Backdated ~ April 3rd...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Set in the early hours of Sunday, April 3rd. On the return from the protection detail for Alphonso de la Rocha, Alison goes directly to see Charles. Upon leaving his office, someone happens to be waiting for her...

Closing the door behind her, Alison leaned on it for a moment, taking a shallow breath, letting it out in as slow a sigh as she could manage, to spare her bruised ribs. Not cracked - she didn't think so at least. It'd hurt more if they were, certainly. The cold lingering in the back of her mind was perhaps affecting her elsewhere, she thought, because she felt numb. Not only mentally, but physically as well.

But the meeting had gone the only way it could go and now Alison's head felt as though it were layered in ice and something that never stopped shifting, both at the same time. The Professor had warned her of this, told her it was the normal effect of the subtle double layers of shields now locked in her mind. Dormant unless needed, slipping in and out to conceal and redirect as required.

Shivering, she looked at the floor of the hallway, and pondered how to get to the medlab in the shortest span of time possible while moving as slowly as she could manage it. The world wasn't turning yet, but then again, Charles had said there would be someone showing up to see her there...

Alison was determined to stay out of the sight of the students though, in the process. And that meant moving. Pushing away from the door, she took the first step.

"I thought I was the only one who did things like report in before getting medical attention," came a soft voice from behind her and down the hall a little. Scott, moving smoothly on his crutches, caught up to her and stopped, giving her a long, measuring look. "This is going to be one of those 'blind leading the blind moments', I think. But at least I can make sure you get there."

She started to turn her head to look at him, then paused as her neck protested the motion, briefly overwhelming the sensation of cold and numbness - so instead peered at him from the corner of her eyes. There would be her report in the database, later. With the pertinent details as needed... edited, to support what was to come. She hated that. Wondered if she could go through with it all, was so very grateful to Charles for agreeing to the additional request she'd made.

She never could have lied to Haroun for so long. Never. Of all the people to whom she might have broken down on, he would have been the first. Likely, she knew, on the very same day.

"Getting there would be good." She sounded numb, she realized. Scott would assume the right thing, she knew. Even though he would not assume it had happened as it truly had... "Don't want the kids to see, though." Still in uniform, bruised and battered. They'd seen worse when the X-Men had returned from Youra, or at least the trainees had. But Alison didn't want them to see her now. Not now. Not after that.

"Back elevator," Scott suggested, keeping his voice very level, almost gentle. "Come on." He only wished he could offer her a shoulder to lean on. "We'll get you looked at," he said simply, "and then you can try and get some rest before you do anything else."

There was an almost audible pause at that - the words a lifeline and Alison deciding to hang on to them for all she was worth. Focus on now. Don't think about later just yet. Not quite yet. "Okay." She followed his lead docilely, wanting to check on the others as soon as possible anyway. "Don't have to walk in the elevator. That's good."

"I've been discovering the virtues of the elevator lately myself," Scott said simply. He might not know the details of what precisely had happened, beyond the obvious, but right now that didn't matter. "We'll be there before you know it."