Cafas didn't quite realise how tight his boots had been with the swelling until the first one was gone. It was quite an unpleasant form of relief. He was very much looking forward to DocProf making the last of the situation go away. Just a bit more slicing and he was on the home stretch.

"I'll admit I went a bit overboard toda... Wait Abby? What about her? Is she alright?" Cafas almost launched himself to his feet. If there was something wrong with Abby and he was responsible... He had to fix it. He could run on broken feet right? He'd walked to the infirmary on them. His body stopped him completing the motion though, reflexively preventing further damage.

Okay, well, gonna have to wait. I don't like waiting.

Cafas slumped back, head spinning from the rapid movement. If that wasn't the blood loss, then he had no idea what it was. It may be blood sugar, he hadn't yet eaten, and workouts took a heck of a drain on resources. "I need you to tell me what happened. Then, when my feet are functional again, I'm going to have to go fix it." IT was not a request. His voice left no doubt about it. She may not be an X-man, or trainee, but if it came to family, she'd be receiving orders like she was.

Serena raised a hand to keep him where he was. "Hey hey, relax. She's fine." She reassured him. Her session with Abby had gone quite well, and she had mentioned Cafas more than once and that he treated her as family, she could see now that he really did by the way he reacted to the mere mention of her name. It was sweet actually, it brought some warmth to Serena, not many people felt that strongly about family and she was one of the few that did.

Serena tilted her head up at him and carried on with what she was doing while speaking. "Abby is fine." She reaffirmed. Serena wouldn't let anything bad physically or psychologically happen to the younger girl, she was a little overprotective of friends and people that looked up to her, especially when they happened to be kids. "But seriously, Cafas. She looks up to you, you're her freaking role model and I can't imagine it's a terribly good thing for the man she looks up to getting himself blooded half to death training."

She was nearly finished slicing through the other shoe when she almost face palmed. "Oh my god, I'm dense. She already knows your habits, back in the danger room she said something about knowing that she could find you this time of day with the Doc." Serena's gaze hardened. "I'd assumed you were helping out or had some medical thing, as I said I try not to jump to conclusions too hard before I meet the person in question."

Serena's tone was harder now as she worked. "You seem like a good, well intention-ed and nice person. But how long before Abby idolises you to the point that she tries to imitate you?" She sighed and carried on working. "Sorry, I don't mean to get all ranty. I'm a bit over protective about friends, especially younger ones."

Okay, she was fine. Fine was good. Fine meant not running to have to undo any horrible things that might have befallen her. Apparently though, the horrible thing was him. He didn't know how to feel about that. He didn't know how to respond to the fact Abby had known where to find him, that it was actually pretty common Mansion knowledge.

He heaved a sigh, his bulk seeming to shrink as he fell into a slouch. It was all far too hard. Why did it have to be difficult? Why couldn't everything be as simple as his brain wanted it to be? "You think she would? I had her pegged as more sensible than me. I don't know, maybe you're right." The girl certainly seemed to listen to him. Was she watching him for advice too? How many others saw him as a role model? Too many, probably.

One is too many.

"I just... I had this idea that if I could just be the best, if I trained against seemingly insurmountable odds, if I could beat anyone or anything, then maybe I could protect them... You know?" Stop the bad things from ever happening to them. Be stronger than the bad guys. Faster, better, more capable. It had been such a core belief for so long. How was he supposed to let go of it when it gave him so much of his drive?

Cafas looked around the room. He knew every detail with perfect clarity. Disturbing clarity. He figured he knew it better than his own apartment. He couldn't stand for the same to be true of Abby one day. If she never had to see the inside of an infirmary again, he'd be much happier for it.

But isn't that what I was going to do? Stop her needing this?

Serena smiled as Cafas seemed to calm down a little. She certainly didn't see him as a role model, she was old enough and experienced enough to make up her own mind on issues, and she knew who she was. She could honestly see how much he cared for Abby and vice versa, and while this feeling did bring warmth to her heart, she was also well aware and weary of it.

Serena tilted her head at him as she peeled off the second shoe gently, and set it down. "I think Abby is a very clever, level headed girl for her age. But she's also a kid. She admires you, and I don't think it would be a big stretch for her to idolise how you act given how much she adores you." She admitted.

Serena looked down at the blood bag near her arm, nearly full and gave an emotional sigh. "Once upon a time, I had someone in my life quite like how Abby feels about you. He was amazing, and he always tried to be the best. To make the world a safer place for me, and while he was pretty damn good at it one day it all caught up with him, and speaking from experience the way that something like that..." She paused, her voice breaking a bit. "The way that someone like that getting injured, or worse effects you, is quite profound."

She cleared her throat and went to peel off the needle in her arm, gently tying up the blood bag, she took a breath and turned back to Cafas, composure regained, memories of her brother shifted to one side gently. "There is nothing wrong with admitting to yourself and others you're not perfect, nobody is." She smiled and actually hugged the man. "You already do a lot for her, just make sure that you don't push it to far."

The girl took a moment to gather herself stood up and cleared her throat. "Well, either way if you want to talk to her or if Maya is coming down here I should probably clean that blood off for you."

Hugging Cafas had not expected. He had been doing an awful lot of it recently though, and his arms understood how it worked. He hugged Serena back, partly reflex, partly for caring about Abby. It was good to know more level headed people were looking out for her. If it had just been him, well, he had no idea how that would end.

"I guess if I was perfect, I'd know what the hell I'm meant to do now." He didn't see a solution. If he dialled back the training to where he wasn't getting injured, then how could he be prepared for the real deal? If he didn't, how did he protect Abby, and any number of kids that idolised the X-men, from thinking that he was what they should be and getting hurt in the process?

This is all very difficult...

The hug was broken of, and there was talk of getting him cleaned up. He supposed he needed it. He was a total mess. DocProf could handle the broken bones, but... "I think I might need new clothes to be considered clean. This blood isn't exactly gonna come out easily." Nor was the sweat. He really could use a shower, but the bleeding wound had kind of made him prioritise the medical visit.

She didn't know the man very well, but she quickly found herself developing a deep, well founded respect for him. He cared about protecting people, that was why he was the way that was before her. She didn't meet all that many people in life that truly cared. Truth be told, most mutants that Serena came across were actually either very cynical or downright violent.

Serena smiled at him. "You do your best and think things through, that's all any of us can try to do." She was quickly realising why DocProf had suggested this time of day on this day for her to come and donate blood to his supply, and she was going to be having some words with him about this.

Serena smirked and actually giggled. "Well, I probably know more about blood stains at this point than some medical professionals" She admitted, extremely amused by that notion.

She smiled softly. "Just relax and sit still, especially considering that you're not in a great condition, I'll take care of the blood." and with that, her body took on the blue glow again, a similar light radiated from the spots in Cafas' clothes that were caked in blood. She got a grip on them and then pulled them out of the clothing, they had started to dry so she let them become more liquid first to make it easier.

She brought all of it together into a neat little sphere. "There, that's much better." she responded, adding a smile.

There was something to be said for living with a bunch of mutants. Cafas' clothes, though still in need of a patch here or there, were no longer blood stained. He watched Serena's work with interest, far too used to dealing with mutants to be surprised. Still, it was a rather eerie display, the blue glow around the sanguine orb.

Wonder what would happen if I poked it.

"Well that's pretty convenient. Thanks." Cafas' hand twitched slightly as he thought about touching the blood sphere. If he'd had pockets, his hands would be firmly in them to avoid unnecessary temptation. He would simply need to retain self control instead, under the circumstances. "Blood manip then? Can't say I remember meeting another. It looks a lot less worrying when it's just hanging in the air." None of the instinctual fear response. It was just so far out of his instinctual frame of reference that his brain hardly recognised it as blood.

DocProf's tone sounded like his conversation was wrapping up to Cafas. The quickly following silence before he re-entered canfirmed as much. "Ah yes, you mentioned your feet. Tell me, did you make sure you'd been hit absolutely everywhere before you finished up?" The grey haired doctor knelt and extended his hands to Cafas' feet. A few moments of golden light later and the last of Cafas' injuries were dealt with. "There. Maya is of course worried about you, but pre-occupied. I expect she'll be wanting to talk to you tonight."

Lucky me...

The old man turned to Serena and a smile returned to his face. "Thank you for coming in Serena, this should be most useful." There was something to his tone that sounded an awful lot like the time he'd set Cafas up to confess how he felt about Ghost in front of her. The metal manipulator's eyes narrowed, but he didn't mention it. DocProf took the blood-bag and ventured off to put it away.

"You know, I think I trust him too much."

Okay, now she was starting to feel mildly shaky. The loss of blood in her system combined with some use of her mutation did take it's toll. And she wasn't in a situation with adrenaline to keep her energy from ebbing. She sighed and sat gently on the edge of the bed across from Cafas, a sigh escaping her lips as she set down the little sphere of mostly solid blood.

She smiled again and nodded gently. She really did do a lot of smiling... oh well. "You wouldn't believe how much it saves in terms of washing bills. I mean, blood stains are a nightmare to get out of stuff usually." She replied, remembering a particularly fun evening of scrubbing the ever loving hell out of one of her brother's work shirts where he'd gotten covered in blood while giving CPR to someone.

Another little shrug. "I've been told that they are quite rare, I've never met anybody whose even seen one that works the same way I do." She responded. Almost every other blood manipulator she'd ever met revolved around manipulating the flow of blood in themselves or other people, she couldn't particularly effect the blood inside of another person's body, only indirectly.

"You're quite welcome! I can probably swing by in another day or two, but I donated recently as well as... my encounter with Sam, so just to be safe I'm going to wait a few more days if that's okay with you." The Doc turned and gave her a smile as he went to store her donation.

The blonde cocked an eyebrow at Cafas "You mean the fact that he timed my being her intentionally?" She chuckled. "He's a sly fox, I'll give him that much. I'm not sure why he thought I'd talk particular sense into you though, I'd never met you." She thought for a moment before smiling. "I'm glad I did though... as mildly insane it is to push yourself that hard, you clearly mean well."

"The man knows everything that's going on here, I guess he knew I'd irritate you getting myself beaten up." Maybe that's why he took the blood too. Make her grumpier. Well, the joke was on him, Cafas had navigated his minefield with only minor casualties in his pride. DocProf and his prying, scheming ways would not be victorious, no matter how well intentioned.

Except with Maya.

"And I'm pretty sure mild insanity is an entrance requirement for the X-men. No one in their right mind would sign on to do what we do, for free, at that." Seriously, he didn't know of anyone he'd consider sane if they told him they wanted to risk life, limb, and lucidity for no compensation. Even if it was trying to further the mutant cause, it still sounded like an insane suggestion. "Sam and I seems to exemplify the damage this life'll do to you."

At least I get some nights between the nightmares these days...

Cafas stretched and flexed all his newly mended extremities. He'd still lost a fair amount of blood, so driving was out of the question for a while. That sounded like an excellent excuse not to go stand around at protests. Maybe he could go get something to eat. Did he want to cook? Probably not, but pizza was cheating on his diet, and it wasn't cheat day. Cafas sighed and focused on Serena. "Hey, you feel like lunch? Probably do us both some good."

Tends to help combat some of the blood loss.

Serena smiled at the pink haired mutant's response. "Yeah, he knows me fairly well. I grew up with two people who got themselves killed with something similar, so he probably though I wouldn't take too kindly to seeing you do the same thing, especially considering Abby is near the age I was when that happened." She responded thoughtfully, mentally adding that the Doc was quite right about that.

Serena responded somewhat wryly. "I know that one." She sighed. "I think you'd be hard pressed to find a mutant into their adulthood that didn't have SOME kind of psychological damage, and I'm hardly one to talk about that." She admitted. She'd had a problem for years, and was only just getting over it. At the very least she wasn't scared of her own power anymore, that had sort of sucked a bit.

She shrugged. "Though admittedly I don't think most people would fault someone who jumped forwards, ready to put themselves between others and danger." She just happened to be one of those people. She'd probably do the same thing though, given the opportunity. Go figure, everyone's a hypocrite in some way.

Serena's thoughts began to drift to something sugary, possibly accompanied by coffee. When Cafas suggested lunch. Her eyes sparkled. "You read my mind, Cafas." She stood up quickly, possibly too quickly from the wooziness that drifted into her head, but she shook it off and offered him a hand up off the bed. "I'll cook." she added softly.

Food that he didn't have to cook was the best kind of food. Well, not really, it tended to not stick to his diet, but maybe he'd give himself a cheat day given how badly he'd just been beaten. Yeah, a nice cheat day. Pizza for dinner! Schnitzel too! Pasta! Ooooh everything was coming up Milhouse.

Big plans, let's see the follow through.

"You know Serena, I like you." Cafas stood and did a dizzy wobble. Stupid blood loss. The unsteady spell passed quickly as his heart caught up with his inertia. "Though I think you'd be surprised how many people will fault you for trying to protect people." Like the NYPD, who still didn't much like the X-men best Cafas could tell. Not that he'd helped with the way Calley and he had ended things. Hopefully that could pass so he could stop being pulled over every other day.

Cafas waved a hand and stood back so Serena could lead. Partly he was just being polite, but given he was walking in socks, there was an element of not wanting to slip and make an idiot of himself in front of the woman. Her opinion of him was already on thin ice if he was interpreting her correctly, the last thing he needed was too look like a clumsy fool. All the coordination in the world wouldn't save him from wearing socks on tiles.

Wouldn't be the first pair of pants I lost like that...

"So how do you know Abby? I don't think I asked earlier." Because Serena had said she was a student, right? Not a teacher, which would have been his first assumption. That meant knowing Abby in a professional capacity was unlikely.

Serena gave of a very genuine hearty giggle at Cafas comment on liking her. The blonde's eyes sparkled slightly as she fixed him with a very friendly gaze. "Well thank you, Cafas. You're not so bad yourself." She turned and made sure that he was still able to walk alright, thinking for a second before responding. "I think you'd be surprised at how many people would thank you for it. People on Campus certainly do." She responded.

Serena had a somewhat somber thought pass through her head, her smile flickered a bit. "My brother would have. Cop or not, he would have shook your hand and thanked you for trying to help out." she added, thoughtfully.

As they made their way towards the kitchens another amusing thought struck the girl. They walked past the doors that a certain griffon mutant had burst through in her first few weeks here, completely nude as it so happened. That had been her first real close up look of the male anatomy in real life, and she had not since had a particular desire to get another. She made a mental note to check on Carrick.

Serena grinned broadly at Cafas. "I met her a few years ago, actually. When I was a student here, I think it must have been her first week, she was still very shy and nervous about everything. I went for a swim outside and met her." She paused. "As I mentioned, I've been around near her a few times since. I volunteered to stay with her in the city so that she could do some shopping a while back without getting harassed by people who had seen her poster or anything, and more recently I've been teaching her some basic self defense practice." She added softly.

It was good to know Abby had someone else looking out for her. Cafas smiled and found himself liking Serena more by the word. That process was rapidly halted by conflicting emotions when the blonde mentioned self defence. Cafas' stride faltered and had to be regained so he didn't lose any ground on Serena.

"Self defence? Yeah?" On the one hand he was glad Abby would be better equipped to take care of herself. It was a world full of bad people, no matter how much Cafas believed the majority were good, or at least well intentioned. If Abby could be safer in that world, that was a good thing.

"How's she doing?" On the other hand, the violence in his life had only increased after he'd learned to fight. It was kind of obvious, perhaps, that it would work that way, but he'd always heard the opposite to be true. People didn't attack those they weren't confident of beating or something. In his life though, it seemed more like people often attacked that which the perceived as a threat, and often with less restraint.

Should I talk to Abby about it? Is it even really my place? But if not me, who will? I should ask about school too. I wonder if she wants to do college...

Tiles. They'd hit the tiles, and Cafas hadn't noticed, too busy being worried about Abby's future to notice. His sock slipped and he had to fight to stay upright. He gave a short rendition of Bambi stepping on ice, less the falling over before he managed to regain his balance. The X-man sighed and hung his head. He'd rather hoped not to do that.

Serena could understand Cafas being concerned over Abby wanting to know self defense, but at the same time she could never see any harm in it. There wasn't any real downside to knowing how to handle yourself, especially when tempered with the knowledge of knowing when to avoid aggressive confrontation altogether. And Abigail was pretty cool headed as far as the blonde was concerned.

"Yes. I'm not sure why she was so interested, or why she picked me in particular, but I learned how to handle myself around her age, so I figured there was nothing wrong with her knowing the basics." She responded thoughtfully.

"She seemed to be doing well, very clever and thoughtful girl. I like her." Serena responded with a soft smile. The blonde instinctively reached her arm out for Cafas to grab if he lost his balance, she was amusingly reminded of learning to ice skate and having to cling onto friends arms while doing so.

She gave him a wry smile. "You X-men are a very mixed bunch. You have cheerful and friends like Kat and Maya, then serious sullen hardcore trainers like you and Sam." She commented as they entered the kitchen.

Cafas accepted the arm, more as a gesture of acceptance that his dignity would not be at all maintained. That being the case, he saw no reason not to sock-skate. At least that was a controlled slide. "Clever and thoughtful is partly why her interest bothers me. I'm not against her learning, but it's worrying when someone you care about suddenly wants to learn to fight, doubly so when they're not a naturally rough person. Makes me wonder what the catalyst was."

The now rather more gracefully sliding Cafas shrugged as he coasted into the kitchen. His socks were going to be black with floor dust. Even DJ Roomba couldn't prevent that, as he trundled by, laying down sick beats. "I'd like to think I'm not too sullen. Sometimes I guess. Mostly when I'm left by myself. Maya'll pull me right out of that though." The very thought of her brought a smile to his lips, and his brain got to wondering where she might be. He had a kiss with her name on it.

Man I miss Kat...

"We could use a happy medium, honestly. I sometimes worry that Maya's not training enough, and that Sam and I train too much. I guess it'd be nice to have someone around to show everyone that the balance is possible." The pink haired mutant mused absently, looking around the empty kitchen with some surprise. It wasn't every day it was empty at any sort of daylight hour.