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Jean Grey is a marvel (phoenix_down_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-10-01 21:19:00

Who: Bruce Banner and Jean Grey
Where: a conference
What: chatting
When: a couple weeks ago
Warnings/Rating: pg
Status complete

Jean sighed and stretched as she stood and gathered her things, heading toward the buffet tables. She yawned a little. The talk had been good, but she wasn’t used to sitting so long without doing anything. Even during a therapy session she talked to her patients and made notes.

She bumped into someone as she brought her arms down. “Oh! I’m so sorry!” She said, turning toward the person she’d hit.

Bruce was working on a paper, and not looking where he was going, so he backed up several steps to catch himself, then smiled as he nodded to her. “Sorry, miss. Not used to really walking around other people. The lab’s a lot more secluded and less populated.” His name tag bore the moniker of ‘Doctor Bruce Banner’ and a small label ‘Bio-chemist and Engineer’.

Jean smiled at him, and helped make sure he didn’t lose any papers. “That’s okay, we were both at fault. Maybe you need a helper so you can avoid running into things.” She smiled brightly at him.

“Thanks.” He smiled at her. “Probably. They keep running off to get food and listen to other speakers and stuff.”

He offered her a hand. “Doctor Banner, but please call me Bruce. What’s your specialty?”

“Jean Grey. I’m a psychiatrist specializing in PTSD, especially among veterans and abuse survivors.” She shook his hand, smiling at him. “I was here to listen to this new talk about medication, but it wasn’t anything too pertinent to my interests.”

Bruce nodded. “I mostly specialize in adapting new ideas for medical research, though that’s secondary to creating new substances that can help mankind in general. I’ve got a talk later that might be more up your alley. I’ll be speaking on RTY-123, the chemical drug we accidentally invented while doing trials for muscle enhancement that causes some calming of anxiety issues in those who have more physical manifestations of it. “ He filtered through the papers and came out with a chart, and nodded. “At four p.m., in Hall F.”

Jean laughed. “I wondered why your name sounded familiar. I’ll have to listen to it.” She led the way to the buffet, making sure neither of them got bumped again. “Anxiety is an interesting process, I’m always looking for new ways to diagnose and treat it.”

He followed along, stuffing his papers in the sidealong bag he had. The least he could do was pay attention while she was here, right? Or something.

“I know. As a life long sufferer of a mild form of it, I’m glad there are more options these days. Most conventional forms of medication don’t work for me.” He smiled softly. “So, yes. I’m always glad when something useful comes out of the failure batches. Makes me feel a lot better about the money wasted in the process.”

Then there was food, and he stared at it all, trying to figure out what to get.

Jean moved confidently down the line, grabbing a tiny amount of everything. “That’s too bad. It can be a pretty vicious disease.” She thought of some of the people with anxiety that she’d known and treated. “I think it’s often trivialized by people, so it’s hard to get someone to try to get treatment for it.”

He hesitated, then slowly started taking things. He was used to being shoved sandwiches and plates of food by other doctors and interns. It had been awhile since he had chosen to eat new things. Hm. He should do that more.

“True. I was lucky in that I had a father and mother who were very supportive and sought help early.”

“That’s good. Familial support is-” Jean stopped and shook her head. “I need to stop being a doctor when I’m not at work. I’m glad you’re getting proper treatment.”

“You mean we get to take off the labcoats? Whoah!” Then he grinned at her. “Thanks.” He chuckled. “Life is weird, and we just have to roll with it. Yeah?”

Jean giggled. “I wear sweaters, but same idea, right?” She smiled brightly at him. “I agree with that. Some people need a little help rolling, but we can all get there eventually.” Everyone just had to roll in their own way.

“Makes sense.” He grinned at her and nodded. Someone who understood! That was good.

“I just hope the lecture on immunology tonight is as good as the one the doctors gave last year. I learned a lot then.” He nodded.

“Maybe I’ll sit in for that one. I like to learn new things. I was close to becoming a medical doctor, but I thought this would be a better calling. No hospitals to complicate things, just me and the needs of my patients.”

“I got my medical degree along the way, but I use it mostly for reference.” And when he needed to add weight to his standing for lab work. It came in handy sometimes.

“Sounds like you know exactly what you want.”

Jean laughed. “That is definitely one of my strengths.”

“Good. I always knew what I wanted to do, and how to do it. Just not what would be involved along the way.” He grinned at her., “What do you do when you’re not helping people?”

“I like video games.” Jean said with a laugh. “Uh, RPGs, mostly. They’re good for hand eye coordination and sometimes good for stress relief."

Bruce chuckled. “I play on some of the smaller ones. Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Minecraft.” He nodded. “I enjoy them.”

“I don’t really have time to play online games. I’m working my way through the old Final Fantasies again.” She grabbed her bottle of water. “At the rate I’m going it’ll take me until next year to finish the one I’m on.”

Bruce nodded as he filled his plate and grabbed a cup. “Will you join me to eat?” He waved his plate of food at one set of tables. He was enjoying himself. “I get on there about an hour a day. That’s about all the time I have.”

“Sure!” She headed toward the table he’d waved at. “I have to admit that I’ve been playing cell phone games when I’m supposed to be on lunch sometimes. There’s something therapeutic about it, and it keeps me from hovering over my poor secretary all day.”

Bruce blinked, then hrmed. “There are games on cellphones now?” He had no clue. He had made his own and then sold a few of the patents involved to get a major carrier to let him sign in to their service, satellite and 4G both. It had been the side effect of trying to make an artificial synthetic biochemical heart that bodies wouldn’t reject. That was still long in the testing process, but the phone, fully made from natural biochemical processes, was perfected.

Jean giggled. “Yeah.” She pulled out her phone and pulled up her current addiction. She started the game and turned it so Bruce could see. “Candy Crush is pretty fun.”

Brice squinted, then nodded. “That’s cool! I’ll have to see if I can’t do something like that…” He was already running ideas past in his head. “Do you play it a lot?”

“Maybe an hour a day? I only play in between things.” She shrugged. A lot of that playing happened in the bathroom, but she didn’t want to admit to that.

“Cool. So about the same I do.” He grinned at her as he settled and nodded. “I’m glad we met today. Where do you work?”

“I’m glad we met too.” Jean said, giving him a bright smile. “I have an office in Irvine, close to my apartment. Are you local?”

“I live there, and work in a think tank there, yes. Though I rarely see the outside of the labs these days. I work a lot.” He nodded to her. He felt no shame or problem with that. “I had to ask what year it was when I was invited to the conference.”

“Oh dear.” Jean said with a laugh. “Maybe you could stand to get out a little more?”

Bruce blinked at her. “Why?”

“Because the outside world has some very nice things to offer.” She smiled sweetly. “New sights to see, new smells and tastes to discover. You need to stimulate your senses as much as your brain.”

Bruce favored her with a hmming glance, then nodded. “Perhaps I might do so, if I had a good guide to lead me to these sights. I am sometimes… slow to see them,” But not slow to understand, oh no.

“I do generally have Sundays off, and it would do me some good to get out of the office too.” Jean said with a sweet smile.

He fished out a card, and handed it over. “That has my office, home, and cell numbers on it.” He smiled to her, eyes lidded, and nodded. “I’ll look forward to a call, some Sunday soon…”

Jean pocketed the card. “I’ll make sure not to disappoint you.”