xp_logs | Cecilia and Madelyn

Tuesday afternoon, Cecilia pops into Madelyn's office to deliver donuts. In the process, they hash out what they're going to do about her education, and her time at Xavier's.

It was strange, the mansion being this quiet. Particularly in the middle of a crisis. However, when the crisis involved meant half the mansion's population was missing, then, yes, the place would be quiet. Still, all the waiting meant Madelyn had time to catch up on the reading she'd missed with the Firefountain incident. She felt a brief pang, as she did always when she thought about Iceland, and picked up another file. So many newcomers... There was a knock on the door and she looked up, calling out at the same time: "It's open."

The door opened, and a box with the logo of Dunkin Donuts passed through the entry at about head-height, shortly thereafter followed by.. well.. a head, peeking into the office. "You've been holed up in here for a while," Cecilia observed, giving the box a light wiggle. "Thought you might be hungry."

"You must be my guardian angel," Madelyn said with a broad smile. "Sent from heaven. Or at least, the donut shop. C'mon in, pull up a seat."

"I don't know about that.." Grinning, Cecilia dutifully let herself inside, closing the door behind herself before she crossed over to offer the box. "I tried to stick to the least offensive ones, but a little chocolate may have snuck in. When I wasn't looking."

"I'll forgive you this once," Madelyn said solemnly, laying aside the files and spinning around in her chair to refill her coffee mug from the percolator and get one for Cecilia. "Coffee? Donuts aren't the same without it."

Cecilia paused to consider this for a moment before she shook her head, claiming herself a seat. "Nah. Have an example to set. Thank you, though."

Madelyn sighed almost theatrically. "Damn, you're right. Ah well, it's probably best. My coffee isn't any where near as toxic as Moira's, but it's got it's own quirks." She pulled the box towards her, selected a donut, and pushed the box back towards Cecilia. "Oh, and nice catch, by the way. Telling Moira to cut back on the coffee. It turned out she has a stomach ulcer, so it was the best thing."

Plucking a chocolate-frosted donut from the box, Cecilia blinked once, her brow furrowing in thought for a moment before an expression of 'oh, duh' came to her face. "Thank you.. that does explain why she's been chugging Pepto down like it was water. It isn't too serious an ulcer, is it?"

"Not as bad as it could be, although I wish we'd caught it earlier. We might have been able to stop it getting this bad if Moira had mentioned something. Still, there's that adage about doctors making lousy patients." Madelyn bit into the donut, savouring the sugary goodness, and chewed and swallowed before going on. "So, while you're here, you want t' discuss your future? I've been thinking about your situation, and I think I've got some options you might like."

"We could be mean and hold her up as an example of why you should mention these things to your friendly neighborhood physicians," Cecilia suggested innocently, having a quick bite of her own donut and grinning once she'd freed her mouth up for speaking again. "I think I'll like almost any options, so long as they get me where I'd like to be, so lay 'em on me. I'm all ears."

"Well, there are a couple of local colleges with some decent science subjects of the kind you need, but nothing as good as Columbia's medical program," Madelyn began. "But I do have some colleagues who teach medicine in various parts of the country who'd be willing to fill the gaps with an online correspondence course. With me supervising, that is. How's that sound? You'd take a couple of classes a week at the local college, study the rest with me online."

Cecilia managed not to grimace at mention of Columbia, which the back of her mind figured meant she was progressing nicely on that whole 'accept and move on' score. That, or she was too busy considering the suggestion to bother grimacing, which worked just as well. "If you think it would be sufficient, I'm not about to argue with you," she replied, with a thoughtful grin. "It sounds like it's worth a shot."

Madelyn hadn't missed the hesitation, but simply nodded. "I do. You're too good a student to go to waste. There is a catch however," she added, but she said it with a slightly mischeivous smile.

"You're smiling like Blaire," Cecilia observed slowly, peering at Madelyn with a mixture of amusement and wariness. "But you're flattering me, so it's forgiven. What's the catch?"

"You've probably already heard about the usual student pool about new people and what they teach? Well, I've been wanting an assistant for some time, especially since I have students like Rahne and Clarice showing interest in medicine. How would you feel about helping me out? Between classes and my research and the regular medical emergencies here, I'm swamped."

"Voluntarily trying to reduce your stress levels? Can we lord that one over Moira, too?" Cecilia grinned impishly, with a quick waggling of her eyebrows. "Helping you out, I think, is something I'm actually qualified to do. I'd be happy to. Even if it means I'm out fifty bucks - I was figuring on being saddled with a human biology class."

"I wouldn't discount that just yet. At this stage I'm looking at human biology and field medicine - it's a basic first aid subject we insist the kids do." Madelyn finished the donut, hesitated a fraction of a second, and went for another. "I figured you'd prefer that than being saddled in the labs with Hank or Moira, although it was close. We had quite the battle over who was going to claim you first."

"Hey, if it means I've conned some of the youth of America out of their hard-earned money, I'm all over the bio class," Cecilia snickered. Then, she paused, and smiled sheepishly, tilting her head to one side. "Would it be too eager of me to say that I have plenty of attention span to go around?"

"I don't doubt it, but how about we ease you into things gradually? You'll be getting plenty to occupy you, especially once the kids get back." There was no false conviction in Madelyn's voice - the kids would be back, and that was it.

"Probably not a bad idea," Cecilia agreed, glancing down at her donut before having another quick bite. Don't ignore the sweets, Cecilia, that's rude. You'll offend them. "I'm just very much ready for my unexpected vacation to be done with."

"It's a bit like the Army here," Madelyn told her. "We take advantage of the down time whilst we have it, since it never lasts long. Besides, we have our hands full with any number of neurotic parents right now."

"Very much like the Army," she mused wryly, thinking back to her talks with Haroun and Scott before shaking herself. "Just tell me what you need me to do, and I'll do it. Even if it's just encouraging Moira to switch to tea, or something."

"Oh, believe me, that'll help." Madelyn smiled at Cecilia. "And I think you're going fit in just perfectly around here."