Thursday Morning - The Medlab

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Jennie's trying to rest, but it's hard when someone keeps restocking her room. Every 15 minutes.



Jennie was trying to rest.

According to the thorough examination she'd been given once she'd arrived back at the mansion (or carried, whatever) the tally had been: two broken ribs, massive contusions to her right side, a hairline crack to her right radius, a bruised spleen, and however much of the Hudson she'd managed to swallow. She had been told she was lucky to be alive, without a hint of irony. It was a testament to what she'd been through that she hadn't received a lecture about joining the fight instead of leaving, and she could have sworn that Dr. Voght had bothered to warm her hands.

Now, doped up on meds and on enough antibiotics to kill a small elephant, Jennie shifted fitfully in the infirmary bed. She hurt too much to actually sleep very deeply, and someone kept coming in her room. She cracked an eye to spy a curly-haired figure in the corner of the room next to the supply cabinet.

"Wha?" she said, voice slurred from painkillers and sleepiness.

"Merely a routine assessment of the supplies in this room. Worry not, it is my great pleasure to announce that stock has not been significantly depleted since the last scheduled inspection of" the voice hesitated, calculating, "fifteen minutes past."

Both eyes opened, and she shifted herself up to get a better view. "Marius?" she said, and rubbed her eyes. That made the colors blur and she blinked to clear her vision. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm certain I just said. Unless your list of injuries happens to include serious head trauma precipitating memory impairment, in which event you are excused." Marius smiled and dropped his clipboard carelessly on a chair before sauntering over to the bed. There were still faint traces of Kyle's mutation lingering around his fingertips, but otherwise he looked quite normal and disgustingly unscathed. He pulled up a chair and swung it around backwards before taking a seat, draping his arms over the back.

"Did you know, Forge had the gall to declare you dead?" Marius remarked, giving her a speculative look. "Even at the time I thought this jumpin' the gun a bit. After all, it isn't as if we don't share a team roster with one Dr. Grey-Summers."

"Stock checking?" Jennie said, and then she smiled slightly. "Every fifteen minutes?" She shifted herself into a sitting position, and winced. "Remind me never to be on a bridge as it blows up again," she said, and then sobered slightly. "In Forge's defense, I thought I was dead, too. I just had to stall--" it? her? "--for as long as I could. Just wish it could have been longer, I panicked a bit."

"Nonetheless, I am glad to see your luck decided to come in useful for once, you bein' the only person I know for whom a million-to-one chance actually enhances the odds." Marius' chin was rested on his crossed forearms, but there was a focus in his yellow eyes that belied the casual posture. "Your sister was in a bit of a state, you know," he said, watching her intently. "Hysterics when you were thought dead, an' then another round when you were discovered alive. Fickle girl, that. No worries. You will be pleased to know I attended to her in a consummately gentlemanly fashion."

"If you consummated anything with my sister, just be warned, I'm contractually obligated to have to hurt you," Jennie reached around and pulled one of her pillows to her chest. She looked a lot younger, somehow. The air of self-confidence and togetherness she'd always projected was missing. Now she just looked tired, and even a bit vulnerable. "Thanks for looking after her. I.. maybe could have handled that better. Spared her the hysterics and stuff."

Marius gave her an odd look. "Yes," he said slowly. "How dare you not abandon the bridgeful of innocents to the mercy of a crazed harbinger of an overlord-hopeful simply to spare your half-sister an ultimately temporary stressor. Truly you are a terrible person."

Jennie leaned back in the bed and put the pillow over her face. "If you're going to make fun, have the decency to do it when my painkillers aren't wearing off," she retorted, voice muffled by the pillow. "You of all people should at least have some sensitivity to the nearly dead."

There was a pause, and then the unmistakable feel of a hand tentatively touching her arm.

"My apologies," Marius said after an instant of hesitation, his tone softer now. "Ironically, it appears my constant near-death experiences have actually made me somewhat less equipped to deal with others in a similar state. I forget that the majority of the human race does not react to trauma with a prompt an' dedicated slide into deflection and denial." After another beat he added, "Hard as it may be to tell . . . I am relieved rumours of your death did prove to be greatly exaggerated. I confess, as much practice as I have with denial, there was a stretch there where I found it rather hard goin'."

Jennie pulled her the pillow away from her face and gave Marius a considering look. "Does it always suck this bad?" she asked wearily.

Marius cocked his head, momentarily confused. "The near-death experiences, you mean?" He coughed, for the first time looking visibly uncomfortable. "Eh, well . . . yes, in my experience. An' even though you'd think it'd be easier after the second or third go, also in my experience . . . when it comes to awareness that you've come within a hairsbreadth of snuffin' it, familiarity does not breed comfort."

"I think I can leave the multiple experiences to you. And if I was ever an insufferable bitch during those times, I sincerely, deeply apologize," Jennie sighed and looked down, and then hesitantly touched the back of Marius's hand. "We won though, right? That's what matters."

"Indeed it does," the Australian said firmly. "And, selfish as it may seem in the light of so many overall casualties, we lost none of our own in the doin'. And that, I think, is an achievement." And, in an emphasis almost lost, his grip on her arm tightened almost imperceptibly.

"Yeah, we got lucky," said Jennie without a trace of irony. "I'm glad you're okay too," she smiled again, and this time it reached her eyes. She shifted and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on top. "What say for my 21st birthday, we go somewhere else where we won't achieve full bodily harm? I hear there are some nice, secluded Caribbean Islands."

Marius furrowed his brow, considering this. "I don't know, I rather fear such an attempt. Have you not noticed the frequency of vacation disasters? Should this remarkable streak of misfortune converge with the ever-present Birthday Jinx, I am forced to wonder if we would survive." He sighed, shaking his head with sorrow. "Apologies, Jen, but maybe it's best you simply pick another date on which to celebrate your birthday. Perhaps, say, June."

"Your birthday doesn't have any amount of disaster attached at all. I shall claim yours, since you've even forgotten it on occasion. You don't really need it," Jennie grinned. When other people prompted her on what she saw in her tall, goofy and well-meaning but absent-minded best friend. This was it. He made it easy to forget whatever was bothering her, and could make her smile.

"And have your luck follow with you to inevitably consume the inherent uneventfulness of that blessed date? I think not. Although, here's an idea," Marius said, raising a finger in sudden epiphany, "you could schedule your annual celebration of continued existence to coincide with that of Mr. Dayspring. With such timing I can virtually guarantee Fate's sadistic glance shall be otherwise occupied."

"Eff that! Didn't he spend one in a coma?" Jennie said, "Plus it was his fault my 17th got co-opted by a riot. I would think you'd put more thought into this, as I'm not the only one my birthday's maimed."

Marius waved this off as inconsequential. "Here, I spent the week preceding one of yours sloughing skin and regrowin' functional lungs, followed by a further few days sequestered in the depths of Medlab solely to ensure a suitably dramatic surprise. Speak not to me of sacrifice."

Jennie began to giggle but then paled considerably, hand going to her abdomen. "A favor, oh bestest buddy? Can you go get Herr Doktor to give me another round of painkillers? Please?"

"From Dr. Voght? But of course. I shall work my Masculine Wiles upon her. It's quite amazing what she will consent to if only I agree to stop."