ax_main | Simon and Nolan

Nolan checks in with the resident mutant diagnostician.

Nolan had already been prodded by a lot of very highly paid doctors and nurses, of course, and he might have said that he had had quite enough of that for the near future. But even with the resident body-reading mutant, more usual exams were still strongly encouraged, and so he found himself in the infirmary that morning, even before he was to meet Simon Tam there. He had dressed in a red shirt and white trousers, a color scheme that seemed to fit the morning's theme, and he went through the necessary exams with as much good grace as he could summon (which, thankfully, was quite a lot). He was complimenting Sharon Friedlander on her bedside manner by the time someone looking quite like Simon Tam's icon on the social network showed up.

Nolan bid the nurse goodbye as she excused herself to go into an office, and he turned to the other boy. "Simon Tam? I'm Nolan Ross," he introduced himself, holding a hand out for a shake, before thinking better of it and pulling it back with a wince. "Sorry, habit." He sounded - and was - genuinely sorry.

Nice way to be completely insensitive right off the bat, Nolan.

Simon waved it off. "You're not the only one, including myself. It's been an adjustment."

"Thank you," Nolan told him. For not holding it against him. He looked around, winced, then asked, "Would you mind if we got some privacy?" He would rather not discuss his condition where everyone could walk in and overhear.

"Exam room or my lab?" Simon asked carefully. Some people might not prefer one over the other.

"Whatever you'd prefer," Nolan answered honestly. As long as it was private, it was good enough for Nolan.

Simon nodded, then turned to lead Nolan down a short hall into his lab - a rather state-of-the-art medical facility. It was technically Dr. MacTaggart's lab, but since she was gone so often, Simon minded it for her, and in return was allowed to pursue his own research using her equipment and samples. He turned on the lights as they entered, then pulled out two stools from the nearby counter-workspace.

"Thank you." Nolan sat when Simon did, focusing his gaze back on the other boy, instead of their surroundings. "I don't suppose the Professor or the medical staff have told you anything about me?"

He actually trusted their confidentiality, but he had very little idea to what extent Simon might not be part of the medical staff. Besides, if he could get out of telling someone else about it, he gladly would.

"No," Simon admitted as he took a seat. "I'm still only pre-med, and not part of the medical team here. I just help now and again with the small stuff and administrative functions. For the most part I stay in here, continuing research on the X-gene."

"And your mutation - you only need to touch people, and voilà, exhaustive data on their bodies?" Nolan would not normally pry about someone's mutation, but he really would like to know more before, well, shaking Simon's hand on this, so to speak.

Simon gave a short nod. "Yes. That's the long and the short of it."

"Right." Well, then. Nolan took a breath. No more delaying telling that wonderful story again. "My mutation is precognitive. I've been having uncannily good instincts for a couple of years, but it's finally," the word rang with irony, "manifested full force. Visions - that my brain can't process. I have seizures, and I'm told there's already been damage - much like the sort an epileptic would suffer."

Simon sat back a bit, taking that in. "To be honest, I'm surprised that more mutants don't suffer from this sort of neurological issue. I have intense migraines myself, resulting from my own power." Precognition. He wasn't sure he could even wrap his head around that at the moment. Perhaps that was why Nolan was having such a hard time with it himself.

"You're certain that this is precognition and not hallucinations brought on by epilepsy?" he asked, just for good measure.

"Well, if they are, they're hallucinations that come unfortunately true," Nolan replied, all soft snark and not-that-amused smile. Two out of the three of them, at last. Maybe that ridiculous one involving Shinobi and robots was a hallucination. A thought both comforting and worrying.

Simon nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. So where do I come into this?"

"Medical technology is amazing, but it sounds as though your understanding of any person's physiology is... well, nothing short of revolutionary," Nolan stated simply, honestly. "I'd be deeply appreciative if you would have a look, and see if you can figure out any way to help. Before more damage happens. I like my brain."

He hadn't quite told Simon the whole truth about the potential for damage - the very real risk of brain death he had been told about - but it was still difficult to put into words. The short of it was that he was ready to try anything, and that included trusting another teenage mutant. But the way he saw it, teenage mutants were the future. If he was going to trust anyone, it might as well be one of them.

"I can do my best. I'm not cleared to perform any procedures, mind you," Simon told him, "but I can get you a clearer diagnosis and perhaps direct Dr. MacTaggart to help you in a way that might be more targeted than your previous treatments."

"That was my hope," Nolan confirmed with a nod, glad that they were on the same page. The very sound of the word 'procedure' was terrifying, however, and he was glad not to linger on that particular topic.

Simon took a deep breath. "Alright then." He held out a hand, palm up. "Ready when you are."

Nolan held back the natural rejoinder - if we're waiting on me being ready, we might wait a long time - and instead took a deep breath, then put his hand in Simon's. He'd never been quite this nervous about holding a boy's hand before, which was saying a lot.

The nerves were immediately obvious, so Simon closed his eyes, just so Nolan wouldn't feel like he was being examined. Even though, naturally, he was. Fortunately, he didn't need to take very long. He found the damage almost immediately, and he suddenly understood the reason for the nerves. Nolan hadn't been completely forthright regarding the danger he was inevitably looking at. Granted, Simon was certain that no neurosurgeon on Earth could completely understand Nolan the way that he could, and not just because of his scanning ability. He was a mutant too, and he understood the strain it put on the brain. Nolan's was just putting far more strain on him than he could effectively handle.

After about ten seconds of silence - far longer than Simon needed, but he'd wanted to make sure - he looked up and took his hand away. "Have you been having any memory lapses at all?"

Nolan brought his hand back to himself when Simon released it, tangling his own fingers together in his lap. He wanted to joke it off, but couldn't think of anything to say that didn't make him want to throw up, so he settled on telling Simon the truth immediately, without hiding behind a layer of snark, first. "The odd memory, here and there."

Everything about this made him want to throw up.

Simon nodded, then seeing the look on his face, leaned forward to catch Nolan's gaze. "Look, there's damage to your hippocampus. I'm not going to go 'round in circles about that. That's why your memory is being affected. However, none of the damage already done is irreversible yet. With the right treatment of medication, you could be just fine. The problem is finding what medication works for you, and figuring out why your visions are causing this kind of damage."

Hippocampus. Nolan had been doing his fair share of reading on the brain, ever since he had had his first seizure-slash-vision, and visit to a neurosurgeon, so Simon's words actually meant something very real to him. He nodded in acknowledgment of the link to his memory, but the next piece of news was something no doctor had been able to give him so far. The assurance that nothing was irreversible yet. Something unlocked in his lungs, with the unfurling of a new emotion - hope. He focused on breathing for a few more seconds, but couldn't sit still and stood up from the stool and took a few steps away, as much to move as to hide the full range of his emotional reaction from Simon.

Opening up to people was not his strong suit.

He stood with his back to Simon for a few seconds, then turned back to him and gave him a small, hopeful smile, falling short of displaying his usual kind of nonchalance. "Any suggestions?"

"Like I said, I'm still only pre-med, but if I had to guess, the precognition is setting off visions that your hippocampus is having trouble processing. The hippocampus handles spatial and verbal memory, but more importantly, it serves in learning conceptual information. It's probably not conditioned to keep up with how your visions are structured. Thus, it's unable to transfer all the information from the visions to the neocortex for solidification of the memories. That could be what's causing the seizures and brain damage," Simon suggested. He remained on the stool for the time being, letting Nolan have his space. He was completely familiar with the idea of handling emotions a little bit at a time.

That was a lot of information, but nothing that Nolan could handle - if not for the emotions associated with the entire thing. He nodded, taking his time processing it all, both information and emotion. "But you think the right drugs could help?" he ended up asking, going back to what Simon had said before.

"There are several anti-seizure medication that could help there - Carbamazepine comes to mind. And something to help regenerate neuron activity too. It might take a little while to find the right combination - Dr. MacTaggart could help. But the real issue is that your mind seems to be having trouble dealing with the visions themselves," Simon pointed out. "And there's no anti-vision medication out there, trust me. I've looked. Hell, I experimented. What you need is a way to deal with them as a mutant."

Nolan waved a hand to dismiss Simon's belief that he needed to convince him. "If I thought that medical solutions were enough to cure me, trust me, I wouldn't be here. Professor Xavier seems to think he can help on that front - and I seem to believe him." He wanted to, anyway. "If we can attenuate the damage until he can teach my brain to handle the visions, that's all I ask."

Simon nodded. "If you're agreeable, I'll let the medical team know what I found."

"Please," Nolan confirmed, and swallowed, nodded confirmation. This was too important for a simple agreement. 'Please' it had to be.

"For what it's worth," Simon told him, "everything I saw is entirely confidential. It's like I have medical records in my head. I'm not going to release that kind of information without your approval."

"I was hoping as much," Nolan admitted. "But thank you. For confirming it." It did lift a weight from his shoulders.

Simon rose to his feet. "Let me know - if there's anything else I can do. I can also take regular scans just to keep an eye on the damage."

"I'll come and see you after the next vision," Nolan agreed. How he hoped it would never come. But no, that wasn't true. He was thankful for at least one of them. The first one he could have done without, and the one about Shinobi was simply useless. Still, if one out of three visions was as helpful as the one about his PA had been, he only wished that he could handle them without the nasty side effects. Like potential brain death. "Unless you think even more regular scans might be beneficial?"

Simon shook his head. "No, I think after your visions is sufficient."

"Good," Nolan stated. His relief did not show in his voice, but it was real. He did not need to undergo so complete a scan more often than was necessary. He had no doubt that the evidence of his having been bullied for years was written over his body, but it was all best left in the past.

But relief or not, he looked Simon straight in the eye as he added, "Thank you for your help."

Simon nodded. "Any time. Take care of yourself."

Nolan nodded, but didn't turn away just yet. "If there's any way I can repay you..."

Simon started to shake his head, then paused, looking thoughtful. "Actually. You could do me a favor."

"Of course," Nolan answered, although that entirely depended on the favor Simon was about to ask.

"You're friends with Shaw," Simon suggested. "He's...not fond of me, I think, though that's a usual reaction to first impressions when I'm around. But...he knows my father, and I need to make sure that Shinobi doesn't tell him I'm a mutant. My father can't find out yet."

That was no easy ask, and part of Nolan wished that Simon had asked him for money instead. Not, of course, that he seemed to need it, from the way he dressed. "I'll do my best," was the most Nolan could promise. He wanted to believe that Shinobi would not do this to a fellow mutant, but his friend had too often stressed that he could not be trusted when his interests came into play, and who knew what the circumstances were. "My very best."

Simon sighed. "Thank you. That's all I ask."

"Not a problem." It was, a little, in more ways than just the obvious fact that Nolan did not like to ask Shinobi for more than he had already done for him. It was also a problem in the way that it might force Nolan to face some less than savory aspects of his friend. But he would do it regardless, and so, it was officially not a problem. "And here's to hoping I don't have to come back down here to see you too quickly."

Simon nodded. "Agreed."