Madelyn, Scott- Saturday afternoon

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Following this scene Madelyn responds to the page and goes to Scott's office. What she finds is disturbing and not a little worrisome.



Madelyn didn't even pause to put shoes on - in bare feet she raced down to Scott's office, glad to find it unlocked. At first she didn't see him, then she spotted his foot poking out from behind the desk, and hastened to his side. There was an ugly bruise swelling at his temple, but as she touched him, he stirred and moaned. "Scott? Lie still for the moment," she told him, laying her hand on his shoulder. "You've got a nasty bump on the head there."

Scott wasn't sure for a second who was talking to him, but the realization that it was Madelyn slowly penetrated the fog inside his head. "Maddie?" he managed hoarsely, opening his eyes and trying to focus on her. The light hurt, though, and he closed his eyes again. "What... where's..."

"Yes, it's me." Madelyn was checking his pulse, glad to find it was still strong and regular. "Pete paged me and told me you'd need some help. Do you know where you are?"

"Pete..." He'd been talking to Pete, and... Scott forced his eyes open again. "My office?" he ventured slowly, as it started to come back to him just what he'd been talking to Pete about.

"That's right. Behind your desk, to be precise..." Madelyn took advantage of the open eyes to check his pupils - slightly dilated, but reacting to light. "Can you tell me what happened? I wouldn't have thought sitting in your office would result in being knocked unconscious..."

He didn't answer that for a minute. It was important he gave the right answer, after all, and his brain was definitely not functioning quite right at the moment. "Not sure," he muttered, which was partially the truth. "I was... over by the window, I think."

"Here, let's get you sitting up..." Reassured there was no immediately obvious brain or neck damage, Madelyn helped ease him upright until he was leaning back against the desk. "It can wait - right now I think we should get you downstairs, run some tests to make sure you haven't scrambled your brain."

"Had enough head injuries for one lifetime, yeah... ow." His head spun and his stomach lurched as he sat up, and Scott squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, breathing hard. Pete had paged her, she'd said? Well. That had been nice of him.

"Easy." She held onto his shoulders, steadying him. "Strange that Pete didn't stay with you, 'though - he knows better than to leave a head injured person alone."

"Uhh." Scott opened his eyes again, trying to focus on her. "Think I can walk," he said, deliberately avoiding the implicit question. "Definitely going to need a hand up, though..."

"Are you sure? I can call Hank, he'd be happy to help..." Madelyn's grip held him stil for the moment. If he stood and passed out again, she wouldn't be able to support his weight."

"No," Scott said immediately, quite deliberately not shaking his head. "Don't worry him... I'm fine." He tried to give her a reassuring smile. He didn't quite manage it.

"Okay. But if you keel over on me, I'm reserving the right to leave you there in the hallway for people to step over." Madelyn was still giving him those anxious looks - unexplained head injuries tended to unsettle her.

He couldn't string her along like this for very long, but he had to get it straight in his head what the story was going to be here. And right now, he was having some difficulty telling up from down. "Fair enough... help me up?"

"Nice and slow now." Slipping her arm around him, she helped him stand, taking as much of his weight as she could without straining her back.

"Slow's good." Very good. In more than just the obvious ways.