xp_logs | Madelyn and Foley, Monday morning (Reply)

Madelyn checks in on the 'mystery patient', who's doing quite a bit better this morning. They talk a little, and she decides that there's no real need to isolate him any further.

He should be more excited about the whole lack of restraints, Mick thought, rubbing idly at his chafed wrists, but he couldn't summon up the energy. Ironic that it was probably this very lassitude that had convinced Xavier and Nathan that he was no longer an active suicide risk.

There was still a lock on the door, though. Ah, well, Mick thought dully, turning over onto his side and curling up further on the bed. Not like he particularly wanted to see what was on the other side of it anyway. He was at the school, he knew that much, and there would be kids out there. Kids were probably a little more than he could handle right now.

Okay. A lot more.

There was a 'snickt' as the locked was opened, and Madelyn poked her head around the door. "Mr Foley? All right if I come in? I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Mick sat up slowly - careful to make it slowly, since he wasn't sure if they were convinced that he wasn't dangerous yet, whatever Nate said. "Hi, Dr. Bartlet," he said with a very wan smile. "I'm... okay, I suppose. Nice to be out of the restraints."

"I'm not surprised - I hate using the damn things." Madelyn came in, closing the door behind her. She didn't sit in the chair beside the bed, not wanting to be overly familiar - the man needed his dignity and a sense of control over at least some parts of his life - choosing instead to stand at the end of his bed. Almost automatically, she reached for the chart that hung there. "But sometimes... well, they're necessary."

Mick gave a soft, ragged laugh that nonetheless had a touch of real humor in it. "Not to worry, Doctor. I remember very clearly why they were necessary." He caught himself rubbing at his wrists again, forced himself to stop. "Nate told me you'd be stopping in. He wasn't going to go teach his classes today, but I told him I could survive for a couple of hours without him. I don't--" His voice wavered. "I don't want him thinking he's got to watch me every moment. No more guilt over me."

"Knowing Nathan, he'll probably find something to guilt over regardless," Madelyn said with a wry smile. "Very big on the taking responsibility for the world's ills is Nathan."

"He was always like that. Hasn't really ch-changed all that much." Mick swallowed, running a hand through his rumpled hair. There went that damned stutter again. "Madelyn... he called you Madelyn, right? Or should I stick to c-calling you Doctor Bartlet?"

"That's right - you can call me that if you like. I prefer it, actually - 'Doctor Bartlet' still sounds a bit odd to me." She smiled again. "Far too official. Do you mind if I call you Mick?"

"Sure... that'd be g-good." He watched her reading his chart, trying to think of something else to say. "You know, these walls aren't really soundproof?" he asked finally, managing to get the words out without stuttering. "I know I have better hearing than most, but still. I can hear people talking in the hall outside. You, and Moira, and another girl with a Scottish accent. One with a British accent too, I think..."

"That'd be two of our student helpers. We have a couple of kids who are interested in learning medicine, one who has... a certain natural gift for healing... They like to help out." She made a mental note about the sound proofing and resolved to watch what sorts of conversations went on.

"That's good. G-Good for them." Damn. The stutter was back. He peered at Madelyn almost anxiously. "You're not going to give me a lecture about eating, are you? Moira was t-terrifying. I try, but I just d-don't have much appetite still."

"Normally I would, but if you've had Moira in your ear, I'll take pity on you - 'terrifying' doesn't begin to describe her when she's decided to take someone in hand." Madelyn's smiled turned a little wicked. "Ask Nathan."

"He's really kind of besotted, isn't he? But that's good too." Mick smiled a bit sheepishly. "I told him to tell me about her. While I was still in the r-restraints and he was just r-rambling on trying to keep me focused." Mick swallowed suddenly, the smile falling off his face as he remembered the first time he'd met Moira, in that warehouse. Blinking rapidly, he started to rub at his shoulder this time, the one the Shaw kid had injured phasing through him like that.

"Are you okay?" Madelyn asked, moving to his side. She hesitated before reaching out to touch the shoulder gently, realising he probably was still jumpy, but medical instinct over-riding all.

He managed not to jump too noticeably. "Memories, they're--k-kind of insistent. Nate says that's n-normal, for right now..." He realized what he was doing and drew his hand back. "There was nerve damage," he muttered a bit distractedly. "I got hurt in the warehouse, back in August."

"You were there?" Madelyn asked, her voice tightening a little. Not with anger at him, but with the memory of what had happened afterwards. To Nathan, to Moira...

Mick tried not to shrink away from her. "Y-Yes," he said, almost inaudibly. "The order came d-down and T-Tim and I, we thought we could... I t-told Nathan, I'd make sure she g-got out okay..."

"The conditioning was already cracking then, wasn't it?" Madelyn sat down in the chair by the bed, focussing on keeping her reactions under control. Mick's power meant he'd pick up the nuances in her voice, and it was important he know she didn't blame him for anything he'd done under Mistra's control.

Mick swallowed, then told her about the mission to Columbia. The druglord's seven year-old son, running into his field of fire, out of nowhere. "Just... no time to react," he said hoarsely. "I got out of there, and... I don't know what h-happened then. Tim told me I was missing for almost two weeks. I remember him finding me. And he didn't... they didn't check my conditioning." He took a deep, shaky breath. "That was... almost a year ago. I started to realize that the loopholes Nate taught us had gotten... bigger, for me. Easier to dodge the obedience imperatives."

"A year? You've been fighting it alone for a year?" Madelyn had flinched at the mention of the dead child, the memory of those small corpses in th morgue still too fresh.

Mick gave her a faint, pained smile. "Nothing so n-noble-sounding. Trying to test the limits... push it as far as I could without triggering my obedience imperatives. Falling over screaming would have t-tipped them off, and then they would have dragged me in for a tune-up..."

"Others would have mentioned the whole loophole thing, got themselves tuned up regardless," Madelyn pointed out.

Mick shook his head almost violently. "Oh, no," he said with a rattled laugh. "No, no, you never mention any problems you're having, conditioning-wise. That's the first thing you learn... the first thing he taught us. The very first loophole. The report-back imperative? Means the mission, not your status. Not unless you're directly asked. So if you don't let on, and they don't ask, you don't get dragged back into the conditioning room..." Mick swallowed, telling himself to stop rambling. His throat was as dry as sandpaper. "Sometimes it worked," he said more softly. "Sometimes it didn't."

Noticing the swallow, Madelyn poured him a cup of water from the every-present pitcher on the bedside table. "I'm starting to understand why it was so important to you that you get Nathan back. If he was able to teach you those loopholes... It meant some degree of control? Of freedom?"

Mick folded his shaking hands around the cup, taking a long sip before he answered. "That," he said, "and... well, from the sounds of it, you've seen it here. The way he reaches out to people and connects them? That's what he used to do for us." What Tim had never managed to do, in Nathan's place. "It was selfish, I suppose," he said with a sigh. "On our parts, I mean... not that we were the ones who made the decision, but we didn't resist it very hard."

"People _are_ selfish - it's programmed into our genes," Madelyn said with a brief, ironic smile. "And I've seen it - Nathan's got a certain charisma, a way about him... You should see him with the kids. He's got one or two of our hard cases following him around like puppies."

"I almost wish--" Mick bit off what he'd been about to say. "Never mind," he said more quietly. "Probably not a good idea. They all know about Columbia, and August. D-Don't think they'd really want to meet me anyway."

"They'd surprise you," Madelyn said quietly, making a mental note to talk to Moira about Amanda and possible reactions to Mick once he was mobile. Which he would be. "After Nathan was re-conditioned, he was sent after Charles. During a field trip. They saw him duke it out with another teacher, and still accepted him when he came back to us." Or was brought back - it was a better way of thinking of it. "One of them was there, at Columbia. One of Nate's hardcases I mentioned."

Mick ran a hand through his hair again, sighing. Madelyn's presence was oddly soothing - he really wasn't used to doctors making him feel that way. "I just don't want to upset any of them," he said, the words miraculously coming out without the stutter. "Especially not the boy--Kyle."

"Kyle probably wouldn't be a good idea, no. At least, not for him. I think if you could see him now, see how happy he is..." She smiled fondly. "It would do you a lot of good. But he's not ready for that yet."

"He's doing well?" Mick asked immediately, a spark of hope in his eyes. Madelyn nodded and his answering smile was a bit wobbly. "I'm so g-glad. You--" He paused, assessing the tone of her voice. "You really connect with the kids, don't you? It's so... it's so strange to meet a doctor that does that. But good. Really good."

She blushed a little. "I have a kid sister, although I wasn't around so much when she was in her teens - medical school. But Kyle... he's a sweetheart. And something about being there to get him out... well, it makes me want to keep an eye out for him just that much more. He's even forgiven me for shooting him in the butt with a tranq dart."

"There are others you feel close to, too," Mick said quietly, paying close attention to her tone. "When you said 'they'd' surprise me, there was... pride?"

"A bit. Don't get me wrong, they can drive you crazy sometimes. They fight and they whine and they won't tell you when they need help until they're falling over with sleep deprivation... But they're amazing kids. They go through so much, and still bounce back, as obnoxious and loud and teenaged as ever." She gave him another smile. "You'll see, if you want to. When you're up for it."

"It's funny," Mick said, his eyes straying to the door. "Part of me... doesn't want to. I hate being this fearful, but it's like I don't have it in me to... weather much in the way of storms anymore." He looked back at Madelyn, smiling tentatively. "It does sound... nice, though. Hectic, but worth it..."

"'Hectic' doesn't even begin to describe it," said Madelyn with a chuckle. "But don't worry - like I said, when and if you're up for it. I'm not about to throw the doors open and let the hordes in." At the mention of doors, she glanced back over at the one to his room. "I'd have to check with Nathan and Charles, but personally? I don't think we need to lock you in. At least not now. Wandering the halls is probably not a good idea just yet - those ravening hoardes of teenagers, remember? - but maybe an occasional change of scenery would be good. And I wouldn't mind the odd conversation on night shift."

"Do you play cards?" Mick asked, and then colored a little as she blinked. "I mean, um, if we were to have a conversation on night shift... I'm not that good a conversationalist. I do play cards well, though."

"A little," Madelyn replied, although that wicked glint was back. Training at the Bureau had included more than weapons, hand-to-hand and how to secure a scene - there had been many lessons in making male recruits take their female colleagues seriously by whupping their asses at poker. Then she glanced at her watch. "All right, I should go - I have an Anatomy class that isn't going to teach itself, unfortunately. Can I get you anything?"

"No... I'm okay. Think I might try and sleep a little..." He trailed off, giving her another one of those tentative smiles. "Thank you? For stopping in..."

"My pleasure." Madelyn said it sincerely. She noted the increased animation in his face, the better colour. Yep, definitely a productive conversation. Isolation time was over. "Any time."