The Return; [open]

[codenamepyro]

The journey back from wherever the hell they'd been was pretty tense. Between the numerous burns, the bullet wounds, broken bones and lingering threat of smoke inhalation, the group weren't really in the chatty mood

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[watch_the_nails]

He all but fell out of the jeep after they'd arrived; he was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, his mind in turmoil, his body screaming at him despite his healing factor. He could barely even recall any details of his time behind the driving seat -all he could see and hear were flames and screams and pain, that searing, aching pain within his brain, his heart, and even though it had vanished over an hour ago, he felt like he'd carry it with him always.

All he wanted right now was Emma. Emma or Logan, someone, something. The mission had been a disaster, even if it had come with a small degree of success, both professional and personal. He glanced over at Evan, a sliver of cruel, vicious glee finding its way into his mind, even as he tried to suppress it.

[icecoldwit]

It was the steady stream of consciousness bleeding in for Emma; she felt Victor return but things were still a little hazy through his mind. Memories muddled by fire and pain and she couldn't understand most of it. She caught Pyro's chain of thought after that; bullet wounds and blood, and Emma made a quick direction change towards the medical bay.

She'd like to see someone keep her out.

It was the disorganised thoughts that disturbed her most, and the small sliver of pride and almost like relief with a twinge of regret. She'd find out soon enough, closer proximity, touch, focusing Victor on the now. She'd be able to right his mind and make sense of it all.

Even as she stepped into the medical bay, sparing a look at Pyro and seeing he was at least breathing and waiting for medical treatment, she turned her attention to Victor.

[watch_the_nails]

The brief look he gave her was one of a caged animal, a beast who knew it had made a mistake, but was powerless to hide it and was now cornered; Victor was trying desperately to cover up what had happened, trying to suppress all the thoughts and memories connected to Evan, the things he'd felt and seen just before everything had come to a head. The pleasure he'd felt when he'd glimpsed Pyro's flame dancing over the boy's skin, the vicious joy as Jack's bullets had buried themselves within his flesh, and the depth of his regret that it wasn't his claws dealing a final blow - taking one of his most hated rivals for Emma's affection out of the picture for good.

He glanced down and away, unable to even look her in the eye, even though he knew she'd probably have managed to see at least a glimpse of his thoughts. He wanted her, he needed her, taking a step closer and doing his best to broadcast those desperate feelings. Couldn't she see what had happened to him, the way his feelings had been drawn out and twisted up inside him? Couldn

[icecoldwit]

Everything leaked through, all his memories of the mission. The moment that the flame touched, the bullets, the jerks and collapse. His guilt didn't outweigh the fact that all he felt guilty about was feeling glad. He wasn't sorry about what happened, instead he was sorry she would find out.

Her face set, her heart breaking even as she glanced to the side, spotting the one bed with the curtain drawn around it. She didn't care for his need, his affection seeping towards her through the link.

"How did this happen?" She knew that Victor didn't like Evan for the sole reason that Emma had slept with him. He'd been the past that Victor didn't want brought up and that was fair enough. But for Victor to revel in Evan's demise. "What the fuck happened?"

Her voice would echo in his mind, even as she recoiled from his advance, glaring at him.

[feline_blue]

Dr Henry McCoy gave a start as the injured team members were brought into the Med Bay. They'd been warned of their arrival, of course, as soon as the jeep pulled into the camp, but even so, he never failed to be moved by the extent of peoples' injuries; the young man that had been hauled in before him barely even looked twenty years old. What the hell was Stryker doing sending mutants with as little experience as this into a combat zone? It was one thing for a trained soldier of the same age to be sent into battle, but a mutant without the proper training... he shook his head as he started to examine the extent of the young man's injuries, growling as his preliminary prodding and poking revealed multiple gunshot wounds. Just his luck, this one wasn't a healer.

[codenamepyro]

The poking was annoying. And the prodding made him hiss a little. The fact that the poking and prodding was coming from a large, furry, blue man didn't help matters as Pyro stared in confusion as the Doctor examined him.

"Could you stop that?" Even to St John his voice sounded off, he didn't like that at all. The scratch was understandable, from the fire and smoke and shouting from previous. But hell, the shake couldn't have been fire related. "It hurts."

And if he was admitting to pain, then it was enough to say that anyone who knew him would know it was serious.

[feline_blue]

"Hold still, I haven't finished examining you yet." If his voice came out as a gruff snarl, and made it sound like he was irritated with his patient - then he was. He didn't know the exact circumstances that had led to these injuries, but there was something about the boy's attitude that rankled him. "I can't fix you up if you don't lie still."

With a glare to try and silence the young man, Henry began to investigate the damaged areas of his flesh more closely, identifying two areas where bullets had penetrated the skin and could still be lodged within him, possibly near the bone. That might explain why his patient was reacting in the way he did. He muttered under his breath as he worked, turning his back on Pyro as he began to gather the tools he needed.

"One bullet still lodged in situ in the right arm, one possibly impacted with right collarbone..."

[codenamepyro]

With everything going on; the shoulder, the arm, the mental anguish still lingering, exhaustion and blood loss, Pyro wasn't really in the mood to be a good patient.

"You don't say. I wondered what the agony and scraping was." Being shot sucked. He could say it with definitive knowledge now. Shot, stabbed, burned, he didn't really go in for any of them, and he thanked God that burning hardly hurt him any more.

"It might've been the crack I felt when it hit. Or it might've happened while trying to avoid the crazy hunter," and he nodded jerkily towards Jack, "and his trigger happy finger, or just the whole, being shot thing."

Sulky and moody, yes. Pyro was beyond caring though.

post-mccoy's treatment

[demon_screaming]

There was a man standing outside of Pyro's room in the med bay. Six foot eight, heavy as hell and Esme felt a little intimidated by him. Not by much, though, and she'd be damned if she let the walking wall get in her way

[codenamepyro]

The click of the door startled St John, who wasn't sleeping yet, but trying so hard not to be awake. He jerked around, hissing at the pain in his shoulder as he stared at the door. For a moment, he'd thought Jack had come back to finish it, and without his lighter -which walking wall had confiscated and had sent back to Pyro's room, he'd be easy picking.

Instead, relief flooded as he saw Esme, although he couldn't manage a smile, despite the fact that he could almost pretend that everything was better now that she was here. He still had to explain everything; the mission, Jack's attempt to kill him, Evan. God, Evan.

Pyro just sighed wearily, sitting up and turning towards her, minding his arm. "Hey."

[demon_screaming]

Esme had been watching walking wall searching some of the rooms for chalk. As far as Esme knew, there really wasn't any chalk in the building. He was going to be searching for a while, wasn't he? That amused her to no end. She heard John move behind her, heard him speak and she turned to look.

She was relieved that he was at least able to do that much and made her way over to him, standing beside the bed for a minute before reaching up and running her hand over his face as carefully as she could.

She'd been a nervous wreck since he left, pacing and fretting. Turning anyone's voice back on them if they bothered her and had it sting like wasps in their ears. She didn't want anything but him. At least Emma knew enough to let her be when she got like that.

"Hi," she finally said after a silence, carefully leaning in to kiss him briefly. She wasn't sure what she could and could not do. Not just yet. She didn't want to injure him more.

[codenamepyro]

He just leaned forward, resting his head on her shoulder after the kiss. He needed to know she was there, and his left hand, the uninjured arm, moved to her waist, sliding up to her wings and just resting with the light brush of her leathery wing against his knuckles.

He usually avoided touching them, knowing how sensitive they were, not wanting to hurt her. But after Jack and his threats, John needed to feel them. "God, Es. Everything's so fucked up."

The pain was nothing compared to the memories of what happened.

[hunteroffreaks]

Jack just sat there, waiting for one of the medics to get to him. He looked like a wreck, covered in blood and smoke. Both his eyes were flat and dull, and he looked as pale as a ghost. He didn't even feel the pain of his injuries, the burns all over his body, the slashes from Victor. It hurt every time he took a breath, for the smoke had gotten into his lungs.

But he was trying not to think. About anything, really. Not about the whole fubar mission, his failure at killing Pyro....or that indescribable horror inflicted by Evan in his throes of dying. Nope, he wasn't thinking about that at all. He watched as a dark-haired woman approached. One of the mutant doctors. Great. If they wanted to poison him, they could go right ahead. At this point, he didn't even care.

[a_soul_awake]

There was something wrong beyond the physical. Hope knew that as soon as she looked at her patient. Something in his eyes was just... wrong. She approached with a gentle smile and a bit of concern.

"Sir, can you tell me what happened to you?" she asked, her voice soft and gentle. Those burns were going to have to be cleaned, some of the deeper scratches stitched. She started to gather the kits and supplies she needed to treat him.

[hunteroffreaks]

Jack recognized this woman, the one he had met outside Stryker's room. He rasped out a response, made even scratchier by the smoke coating his throat. The was little to no emotion in his voice, just a flat, tired response.

"What didn't, doc? I've been burned, slashed, and generally been to hell and back." He flinched as Hope examined his burnt hand, more from the fact he was letting one of them touch him then from the pain. He would have pushed her away, but he was just too damn tired and emotionally-drained to do anything but sit there.

[a_soul_awake]

She let the sarcasm roll off of her like water off a duck's back. He had been sarcastic when she first met him too. It wasn't something to take personally.

"I'm asking about what I can't see," she said, patiently cleaning and caring for his burnt hand. "Your voice sounds rough. Did you inhale some smoke? Any super hot air?"

Instead of waiting for an answer though, she was already reaching for oxygen. He would need it.

[createdevidence]

Nicky had heard that the men were back from the mission and had headed off to find them. He heard talk along the way that things had gone bad but he wasn't too worried. He knew his dad would come back nothing could take him out as far as Nicky was concerned. He was concerned about Jack the mutant hunter was a kind of friend and he seemed to get banged up a lot. He stepped in and looked around eyes taking in everything.

[hunteroffreaks]

Jack heard the soft padding of someone's feet. He opened up his good eye, subtly fingering the gun that was by his side. Seeing Nicky there, he tried a smile that didn't quite work. He removed the oxygen mask long enough to rasp out, "Hey kiddo." He looked like shit and knew it. Hell, he hadn't even bothered to wash off the blood, smoke, or other various grime coating him.

[createdevidence]

Nicky moved in to stand at his side. He looked him over taking in his condition. He hated being near any medical equipment but this was for people he cared about. Nicky shook his head slowly,"You need to learn to duck or something Jack."

[hunteroffreaks]

That made Jack laugh, a wheezy sort of noise. He propped himself up using his right arm. "I'll keep that in mind, next time I'm facing fireballs and claws." At least he had given it as good as he got.