5:02 AM
The alarm is beeping. Cecilia Reyes wakes up. It’s been only six days – 144 hours – 8640 minutes – since she became a reluctant new member of the X-Men. She’s still not used to waking up from an uneasy sleep in unfamiliar surroundings. But this morning holds the promise of something different for Dr. Reyes, that she can reweave the reality that her heart desires most.
5:12 AM
Cecilia is brushing her teeth in the bathroom. “Man, who does your hair, Cecilia? Hurricane Melba?” she thinks as she inspects them on the mirror. She realizes that no one on Our Mother of Mercy Hospital is going to be looking at her hair, anyway… they’ll all be too busy gawking at the rest of her mutant self.
5:14 AM
“As if being a mutant makes me any different than anyone else,” Cecilia thinks as she walks inside the mansion. That’s what the X-Men would have her believe, but that’s all the more reason to ditch this place and get back to her real life… if she can. Besides, all the X-Men are about is fighting. She can’t risk her hands.
Suddenly, she bumps into Storm. Ororo tells her it’s very early. Cecilia agrees but notes that Storm is also up. Ororo explains she awaits the sun’s return. She is curious about Cecilia, though: it looks as if she is leaving. Cecilia stresses she is. It’s nothing personal. She appreciates everything she and the X-Men have done for her these past few days but she’s a doctor. She belongs in a hospital where she can do some good. Ororo retorts that what Cecilia has done here is not trifling. Without her, Cyclops, the very heart of this team, would have died.
Cecilia tells her to consider this her payback for Iceman saving her skin at the hospital. Ororo retorts that the X-Men owe each other nothing, save for respect and Cecilia has earned hers. She tells Cecilia to leave if she must, but only if she must. She is welcome here, and more than that, she is needed. They may not have much to offer her at the moment, but they still have much to offer the world – and that is a “good” precious few can provide.
5:28 AM
In the kitchen, Wolverine greets Cecilia. “Yeah, morning… uh… Wolverine,” Cecilia greets back. Suddenly curious about the origins of his name, she asks him if he went to the University of Michigan. Wolverine is negative: what he knows he’s learned… around. He urges her to call him “Logan” if it’s easier. Cecilia asks him if there’s a phone here she can call a cab with. Drake said he’d ice-slide her into the city, but he’s still unconscious and she doesn’t want to wake him.
Seeing the bag she carries in her back, Logan notes that’s a pretty big purse she’s toting there. He wonders if she’s going for long. Cecilia explains she’s heading out. “Where to?” Wolverine asks her. Back to her world, Cecilia replies. She doesn’t know what she was thinking, but this isn’t and can’t be her life. “Why not?” Logan retorts. She’s a mutant, same as them. Cecilia is aware she is, but her force-field ability isn’t really useful. She’d wind up being more of a detriment than anything if she stayed. It’s better that she just goes back and tries to salvage her own life.
Logan stresses that this mansion is also a school and everyone in here has learned how to handle themselves here. “No thanks,” Cecilia replies. She’s already done enough course work to last a lifetime. Wolverine insists she could do a lot of good. Cecilia assures him she will and asks him about the phone again. Wolverine grabs his jacket and offers to take her himself. Cab would cost her a fortune from out here. Cecilia thought they didn’t have cars here. Wolverine replies they don’t. However, he got up early this morning and called in a few favors he was due.
5:40 AM
Cecilia is riding on Wolverine’s motorcycle, holding onto him, his driving style making her uneasy. She asks him to take it easy. She’s seen a lot of nasty head injuries on careless motorcycle riders. Wolverine retorts he’s never careless. He’s just trying to make good time for her. Cecilia points out that he doesn’t have a helmet and she’d rather not have his cranium as her first patient today. Besides, she’s not really in a hurry. She’s sure they’re not expecting her today… or any day, so time’s not an issue. Logan argues she should have got up at noon. Cecilia reminds him what they say about old habits…
Cecilia suddenly listens to herself, talking like they’re old buddies from the ‘hood, like she knows this guy. But she doesn’t. All she was doing was her job, when one of her patients, a patient who had just died, sat up and attacked her. It turned out he was a Sentinel, sent to kill mutants, sent to kill her. Then, Bobby Drake, Iceman, swept in to re-extend an offer she’d turned down some time before – an offer to join the X-Men. She feels it was like going to the White House as a tourist and being appointed to the Cabinet. The next thing she knows, she’s some kind of ‘superwoman,’ on the run from a paramilitary organization intent on eradicating people like her. She survived the ordeal… but can she ever go back to the way things were before?
7:02 AM
As the ride reaches its end, Cecilia thinks that if the heroes have all come back, then what the world needs is another doctor, not another hero, doesn’t it? “Doc…?” Wolverine’s voice returns her to reality. Logan asks her if she’s still in there or that helmet of hers is too tight! He tells her they’re here, at Our Mother of Mercy Hospital, South Bronx, door-to-door service. “Will that be cash or credit card today?” he jokes. Cecilia tells him to put it in her tab, and when she gets done paying off med school in two or fifty years, she’ll settle up with him. Logan tells her to forget it. He’ll comp her this one for saving Scotty’s life. Cecilia thanks him.
Looking at the hospital entrance, she wonders: what now? She was confident this morning. Why she is suddenly worried about what the people inside will think when…? Logan interrupts her. He knows what she’s thinking. He asks her to listen up: X-Man or not, part of being a mutant or being a different ethnicity or being a woman in a male-dominated field is not to roll over and play dead. She shouldn’t let this world pretend she doesn’t exist. She just has to show them her difference doesn’t make much of a difference. And she can always come back to them if she finds out this isn’t going to work. Cecilia insists she’s going to make it work. “Do that,” Logan encourages her and takes off. Cecilia believes that chapter’s closed. Now, she contemplates two options: she can run away and spare herself the ridicule or she can walk inside and start the clock of her future running again. What’s it going to be?
7:10 AM
Cecilia finally musters the courage to walk inside the hospital.
8:15 AM
Cecilia is waiting outside Dr. Gibbons’ office. Finally, the doctor comes out and apologizes for keeping her waiting. Cecilia tells him it’s all right. She managed to find out what happened in People magazine… three years ago. She’s surprised: no magazine budget, even for the chief of stuff? Gibbons admits there’s no budget for anything at this hospital these days. He asks her to step inside.
8:21 AM
Cecilia finishes her story. She has revealed to Dr. Gibbons who she is, where she was and why. No bull, just the facts. Gibbons realizes she’s risking a lot by telling him that. Cecilia stresses she wants to be a doctor. He has to be able to trust her for that to happen. She is a mutant. She can’t change that. Honestly, she doesn’t even know how to even initiate her powers, so she can’t imagine they could threaten a patient’s life.
Gibbons claims he has no real problems with mutants. He thinks all the hysteria is just media-fuelled hype. He’s a doctor. He understands it’s basic genetics and that no mutant has control over what their genes say about how they’re born. “But…?” Cecilia exclaims, waiting for the counterargument. But the fact is, not everyone is so understanding, Gibbons argues. And his staff is counted on to save lives. Her being “out” as it were could attract intention. And if some “super-villain” comes to his hospital looking for her, then she becomes a threat rather than an asset.
Cecilia insists she won’t be a threat. And as far as coping with the staff now that they know, she’s lived the past few years as a Puerto Rican woman, in the middle of a bunch of white male doctors. She knows how to handle herself around bigots. Besides, this job is who she is. She gave everything to be a doctor. She won’t lose that now. She can’t. Gibbons stares at her for a moment and then finally shakes her hand, conceding: they’ll try it. If things stay calm in here, she’s on board. If not, he’ll have to let her go. That’s all he can offer at the moment. Cecilia argues that then that will have to do until she can prove it to him.
9:43 AM
Above the skies of Eastern Canada, Cyclops and Phoenix, both recently self-removed from the X-Men, are on the second of three planes to carry them to their new lives. Jean asks Scott how he’s doing. Scott replies he’s holding together. So far, a little pain, but he’s always got little pains. Jean argues that getting away from it all is exactly what he needs. She telepathically tells him that even without Bastion’s nanotech bomb in his abdomen, she’s surprised he hasn’t given himself an ulcer over all these years of conflict and hardship. But he can relax now. A few more connections and they’ll be back in Anchorage in no time, she adds out loud.
“What part of Anchorage?” a woman sitting right across the corridor asks her. Jean explains it’s a little area called Ptarmigan Creek. The woman is enthused: they’re Creekers?! No way, they’re too! She introduces herself as Staci Murphy. Sitting next to her is her husband, Chris. Jean introduces herself and her husband, when suddenly she lets out a cry of pain and grabs her head, as she senses the presence of a being that is contained in a box in the luggage department of the plane.
Trying to recover, Jean apologizes. It’s a migraine… sudden… she gets a lot of them. Staci goes to see if she can get a Tylenol from the flight attendant. Scott asks Jean what it was. That’s no headache; is she reading something telepathically? Jean doesn’t know… she can’t tell… but something in this plane wants to kill… Suddenly, she shrieks yet again, as she senses the being’s presence.
10:10 AM
Cecilia and two fellow surgeons are preparing for an operation. One of them, Carasso, asks her if she’s met Bernard. Cecilia remembers him: they met during prospective intern day. She’s glad to see that Bernard – Dr. Soto – made it out of the pack. She asks them to tell her about the patient. Carasso gives the facts: high white cell count and instantaneous lower right quad pain, so… So, emergency appendectomy, Cecilia immediately concludes. It sounds like they drew an easy morning. “Amen to that,” Bernard agrees. “Shall we gentlemen?” Cecilia says, urging them to start.
10:18 AM
The doctors, fully prepared, enter the operating room. Cecilia thinks this is easy; almost too easy. Maybe she didn’t wake up yet; someone should pinch her. Carasso wonders who’s taking this; Cecilia? Cecilia replies she will take it if he doesn’t want it. It’s hers, then, her colleague replies. Cecilia asks the anesthesiologist, Anthony, how’s the gas. Anesthetizing the patient, Anthony tells her that prep was slowly getting the patient in here, so they’re still a few minutes away from having him under. No problem, Cecilia tells him – he can just say when. “When,” a voice behind her exclaims. Cecilia turns around to see her colleague, Wallace. She asks him what he’s doing here. Carasso is assisting her on…
Wallace informs her she’s being pulled. Gibbons wants to talk to her outside. “What?” an indignant Cecilia exclaims. He can’t… Wallace cuts her shot and pleads her not to shoot the messenger. He’s just telling her like it was told to him. Enraged, Cecilia mumbles this cannot be happening. She warns Wallace not to even open the patient until he’s heard back from her. Wallace tells her not to get angry at him, this is her thing. Cecilia nods.
10:30 AM
A furious Cecilia asks him what’s this; this is her surgery in there. “Cecilia, don’t…” Gibbons tiredly mutters. Cecilia, however, keeps on: he tells her he’s going to give her a chance and then yanks her before she can even start to pull herself? Gibbons explains it wasn’t his call. It was the family’s call. The people sitting on a bench right beside her. At loss, Cecilia wonders why. The victim’s mother replies it’s because they don’t want a known mutant operating on their son. Gibbons reminds the victims’ parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carter, that Dr. Reyes is perfectly qualified to… Mr. Carter insists it’s nothing against her personally, they just don’t like mutants.
“You ignorant…” Cecilia hisses. Gibbons holds her arm and tries to calm her down. Cecilia angrily confronts him: what gives him the right to just broadcast that she is a mutant to the entire world? His telling them is a violation of her privacy! Gibbons replies it wasn’t him. Cecilia starts rambling again, before she pauses realizing what he said. Gibbons reiterates it wasn’t him. They were told by someone on her team. Shocked, Cecilia looks at them through the operating room window. But… they were so nice… she mumbles at loss, as her colleagues shoot at her with animosity.
10:35 AM
Crossing the hospital corridors, Cecilia thinks that she was definitely not dreaming this part of the day. She just wanted someone to pinch her; she didn’t want them to stick their foot all the way up her… Her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a woman who begs her to help her! Cecilia argues they don’t want their help. The woman screams about her son. Cecilia apologizes but she can’t take unassigned cases. The woman argues he’s waiting for so long! She points at him, sitting at the corner and moaning. The young man’s father asks Cecilia if she can help them.
Cecilia asks what’s wrong, when suddenly the young man collapses to the floor. His robe falls off, revealing gunshot wounds on his abdomen. Cecilia quickly asks a nurse to get her an emergency bay cleared and prepped – and get a cart over here, now! She examines the unconscious man: weak pulse; two G.S.W.’s. They’re going to need blood. She tells the nurse to get a type run as soon as he’s in; Cecilia herself will scrub.
10:48 AM
Cecilia removes the bullets from the man’s body. She tells her assistant surgeon, Nancy, that she will never understand man’s capacity to inflict pain on his fellow man… or woman, for that matter. That’s the last slug she just removed; she asks Nancy to clean this up and sew him shut.
11:48 AM
Cecilia commends Nancy on her work. Nancy thanks her and reciprocates the compliment. Cecilia asks her to tell someone out there that he still needs his paperwork. She’s taking lunch if there’re any loose ends. Nancy tells her to enjoy it.
12:00 NOON
Lunchtime. The hospital cafeteria is crowded with members of the staff. Cecilia carries her tray and approaches a table where one of her colleagues, Luis, tells a funny story to other staffers. She asks them if they mind her pulling up, but they all ignore her. Luis narrates how they ran a CT on the fool’s – a patient’s – stomach and he had swallowed it. “No way!” his colleague laughs. Luis insists they still got the film; it’s going in the hall of shame! The third doctor is at loss: he swallowed a spoon eating his spoon? What’d he choose? Luis explains he chose the surgery because…
Because he didn’t want to know the other way to get it out, Cecilia finishes the story. Luis is visibly displeased: they didn’t know she was back. He asks her if she brought any Sentinels with her. Cecilia asks him what’s that supposed to mean. The other doctor tells her that if she’s a mutant, that’s really the kind of thing she should have told people from the start. They’re all endangered by that. An angry Luis tells him that Reyes doesn’t care anymore. She’s homo “superior” now. No longer human. He stands up and announces he’s got to do some sutures. Cecilia asks him what he’s talking about. The others don’t even bother to answer as they leave the table, mumbling about their own stuff.
12:08 PM
Cecilia is having lunch. She is alone in her table.
12:36 PM
Cecilia is at her office, when suddenly her colleague, a smiling Lilly bursts in. Lilly heard she was back. Cecilia is excited to see a friendly face. Or is she assuming too much? Lilly realizes she means about all that chaos that happened. She stresses that chaos finds everybody some time or another – she should’ve seen her prom night! She blabbers that Dr. Gorman and that new intern, Kelly, have got a romance going, Dr. Chavez is getting audited and a missed aneurysm’s going to mean a big old malpractice suit for Matthias; she isn’t the only one with a skeleton in her closet here!
Cecilia retorts that even though she’s thankful for some normal conversation, she’s never been into gossip. Lilly stresses that she wants her to know that everybody’s got something they wish people didn’t know. But people do – and guess what? They still work with them anyhow and they still make it through the day just the same.
Moved, Cecilia thanks her when suddenly a nurse storms in, informing her that Dr. Loran needs her in Trauma Number 4 immediately! Cecilia is surprised: Loran hated her before she came out as a mutant. Why does he want her? The nurse replies that Loran said she’s the only one who might help. Dropping her pen in the air, an excited Cecilia exclaims “Well, finally!” A doctor willing to look past his own prejudices and just accept her for her skills. Maybe there is hope for this world, after all.
12:50 PM
Cecilia enters the operating room. Surprisingly, the patient is the costumed villain Pyro, who is strapped on the table, screaming with pain, his body engulfed in perpetual fire. Dr. Loran is relieved to see her and asks her to do something. One of the nurses is using the fire extinguisher on Pyro but it’s not working! Cecilia tells him to stop it! The nurse retorts that Dr. Loran said… Cecilia doesn’t care what Loran said: it’s going to make the floor so slick they won’t be able to stand up in here. She urges him to go get a fire blanket from the hall locker. In the room are also two policemen, whom Cecilia asks to wait outside.
Moaning with pain, Pyro retorts that blanket won’t help. This is who he is and what he does. His name’s Pyro and since he got the Legacy Virus, he does it even more. He’s already in one flippin’ minority just for being a mutant. Now he has to get a disease that makes him even more of an outcast? How fair is that?
Cecilia realizes his being a mutant is the only reason she was asked. Angry, she asks Loran what this is all about. Loran explains there’re multiple gunshot wounds in the abdomen and… Cecilia cuts him short: he knows what she means. He only asked for her because she’s a mutant and he was afraid of his patient. She asks Pyro how he was shot. He explains that he robbed a bank for money to pay a scientist who says he can take away mutant genes. Loran retorts that’s not possible. “Don’t bloody say that!” Pyro screams and flames up, causing a frightened Loran to back off.
Loran wonders how they can even get his vital signs or run tests with him in this condition. The old-fashioned way doctors used to do it, Cecilia replies: they’ll talk to him. She instructs Loran to see about getting some goggles on. Pyro tells her it’s usually no problem: he can control the flame enough that bullets melt before they hit him. This time, though, his flaky power just heated them up – and now it hurts! Cecilia suggests that the heat may have cauterized the slugs and done less damage; they’d better see. Pyro warns her to be careful; she might get burned. Cecilia decides she’ll take that chance. Upon touching the fire enshrouding Pyro’s body, her protective bio-field is automatically triggered. Pyro is surprised: she’s a mutie, too!
Cecilia asks him if there’s any way he can lower his temperature. She’s so sweating so much she can’t see, which is going to make these extractions tough. Pyro apologizes but he doesn’t generate heat himself – he manipulates the flames. Cecilia realizes that means they’ve got no way to anesthetize him either. Gas would blow, needle filament would melt. She warns him to get ready to bite the bullet – hard. At that moment the fire alarms are activated. Cecilia hopes that maybe they’ll cool down these forceps and extracts the first bullet. Pyro screams.
1:24 PM
Cecilia removes her mask. She explains she closed the wounds with adhesive clue. Loran wonders if will melt through that. Good question, Cecilia agrees, but she’s on new ground here herself. She thanks him for assisting; he was good under the heat.
1:27 PM
A nurse asks Cecilia where they’re taking Pyro. Cecilia tells him that cat-scan room on the first floor has cement walls. He can keep Pyro there until they can think of something better. She also advises him not to even dream of wheeling him past oxygen tanks in the way. Pyro thanks her. He knows she may think he’s not worth it, but he appreciates what she’s done for him. “Sure, Pyro, no problem,” Cecilia replies.
Outside the operation room, one of the policemen tells her they can’t leave Pyro here; he’s a criminal. Cecilia stresses that, at the moment, he’s her patient and he just came out of a major surgery. They get a warrant and give her an assurance he’s going to be taken care off until he can stand trial, and then she’ll let him go. Meantime, they can guard him here. Gibbons retorts that’s against hospital policy. “What, Gibbons? Helping someone?” Cecilia scoffs. Did they forget what it is they do here? She demands they let Pyro recuperate a little and then they’ll turn him over to the authorities. Gibbons angrily realizes he’s one of her type and she takes care of her own. “My type?” Cecilia growls. Unless Gibbons wants her to draw some very real discrimination charges, he’d better watch what he says. Pyro rests here and that’s that. Explaining she still has three days work to finish in the next four hours, she leaves.
1:55 PM
A Lower West Side waterfront
Two dock warehouse workers finish unloading the cargo of a ship. One of them hopes that this crate they just unloaded is the last for this “Kevin Plunder” character. His colleague confirms it: the big one was the last. All the way from Antarctica this stuff. The other man wonders who even lives down there. His colleague doesn’t know but he knows who picked up the last shipment: some hot redheaded babe! He suggests they take those small ones in and set the clock running on her next pickup call! As the two men exit the warehouse, a strange being of green skin and glowing eyes breaks free from the wooden crate.
2:11 PM
“Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for rollerblading, Mrs. Taylor,” Cecilia tells a patient of hers who has broken both her legs. She’s just wondering where she went from “I think I’ll try” to “I think I’ll try to jump that barrel.”
2:18 PM
Mrs. Deagostino asks Cecilia if they should consider euthanasia for her husband. Cecilia stresses that she asks her that every day. Her answer is negative: she can’t mercy-kill her husband. He doesn’t want to be euthanized. From his bed, Mr. Deagostino angrily explains that his wife is trying to snuff him for his insurance!
2:34 PM
Cecilia shoves a patient back into his room. The patient retorts he needs his exercise. Cecilia stresses he’s supposed to be resting. And if she catches him peeking into the women’s locker room again, he’ll need more rest, because she’s going to order him catheterized, whether he wants or not!
2:37 PM
Unaware that she is being stalked by the hero Daredevil, Cecilia tells a hospitalized boy that steroids will do him a lot more harm than good. Though if he stops now, it shouldn’t be a problem. The boy asks her if she’s going to tell his mom. Cecilia has a deal for him: promise he’ll stop and it’ll be their little secret.
2:47 PM
A patient refuses to take pills from her. He heard she’s a mutie. “So?” Cecilia retorts – she’s also a doctor. The man insists he wants no mutie doctor. Cecilia venomously replies that if her liver looked like his, she’d want any kind of doctor that she thought could save her life. She urges him to hush up and take the pills.
3:01 PM
Cleaning the wounds of the battered Miss Robinski, Cecilia tells her that she doesn’t have to press any charges. She can let her boyfriend get off free and then she can come back here in four months to be fitted for a cast, and then she come back again in six months to be fitted for a coffin…
3:20 PM
Walking in the corridors, Cecilia recalls the phrase that patient used: “Mutie doctor.” She wonders where people get these screwed-up prejudices. It’s like some big, stupid monster just reaches out from nowhere and grabs…
Suddenly, an arm grabs her, startling her. The hero Daredevil appears before her and tells her he’s been watching her and needs a word with her. Cecilia is irked: she doesn’t know who elected her the Mother Theresa of the supervillain crowd but just because she got outed as a mutant does not mean it’s open season on Cecilia Reyes! She is not a hero and she will not be defined by whose butt she can kick. So he can just take his Devil outfit and…
Daredevil is surprised: villain? He’s a hero. Hasn’t she heard of him? “A hero?” Cecilia scoffs. Has he seen his get-up lately? Regardless, if he’s here for his super-union dues, she has loans that will last until she’s gray-haired like her grandma. She suggests he closes up the recruiting office and move along. Daredevil, however, was hoping she could help him with his wound. Removing his shirt, he reveals a gunshot wound on one of his sides. Cecilia sees it’s a nasty one. She asks him what he did. Daredevil replies he leaped into harm’s way. “And I see that ‘harm’ won,” she quips.
Putting her medical gloves on, she realizes it’s her turn to keep the good karma wheel spinning and help the heroes return. She asks him to take off his clothes. “What?” a flabbergasted Daredevil exclaims. Cecilia thinks she said it in plain English: he must take off his clothes – especially that mask; and hurry up! Daredevil demurs he can’t take off his costume. It conceals his true identity. Cecilia points out that, first of all, he knows her identity, and turnabout is fair play. Second, red superhero costumes do not blend in here and, third, if anyone walks in and sees her treating him, her career is over. She reiterates that he takes his clothes off, now. He’s just going to have to trust her on this. Besides, she took an oath. If he’s Elvis Presley under that mask, she still has to keep it to herself. She urges him to get undressed and tell her what this mess she’s looking at is, and how it got this far before he came to a doctor.
Removing his clothes, Daredevil explains it’s a gunshot wound. It was healing, but it got infected. Cecilia quips she can see that. She touches the wound, causing Daredevil to release a stentorian “Ouch!” Cecilia is baffled by his response: isn’t he supposed to be a hero? Daredevil retorts they’re all just normal people under their uniforms. He asks her what her power is. Cecilia wonders what makes him think she has one and tells him to sit up on the table.
Daredevil reminds her that she said she is a mutant. Cecilia retorts that doesn’t mean she has a power, it means she has a mutation. He probably thinks that every idiot savant is charming and cuddly like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, too. She tells him to sit. Daredevil asks her about her power again; turnabout’s fair play. If he must know… force-field, Cecilia replies. “Offensive or defensive?” Daredevil asks her. Cecilia doesn’t know, she can’t control it either way. ‘Kind of snaps up by itself now and then? Probably defensive,” Daredevil conjectures. He asks her what she’s going to do.
Cecilia replies she’s going to clean his wound before she realizes what he meant. She replies she will do nothing. She’s going to practice medicine until she’s an old woman and then she’s going to learn how to make empanadas as good as her auntie’s. Daredevil insists she shouldn’t waste her gift. She’s a doctor, a great doctor at that. Like he said, he was watching her. Cecilia waits for the “but” sentence. Daredevil delivers: but there are a lot more doctors in the world than people with power of any kind. As a physician, she saves lives one at a time, but – and he doesn’t mean this in a boastful way – he’s saved the entire city in one fell swoop before; thousands of lives in a heartbeat. Something to consider, he concludes.
Cecilia decides they finish this and tells him she’ll sneak him down some antibiotics, find some street clothes and get him out of here so she can follow up on her fellow patients. She tells him to hold his breath; this may hurt a little. “Oww!” Daredevil shrieks as she cleans his wound. “Did I say a little?” she quips.
4:39 PM
Cecilia asks Mrs. Carter how her son is. She replies he’s fine. Embarrassed, she hopes Cecilia didn’t take what she said earlier personally. Cecilia retorts she did but she still wanted to make sure her son was okay. “Take care,” she wishes.
4:50 PM
The shot boy’s mother hugs Cecilia and thanks her; she saved their boy! Cecilia is glad. That’s what she’s here for. “Bless you! Bless you!” the woman exclaims.
5:00 PM
Cecilia enters the room where Pyro is being kept and notices that his flames are more controlled. She takes it he’s feeling better? Pyro moans he is. Still some pain, but there’s always pain with the bloody virus on him. Cecilia tells him she made a call to NYU. They’re researching immuno-viruses there. They might be able to…
“Be a guinea pig? Never,” Pyro rejects her proposal. But since he is under guard and incapacitated, he was hoping she could loosen his straps a touch; they hurt. Cecilia is hesitant: how does she know she can trust him? How could he betray her? Pyro retorts. She believed in him, saved his life, got him this humane respite where no else would have bothered. As one human being to another, he begs her. Cecilia hopes he won’t make her regret this and loosens his straps.
As soon as she completes her move, Pyro jumps up. “Hey…!” Cecilia shouts. Pyro apologizes but advises her to never, ever trust a villain; they’ll say anything. He cheerfully thanks her for the fix-up! Cecilia begs him to come back here! He’ll cost her her job if… Pyro retorts she’s a natural! She’ll find another! “Ta ta!” he sees her off as he escapes, breaking through the window.
5:28 PM
Cecilia enters Gibbons’ office and asks him if he’s got a minute. She wants to talk to him about Pyro. Gibbons is pleased: they’re on the same page. He knows why she’s come. Cecilia is surprised: he does? Already? Gibbons believes he does. He found out that Pyro’s carrying the Legacy Virus. She operated and exposed herself to a primarily mutant antigen. And now she’s worried and wants him out of here as much as he does. Is he right? Not even close, Cecilia replies. She came to tell him that Pyro’s no longer an issue.
“He’s... dead?” Gibbons mutters. Cecilia hems and haws that she loosened his straps and he escaped. “What?!” Gibbons rages. He announces she’s fired! Cecilia figured as much; she’ll skip the details then. Gibbons assures her she can tell them to the police on her way out. That’s fine, Cecilia retorts – this isn’t the only place she’s needed.
5:55 PM
Cecilia leaves the hospital.
8:10 PM
In the entrance of the mansion, Cecilia is welcomed home by Wolverine, who’s smoking a cigar. Logan thought she might be back; didn’t think it’d be today. Cecilia half-heartedly admits that it is – back for good, it seems. She hopes they didn’t rent her room yet. Logan assures her it’s all hers. Good, she replies – and then advises him to step aside and put out that cigar. Things’ll kill him, in case he hasn’t heard.
8:12 PM
In the interior of the mansion, Cecilia comes across Storm. Ororo is pleased that she has chosen to remain with them. Cecilia isn’t so sure it was her choice, but so is she. She thinks she can do some good for the world from here. That’s all she wants out of life, anyhow. Storm asks her about this sudden change of heart. Cecilia replies that the Devil talked her into it and wishes her good night.
8:14 PM
Cecilia enters her bedroom and drops her bag to the floor.
8:15 PM
Cecilia jumps to the bed.
8:18 PM
Cecilia is fast asleep.
