Laurie and Jean-Paul - Friday Afternoon

[x-cynosure.livejournal.com]

Laurie gets a visit from Jean-Paul. Pillows are fluffed, motives are questioned, and Elfquest is snarked on.



Jean-Paul had assured Morgan (or rather, Daniel) that he'd keep an eye on Laurie while her roommate was away. The girl had not impressed him overmuch on the journals and he'd had not reason to seek her out before, but it was hard to resist Morgan in either form, which was how he happened to wind up knocking at Laurie's door that noon, a dish of panna cotta in one hand, as well as The Complete Peresopolis and the first volumes of Age of Bronze and Elfquest tucked under his arm.

"Mademoiselle Collins? I believe you put in a request for food and books?"

Laurie looked up from her book with curiosity, there weren't many people living in the mansion who had a Canadian accent, and who also spoke French. "Come in!"

It didn't come out quite as loudly as she might have liked, even though her throat was now mostly healed, she still couldn't talk above more then a croak, and the coughing was still painfully annoying. At least she'd been promised short walks to the sun room in another week, anything to get out of this bed really.

Her visitor entered and set the books on her bedside table and the chilled dish atop the lot.

"At least I made the right call with dessert. You sound as if you've been gargling razor blades." Laurie's appearance -- thin and pale, with dark circles of bruised-looking skin beneath her eyes -- combined with her rough voice and the slight rasp to her breath was alarming. If this was an improvement, the girl must have been at death's door before now. "How are you feeling, mademoiselle?"

"Better then I look, no doubt." Laurie said with a brief smile. She hadn't been allowed out of bed except to shower and go to the bathroom, but then she hadn't exactly felt like walking around except the brief escape attempts when being surrounded by four walls had started to make it hard to cope. "Least I'm allowed to talk now though, last week I had to use this little white board to write on."

"Sounds like an exercise in frustration. No wonder Morgan thought of tying you to the bed." He nodded to the books he'd brought. "I thought you might like these. I tend to prefer more pictures and fewer words with my reading when I'm not feeling well. Easier on the eyes, less heavy lifting required on the part of the mind."

"Thank you." Laurie said, pulling the books toward her and taking a look. "I've got my laptop now but I'm not meant to be using that often. So, is this really just a general visit because I asked, or did Morgan ask you to look in on me? I know she totally sicked Catseye on me to make sure I didn't get out of bed."

"A combination of the two. Do my motivations matter so much?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I don't know, they might." Laurie noted, opening the ElfQuest book. The art was simple, but well drawn, and while she usually wasn't one to read fiction he had been right in saying that images were a lot easier to look at. Her attempts at studying had not been going well, and she'd seemingly no sooner opened a book then she'd fallen asleep holding the thing. The incessant napping that her body had been subjecting her to was getting a little much. "The fact that you'd keep a promise to Morgan speaks well of your opinion of her, but that wouldn't have included the food or the books, so the fact that you brought those speaks well of you. So I would suppose it balances out. In other words, I do believe that I approve."

She grinned, and pulled her pillows up slightly behind her so that she could better sit up and talk. She would have to sleep again soon, but for now her brain seemed well able to hold up one end of a conversation.

Jean-Paul slipped his hands into his pockets, slightly amused at her choice.

"Ah, but the food and books were your suggestion. So perhaps I am only partially worthy of approval." He motioned toward the hardcover in her hands. "You may keep that one, if you wind up liking it. It came highly recommended, but I could only get so far. It is perhaps the most garishly colored collection of work I have ever seen."

"Monsieur Beaubier, does this mean you're more of the Gothic, shades of grey disposition?" Laurie asked, and then had to hold up her hand as the tickle in her throat got the better of her, and she had to cough. It took her several moments to bring it back under control, and she lay back against her pillows, exhausted. "Sorry."

"I don't think you could help it." Jean-Paul headed for the kitchen and returned with a glass of water, adjusting the girl's pillows so that she could drink without spilling all over herself. "As to your question, I do prefer the clarity of black and white work, but that artist is too fond of pastels. I'm given to understand that this book was in black and white originally, which makes the crime all the worse."

"I'm surprised no one has tried to find you the original black and white." Laurie murmured after taking a few sips of water and placing the cup on her side table. "The coughing gets...is annoying. I know it's part of the being sick but I hate it. I can't even talk at a normal level without setting it off."

It wasn't that she liked being a whiner but being sick had to be the most frustrating, helpless experience of her young life. Having to rely on others to fetch and carry for her, and the tiny, unspoken fear inside that they might decide to simply leave her to her own devices after she'd been so careless with the feelings of others lately.

"If you do not mind my asking, why did you go so long without help? You do not seem the masochistic type." Somewhat bossy and thoughtless, but not careless of herself.

Laurie opened her mouth, and then closed it again, staying silent for some time before she attempted to answer again. "I let my desire for perfection run away with itself. Exams were coming up, and I had a belt test I wanted to pass. 'Just a little bit longer' became, 'I'll see Jean tomorrow' and then turned into 'Right after exams finish'. There was always something else that needed to be done. My body finally had enough of it, I think. I'm also completely unwilling to ask for help most days. I'm told it's not one of my more endearing traits."

It wasn't as flippant an answer as her tone made it seem, but she wasn't sure how to really say 'Because I'm a moron' without it seeming entirely flippant in and of itself. True as it was.

"I should say not. People do not tend to hold something beyond your control against you...well, not when it is something as simple as an illness. Scaring them to death by keeling over from something you could have prevented does not always get so forgiving a reaction." He shook his head. "Sorry; I am sure you have had many lectures over this already. Besides, I think the enforced bedrest is doing more to convince you it was a foolish thing than I could running off my mouth."

"That's alright, I expect I deserve the lectures and more." Laurie noted with shake of her head, reaching out to take the glass for another sip of water. "At least I managed to finally get the nerve up to appoligise to Kyle from all this, so that's something. Well, that and realised I need to talk to Scott about where I'm going with my training. You sound like you know something about this sort of thing, someone scare you to death in the past?"

"More often I was on the receiving end of the lectures for scaring people," Jean-Paul confessed. "Trying to hide concussions and broken bones so that people do not know you failed at something falls under the same sort of fear and stupidity, I would think."

"You were a member of Alpha Flight, like Garrison?" Laurie asked, wondering how well Jean-Paul had known him. There hadn't been any funerals yet, like they were all waiting to be sure, till there wasn't a shadow of a doubt that they weren't coming back. She wondered if perhaps there needed to be, in order for people to move on.

The jump of topics was a bit sudden, but Jean-Paul merely nodded.

"We were both in the Flight program, yes. I did not know Kane well; we were just co-workers, I suppose you could say."

"He didn't like me much, but he saved my life." Laurie murmured, trying to find a more comfortable spot and shoving the pillows further down her back. "I never really told him thank you. I've been a fair brat lately, um, for a while."

"A fine realization." Jean-Paul moved to help her reposition herself. "You've already made some steps forward with Kyle, non? So what next?"

"Talking to Scott, I think." Laurie admitted, grateful for the help as she settled back down, breathing easier. "I need to change the focus of my training if it's possible. Stop trying to be things I'm not. Work on telling people when I'm not coping, or don't understand things. It's going to be harder then just saying it now. I'm not good at admitting when I'm having trouble."

"It will be the easiest thing in the world until you have to say something that starts with 'I need' or 'I can't'." He moved the bedside table so that Laurie could reach it more easily from her reclining position. "Then it may well seem impossible to keep going forward."

Laurie reached again for the glass of water that Jean-Paul had now moved closer and took a grateful sip before placing it back down again.

"You sound like you know a little about this sort of thing?" Laurie noted, her curiosity peaked.

The older mutant half-smiled. "My life makes for poor bedtime stories, mademoiselle, and I think you will be napping again before I get very far. Suppose I put your plate in the fridge and stop by again once you have rested?"

She wondered briefly how he'd known she was tired, and then pushed it aside. She wasn't as opaque as she sometimes liked to think she was, as she had been finding out quite a lot lately.

"That would be nice." she said, laying her head back down on her pillow with a sigh. She really was very tired. "Thank you for coming to see me."