Meggan, Amanda, Dr Strange, Saturday morning

[x-meggan.livejournal.com]

Amanda takes Meggan along for her lesson with Strange. Things don't go well, despite everyone's best efforts.




Stephen Strange prided himself as a man who was difficult to surprise. Embarrass, yes, make uncomfortable, entirely, but to surprise? It didn't happen very often. Or at least, hadn't before he'd begun tutoring Amanda.

There was a small furry girl, holding Amanda's hand. An Innocent, if his sight hadn't failed him entirely. And the two were most definitely bonded.

"Ahem," he managed. "And who's this?"

"This," Amanda said, secretly enjoying the reaction she was getting. "Is Meggan. ~Meggan, this is Doc Strange. He's a teacher.~"

Meggan clutched Manda's hand a little tighter, looking seriously up at the new Person. Who was very, very hard to read, at this distance, and she inched a little closer to Manda for reassurance. "Hi," she said in a tiny voice.

Hmm. Amanda's grasp of Romany had vastly improved. "~Hello,~" he said gravely, all the while wondering what on earth he was supposed to do now. Small children weren't exactly his realm of expertise... "Ah, Amanda, is there a particular reason this child is here? We are rather behind, for a number of reasons."

"I couldn't leave her, not when I've had to a bunch of times this week already," Amanda said, shrugging a little as she led Meggan over to the low couch in the corner of his office, pulling the yellow ball out of her bag, along with a couple of juice boxes and some healthy snacks. And some crayons, a gift from Jubilee. All the distraction a child needed, hopefully. "~She'll be as quiet as a mouse, won't you love?~" she continued, switching back to Rom.

Meggan accepted her ball, clutching it possessively, and sat down on the couch. "~Quiet,~" she repeated, nodding. "~Meggan good.~" By which she meant that she would be good, and play quietly while Manda did 'study' with the books and things. That she'd already learned, and she didn't mind playing by herself if Manda was close by.

"~Good girl,~" Amanda said, bending to plant a kiss on the top of Meggan's head. She looked up at Strange, who was wearing a vaguely disapproving look. "What?"

"She's not going to... make a mess, is she?" he asked, with a trace of worry.

Meggan looked up from thoughtfully inspecting her food to see a very odd look on Manda's face. What had he said? Something about 'mess'. Which was the word for Manda's room, sometimes, and also for doing inside what should be done outside or in the bathroom. "Mess bad," she said, figuring he meant the second one, since the office was very tidy, except for all the books.

"Ah, that's... good. Very good." Strange floundered in the unfamiliar seas of Child Toilet Etiquette, and motioned for Amanda to take her usual seat opposite him. "Well, now that's settled, perhaps some work? I wanted to test you on your mental defences, see if perhaps you've mastered those techniques I showed you back in February..."

Amanda sat, stifling the small sigh. Of course it would be mental defences. He kept hammering those. And they took a hell of a lot of work. "I've been practicin'," she replied, settling herself comfortably. If he was going to be throwing stuff at her brain again, she needed to be comfortable. "'S a bit hard without someone t' practice with, but some of the stuff I've been doin' with the link helped..."

Meggan didn't understand more than an isolated word or two of what they were saying after that. She ate one of the little bags of nuts and raisins, and played with her ball for a while, and made pretty colours with the crayons on a piece of paper Manda had given her. Then she listened for a while. She hardly recognized any of the words, just things like 'now' and 'ice' and 'follow' that popped up occasionally.

Things were going... not well, but far better than Strange had expected they would. Amanda's focus was shot, but that was due to more than the quiet presence of the child in the background. The girl had been far too stressed for far too long to simply bounce back. And things were still uncomfortable with Manuel... Still, she had progressed with the mental shielding, far more than he'd anticipated... He spared a glance for the child, playing quietly in her corner, and then tried another mental attack, seeing how well Amanda's shields would stand up under the pressure.

Meggan was getting really tired of staying still. She decided that just looking at the piles of books would still count as being good and staying quiet. Manda had told her not to make the books dirty, so she'd be careful, but sometimes books had nice pictures in them, which would be more interesting than trying to make pictures herself.

Her favourite pink crayon still clutched in one paw, she slid off the couch and headed for the nearest pile of books. They smelled different from Manda's books - a rich, sweet smell of old paper and leather and dust. It smelled good, and she picked up a small book covered in soft red stuff, opening it hopefully. No pictures, she realized sadly... but it did smell good. She lifted it up to sniff it, and gave the very edge of a page a tiny lick. Another thing that didn't taste nearly as nice as it smelled....

"No! Not that! Put it down this instant!"

Strange's sudden shout startled Amanda out of the light trace she'd been in, and she reflexively flung up a shield around herself and Meggan... who wasn't where she had been. Glancing behind her, she realised what the sudden commotion was about.

Meggan dropped the book the second she heard the shout, letting out a startled whimper. Looking around for a hiding place, she ran to Manda and dived under her chair, curling up in a tiny ball. The Person had yelled at her! And she hadn't hurt the book or made it dirty or anything! Still whimpering, she reached up to clutch Manda's hand tightly. Manda wouldn't let him hurt her.

"~It's all right, love, I'm here...~" Amanda soothed, before glaring daggers at Strange. "You frightened the life out of her!" she accused.

"She _licked_ one of my books! And not just any book, a first edition! There's only three in existence!" Strange had gotten up from behind his desk and was picking up the book tenderly, checking it carefully for damage. No crayon marks, thank goodness. And the lick had been infintesimal...

"That wasn't any reason t' yell at her like that!" Amanda retorted, getting down on her knees to try and extricate Meggan from her hiding place. "She's just a kid, she didn't know!"

Meggan allowed herself to be pulled out from under the chair, clinging to Manda and crying a little. "~Book smell good,~" she sniffled, hiding her face in Manda's neck. "~Not dirty! Meggan bad?~" She hadn't MEANT to be bad, she tried so hard to be good so Manda wouldn't get mad at her and maybe go away...

"~Books aren't for tasting, love,~" Amanda replied, holding her close so she knew that Manda wasn't going anywhere. "~You didn't know that. The book's not hurt at all.~" She gave Strange a meanginful look, and he had the grace to look slightly ashamed of himself.

"~The book isn't hurt, no,~" he replied. "~But in future, no touching the books. Ever. Do you understand?~"

"Well, I should think she bloody well does now," Amanda almost growled, rocking Meggan soothingly. Books were important, but not more important than people.

Meggan held on tightly, not looking at the scary Person. "~No touch,~" she snuffled. "~No taste. Bad.~" At least Manda didn't seem angry with her, so she couldn't have been TOO bad...

"~Good. That's settled then. Amanda, if you'll just take your seat again...~" Strange paused as Amanda stood, still carrying Meggan, and began stuffing Meggan's things back into her bookbag by means of the TK spell since her hands were full. "Where are you going?"

"Class is over for the day," Amanda told him crisply, floating the bag over to herself and slinging the strap over her shoulder. "You've scared the shite out of Meggan - you can't expect me t' concentrate now."

Meggan wrapped her legs around Manda's waist, feeling a little better as Manda's love and protectiveness cocooned around her. "~Home?~" she asked hopefully. She didn't like this place, and she didn't like the mean Person who yelled and wouldn't share.

"~Home,~" Amanda agreed. She could call for someone to come get them, wait in the park attached to the college.

"Amanda, I can't allow..." Strange began, and stopped himself as he saw her face harden. He should know better than to use that sort of phrasing. "Your training is already behind - you can't afford to just stop now," he tried instead. "Perhaps a compromise? No more class today, and next week you perhaps find someone to take care of the... to take care of Meggan?"

Amanda paused. She needed the training, she knew that. The addiction was still nowhere near gone, and the problems she'd been having with control lately... "All right," she said, a little stiffly. She hadn't intended to bring Meggan back, any way, not after that. "An' if there's a day I can't get a sitter, you'll cut me some slack?"

"Of course." Strange offered them both a brief, apologetic smile. "~I was wrong to shout so loudly,~" he said to Meggan in flawless Romany. "~I hope you will forgive me, in time.~"

Meggan lifted her head, giving him a teary look. "~Loud. Scary. Bad,~" she told him, her fur almost bristly at the moment as she clung tightly to Manda. "~Bad.~"

"I think you've got yer answer there," Amanda told him, rubbing Meggan's back soothingly. "Come on, Meggan, let's go, hey?"

Strange watched them go, still filled with that odd sense of shame, still holding the book protectively in his hands. That... had not gone very well.