Madelyn, Talia - Saturday morning

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Madelyn's been finding the families of the children rescued from Mistra, only it's not always good news she comes bearing.



There wasn't really any reason to keep the kids in the medlab beyond a few days, except that it made it easier to keep an eye on them - however, in a house with the world's most powerful telepath, 'keeping an eye' became much, much easier. Tapping on the door of the spare suite the girls had been placed in pending finding their families, Madelyn hoped Talia was on her own. This was not news she wanted to give with an audience.

Talia was curled up on the couch, reading one of the books Miles had given her a few days ago. The others that were still here had gone out to built snowmen or something with some of the kids who went to school here, but she didn't really feel like it. She was tired, still, like it took an effort to do everything. Reading was just about the speed she liked right now.

The knock on the door startled her and she looked up. "Come in?"

"Hey, kiddo," Madelyn said, opening the door and relieved to see Talia was on her own. "Thought I'd drop by, see how you were doing. Got a minute for me? No poking or prodding, I promise."

"Hi, Doctor Maddie," Talia said, mustering a brief, crooked smile. "No poking's good. I'm just sitting around reading... I'm a little tired, still."

"You wouldn't be the only one," Madelyn said with a smile of her own. "Mind if I sit? There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay. Lots of places to sit," Talia said, swinging her feet over the edge of the couch and sitting up. She set the book aside with some regret - it was really good - and gave Madelyn a questioning look, wondering what this was about.

Madelyn took a seat in one of the chairs not too far from the couch, wondering where to start. "I haven't had a chance to tell you what a good job you and Jimmy did, looking after Andrea and the other kids like that," she said. "It helped me a lot."

"Andrea got hurt trying to help us," Talia said after a moment, blushing a little, "and I think I'm the oldest of the kids who were there, right?" Madelyn nodded. "So I should have been doing stuff like that anyway."

"Well, it was a pretty unusual situation - shoulds and shouldn'ts don't really come into it." Madelyn smiled a little wryly. "But I wanted to let you know I thought you and Jimmy did really well, keeping your heads like that." She paused, then sighed a little and went on. "You know how I've been helping track down families for you kids?"

Talia felt something clench in her chest at the look on Madelyn's face. "Yeah?" she said slowly, folding her hands together in her lap. "Did you... find my foster parents?" Do they not want me back?

"We found them." God, how she hated this part, she really did - Talia was a small statue of composure, waiting for the blow to fall... "I'm sorry, kiddo, but… they were killed in a car crash the day you were taken. Apparently they were on their way to see a lawyer about getting you back from Social Services, since that's who they thought had you."

Talia didn't reply. She looked away from Madelyn, her head tilting to one side as if she were considering the news. But her eyes were very distant, unfocused. "They didn't want me to go," she murmured finally, not much in the way of emotion in her voice. "Sharon was crying. She was trying not to let me see it, but she was. And Matt was angry." She looked back at Madelyn, her expression still very remote. "It's my fault, isn't it?"

"No, sweetie, it's not. Don't even start to think that." Madelyn wanted to reach out to her, but held herself back - she didn't want to spook the girl. "There's some... suspicious circumstances - we're not sure, but it looks like the people who took you caused the accident as well. They didn't want your foster parents causing trouble."

A tremor crossed Talia's features and she went very white around the lips, but that was all the visible reaction she allowed herself. "Then it is my fault. If I hadn't been a mutant, it never would have happened." It all made sense. If Matt and Sharon had had a normal foster kid, the people who'd taken her never would have bothered them.

"No, it's not. It's the fault of the people who decided that you being a mutant gave them the right to take you away from the people who wanted you." It was so important that she understand, not blame herself... "Talia, sweetie, I know it all makes sense to you, that you would never have been taken if you'd not been a mutant, but believe me, being a mutant doesn't mean that sort of thing should happen. The responsibility belongs to the people who ordered your removal, and only with them. It's not your fault."

"Maybe. But it did happen because of me." Her voice was wobbling, and Talia got up suddenly, not sure what she was doing, where she was going. It was like it was her feet had decided to walk her into the bedroom, all by themselves. She sat down on the bed, pressing her lips together tightly and finally covering her mouth with both hands. Not going to start whimpering or wailing or anything. That wouldn't do any good. The room blurred rapidly in her sight, tears rolling down her cheeks. But she managed not to make any noise. That was something, at least.

Biting her lip, Madelyn followed. "Talia..." she began, then gave up on words. Words weren't going to help here. Sitting beside the distraught girl, she reached over and put her arms around her in a gentle hug. "I'm so sorry, hon, I really am. I wish there was a way to make this easier for you... I've spoken to the Professor, he's already agreed that if you want to, you can stay here, at the school."

It broke through her desperate self-control and Talia found herself holding on tightly to the doctor, trying not to cry too loudly. "I don't have anywhere else to go," she gasped out between broken sobs. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me..." Matt and Sharon, and then Neil and Malcolm and Carey and Andrea, too... all because she was a mutant, because the other kids were too, and it wasn't fair, it was so unfair...

"You've got somewhere now," Madelyn told her, holding the girl close, stroking her back soothingly. "And we're trying to make sure they can't hurt anyone else. We're going to stop them, so no-one else has to go through what you and the others went through." Not to mention Kyle and Nathan and Mick and Tim... "We'll take care of you, hon, I promise we will. We'll do our best to make sure nothing hurts you again. This is a safe place."

Safe place? What was safe any more? Talia snuffled desperately, trying to pull herself together. Falling apart wasn't going to help. Really wasn't. "I'm sorry," she whispered, wanting to straighten, pull away from Madelyn and show her that she didn't have to worry about how she'd handle this. But she couldn't seem to stop clinging.
"I'll--I'll be okay," she insisted, her voice breaking. "You don't have to worry about me."

"It's all right, hon," Madelyn said, still gently rubbing her back. "And I might not have to worry about you, but I still do. Because caring about someone means you worry about them."

"You do?" Talia asked, her voice breaking. But Madelyn and all of these other people had come to save her and the others, even not knowing them, and that must mean something.

"You ever that expression 'the person whose life you save is your responsibility forever'?" Madelyn asked, brushing away damp blonde hair from Talia's face, only half-visible against her shoulder. "Except 'responsibility' isn't the best word. After all we went through to get you out, we're not going to let anything happen to you again. I'm not going to, if it's within my ability. And in the time you've been here, yeah, I've gotten rather fond of my little helper. You've done so much to help us out, even on that day... "

Talia sniffled. "Will I stop waking up not knowing where I am?" she asked. "Sometimes I'm in the helicopter, and sometimes I'm in the van, with the people with the needle..."

"In time, hon. Not straight away, but it will stop." Madelyn dug in her pocket for the ever-present kleenex she kept there, and handed it to Talia for the sniffle. "And there's plenty of people to help you with that, people you can talk to who understand what it's like."

"Okay." She wanted to believe that it would be all right. Maybe that was what was important, in the end. "I don't usually cry all over people, you know," she muttered, fresh tears welling up in her eyes as she thought about Matt and Sharon.

"I think we can make allowances for exceptional circumstances," Madelyn told her gently, not letting go just yet.