xp_logs | Sharon and Everett: a first meeting (backdated)

Sharon and Everett run into each other... literally.

"No mom. I'm not gonna make it there this year..." Sharon replied as she pushed the cart through the hallway on the lowest level. "My work here, EMT refresher course and hopefully some hours in a hospital in NY soon... I don't have the time. Maybe next..." Intent on the phone, she did not notice the door opening into the hallway and with a loud clash she ran into it.

The tall figure that appeared from the now-open doorway swore and immediately moved to help his accidental victim back to her feet. Ev had perceived the young woman's presence behind the door but, lost in his own thoughts, had not paid it any attention. So much for being a super spy, he wryly admonished himself.

"I'm so sorry. Are you all right?"

"I'm peachy." Sharon dryly replied as she righted herself, pulling open one of the drawers on the cart to examine the vials of medicine in there. "And these look in one piece too, so no alarm needed." Finally turning to the man in front of her, she continued. "Should have been looking where I was going."

Ev offered her a reassuring smile. "No harm done. I'm Everett. Ev." He held out his hand and examined her mutant aura. A deep red with white vines running through. She was perfect, from a mutation point of view. Strong, hardy, fast, agile; he almost laughed at himself for feeling envious that she naturally had what most people would kill for.

"One sec." Sharon crouched down, picking up the phone that was emitting squeaky sounds from the floor. "Sorry mom. Ran into someone... Yes... I am fine. I'll call you in a day or two?" She was silent for a few moments as she listened. "Alright... talk to you soon."

"Sorry about that." She replied as she took his hand. "Sharon. One of the new faces around here?"

"Mostly. I was a student here long long long ago and my contemporaries seem to all be long gone, except Scott. So relatively speaking, I'm a new face. Have you been here for long?"

"August last year... I think." Sharon replied. "So you were a student here? Must have been an interesting time?"

Several answers came to mind, but Ev chose the simplest, least committal one. "Sure, let's call it that. It's an experience I survived," he jested. "I couldn't help but overhear, you're a medical professional of some kind?"

"Got it in one." Sharon replied as she started to push the cart down the hallway again. "Mostly a nurse, but also a medic/EMT when needed. How about you?"

Ev walked beside her, his long legs easily able to keep up with her comfortably brisk pace. "In between jobs now, I suppose. Technically I'm on disability leave, but we'll see how much longer I can manage to ride out that one. But back to the actual question, I'm with SHIELD."

Sharon's face darkened visibly, though all she only stated was: "SHIELD huh?"

It was bound to happen eventually, meeting someone not fond of SHIELD or with a bad history with it. Ev's expression and tone remained neutral, though. "Not a fan?"

"Not really. Saw their work in Manhattan and was impressed, but also had a brush with them a while ago that kinda changed my mind. You don't happen to know an Agent May and an Agent Triplett by any chance, do you?" Sharon's distaste was clear in her voice.

There were probably many Mays but only one he knew who worked with a Trip. "I do," he answered, his lips quirking upwards into a small smile. "Quite well, in fact, for many years. Your meeting didn't go so well, though."

"I got arrested for saving a man from a burning building. He turned out to be the arsonist and of course that makes me an arsonist as well..." She threw a glance at Everett. "It's how I ended up coming here."

"I'm sorry you went through that." An even, neutral response. "Agents May and Triplett interrogated you over arson? That seems a little out of their purview. They must have given you a reason to come to you."

"SHIELD was called in by the local police when they saw me scaling the building and suspected I was a mutant." Sharon shrugged. "Too bad. I was on the ground with them in Manhattan in 2008, you know."

Ev nodded sympathetically. "Well, I'm relieved everything seemed to work out. No harm, no foul in the end. I suppose we can be a little . . . extra-judicious, but the Manhattan invasion was the gamechanger, I'm sure you know. So." He shrugged.

"And M-Day even more. I can see the local police jumping to conclusions, but that makes it more important SHIELD keeps a cool head." Sharon explained a little more of her stance. "And make sure the locals did their work well."

"Zealousness aside, detention and interrogation are standard procedures," Ev offered. "If you weren't charged or arrested and were eventually released then it seems that cool heads did prevail."

"They didn't. It was people from here coming in with evidence I couldn't have been there, that changed the tides." Sharon stopped at a cabinet and pulled a key from her pocket. "Evidence that was easily found. The local police didn't look. SHIELD either did not check if that evidence was found or they were lied to by the locals. Either way, it doesn't paint the best picture."

Given how much worse it could have gone, especially with SHIELD's interest in the matter, Ev's empathy with her frustration had its limits. Still, any further argument bordered on mansplaining, and he had no dog in this fight in any case, so he dropped it. "How do you like it here? Obviously a very different scene than the middle of the city."

"It's good place." Sharon unlocked the cabinet and started to tuck some the materials on the cart away. "Bit quiet compared to city, but nothing I'm not used to. Besides, NYC is only an hour away if I wanted the city... Are you part of any of the teams here?" She changed the subject rather abruptly.

Ev handed her one of the bottles. If he was going to take up her time then he could at least be useful. "No. Possible conflict of interest. And I'm here for a break from the action for a while. This is my equivalent of a spa weekend, which, silly, right?"

"If you wanna think about what you're next step is... I think it's a good place. If you wanna lie in the sun and do nothing... maybe not the best place. Then I'd grab the plane to somewhere else since trouble has a way of finding it's way here." Sharon responded rather frankly. "So which one is it for you?"

"Relatively speaking, I mean," he clarified. Even Barrow had been a walk in the park, all things considered. "How about you? Or does being in the infirmary proper keep you pan-X-team?"

"Not sure yet which team is the best fit. Besides, the most obvious one is the X-men, but they already have Jean and Clarice as medics. I might do what Cece does, go where I am needed." Sharon looked over her shoulder. "Mind grabbing me the boxes of gauze on lower shelf of the cart?"

Ev did as asked and watched her Tetris the boxes so they all fit perfectly snugly in the cupboard. "X-Men would be the place to go if you really do have superheroics to test out." And want to evade the law, he thought with amusement but did not say.

"I am a nurse or a medic, not a superhero. And like I said, they already have two who can act as a medic, though I'll help out if needed." Sharon tucked the final boxes in place. "What do you plan on doing while you are here? Just drifting quietly in the background while you figure some things out?"

"Essentially. I've been considering offering my services to the students, too, to help them learn more about applications of their abilities. Might as well make myself somewhat useful here."

"I didn't know SHIELD employed experts in developing mutant abilities." Sharon turned to him, a surprised look on her face. "At least not as an agent in the field."

"They don't," he responded, smiling softly to try to assuage her shock. Besides him, that is, which was a fluke, but that was a lot of details he didn't need to divulge. "But it's my gift, you could say. My mutation lets me detect and mimic other mutations. When I was a student, the best way to learn about my own ability was to synchronize with my classmates, which meant I also learned a lot about them. Kind of like a feedback loop of knowledge and skill, you know?"

"So basically you're a kind of mutant powers copycat? Gotcha." Suddenly she turned back to him, a serious look on her face. "And SHIELD must be really unhappy that their walking mutant detector might be leaving?" Sharon stated rather bluntly.

His calm expression never wavered. "That wasn't my job. They don't keep surveillance on every mutant in the country. That was Professor Xavier's hobby, until M-Day, apparently." A loud buzz interrupted them, Ev's phone signaling him that he had received a message. "You'll have to excuse me. was very nice meeting you, Sharon. Hope I'll see you around."