The next day passed with the odd moment of consciousness. Including one that same day where he told Jude, while high on morphine, that he deserved a pay raise. Mostly though Ranger slept. Doctors and nurses checked in on him and there was muttering of how much Ranger had healed in such a short time. His vitals were better and an x-ray had been scheduled for his arms.

He dreamed as he slept. Wild dreams that jumped from pleasant to nightmarish. Morphine could do a number on someone while they slept. One particular dream was one he’d had before but taken to eleven. He was alone, in the snow of Eastern Europe. The wolves are circling. The first lunges, Ranger catches its open jaws with his hands. Another bites on his shoulder and his eyes open.

To see Jude there, with his hand on his shoulder.

Not as good of a sight as the last time he woke up, but he’d take it. Jude there meant he was healing him. Hopefully. His arms didn’t hurt so bad at least. And, like last time, his mind was clearing.

”Y’ look rough.” Ranger rasped before coughing and adding in a more normal voice, ”Busy couple days?” Knowing it likely was, with him down Blac-Tac was likely just coasting through, running purely on momentum. With Jude right in the middle of the paperwork trenches.

O-hoh. He had the nerve to comment on how Jude looked?

"You look like a complete slacker, laying down on the job." He teased, hoping that he didn't look as bad as he felt. Could he afford to call in sick? He was already scrambling to get some things through the work pipeline. The American health insurance companies were all crazy and no matter how many times he called, there were more hoops to jump through on behalf of the employees of Black-Tac, who were often enough falling ill or getting hurt.

Jude removed his hand and poured the Ranger a cup of water just like last time. And just like last time, it wasn't his fault that the straw jumped around. He did try to steady it, but this dump of healing sure took a lot out of him. DocProf always made it look so effortless.

It had been a busy few days, as Michael guessed. Possibly some of the busiest he'd had on this side of the future.

"It's nothing we can't handle." Jude rubbed at his face while he thought through what still had to be done today. Next time, he promised himself that he's visit Michael at the end of the day. Then he could probably just crash.

"So, while it's totally lame and aggravating to tell you to focus on getting better, you should probably do that because next time I'm bringing work for you. I saw your—" he motioned to the arms and words just absolutely failed his tired brain. "—les coudes se cassent." He threw his hands in the air and swapped back to English when he got to the words he could remember. "So, yeah. Next time, you'll probably be good for signing papers."

”I would never lay down on the job.” Ranger said with mock offense, ”Just restin’ my eyes.”

Again Ranger had to fish for the straw with his lips. Healing must take a lot out of Jude for him to not be able to hold a glass of water still. That or work was that rough with Ranger gone. Maybe both. Ranger had little experience with healers, but it couldn’t be easy, and he knew Blac-Tac must be falling apart at the seams if he’d been out very long. There wasn’t a lot of redundancy toward the top. Or any. At all.

Jude said it was nothing that they couldn’t handle. Ranger guessed it was mostly just putting out fires as they popped up. ”Everythin’ still clockwork at 840 Fifth?” The location of Haven. The biggest contract Blac-Tac had by virtue of permanence. Other contracts paid better, but that one kept the lights on between them. Also, the headquarters of Haven. Not to mention where he and Noel lived.

Next time Jude was bringing work. Which meant his arms should be out of traction and off morphine. That was a relief. Ranger didn’t know how bad his injuries were, but if he didn’t have a central nervous system injury, he would be leaving at that point. He could finish healing somewhere not a hospital.

"—les coudes se cassent."

”I’m sorry. What’s that in American?” Ranger said. It wasn’t the first time Jude had jumped to French. This was not the first time Ranger had asked the same question. Jude pointed to his arms. ”Arms?.. Oh, you saw my elbows break? How… did you see my elbows break?”

Ranger gestured his head at the machine beside his bed that he was hooked up to. It kept along pumping morphine. ”Turn that thing down or off. I cain’t work on it an’ I don’t wanna leave here hooked on narcotics.” And he didn’t like the lack of mental clarity it gave him.

> ”Everythin’ still clockwork at 840 Fifth?”

"Seems like the flu is making the rounds." Jude reported on the status of their biggest contract. "They're calling it cross contamination from all the germs and people that got tossed around when the universal zipper unzipped. Lots of schedule shuffling and a few more overtime approvals than usual which is where your signature gets important. I need to run payroll." Like, yesterday. But technically they should still be good if they submitted before the end of the week, that was just cutting it way, way close.

> ”I’m sorry. What’s that in American?”

In the span that it took Jude to take a calming breath in and out, the Ranger had figured it out. He was a smart dude. Jude wouldn't have tolerated his smart mouth otherwise.

>"How… did you see my elbows break?”

"Maybe you weren't awake for that last time. I see what I heal. I mean, how it happened." Which reminded him that he'd promised to text Boots anything more that he got. Really, just more damage. The girl hadn't started singing her name and address. "Boots went across the rift to track the girl down." He fished out his phone and slouched in his chair to send the message.

On Michael's order, Jude leaned across and hit the power button on the medical doodad. If he said that made the drip stop, that made the drip stop as far as Jude was concerned. In the moment he'd set his phone on his lap to do Michael's evil bidding, it chimed with a sound he knew meant he'd gotten another email. For now, he didn't bother. He could probably guess what it was.

"With all the chaos, we're not the only ones scrambling. People want to beef security against whatever foreign invaders aren't coming through. I don't know which ones to take or not take. I called in Wahl thinking he'd have some insight, but it's too much your game and I don't want to—" p*ss away all those opportunities... Except, he was supposed to be handling it. Jude ran his hands through his hair. "I don't want to burden you. Next time I come back, it's papers for you. A big. fat. stack."

So for now, Michael could rest his eyes. Next time, he'd better be ready.

"I gotta go." Already he felt chills. He needed to get to a place where he could crash in peace and be up before anybody missed him at Blac-Tac. So. Probably a couch in the break room. "I'm going to hold you to that raise you told me about. You said a million, but I'll settle for half."

It sounded like Jude was keeping a lid on things. Ranger wasn’t sure how long he had been out of it, but if he was needed for payroll it had been several days. ”Y’ cain’t heal the flu?” Not that he expected Jude to even if he could. It wasn’t in his job description, and it seemed to tax the kid.

Jude could see what he healed. So he saw Ranger get his ass handed to him by that woman in the alley. Not exactly what you want your employees seeing. Especially when you are supposed to be the baddest of a group of bad asses. He opened his mouth to comment about not remembering much from the last time he was awake when Jude said Noel had gone across the the rift after the woman.

Ranger tried to piece together when he’d awoken and Noel had been there. After Jude had been removed, Noel had climbed on the bed and said something about taking care of someone… She was going to track down the woman. She wouldn’t have much of a chance beating sense into her so she must be going to kill her.

While the woman might could use a good pounding, Ranger wasn’t sure she needed to die for what she did.

He had an odd mix of emotions. On one hand, Noel was motivated enough by what happened to him to go kill someone. On the other hand, he was worried about what could happen to her in trying and not certain the woman needed to die.

Jude complied and killed the morphine pump, which would give Ranger a chance to think about the situation.

Lots of people wanting security. Sounded about right, the universe decided it was bored of being by itself so it hooked up with a friend and people were afraid. Jude had made a good call. Bringinging in Dragoon, one of Ranger’s old COs from his military days, would help. Even with that, Ranger normally made all these decisions and he hadn’t walked anyone through his decision making process. ”As long as I’m out of this contraption.” Ranger worked his arms inside the traction. He could torque them against the casts and it didn’t hurt like anything was broken. ”Oh. If they don’t cut me out I’m breakin’ out of these.”

The morphine was off so he wouldn’t slip back to a narcotic induced stupor. He would be conscious and unable to do anything otherwise.

"I'm going to hold you to that raise you told me about. You said a million, but I'll settle for half."

”Did I say that?... Hell y’ deserve one after the last few days.” Hell promoting him to running the office and hiring some other paperwork monkey might be in order. ”We’ll talk about it once I’m up.”

Jude had no idea if he could heal the flu. It might be something to investigate, but right now it was taking all of his everything to keep all the plates in the air spinning.

"I'll tell the nurse you're awake. Don't break out before they have a chance to check you over." Geez. He was impatient for someone who was already skipping to the front of his healing class. Jude also wouldn't hold his breath about the raise. People in power tended to just let him down time and time again.

"If I don't make it back tomorrow, expect papers to arrive by courier." Jude waved over his shoulder as he left and then waved off the nurses who offered to take his temperature. "It's just work stress. That's the boss back there so take good care of him now that he's awake again."

That put some hustle and bustle into the nursing staff. Oh no. Another strange spurt of healing? Wherever did it come from? If he had to come back too many more times, he'd surely be outed. As it was, Mister Hunter just had another Christmas miracle. The Angels must be on this side. #blessed

---

True to his word, Jude sent a courier with a few stacks of paper, sealed and needing his signature to receive. The courier then waited for Michael to finish signing before returning delivery. Jude slept, he ate, he still looked a little dogged after a full day of work when he came back to bust Michael out. This time, since it was him and he trusted himself, Jude carried as many papers as he dared. The crucial signatures were done with yesterday. Today it was a fat heap of potential contracts sorted and stick-noted with their best guess or priority and capacity. He got a pen and delivered the papers and folders and found a good chair to sit in for that last little bit, careful to remain quiet so that Ranger could read.

Either Jude ran out of things to heal or he just plain ran out of gas. Either way, the dark-haired teen ended up face down against Ranger's bed, snoring softly. As far as Jude was concerned, he'd made it through to the finish line. Crisis averted.

After Jude left nurses hurried into the room. They were surprised he was awake and one tried to curse Jude for turning off the morphine, then tried to explain to Ranger that he would need it for the pain after Ranger explained he told Jude to turn it off. She caved to Ranger’s glare and didn’t turn it back on.

Another nurse left and brought in a doctor who looked over everything. His eyebrows went up as he looked at Ranger’s vitals and then back to the chart. He then moved up his xray after Ranger threatened to break out of the traction if they didn’t.

He was making a very poor impression on the nursing staff at the hospital.

The xray was that night and afterwards they removed the casts from Ranger’s arms. He still felt like battered dog droppings but he would live. And he could use his arms. Which meant he could read the note Noel left him and send her a text to update her .Free of traction, Ranger went to sleep.

The next day he awoke when a courier arrived with a stack of papers for him. Ranger looked over the documents quickly. They were without a doubt needing a signature that day. Ranger quickly signed off on them and the courier left with them. Ranger watched the news before falling asleep again.

The next day he awoke to eat around lunch time. He stayed awake reading until Jude got there. Jude brought a fat stack of contracts with him. Jude pulled up a chair and set to healing while Ranger worked through them. Jude and Wahl had done a good job prioritizing the contracts. There were a few that Ranger felt were not worth it and noted his reasoning on the notes Jude left him. If something like this happened again, it was clear there needed to be someone to help make these calls.

At one point Ranger looked up to see Jude asleep against his bed. He felt significantly better, no bone pain, no headache, nothing that he could attribute to his fight. Considering himself healed, Ranger removed the IV. It restricted his arm.

A nurse came in while Ranger was finishing up with the contracts and had a minor freakout when she saw Ranger had removed his IV. She left after it was clear arguing with Ranger was getting nowhere. When she returned a doctor was with her and he was saying they needed that in so they could give him the contrast for a CT scan. They didn’t want him to leave without one last check since he had a brain injury.

Ranger relented and let them stick him again to get it done with.

A nurse prepared a spot on one of Ranger’s large veins in his arm and pressed the needle in. The skin stretched, but wouldn’t break. She pressed again. She pressed so hard the needle bent, but it wouldn’t go through. This caused a minor uproar. Several nurses and a few needles later they gave up. A specialist in mutant related medicine spoke to Ranger. That was less than productive since his power didn’t affect skin.

They let Ranger leave, but made him sit in a wheelchair after he was dressed. Hospital rule, you have to leave in a wheelchair. And a nurse or orderly had to push it. Ranger wanted to fight this, but relented. Getting out sooner meant not arguing. So he sat in a chair and let them wheel him out. As he rode he texted Noel to let her know he was leaving the hospital.

Outside the hospital the Ranger rose from the wheelchair. Tedward pulled up in one of the black SUVs that Blac-Tac operated. Ranger and Jude piled in. Ranger made a note in his phone, Jude was for sure getting a raise after all this.