Alison, Scott & Madelyn

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Late Saturday night. Alison waits for Scott in his office, and eventually they end up in the Medlab where Madelyn has her say on matters.

Yeah, I know. Didn't die today, will die tomorrow.

She had decided that sitting at his chair was not a good place to be when he came back. This was a Very Obvious Thing. Sitting on the windowsill was also potentially Very Bad. So Alison was sitting in the chair facing his desk, staring out the window with a tired expression. The demons were all gone, Miles' story of mighty demon thwapping heard at least twice before Cain bundled him back into the boathouse, and things were nominally calm for the moment.

Scott was going to kill her.

Scott's office door crashed open, and the man himself stood there, cold rage written in every line of his posture. The muscles along his jaw were twitching almost spasmodically. "You kidnapped me," he said in a low growl. "You kidnapped me, and a demon attacked the mansion."

Yep. She was dead. The prospect didn't really faze her, however. She was tired, Miles was fine and the reading she'd indulged in while waiting for Scott had left her very very numb. "The demon attacked Illyana, specifically. She's in the medlab and she'll be fine. And everyone else is too." Oh. Wait. Maybe she shouldn't have put it quite that way.

Scott stared at her for a moment longer and then started laughing. It wasn't particularly nice laughter. In fact, it sounded semi-hysterical, and the look on his face as he leaned against the doorframe, wheezing, was more pained than amused. "Right. Just another day at Xavier's... what was I thinking. You didn't need me at all..."

"Scott..." she sighed, wishing she could just go find a nice comfortable bed to curl up in and hide under the covers for a while. "Sit down please? You're looming. Looming is bad?"

His mood swung alarmingly. The near-hysterical mirth was gone in a flash, and his whole body slumped as he went over and sat, or rather collapsed into the nearest chair. "Damn it, Ali," he muttered, no energy at all in his voice.

"You can yell at me if you want," she offered a bit awkwardly. "But I'm not changing anything." She slumped further in her own chair, stretching out her legs. "Someone had to do this. We're a team, right? Working together and all that?"

"I don't want to yell at anyone," he said hoarsely, resting his head into his hands. "I just... I want..." His voice caught, and he squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing at his temples. "Why can't it stop? Within the realm of possibility, all of this, today... I knew that... I just..." He trailed off before his voice cracked completely.

"Hey. We're doing fine." And she still wasn't dead. That was good. She pushed herself up from the chair even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, and walked across the room to lean on the arm of the one Scott was occupying. "The worse scenario didn't happen tonight," she murmured, shivering a bit at what she'd read.

Scott took a deep, shaky breath, looking up at her. "Got to that one too, did you?" he asked dully. "My Kobayashi Maru file..." He had hoped they wouldn't. He changed the password on that regularly, just to guard against the possibility. As if anyone, even team members, needed to see all of his possible worst-case, no-win scenarios. Let alone all the futile notes on them, his unsuccessful attempts to find solutions.

Yeah, and I'm going to have nightmares for a week. If not more. She sighed. "Yes." Betsy, thankfully, hadn't read them. Her hand shook a bit as she reached out to brush her fingertips against Scott's shoulder. "You can't plan for everything, Scott. You just can't. You'll kill yourself trying."

"I never planned for this." He gave her a ghost of a smile, twisted and exhausted. "No mutiny scenario. Obviously a lapse in imagination on my part."

Madelyn was so dosing him with enough sedatives to take out an elephant. If he didn't keel over before Alison got him to the infirmary, anyway. Although maybe she wouldn't have to be sneaky about it, if he actually agreed to get some sleep. "Well, you know. I'm the creative type, remember?" She grinned tentatively at him.

The smile slipped away. "Then you should understand why," he muttered, resting his head in his hands again. "I know it's impossible to plan for everything. But I have to try. I can't just stop..." That was why the files. Every scenario with a range of possible responses, cross-indexed to Danger Room programs, team evaluations, files on various possible hostiles... "Jean... she called them my recipes for disaster, once. She didn't like them either."

"I can-" she hesitated for a moment, before going on, "understand why you'd want them." They made her skin crawl and she badly wanted to forget some of what she'd read, Cain's words about what might happen to Miles if she died echoing in her mind. "But you can't just lose yourself in that, it's..." She shook her head helplessly. "You can't."

The exhaustion flared back into anger again. "And what?" he demanded harshly. "Not prepare for it? Not try and cover all the bases?" He rose from his chair, swaying for a moment. "I'm going down to check on Illyana," he said roughly, starting towards the door.

Saved! was the brief thought. She wouldn’t even have to trick him into going downstairs. Of course, the set up was still there and he'd know she'd engineered that as well, she was sure. Oh well. I die tomorrow. "I'll go with you," she moved quickly. "I haven't been down yet either."

"Whatever," Scott muttered, and said not another word to her as they headed down to the medlab. Head up, he told himself a bit dizzily. No reason to be this exhausted, really. Just because he hadn't slept last night...

Madelyn looked up as Alison, with Scott in tow, came into the medlab. "Welcome to Hell," she said dryly, blood still marking the front of her scrubs from putting Illyana back together - abdominal surgery was a bitch.

Scott blinked at the blood, and for a moment, he very nearly turned around and walked right out of the medlab again. "Is she... how is she?"

"She'll be fine. Puncture wound to the stomach, broken arm, some cuts and bruises. She's tough - she'll be demanding we evil doctors release her in no time." Madelyn looked at Scott critically. "You look like something the cat dragged in."

"I'm fine," Scott said a bit disjointedly. She'd be fine. No dead children. This was very good. "I just... wanted to know." He turned to go again, and Alison was standing in his way, arms folded across her chest.

"Nu huh," she shook her head, refusing to budge an inch. "Not quite done yet here," she said in a slightly softer tone of voice, nonetheless ready to close off any path of escape for him.

He was not going to be happy with this, but desperate measures... and it wasn't like she hadn't warned him she'd do something drastic. Admittedly this was a tad more drastic than intended, but there was no way Scott was going to meekly co-operate and take the nice sleeping medication like a good boy. "Sit for a minute," Madelyn told him. "I wanted to go over that stuff with Le Beau - I think I remembered more now the headache's gone." She moved over to the coffee maker and poured three cups, the sleeping tablets already in the bottom of his mug as pre-arranged. "And you look like you could use some legal stimulants."

Scott sat down in the chair indicated, blinking at the cup of coffee Madelyn pushed at him. Coffee would be good, he thought, taking a very large gulp of it, then another, as he listened to her talk about last night. He was having trouble focusing on her words... she seemed to go around and around.

Then, after a while, he was just having trouble focusing, period.

Madelyn watched Scott slump in his chair, eyes drooping. "And there he goes," she said with no small amount of satisfaction. "Did you want to tuck him into one of the beds here, or should we get him upstairs?"

"Here," was the instant response. "Where you can keep an eye on him. Think you can keep him under for, oh, twenty-four hours at least?" Alison asked tiredly, walking by the chair to stare down at him for a moment. "Longer?"

"I think we can manage that. Now he's out, it'll just be a matter of giving him the odd shot to keep him under. I'll tell him it looks like a case of exhaustion, that his body decided to quit on him. At least until he works it out on his own." Madelyn shrugged unrepentantly. "And the way that he was going, that's not far from the truth. Man's an idiot. Loveable, but an idiot."

"Yes to both," she simply agreed, reaching down to sling one arm over her shoulders. "Up you go," she murmured once Madelyn joined in, the two of them getting him laid out on a bed without much trouble.

"Get his shoes?" Madelyn asked, as she checked his vitals. Just in case there'd been a reaction to the sleeping pills. "You know, he's going to be royally pissed once he works all this out."

"Yeah, I know. Didn't die today, will die tomorrow," Alison murmured, chuckling a bit as she took care of the shoes, dropping them on the floor besides the bed. "He already went all fearsome on me for taking him out of the mansion on the night of a demon invasion. Gee, sorry," she grumbled, prodding the side of the bed, "the demons didn't exactly feel like calling to let us know they were coming."

"Strange how that happens," Madelyn agreed wryly, sticking a heart monitor patch on Scott's chest as Alison pulled the blankets over him. Just to be sure - the physical stress symptoms had worried her. "Rude, actually. We should put up a sign: 'No attacks without a prior appointment'."

"Please make sure to call a month in advance as out schedule is already heavily booked," Alison tacked on, folding the blanket just a bit. Like she did for Miles. Lips quirking she moved back to let Madelyn continue what she was doing, leaning on another bed nearby. "People are so rude.  Demons too."

"Not to mention violent - that was quite the mess we had to clean up with Illyana. Any idea of what the hell happened out there?" Now Scott was asleep, Madelyn could ask the question.

"Demons and something to do with Illyana. Miles bashed one with a rake. It's grew twice in size each time he told me the story," Alison added fondly, before pushing herself up on the bed, letting her feet swing once before stilling the movement. "Betsy and I were in his office when it started and by the time we made it outside, it was more about getting everyone inside and sorting out the mess. It happened fast."

"If I had to guess, I'd say someone had some unfinished business with Illyana from last time," Madelyn said distractedly, finishing up. The heart monitor beeped reassuringly steady in the quiet room. "Okay, he's good. I'll check in on him from time to time, but you might want to let Betsy know where he is. And if you need a place to hide when he wakes up, that offer of sanctuary is open-ended." She grinned slightly. "I'm not above playing the 'don't yell at the traumatized doctor' card if he does come after you."

"Mmm. My savior," Alison grinned lopsidedly. "Ill keep that in mind. I might as well go back up now," she added, shaking her head. "Got a few files to finish reading." She did not look very thrilled about the prospect, but Scott's damn files had something of a train crash fascination effect about them.

"Have fun," Madelyn said with a wicked grin. She knew just how thorough Scott's files were. "Let me know if you need anything else."

Fun? So not. She still managed a smile for Madelyn however, hopping off the table carefully. "If there's anything you'll be the first I call, partner in crime." She patted Scott's hand and then headed for the exit, trying to brace herself for the reading ahead.