InsaneJournal

Current mood:	awake
Entry tags:	alec/jenny, interaction

Brighter
Alec was fully conscious now, completely and painfully aware of all the various drips in his arms and the fact he'd been admitted after his housemate had found him, which meant he had some serious apologising to do to Toby. So far the doctors couldn't explain his sudden collapse given his sudden and miraculous recovery to full health as if nothing had been wrong with him.

None of it made sense and they were still waiting on the results of the stuff the paramedics had brought in with Alec, hoping that it might reveal something about his strange illness.

Alec was looking forward to being able to sign himself out, he hated being a patient, hated lying around in bed when he could be doing something else, the only time to lie in bed was if you had someone else in it with you. He didn't and therefore he had no reason to stay where he was.

He drummed his fingers against the nearby railing and tipped his head, seeing if he could grab the interest of a passing nurse, maybe he could sweet talk her into letting him out of this bed. He was pretty sure he could do it.


Jenny was quietly wandering the hallways of the hospital, having come back in after seeing Alec, pacing the hallways as if she was terrified that she would see him in there. She had caught a nurse earlier and told her that there was a man in the waiting room who was going to die, but she had been shrugged off with a 'this is a hospital, honey, there's a lot of sick people in here' and less than five minutes later, the man had collapsed and Jenny had stood in the doorway and watched him die.

She wiped her eyes, still feeling them burning from the tears she had shed for him before she was moving through the upper floor. She was just glancing in each room, thinking that she would recognise Alec's aura when she saw it, it had been quite distinctive, after all, but there was always the possibility he wasn't in the hospital. What if he had died at home?

Her mind spinning on that possibility, she thoroughly upset herself at the idea that he had not only died at home, but that no one knew about it and she was distressed when she walked past Alec's room, head hanging, only to appear in the doorway again a couple of seconds later, having done an apparent double take. A smile curled on her lips and she walked in, all previous misery gone from her face, replaced by relief and genuine joy at seeing him.

And seeing him alive and well, the light around him sparkling and luminescent, the way it had been before.

"Hey there, Dr Reed." she greeted, wandering over to stand beside his bed, resting her hands on the edge of it. "You look much better than you did last time I saw you."

Alec turned his head at the sudden appearance of Jenny in his room and his lips curled into a smile. "Hey, Jenny." He paused for a moment and ran her greeting sentence back in his mind and he simply shook his head. "And how many times do I have to tell you that it's Alec?"

He reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I do, huh? I feel a lot better than the last time you saw me." Alec thought he'd spare her the ugly details of how that had come to be, it had been bad enough hearing it himself.

"You haunting the corridors again?"

"Like a creepy crazy person," Jenny said in answer to his question before she sat down on the edge of his bed, careful not to be touching any of the things sticking into him, or even him at all. "But Dr Reed sounds all official! If I call you Alec now, do I still get to call you Alec when you're at work? Or do you then become Dr Reed?"

She reached out and touched his shoulder, watching the goosebumps rise on her arm. "See? You're all better." As if that proved it completely. She rubbed at her arm and then tilted her head at him, seemingly regarding him closely before she added a moment later, "I think I need your phone number."

"I'm always Dr Reed when I'm at work unless I say otherwise," Alec said with a wink. He tipped his head at her, watching the goosebumps rise. "Why does that always happen when you touch me?" He was curious, genuinely curious.

The remark about the phone number brought about a surprised blink from Alec. "My phone number?" He chuckled softly and gave her a roguish smile. "Any particular reason? Not that I'm complaining mind you."

"Because you're special, Alec," Jenny said softly, adding his name along with a cheeky grin. Then she looked at her hand and rubbed her arm again, withdrawing her touch and the goosebumps disappeared. "Cause when I'm around people that are... uh, different, it affects me in a different way." She shrugged, "I met a vampire and it did that with him too, but you're not a vampire. I don't know how you're special... yet. You just are."

At Alec's questioning of her decision to have his phone number, she just smiled, huge and genuine and it caught in and lit up her eyes. "Well, what happens if I'm out some where and I need help? Or you need help? Or something bad happens? Or you want coffee? Or you don't believe me that you're special and I have to come and tell you all over again?" It was unapologetic, and yet, at the same time, oddly charming. Her innocence in these matters almost shining through.

"You keep saying that," Alec muttered as he looked at Jenny. "That I'm special, different. Wish I could believe it." Maybe he didn't want to, maybe he didn't want to be special or different, maybe he was scared of shaking up the reassuring words of the psychiatrist he'd seen for many years as a child - the very same who had managed to convince him everything was in his head.

He couldn't help but smile at Jenny's innocent remarks and then simply relented. "Fine, give me a pen and paper."

Jenny frowned a little, though the expression disappeared a couple of moments later. "You are, though. I never met anyone else special before, you look different too." She tilted her head, eyes taking in the glow around him that was so different to anyone else she had seen, even Connor and Avery. It meant he was different. She wondered if that was what she looked like, since she couldn't see her own aura reflected back at her.

She smiled back and ducked her head after a moment before she reached out and picked up the pad that sat beside Alec's table, generic hospital paper and the hospital-branded pen that sat beside it. She looked at for a moment, eyeing the paper before she held it out to Alec with a triumphant expression.

"It's the dimples," Alec said with a smirk. "Everybody loves them."

He chuckled a moment later and took the pen and paper from Jenny, scribbling his number along with his name on the slip so Jenny could take it away from her. "Just bear in mind I work stupid hours so if I don't answer, it doesn't mean I've keeled over."

Alec held the slip of paper out to Jenny. "And no prank calling me at some ungodly hour."

Jenny rolled her eyes and flicked his nose, still having little regard for personal space. It wasn't something she had experienced much of. "Different than the dimples, though they're cute too," she conceded. "I see things other people don't, remember?"

She looked at the number before she slid it into her pocket and stole the pen back off him, writing down her number too, "And when I get a cell phone, you can have that number too, but I don't have one at the moment." She was still trying to get her head around bills and having to pay for food and all that grown up stuff she had never had to do before.

Her lips twitched. "Aw, but that's no fun," she teased, trying to fight the smile that crept onto her face. She liked Alec. He made her smile. "You could always just get me back?"

"Ahh, of course." Alec nodded his head sagely, unaware of how out of control his hair had gotten without its usual regime of gel and strict control. He took Jenny's number and placed it on the table next to his bed. "I would put it in my pocket but I have no pockets to speak of, just a very... brief hospital gown." He pulled at the material with a sneer on his face. "I can see why the patients hate wearing these things."

He tipped his head at her and smirked evilly. "And I would. Oh, I so would."

"I hate them too." Jenny confided, a brief insight into her past. It wouldn't be hard to deduce from that that she had worn one at some point. "Uncomfortable and they make funny noises when you're trying to sleep." She leaned forward again and ruffled his hair. She tended to follow her impulses, even if they got her into trouble. "You have nice hair. It's a bit long. Didn't look that long last time."

She grinned, "But then a war would start." she nodded sagely, "And I'd totally win."

Alec batted her hand away and made a small sound of protest. "Not the hair!" He wasn't really being serious. "And the reason it didn't look this long the last time is because I usually have it well under control but you know collapsing in your bathroom does tend to stop that from happening." He said it so nonchalantly that it was almost worrying, he hadn't allowed the weight of the situation get to him just yet. It probably would at some point, but not right now.

"A single child I might be but I know all too well how to kick ass in the war of pranks," Alec said with a clearly confident nod of his head. "You have no idea who you're messing with."

Jenny rolled her eyes and just ruffled his hair again. "It's cute all loose and stuff. Have the nurses been in to bury their hands in it yet?" she asked, tipping her head as if she was more than aware of the effect Alec had on women. She wrinkled her nose at his next statement, "You collapsed in your bathroom? How did you get here?" His nonchalance was worrying, but some people dealt with things in different ways; Jenny knew that all too well from years of group therapy.

She lifted an eyebrow. "Au contraire," she started, tapping her lower lip before she gently flicked his nose again, "You don't know who you're messing with. I'll take you to the cleaners!" It was clearly teasing, and Jenny obviously not only trusted him but felt comfortable in his presence. She had obviously seen something in him that was trustworthy, more than most people.

"Not whilst I was conscious," Alec muttered before he caught himself and grimaced faintly. Wow, the idea of them doing that whilst he was unconscious was a creepy one. "Okay, I just freaked myself out." He folded his arms across his chest and tapped his fingertips against his biceps. "My housemate Toby found me. I think I have a lot of apologising to do."

He smirked over at Jenny. "Guess this means war, huh?"

Jenny laughed softly. "That is a creepy idea. Maybe that's why it's so messy," she offered as if dispensing actual advice. "Because girls have had their hands in it." She wrinkled her nose and then reached out to fix a couple of strands that were bothering her. "Toby... I bet he was really freaked out. I would be."

She winked, "I guess so. But only if I start it first. Or if you start it first. War! You know I'm gonna win."

"Remind me why I'm talking to you again," Alec muttered as he narrowed his eyes at Jenny. And irony was apparently not lost on the world of the conscious as a nurse wandered into the room and went about her regular checks.

"Feeling better, Dr Reed?"

Alec offered the nurse a smile or as much of one as he could muster given what sort of thoughts his mind was ruminating on. "Tons, thank you." He eyed her hands briefly before rolling his eyes at himself, nurses had better ways to be spending their time than by sneak attacking his hair in the middle of the night.

"Well, you're talking to me 'cause- uh-" Jenny looked down and shrugged, jumping a little as the nurse came in. She spotted Alec eyeing the nurse's hands and lifted her own, wiggling her fingers surreptitiously at Alec as if she knew what he was thinking, mischievously grinning at him, even without hearing anything from the noise in her mind.

"I'm glad to hear it," the nurse said as she made a couple of notes on the chart at the foot of his bed. "You had us worried for a while there." she smiled and looked at Jenny for a moment before looking away, carefully not commenting. Mostly, guests sat on a chair, not on the bed.

Alec stuck his tongue out at Jenny before turning a stunning smile on the nurse like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. "Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot." He lifted his shoulders into a hapless shrug. "My mother always said I was something of an attention whore."

He eyed the notes she was taking. "So, what's the prognosis? Am I going to live?"


"She'll be first in line if you need CPR." Jenny muttered teasingly for Alec's ears alone. The nurse didn't hear, she was busy flicking through his chart.

She looked up at him and rolled her eyes, lips tugging into a small smile. "Well, I'm not sure, Dr Reed, I wouldn't suggest any strenuous activity just yet..." her eyebrow twitched, "But the outlook's good. You're down for a sponge bath later." She winked, clearly just teasing. He wasn't that ill.

Alec bit back a laugh at Jenny's comment and just flicked her ear, instantly curling his fingers back in towards himself when the nurse turned her attention back to him. He was innocent, really.

"Guess that rules out a lot of things," Alec said with a slow smile. "Maybe when I'm all better." He offered up another cheek dimpling smile before laughing, unable to take himself that serious for that long. "Kinda hoping I'll be out of here shortly."

Jenny rubbed her ear and flicked him back, just shrugging when the nurse looked at her curiously. What? She was just getting him back, just because he happened to by lying in a hospital bed. "You know it's the truth." she added quietly.

"Maybe," the nurse said kindly before chuckling to herself. "And you'll be outta here when the attending says you can get outta here, Dr Reed and not before. Otherwise we'll make good on that threat and tie you down."

Jenny snorted, covering her mouth with her hand to hide her amusement from Alec, just in case he flicked her again.

"Should you really be making kinky references whilst you're working?" Alec asked completely deadpan before he just laughed. "Sorry, sorry, you totally walked right into that one." He winked at the nurse and then let out a sigh. "Hopefully my attending will let me get out of here soon before I go stir crazy."

His fingers scratched at his jaw and the five day stubble that had settled there from him not being able to shave.

"You don't seem to be complaining, Dr Reed," the nurse just said with a wink, making sure that his IV drip was connected fine. Once she was done she stood back on her heels and looked at him for a moment. "Besides, references are all you're getting, Doctor, until you're better. So behave yourself, and I'll see you later for evening rounds."

Alec fired off a mock salute and waited until she'd left the room before he turned to look at Jenny. "She totally has 'I had my hands in your hair whilst you were sleeping' written all over her." He offered a teasing smile and just relaxed into the bed itself. Alec had missed feeling good, he really had.

"You know I'm thinking you and me oughta try meeting outside of the hospital."

"She touched your hair," Jenny said seriously, trying to keep a straight face and obviously struggling. "She totally touched your hair. Like this. But worse." She leaned forward and ruffled it lightly before she grinned and slid off the bed, out of the way of Alec's flicking fingers of retribution.

She tilted her head at him. "I bet the nurse would be jealous if she heard you saying that," she teased before nodding and hesitantly approaching the bed again. "That'd be cool. Like... for coffee. Or something..." she smiled and sat down again, eyeing a couple of strands of hair that fell into her face like that would make them move. "As long as you don't collapse in any bathrooms."

Alec flapped his hands rather uselessly as Jenny totally messed up his hair. "Not cool! Really. Not. Cool!" He wound up with dirty blonde strands of hair in his face which he just sort of blew out in the vain hopes that they might move if he did that.

Eventually he just raked it back and nodded his head decisively. "Coffee is good. I mean, the hospital is great and all, but it's limiting. Can't exactly go for a walk without running into a wall or an emergency of some sort."

The mention of him collapsing brought about him crossing his heart. "I promise I won't."

"As long as you promise," Jenny said, tucking her own hair back behind her ear. "And... well, why do you run into walls in the hospital?" she asked, tipping her head at him, "That's not the smartest of ideas, Dr Reed." she tutted and then grinned. "Yay coffee!"

She glanced back at the door. "D'you think she stole some of your hair while you were sleeping?" she asked, "Maybe they're trying to grow their own Alec."

"Now you're just creeping me out," Alec said with a very slow nod of his head. "And I doubt anybody wants to grow their own personal me. One is bad enough." He was pretty sure his mother who had been in labour for many hours with him would agree. "Just ask my mother."

He scratched at the IV drip in his hand and then made himself stop. God, he hated being a patient.

Jenny chuckled and ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't know, maybe the nurses would be happy if there was more than one of you. Then they could have one of their own and you wouldn't have to worry about them touching your hair." Jenny reasoned. "And if your mom was here, I'd ask her. My dad would say the same thing about me, I'm sure. Only room in the world for one Jenny."

She gently smacked his fingers when he scratched at his IV drip. "Don't do that."

"Ow, hey." Alec rubbed at his fingers with a melodramatic pout before he just settled his fingers against the sheets, drumming the tips of them against the mattress. "I don't sit still very well. Always got to be busy."

He breathed out an obviously frustrated breath before he just refocused his attention. "My folks will be visiting soon so you never know you might get to ask her."

"I'm sure your mom's awesome." Jenny said with a smile. "She's gotta be if she raised you." She shrugged and then fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She didn't really remember being raised by her parents much.

"No, I don't sit still well either," she confided, "It caused a lot of problems when I was in- But apparently it's the sign of a really smart person, getting bored easily and having to fiddle a lot." she shrugged, "Do your parents visit often?"

"She didn't so much raise me as the boarding schools did," Alec said with a laugh. "My mom and my dad, they're very successful in their chosen fields, doesn't leave a lot of time to raise children in." He shrugged and caught the way in which Jenny's conversation veered rather suddenly from a point it had been going to make but he let it go, for now.

With time came trust and with trust came answers to questions. "Not often." Alec shook his head. "Like I said they're very busy people."


Jenny smiled. "But you speak to them a lot?" she asked, "My dad doesn't talk to me anymore." She offered, but then chewed her lower lip. "I kinda grew up in a boarding school, but kinda not."

She fiddled with the hem of her shirt again before she smoothed it out. "What do your mom and dad do?"

Alec tipped his head and looked at Jenny. "That sucks, about your dad that is. I have a couple friends who don't really talk to their folks either but it's pretty dumb spoilt rich kid kind of stuff like this one girl I know isn't talking to her dad because he didn't buy her a Porsche for her birthday."

"My folks?" Alec asked before he took to scratching at his ear. "My mom's a lawyer and my dad's a doctor, brain surgeon to be more exact. Like I said they're very busy people. Liked having me around when it was good for their image."

"A Porsche?" Jenny's eyes widened a little. "That's kind of a silly reason not to speak to your parents..." she said, having not had the same access to riches she didn't understand that kind of attitude. "My parents used to come and visit me once a month." For family therapy, sometimes a little more often if she was doing well.

She tilted her head, thinking for a moment before she said, "They must be busy. Wow... I guess it must suck if they're always busy though... My mom was a librarian and my dad just worked in a store."

Alec chuckled. "She was always a bit of an idiot. Never really got her." He looked over at Jenny. "Did you go to boarding school as well?" He had no way of knowing that when Jenny talked of the things she did she wasn't referring to anything as mundane and boring as boarding school.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't see a lot of them when I was kid. Barely saw them when I was home during the holidays. I read a lot of comics as a kid, found ways to keep myself busy."

"No," Jenny answered after shifting on the bed and smoothing her shirt down. "But I guess it was like boarding school, lights out and curfews and people patrolling the hallways so that you didn't escape in the middle of the night." The guards armed with tranquilisers were different, though, she guessed, and the screams of the other patients.

She tilted her head. "I used to draw. Was never any good at it, mind, but I tried." She smiled, "It's always easy to keep busy when you have to." She smiled and touched Alec's arm sympathetically. "'m still sorry, though."

Alec lifted an eyebrow slowly. "I don't think anybody ever patrolled the hallways at my boarding school." He found himself wanting to ask about what sort of place Jenny had been talking about but somehow managed to catch himself, God only knew how. "Had a couple kids make for the fence a couple times." Figuratively speaking anyways.

He waved his hand and shook his head. "Nothing to be sorry about. I was well fed, had clothes on my back, I got a good education and I had a roof over my head. Not that much to complain about when you think about it. So what if my folks were never around?"

"What, an actual fence?" Jenny asked, eyebrows lifting. "You were fenced in too?" She had been, high wire fences to stop the patients from having a hope of escape, something to crush their hopes into the ground, or so Jenny used to think.

She smiled and shrugged, "But that's the problem, isn't it? Freud says all our problems growing up come from not getting enough attention from our parents as a child." God only knew she'd heard enough Freudian theory about her own 'problem' since she was a child. The world had started to make more sense to her since she left the hospital, she felt less crazy than she had done for years.

"Okay," Alec muttered. "You must have had a really bad childhood." And as casual as that comment might have sounded his facial expression said something else as did the hand on hers, squeezing softly.

He chuckled softly and shook his head. "Don't get me started on what shrinks say. I had one as a kid who told my folks I was acting out for attention." He rubbed at his hair and lifted his shoulders into a shrug. "Wasted a lot of hours in his office."

Jenny glanced down at Alec's hand and then gave him a small smile. "It wasn't so bad... had a roof over my head, was fed..." she tilted her head, "Not that much to complain about." She could have done without people telling her she was insane, though. That would have made living a lot more fun. "It sucked sometimes."

Her lips curled again into another smile before she nodded. "I hear you. Shrinks don't know anything. You try telling them that you can see things, or that you hear things and they try and give you drugs and group therapy." She frowned, "Were you always special or is it like an X-Men thing where you got it as you got older?"

Alec chuckled as Jenny echoed his words back to him. "Sounds like it."

He grinned at the mention of X-Men. "God, I love those guys when I was kid. Always wanted to be like them. Be a superhero, save the world, that sorta thing." She spoke about shrinks in a way that suggested she had some (a lot) of experience with them. "My parents spent a lot of money on making sure I gave up those delusions a long time ago."

"Me too." Jenny offered, but she had never really been allowed to watch television once she was hospitalised. There was the worry it would be too influential on her. She shrugged, "People'll always tell you you're not special when you are. I can see it." She nodded decisively. "My parents spent money too, trying to get people to tell me that I couldn't see things." She looked down at her knees. "In the end I had to lie."

There was a moment of silence before, "Jean Grey was my favourite. And Storm."

"If I haven't said it before your parents sound... swell," Alec drawled sarcastically, offering a soft smile to Jenny. He rubbed at his hair, trying to think back over the comics he'd read when he was younger.

"I was always a big fan of Iceman, Cyclops even if he was something of a dick, and I had a huge soft spot for Gambit."

"I liked Iceman too." Jenny offered, clearly delighted at the turn of the conversation, "And Cyclops was only a dick because it was the only way people would listen to him." She grinned, "Gambit! He was the best! He was totally my first crush as a kid on cartoon-him. I thought it would be cool to have a power like that, useful, you know?"

Alec nodded his head. "Yeah, I know what you mean." Secretly (beneath that guise of indifference about his recent collapse) Alec was freaking out, more than a little scared about what all of this meant and how to deal with it. His parents would just give him a card for a good psychiatrist, that much he knew.

"I'm feeling kinda tired," he said, having allowed his mind to take him to places best left alone.

Jenny gave a small smile. "If you wanted me to leave, you coulda just said so," she teased before she reached out and squeezed his wrist gently, sliding off the bed. Her hand lifted to touch his face, two fingers against his cheekbone before she tilted her head and gave another small smile.

"Get some rest, and when you're feeling better, maybe we can make with the meeting up outside the hospital?"

Alec offered a smile and reached up to squeeze Jenny's wrist. "Sure, that'll give me something to look forward to." He winked and just grinned. "Take care of yourself, Jenny. Try not to get the nurses too worked up around here."

He settled back into the bed and tried to divert his mind away from the topic of his collapse to how he could sweet talk his attending into letting him out.

Jenny looked at him for another moment before she nodded and backed up towards the door. She paused and headed through it after a couple of seconds, turning her head to look at him again and give a small wave.

"Don't escape too soon, rest." Even if she knew he was all better, he still wasn't superman. Maybe nearly, but not quite, and with that, she wandered down the corridor, casually looking into the rooms on her way out of the hospital.