Serena was glad when Artair turned around, really glad. She had to stop herself going and hugging him. God, this state was a nightmare. Everything was turned up to 10, it was hard to separate her thoughts and feelings. She moved over to her clothes and shifted back. It took less than half a minute, she suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit her like a truck, but was pumped by adrenaline for not wanting to be seen naked.

It only took a couple of minutes but she got fully clothed again, and frowned down at a hole in her shirt. "What?..." She muttered. "OH! I'm so sorry, you can turn around now." She replied whilst pulling out her phone and dialing 911, immediately starting to give the man the one over. First important thing, was he breathing and still alive? She checked this before his restraints were checked, whilst Artair moved back over.

She stood up quickly when she confirmed he was just out cold and called an ambulance and the cops. Apparently they were already on their way. Go figure, one of the people running away screaming managed to get the fuzz on their way. "They're on their way." She glanced down at the mans wounds. None of them were too deep or dangerous.

She quickly activated her power again and used blood to make-shift bandage the wounds, stopping any additional bleeding. Damn, she was good.

Turning back to the problem at hand, at least one nightmare was over. Serena seemed to be back to normal. Or as close to normal was anymore. Nodding to her he checked the mans vitals, noting the expected slower heart-rate and breathing. If they could stop his bleeding he'd probably not die, barring a nasty infection. At least Serena took better care of her tech and she'd managed to confirm help was on their way. If only he could make a knife he could at least make some from his T-shirt. Before he could even try to rip it Serena proved to be more useful. Again.

Sighing deeply he forced himself to come to a realisation. He'd stepped into a world he knew nothing about. He was a very small fish in a very, very big pond. "I think I need to get better at this," he noted to Serena, "I'd rather not finish everyday more bruised than a boxer." He didn't however know how, or where to go for that. That was for the future however and he dragged his mind back to the present moment. There was a more pressing concern for the Scotsman.

Now, now he just needed to find a good enough excuse to leave before she started fussing over his condition as well. Groaning as he stood up he looked around, trying to see if anyone else was hurt. Maybe someone else needed help. "Lass, you see any other injured? One of us needs to check and well," he indicated to the bound form on the ground, "Only one of us can actually do something if he gets rowdy again." He'd already been shown how out of his depth he was, having he try to take care of him as well would be too much. His pride had taken a hell of a beating already, god knows he could try to salvage at least a little.

She gave Artair another once over. He didn't have too much in the way of outward injuries. but by the wheezing she was guessing he was either bruised badly or had something broken. She checked herself and was pleased to see she'd sustained no injuries, she didn't really like bothering the Doc for things that shouldn't have happened in the first place, though he never seemed to mind healing her very much.

She glanced back up at him. Was he... Was Artair jealous? She withheld a smile at the thought and nodded back at him. "Okay, just please don't wander too far, in case he gets back up, or you're more injured than we think." She commented thoughtfully, and actually did spread into a smile once his back was turned and he'd walked away.

It wasn't long before the authorities showed up, and Serena was well versed in this procedure, she gave a clear concise description of what had happened, and then was hurried along to the ambulance along with Artair to get checked over by the EMT's just incase. She said multiple times that she wasn't injured, but she wasn't believed by them until they actually looked her over.

Obviously they spent more time on Artair. She glanced over at him as they finished up with quick treatment. "You doing okay?"She also spent a little time separating out the blood into unique piles for the forensics to collect evidence, which she did after making sure that nobody would hurl.

"Aye lass, thought that probably be a problem," he called over his shoulder as he shuffled off, "Point the medics in my direction when they arrive ey?" Slowly moving, he made his way back towards where he'd first heard the screams. Spotting a curled up figure, he moved over to check them for injuries. It seemed to be a middle aged woman and even though she didn't have any obvious wounds, she was still clearly in distress. Trying to sit as gently as possible he tried to engage her in conversation however it looked like she was in shock. Peeling off his hoodie he carefully draped it over her shoulders, gently reassuring her and drawing more information out of her. He just sat and talked with her, calming her down and making sure she would be OK.

After a few minutes of keeping her company he heard movement behind him. Turning painfully, he spotted the EMTs heading over towards him. Carefully pushing himself back to his feet he waved them over, quickly explained the womans' condition, as well as he general improvement over the last few minutes, before letting one of the EMTs take him back to the ambulance for a once over. When he got there, they were already seeing to Serena. It's also when he saw that the lead EMT was one of his teachers and he'd already spotted him. Sighing he knew a lecture was forth coming. He didn't get what he expected though, as his teacher did the examination in silence, if slightly rougher than he'd have normally done.

His examination took far longer than it should have, but his teacher finally let him go but not before extracting a promise that he would go to hospital by the end of the day for an x-ray. As they finished and he had managed to pull his T-shirt back on Serena intercepted him. Well, seems like he wasn't going to get away without a tounge lashing from someone. Watching her work her power he though a bit for a bit before answering. "Injury wise? Not too bad, got away with only one broken rib and another two possibly cracked." His teacher had been shocked, to say the least, at how lucky he'd been to not be worse off. As he'd been speaking he turned back to her, look her in the eyes, "Thats not what you mean't though was it?"

Once the two of them were done being seen to by the paramedics Serena stifled a yawn, cupping her hand over her mouth. Man, that had been draining. Blood form was always such an effort. Especially compared to her regular power, which she had considerably more time invested in using.

She winced at the comment. "Eeeek. That's not fun. We should grab some painkillers for that. I assume they're not dragging you straight to the hospital if that's the case?" She queried with a fairly soothing tone.

Serena had seen the look in his eye when he'd been standing over the downed mutant ready to execute them, and was fairly glad she'd intervened. She had a feeling that somebody who was in the life situation of training to become a doctor wouldn't really sit well with wanton murder after they had gotten their degree. Ontop of that, murder was just kinda... Wrong. So she wasn't gonna let anyone get away with it if she could help it.

She nodded knowingly. "Would you like to take a slow walk with me? We can grab you some painkillers and water for both of us, clear our heads then you should probably go to the hospital." Cards, table.

"I think that'd be good, help clear my head." He slowly set off towards the edge of the park, sure that Serena could keep up with him. "Thanks, by the way. If you weren't here," he trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid. He didn't know where to start, what he could possibly say right now. He just felt, drained.

Eventually he open up. "Serena, I wanted to kill him. I would have had you not stopped me, and a part of me still wants too." He paused, shuddering at the thoughts that had gone through his head. "Taking a life in a fight is one thing, but I nearly murdered a defenseless person. Worse, I had a rational decision to do it."

That's what was really eating at him. Facing his own inadequacies was one thing, he'd failed but that just meant he had to be better. Seeing a side of himself he hadn't even knew existed, how easily he'd be willing to kill. That's what was eating away at him. Next time someone might not be there to stop him. Next time he'd cross the line.

"Do no harm. You know why we take the oath?" he asked her. "We learn all the ways the human body is weakest, what can break it and how. We have an intimate understanding of how vulnerable humans are. We swear to not abuse that knowledge, not to use our understanding as a weapon." He stopped moving for a second. He felt something he hadn't felt for a long time. He was afraid. Afraid of himself. "I was tested lass, harder than most. And I failed." 

She shook her head gently at him as they walked with a gentle smile as they moved. "Don't worry about it Artair. I mean really, you obviously would have done the same for me judging by the way you acted." She paused for a moment and let a gentle teasing slip into her voice. "Mayyybe get some more training before you try that again though." He'd actually done surprisingly well.

Serena was silent for a couple minutes of walking before the ice shattered and he started spilling out on her. She didn't say anything, and though she had one or two thoughts on the conversation that might have merited a smile afterwards, she didn't do anything like that while he spoke, she left her facial expression fairly neutral and impassive. She let him finish his little... Freak out.

Taking a breath she turned to him and put as gently as she could. "Okay, firstly. As I understand it you're from a small town in Scotland, you've likely not been in life or death situations very often, and considering that was at least one of your earliest ones, you did fairly well." She complimented.

She let that sink in before she carried on. "Secondly you seem to be under a very wrong impression here." She waited a second and let that hang before explaining. "You think that you made that decision cold, and rationally. You didn't. Firstly you were injured, and if your power is ANYTHING like any other psychic powers I know of that probably added some more mental stress on you."

"Secondly, while that creature was flailing and attacking it hurt you, and other people so you were, understandably angry. Which didn't help. And thirdly and finally you still had a massive dose of adrenaline pounding through your nervous system. And as you've pointed out, you're a medical student so I'm sure you have a decently working understand at the very least of how Adrenaline affects you. Not only that, but you were basically fueled by it in a fight or flight situation. As somebody who is studying advanced Bio-Chemistry, I'm not just talking out of my arse here."

She smiled at him. Very genuinely and with a very easily absorbed aura of understanding. "I've been in that situation before Artair, actually I've been in worse. And I'm more effected by emotions than you are, thanks to my power. I understand how you're feeling right now. But the facts are, you came into an unknown terrifying situation that most people don't ever deal with in their life, and you came out of it okay. You didn't do any lasting harm to him, and you did something noble in trying to help. Think that over for a minute." She stood with her arms crossed while he stewed it over.

Wow. He hadn't quite meant to say that much. He wasn't generally the type to be that open with people, maybe something about surviving an attack with this lass had made him more willing to trust her. Well, maybe not trust her, she was still English.

Artair paid close attention to what she was saying, well aware she had far more experience in these matters. What she'd say would be important. He did however have to grin at her comment about life and death situations. Those he understood intimately. Today had sparked something in his memory. He could remember the accident. All of it.

Absently rubbing his scars through his shirt he kept his focus on the conversation. It hadn't occurred to him to fully explore the side effect from his mutation. Mental stress certainly seemed up there and it wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to ignore, if he planned to keep using his powers. She was right, of course, about the adrenaline. It should have made him feel better but, it just didn't feel that way. Chances are he needed more time to deal with the situation, give his body a chance to calm down and rest.

Everything she was saying seemed, obvious, after the fact but it was reassuring to hear. "Aye, yer probably right. That's apparently a trend," he joked, smiling. "But thanks, glad to know it's not an uncommon issue at least." As for training, that he could easily agree with her on. "On the training front, I think I might need help on that front." He really hadn't wanted to get involved with them but the X men were his best bet. "How do I go about getting training at the mansion, it's not something I've really looked into before."

It was always interesting she found, to observe people's body language after important and deep conversation. Trying to discern a little of the internal dialogue that was most certainly going on inside them whilst they stewed over things. Artair definitely was one to do this, he seemed to be quite deep and thought out in a lot of his actions, whilst others were impulsive. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.

She nodded in agreement to him. Training was definitely a good thing, and she could imagine the mansion's facilities being quite well suited to him. Their powers weren't that different in the practical sense, they just made their tools out of different materials, and hers seemed quite a lot more volatile. She was so glad that she'd moved on from being unstable with them as a teenager to where she was now.

Serena double checked her arms and legs. Wow, she'd really gotten away with no injuries. That was impressive. The amount of times she'd had to go to the mansion to get the Doc to look at.... Wait, that was it!

She grinned at Artair and helpfully supplied. "Well on that front I can be a great deal of help. I'm on a first name basis with the people who organise that." She inclined her head towards him a little. "In fact, they have a healer on site who could sort you out and then I could get you some of the information sorted out immediately." She added helpfully. The Doc was kind of awesome.

Artair wasn't surprised to hear that, Serena had already told him she had lived at the mansion. It made sense she was friends with some of the current members. But a healer? That intrigued him, the medic in him curious at a power that could be used to sort out wounds. The fact that he also wouldn't need to deal with a broken rib for weeks was also a major source of relief for him. He might even finish the day with training information as well. It was a generous offer from Serena, and despite his own reservations about the X-Men, it wasn't one he could afford to give up.

"That sounds, like the best idea so far," he started with a smile, "As much fun as weeks of recovery is, being able to sleep in comfort after today would be heavenly." Sure he might get chewed out by his teacher for not turning up at the hospital, but a quick explanation would clear that up, right? As long as he was fine, that was the main concern. His thoughts brighten when he also realised, if he wasn't going to be on strong painkillers, drinks were back on the table. That cinched it for the Scotsman. The prospect of whiskey was to much to pass up.

"How long would it take, by the way. I've never seen a mutant with a healing power before." Sure he'd studied them, which medical students hadn't, but information on them wasn't exhaustive. Most people didn't like outsiders testing their powers, so there wasn't really a huge amount of information to go on. "Oh, and will it hurt much? I'd rather be prepared if that's the case."

He started off again towards the edge of the park. Dealing with his immediate pain was probably the first problem they should work on. Winching slightly as he walked, he realised that he'd left his hoodie with the woman. Damn, it was one of his favorites too. After all this, that thought was so mundane he just started to laugh. It didn't even matter that his ribs hurt anymore.

Serena's entire interaction with Artair was bringing back all kinds of old memories from when she first got introduced to the mansion and it's staff. She'd dealt with most of that trauma now, but it still wouldn't do to dwell too much on those memories. She'd once been the person being guided to the mansion. And how many times had she played the reverse of that role now? 5? 6 times?

That was perfectly okay with her. She'd learned and been helped so much during her time at the mansion, she wanted to give back however she could.

She shrugged. "Usually depends on the severity of the injury but normally not more than a few minutes." She admitted, having been there many times for various injuries and blood loss. Most of them were not self inflicted... Most of them at least. The Doc could have quite the bark when it came to people who got themselves into trouble. He'd always seemingly had a soft spot for Serena though.

She chuckled. "It doesn't hurt a bit. He just sees how we get injured when he does it, so if it was somebody being a royal idiot and over training themselves, they'd get quite the verbal lashing. But in your case I think you'll be fine." She grinned playfully. "Besides, you're with me." She winked.

She caught them a cab and payed for it, to the mansion grounds.

Good to know it wouldn't take long, or put him through anymore pain than he was already in. God he hated breaking ribs, he couldn't walk, sit, laugh or breath without feeling the broken bones grinding. "Well then, lead the way lass," he said gesturing, "You're the expert."

Once they finally managed to get to the edge of the park, Serena hailed a cab, directed it to the mansion and quickly payed before Artair could offer. He'd have argued over it, he did owe her after all, but he was just glad to not be walking anymore. Carefully seating himself in the cab, his weariness started to catch up with him. It was hard to focus, he could feel sleep coming over him. It didn't last long, as the cab hit a particularly big pothole, sending pain shooting up his side. Swearing under his breath in Gaelic, at least he was fully awake.

Sighing and rubbing his aching side, he might as well get a few answers from Serena. If he was walking into a situation, he'd rather not go in blind. "This might come across rude, but there's some things I need to know, about the mansion and the X's." he paused, thinking how to phrase his thoughts. "I know the media portrays them worse than they are but some of the stories aren't completely untrue."

Artair didn't dislike them in theory. They did help people, they saved lives. That should be enough but the amount of secrecy and lies hanging around them rang alarm bells in his mind. Being tied to the government didn't help, not that he'd say that out loud. That would sound crazy.

"I need to know they're on the level. That they won't demand things from me further down the line, if I took up your offer of training." Offers of help were all well and good, but he had to know what strings were attached. He was no ones puppet.

Serena was glad that Artair seemed to be trusting her judgement as far as these things went, and the cab ride went along relatively smoothly. She smiled at his question and nodded. "Ask away, but keep an open mind. The media especially over here in the US Tends to be quite heavily politically aligned." She admitted. She'd heard all kinds of crazy and weird comparisons made.

Serena had basically grown through her early adolescence with the X-men and the other students at the mansion. She had been quite honestly and truly impressed with almost all of them and the way they operated.

Serena actually chuckled at his next comment. "Well, Artair." She began. "The first thing you've got to understand is the X-men and the mansion are two different entities. As far as I'm aware the two people who basically run the place aren't directly related to the team, in fact one of them isn't even a mutant, she's an adapted." She supplied with a smile.

"I spent most of my adolescence at the mansion, and they've never asked me for a single thing. In fact I volunteer there a lot, and that took more than a little talking them into it on my end." She added with a smile. "Secondly, as for the X-men themselves you should probably wait till you meet them themselves, but they are all individuals, with variants on powerful moral compasses. Most of the media on them is wrong, if anything their biggest issue is certain members trying to take on too much and not taking care of themselves properly." She admitted again, thinking mostly of Sam, and a little of Cafas.

Serena trusted them, that much was clear. Maybe that would have to be enough, for now at least. Meeting them would be the only way too know for sure. He had to trust her judgement, she'd earned it at least. She had saved his life today. That meant a lot, even if she was English.

"Aye lass, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but thank you for reassuring me. At this point, if they can take away this bleedin' pain, I'd gladly kiss them," he said in a joking tone. "And if I'm being honest, this Doc sounds like someone I want to meet. The science geek in me would not be happy if I didn't. He'd moan about it for weeks and he is insufferable."

Turning away from her, he needed to think a bit, let his mind process recent events. How had he found himself here? He was a small town lad, from a backwards, bigoted little slice of heaven. Was he really cut out from things like this? Artair wasn't sure anymore, about anything really. The only thing he really knew, was he needed a strong drink. He'd have loved to think some more, get some issues sorted before he got to the mansion, but their lovely cab driver decided that hitting potholes was just too much fun. Every bounce and jolt set his rib grinding against itself. This guy, was not getting a tip.

An idle thought suddenly sent his mind into panic mode. Where the hell was the mansion? What if it wasn't on Manhattan island. What if they'd have to cross a bridge. He really didn't want to have a meltdown, not now, not after everything that happened today. "Erm lass," he began, trying to keep his growing terror from his voice, "Do we need to leave the island, to get to the mansion?" His breathing was getting quicker. His scars throbbed.

This was just f------ perfect, Artair thought, just what he needed right now.

She grinned, again. "Heh, well the Doc is more tied to the mansion than the X's themselves, as far as I'm concerned, though he does obviously patch them up from time to time." She smiled at him a bit more. "The mansion in itself is a really really good, altruistic entity. They took me in, along with a plethora of other mutants who had nowhere else to go, provided a place to live, and free education."

Which in America, was a big deal. Especially considering the quality of it given at the mansion. She smiled and shook her head. "No not at all, it's just in upper manhattan. Still on the island." She added with a soft smile.

"Do you have a problem with bridges or something?" She asked, in a gentle tone.

It wasn't much longer until they were at the gate's to the mansion. She got them buzzed in, and checked that the Doc wasn't very busy, before walking Artair slowly through the grounds and into the building. It was a fairly nice day, so there were quite a few students outside and playing and that.