Laurie and Jean log

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Laurie and Jean do some cleaning, and end up talking about people, pets and various other things.



Laurie's hand idly tapped the pen against the desk as she turned a page, muttering an unfamiliar word to herself to get the feel for it, and then wrinkling her nose in concentration as she tried to memorise the meaning of it. She had two books in front of her, a textbook on human anatomy that Jean had given her, and a medical dictionary for words she might not know off the cuff.

Jean's eyes were running down the list she had on her clipboard as she entered the main room of the medical lab - she and Amelia were using the summer vacation semi-quiet to do a thorough inventory and cleaning, and so far they'd gotten quite a bit done. "Afternoon, Laurie," she called idly, heading to glance into and make notes on the private examination rooms.

"Hey Doc." Laurie responded, looking up from her study and holding up her book. "Do you know how to pronounce this word?"

Jean glanced over, eyes quickly picking out the word Laurie had circled with a question mark. "Sphenoid," she said, dropping the 'h' out of the word. "It's part of the anterior base of the skull, basically the center and supporting bone."

"Ahh." Laurie murmured, sounding the word out under her breath. "This is a lot harder then I thought it would be. There's so much study, and I'm only just starting."

"There is a lot," Jean agreed, setting her clipboard down and pulling out a chair to perch on by Laurie. "But no one expects you to know it all now, or even a year from now. There's a reason most medical schools require college graduates to have done a pre-med based course. Between that and the internship, you essentially spend twelve years studying before you get licensed."

Laurie thought about that, dedicating her life to a road that would take twelve whole years to complete. It seemed almost impossible to imagine where she might be and how she might feel by the end of it. Especially considering this place. "I guess it's like Mr Summers said about the X-men, when I finally get to the point that I've got to choose, I might feel differently after all the studying and looking at things. But, I don't think I will, least I hope I won't."

"Which is the other point of the pre-med," Jean said, smiling faintly. "If four years of organic-chemistry and other heavy sciences don't scare you off, chances are pretty good you're interested in the topic, or really committed. Or both."

"I'm kinda seeing how that would work." Laurie replied, tone somewhat wry as she firmly closed the medical dictionary. She'd done enough studying for now and her brain was feeling somewhat squishy from all the work. "Anything I can help with?"

"Hmmm," Jean said, considering the list on her clipboard. "Well, if the studying's getting too much would you rather get up close and personal with cleaning the exam rooms with me, or do we skip it and hit the non-prescription inventory?"

"Cleaning is always easier with two people, and cataloguing of anything takes brain power that studying has sucked right out of me." Laurie replied, standing.

"Then cleaning it is." Jean stood to join Laurie, smiling. "You can even do the non-brain taxing bits, like dusting."

"Woot! Do I get to name any dustbunnies we find?" Laurie said, heading off to get the cleaning supplies.

"Be my guest," Jean said with a laugh, "although they're more likely in the offices than the exam rooms. We'll get to those eventually, though."

"Did I tell you about the pig I'm getting soon? I've got to ask Mr Marko to take me, since he drives the pickup but I wanted to wait till the new mansion addition was all finished. Although, I guess he could stay in the suite with me, but I've gotta check if the others are scared of pigs first." Laurie babbled as she picked up the bucket carrying the various cleaning supplies.

"I assume we're talking piglet and not, you know, full on pot-bellied?" Jean collected the mop and broom that were leaning by the door before leading the way to the first of the exam rooms. "Even then, a piglet's not really a dormitory sort of pet..."

"Piglet, yeah. Miniture pot bellied pig as well. But I guess even those get pretty big, so it's not the sort of pet I'd keep in my room. Although he can follow me around when he's smaller." Laurie said, following behind Jean.

"When did you decide you wanted to get a pig? Also, why?" Jean gestured for Laurie to start dusting over near the desk while she grabbed the disinfectant scrub and moved to go over the exposed metal of the examination table.

"Well, it was a couple of months ago. I was watching 'Uptown Girls' and I saw Mu, which is supposed to mean something like pork in Chinese, or was that Malaysian? Anyway, I saw him and I knew I wanted one as a pet too. He was so cute! And then I thought 'Pablo' would be a good name, and it's perfect because then it's 'Pablo the pot bellied pig'. It's fate!" Laurie said, pulling out a dust cloth and starting to clean the various surfaces in the room.

"Mm-hmm," Jean said, grinning at the table as she worked. "I can't really fault your logic. Well, I could, but I'm not going to. It will certainly add to the menagerie aspect of the school."

"All we'd need is a Llama named Ed, and a sugar glider, or possibly a badly tempered badger. Do you think Mr Marko would like a Badger for a pet?"

She finished dusting the table and moved on to pulling the sheets off the bed and placing them in the laundry basket.

"He's already got Mao," Jean pointed out, carefully working the scrubber around the handles to the cabinets built into the table. "I don't think the cat would take well to a badger. Particularly not a badly tempered one." She looked up and added, "Hey, can you make sure the desk's stocked up with swabs and the like?"

"Mao's with the little kid, I think. Can't remember his name, the one who was adopted by Alison Blaire, at least that's what Mr Marko said. But, I suppose you're right." Laurie replied, opening the drawers and checking for supplies. She quickly strode out of the room and then came back a few seconds later with a supply of swabs and various incidentals like bandaids. "You know, they say you can tell something about a person by the pet they have."

"Well, that shows how observant I am, huh?" Jean said before Laurie disappeared. She finished up with the table and pulled the clean paper out so a new length was visible, ripping off the old as Laurie came back. "Oh? So what do you think Pablo will say about you?" Jean raised an eyebrow at Laurie.

"That I have impeccable taste and am wildly exotic." Laurie said, grinning brightly as she closed the drawers and picked up her dusting cloth again. "Either that, or I'm completely barking."

Her accent took on a funny English style lilt on the end word and she blinked in surprise. Definitely way too much time spent around certain members of Snow Valley.

Jean snorted faintly. "Possibly both," she said, grinning. "These things do tend to go together." Moving over to sit on her wheeled stool, she started in on the tray for tools with the disinfectant.

"I think somewhere in here I should put in a certain Cheshire Cat style comment about us all being mad but it's so cliché." Laurie replied breezily, moving over to dust the oxygen equipment while being careful not to cause any damage.

Dr Summers-Grey was extremely easy to talk to she'd found and Laurie had quickly gotten over any shyness she might show with other teachers. Although, Dr Voight still gave her the screaming heebie jeebies, not so much because of what she was, but her attitude was frightening.

Which, at the heart of it, was really the difference between Jean and Amelia's approaches to medicine. "'How do you know I'm mad?' 'You're here, aren't you?'" Jean offered. "Slightly less cliche but no less true."

"I should get you one of those little de-motivational calendars so you can stick it up in the waiting room." Laurie said, finishing the dusting of the equipment and moving over to grab the clean sheets to start making the bed.

Jean looked up from her scrubbing to watch, and nodded in approval at the neat, firm hospital corners Laurie had finally mastered. "That would probably be more appropriate than the 'X days since last serious injury' sign we keep contemplating. Particularly since 'X' would never be a very large number."

"That would get kind of depressing." Laurie agreed, finishing with the sheets and moving on to the pillow cases. "I figure that one, or possibly a Farside calendar. You can't get depressed reading Farside."

"Possibly the motivational for the offices?" Jean suggested, turning her attention back to the job at hand and finishing it up. "Given Amelia's bedside manner, people might take the motivational calendar a little too seriously." Standing up, she stretched slightly, then collected the broom and started sweeping up.

"True. Did you ever ask Dr Voight why she became a doctor? She doesn't...well, she doesn't seem to like people very much." Laurie said, wincing slightly. She hated to feel like she was gossiping but she was curious.

"Amelia cares a lot more than she lets on," Jean said slowly, thinking as she worked. "The... strictness; partly it's to do with how she was trained, and partly it's just who she is, but she does care, actually." Jean actually rather liked the prickly Russian, in a way.

"Sometimes it's hard to tell with people. You don't really see much past skin deep unless you look and sometimes it's hard to remember to tell yourself to do it." Laurie said, tone thoughtful as she finished fluffing the pillows and placed them neatly on the bed.

"And there are always going to be people who, for whatever reason of their own, actively discourage having people look that little bit deeper," Jean added.

"Mr Lebeau is like that, I think. I've only really saw him once but he went out of his way to show me something, even though he was scary to start with, and Mr Wisdom was all growly and then he was nice as well. Made me realise I couldn't judge people around here by what was on the surface, otherwise I'd miss out on really interesting conversations." Laurie replied, thinking about those two meetings.

She hadn't really seen either man since, but that wasn't surprising considering her student status and the fact they lived in New York. She needed to send something to Mr Wisdom for not turning her into a crispy fried Laurie though, possibly food basket related.

"Yes, exactly." Jean glanced about, then frowned slightly until the dustpan she'd forgotten came floating into the room. "I say we save the mopping until all the rooms are ready for it," she said, sweeping up what little dirt there'd been into the pan and dumping it into the trash can.

"I like the way you think." Laurie said, stretching and looking around to see if there's anything they missed.

Jean smiled. "Come on. I think that's this one done. If we get through the other exam rooms, there can be ice cream before the mopping."

Laurie gave a brief whoop at the mention of ice cream and picked up her cleaning gear. "Onward to ice cream!"