Jean and Haller

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Jean and Haller ponder reasons for Adrienne's breakdown and Haller decides to go into her mind to get some answers with Jean to keep an eye on things.

"She's been acting strange lately," Jim said, more to himself than the woman next to him. Jean had been the one administering every test in the book. He rubbed a scarred had reflectively. "Have you noticed anything going on with her emotionally? Not related to the memory issues -- around or before then."

Jean stared at Adrienne's prone form, shaking her head. "We hadn't seen one another for awhile. Even after the rescue from the Brotherhood I only saw her on plane ride back," she said, guilt clear in her voice.

"We met up at Boiler Beach to have some wine after that but it'd been weeks...Life kept us both busy. She seemed fine then...." And then she got worse, rapidly. She tilted her head.

"She did mention that the stuff Forge worked up for her seemed to be on the fritz...." She rubbed her eyes in tired frustration.

"I should've known. How could this not have shown up on the tests?" To see Adrienne like that...part of her wanted to pass it off to Amelia. She was too close, afraid of a misstep, doing the wrong thing that might make it worse. But how could she not try to help? Despite it all she couldn't turn away from her friend.

"There was a power amplifier with Magneto's team....maybe...maybe they did something."

Sensing the hesitance in her voice, Jim turned from Adrienne's still form to Jean. "Maybe," he said, "but you ran every test and scan you could. If nothing showed up I have a feeling there was nothing there to find. That's why I was wondering if there was some kind of emotional issue. Stress can do things . . . but I don't know." He rubbed the back of his head and turned back to Adrienne. "She's still worried about Wyngarde. I wonder if stress is amping her powers. It might explain why Forge's compound isn't working as well anymore."

Jean shook her head. "I don't know. It's possible. Anything's possible. The Hellfire Club's been a big part of her life...I'm not surprised. They almost ruined her," she said with a slow breath.

"I can only go off of what's happened before...And I don't know many people with her abilities. I'm working blind here."

"We're ruling things out. It's better than nothing." The mention of the Hellfire Club triggered a guilty thought. He hated to ask, but he knew he had to.

"Um . . . did you happen to run a drug panel . . ?"

Falling silent a moment, Jean nodded. "There was nothing," she said. Despite trusting Adrienne she had to make sure. It was her job to look at all possibilities. And given Adrienne's past, that was one of those possibilities.

Jim let out the breath he'd been holding. He hadn't wanted to hear that Adrienne's necessary use of Kick last year had come back to bite her, especially after the concern she'd voiced over it.

"Okay. Okay, good." Jim pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anything else? Before she collapsed, did anything happen to set her off . . ?"

"In the past she's passed out before from overusing her powers..." Jean said, washing her hands in the sink.

"When Garrison brought her in he mentioned she kept saying his arm was missing...and that some of the kids were having....sex together. Something he said they insist isn't true."

She shook her head, shutting off the water. She dried her hands. Her voice was quiet when she spoke again, hesitant.

"I hate to say it...But...its possible it may be something that doesn't show up on the scans for a reason. Something that goes beyond her powers."

The two of them were more familiar than most with what that could be.

Jim said nothing. Adrienne was on the very outer edges of the typical age of onset for something like schizophrenia, but that didn't mean anything. Her brain physiology was already different. If she were clinically delusional and the delusions were permeating her Readings -- or worse, indistinguishable for them -- this would compromise Adrienne's ability to use her powers at the very least. At worst . . . her elder sister had been institutionalized for complications from her powers, once.

"Let's rule out everything else first. I'll go in and see what I can find." He turned and gave Jean a crooked smile. "Keep an eye on us, okay? Whoever's area this turns out to be, I'd feel better with a spotter."

Jean smiled back, barely holding back the weight of concern in her eyes.It had grown to be his specialty, the shattered one picking up everyone else's pieces. Some might call it poetic. And she was there in this regard as the guardian, the watcher, preserver of life.

She squeezed his hand. "That's my job. Be careful."