Cecilia and Joanne Madrox

[x-reyes.livejournal.com]

Sunday afternoon, before she goes to see Scott, Cecilia investigates the smell of fresh pizza in the kitchen, and meets Jamie's mother as a result. The two hit it off, and Cecilia volunteers to keep the other woman distracted until Jamie and the others get back so she doesn't go utterly insane.



Jo Madrox took the pizza out of the oven, put it on the counter, and stared at it dully. She'd barely eaten since they'd gotten off the plane--she'd have to remember to thank Professor Xavier for the last-minute connection, and he'd been so kind--but she realized, suddenly, that she'd made sausage with extra cheese.

Jamie's favorite.

Hand trembling slightly, she put the slicer down on the counter and turned to find a Kleenex. He'd come back. He had to.

Something certainly smelled good.. maybe Lorna had ventured out of her suite to make some dinner. Curiousity (and stomach) piqued, Cecilia followed the smell wafting down the hallway until she could look into the kitchen through the doorway, and for a moment, she faultered. That.. was not Lorna. It had to be one of the parents.

"There are napkins next to the toaster," she offered, her voice gentle in an effort to try and avoid startling the woman already in the kitchen. "Can I get you anything?"

"No." Jo sighed, and wiped her eyes with one of the napkins. "I'm just being a little silly, I'm afraid. Have a slice of pizza, if you like, that's what it's there for." She blinked away the last hint of tears, sniffed, then looked curiously at the newcomer, offering a hand. "I don't think Jamie's mentioned you . . . hello, I'm Joanne Madrox."

Jamie's mother. Of course. With a small smile, Cecilia made her way into the kitchen, so that she could reach out and give the offered hand a warm shake. "Cecilia Reyes. I only arrived very recently. I haven't even had a chance to meet him yet - he owes me a basketball game."

Jo chuckled a little helplessly. "Don't let him try to tell you it still counts as one-on-one when there's five of him. Will you be teaching classes in the fall? You look a little older than most of the students, if you don't mind my saying so."

"Actually, I'm taking it as a compliment," Cecilia mused, her smile gaining some strength. "I'm twenty-three. Haven't been asked to teach anything yet, but from what I can gather, it's only a matter of time. They'll have me teaching bio or something before I know it."

"Jamie likes bio." Jo smiled. "He says it's pretty boring taking notes instead of coming on rounds with me, but that's the difference between home-schooling and a classroom, I suppose. You must be just out of college, then?"

"I would - will - be starting my last year of med school this fall," Cecilia observed, with a very slight edge of stubborness in her correction of herself. "I think Jamie mentioned you studied, at one point.. though the last week or two are kind of a blur, to be honest." She smiled sheepishly. "And I could probably use food. Split the pizza with you?"

"You may end up eating most of it--I haven't really been hungry since I heard." Jo began efficiently slicing the pizza anyway. "I suppose you know where the plates are already? And yes, I was in my last year of a surgical residency at Johns Hopkins when I mortally offended my supervisor by chasing a boy back to Kansas and taking up veterinary medicine." She quirked a smile. "He never quite understood that the boy was the least of my reasons."

Chuckling, Cecilia moved to retrieve a pair of plates, and after a moment's consideration, a pair of mugs. There had to be tea in here somewhere. "So long as you eat at all, I'll worry less," she countered, ignoring the voice in her head that wondered when she'd become such a mother hen. Hello? Proto-doctor? Mother henning is in the contract! "Boys are nothing but trouble," she added with mock-seriousness, carrying the plates over so they could be given a slice or two of pizza each. "As are cute, fuzzy animals. I try and steer clear. Makes life much, much simpler."

"But much less interesting, on both counts. I've never regretted my choices--never quite managed the detachment a surgeon needs, working on people, for one thing." Jo transferred a few slices of pizza from sheet to plates, and took a seat at the table. "Where did you do your pre-med?"

"Been at NYU since I got out of high school, up until I came here," Cecilia replied, smiling faintly as she set her own plate down on the table. "I'm going to put some tea on, if I can find the stuff.. do you want some?"

"Tea would be lovely, thank you." Jo smiled warmly. "Is Stephenson still teaching organic chem?"

"He was there when I left," Cecilia mused, turning to go hunting for tea-fixings. She really needed to con Lorna into showing her where everything was stashed in here. "Don't think much of anything would get him out of there, honestly."

"Mmm. Sounds like he's been the same crotchety old bastard for twenty years, then. That's oddly comforting, even if he _does_ weight his curves according to no scale based in human logic." She managed a small grin. "We never quite got along. I insisted on doing well."

Cecilia snickered, looking over her shoulder with an amused arch of an eyebrow. "You stubborn, unreasonable thing, you." Grinning, Cecilia went back to her rummaging, and brightened when she found a box of tea bags, rising onto her toes to check for other flavors before pulling it out of the cabinet. "English breakfast sound good to you?"

"Oh, anything's fine." Jo sighed again, taking a halfhearted bite out of her slice of pizza. "You know, everybody always says having children will change your life. Nobody ever mentioned Asgard, though."

"They probably didn't mention one son having the ability to be triplets, either," Cecilia smiled, deciding to do the tea the quick and easy way - two baggies, one for each mug, fill them with water, stick them in the microwave. "For what it's worth, I'm sure they're all okay. Missing the people here terribly, I'm sure, but I'm sure they're okay."

Jo chuckled. "No, they didn't. Jamie's always managed to surprise us." She shook her head. "I hope you're right . . . wishing I'd kept up going to church, just now, though." She winced. "And I haven't been able to get through to Kitty at all--she'll be frantic, with Jamie missing."

"If you talk, God will listen, whether you've been to church in recent memory or not," Cecilia observed as she pulled the mugs out of the microwave, eyeing them critically before removing the baggies and dumping them in the trash. "I haven't been in ages, myself. Still trying to decide if I want to try opening a dialogue." She smiled wryly, carrying the tea over to the table, carefully setting one down in front of Jo before claiming her own seat. "Kitty.. Jamie said something about a camping trip," she said slowly, with a faint grimace. "Probably doesn't have a phone nearby."

"And her father's on some sort of business trip too. I'm almost ready to telephone every park ranger in Illinois just to have something to do." Jo accepted a mug of tea, folding both hands around it. "I don't know how much longer I can stand this."

"I'd be happy to try and keep you occupied, if you think it would help," Cecilia offered, trying to keep the helplessness out of her voice and mostly succeeding at the task. "I'm not sure how I'd do it, but I'm sure we could think of something, between the two of us."

"Now that Dr. MacTaggart has been kind enough to take charge of Madame Colbert with a friendly smile and a friendly dose of tranquilizers, you're on," Jo replied wryly. "Although I suppose I'm being unfair--her hysteria helped snap me out of mine."

"Whatever works," Cecilia grinned, reaching down for her pizza. Oh, her stomach was going to hate her for this, she just knows it.. but too bad. One little slice wouldn't kill her. "I'll do what I can to keep you from lapsing back into worried hysterics. It isn't a fun place to be, and I doubt the conversation would be nearly as fun if I couldn't understand half of it from the wibbling."

"I'll save the wibbling for Dan, I promise. He's fluent." She smiled. "Maybe I could take you up on Jamie's basketball game? I taught him his free throws." She chuckled. "No Shaquille O'Neals in _my_ house, thank you very much."

"That sounds like an excellent plan to me," Cecilia nodded, smiling lopsidedly. "I haven't played in a while. The chance to brush up would be good. Just go easy on me 'til I get the hang of it back, that's all I ask."

"Well, then. Now I have an excuse to eat--can't have myself fainting all over the court, can I?" Jo smiled and took a bigger bite of the pizza.