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xp_logs2005-12-07 08:27 pm
x-cable.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2005-12-07 08:27 pm
Bubble Baby (Wednesday evening)
A still jet-lagged Nathan dozes off on the couch. Leaving a couple of doors open.
Rachel decides to go for a walk. Or, more appropriately, a float.
It was, quite simply, jetlag, or so Nathan would admit to himself after the fact. Once he'd had a good spell of self-flagellation. The papers he was reading were very dull, and the couch was very comfortable, and he was still struggling to get off Namibian time. He dozed off, his grip on the essay he was holding relaxing. The paper slipped to the floor.
There was an interrogative coo from the direction of the nursery. Nathan, slipping into a sounder sleep, didn't hear it. Or the giggle. And certainly didn't remember that he'd left the door open specifically so that he could hear Rachel if she started to fuss.
"Heehee..."
And Rachel Kinross levitated out of her nursery, hovering securely in the middle of a telekinetic bubble. She floated there in the doorway for a moment, big blue eyes locked on her father before another, delighted giggle escaped and she flailed a little, the bubble bobbing with the movement.
The suite door was open, too. Just a crack, but it was more than enough.
--
There some was noise outside of her room. Wanda lifted her head from where it had dropped on the table and stared at the front door through half opened eyes. The migraines that had spawned after the Askani history dump had been getting worse to the point that she had actually taken a day off from everything just to rest.
Dragging herself to her feet, she made it to her door and stuck her head out, glancing around.
"Oooo!" Rachel greeted her, the bubble bobbing there in front of her door. The baby was wearing what her father would have described - out of her hearing, of course - as a shit-eating grin.
Jerking back fast enough that she bounced her head off the doorjamb, Wanda stared. And then shut her eyes as she rubbed the back of her head. "This is the migraine," she murmured to herself. "Nathan and Moira's beautiful, if scary, daughter is not floating in front of my doorway like something out of a...a..."
She opened one eye.
And Rachel was gone. But the echo of baby laughter reached Wanda from down the hall.
--
A shower was always a good way to conclude a PT session with Haroun, and Marius was headed straight for his. At the moment he was mildly satisfied -- his body still hadn't fully recovered, but he was definitely making progress. A long, hot shower seemed like a just reward.
He was halfway up the stairs before he heard the giggle. Distinctly babyish; Rachel, then. She hadn't been in the Medlab today, so he'd assumed Nathan was looking after her -- maybe bringing her down for a visit with her mother. All normal there.
There was another soft, happy baby noise, closer this time. Marius paused. Something about the noise confused him -- or rather, he realized, he was confused by the noise he wasn't hearing. Specifically, footsteps.
Marius had just enough time to process this before he spotted what was quite possibly the first UFO ever to be outfitted in footie-pajamas.
He stared as the floating infant serenely rounded the corner above him, and found himself automatically stepping aside to let her pass. The baby giggled as she floated by, blowing bubbles at him from chest-height, and continued on her way.
He turned to watch, following the baby's progress until she had glided around the next twist in the stairs. Then, with slow, purposeful motions, he separated himself from the bannister and reoriented himself to face the top of the stairs.
"Brilliant," Marius muttered, resuming his upward journey, "As if it wasn't enough to be Moira's telepathic spawn. Now she's gone and made herself Moira's telepathic flying spawn. Right. Always knew pinchin' things from Wanda's minibar was going to come in useful . .."
--
"Heehee..." Rachel floated down the hall, her eyes wide and darting from side to side, taking in all the details of her surroundings. "EEEE!" The bubble suddenly hit the floor and then bounced upwards, bobbing along the ceiling. "EEEE!" she shrieked happily.
Angelo blinked as he headed in from a cigarette break, staring up at the baby. "....Ray? You wanna come down, sweetheart?"
"Heehee!" Rachel burbled joyfully, the bubble sliding further along the ceiling, farther away from Angelo.
He followed her, since at least he could keep an eye on where she was going. "Come t'uncle Angelo, Rachel..."
"Pbbbbbth!" Rachel pronounced merrily and then became a bouncing blur, down the hall and around the corner before Angelo could take a third step towards her.
Professor!
--
Jennie chewed thoughfully on the baby carrots in one hand, while trying to process the novel she held in her other one. Literature had always been harder for her to understand than math. But math came as easy to her as breathing, so technically everything was harder than math. Her reverie was interrupted by an "OooooOooo!" Jennie looked up, surprised. Bouncing around the ceiling was Mr. Dayspring's daughter, Rachel. "Oh. Kay." She said, slowly. Could this place get any weirder?
Rachel giggled gleefully, waving her little hands about. "Whee! Whee!" The bubble descended precipitously towards Jennie's head, then off at a sharp angle to bounce against the wall. "HEEHEE! HEEE!"
"Oh, jeez." Jennie dodged quickly as the the flying infant came towards her. Rachel then zoomeed up towards the ceiling, and down again. This time rushing one of the china cabinets. The dishes rattled ominously, and Jennie caught sight of a chaos string. Rachel swerved again, this time heading straight for the china cabinet. Dropping both book and carrots Jennie flung two white disks towards the infant and cabinet.
"WHEEE!" The bubble bounced out of the way of the disk and back towards the door, Rachel continuing to squeal in pure joy.
The disks hit the cabinet, and dishes that would have one shattered all over the floor rattles and settled back into place. Jennie heaved a sigh of relief. She turned around. "Uh-oh. Where'd she go?" she said, panicked.
--
The only thing trickier than the construction of a proper Dagwood, Jamie had often maintained, was keeping the sandwich balanced while carrying it between the counter and the table. He'd employed a surprisingly complex network of club toothpicks to hold his latest effort together--Mr. Summers' engineering class paid off in surprising ways.
He still almost lost the sandwich completely when the baby bounced through the kitchen door and started zipping around the ceiling.
Rachel was having a wonderful time. "Whee!" she squealed, weaving her hands at Jamie and coming in for a truly beautiful bounce off the island that sent her flying at the kitchen's bay window. She stopped, inches short, and the bubble started to spin, baby giggles emanating from it at regular intervals.
Jamie shook his head wonderingly, a huge grin spreading across his face. "You wacky little prodigy, I didn't even get to show you the DVD yet! I'm gonna have nothing left to teach you by the time you start walking at this rate." He managed to set his sandwich, now listing precariously, down on the table before convulsing in a fit of laughter. "God, your dad must be going out of his mind. Good job."
Rachel projected a wave of inarticulate joy, leaving the telepathic impression of golden champagne bubbles as she zipped back out of the kitchen, bouncing all the way down the hall.
Jamie swept the departing baby a grandiose and deeply respectful salute and went to rescue his sandwich. "That kid's going to redefine pranking," he murmured to himself, "and I get to be here and watch. This is going to be fun."
---
Padding about in cat shape while for once not pouncing unsuspecting people (who deserved it entirely) or unsuspecting prey (food!) or random dust specs that needed serious taming, Catseye wandered down the hallway. Entirely minding her own business and not at all up to any sort of trouble. Of any kind. The faint giggles and high pitched squeaks drew her attention instantly so and she paused in mid-step, whiskers arching forward as she sought to hear who was with Rachel.
And heard no one. Nor any walking type sounds, or crawling type sounds.
Even though the baby type giggling was in fact getting... closer.
"Kiiiiay!" came the gleeful monosyllabic noise from above Catseye. "Oooo? Mwaaaa?" Rachel waved happily at her. Purple cats who came and purred at her were high on Rachel's list of favorite beings.
Sitting down hard, Catseye looked at the floating baby, eyes wide and forgetting to breathe.
A baby, all alone. Wandering about. In winter. This was, Catseye decided, not good. Not good at all. And she knew better than to try to pounce on Rachel to try and bring her back to an adult fast, just as she knew better than to let herself panic. So, instead, she rose on her hind feet tentatively and mewed at the baby, very much wanting at least to be allowed to follow.
"Oooo," Rachel cooed adoringly, the bubble dipping down to something closer to Catseye's level even as she continued to dip forward. "Oooo? Ooo?" She reached out little hands to Catseye, but looked oddly disgruntled as they encountered the interior of her bubble. "Bah! Bah!"
Maybe she could lure the baby out of the bubble. Catseye knew only too well how much Rachel liked her fur. With a loud purr, Catseye leaned against the bubble, curling about one side of it then the other, ending up with her nose pressed against it with an endearing "pet the cat!" expression.
Peering around the corner, Cain silently extended the broom. It'd taken a good fifteen minutes of lurking around corners until the damn devilspawned baby had settled down onto the floor. Now, all he had to do was nudge her around gently, and he could guide her back to her parents. Who were probably laughing their fool heads off, cooing over their precious little monster.
Making a quick hiss to shoo the cat out of the way, Cain swept down with the broom, trying to knock the bubble towards him.
"AAAAH!" Rachel squealed indignantly as the broom came down on her bubble - and slid harmlessly off. Still! "AAAAH!" The bubble flung itself upwards, bouncing off Cain's chest and then back up to the ceiling.
Cain swore, stumbling backwards as both bubble and cat bounced off his chest, the baby ricocheting up to the sunroom's vaulted ceiling, and the cat wrapping around his head like a purple boa constrictor, thrashing and hissing.
Catseye was not worried in the least about Cain's well being, knowing very well that he'd be just fine aside from getting the chance to indulge in a lot of cursing once she cleared the room. Tracking the now rapidly moving bubble, she gave Cain one last, reproachful yowl and then leapt off, quickly following Rachel as she indignantly floated away.
---
Moira had been making her way up to her suite to indulge in a little bit of rest with Nathan and Rachel when the racket caught her attention. Pausing in mid-step, she peered through the sun room door when her curiosity got the better of her.
And her mouth dropped as she stared at her daughter--her bright, beautiful supposed to be sleeping daughter--bounced off the ceiling with Catseye howling at her from the floor and Cain cursing as he fell over.
"What the bloody hell?! Rachel!"
"AAAH!" Rachel pronounced thunderously from the ceiling, waving her arms at her mother. Now there would be no hitting with brooms! "Maah! Oooo!"
Hands flew up to her mouth as she stared, horrified, at her daughter. "Rachel, get down 'ere right this instant!" she finally managed to say, darting into the room and under the baby.
"PBBBBBTH!" The very definite raspberry was followed up by more disturbing baby laughter.
Moira's eyes narrowed sharply as she stretched to try to reach her. "Ye'll be grounded until ye learn 'ow ta drive," she muttered, wondering a bit wildly how one went about grounding a baby that couldn't walk yet. She flailed a bit, especially when Catseye went to help and there was a small dance of "Don't step on the tail".
Cain ducked back into the room, this time holding a lacrosse stick, the net on the end waving back and forth. "I got you now, you little wretch!" he growled, taking a few swipes at the baby before almost trampling Moira. "Oh. Mom. Your kid's being bad."
Before he could take one more step, she'd snatched the lacrosse stick and smacked him firmly in the chest with it. "Wha' th' hell do ye think yer doin'?!" she demanded, not caring that her voice was reaching octaves that it had no right to even consider. Rachel squealed above them and Moira turned, dropping the lacrosse stick to try and stretch up to her daughter.
"Get down 'ere right this minute!"
Turning when Ray gave no indication that she was listening to her distraught mother, Moira pointed at the floor underneath her. "Give me a boost."
Without taking his eyes off the cooing baby, Cain reached out a hand to scoop up Moira and lift her over his head. "Damn demon baby," he grumbled.
"Cute. An' precocious. An' a darlin'." If those words were said through gritted teeth, with flashing eyes, no one was insane enough to point it out. "Come 'ere, luv, come to mummy."
Rachel made what would have been a giggling noise, had she not been intensely chewing her little fist at the time. With a burble, she floated over Moira's outstretched fingers, descending down to rest on a warm plaid blanket.
Charles Xavier smiled, looking at the infant on his lap, shaking one fist up at him, then opening her mouth wide in a yawn. "You are definitely your mother's daughter, Rachel Fiona," he said, stroking a finger over the child's brow. "When you are older, there will be many stories to tell you." He looked up at Moira and Cain, eyes alight with joy. "Oh yes. Many stories, indeed."
Rachel decides to go for a walk. Or, more appropriately, a float.
It was, quite simply, jetlag, or so Nathan would admit to himself after the fact. Once he'd had a good spell of self-flagellation. The papers he was reading were very dull, and the couch was very comfortable, and he was still struggling to get off Namibian time. He dozed off, his grip on the essay he was holding relaxing. The paper slipped to the floor.
There was an interrogative coo from the direction of the nursery. Nathan, slipping into a sounder sleep, didn't hear it. Or the giggle. And certainly didn't remember that he'd left the door open specifically so that he could hear Rachel if she started to fuss.
"Heehee..."
And Rachel Kinross levitated out of her nursery, hovering securely in the middle of a telekinetic bubble. She floated there in the doorway for a moment, big blue eyes locked on her father before another, delighted giggle escaped and she flailed a little, the bubble bobbing with the movement.
The suite door was open, too. Just a crack, but it was more than enough.
--
There some was noise outside of her room. Wanda lifted her head from where it had dropped on the table and stared at the front door through half opened eyes. The migraines that had spawned after the Askani history dump had been getting worse to the point that she had actually taken a day off from everything just to rest.
Dragging herself to her feet, she made it to her door and stuck her head out, glancing around.
"Oooo!" Rachel greeted her, the bubble bobbing there in front of her door. The baby was wearing what her father would have described - out of her hearing, of course - as a shit-eating grin.
Jerking back fast enough that she bounced her head off the doorjamb, Wanda stared. And then shut her eyes as she rubbed the back of her head. "This is the migraine," she murmured to herself. "Nathan and Moira's beautiful, if scary, daughter is not floating in front of my doorway like something out of a...a..."
She opened one eye.
And Rachel was gone. But the echo of baby laughter reached Wanda from down the hall.
--
A shower was always a good way to conclude a PT session with Haroun, and Marius was headed straight for his. At the moment he was mildly satisfied -- his body still hadn't fully recovered, but he was definitely making progress. A long, hot shower seemed like a just reward.
He was halfway up the stairs before he heard the giggle. Distinctly babyish; Rachel, then. She hadn't been in the Medlab today, so he'd assumed Nathan was looking after her -- maybe bringing her down for a visit with her mother. All normal there.
There was another soft, happy baby noise, closer this time. Marius paused. Something about the noise confused him -- or rather, he realized, he was confused by the noise he wasn't hearing. Specifically, footsteps.
Marius had just enough time to process this before he spotted what was quite possibly the first UFO ever to be outfitted in footie-pajamas.
He stared as the floating infant serenely rounded the corner above him, and found himself automatically stepping aside to let her pass. The baby giggled as she floated by, blowing bubbles at him from chest-height, and continued on her way.
He turned to watch, following the baby's progress until she had glided around the next twist in the stairs. Then, with slow, purposeful motions, he separated himself from the bannister and reoriented himself to face the top of the stairs.
"Brilliant," Marius muttered, resuming his upward journey, "As if it wasn't enough to be Moira's telepathic spawn. Now she's gone and made herself Moira's telepathic flying spawn. Right. Always knew pinchin' things from Wanda's minibar was going to come in useful . .."
--
"Heehee..." Rachel floated down the hall, her eyes wide and darting from side to side, taking in all the details of her surroundings. "EEEE!" The bubble suddenly hit the floor and then bounced upwards, bobbing along the ceiling. "EEEE!" she shrieked happily.
Angelo blinked as he headed in from a cigarette break, staring up at the baby. "....Ray? You wanna come down, sweetheart?"
"Heehee!" Rachel burbled joyfully, the bubble sliding further along the ceiling, farther away from Angelo.
He followed her, since at least he could keep an eye on where she was going. "Come t'uncle Angelo, Rachel..."
"Pbbbbbth!" Rachel pronounced merrily and then became a bouncing blur, down the hall and around the corner before Angelo could take a third step towards her.
Professor!
--
Jennie chewed thoughfully on the baby carrots in one hand, while trying to process the novel she held in her other one. Literature had always been harder for her to understand than math. But math came as easy to her as breathing, so technically everything was harder than math. Her reverie was interrupted by an "OooooOooo!" Jennie looked up, surprised. Bouncing around the ceiling was Mr. Dayspring's daughter, Rachel. "Oh. Kay." She said, slowly. Could this place get any weirder?
Rachel giggled gleefully, waving her little hands about. "Whee! Whee!" The bubble descended precipitously towards Jennie's head, then off at a sharp angle to bounce against the wall. "HEEHEE! HEEE!"
"Oh, jeez." Jennie dodged quickly as the the flying infant came towards her. Rachel then zoomeed up towards the ceiling, and down again. This time rushing one of the china cabinets. The dishes rattled ominously, and Jennie caught sight of a chaos string. Rachel swerved again, this time heading straight for the china cabinet. Dropping both book and carrots Jennie flung two white disks towards the infant and cabinet.
"WHEEE!" The bubble bounced out of the way of the disk and back towards the door, Rachel continuing to squeal in pure joy.
The disks hit the cabinet, and dishes that would have one shattered all over the floor rattles and settled back into place. Jennie heaved a sigh of relief. She turned around. "Uh-oh. Where'd she go?" she said, panicked.
--
The only thing trickier than the construction of a proper Dagwood, Jamie had often maintained, was keeping the sandwich balanced while carrying it between the counter and the table. He'd employed a surprisingly complex network of club toothpicks to hold his latest effort together--Mr. Summers' engineering class paid off in surprising ways.
He still almost lost the sandwich completely when the baby bounced through the kitchen door and started zipping around the ceiling.
Rachel was having a wonderful time. "Whee!" she squealed, weaving her hands at Jamie and coming in for a truly beautiful bounce off the island that sent her flying at the kitchen's bay window. She stopped, inches short, and the bubble started to spin, baby giggles emanating from it at regular intervals.
Jamie shook his head wonderingly, a huge grin spreading across his face. "You wacky little prodigy, I didn't even get to show you the DVD yet! I'm gonna have nothing left to teach you by the time you start walking at this rate." He managed to set his sandwich, now listing precariously, down on the table before convulsing in a fit of laughter. "God, your dad must be going out of his mind. Good job."
Rachel projected a wave of inarticulate joy, leaving the telepathic impression of golden champagne bubbles as she zipped back out of the kitchen, bouncing all the way down the hall.
Jamie swept the departing baby a grandiose and deeply respectful salute and went to rescue his sandwich. "That kid's going to redefine pranking," he murmured to himself, "and I get to be here and watch. This is going to be fun."
---
Padding about in cat shape while for once not pouncing unsuspecting people (who deserved it entirely) or unsuspecting prey (food!) or random dust specs that needed serious taming, Catseye wandered down the hallway. Entirely minding her own business and not at all up to any sort of trouble. Of any kind. The faint giggles and high pitched squeaks drew her attention instantly so and she paused in mid-step, whiskers arching forward as she sought to hear who was with Rachel.
And heard no one. Nor any walking type sounds, or crawling type sounds.
Even though the baby type giggling was in fact getting... closer.
"Kiiiiay!" came the gleeful monosyllabic noise from above Catseye. "Oooo? Mwaaaa?" Rachel waved happily at her. Purple cats who came and purred at her were high on Rachel's list of favorite beings.
Sitting down hard, Catseye looked at the floating baby, eyes wide and forgetting to breathe.
A baby, all alone. Wandering about. In winter. This was, Catseye decided, not good. Not good at all. And she knew better than to try to pounce on Rachel to try and bring her back to an adult fast, just as she knew better than to let herself panic. So, instead, she rose on her hind feet tentatively and mewed at the baby, very much wanting at least to be allowed to follow.
"Oooo," Rachel cooed adoringly, the bubble dipping down to something closer to Catseye's level even as she continued to dip forward. "Oooo? Ooo?" She reached out little hands to Catseye, but looked oddly disgruntled as they encountered the interior of her bubble. "Bah! Bah!"
Maybe she could lure the baby out of the bubble. Catseye knew only too well how much Rachel liked her fur. With a loud purr, Catseye leaned against the bubble, curling about one side of it then the other, ending up with her nose pressed against it with an endearing "pet the cat!" expression.
Peering around the corner, Cain silently extended the broom. It'd taken a good fifteen minutes of lurking around corners until the damn devilspawned baby had settled down onto the floor. Now, all he had to do was nudge her around gently, and he could guide her back to her parents. Who were probably laughing their fool heads off, cooing over their precious little monster.
Making a quick hiss to shoo the cat out of the way, Cain swept down with the broom, trying to knock the bubble towards him.
"AAAAH!" Rachel squealed indignantly as the broom came down on her bubble - and slid harmlessly off. Still! "AAAAH!" The bubble flung itself upwards, bouncing off Cain's chest and then back up to the ceiling.
Cain swore, stumbling backwards as both bubble and cat bounced off his chest, the baby ricocheting up to the sunroom's vaulted ceiling, and the cat wrapping around his head like a purple boa constrictor, thrashing and hissing.
Catseye was not worried in the least about Cain's well being, knowing very well that he'd be just fine aside from getting the chance to indulge in a lot of cursing once she cleared the room. Tracking the now rapidly moving bubble, she gave Cain one last, reproachful yowl and then leapt off, quickly following Rachel as she indignantly floated away.
---
Moira had been making her way up to her suite to indulge in a little bit of rest with Nathan and Rachel when the racket caught her attention. Pausing in mid-step, she peered through the sun room door when her curiosity got the better of her.
And her mouth dropped as she stared at her daughter--her bright, beautiful supposed to be sleeping daughter--bounced off the ceiling with Catseye howling at her from the floor and Cain cursing as he fell over.
"What the bloody hell?! Rachel!"
"AAAH!" Rachel pronounced thunderously from the ceiling, waving her arms at her mother. Now there would be no hitting with brooms! "Maah! Oooo!"
Hands flew up to her mouth as she stared, horrified, at her daughter. "Rachel, get down 'ere right this instant!" she finally managed to say, darting into the room and under the baby.
"PBBBBBTH!" The very definite raspberry was followed up by more disturbing baby laughter.
Moira's eyes narrowed sharply as she stretched to try to reach her. "Ye'll be grounded until ye learn 'ow ta drive," she muttered, wondering a bit wildly how one went about grounding a baby that couldn't walk yet. She flailed a bit, especially when Catseye went to help and there was a small dance of "Don't step on the tail".
Cain ducked back into the room, this time holding a lacrosse stick, the net on the end waving back and forth. "I got you now, you little wretch!" he growled, taking a few swipes at the baby before almost trampling Moira. "Oh. Mom. Your kid's being bad."
Before he could take one more step, she'd snatched the lacrosse stick and smacked him firmly in the chest with it. "Wha' th' hell do ye think yer doin'?!" she demanded, not caring that her voice was reaching octaves that it had no right to even consider. Rachel squealed above them and Moira turned, dropping the lacrosse stick to try and stretch up to her daughter.
"Get down 'ere right this minute!"
Turning when Ray gave no indication that she was listening to her distraught mother, Moira pointed at the floor underneath her. "Give me a boost."
Without taking his eyes off the cooing baby, Cain reached out a hand to scoop up Moira and lift her over his head. "Damn demon baby," he grumbled.
"Cute. An' precocious. An' a darlin'." If those words were said through gritted teeth, with flashing eyes, no one was insane enough to point it out. "Come 'ere, luv, come to mummy."
Rachel made what would have been a giggling noise, had she not been intensely chewing her little fist at the time. With a burble, she floated over Moira's outstretched fingers, descending down to rest on a warm plaid blanket.
Charles Xavier smiled, looking at the infant on his lap, shaking one fist up at him, then opening her mouth wide in a yawn. "You are definitely your mother's daughter, Rachel Fiona," he said, stroking a finger over the child's brow. "When you are older, there will be many stories to tell you." He looked up at Moira and Cain, eyes alight with joy. "Oh yes. Many stories, indeed."