Madelyn, Alison - Friday afternoon

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Girl Talk part two - Maddie and Alison discuss her disastrous date with Haroun, her romantic history with Hank, and Maddie gets a new project.



Tugging the sleeves of her sweater over her hands, Alison then tucked the files she was carrying against her neatly, walking down the hallway to the medlab. She was still feeling cold from the flight back from the hotel last night, even though she'd been shielded in light. And then there was the general frustration at seeing things go sideways yet again and it was truly getting ridiculous, she decided, even as she pushed the door to the medlab open with a scowl on her face.

Madelyn looked up from the team files she was reviewing - Carlie had gone to the mall with Jubilee and Clarice to find something appropriate for the party. And possibly to set up her elder sister with something as well: Madelyn just hoped it was Carlie's taste that prevailed, since despite the obsession with glitter and bright colours, she did have some idea of what Madelyn would allow herself to be dressed in. Although her reaction to finding the pirate costume in her closet had been entertaining, considering her opinions of her older sister's tastes.

"You look like you got out of bed on the wrong side this morning," she observed, looking Alison up and down. "Any reason for the Michelin Man impersonation?"

"S'cold," Alison informed her, with a great deal of grumpiness lacing the solemnity of the statement. "It's even more cold when you're traveling at high speeds several Ks up in the sky, did you know that?" Especially wearing only your under things and a winter coat, she thought to herself scowling further and shivering in reaction. "Bleah. Stupid hotel, taking on fire like that." She made her way to one of the more comfortable chairs near Madelyn's desk, curling up on it after placing the files she had been carrying on the corner of the desk.

Madelyn blinked at her, then leaned back in her chair with an openly curious expression on her face. "Fire? Hotel? Flying back?" she asked. "There's a story here that I'm going to enjoy immensely. Spill."

Alison gave in to the urge to tuck her legs under the sweater, shifting on the chair so that she could do just that. It was, she decided, marginally better. Especially since she could admit to herself at least that the flight home had actually been fun, in a breakneck speed sort of way. "If you're going to laugh at me, I'm not telling." There. Sulking was doing wonders for her mood. Sort of.

"You're very cute when you pout, you have that whole bottom lip quiver and everything." Madelyn wasn't phased by the sulking - she did have a younger sister, after all. "How about some tea or coffee or something else warm as bribery material? I might even have something snacky that Hank hasn't found yet."

"Tea?" Alison went from sulking to pleading remarkably fast. "I could do with some tea. Hot tea?" She was being far too easily bribed, she decided, but tea was just too appealing a notion to resist for too long. "I might spill my guts and give you snicker material for tea." She tried to keep it light, but an edge of bitterness snuck into her tone.

Hmm, there was something more here than an amusing story... Resolving to keep the snickering to a minimum, Madelyn went and raided Moira's tea supplies, coming back with two steaming mugs and a bag of chocolate-chip cookies held in her teeth. "Mmmf!" she managed, holding out one of the mugs to the woebegone songbird. One hand freed, she removed the cookie bag and sat back down, expression far more sympathetic now than curious. "So, what's all this about? Anything I can do to help?"

"You own a bomb shelter, preferably made out of titanium?" Alison asked, managing not to sound entirely ready to inquire about hit men or generally how one might go about wreaking havoc and destruction. Barely. "Can't find a damn way for Haroun and I to get a moment alone." She glared into her tea, the steam curling about almost mockingly. "Well, can. I just fall asleep when that happens. Or he does. Or team stuff takes over. But nooo, when we actually want some time to ourselves and possibly, you know, get around to getting a bit more involved with things, noooo. Things keep happening." And it was starting to wear on both of them.

"Like Mexico?" Madelyn asked, frowning a little. At least this explained Haroun's hormone levels lately - he was going to run through the implant in record time at the rate he was going - and general foul mood. "What else has been happening? I would have thought going off to a hotel for the night would have avoided the usual kid-shaped interruptions..."

"It burned up!" The exclamation was probably too loud, echoing in the confines of the medlab, but Alison didn't care. "Who manages to pick the one hotel that's going to burn up in town, huh? Me! That's who!" And everything had been going so nicely too. "Cold showers and I? We're getting to be really good friends." Alison shivered and held the mug closer to herself, muttering darkly. "It's like this really bad comedy of errors and there's never anything that-" she stopped in mid-sentence and took a sip of the tea, before staring ahead glumly.

"Never anything that what?" Madelyn asked gently. Alison needed to get this out of her system, as ridiculous as the situation was sounding. And at least Madelyn understood the particular mechanics of the situation. Maybe Hank should talk to Haroun...?

Alison blinked, and made a strangled sound, considering hiding in her tea. Finally, she sighed heavily, shaking her head. "That works out quite right," she finished glumly. "Not for lack of trying, or wanting," that much she could be dead sure of at least, "on both our parts." She passed one hand through her hair, mussing it up further from sheer frustration. "It's just starting to get to me. Last night was just - yeah. I'll be fine. We'll figure something out."

"You will," Madelyn agreed, privately resolving to find that bomb shelter if need be. "I have to ask, being the doctor, but... how's Haroun handling it? I know I've been seeing him down here a lot more often. Or in the Gym."

The temptation to either go kick something or just cry at hearing that was near overwhelming, but Alison did neither, instead just hunkering down further into the chair, huddling under the sweater. The pendant Haroun had given her was warm against her skin, hidden by the thick sweater she was wearing. "Frustrated too." She released the mug long enough to wave one hand in a helpless gesture.

"I'm a doofus," Madelyn said, cursing that she'd asked the question at all. Of course Haroun was frustrated - it was a well-nigh constant state since he'd started all this. "Look, Al, I don't know what to say, how to help, but if I could, I would. Or at least stop asking stupid questions that make things worse." She was tempted to get up and offer hugs, only she wasn't sure if Alison would either burst into tears outright or perhaps smack her one.

"What, why? For caring?" Alison gave in this time, the overlong sleeves flapping a bit as she waved both arms, before snapping them right back around her knees. "You're not making things worse. Fates conspiring against us at every step? That's another story." If she had to go back to Asgard to kick some Norn butt, Alison was ready to do it at this point. "We just already have so much to deal with, it'd be nice if this didn't keep getting screwed up too and adding that much more on top of everything else." She needed it, as much as anything else - she was able to acknowledge that, she knew she tended to express a lot physically. And she had no doubt Haroun wanted it too. "Gah." With a sigh she leaned her forehead on her knees, shoulders slumping.

"God knows you don't need this. And I'm stumped as to what to suggest to help, since you've probably tried everything." Madelyn gave Alison a wry smile. "I'll keep an eye out for that bomb shelter... maybe the Box, even? Nice and private and no-one gets in or out without one of us saying so."

"I'll keep that in mind as a last resort." Alison shook her head at Madelyn somewhat self-deprecatingly. "I don't think anyone else here, teenagers included, are even close to have an issue like this," she grumbled. "At this rate I'm just going to lock the both of us up in a closet, I swear..." Of course, then the floor would probably give way underfoot or something and they'd end up on the kitchen table. The scowl on her face clearly showed the progression to Alison's thoughts.

"It'll happen," Madelyn assured her, seeing the expression. Although she wasn't exactly sure how given the issues. "Although specific advice I'm a little bit thin on - it's been a while since I was even in a position to get interrupted..." She couldn't help a slight chuckle at a sudden memory. "I remember when I was back in high school, on a date with this one guy I'd been seeing for about a year. We were parking, and things were getting a little... heated when someone ran into the back of the car. It turned out to be my brother, looking for me to defend my honor and all the rest of it, and he didn't see us. We ended up cutting a deal - I didn't tell Dad how the dent appeared in the front bumper of his car, and Joe didn't tell Mom about finding me in a car with my blouse unbuttoned."

Alison grinned a bit at that, more than willing to be distracted by something. Anything really. "Reminds of me of Lois. Older half-sister, though we were never close, really." Which was an understatement, to say the least. Her father had never told her he wished Lois were his daughter, rather than his step-daughter, but the thought had been there often enough and plain to see. "She's a lawyer now, in the same company my father was. She used to live to try and ruin my social life though. I had to get pretty damn creative." Shaking her head, Alison continued. "You know, last time something like that happened though, was when my producer decided to break down the door to my backstage room. Hank just leaned on it and didn't budge, it was hilario-" Alison stopped, eyes widening slightly. Oh dear. She hadn't just said that now, had she?

Madelyn coughed and spluttered, having just been having a sip of tea as that little bombshell was dropped. "Hank? Our Hank?" she managed to choke out. "Are you telling me you two were... When? And how? And when?"

She had said that. And Madelyn hadn't even had the good grace to assume it might be another Hank. "Aaaah..." Back to being frightfully articulate, she was. "It was a few years before I came here. Right after I hit it big time, top of the charts and all." It never even occurred to Alison to clarify that it was before the experiment that had turned him into the blue furry Hank that Madelyn knew today. "And I don't really need to explain the birds and the bees to you, do I?" Alison faked looking vaguely worried at that, hoping to throw Madelyn off just a bit. Long enough to regroup at least.

Madelyn chuckled. "And if he was anything like what he was like at the Thomas Edison dinner, he would have been in fine form." Tilting her head, she nodded at Alison to go on. "So, you asked him about light dynamics and won your way to his scientific heart. What happened next?" She had to admit, she was intrigued about the whole thing - Hank was a colleague, a brilliant doctor, a good friend - despite the flirting, she hadn't considered Hank in any sort of romantic situation, especially with Alison. There was an odd sense of guilt, as if she'd done him a wrong. Of course Hank dated - he was quite the charmer, when he was in full flight.

"He kept forgetting I was a rock star," Alison laughed lowly, shaking her head. "And while I was still full enough of myself over the overnight success thing to want to have that recognized all the time, it was just so very nice too, to have someone want to spend time with me for the sake of it, you know?" Besides, the flush of success had quickly worn off with the renewed back-stabbing it involved. "It sort of snuck up on both of us - he was my anchor to reality, in a way. We just kept meeting up to talk and then he invited me to a few of those dinners and introduced me to some of his colleagues and I think they actually had us paired off before we got around to it." Though it hadn't taken them that long, thankfully. "He'd already figured out I was a mutant, before I told him, too."

"Without sounding completely girly, that sounds very romantic," Madelyn told her with a somewhat-silly grin. "How long were you together for?" She didn't ask the other part of that - if Alison wanted to tell her what had happened to break them up, then she would, without her being tactless and asking. She'd already had her Tactless Moment for the conversation.

"About a year. We'd actually pretty much formalized things for a month or so when he figured out my age for one thing," Alison grinned a bit at that, a touch of ruefulness to her expression. She'd been perfectly content with Hank not realizing it, herself. "But then there was the touring for me, and the scientific seminars and conventions for him. Eventually we just sort...." she placed her hands together, then pulled them apart. "Drifted apart. We both came to the conclusion and just decided we'd be better off being friends." The same thing had happened with Sam, at that. Biting her lip, Alison didn't dwell on that thought - or the pattern it evoked. "And then I kept going on tour and he met Trish." The smile on Alison's face at that name had nothing to do with happiness, and far more to do with baring her teeth, really.

"It happens, sometimes. Especially when you find you're spending more time apart than actually together..." Madelyn frowned. "Wait... Trish? Not Trish Trilby? I remember him offering a hiding place in the basement during that CNN special - I thought it was just him keeping an eye on the kids who weren't comfortable with the idea of being on TV."

Alison shook her head, remember the talk she'd had with him when Trish had come over. "Oh no. That was hiding out. Was all I could do to stuff her damn microphone down her throat, each time I had to sit through an interview for her." Thin and feral, the smile was. "Had to make sure there was someone in the room each time she was there, just in case. Temptation would have been to easy to give into, otherwise." Seeing Hank crushed that way brought forth an anger that was as sharp and focused as it had been the day she'd seen the look on his face after Trish had broken up with him.

"Strange how I can have no idea what happened and still not like the sound of this very much..." Alison didn't often get this... scary about people. Certainly not someone as harmless-seeming on the surface as Trish Trilby. "Wanna tell me so I can join in the grr? What did she do to him?"

Alison's eyes flickered at that and she suddenly calmed down, as though realizing exactly how much she had been divulging. "It doesn't take superpowers to break someone, you know." She looked down at her tea and reached out, setting it on the desk. "Hank wasn't always blue. I wish it had happened while we were still together, honestly. He might not be taking it so hard still, now. Or maybe I'm overestimating myself and he would. I don't know. Never will, too."

The doctor's face hardened, and her hands closed tighter around her tea mug. "She took it badly and took it out on him," she said flatly. It wasn't a question - she'd seen how Hank had reacted to the Kyle prank, and kicked herself later for not thinking of his own accident.

Hand moving slowly, Alison made a gesture - picking up the pieces. "It's hard when Hank backslides to that place. Because logic and reason don't matter then, and pretty much anything you say short of unconditional agreement won't help. And - doing that all the time isn't helping him, either." Alison sighed, letting her hands fall. "He's so much stronger than he realizes it. Still. Even if he likes to hide it all under the flirting and the happy-go-lucky thing. Well. It isn't always an act, either," she chuckled fondly.

"Mm. Still not sure if I went over the line in telling but..." She hugged herself, shaking her head with a slight smile. "I'll take my lumps there, if need be. And if you ask me, it's not as much as forgetting about the fur and the blue, so much as just taking him as he is and not seeing it as different." Alison shrugged at this. "We're all human. Genetic quirks aside."

"I won't say anything to him - if he wants me to know, he'll tell me himself, and I'm not about to bring it up. Or set up a dartboard with Trish's face stuck to it." Madelyn frowned a little. "I didn't say it properly. Of course we're all human, and it is as much a part of him as the brilliance and the flirting and the Twinkie obsession." With a sigh she shook her head. "Words are not my friends today, and I'm coming off as an insensitive bitch. Not what I intended."

Alison waved a hand just a bit, causing the sleeve of her sweater to flop about in reaction. "Enh. Don't worry about it. I've been pulling that one off admirably more often than not lately." She paused, then shot Madelyn a wry look. "See what I mean? You weren't coming off that way, is what I meant to say." The training and the wondering when she'd regain active status and Everything Else... Alison sighed, curling up again, looking morose.

"New topic?" Madelyn suggested, seeing Alison was doing that curling up thing again. She nodded at the files on the corner of her desk that Alison had brought down. "Was there anything in there for me? And that reminds me, I have that contact list just about done - I'm waiting on a couple of emails. Another day or two and I'll write those off as not speaking to me any more."

"Stuff I dug out of the database for you to look at," Alison replied, glancing at the files absently. "Old, new, unsolved or not. List of files I thought would apply. You have a username and password too, should be in your inbox when you log on. So you can go through more when you're done with those." Her lips quirked, just a bit. "Should you choose to accept this mission..." Not that the email would burst into flames, but the line appealed to her.

Madelyn's fingers literally twitched towards the files. New project! Whee! her expression said. "I'll have to think about it..." she drawled, though, grinning, before adding half a second later: "I accept. Gimme."

Laughing quietly at Madelyn antics, Alison tilted her head towards the files on the desk. "All yours." Her attention wasn't on the files though, and she soon returned to frowning. "Haroun... gave me access to his files. All of them - the medical history and stuff." Which she was going to nerve herself into looking at, soon. "But since you mentioned it." She paused, chewing on her lower lip, something obviously nagging at her. "How often has he been coming down for filterings? Compared to before?"

Madelyn hesitated, remembering the curling up thing of earlier, even as she laid aside the precious New Project. "Twice a week now," she replied at last. "Used to be once a month, sometimes once every two."

There was a pause at the information, Alison absorbing the differences in frequency, making a few mental calculations. "Oh. Okay, thanks." She thought about this for a moment longer, then apparently set the matter aside, though reminiscing about past relationships and work seemed to be a bit beyond her by now. "Gah. I'm sorry. I don't have much focus right now."

"It's fine." Madelyn looked her over critically. "Did you sleep at all last night? I think a nap might be in order - you've had an insane week or two, with Nathan's training, and Columbia." Her look said she hadn't forgotten certain symmetry for Alison in Amanda's actions. "If you need a haven to crash in undisturbed, the couch there is very comfy. I should know, I practically lived on it during the fall."

"I slept a bit," Alison confessed quietly, hugging the sweater closer to herself. "I... kept an eye on Haroun, most of what was left of the night. Had to leave before he woke up, but with the fire and all..." She hadn't wanted to leave him alone, just yet - not in the mental state he was. She smiled a bit, despite the still very present worries for Haroun. "She did well. Amanda I mean." The offer of the couch went unclaimed for now, Alison deciding she might very well do that, if the walk back to her room seemed too much, once they were done talking.

"She did. She really did. It's a shame she and Marie-Ange got whisked off to New Orleans so fast - it would have done Amanda good to bask a little." Madelyn shrugged a bit. "Still, Remy and Nathan both think this friend of Remy's can help Angie, and while I don't trust the Cajun as far as Miles can throw him, I do trust Nathan. And something needs to be done and medical science has once again failed miserably... It's very petty of me to be resentful of this whole magic thing, but sometimes I think life was a lot simpler before I knew it existed."

"Simple is one thing," Alison said slowly. "But you miss out on the good stuff, too, if you just stick to simple." Whether she was talking about the magic or something was left unclear, Alison shaking her suddenly and offering Madelyn a rueful smile. "I'm sorry. My mind's really just..." The smile turned a bit helpless, at that.

"True. This is just my injured professional pride speaking. It seems lately whenever there's a major medical issue, all someone has to do is wave a magic wand, and poof! All gone. While Hank and Moira and I are busting our asses and our brains trying to come up with a solution. Still, a solution is a solution, and if we can't provide it..." Madelyn gave Alison another of those assessing looks. "You really to need to rest. Dementia is not a good sign." She grinned at this last.

"Aurora pulled it off beautifully," was the solemn reply. Which was true - she had, and then some. "And may I point out, dear lifesaver, that it wasn't magic that kept me from dying when I came back from that mall trip, or magic that got me out of that isolation room?" Alison pointedly did not look in the direction of the room, though a faint shudder of loathing ran through her at the thought of being in there once more. She passed one hand through her hair, seeming to shrink in on herself for a moment. "You're right. I need sleep."

"It was magic that cured you, though," Madelyn reminded her, before letting the matter drop. "Nap? The couch is calling... Can't you hear it? 'Alison, Alison... come and sleep on my comfy cushions...'" Dropping the silly voice, Madelyn gave Alison an innocent look. "What? It's true! The couch does call you. Sentient couch of sleep."

The high-pitched voice Madelyn used for the couch drew a startled laugh from Alison, though it soon subsided to a low snicker. "Okay, I really am tired." Untangling herself from the sweater slowly, Alison placed her feet on the ground, gauging the distance. "I think I can make it to there," she murmured facetiously, before standing up to head in that general direction, a jaw-cracking yawn catching her halfway there.

"You'd better - you have another physical coming up, and I'd hate to fail you on the grounds you let a simple strip of floor beat you." Madelyn waited until Alison had flopped rather unceremoniously onto the couch, glad she'd actually changed the pillow case down here only the day before. As Alison curled up, she draped the blanket over her, tucking it in with a brief, affectionate smile. "Sleep well," she said. "I'll wake you in a few hours. Later, if I get sucked into those files you gave me."

"M'kay..." Alison smiled at her tiredly, already burrowing under the blanket, face half hidden in the depths of the pillow. "I'll just sleep here and not snore. Cause I don't." Her eyes were closing already, despite her best efforts to stay awake that much longer, and seconds later her body started to relax slowly as sleep claimed her.

Madelyn chuckled at little at how quickly she feel asleep, and giving her shoulder a brief, gentle pat, returned to her desk, where file-y goodness awaited.