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Pam, Tommy, and Simon (with special appearance by Pita) | Backdated
After the training "accident" with Jeanne, Pam hides out somewhere safe. Featuring a cat who can see invisible people, Tommy being nurturing, and Simon with a good bedside manner.
She was screwed. End of story.
A portal opened in the first place Pam had thought of as "safe" inside the school, and her eyes jerked around. No sign of dog boy, perfect. She had a few minutes, at least, to try and pull it together before Jeanne could nark her out to the faculty. With any luck, she'd have settled down enough to open a portal to Asteroid M by then.
Except luck hadn't exactly been her thing today, had it?
Pam sank down to the ground next to Tommy's desk, still holding her wrist protectively against her body. Broken, probably - a tentative touch suggested swelling, and she winced when she tried to wiggle her fingers. She'd have to get someone to reset it - Eileen, probably, though she wasn't sure the other girl's ability to explode organs really extended to setting bones. Maybe Alex would be up for it.
Damn, it, how was she going to tell either of them?
A tear formed in her eye, then another, and she blinked them away, then gave up and just let the tears fall. Invisible tears didn't matter, anyway. They only counted when someone could see them.
The room looked empty, but a moment after Pam settled down, there was movement from under Tommy's pillow. The edge shifted and a small grey head poked out, blinking blearily. The kitten looked around as though sensing some kind of change in the atmosphere, carefully sniffing the air. Not totally relaxed, but not completely on-edge either, she patrolled the edge of the bed until she faced Pam. Her head cocked, one way and then the other, and she sniffed the air again.
One little thump and she was down on the ground gracelessly, her eyes fixed on the space where someone should be, her ears focused forward and her whiskers twitching.
The thud caught Pam's attention, and she lifted her head - and saw a cat. No - a kitten - a really freaking tiny kitten - that was staring at her.
Pam looked down at herself, but no. Still invisible. Confused, she swiped a hand across her eyes and shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged. And stared at the cat, wondering whether or not she was imagining it. "Shoo?"
The cat very definitely didn't shoo. Instead, it sniffed the air, then padded its way over and jumped up, resting its front paws against her legs as it peered up at her.
"You can't be seeing me," Pam informed it in a whisper, just in case it'd somehow missed the memo. Right. Definitely hallucinating, and now she was talking to it, too. She needed to get the hell out of here before the faculty found her and decided she was insane. "That's what invisible means, dummy. I'm not here."
Unimpressed by this logic, the cat jumped up with a little "Mrrrp!", kneeded her leg a few times, then turned around and lay down.
Right. Pam sighed and scratched gently between its ears. What else could she do?
Cans clinking against each other in his backpack, Tommy skidded down the hall and into his room, barely pausing long enough to unlock the door. "You better appreciate this, cat," he told the room, dropping his bag on his desk with a clank and a thud. "Your days of mooching off of kitchen tuna are over."
Then he paused. Something was definitely off. The cat wasn't stretching her way out from under his pillow like usual, and Inu-yasha wasn't there, so she wasn't asleep on him (her other favourite place, go figure). Instead she was sitting in the corner, hovering in mid-air and making her funny rattling purr-noise, with her fur ruffling back and forth. That... okay, there was really only one explanation for that.
"Pam?" Tommy asked the air cautiously. "Hey there." Judging by cat's position in the air she was beside his desk, so it was probably safe for him to crouch down a few steps away without stepping on her. "What's up, hot stuff?" he asked the air, trying to guess generally where her face might be.
"It keeps looking at me." Even to herself, Pam sounded dazed as looked up from the cat to find that Tommy was making an effort to do the same, but with somewhat less success, considering he seemed to be focused on her left ear. Somehow, just now, that was more comforting than not. Maybe she wasn't losing it entirely. "Are they looking for me yet?"
The hell? Okay, focus. If Pam was invisible and curled up in his room, that meant something had gone to hell, somehow, and she was freaking out. And Pam freaking out could mean anything, but really, it mostly meant knives. So who'd she stabbed? Or who had said or done something to her that was worse? "I only just got back from town." Tommy reached out and scratched the cat behind her ears, because the fur was ruffling kind of near there. Maybe he'd find Pam's hand, maybe he wouldn't. "Why would anyone be looking for you?"
Huh. Maybe Jeanne hadn't told anyone? No, Tommy'd said he just got back - and being Tommy, "just" probably meant 20 seconds ago. "I didn't mean to," Pam said, half sulkily, half still in shock. "It was her idea to spar." Tommy's fingers brushed against hers, and she froze, every muscle tensing, which sent a new surge of pain up her arm, but she didn't make a sound or pull away. Either would disturb the cat, and it seemed important that she not.
Ahhh, shit. Damage control time, then. "Whose idea?"
Pam frowned. "Jeanne. The one with the short dark hair, not the redhead who's dating Alex's brother or the French one who came to our party."
Tommy shook his head. Pam's voice was coming from somewhere more to the right, and he shifted to try and look more towards where she probably was. "I've seen her around but I don't know her. Wanna tell me what happened?"
Did she? Not really, Pam reflected, raking her teeth lightly over her upper lip as she considered it. No. She didn't want to think about it. Instead, she stroked her fingers slowly over the kitten's back, and focused on listening to it purr. Eventually, though, she said quietly, "She kept saying stuff. About how I was fighting. Good. Faster. Too predictable. And then she pinned me, and..." she shook her head and shrugged, forgetting that Tommy couldn't see her do either.
The whole talking-to-thin-air thing was starting to grate on Tommy's nerves, even though he could feel the heat of her leg against his. The not-knowing what she was looking at or what she was thinking was making this a lot harder than usual. From the sound of things, though, she was way too rattled by whatever had happened to be coming back to regular any time soon. "And she took your knife?" he guessed, not meaning that one at all seriously, "or you ... gave it to her?"
Had Pam been visible, Tommy would have had no doubt from her expression just what she thought of his joke. As it was, her tone probably relayed the message well enough. "Yeah. I gave it to her. Left it right in her shoulder." She frowned. "Hope she gives it back. I liked that knife.""
"If not, we'll get it back some other way." On the plus side, 'in the shoulder' didn't sound super-deadly, and there were enough people around with extra healing powers that maybe it would't be a big deal at all. Laura, for one, would barely have blinked. "And that's why you're sitting in my room all invisible? Mi casa-su casa and all that, and the cat's definitely getting a kick out of it. But I gotta admit, I feel like a total dork talking to a wall."
"Yeah? Try living it. It feels even worse." Despite her words, Pam took a deep breath and tried to dismiss the light from around her - with no more than a flicker to prove she'd made the attempt. "Fuck. This is going to be special," she muttered. Her wrist hurt too much for her to focus, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get it set if no one could see it.
The flicker of light, the hiss of breath, she was hiding something she didn't want him to see. "What else," Tommy prodded, and he used the purring kitten's fur rumples to find her hand -- and from there, her arm and shoulder. "That's not all, is it?"
Fatale glanced over at her shoulder, wondering how Tommy'd managed to find it, then shrugged. "Pretty sure she broke my wrist; it's swollen and it's throbbing. Gotta say, never saw anyone move like that after being stabbed. Impressive as hell, especially when you figure she couldn't see me."
"I'll remember that when I have to kick her ass for breaking you." Now what? Tommy couldn't do a damned thing about a broken wrist by himself, and letting it go untouched was a worse idea. On the other hand, it wasn't like he could take her to the hospital for x-rays. "I know you're gonna hate this idea, but the alternatives I can think of are worse. So unless you know someone who can do the whole faith-healing 'laying on of hands' jazz, we should probably get you to the infirmary and get that checked out. The last thing you need is a useless hand."
If he could think of alternatives worse than that, she sure as hell didn't want to know what they were. "No fucking way." She jerked back from his hand, disrupting the cat who jumped to its feet, clawing her leg in the process. "Oww, stop that!" she protested, though now that it had moved, it was far easier to squirm backwards. "I'm not going to your infirmary. Pretty sure they can't x-ray me right now anyway."
"So what's the plan instead?" he snapped back, worry overriding his already-limited ability to keep himself from saying stupid things. "Let it fester and stay in pain? That's not exactly smart- ow!" The nice warm lap now gone, the cat was hanging on to Tommy's shirt and rapidly scaling his back, digging her claws in with every step. "Ow, fuck! You're pointy, cat. Stop that!" She ended up perched on his shoulder, fur ruffled, only then pulling her claws back out of his flesh. "Yeah, thanks for that."
"If I had a plan, do you think I'd be sitting on the floor in your room petting a homicidal furball?" Pam rubbed her leg with her still-working hand, scowling at Tommy's cat.
"If I make a joke about homicidal pussy right now I'm gonna get stabbed, aren't I?" Maybe it wouldn't make her laugh and break the horrible tension he could feel crawling over his skin, but it was worth a try.
Pam transfered her glare to him, then gave up and let out a snort that was part amused, part pained. "Your lucky day. I'm crap at knives, left handed." Tentatively,she reached out and brushed her fingertips over his.
Shit. Was she touching him with her good hand, or her broken one? There was no way to know, so he just turned his hand over, palm up. An offer. "There's a reason to get this fixed somehow. How're you going to keep me in line without that for a threat?"
"Please. Like I need a knife to keep you in line." Pam slid her hand over his and squeezed, then took a breath and exhaled slowly. "Eileen can maybe set it," she suggested doubtfully. Fuck, why didn't they have a teammate who could do some kind of laying on of hands bullshit? There wasn't even one at the school. The closest was probably...
"Simon. Can you find Simon?" she asked.
"Tam?" Tommy asked, his incredulity obvious. "You want to go to a guy who plays with dna for fun?" He'd hated but accepted Billy's visit, but Billy hadn't been hurt and vulnerable at the time, either.
"He can't do anything except read it," Pam corrected. Awkwardly, her arm held tight against her chest, she got to her feet. "But he can see what's fucked up without seeing it."
Being able to read it was bad enough as far as Tommy was concerned. On the plus side, it would get her talking to someone who knew more than he did about broken bones, so even if Tommy had to stand next to her the entire time to make sure Tam didn't do anything, it was probably worth it. The air shifted around them and he could hear Pam moving even if he couldn't see her, and he scrambled to his feet as well. Cat ended up getting deposited back on the end of his bed with an annoyed prrr-oop. "He'll be in his lab, probably. I don't think he surfaces for much of anything otherwise."
"Nah, you can find him in his room sometimes," Pam corrected. If he wasn't...well, it wasn't like she didn't know where his lab was if it came to that, but she was really, really hoping it wouldn't. "You coming along?"
How the hell did she know so much about Tam's habits? Tommy'd been living in the school since before the guy had gotten here and he didn't know that. Granted he'd been avoiding Tam as much as humanely possible -- which turned out, for him, to be pretty much 100% of the time -- but still. He nodded, making a guess at where her face was. "Yeah. Of course." Fuck.
Right. She was the one with the fucked up wrist who was going to get hell from Lance when she got home, and he was the one who looked nervous. Though to be fair, she had to admit she might, too - probably the one positive thing about this whole fucked up mess was that no one could really tell when she was invisible. Well, except Alex, and he wasn't here.
Sighing, she slipped her good hand into Tommy's and opened a portal to Simon's room, angling the opening so that it faced the door rather than the inside of the room. No reason to start this off pissing him off when she needed a favor, right? "Simon, you there?" she called through it.
Simon's head jerked up as soon as the portal formed, and for some reason, his first instinct was to grab for his phone. Like it was a weapon or something. Sure, Tam, phasers were a thing. He took a second to resettle himself where he was seated on the couch beneath his loft bed, then rose to his feet. "Pam?"
"Umm, yeah," she replied, remembering only belatedly that she'd told him her name. "And Tommy. Can we come in? I've...kinda got a problem, and you said if I ever needed anything..."
Pam??? Tommy mouthed at her -- at the space where she probably was -- feeling betrayed. How the hell did Simon rate that level of intimacy? He folded his arms and waited the rest of it out.
"You're already in," Simon pointed out wryly. "But yes, of course. Jean-Paul isn't here."
"Well, technically not," Pam corrected as she stepped through the portal, reaching up to squeeze Tommy's shoulder. Yeah, yeah - she owed him an explanation on that one. He'd get it, later. Right now... "Umm...I maybe fucked up my wrist. Could you maybe take a look? I'd rather not go down to the infirmary."
Simon frowned at the absence of, well, anything but perhaps Shepherd on the other side of the portal. Still, he was getting used to Pam's (Fatale's) disappearing acts. "I'm not a doctor yet. I can take a look, but if you have major damage, you should see Sharon or Dr. McCoy."
"Yeah, problem with that?" Other than having to go to the infirmary to do it, which was problem enough, as far as she was concerned. "They can't see it. You can." She grimaced, wishing Tommy hadn't let go of her hand, and admitted, "Also, they may not...exactly be real happy with me, just now."
Tommy followed Pam through the portal, the anxiety inside him protesting every step. "I'm not exactly jazzed about this as a solution either. But if this is the only way she can get help, aren't you supposed to be on the side of 'doing no harm' or something?" Tommy knew he was being sharp, knew he was probably being unfair, but his worrying about Pam was all bundled up in hisfear dislike for anything medical in general and Simon's powers in particular.
This was probably the longest that Tommy Shepherd had been able to bear being in his presence, Simon reflected, which spoke volumes. With a slow nod, he stepped forward and held out his hand, palm up. "I'm not sure I want to know why the staff wouldn't be happy with you. Place your wrist here. I don't want to hurt you more by attempting to grope around for it."
Pam paused for a few seconds, then nodded and stepped forward. "It's throbbing," she warned him. She carefully reached out and rested her wrist in Simon's hands.
Simon sighed out almost moments after she did. "It's broken," he reported, then drew his phone from his pocket with one hand. It was a quick text - a digital head-nod to Dr. McCoy that he was being asked to treat someone afraid to come into the infirmary. "I can set it if you're certain you'll refuse help from the others, but I'll need a few things retrieved from the infirmary first."
Tommy had tensed the moment Simon touched her, his body tight and all but vibrating from the nervous energy he was trying his damnedest to contain. Lots of people trusted Tam now, people that weren't entirely idiots. But his powers and his whole original reason for being at the school -- studying mutations, for fuck's sake. Tommy had been studied enough. -- were enough for Tommy to keep his distance. Out of arm's reach. Except now, when he really didn't have much choice in the matter.
Still, he made his diagnosis without any drama. It wasn't like Tommy could see her, though, or know for a fact that she was okay after he'd done whatever it was that he did. That she hadn't flickered or yelled had to be a good sign, right?
"You okay?" he asked thin air, his arms still firmly folded in front of him.
"Yeah." Of course she was, right? She liked Simon, yeah, but not so much that she was willing to admit otherwise. Still, she walked over to Tommy and snuggled in against his side, hoping he'd take the hint. "Do you need to go down there?" she asked Simon.
Simon glanced at Tommy. The speedster would be faster...but he wouldn't want to step foot in there, would he? "Could you portal me?" he asked the room in general.
Tommy felt the warm pressure against his side a moment before he registered what -- who, rather -- it was. At least she was still there. It would have been embarrassing to find out she'd learned to throw her voice and she and Simon were running a prank on him. He unfolded his arms and sat one around where he thought her waist probably was, the solid shape of her body reassuring.
"On it," Fatale replied as she relaxed a little into Tommy, more relieved than she was willing to admit that he'd put his arm around her. Concentrating, she opened a portal to the infirmary. "Not sure I can hold it," she admitted, "but I can reopen it in a couple of minutes?"
Simon nodded, carefully stepping through the portal before turning back to speak to them. "Give me five minutes to prepare what I need. In the meantime, you should probably sit down. Whatever happened, I can tell it's taken its toll."
Yeah, no kidding. But Simon was being helpful, probably, so Tommy could suck it up. "Thanks," he replied, still grudgingly. Look, he was trying, okay? "Five minutes."
Pam nodded, forgetting that no one would be able to see it, then let the portal close and let out a sigh of relief. "Right. With any luck, he won't run into anyone. Lance is gonna be pissed enough without having to deal with extra bullshit here."
He felt movement but couldn't decipher it, and if Simon had the place rigged with cameras, he must look ridiculous with his arm around a block of thin air. There were a couple of desk chairs and a couch; the couch was probably a better bet. "Come on," he suggested, tugging her gently in that direction. "So how the hell are you on a first name basis with Simon?" he asked, unable to keep all of the disgruntled out of his voice.
"Why, jealous?" Pam teased weakly. She sank down onto the couch gratefully and sighed. "It's no big deal. I wanted to know what the Right all did that they didn't put in their files, so I asked him to take a look. He did, and...well, he was pretty cool about it."
"Not jealous," Tommy replied immediately. "I don't trust him. That's all. He showed up here claiming to be a flatscan studying mutants for a science project. That was all I needed to know. That he even thought that would be a cover story everyone would be fine with in the first place is gross."
"He peoples for shit," Pam acknowledged. "Even worse than Alex. But he's okay." She gave him a pleading look, which was totally pointless considering her current state. "Sit down?"
His look at her was still suspicious, but at least it didn't sound like she was going to start badgering him into hanging out with Tam. Even JP didn't bother trying that. "I can't tell where you are," he pointed out. "I don't want to squash you or bang your arm around."
Pam closed her eyes and grimaced. "Watch close," she requested. She could do this. She could. The light around her shimmered, briefly revealing her on the couch, a pained expression on her face and her arm cradled in against her before she faded out again.
Shit, she looked in worse shape than he'd realized even when she was curled up (he assumed) with the cat. There was a half-cushion's worth of space on her good side and he had a skinny butt. Tommy slid down to sit, moving slow (for other people, not just him) so that she could move over some if she needed to. "What did he find out, anyway?"
Instead of moving away, Pam waited until Tommy'd settled in and shifted in closer, wrapping one leg over his and leaning into him. "How the Right did their thing. I don't understand it all," she admitted, "but they tried to make me duplicate other people's powers, pretty much. They just sucked at it and fucked mine up in the process. Huge surprise, huh?"
The warm mass against him felt and smelled like her. Tommy relaxed a little more and settled his arm back down around her. "Sounds about right for those dipshits," he admitted. The word wasn't strong enough, but nothing would be. At least being flippant made the fear slink away for a little while. "Did research boy have any idea how to fix anything? If he's gonna poke around inside our genetic codes he should at least make himself useful while he's at it."
Sighing, Pam tilted her head onto Tommy's shoulder and closed her eyes. "I don't think there's a way to fix it. He said some of it might fix itself over time, but I'm not holding my breath." She made a face and very quietly confided, "I hate this. Of anything they did? I really fucking hate this." Meaning the invisibility, not her wrist. The latter was her own fault for not having moved fast enough.
He turned his head so that his lips were pressed against her hair. Probably. "It was the blue before, wasn't it? Only that?"
Pam relaxed in against Tommy, a little, though she supposed if she got any closer she'd practically be sitting in his lap, which could be kinda weird when Simon came back to set her wrist. Whatever - Simon could deal if Tommy could. She was holding it together, mostly, but it was becoming an uphill battle. This helped. "Blue," she confirmed quietly. "And apparently a healing factor they managed to burn out. At least that explains why it didn't work when they tried to make me grow one." She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Could use that at the moment. Fucking bastards."
He hadn't realized powers could burn out, and a weird new sense of dread settled somewhere inside Tommy. Did that mean all of them had a limited lifespan, or was it the experiments specifically? (what was his lifespan, anyway? was it shorter because everything in him was going faster?)
"What about Wanda?" he asked, apropos of nothing. "Billy's got her powers, and he can just wish for stuff to happen. I know you guys don't get along, and I honestly don't know if I'd want to trust his weird-ass powers with broken bones, but Wanda's got a lot more control than he does. Maybe she can do something to speed the healing up."
"Wanda doesn't heal." Fatale shuddered. "Sometimes her powers do really random shit. I really don't want to melt like the coffee maker." She frowned. "Has it been five minutes?"
Tommy shrugged. "Don't ask me. My sense of time is way off. Probably?"
Pam wrinkled her nose. "Fine." She started to open a portal, then let it close and looked up at Tommy. "You wanta go?" She asked. "I kinda doubt you really want to watch."
He saw the flash of light which meant a portal was starting up, and Tommy pulled his arm away, started to sit up straight -- and then the flicker vanished. "Set your wrist?" he asked, confused. "What's he gonna do, slice it open? Even then... I hate to break it to you, kid, but you're invisible."
"Shithead. Okay, point, but no." Pam shook her head. "I just...you don't seem to like Simon much, and I get that. And if you'd rather not be here, it's okay. I'll be alright." Granted, she hadn't exactly done too well with "okay" so far today, but whatever. She wasn't about to stab Simon, and Tommy'd been good about sticking with her this far.
On the flipside, she couldn't quite convince herself to move until he decided, one way or the other. Even if he was already trying to.
“I don’t not like Simon,” Tommy corrected her. “I don’t know him enough to not like him. I don’t trust him, and that’s worse. If you want me to go, I’ll go, but you really think I’d bail on you in a bad situation? As long as he doesn't touch me, I'm fine.”
Pam snorted. "I had to talk him into touching me last time. I think you're probably safe." She leaned in and kissed Tommy's cheek. "And I just figured I'd offer." Straightening up a little, she opened a portal.
Simon was standing on the opposite side, thumb-typing something on his phone, a small knapsack over one shoulder. He looked up, blinking, then nodded, stepping through. "I had to narrowly avoid what I think was your handiwork."
Tommy tensed, he couldn't help it, the animal-reaction part of his brain still sending out 'danger' signals even as the rest tried to make him play it cool. Pam was still warm against his side and he wasn't about to get up and leave her there without good reason, so he tightened his jaw and tried to ignore the urge to bolt. "Jeanne, you mean? She okay?"
Pam felt herself tense as well, both in response to Tommy's reaction and in expectation of Simon's response. Jeanne should be okay. It wasn't like she'd hit an artery or anything. Still...hearing that she was would be good.
"She'll be fine - Dr. McCoy is handling it, from the sound of it. I stayed out of sight," Simon told them, moving to his desk to open the knapsack. "I also have some morphine for you."
Tommy bit his tongue, hard. Pam's call, not his, and her powers worked differently on the hard stuff. She'd be fine.
"Uggh." Pam shuddered and shook her head. "Pass on the morphine - I need to be able to 'port home after this." Which was as good an excuse as any, right? Because yeah, there was no fucking way. "Can we just get it overwith?" she asked hopefully.
Simon frowned. "You want me to set a bone without any pain medication at all?"
"Some of us haven't exactly had the greatest experiences with being drugged," Tommy pointed out, his fingers tapping restlessly against his knee.
"Yeah. That, too." Pam turned her head to press a quick kiss into Tommy's shoulder in gratitude, then turned back to Simon. "I can handle it."
"Whether you can or not, I can't have you jerking and moving the wrong direction while I work. What about a local anesthetic?" he asked, taking a deep breath. "That way your head won't be affected at all."
Pam made a face. "Yeah, okay. You need me visible? I can hold it a few seconds, maybe."
"No," Simon assured her, bringing a tray over to her side. "As long as I can feel you, we should be fine. Don't exert yourself. Shepherd, are you alright with staying?"
"My name is Tommy," Tommy snapped, watching Simon's movements with a wary eye. "I'm not a specimen, Shepherd-comma-Thomas. And yeah, I'm staying."
Simon looked up at him as he took a seat on the ottoman in front of where he believed Pam was sitting. "I didn't use Tommy because I didn't think you'd want me to be that casual with you, but as you wish."
Holding his hand out, palm up, he looked at the space where Pam should be. "Place your wrist in my hand again?"
Reluctantly, Pam untangled herself from Tommy and straightened up, facing Simon. And reached out to put her wrist in his hand. "I always forget it's Shepherd," she said, trying not to think about what Simon was going to do. "Last names are seriously fucked up in your family. None of them match."
"Technically speaking I don't have any family," Tommy pointed out. He backed up and pushed himself up to sit on the arm of the couch, further away from Simon and Pam so as not to jostle them while Simon did his thing. He kept his feet resting next to Pam's thigh (he thought), his leg still brushing hers. Talking helped distract from the tension eating him up inside, and if she wanted to talk too, he'd go with it. "Frank and Mary gave me the legal heave-ho when the Right picked me up. Ward of the state, right here."
Simon frowned, even as he worked, numbing Pam's arm so he could set it properly. "I didn't realize. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be sorry," Tommy shook his head at Simon. "They sucked anyway, and I really wouldn't be shocked if they were the ones who arranged the hand-over. We're all better off." And the more he said that, the closer he might get to a day when his heart didn't ache when he did. "You're doing okay?" he asked Pam, more quietly.
"Yeah, I'm good," she replied, relaxing a little as whatever Simon was doing started to kick in and the pain receded. "And it sounds like they sucked even more than mine did - I'm pretty sure mine didn't have anything to do with me getting taken, at least." It would've been hard for them to, considering she hadn't seen them in months by then, but whatever. At least she had that. "It's going numb," she informed Simon, remembering only belatedly that he probably already knew.
He smiled softly, not bothering to try and meet her gaze, since he couldn't. Carefully, he began to move the pieces of bone back into place, using his sight as he connected each of the small bones to one another once again. "Good. You'll feel some pressure. Just try and keep your wrist still until I get the cast on."
What now? Tommy wasn't exactly interested in talking about his parents any more than that, and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask Pam about hers with Simon there. "How long is she going to have to be in a cast?" Billy'd been in one for a couple of weeks - had it been longer? He wasn't sure - but if Pam still had some kind of healing happening under the radar, it might be different. Hopefully it would be different. "Can I sign it?" he asked her, flashing a grin at the empty space between him and Simon.
Having make a sound affirming that she'd understood Simons instructions, Pam let out a slightly shaky laugh in response to Tommy's comment. "Sure. If you can find it, you can sign it. Can't wait to see what you wrote once it's visible." She turned her attention back to Simon. "Gotta second the question about the cast, though. How long? And how do I get it off, seeing as I'm guessing Baldy's going to revoke my hall pass here after this?"
"I'm going to need to check the progress of the healing in the break from time to time, but you can do that whenever you're comfortable. Most casts can come off after about six weeks, but since I can tell whether you'll still need it better than any imaging machine, it will likely be shorter. As for your 'hall pass', whether or not Xavier wants to refuse you use of the Danger Room, the infirmary is always open to mutants - we'll never refuse to help. I can help you get it off when you're ready," Simon told her.
"You think he'll kick you out of class?" Tommy asked, frowning. "I've done a lot of stupid shit here and I haven't even come close to figuring out his break point."
"C'mon, the psycho terrorist girl just lost it and stabbed one of the nice pretty students," Pam reasoned, responding to Tommy's question first. "What do you think?" Awkwardly, she fished in her pocket with her good hand, pulled out her phone, and set it on the futon beside her as she turned back to Simon. "Can you put your number in, maybe? I can call and see if you're around rather than just show up."
Simon nodded, then spent several minutes, setting the liner and fiberglass. When he was finished, he washed his hands with some wipes, then added his number to her phone. "You should be able to shower and bathe with it. Let me know if you feel like it's too tight or you're having any problems with it."
"I will, once I can feel it." Pam smiled a little as she got to her feet, took her phone from Simon's hand and, figuring that was warning enough of her location, stood on tip toe and leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks." She turned back towards Tommy, invisible smile fading. "You coming back with me? I should probably let Lance and Wanda know." Which, yeah. Not looking forward to that. Either they were going to be pissed - or worse, they weren't.
Tommy could sort-of figure out where she was and what she was doing by the shift of weight on the couch and by Simon's reactions, but it didn't do much to ease the rest of his tension. Watching the plaster vanish as it got inside Pam's power radius had been kind of cool, mind you. "I can't see who you're talking to, but I'm gonna assume it's me," he replied dryly. "Unless Simon's been hanging out with you guys as well."
"Pretty sure Simon's not interested in visiting the base, so it must be you." The light around Pam flickered a little as she stepped back over to wrap her good arm around Tommy and snuggle in against him, but she didn't notice. "Besides," she reasoned, "Wanda'll be in a better mood if you're there."
"I am not interested in visiting the base," Simon conceded.
"Using me to make mom chill out?" Tommy joked, though he'd have no way of knowing whether Pam was smiling at that or not. "I'm usually more of a problem than helpful at making hard conversations go easier, but if you need a buffer zone, I'll come."
"Actually, I'd kind of like you around to help calm Alex down?" Pam admitted. "But making Wanda chill wouldn't suck, either." She looked over at Simon as she opened a portal. "Thanks again, Simon. Send me the bill, huh?"
He raised a brow at the emptiness. "There's no bill."
Oh yeah, he was a great conversationalist. Tommy had to admit - grudgingly - that his bedside manner hadn't been awful, and he hadn't tried to collect samples from either of them (as far as Tommy could tell), but that wasn't enough to fix all of Tommy's doubts. Not in the slightest. Tommy got to his feet and headed toward the portal, going slower than usual so that he didn't end up tackling Pam through it. "If you find any of my hairs in here once we're gone, burn 'em," he pointed at Simon, not entirely taking the order seriously. (not completely a joke either, but yeah.) "I've had enough clone bullshit in my life already without you growing more."
"Trust me when I say that I don't think anyone at this school wants another one of you running around," Simon told him wryly as he cleaned up the mess on his desk.
Pam rolled her eyes - almost visibly, as the light around her was flickering regularly as she calmed down. "Leaving now?"
Tommy bit back the comment on his tongue, and nodded. "Yeah. Leaving now." He stepped through the portal, then turned to look back.
Simon gave the other teen a small nod, then watched as the portal disappeared from the room. "Well," he muttered softly to himself, "now I'm treating terrorists."
"Ugggh." Pam flopped down on her bed once they reached her room, holding the portal open only as long as it took Tommy to come though. "I wonder if I can get away with saying she got me first?" Probably not, and she wasn't sure if she would even if she could - it seemed pretty unfair to do to Jeanne, even if she had broken her wrist. But it was tempting, just because admitting the truth was going to suck.
She was flickering again, which Tommy took as a good sign. At least insofar as he could flop down on the bed beside her and be relatively sure he wasn't going to land on top of her in a definitely unsexy way. "Yeah, I don't think that's going to be an easy lie to pull off. Not unless Jeanne agrees to take the fall, and getting stabbed probably didn't endear you to her."
He flipped over to lie on his stomach, feet hanging off the side of the bed. "But look. You're a trained assa- fighter, got in a bad spot, and instinct took over. I'd take that explanation if I were Wanda."
Pam sighed and rolled over onto her stomach as well, rested her chin on her good hand and stared up at the headboard. And said nothing for a while before replying with, "No. I'm a fucked up lab rat who lost it and stabbed her so I wouldn't get in trouble for losing the fight too soon. I'm not going to fool anyone, they know it anyway. I just thought..." she shrugged. "I thought I had it together." Or at least, more so than this.
It was more insight into her time in the lab than he'd had before, and Tommy rolled that factoid around in his brain before filing it away. She still wasn't solid, flickering in and out, but he could see her well enough to rest his hand on the small of her back. "That's still not your fuck-up," he insisted firmly. "It's something awful that got stuck in your head because of the shit you went through. It'll take time to shake it all out again."
"It's been over a year." She turned her head to look at Tommy hoping that he was looking at her and that he could see her enough to make it count. "It felt like it was yesterday. I'm sick of needing a babysitter."
He was looking at her when he caught a glimpse of her eyes staring back at him, and something weird hurt inside his chest. "I get that." He didn't, not really, but he wanted to and that had to be close enough. "I still freak out at stuff and they only had me a few months. You were there a lot longer, so logically it's gonna take longer to get rid of it."
He could see her. Pam let out a sigh that was nothing but pure relief, and the light around her dissipated more, though she kept her eyes locked on his like a lifeline. "I guess," she admitted, belatedly remembering they'd been talking. "But I've been insisting I don't need one. And yeah, guess what." She made a face, and shrugged.
"Whatever, people make mistakes." Tommy snorted derisively. "I make dumb and potentially fatal choices on a regular basis, and no-one's assigned me a watcher."
"Lucky you." Fatale made a face at him, shifted a little closer, and turned her head so she was once again looking at the wall. "Anyway, whatever. I should probably get it over with before my wrist starts throbbing again."
Looking away usually meant 'go away,' but she'd moved closer at the same time, so Tommy gave up trying to figure out what she actually wanted. What did he know about being comforting, anyway? She was getting more visible, though, and that was good. So he looped his arm lightly around her waist and stayed where he was. "You sure?"
"No. I'd rather stay here until they hunt me down," she admitted. "But it'd probably be better if I give Lance a head's up before he gets a phone call from your boss. That way he can at least say he already chewed me out."
He nodded, restlessness settling in along his nerves as the stress from dealing with Simon Tam finally started to ebb away. "Did you actually want me to come along for that?"
"Nah, it's cool." She turned her head and offered a tired, faint attempt at a smile. "Sorry to drag you cross-state. I just..." Didn't want to be alone, invisible. Wanted someone to talk to, who she knew wasn't there because she needed a keeper. Both were true, but both sounded lame, so ultimately, she just shrugged. "Thanks. For sticking."
Tommy echoed her smile back, his fingers tapping out an unconscious rhythm against her hip even as he tried his best to stay still. "Any time. I can stick around for a while, if you want." He'd probably do a few laps of the area, mind you, shake the itch off his feet, but he'd be back long before she'd ever notice.
Pam huffed out a faint laugh. "Go. Move," she instructed, referring to the way he was tapping on her. Fucking speedsters. "But yeah. Come back?" She smirked. "If you want, you can grab some money from the jar in the kitchen and bring back pizza. Not sure anyone's been grocery shopping."
"Cool. I got it." His relief at being released was practically full-bodied, the restlessness harder to keep in check the longer he lay there with nothing to pull his focus. He pressed his lips against her forehead then jumped off the bed. "Any special requests?"
It was on the tip of her tongue to reply she'd eat anything - true, because what choice had she had? - but she stopped before blurting it out. "Pepperoni?" she asked hopefully as she sat up and then got to her feet, because hey, he was asking, right? And she had a broken wrist - one way or another, she figured that earned her the right to pick the toppings. "And no pineapple or anchovies."
"Done and done." And before the walls could close in on him too much more, Tommy zipped through the door and away.
She was screwed. End of story.
A portal opened in the first place Pam had thought of as "safe" inside the school, and her eyes jerked around. No sign of dog boy, perfect. She had a few minutes, at least, to try and pull it together before Jeanne could nark her out to the faculty. With any luck, she'd have settled down enough to open a portal to Asteroid M by then.
Except luck hadn't exactly been her thing today, had it?
Pam sank down to the ground next to Tommy's desk, still holding her wrist protectively against her body. Broken, probably - a tentative touch suggested swelling, and she winced when she tried to wiggle her fingers. She'd have to get someone to reset it - Eileen, probably, though she wasn't sure the other girl's ability to explode organs really extended to setting bones. Maybe Alex would be up for it.
Damn, it, how was she going to tell either of them?
A tear formed in her eye, then another, and she blinked them away, then gave up and just let the tears fall. Invisible tears didn't matter, anyway. They only counted when someone could see them.
The room looked empty, but a moment after Pam settled down, there was movement from under Tommy's pillow. The edge shifted and a small grey head poked out, blinking blearily. The kitten looked around as though sensing some kind of change in the atmosphere, carefully sniffing the air. Not totally relaxed, but not completely on-edge either, she patrolled the edge of the bed until she faced Pam. Her head cocked, one way and then the other, and she sniffed the air again.
One little thump and she was down on the ground gracelessly, her eyes fixed on the space where someone should be, her ears focused forward and her whiskers twitching.
The thud caught Pam's attention, and she lifted her head - and saw a cat. No - a kitten - a really freaking tiny kitten - that was staring at her.
Pam looked down at herself, but no. Still invisible. Confused, she swiped a hand across her eyes and shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged. And stared at the cat, wondering whether or not she was imagining it. "Shoo?"
The cat very definitely didn't shoo. Instead, it sniffed the air, then padded its way over and jumped up, resting its front paws against her legs as it peered up at her.
"You can't be seeing me," Pam informed it in a whisper, just in case it'd somehow missed the memo. Right. Definitely hallucinating, and now she was talking to it, too. She needed to get the hell out of here before the faculty found her and decided she was insane. "That's what invisible means, dummy. I'm not here."
Unimpressed by this logic, the cat jumped up with a little "Mrrrp!", kneeded her leg a few times, then turned around and lay down.
Right. Pam sighed and scratched gently between its ears. What else could she do?
Cans clinking against each other in his backpack, Tommy skidded down the hall and into his room, barely pausing long enough to unlock the door. "You better appreciate this, cat," he told the room, dropping his bag on his desk with a clank and a thud. "Your days of mooching off of kitchen tuna are over."
Then he paused. Something was definitely off. The cat wasn't stretching her way out from under his pillow like usual, and Inu-yasha wasn't there, so she wasn't asleep on him (her other favourite place, go figure). Instead she was sitting in the corner, hovering in mid-air and making her funny rattling purr-noise, with her fur ruffling back and forth. That... okay, there was really only one explanation for that.
"Pam?" Tommy asked the air cautiously. "Hey there." Judging by cat's position in the air she was beside his desk, so it was probably safe for him to crouch down a few steps away without stepping on her. "What's up, hot stuff?" he asked the air, trying to guess generally where her face might be.
"It keeps looking at me." Even to herself, Pam sounded dazed as looked up from the cat to find that Tommy was making an effort to do the same, but with somewhat less success, considering he seemed to be focused on her left ear. Somehow, just now, that was more comforting than not. Maybe she wasn't losing it entirely. "Are they looking for me yet?"
The hell? Okay, focus. If Pam was invisible and curled up in his room, that meant something had gone to hell, somehow, and she was freaking out. And Pam freaking out could mean anything, but really, it mostly meant knives. So who'd she stabbed? Or who had said or done something to her that was worse? "I only just got back from town." Tommy reached out and scratched the cat behind her ears, because the fur was ruffling kind of near there. Maybe he'd find Pam's hand, maybe he wouldn't. "Why would anyone be looking for you?"
Huh. Maybe Jeanne hadn't told anyone? No, Tommy'd said he just got back - and being Tommy, "just" probably meant 20 seconds ago. "I didn't mean to," Pam said, half sulkily, half still in shock. "It was her idea to spar." Tommy's fingers brushed against hers, and she froze, every muscle tensing, which sent a new surge of pain up her arm, but she didn't make a sound or pull away. Either would disturb the cat, and it seemed important that she not.
Ahhh, shit. Damage control time, then. "Whose idea?"
Pam frowned. "Jeanne. The one with the short dark hair, not the redhead who's dating Alex's brother or the French one who came to our party."
Tommy shook his head. Pam's voice was coming from somewhere more to the right, and he shifted to try and look more towards where she probably was. "I've seen her around but I don't know her. Wanna tell me what happened?"
Did she? Not really, Pam reflected, raking her teeth lightly over her upper lip as she considered it. No. She didn't want to think about it. Instead, she stroked her fingers slowly over the kitten's back, and focused on listening to it purr. Eventually, though, she said quietly, "She kept saying stuff. About how I was fighting. Good. Faster. Too predictable. And then she pinned me, and..." she shook her head and shrugged, forgetting that Tommy couldn't see her do either.
The whole talking-to-thin-air thing was starting to grate on Tommy's nerves, even though he could feel the heat of her leg against his. The not-knowing what she was looking at or what she was thinking was making this a lot harder than usual. From the sound of things, though, she was way too rattled by whatever had happened to be coming back to regular any time soon. "And she took your knife?" he guessed, not meaning that one at all seriously, "or you ... gave it to her?"
Had Pam been visible, Tommy would have had no doubt from her expression just what she thought of his joke. As it was, her tone probably relayed the message well enough. "Yeah. I gave it to her. Left it right in her shoulder." She frowned. "Hope she gives it back. I liked that knife.""
"If not, we'll get it back some other way." On the plus side, 'in the shoulder' didn't sound super-deadly, and there were enough people around with extra healing powers that maybe it would't be a big deal at all. Laura, for one, would barely have blinked. "And that's why you're sitting in my room all invisible? Mi casa-su casa and all that, and the cat's definitely getting a kick out of it. But I gotta admit, I feel like a total dork talking to a wall."
"Yeah? Try living it. It feels even worse." Despite her words, Pam took a deep breath and tried to dismiss the light from around her - with no more than a flicker to prove she'd made the attempt. "Fuck. This is going to be special," she muttered. Her wrist hurt too much for her to focus, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get it set if no one could see it.
The flicker of light, the hiss of breath, she was hiding something she didn't want him to see. "What else," Tommy prodded, and he used the purring kitten's fur rumples to find her hand -- and from there, her arm and shoulder. "That's not all, is it?"
Fatale glanced over at her shoulder, wondering how Tommy'd managed to find it, then shrugged. "Pretty sure she broke my wrist; it's swollen and it's throbbing. Gotta say, never saw anyone move like that after being stabbed. Impressive as hell, especially when you figure she couldn't see me."
"I'll remember that when I have to kick her ass for breaking you." Now what? Tommy couldn't do a damned thing about a broken wrist by himself, and letting it go untouched was a worse idea. On the other hand, it wasn't like he could take her to the hospital for x-rays. "I know you're gonna hate this idea, but the alternatives I can think of are worse. So unless you know someone who can do the whole faith-healing 'laying on of hands' jazz, we should probably get you to the infirmary and get that checked out. The last thing you need is a useless hand."
If he could think of alternatives worse than that, she sure as hell didn't want to know what they were. "No fucking way." She jerked back from his hand, disrupting the cat who jumped to its feet, clawing her leg in the process. "Oww, stop that!" she protested, though now that it had moved, it was far easier to squirm backwards. "I'm not going to your infirmary. Pretty sure they can't x-ray me right now anyway."
"So what's the plan instead?" he snapped back, worry overriding his already-limited ability to keep himself from saying stupid things. "Let it fester and stay in pain? That's not exactly smart- ow!" The nice warm lap now gone, the cat was hanging on to Tommy's shirt and rapidly scaling his back, digging her claws in with every step. "Ow, fuck! You're pointy, cat. Stop that!" She ended up perched on his shoulder, fur ruffled, only then pulling her claws back out of his flesh. "Yeah, thanks for that."
"If I had a plan, do you think I'd be sitting on the floor in your room petting a homicidal furball?" Pam rubbed her leg with her still-working hand, scowling at Tommy's cat.
"If I make a joke about homicidal pussy right now I'm gonna get stabbed, aren't I?" Maybe it wouldn't make her laugh and break the horrible tension he could feel crawling over his skin, but it was worth a try.
Pam transfered her glare to him, then gave up and let out a snort that was part amused, part pained. "Your lucky day. I'm crap at knives, left handed." Tentatively,she reached out and brushed her fingertips over his.
Shit. Was she touching him with her good hand, or her broken one? There was no way to know, so he just turned his hand over, palm up. An offer. "There's a reason to get this fixed somehow. How're you going to keep me in line without that for a threat?"
"Please. Like I need a knife to keep you in line." Pam slid her hand over his and squeezed, then took a breath and exhaled slowly. "Eileen can maybe set it," she suggested doubtfully. Fuck, why didn't they have a teammate who could do some kind of laying on of hands bullshit? There wasn't even one at the school. The closest was probably...
"Simon. Can you find Simon?" she asked.
"Tam?" Tommy asked, his incredulity obvious. "You want to go to a guy who plays with dna for fun?" He'd hated but accepted Billy's visit, but Billy hadn't been hurt and vulnerable at the time, either.
"He can't do anything except read it," Pam corrected. Awkwardly, her arm held tight against her chest, she got to her feet. "But he can see what's fucked up without seeing it."
Being able to read it was bad enough as far as Tommy was concerned. On the plus side, it would get her talking to someone who knew more than he did about broken bones, so even if Tommy had to stand next to her the entire time to make sure Tam didn't do anything, it was probably worth it. The air shifted around them and he could hear Pam moving even if he couldn't see her, and he scrambled to his feet as well. Cat ended up getting deposited back on the end of his bed with an annoyed prrr-oop. "He'll be in his lab, probably. I don't think he surfaces for much of anything otherwise."
"Nah, you can find him in his room sometimes," Pam corrected. If he wasn't...well, it wasn't like she didn't know where his lab was if it came to that, but she was really, really hoping it wouldn't. "You coming along?"
How the hell did she know so much about Tam's habits? Tommy'd been living in the school since before the guy had gotten here and he didn't know that. Granted he'd been avoiding Tam as much as humanely possible -- which turned out, for him, to be pretty much 100% of the time -- but still. He nodded, making a guess at where her face was. "Yeah. Of course." Fuck.
Right. She was the one with the fucked up wrist who was going to get hell from Lance when she got home, and he was the one who looked nervous. Though to be fair, she had to admit she might, too - probably the one positive thing about this whole fucked up mess was that no one could really tell when she was invisible. Well, except Alex, and he wasn't here.
Sighing, she slipped her good hand into Tommy's and opened a portal to Simon's room, angling the opening so that it faced the door rather than the inside of the room. No reason to start this off pissing him off when she needed a favor, right? "Simon, you there?" she called through it.
Simon's head jerked up as soon as the portal formed, and for some reason, his first instinct was to grab for his phone. Like it was a weapon or something. Sure, Tam, phasers were a thing. He took a second to resettle himself where he was seated on the couch beneath his loft bed, then rose to his feet. "Pam?"
"Umm, yeah," she replied, remembering only belatedly that she'd told him her name. "And Tommy. Can we come in? I've...kinda got a problem, and you said if I ever needed anything..."
Pam??? Tommy mouthed at her -- at the space where she probably was -- feeling betrayed. How the hell did Simon rate that level of intimacy? He folded his arms and waited the rest of it out.
"You're already in," Simon pointed out wryly. "But yes, of course. Jean-Paul isn't here."
"Well, technically not," Pam corrected as she stepped through the portal, reaching up to squeeze Tommy's shoulder. Yeah, yeah - she owed him an explanation on that one. He'd get it, later. Right now... "Umm...I maybe fucked up my wrist. Could you maybe take a look? I'd rather not go down to the infirmary."
Simon frowned at the absence of, well, anything but perhaps Shepherd on the other side of the portal. Still, he was getting used to Pam's (Fatale's) disappearing acts. "I'm not a doctor yet. I can take a look, but if you have major damage, you should see Sharon or Dr. McCoy."
"Yeah, problem with that?" Other than having to go to the infirmary to do it, which was problem enough, as far as she was concerned. "They can't see it. You can." She grimaced, wishing Tommy hadn't let go of her hand, and admitted, "Also, they may not...exactly be real happy with me, just now."
Tommy followed Pam through the portal, the anxiety inside him protesting every step. "I'm not exactly jazzed about this as a solution either. But if this is the only way she can get help, aren't you supposed to be on the side of 'doing no harm' or something?" Tommy knew he was being sharp, knew he was probably being unfair, but his worrying about Pam was all bundled up in his
This was probably the longest that Tommy Shepherd had been able to bear being in his presence, Simon reflected, which spoke volumes. With a slow nod, he stepped forward and held out his hand, palm up. "I'm not sure I want to know why the staff wouldn't be happy with you. Place your wrist here. I don't want to hurt you more by attempting to grope around for it."
Pam paused for a few seconds, then nodded and stepped forward. "It's throbbing," she warned him. She carefully reached out and rested her wrist in Simon's hands.
Simon sighed out almost moments after she did. "It's broken," he reported, then drew his phone from his pocket with one hand. It was a quick text - a digital head-nod to Dr. McCoy that he was being asked to treat someone afraid to come into the infirmary. "I can set it if you're certain you'll refuse help from the others, but I'll need a few things retrieved from the infirmary first."
Tommy had tensed the moment Simon touched her, his body tight and all but vibrating from the nervous energy he was trying his damnedest to contain. Lots of people trusted Tam now, people that weren't entirely idiots. But his powers and his whole original reason for being at the school -- studying mutations, for fuck's sake. Tommy had been studied enough. -- were enough for Tommy to keep his distance. Out of arm's reach. Except now, when he really didn't have much choice in the matter.
Still, he made his diagnosis without any drama. It wasn't like Tommy could see her, though, or know for a fact that she was okay after he'd done whatever it was that he did. That she hadn't flickered or yelled had to be a good sign, right?
"You okay?" he asked thin air, his arms still firmly folded in front of him.
"Yeah." Of course she was, right? She liked Simon, yeah, but not so much that she was willing to admit otherwise. Still, she walked over to Tommy and snuggled in against his side, hoping he'd take the hint. "Do you need to go down there?" she asked Simon.
Simon glanced at Tommy. The speedster would be faster...but he wouldn't want to step foot in there, would he? "Could you portal me?" he asked the room in general.
Tommy felt the warm pressure against his side a moment before he registered what -- who, rather -- it was. At least she was still there. It would have been embarrassing to find out she'd learned to throw her voice and she and Simon were running a prank on him. He unfolded his arms and sat one around where he thought her waist probably was, the solid shape of her body reassuring.
"On it," Fatale replied as she relaxed a little into Tommy, more relieved than she was willing to admit that he'd put his arm around her. Concentrating, she opened a portal to the infirmary. "Not sure I can hold it," she admitted, "but I can reopen it in a couple of minutes?"
Simon nodded, carefully stepping through the portal before turning back to speak to them. "Give me five minutes to prepare what I need. In the meantime, you should probably sit down. Whatever happened, I can tell it's taken its toll."
Yeah, no kidding. But Simon was being helpful, probably, so Tommy could suck it up. "Thanks," he replied, still grudgingly. Look, he was trying, okay? "Five minutes."
Pam nodded, forgetting that no one would be able to see it, then let the portal close and let out a sigh of relief. "Right. With any luck, he won't run into anyone. Lance is gonna be pissed enough without having to deal with extra bullshit here."
He felt movement but couldn't decipher it, and if Simon had the place rigged with cameras, he must look ridiculous with his arm around a block of thin air. There were a couple of desk chairs and a couch; the couch was probably a better bet. "Come on," he suggested, tugging her gently in that direction. "So how the hell are you on a first name basis with Simon?" he asked, unable to keep all of the disgruntled out of his voice.
"Why, jealous?" Pam teased weakly. She sank down onto the couch gratefully and sighed. "It's no big deal. I wanted to know what the Right all did that they didn't put in their files, so I asked him to take a look. He did, and...well, he was pretty cool about it."
"Not jealous," Tommy replied immediately. "I don't trust him. That's all. He showed up here claiming to be a flatscan studying mutants for a science project. That was all I needed to know. That he even thought that would be a cover story everyone would be fine with in the first place is gross."
"He peoples for shit," Pam acknowledged. "Even worse than Alex. But he's okay." She gave him a pleading look, which was totally pointless considering her current state. "Sit down?"
His look at her was still suspicious, but at least it didn't sound like she was going to start badgering him into hanging out with Tam. Even JP didn't bother trying that. "I can't tell where you are," he pointed out. "I don't want to squash you or bang your arm around."
Pam closed her eyes and grimaced. "Watch close," she requested. She could do this. She could. The light around her shimmered, briefly revealing her on the couch, a pained expression on her face and her arm cradled in against her before she faded out again.
Shit, she looked in worse shape than he'd realized even when she was curled up (he assumed) with the cat. There was a half-cushion's worth of space on her good side and he had a skinny butt. Tommy slid down to sit, moving slow (for other people, not just him) so that she could move over some if she needed to. "What did he find out, anyway?"
Instead of moving away, Pam waited until Tommy'd settled in and shifted in closer, wrapping one leg over his and leaning into him. "How the Right did their thing. I don't understand it all," she admitted, "but they tried to make me duplicate other people's powers, pretty much. They just sucked at it and fucked mine up in the process. Huge surprise, huh?"
The warm mass against him felt and smelled like her. Tommy relaxed a little more and settled his arm back down around her. "Sounds about right for those dipshits," he admitted. The word wasn't strong enough, but nothing would be. At least being flippant made the fear slink away for a little while. "Did research boy have any idea how to fix anything? If he's gonna poke around inside our genetic codes he should at least make himself useful while he's at it."
Sighing, Pam tilted her head onto Tommy's shoulder and closed her eyes. "I don't think there's a way to fix it. He said some of it might fix itself over time, but I'm not holding my breath." She made a face and very quietly confided, "I hate this. Of anything they did? I really fucking hate this." Meaning the invisibility, not her wrist. The latter was her own fault for not having moved fast enough.
He turned his head so that his lips were pressed against her hair. Probably. "It was the blue before, wasn't it? Only that?"
Pam relaxed in against Tommy, a little, though she supposed if she got any closer she'd practically be sitting in his lap, which could be kinda weird when Simon came back to set her wrist. Whatever - Simon could deal if Tommy could. She was holding it together, mostly, but it was becoming an uphill battle. This helped. "Blue," she confirmed quietly. "And apparently a healing factor they managed to burn out. At least that explains why it didn't work when they tried to make me grow one." She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Could use that at the moment. Fucking bastards."
He hadn't realized powers could burn out, and a weird new sense of dread settled somewhere inside Tommy. Did that mean all of them had a limited lifespan, or was it the experiments specifically? (what was his lifespan, anyway? was it shorter because everything in him was going faster?)
"What about Wanda?" he asked, apropos of nothing. "Billy's got her powers, and he can just wish for stuff to happen. I know you guys don't get along, and I honestly don't know if I'd want to trust his weird-ass powers with broken bones, but Wanda's got a lot more control than he does. Maybe she can do something to speed the healing up."
"Wanda doesn't heal." Fatale shuddered. "Sometimes her powers do really random shit. I really don't want to melt like the coffee maker." She frowned. "Has it been five minutes?"
Tommy shrugged. "Don't ask me. My sense of time is way off. Probably?"
Pam wrinkled her nose. "Fine." She started to open a portal, then let it close and looked up at Tommy. "You wanta go?" She asked. "I kinda doubt you really want to watch."
He saw the flash of light which meant a portal was starting up, and Tommy pulled his arm away, started to sit up straight -- and then the flicker vanished. "Set your wrist?" he asked, confused. "What's he gonna do, slice it open? Even then... I hate to break it to you, kid, but you're invisible."
"Shithead. Okay, point, but no." Pam shook her head. "I just...you don't seem to like Simon much, and I get that. And if you'd rather not be here, it's okay. I'll be alright." Granted, she hadn't exactly done too well with "okay" so far today, but whatever. She wasn't about to stab Simon, and Tommy'd been good about sticking with her this far.
On the flipside, she couldn't quite convince herself to move until he decided, one way or the other. Even if he was already trying to.
“I don’t not like Simon,” Tommy corrected her. “I don’t know him enough to not like him. I don’t trust him, and that’s worse. If you want me to go, I’ll go, but you really think I’d bail on you in a bad situation? As long as he doesn't touch me, I'm fine.”
Pam snorted. "I had to talk him into touching me last time. I think you're probably safe." She leaned in and kissed Tommy's cheek. "And I just figured I'd offer." Straightening up a little, she opened a portal.
Simon was standing on the opposite side, thumb-typing something on his phone, a small knapsack over one shoulder. He looked up, blinking, then nodded, stepping through. "I had to narrowly avoid what I think was your handiwork."
Tommy tensed, he couldn't help it, the animal-reaction part of his brain still sending out 'danger' signals even as the rest tried to make him play it cool. Pam was still warm against his side and he wasn't about to get up and leave her there without good reason, so he tightened his jaw and tried to ignore the urge to bolt. "Jeanne, you mean? She okay?"
Pam felt herself tense as well, both in response to Tommy's reaction and in expectation of Simon's response. Jeanne should be okay. It wasn't like she'd hit an artery or anything. Still...hearing that she was would be good.
"She'll be fine - Dr. McCoy is handling it, from the sound of it. I stayed out of sight," Simon told them, moving to his desk to open the knapsack. "I also have some morphine for you."
Tommy bit his tongue, hard. Pam's call, not his, and her powers worked differently on the hard stuff. She'd be fine.
"Uggh." Pam shuddered and shook her head. "Pass on the morphine - I need to be able to 'port home after this." Which was as good an excuse as any, right? Because yeah, there was no fucking way. "Can we just get it overwith?" she asked hopefully.
Simon frowned. "You want me to set a bone without any pain medication at all?"
"Some of us haven't exactly had the greatest experiences with being drugged," Tommy pointed out, his fingers tapping restlessly against his knee.
"Yeah. That, too." Pam turned her head to press a quick kiss into Tommy's shoulder in gratitude, then turned back to Simon. "I can handle it."
"Whether you can or not, I can't have you jerking and moving the wrong direction while I work. What about a local anesthetic?" he asked, taking a deep breath. "That way your head won't be affected at all."
Pam made a face. "Yeah, okay. You need me visible? I can hold it a few seconds, maybe."
"No," Simon assured her, bringing a tray over to her side. "As long as I can feel you, we should be fine. Don't exert yourself. Shepherd, are you alright with staying?"
"My name is Tommy," Tommy snapped, watching Simon's movements with a wary eye. "I'm not a specimen, Shepherd-comma-Thomas. And yeah, I'm staying."
Simon looked up at him as he took a seat on the ottoman in front of where he believed Pam was sitting. "I didn't use Tommy because I didn't think you'd want me to be that casual with you, but as you wish."
Holding his hand out, palm up, he looked at the space where Pam should be. "Place your wrist in my hand again?"
Reluctantly, Pam untangled herself from Tommy and straightened up, facing Simon. And reached out to put her wrist in his hand. "I always forget it's Shepherd," she said, trying not to think about what Simon was going to do. "Last names are seriously fucked up in your family. None of them match."
"Technically speaking I don't have any family," Tommy pointed out. He backed up and pushed himself up to sit on the arm of the couch, further away from Simon and Pam so as not to jostle them while Simon did his thing. He kept his feet resting next to Pam's thigh (he thought), his leg still brushing hers. Talking helped distract from the tension eating him up inside, and if she wanted to talk too, he'd go with it. "Frank and Mary gave me the legal heave-ho when the Right picked me up. Ward of the state, right here."
Simon frowned, even as he worked, numbing Pam's arm so he could set it properly. "I didn't realize. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be sorry," Tommy shook his head at Simon. "They sucked anyway, and I really wouldn't be shocked if they were the ones who arranged the hand-over. We're all better off." And the more he said that, the closer he might get to a day when his heart didn't ache when he did. "You're doing okay?" he asked Pam, more quietly.
"Yeah, I'm good," she replied, relaxing a little as whatever Simon was doing started to kick in and the pain receded. "And it sounds like they sucked even more than mine did - I'm pretty sure mine didn't have anything to do with me getting taken, at least." It would've been hard for them to, considering she hadn't seen them in months by then, but whatever. At least she had that. "It's going numb," she informed Simon, remembering only belatedly that he probably already knew.
He smiled softly, not bothering to try and meet her gaze, since he couldn't. Carefully, he began to move the pieces of bone back into place, using his sight as he connected each of the small bones to one another once again. "Good. You'll feel some pressure. Just try and keep your wrist still until I get the cast on."
What now? Tommy wasn't exactly interested in talking about his parents any more than that, and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask Pam about hers with Simon there. "How long is she going to have to be in a cast?" Billy'd been in one for a couple of weeks - had it been longer? He wasn't sure - but if Pam still had some kind of healing happening under the radar, it might be different. Hopefully it would be different. "Can I sign it?" he asked her, flashing a grin at the empty space between him and Simon.
Having make a sound affirming that she'd understood Simons instructions, Pam let out a slightly shaky laugh in response to Tommy's comment. "Sure. If you can find it, you can sign it. Can't wait to see what you wrote once it's visible." She turned her attention back to Simon. "Gotta second the question about the cast, though. How long? And how do I get it off, seeing as I'm guessing Baldy's going to revoke my hall pass here after this?"
"I'm going to need to check the progress of the healing in the break from time to time, but you can do that whenever you're comfortable. Most casts can come off after about six weeks, but since I can tell whether you'll still need it better than any imaging machine, it will likely be shorter. As for your 'hall pass', whether or not Xavier wants to refuse you use of the Danger Room, the infirmary is always open to mutants - we'll never refuse to help. I can help you get it off when you're ready," Simon told her.
"You think he'll kick you out of class?" Tommy asked, frowning. "I've done a lot of stupid shit here and I haven't even come close to figuring out his break point."
"C'mon, the psycho terrorist girl just lost it and stabbed one of the nice pretty students," Pam reasoned, responding to Tommy's question first. "What do you think?" Awkwardly, she fished in her pocket with her good hand, pulled out her phone, and set it on the futon beside her as she turned back to Simon. "Can you put your number in, maybe? I can call and see if you're around rather than just show up."
Simon nodded, then spent several minutes, setting the liner and fiberglass. When he was finished, he washed his hands with some wipes, then added his number to her phone. "You should be able to shower and bathe with it. Let me know if you feel like it's too tight or you're having any problems with it."
"I will, once I can feel it." Pam smiled a little as she got to her feet, took her phone from Simon's hand and, figuring that was warning enough of her location, stood on tip toe and leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks." She turned back towards Tommy, invisible smile fading. "You coming back with me? I should probably let Lance and Wanda know." Which, yeah. Not looking forward to that. Either they were going to be pissed - or worse, they weren't.
Tommy could sort-of figure out where she was and what she was doing by the shift of weight on the couch and by Simon's reactions, but it didn't do much to ease the rest of his tension. Watching the plaster vanish as it got inside Pam's power radius had been kind of cool, mind you. "I can't see who you're talking to, but I'm gonna assume it's me," he replied dryly. "Unless Simon's been hanging out with you guys as well."
"Pretty sure Simon's not interested in visiting the base, so it must be you." The light around Pam flickered a little as she stepped back over to wrap her good arm around Tommy and snuggle in against him, but she didn't notice. "Besides," she reasoned, "Wanda'll be in a better mood if you're there."
"I am not interested in visiting the base," Simon conceded.
"Using me to make mom chill out?" Tommy joked, though he'd have no way of knowing whether Pam was smiling at that or not. "I'm usually more of a problem than helpful at making hard conversations go easier, but if you need a buffer zone, I'll come."
"Actually, I'd kind of like you around to help calm Alex down?" Pam admitted. "But making Wanda chill wouldn't suck, either." She looked over at Simon as she opened a portal. "Thanks again, Simon. Send me the bill, huh?"
He raised a brow at the emptiness. "There's no bill."
Oh yeah, he was a great conversationalist. Tommy had to admit - grudgingly - that his bedside manner hadn't been awful, and he hadn't tried to collect samples from either of them (as far as Tommy could tell), but that wasn't enough to fix all of Tommy's doubts. Not in the slightest. Tommy got to his feet and headed toward the portal, going slower than usual so that he didn't end up tackling Pam through it. "If you find any of my hairs in here once we're gone, burn 'em," he pointed at Simon, not entirely taking the order seriously. (not completely a joke either, but yeah.) "I've had enough clone bullshit in my life already without you growing more."
"Trust me when I say that I don't think anyone at this school wants another one of you running around," Simon told him wryly as he cleaned up the mess on his desk.
Pam rolled her eyes - almost visibly, as the light around her was flickering regularly as she calmed down. "Leaving now?"
Tommy bit back the comment on his tongue, and nodded. "Yeah. Leaving now." He stepped through the portal, then turned to look back.
Simon gave the other teen a small nod, then watched as the portal disappeared from the room. "Well," he muttered softly to himself, "now I'm treating terrorists."
"Ugggh." Pam flopped down on her bed once they reached her room, holding the portal open only as long as it took Tommy to come though. "I wonder if I can get away with saying she got me first?" Probably not, and she wasn't sure if she would even if she could - it seemed pretty unfair to do to Jeanne, even if she had broken her wrist. But it was tempting, just because admitting the truth was going to suck.
She was flickering again, which Tommy took as a good sign. At least insofar as he could flop down on the bed beside her and be relatively sure he wasn't going to land on top of her in a definitely unsexy way. "Yeah, I don't think that's going to be an easy lie to pull off. Not unless Jeanne agrees to take the fall, and getting stabbed probably didn't endear you to her."
He flipped over to lie on his stomach, feet hanging off the side of the bed. "But look. You're a trained assa- fighter, got in a bad spot, and instinct took over. I'd take that explanation if I were Wanda."
Pam sighed and rolled over onto her stomach as well, rested her chin on her good hand and stared up at the headboard. And said nothing for a while before replying with, "No. I'm a fucked up lab rat who lost it and stabbed her so I wouldn't get in trouble for losing the fight too soon. I'm not going to fool anyone, they know it anyway. I just thought..." she shrugged. "I thought I had it together." Or at least, more so than this.
It was more insight into her time in the lab than he'd had before, and Tommy rolled that factoid around in his brain before filing it away. She still wasn't solid, flickering in and out, but he could see her well enough to rest his hand on the small of her back. "That's still not your fuck-up," he insisted firmly. "It's something awful that got stuck in your head because of the shit you went through. It'll take time to shake it all out again."
"It's been over a year." She turned her head to look at Tommy hoping that he was looking at her and that he could see her enough to make it count. "It felt like it was yesterday. I'm sick of needing a babysitter."
He was looking at her when he caught a glimpse of her eyes staring back at him, and something weird hurt inside his chest. "I get that." He didn't, not really, but he wanted to and that had to be close enough. "I still freak out at stuff and they only had me a few months. You were there a lot longer, so logically it's gonna take longer to get rid of it."
He could see her. Pam let out a sigh that was nothing but pure relief, and the light around her dissipated more, though she kept her eyes locked on his like a lifeline. "I guess," she admitted, belatedly remembering they'd been talking. "But I've been insisting I don't need one. And yeah, guess what." She made a face, and shrugged.
"Whatever, people make mistakes." Tommy snorted derisively. "I make dumb and potentially fatal choices on a regular basis, and no-one's assigned me a watcher."
"Lucky you." Fatale made a face at him, shifted a little closer, and turned her head so she was once again looking at the wall. "Anyway, whatever. I should probably get it over with before my wrist starts throbbing again."
Looking away usually meant 'go away,' but she'd moved closer at the same time, so Tommy gave up trying to figure out what she actually wanted. What did he know about being comforting, anyway? She was getting more visible, though, and that was good. So he looped his arm lightly around her waist and stayed where he was. "You sure?"
"No. I'd rather stay here until they hunt me down," she admitted. "But it'd probably be better if I give Lance a head's up before he gets a phone call from your boss. That way he can at least say he already chewed me out."
He nodded, restlessness settling in along his nerves as the stress from dealing with Simon Tam finally started to ebb away. "Did you actually want me to come along for that?"
"Nah, it's cool." She turned her head and offered a tired, faint attempt at a smile. "Sorry to drag you cross-state. I just..." Didn't want to be alone, invisible. Wanted someone to talk to, who she knew wasn't there because she needed a keeper. Both were true, but both sounded lame, so ultimately, she just shrugged. "Thanks. For sticking."
Tommy echoed her smile back, his fingers tapping out an unconscious rhythm against her hip even as he tried his best to stay still. "Any time. I can stick around for a while, if you want." He'd probably do a few laps of the area, mind you, shake the itch off his feet, but he'd be back long before she'd ever notice.
Pam huffed out a faint laugh. "Go. Move," she instructed, referring to the way he was tapping on her. Fucking speedsters. "But yeah. Come back?" She smirked. "If you want, you can grab some money from the jar in the kitchen and bring back pizza. Not sure anyone's been grocery shopping."
"Cool. I got it." His relief at being released was practically full-bodied, the restlessness harder to keep in check the longer he lay there with nothing to pull his focus. He pressed his lips against her forehead then jumped off the bed. "Any special requests?"
It was on the tip of her tongue to reply she'd eat anything - true, because what choice had she had? - but she stopped before blurting it out. "Pepperoni?" she asked hopefully as she sat up and then got to her feet, because hey, he was asking, right? And she had a broken wrist - one way or another, she figured that earned her the right to pick the toppings. "And no pineapple or anchovies."
"Done and done." And before the walls could close in on him too much more, Tommy zipped through the door and away.