Scott and Madelyn, wee hours of Monday morning

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As he promised, Scott comes down to keep her company in the medlab. They eat peanut butter cups, gossip, and talk a little strategy. Scott makes it quite clear that he realized the medstaff need something of a break.



Bag of Halloween candy in hand, Scott stuck his head in the medlab door, seeing Madelyn sitting there communing with a cup of coffee and looking utterly exhausted. "Howdy there, Zoe," he drawled, glad that he still had the Mal-costume on.

"Evening, Captain." Madelyn had her labcoat on over the pants and blouse she'd been wearing as Zoe, the snug leather vest ditched in favour of actual freedom of movement. "Get everyone settled for the night?"

"I'm not sure," Scott said cheerfully. "I think so. There might be a few people wandering around on a sugar high, but that's not my responsibility..." He offered her the bag of candy.

"Ooh, more chocolate. Just what I don't need, but really, really want right now." Madelyn dipped into the bag and grabbed a handful, waving him towards a chair with the other. "Want some coffee? Hot chocolate? The kids are pretty much settled - I thought I was going to have to gag Clarice for a while, but she's not showing any signs of a concussion, so I finally let her sleep."

"Coffee would be good," Scott agreed, sitting down. "More caffeine. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight anyway. How's Manuel?"

"I think 'broken' accurately sums it up." Madelyn said with a tired sigh, reaching behind her for the coffee pot and pouring him a cup. "It was like someone had gone over him with a sledgehammer. I hate to think what he looked like before Amanda got her hands on him, but even now, he's going to be a while healing. She poured just about everything she had into him, and it probably saved his life, but the broken ribs are going to take some time."

"More demons," Scott said, shaking his head as he took the cup of coffee. "How precisely are we supposed to do anything about demons? I'm at a loss," he admitted. "This is not something one can plan for."

"Hell, it wasn't something this one believed in, up until this year," Madelyn replied dryly. "I'm not sure... go to the experts, I suppose? Not the kids themselves, obviously, but maybe this tutor of Amanda's, pushy bastard though he is. Or Pete's sister - Moira seems to think highly of her."

"I know Charles has talked to Dr. Strange... I don't know if he's gotten in touch with Romany or not. I'll have to talk to Pete. We probably need to anyway, given Amanda's involvement..."

Madelyn nodded. "I daresay Pete's already got that in hand, especially after that email he got from Jubilee..." She ran her hand through her hair. "I can't believe she was so stupid. Whatever happened to trashing the other girl's locker and refusing to acknowledge her existence? That's how we solved bitch fights in my day." Madelyn grimaced. "I did not just use the expression 'in my day', did I?"

"Yes, you did," Scott said with a slightly weary smile. "Face it, Maddie. You're old now. I'll get you a cane, or maybe a walker... accessorizing is important." He regarded the bag of Halloween candy thoughtfully. "I've had far too much of that."

"There is no such thing as too much candy," she told him. "Well, except when it makes you puke. Or diabetic." To puncuate her point, she unwrapped a Hersey's Kiss and popped it in her mouth. "But you're right, about me getting old. My birthday next week. Twenty-nine - I'm virtually an antique."

"I didn't know you had quite that many years on me," Scott said suddenly, grinning. Despite the insanity of the night, demons and students in the medlab and him not having been able to stop it, he was grinning. Huh.

She poked her tongue out at him and tossed a peanut butter cup at him. "It's considered young for a doctor, I'll have you know. I hope you appreciate it, me wasting my youth, slaving away in medschool just so I can patch you up and mock me."

Scott caught the peanut butter cup in one hand. "Twenty-six, as of the last birthday," he told her, although she probably knew that from his medical file. "Though I feel more like thirty-six some days."

"You look it, too," Madleyn said with a wicked grin.

He stuck his tongue out at her as he unwrapped the peanut butter cup. "The gray hair, you mean? I attribute that to Jubilee. Or maybe Paige. Or Haroun and Nate... the two of them will just not stop trying to kill each other. I wonder if Alison and Moira will make a concerted effort to housetrain them."

"The Scottish Harridan and the Devil Woman? Oh, I'm sure they will." Madelyn snickered. "So Ali and Haroun are official now? I swear, I thought I was going to have to lock those two in a room and wait for them to finally get a clue."

"As official as it gets, apparently. Color me all different shades of relieved... it was entertaining to watch, but much more would have gotten tedious." Scott snorted, popping the peanut butter cup into his mouth.

"Ali understands all the mechanics of Haroun's situation - literally, in this case. I just hope it doesn't make things too difficult." She gave him another of those wry grins. "I had to teach her how to use the blood filter. If only so I can get the odd five minutes off."

"Seems like just yesterday we were watching Moira and Nathan do that particular dance," Scott said thoughtfully. "Where's the year gone, anyway? Somehow it's slipped away between crises..."

"Something like that." Madelyn leaned back in her chair, stretched out the tense muscles of her shoulders and neck. "Were you serious? About arranging some time off for us dungeon dwellers?"

"Something's got to be done," Scott said very seriously. "Not sure just what, yet... but the two of you are going to run yourself right into the ground and then where would we be?" He shook his head. "You'd think we could count on Nathan to kidnap Moira, at least, but he's just as ornery as she is about taking time off. And you..." He grinned suddenly, wryly. "Shall I do the captainly thing and find someone to kidnap you, too?"

Despite herself, Madelyn blushed. "I'll settle for a couple of weeks in the sun nowhere near an exam table," she said, laughing. "The someone... well, that's not compulsory. Or even optional." She screwed up her nose at how that sounded. "Bah, that sounded pathetic. I just mean I don't have any expectations in that regard, so I'm quite happy to kidnap myself."

Scott pondered Madelyn's claim, not believing her for a moment. Inwardly, he was already making a bet with himself, based on a few of the things he'd seen and heard of late. A little early to be predicting such things, but, well, if he wasn't going to be driving himself insane with worst-case scenarios any longer, he needed to scratch that particular itch somehow.

"I'll talk to Charles," he said, "see what we can do. You and Moira have been working entirely too hard lately." He sighed a bit. "I don't think this place can not push," he said a bit pensively.

"It does have the worst timing," Madelyn admitted. "Moira and I have been trying to arrange a dinner for the medlab people - staff and helpers - but everytime we set a date, boom. Something else happens."

"We must be due for a break soon." Scott paused, rapping his knuckles on the desk beside him. "I didn't say that. Knock on wood. Can I have another peanut butter cup?"

"Of course. How many of those have you eaten any way?" Madelyn shoved several chocolates in his direction, saving one for herself.

"Uhh... fourteen? Fifteen?" Scott shrugged cheerfully, chasing the next peanut butter cup down with a sip of coffee.

"And you're not vibrating yourself into another dimension? I am impressed," said Madelyn with a chuckle. "My sister loves these," she went on, waving the peanut butter cup wrapper at him. "I remember one Halloween, back before I started college, taking her trick or treating. She ate most of the bag that night - Mom nearly killed the both of us. Carlie was running up and down the stairs all night. She collasped around 3 in the morning, I think."

"My version of a sugar-high is when I'm actually acting like a cheerful person with a lively sense of humor," Scott claimed. "I'm starting from farther down on the scale." He held a hand down around knee level, to demonstrate.

"Maybe we should keep you on a steady diet of chocolate peanut butter cups then?" Madelyn suggested innocently.

"Do wonders for my mood. Bad things to my figure, though," Scott pointed out, unwrapping another. "You know, it strikes me. The kids are always opening book on various things... we adults are really lagging behind in that respect."

"You really aren't suggesting we start betting on the kids' love lives, are you?" asked Madelyn. "Because it's bad enough what they let slip on the journals."

"Hell no," Scott said with a laugh. "The less I know about the kids' love lives, the better. I mean that quite sincerely." He grinned. "I was thinking we'd limit it to staff and so forth. How long before... oh, I don't know. Before someone starts to appreciate Kurt's charms. Or how long until Nathan gets Moira pregnant or some such thing."

"Perish the thought." Madelyn laughed. "You could pass it off as team building or something. Or possibly an exercise in keeping one's sense of humour..."

"A little constructive frivolity to lighten the neverending crises," Scott quipped. "That's not a bad thought."