Mercy Flight, prelude (Moira and an old patient, Monday afternoon)

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Moira gets a call from a former patient whose mutant abilities have slipped out of control. About to give birth or not, Moira is still who she is, and swings into action immediately.


Somewhere, buried deep under papers and books and notes, the phone was ringing. Moira paused as she stared at her desk and attempted to figure out where, exactly, it was coming from. Aha, there was the phone cord

With a sigh, she grabbed it and followed it up onto the desk not really caring all that much when she knocked some papers to the ground. "Xavier Institute, Dr. MacTaggart speakin'."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and then a sigh that sounded half-relieved, half-pained. "Oh, thank God," a soft female voice said a bit shakily. "Doctor MacTaggart, it's Amber... Amber Hunt?"

Moira blinked as the voice sent memories trickling back. Amber had been a patient of hers a few years ago and while they kept in touch through Christmas cards and the like, she hadn't heard much from her lately. "Amber! Is somethin' wron'? Doesnae sound like a social call."

She walked over to her computer and quickly started to bring up the Muir Island database.

"I called the Center, but they gave me this number - I hadn't realized you were in the States now." Amber sounded slightly calmer, as if the sound of Moira's voice had served to reassure her a little. "I'm in Maine, actually. Not far away. I'm calling from my grandfather's cabin, near Mount Katahdin." She gave a desolate-sounding little laugh. "I'm on this ancient rotary phone, and I'm still pulling on the energy in it. If I get cut off that's what happened. Something's gone wrong, Doctor MacTaggart. I can't stop absorbing energy."

She frowned deeply as Amber's information started scrolling onto the screen. "At all?" There was an affirmative noise on the other end and the frown deepened. "When did this start 'appenin'?"

"A few weeks ago. The beginning of June, I started to have these headaches... I've always absorbed a certain amount of ambient energy, I know." Amber's parents had brought her to Muir Island when her powers had manifested. Her mutation meant that she was basically a living battery, able to absorb just about any type of energy in existence - and rechannel it. Teaching her control had not been a simple process. "But this is a lot more than that. I can feel myself pulling on any energy in the area, all the time. My range is increasing, too."

Moira looked rather startled. "Tha's unusual for ye," she muttered, bringing up the last known history and tests that she had on Amber. "In fact, when I was workin' wit' ye, tha' was th' first thin' ta reach its limits - yer range." While the young woman had first been going through this, she had had her on a small cocktail of drugs that were aimed at not dampening her powers but allowing her some rest while she was still training. But she hadn't needed them in years. "How bad is it getting'?"

Another sad little laugh. "Let's put it this way. I blew up my car." There was a sound, almost like a muffled sob. "I could have killed someone," she said, her voice shaking. "I absorb too much, and the pain gets worse and worse until I can't not let it back out again. And I can't do it in a controlled way like you taught me."

"Shhh, Amber, it'll be okay," Moira soothed, hitting print. She wondered what could have caused Amber's powers to suddenly jump to the next level with no warning? Sometimes that was the case--the powers have reached the pinnacle of what the person is expecting and then in a few years they evolve one more step. But sometimes there was a catalyst. "We'll get ye back ta Muir, I promise, an' we'll work through this, okay?"

She heard the young woman take a deep, unsteady breath. "That's what... Doctor Connors? The person I talked to on Muir, said. That you'd know a way to get me back there."

"Aye, I do. I've got some friends who'll be more than 'appy ta pick ye up and, well, fly ye ta Muir. I willnae be able ta meet ye over there but if th' doctor's say 'tis okay for me ta travel, I'll fly over this weekend. In th' mean time, Dr. Connors will be actin' in me stead an' he's verra good." She paused and added, "On top o' tha', I'll be in contact wit' th' Island an' ye as often as I can be."

"I just... I'd feel safer, there," Amber said tremulously. "I remember that the Center's set up to handle things like... this, and I wouldn't be able to have these damned accidents and risk hurting people." She took another deep breath, and went on, sounding a little steadier. "And I trust you, Doctor MacTaggart. My parents got me to see this doctor here, when this all started, and it was like I was some kind of lab animal to him. Just another mutant freak."

Making a mental note to get the name of that doctor and to speak to him personally, she smiled softly. "Ye know yer always welcome in me home, Amber, 'ere or back in Scotland an' I'll do me best by ye. Now, I'll jus' need a number so I can get back in touch wit' ye. Me friends arrival is...always a wee bit startlin'."