Adam was actually early for once. Mostly because he'd actually managed to get out of his quarters with everything he needed on the first try. Okay, second try. He'd forgotten to take off the labcoat and stethoscope because he'd been looking for his pager. So he'd had to go back to put them in his room.
But really, two trips wasn't bad for the absentminded doctor of the Xavier Memorial University. Especially since he was meeting his new staff nurse, which was a welcome addition to the staff. Handling the entire island's medical needs by himself (with a few premed students acting as medical assistants), wasn't really working. Not if he wasn't going to work himself to death before his second year was up.
He had a little information on the woman. Her name was Elizabeth Dahl and she was from Sweden originally. Her mutation was most interesting. Both of them. The density alone was fascinating, but it was her healing powers that had his attention, of course. As a doctor, he would love to be able to just make people better with a thought. But as appealing as it was on the surface, he knew there were drawbacks.
Especially as Ms. Dahl had no real formal education. That bothered him. Here was this woman with a magnificent gift and no one had done anything to nurture it. With great gifts always came great drawbacks. The Almighty never gave gifts with both hands, as his grandmother always reminded him. It also made him wonder how her mutation would deal with naturally dangerous genetic and hereditary conditions. Or mutation alone. It was all things he'd have to discuss with her once she was settled.
Without thinking, he opened the door without looking first, hoping to be outside to greet her when she arrived. Which meant he nearly tripped on the poor woman as he stepped through the doorway. Thank God, it opened inward, he might have hit her with the door when he opened it.
"Oi!" he grabbed the door frame to stop his momentum. He really needed to watch where he was going. "Sorry." Adam pushed up his glasses and straightened up, trying to restore some of his decorum. So much for a professional first impression. Well, she might as well see the truth early on. He was an absentminded klotz a lot of the time.
Holding out one hand, he offered the woman a smile. Adam had taken some care in his appearance today, wearing a blue short sleeve button down shirt with a single tan stripe across the chest and a pair of tan hlakis. He'd been up most of the night dealing with a student with food poisoning, so there was nothing he could do about the dark circles under his eyes or the bloodshot look to them.
Well, essentially food poisoning. He'd told Kevin not to eat the fish around the island. The water was terribly polluted from runoff from the city and the fish population had definitely been made unsafe.
So he'd had to watch a kraken barf up about thirty pounds of half digested fish on the beach and then watch the kid all night to make sure that was the worst of it. Which it seemed to be. He sent Kevin back to his room with orders to rest and eat mild foods and drink of fluids.
Only on this island did he encounter this sort of thing. His residency was a cakewalk compared to some of the issues he did here. He hoped Ms. Dahl was ready for it.
"You must be Ms. Dahl," he assumed aloud. "Adam Berkowitz. Nice to meet you. Sorry to almost run you down." Not that he could have possibly hurt the woman. Adam weighed 150 pounds soaking wet and would have likely bruised something running into her. "Welcome to the Xavier Memorial Institute."