Ring My Bell

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Follows this post.

"Scott Summers."

"Scott, it's Marie. I'm in the house now but Angelo and I ran into a little trouble in town when we went for dinner."

"You both okay? What happened?"

"Angelo's banged up. Some of the town toughs didn't like a Hispanic guy holding hands with a white girl on their street. And I think then one of them recognized Angelo from that thing at the mall..."

"And the toughs?"

"Bruises, if I got it right. They were kicking the hell out of Angelo. I hit one and tossed another into his friends and they clued a little. Unfortunately, Angelo's mutation went a little crazy and I had to resort to flying us out. The car's still about a block south of Pietro's."

"Okay. Angelo's down seeing Hank or Madelyn? I'll get the car in the morning, unless it's parked in one of those tow zones?"

"It should be fine. Hank's doing the scan thing right now. Look, for the record, Scott, I had to touch Angelo to get him to calm down. When he panicked, he had a go at strangling me with mutated tendrils of skin and I just couldn't get him to let go. Maybe there was another way around it, but I don't know, because I was in the process of not-breathing at the time. There was no way I could get him to stop without really hurting him otherwise."

*pause* "Okay. Are /you/ okay? And though I hate asking you this, I-we need to know." *pause again* "What's his mental state?"

"He's not so steady in places, Scott. It'll take me a while to sort it out. He's ... kind of a mess, and he was in the middle of a major flashback to when those kids set him on fire when I touched him. I'll know better once I get him isolated from the others and settle it all down. But, I really don't want to say much more than that unless it's a matter of his safety or other people's, you know? As for me, I'm... I'm okay. Not great, but I can cope."

"Coping is good. If you need me for anything, call. If you find anything more out, come by. Any time." *pause* "Do you think he'll seek out counseling on his own?"

"I don't know, but I don't think it should be optional here. I'd say he should see Dr. Samson tomorrow morning or as soon as he's able to. And I'll call, yeah. I'm getting looked after though, don't worry."

"I wasn't thinking it was an /option/, just wanted to know how much forcing was going to be required." *sigh* "I'll leave a message for Hank. And make sure Logan doesn't keep you up much later. Good night, Marie."

*laugh* "He won't. We're going down to see Angelo right now. I promise I'll sleep. 'Night, Scott."