She woke, remembering nothing of the dream, but with tears once more on her cheeks. She got up carefully and went into the bathroom to get a glass of water. She found she had to lean on the wall for support because her balance was so shaky. She got the water and returned to her bed, pulling the blankets up to her chin. She didn't understand why it was so cold in her room. It had always been comfortable before. She slipped back into sleep without resisting.


When she woke again, the sun had risen and Jubilee was once again knocking on her door.

"Hey Star, c'mon, wake up!"

"Wh..what?" she was disoriented, and it was still so cold. Jubilee opened the door when Star finally answered and came in.

"Are you gonna sleep all day?" Star just looked at her, uncomprehending. "Star?" Jubilee turned the light on in the room, "Hey, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Star still didn't answer. Jubilee moved quickly to the side of the bed. Star showed no recognition of her friend. Her face was flushed and she was shivering under the blanket.

"Star?" Jubilee reached out and touched Star's hand where it clutched the blanket. "Whoa. You're burning up. Stay here, I'm gonna go get Beast. He can take care of you." Jubilee hurried out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. Star stared at the open door, still completely disoriented. She was vaguely aware of missing something, but she didn't know quite what. She slipped out from under the blanket, her bare feet making no sound as she moved out of her room and down the hall, searching.


"Hey, Beast!" Jubilee practically shouted into the med lab. "Star's sick. I think you better come take a look at her."

"Sick? Star?" Beast answered.

"Yeah, you know. Like the flu or somethin'."

"Star can't catch the flu. It is physically impossible for her to be sick."

"Okay, fine. So, how else would you explain it when somebody has a fever? That they feel fine?"

"She's running a fever? How very odd."

"Will you just please come on!"

"Of course. Where is she?"

"In her room. She hasn't come out of there since Wolvie took off. Anybody know what lit his fuse this time?"

"I do not. I wasn't actually aware that he had gone."

"Real observant there, Beastie." They spoke as they climbed the stairs. When they reached Star's room, Beast tapped politely on the partially closed door.

"Star? May we come in?" They received no reply and he gently pushed to door open. Star's bed was empty. Jubilee checked the bathroom, but it, too, was empty.

"Are you sure she was ill?"

"Yeah. Like, she didn't even recognize me." Beast turned to the intercom and pressed the button.

"Star, can you hear me? Where are you, child?"

"Henry, what is wrong?" he heard Jean say, quietly in his head.

"Jubilee believes that Star is ill, Jean. But she is no longer in her room." There was a pause.

"I cannot find her, Henry. Not this way."

"Then we'll just have to go looking, I suppose."


Star, completely delirious, had somehow found her way to Wolverine's room. When Beast had called her over the intercom, she had started, bumping into the night table and knocking the lamp to the floor. She stood staring at it for a long time.

"Wolverine, you dere, mon amie?" Gambit's voice asked from just outside the door. "Wolverine?" He slowly pushed the door open and was surprised to see Star. He was even more surprised when she took an uncertain step toward him and began to collapse. He caught her before she hit the floor.

"Mon dieu! Petite, you are on fire!" He cradled her in his arms, "Come, Chere, we take you to Beast, non?" She lay in his arms, her head against his shoulder, not responding.


Gambit carried her effortlessly to the med lab.

"Beast! Where are you, mon amie?" he called.

"Here, Gambit," Beast said from the hallway and Gambit turned to face him. "Ah, I see you have found our wayward wanderer. Put her there, please, so that we may determine the nature of her malady." As Gambit moved to set her down, Star stirred.

"Logan?"

"No, Chere." She sighed and lay back as he released her.

"Oh my stars and garters," Beast quipped as Star's swollen abdomen was exposed under the thin shirt she wore.

"Oh, wow. What's the matter with her?" Jubilee asked.

"I have my suspicions, Jubilee. But I must acquire more data before I offer an hypothesis. Ah, Jean. Assist me with the sensors, if you would be so kind."

"Of course, Henry." Gambit and Jubilee moved back to make room for Jean.

"Hmm. Body temperature of one hundred and eight. Cooling her must be our first priority. She is delirious with the fever and I believe we are going to require her active participation to, so to speak, clear this hurdle."

"Why is being so hot makin' her sick?" Jubilee asked. "I mean, she's been hot like this before and it never made her sick."

"I believe the difference lies in the direction the heat producing energies are being expended. Previously, she has turned the energies outward. This time, if what I have begun to suspect is correct, the energies are being internalized."

"Henry..."

"Yes, Jean?"

"I am sensing another life."

"The sensors concur. Approximately six months gestation."

"How is that possible?"


"Huh?" Jubilee turned to Gambit for an explanation.

"He say our little Star is with child."

"With chi...? You mean she's pregnant?!? Man oh man. The Professor's gonna have a coronary!"

"Hush, Chere."


"Apparently the rapid growth rate Star herself experienced was genetically induced, rather than chemically as I had surmised."

"What does this mean for the child?"

"I don't know, but the sensor readings are...strange."

"How do we reduce her temperature?"

"Considering the extrememity of her condition, I believe an ice bath will be necessary."


"Come, Chere. We leave them to take care of her, no? Jubilee reluctantly accompanied Gambit from the med lab.

"Well, I've got news for somebody. I'm not gonna baby-sit. Not for free, anyhow." Gambit smiled and steered her from the lab.


Later, when Jean emerged, she found Gambit waiting for her.

"How is de petite?" he asked.

"Not good, Remy. We were unable to reduce her temperature." She sighed and looked back at the lab, "The child is growing much too fast, and Star is burning herself out trying to keep up with its needs." She shook her head. "Henry fears we may lose them both."

"She awake?"

"More or less. You may speak with her if you wish, she seems to rest more easily when someone is with her. Just do not expect her to be coherent."

"Gambit coherent enough fo' us both, Chere." Jean smiled at him as he entered the lab. Gambit tried, hard, to convince everyone that he cared for no one but himself. But Jean knew better. She also knew that Star's repeated injuries had upset him more than he chose to admit, even to himself.

"Ah, Gambit," Beast said, turning as the tall Cajun entered. "Come to visit our small one, I see." Gambit tapped the screen displaying the read out for Star's heart monitor which read three hundred and seventeen.

"This is bad, no?"

"Well, it is not good. But Star has shown remarkable...resilience."

"L'enfant, it is Wolverine's?"

"We are working under that assumption, but it may be incorrect."

"This should not have happened, mon amie. She is just a baby."

"No, my friend." Beast took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "Physiologically and emotionally, Star is an adult. Wolverine was the first to recognize that."

"He should not have touched her."

"We do not know that he did. And in any case, it is none of our business what two adults choose to do together. Please remember, Star was raised in a completely asocial environment. She has absolutely no morals other than those she has learned during her brief time with us." He smiled at Gambit. "Star is a very attractive, albeit diminutive, woman. Can you truthfully say that, if she turned to you, her eyes full of the love she obviously feels for Wolverine, you could tell her no?" Gambit opened his mouth to answer, then paused, remembering. When she had offered herself to him she had approached it clinically, coldly, yet he'd been perilously close to accepting. If she'd had passion in her eyes instead... He shook his head and closed his mouth with a snap.

"No," he finally answered. "I can not say that I could. But Wolverine should have known better."

"Perhaps. But Wolverine is a rule unto himself." Star moaned softly and shifted positions. Both men turned toward her. Beast moved quickly to her side and gently pushed her back when she tried to sit up.

"Henry?" she asked weakly.

"Yes, Star. Hush now, you are very ill."

"Henry? Have you...have you seen Logan?" She seemed to labor for every breath. "Has he come back? I need to...I need..." The heart monitor read close to four hundred and Beast eyed it with worry.

Gambit moved to her other side and she turned to him, focusing with difficulty.

"Hello...Remy," she said with a smile.

"Hello, petite. Don't you worry 'bout Wolverine, Gambit find him fo' you."

"Thank you." She sighed. "Please tell him...that I'm sorry. And that I love him."

"Tell him you'self, petite. I bring him back to you," he glanced at Beast, his eyes glittering dangerously, "Whether he want to come or no."


Gambit waited until Star had dropped back into her fitful doze, then left the med lab, a determined look on his face. Rogue came in just after he left.

"Where's he goin' in such an all fired hurry?" she asked Beast.

"I believe he went after Wolverine."

"That don't sound good. Maybe Ah'd better tag along."

"Perhaps that would be best." Rogue turned to follow Gambit. As she reached the front door, she heard the roar of his motorcycle and leaped into the air to intercept him.


Gambit slewed his bike sideways as Rogue landed in the road before him.

"Y'all wouldn't be thinkin' o' goin' without me, would ya, sugah?"

"I'm goin' after Wolverine, Chere."

"Shucks, sugah, Ah knew that. That's why Ah'm goin' along." She climbed onto the back of his bike. "Ta make sure ya both come back in the least possible number o' pieces. Now let's get goin'." Gambit paused for a long moment, then decided that it was useless to argue with her. Together, they rode the massive bike down the road, in search of Wolverine.


"Hello, Beast. It's been a long time," the man on the phone said, smiling for a moment.

"Hello, Forge."

"What can X-Factor do for the X-Men today?" Forge asked. Beast rubbed his forehead tiredly before answering.

"I am in more specific need of your talents, my friend." Forge's smile disappeared.

"What's the problem?"

"I have a patient that is immune to anesthetics and may require surgery. While her pain threshold is very high, I am reluctant to perform any further procedures while she is conscious."

"Further procedures?"

"It's a long story, and I fear she may not have the time to spare."

"What of the Professor, or Jean?"

"Complete psi block."

"I see." He was silent for several seconds, "Do you have her EEG available?"

"Yes, of course." Beast sighed. "In fact, I have several. She has spent entirely too much time in medical." He rubbed his eyes. "There is a complication, however."

"Oh?"

"The girl is pregnant."

"Hmm. You have an EEG for the fetus?"

"Yes."

"Send them to me please." Beast typed the command into the computer, calling up the appropriate records and sending them to Forge. "Time is of the essence?"

"When is it not?"

"I'll see what I can come up with."

"Thank you, Forge. This child has suffered enough at our hands." They disconnected and Beast turned to look at Star. Occasionally she would moan or mutter. Her temperature had gone up another half degree. He'd tried everything he could think of to reduce her fever, but nothing had worked. When he'd tried immersing her in the ice bath her temperature had actually risen and he'd been forced to discontinue the effort. The sonograms of the child were not promising, either. The fetus was only vaguely human in appearance, and he feared for them both. If the fever didn't break soon, Star could be permanently brain damaged. Assuming she lived at all.

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