He couldn't help but move and make sounds when she pulled the sweater around him. It wasn't an open wound. But any pressure was too much. Any movement. She apologized. He refrained from claiming how fine he was, but only just.

"I'm no Bo." Would he always have to remind her of that? It wasn't a promise that he wouldn't fall asleep, but he would try. How would DocProf ever find them? They'd walked here with the specific purpose that they didn't want to be found on accident. Now that was translating to the fact that they would just plain old be hard to find.

>>"I'm no Bo."

"I know" she chuckled softly "I know."

That was a fact that was kind of hard to miss.

"All right." she sighed, thinking about the story "I never told stories in English, so don't laugh at me, okay?"

She lied. It would have been okay if he laughed. It was still better than the painful coughing...

"So, once upon a time, there was a princess. A Chinese princess. And she told her father that the only thing she wanted was a blue rose. She told him she was going to marry the man who gave her a blue rose. But there were no blue roses in the kingdom, because there is no such thing as a blue rose."

She smiled, peering down at him to see if he was listening.

"So, this one man, he went to a flower shop and told them he wanted a blue rose and he would pay for it with gold. And they took a white rose, and put it in paint, the way kids do it, right? And waited till it turned blue, and then sold it to the man for gold."

She shifted a little bit, and made sure the jacket kept Jude warm. Ish.

"So he took the rose to the princess, and she picked it up, and saw that paint was dripping from it. And she said the rose was a fake, and she didn't want it. And she sent the man away.

Then, another man came and he gave her a vase with a blue rose painted on it. He thought that was as good as a real one. And the princess took the vase and said she was going to put the real blue rose in it when she gets one. And she didn't marry him either."

It would take Doc forever to get here, even if he breaks all the rules...

"So there was this boy who worked in the gardens, and he really liked the princess. So he went and told her he was going to give her a blue rose. But she had to wait for him in the blue room. The palace had a red room, and a green room, and all kinds of colors, so she went and waited in the blue room. And he came in, and he had a white rose in his hands, but the windows were blue and the light was blue and the rose was blue. And the people grew angry and they said he cheated and the rose was white. But the princess smiled and she said 'that rose is blue.' And she married him. Happily ever after."

It was an interesting choice for a story. Hadn't she said something about a chinese princess when he brought those horrible blue roses for her? "I wonder how zey made zose blue ones I gave you?" Not paint, he had run all over with them and none had smudged off.

And was the white rose seen as blue because she liked the garden boy better? Or because of something else? The vase thing had been clever. Better than the lame paint guy.

"Do you ever sink you'll get married?" His sentences were still spaced oddly as breathing permitted, but some things were worth the asking.

>>"Do you ever sink you'll get married?"

Sveta chuckled. Might was well keep talking.

"All de time" she nodded "You know I was a bride when I came to the USA? I thought I was going to marry a rich American guy and den live happily ever after."

Duh, it sounded stupid the moment she said it. But it was true. Which, in a way, made it even more stupid.

"Well, turns out, I couldn't touch him, he was a mutant. So, I stayed. Ever since then, thinking about marrying just feels kind of... dangerous."

She chuckled again. Yeah. Marriage. Dangerous, dangerous thing.

Jude thought it went without saying that he would marry her... so long as she could stand to touch him, anyway. Not that he had thought it through at all really. In the future, he'd never even wanted to marry. Now it seemed like an option... maybe.

"Dog or cat?" He could keep this up for as long as they needed s long as he didn't pass out. "Kids?"

>>"Dog or cat? Kids?"

She blinked, and then chuckled softly. Jude was talking, and asking questions. That was good. That meant he was at least half distracted.

"Dog." she decided after a few seconds "Something big and fuzzy to watch the house."

And protect the family. That's what dogs do.

"Umm, kids... sure." she nodded "I mean, once I have a husband and all. I think I'd like kids."

She looked down at Jude.

"How about you?"

"Oh I don't want a husband." His eyelids were drooping. She was so comfortable to be around.

"I don't sink I'm mature enough for a kid of my own." Not yet anyway. He was hardly responsible enough for himself. Coming out here alone with Svetlana had seemed like such a good idea. He had such high hopes for developing her control.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to practice."

>>"Oh I don't want a husband... I don't sink I'm mature enough for a kid of my own."

She laughed at that. At least he had his sense of humor. A great help in times like this. And she did not feel mature enough for a kid either. Talking about that... hm. Maybe later. Definitely later.

>>"I'm sorry you didn't get to practice."

She chuckled softly and rested her cheek against his forehead.

"Are you kidding?" she smiled "I did not get to say dis before the deer, but. Wow."

Wow being a good one-word summary of her thoughts that were slowly wandering away from the deer crisis and back in time.

He probably turned redder than he already was. It did nothing to improve his wooziness. So she wasn't ashamed or think it was a mistake? He probably could have guessed that since she was still here talking to him., but admittedly his brain was a bit addled.

Svetlana drifted off into a pleasant silence and so did Jude. A pleasant, uncomfortable, freezing cold silence that was somehow made more pleasant by the fact that Svetlana was here. "I'd do it again." Too far? Maybe. But what was she gonna do, hit him?

Jude froze in place suddenly (not that he'd been moving much before). Did he hear something? Or was he just hopeful?

>>"I'd do it again."

She chuckled and looked down at him.

"Get healed first." she huffed, rolling her eyes. She was not really mad though.

She heard something too. Lifting her head, she looked around.

"Wait here." she said, as if he could move; making sure he could sit on his own, she picked up the flashlight and walked towards the sound.

"Doc?..."

"You have some serious explaining to do, young lady." DocProf was almost cute in his white doctor's coat that was wrapped in a bath robe that was wrapped in a neon orange puffy ski jacket. But the doctor was never one to delay. His large flashlight fell on the crater and its inhabitant and he clucked his tongue.

He never bothered to ask what happened. He just pushed up his sleeves, yanked off his glove and went in for the touch. His power would tell him.

Jude just tried not to move and tried even harder not to look guilty of something. DocProf went first for the arm that hung at an odd angle. He warned that it would hurt and that it would be okay to cry out, but it was really the loud CRACK that made Jude want to throw up. His voice echoed around the empty woods and far away a distant animal answered.

DocProf's power did tell him how it happened. It told him, "Moose? He shook his head and got back to work before something healed that shouldn't. He liked to leave little reminders that would help people learn that there were still consequences in this world. Cruel? No. He considered it an insurance policy that kids wouldn't go running right back out and getting hurt again. A little pain would be a reminder to look out for danger.

At first the healing went fast, a combo of a boost on DocProf's heal. As Jude's power started to transition to copy the healer's power, his boost faded and the double caffeine jitters calmed to just a single shot. His nose was the first visible sign that this wasn't just torture. It deflated and left a fabulously developed bruise in its place. Next the arm, a ring of bruising around the shoulder and a wicked mark at the wrist.

His ribs mottled with many colors, but once those were healed he was able to sit up more comfortably. By the end Jude was grinning and DocProf was the one that needed to sit down.

"Did you come by car?"

The good doctor nodded as Jude moved to smooth his hair down. Finally. Stupid moose. He even slipped his arms properly into his shirt and sweater and covered up all those nice, new bruises. He was moving tenderly, but he was moving a lot better than before.

"Can you drive, Svetty?"

>>"You have some serious explaining to do, young lady."

Oh, she knew. She had a LOT of serious explaining to do. Most of it she had to start by explaining to herself. The rest of the world came after.

She watched and winced as Jude cried out, biting her lips. She almost felt the pain. But the bruises and wounds did start to look better, and the coffee buzz disappeared; Jude copied the healing power. That looked useful. Also, harder to overboost.

Once the healing was done, Sveta let out a breath she had been holding. Jude looked a lot better. Definitely alive. And Doc looked exhausted.

>>"Can you drive, Svetty?"

She nodded. She was a well-trained Russian bride, after all.

"Yes." she held out a hand to DocProf to help him up. "Thank you so much..."

DocProf frowned at the hand, but did accept it in the end. He even accepted Jude holding one of his arms and helping him along. "No more late night moose hunts."[/b] He tried for menacing but he was far too tired for that.

Jude exchanged a glance with Svetlana. Moose hunts. Yeah. He scooped up the doc's flashlight and Svetlana had theirs... they seemed all set. Weird that their little clearing of forest looked the same after they left, plus one crater. Shouldn't it have been something more after all of that?

"I don't drive." He watched their feet as they made their way through the underbrush. It had seemed like such a short walk out there, now it seemed like forever until DocProf was able to steer them to the car. Even then they took a few wrong turns. Not that there were a lot of cars around, but there were a lot of trees and after a while they all start to look alike.

"Will you stay at ze Mansion tonight?" DocProf insisted on taking up the entire backseat so that he could sleep. Jude slipped into the passenger side and tossed the keys to Svetlana.

It was a long time before they found the car, but it did not seem like eternity. They were on their way home, healed (more or less) and safe. Sveta almost smiled.

>>"Will you stay at ze Mansion tonight?"

She shrugged as the turned the keys and started the car.

"Probably" she said after a few moments of musing "We need to take Doc home and I don't have my own car. It's late."

Or early. Depending how you look at it.

"I don't like staying at the Mansion" she admitted "Too many mutants around. But I don't want to wake up Aurum either. Or Ami."

Not like she would necessarily need to wake them up to go home. But. They would notice. And that would mean more questions.

She glanced at Jude once they found the way back onto the road and out of the park.

"Where do you stay?"

"I haven't been back to ze Mansion in a while." Not since he'd become a mutant. It would be more of an inconvenience for him, but the Mansion would be a test of control. He wasn't sure what that would be like sleeping there, but it couldn't be worse than what had already happened tonight.

Jude rubbed his eyes tiredly. Now he was really glad to have waited for DocProf. "The Fortune Teller's Shop. Zere are a couple of us withs no where else to go." Or at least none of them wanted to go home.

The frenchman heard a little hurrumph from the back seat but chose to ignore the peanut gallery.

"I sought about staying at the apartment... in case zey come back." But really it was better for him to be available at a moment's notice so they could run off and save the world.

Maybe the car trip was shorter than the train ride or maybe Jude took a long blink in there somewhere, but it didn't seem like too long before they were pulling up to the Mansion gates.