xp_logs | Madelyn & Jubilee log: The Yellow Face, It Burns!

Who: Dr Madelyn Bartlet, Jubilation Lee
When: Wednesday 29th September 2004, Early Morning
What Happens: Jubilee notices the good doctor on a break from Medlab. They talk about how she's been doing and Jubilee decides it's time to start trusting people.

Madelyn winced as the opened the back door and stepped out onto the back porch. The sun was bright. Still, she was fully caffienated now, and with enough caffiene and sugar, she could handle anything. Even the Yellow Face. Well, just about. Fortunately none of the mansion's smokers were out there - there were limits to what coffee could handle. Hands wrapped protectively around her jumbo-sized mug (they had a set of three, just for the medlab staff - mental note, get another for Cecilia), she headed towards a seat, intent on photosynthesising long enough to either reset her body clock or turn her skin green, whichever came first.

Jubilee had been enjoying the sunshine, her feet firmly encased by rollerblades now that she was able to use them again. She'd missed this the most during her time spent recuperating. She fully intended never to get into a fight with a classmate again, at least not the type that involved powers. She noticed Maddy striding towards one of the seats that were sprinkled liberally along the gravel path and glided back toward the house. She hadn't seen the doctor around lately and by the way she was gripping her coffee it would appear that she hadn't had much sleep.

'Jubilee to the rescue!' she thought with a grin.

The best cure for a sun deprived doctor was rollerblading, obviously. The fact that Jubilee had been trying to hook more people on one of her favourite sports had absolutely nothing to do with this decision.

Blinking as Jubilee abruptly bounced up in front of her - she really hadn't noticed anything else besides sun warm, coffee good, seat even better - Madelyn summoned up a tired smile. "Morning, Jubilee. You're up early."

She half fell, half slid onto the seat next to the doctor. Wearing rollerblades made sitting down a somewhat graceless affair most of the time. It was a measure of Jubilee's training that she managed to make it look less like a train wreak and more deliberate.

"I'm totally turnin' into a mornin' person sharing a room with Paige." she explained, as she noted the tired smile and frowned slightly. Madelyn spent way too much time down in Medlab, something that would need to be remedied. "Well, that and the fact I'm doin' Tai Chi more often now. It's easier to do at dawn, when there's not people runnin' around the place."

"Dawn I only see from the wrong side - being up all night. Not that there's a lot in the way of natural light in the medlab." Sipping her coffee, Madelyn was starting to feel more... well, more human. "Tai Chi and rollerblading, hmm? Are you sure you and Paige aren't sharing brains? Should we be worried if she starts wearing a yellow coat as well?" she asked, this time her smile less tired and more teasing.

"Well, she did say she liked the colour yellow..." Jubilee replied, grinning.

Reaching down, she undid the catches on the rollerblades and pulled them off, placing them besides her on the bench. "They're a bit heavy to be wearing when you're just sittin' around." she explained at Madelyn's curious look. She dangled her feet, looking up at the blue sky above. "Honestly though, it's such a great day out here for anything. Just felt like not missing a moment of it cooped up inside."

"No classes then?" Madelyn asked innocently, having another sip of coffee.

"I'm being irresponsible." Jubilee replied, her voice lowered in a mock whisper. "Totally skipping self defence. I'll probably get a kick in the ass for it later but it was too nice a day to be inside."

"That's one of Pete's, isn't it? You're a far braver person than me, incurring his wrath. Although, knowing Pete, it would take a bit more than that for wrath to be incurred." Madelyn gave Jubilee a searching look. "You're not... avoiding him, are you? After what happened?"

"Nah, not so much avoiding, as just wanting the day off due to sunshine withdrawal. Although, I was totally ready to play complete hooky from the class after everything went down. I think the thought of him actually coming to find me about why I was skipping was possibly more frightening then actually attending the class though. Cause, you know, then we'd have to be all confrontational about everything. Whereas, lots of people in the class, so I can hide in the back."

Jubilee scrolled a design into the dirt at her feet with her big toe. She'd have to wash her socks later on but that was only a mild concern when you considered the usefulness of being able to concentrate on toe sand drawings, rather then looking at people when talking about uncomfortable subjects.

"Amanda said that he'd respect her right to deal with her own problems though. Guess that means he won't be giving me a going over any time soon."

Madelyn nodded. "Sorry to ask, kiddo, but I wanted to make sure. I'd hate to see you missing out on your education because you felt awkward about going to a class." She watched Jubilee's toe drawing for a moment. "While we're on the hard stuff... How are you doing?"

"Right now? It's sunny, there's blue sky and I'm not stuck in a classroom. Can't be sad or unhappy when it's sunny. In general though...next question?" Jubilee said, looking sideways at Madelyn.

Any other time Madelyn might have pushed, however gently. But she was still smarting after the spectacular failure of talking to Shiro. "As long as you aren't letting this eat you up, kiddo," was all she said, before changing the topic slightly away from Uncomfortable Places. "Arm healed up all right?"

Jubilee allowed her legs to dangle, swishing them back and forth underneath the bench. She'd noticed the small change in topic, she supposed her last words had been a bit snippy. "Arm seems all healed up. Amanda does a pretty good job with the healin' stuff. Sorry about bein' snippy. Didn't mean to sound that way. Just didn't want to spew all my problems at ya, tends to make people a bit uncomfortable. And well, sunshine and all, seems too bright a day to be makin' people uncomfortable."

"If it gives you problems, come down and we'll take a look. And yes, she does, although I'd prefer it if she didn't make work for either us or herself. There's enough healing to do without generating more." She glanced at Jubilee. "And no, you weren't snippy. I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to hear it, but if you'd rather I kept my nose out... I understand."

Jubilee's shoulders lifted in a half shrug and then she straightened. She'd been about to move on to some other topic but something stopped her. Maybe it was just her sessions with Samson, the idea that maybe she could be safe here. It occurred to her that it was possibly well past time that she started trusting people who weren't her roommates. It would be a start, anyhow.

"It's kinda clichéd but I guess everything that happened, kinda reopened some scars of mine. Not the ones ya can see, the ones in my head. Samson says it's cause I learnt fairly young that there's things ya can't beat, so I choose to run. Just made me realise how much of my life I've been runnin', and how I don't know how to stop. Heck, I don't even know how to ask for help to stop. Gotta be the stupidest thing, hey? All these people here that care about me, and they're all about the helpin' but I can't ask em' for it."

"Not that stupid." Madelyn chuckled a little and then went on as Jubilee looked at her strangely. "Asking for help is both one of the easiest and hardest things to do. Especially when you've gotten used to fending for yourself, like you have." Or Shiro, or Alex, or Angelo... actually, half the student body were self-sufficient to the point of causing themselves harm by not asking for help. "All it takes is reaching out when someone offers you a hand, and taking it. But that means you're having to let your defences down, open yourself up to the possibility of being hurt by another... and that frankly can be terrifying, even to someone like me."

Jubilee grinned. "Here I'd thought that nothin' could scare you doctors. Considerin' the amount of stuff we keep throwing at you in the injuries department."

She leaned back, blinking as the sunlight shone in her eyes. "It's not...There's other people round here who've been through stuff, ya know? Always felt like if I said anythin' I'd have people pointin' out how good they're doin'. Feel like enough of a failure on my own without people tellin' me straight out that I'm weak."

"The injuries you lot come up with doesn't scare me, it's the fact you're injured at all," said Madelyn, a little tightly. "As for people making you feel like a failure... how many have actually said that? When you've talked to them? I think you'll find the ones that have had difficulties would be the last to play who copes with more trauma, and those that haven't... well, they tend to be the more sane ones, any way." She relaxed slightly again, smiling at Jubilee. "As I told Ms Maximoff, the people here are unusually forgiving. Sometimes you just have to take a chance on people, kiddo."

"It's what I've finally been realising." Jubilee said softly before mentally shaking herself and smiling. "Meant to say somethin' on the journal system about it. Just been kinda enjoying the day before I do. It's not gonna be easy, even when it's just a first step and words on a screen rather then another way. But I think I'd probably run a mile if I had to do it in person right now. Baby steps though, right?"

"Baby steps are how everyone starts out," Madelyn told her.