LOG: Madelyn, Fred Duncan and Jennie

[x-roulette.livejournal.com]

Madelyn responds to a call from Fred Duncan and goes to New York. It seems the F.B.I. have someone they want her to meet.



"...saved my sanity, Maddie, you and Xavier. If you hadn't said you'd take her, I don't know what we would have done," Fred Duncan was saying as he led Madelyn down one of the many unremarkable corridors that snaked through the building that housed his department. It had certainly expanded even since her day, Madelyn reflected as yet another face she didn't know bustled past looking dynamic, obviously on an Important Mission. "The Bureau's remembered we're here, finally, and while that means more staff and resources, it also means more work - anything even vaguely connected to a mutant these days ends up crossing my desk. But this case... well, she's a good kid, if you look past a few rough edges, and even if cutting her loose wouldn't mean something happening to her, I'd like to see her getting another chance."

Madelyn raised her eyebrows. "Sounds like you're getting paternal in your old age, Fred," she teased lightly, with the ease of long acquaintance and the obvious truth of her statement - Fred had been something of a mentor to the young Agent Bartlet."But it sounds like she's tailor-made for the school - second chances are something we specialize in. And third, and sometimes fourth chances."

Fred chuckled a little and stopped at a closed door. "Hopefully she'll only need this one," he said, before opening it and ushering Madelyn inside. "Jennie, I've got someone for you to meet. Remember me telling you I might have somewhere for you to go? A school?" he said to the girl who was seated at the small conference table inside, looking supremely bored.

There were exactly 319 ceiling tiles in the conference room, which would make 4785 tiles for the other rooms in the hallway, 15 rooms, plus another 145 for the hallway, give or take... Jennie looked up from her reverie to see "Call me Fred," and another woman with curly reddish hair. Jennie raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "School? As in a school that's not really school, but more like a school where you get a jumpsuit with a number and locked doors every night?"

Fred glanced over at Madelyn, obviously passing the answer to that to her. "Not so much with the locked doors and jumpsuits and more with the living and studying with a bunch of kids who don't tend to lynch you during the lunchbreak," Madelyn said, giving the girl one of her casual, friendly grins. She'd come in jeans and a cotton blouse, rather than the usual business suit in an effort to put the girl at ease, much to the amusement of those agents she still recognized from her days here. "Well, not unless you really piss them off. I'm Madelyn Bartlet, one of the teachers at Xavier's School for Gifted Children," she continued, offering Jennie a hand to shake.

Jennie leaned across the table to shake the woman's hand. She didn't flinch or discreetly wipe it behind her back, so that was a point in her direction. "So what are we talking about here? You won't let me go back home, and most of my stuff has been taken as evidence. You people just keep bouncing me around. Have you arrested Gregory yet? Cause I'm telling you, it's gotta be him."

Fred took that one. Sitting down at the table and indicating the other two should as well, he gave Jennie a sympathetic look. "We're investigating Gregory, and several others. Right now it's a matter of evidence, and having enough of it to warrant a conviction. Until we do..." He shrugged slightly helplessly. "It's not safe for you back in Vegas, and your powers make you far too distinctive for witness protection - you'd have to not use them at all in order to slip under the radar. Which is why I thought of the school." Here he looked over at Madelyn again, who took her cue smoothly.

"Xavier's is a school for mutants, where they learn to control and use their powers," Madelyn explained. "As well as offering a first-rate curriculum, especially in mathematics and science. Dr Henry McCoy's one of the teachers - you might have heard of him if you're interested in math at all?"

Okay, that got her interest. "The nobel prize candidate? Huh." Jennie fought not to sound too eager. "So, you have, like, advanced curriculum's and stuff? I mean, I dropped out, but not because I'm dumb or anything." Jennie drummed her fingers on the desk, wheels in her brain turning. There's gotta be a catch. "I can't pay for it you know, I got no money. And my Ma, well, if you can dig her out of whatever gutter she's in, tell her I say hi."

Madelyn stifled the urge to add, 'and he's my boyfriend', and nodded instead. "You're wondering where the catch is, right?" she asked. Smiling a little at Jennie's _expression, she went on. "We've got a number of students from more difficult backgrounds, and several who are attending the school on scholarship, as it were. Some choose to work at the school now to contribute towards their upkeep - we've got one girl in particular who makes a point of it, she helps in the kitchen and does secretarial duties for Hank. Others either make contributions once they've graduated, or even come back to the school to teach. But there's no onus on anyone to do that - a lot of the time life hasn't exactly given some of our kids a fair deal, and we try and even things up a little."

"I'm sorry, it's just too good to be true, you know?" Jennie slumped in her seat. "I'm not exactly the luckiest girl in the world, and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"Hey, no offense taken, kiddo - I'm sitting here listening to myself and wondering what the catch is too." Madelyn smiled gently at Jennie. "How about this? You come back to the school with me, talk to Charles Xavier, the man who's place it is, stay for a while... if you don't like it, or it's not your thing, then you'lll be free to leave - Charles can probably help Fred find you a safer new identity, or somewhere else to go."

Fred nodded as Madelyn glanced questioningly at him. "There's nothing compulsory about this deal, Jennie - we just both feel that it's the best option for you right now. A chance to get your life on track."

Jennie tapped her fingers on the desk again. "I don't have to pay, then?
And it's not some secret government lab that's going to dissect me and put
all of my internal organs in jars?"

Madelyn laughed outright at that. "No, no jars. If anything we prefer to keep people _out_ of sickbay, instead of bringing them in." She raised her eyebrows inquiringly at Jennie. "So... you've heard the spiel. Do you want to give us a chance, Jennie?"

Fred chimed in. "I can give you my direct number here. Any problems, the moment you don't want to be there any more, you can give me a call."

Jennie sighed. "Alright. Why not?"