Red X: Reconstruction - Yvette and Dr. Samson, Wednesday afternoon

[x-leosamson.livejournal.com]

Yvette and Dr. Samson chat while installing wiring



It was strange, seeing Dr. Samson outside of his office, and especially in working clothes, but Yvette was grateful for it. For one, he spoke Spanish, which was very good since Yvette...didn't. At all. Even Spanish-accented English was tricky.

"Is this right, Dr. Samson?" she asked, gesturing at the neat square holes she was cutting in pieces of drywall.

Leo stood and pulled his ponytail tighter, brushing a few stray hairs out of his face as he leaned over to look at Yvette's drill work. "Excellent, Yvette! Can you give me one more on the left, about..." he paused to check his measurements, "five inches from the last? Then this piece should be done and I can put the wires in."

She nodded, and set about doing as he'd asked. "This is much easier to cut than the heavy pieces of wood," she observed with a small smile. "But I cannot go as fast, or the dust is making me sneeze."

"I imagine it would be--and you're doing a fantastic job," Leo responded, "and as for the dust...let's see if we can fix that." He glanced around the half-assembled house they were working in. The respiratory masks the other workers were using would tear on Yvette's face. He turned back and considered her. "Yvette, do you have any flexibility with the hairband you use? Would you be able to adjust it to fit over your mouth or nose? That might help with the dust a bit." Leo grinned and winked at her. "We don't want you sneezing all day--you might sneeze out important brain cells!"

She giggled and stopped what she was doing to reach up and tug the strip of flexible cloth out from under her hair. The curls had sharpened somewhat with the effort of using her powers, but she was still a long way from the long spikes that signaled that she was under stress. "That is the very clever idea, Dr. Samson. I did not think of that." It took a little adjusting, but eventually she managed to get it to sit across her nose and mouth, the self-repairing cloth knitting together with each movement. "There! Do I look like the bank robber now?" she teased.

"Absolutely! Just please don't steal my wires, Miss Cassidy," Leo responded, as he began assembling the wires to go through the holes Yvette had made.

Yvette moved to finish her job, cutting away industriously. After a moment, she spoke. "I did not know you were the electric person, Dr. Samson," she said, curiously. "May I be asking where you learned this?"

After Yvette finished the last hole, Leo moved over and began threading the wires to the fuse box. "My father is a retired electrician--I am certainly no expert, but I have managed to pick up a few things from him. Enough to keep the light switches working and program the VCRs, at least," Leo continued with a smile.

"Electrician. This is the word for the person who works with the electricity, yes?" At his nod, Yvette repeated the word to herself a few times, to commit it to memory. "When I was in Canada for the avalanche, I was finding that the electricity does not hurt me," she continued. "It makes the funny tickling, but that is all. My skin does not, how you say? Con-ducks?" It was a word she'd heard Forge use, and she thought that was what it meant.

"Really?" Leo responded, looking at her with interest. "That's remarkable, Yvette--and you're correct, the word is 'conduct.' That could potentially be very helpful in many situations, particularly with Red X work. If you were assisting an area after, let's say, a hurricane or tornado, you might be able to assist people in moving downed power lines, which are very dangerous to those of us whose skin does conduct electricity."

Leo paused for a moment to consult the folded paper in his tool belt, pulled out a pen in the same pocket, and began labeling the now attached wires. "I think we can mark that down as one of the positives of your ability," he added, glancing over at her.

She gave him a solemn nod, although there was a certain glow to her blank blue eyes that suggested she wasn't all work. "One for the plus side of the list, yes," she agreed. "I have been trying harder to think of such things." The glow faded a little, however. "I had the talk with Jay, about why it is hard for people such as Kevin and I to be relaxing around people. He did not seem to understand that even if he can be healing the hurt, it is still a hurt."

"It's a difficult thing to understand, Yvette," Leo replied gently, carefully labeling the wires in front of him. "You've heard the saying, 'Out of sight, out of mind?' Meaning that when you don't see something, it's easier to forget that it's there? It's sometimes hard for people to understand--or, to remember, that the things that hurt us inside take longer to heal than injuries on the outside."

She watched him work, and then nodded, reluctantly. "I think I understand, yes. Because he is healing so fast, Jay does not think it is such the big hairy deal that he was hurt in the first place?"

Leo laughed delightedly. "That's certainly one way to put it, Yvette." He finished labeling the wires and put his pen and reference sheet back in his belt, then turned to face Yvette. "It's also important to remember that everyone deals with being hurt in their own way--whether it's being hurt physically, or having your feelings hurt. Some people try to ignore it--" Leo smiled softly, "not my first recommendation, obviously--some people laugh, some people cry, some people talk about it. And every person is going to have their own time frame because every person is different. Two people can go through the same event or experience, and deal with it in very different ways. One could recover in a matter of days, one in months--and that's ok."

Leo closed the now finished fuse box. "Humans--and mutants--are not as simple as wiring--we all don't conduct electricity the same way, and we all don't react to things the same way either." He picked up the bag at his feet, containing the wiring components, and motioned to the next outlet. "Ready for the next one?"

She wiggled her ungloved fingers at him. "Ready when you are, Dr. Electrician!"

Leo grinned broadly and motioned Yvette over to the next section. He pulled out his reference sheet and began marking the holes for her to drill, checking his watch at the same time. "Why don't we finish this one and then break for lunch? If no one has yet, I'll introduce you to sopaipillas--one of the plumber's wives is from New Mexico and brought some cheese and chile stuffed ones with her today."

"Ooh, yes please!" Work had made Yvette's appetite as ravenous as Angel's it seemed, and the small girl practically skipped to the next piece of wall.