!Warning - Some Medical Drama!

"No," she says, "Again."

I've been lapsing for hours. She's only seen a few minutes. I'm liking this one-on-one less and less.

"Why?" I ask her. I'm incredibly frustrated. "Why does this have to be perfect?"

"You need to learn to follow directions," Jean says, "When it's a life or death situation, we need to know you're disciplined enough to handle it."

"But you aren't giving me enough information!"

"I gave you all the information you need, Lapse. You just weren't listening."

"But I'm listening now!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself. Try again."

I snap my fingers. She started telling me to get a pair of shoes from a closet. I didn't think she meant a specific pair. I froze and ran off after she finished telling me where the closet was, and didn't hear the shoes' description when I came back. I was much too smug at getting them so fast to listen.

Now, unfortunately, I realize why there are so many shoes in the closet. She knew I liked to jump the gun and wanted to teach me something. I go back and forth, in the house, up the stairs, to the left, closet at the end, down the hall, down the stairs, out of the house, across the yard, nope wrong shoes, do it again. My legs ache from running the first few times, but now I'm taking my time.

"No," she says sternly, "Again."

"But Miss Grey..."

"You did this to yourself, Lapse."

I'm starting to feel a bit queasy.

"Miss Grey, I-"

"Lapse, you must be almost finished. Just a few more, all right?"

I snap my fingers and do it again. I take some red heels from the pile. I take a pause to sit a frozen student on the stairs. All work and no play makes Lapse a dull girl. I hide down a flight to watch his reaction, then freeze again and continue on my assignment. But as I go down the stairs, I feel a sudden dizziness. I clutch the rail as my knees grow weak.

I close my eyes. My head is thick with my heartbeat. I feel better after a few seconds leaning against the wall. Then, I stand up straight again and everything goes black.

The noises have a fuzzy quality to them. "Lapthhhh?"

"Uh huuuuuuh?" I groan. My head feels like there's a bunch of chopped and wilted lettuce stuffed inside.

"Lapse?"

It's Scarlett.

I try to tell her about the lettuce. I see her look away from me and to a girl beside her. "I need you to get a professor. Anyone." She sounds urgent.

I scold her for not listening to me.

"Just try to relax, OK?" she says to me, "Can you tell me what happened?"

I scrunch my eyebrows up as tightly as I possibly can to try and pull the thoughts together. My head hurts a lot. I reach up to touch the pain and notice the blood.

"Holy shoooooot," I say dumbly, "Oh no! Someone's bleeding!"

Scarlett looks at me with a deep concern.

"All right, Lapse, you need to lie down." Suddenly she starts shouting. "I need someone to help me get her all the way down the stairs!"

Someone I recognize pushes through the crowd.

"Hey!" I say, "It's whatshisface."

"Lapse?" Coleton says, shocked.

"Help me, whatshisface."

Scarlett, Coleton, and some random dude lift me and lay me on a couch. Jean Grey is suddenly there.

"All right everyone, move back," she says, "I'll handle this from here."

I see Coleton, Scarlett, and now Blossom and myself hanging around after everyone files away.

"Whoa," I say of myself, "Someone invited me to the party."

I reach up to touch my head where Jean inspects it. "What happened," she asks.

"Um," Scarlett says quietly, "I think she fell down the stairs. She got knocked out. She didn't bleed a lot, pretty much just what you see there."

Jean looks back at the group. "You're all friends of her's." It's not a question. "I need someone to get me a first aid kit. There's one in the kitchen, one in the bathrooms, one in the shower room, whichever's easiest."

Blossom scurries away. Samantha follows her out.

"How are you feeling Lapse?"

"Well," I say. I take a deep breath. "I'm pretty darn sure someone filled my head with wilted lettuce when I wasn't looking. Plus, I don't know where the shoes I had went, so I'll never know if they were the right ones. Also, I think I found my Lapse limit, because I did a think and made someone sitting on the stairs but when I re-froze it I was like 'Whoa!' and then I was like, 'OK,' but then I stood up and then I was telling Scarlett about the lettuce."

I run out of air by the end, but I consider it an accomplishment that I made such a long speech all one breath. It's probably a record or something.

Jean nods the whole way through. "Scarlett, are you sure that's all the blood she lost?"

"Yeah."

"We need to check for a concussion. I need you to go to the professor and ask him to get Lucent in here."

"Lucent, got it." Coleton and Scarlett run off. Blossom and Sam come back with the first aid kit, and Jean gets to work cleaning my head. She puts a sticky bandage on just as Professor Xavier comes in. Coleton pushes his wheelchair. Behind Scarlett comes a meaty teenager. He looks like he could win a football game by himself.

He carefully inspects my skull and Xavier thanks him for his time. He runs off without ever saying a word.

"She'll be fine. There's no cranial swelling."

"Oh good," I say. Everyone looks at me. I sit up.

"You're feeling better?" Blossom asks with hesitation.

"Yeah. I think so. Did you see if I got the right shoes?"

"Lapse, you're holding them."

I look down to see my fingers curled around the heels of the cherry-red shoes.

"Well, did I finish?"

Jean laughs. "No."

The Professor suggests I froze too many times in one day.

"Time can only be disturbed so much. You're lucky it shut off when you went unconscious. If there had been a serious problem you might have died inside your Lapse."

"Actually," I say, "I'm pretty sure I snapped my fingers when I woke up. Or maybe before I fell. I don't know for sure, it's sort of foggy."

He looks concerned.

"Let's not push her as hard next time, Jean. She probably knows her own limits."

She looks at me apologetically and helps Professor X out of the room. Sam and Blossom help me up and watch me carefully as I walk to my room. I feel fine now, albeit thirsty. Sam runs for water upon hearing this.

"I swear, I'm fine." I tell Blossom. We've reached my door. "I can't possibly be the only one who's pushed themselves too far, mutations-wise."

"No," she says, "But you hit your head too. And you fell down the stairs."

"I guess. I feel OK now, though, Blossom. Honestly."

Sam brings me the glass of water I asked for and I swallow it nearly all at once.

"Thank you," I say with a smile. I invite them in. Blanc is out. Her bed's a mess and there's stuff on the floor on her side of the room. My side is a neat mess. My dirty clothes are in a basket, my books are stacked nicely on the floor by my bed, and my shoes are lined in pairs near the wall.

We small talk for a while. The sun starts to make the walls orange as it goes lower outside. Blanc eventually comes in. Her hair is in a towel turban and she smells like flowers.

"Hello Blossom. Samantha."

They greet her, then excuse themselves. As soon as the door clicks closed behind them, the smile on Blanc's face falls away.

She looks sadly at me.

"Can I take you up on that Lapsing offer?"

I close my eyes and consider my incident only a little while earlier. I feel Ok now, though.

"Sure."