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Moira's hunkering down to tackle some work from Muir when Forge wanders by. The two get to chatting when it turns towards the old containment suits Moira had brought from Muir. And exactly why he's interested in them. She also finds out exactly why she ended up with Forge under her wing this time



Moira was fighting off the urge to go outside. There was simply far too much to do to allow herself to go goof off, even if she wanted to, very badly. But because of the mess the MedLab had been in, once again her work at Muir had lagged behind. Thankfully, Curt was very competant and had everything under control. An eyebrow raised. Even to the point of color coding the files he had sent over.

Forge stalked through the medlabs, storming over to the handwash station and dunking both hands under the spray. Mr. Summers and Bobby had installed his penetrating magnetic field imager into the Blackbird without any trouble, and were probably off to play hero right about now.

Muttering under his breath in frustration, Forge turned and shook his hands to dry them off, finally noticing Dr. MacTaggart at the medlab table with a stack of files and an amused look on her face. "Oh," he said with a small jump, "Didn't see you in here, Doc. I can be out of your hair in no time, just need to clean off some packing grease, you know."

She'd heard him come in but only registered until he said something and barely managed to control her slight jump from startlement. "Nay worries, Forge, jus' workin' on some paperwork from Muir. More forms ta sign, probably." Peering around, she got a good look at him. Irritation flowed off of him in waves. "Everythin' alright?"

"Oh yeah, peachy," he said bitterly. "Just building the whole 'save the day' device again, letting everyone else get the fun of using it. Put it back together when they're liable to break it, same old routine. How's paperwork?"

"Same old, same old. Builds up everytime there's a riot in th' MedLab." Pushing out of her chair, she stretched, felt the muscles in her back give a little bit. "Th' machine ye were buildin' ta help them find Lorna?"

Forge nodded, hooking a stool with his prosthetic foot and hopping up to a seat. "Does it ever get to you?" he asked, "Being the one who has to wait back here every time they go out?"

"At times," was the honest answer as Moira went to join him, pulling up her own stool. "But someone 'as ta stay behind because wha' if somethin' happens ta those out on th' field? Protect th' home front an' all o' tha'. Considerin' how many wee ones we 'ave around here who still need help wit' their powers an', thus, need protection, 'tis a job tha' needs doin'." She smiled. "But sometimes I wish I was able ta save th' world like they do."

Forge nodded slowly. "We few, we lucky few... we band of support personnel. Less of a dramatic ring to it, I think."

He stopped, leaning back on his elbows against one of the counters. "You've got some psionic energy containment suits in storage, I noticed them when I was making Alex's containment unit. Mind if I ask why?"

"...oh." Moira blinked and then sighed. "Well, ye know about Kevin..." He'd BEEN at Muir for her husbands taste of revenge, after all. "Dr. Campbell an' I, when Kevin was alive, were workin' on containment suits at Muir. In th' hopes tha' we could use them for Kevin an' stablize him until we found out if we could find tha' off switch he so lacked." For a second, her face darkened. "Obviously, we dinnae finish them in time."

"Hmm," Forge mused, stroking his chin. "I may need one soon."

She turned her head so fast she very nearly fell off the stool. "For wha'?"

"Oh, bringing Jono back to physical form."

It was a damned good thing she was used to Forge, Moira thought weakly. Holding up a hand, she lifted an eyebrow. "Remember wha' I've told ye before? About startin' at square one for us normal genisus?"

Taking a deep breath, Forge pulled over a nearby touchscreen monitor and called up his engineering files. "A few months back, I made Mr. D. his psimitar thingie. And the crazy ghost people have some interesting excuses for science, but one thing I took out of the experience was this-" He tapped a few commands, and a complicated crystal matrix formed on the screen.

"Certain configurations of crystal resonate to specific frequencies of energy. Including psionic, it's how the psimitar works, linked to Mr. D's particular brain patterns. I used some predictive modeling to design this, it'll act as a lens to focus Starsmore's psionic energy, and using the data linked from his file on ectoplasmic conversion to a cellular form, boom, body."

"May I?" Leaning in, Moira started to browse through the notes on the screen. While not an engineer at all, his explanation certainly made things make sense. And her eyes went to the medical and scientific portions of what he had written. "I'll be damned," she breathed. There was room for error, there was always room for error, but this might just work. "An' ye'll potentially need th' suits for afterwards, jus' in case somethin' goes wrong?"

"Precisely. My calculations are perfect, I just don't know if Starsmore has the mental strength to hold himself together. But the suits should help once Paige and I get him solid again." Forge explained. "You see, the one complication is that this crystal form? Doesn't occur in nature. And to artificially make it would take months. Years, maybe."

"So ye'll get her ta husk inta th' crystal," she murmured.

Forge clapped his hands. "That's why the Nobel Committee has your number on speed-dial," he quipped. "It was the cobalt diamond form that gave me the idea when I hit that wall. I mean, come on? A nonradioactive cobalt isotope, in that configuration? Impossible. But she did it. And we've tried it out, she can do this."

Forge was, no question about it, a genius. He was also head strong, stubborn and sometimes didn't have something to temper that genisus with. "Smart mouth," Moira said fondly. Crossing her arms over her chest, she thought. "When did ye want ta try this?"

Forge looked down at his watch. "Paige gets up for her run around five, I was figuring, probably seven-ish."

"Forge!" Moira came off the stool at that time and stared at him.

Forge blinked in astonishment at Moira's outburst, then relaxed. "Oh, right. Breakfast first. You think he's going to be hungry? Not sure what kind of biological urges he's going to have. That'll be interesting."

It took a great deal of effort not to flail at him. Award winning genetists did not flail. "Forge. Wha' if somethin' goes wron'? Dinnae give me tha' look, young man. Somethin' could go wron', on Jono's end. Could...would ye wait? A few days, a week at best?"

"A week?" Forge's eyes practically jumped out of his head. "But I... I mean, look! I've got all the data right here. It's practically a pop-up book of simplicity. But... you're right. You guys here in medical are probably pretty exhausted from the past few weeks. And he's likely to need some medical care. Plus I have to figure out how to actually get him to sit still. I was watching this movie where these three scientists were using portable nuclear devices to contain spectral entities, you think that's a bit much?"

Reaching over, or, well, around the sudden flailing limbs, Moira placed two firm hands on his shoulders. "Relax, Forge." He looked like he was going to combust and she wasn't going to have that happen in the labs. "Turn around, walk straight. There." Placing him firmly in front of the crib in the back of the room, she pointed at Rachel, who yawned up at them. "Relax. Ye'll get her wound up again." She sighed. "An' aye, I think th' portable nuclear devices may be jus' a wee too much. Besides, if ye turn this place inta a glowin' crater, I'll be verra cranky at ye." Her voice softened. "But ye 'it it on the head before. Th' Med staff...we're exhausted an' we may need ta be on our toes for this."

Forge cocked his head, looking down at the yawning baby. "Oh, sorry. Yeah, baby, forgot." Extending one hand down into the crib, he laughed quietly as Rachel gripped one metal finger in her tiny fist.

"It's funny," he said after a long pause. "You're back not two months after giving birth, doing what you're meant to be doing. I mean, you gave birth, created another being, and you're still being a brilliant scientist. That's pretty unique."

"Well, I'd go insane if I dinnae work," she replied, smiling at the sight of them both. Rachel squeaked up at Forge and kicked her legs for a few seconds. "Thank ye, though. An' tis nay tha' unique. Billy is jus' right down th' hall."

Forge just snorted with derision at that. "Billy apparently needs enough immediate care that scientific research takes a backseat. You know how long it had been since Dr. McCoy even approached me about a research project, much less got any progress done on Jono's condition? Here's a hint: the moment the word adoption hit his brain, his priorities exited out the other ear."

Forge shrugged, tugging his finger free of Rachel's grasp and smiling as he tickled her chin. "I'm not convinced he's done the right thing, abandoning important things for what he wants for himself. Sometimes..." Forge took a deep breath, trying not to look over at the files on Jono. "Sometimes doing what's right means putting what you want aside for the greater good."

The hurt was evident in his voice and it only deepened in the last bit. "Sometimes our priorities change," she said softly, reaching down to touch her daughter's head gently. "There's a balance ta this. An' this isnae me first go at it, after all. Last time Kevin jus' happened ta be so immersed in me work tha' it wasnae one nor th' other but they were th' same. Now, I've got Rachel an' Nathan an' ye all, but I'm able ta balance me home life for me personal life." Moira tilted her head to look over at him and watched his jaw clench. "I wondered why ye nearly jumped me when I offered ye tha' project at th' beginin' o' classes."

"Because I want to learn," Forge answered immediately. "And I wanted someone who's serious about their profession to teach me. I know you've got family things, and the other stuff... but I know that when I sit down to learn from you. Not just about the science, but about being a scientist. About balancing the research with the results. The ends and the means."

Forge looked down at Rachel again. "You found a balance. I... I'd like to see myself finding that when I hit my stride. Not sitting in my thirties trying to date the first attractive colleague that shows interest and raising someone else's kid."

Henry was going to need to sit down with him and explain, Moira thought sadly, knowing that even if she did come to his defence, nothing was going to change his mind. Forge felt slighted and until he talked it out, nothing would change that. "I'm more than willin' ta teach ye," she said, firmly, "because yer more than willin' ta learn. Some things jus'...take longer ta learn than numbers an' science."

"Tell me about it," Forge sighed, patting Rachel gently on the nose and leaning away from the crib. "I'll talk to Paige, and we'll try and coordinate something for when things aren't so... hectic here. I mean, he's been a night light for almost a year, right? Not like he's going to get any deader."

Moira did cuff him a little on the back of the head for that one. "I'll send ye some parts o' Jono's files ta ye, alright? Let ye see wha's been done before an' th' like."

Forge flinched, rubbing the back of his head. "Geez, what are you, Italian all of a sudden? With the headwhapping and stuff. And yeah - I got those files." He smiled. "That's how I figured out the cellular construction, from the ideas in there about Jamie's duplicates. Sometimes I can actually play well with others, Doc."

"Ask Nathan sometime about how I got so verra good at tha'." She smiled at him, though, pleased. "Good. I swear, I need ta come up wit' a class entitled "Playin' Well Wit' Others, 101. Aye, this means ye". But yer learnin', which is good. Now. Speakin' o' learnin'..." Moira gave him a wide grin. "Ye busy? I seem ta remember ye skippin' yer appointment wit' me th' other day."