xp_logs | Molly & Wade | Late Thursday Morning

Molly runs into Wade - literally. He decides to teach her how to do it the right way.

Molly's parents told her not to run in the house. She sometimes conveniently forgot that, but only remembered it after the fact as she found herself slipping on a hallway runner while on her way outside. And there was a guy right in the middle of her path.

"Uh oh!"

There was a kid coming at him full-tilt on a very slippery rug and Wade knew there was only one thing to do. He shifted his weight to his heels and caught her under the arms so she didn't wind up hitting the wall. The impact rocked him backward a bit and he had a sneaking suspicion he was going to wind up with a couple shiny, new bruises by the time the sun set, but she had on a cute hat and he couldn't fault her for that. "Whoa there, half-pint. Learn to dodge before you engage in full-contact sports."

The crash came but it was better than she expected. Still she thought she heard the guy let out a big grunt upon impact.

Molly made a face, more of a sheepish smile really. "Sorry!" she said as she looked up at him from her brand new felt green frog hat (looove).

No more running in the house, this week anyway. But they had a gym IN the house, so did that count?

"Are you okay?" she said. She wasn't sleepy so she didn't hurt him or anything, did she?

"Kid, you're like a third my size. I'm pretty sure all the important bits are intact." Wade had to grin, though. "Seriously - dodge. Or, you know. Drop your shoulder and really make the hit count."

Molly paused, blinking for a moment before she got the reference and turned bright red. Her mouth also made an 'o'

"I sorta...well...there was a rug and I...haven't trained a lot yet, cause, yeah. But dropping shoulder works good?"

Maybe she could use it to hit bad guys!

"Works like magic," Wade said, nodding. Taking a step back, he demonstrated. "See? Presents a stronger front, lands a harder hit." He grinned. "Here - straighten the rug and come at me again."

Molly blinked again, tilting her head to the side. She bit her lip.

"Um...are you sure that's good idea? We might smash the wall."

"You pack that much punch?" Wade wasn't mocking her - not at all. He figured she was here for a reason.

Molly nodded simply, shifting her weight back onto her other foot.

"Well, you didn't break the wall when you ran into me the first time - so don't power up and we should be alright now." Wade smiled. "Go on, straighten the rug. And if we break the wall, I'll make sure it gets fixed."

Falling silent for a few moments, Molly finally nodded. "Okay," she said, smiling. She reached down and pulled the rug back into its right shape, walking backwards until she was a good distance away from him.

"Yooou asked for it."

Her hands balled into fists as she took off into a sprint, narrowing her eyes at him. Just as she was about to hit him she did what he said and tried to drop her shoulder as she tackled him. She was still a little too high, however, so she helped with the impact, at least for his sake.

Wade hit the wall with a thud, though he didn't hear any cracks - from his own ribs or the wood paneling. "Nice," he said, nodding his approval even as he fought not to wheeze. C'mon, healing factor. Wakey-wakey. "You see how you got more force behind the hit?"

Molly nodded. It was a big hit. It'd be good for later. She could show Monet what she learned!

Glancing him over, she frowned. "You don't look so good. You look like you're gonna throw up."

"I do not," Wade said, rubbing at his ribcage. He held out his hand. "I'm Wade and I am not going to hurl because a half-pint in a cute hat dropped her shoulder and slammed me into a wall, alright?"

Molly couldn't help but giggle. She shook Wade's hand. "I'm Molly. And that's good. But you still looked like it."

"Okay, important lesson number two of the day for half-pint Molly - mind over matter, alright. My head is telling my stomach that it is not going to get rid of the tasty, tasty food I just ate and, if I concentrate hard enough, what I want to happen will happen. Doesn't always work, but it totally will in this situation." Something that also helped, generally speaking, was distraction. So Wade let her hand go after the shake and straightened up. "Where were you heading in such a rush?"

Molly laughed again, then nodded. "Okay," she said. She still didn't believe him, though.

Looking behind her, Molly grinned. "I was gonna go outside and climb a tree!" she proclaimed.

"The ones out in the sun a lot don't have as much ice on 'em."

"Okay, you go climb your tree. Don't break anything or fall out of it unless you're aiming for a really big snow drift. And next time, drop your shoulder a little lower, half-pint." Wade grinned and reached over to tweak her frog hat. "I kind of wanna see you do that when you're all powered up and everything. Just not when I'm the target." His healing factor might not think he needed that kidney, but Wade kind of disagreed. He liked his spleen where it was, too. And his liver. Maybe everything just needed a few minutes to decompress.

Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say because now Molly totally wanted to fall in a snow drift.

She grinned. "I train sometimes with Monet, maybe you can watch me!" she said. Then the light would go red or orange. She hoped she didn't fall asleep, though, that'd be really embarrassing.

She looked at him again as the grin faded. "Are you sure you're okay?" He still didn't look too good.

"Maybe you should go see Dr. Beast?"

Wade nodded. "I'm good. Me and Osmosis Joe definitely don't need to have another appointment right now. I've got a healing factor, so I'm cool. It just takes it a few minutes to like. Kick in. It's kinda gimpy, but don't tell anyone I said that, alright half-pint? It's like a secret. Only me and the doctors really know. And now you. So go find your tree and your snow drift and try really hard to not get caught."

"Who is Osmosis Joe?" Molly asked curiously, then tilted her head. "Healing factor means...healing? Oh, that's cool. Well, hopefully it will do it. But if it doesn't...then you should really see Dr. Beast really cause I'd feel bad if you had to stay in the hospital, 'kay?" she asked with a pretty please pout and an encouraging nod.

"Your secret is zzzipped," she said, pulling an imaginary zipper across her lips.

"Osmosis Joe is the big, fuzzy blue guy down in the medlab," Wade said, breathing easier. The pain was ebbing, but he knew he'd still wind up with some seriously impressive bruises. They'd go away eventually. Damn healing factor. "See? It's working already - the healing factor, I mean. And it definitely means healing - fixing things when I get hurt. And thanks, kid. I appreciate you keeping my secret. Go on, now. Go have some fun climbing trees. I'll be fine. And I'll see you around - practice the shoulder drop some more and we'll talk about me watching you and this Monet person train."

"Oh. That makes sense," Molly said in a way that said it only partially made sense. Osmosis sounded familiar, she knew it was a science term but that was about it. Something to do with water. And Chris Rock.

Staring at him skeptically, she nodded. "Okay...but you lay down. You need something I can make it for you. My mom lets me cook sometimes."

Slowly backing up, Molly waved.

"Neat! I will tell Monet!" she said before slowly turned into quickly as she headed for the door.

"Nice to meet you! Bye!" she said in her wake.

Chuckling despite the pain to his ribs, Wade shook his head. "Nice to meet you, too, kid."

Molly & Wade | Late Thursday Morning

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