Madelyn, Cecilia - Sunday evening

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

After theseconversations Cecilia is hiding in her room. Madelyn tracks her down and is far more successful at helping her un-wig. Roomie bonding goodness.



Just one day without insanity. That's all she wanted. A chance to go out and have lunch with an old friend and not have the place fall to pieces around her ears. Madelyn sighed as she contemplated the most-definitely-closed door to Cecilia's bedroom, knowing how the younger woman was probably feeling. Dragons? Yeesh. Summoning up her Sympathetic and Sane voice, she tapped on the door. "Cece? You want some company of the non-scary kind?"

There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment before a very, very muffledly called "It's open," came from inside. Muffled, because Cecilia was in bed, the blanket drawn up over her head as she laid curled up around one of her pillows.

"You know, air is considered a good thing," Madelyn said as she crossed the room and took a precarious seat on the edge of the bed. "And I can't see you getting much with your head covered up like that. Feel like indulging me and coming out just enough so I don't need to get the oxygen?" Her tone was only a little teasing - mostly it was concerned, with a fair splash of worry kicked in.

"Like it under here," the Cecilia-sized lump in the covers grumbled. "Makes more sense."

"You have a point there," Madelyn said with a smile, reaching over and patting what was probably Cecilia's shoulder, to judge by the shape. "But as a lifestyle choice, not one that's likely to be long-term productive. Hard to graduate med school if you live under a blanket."

"I have faith in my ability to make it work," the lump mumbled stubbornly. Still, it was only a minute before it shifted, and Cecilia reluctantly poked her head out from underneath the covers, blinking a few times to try and clear her vision.

"If anyone could, it'd be you," Madelyn told her. She leaned back a little to give Cecilia space to sit up. "But on the whole, glad to see you, roomie. Tough day, I take it?"

Cecilia grunted an affirmative, reluctantly pushing the blanket off of herself so she'd have an easier time hauling herself up to sit. "Paul wouldn't let me throw anything at him," she grumbled unhappily, wiping at her face with one sleeve. "And it took far too many times for him to comprehend that 'get out' meant 'get out'."

"That would be the yelling I heard then." Madelyn passed over a Kleenex - a good doctor was like a boyscout, always prepared, and she'd figured they might be needed - and paused a moment before brushing Cecilia's hair back out of her eyes. "If it would help, I could grab some of Moira's koosh balls, let you loose on the school at large? I'm a big believer in the theraputic value of Nerf."

Cecilia accepted the Kleenex with a very quiet 'thank you', the other gesture managing to coax a small smile out of her, though she still looked far from happy. "I don't think it would help, unfortunately," she replied quietly. "I'm not entirely sure what would."

"Unfortunately, neither am I. This place has a habit of throwing you mental curve balls..." Madelyn shrugged a little. "People say you get used to it, but I think you just learn to put on the accepting face better. I mean... magic realms and dragons? If I had the choice I think I'd be joining you under that blanket. But there's benefits to the insanity. That's what I keep reminding myself of."

"It's a big blanket," Cecilia shrugged, managing a brief, innocent grin. "You're forgetting the local insanity, Maddie. Remember the team in the basement?"

"Not like I could, the amount of business they give me. Just in the face of some of this, the team actually seems the least of the reality-stretching worries." Madelyn paused, not sure if this counted as 'cheering up conversation'. "Did I tell you about Iceland at all?"

Cecilia blinked slowly, squinting in thought as she finally wiped at her eyes with the Kleenex. "Iceland? I don't think so.. what about Iceland?"

"Just before you came, there was an... incident in Iceland. Turned out to be related to the Asgard thing," Madelyn said slowly. "People were suddenly developing powers, without warning. The team went in to investigate, and Moira and I went as well to see what was causing it." She paused - remembering this actually hurt, in a way she hadn't thought it would. "It was magic - a gift from Loki, we were told later. There was a sort of... fountain of fire, coming out of one of the local volcanoes. And anyone who went near it developed superpowers. Including Moira and I."

Cecilia blinked slowly, tilting her head at Madelyn. "That can't have been fun," she finally managed, giving herself a slight mental shake.

"On the contrary." Madelyn's expression grew wistful. "I could heal, Cece. Any illness, any injury, I could reach out and make it stop. For the first and only time in my life, I had the ability to fix the world, and I would have given up anything just to keep it. But it didn't work that way. The team capped the fountain, and the power went away." She looked down at her hands, and then back up at Cecilia again. "I suppose what I'm trying to say, kiddo, is that I understand what it's like to have your entire world tipped upside down, and for it to keep happening."

"It's reassuring to know somebody does," Cecilia admitted, eyeing Madelyn a moment before scootching over, so she could lean against the other woman's side. "I'm sorry you had that taken away from you, Maddie," she added quietly. "I'd have done anything to keep it, too."

"Some things aren't meant to be, I suppose," Madelyn replied lightly, slipping her arm around Cecilia's shoulders. "And there's no reason to give up on fixing the problems of the world just yet - I'll just have to do it without the magic wand."

Cecilia nodded faintly, practically curling up against Madelyn's side. "Less magic would be good," she agreed lightly, closing her eyes. "Unless I really am just dreaming all of this. In which case, I shouldn't have eaten that pizza before bed, I'm thinking."

"I wish I could tell you it was all just a pizza nightmare, but unfortunately there's a post on the journals, asking me to sex a dragon, to the contrary." Madelyn squeezed the younger woman's shoulders comfortingly. "Feel like spending the rest of the evening doing something horribly normal as an antidote? Movie, popcorn... No fantasies, I promise. Something gritty and hard-edged and utterly based in reality."

"Are you sure? Maybe I got clocked with a rock back at NYU, and this has all just been me dreaming through a coma," Cecilia grumbled, briefly hiding her face against the side of Madelyn's neck. "Movie and popcorn sounds safe enough."

"That's it, no more Buffy for you - I don't want you tying me up and feeding me to a demon as a way of staying out of your delusion." Another squeeze - Cecilia wasn't the touchy-feely type, but she obviously needed lots of comfort today. "But if you want to test the whole thing, I could pinch you. No trouble at all."

Cecilia scoffed, lightly poking Madelyn in the ribs. "Making a deal with a demon wouldn't do much for my sanity, Maddie," she pointed out reasonably. "So you haven't got anything to worry about there. Besides, I like you too much to do something like that." For someone who wasn't the touchy-feely type, she certainly seemed to be soaking up the attention as much as she could, and it did seem to be doing a good job of calming her down. "Eh. No pinching, no. Not 'til after popcorn."

"You're no fun at all," Madelyn mock-pouted, and began removing herself from poking range. "C'mon, there's a sofa with your name on it and pretty people of your choice to watch."

"Do there have to be pretty people?" Cecilia whimpered, reluctantly scootching after her. "The last pretty people I watched were Haroun and Alison, and he was trying to get into her bikini instead of hacking water out of his lungs, and.. argh."

"That's where the your choice part comes in," laughed Madelyn, holding out a hand to pull Cecilia off the bed. "This is your spoiling, roomie, you pick what you want to watch. It's what makes spoiling so much fun for the spoil-ee."

"Maybe something with lots and lots of violence," Cecilia murmured thoughtfully, taking the offered hand and letting herself be pulled to her feet, with a brief wobble. "I can maim vicariously.."

Seeing the wobble, Madelyn tightened her grip on Cecilia's hand, ready to catch her if need be. "Vicarious maiming always helps," she agreed.

Cecilia gave her head a quick shake to clear it, pressing her free hand to her forehead. "Too long laying down, I think," she grumbled, taking a deep breath. "I'm okay. Maiming movie. Yes. Any preferences?"

"None at all - your choice, remember?" Madelyn steered Cecilia into the common area of the suite and deposited her on the sofa, before heading for the kitchen and the popcorn stash.

"And my choice is to ask if you have any preferences," Cecilia countered, sticking out her tongue as she plunked down to sit on the sofa. "I'd say Fight Club, but that involves too much thinking."

"If you wanted brainless, there's always Jackie Chan. Violence and humour in one nifty package," Madelyn replied, tossing the popcorn in the microwave and hitting the appropriate button before opening the fridge door. "Something to drink?"

"That's a good idea," Cecilia replied thoughtfully, squinting towards the video cabinet. "Um.. just some juice, I think. We still have apple juice in there, don't we?"

"Indeed we do." Pouring a couple of glasses, Madelyn handed one to Cecilia before retrieving the popcorn from the microwave. "We have supplies, we have mindless violence... what more could we want?"

"Personal lives?" Cecilia suggested, accepting her glass and peeking after Madelyn with a slight grin. "Normalcy?"

"Now you're just being demanding," Madelyn chuckled, joining her roomie on the sofa.