As The World Turns Cold

Wanted

Lily pulled her sister's fingers away from the leather upholstery and placed a wadded up fabric scrap in her hands.   At Mercy's look of disapproval, he sister simply shrugged.  "There's not much back there. The shirt was all I could find to do the trick." 

Mercy scowled down at the fabric in her hands.  She didn't see how a rolled up shirt would do her any good.  "We're doing this now?"

"No time like the present, Mercy."  Rogue spoke in a calm manner.  It was better that way as one more harmful phrase from his mouth would warrant Mercy's unhappiness to skyrocket.  She couldn't be held accountable for what she did to him then.

  Mercy held the fabric in her hands for another moment before placing it in her mouth and clamping down on the material. 

The feeling made her want to gag.  Mercy felt like she couldn't breathe and she prayed that this would take as little an amount of time as possible.

Rogue's fingers flexed below her shoulder and his other hand came up to hold her arm in place as he stretched it out.  Mercy hissed against the biting sting of her open wound as he moved her arm. 

The knife injury was the lesser of two evils and the shoulder needed to be taken care of first, but that didn't mean it hurt any less; especially now that it was being stretched along with her arm. 

Her shoulder needed to be fixed before her dragon-skin could take over and heal the knife wound.  That pain would be minimal once it was all said and done.

Rogue posed her arm at the ready.  "This will only take a second.  Take a deep breath."

Mercy did as she was told.  As she took a breath, Rogue pushed her arm up at an angle and Mercy felt the movement through her core. 

A loud popping noise sounded and she bit down on the material in her mouth as she suppressed a scream.  She grunted in response and let out a whimper when Rogue moved her arm slowly back down to rest at her side. 

His fingers grazed her neck as he spoke.  "I'm sorry." 

Those two words were like a beacon to her.  She knew in the way he spoke that he wasn't only talking about what he had done.  He was apologizing for everything. 

Mercy felt his breath against the skin of the nape of her neck and, not for the first time, she felt a strong surge of emotion powering through her.

Lily gripped the headrest in front of her.  "Am I the only one that got chills from hearing that?  If I ever have a dislocated shoulder, I expect to be knocked unconscious first."

Mercy shivered, still feeling the sensations crawling up her shoulder.  "Luck is usually on your side.  At this rate, I'll continue to rack up the injuries and you should be okay."

"I'd suffer the pain you've gone through a thousand times over if it meant you would have been safe." Lily replied with a strong voice, her edgy personality peeking through the surface.

Mercy let out a dry laugh.  "You don't know what I have endured, little sister."

Rogue tapped her chin lightly so that she would face him.  "Want me to patch that up now?"  He glanced down at the open wound at between her shoulder blade and arm before giving his attention back to her.

She shook her head.  "I've got my own ways of healing the little things." 

She closed her eyes, feeling the dragon inside pulsing.  "Please, don't panic."  She whispered as she pulled from within at her powers.  She beckoned her scales to come out, to wash over her human skin and thicken the tissue.