star's by the smell of it," his voice was reduced to a low
growl as he searched in front of the cabin for an indication of where
they had gone. He found the statuette, nearly buried in the snow, more
of Star's blood smeared on the base. He swept aside the fresh snow and
found the blood stain where she had fallen. There were small pieces of
material on the snow as well.
"Looks like they tied her up, so at least she was alive then."
"We'll find her, Logan," Jean said, though she
wished she could be as sure as she tried to sound. Wolverine had
completely blocked his emotions and Jean was very worried. If they
lost Star, they would probably lose Wolverine as well.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 ]
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