DISCLAIMER: in first part.
A Laying On Of Hands: Part Thirteen
by Cascade
Dana yawned as she pulled her shirt on over her head. She'd had weird dreams last night. Dreams about being unprepared. She shrugged and tied her shoes. She could figure out what they meant later. Right now she was hungry and the scents wafting up from the kitchen were making her stomach growl.
She went to her bedroom door and opened it. It smelled like Remy was cooking breakfast again. She sighed as her mouth watered. She loved crepes. It was the only thing Remy cooked that didn't set her mouth on fire.
She stepped out into the hall, and gasped as someone slammed into her and knocked her to the floor. She was pinned in moments.
She'd squeezed her eyes shut when she'd been hit and only now she blinked them open. "Sam?" She couldn't believe her eyes. Sam was grinning and looking quite smug. The blond hair falling over his brow couldn't obscure the merriment in his eyes. "What the HELL are you doing?"
"Ya forgot?" He looked at her in disbelief. "Ah can't believe ya forgot. Come on, this is the week that we get to launch surprise attacks on ya, remember?"
She glared at him. "OK, fine. Let me up."
He shook his head. "Do ya surrender?"
Ordinarily she would have, just to get down to breakfast, but he looked so pleased with himself that she just couldn't make herself do it. "No."
Sam frowned. *Didn't expect her to say that. Now what?* He had her pinned well. His hands held hers above her head. Her legs were trapped beneath his, and had the majority of his body weight on them. She was almost completely unable to move. Unfortunately for Sam, Dana's hands were in contact with his, and he couldn't use his mutant power to convince her to capitulate.
Sam glanced back down at Dana as he thought of another plan. His breath caught in his throat. She looked gorgeous. Her hair was spread around her head, her chin was raised defiantly, her lips in a slight pout, her brown-green eyes hidden from him by long lashes.
*Scott'll kill me if he catches me, but it's worth the risk.* Sam lowered his head and kissed her lips softly. She moved under him slightly and responded to his kiss in kind. She added more passion to the kiss and Sam had to concentrate hard to keep himself from freeing her hands in order to embrace her.
In an instant it no longer mattered. She'd taken advantage of his relaxation and had flipped them both. Now she pinned him.
She pulled her head away from him slowly, and he finally opened his eyes to see her stifling a giggle.
"Damn," he said softly. Whether her was cursing himself for letting her get free or complimenting her kiss, he wasn't entirely sure. He was helpless without his powers and without the ability to move. He wasn't sure he wanted to move, however. She was close enough to him that he could smell her faint perfume and her hair cascaded down and brushed his cheek. The sensations that had taken hold of his body when they'd kissed had yet to leave.
"Do you surrender?" She smiled maddeningly down at him.
He thought about trying to pull something on her, but he couldn't think clearly enough to plot such a move. "Yes," he sighed.
She released his hands and looked very pleased with herself. "Dana, 1, Sam, 0," she said quietly as she freed his legs from hers. She straddled him for a moment, and pulled her concentration internal. Sam recognized that look, but shielded his mind a bit to late from her. She started, blushed, and moved off of him completely, not meeting his eyes.
She stood and moved away from him towards the staircase.
"Dana..." he started. He blushed at the thought of the particular emotions she could have read off of him at that moment.
She turned back towards him and licked her lips thoughtfully. "The feeling's mutual," she said softly with a smile, before turning from him and heading to the kitchen.
For the third day in a row Dana wondered if it was a good idea to get out of bed. So far it hadn't been. 'Hell Week,' as she had begun to call it, had done nothing but earn her brand new bruises.
Some changes had been made early in the game. The majority of the mansion had also been declared off limits after Gambit and Iceman had chased her through the house and caused a little more damage than Scott had expected. He was also not thrilled that he'd been used by Dana as a human shield during the encounter. Iceman's aim had been a bit off and he'd gotten half frozen.
She got dressed in loose clothes that allowed her full range of movement. She learned that lesson quickly as well. She approached the door quietly and tried to sense the emotions of anyone out in the hall. As far as she could tell there was no one out there. She opened her door quickly and scanned the hall for possible attackers. She walked warily down to the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast table next to Sam.
Sam raised an eyebrow at her, and reached a hand up to gently massage the taut muscles of her shoulders.
The kitchen had been designated off limits as well. Bobby thought it would be hilarious to hide in the refrigerator and attack Dana, and the mess he'd made trying to fit himself inside had Jean about ready to turn him into ice cubes. Nevertheless, when Sam touched Dana's shoulder, Scott could not have asked for a more battle ready response. She leapt to her feet and had Sam out of his chair and pinned to the floor before Dana even realized what she was doing.
"Uh, Sir?" Sam called dazedly from the floor. "Ah think she's got it down to instincts now."
Dana blinked a few times and suddenly seemed to realize what she'd done. "Oh, Sam, I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." Sam shook his head in forgiveness and Dana pulled herself off of him. "I'm a little tense..." she added quietly.
Scott threw her out of the house after lunch. She'd been restricting herself rather effectively to her safe areas, and 'someone' had complained. It was either Sam or Bobby. Probably Bobby. He was really getting into it. He'd come up with the most creative and grandiose attacks so far. He might actually make a decent leader or strategist someday... If he ever grew up.... And if Dana let him live after he'd tormented her all this week.
She growled and stalked out to a nice open spot in the middle of the lawn. She could see anything coming from any direction. She was not going to make this easy on anyone.
She saw Sam mosey suspiciously towards her not long after she had settled herself on the grass. She narrowed her eyes and tried to pick out any emotions from him that might give his intentions away. There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as she could tell, but then again, she wasn't quite good enough to sense every emotion yet.
"Friend or foe?" She called out to him before he got too close.
He looked stricken. "Me? Attack? Do ya think so little..."
"Answer the question, Guthrie." She readied herself to jump up.
"Sit down... Ah'm not going to attack." He came close to her with a grin and sat down next to her. "So..." he began.
"So... what?" she responded, not really paying attention. She had a sinking suspicion that she was being distracted. She glanced about and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and she couldn't sense any secretive emotions from anywhere around her, but Sam usually was a little less forced around her. She glanced back to him. "You're a bad actor, Sam. What's going on?"
He looked frustrated for a moment, and then shrugged and pulled her to him for a kiss.
She smiled briefly, and let him lean her back onto the grass. She focused on staying far more alert than she usually was around him, when a thought suddenly came to her. He had looked frustrated, why hadn't she felt his frustration? She broke from Sam and rolled away from him into a crouch. *Jean must be shielding him!* She glanced about the landscape, and she couldn't help but catch the compact form of Logan hurtling towards her.
She gasped and panicked, but controlled herself quickly and dropped into a ready position.
He came at her full speed. She grabbed his shirt as he approached and rolled onto her back throwing him past her. She realized the only way to win this fight would be to hurt him and then prevent him from healing himself. She couldn't imagine it ever happening, but Scott would be disappointed if she didn't at least try.
She stood and turned to face him and saw her hopes of winning the battle fade even more. He'd righted himself almost immediately and was coming at her again. She prepared herself to throw him again, but he stopped just out of her reach and threw a punch. She ducked it gracefully, and blocked the next two he threw with her forearms. She saw an opening and tried to sweep his feet out from under him but he stepped out of the way. She lost her balance and he knocked her down with the same move she'd just tried to use on him. She recovered and rolled away before he could pin her and jumped back up to her feet. This time she tried a kick to his mid-section, he caught her leg and threw her to the ground again, this time she was too slow to avoid being pinned.
"Do you give up?" Logan grinned above her and she grimaced and struggled in his grip. He tightened his hold on her and shook his head. She stilled, but wouldn't answer him.
"Sam! You Kentucky fried chicken, where are you? How about some help?"
"Sorry," Sam loomed over her and shook his head sadly. "Ah'm not goin' ta get involved... especially after ya insult me!"
"You said you were on my side! You lied! I'm telling Scott!"
"Ah didn't say anythin' of the sort! Ah said Ah wasn't goin' ta attack ya." He chuckled and walked off. He didn't want to be anywhere around when Logan let her up. Scott never said she couldn't attack the rest of the team, and he planned on getting back to his room before she could get back there first and ambush him. Besides, if they stayed in the yard he could watch from his window.
Dana clenched her jaw and glared at him. Logan was chuckling softly above her. Quickly she gathered her legs and pushed Logan off of her while he wasn't concentrating. She scrambled to her feet, and launched an attack quickly while he was still on the ground.
Her fist connected with his jaw. She fought her disbelief and threw another punch, keeping one hand in contact with him the whole time. Perhaps if she kept him from healing himself it would disorient him enough to give her an advantage.
No such luck.
She got three punches off before he threw her to the ground again. She almost scrambled out of his grip, but he had a firm hold of her ankle. He pulled her back towards him. A sensation of panic overtook her and she lashed out with her free foot, and smashed him in the face. She heard his nose break, and she felt it too. She built up all her shields and reached for him to prevent him from healing himself.
There was a mad wrestle for a moment, and for an instant Dana thought she might have the upper hand, but Logan was much stronger than her and she ended up pinned again.
"Surrender now?" he asked again, wiping his bloodied nose on his sleeve.
She thrashed underneath him, trying to break free.
"You don't have any choice now, darlin', so surrender and listen up."
She was silent, but continued to try to free herself.
Logan growled at her stubbornness and the blood from his nose made him see red for a moment. He put a fist to her throat and two of his claws extended on either side of it.
She gasped and stilled. "I surrender," she said quietly.
"All right then." He wiped his nose again. "You lost this fight, but you fought well, especially considering your power isn't offensive. You could hold someone off long enough for help to arrive, and that's all you need to be able to do at this point. You'll have to be a lot better before you could consider going solo, but since you seem to be willing enough to put up with Cyke for a while, I don't think that you'll ever be out on your own that much. You need other people around, kid, unlike me. Our powers suit our personalities, I suppose. You heal everyone, and I can only heal myself." He smiled faintly and removed his claws from her throat.
"We'd make a really crappy team that way. We wouldn't be able to help each other at all." She absently rubbed the faint red line forming on her neck.
"You and Sam would make a good one though. For being invulnerable, he manages to get himself beat up enough that you come in handy."
She blushed at his mention of Sam and sought to change the subject. It wasn't hard to find a new one. "This is disgusting. I turned my power off when I surrendered and your nose is still... icky. Hurry up and heal yourself." She pushed him off of her the rest of the way and sat up, brushing at a few drops of his blood on her sweatshirt.
"Icky? Is that the official diagnosis, doc?"
"Shut up. I never claimed to be knowledgeable about healing, I just do it. And much faster than you, I might add." She reached out to his hand. "I think I can heal you a little faster if you'd like me to try.
He shrugged, and she closed her eyes, and her hand glowed on his.
*Amazing. Completely painless. Never painless when I do it. I could get used to this...*
"Thanks," he mumbled as she lifted her hand from his.
"No problem. That's what I'm here for."
He nodded. "I think you're going to wish you hadn't done it though."
"Why not?" She looked seriously at him.
"You're not done. I'll give you a head start, though."
Dana wandered through the woods slowly. She knew full well that Logan was out there somewhere, watching her, tracking her. It disturbed her that his style of attack was so different this time. Every once in a while she'd hear a sound off in the woods, but she never saw the cause of the sound. She had the sinking suspicion he was herding her as well. The noises kept her moving deeper into the forest. "I've had about enough," she muttered. *I'd rather have a fight then be spooked like this.*
She turned and headed back toward the mansion. The noises became more frequent. She reached out to try to read his emotions, but there was nothing. *Jean must still be shielding him,* she fumed. *Jean! Come on, give me a little bit of a chance here!*
She dropped her shields completely and scoured the surrounding area for any hint of an emotion that would give Logan away. She could feel buzzings of generally pleasant emotions from the area of the mansion, but nothing from the area of the forest. She tried for a moment, as a mental test, to pick out Sam from the rest of the house. She couldn't identify everyone by their emotions yet, but she was the most familiar with his emotions, and that made them easier to identify. To her, each person's emotions were slightly different. It wasn't a difference she could easily explain, but all emotions, whether happy or sad, were tinged with it. There was a taste, a smell, a color, a texture, a sound that was individual to each. She found Sam after a bit of searching, he was calm, maybe reading or listening to music. She drew herself into his calm for a moment to still some of her own anxieties about being tracked by Wolverine. She took a breath and had just pulled away when she received a hard blow to her back. She tumbled forward, and coughed at the dirt that flew into her face as she fell. She dazedly tried to get back to her feet and reestablish her shields. She was pushed down again, and this time stayed down, frozen with terror. She couldn't close her shields. It was as if someone was holding them open. She panicked and scrambled for every bit of control she could find. With her shields held open she could be affected by any emotion that washed over her. She sought Sam's calm again and gathered herself enough to realize that the majority of the fear she felt was not her own. It felt artificial. Knowing for certain it wasn't hers helped her to separate from it, and she pushed herself up and launched an attack at the presence she saw in the corner of her eye.
Her heel connected with a chest and sent her attacker staggering back a few steps. She turned completely around to face her attacker and felt fear surge in her again. This time it was authentic.
Cable stood before her, looking more menacing than she'd ever imagined he could be. One eye glowed dangerously with golden fire. His lips were set in a grim line. The most frightening thing to her, however, was that he was completely blank to her. He'd masked himself so well that not even a trickle of a stray emotion leaked out towards her. She didn't think even Jean could do that.
She stared, terrified, for a moment too long. He spun quickly and kicked her legs out from under her and she was on the ground again. Hitting the ground shocked her into action and she scrambled to her feet and ran from him. She ducked and weaved around trees and overhanging branches as she sprinted towards the mansion. This was one fight she especially did not want, and seeking refuge in the safe places of the mansion was the only way she could see of getting out of it.
She'd heard Sam's X-Force horror stories about Cable pushing his team to the point of collapse and beyond. Fatigue and weakness was not an option. She'd always had difficulty believing that the Cable in Sam's stories and the Cable that she'd spent time with were the same person. She no longer had such difficulty. She couldn't read his emotions, but she'd seen enough flicker across his face to read his intentions. He wasn't going to let up until she passed X-Force standards.
She slammed into a barrier in her headlong dash and staggered back expecting a tree blocking her way. Instead there was nothing. *Damn force field,* she thought darkly, turning her back to it. Cable walked unhurriedly toward her.
She gasped and thought quickly.
"Okay. I surrender." She stuck her hands in the air. It no longer seemed like such a sticking point now that her butt was truly on the line.
Cable shook his head. "I don't accept your surrender."
Dana cringed and felt her way down the length of the force field. There had to be an end to it somewhere. "But you have to. It's one of Scott's rules!"
"Flonq Scott's rules. Let's see you defend yourself."
She squeaked in terror, and broke into a run along the edge of the shield.
Cable watched her make a complete circle around him. She got back to her starting point and laughed nervously. "Sam won't be very happy if I die out here," she told him absentmindedly as she scanned the ground for a weapon or a defensible position.
"I can take him," he replied. Then he rushed her.
She yelped and dove out of the way into the underbrush. She scrambled through and put a large bush between her and Cable. She breathed deeply as she tried to think of something. Her only chance was to touch him and remove the the force field.
Cable advanced and she backed away, trying to plan how to attack. There was no way to sneak up on him with the limited area enclosed by the force field, so she just charged him. She reached out toward him, but staggered when she felt the most intense pain she'd ever experienced. She couldn't tell if she'd hurt herself or if Cable was somehow getting past her shields and causing it. She couldn't think on it anymore than that, however. It hurt too much. Her entire body burned and her head felt like it was about to explode. She cried out briefly, and then fell to her knees, whimpering and holding her head. She curled into a ball on the ground, and lay there for an undetermined amount of time. She might have even blacked out, she didn't know. The next thing she knew, Cable was slapping her cheek lightly and the pain was gone.
She sat up slowly, and took a shaky breath. There was still a bit of residual pain, but she could deal with it. She wiped her tearing eyes with the back of her hand and looked up at him.
"What was that?" she asked softly.
"That's what can happen to you if you have a hole in your shield. Granted, I think I'm one of a few who can hold your shields open the way I just did, but it's something to be careful of."
"Oh." She sat silent for a moment. "So what can I do if it happens again?"
"Good girl. Learn from your mistakes." He smiled at her. "I'll show you."
She closed her eyes and felt Cable link with her. It was a little uncomfortable, as it always was when she got too close to him, but he shielded himself from her somewhat, and it was bearable. She saw a mental image of them both standing outside a tall, silver-gray wall: her mental shielding.
"Open it a little," Cable commanded. She did as he asked. The wall shimmered for a moment and parted fluidly in front of them. Cable's liquid gold power flowed to all the edges of her shield. "Now try to close it."
She couldn't. Cable had it stuck open, and try as she might, she couldn't force it back together. "I can't," she told him.
"You can't change where my holds are, so change your shield."
"I can do that?" she asked. She'd never heard of such a thing.
"Try it."
She shrugged. Her shields shimmered again and turned a royal blue. They leaked through the ring of Cable's power and knitted back together. She gasped and looked at Cable in surprise. "How did you..."
"It was an Askani exercise. I thought it might help you."
"Askani? From the future? So I'm the only person, besides you, who knows how to do this now?" She felt honored.
He nodded at her and left her mentally. "I guess that's one way to look at it, yes."
She smiled broadly despite her fatigue. She opened her physical eyes to see him offering her a hand up. She accepted it and brushed herself off. "So now what?" she asked as she pulled a twig from her hair.
"Now, you practice."
She nodded and opened her shields to him. She felt him take hold of them. Her shields were about to change to a nice shade of green when he kicked her feet out from under her, and she fell to the ground with a thump.
He shook his head down at her. "Your attacker isn't just going to stand there. You've got to be on guard physically too." He motioned her to get up impatiently. "Come on." She sighed and opened her shields to him again as she rose to her feet.
Dana closed her eyes against debris as she tumbled to the ground after being on the receiving end of a kick from Cable. She lay still for a moment, stunned and panting. She felt Cable's impatience and she shoved herself back up to stand on shaky and bruised legs. She allowed herself a moment to glance at the sky. It was nearly dark. They must have been at this for hours. Dana still had come no closer to touching him, and he seemed to be unwilling to end their session before she had at least threatened him. *Maybe if I keel over and die he'll let me have a 15 minute break.*
She went on guard, both physically and mentally, and fought her weariness as much as she fought him. As she parried his preliminary attacks she had the odd sensation of something drifting past her shields. She panicked at the thought that Cable might try something new and let her shields change to try to block it. It continued to flow toward her and she reached out to identify it. Before she could Cable attacked the hole it had left in her shield and she fell to the ground again in pain.
When the pain receded a bit she blinked up at him. "What was that mist thing?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Right before you attacked there was this mist of emotion. It went through my shields like they weren't even there. It left the hole that you just attacked me through."
"It wasn't me."
She looked at him wide-eyed. "Then what was it?"
"I don't know."
He looked truly stumped, and for the first time that night she noticed that he looked tired as well. She dropped her shields a bit and noticed that she could read things from him again. What she felt from him was exhaustion. *All this mental stuff must wear him out more than he lets on...*
"Maybe it's just because you're tired," he continued. She struggled not to remind him that he was tired as well. "Why don't we call this off for tonight? If you come across it again, let me know, and I'll try and help you figure out what it is. I think it's just a mental manifestation of fatigue, though."
Dana limped into the kitchen. She opened the freezer, grabbed a TV dinner, and threw it in the microwave. She attempted to sit down on one of the kitchen chairs, but she'd fallen backwards too many times, and the hard wood of the chair reminded her painfully of every bruise she'd earned. She stood back up and leaned heavily on the counter.
She heard the sound of the door opening.
"The kitchen is off limits, and I'm not going outside again tonight, so just forget about it."
"I had no intentions of ambushing you, Miss Hawkes. I was merely entering the kitchen to ascertain the existence of some needed ingredients. It's my turn to cook tonight."
"Hi, Hank. You can cook for one less tonight. You wouldn't happen to have any aspirin, would ya?"
He shook his head. "Sadly, no. I have no pockets, as you can see."
She chuckled weakly. "That's OK. I've got an economy-sized bottle in my room. I think I'm going to eat up there and see how much of this I can sleep off. I've still got a few days left of this crap, after all."
She retrieved her dinner from the microwave, grabbed some silverware, and a bottle of juice. "See, it's all nice and balanced. I'm still eating well," she said as she showed it briefly to Hank, before limping back out of the kitchen.
She ran into Bobby in the hall, one of the few places left in the house that was still available for attack. He smiled at her for a moment. "How are you doing tonight?" he asked her pleasantly.
"I surrender." Her voice and face showed only fatigue.
"I wasn't going to attack you!"
"Uh-huh, sure. When did hell build the five-star ski chalet?" She opened the door to her room. "Look at it this way: I'm just giving you extra time to plan more evil torment on my behalf. I'm sure you'll have something truly nasty waiting for me when I wake up in the morning. Right now, I'm just going to eat and go to bed. Good night." She shut her door.