Fred & Ameila

[x-nothungry.livejournal.com]

Fred seeks advice from Doctor Voght about his pain situation.




It had taken Fred days to work up the courage to approach the medical
staff. After he'd talked in passing to Angelo and Lillian about his
powers and how they'd made him feel for so long, he figured maybe it
didn't make him such a coward to see if there was anything he could do
about the pain.

The pain. It had been worse, today, that dull constant buzz that run
under his skin and settled in between his ears. Since he'd come to the
school, he'd tried to become more comfortable with his abilities and
what he could do. While he'd gotten a little better through light
practice, he'd started to notice the pain was becoming harder to
ignore. After talking with a few of the other staff members, Fred
decided to go ahead and see Doctor Voght. It wasn't like he had
anything to lose.

His feet had finally brought him to the medical facilities, and he
looked around a bit, puzzled. He wasn't really sure he was in the
right place. "Doctor Voght?" he said, his voice a bit louder than
usual.

"Yes, come in," came the rather impatient voice from down the hall. An
instant later, Amelia emerged from her office, tugging rather fussily
at the sleeves of her white coat. "Mr. Dukes," she said, sweeping into
the main area of the infirmary, her cool gaze raking him up and down.
"Upright, not bleeding from anywhere, not vomiting on my floor -what's
the problem?"

Fred coughed, and looked abashed, "Uhm, Pain, ma'am. I'm, uh, in pain.
Cause, uhm, my power ma'am." Fred shook out his coat, self-concious of
the tobacco smell on his coat. He knew that doctors' usually hated
that, and should've thought better of it before he came to see Voght,
"At least I, uh, think it's my powers...uh, ma'am,"

Amelia gave him a very level look. "You're sure you've only
been here for a short time, Mr. Dukes?" she asked, pushing up her
sleeves. "Generally it takes much lengthier exposure to this
environment before people start ignoring pain."

Fred looked at the Doctor as he tried to figure out if she was joking
or not. He finally smiled a little and gave a small laugh, "I,
uh...it's hurt for a while. I've just learned to live with it,"

"Mmm." The one monosyllable somehow managed to convey concern, deep
skepticism about his level of common sense, and a certain weary
tolerance. Amelia took him by the elbow, guiding him towards the
examining table. "Pain tolerances can certainly change with certain
physical mutations," she said crisply, "but let's see if tolerating it
is really necessary, shall we?"

Fred allowed himself to be led. He tried to keep his eyes forward, and
away from all the medical instruments. He'd never been comfortable
with Doctors, but this one seemed okay. When she'd finally addressed
him, he managed to stop trying to focus long enough to answer, "Uh,
sure...lets."

---

"Interesting," Amelia said, quite some time - and several tests
-later. She gestured for Fred to sit up, even as she frowned at the
information on the screen in front of her. "I think this is going to
take more than my simple MD," she went on. "You'd have no objections
to me passing you on to Dr. Grey, I hope?"

Fred sat up and looked at the screen and the doctor. He tried to keep
the agitation from being too apparent. "Doctor Grey?", Fred said
quizzically. He'd heard of the other doctor but, even though he'd
spent some time getting used to the idea of telepaths, he still was a
little uncomfortable about being examined by one, "I guess I don't
mind, ma'am. Why? Whats, uh...is there something wrong with me?"

"I'm more of your standard medical doctor," Amelia said. "I have
particular experience in treating mutants, yes, but someone like Jean
- or Dr. MacTaggart, when she's here - has a level of experience with
mutation that I simply don't. And from what I've been able to see
today, you do have a rather complex set of issues here." She paused.
"There's nothing wrong with you, per se," she said, and it almost
sounded reassuring. "The changes in your body, due to your mutation,
have created a sort of... contraction of your skin and musculature.
It's almost certainly what's causing the pain."

Fred furrowed his brows. He'd never learned words like 'musculature',
and sure didn't know how 'contractions' were affecting them. He stared
at Amelia for a moment, a blank look on his face, "Uh..." said the
large, confused mutant as he scratched the back of his head.

Amelia grimaced. "Your skin and muscles are suddenly a few sizes too
small for the rest of your body," she said, somewhat more brusquely.
"What we need to establish is whether your mutation is actually
maladaptive, given that you're in pain, whether you're still in the
process of manifesting, or whether this contraction is something you
could perhaps learn to control."

"Malawhatzit?" Fred said, and he looked as if he was genuinely trying
to keep up, "So, what you're saying it we have to figure out if my
power is hurting me cause it just is, or if it's not really supposed
to. Is that it?" He tried to gather as much as he could from inference
and her inflection, and hoped he was right. She did not seem like the
kind of person that would be fun to anger...

"Yes," Amelia said, with a sort of patience that was really anything
but. "That's precisely what I'm saying, Mr. Dukes. Very good.
Hopefully it will be the latter, but if it's the former - well, we'll
cross that bridge when we come to it, but I can think of a couple of
possibilities."

"Oh. Uh, okay." Fred nodded and hopped off the table, "Do you need to
do any more tests, ma'am? Should I go see Dr. Grey now? Where should I
go from here?" it sounded odd, a gung-ho attitude coming from the
mildly lethargic Dukes, but the promise of relief was just around the
next bend, and Fred was gonna do everything in his power to grab it.

"I'll need to speak to her first," Amelia said, "so that we can
discuss the results of the tests I've already done. I imagine we'll
want to speak to Dr. MacTaggart as well." She paused, eyed Fred. "I'll
let her be the one to arrange the appointment with you," she said,
"but it should very soon. We won't - what's the phrase you youngsters
use... leave you hanging?"

Fred smiled half-heartedly. He knew what Voght was saying was logical,
but that didn't stop it from hindering his spirits a little, "Yea.
Course. Makes sense." Fred knew that the pain hadn't increased since
he'd entered the room, but it felt so much more present now, all the
same. He looked to the exit, and back to Amelia, not entirely sure
what to do now...

"Stay there," Amelia said, and vanished into another room briefly
before returning with a small bottle of pills. "These should be safe,
from what I know about your metabolism after all these tests," she
said, "and hopefully, more effective than aspirin. If you notice any
odd side effects, however, let me know immediately." She held
up the bottle. "Not a permanent solution," she stressed, "but
in the short term, while we're figuring this out, they should help."

The half-hearted smile was replaced with a full grin, and Fred's
normally tired eyes hung above his toothy grin as he took the bottle,
"Thank you, Doctor. I understand," he said. He opened the bottle and,
in one fluid motion, threw two pills at the back of his throat. He
stretched and flexed his arms and back a little, wondering how long
the pills would take to effect him, "Should I just wait to hear from
Doctor Grey, then?"

"Yes," Amelia said, not quite balefully as she watched him. "And don't
overdo those. No more frequently than every four hours. We have quite
enough people around here who eat them like candy. Perils of running a
mutant special-operations team out of the basement."


"Four hours. Got it." Fred nodded and put the bottle into one of the myriad pockets on his coat. He looked back up and smiled at Ameila with full earnest, "Thanks a lot, Doc. I really appreciate your help," and with that, the much less sullen mutant left Doctor Voght to her own devices.