Moira and Clarice

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Clarice comes down to Moira's office to talk about her wanting to help out in the MedLab. Unfortunatly, the answer is "no" but Moira gives her some advice about going about the whole maturity thing in the other direction.



Moira sat at her desk as she attempted to wade through the mounds of paperwork that had suddenly appeared there overnight. Her head still throbbed, but not as badly as it did before Amanda had done her little healing trick and she was suddenly grateful again for the young witch's abilities. The link was rather quiet, as well, and it meant that Nathan had fallen asleep again. Which was good.

She checked her e-mail and nodded to herself. From the sounds of it, Clarice would be popping by any second now.

Clarice headed down to the medlab slowly, she generally avoided the area because she hated seeing her friends in there, but she had asked to help out and that was that. She had to go down. Of course, she had also put off talking to Dr. MacTaggert too. The woman was intimidating!

"Dr. MacTaggert?" Clarice asked, knocking softly on the office door.

'Girl 'as good timin',' she thought before giving a "Door's open!" call as she reached for her coffee.

"Am I interupting?" she asked, trying to hide her nervousness with politeness. She felt like she was at a job interview...well, how she thought she would feel if she had had one.

"God, nay, yer savin' me from bloody well gradin' all these papers. An' Nathan's asleep, so I'm nay due on rounds for a while." Moira waved Clarice in and pointed to one of the overstuff chair's in her office. "Grab a seat."

She sat obediently with her hands under her legs so she wouldn't fidget or play with her hair and waited for Moira to continue.

Moira leaned back in her chair. "Why? Why th' MedLab? Yer post th' other day was th' first I'd 'eard o' an interest in workin' wit' us. An', trust me, I keep me ear ta th' ground 'bout tha' sort o' thin'."

"Um..." the question caught Clarice off guard, although she knew it shouldn't have, "Red X and anatomy class, I think. I really like them and I want to learn more. I have a good power for medicine too, I can get someone who's hurt to the hospital faster than an ambulance or whatever."

"Wha', exactly, where ye expectin' ta do down 'ere?" Moira asked slowly, drinking more of her coffee.

"Anything!" Clarice replied eagerly on surer footing, "I mean, I wasn't expecting to do anything major, but like, restock the shelves or clean up throw-up, whatever you want."

"Clarice..." Moira sighed and rubbed her eyes. All the doctor's had talked it over at some length, earlier, and had come to the same conclusion. She just hated that Clarice was so enthused about this. "We've decided tha' yer probably nay ready ta 'elp out down 'ere, nay yet."

"Oh...okay," Clarice smiled and stood up quickly, "Sorry to have bothered you."

"Clarice, sit down?" Moira asked, eyebrow raised. The smile hadn't fooled her, the girl was as skittish around her as some of the other students were around finals.

"I..." Clarice sat. She wanted to go upstairs and cry, but despite all her bravado sometimes, Moira was an adult and a teacher and she listened.

Moira leaned forward. "Do ye really want ta work down 'ere?" she asked gently. "Nay jus' as a way t' 'elp, because there are other ways around 'ere, but do ye want ta go inta medicine?"

"I think so...I really like helping people with Red X. When I'm here I'm just the glitter nut and I fence. And I like that, but when we have Red X missions it's different, even if I'm not doing medicine stuff. I'm not treated like some bubble-head." Clarice looked at Moira, trying not to cry, "I know I act stupid a lot, but I'm not stupid and I'm tired of everyone thinking that. But how can people take me seriously if I don't do anything serious?"

"It sounded ta use like ye wanted ta prove tha' yer mature by grabbing onto th' MedLab. Yer goin' 'bout it th' wron' way, lass." She paused, trying to think of a good way to put this. "Do ye know 'ow ta swim?"

"Yeah," Clarice was confused, "doesn't everyone?"

"...actually, nay. Ye'd be surprised. But, anyway...there are some people tha' believe th' best way ta teach someone 'ow ta swim is by takin' them an' throwin' them in th' middle o' th' lake an' watchin' from a distance. I'm more o' th' frame o' mind tha' ye learn better slowly, because ye may miss somethin' alon' th' way. Ye want ta show us tha' yer mature by wantin' ta work 'ere. Wha' we need ye ta do is do it th' other way...show us yer mature first."

"Oh. I guess I see that. But how?"

"I'd say watch yer temper but..." Moira grinned and shrugged. "Learn 'ow ta channel thin's. Th' fight wit' Manuel could 'ave been directed in a totally different fashion. Clarice, ye fence, tha' takes some discipline, doesnae it?"

"Yeah..." Clarice nodded, this was very similar to what Nathan had been saying too, "The Manuel thing, I know I was wrong. But I wasn't mad at him when I wrote the post, I wasn't even that mad at him when he replied, more shocked. I got mad when Maire-Ange just wouldn't stop yelling at me over it. I was like 'okay, I was wrong, let me apologize and I won't do it again and be done with it' but she wouldn't let me. That made me mad."

"Th' problem lies in tha' th' students live wit' each other. For th' most part, ye know a good number o' everyone's buttons, an' they know yers. An' so once thin's go downhill, they really go downhill. There are certain thin's ye 'ave ta do. If'n yer workin' in th' MedLab an' somethin' 'appens an' we need an extra 'and doin' somethin' more than cleanin'...we need ta know we can count on ye."

"Okay," Clarice didn't feel as bad as she had earlier, at least she no longer wanted to cry. "That sounds fair."

"By all means, take th' courses in medicine ye wanted ta next semester. I think tha'll 'elp ye really decide if'n ye want to come an' work down 'ere."

"I will," Clarice stood once more, "Can I go now?"

Moira nodded. "O' course, jus' give this all some thought."

"I will," Clarice promised as she left the office. It was a lot to think about, but it made sense.