xp_logs | Jean & Julian: A Visit to Medlab (Reply)

Julian arrives for his check-up and receives some advice on telekinetic flight.

Monday afternoon had arrived and with no play practice or powers training to save him, Julian Keller slowly made his way into the underbelly of the mansion and to the medical lab. It wasn't a meeting he was looking forward to- partly because he had a feeling the Mrs. Grey-Summers knew he'd been jumping off the roof over the weekend and partly because the last time he'd seen her had been a little awkward. The sterile hallways into the lab were quiet and the unfamiliar room he soon found himself in was even more so. Julian waited, uncomfortably, near the entrance, for Mrs. Grey-Summers to arrive.

Jean was back in her office, working on paperwork, but the mental fidgeting in the front room caught her attention after only a few moments, and she set down her pen to go meet Julian. "Afternoon," she said as she stepped out of the hallway. "Glad to see you finally made it down here."

Julian smiled and moved toward the red-head calmly. "I was finally able to fit it into my schedule- the play and all that kept me pretty busy. Plus, Doreen's arrival and showing her around...." He spread his hands in an apologetic gesture, "I promise, I haven't been avoiding you." A quick glance around and he continued, "Although, I've been doing what I can to avoid winding up in here."

"Everything you can except throwing yourself off of buildings," Jean corrected, although there was a bit of a smile as she gestured Julian towards one of the smaller exam rooms of the central room. "Don't think I didn't notice those continuing panic spikes."

"Can't sneak anything past you telepaths," Julian joked as he entered the exam room. The bruise on his chest would soon be discovered. It was superficial, but the coloring had gone from bad to nasty overnight- which did mean it was healing. He doubted Dr. Grey-Summers would overlook it, given that it covered most of his upper torso. "Been a while since I've been to a doctor, what do you need me to do?"

"See, admit a thing like that and I'm likely to insist on a full physical. For now, though," Jean said, moving to open the new folder she'd had made up for Julian, "how are you doing? Bounced yourself about inside your shields, I have no doubt, so I assume there's bruising? Anything particularly sore? Any sharp pains?"

"Sheilds took most of it, um, nothing really pained and definitely no internal damage." He hopped up onto the exam table and attempted to keep his thoughts passive. Unfortunately, they kept returning to how Angel had reacted when she discovered the large black and blue patch across a large section of skin. He already knew he wasn't going to jump again...at least not until he was sure he could catch himself. "Just a little bruise."

Jean just arched an eyebrow at that, her patented 'even if I wasn't a telepath I wouldn't believe this story, I've been teaching for more than a decade' look and waited to see if (when) Julian would cave on the obvious lie.

He squirmed for a moment, the look was fairly effective and he wondered if she was applying any psychic pressure to it. "Well...a bruise, maybe not so little, but it's just a bruise." His left hand reached up to his chest, unconsciously trying to shield the affected area.

Jean sighed. "Off with the shirt, Julian." Her tone left no room for discussion.

With a sigh and a discrete eye roll Julian pulled his shirt off and set it on the exam table behind him. The dark and discolored area stretched across both pectorals and down to just above his naval. Though it was tender, Julian wasn't feeling anything more than a dull ache from the injury, "At least it's not a concussion, right?" He smiled, but got the distinct feeling that she didn't find the comment funny.

"Yes, because mutants with psi mutations really want to be joking about head injuries." Jean sounded thoroughly unamused - the bruise was fairly shockingly colored, but the bit that had caught Jean's attention was that different parts were differently colored. He'd not stopped throwing himself off of buildings after her email, clearly, because there were layers of bruising, older ones having healed more than others. "Come on," she said, "we're going to need to get some x-rays so I can check for hairline fractures. There's only so much force which can be diverted, and bounce yourself off the inside of your shields hard enough and your ribs will usually give before the shield does. Trust me, it's not fun."

"Oh," he hadn't really thought of that possibility, "good to know." He slid off the table, feeling a little guilty over the doctor's reaction. He followed her out of the exam room, feeling the sterile cold on his exposed skin- self consciousness set in. "Anything else I should know?"

Letting him into the room with the x-ray machine, Jean started the machine warming up as she got him lead shields for the waist down. "Fight or literal flight instincts only work if your mutation is for actual flight," she said as she worked. "If that is what your innate physical instincts are aimed at. Telekinesis, all psi mutations really, require serious mental control and stability, particularly if you want to try a new trick. Lie back," she added as the machine gave it's happy little ping. A quick buzz, and then a second, and she let Julian sit back up. "Step one of telekinetic flight is always to be calm and focused. Step two... well, I know Nate likes his big, flashy, fiery bird, but I've always found it easier to just think of it as pushing the ground away from me."

"The firebird is impressive, though, you have to give him that," Julian sat on the edge of the table, wondering what effect X-Rays had on the body that required lead vests. "Um...I don't suppose doctor-patient confidentiality is going to extend to Nathan, is it? I mean, he doesn't need to know about this...right?" The thought of how his mentor might react hadn't really fully become clear until he saw another telekinetic react- in all seriousness, it would not be pretty.

Jean gave Julian a serious look. "That depends. Given that he is your primary TK instructor, there's a school of thought which would suggest it's actually my duty to inform him, with the goal of preventing you hurting yourself being key. So. You have any intention of purposefully throwing yourself off a building or other high location again without an adult power instructor who's qualified to keep you from hitting the ground?"

That was an easy one, "I do not." Julian wanted to protest that he'd had Angel there to start with- but he didn't want to get her into any sort of trouble and she wasn't exactly an adult instructor. After his meeting the previous day with Jean-Paul, he honestly didn't have any intention of taking any more swan dives off the roof.

"Adult instructor," Jean repeated, the slight emphasis enough to let Julian know she'd not missed that piece of information. "Preferably one who can stop you hitting the ground without potentially causing yet more damage. And are you going to make any further attempts to fly, even starting with your feet on the ground, without myself or Nathan around to help?"

"N...no, but," he sighed and took a moment before continuing. "It wasn't Angel's idea, so, I really hope she's not in any trouble. And no, I have no intention of trying that plan again- and yes I will help Kyle even out the grounds where I kept hitting, at least I was consistent." Julian could see her start to talk and pressed forward, "What I'm getting at, is that I had a conversation with someone yesterday," Jean-Paul, "and I understand that Nathan has his reasons for not teaching me this stuff yet."

Jean leaned a hip against the edge of the x-ray machine, arms crossed over her chest although she looked more thoughtful than anything else as she nodded for him to continue.

He tried to collect his thoughts, "So you won't have to be giving me any more X-Rays...at least not for this." Julian smiled again, "I can't promise that I'm not going to get banged up by something else." The thought that he'd never actually asked Mister Beaubier to not tell Nathan popped into his head and he took a second to process that before returning his attention to the doctor. "Would you feel better about it if I tell Nathan?"

She nodded, straightening up and offering him back his shirt. "I would, actually. Quite frankly, he deserves to know and I kind of think you owe it to him to own up to what you've been doing. I know the pace of training can get frustrating, we've all been there. I just would like you to talk to him, or myself, or even the professor if you're having trouble or don't understand the reasoning behind something."

That wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to, "Okay, I can do that. Do you have any suggestions on how to approach the subject? I mean, I hear he's kinda scary when he gets upset...and I don't imagine him not getting upset about this."

"Start with 'I'm sorry' and actually mean it," Jean said somewhat wryly. "Trust me, he'll know if you don't. At least you do seem to have learned something about why this was a bad idea, other than 'because the adults say it is'."

"Well, I really am sorry, and to you too- I hope you weren't too worried." He really was sorry, it was a stupid thing to do and a bad idea, but at least he'd learned a valuable lesson. Facing Nathan would hopefully wait for tomorrow- he did have homework tonight and they had an appointment then anyway.

"I'm glad to hear it," Jean said, smiling. "And I'd say you're free to go, for now. I'll let you know if anything shows up on the x-rays, but given you don't seem to be having sharp pains when you breathe, and no excessive trouble bending or twisting, I'm not that worried. If anything does crop up, come see me, or if you want something stronger than Advil or Tylenol."