"Good job I know where it is" She smiled, tucking the note into another pocket before turning on her heel. There was…noise coming from the kitchen as she approached it. Laughter and chatter, the sound of many people gathered together. She smiled when she poked her head around the door. Henry, her Henry, was sat, tired looking, on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, a huge beaming grin on his face as he chattered to the people around him, youngsters mainly, students. They all seemed to want to talk to him at the same time. She leant against the doorframe, watching as someone passed him a Twinkie,
"Aaah, I knew I could count on you Daniel" Hank beamed, tearing the wrapper off and stuffing the thing in his mouth whole,
"Great minds think a like" A boy with thick black rimmed glasses grinned back. Laughter bounced around the room,
"We thought you'd be sick of hospital food by now, Doc" Someone else piped up. Isabelle snorted – Did unlimited Twinkies and mars bars count as hospital food? – "so we clubbed together and brought you a box"
"Oh joy" Hank crowed as a box was placed on the table before him, "a veritable crate!" He paused with his hands on it, "I do hope you don't think this is an easy way to gain extra credit" Laughter burst again,
"As if we'd do such a thing Doc" The boy with the rimmed glasses grinned,
"But if you feel it's a bribe we'll be happy to take it back" One of the girls grinned,
"No, no that's fine" Hank said hastily, "I'll just, er, look after them until the exams are finished, ok?"
"You're always saving us from temptation, Dr McCoy" More laughter,
"And you're always forcing Dr McCoy to give in to it" A stern voice said, they turned, en masse, to see Ororo closing the screen door behind her as she entered in from the gardens,
"Not exactly forcing, Miss Monroe" The one called Daniel grinned cheekily, "merely…cajoling" Storm bit back a grin in reply,
"Cajoling temptation, hmm. Hadn't you all better be heading off to your next class?" She said pointedly. There was a general groan and the students started filing out past Isabelle. Hank noticed her standing in the doorway and smiled guiltily, "what are you doing out of bed Hank?" Ororo asked, sitting down beside him,
"Good question" Isabelle murmured as she came into the room. Henry McCoy, PhD, looked down at the ice cream covered spoon in his hand,
"Um…hungry?" He grinned boyishly, like a child wanting to get out of a telling off. Isabelle rolled her eyes, unable to fight away an answering grin,and sat beside him and was promptly fed a spoonful of vanilla ice cream,
"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you" Bobby said in exasperated tones as he walked in, "hey, my ice cream-"
"You ate my last tub" Hank said in self defence, curling an arm around the tub,
"You traitor! That's beside the point you-"
"Are they always like this?" Isabelle asked, smiling a little as she watched the two grown men squabble over the ice cream,
"Most of the time" Ororo sighed tiredly,
"-get an extra spoon then, I'm not letting you eat off mine" Hank snapped as they turned back. Bobby stuck his tongue out,
"You let Isabelle" He murmured rebelliously on his way to fetch a spoon,
"Quite but I haven't had your tongue in my mouth before now have I?" Isabelle choked, going red at Hanks unexpected statement. The Doctors grin mirrored Bobbys, "sorry"
"No problem" She replied, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her as Bobby giggled around his spoon after taking an extortionate amount of ice cream from the tub in Hanks arms,
"What did you want to see me for?" Ororo asked patiently,
"Oh. Yeah" The Iceman tucked his spoon behind his ear, "DVD, the Sphinx thing, can we have it?"
"For tests, we've found something that might help considering Cyber couldn't find any prints on it" Isabelle explained a little more eloquently, Ororo raised a questioning eyebrow, "Bobby found Hanks plans for a DNA scanning device" She turned to face the Doctor, "I presume you've actuallybuilt it considering we found the instructions?"
"Yes I did. 'We'? 'We found the instructions'?" Hank blushed a little,
"Yeah we scaled the paper mountains of your room" Bobby grinned, "The mysterious and friendly Cleaning Woman sorted it all out for you"
"Er...I did mean to clean that up" Hank cleared his throat,
"Oh of course you were" Isabelle smiled, "but no doubt the words you were reallylooking forwere 'thank you oh so much Isabelle for sorting out my papers despite the mould and spiders, let me express my gratitude by telling you if these instructions are correct and kissing you senseless" She smiled, laying the book out on the table, open at the right page. Hank scanned over the book, putting his glasses on, holding the page open with one hand whilst dragging her onto his lap with the other,
"Do you have a pen?" He asked absently,
"Here" Ororo handed over a biro and Hank scribbled and re-sketched pieces, "he's a regular Picasso when he gets going" She smiled at Isabelle's awed expression. Hank finished and handed the pen back, practically throwing the book at Bobby. The Iceman just caught it,
"Hardly Picasso" Hank said depreciatively, "now" The glasses were allocated to his top pocket, "I believe you said something about a kiss?"
"Oh gross!" Bobby crowed, practically falling off his seat, "come on 'Ro, lets get this thing set up" He tugged the white haired woman from the room, "it'll be more fun than watching those two drool over each other!"
"I don't drool!" Hank shouted with his mouth full, both of them grinning at Bobbys last cry,
"Gross!"
