Jean and Dom and Nate in the medlab

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Dom wakes up in the medlab where Jean is on duty, and Nathan comes by to check in on her.



Jean had checked the drip on Domino's IV a few minutes ago before settling back at her desk, updating the woman's file. She might not actually be involved with the school, but she had ended up here often enough for them to open a basic file on her, although much of it was blank. Since they weren't Dom's primary physicians, though, Jean could accept the holes in her paperwork. To an extent.

She felt... groggy, Domino thought as she struggled back towards consciousness. Groggy as if someone had drugged her, and... oh, she was so going to kill Nate. Kill him dead. She opened her eyes, blinking to try and clear them, and didn't recognize the ceiling. The medlab at the school, though, she was willing to bet.

And there was an IV in her arm. Why was there an IV in her arm? Muttering a weak curse, she pushed herself up on her elbows, her head spinning.

The 'I've just woken up from being unconscious' groggy mental state was really one of the more interesting and more distinctive ones. While there were people (particularly ones with healing factors) who skipped over it, most everyone went through it and Jean had gotten very used to picking up on it before patients had a chance to do any extra damage to themselves on waking up. She was at Domino's bedside even as the woman was starting to try to sit up.

"Here, lie down again," she said, "you're still fairly out of it. The IV is because you're clearly undernourished and have lost a lot of weight. How are you feeling?" It was a silly question for a telepath to ask, but she used it all the time anyway, because people were far more comfortable with a doctor who asked how they felt instead of telling them.

Domino blinked up at Jean. Redheaded doctor. Did the school breed them or something? "Fine," she muttered a bit faintly. "This is the school, right?" She got a better look around and answered her own question. This was definitely the medlab. In fact, she thought this was the room Nathan had been in when he was shot. It looked familiar.

"Yes, this is the school. I'm Jean Grey, by the way. The latest in the red headed doctor series. Or the first, depending on how you look at it. Would you like some water?"

"Oh, right. The one who was and wasn't dead," Domino said, then blinked. "That made more sense before I said it. Water is good?" As Jean turned away to get it, she managed to sit up the rest of the way. "Ow. Dizzy," she muttered. "And my jaw is sore. Nathan hit me, the bastard."

"That would be why I said to lie down again," Jean told her, bringing back the water and a pair of aspirin. "These will help with the jaw, if you'd like. You don't need much more, though I'm going to give you some aloe lotion for the sunburn and you should eat. A lot."

"I'm not in the habit of stuffing myself," Domino groused, but took the aspirin and the water. She looked at the IV. "Can this come out? Please? I hate the damned things..."

"It can come out if you promise me you're going to at least stick around for a proper dinner, preferably a few, with breakfasts and lunches as well." But even as she spoke Jean was closing the drip and untaping the needle.

"I imagine I don't have much choice in the matter," Domino said apathetically. "Since the fact that I wanted to go back to fucking Chad didn't matter." She downed the aspirin with some water, and gazed pensively at Jean as she removed the IV. "You don't look like someone who's been resurrected. I'd have expected you to glow or something."

Jean managed a wry smile. "There was a lack of miracle involved in my return. Well, I'm not entirely sure how I made it to the hospital, but I was told it had something to do with a trapper finding me and getting me there without sticking around to get thanks, and I admit that being found in the wilderness was extremely lucky, but more a matter of chance than things which cause glowing."

"Shame." Domino sighed and took another sip of her water, then stopped and shook her head. "Not that you were lucky, I mean. I'm a firm believer in luck. Just that there was no miracle with lights and heavenly choirs and all. That would have been something to hear about..." She offered Jean one of her 'I might be joking, or I might just be crazy' smiles.

"Well, I'll admit that I don't know what happened while I was unconscious, so there may have been heavenly choirs, but if an angel sings in the forrest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Jean wasn't sure when she'd become quite so blase about her death, but there was something about Domino which called for the flip answer. And she was getting awfully tired of having to explain it all.

"Eh, I don't know much about angels," Domino said, then blinked at Jean. "Why are you so insistent on me eating?"

"Because you're significantly, verging on unhealthily, underweight, both from your last visit down here and in the 'you look like you need a dozen sandwiches' sort of way, and I'm a doctor and it's my job. And, since you're not one of my patients regularly I won't be able to monitor whether or not you are eating, I figure I'll just beat you over the head with the idea that you should eat until you do."

Domino tilted her head. "You're not related to Moira, are you?" she asked suspiciously. "Because you sound like her."

That got Domino a bright grin. "I've known Moira for a very long time, and have admired her work for just as long, so I'll take that as a compliment. No, we're not related."

"She'll probably join the chorus." Domino gazed into her glass of water for a moment, then took another sip. "Guess if I got myself int the sort of mess that made Nate knock me out and bring me back here, I've only got myself to blame, don't I?"

"I wouldn't go that far."

Domino looked in the direction of the doorway, her expression settling into a baleful look at the sight of Nathan. "Come over here."

"Why?"

"So I can hit you."

"Um, no." Nathan offered a faint smile to Jean. "Hi, Jean."

"Hello, Nathan." Jean didn't bother to hide her smile.

Domino gave him a cross look. "Bully. You couldn't have tried reasoning with me?"

"Reason with you, Ms. 'Watch me hike across several hundred kilometers of the Sahara with oh, incidentally no food or water'?" It came out a little more harshly than he meant it to, but he was tired, and his head was still aching steadily. "How she's doing?" he asked Jean as he came in. Not over to the bed, just in.

"The dehydration will be fine, unless you decide to go out of your way to avoid water just to spite him, Dom, which I would prefer you not do, and she knows how much I want her to eat. Fine, on the whole, then," Jean said over her shoulder as she disassembled the IV and stored it away.

"Thanks for looking after her," Nathan said quietly, but met Jean's eyes for long enough to make sure she knew he meant that.

"Yeah, he loves me. That's why he does things like knock me out and drug me," Domino sniped.

"We do drastic things to protect the ones we love," Jean said, smiling slightly at Nate before turning back to Dom. "At least the Sahara is dry."

Nathan moved very cautiously towards the bed. "If she knocks me out," he told Jean, "don't tell Moira?"

"Mum's the word," Jean agreed, turning back to her work to give the two of them the illusion of privacy.

Domino set the glass carefully aside on the bedside table - and was down off the best with lightning speed for a woman who'd so recently been unconscious. Nathan didn't bother trying to dodge. Fair was fair.

The fist that slammed into his midsection was not moving at token-punch speed, either. He very doggedly did not double over. "I hit... YOU in the jaw."

"I can't reach up that far."

Jean winced at the distinct sound of flesh on flesh, but kept on with her work. At least her patient wasn't attacking her this time.

"Same guest room?" Domino asked stonily.

"Yeah." Nathan straightened, sucking in a slightly pained breath. "Talked to Charles. You're welcome to stay. Just--"

"Behave myself. I know," Domino said, turning away from him. "Bye, Jean. Nice to meet you." Nathan started to follow her, but she whirled around suddenly. This time, she did land a solid punch to his jaw, and Nathan found himself on the floor blinking up at her. "I lied," she said, and departed without another word.

Nathan winced, and didn't get up from the floor. "Ow."

"Aspirin is out on the counter over there," Jean told him, finishing setting everything away and turning back. "You have interesting friends, Nathan."

Nathan got up - and wound up on the floor again, his head spinning. "I shouldn't have let her do that," he grumbled. "On top of the mild concussion and the oxygen deprivation..."

"That one it didn't look so much like you had a choice on," Jean said mildly.

"Well, true." He tried getting up again, more successfully this time, even if he tottered a little. "It has been a long couple of days," he muttered, rubbing at his jaw. "And all the women in my life are annoyed at me."

"Sit down, Nate," Jean said as she moved to get the painkiller and water for him. "And surely they're not all annoyed, or is Rachel picking up on Moira's mood?"

The edge of the bed was closest. "She's not, I suppose. In fact she kind of giggled at me when I told her Daddy was a doofus." He let the air in his lungs out on a long sigh. "I'm stupidly tired, I really am. Three missions in a week is a little much."

"Nate, you have got to rest. You're wearing yourself out. Trust me, I know how important the missions are, but you can't keep on at this rate."

"A telepath's too valuable in the field," he protested. "And the more competent a telepath I get, the more useful I am." Fighting the other telepath in the tunnels, blurring the minds of the guards at the camp yesterday... even coordinating coms at the museum, even if he'd been laughing his ass off the whole time.

"Yes, but the more exhausted you get, the less reliable you end up being."

"This is the concussion speaking, probably. I'll be okay," Nathan said, as much to himself as to her. "It's a question of building up stamina, right? I'm not used to using my telepathy this actively this much. It'll take me a while to get used to it."

"Nathan..." Jean sighed and shook her head. In truth, he wasn't wrong, he was just putting the team's well being before his own, which was hardly unusual around here. "Go on, go take a nap, get out of here," she said with a smile.

"I just don't want to be the weak link anymore," he said with a sigh, taking the aspirin with a sip of water and then getting up. "Especially not when I'm the only link of a certain type, and me not being there and pulling my weight might make things harder on the others." He smiled a little at her, tiredly. "Don't tell me you didn't feel the same way."

Only link... Now was not the time to dwell, Jean decided, and pushed the thought away. She'd been getting very good at pushing away the thoughts she didn't want to deal with. "It was different before. We were smaller, and it seemed like the crises didn't come so often."

"O, brave new world," Nathan quoted absently, then smiled at her again. "A nap would be good. Half an hour spent unconscious yesterday does not qualify as sufficient sleep, does it?"

"Not by a long shot, no." Jean smiled. "You have to take care of yourself, Nathan. There's only so much the rest of us can do for you."

"Early to bed, early to rise. I have kids expecting me to be lucid and helpful with their independent studies tomorrow." He mustered another wry grin and then gave her back the glass of water. "Thanks, Jean."

"Not a problem. I'd say 'any time', but I'm afraid you'd take me up on it, and the medlab is not supposed to be your home away from home. Sleep well."