xp_logs | Kurt and Madelyn, Monday night

He rescues her from the medlab and they go out for Italian. It's not a date. Really.

Madelyn took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes tiredly, wincing slightly in the bright light of her overhead lamp. The medlab was quiet for now - no-one was wanting to yell at her patient, and there hadn't been so much as a scraped knee in the last twelve hours. Still, she was expecting something to happen any minute.

And here something did: Kurt had decided it was time to pay the doctor another visit, to make sure she was all right. He bamfed into the waiting area so as not to startle her or risk waking Doug, then made his way through into the main part of the medlab.

The smell of Kurt's teleporting was unmistakeable. Wrinkling her nose slightly, Madelyn looked up as the German poked his head around her office door. "Hi, Kurt," she said with a brief smile. It did little to ease the tiredness on her face.

Kurt returned the smile, with concern in his eyes. "Hello, Madelyn. How are things with you?"

"Well, no-one's dead. At least not at the moment." Madelyn picked up her glasses again, turned back to Haroun's latest bloodwork results. "But strangely enough, I'm still busy. Something I can do for you, Kurt?"

He shrugged. "Nothing in particular - just a visit, really."

"Medlab's not usually the social hub, even with all the people we get down here..." Madelyn sipped at her coffee, only to find that a) it was almost gone and b) what was left was stone cold. "Bleah. I could have sworn that was hot five minutes ago..." She looked at her watch, blanched, and looked at Kurt. "Apparently I've been down here for nearly ten hours. Straight."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "That... might explain how you did not notice your coffee going cold. I think perhaps it is time you let Moira take over for a while."

"I can't. There's so much to do..." If she was 100% honest with herself, Madelyn would admit that most, if not all of that 'so much' was actually busy work, work she could do any time and was only focussing on so she didn't have time to think. Kurt wasn't overly fooled by the less-than-positive tone, if the look he gave her was anything to go by.

The look was patient, but unconvinced. "And how much of that could neither be done by Moira, nor wait until later?"

"Some?" Madelyn said hopefully, but then caved under the patient look. He was better at it than her mother, honestly. "All right, all. I just... I just need to keep busy, you know?"

He nodded. "I do understand... but does the keeping busy need to be done here? Could it not be somewhere more... relaxing? I will even play pool with you again."

"You'd do that? Even though I beat you last time?" she said with a brief, impish grin. Casting a look towards Doug's room, she hesitated. "I suppose I could ask Moira to keep an eye out on the Human Shield here..."

"Even though you beat me last time", he agreed with a mock-long-suffering look. "And yes, you could. If there is an emergency, she can call and I can have you back here instantly."

"I told you that teleportation thing was handy already, didn't I?" Madelyn said with a more natural grin. She picked up the phone and dialled Moira's pager number: "Moira? Maddie. I"m being taken away from all this. Can you keep an eye on our silly boy?" The message left, she looked down at her rumpled jeans and t-shirt, and the lab coat. "Um, give me a minute? I have a spare shirt down here, I'm _pretty_ sure..."

Kurt nodded, moving towards the waiting area to give her privacy to change. "Call me when you are ready."

There was a spare shirt - the grey tank that Scott had given her, with "I'd Kill For A Nobel Prize" on the front. Tossing her lab coat over her chair and the manky t-shirt she'd been wearing in the corner, Madelyn came out into the waiting area, shivering a little in the usual medlab chill. "Best at short notice. Shall we?"

He nodded with a small grin, holding out his hand. "Where would you like to go?"

Madelyn took the offered hand with a smile of her own. "Surprise me."

He thought for a moment, and then teleported them out. After a short series of jumps to allow for his distance limitation, they were standing in an alley in downtown New York (for the sake of discretion). He switched on his personal image inducer then, and grinned at her. "We can go anywhere you like now."

Shivering slightly in the cool air, Madelyn looked curiously at the 'face' Kurt was wearing. "Do you know, I think I prefer you blue," she said, before stepping out of the alley to see where they were. "Oh, good choice! There's an amazing Italian place just down on the next block from here. If you're hungry, that is," she added, realising she was possibly being rude.

He shrugged. "I would wear my own face if I could, but it is best not to court trouble", he answered quietly, before giving her a cheerful grin. "I am hungry, as it happens. Italian sounds wonderful."

"Then, Mr Wagner, allow me." Madelyn made an extravagant bow towards the end of the alley, laughing.