I Hate Mondays
Chapter 12: Doctor
By
Anything but ordinary3
And
The Uncanny R-Man
Disclaimer- All familiar characters belong to Marvel. Helia belongs to Anything but ordinary3.
Author's note- Terribly sorry about the lack of an update, writer's block can be such a bitch sometimes. Fortunately, we're back and ready to inject some action into this baby. Enjoy!
Cecelia Reyes' new surgery, the Bronx-
"Well it is quite remarkable, Cecilia. I commend you." Hank said, casting another glance around the sterile examination room.
"Thank you. I could never have achieved it without the financial backing of the professor and your sage advice." Cecilia said with a hint of pride as she glanced around her new doctor's surgery. "My offer still stands if you ever change my mind. I could put your mind to great use. After all, who knows more about mutantkind than you?"
Hank chuckled good-naturedly "I thank you, Cecilia. I am willing to continue aiding you in an advisory capacity but I feel my capabilities are best served teaching new mutants."
"As opposed to giving medical aid to mutants who find it difficult to find doctors, who have no Charles Xavier to turn to?" Cecilia pointed out evenly.
"You always did speak sense." Hank conceded "Truth be told, I don't feel ready to retire just yet; active service on the team nor teaching. The institute has been my home, the dream; my life, for so long that I can't imagine giving it up. I have tried before but I can't stay away for long."
"Well if you change your mind…"
"I shall hunt you down and thrust myself upon you."
"Henry McCoy...that could be seen as rude." Cecilia said in mock horror.
Hank flushed slightly "That wasn't…ah…that is to say…"
"Get your mind out of the gutter." Bobby said walking through the door, Helia on his shoulders.
"Nice joint Cecilia. But if you will excuse me, Hank here is your delivery, I shall catch you all later."
"Oh, what a shame." Cecilia commented dryly.
"Dr Reyes, babe. You know you love me and this little show of disdain is fooling no one."
"Bite me."
"It would be my pleasure." Bobby shot back with a smile.
Cecilia shook her head as the Bobby disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. "What's all that about?"
"Robert agreed to go shopping with Emma today, he said he would drop Helia off on the way to town." Hank filled her in as Helia regarded Cecilia with curiosity.
"And who might you be?" Cecilia asked crouching down so she was on eye level with the small girl.
"Helia." Hank's daughter said shyly, hanging on to her father's trouser leg, thumb firmly planted in mouth.
"Nice to meet you, honey. What do you think of my new surgery?"
"It's white." Helia replied after a few moments thought.
Cecilia chuckled, straightening up "Is she the daughter you told me about in you email?"
Hank ruffled his daughter's hair proudly "Indeed she is."
"Fancy a coffee?" She asked leading him through a hall of white tiles and cream paint, into more cosy living quarters.
Meanwhile-
Bobby looked at his watch wondering where Emma had gotten to; she had passed fashionably late about twenty minutes ago and was now traversing the road to no show.
When she did arrived forty-five minutes late Bobby was getting ready to leave.
"Robert. I hope I haven't kept you." She said in a voice that implied she didn't care in the least that he had been kept waiting.
"Oh no don't you worry your pretty blonde head about it. I enjoy standing like a spare part outside a woman's lingerie shop for forty-five minutes. It's a hobby of mine." The sarcasm was thicker than the Blob's thigh.
"Well we all know about your perversions Bobby, we don't need further elaboration." Emma said coolly, evidently not impressed with his sarcasm.
Bobby just gulped. Emma's frostiness put him on edge. He wished he was on an intellectual par with her like Hank, or that she was easy going and fun like Tigra and Cecilia.
He sighed submissively. "Lead the way."
Outside Cecelia's surgery-
He moved through the bushes careful to keep his self concealed, watching; waiting. He would strike when the first opportunity proved itself. The plan was ingenious.
'That's it charlatan, you get cosy. Ignore what the brat is doing.' He thought to himself darkly.
He moved slightly closer to the window, not close enough to be noticed but just the right proximity in which to watch the movements of his target.
Deep resonating laughter filtered through the glass windowpane with crystal clearness. That laugh irritated the outsider like sharp nails on a chalkboard. He was glad he would be the one to kill the laughter and give rise to howls of pain, call it his malicious side.
It was as much as he could do to stop an evil chuckle of delight bubble forth from his lips.
Inside-
"I envy you Cece, you always knew what you wanted and have never let anything—even the fact you are a mutant—stand in your way." Hank said with more admiration than jealousy. "Whenever I tried to do something like this and extricate from all this superhero-ing malarkey something emerges to suck me right back into it again."
Cecilia looked at him over her glasses sedately. "You obviously didn't want it that much."
Hank looked like he was going to protest but she cut him off with a look before continuing.
"That was not a dig Henry more an observation. Being a doctor is just a slice of what you are. Doing what you do means you get to do many other things too. You go on adventures to the furthest reaches of space, you meet the most iconic and powerful people on earth for lunch. Then for tea you go home and act as agony uncle for your teammates before pottering off to the lab to tinker with the technology light years ahead of the Windows XP I am currently running on. This has been your life for what? Ten years or more."
Hank shrugged startled that it had been quite so long. He could remember his first night at the Xavier institute like it was yesterday.
He had achieved much in these years; a successful career in bio-chemistry, more degrees than anyone else he's met, fame and acceptance off of the back of his stint with the Avengers—money even. But there he was, living in the same place, amongst the same people (with a few additions that is) but he didn't have the things he had aimed to achieve when he used to sit at home in Dunfee, Illinois all those years ago.
He had wanted a family above all else and while he had just found a daughter he didn't know he had and whom he loved very much, he was still miles away from his ideal.
He sighed sadly.
"Don't be sad Henry. You do important work, you help many people. If you cut off just one little thread of that huge spider web of responsibility you just wouldn't be you. You're not ready to call it a day yet, you belong with the X-men." Cecilia laid a hand on his cheek softly "If you didn't do what you do I…"
Cecilia was not destined to finish her sentence then and there it seemed as a shriek of fear pierced the calm. The scream caused Cecilia to visibly blanch and froze her to the spot.
She could only murmur one thing. "Helia."
Hank however, acting on impulse and fired out of the window feet first. He would remember later that his thought upon doing so, was that he would have to write Dr Reyes a cheque as soon as the opportunity would present itself.
All thoughts of re-imbursement soon flew from his mind upon landing, poised for battle, on the soft grass to be faced by a very familiar adversary.
"Greetings, I do hope I haven't called at an inopportune time?" A cheery voice greeted him. "Don't worry I shall disappear post haste now I have what I came to claim."
Tauntingly Helia was prodded, making her eyes widen in terror as if screaming but no noise escaped her lips restricted as she was by the hand over her mouth and the arm wrapped around her neck.Back with Bobby and Emma-
Bobby tried to hide his look of relief from his shopping addicted captor as he heard the familiar chime of his 'Ren and Stimpy' ring tone.
He dropped the bags he was laden a little too eagerly to escape even the bluntest of knives to notice. Emma Frost, was by no means blunt knife. Indeed if she was to be compared to any such cutlery she would be a meat cleaver, reasonably sharp and tactless. Even when her natural intuition was having an off day she always had her mutant gift of telepathy to fall back on.
Today Emma needed no such mutant gift.
"Robert, exciting as I realise it must be to receive an incoming call—god knows no sane mind would want to ring you—but you could at least have been careful with my Louis Vuitton." Emma sniffed before mumbling to herself. "All I try and do is educate the un-educated, socialise the un-socialised, but do I get any thanks? No."
The look on Bobby's face as he spoke in hushed tones soon silenced her.
"Ok, I'll be there in five minutes. See if you can try and stall him till we get there. Shh Reyes, everything will be fine. You've faced worse when you hung with us."
After a quick good luck Bobby hung up the phone. He looked at Emma he's eyes devoid of their uncharacteristic good humour. "We need to get to Cecilia Reyes like yesterday. They have trouble. You got you're car?"
"Yes, driver's parked up the street." She said. "What's going on?"
Bobby began to stride hurriedly towards the car. "I'll tell you on the way, now shift your butt."
Emma huffed slightly at that. Who was he to talk to the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club like that? Hell, she was his boss. She had the fortitude to realise however; this was not a time to pull rank.
"But what about my stuff?" She called after him slightly pathetically before sighing.
She followed after him, feeling very much like a puppy trailing after its master when the roles were clearly meant to be reversed. Emma hoped that there was good reason for this, she would probe his mind but the thoughts were so unfocused, so hurried she decided to wait until he could fill her in; resigned, this once, not to be in control. For now anyway.
TBC…
Next: Villains
Who has kidnapped Helia? Will Hank and co. be able to rescue her? Tune in next time to find out…
