Waking up was not fun.

It hadn't been for a while, really; just because Persi knew pain was good for him didn't mean he liked it. Which was why it was good for him in the first place, really. But at first it had been easier to accept since he knew it would help him, and then there'd been too much physical pain for him to really think about anything else. Now he was just tired and aching--which was far too familiar, and definitely not enough to help him. He didn't really care why he was feeling better--if they'd found a healer, or drugs, or he'd slept long enough to heal, or what, Persi wasn't a doctor so he didn't know--but it didn't really matter, because either way he was now just uncomfortable enough to not be able to ignore it, and not in enough pain to focus on it. Which meant he was thinking. Mostly about why it still hadn't worked. What did he do wrong? Persi shouldn't have even been able to do anything wrong; he wasn't supposed to be doing anything at all. Was that the problem? But when he had tried himself it had also failed. Was he supposed to do something first? But he had already done everything he was supposed to do... well, everything good, anyway.

...Did God want him alive so that he'd do evil things and guarantee that he'd go to Hell? That didn't sound like God, but nothing else made sense....

...Well if that was the case, too bad. Persi didn't feel like being evil.

...Assuming having that thought wasn't sufficiently evil in the first place. Whatever. If God really wanted him in Hell that much Persi was going anyway, so why not do what he wanted first?

Starting with... starting with not thinking about this anymore. That sounded good. Persi rolled onto his side before realizing that that should have been much more painful, decided not to question why it wasn't, and pulled the pillow over his head to try going back to sleep.

Sam never wanted to have this conversation with any one; he imagined what was said to his younger brother Dom when he found out that his parents died in a car crash. Dom didn’t handle things the best way and he was hoping that Persi given the circumstances might be able to handle things better. From what he heard it wasn’t the most stable family living environment, his parents were in a cult that hated mutants and Persi just happened to be one.

Doc expressed his concern and the condition the kid was in when he was brought in. It wasn’t good. Sam nodded silently as he walked forward and pulled a chair up to Persi’s bed. Sam didn’t care much for the kid, he was whiney and a self-loathing kid who just seemed like the world was out to get him. In other words he was a teenager. Not the kind that Sam liked, Persi was nothing like Kat, Koga, Fausto or any other kids he had taught. Maybe that was because he hadn’t started to teach Persi yet? Well that was going to change but he figured the kid could use some rest. Unfortunately the police thought other wise.

”How you feeling kid?” Sam asked turning the chair backwards and sitting on it facing Persi’s bed. ”Wish I could let you rest more, but we need to talk a bit. You gotta be thirsty or hungry right?” Sam asked trying to sound sincere as possible. The kid had it rough, and he wasn’t really a fighter making it all the more difficult for him.

There was a voice. Which was vaguely sort of maybe familiar, but not enough for Persi to actually recognize it, only think that maybe he should try to. The voice didn't seem to care about that, since it was talking to him anyway. Persi considered holding the pillow over his face and attempting to ignore the voice, but he had yet to meet anyone who would actually leave him alone if he did that. Plus, he had just woken up; as much as he would like to sleep, he didn't actually feel like he would fall asleep any time soon. "Tired. Not really." Should he be thirsty or hungry? Or maybe he was? He hadn't really been paying attention to that, so he probably should. And also to the voice, because any voice that kept asking questions probably wanted something and wouldn't go away until it got it. Persi moved the arm holding the pillow enough to peek out. And then, since he was in a bed, a bit more so he could look up.

...Why was the crazy pirate guy here?

No seriously, why was the pirate guy here? Persi had just decided to figure out something to do that he'd actually like before he died. Be yelled at and dropped off a roof was not the sort of thing he considered enjoyable.

Edging back away from the crazy guy probably wouldn't help at all, but Persi really wasn't thinking enough for the decision to be conscious, so he did anyway.

It wasn’t the answer Sam wanted, but it was an answer. If he could force himself to smile at this time he would have but there was too much pity for the kid to crack a joke or start yelling at him. Sam had been on the tough ‘love’ reciving end a few times in his life. In fact there was a decade where all he would get was just that, only without the love part. Sam’s eyebrow twitched and lowered slightly. ”Doc, want to get your patient some water and food for me before the other guests show up?” Sam asked without leaving room for Doc to argue. He was aware of the situation and while he and Sam had been on not so great terms for the moment he understood this was for Persi, not for Sam.

”I wish I could leave you alone kid, I do. You earned some rest, however there are some police on their way, and they are gonna want to talk to you.” Sam didn’t say why jut yet but he let the statement sit in the air before he continued, ”I’ll leave as soon as they do and you can get as much rest as you want alright?”

No. Not that Persi was a doctor, or anyone else that could be called Doc, or that his opinion seemed to matter at the moment. Well good luck to crazy pirate guy; if he wanted Persi to eat, he could argue with Persi's stomach when it refused to. If it refused to. Persi still wasn't actually all that sure what it was thinking. He was focused on figuring out if he could edge back any further or if he'd go off the edge of the bed or the crazy guy would just grab him.

No you don't. Dangling people off roofs was generally not a sign of wanting to leave them alone. A good sign of wanting to leave someone alone was leaving them alone. Which the crazy pirate guy was... police? Persi blinked. "What?" Why would police want to talk to him? Especially with the crazy pirate guy in the same room to talk to. Admittedly, dangling Persi off a roof wasn't that bad, but the pirate didn't know Persi was Persi so he couldn't have known it was okay so he probably just did that to people normally, which was not okay and really the sort of thing police ought to want to talk to someone about.

But they didn't, for some reason they wanted to talk to Persi. Which was very odd since he was pretty sure he hadn't been able to do anything bad recently. And was pretty sure he hadn't done anything that bad before it, either, at least that police would deal with.

...What if it was his parents? Persi really should have thought of that sooner. Just because they were trying to help didn't mean other people would see it that way. If that was it he'd probably better figure out... something to say. That might be easier if he was sure what injuries he'd had in the first place; it was kind of fuzzy. He could say he'd refused to eat on his own.... He wasn't sure about the rest of it, though. He frowned and bit his lip trying to remember, then let go when he noticed what he was doing. "Why would they want to talk to me?"

His mind was racing, what it was thinking about Sam couldn’t tell. He did dangle the kid off a roof, so he understood while the kid was hesitant to be around him, but the kid was going to have to look past that for now. Sam’s idea of tough love was out the window when it came to a subject as touchy as this. Times like this he wished Neena were here, or Tricity, or ghost, or any other number of more sensitive people in the mansion. Sam wasn’t much for sensitivity when it came to things like this. Sighing Sam ran one of his hands through his hair and sighed, ”No easy way to tell you this and I don’t have a lot of time to beat around the bush.” he paused.

”Police are on their way and agreed to let me be here during the interrogation.” Sam scratched his head again ”I’m getting ahead of myself again.” Sam took a breath after giving himself a slight tap on his head. ”They found your parents bodies, both of them were found dead.” Sam didn’t fill in the gruesome details; he had one of his police buddies tell him what they found needless to say it was a mess. Sam still didn’t know if Persi did it or not, the backwards thinking and the reason he was in the hospital bed was a good enough reason as far as Sam was concerned but then again he was just a kid. Sam had a messed up childhood, and it made him said to see any kid in his school to go through anything similar.

”Persi, you didn’t kill them did you?” Sam asked a serious tone setting in as his one eye fixed on all of Persi’s facial features. His sixth sense picked up on body twitches and spasms that might take place. Sam was good at reading liars; he was after all a great one.

”I know you had it pretty rough, Doc fixed you up but they visible bruises and cuts were just the tip of the iceberg, you were malnourished, dehydrated…” Sam didn’t go into the broken bones or any other of the injuries, he was sure Persi was aware of them. ”From my understanding, they were the ones that taught you being a mutant made you evil.” Sam tried to not make it seem like an interrogation but that was what it was. Sam needed some information to help the police and he knew they would be far harder on Persi.

There was no easy way to... tell Persi that police were coming?

That seemed pretty easy, honestly.

Well, interrogation did imply that Persi had done something. That could be the difficult part. Persi would worry about that if he could actually figure out what he'd done. He really couldn't think of--

"...No they're not." Persi was slightly more conscious of pushing himself up than talking, but neither was very much. He was not at all aware of his expression, or his arms shaking from holding himself up. "They're not dead, they're alive, I saw them--I saw my dad, I guess, but I saw my mom a few days ago, and--no!" He noticed he was sitting up when he moved too suddenly--lunging somewhere, maybe to stand up, he wasn't sure, and lost his vision to dizziness for a moment and ended up back on an elbow. He kept talking anyway. "I didn't kill them! No one killed them, they're not dead!"

The crazy guy kept talking too. As soon as Persi could see again he glared at him. "They didn't teach me anything wrong, and they're not going to, they didn't do anything wrong. And they're not dead."

Sam stood up and moved closer to the kid to make sure he didn’t face plant on the floor he had a feeling Doc would only become more irritated with Sam than he already was. ”Kid. Breath.” Sam said slightly yelling. It was the only way he knew how to keep the kid from becoming hysterical, he knew it wasn’t easy to hear but it was the truth. Sam was the bearer of bad news and he had to live with it now. It was either he told Persi or the police did and when they did they wouldn’t be as nice as Sam was being. ”I’m sorry.” Sam said placing his hand on Persi’s shoulder shaking him a little so the kid would look to see he was serious.

”Never easy to hear this kid,” Sam said waiting till Persi settled down slightly at least enough for Sam to talk to him a bit about what was going to happen. Sam waited a few moments after Persi stopped talking then took a step back and crouched down. ”I really wish I was lying kid, I do. There was a fire, but they think it happened before the fire.” Sam paused and let it sink in as he continued to tip toe around the subject as to why the police were coming, ”I believe ya kid, they didn’t do anything wrong but that doesn’t change the fact that they were found dead.” he realized how cruel that sounded and he took another step back.

Sam suddenly felt like he did a few years ago when his brother Dom told him his parents were dead, the ones he only had five years of his life with the ones he wished he could have met and learned more from them. He had so many questions for them but… you couldn’t talk to the dead. At least he couldn’t. Sam thought of Tarin for a second and decided it would have been too cruel for Persi to go through. Far worse than what was about to happen.

”Dental and what DNA they could gather matches for your parents, I’m sorry, you can mourn later.” Sam was starting to hate himself again, ”The reason I’m here right now is to make sure you don’t do anything or say anything that will put you behind bars.” Sam didn’t want to admit it but from the police work he had done while working with the police Persi was a prime suspect, he knew the victims, had a motive a strong one. ”Right now the police are on their way to question you about what happened, you need to stay calm and focused. You answer them to the best of your abilities. Okay? We can talk about everything else after.” he knew he was the bad guy here but someone had to be and he rather have it be him than the police. Sam knew how to pull his punches.

Being told to breath did not achieve much of anything, except to make Persi glare more. He was breathing just fine, thank you. Or not. His ability to breath really wasn't due to the crazy guy, so there wasn't much point in thanking him. The order was pointless anyway.

Fire and dead and teeth and DNA. Persi thought that only happened on TV. "They're not dead," was repeated, but quieter and it didn't sound like he believed it anymore. Wished it, sure, but wasn't that the point? Mutants were bad because they killed people, and got people killed. Normal, good people who just tried to help them. Like Persi's parents. Who tried to help him.

So, really, it was Persi's fault. "Why would that matter?" It wasn't like he was accomplishing anything out of jail, and it almost certainly was his fault, so why not? Apart from catching the technical killer, he supposed. He wouldn't want to be responsible for--fire, DNA--getting to keep running around wherever he liked. It was partly his fault too, not only Persi's, and at least Persi didn't want to kill anyone. Fire pretty clearly did.

Sam sighed slightly as the air around them cooled, frost started to coat the window closest to Persi and Sam spoke calmly and clearly once he knew that Persi’s attention was at least somewhat focused on Sam. His display of his powers should be able to do at least that. ”You need to remain calm, if you start acting out the police might try to arrest you.” Sam said simply enough as he released his control over his mutation. ”I’m trying to kelp you kid, I really am.” Sam walked back over to the chair and sat down as Doc walked back into the room and offered up Persi a sandwich and some water. “Your injuries are mostly healed but I can’t make you not hungry or thirsty, I can ease the symptoms but you have to do the rest.” Doc set them down on a tray next to Persi’s bed and started to walk out of the room, “Sam I’ll let you know when the police arrive.” Doc said not making eye contact with Sam and exiting the infirmary.

Sam ran his hands through his hair and nodded, ”At least have a little water if you aren’t going to eat.” Sam said making it sound almost like a command. ”As far as I’m concerned you didn’t do anything wrong, meaning there is no reason for you to be considered a suspect.” Persi didn’t give off the killer vibe, Sam was familiar with it, Persi was just a stupid kid.

”So when the police ask you questions, you answer them to the best of your ability understood? I’ll be here the whole time making sure you don’t freak out or say something stupid.” it was Persi so odds were he was going to. ”We can talk more about what happened to your parents after the questioning. Alright?”

Persi didn't notice the room getting colder, or the frost creeping over the window. He did notice enough of what the guy was saying to glare at him, but didn't feel like bothering to actually say what he was thinking. Partly because that would have required sorting it out into something coherent enough to say; they ought to arrest me and how stupid are they expecting me to be calm now and you thought dropping me off a roof was helpful and they can't be dead were all mixed up in too many pieces for anything he said to make sense.

DocProf received an equally friendly flat look, which transferred to the food once he was out of sight. Persi didn't want to eat; he felt like he should be hungry, but he wasn't at all. The crazy pirate guy would probably throw him off a roof again if he didn't, though, and he really didn't feel like dealing with that, so he sat up enough to pick up the glass of water and stare at it.

Instead of drinking he went back to eyeing the crazy guy. He was no more convinced, but actually glaring took energy. "If it wasn't for me no one would have attacked them, and they wouldn't even have been there anyway. Why does it matter if I actually did it?" In Persi's opinion, it quite clearly did not.

Survivors guilt, he had heard about it before before and even seen it in action. This was what it looked like to Sam. The kid was blaming himself. Unless the kid started the fire, or stabbed his parents or hired someone to do any of that he didn’t really see how it could be his fault. ”You start the fire? Did you kill your parents with your own hands? Did you hire someone to do it?” Sam asked his voice becoming more stern as he was trying to convince the kid he had nothing to do with it.

”I don’t want to hear talk like that again, got it?” the room became colder once again and the water before Persi started to smoke slightly before he realized his emotions were activating his mutation. Sam breathed and relaxed, ”Listen kid, you can’t think like that. You had nothing to do with their deaths. It was a fire, they police still don’t know if someone set it or it was an accident.” Sam said still not including the truth about how his parents died before the fire was set.

”Why do you think you’re the cause? Because you’re a mutant?” Sam asked in a mocking tone remembering the conversation he had with the kid a while back. ”If you know that someone set the fire and killed your parents you need to tell me and the police so we can get the to the bottom of it. Prison is for killers and rapists and people who are bad. You’re a lot of things kid but bad ain’t one of them.” Sam said running his hand through his hair again.

And the crazy guy was still crazy. What a surprise. Persi sort of liked the idea of dumping the water on him, but that would require moving.

...Or the not water. What sort of water smoked? Persi could feel that it wasn't boiling. Which meant it probably wasn't water. Crazy guy could deal with him not drinking whatever it was; he set it back down and eyed it suspiciously.

"Yes." Why even ask? Admittedly the guy was crazy, but obviously he knew, so why bother asking? "Mutants wouldn't have attacked them if they hadn't been involved because of me, and they wouldn't even have been there. And normal people wouldn't kill people and leave them in pieces so it has to have been a mutant."

Sam stared at the kid for a second before shaking his head, ”Kid that’s the most ****ed up logic I’ve ever heard.” he didn’t stop before he added, ”Mutations don’t make the person evil, it’s the person wielding them. I’ve seen tons of people that were humans, kill people for no reason.” Sam shook his head, ”You really need to get out of your head and your little world.” Sam said shaking his head as he cut his mutation and allowed the water to stop smoking from his temperature change.

”Most of the killers in prison are humans, I won’t argue that there aren’t bad mutants out there but there are many more good ones than bad.” Sam said, ”You really think you’re a bad person fine, believe what you want kid. I’m just telling you now you better not say this crap to the police. They might try and use that as a confession or something. I’ve seen bad people kid believe what you want but your not one of them. Mutant doesn’t make you anything other than a mutant.” Sam said shaking his head, ”Now eat some of the food before you pass out.” again that wasn’t a request.