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Post by skybright on Jun 3, 2006 23:04:45 GMT -5
Despite the fact that Miriam was asking the question half to herself, Daws still found herself looking for a reply. She followed her friend's gaze, spotted Georgi Petrov staring brokenheartedly into space, and sighed.
"I dunno, Doc. Part of me says no. But then I think about what Tiernan was gonna do with that shipment, and . . . " She shrugged. "And yeah. Then I think it was." She ran a hand through her hair and added "I hope it was."
Daws leaned back against the wall -- and then sniffed the air.
"Is something on fire?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 3, 2006 23:15:48 GMT -5
"Only the inside of my head," Henry murmured wearily, rubbing his eyes as he wandered over to join the two women.
At that moment, Alex and one of the other resistance fighters trooped in, bearing trays loaded with lightly singed, slapped-together slices of french bread pizza.
"Sorry it's a little crispy," Alex said apologetically. "It's a strange kitchen. I'm not used to the settings on the Doctor's toaster oven."
It might have been easy for some to chide Alex, for thinking of food when comrades in arms had fallen. However, it was his own fumbling attempt to be helpful at a time when he could do very little else--and besides, for him, cooking was comforting.
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Post by skybright on Jun 3, 2006 23:25:58 GMT -5
Daws grinned and leapt up, snatching one of the pizzas from Alex's tray. "Foxy, you're an angel." She announced, biting into the still-hot food.
Doctor Ollivard chose that moment to appear in the hall, ushering Veeru -- who was (under protest) using a pair of crutches to support his cast-enclosed ankle. "Okay, I really mean it. Keep on those crutches until it heals. I don't care if it hurts, doesn't hurt, whatever. I mean it."
The doctor paused, blinked at the tray-laden people feeding resistance members in his hallway -- and grinned broadly. "Awesome. Excellent. Exactly what I was thinking. 'Cause, y'know, nothin' revs up the appetite like middle-of-the-night surgical procedures." He swept over (seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was still barefoot in a bright-green labcoat and cowboy frog pajamas) and relieved a tray of two slices of pizza. Then, munching, he turned to Daws and the others.
"Okay, great. So, that's handled -- now who wants to tell me what the ever-lovin' heck is going on around here?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 3, 2006 23:33:18 GMT -5
Miriam glanced at Daws, then sighed and turned to Caddy again.
"You're going to put two and two together when you read about it in the paper, so I think you might as well know the whole story now. We've just spent the night blowing up a truck full of munitions--and they belonged to a genocidal maniac named Nicholas Tiernan."
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Post by skybright on Jun 3, 2006 23:43:18 GMT -5
Caddy half-choked on a mouthful of pizza and swallowed convulsively. "Um?"
He stared, bewildered, at Miriam. "Wait, y'mean Nicholas Tiernan Nicholas Tiernan? Funded-a-whole-wing-of-the-Lefkowitz-Institute-for-Mutant-Wellness Nicholas Tiernan? That one?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 3, 2006 23:51:03 GMT -5
Miriam smiled bitterly. "Yes, that Nicholas Tiernan. Also known as the Nicholas Tiernan who murders human prostitutes, then frames medical examiners for murder when they find out." She gave a sad shrug. "You said I looked familiar, Doctor. I was there when Daws brought you to look at Tara Rosenstein's gills--but the fact is, I'm also wanted by the police, because of what I found out about Tiernan."
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 0:08:10 GMT -5
"Okay," Caddy attempted to make a 'time-out' motion with his hands, and -- finding them still full of pizza -- shrugged and used the french-bread slices to make a T-shape, instead. "Time out. Hold one moment."
One of the padded benches in the hall slid itself forward, and he sank down onto it. "So as I understand things -- given the brief synopsis there, anyway, and thanks for makin' it right to the point -- Tiernan's got a kinda Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Psychopath thing going on.
"You," he pointed at Miriam, "Found out about it, you" he pointed at Daws, "Got involved somehow, and in response to this you decided to stage a re-enactment of Force Ten From Navarone in Queens, New York?"
"There were a lot of steps in between there." Daws replied. "Also, there was no dam, and no Harrison Ford in sight. But that's more or less how it happened, yeah."
Caddy stuffed half a slice of pizza in his mouth, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed before replying. "You can't go to the cops because this whole thing would tumble right down on top of all of us." He said evenly, "So, I guess, in a weird way, yeah, getting together a resistance movement makes sense." He glanced up. "With that said, you do realize this whole thing is kind of completely insane, right? I'd just like that to be on the record."
"Well, the plan went kind of south." Daws remarked defensively. "We had some bad intelligence."
"Yeah, I can believe that." Caddy remarked dryly, polishing off the last of the pizza. "So, now what're you gonna do? As a second act, I mean."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 0:18:02 GMT -5
"That depends on Tiernan," Miriam replied grimly. "--And on a half-crazy ex-Army officer who's also got it in for Tiernan. Believe it or not, things happened the way they did tonight because we were trying to keep that third party from getting too violent." She half-laughed bitterly at the awful irony of it all. "Like Daws said... it didn't work out the way we planned it."
Henry spoke up, in his soothing English voice. "I feel the same way you do about it all, Doctor Ollivard, but... I can assure you, these people have just cause for their fight. Nicholas Tiernan would like to eradicate normal humans as a race, if he could--and his penchant for collecting guns seems to be no small clue that he's considering the attempt." He shook his head. "I've already held a funeral for at least one of his victims myself. I don't want to see any more like her in my parlor."
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 0:26:50 GMT -5
"Oh, don't you get me wrong." Caddy shook his head, "I've got zero love for people killing other people, no matter what sort of patterns their X-Gene did or didn't decide to branch out in. And y'know, like I said, it's not like you can call the cops and ask them to please arrest him -- and not hold the mutant philanthropist's genocidal tendencies against the rest of us." He shook his head. "I just don't like pulling lead chunks out of people in the wee hours of the morn -- any more than you like burying 'em, I guess."
Caddy stood and gestured expansively. "That said, is there some sorta membership card I gotta sign, or secret handshake I gotta learn, or what?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 0:37:10 GMT -5
Miriam winced. "We're not asking you to get mixed up in this. We only needed someone we could trust to take care of our people tonight. You've seen for yourself how dangerous our work is--in fact, just knowing us is dangerous."
She smiled ruefully and turned to Daws. "He's your friend. I suppose it's up to you to talk some sense into him... or else, to welcome him aboard."
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 0:52:01 GMT -5
Daws sighed. "Caddy, four years ago I busted my tail keeping that scuzz Engel from turning you out as a mutant. You get yourself wrapped up with us and that's bound to happen, sooner or later." She did her best to look stern, "And buddy, don't even think you're getting your money back if it does."
Caddy grinned lopsidedly. "Four years is a lot of time, Daws. Didja know you can grow a whole new backbone in four years?"
He shrugged and gestured toward the 'consulting room'. "Look, y'think I got this set up because Doctor Watson was my hero? I examine local mutants back there -- people who won't come out to the Lef, or who can't. Any one of them might rat me out. I'm pretty sure half the guys at work know, anyhow."
"You're not a fighter, Caddy." Daws frowned. "You talk too flippin' much, for one thing."
"Well I didn't say I wanted to shoot people." Caddy held out his hands. "I'm a doctor, not a . . . well, okay, so I can't think of anything clever. I'm a doctor, anyway." He chuckled humorlessly and added "If you're gonna keep playing softball with assault rifles, you're gonna need a doctor. So," He shrugged. "Make it me."
Daws nodded slowly. "Fair enough, I guess. Consider yourself the official doctor of the resistance."
"Cool. Great. Do me a favor and try to keep me unemployed, yeah? And if you get jackets made, I wear a medium." Caddy glanced at Miriam and Alex.
"Y'know, I do remember you two now. Sorry, it's kind of been a hectic pre-dawn." He raised his eyebrows. "How's Tara doing? Adjusting?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 1:04:50 GMT -5
Alex shrugged and frowned slightly, settling himself on the floor against the wall.
"She's doing fine physically, but, you know... it's hard. She has to make sure everything stays covered when she goes out, and she's always afraid of something showing. Her younger brother and sister are still a little upset by what happened to her. I think they're scared they might turn out to be mutants too, when they get older... and for all we know, they might."
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 1:13:01 GMT -5
Caddy sighed and sat back down. "Yeah, it's hard to say. If Tara's really a first-generation mutant -- if there isn't a manifestation or two lurking in the family tree, y'know -- then there's a better chance the other kids will just pass on the gene. As generations go by, though . . ." He shrugged. "There's a family in Kentucky that has recorded mutants in the line all the way back to the 1750's. All the kids in the present generation -- all twelve of them -- have already manifested."
Sensing one of Caddy's trademark long-winded lectures on the vagaries of the X-Gene, Daws cleared her throat. "Look, Caddy, it's already past dawn and most of these people," She gestured at the resistance, "Have been up since yesterday morning.
"I think," She glanced significantly at the others, "That it's about time we cleared out."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 1:23:19 GMT -5
Miriam nodded grimly. With the dose of energy she'd absorbed that night, she knew she wasn't going to be sleeping for a long time, but Alex and Henry and most of the others had to be nearly exhausted.
Apparently Alex was thinking about her insomnia, too. He turned to Doctor Ollivard. "Listen, Doc, I'm wondering something. Miriam here kinda, well, gets her batteries charged up, when... certain things happen. And she got it in a pretty big way tonight. She won't be able to sleep now until I don't know when, even though she needs it as bad as anybody. Is there anything you can give her for that?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 1:36:16 GMT -5
Caddy perked up. "What, y'mean mutation related? Empathetic energy draw, psionic drain, somethin' like that?"
"Something like, yeah." Daws interrupted, wanting to spare Miriam a recounting of the ugly details of her mutation.
"No problemo whatsoever." Caddy furrowed his brow and closed his eyes; after a moment a bottle of small lavender capsules floated down the hall, skimming over the heads of the nonplussed resistance. He reached up and snatched it from the air.
"This's a little something me and a friend Upstate have been working on," He explained, holding it up. "There's a lotta long, flashy, gory details wrapped up in it -- which I can't really go into on account of we're writing a paper on the subject right now -- but it's tailored to regulating the levels of outside psionic and empathetic energy in the telepathic/empathetic brain." He tossed the bottle into the air, where it hovered its way to Miriam.
"It won't shut your powers off, if that's what you're wondering," He said quickly, "It might dampen their effect if you use it beforehand, although no promises on that front either. What I know it'll do," He concluded, and leaned back looking smug, "Is help siphon off whatever excess energy is bounding around after you use your gift."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 1:45:50 GMT -5
Miriam plucked the bottle out of midair, looking somewhat overwhelmed. The thought of being able to get the sleep she so badly needed was enticing indeed--although she didn't relish the prospect of what nightmares might await her.
"I don't know what to say," she said demurely to Caddy. "Thank you."
Henry sighed and rubbed the back of his neck--once again resigned to the fact that Miriam would return with Alex to the Rosenstein home. "I suppose I'll see if I can drop off any of the patients before I take to bed myself. Do you need a ride, Miss Dawson?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 1:52:13 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "That'd be nice, if you don't mind too much." She turned to Caddy. "Thank you for letting us . . . drop in, Caddy. We owe you one."
Caddy waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I know, name your firstborn after me, okay? Just try to stay out of . . . oh, what am I sayin'? Just try not to get horrifically wounded unless you're close enough to call me." He glanced over his shoulder at Veeru, looking stern. "You, I'm taking home personally -- we're in the same borough, after all."
The doctor nodded at Miriam. "Lemme know if those don't work, okay? Or if, you know, you suddenly sprout purple tentacles. That's a side effect. No," he said quickly, "Sorry, scratch that, bad joke." He shook his head, and his voice softened. "And look, let me know if there's anything I can do to help Tara, okay?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 2:02:05 GMT -5
Alex smiled at Caddy. "Thanks. I appreciate that, and her dad will too. He's part of what we're doing, too--I thought you oughta know that."
He turned to Miriam, who had been sharing a parting embrace with Henry. "Okay, Doc, I guess we'd better get going. I'd rather have you home before it gets light outside."
With a nod, Miriam reluctantly pulled away from Henry and turned to Daws. "Take care of yourself," she said, squeezing the detective's hands, and then she and Alex were gone.
Henry glanced at Daws. "I suppose we'd best be going. I found two of our patients here whose homes are more or less on our way, if you don't mind company and a slight detour."
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Post by skybright on Jun 4, 2006 2:07:42 GMT -5
Daws shook her head and chuckled. "Not at all. Beggars can't be choosers -- it's still better than taking the subway."
She turned to Veeru. "Take care of yourself, willya, kaminay?"
He pulled her into a somewhat awkward embrace. "Only if you will, tabadili."
Daws nodded and shook hands and exchanged goodbyes with Caddy, then turned to Henry. "Okay. Ready when you are."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 4, 2006 2:12:38 GMT -5
Henry nodded to Daws, then gestured to two of the patients--the young woman whose arm was not quite broken after all, but was in a sling nonetheless, and a middle-aged man with purple hair and a bandage on his right cheek. They came forward, and with a sigh, Henry led the three mutants out into the night.
"I'm getting too old for this."
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