It was a wierd night. Who: Moira MacTaggert, Neena Thurman What: Physicals and discussing 'wee bairns'. When: Today Where: In an exam room in Moira's offices Ratings/Warnings: PG-13 for various doctor things. Needles, etc. Status: Complete!
Moira was late for her appointment with Domino - a difficult surgery had needed an extra hand, and then she'd needed to clean all the blood off. Fortunately she was sparkling by the time she made it back to her lab, where Neena was probably waiting.
Impatiently waiting, in fact. The woman had already counted all the floor tiles in the examination room, read every single poster on the wall, straightened the tongue depressors, and was pacing when Moira finally came in.
She hopped back up on the table, at that point, but was still obviously nervous when she gave Moira a smile and wave, "I was wondering if you were pranking me."
"Sorry lass. Emergency. We needed some extra hands." She pulled on some rubber gloves and got her equipment, before moving a large white scanner over. She treated it like it was the best damn thing in the history of damn things.
Neena eyed it like it was the scariest damn thing in the history of damn things, "What is that and why is it heading in my direction."
"It's my advanced scanner. It should give us some nice bits o'information. An' look, I dunnae even have tae hook anything tae ye! So while I examine ye, it will tae!"
"That's such a source of relief for me," Dom quipped. She wasn't sure what Moira needed her to do at this juncture, so she kept right on sitting there, hugging herself with her arms. She was seriously starting to think this was a bad idea.
Moira ran through a basic physical, talking the whole way. Mostly about Rahne, but also a bit about other things. She was working on a 'grand discovery' that could fundamentally change the way people looked at evolution and biology. Finally, she said, "Okay, now for some blood."
The physical was pretty much a blur for Dom, who sent herself away to the happy place of gun catalogues and counting ceiling tiles, though she might have also been listening to Moira.
She was certainly paying attention when Moira mentioned the word 'blood'.
"Yaay. Blood. I was a good girl and didn't eat anything." She closed her eyes at that point, because if she had to watch the needle for even a second she knew she'd end up passing out.
"Verrah good." Moira jabbed her gently, and started drawing blood. Knowing this might take awhile, she asked, "So. About wee bairns?"
"... I never thought about it before. I was never in a PLACE to think about it. I don't think Pete even wants any. I don't know. We ended up having the discussion over McDonalds in the car while I held a pill on my lap that would make the whole thing moot anyway. It was a wierd night."
Dom sighed, "For a few seconds there I realised that it's really getting too late for that. If I wanted to do it, I'd have to do it soon, I think. I mean I'm not stupid, I know it gets riskier the older I get. Birth defects and everything."
"Aye. Yuir almost 40. I'd 'ave tae say ye can do it but with extreme caution. More sae for the child than ye." She took her blood, put some in that machine and the others away to look at later. Talking seemed to have distracted Neena. She swiveled a display on the scanner and started looking at it, "...och.."
"So I figured instead of just driving myself crazy in my head I'd go get some facts, and ... och? Och is never a good thing."
Needle now out of her arm, Dom brought her hand over to the gauze doctors usually pressed against the draw site and pressed her hand against it to ease things scabbing over more quickly. She felt a little woozy, but less than she would have if she'd not been distracted.
"I don't want any ochs."
"Och," Moira repeated, pulling her gloves off and scratching her head, "This dunnae make any sense. Well it does when takin' intae account ye physical. But it dunnae. Yuir thirty-nine?"
"According to the records I was born in 1973, yup. Why? What's going on?" Dom squinted at the scanner as if that would reveal some clue to her that Moira wasn't mentioning, but it didn't really help.
"I dunnae know. Yuir extremely fit. That has tae be it." Moira shook her head. She must have been seeing things, because it wasn't there now. Or maybe it was the promise of what could come, "I'd just say thirty-nine is a wee bit tae old for what I'm seein' here."
"... well that's ... good, I guess?"
It was actually kind of wierd. Sure, she kept herself physically fit and had even managed to do without cigarettes for quite a while there until Pete had showed back up on her doorstep, but she couldn't imagine she was so healthy that her organs were medically a little younger, somehow.
There had been something else on Dom's mind for the last few weeks though, and it seemed like a good point to mention it. Especially in light of Moira's brand new toy and its odd discoveries, "Is there anything else ... wierd... that your scanner is picking up?"
"Ye need tae quit smoking," Moira replied, as if reading her mind. "Nae, nothin' I wasnae expecting at any rate."
"Pete is a horrible influence," Dom agreed with a nod. She fell silent for a bit, then shrugged, and added, "I've been getting these wierd ... feelings. Down my spine especially."
"Och?" She glanced over, "Take ye shirt off again and turn around. Describe these feelings."
Great, now she was probably going to become a test subject all over again. She didn't want that. She wasn't going back there, she--. Dom took in a very deep breath, and then let it out, and told that tiny voice in her head to shut the fuck up for now. Moira wasn't one of those doctors.
She hoped. She took another deep breath before taking her shirt off and turning around, as instructed, "I've been having a lot of ... bad dreams doesn't describe it. Torture, rape, scientific experimentation. You probably figured something happened to make me get squirrely in a doctor's office. I was in a mental hospital for a while. Anyway, you get that fight or flight response, only these days it's like ... when something sneaks up on me, sometimes even from behind. Or I feel like I really need to get out of danger, I get these jolts. My spine gets all jumpy feeling, like it's trying to tug me in one direction or the other. I feel like I need to move. Like it's telling me to move. Sometimes it hurts."
"I see." Moira couldn't predict powers from DNA. Not just yet. She didn't have the knowledge, even with that scanner. But she could tell there was something, and Neena's blood had had the same signature as most of the others she'd examined.
"That's probably normal for ye."
"It isn't normal," Dom insisted, and shook her head, "It only started recently. I have good reflexes, but this is new."
"Trust me lass. It's normal." She patted Neena on the butt, "Ye can dress again, I got what I need."
The jangly jumpy nerve thing actually kicked in for a few seconds as Moira gave her a butt pat, and she almost sprang right off the table. Mainly, she hadn't been expecting the contact, and this wasn't really a safe place.
She grunted and tried to get herself to stop feeling like bouncing around. Maybe it was normal. It didn't feel normal. She bounced off the table anyway, and bounced on her heels a few times. The pain that accompanied that reminded her of one last thing, "OH. And the bullet wound. I had to fix a stitch. Your work is really clean. Nice and even. How much longer do you think it's going to take to heal up?"
"If ye stop pullin' the stitches it should be healed in a few weeks, ye bampot!" Moira wanted to thwap her, but refrained, "I want ye tae keep a log of these impulses, an' when they seem tae kick in. I believe yuir not the only one experiencing this sort o'thing, though their symptoms are different."
Dom submitted to the scolding without saying anything, though at the mention of the log idea, she held up a finger, "I just had a moment with it a second ago actually. So I guess that'll be the first entry."
"Interestin'. It seems tae be entirely passive reactive."
"This isn't a safe place. It reminds me of the rooms with the white walls," Dom replied with a shrug, then started getting herself dressed, "Its always bad after I dream about that place."
"It's a sanitation thing, lass. Ye can see dirt on a white wall. But I can understand, it dunnae make it any easier when ye know the reason why. Especially when people break every oath there is."
"Moira, in some other world, I was someone's science fair project. Breaking every oath there is doesn't really cut it. But I trust you. So... ...thanks. OH. Pill? Until I decide what I want to do about my belated biological clock, I probably need to get on that."
"Aye, I'd suggest it. We dunnae need any more Wisdoms runnin' 'round." She crossed over to a cabinet, unlocked it, and pulled out a box, "Follow t'directions. I'd wait tae have sex for a week after ye start. But ye won't wait." She tossed her a box of condoms.
"You know me so well," Dom snerked, and tucked the boxes into her jacket pocket. She ran a hand through her hair, and tried to manage a smile, "So we're done? I need to go set up a meeting with the local crime syndicate, so I'm kind of in a rush."
"I DUNNAE WANT TAE KNOW!"
Dom laughed, "It's completely legitimate. I'm only warning you ahead of time in case I get shot again."
To prove her point about it being legitimate, she flashed her CIA badge. Moira was a doctor, so it's not like SHE'D tell, "Agency business, in fact. No worries."
"...Och. Fine. Feck. I can bill the government this way."
"You sure can. Pad the bill if you want."
"Who doesnae?"
"No one I know," Dom chuckled, and clapped Moira on the shoulder, "Let me know if that blood comes back with anything I need to be concerned about. Thanks again."
With that, she headed out of the building. As fast as humanly possible.
"Och." Moira shook her head, and sat down. She really needed to get some more funding...