Somewhere deep down Gemma was almost surprised that it had taken this long. She had been at the Mansion for years now, and had her fair share of rough spots, but still, when DocProf showed up to drag her out of bed and tell her what happened, she realized that she had not had one of those wake-up calls since she left Baltimore.

The kid was in the hospital. DocProf did not seem happy about that, then again, he rarely seemed happy about anything, ever. Gemma thanked him and sent him to get some rest before she got dressed to go. She stopped by at the office and pulled Persi's fine; she would run through it to have something to go on.

Arriving at the hospital she had to explain to three different people who she was and why she was here. When they finally showed her to Persi's room, she entered quietly, sitting down by the bed and waiting for him to wake up. In the meantime, she read through the file. There was not much to go on in there.

Persi hadn't thought much about what he expected, mostly because every time his thoughts started that way all he expected was terror and pain. When he did think about it, though, waking up made sense. Waking up was basically just becoming aware, wasn't it? So waking up made sense.

He wasn't... becoming aware of the right things, though. There were kind of faded voices... or they were just a bit away. Sometimes they just sounded distant and sometimes they sounded muffled. And he couldn't smell much of anything, and he was lying on something but whenever he tried to figure out what he just felt really heavy and kind of sick. And his arms ached, though he only noticed that when he tried to move them.

None of that... seemed like Heaven or Hell. Persi really didn't want to open his eyes. There wasn't anything else to do, though, and after a few minutes he gave up.

...Okay, someone Persi had never met. She looked sort of familiar, but that didn't mean much. "Who are you?"

Wow he sounded tired. Persi tried to sit up to counter that, winced at his arms' emphatic opinion of that idea and stayed down.

>>"Who are you?"

Gemma smiled, even though she felt like wincing. How could she take responsibility for a student who didn't even know the school had a counselor? She really needed to get the word out more clearly.

"My name is Gemma" she said, moving over to his bed "I work at the Mansion. You are in a hospital, Persi. You will need some rest, but you're going to be fine. Do you remember what happened?"

You never knew how much a kid would remember just regaining his consciousness, especially with an adapted around. Persi's powers were brain related. She made sure she had enough space to step back if he was bothered by her aura.

She was smiling. Why was she smiling? Smiling was not the expected response to dead people. Or to people that were supposed to be dead, either. Or anyone in a hospital. So she could be being honest about being happy that Persi had figured out what he was supposed to do, which was actually kind of creepy since you'd think that would be a bit secondary to being annoyed that Persi had failed at it, or she was... what? Smiling to be nice? Or comforting or whatever? Which really didn't make any sense. How was it supposed to be comforting to be hurt and have everyone start grinning at you? But everyone still did it, so that was probably what she was doing, which meant Persi was still forcing people to waste time and energy and everything on him.

Damn it. Why hadn't it worked? It was supposed to work!

And, uh. How was Persi supposed to respond to that? He didn't want to talk to anyone, he wanted to be left alone so he could figure out what had gone wrong and how to fix it. But she was there, and Persi couldn't exactly ignore--Gemma--even if that was probably the most effective way to make her stop wasting her time on him. "I'm--" And she already knew his name. Well there went that idea. What was Persi supposed to say? No one ever explained how to behave now. Probably mostly because now wasn't supposed to happen, but that still didn't help Persi.

Well, he could answer questions. Looking at her was more difficult, partly because he was laying down and Gemma was next to him and partly because Persi just didn't want to, and even though he knew that was rude he was having trouble actually caring right now, so he gave up and stared at the ceiling instead. "I don't know. I think so. I...." had no idea what he was going to say, so he shrugged instead.

Huh. His hand hurt too. Maybe it would keep hurting....

>>"I'm-- I don't know. I think so. I...."

"It's okay" Gemma said soothingly, pushing him by the shoulder back on the bed. It was not an aggressive gesture, merely a tap in the right place; he was still weak enough to fall back on his own anyway.

"Take your time. You have lost a lot of blood and you are still weak. You might feel confused now. It will get better." she said sitting back down; it was clear that she was not going anywhere anytime soon.

"I am here so that you can talk to me, but we don't have to talk right away, okay?"

She could wait. This was her job, and what she was the best at.

It's okay. Persi kind of wanted to laugh at that, only he suspected it would hurt. Which maybe meant he should? Except that laughing was supposed to be happy, which was kind of a weird thing to believe because people laughed all the time when they weren't happy. Whatever. He didn't feel that much like laughing, though he did give the ceiling a smile after she sort of pushed him back down. It probably counted as a smile, anyway, since he sort of felt like laughing, even if it was really morbid. "Yeah. I guess you're supposed to say that?" Not that he expected an answer, really. Or not an honest one.

Talk. She wanted to talk? Well, was supposed to talk, or to get him to talk, or something. Persi would really prefer to go back to sleep rather than talk, but that was pretty much always true. And he could only stare at the ceiling in silence for so long before the awkwardness won and he sighed. "So it's what, like three AM? Six AM?" He amended when he glanced over toward the window and found a surprising amount of light. And plants, or at least dead sticks that had been plants two months ago. That probably wasn't a coincidence. And it was probably too much of a maze for him to find his own way out, either. Whatever; Persi could wait.

"Anyway no one would willingly be up now, so if the Mansion made you come... you're like a therapist or something? You're supposed to fix me?" Persi probably should have expected that, but them if he'd been planning on failing he probably would have done a lot of different things. Starting with first doing something he could pretend was an accident so that he wouldn't have so much trouble trying again. It wasn't like people wouldn't believe all kinds of stupidity from him. He tried shrugging again. It wasn't very effective. "I don't think that's going to work. Couldn't you leave? Because this is really just wasting your time."

>>"Yeah. I guess you're supposed to say that?"

Gemma smirked at that. The boy was not stupid. He was bitter and angsty like any teenager, probably depressed too, but not dumb. That was good enough to work with.

>>"So it's what, like three AM? Six AM? Anyway no one would willingly be up now, so if the Mansion made you come... you're like a therapist or something? You're supposed to fix me? I don't think that's going to work. Couldn't you leave? Because this is really just wasting your time."

"Well, I'm the person who makes other people do things, so. I'm here quite on my own will." Gemma chuckled, not phased by his dark mood "As I said, I'm the guidance counselor, but that's not the only thing I do at the Mansion. And no, I am not here to fix you. I am here to keep you company. The people who saved you and brought you in cared too much, and I had to kick them out and send them home to get some sleep, otherwise they would still be crowing you."

That was actually true, but she also said it to not-so-subtly let Persi know that people actually cared about him. That was one essential thing kids these days did not hear enough.

Persi turned his head enough to give Gemma an extremely skeptical look. Guidance counselors were not, to Persi's knowledge, typically the ones in charge of schools. Not that he knew who was in charge of the Mansion, when he thought about it, but the X men seemed like a good guess. It tended to be hard to argue with people who were known for being able to beat up literally anything they met. And for the rest of it... Persi's expression stopped being skeptical in order to be annoyed. "Who did that? I tried to figure out when everyone would be asleep or whatever so they wouldn't."

Also, her logic didn't quite work. "What's the point of keeping me company if you're not supposed to fix me? You have little counselor minions to do that?" Actually that seemed like kind of a nice idea. Assuming the counselor minions running around fixed people the right way, anyway. That might just be called guardian angels....

>>"Who did that? I tried to figure out when everyone would be asleep or whatever so they wouldn't."

So, he did not just do it in the spur of the moment. Gemma had suspected that before, but hearing it from him was a confirmation. She acknowledged the information as he had offered it.

>>"What's the point of keeping me company if you're not supposed to fix me? You have little counselor minions to do that?"

"The minions are for making coffee." she smirked "And I am keeping you company so you are not alone. No one should be alone in a hospital, it is depressing, not to mention boring." she added "That doesn't mean we have to talk, though. I can bring you a book, or a laptop if you want. I assume they will also bring you some food soon."

Hmph. Figured she wouldn't tell him. Persi supposed that would make sense, but it was still annoying to have to figure out who he needed to yell at himself. It probably wouldn't be too difficult... hopefully. Persi wasn't convinced that anyone would still be speaking to him willingly after he annoyed them this much. Though that would at least mean less people that might stop him next time....

...Okay, Persi did at least appreciate her sense of humor. He probably would have appreciated it significantly more basically any other time of day, but that was his problem. He would have smirked too, but he didn't have the energy so it actually ended up more like a small smile. He didn't have a good answer though, so he just shrugged at her next comment. "I dunno. I don't mind quiet." He minded plenty of things that quiet tended to cause, like thinking, but at this point he doubted he'd stay awake long enough to think much if he didn't have to.

Food... did not sound good at all. Actually it sounded more like his stomach was having a seizure and trying to escape. "I hope not." Especially if hospital food was as bad as it was supposed to be.

He did not seem excited about the prospect of food, and in all honesty, she did not blame him. But at least he was acknowledging her presence.

"I can go and see if I can rustle up some decent food" she offered. Of course she would not go far and they both knew it. Delivery, incidentally, was also the minions' job.

"In exchange, you have to promise that you will eat it."

He needed his strength back before the rest of the ordeals started.

Decent food didn't make Persi's stomach any happier with the idea, when he tested it. Which wasn't too surprising; Persi wasn't particularly good at telling decent food from terrible, anyway. Normally some type of food would sound better than others--sweet, or cheese, or pasta--but that was about as much as he ever cared. Food was prettymuch just food.

Right now... Persi tried to think of something that sounded good; even if whatever she found wasn't what sounded good, he could use the fact that something did to tell himself he was hungry. Nothing did, though, and after a few minutes he gave up. "I'm really not hungry now...."

Gemma leaving did sound good, though, even if it wouldn't be very long. Persi would really like a break from people for a while. He would have started fidgeting with something, but there wasn't anything near his hands to fidget with, and moving was painful, so he ended up just vaguely shifting. "I could eat some of it?" He was starting to get sick of the ceiling, largely because it was no help figuring out what she thought of that offer, so he glanced over to see if he could tell from her expression. It wasn't the right answer, obviously; the right answer was to immediately promise what she wanted and then do that. Persi really didn't think he could eat much any time soon though, so some was the best he could manage. Hopefully she wouldn't be too mad about that. Though maybe if she was, she would leave....

>>"I'm really not hungry now.... I could eat some of it?"

"Deal." Gemma nodded, getting up from the chair "I'll be right back."

She did not have illusions about the food; she knew that Persi just wanted her out of the room, more than anything. But food was always good, especially if someone was as weakened as him, so she decided to give him the satisfaction of being alone for a while before she returned. In the cafeteria, she spent some time and a lot of persuasive power to get a bowl of mac and cheese, some cookies, and a glass of orange juice, which was the best they could do, and then returned to Persi's room, carrying all the things on a tray.

"This is the best they could do" she announced, setting the tray down.

Apparently some was acceptable. Or at least close enough that she'd pretend it was acceptable, anyway. Which might not actually be what Persi wanted; she was leaving and not yelling at Persi yet, but she'd be back. If Persi had said something even worse then she'd yell and maybe leave and not come back. Being yelled at might be worth it if he was left alone. Persi couldn't just ask her to do that of course, she never would if she knew he wanted her to, asking her to leave earlier might have been too obvious... he couldn't undo that though, so Persi would just try to be polite. That would probably end up offending her enough to make her leave. That was what normally happened; there was no reason Gemma should be much harder to offend than other people were.

She was leaving for a little bit anyway, so Persi waited for her to be out of sight and let himself relax. Or he did for about ten seconds, before he remembered that Gemma would be coming back, and he'd really better not look like he was ignoring her. So he opened his eyes again and went back to staring at the ceiling, except he was tired and his eyes didn't want to stay open so he needed something to focus on. There wasn't much; he probably couldn't be reasonable yet so trying to figure out why he'd failed wouldn't work, and he shouldn't be crying in front of Gemma anyway. Gemma didn't make sense, and he really didn't know enough to figure out why she was there... she was getting food though, right? Persi had no idea what food hospitals had, but it probably wasn't anything he could eat while he was laying down. Not much food fit that description.

Sitting up... was not easy. The sheet was too tight, to start with, so first Persi had to get that loose, which meant moving his arms, which hurt. Especially his left hand, which turned out to be covered in bandages and wasn't really useful. He probably should have expected that.... He did manage to sit up eventually, though. And before Gemma got back, if not by very much. Which was probably best; he didn't have time to possibly fall asleep, and he probably didn't look any different since presumably he'd already be fairly pale... er than normal.... Anyway, it was annoying that he didn't get to relax, but probably better.

The food looked... like food. Which meant Persi still had not miraculously become a gourmet chef that could tell good food from bad, and his stomach was still twisting at the sight of it. And the smell; he leaned away from it automatically before he realized what he was doing, and tried to turn it into sitting up straighter instead. "...Thanks." That would maybe be convincing if he could stop eyeing the food like it was going to poison him, but his stomach was really convinced it would... his stomach was wrong, though; a hospital was the last place where poison might be in the food, and anyway who would bother?

Persi was sitting up by the time she returned, and she placed the food on his lap with the little fold-out table.

"You're welcome."

She knew that it must have taken him a lot of effort to sit up on his own, and that using a spoon and a fork probably was not easy either. She let him do it on his own, though. Babying him would not have had the effect she was aiming for anyway.

"Take your time" she said, sitting back down "You have lost a lot of blood. You are going to need rest to get your strength back."