Cecilia and Sharon: tour time

[xp-friedlander.livejournal.com]

Sharon gets a tour of the medlab and learns some thing about her new home.

"It is larger then I thought." Sharon mentioned as she looked around the hallway of the medlab. "Do things go FUBAR that often around here? They didn't mention that in the recruitment spiel..."

  "Well..." Cecilia avoided the other woman's gaze by pretending she was looking for something the drawers of her desk. "I dunno if FUBAR's the right way to put it, but you know. You put a bunch of mutants in one place, and things are bound to get a little weird from time to time."

  Sharon looked back at the doctor, getting a distinct feeling some things were not being said. "How many patients do you usually have here? And what are they in for?"

  "What, day-to-day? Not that many." Cecilia pulled out a pack of gum and shut the drawer. "I mean, you know. Scrapes and bruises. Some pills. School nurse stuff, mostly." She unwrapped a piece and tossed it in her mouth.

  "And those other times?" Sharon gestured around her for a moment, before folding her hands behind her back. "You don't need this setup for what is basically school nurse stuff."

  "Well," Cecilia shrugged, "not too long ago, I had a patient on the table whose face might have been melted off, which was complicated by some severe internal injuries and a bizarre healing factor." She was silent for a beat, aside from the chewing of her gum. "And to help me, I had a man use his metal claws to tear open his skin for a blood transfusion."

  Her eyes widened just slightly at the description of the injuries. "How did that happen at a school? It sounds like something from my army days, minus the healing factor."

  "Well, that's an extreme case," Cecilia said, because now that she'd elicited the desired reaction out of Sharon, she felt a little bad. "And that guy's a former mercenary who has a habit of plunging into dangerous situations. But..." She spotted a nearby rolling chair and sat down in it. "There's a lot more to this place than meets the eye."

  "I am starting to get that." Sharon stated, spotting a chair of her own an pulling it over. "When I came here, someone mentioned superheroes from the basement. I thought a joke, but looks like it's not. What is going on exactly here?"  

  "I'm still not totally sure," Cecilia deadpanned. "But, starting from the beginning, this is a school for mutants. And that alone causes trouble, because you've got hormonal teenagers who barely have control over their powers. Those kids, they grow up to be horny, idiotic college kids who have enough control over their powers to use them impulsively. So that's just, you know, all the complications of human life, plus potentially dangerous X-gene stuff. A bit more than your usual schoolyard cuts and skinned knees."

  "High school and college antics plus the mutant thing? How is this place still standing?" Sharon muttered, shaking her head.

  The medlab phone ringed, and she glanced at it for a second to see if it would continue. After two rings, it stopped, and the doctor turned her attention back to the woman in front of her. "And the superheroes in the basement are real," Cecilia admitted. That she was now in the role of explaining this was not lost on her. "Charles started a team that would stop mutants who would use their powers to be, like, terrorists. And they take on anti-mutant organizations that want to do our kind harm. Sometimes they parachute in and do disaster relief. All kinds of things."

  "So we have superheroes, we have a school." Sharon nodded, taking those facts in. "I heard something about a team of spooks..." The last words were drawn out, like she didn't quite want to know the truth.

  Cecilia couldn't help the small smile at appeared on her face. "There are certainly a lot of colorful characters here that do many ill-advised things, but we provide medical care for them anyway." That was as close as Sharon was going to get to confirmation about the spies.

"It sounds like that is very needed." Sharon knew how to read between the lines. Something not to be discussed openly. "What is your staff like down here? How many people are there?"

  "Mmm..." Cecilia looked off into space as she counted in her head. "Five? Amelia and I, and then Jean, kinda, when she's not at that fellowship. And then Clarice, who's a PA and way more help than you'd ever imagine. And Laurie, who's in med school and getting tons of practical training here." Cecilia racked her brains to think if she'd missed anyone.

"Any way I can help out? I'm still working on getting my nursing license transferred over, but I like being useful." Sharon asked, finally getting to the point. "Not sure yet if I will be getting a job outside the mansion yet, but I can help here."

"We can always use more help," Cecilia smiled at her. "I'd like to have more time on my hands to, you know, be a surgeon. Maybe start doing some research or looking for outside employment or something. Laurie'll be back to school before you know it. The more people we've got, the better."

"Afraid I am no doctor, so I can't help with those things. But a nurse I can do." Sharon thought for a moment. "Or a medic, if that is needed."

"Well, no, but if you're doing some of the other things, I won't help with those things." Cecilia grabbed a tissue from a nearby box and spat her gum into it, then tossed the whole thing in a trashcan by her feet. "If you want a job here, it's yours. Army training's no joke, and we could use someone with your experience."

Sharon nodded. "Thanks Dr. Reyes. Is there a meeting sometimes soon where I can meet everyone? Or do you work a little more informally?"

"Please, call me Cecilia." She gave Sharon what she hoped was a welcoming smile. "We're a bit more of an informal bunch, I guess, but we can call something together. It can be a little tough to coordinate things, with so many different schedules."

Sharon returned the smile. "That would be nice. It would be good to meet everyone before we are suddenly in some kind of crisis..." She raised an eyebrow at Cecilia, daring her to disagree.  

"Sure." Cecilia gave a smile that suggested nothing about the improbability of that. "When you get a bit more settled, maybe, and figure out how involved you can be. I don't want to rush things."

"That works. And it would be good to get the lay of the land a bit more before I dive head straight into everything." Sharon rose from her chair. "Thanks Cecilia. I look forward to working together in the future."