More Than the X Can See

Chapter 6

Annie Ghazikhanian walked into the Institute’s Infirmary straightening her nurse uniform with one hand and balancing her breakfast tray in the other. She was a thin woman in her early thirties with dark hair and, as far as she knew, the only pure human working at the Institute. Previously she had been working at a state run hospital and by chance she had found out that the long time unnamed comatose patient she had fallen in love with was Alex Summers, the brother of Scott Summers from the Xavier Institute. The Professor had gratefully requested she stay on since the Institute didn’t have a permanent medical team. She had divorced her mutant husband and thought it would be a good thing to work in a place where he wouldn’t be able to harass her or their five-year-old son, Carter, so she had accepted his offer.

She knew Scott Summers had taken the night watch and was probably waiting for her to arrive so he could go to bed. She surreptitiously glanced at the clock on the far wall and saw it was five minutes before seven in the morning. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully heading over to the counter and putting her tray down.

Scott sat in the chair that had become a regular fixture next to Doctor Green’s bed. He had pulled over a bed table and was using it to support his laptop computer and a cup of instant coffee. He finished typing and looked up with a smile, “Good morning. Logan stopped by last night and said he’d fill in for you so you could take a break and join the rest of us during the barbeque this afternoon.”

“That’s nice of him,” she said as she walked over to the machines behind Doctor Green’s bed and checked their readings. “Has Doctor McCoy been in?”

“Last time he came in was around one in the morning. He got some blood from Angel and left.”

She nodded, “He told me he wanted blood samples every six hours and I would need to do it first thing when I came in this morning.” She headed over to the cabinets under the counter and began taking medical supplies out in preparation to draw samples of Angel’s blood.

Scott saved his work and closed down his computer. “Has he told you anything about her condition?” he asked.

“Not really,” she replied, her voice slightly echoing back from the open cupboard. “He’s been working in that lab of his day and night ever since you brought the three of them back from White Plains. Mr. Logan and Mr. Worthington got better on their own in just a few days because of their regeneration abilities. And although Doctor Green has recently been healing faster than was originally expected, he said her DNA is still ‘in flux’.”

“In flux?” he asked, surprised. “Did Hank actually use that term?”

She placed some items on a tray, nodded and smiled, “I think he simplified the true technical jargon he normally would have used because Mr. Logan was here when he said it.”

“Yeah,” He smiled as if they shared a secret, “science isn’t Logan’s strong point.”

“I think he knows more than you give him credit for,” she turned around to look at him. “He can hear better than most people and he doesn’t necessarily have to be in the same room to hear what’s being said. I think most of you forget that.”

Before Scott could reply, the doors opened and a large blue feline looking mutant wearing glasses, a rumpled white lab coat over jeans and an equally rumpled Xavier Institute gray polo shirt walked in. “Ah, good,” the newcomer said with a deep rumble in his voice when he spied Annie, “you’re getting everything ready.”

“Good morning, Doctor McCoy,” Annie said surprised to see him.

“Good morning, Hank,” Scott said. “Could you give me an update on Angel’s status? I’m going to go up and talk to Charles before I hit the sack and I wanted to tell him the latest.”

“Good morning!” Hank replied to both of them. He smelled toast, honey and orange juice, “Annie, I see you brought your breakfast. Why don’t I draw the samples from Angel while you go ahead and get started on it?” he walked over to Annie and picked up the medical tray she had prepared.

“Thank you, Doctor McCoy,” she said with a smile and grabbed a chair to put next to her breakfast tray.

“I’ve determined that Doctor Green, Angel,” Hank said, “has been healing faster than normal because she still has some of Warren’s blood in her.”

“Still?” Scott asked. “It’s been four days since you separated them. I thought Warren’s blood worked to regenerate the tissue and then was absorbed into the recipients system.”

“That’s how we think it has worked before,” Hank said putting the tray down on the sickbed and picking up a band of rubber from the tray. “We haven’t actually tracked it and she did receive an extraordinarily large dose with Warren’s bones having snapped and piercing through her body. They were a mess when they arrived here and Warren was starting to heal right through and into her.” While he talked, he reached under the covers and pulled Angel’s arm out and wrapped the band around her bicep, tying a loose knot. Then he cleaned the inside of her elbow with alcohol and a cotton swab.

“I read her chart and you put down the amount of regenerative cells in each blood sample. It was really high during the first two days then it began to decline and now it’s back up. Do you have an explanation for that?”

Hank picked up a needle and a small four-inch vial with a red top, “No. It’s possible she picked up a secondary infection from the sewage and the remaining regenerative cells came to the fore. It might have something to do with the foreign chemical’s I’ve detected in her blood, also. I’m hoping this,” and he motioned at her prepared arm, “blood sample will give me more definitive information.” He took the lid off the needle and carefully inserted it into her arm. He pushed the red stoppered top of the vial into the back of the needle and deep red liquid shot up the length of the vial as the vacuum inside of it sucked the blood out of her vein. He loosened the knot on the band, pulling it off and tossed it back onto the tray.

“What about the data from the monitoring equipment?” Scott asked after waiting until Hank pulled the needle out of Angel’s arm and taped a cotton ball over the puncture. “Wouldn’t they have given you the information if she was developing a fever from a secondary infection?”

Hank shook his head, “Not necessarily. Not if it was healed almost before it began.”

“Have you figured out what the chemical’s are?”

“I’ve identified blood plasma from the werewolves they fought, but there is still something else. I have the computers working on trying to find a match or at least a close match. The strange thing is that all three of them had the chemicals in their blood stream when they arrived, but only Angel still carries it. I’m going to get more blood samples from Warren and Logan today and run more tests to make sure they’re clean and compare them to what is in Angel’s samples.” Hank carefully replaced the lid of the needle and put it back on his tray, then he picked up a label and put it on the vial. Scott could see that it identified the sample by name of donor and time and date of donation. “I just wish we’d had the opportunity to run a complete physical on Angel before she’d left to go to White Plains,” Hank sighed. “It would make all of this work so much easier if we’d had a baseline to go by.”

“They never suspected they’d be attacked,” Scott told him. “Kurt even offered to go with them, but Logan blew him off.”

“All of this would have been avoided if he had,” Hank said sadly, “but hindsight is always 20/20.”

“When do you think Angel will be fully healed? Or more importantly, wake up?”

Hank grimaced, flashing his sharp canine teeth, “I’m not exactly sure when she will be fully healed as it may depend upon whether she still has some of Warren’s regenerative blood in her system. If so, she could be healed within a matter of hours or by tomorrow night. As for your other question, she had some severe head trauma, which is hard to diagnose so she could regain consciousness at any time. We just have to hope it will be soon because I have a lot of questions about her medical history I need answered.”

“Weren’t you able to get anything through the computers?”

“No, she doesn’t seem to have ever visited a hospital in California. I found her birth records, but it seems she was born at home with a midwife and not in a hospital. The few records available are full of holes.”

“What about the information on her employment paperwork?”

“They will only verify that she has the appropriate shots for working with children and I can’t get into their computer system because it isn’t connected to the Internet. If she doesn’t regain consciousness soon, I may ask Charles to persuade their receptionist to copy her files and send them to us.”

“I’ll tell him about your problem and see what he says.”

“I’d greatly appreciate it,” Hank said as he picked up the tray from the bed. “If anyone wants to talk to me, I’ll be in my lab.” He sighed and looked at Angel’s beautiful, peaceful face. He wanted to touch her, see if he could wake her up, but he knew that wouldn’t work. She would have to wake up on her own. “And if Angel wakes up, call me immediately.”

“It’ll be a standing order,” Scott told him. “In fact,” he looked over at Annie who had been eating her breakfast, but watching and listening to them from her chair across the room, “Annie, I want you to contact Charles the moment Angel wakes up and he will make sure all the appropriate people know. Make sure everyone who takes care of Doctor Green knows to do that also.” Eating her toast, she nodded in acknowledgement.

“Good … sleep, Scott,” Hank said and waved to Annie who waved back and he left the Infirmary with the metal tray and blood sample from Angel in his hands.

Scott picked up his laptop and coffee and nodded at Annie who again waved goodbye. He threw one last look at Angel before he, too, left the Infirmary on his way to Charles’ office.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a few hours later when Charles received a call from Annie, “Professor, Doctor Green is awake.”

“Thank you, Annie. Is she prepared to receive visitors?” he asked with a sense of propriety.

“Doctor McCoy said he had to speak with her when she wakes up so she can answer some medical questions, but she’s very groggy and I don’t think she has the strength for a long conversation,” she replied with concern.

“Thank you for your input, Annie. I’ll take it into consideration when I alert the others that Doctor Green has finally awakened,” Charles told her and he hung up the phone. Mentally he contacted Jean and then extended the link as he also contacted Scott, Hank, and Logan. *I have good news,* his mental voice carried a smile in it, *Angel has finally gained consciousness, but according to Annie she’s still very groggy and will not have the strength for long conversation. Hank needs to ask her several medical questions, but the rest of you can stop by and say hello briefly.* He cut off the mental links to stop them from asking him questions he couldn’t answer.

Hank immediately grabbed the list of questions he had created specifically for when Angel woke up, left his lab and walked down the corridor to the medical suite. He headed straight for her sickbed and barely gave Annie, who was standing next to Angel’s sickbed, an acknowledging nod before grabbing her medical chart and sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “Angel, my name is Hank and I need you to answer several medical questions for me,” he said gently his voice rumbling slightly.

Angel was still very pale and she had a frown on her face as she said, “You’re blue.”

It wasn’t exactly the response he was expecting and Hank couldn’t stop a smile from creeping over his face as if to a child he said, “Yes, I’m blue.” And to stop the inevitable ‘why’ he explained, “I tried a chemical combination on myself and it transformed me into a blue furred genetically devolving Beast. I’m also the Institute’s resident Biochemist and I need to know a few things about you. Can you answer some questions for me?”

“I knew what you felt like,” Angel replied tiredly, “but I expected you to be a tawny yellow or black or both. You surprised me and that doesn’t happen often.” Dreamily, she smiled and reached out a hand as if to stroke him, “I love blue. It’s my favorite color.” Her hand fell short by a foot and ended up resting on the covers of the bed.

Hank looked at Annie in dismay, “She doesn’t seem very cognizant, has she had any medication recently?”

“She hasn’t had anything within the last two hours,” Annie said shaking her head and continued apologetically, “I was told to contact Professor Xavier the moment she woke up. She’s been like this from the moment I realized she was awake. In fact I don’t know exactly when she woke up. I’ve been reading and when I got up to check the machines, I saw that her eyes were open. She never made a sound or gave away the fact that she was awake.”

“Hmmm,” he sighed, the sound rolling in his chest creating a purring sound. “I don’t think she’s ready to answer any questions just yet.”

“Sorry,” Annie apologized, “but you did request—”

Hank held up a hand, stopping her defense, “It was a standing order. We should have realized that Angel wouldn’t necessarily wake up cognizant.”

Logan was the second to arrive. He wasn’t quite sure of his welcome so he was hesitant when he actually entered the room. Annie sat across the room at her usual chair and she motioned for him to come in. Hank still sat in the bedside chair with a clipboard in his lap. “Hey, Darlin’,” he said with a tentative smile as he approached the foot of Angel’s bed.

Her bed had been raised at the head so she was partially sitting up and a tray table was drawn across her lap holding a plate of crackers and a pitcher of ice water. Angel was drinking from a plastic cup, she put it down and smiled, “Hello.”

“How’re ya feelin’?” he asked, his tentative smile turning into a full smile as he realized she wasn’t angry at him for her ending up in the Infirmary.

“Tired … hungry … thirsty,” she answered slowly. “What’s today?”

Logan quickly looked at Hank, he wasn’t sure what was okay to tell her.

Hank answered, “Saturday. Today is Saturday.”

“Oh, I guess it’s okay that the kids aren’t in class right now,” she said airily.

Hank wrote something down on his clipboard and asked, “Angel, what is the range of your scanning ability right now? How far out can you feel?” His pen poised for her response.

Angel looked at Hank, blinked at him slowly and then her eyes lost focus, “Scott and Jean are coming down in the elevator. There are people in the swimming pool and Jacuzzi’s. It feels like there’s a party going on. There’s a car with two people in it that just turned to come down the drive.”

“That’s Bobby and Paige,” Logan explained to Hank. “They went to go get stuff for the party this afternoon.”

Hank nodded and continued to write on his clipboard. “What else can you sense,” he asked when he was finished writing.

Tiredly she asked, “Please be more specific.” She flinched and growled, “Déjà vu.”

Logan gave her a sharp glance, “Hank, why don't you ask ‘er those medical questions ya wanted answered.”

Getting the hint, Hank quickly changed the subject, “For any reason have you ever been admitted to a hospital or medical care facility?” Angel seemed better after having some solid food and water.

“No.”

Hank began to make notes on his clipboard as he began his questioning, “Do you have a family doctor?”

“Not quite. When I was young, we used to go to Doctor Thomas Silver, but he retired ten years ago. There’s a family practice group, Berkeley Family Medical, that took my insurance and I’ve been using them ever since.”

Hank nodded, “We contacted them and they sent us some of your records. I’m going to need you to sign a release form to have them send us your entire file. Do you know what happened to your records with Doctor Silver?”

“No.” Perplexed, she asked, “Why would you need records that far back?”

Hank brushed off her question with one of his own, “Were both your parents mutants?”

“My mother was.”

“Was?”

“My mother and her life partner died in a motorcycle accident five years ago.”

Hank looked up from his notes. He said softly, “I’m sorry to hear that. What was her mutation?”

“Similar to my spatial awareness, but it only went a couple hundred yards.”

“You said she had a life partner?”

“My parents were lesbians.”

Hank was only slightly surprised, mutants came from all different walks of life. “Do you know who your father is?”

Angel shook her head, “No. At a peace rally, some men found out my mother and her partner were lesbians. They were both gang raped and left for dead, but some other people from the rally found them. When my mother found out she was pregnant, they decided to keep the baby.”

“Do you know if a police report was ever filed?”

“Yes, there was. After they died, I found their copy of it. There wasn’t anything useful in trying to find out who my father was. It was just a gang of eight to twelve white men between the ages of sixteen to twenty-five. There were so many of them my parents couldn’t be sure enough to help the police make a sketch of one of them. Or they were too afraid. Either way there wasn’t anything I could go by.”

Hank wrote the information down. He’d already planned on running a DNA test on her blood for their databanks later, but now he’d move it up and see if they had anything that might match or come close. It would be interesting to see if they did.

“You’ve never seen the original report?” Logan asked, still standing at the foot of the bed.

Angel shook her head, “No, even if it had more information, I wouldn’t spend the effort to find out who he is.”

Hank went back to the medical questions, “Did you have any childhood diseases?”

“Chicken pox and Measles.”

The doors opened and Scott and Jean entered.

Logan smiled at them, “She knew you were comin’.”

“Good,” Scott said with some relief. Angel had had severe head trauma when they’d first been brought back to the Institute and there had been some discussion about whether her mutant abilities would still be working. Logan moved over to the other side of her bed to make room for them next to her bed.

When Scott saw her confused frown he explained, “Because of the head injury you had when you first arrived, we weren’t sure if there had been any damage to your brain or ability.”

Angel reached up and felt behind her head.

Hank shot Scott an irritated glance and Jean caught it.

Although the back of her head was slightly tender, Angel couldn’t feel any bumps, but she could feel dirt and grease in her hair, “I need a shampoo.”

“Do you feel up to taking a shower or a bath?” Jean asked with a smile, quickly jumping on the topic to avoid any questions Angel might have about her injuries. When Angel nodded, Jean looked over to Annie who had been silently waiting and watching from her chair across the room.

“If she’s still up to it after Doctor McCoy’s questions,” Annie said in answer to her silent question. “I don’t want to tax her strength.”

Jean nodded, “Then we shouldn’t stay and distract her.” She grabbed Scott’s arm, “Angel we’re really glad you’re awake. We’ll come by later when you’re up to more conversation.”

“But I needed to ask her about the explosion,” Scott began with a frown, but a look from his wife silenced him.

“Hank’s questions are more important,” she said as she led him out of the room. At the doorway she stopped and looked at Logan pointedly. Mentally she told him, *I don’t think Hank wants her to think about her injuries or how long she’s been in the Infirmary. He’ll probably end up spending more time trying to explain than get the answers to his questions.* Then the doors closed behind her and Scott.

With Jean’s warning in mind, Logan said, “Darlin’, I’m glad you’re awake, but I should go. Hank’s got questions he needs you ta answer.” He walked towards the door, but before he left, he turned around and caught Annie’s attention, “I’ll be back around one so you can enjoy the party for a while.”

“Thank you, Mr. Logan,” she smiled. “I appreciate it.”

Once Logan had exited, Hank resumed his questioning, “Did you ever have any unexplained illnesses?”

“No.”