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He never woke up.
Everything was solved now. Apocalypse had been defeated, Charles had woken up and gave Moira back her memories, Jean had used her powers for good.... And they had even won a new recruit, Storm. It was a victory, a moment to rejoice. The apocalypse had been cancelled, they could finally breathe again without fear of minds being taken over, of the metal in their bodies being snatched. It was a triumph, but a bittersweet one. Kurt was still unconscious, unmoving under the many blankets of the bed they put him in, unable to recover from the effort that it had taken saving all of them from that crashing plane.
When things calmed down, Jean and Scott went back to their team mate's bedside, seeing if there had been any change.
“Jean?” Scott asked, anxious.
“He's there, but he's still too weak. He's not getting better, he should be getting better, shouldn't he?”
Charles looked in the direction of his students.
“And who is that young man?”
“Nightcrawler.” Scott explained. “Kurt, he's a teleporter that has been helping us out. He's the one that got you from Apocalypse's pyramid, also got us here. But teleporting so many people has left him.... like this, unconscious, weak, like Jean said. But he should be getting better, it's been long enough, right?”
Charles looked at the blue boy in front of him, eyes closed, face full of markings. Remarkable face indeed, for a clearly remarkable boy.
“So, another young hero, huh? We will take care of him, don't worry, boys.”
The trip back to Westchester felt long, almost eternal. They all wanted to be back home, to tell their family and friends of what had happened, to be able to rest properly and calmly. Someone was always watching over Kurt, taking turns, carefully watching him to see if something changed. Sadly, nothing did. At least, he didn't seem to be getting worse, which should have been a consolation. It wasn't.
They put him in a private medical facility near the X mansion, thanks to Moira's CIA contacts. That way the kids could go to visit him when they could, after helping with the rebuilding of the school after the explosion. It felt wrong and weird. They felt that they needed Kurt back to be properly happy, they couldn't celebrate until they'd be able to celebrate all together. They owed a great part of this win to him, and wanted him to enjoy this with them. He hardly had any time to enjoy america before all hell broke loose and he was dragged into the midst of their war.
“Were we too hard on him?” Scott asked one of the days he and Jean were visiting. “We spent all the time asking him, Kurt do this, Kurt, get us out, never asked if he could, just assumed he would.”
“We didn't have any other choice. No room for kindness or doubt, it was always life or death situations, you know that, Scott.I wish we'd been able to do it without leaving him like this, obviously... But it couldn't have gone any other way. You shouldn't feel guilty over something you couldn't control, Scott.”
“I just hope he'll wake up soon.”
“Me too.”
So each one of them took one Kurt's hands and held tightly, hoping it would help.
Jubilee was there often, too. Even if she hadn't known Kurt for very long, she was very fond of him. He was enthusiastic and open, and really considerate with every gesture of kindness. And he listened to her and her stories attentively, enjoyed every little thing they did. There were many things that he hadn't known or experienced after so long living in a circus, and it was really endearing how his eyes would widen at things they always took for granted. She was really looking forward to spending more time with him when he did wake up. So she spoke to him about what was going on, so that he wasn't left out of the loop, hoping it would help.
Peter had visited too, once or twice. He wasn't really one for standing still, waiting for something to happen, but he had wanted to see the guy, let him know that he cared. Kinda. He wasn't good with feelings, either. But this guy had been part of their team and it was sad that he didn't wake up. So he put some music in the room, hoping it would help. It was the only thing he knew how to do.
And of course, Mystique had been there. Often, but only when she knew nobody else was there. Sometimes posing as someone else. Just brooding, angry at the situation. She didn't want to care, she didn't want to give a damn if the boy lived or died, but sometimes one couldn't help what they felt. And so she was there and brooded.
“I didn't save you in Berlin for this, you know.”
Her comments didn't help at all, she knew.
Hank was drowning himself in test results, lab samples and chemicals. He'd found drugs for almost anything he wanted, surely he could a way to restore a young boy back to full health. It shouldn't be complicated, he needed to be able to help, he was a genius for god's sake. He was reaching more dead ends than usual, maybe because he wasn't as young as he used to be, maybe because Raven's return had messed with his head, maybe because he knew that if he wasn't 100% sure it would work he couldn't take the next step, but he kept trying, experimenting, calculating. Hoping it would help.
Sometimes they prayed, even if they were not religious, because they knew Kurt was. Hoping it would help. Hoping against hope.
By the third week, Kurt's room was full of hopefully helpful things. A bunch of cards from practically everyone he knew in the states, some colorful pictures and letters from Jubilee, some chocolates from Jean (he seemed to really like them at the mall), some books and video tapes from Scott, a boombox with awesome cassettes from Peter, some posters...It became a kind of second home for all of them, even if every day they hoped it would be the last day they had to go.
Kurt finally awoke after twenty seven days, softly, as if he had just been sleeping for too long – and he awoke to voices, friendly familiar voices. There was Jubilee excited “He's waking up!”, Peter's fond “took you long enough”, Scott's very relieved “good to have you back”. And Kurt felt slightly overwhelmed, couldn't find the words, much less in English – so he just smiled.
And that really, really helped.