Sean and Alison, Friday morning.

[x-cassidy.livejournal.com]

In the library, with the leg brace.  They talk about the fringe benefits of his powers, Terry, and history lessons...

The brace didn't even make a sound as Alison walked down the hallway, heading for the music room - Hank had just informed her she could play the guitar again, having removed the stiches in her arm and declared it healed enough for light playing. Several definitions and examples of "light playing" had followed, enough for Alison to liberate a pillow from one of the beds in the medlab and start thumping him about the shoulders with it to demonstrate how well her arm was, thank you very much.

She paused in step however, the smooth metal of the brace holding her leg neatly in place. A lilting song drifted down the hallway from one of the rooms, a double harmony perfect in tune and timing. She drifted further down the hallway, slowly this time, intent on finding the singer.

"From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay,
From Galway to Dublin town,
No maid I've seen like the sweet-"

Sean broke off, looking a little embarrassed as he saw he'd checked that he was alone in the library, but had forgotten to close the door.  He'd almost finished unpacking, and had decided he could spare an hour or two to read a book, but nothing in his collection was inspiring him, so he'd decided to take a look through the History section in  the library, think about what sort of course materials were on hand.

"Mornin' there!  How're yeh?"

"Entranced," was the firm reply, Alison's head poking through the doorway a moment longer before she remembered to bring the rest of her body inside as well. There was really only one explanation for how he'd managed that, she thought - and well the accent combined with family ressemblance made it more than obvious. "You're Terry's father. Welcome to the mansion. Can you also harmonize in different scales? How does your breathing function when you do that?"

She paused, then look a bit chagrined, though that changed quickly to an unrepentant smile. "I'm Alison by the way. Pleasure to meet you."

"Good to meet yeh.  Terry's talked about yeh."  He extended a hand. "I probably can, but I'm not exactly trained, yeh know, so I'm not sure I'd get it right.  Never been sure about the breathing thing, to be honest with yeh.  The breathing thing's a bit complicated, and I don't rightly understand it myself - Moira could probably explain it better, but I've basically got some weird thing with valves in me pipes so's I can breathe in with me nose and out with me mouth at the same time, or something."

A faint twitch while shaking his hand, but Alison managed not to go green with envy - they'd theorized that Terry had a similar breathing system but never really had the chance to investigate in depth since the girl was still growing up. "Double vocal cords. I'm horribly jealous, you know? Opera singers would do very illegal things for that." It brought to mind Pete's research into the mutant organ black market a while ago and Alison did go slightly green at that, before firmly putting the thought aside.

"If I stick to questions that can help me train Terry that much more for now, will you put up with a boatload of singing related questions at another time?" She wasn't quite doing the puppy dog eye thing, but really - resisting asking this was far, far too much to ask of her.

Sean looked a little uncomfortable  "Er, aye, sure.  I'm honestly not sure how much help I can be, mind - she can do things I can't, and a lot of the exercises I use didn't seem to work for her.  That's why she's here, yeh see."  Part of it, anyway. 

"And the singing thing, I don't really know what I'm doing like you would yeh understand - never had time to learn to sing  properly - I just go with what sounds right enough."

She smiled faintly, amused. "Natural talent. As for Terry..." Alison ilted her head to the side, considering. "She's going better than she was when she first got here. Joined the band - that's a sign of a measure of control, as she's not blown up any of the equipment. I think the singing lessons are helping with her confidence in regards to her power." A pause and she gave him a calm look. "Are you  planning on staying for a while?"

A smile spread over Sean's face as Alison talked about his daughter's progress.  "I will that. I retired a couple of weeks ago, and I'll be teaching history when term starts up again.  I was just in here  looking at the history section, trying to get a bit've inspiration for a course."

So. Intending on staying for good. Remembering only too well how Terry actually avoided referring to him as best she could, Alison wondered how he was planning to go about approaching his daughter.

"You could always ask the kids what they'd like to learn about, too." It only made sense, after all. "The more interested they are in the course material, the likelier they'll be to work hard at it."

"I was thinking maybe something like the 15th and 16th centuries - I've never met anyone that I couldn't interest in stories about pirates and discovering new continents, and spies and plotting at court back home.  But you're right, I'll maybe come up with some other options as well, see which ones they like best."  Sean's enthusiasm for his subject showed very clearly in the sparkle in his eyes as he talked about stories.

Alison laughed, shaking her head. "Well, pirates and spies ought to suit them nicely enough." Still chuckling, she continued. "It's small enough classes, so you ought to be able to work with each student
individually as well."

"Just hope I do a good enough job.  Charles is doing me a hell of a favour here.  I don't want to let him down.  God knows, my track record with kids isn't much to talk about."

"Well, if nothing else, Xavier's is about second chances," she mused, shrugging a bit. She wasn't sure what Terry might think of that, but she wasn't about to speak up on the girl's behalf - heaven knew Terry was opiniated enough for three kids her age and would do so as soon as she had the chance.

"Aye, well, here's hoping."  Sean smiled ruefully.  "So, d'yeh want to find somewhere a bit less public, and I'll talk yeh through what I do know that might help Terry?  See if there's anything that yeh might be able to adapt, now that she's been here a while?"

"Are you kidding? Absolutely." Alison grinned widely and nodded. "We can use the music room. It's already set-up so I can teach Terry so that should keep things simple." And it would also be the best way to demonstrate how his power affected hers, though Alison decided to let him see that for himself, once they had started...