Italy

[Pyro]

It took slightly less than four hours for the plane to reach and touch down at the privately-owned airstrip some seven miles from where Python's contact, the man known only as 'Giacomo' lived. Contact had been made with the Genosha base, but Python hadn't reported it to Pyro due to the fact that the latter was fast asleep.

Jane slept for the journey also and eventually the Juggernaut, out of sheer boredom, joined in so as not to be left out.

The plane landed and after Python had rolled it to a halt, he woke his passengers.

Which is to say, he woke the Juggernaut easily enough and gently shook Jane's shoulder. John, on the other hand wouldn't respond to him at first. When he did finally get the boy awake, his eyes were unfocused and filled with pain.

He said something that sounded faintly like 'dintmeantosetyrhairfirekty' and closed his eyes again.

"John, wake up." Python shook him by the good shoulder and received very little in return apart from a slight grumble of complaint and a renewed attempt to sleep again.

It didn't, to the Python's untrained eyes, look like the kid was holding it together very well at all.

"Miss, you awake?" he said to Jane, a faint tone of urgency in his voice.

[Jane]

Jane didn't usually dream; or rather, she did, but she wasn't aware of it, or at least aware of remembering anything, or... well, who knew. She slept too hard. In spring, somehow she was always tired in the mornings and her hair grew too fast and once she actually woke up she could run miles and feel great afterwards - she chalked these up to a few more little side effects of her cosmic card draw. In autumn, she dreamt every time she actually managed to get to sleep; but the rest of the time, never.

Today (tonight?)was no different. Even if she'd been startled (as she had been twice now) in the middle of her REM cycle, as soon as she opened her eyes there was nothing.

Except that someone was shaking her.

Jane shifted in her chair, frowning, eyes still closed against the extremely bright outside world. She rubbed one eyelid with the heel of her palm, working out the sleep junk as she opened the other.

"John, wake up."

"We there yet?" she asked, her voice scratchy.

"Miss, you awake?"

"No," she said, then frowned - usually people didn't sound worried about whether you were awake. She opened her other eye and blinked at John, who looked very pale. "What's wrong? Is he still bleeding?"

[Pyro]

"I haven't checked," said Python. He actually sounded genuinely worried. "I ain't no doctor, but I reckon kid's more than just sleepy there."

He turned back to John and tried shaking him awake again. The boy sat bolt upright, stared at Python, turned his head to look at Jane, then blinked slowly, evidently trying his hardest to focus. It was painfully obvious it wasn't happening for him.

A quick removal of the bandage answered Jane's question.

"How much blood does the damn kid HAVE?" said Python, his attempt at humour doing little to cover up what sounded like genuine concern for John's deteriorating condition.

When Magneto had been with them, bullets hadn't ever, ever been an issue. Any incoming projectiles had been repelled like mosquitoes, leaving the Brotherhood feeling as though they were invincible. Particularly John, who'd taken to the role of attache and personal bodyguard like a duck to water and had barely left Magneto's side.

Now he had discovered that he may have been a mutant - but he was very definitely in possession of human mortality.

[Jane]

"I haven't checked. I ain't no doctor, but I reckon kid's more than just sleepy there."

Jane cast a worried look at Pyro and tried to wake herself up the rest of the way, twisting in her seat and finally closing her book, unpinning John's bandage and sticking the pin in her mouth, since there was nowhere else to put it. Carefully, she unwrapped the scarf, the scent of blood rising thickly from the wound. Python shook John again and he finally returned to consciousness, though it didn't look like he had any idea of what was going on.

He hadn't clotted at all. Well, that was a lie. Jane removed the whole scarf and found a semi-congealed scab forming over the shot, but at some point it had obviously been knocked aside, and blood was still, even if slowly, pulsing thickly out of the wound.

He turned back to John and tried shaking him awake again. The boy sat bolt upright, stared at Python, turned his head to look at Jane, then blinked slowly, evidently trying his hardest to focus. It was painfully obvious it wasn't happening for him.

"How much blood does the damn kid HAVE?"

"Not enough," Jane said, pressing what dry areas remained on the sodden scarf over the wound, at this point not caring if it hurt so long as she got the blood to clot.

"Help me get him out of the plane," Jane said, sliding an arm behind Pyro and trying to make him stand up. "How far away is Mr. Contact? We've got to stop him bleeding, he's lost a lot already -"

She picked up her book one-handedly, trying to remember which plants clotted blood and which ones thinned it. Green vegetables contained Vitamin K, which did one or the other, but what wouldn't she have to get him to ingest?

After Python helped her get the kid off the plane, Jane carefully laid him out on one of the patches of grassy lawn next to the runways, hoping they were visible enough not to be landed on, and flipped through her book's index quickly, now very awake indeed.

Thistle, Silver Milk. Silybum eburneum. Traditional Chinese medicinal remedy involving a poultice of...

Jane sincerely hoped this was one of those things the Chinese had been right about. A few blades of grass burst suddenly into blossom and stretched towards Jane's hand, the fuzzy purple flowers retaining their bright color even in the dark. She coaxed extra melanin into the bloom, hoping that the reason leafy green vegetables were that shade of green was the Vitamin K.

Several of the heads fell off in her hand and she crushed them slightly between her palms before pressing them into John's shoulder. A smaller, leafier, flowerless plant grew up next to the thistles and she pulled off a few of the leaves, raking her nails across them to make the juice rise to the surface.

"Open your mouth," she told John. "It's not opium this time, I promise." (This time, it was coca.)

[Pyro]

He opened his mouth obediently, not really hearing what she was saying. His world was very peculiar right now. The juice dripped in to his mouth and he struggled to swallow.

"Seven miles, miss. Giacomo's already on his way here, should be here within the next couple of minutes. Good news for John, eh?" He gave what was a very shaky smile. "Tell you what, you go back with Giacomo straight off. He can come back for us. I told him we needed a surgeon, explained why. Me and Juggs can wait here 'til he comes back."

John made a peculiar sort of keening noise and his eyes rolled back in his head again. His blood loss was massive: slow, insidious, but just as bad as if he HAD been hit in an artery. He would be all right, as long as his blood started clotting properly. It was entirely possible that it had been the opium in his system that had caused some sort of imbalance.

The sound of a vehicle and the glare of headlights drew their attention to a new arrival. Python's eyes narrowed briefly, then he nodded.

"Giacomo," he said.

Giacomo turned out to be the hairiest man Jane had ever met. He had long dark hair pulled back in a scruffy pony tail and the sort of beard where you could go hunting rhino. He exchanged a few quiet words with Python and came across to Jane and her patient.

"I take you to house," he said in a thick accent. "I have friend, good surgeon. Your boyfriend will be fine, yes?"

[Jane]

Jane squeezed out the leaves. They'd help him regain consciousness, maybe stimulate his heart, which she really, really hoped wasn't failing.

Besides, cocaine had to be a lot more refined before you got more than a tiny boost out of it, didn't it?

"Seven miles, miss. Giacomo's already on his way here, should be here within the next couple of minutes. Good news for John, eh?"

"Stop calling me Miss," Jane said testily. She tended to convert nerves to anger.

"Tell you what, you go back with Giacomo straight off. He can come back for us. I told him we needed a surgeon, explained why. Me and Juggs can wait here 'til he comes back."

"Sounds good," Jane said vaguely, not really paying attention. She'd have gone with John anyway. She, after all, was apparently the only one here with even the slighest clue about first aid, or the means by which to apply it.

John made a funny noise and Jane pressed the scarf again, hauling him up so he leaned back against her, trying to get the wound above his heart. She knew she was supposed to do that. She just didn't remember why.

A car pulled up somewhere outside of Jane's bubble and she glanced up, shading her eyes against the headlights.

"Giacomo."

Good God he was hairy. He talked to Python for a few moments before turning to her.

"I take you to house. I have friend, good surgeon. Your boyfriend will be fine, yes?"

"He's - "

Oh, so not dealing with this right now.

"Great," Jane said resignedly. "Yes, fine. Um... bueno. That's Spanish, isn't it?"

She tried to get to her feet, pulling John up from under his arms. He wasn't helping much, slipping into the dead-weight zone that unconscious (and dead, Jane, don't forget dead) bodies usually inhabited.

"Can you help me?" she asked, trying not to sound too pathetic. "Please? Por favor? That's Spanish, too..."

[Pyro]

"Yes," said Giacomo, obviously amused. "Yes, it is Spanish. I am Italian."

With those words, he stepped forward and helped her with John, by taking the now definitely unconscious boy's feet. They settled him in the back seat of the car, his head on Jane's lap. He looked even younger like this and he'd looked young to start with.

"We'll be along as soon as we can," promised Python. "Take care of yourselves, OK?"

Giacomo was a surprisingly considerate driver, but didn't drive particularly slowly. Ten, fifteen minutes at the most by which time John's breathing was desperately shallow and his skin was growing cold and clammy.

A huge country house hoved into view, Giacomo's place, she correctly guessed as he pulled up at the door.

"My friend, Heinrich, he is a good doctor," reassured the hairy man as they got John out of the vehicle and across the driveway to the door. He was, by now, just as covered in John's blood as John and Jane were, but she noticed that the flow had definitely and visibly stemmed, whether as a result of her treatment or because he had actually run out of blood wasn't too obvious.

Unable to help carry John and open the door at the same time, Giacomo booted it loudly with a foot. A few minutes later, a thick accent - possibly German - sounded through the door. "Ja?"

"Heinrich, it's Giacomo, I have the boy, we must hurry."

The door was opened by a man who was wider than he was tall. He looked at the boy with a piercing stare and pursed his lips.

"A piece of fabric from his shirt is still inside the wound. We will get it out and stitch him up. Do you know what blood type he is?" His accent was thick, but his English was good.

It was evident that Heinrich was a mutant with the ability of natural x-ray vision.

How handy for a surgeon.

[Jane]

"Yes. Yes, it is Spanish. I am Italian."

"Yes," Jane said absently, trying not to tear up Pyro's shoulder as Giacomo reached down to help her, "yes, you are."

She found her way into the car and John ended up with his head on her lap, his skin worryingly cool, no longer warm even to her slightly-chilly fingers. She tried to smooth the hair off his forehead before she realized that the stickiness she felt all over wasn't sweat.

"We'll be along as soon as we can. Take care of yourselves, OK?"

"Okay," Jane said faintly as the door shut behind her.

One of Jane's hands rested on John's carotid the entire trip as she obsessively counted his heartbeats the entire way through the dark plazas and narrow, poky roads. Sixty per minute resting was normal in most people, right? Healthy people? Well, maybe mutants ran slow, but John was at least in the forties - shallow, barely-tangible forties - by the time the car finally stopped in front of an enormous villa, which might have looked more pleasant if Jane hadn't been trying to rub life back into one of John's hands. At least he'd stopped bleeding. Sort of. Slowed down.

"My friend, Heinrich, he is a good doctor."

"Okay," Jane said weakly, trying not to collapse under his unconscious weight.

"Ja?"

"Heinrich, it's Giacomo, I have the boy, we must hurry."

The door opened and a man who looked more like an oversized Weeble than anything stood in the frame, staring at John as if he could see through his head. With a sudden burst of clarity through her worried, sleepy haze, Jane realized he must be a mutant as well, and it wasn't so much his head as his shoulder he was looking through.

"A piece of fabric from his shirt is still inside the wound. We will get it out and stitch him up. Do you know what blood type he is?"

"No," Jane said. "No, I don't, I just barely met him - listen, if it makes any difference, I tried to treat him, he might still have opium in his system and I know he's still got thistle extract and coca, that's cocaine leaves, but it was raw, it wasn't like it was refined or anything - do you need anything? Medicine-wise? I can, um..."

Jane shifted the half of John she was still carrying, trying to remember what she was talking about. "Grow stuff," she said vaguely. "Is there somewhere we can put him down? He's fading."

[Pyro]

"I have prepared the dining room table," said Heinrich, a comment which caused wincing from Giacomo. "Come, this way."

The dining table had been swept clear of anything that had been on it, and it very much look liked the manner of clearing it had been to push it all into a pile on the floor and Heinrich gestured that Jane and Giacomo should lay John down on it, which they did.

He became all efficient and almost business-like as he gave John a cursory examination, before nodding to himself. He opened his case of tools and using scissors, cut away what was left of John's shirt. Then, rather unpleasantly, he dipped his forefinger in the blood and brought it to his lips.

"'A' Positive," he murmured. "This is good, I can get enough of this for transfusion. Giacomo, call my surgery, have them send three units of A Positive across here straight away. You, young woman, you may want to stay close. I do not dare give him any more drugs if you have already dosed him with opium and coca plant - so he may wake during the stitching process. Your help may be required."

It looked highly unlikely that the unfortunate Pyro would be waking any time soon, however, and he didn't even flinch when Heinrich poured what looked like a gallon of antiseptic virtually straight into the wound before using a pair of long-nosed tweezers to extract the rogue piece of fabric that was buried in his shoulder.

[Jane]

"I have prepared the dining room table. Come, this way."

Jane followed Giacomo and Heinrich through the villa's entrance hall, which was as enormous and impressive as the outside had been, into a dining room, which was more of the same, except that it had a pile next to it of tablecloth, broken plates and flatware.

She and Giacomo lifted John up ont the vacated table, turning him slightly so that his shoulder was easily accessible to Heinrich, whom Jane had begun absentmindedly referring to as "Humpy" already, at least mentally. But he was going to fix John, so she really didn't care what he looked like or acted like, until -

Oh, ew. Ew ew. That was just ew.

"'A' Positive. This is good, I can get enough of this for transfusion. Giacomo, call my surgery, have them send three units of A Positive across here straight away. You, young woman, you may want to stay close. I do not dare give him any more drugs if you have already dosed him with opium and coca plant - so he may wake during the stitching process. Your help may be required."

"Okay," Jane said, vaguely grossed out, but searched for a window through which vines could easily grow. Heinrich doused him thoroughly in antiseptic, which made Jane pull away just the tiniest bit - it did weird things to her skin - and shoved tweezers into the wound, pulling out the bit of shirt.

Through the rest of the procedure, Jane stayed almost completely still, standing over John from the edge of the table. It didn't seem as if it had been only hours since the bank - well, lots of hours, but still not a full day yet. It seemed like it should've been longer, at least for her to feel protective about someone who'd torched her bank and gotten her on the Most Wanted list.

But hey, whatever.

[Pyro]

Heinrich prodded around inside the gunshot wound a little more, removing one or two almost miniscule fragments of bullet. Finally, he seemed satisfied and turned to thread a surgical needle with a length of gut. "I will stitch now," he said, stating the obvious. "You hold him steady if he wakes, ja?"

Having so spoken, he wasted no further time in stitching up the wound.

John did stir, albeit only briefly, opening eyes that widened in sudden pain and shock at the realisation that he was being sewn up, but he was too weak to really struggle and merely whimpered a little before closing his eyes once more.

Much to the shame of his confused awareness, he realised that hot tears were sliding out from under his closed eyelids, a culmination of weakness, pain and probably relief.

"It is done," announced the squat little man. "We wait now for blood and he will be fine in a day or so. I will monitor him closely."

"Five minutes, Heinrich," came Giacomo's voice from the door. "They're on their way."

[Jane]

"I will stitch now. You hold him steady if he wakes, ja?"

Jane's fingers curled around John's upper arms and she sat on the edge of the table, trying to get leverage in case he started convulsing or something. She wouldn't blame him.

Heinrich began stitching up the wound and Jane looked away, at John's face, watching for signs of stirring. He did, once, just a little - Jane pulled a few creepers in through the window as fast as she could, poppies blossoming at the tips quickly. If he was waking up in the middle of surgery, Jane would have no problem getting him completely wasted again, but before she could get the pods off he closed his eyes again, slipping back into a half-conscious state through which Jane doubted much was going to get, though tears slipped out through the rest of the procedure. Jane let go of one of his arms carefully, brushing them from his cheeks with a thumb. "Hush, hon," she said softly as Heinrich tied off the gut.

"It is done. We wait now for blood and he will be fine in a day or so. I will monitor him closely."

"We'll have to stay here?" For two days? Maybe Giacomo could get the blood off, but Jane was stuck in the villa of a guy she'd never met with someone else's bodily fluids congealing in her only set of clothes. Of course, it would undoubtedly be better for John, she didn't want him to rip his stitches through being moved, but - well, she was just going to be extremely uncomfortable.

She'd left her bag on the plane, too. All Jane had at the moment was a very bloody jacket with a few thousand in the pockets, a safety pin, the Gentleman's Guide a barely-still-purple scarf and the clothes on her back, plus whatever she managed to dig out of the rest of her pockets. Not good.

"Five minutes, Heinrich. They're on their way."

Probably the transfusion. Jane sighed in relief - he could hold out that long. Probably. He'd held up for almost, what - nine hours? A long time.

Jane leaned against the dining room table, absently pulling the sleeves of her blood-soaked sweater away from her arms with stickily wet noises as she tried to determine whether she should knock John the rest of the way out. She brushed another tear off his cheek, trying to comfort him, making small soothing noises. Yes. Yes, she should definitely knock him the rest of the way out.

The creepers from the window twisted up and around the legs of the table and Jane turned them from poppies into valerian, not wishing to get him quite as high again, especially not with whatever else still in his systems. The pungent, sweet smell of the leaves briefly overpowered the scent of anesthetic and blood as she pulled a handful off the vine, beefing them up so that four or five were more oil sacs than real leaves.

"Open up," she said gently, slipping one between John's lips after crushing it slightly to get the oil to leak out. "If that doesn't knock you out, I don't know what will." At least he wouldn't be having any seizures with that in his system...

[Pyro]

The valerian did the job and John was soon sleeping, his breathing already less shallow than it had been. The promised packs of blood arrived as promised and Giacomo and Heinrich moved the boy to a well appointed bedroom that contained a couple of double beds and an ensuite bathroom.

Once John was settled in the bed and Heinrich had got the IV set up for him, everything seemed to slowly start to calm down. Giacomo took Jane to one side.

"You say that he is not your boyfriend, I apologise for the mistake. You are free to use that room to keep an eye on him if you wish, or there is my daughter's room next door. She is about your size, there are clothes there if you would like them. I must contact Steve...Python...and arrange what to do next."

Heinrich finished with the IV and checks on John and nodded in satisfaction. "The boy is strong and determined, this is very good. He will make a full recovery, I believe." He looked at Jane. "Are you hurt at all, do you need any assistance? And could I give you a list of plants that I could use in my work?"

A friendly smile.

These were friends.

[Jane]

John was re-pumped and moved soon, and he stopped crying, which Jane took to be a good sign as she followed around the various medical personnel vaguely, trying to fade into the walls. She knew at least Heinrich was a mutant, but for Jane, mutandom was... different. A little more dangerous than the odd X-ray glance.

She wondered briefly if Heinrich had ever used that power for evil. She crossed her arms nervously.

The IV was set up, and Jane only watched the vital signs monitors for a few moments before Giacomo took her aside.

"You say that he is not your boyfriend, I apologise for the mistake. You are free to use that room to keep an eye on him if you wish, or there is my daughter's room next door. She is about your size, there are clothes there if you would like them. I must contact Steve...Python...and arrange what to do next."

Jane fought the sleep-deprived urge to giggle (Steve!!) and smiled warmly. "Thank you," Jane said. Oh, Lord, a bath and clean clothes and a ridiculously expensive mattress. Even the thought was energizing.

"The boy is strong and determined, this is very good. He will make a full recovery, I believe."

Jane nodded, her eyes moving back automatically to the monitors, which were still, as they'd been five seconds before, steadying.

"Are you hurt at all, do you need any assistance? And could I give you a list of plants that I could use in my work?"

"No - I mean, I'm fine," Jane said, clarifying her initial statement. "Sure, anything. I might have to tackle them in the morning, though..." The expanse of the day pressed into her shoulders like real weight, and Jane realized for the first time, now that it was nearly over, just how full a day she'd really had.

She returned Heinrich's friendly smile, finally uncrossing at least one of her arms. She almost reached out a hand to shake his before she remembered that she was still drenched in John's blood, her hands especially. "Thank you," she said, "for your help. I'd be happy to help you in your work, but I think I need to clean up and get to bed before I collapse."

[Pyro]

"I think I need to clean up and get to bed before I collapse."

"Heard and understood. Let me speak with you tomorrow."

With that, Heinrich gathered his things together and headed out. Giacomo smiled.

"He is gruff old fool, but he treats all the mutant community well. Let me show you to your room. I will contact Python on your behalf."

For all his hairiness, it seemed that Giacomo was a very pleasant man and yet another good ally. His daughter's room was beautiful; a king-sized bed in the centre with an arching canopy of cream lace above it. Exquisitely decorated, it was most definitely a girl's room.

"Rest well," said Giacomo. He shut the door and headed off to contact Python.

The bedroom had its own patio door which he had already opened out onto the peaceful, warm Italian night. The scent of night stock filled the room and a light breeze drifted through. It was so peaceful, so pretty and so, SO far removed from Liverpool.

[Jane]

"Heard and understood. Let me speak with you tomorrow."

"He is gruff old fool, but he treats all the mutant community well. Let me show you to your room. I will contact Python on your behalf."

Jane followed Giacomo out of John's room and into another, adjoining one, her eyes widening at the palatial whiteness before her.

"Oh, wow," she said softly, trying not to touch anything. She doubted a single item in the room was machine-washable, but it was definitely beautiful. Jane doubted she was supposed to feel outclassed by a bed, even if it was canopied.

"Rest well."

"Thank you," Jane said again, still staring at the room, and the door clicked shut behind her. It smelled like countryside. It looked like heaven. Definitely not in Kansas anymore, she thought with a smile. Or even Liverpool.

Even better than the room's furnishings, Jane noticed another door, cracked open to reveal the edge of white marble - a bathtub. Thank the Lord.

After a long, hot bath and getting every last bit of dried blood and dirt and general gunk from under her fingernails and washed out of her hair, Jane dug through the expansive closet and eventually came up with a large, floppy t-shirt feating some Italian pop star and a pair of baggy pajama pants. There were real pajamas, too, but Jane was trying to be the least nuisance possible, and anyway, the big t-shirt and loose bottoms were more comfortable.

Leaving the patio doors open and cracking all the windows just for good measure, Jane curled up in the huge white bed. Even if it was only for a day or two, abetting a bank robbery had definitely been worth it.

[Pyro]

[ Time moves on to thread Awareness ]