xp_logs | after Tai Chi

After this log Dani winds up in The Box (missing movie night :( ) and gets a chance to talk to Dr. McCoy. She managed to scare herself as much as the other boys with her powers.

Dani decided for the millionth time that evening that she hated the box. She was still wearing her tai chi clothes, although she'd lost her shoes somewhere. She remembered having them after class, but not now. She held her stomache, wondering if the baby was okay. She'd been trying so hard to stay in control and not get upset and now this. "I tried," she whispered, "I did."

Hank slipped into the room, giving her a sympathetic look. "How are you, my dear?" he said gently. Alison had given him a brief rundown on what had happened, but she hadn't been there for all of it. And Dani still looked frightened. "It sounds like you had a rough night..."

"They wanted me to go with them, they said muties shouldn't breed. I tried to stop them...are they okay?" she asked, trying to explain and defend herself.

"You did the right thing," Hank said reassuringly. "And they'll be fine. They just had a not undeserved scare." He reached out to rest a hand gently on her back, not sure whether a hug would comfort her or upset her more. "You defended yourself and your baby, Dani, and that was the right thing to do."

She snuggled into him, holding his arm. Bears were always there for her, she realized, "The baby's okay? I didn't hurt him? You said if I freaked out again I would and I did on accident."

He hugged her gently, rubbing her back lightly. "I said that if you freaked out you might hurt him," he reminded her. "And under the circumstances, using your powers was probably much less of a risk than not using them." He rested a big hand on her stomach. "He or she probably isn't very happy right now, but is probably otherwise fine. When you're feeling a little calmer, if you like, I can run a couple of tests, check heartbeat and so on."

Dani visibly relaxed hearing that, "Please? I mean...I can feel him, kinda. Not right now, but when I don't have the inhibitor on...it's alive," it sounded cheesy, but she wasn't sure she knew a better way to explain it. For a while she had pretended it was nothing, but now...now it was real.

"You're picking up his emotions? My goodness..." Hank smiled, his arm still wrapped reassuringly around her shoulders. He rubbed her stomach gently. "You may want to consider leaving the inhibitor off, when you're not feeling immediately stressed. So that you can sense him, and he can, if he turns out to be psi, sense you. It would help the two of you a chance to bond before the birth."

Dani hadn't considered that. She went without the inhibitor as long as she could anyways during the day, but hadn't thought to try to do anything with the baby emotionally. "I could? I mean, you think she'll have powers when she's born?"

"Maybe. Second generation mutants do sometimes exhibit powers or physical mutations from birth, instead of from adolescence. Even some first-generation mutants do, although it's rarer. I was one of them, actually." He smiled encouragingly. "Why not try now?" he suggested. "I'll be right here... you could try projecting reassurance and calm, and see if she responds. She's probably a little agitated right now, with all the adrenaline in your system."

"I don't know," Dani fingered the inhibitor carefully, unsure, "I turned it off earlier and look what happened. I know it ain't gonna happen now, but still..." she curled up with him more, enjoying the rhythmic rubbing he was doing.

"You'll be fine," Hank said gently. "You're back among friends, and I'm right here to make sure nothing bad happens. You're quite safe now, you know that, right?" He kept up the soothing, gentle rub on her stomach, which would hopefully help to calm the baby as well as Dani.

Biting her lip, Dani turned the inhibitor off, trying to stay...calm. It radiated off Dr. McCoy in waves, engulfing her. She couldn't not be calm if she'd wanted to be. "Calm. Safe. It ain't, I mean...I don't know," she couldn't quite seem to make her question.

"It ain't what?" Hank said, a little puzzled. "Difficult? Easy? Common among chipmunks?"

Laughing, Dani turned towards him before turning serious, "No! Always gonna be like this."

Hank smiled. "Not always. But you might as well take advantage now, right?" He looked down at her stomach. "How's the baby feeling now?"

"Kicking. Maybe he'll be a football player," Dani laughed again, finally actually relaxing.

Hank laughed. "Or a ninja." He shifted his hand a little, and smiled as he felt a little kick. "But what I meant is what emotions are you picking up from him or her?"

"Oh," Dani concentrated, "Happy. Um...that's it," she said surprised at the lack of emotional variety. Most people had several emotions swirling together at once.

"I guess life is pretty simple while you're still in the womb." Hank shook his head, smiling. "It's not going to stay that way, you know," he said, addressing her stomach. "You enjoy your time in there while you can, because things are going to get a lot more complicated when you come out."

"You hope he enjoys it, but what about me?" Danielle asked, smiling, "I'm gonna get fatter."

"You enjoy it too. The baby is never going to be any less trouble than while she's in there," Hank said, amused. "All the feeding, changing, and so on is handled automatically now. After the birth, it'll all have to be done manually. And often."

"You mean it ain't now? He makes me eat all the time, pee if I'm not eating...I ain't seeing much difference right now," Dani told him, knowing there was much more to having a baby. She'd been reading some books and read the information on the baby classes that she and Forge were going to take.

"Just you wait," Hank said ominously. Having a baby was certainly nice, but it definitely wasn't easy. Still, he didn't want to worry her too much, so he smiled and hugged her again. "But we'll all be here to help you out," he said comfortingly.

"Yeah," Dani nodded, feeling somewhat better about everything, "Those kids earlier? Karen, a girl in my class...she brought them. I mean, she knew I was a mutant and she told them. I thought she was my friend."

"Oh, my dear..." Hank sighed, holding her gently. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Sadly, it's one of the inevitable perks of being human... there will always be, now and then, people who let us down. For a variety of reasons.... differences in personal creed, religion, sexual orientation, and so on, as well as genetic variance. It happens."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't have to like it," Dani stopped petting his arm, turning to get comfortable, "I think I'm going to try to go to sleep now, okay, Dr. McCoy?"

"Of course." He smiled at her. "I'll be right outside, though, if you need anything, or if you have bad dreams. Okay?"

"Uh huh," Dani nodded, yawning and pulling the blanket up, "Thanks, Doctor. Night."