xp_logs | Jay & Alison, Wednesday afternoon

Alison tells Jay who the mysterious visitor down in the medlab is, and offers him some perspective before he totally flies off the handle.

Jay was no Cassidy, but his mutation did affect his voice. Namely, he had about a dozen of them. Usually, they all came out only when he was singing something that required a chorus, which wasn't often. But today, it sounded as if twelve people had all been stabbed in the eyes and kicked in the groin.

"WHAT? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! HOW CAN WE LET THAT FUCKIN' ASSHOLE IN HERE?!"

People could probably hear him halfway across town.

"Yell like that again, Jay, and you won't be making a sound until the volume goes down," Alison said, not unkindly so. She was used to having to dampen Terry of all people. Jay didn't even come close in terms of pure sonics, though she was sorely tempted to rope him into vocal practice now just to see the exact range of voices he could get going at one time.

"Considering the condition he's in now, it's not even an option. He literally can't go anywhere else. He was dumped at the front gates, unconscious. Can't even be moved to say, a guarded room in a hospital, since he the trip might make things worse." She didn't confirm or deny any plans for later on, since she had no idea as of yet what the decision might be there. And while she wasn't unsympathetic at all to Jay's reaction - and then some - she wasn't going to take being yelled at for long, either. "I thought you should know, as opposed to walking into the medlab and just seeing him there by accident, mmm?"

"As much as Ah appreciate the gesture," he began, taking deep breaths to calm himself (as much as he conceivably could in such a situation), "Ah gotta know what the fuckin' hell y'all've been smokin'. Ya know damn well what he did ta me, and ya still can just bring him in like he's some . . . some innocent?"

"Innocent? No." Something cold lurked briefly in the back of Alison's voice, the smile she offered him briefly utterly humourless. "But the fact is, he was dropped at the front gate beaten up and left to die. Even trying to get an ambulance wasn't an option and the doctors are doing what their medical oath requires of them, kiddo. It's not just a job, it's their vocation and they're absolutely in the right to do what they're doing. No decision has been taken as to what will be done after his condition is declared stable, so it's not like he's moving into the suite next door." She paused, then continued. "And thanks for toning down the volume."

Jay folded his arms across his chest, hugging himself, and walked across the room. He felt cold all of a sudden. "He's really a mutie?" he asked, unable to even begin to accept that concept. "Ain't that fucked up?"

"Yeah, he is. Guess he's getting a perspective he's not ready to deal with, huh?" She wasn't feeling pity, really, or much of anything else for the boy. He'd bought into something that was drastic and unforgiving, and it had bitten him back with a vengeance. What happened from now on was up to Tommy - Alison herself would be looking to the students' care here, first and foremost, in all of this. Hence telling Jay. "Will you be okay?"

"Fuck no," he responded, chuckling. "The fella that almost murdered me 'cuz Ah've got wings and like ta take it up the ass is bein' takin' care of by the same doctors who patched me up after he sent me to 'em in the first place?" He turned around, revealing a nearly hysterical look on his face. "Alison, please, Ah'm beggin' ya. Ya've gotta get rid of him."

Reaching forward, Alison pressed on hand on Jay's shoulder - not to restrain, merely to lend weight and solidity. "I can't do that. And you know that. But." She paused a moment, before going on. "What I can do is keep you updated to everything that's going on so you don't wonder if he'll pop up anywhere when you least expect it. And I can order him confined to a room once he's no longer critical and before he regains awareness while we do decide what to do. I can keep him away from you. And I can claim it's for general student security easily enough. Is that at least a start for you?"

Jay nodded slowly, gripping himself more tightly to stop the shivers that started to run down his back. "Yes'm." It was a start. But Tommy couldn't stay there for long. He had to go. That's it, no more, OUT. "Ya can't just send him to a hospital once he's not critical anymore?"

"That's the first topic that'll come up once he's not critical anymore." She nodded slowly. "I have no idea how it'll turn out and I won't lie to you or make empty promises. I'll only make the ones I can and will hold. So now I have to ask you this - do you want me to inform the medlab that he was the one who beat you up, or do you want them to still not know?"

"'Beat me up?'" Jay snorted and shook his head violently. "Beat up" didn't begin to cover it. "No no no no no. They don't need ta know. Just pretend that he's some faceless fuck so he can get outta here lickety split."

It might not be that simple, Alison suspected. Not with Tommy not having anywhere safe to go once all was said and done - but that was a problem for later and Jay had enough on his plate for now. "You got it." She nodded as well at that, and then took a step back. "Want a bit of time to yourself now?"

Jay nodded absently, collapsing on a seat and wrapping his wings around himself. "Mm. Yeah. Thanks. For tellin' me and all. Sorry for flippin' out on ya." Well, he wasn't, because his reaction was damn well warranted, but it was the polite thing to say.

"Gee, I can think I'd react the same way and then some in similar circumstances." In fact, if Sabretooth showed up wounded and ended up in the medlab, Alison would make a fair attempt at making sure the condition of dead was permanent, really. She turned back and headed towards the door, then paused at the doorway, looking over her shoulder at Jay. "There's a saying, you know. 'What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.' It's something I've been thinking a lot about, lately."

In other circumstances, that statement would have simply gone in one ear and out the other. But then Jay saw them. At first, he thought they were just Miles having too much fun with a Sharpee on Alison's back. But as he looked at them more closely, he saw the twisted, unnaturally black scars. "Um, right," he said, his eyes transfixed on the mutilations of otherwise perfect skin.

For anyone else, Alison likely would have let them wonder. It was just the frame of mind, the challenging approach to things she'd needed to pull this off. But not here and not now, just this once. "Sabretooth," was all she said. "A month ago. It was worse. A lot worse. I don't heal naturally, but somehow I lucked out and a rabbit was pulled out of the hat to take the worse of it away and allow me to survive." She let her hand fall from the door frame and just nodded one last time before stepping out of the room. There was no response needed, really, and Jay needed space to think just then.

And he didn't have a response to give, besides a breathy "Jesus fuck." Sure, he'd been nearly killed, too, but he had nothing to show for it. Alison, though, had been attacked by what amounted to Tommy's polar opposite, and would have to bear those awful wounds for Lord knows how long.

But, healing factor or not, Jay didn't think he was that strong. He couldn't do it.