Madelyn, Scott and waffles - Saturday night

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Scott brings Madelyn breakfast. Dinner. Whatever. It's food, and there's non-medical conversation.



Madelyn hit the control for the decontamination cycle to start on the hazmat suit she'd just been wearing, feeling rather limp. Haroun was stable, which meant they'd be able to start the new treatment soon, but they were still observing strict quarantine with him. And the hazmat suits were a bitch for overheating - four hours of being in one and she felt like she'd been running a marathon. Still, there was work to be done and she couldn't stay leaning against the wall all night, as nice and cool as the metal surface was. Nice, supportive wall...

When she emerged from the isolation room, she found Scott very calmly setting up what would have been a decent-sized breakfast, if it hadn't been the middle of the night. "Evening," he said idly, picking up a bottle of water and waving it at her. "I have two."

The doctor nearly whimpered in relief. "Marry me?" she asked, reaching for the bottle and doing her very best not to collapse into the chair. Four hour shifts for the past few days had been taxing, to say the least. Maddie was used to it, but it didn't make it any easier. "Because it's that or offer you my first born child and I think Hank might get upset." The fact those two statements conflicted any way didn't even register.

"Drink your water, Maddie," Scott said patiently. "Jean hears you making that first offer and there'll be bloodshed. As for the second..." He laid a hand briefly on her shoulder as he moved around her chair to grab some paper towels to serve as napkins. He'd forgotten that when he'd made up the tray.

"Yes, sir," Madelyn said meekly, finishing half the bottle without pause. The rest would be more sedately sipped, since throwing up wasn't really something she enjoyed doing. Closing her eyes after that first gulp, she sighed happily. "I so needed that. I swear, I've sweated off about twenty pounds in that damn suit." It was entirely possible - there was a slightly more rawboned cast to her features than usual.

"I wouldn't be surprised," he said, then nodded at the tray. "Brought waffles," he said with a faint smile. "Once you've had your water. I went light on the usual condiments since I wasn't sure how your stomach would be after being in the suit..."

"You sure you don't want to get married?" Madelyn asked, grinning this time as she obediantly finished the other half of the bottle. Waffles were not to be left to go cold - that was sacrilege. "And good call on the not-so-insanely-sugary thing - the way we've been eating down here, it could have gotten messy." The grin turned into a grateful smile. "Thank you, Scott. This... I needed this like you wouldn't believe."

"You're welcome," Scott said simply. "The food and water's important, but so is taking a few minutes to catch your breath." He smiled a bit again. "I figured this is when you all particularly need watching," he said, the faintest hint of a wry edge to his voice. "You're getting into the window where you're starting to get worn down enough to forget certain things."

"That noticeable, huh?" Madelyn said wryly. She gestured at Scott to sit down as well, picking up her fork. There were fresh strawberries to go with the waffles, and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Perfect. "I have to admit, I envy Jean and Moira right now. They've got you and Nathan to look after them. Hank... well, he's torn between helping Haroun and looking after Billy. Adding me to the equation just makes things impossible. But you're right, I am forgetting stuff like food lately. It's just we're all so focussed..." The first bite of waffle was heavenly, although she was sensible enough to take it slow.

Scott reached forward and stole a strawberry, then settled down to watch her eat. "Hence the food delivery. I suppose technically I shouldn't be down here, but... well, it's the middle of the night." He shrugged a little. "And I know well enough how to stay out from underfoot."

"He's stable enough now that we can forgive the odd intrusion." Maddie spared a glance over at the lab where Moira and Hank had been going over treatment options. "And that treatment regieme that got dropped in our laps... well, it eased the pressure. The thing is making sure Haroun's stable enough to survive it - the cure's almost as rough as the infection. But we have one at least. Which is more than we had." Naked relief showed on her face, mixed with worry and concern for her friend. "It doesn't get easier the more I do it," she admitted. "Treating your friends, seeing them in critical states like that."

"The missions are getting rougher and rougher," Scott said after a moment. "The curse of success, I guess." Although this one had been unpredictable, to say the least, well outside the usual pattern.

"But the results still make it worth it." Or at least, Madelyn hoped they did. What had this last mission achieved? No-one had been able to tell her that, and she hadn't really asked. Her job was to patch people up after a mission, not dissect the whys and wherefores. "Do us a favour down here, 'though? Give us a few weeks before the next injury? They're starting to pile up again and Jean will blame me for invoking Murphy." It was a lame joke, but Madelyn's sense of humour tended to get odd when she was tired.

"If I could schedule them, Maddie, I would," Scott said with a weary little smile. "Trust me. Schedule them all for oh, five years down the line, and keep pushing them back..." He rubbed at his still-wrapped hand, shaking his head a little. "I made a post earlier to tell the student body at large that Haroun was hurt."

"I know. Joke. Bad one." Madelyn reached for the juice Scott had brought down - water was good for rapid rehydration, but it got old, fast. "Thank you. I meant to do something, but I haven't had time, and when I have read the journals I've been too tired to focus. And right now my patience levels are non-existent, so I'd probably end up threatening the first kid to demand to know why they weren't allowed in medlab and what we were keeping from them."

"We've talked about this, Maddie," Scott said wryly. "I'm the one that does the 'so and so has gotten himself mangled' posts. It's a school tradition. Can't go breaking tradition, now, can we?" His gaze strayed in the direction of the isolation room.

"I seem to remember doing a few myself. Like after Hank's encounter with that Infectia woman." Madelyn shrugged, and followed Scott's gaze. "I think he'll pull through. Haroun's a stubborn bastard, and as he'd no doubt tell us if he could, he's been through far worse. Charles is keeping him under, to give him time to assimilate the shock."

"He's got plenty of reason to pull through. Beyond the innate pigheadedness, I mean..." Scott shook his head again. "He and I had one riproaring argument a few weeks back... we'd been a little stiff since."

"I don't think there's a person in the school Haroun hasn't had a riproaring argument with. The thing is, once he gets it all out, he generally doesn't hold grudges. You should ask Hank about their first sparring session. Talk about macho..." Madelyn chuckled wryly, shaking her head. "But that cleared the air and they've become regular sparring partners, at the very least." She forked another mouthful of waffle into herself and went on. "How's Alison dealing? I see her down here a fair bit, but there's not a lot of time to talk, and there's the whole quartantine issue as well - the suits aren't designed for conversation."

"Alison's doing as well as can be expected, I think. Given the circumstances." Scott paused, then shrugged inwardly, just a little. "She gave the order that put him in the situation where he got hurt. It was the right order, and I think... I hope she knows that, but I haven't poked too hard just yet to find out."
"It's hard to tell, and we... haven't been as close friends as we were." Why that was exactly, Madelyn couldn't say, only that it had started before the incident with Sabretooth, and that had only exacerbated things. Understandably. "But Al's sensible - she'll ask for help if she needs it."

"One way or the other, I've got it covered," Scott said with a soft chuckle that didn't have much in the way of humor about it. "I made a list. That's in the top five."

"Lists are good," Madelyn agreed. "Although when you start putting things like 'sleep' and 'eat' on a list? Possibly a sign you're doing too much." She finished the waffles with a contented noise. "Alison' doesn't go much for the whole brooding until she falls apart thing. She'll ask for help when she needs it."

"She does have that advantage over some of us leather-wearing types." Scott let the subject drop, gently. "Is there anything else I can get for you?" he asked. "A mindreader I ain't, and all that... I did bring down a second bottle of water, like I said." He waved a hand at it.

"Water and conversation is good," Madelyn said with a small smile, letting the topic lie. "Especially conversation that doesn't include any medical terms."
"I've gotten things started to cover for Alison and Haroun on the team side of things," Scott said after a moment. "It's going to be a stretch on a number of fronts, especially with the Blackbird, but we'll manage it." He smiled a little more naturally. "Although I think I will put a hold on any further design work on the plane. Can't have Haroun wringing my neck, after all..."

"Or possibly challege you to a duel, with pistols at dawn or something, for infringing on the honour of his lady," Madelyn suggested with a giggle. "I'm sure you'll have things well in hand with the team... oh, that's something I wanted to ask. How's Jubilee going with the training? She's so busy these days, I never see her. Leads to some misunderstandings sometimes, but she's matured a lot in the past few months, so no repeats of the screaming matches."

"She's doing well," Scott said with a nod. "She's diligent about the work, but a little erratic still when it comes to the Danger Room. She's not the best team player in the world, but she's working on that."

"Good. It was so important to her that she at least get the chance, and I'm glad she's making the most of it..." Madelyn smiled ruefully. "Jubilee reminds me of me, sometimes. When I was a teenager, I had the same impulse control issues. My grandfather was great - he used to take me aside and distract me from Joe when our arguments were getting out of hand."

"She's realized, I think, that it is in her hands, to shape her own behavior... her own future, not to be trite. That was the important stuff." Scott cracked another smile. "Although I'm keeping a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't overcompensate by overtraining. We've had quite enough of that."

"Good. Jubilee has a tendency to throw herself entirely into something, and then realise she's neglecting a whole other part of her life and beats herself up about it." Madelyn innocently raised an eyebrow at Scott as she opened the second bottle of water. "Over-compensating does tend to be a trend around here. People live on extremes."

"Not much other way to live," Scott pointed out with an almost wistful look. "Not the lives we lead. But Jubilee will be fine. She's finding a balance."

"True." Madelyn's tone echoed Scott's. But then she grinned. "But if it was different, we'd both be bored silly within a couple of weeks, I bet you anything."

"You say that now," Scott said, deadpan. "... well, actually, the fact that you're saying it now is a pretty good indication. I was teasing Jean about how my head would explode if I took a vacation longer than a couple of days."

"That's going to make honeymooning and interesting proposition," Madelyn said wickedly. "Good thing your fiance is a doctor - all that messy head exploding..."

"She promised we'd work our way up to longer vacations," Scott said innocently. "Increase my tolerance slowly, that sort of thing..."

"Until eventually you have a whole month away with no access to the journals?" she teased.

Scott gave her a long, ever so slightly tragic look. "Don't taunt me, woman. A month away from the journals? I'd think I was in heaven."

"Consider it something to aim for?"