![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
x-madelyn.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsOroro takes it upon herself to make sure Madelyn gets some sleep. It's not an easy task, but this is the woman who flies in tornadoes...
There was, really, no reason for Madelyn to still be awake, except for the fact she was the only doctor on deck now, and if she let herself sleep, she probably wouldn't wake up for another twelve hours. And twelve hours of sleep was twelve hours of work lost. Twelve hours that Hank possibly couldn't spare. Taking a sip from her coffee mug (she wasn't even tasting it any more, she'd had so much), she pushed aside the plate holding the sandwich Clarice had brought her down before (only two bites taken out of it) to lay out the further tests she'd run on Hank's genetic structure. Whatever was attacking him, it was gaining speed.
She had been leaning in the doorway for a while now, the sight of the red head bent over her work bringing back old, fond memories. Still - for all that watching Madelyn go over the same notes over and over again provided her with corresponding rememberances that brought a faint smile to her lips, the situation itself was doing much to disrupt that. "Madelyn," Ororo called out, the soft cadence to her voice and the way she stretched out the a just a bit more than most making her easily recognizable.
"Whazzuh?" Madelyn's head jerked up, and she blinked owlishly at Ororo. "Oh, 'Ro. Something wrong?" she asked, much in the tone of someone who was expecting something along those lines. "The kids?"
"Noo. They are all tucked into bed and sleeping like little angels." If there was a touch of irony to the comment, it wasn't reflected in Ororo's expression at least. "I did speak to Kitty earlier, though. She, as others are, was worried about Hank." Leaning on the doorway still, she took in Madelyn's rumpled condition slowly, pursing her lips just a touch.
"I got an email... sometime. Offering to help - thank you for talking to her, I think I came off as a bit brusque with my post. I didn't mean to, but it's not exactly something I'm good at, breaking bad news. Just ask Alison." Taking off her glasses and setting them aside, Madelyn rubbed her temples tiredly - caffiene headache. Or maybe it was too much staring at figures, willing them to change into something better. "I can't do this," she muttered to herself, faced with the overwhelming task ahead of her. Hank, Haroun, taking on Hank's work as well, which meant Jono, whatever else happened in the meantime, which could be anything from a full-scale revolt by the students to someone cutting off a finger by accident in the kitchen or workshop. Watching a friend deteriorate before her eyes.
Ororo raised an eyebrow at the comment slowly and made a mental note to bring up the topic and Alison and 'something possibly being wrong' with Scott. For now, however, she already had one mission clear in mind and she wouldn't be distracted from it, not one bit. "You have done tremendously well, today - regardless of the circumstances I know you would have, but considering them? Well." She smiled, just a bit - despite the gnawing worry for Hank, whom there was nothing she could do for now, other than be there for him, which she knew wasn't inconsiderable in and of itself. But for Madelyn, she could do something concrete. "Moira will be here tomorrow, will she not? And you've not slept for what, not, nearly forty hours?"
"She said she was catching the first flight back, but I don't know when she gets in. I just need to hang on until she does." Madelyn gave Ororo an exhausted smile, face far too pale. "And yes, something like that - I lost track somewhere around the 38 hour mark. I'm counting in coffee pots now, and that's standing at something like eight."
At that, the trademark eyebrow lifting occurred, Ororo giving Madelyn a quiet, but still uncompromising look. "And how many times have you been rereading the same data, for fear of making a mistake, being only too aware of how tired you are?" she asked gravely.
Madelyn blinked at her, startled. That was the sort of observation Moira might have made, or Hank himself.. "A few," she admitted, reluctantly. "I keep thinking there's got to be something I've missed, some clue as to what's happening here."
Oh, the look of surprise. The feeling was bittersweet, at that look - after all, Ororo had many years of practice doing just this with Jean... "And what would you be telling a fellow doctor who hadn't slept in over forty hours, when handling delicate data like this?"
Now the look grew suspicious. "I'd tell them to get some rest and go over it fresh, or get someone else to. However, you may have noticed that there aren't any fellow doctors here, and if I leave this now, it won't get done. And time's a factor here - I've already had Forge and Paige working on Ha... another patient's problems this evening because I needed to devote time to finding out whatever the hell this is. I can't leave it now." She began to say something else, and was interrupted by a bone-cracking yawn. "I'll be fine. Once Moira gets here, then I can sleep and know we're not losing any time."
"There is no need to look at me that way," Ororo chided her gently. "And you know as well as I do that critical mistakes are made when one is too tired, Madelyn. The kind that can setback any research drastically. If not permanently, when time is of the essence. Can that be afforded, right now?" The words were blunt and harsh, though Ororo's voice was not.
"And if something else comes up, another medical emergency? Who deals with that? Not the medlab helpers - trained or not, they're still kids and they can't handle that sort of thing," Madelyn replied irritably. Ororo wasn't the first person to suggest she sleep, and it was starting to bug her. Especially when people were coming up with perfectly good reasons for her to sleep. What they didn't understand was that if she let herself stop thinking of all this as a case and not as her friends, she wasn't sure she'd be able to pick herself up again. And she was needed too badly for that.
"You won't be much help to anyone at all already, if there is a medical emergency," Ororo pointed out, with perfect aplomb. "Lack of sleep affects hand-eye coordination, judgement, reaction time and memory. But you don't need me to tell you these things, do you?" She finally wandered over towards Madelyn, perching on the edge of her desk. "I am willing to wake Kurt and ask him to keep watch tonight with me here, until Moira arrives. While you sleep." There was a strong emphasis on the word. "If there is an emergency, he can fetch you straight away and have you back here. Rested and better able to deal with it. And anything that is not an emergency needing a fully trained physician can be covered by those of us among the team members who have had the emergency training. A few of which you've trained yourself." Ororo sighed. "You cannot make it all stay away by driving yourself into the ground, Madelyn."
"You've done this before," Madelyn observed, the penny finally dropping. "With Jean." At Ororo's nod, she sighed, shoulders slumping. "What if I said that I'm afraid to stop, 'Ro? If I stop thinking, I start feeling, and you have no idea how hard I'm hanging on here. With Alison it was bad enough, but at least then we knew what we were facing, had an idea how to fight it. This? I don't even know what this is, let alone how to stop it. And if I don't find a way, I'm going to have to face the fact that I'm going to have to watch a close friend turn into a vegetable well before he actually dies." Madelyn's voice shook on the last, and tears stung her already sore eyes. "I can't let that happen, 'Ro, I won't. Even if it means pushing myself further than I've ever had to before."
"And if in the pushing you make fatal mistakes that could have been avoided, how will that weigh upon you, Madelyn?" Ororo took a deep breath, shaking her head. "Hank is my friend as well, and a cherished one at that. One of those souls that shine even in the darkest of moments. But you will not help him by burning yourself out so quickly that you can't get back up again once Moira is here. And neither will you be working alone - between Moira and the many people Hank knows in his field... this isn't a negligible resource you have at hand, the both of you. Hank is very well regarded by many there." Whether they could even come to the mansion was one thing - but any work could be done from a distance, she knew. Jean had collaborated on many projects that way, she remembered. And it would not do to neglect bringing more minds to bear on the problem. Not with what was at stake. "Nathan will be back soon. He was doing good work with Jono I believe, as well. That, at least, is one matter you might leave to another for a while, to lighten the load, as well."
Madelyn gritted her teeth and restrained the urge to fling Hank's address book at Ororo's head. "What do you think I've been doing since we found this out?" she grated, picking up said book and gesturing with it. "Hank gave me every contact he has, and I've been in touch with most of the applicable ones. I'm not so arrogant to think a lowly MD can solve this any better than anyone else. Give me some credit, for Christ's sake." Letting the book drop, she picked up another wad of results. "These? Are what Forge and Paige have been working on. Haroun's having problems with the hormone implant, and they're trying to find a stop-gap solution so Alison can actually hug her boyfriend without frying his brain. And these are all the notes Hank's made on Jono, only I'm having to re-interpret the data from the last week since he was having problems back then, and they don't make a hell of a lot of sense. I have a note here to talk to Nathan about the Mistra mission, and this energy-wielder Hank tangled with, in case this is something to do with her powers, plus ask him if there's anything that can be done for Jono soon, given he's been a ball of light now for almost three damn months. Only with all this Mistra crap that's come up, I don't know what mental state Nathan's going to be in if and when he gets back, and if he's going to be able to help. Moira's pregnant, and I'm going to have my hands full making sure she doesn't overdo things and hurt herself or the baby, and I have kids going all passive-aggressive at me because I don't have the time or patience right now to deal with scare-mongering on a public board in the form of "positing theories". So if you want to infer that I'm being negligent by trying to do everything myself, go right ahead."
Ororo said nothing at that, simply looking at Madelyn patiently - resisting even the impulse to glance at the clock and then back at Madelyn again, for that matter. "I did not, nor would ever, in any way shape or form, try to impugn your skills as a physician, Madelyn." The words were carefully modulated and calm, though there was a sharp cast to Ororo's gaze. "Perhaps others here have - in one way or another. I would not."
"Good." Madelyn said the word perhaps a touch grumpily. "Then perhaps you'll listen to me when I say I'm fine and go bug someone else."
"I am afraid not." Ororo's tone of voice pretty much indicated she wasn't going to budge from the spot until Madelyn went to bed. With a sudden, small smile, Ororo moved to a nearby chair and sat down, crossing her legs and resting her hands on the arms of the chair. Either she would talk Madelyn into getting some sleep, or simply haul her snoring carcass into a bed once she keeled over. Either way, Madelyn was getting rest.
She knew that look. Knew it far too well. "Compromise?" she suggested hopefully, tireder than she could ever remember being, except when Alison had been hurt. "I nap on the couch with the automated systems on? That way if I'm needed, we don't have to drag Kurt into this. And then as soon as Moira's here and briefed, I'll go to bed, I swear."
"That is a perfectly acceptable compromise," Ororo nodded gravely at that, not showing a single iota of victory in the process. She made no move to get up though, brow knitting a bit in thought. "I'm still fresh and it is currently my team on active duty. Would you like for me to stay for a bit, as a secondary wake up alarm for you?" Her lips quirked a bit, a ghost of a smile. It was one way for Madelyn to simply not be left alone.
The woman wasn't going to leave her be, was she? "Knock yourself out." Please. "There's food and stuff in the kitchenette, and don't mind Jono if he floats past, he's probably just looking for company." Madelyn made a show of stacking her papers in a neat, obviously not going to be touched again for a little while, pile. "Everyone's got my beeper number, so if anything comes up, they can beep me." She made it sound almost like a curse word.
Ororo nodded serenely, apparently utterly unfazed by Madelyn's grumpiness. If anything came up, she had every intention of standing by what she had said, and waking Madelyn up herself.
There was, really, no reason for Madelyn to still be awake, except for the fact she was the only doctor on deck now, and if she let herself sleep, she probably wouldn't wake up for another twelve hours. And twelve hours of sleep was twelve hours of work lost. Twelve hours that Hank possibly couldn't spare. Taking a sip from her coffee mug (she wasn't even tasting it any more, she'd had so much), she pushed aside the plate holding the sandwich Clarice had brought her down before (only two bites taken out of it) to lay out the further tests she'd run on Hank's genetic structure. Whatever was attacking him, it was gaining speed.
She had been leaning in the doorway for a while now, the sight of the red head bent over her work bringing back old, fond memories. Still - for all that watching Madelyn go over the same notes over and over again provided her with corresponding rememberances that brought a faint smile to her lips, the situation itself was doing much to disrupt that. "Madelyn," Ororo called out, the soft cadence to her voice and the way she stretched out the a just a bit more than most making her easily recognizable.
"Whazzuh?" Madelyn's head jerked up, and she blinked owlishly at Ororo. "Oh, 'Ro. Something wrong?" she asked, much in the tone of someone who was expecting something along those lines. "The kids?"
"Noo. They are all tucked into bed and sleeping like little angels." If there was a touch of irony to the comment, it wasn't reflected in Ororo's expression at least. "I did speak to Kitty earlier, though. She, as others are, was worried about Hank." Leaning on the doorway still, she took in Madelyn's rumpled condition slowly, pursing her lips just a touch.
"I got an email... sometime. Offering to help - thank you for talking to her, I think I came off as a bit brusque with my post. I didn't mean to, but it's not exactly something I'm good at, breaking bad news. Just ask Alison." Taking off her glasses and setting them aside, Madelyn rubbed her temples tiredly - caffiene headache. Or maybe it was too much staring at figures, willing them to change into something better. "I can't do this," she muttered to herself, faced with the overwhelming task ahead of her. Hank, Haroun, taking on Hank's work as well, which meant Jono, whatever else happened in the meantime, which could be anything from a full-scale revolt by the students to someone cutting off a finger by accident in the kitchen or workshop. Watching a friend deteriorate before her eyes.
Ororo raised an eyebrow at the comment slowly and made a mental note to bring up the topic and Alison and 'something possibly being wrong' with Scott. For now, however, she already had one mission clear in mind and she wouldn't be distracted from it, not one bit. "You have done tremendously well, today - regardless of the circumstances I know you would have, but considering them? Well." She smiled, just a bit - despite the gnawing worry for Hank, whom there was nothing she could do for now, other than be there for him, which she knew wasn't inconsiderable in and of itself. But for Madelyn, she could do something concrete. "Moira will be here tomorrow, will she not? And you've not slept for what, not, nearly forty hours?"
"She said she was catching the first flight back, but I don't know when she gets in. I just need to hang on until she does." Madelyn gave Ororo an exhausted smile, face far too pale. "And yes, something like that - I lost track somewhere around the 38 hour mark. I'm counting in coffee pots now, and that's standing at something like eight."
At that, the trademark eyebrow lifting occurred, Ororo giving Madelyn a quiet, but still uncompromising look. "And how many times have you been rereading the same data, for fear of making a mistake, being only too aware of how tired you are?" she asked gravely.
Madelyn blinked at her, startled. That was the sort of observation Moira might have made, or Hank himself.. "A few," she admitted, reluctantly. "I keep thinking there's got to be something I've missed, some clue as to what's happening here."
Oh, the look of surprise. The feeling was bittersweet, at that look - after all, Ororo had many years of practice doing just this with Jean... "And what would you be telling a fellow doctor who hadn't slept in over forty hours, when handling delicate data like this?"
Now the look grew suspicious. "I'd tell them to get some rest and go over it fresh, or get someone else to. However, you may have noticed that there aren't any fellow doctors here, and if I leave this now, it won't get done. And time's a factor here - I've already had Forge and Paige working on Ha... another patient's problems this evening because I needed to devote time to finding out whatever the hell this is. I can't leave it now." She began to say something else, and was interrupted by a bone-cracking yawn. "I'll be fine. Once Moira gets here, then I can sleep and know we're not losing any time."
"There is no need to look at me that way," Ororo chided her gently. "And you know as well as I do that critical mistakes are made when one is too tired, Madelyn. The kind that can setback any research drastically. If not permanently, when time is of the essence. Can that be afforded, right now?" The words were blunt and harsh, though Ororo's voice was not.
"And if something else comes up, another medical emergency? Who deals with that? Not the medlab helpers - trained or not, they're still kids and they can't handle that sort of thing," Madelyn replied irritably. Ororo wasn't the first person to suggest she sleep, and it was starting to bug her. Especially when people were coming up with perfectly good reasons for her to sleep. What they didn't understand was that if she let herself stop thinking of all this as a case and not as her friends, she wasn't sure she'd be able to pick herself up again. And she was needed too badly for that.
"You won't be much help to anyone at all already, if there is a medical emergency," Ororo pointed out, with perfect aplomb. "Lack of sleep affects hand-eye coordination, judgement, reaction time and memory. But you don't need me to tell you these things, do you?" She finally wandered over towards Madelyn, perching on the edge of her desk. "I am willing to wake Kurt and ask him to keep watch tonight with me here, until Moira arrives. While you sleep." There was a strong emphasis on the word. "If there is an emergency, he can fetch you straight away and have you back here. Rested and better able to deal with it. And anything that is not an emergency needing a fully trained physician can be covered by those of us among the team members who have had the emergency training. A few of which you've trained yourself." Ororo sighed. "You cannot make it all stay away by driving yourself into the ground, Madelyn."
"You've done this before," Madelyn observed, the penny finally dropping. "With Jean." At Ororo's nod, she sighed, shoulders slumping. "What if I said that I'm afraid to stop, 'Ro? If I stop thinking, I start feeling, and you have no idea how hard I'm hanging on here. With Alison it was bad enough, but at least then we knew what we were facing, had an idea how to fight it. This? I don't even know what this is, let alone how to stop it. And if I don't find a way, I'm going to have to face the fact that I'm going to have to watch a close friend turn into a vegetable well before he actually dies." Madelyn's voice shook on the last, and tears stung her already sore eyes. "I can't let that happen, 'Ro, I won't. Even if it means pushing myself further than I've ever had to before."
"And if in the pushing you make fatal mistakes that could have been avoided, how will that weigh upon you, Madelyn?" Ororo took a deep breath, shaking her head. "Hank is my friend as well, and a cherished one at that. One of those souls that shine even in the darkest of moments. But you will not help him by burning yourself out so quickly that you can't get back up again once Moira is here. And neither will you be working alone - between Moira and the many people Hank knows in his field... this isn't a negligible resource you have at hand, the both of you. Hank is very well regarded by many there." Whether they could even come to the mansion was one thing - but any work could be done from a distance, she knew. Jean had collaborated on many projects that way, she remembered. And it would not do to neglect bringing more minds to bear on the problem. Not with what was at stake. "Nathan will be back soon. He was doing good work with Jono I believe, as well. That, at least, is one matter you might leave to another for a while, to lighten the load, as well."
Madelyn gritted her teeth and restrained the urge to fling Hank's address book at Ororo's head. "What do you think I've been doing since we found this out?" she grated, picking up said book and gesturing with it. "Hank gave me every contact he has, and I've been in touch with most of the applicable ones. I'm not so arrogant to think a lowly MD can solve this any better than anyone else. Give me some credit, for Christ's sake." Letting the book drop, she picked up another wad of results. "These? Are what Forge and Paige have been working on. Haroun's having problems with the hormone implant, and they're trying to find a stop-gap solution so Alison can actually hug her boyfriend without frying his brain. And these are all the notes Hank's made on Jono, only I'm having to re-interpret the data from the last week since he was having problems back then, and they don't make a hell of a lot of sense. I have a note here to talk to Nathan about the Mistra mission, and this energy-wielder Hank tangled with, in case this is something to do with her powers, plus ask him if there's anything that can be done for Jono soon, given he's been a ball of light now for almost three damn months. Only with all this Mistra crap that's come up, I don't know what mental state Nathan's going to be in if and when he gets back, and if he's going to be able to help. Moira's pregnant, and I'm going to have my hands full making sure she doesn't overdo things and hurt herself or the baby, and I have kids going all passive-aggressive at me because I don't have the time or patience right now to deal with scare-mongering on a public board in the form of "positing theories". So if you want to infer that I'm being negligent by trying to do everything myself, go right ahead."
Ororo said nothing at that, simply looking at Madelyn patiently - resisting even the impulse to glance at the clock and then back at Madelyn again, for that matter. "I did not, nor would ever, in any way shape or form, try to impugn your skills as a physician, Madelyn." The words were carefully modulated and calm, though there was a sharp cast to Ororo's gaze. "Perhaps others here have - in one way or another. I would not."
"Good." Madelyn said the word perhaps a touch grumpily. "Then perhaps you'll listen to me when I say I'm fine and go bug someone else."
"I am afraid not." Ororo's tone of voice pretty much indicated she wasn't going to budge from the spot until Madelyn went to bed. With a sudden, small smile, Ororo moved to a nearby chair and sat down, crossing her legs and resting her hands on the arms of the chair. Either she would talk Madelyn into getting some sleep, or simply haul her snoring carcass into a bed once she keeled over. Either way, Madelyn was getting rest.
She knew that look. Knew it far too well. "Compromise?" she suggested hopefully, tireder than she could ever remember being, except when Alison had been hurt. "I nap on the couch with the automated systems on? That way if I'm needed, we don't have to drag Kurt into this. And then as soon as Moira's here and briefed, I'll go to bed, I swear."
"That is a perfectly acceptable compromise," Ororo nodded gravely at that, not showing a single iota of victory in the process. She made no move to get up though, brow knitting a bit in thought. "I'm still fresh and it is currently my team on active duty. Would you like for me to stay for a bit, as a secondary wake up alarm for you?" Her lips quirked a bit, a ghost of a smile. It was one way for Madelyn to simply not be left alone.
The woman wasn't going to leave her be, was she? "Knock yourself out." Please. "There's food and stuff in the kitchenette, and don't mind Jono if he floats past, he's probably just looking for company." Madelyn made a show of stacking her papers in a neat, obviously not going to be touched again for a little while, pile. "Everyone's got my beeper number, so if anything comes up, they can beep me." She made it sound almost like a curse word.
Ororo nodded serenely, apparently utterly unfazed by Madelyn's grumpiness. If anything came up, she had every intention of standing by what she had said, and waking Madelyn up herself.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 10:05 pm (UTC)IC reason - Maddie hates passive-aggressive behaviour. However, calling Paige on it in these circumstances, when they're both stressed to death, would be a very bad idea, especially as Paige was so very obviously emotionally fragile. So she gets a free 'get out of shit' card. However, that doesn't mean Maddie likes the behaviour, and the next time Paige pulls that on her? She's calling her on it. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 10:47 pm (UTC)Paige is currently doing the "bring it" mime, but feel free to ignore her. ;) Paige isn't overly fond (read: hates) passive-aggressive behavior herself, but given Mads reaction, it was more of a "well, screw you too" than a "wahwah, feel for me, I'm obviously witty" thing.
Seriously. Head doctor.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 10:59 pm (UTC)Actually, that was something that occurred to me this morning on the ride into work. Considering Paige's stress levels and bad coping mechanisms (ie, pretend badness doesn't exist and/or it doesn't bother her), Maddie's seriously considering a referral for Paige to Dr Samson. And one for Jay too, considering threats of self-harm were brought into the whole magic decision and she doesn't trust quick solutions.... Thoughts on Paige's reaction? Maddie would probably insist on the grounds that she doesn't think Paige is going to be able to continue the way she is without looking at a serious nervous breakdown.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:10 pm (UTC)(Talk to the team leaders mebbe too? They are keeping an eye on her. *cough*)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:13 pm (UTC)She'd be spitting nails, in all honesty. And I wouldn't mind one bit. ;) Considering how badly she went off, even though it was a touchy subject for her, it would be totally understandable. Even I'm worried about her, which is a weird place to be in. As long as you don't mind a very pissed of Paige, I don't mind a Samson ref.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:14 pm (UTC)(XD!)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:15 pm (UTC)(*g* Well, they are. ;) )
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 11:36 pm (UTC)