Scott and Laurie log: 13 days aftermath

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Thursday 1st November 2007, Noon.

Laurie checks in on Scott and they have a conversation about being an X-man, and being a teenager



Laurie checked that the bag attached to Scott's arm didn't need renewing and gently tucked in the sheet around his middle before quickly refilling the jug of water beside his bed. She'd been helping to take care of the more seriously injured of the X-men for the last day or so, trying to give Jean at least a little rest. The good doctor had a habit of not seeing to her own health when that of her patients required more attention and Laurie was determined to keep her from overworking herself.

These little day to day tasks were easily done by a Med lab helper, and there was always Amelia if she needed to call on anyone more knowledgeable.

They had him on the very good drugs. That and the sunlamp in the room meant he was... well, high. Very high, as a matter of fact. He opened his eyes, blinking at Laurie. "Fluttery," he mumbled through his wired jaw.

"That means the morphine is working," Laurie murmured softly, picking up the notepad and pen and placing it close to his hands. "And no talking, you've got to give your jaw time to heal."

He picked the pen up and studied it thoughtfully. Very thoughtfully. Maybe if he wiggled it back and forth it would do... pen-like things. Maybe.

"I don't think it's going to write the words by itself," Laurie said, with a wry grin. Obviously he was a little too drugged currently for any real conversation. That was okay though, as long as he wasn't in any pain. "Let me know if you need anything, I'm going to be hanging around for the next few hours making sure you guys are comfortable."

"Mm," Scott observed, in response to that. He wasn't sure he needed anything except for the room to stop spinning. Except that was kind of soothing because it was a very slow spinning, really. Not at all like the multi-axis trainer.

Laurie looked around to make sure no one else needed her help and then, having made sure, she pulled one of the visitor chairs closer and took a seat. "Actually, I'm glad you're awake. There's something I really needed to get off my chest. I've been thinking about it since this all started, really."

"Mm?" Scott managed to raise an eyebrow to punctuate the question.

Laurie smiled at that, she'd never met such a diverse bunch of people who could all do that one raised eyebrow thing. She wondered if it were a secondary mutation, that and being able to roll your tongue the opposite way.

"Well, I know I went off at a bunch of people on the journals right before everything. It wasn't really about the drinking, you see. It was more that I wasn't sure of anything, and especially not about being a trainee. Amanda tried to talk to me about it too and I didn't want to listen to her. I didn't want to have to make a real choice, I wasn't ready for it."

"Go on," Scott said, enunciating as clearly as he could given the lack of ability to move his jaw. There was more he would have said, if this conversation hadn't been happening under quite these conditions. But Laurie would have to take what she could get.

"I think I was ready to quit, you know? I didn't know if I could hack all of this. I was so scared, and it all seemed like it was so fucked up. I just wanted to be a normal kid, someone who gets protected and doesn't have to know that there's more to the world then what we can see and touch." Laurie continued, hands clasped together on her lap as she talked. This was hard for her, harder then she thought it was going to be.

It wasn't every day that you admitted to having second thoughts, and that you hadn't told anyone about them before you went up against crazy people.

"Can. Is okay." Scott was trying to be helpful, really. It might have come out sounding kind of blunt, but Laurie needed to know that it was okay, if she didn't want to have this life.

"Thanks, only I've already decided to stick it out," Laurie said, smiling wryly. "I wasn't sure, not even after we got called up to help rescue people and then, well, Jean and I helped save that man and I knew. I knew if I hadn't been there he might have died and that was it. I can't turn my back on this, just because I'm scared. And well, normal will be there for me later, if I still want it. Right now, I've got more important things to do."

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. He'd apparently missed quite a lot while he was running away from Nimrod. Or unconscious. Whenever whatever this was had happened. "Mmm," he said, for lack of any better ideas.

"I just don't want to screw up," Laurie finished, feeling somewhat lame. "Is it okay to not know exactly where you're going, or what it is you want to do yet?"

"Mm-hm." Kids. Why did kids think they should know who they were and what they wanted to do while they were still kids? Had he? Probably. It was the common adolescent self-delusion.

"Anyway, I should let you sleep. There's time enough for all this later. You get to read all the mission reports once you're awake and off the drugs," Laurie replied with a smile. She'd taken a look at some of them herself, it made for interesting reading. They'd been lucky, even though it didn't seem like it with so many injured, but it could have been so much worse.

"Laurie?" He managed to get her name out fairly coherently. "Don't overthink," he mumbled as she looked at him. "Will make sense. If you let it." Wow. Okay, that had been more coherent in his head.

She smiled, it's the advice her mother would have given her, had they been having this conversation. And since both her mother and Mr Summers were wise individuals, she'd take the advice and let things go for awhile. Reaching over, she brushed her hand against Scott's arm, squeezing for a second in thanks as a small glow surrounded her fingers. "Thankyou, for listening and for the advice. Now, you need some sleep, so I'll say goodnight."