Molly/Rachel: Visiting Hours

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After getting taken to the medlab following the incident with Essex, Molly gets a visit from a not-quite-dead Rachel.



The lights were out in the room in the Medlab, except for the safety lights, which helped so people wouldn't trip since there were no windows to make moonlight.

Molly had tried sleeping, but a bad dream woke her up so she laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. People came in and out and sat with her a few times. She didn't know where the last person went, so she was alone now. She had her stuffed animal pig, Frank, to keep her company.

There was a faint rustle of clothing outside the door before it slowly swung open to admit a slender figure. The door shut again with a soft click, but it made no sound of footsteps even as it padded over to Molly’s bed.

The door opening made Molly turn over. She didn't want any of the doctor people to think she was awake cause then she'd be in trouble for being up past her bedtime. Even if it was summer and she wasn't normally in the Medlab. She didn't like being there. It smelled like alcohol and cleaning stuff.

She also thought no footsteps was kinda weird though too. Maybe the doctor people had ninja powers. She buried her head so she wouldn't accidentally open her eyes and sneak a peek. People were already probably mad she broke Lorna's car.

Stopping by the bed, the figure hesitated for a moment, as though unsure. Then a hand reached out to pat Molly on the head.

“Hey, I know you’re awake.”

The voice got Molly's attention and her eyes opened.

"Rachel?" she said, sitting up really quick. She reached out to hug her (gently).

"We thought you were dead!"

Rachel responded with a quiet laugh, wrapping her arms around Molly and dropping a kiss to the top of her forehead.

“M’glad you’re all right, Squirt,” she said. So, so glad. “Sorry you had to go through that.”

Letting go of Rachel, Molly shrugged. "Wasn't your fault. You thought you were trying to help...and the evil man made me old so you didn't know," she said. She grabbed Frank and scooted over in bed so Rachel could sit down. She made a face.

"That was all really trippy, though."

“What? That you were old?” The older girl tucked the covers around her and Frank before settling onto the bed. Her expression was wry despite the fond smile she was maintaining, and she reached out to grasp Molly’s free hand, as though reassuring herself that the other teenager was really there. “Don’t worry… You were still pretty cool as an adult.”

Molly frowned. "Old me killed people. I wouldn't do that, though. Like...all of it. It was....weird," Molly said. Clenching her fists, she punched the air.

"Fighting evil good guys and seeing and remembering all these bad things and then it wasn't real cause some guy made it up."

She rubbed her head. "When I got back I got all confused and tried to punch Kyle and broke Lorna's car instead," she said, hiding her face behind Frank.

"She's gonna be so mad."

“First the art classroom, then Lorna’s car. I suppose both times it’s been my fault…” Rachel’s nose crinkled and she shook her head. Personally, she had always thought Rosie ‘Riveter’ was a pretty badass chick, but the redhead supposed it was not something younger Molly Hayes wanted to hear right then. “S’alright. M’sure they’ll let you get away with it due to extenuating circumstances… Like getting mentally abducted to a made up world.”

The redhead glanced away then, swallowing the slightly hysterical laughter that threatened to bubble forth. She was not going to have an existentialism debate with a fifteen year old. Not.

“Is that why you’re down here in the med bay?”

Molly nodded, drawing her knees up to her chest as she put Frank in between them. She rested in her chin on her knees. "Mr. Haller said....my memory had holes before...and....so adding the made up memories patched up the holes with stuff that shouldn't have been there. So it didn't fit and it made things confusing and was bad for me. And so he had to call Miss Frost the second cause my head was hurting," she said. She turned her head, curling her nose.

"And a couple of times I thought I was made up me."

Letting out a sigh, she rested her head against the headboard.

"Psychic stuff is tricky."

“… It is,” Rachel agreed regretfully. “I wish I still had all my telepathic powers. Bet I couldda’ helped you fix stuff.” But where there were holes in Molly’s memories, there were deep gouges and scars in Rachel’s powers; depressions that were probably never going to get filled again.

“Emma’s pretty great at what she does, though.” Unless Essex lied about that too. “So is it all better now?”

Molly shook her head. "Not yet...hopefully soon? There's so many memories they have to untangle them from the others and dull them...." she said. She didn't sound too certain about all that stuff cause she wasn't. People being in her head spooked her, even if she did trust Emma and Mr. Haller.

"Everybody's gonna be happy you aren't dead."

“Yeah?” The younger girl was probably right, but, “maybe we shouldn’t tell the whole world yet? Charles will probably tell those that need to know, but...” Rachel wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I’m ready for ’everyone’. What d’you think?”

It took Molly a moment to remember who Charles was since most people called him Professor or Xavier. Sometimes she forgot some adults' first names. Once she did remember she thought about it.

"They've gotta know sometime. It's not your fault the evil man was evil and made you grow up in evil land. The adults know that and they sound like they care about you a lot too. If they think you're dead they're gonna be sad and I don't wanna keep a secret that makes people sad. Y'know?"

“I’m sure David knows by now, and he will tell Sam. And I’m going to see Angelo later. Charles will definitely tell Remy, who will inform Wanda,” she said, raising one finger for every name. “That pretty much covers those that need to know, like, right now.”

Rachel huffed and semi-pouted at Molly. “I know I can’t keep it a secret forever. But just like you’re here to recover from evil people messin’ with your head, I kinda need time away from people to recover from it too. Make sense?”

Molly propped her chin up on her knees. "Yeah...," she said finally, after a few moments. She didn't like keeping secrets, though.

"Miss Frost the 2nd might know though, when she goes in my brain."

“If it’s inevitable, it’s inevitable,” Rachel shrugged. “I’d rather have her know and fix you up. I’m not askin’ you or anyone to lie. Just… no flyers, shouting it out from the mountain top or notices on the interwebs, y’know?”

She traced a random pattern on the blanket, which ended with her prodding Frank’s snout. “Bit weird, being dead, then alive but not, then dead again and now alive.”

Molly nodded, chin still resting on her knees. "It's like a movie," she said, then smiled. "Or a comic book." Not that it being like a comic book was a good thing when someone was living it insteada reading it.

"I won't tell," she said, then paused.

"So...if only we knew you were dead cause we were in our brains and you died...No one else knows you were dead cause they weren't in our brains? They think adult you is still alive cause they saw you before? But then they'd have to know we'd gone in our brains but if they didn't then only us'll know you were dead and then you were not....Cause everyone else'd still think you were you from the other place until you told them you were you. Otherwise we'd--" She scrunched her nose. That didn't make sense.

"Nevermind. I won't tell."

Rachel laughed. “Rosie’d have called me Schrodinger’s cat,” she joked. “But that’s about right. If no one knows about our little… excursion, they’d think I was that Rachel from another world, but that this world’s Rachel is dead.” And in a way, as Xorn said, she really had died.

“Thanks, Molly. You’re the best.”

No one would know how bloody horrified she had been when she had laid eyes on the petite teenager on Muir. How she had cursed herself and sworn mentally at Xorn for not telling her that her Rosie was really a little girl with massive psychic problems.

Molly tilted her head, then giggled. "She would," she said.

She leaned her head against her shoulder. After all the memories were in her head she felt closer, even if they'd only really met once or twice. It felt weird, like she was older and had to protect her but young too. Haller said that'd be normal until they got things figured out. But it was still weird.

"You're welcome," she said with a smile.

Without thinking much about it Rachel draped an arm around Molly’s shoulders and gave it a squeeze.

“Think you could sleep now?”

Molly grabbed Frank, pulling him close. "Mmhm," she said, nodding a little. She leaned into Rachel, closing her eyes.

After a moment she opened them.

"Don't die again, though, okay?"

“I made the choice to come back here, so I’ll probably be stickin’ around for awhile.” She squeezed Molly’s shoulders reassuringly. “Best as I can.”

Molly smiled. "Good," she said, closing her eyes. She could sleep now.