My new X-Perience

When they reached the roof it was to find an impressive blueblack jet hovering above them. As they drew nearer a hatch opened in its underbelly with a faint hum, a ramp descending to the concrete of the roof. Dr.Cox stared with neked astonishment as Ethine, waving slightly in farewell, was ushered up the ramp and out of sight. He winced slightly as the hatch closed again and jammed his hands in the pockets of his labcoat. After all that fighting, that was that and the girl was gone. It all seemed sort of anticlimatic to him. Bowing his head against the grit the jet's departure kicked up he turned back to the Hospital and the rest of his patients. Life goes on and all that, right?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thanks to Beast and Archangel, it was quickly proven that Ethine's time at Sacred Heart was entirely unnecassary. A quick transfusion of Warren Worthington's blood, administered neatly by Dr.McCoy all but erased the damage done to the empath. Ethine couldn't help but feel a little bitter. It was all well and good that she was healed, but what was the point of putting everyone at Sacred Heart through so much trouble on her account if it could have all been taken care of so quickly? Dr.Cox had even been hurt because of her, and for nothing it seemed. The X-Men's plan to use her as bait hadn't worked.

No, she concluded sourly, the only good thing was now she was able to get back to Work at the Double Helix and that she had met such wonderful people. She couldn't seem to get them out of her head; found herself thinking of Dr.Cox more than was probably necassary. She shook her head in an attempt to clear his sardonically smiling visage from her mind, but found she couldn't. She tried to focus her attention on the order she was filling, but that only put her in mind of his tirade on the poor quality of coffee nurse Roberts made.

"Oooooh!" Crooned the brightly clad, tawny haired girl that was leaning against the counter. "You like him!"

"You don't even know who it is I'm thinking about, Randilyn!" Ethine snapped irritably. Randilyn, or Randy for short, was an empath as well and in the same class as Ethine under Jean Grey. She could soak up emotion like a spongeand found a way to channel it into her lurid, colorful drawings for other people to experience. She called herself a siphon. She also had the uncanny ability to slip into and manipulate people's dreams.

"Sure I do." Randy said with unflappable brightness, her sea green eyes smiling. "Him." She added, jerking ehr thumb at the man standing uncertainly in the threshhold of the shop. Even looking uncomfortable and uncertain, he was impressive, with his broad shoulders and deep troubled frown. He was clad in jeans and a dark T-Shirt under a brown suede jacket and was in the process of removing a pair of angular black sunglasses. Ethine smiled despite herself. He really was very handsome.

"Dr.Cox." She called in greeting, handing Randy her order. She was annoyed to see confusion flash across his long face. Was she really that easily forgotten? She sounded familiar, but he simply couldn't think where he'd seen that pale pretty face before.

"Do I know you?" He asked, head tilted to one side.

Ethine rolled her blue eyes towards the ceiling. She cast Randy a glare as she tried to stifle her giggle in her coffee, which resulted in a weird gurgling noise and a big mess. Ethine passed her several napkins before adressing Dr.Cox again.

"I suppose you're here for your free coffee?" She asked. She was granted the immense satisfaction of seeing realization dawn on in his blue eyes.

"Fender-Face?" He asked in disbeleif. He knew his mistake instantly. A sudden waiting hush fell over the shop as all eyes turned on him. Randy giggled loudly, the sound faintly hysterical as a large man rose to his feet, bearing down on Dr.Cox.

"What did you call her?" He demanded, a scowl on his broad face. He was a big, muscular black man with an M tatood over one eye. Light from one of the lamps overhead glittered over his bald pate. Dr.Cox laughed nervously.

"Fender face?" He repeated, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"It's okay, Bishop. This is the doctor I told you about." Ethine said quickly, pouring the big man another cup of coffee to placate him. "Really. It's okay." He accepted the cup and moved back to his seat, casting Dr.Cox one last warning glare.

"You..ah...You look good." He stammered when he finally turned his attention back to her. He felt suddenly very ackward, unwelcome. He was an interloper here, in district X, where the mutant population was greater than that of the baseline humans. He narrowed his eyes suddenly. "H..How did you manage to get better so damn fast?"

"Angel blood." Randy chirped, coming to stand beside him. He slanted her a confused look, brow knitted and lips drawn down.

"You shouldn't do that. Your face will freeze that way and then Ethine will never go out with you cos you'll be ugly."

His eyebrows leapt nearly into his hairline at that and Ethine turned away quickly to hide her blush.

"Lets get one thing straight, there, Blondie," He growled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm just here for my free coffee."

"You shouldn't lie to an empath. It's demeaning." Randy said airily, flouncing away to her customary table in the corner of the shop. Somewhere a small group of teenage mutants tittered at the doctor's apparant humiliation.

"Don't mind Randy, Doctor." Ethine said quietly, handing him a good sized cup of steaming coffee(suger, no cream). He cast one last glance around the shop and raised his styrofoam cup in a farewell salute.

"All the best, there, Fender-Face." He said before striding to the door. Ethine smiled slightly and offered a small wave to his back, a sigh escaping her lips as he dissapeared from sight. She tried to ignore the way the customers chattered and darted glances at her, or the indignant way Randy kept looking to the door and then Ethine and then the door again.

"So that's it? You're just gonna let him walk away?!" She demanded, striding back towards the counter.

"Yes." Ethine said firmly, wiping slow circles along the already immaculate countertop.

"But why?!" She demanded, hands on her hips.

"Oh come on, Randy! He's way out of my legue!"

"Because he's baseline?"

"He's too old."

"You don't really think that." Randy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What makes you think he's even available? A cute, smart, successful guy like that? He's probably married or something already."

"Oh Puh-Lease! You're an empath too, Ethine. How did you not feel that? He was sooooo into you!"

"That doesn't mean anything." Ethine said. She stopped her scrubbing momentarily to glare at Randy, wishing the other girl would just let the matter drop.

"I can make him dream about you." Randilyn offered, suddenly coy as she gazed at Ethine over the rim of her cup.

"Don't you dare, Randy!" Ethine said sharply, frightened because she secretly liked the idea of the unattainable doctor having dreams about her freaky self. It would be so easy to like him, smart and cool and wanting her. But it wouldn't be right, wouldn't be real. Randy rolled her sea-green eyes at Ethine's obtuseness.

"Whatever. So are you gonna make the move to the institute or what? Jean thinks you should."

"I don't know. I like my apartment. I like not having to answer to someone else if I want to do something."

"It's not safe here anymore. Not like it was to begin with, but this way we could be roomates!"

"What about my job?" Ethine protested. "That's a killer commute."

"If you move to the institute you wont need a job."

"I like having a job."

"The professor could hire you as....something..."

"I'll have to think about it." Ethine said grudgingly.

"Well don't t ake forever about it!"

This time it was Ethine who rolled her eyes, though she didn't have time to retort, called away to the register as she was.