Alison, Madelyn - Monday night

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Alison comes down for her check up, after reading this thread in Jubilee's journal. She's not in the best of moods, and lets Madelyn know exactly why.



Alison was grumpy. There was no way around it. She hurt, everything ached, she couldn't hear a damn thing and her very brief and ill-fated attempt to catch up on posts had ended up at one Miss Jubilation Lee's post and the subsequent comments. If she hadn't already been on fire from the pain running through her every nerve, she'd have been after reading those comments. And possibly seeing Madelyn so soon after that wasn't the best thing, but she was due at the medlab and vinegar or no, she was going to the medlab.

"Hey, Ali," said Madelyn, looking up from her clipboard with a smile as the other woman came in. The smile faded at the sight of Alison's expression. "Pain bad today?"

Alison sketched a brief square over her head, mouthing the words carefully for Madelyn. "Should have sign. 'Beware. In pain and exceedingly crabby.' Just so you know." The two weren't entirely related but she knew that always hurting wasn't doing wonders for her stability of temper, either. But still. "Also irked at you a bit." She gave Madelyn a flat look, before glaring at the clipboard just a bit.

"Me?" Madelyn blinked. "I haven't even started with the prodding yet, so what did I do to irk you so much?"

"Tried reading journals." Head tilting to the side, Alison gave up, pointing towards the isolation room. It was equipped with a pick up for the subvocaliser she wore. Best place to do this, really - besides, they had to go there for the tests anyway. Shuddering a bit, shoulders locking even further at the thought of more pain, Alison trudged that way.

Madelyn followed, racking her brain for something she would have said in the journals that would irk Alison, and coming up blank. Well, it wasn't like Alison would tell her in a minute. "Okay, I can see where that would make you irked, but irked at me, why?" she asked, moving to where she could see the screen and Alison's replies easily enough.

Sitting down hurt and the muttered 'ow' flashing on the screen earned it a very evil look. "The whole bit where you're going on in public about putting ethics in Amanda's head when in favor of the girl who's bonking her boyfriend and not minding rubbing her nose in it one bit, and oh yeah, nearly got her killed not long ago to boot. That the scratches are actually a result of that demon having a go at her probably is only the cherry on top of the Sunday there. There's probably more but that seems to be the biggest parts of it all to me." And then more "ow ow ow" because she was so upset she was hurting herself fine without help at this point. Ow.

Madelyn's face hardened a little. "Well, unfortunately in medicine you don't get to choose your patients. Jubilee needed treatment, Amanda could give it. I don't care what the situation is between the two of them, Amanda's got to learn that personal gripes come second."

"Madelyn? You didn't even ask her first. You just assumed on Jubilation's comment that Amanda would say no and then implied Amanda had no choice and was ethically lacking to boot." And that had been what had irked Alison. Well, no - Jubilee's whining on that score had annoyed her first. And then some. Because it wasn't as though Amanda might not have had ample reason to say no. "Amanda won't ever say no. She'll kill herself healing someone if you don't stop her. Because she thinks it's her one way to be useful. You know, because some demon like the one Jubilee called on her taught her she was worthless otherwise that way."

Stung by the accusation, Madelyn got defensive. "It's been a couple of weeks, and usually we have to sit on her to stop her healing people, but she hadn't even offered, to my knowledge. Moira might have had more information, but she wasn't exactly available for comment. Besides, no-one else had a problem with what I said." She grimaced. "All right, I was probably a bit harsh, but Jubilee's my patient, and having unnecessary pain. At least I could arrange to fix that."

Oh, that one didn't go by well. "Unnecessary pain? Geez Maddie! She's waiting to get some stitches out! Which she damn well went out and earned with that stunt of hers. I'm not saying it's wrong to want to help her," no matter how much Alison felt Jubilee could damn well deal with the stitches and quit her whining, "but turning around and being catty about Amanda while patting Jubilee on the head? That's not like you!" She paused, wincing as she lifted her hand from where she'd slapped it on the table. OW. The words flashed on the screen brightly, earning another death glare from Alison. "Besides. I remember blue lights and Askani. Vaguely. And I'll bet you anything she's been pouring everything she does have left in Manuel when no one's looking." Another whom she was irked with as well at the moment, for said bonking still being enabled. Grr. Much grr.

"Stop hurting yourself," Madelyn told her sharply. "I can see those 'ows' as well as you can." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Look, I can see where you're coming from, but you didn't have Jubilee crying her eyes out on your shoulder demanding that she be punished for what she did because she felt that's what she deserved, a beating. As for being catty about Amanda... I don't know if you got as far as Clarice's journal, but your little miss victim is more than capable of her own brand of passive-aggressiveness. Besides, if she couldn't heal Jubilee, she should have said so. Easily done."

"She's part of your medical staff, Madelyn." Sighing, Alison kept her hands firmly unmoving. "They've both been brats to each other, I'm sure, but there's no reason for you to take potshots at her so openly. That was blatantly taking sides, Madelyn. Do it in private all you want, I don't have a thing to say there. Hell, I do it more than enough." The shrug was stopped too, Alison then gritting her teeth - and wincing at that. Apparently being angry meant she forgot the pain long enough to be articulate, only to hurt herself all over again each time she forgot it.

"Amanda's feeling isolated enough on her own just for taking Manuel's side, which Jubilee isn't having to deal with at all. The irony boggles my mind still." Not that Alison was taking Manuel's side - she was taking Amanda's, a very clear cut notion in her mind. "She is, in short, at your mercy. She won't have told you no. Doesn't matter how it makes her feel or if it drains her more than it ought to. If you ask, she'll do it. It'd just be better if she thought she was perceived as a valuable person instead of a handy dandy heal all, don't you think?" Her expression softened at the last, one hand rising to hover near Madelyn's arm, the touch light and brief before falling back down again. "You're the adult. Trust me, I know how hard that one is sometimes. Just want to wade in and smack several of 'em, some days."

"Especially at the end of a twelve-hour shift when you've had to deal with a patient in the throes of a guilt trip," Madelyn admitted wryly. "All right, I was wrong. It's just... Amanda and I, we've never gotten on, from day one. She was a right little bitch when she was down here after the attack by Pete's former employers, and while she's improved, something about her grates me the wrong way. Not to mention the fact she thinks her magic is better than what I spent the last ten years learning. Never mind that she's probably right." She rubbed her head irritably. "I'm frustrated, and I took it out on her. I'll apologise - it wasn't very professional of me."

Alison stared for a moment at Madelyn, catching on to something that felt Big despite the pain that kept throwing her off when she wasn't being grumpy - and she wasn't anymore, at least certainly not at Madelyn. Generally irked at the world, yes, but not at Madelyn. "Okay. Thank you." Because it really was that simple sometimes and at that point Alison was entirely willing to let it drop entirely. "And hey, Jubilee makes me want to take a needle to her head just to see exactly how much helium that might come out, so I guess we're even on that score. I just make her meditate a lot when I think she's gone too far." Alison smiled a bit at that, seriously considering flopping down on the table despite the reaction that might produce. She wanted to sleep now, badly. It wasn't for another hour though that Charles was going to nudge her to sleep telepathically and they still had tests to run.

"See, my kid sister's a lot like her and she's turning out fine, so I still hold out hope that the needle won't be required." Madelyn seemed to remember the clipboard in her hand, and gave Alison an apologetic look. "We still have those tests to run, I'm afraid..."

"I am going to cry during the tests and it's not your fault." There. That done, Alison took a not so deep breath and peeked at the clipboard. It was those tests to boost. Of course they would be - the sensitivity tests were going to happen every single day after all. "With suit or sans suit?"

"I am Catholic, you know. We're good at the guilt." Madelyn gave Alison a small smile. "I'll be kind and say with the suit. Can't overload the 'OW' button on that screen, can we?"