Jubilee, Madelyn - Monday evening

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Following the Great Bra Escape, Jubilee drops by Madelyn's office to return the offending item and is caught snooping. Somehow conversation turns into an invitation to a Bartlet Family Gathering.



Jubilee poked her head around Madelyn's office door, noting that the doctor did not appear to be in currently. Shrugging, she walked over and placed the bra on Madelyn's desk, looking around curiously as she did. You could tell a lot about a person by what they had in their workspace. There was a photo in a plain wooden frame on Madelyn's desk, Jubilee looked at it more closely and noticed Madelyn and a second younger woman that bore a familial resemblance.

"So, that must be Carlie." Jubilee mused.

She'd always had a curious nature, and while she wouldn't go rifling through Madelyn's desk drawers, the pursuit of information had always been a compelling draw to her. Besides, she wanted to wait and make sure the doctor was doing okay. While she knew that all the doctors had helpers currently looking after them, and that they did a good job, those helpers weren't Jubilee. She'd never trusted anyone to be her eyes and ears for her, you could never know what they might have missed. It was probably one of the reasons the teachers' desire to protect their students tended to get right up her nose. She hated having other people decide how much she needed to know. It was like having a blind spot, even if she was sure they'd never keep anything important to themselves. Truth was, she wasn't quite sure if she should ever trust someone that much that she stopped wanting to know all the details.

Madelyn came bustling back in, intent on grabbing the printed-out copies of various research papers on energy-based mutations she'd printed off the Web. Not that there were many, but maybe one of them would give them an idea of what they were looking at. She stopped dead at the sight of Jubilee investigating the cluttered desk, biting back her initial reaction when she saw the bra lying on top of her copy of Gray's Anatomy. Of course, the conversation in her journal. Not beige. The shower had helped, but Madelyn still felt like death warmed over, and she had to remind herself getting territorial over her desk was just silly.

"Hey, firecracker," she said, coming in. She had no idea what time of day it was, so went for the general greeting. "Returning my prodigal underwear, I see?"

Jubilee looked up from where she'd been reading the title of a book upside down and grinned unrepentantly at Madelyn. If you were going to snoop, then it paid to not jump half a foot when someone caught you at it. "Hey Mads, and yep, returned as requested. How's everythin' down here?" she asked.

"As well as can be expected. Degrees of insanity varying." Madelyn shook her head at Jubilee as she moved to the printer to grab her printouts. "I suppose it's a good thing I don't keep patient files on my desk, mmm?" she said, with a touch of gentle reproof. She looked beyond tired, the labcoat she was wearing wrinkled and obviously slept-in, and what looked like a coffee stain on the front of her t-shirt.

"Nah, I wouldn't be lookin' at that stuff, even if you had. Well, might have been tempted to, but wouldn't. Sorry if I was snoopin', just used to gatherin' information, ya know? Workplaces, well, you can tell somethin' about someone from 'em." Jubilee said, grinning widely.

She leaned back against the desk, careful not to disturb any of the papers scattered over it. Those in themselves were also an indication of how busy Madelyn had been lately, although considering Alison was hurt she didn't really need any of these signs to tell her why the doctors had been.

"Like how busy ya are right now, and how family is important to ya. Course, with Alison hurt, it's kinda obvious you're busy. But it's fun ta keep my hand in on that stuff." she said.

"Well, that and the fact everyone's been stumbling around like extras from 'Dawn of the Dead'," Madelyn said wryly. She looked around her usually-neat office, now a confusion of books and papers and trash and dirty plates and clothes. Her blanket and pillow were lying crumpled on the couch - she'd merely tossed aside the blanket and rolled off it for her next shift. She nodded at the photo of her and Carlie. "You were right about the family thing, 'though. I'm supposed to be home for Thanksgiving, but with all this..." She shrugged helplessly. "Mom's going to kill me. Slowly."

"Family understand, s'what they do. She'll probably yell at ya for awhile and then she'll give ya a hug and it'll all be alright again. Think I might go back to Cali for Thanksgivin', spend some time in the Mall. Wouldn't be the same without some rent-a-cop chasin' me down." Jubilee said.

She suddenly realised how lame that had sounded and grinned. She didn't begrudge the others their families and she'd never missed having turkey or watching football. Eating corndogs and giving some rental cop the slip had been fun. Even if it didn't sound as great as a huge dinner and sitting around with family afterwards watching a football game.

"Well, as I understand it, they're having a Thanksgiving dinner here - there's been too much going on lately for too many of the staff to feel comfortable leaving, and there's a lot of kids who don't have anywhere else they particularly want to be..." Madelyn caught the brief, wistful expression on Jubilee's face, and made a decision. It went a bit beyond the normal student-teacher relationship, but since when was anything normal here? "Or, if I do manage to escape here, I could kidnap you and take you with me? Mom loves to feed people." And Carlie would love Jubilee, she decided.

No one had ever offered to take her home before. Not even her friends. It wasn't something she'd ever expected of them, although if she was honest, she'd probably given a lot of 'keep away' signals at this time of year. She just hadn't wanted to seem like some kind of sponge. She'd simply not allowed herself to ever imagine it.

"Dude...You'd really let me come home with you for Thanksgiving?" Jubilee asked.

Madelyn nodded, smiling. Definitely the right decision. "Of course, I just said so, didn't I?" she replied, chuckling a little. "Of course, it depends on whether I can get away or not, but if I can, you're coming with me. There's always plenty of food, and Mom always has the guest room ready."

Jubilee walked over to Madelyn and danced her around in a short circle before letting go, beaming.

"Dude, this is going to be SO cool. Um, if you get away that is." she said, trying not to sound too excited. She didn't want Madelyn to feel bad if they couldn't go, after all.

"Well, Carlie will be there, so you wouldn't be stuck with a bunch of old fogeys..." Madelyn said, already planning how she was going to put this to Moira. There had to be some way of getting even a few days off... "And my niece and nephew as well, although they're just small. I think you probably need a bit of time away from here as much as any of the others, so I'll be your fairy godmother and do my best, okay? If not Thanksgiving, then Christmas. Mom will disown me if I miss both of those."

"Wicked." Jubilee said, grinning still. "Um, I totally have to go. Gotta get at least some homework done today, even if I'd rather goof off on it."

Madelyn waved her away. "Off you go. I need to get back to it myself. I'll try and sort out Thanksgiving, let you know, okay?"

Jubilee paused when she got to the door. "Thanks, Mads. Means a lot to me, ya know?"

"I'd guessed from the dancing me around," Madelyn said a little wryly, but her smile was fond. "Shoo, kiddo."

Jubilee laughed, winked and then was gone, heading back upstairs to the lists she had to make for Nate. She'd been putting them off since he'd asked her to write them and she really needed to finish them before Wednesday.