xp_logs | Hank, Alex, Sunday morning (Reply)

Hank performs a few more tests on a very nervous Alex, to see how his power levels are going, and talks about Scott as a teenager to take Alex's mind off it. Then a verdict is given as to the current state of his powers, and Hank makes some suggestions on what to do next.

Taking a deep breath, Alex stood at the end of the hallway, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He had stood there for about ten minutes, gaining up the nerves to walk the next twenty feet to Dr. McCoy's office. It wasn't that he was scared about what the good doctor would tell him...just the normal nerves that came whenever Alex thought about his mutation. Finally, he closed his eyes, took one more deep breath and pushed away from the wall. He made it to the doorway where he knocked on the open door before going in, a timid smile on his face. "Hey Doc..."

"Good morning, Alex," Hank said cheerfully, smiling at him. He'd been halfway through a twinkie, and offered Alex the box as he stood up. "Twinkie? Or there are lollipops, if you prefer." He knew that traditionally the reward was for the *end* of the visit, but candy sometimes helped to distract the jumpier patients.

Shaking his head, Alex put up a hand to decline the box. "Lorna would kill me if she found out you even offered me one. I'll save us both the trouble dude. Thought I might take you up on that lollipop later." He looked around the office, running hand through his hair to give it something to do. "So..."

"So... I'll need to do some more scans, to see how your energy levels are doing," Hank said cheerfully. "More sitting in the big box, I'm afraid, but it'll only take a minute." He was quite proud of that particular device... being able to discern not only how much energy a person had, but where it was focused and whether or not it seemed to be building up in places, was an absolute necessity in a place like the Mansion.

"If I can handle one room for months, I can handle the box for a few minutes." He attempted to joke, but it didn't exactly work. Sighing, he again gave Hank a small smile. "Sorry....just nervous."

"It's all right." Hank smiled. "If you think you're nervous, you should have seen Scott the first time I used it on him. I wasn't a doctor, then, or even a medical student yet, but that is when I learned 'now hold still, I'm pretty sure this will work' is not a comforting thing to say to a patient. I was using him to test it to see if it worked... a rather more primitive version than the one I use now, mind you."

"That's right...you knew Scott right after he got here...Would you mind telling me about him then? You know, after you get whatever you need from the box?" Alex added a bit of hopefulness to his voice. He really wanted to hear about Scott when he was younger, to know more about his brother.

"But of course." Hank smiled at him. "I met him his first day here... I'd already been here for a while, then." He shooed Alex into the box, and engaged the machine. "He was very, very nervous about the medlab at first," he said reminiscently, as it whirred way quietly, raising his voice a little so that Alex could hear. "I'm sure he thought we were going to do terrible experiments on him in here or something... and, to be fair, I did do experiments on him now and then, although I don't think they were terrible as such. Mostly along the lines of getting him to help me test my inventions, and so on."

"Scott was always a sucker to help someone in need, even when we were kids." Alex raised his voice also to be heard, crossing his arms over his chest as he listened to the machine doing whatever the hell it did. "Though it was usually along the lines of helping me get out of trouble."

"He's always been like that." Hank nodded, and glanced at the small monitor-screen. "Arms down, please... and I suspect that's why he wound up becoming an X-Man. Being able to help people means a great deal to him." He shook his head, smiling. "I fear I made him quite nervous at first, too... I had a tendency to bluster, then, to cover for my own shyness, and I fear he found me a little unnervingly boisterous."

Rolling his eyes, Alex dropped his arms to his side and instead began to tap his foot. "Scott was a shy kid, He was the quiet smart one, I was the loud, hyper one. It's not surprising someone as boisterous and ...colorful as yourself would scare him." He smiled to himself, admitting at least to himself how proud he was of Scott as an X-man...even if it did scare the shit out of him.

"I wasn't blue, then... that came in my twenties. At the time we met, I would have looked quite ordinary were it not for my outsize hands and feet, and very long arms." Hank smiled. "Did he ever tell you about the first time we really got talking? And you may step out now, all done."

Alex practically ran out of the thing, him being an outdoors person and *not* liking small places. "No, I don't think so. He's just gotten to the point where he can tell me about stuff pre-Jean dying. Not the blame him...I'd just like to know more about my brother."

Hank nodded. "He wandered into the library, and found the big, boisterous brain reading an illustrated edition of 'Treasure Island'," he explained, smiling at the thought. "And asked if he could read it when I was done. We got talking, about books and so on, and after that he wasn't nervous around me any more. And then there was the midnight snack thing."

That made Alex perk up an eyebrow. "Midnight snack thing?" Unconsiouly, Alex was starting to lose his overall nervousness, enjoying listening to Hank talk.

Hank nodded. "I grew fairly steadily until I was nineteen or twenty," he explained, gathering up the results of the scans as they printed out with a satisfied whirr. "Bones as thick and heavy as mine take time to build. When Scott turned up, I'd finished growing, but I was still layering on muscle." He flexed an arm, grinning as muscles literally the size of footballs moved around lazily. "So I still ate almost constantly. Scott was.... well, he was hungry pretty much all the time, as he was growing, and he wasn't quite sure where he stood yet," he said, trying to be diplomatic about it. "And he didn't always sleep well, at first. So.... I'd go downstairs to eat at night, a lot, and if I saw him, I'd make a snack for him as well, and we'd talk."

Alex nodded a bit when Hank added about Scott not sleeping well. He's had nightmares for over a year after the plane crash. Biting his lip, he settled in a nearby chair. "What did you guys talk about?"

Hank laughed. "Girls, a lot of the time," he admitted, giving Alex an impish grin. "A matter of most pressing interest to both of us. And sometimes, for variety, about mechanics... we got into a lot of trouble, once, when we were caught, still awake at six in the morning, with the toaster oven in pieces all over the table."

That mental picture made Alex burst out laughing. "Scott get in trouble? Man, that's something I wished I'd seen. Was Jean here then?" Still... it seemed no one would broach that subject with him and well...he could try.

"She was. And Scott was quite smitten." Hank smiled reminiscently. "You know, the first time he met her, he did exactly the same thing I did when *I* met her... tripped over his own feet and said something totally incoherent. She was always very sweet about it, and didn't laugh where we could see."

Sounded like a certain day at the skatepark. "Tell me about her? About them?" All thoughts of his powers vanishing as he craved to hear more about his older brother.

"They were... very sweet." Hank grinned. "And I must say, I think I was very sporting about being entirely outmanouvered by the little squirt." He'd flirted with Jean in a tentative way, early on, but once he'd realized how much Scott cared he'd backed off. "Mind you, it took him quite a while to work up his nerve, but he got there in the end."

"I'd imagine...he always seemed to be the shy, yet romantic type." Alex bit his lowers lip with a grin, trying to imagine a dorky teenager version of his brother trying to work of the nerve to talk to a girl, much less the beautiful Jean Grey. He'd seen pictures..."I'm glad he had friend when he came here..." Alex looked up again, a genuine smile on his face.

"I rather adopted him," Hank said, returning the smile. "I'd always wanted brothers and sisters, you see, but never had them. Scott... filled that place, in a way. I enjoyed having someone to look out for, and I suspect he liked being looked after, now and then, although he's never admitted it."

"Well, then I'm glad I could give you my brother for a while...He'd never admit it but he needs it, the looking out for...he tries to hide it by claiming he needs to look out for me..." Alex realized he was rambling and blushed, before he stood up to take one of Hank's large hands. "thanks."

Hank beamed. "You're welcome. And since your big brother is my adopted little brother, that does mean that I should look out for you as well," he said seriously. "If you don't mind. And speaking of which..." he tapped the printout. "This pretty much confirms what Maddie and I have found so far."

The nerves came back, causing his voice to shake slightly. Alex bit his lower lip before asking, "Which is what?"

Hank reached over to pat his shoulder gently. "That you seem to have found at least a temporary resolution to the problem of your power-levels building up too much," he said encouragingly. "The 'leaking' is actually something your body is doing on purpose." He tapped his fingers together, trying to phrase it in a clear but reassuring way. "Instead of your power-levels simply building to an inevitable explosion, as, say, Jono's did, your body is venting power slowly but continuously, ensuring that you never get so much at once that it might do you harm." He smiled cheerfully. "The body is an amazing thing. It takes care of itself... and of you."

"But what about other people?" Alex already knew almost unconisously that his mutation proved no danger to himself. it was those around him that he worried about. "I mean, I made Shiro sick..."

"There are ways of dealing with that... I'm going to enlist Forge's help in creating a version of the suit he constructed for Alison, designed to prevent leaking while you're around other people. And I would suggest using your powers on a regular basis." He smiled encouragingly. "Go out and throw bolts at a few clouds, now and then. If your power levels drop far enough... as they did in Alaska, when you were without sunlight... the leakage will cut off by itself."

The thought of having to go out and "use" his powers made Alex frown slightly. "A regular basis? But it's hard to get them to cooperate as it is...do you think it will get easier over time?" He ran everything through his head, trying to sort it all out. "I won't blow up anymore?"

"No. The leaking precludes the blowing up." Hank considered. "Well, unless for some reason you get a sudden rush of power from somewhere... if it builds up too fast for your body to vent, blowing up might occur. But I can't imagine what would do that, short of a space-walk out close to the sun." He patted Alex's shoulder again. "And powers do generally get easier to control the more you use them, especially if it's not really all that important. If you're just trying to blow off steam, it doesn't matter if it doesn't always work... you can always try again later."

Alex rolled his eyes at the thought of him getting a boost. "well I don't think I have to worry about that, seems I'm the resident battery around here. I doubt anybody can give me a boost." Shaking his head to clear it of unpleasent thoughts, he looked up at Hank hopefully. "And the suit will stop me from affecting other people?"

"It should do." Hank nodded. "And you wouldn't have to wear it all the time... actually, you really shouldn't, since it would counteract the good effects of the leaking. I'd suggest leaving it off when you're alone outside, since you have very little range when it's just a basic leak. And... hm." He made a thoughtful noise. "Although students aren't generally supposed to enter the Danger Room, it is heavily shielded... if possible, I might schedule you for some time in there." He caught Alex's alarmed look and smiled. "No X-Men training... just a few basic drills, that will help you learn to control your powers, and will incidentally help to use up some of your accumulated energy. The shielding in there is very impressive, and you could leave the suit off and throw your powers around a bit without having to worry about affecting anyone."

Despite everything Hank had just told him, a random thought popped into his head which caused him to snicker. "Lorna's going to be jealous," Then, Alex looked up at Hank, a thoughtful look on his face. "Do you think, given the suit and the drills and stuff...do you think I'll be able to go to college in Hawaii in the fall?"Admittedly, he was more afraid of his powers keeping him home then not getting in.

"You should be able to, I think," Hank agreed. "I can't make any guarantees, as yet... you know what happens around here if you make a firm commitment on anything. The sky falls, or something." He grinned ruefully. "But yes, unless something goes drastically wrong, like you falling into a parallel dimension, you should be fine by then."

Alex matched his grin, even though he'd said nearly the same thing to Scott on his brithday. Then, without a thought, Alex took a step forward and hugged the big blue doctor. "Thanks for everything Doc..." leaving it open ended on purpose.

Hank beamed, returning the hug delightedly. There just wasn't enough hugging around here, in his opinion. "You're welcome," he said happily. "For everything. And if you ever wish to hear more amusing tales about Scott, I have plenty." He grinned. "His were the first pants I ever stole, trying to keep a patient in the Medlab. Eventually he walked out in his underwear. Talk about stubborn." Scott had nearly died of embarrassment, but he'd walked out anyway.

That got Alex's attenion. "I'm not doing anything now...can I tempt you with hot chocolate? It's my specialty." He grinned wickedly. "It's my duty as a little brother to hear all the embarasssing stories so I can use them as blackmail. I already found some college pictures I'm saving for a very special occasion."

Hank grinned. "Your collection of pictures cannot possibly rival mine," he said firmly. "I might even show you some, now and then. And hot chocolate definitely sounds good." He paused, and smiled at Alex. "And he has some embarrassing stories about me, too. Ask him, some time... he may be more willing to talk about the past when it's about something entirely unconnected to Jean. And if he knows I told you the pants story, I'm sure he'll want to tell you the one about the time I came home in a dress. That was a difficult one to explain."

That got Alex bursting out laughing. "Come up to the kitchen with me and spill, though I'm totally going to ask Scott about this dress story the next time I see him." With his nerves completely gone, his speech reverted back to his good ole' surfer. "And dude, pictures you so gotta share and I can show you some I brought back from Alaska. I snuck in one of him when he was potty training, with his practice potty on his head. Priceless, dude, priceless!"