Geo let the ball of fur be taken by her apparent new owner. Though from the sounds of it the little fluff was going to Be a new mascot of sorts. The elemental didn't mind. He was a fan of animals, which seemed to hold given the violation of his quarters by the innocent little kitten. The little tyke didn't know any better. Though the boss seemed to be apologetic. In her own partial scornful way that Geo had come to know and love.

"Won't happen again Boss." His gravelly voice spoke softly as he reached out to scratch the top of the kitten's head as it lay in his bosses arms. "Gives me ah excuse to bring up some more sand right?" He asked with a smile and a wink before he straightened up to cross the room. Dropping his heavy bag onto one of the chairs he adjusted his suit. His eyes examined the lunches across Rebecca's desk. Geo brushed some sand off of his blazer before working his way to the test.

"Ah. Chicken salad." He exclaimed as he wrapped his dusty hands around the small package. "That Zero kid is alright, should keep her around." He joked as he made his way to sit in the chair beside his bag. The hospital food had been a regular lately in their life. Though Geo couldn't complain about a free meal. It had a certain taste to it once you got used to it. Thankfully Raine normally only picked up the best stuff so they got their pick of the lot. Taking a big bite from the croissant he chewed as he watched Becca over his shoulder. She was always a sight to behold. A younger version of himself pined over her at a time though that was the past. That had come to an abrupt halt when she took charge of the team much to Geo's chagrin. He learned to cope with time, many years had passed since then. Still, the red haired woman was always a vision to behold.

"You're looking lovely as always Becca." His voice came with innocent intents. Simply complimenting the woman with no ill intention. Most that new the elemental well knew such things were second nature to him. Old habits to fall in to though he would never give out a compliment he never meant.

"Our little Viking Princess sweet talked ya in to a cat huh?" He started off making a playful observation about the young Astrid and her adoptive mother. Though he had spent a number of years studying the deeper psychological overtones of life. It was what had driven his career path into a Councilor for young confused souls as he had once been. It was something he was happy to lend to the aid of his old friend, especially in the challenges of raising a child.

"Could be craving more interaction. Outside of the team that is, would cause her to reach out for some sort of a-" His thought was cut short as a shriek came from the hallway. Geo was up and on his feet without a moments thought, his lunch tumbling to the floor as he bolted to the door. His loafers kicked off his feet as her ran, sending sand flying about as he rounded the doorway and into the hall. The yell had been Zero's, he could tell that, but what was happening? He ran in the direction he had seen the blond run in though stopped short as he passed the open door of the conference room. The elemental hesitated for a moment, looking up to the ceiling at the scene that had ensued. The worried look on his face shifted into a broad grin as he started to laugh.

"Look's like the noobie found another pet."

It was hard to treat Geo like everyone else on the team because, for all intents and purposes, he wasn’t. Rebecca and Tristen went way back because he and Doc were the only members from the “original team” before Rebecca had leadership thrust upon her. Back then, he was still that immature, flirty teenager, and she was a sarcastic, sometimes overly serious young woman who chose the X-Men over a social life. He was one of the first people to get her to loosen up, and even if she closed things off once she became the team leader, he was still part of her history. It was not something she mentioned often, but he was her oldest friend these days.

Accepting the offering of cafeteria food, Tristen claimed the chicken salad Rebecca had been so recently eyeing. He extended his compliments to Raine, the newest member of their team. As an X-Man, she was still learning, but she had plenty of promise, she tried her ass off, and she wanted to be a team player. There was more to that than bringing lunch up for everyone, but that did not make it any less of a nice gesture. ”The girl knows how to get on my good side sometimes,” she joked, watching as Bijou reached up with her paw, taking some of the smudged ketchup from the corner of Rebecca’s lip, licking the substance up.

Despite her stray condiment mark, Tristen was still his usual charming self, giving Rebecca an innocent compliment. He respected her, and he respected her marriage, so she knew he had no questionable intent. He was just always going to look at her with the same ideas he did when he was that silly seventeen-year-old boy. Rebecca smiled and shook her head. ”And you’re still sappy and sweet.” She did not regret the way her life played out; Rebecca loved Jesse with all her heart. Still, she had a soft spot for Tristen when he was like this.

He let things move forward, rightly assuming Bijou was the result of her weakness for her daughter. Tristen helped her out a lot with Astrid as her councilor, since she was home schooled for safety reasons. Rebecca could already feel the debate coming; it was always the same one: she was too cautious with Astrid. She had to learn to balance safety and risk with the opportunity to let her daughter grow socially. Rebecca was ready to remind Geo that she would rather be overly-cautious with a safe daughter in the world they live in, but they were thankfully interrupted by Raine screeching from another room.

Instinctively, Impact’s brain went to the worst-case scenario—intruder. She was already ruling out a wall or shelf collapsing because that would have been heard. The sound was coming from an area of their space, but Geo had a grasp of where he was going, so Impact followed him, Bijou still cradled in her arms, ready to deal with…

A rat. Two things were hanging on the ceiling of their conference room, defying gravity: Zero and a large, brown rat. Geo, naturally, was already laughing about the situation, despite the clear look of terror on their newbie’s face. Honestly, Impact wanted to laugh, too, but she had some sense of composure. ”Zero…” She sighed, having to keep a tight hold on Bijou, who was squirming in her arms, trying to figure out how she could claim the rat on the ceiling, despite it being almost equal in size.

Rebecca watched the rat as it scurried around the ceiling, glad she had years and years of practice hitting moving targets. Her eyes brightened and two thin beams, one blue and one green, shot forth, converging on the rodent. It was the weakest, briefest blast she could muster, and thankfully it was enough to knock the rat unconscious without killing it (she assumed.) With that taken care of, her gaze shifted from Tristen to Raine. ”One of you is on ‘get that rat out of my base’ duty, and I genuinely don’t care who that is.”

If Rebecca sounded frustrated, it was not the fault of her teammates. Rats being in the base would just add to the chaos, though for once it was something the X-Men were not actively doing to the hospital. In a weird way, that was an improvement. Rubbing her temples, she looked at the young blonde, finally feeling her protective instinct kicked in. "Raine... are you okay? It didn't bite you, did it? I could ask Jules to take a look at you if need be."

Yes. It was scampering around in a panic on the ceiling.

Yes. That was her doing.

But if she dropped her connection between the rat and the ceiling, the thing would go free and they would never find it again. The hospital would be unsanitary. In short, people might die. She was doing the noble hero thing and trying her best not to touch it instead.

The rat seemed equally terrified by the severe lack of hiding places that the ceiling afforded. The best hiding spot was screaming and moving, but it tried to scamper over her shoes. And when that led Zero to kick her screaming up an octave, it bit. She kicked it and two beams signaled that Impact had been waiting for the right moment. The rat collapsed onto the ceiling, dazed.

Zero could not exactly pinpoint when Geo and Impact had gotten there, but their presence made her feel better. They'd heard her distress and they'd come running. That's what X-men did: run toward the danger.

> ”One of you is on ‘get that rat out of my base’ duty, and I genuinely don’t care who that is.”

Raine automatically tossed a tether to the still form of the rat and tossed the other end at the floor which put the creature in a zero G state. Then she edged over and nudged it with the toe of her flats. It bobbled weightlessly and the newbie shuddered, but got it to float downward in a slow spiral.

She would not cry. She would not cry. "I need a hug." And a scalding hot shower or 3. Eeeew.

Zero ended her own gravity tether and turned to land in a crouch on the ground after her world shifted so that the floor felt like the floor again. Maybe it was the hug comment, but Impact walked it back a bit.

"It got me." She breathed and turned the back of her leg to show the X-veterans a surprising amount of blood leaking from her heel down into her shoe. "I'm okay, though. I might need a rabies shot?"

Of course Becca thought to knock out the little bugger. She was brilliant. But as the creature floated towards the ground limp he knew who exactly was going to be the one taking care of the little critter. He stepped forward without a word as Raine came back down to their orientation of gravity. The furry creature was unsettlingly warm and weightless as it was still tethered between the two points.

Glancing back into the hall he found an empty file box and placed the rat inside before pulling the lid onto it. The holes used for handles would work for air just fine and it would keep the critter in one spot til Zero came down enough to untether it. Tucking the box under his arm he made his way back into the room where the newest recruit revealed she was bitten. He opted out of helping her with the wound though, having handled the assailant himself chances are he had his own plethora of germs on his hands.

"Luckily you're in the right place to get treatment kiddo. Not saying you have rabies...but it's better to be safe." He tried to keep an carefree tone to his voice to help ease the worried mind of the young mutant. He got his laugh in for the comical moment but now it was apparent that she was shaken from the whole experience.

"Probably best to make up a fib about where though. Tell them you were in an alley or something." His eyes went to Becca. She had enough issues on her mind as is. Without adding the stress of more attention to their activities in the upper floors. He'd have to make more of an effort in his down time to finish up the rest of the renovations around the base. They were going to have to get it done sooner or later but Geo secretly hoped Becca would find another headquarters a little bit closer to the ground level.

"I'll head to the store and pick up some traps when I take this little guy down." He tapped his hand against the box sending some sand fluttering down to the ground. With that he slipped out of the room and made his way for the elevator.

Rebecca was already missing her coffee and her burger and the cake that was taunting her from afar. The universe saw her longing for a decent meal and threw a rat into the mix, which reaffirmed her long-standing belief that the universe was an a**hole.

As much as she wanted to be frustrated at all parties keeping her from lunch, Rebecca could not hold it against Raine that she stumbled upon a rat in the office. The young woman was trying to do her a favor and got hit with a surprise rodent, which left her justifiably shaken. Part of her wanted to remind her that she would be faced with more terrible things than a rat in the line of duty, but she could not bring herself to drop that kind of reality at the moment. There were some difference between anti-mutant zealots and rats, and while the former was worse, the latter was more slightly more likely to bite and carry disease.

The intruder was unconscious and suspended in the air, where Tristen mercifully grabbed it. She was incredibly thankful for that man at moments like this. He went out of the conference room momentarily to grab a box, giving Rebecca a chance to tend to her rattled team member.

At least Raine was still herself, prioritizing the need for a hug above all things. Rebecca smiled and rolled her eyes, handing Bijou over to the crouching woman who had not yet been formally introduced to the “team mascot” thanks to the cat’s antics. ”Bijou will hug you for now.”

Tristen returned with a box for the rat and suggested they avoid bringing up where Raine was bitten, which was a smart idea. The last thing she needed was an argument with her nurse friend about whether the rat was the hospital’s fault, or if the team invited this problem to the hospital in the first place. Her priority right now was making sure her team mate was taken care of, and that meant being cautious. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and typed out a text.

Hey J, on her way in, Raine had a run in with a rat. I hate to ask, but can you bring antiseptic and a rabies shot up to my office?

Rebecca looked up at the two people she was sharing the conference room with. It was time to organize the chaos. ”Zero, get up, you’re coming with me to my office and we’ll get you looked at.” Before she could assign a task to the more veteran X-Man, he was suggesting what he would do with the rat, even adding a trip to the store for some preventative measures. ”Thank you, Geo. If you could please go take care of that.”

Tristen was the first one to leave the conference room, but before Rebecca and Raine followed suit, the team leader stopped Raine in her tracks by holding her hand up to signal her to wait. She reached for Bijou, taking the kitten from Raine and temporarily placing the beastie on the table. Rebecca stared Bijou down for a moment to make sure she would not run off, but the cat only looked up curiously.

Turning back to the second-youngest X-Man, Rebecca’s expression softened and she wrapped the blonde up in a big, consoling hug. ”I’m sorry, Raine,” she apologized quietly. ”That sucked, but we’ll make sure you’re alright.” It was not typical of Rebecca’s style, but she honestly felt all the medicine in the world would not make Raine feel better than an honest to goodness hug.

When she separated from her subordinate, (possibly lucky they had no HR department,) Rebecca grabbed the kitten from the table and headed for the door. ”Come on, let’s get to my office and wait for Jules. Oh, and Raine,” she added as her hand reached the door handle, before turning to the girl and staring at her seriously, ”Tell. No one.” Really though, who would believe her anyway?

She had intended to enjoy a nice, long break when she heard her phone buzz. A break with a nap, and maybe a bit of fresh air. However, she knew as soon as she felt her phone move that would not be the case.

With a sigh, Juliette typed back a quick response and exited the break room.

On my way.

A tool for different groups of powered people. That was what Juliette had become. One text from the redhead leader of the X-Men, and she found herself going upstairs on her break to treat a rat bite, of all things. She was a trained nurse and she was putting a band-aid on some blonde girl. She still didn’t really know why she did what Rebecca asked.

Aren’t they supposed to be tough vigilantes?

The elevator dinged, telling her that she had reached her destination. She stepped out, feeling her already sour mood decline as she saw Geo shedding sand all over the floor. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but it still irritated her.

”No, Rebecca Grey, no,” she said angrily as soon as she spotted the redhead coming out of the conference room. As if the dusty man hadn't been enough. Now, her friend was holding a cat. A goddamn cat in a hospital. She was not about to let a cat roam the halls of what was supposed to be a sterile place. ”If you aren’t taking that cat to a shelter then so help me god,” she shook her head at her.

The woman stopped in the middle of the hallway and continued to shake her head. There was already a layer of sand, glitter, and feathers that coated the office and occasionally made its way through the vents, and there was the possibility that they would add in cat hair, of all things.

And a rat bite! She had come to treat a rat bite! No wonder they ran into rats, considering the way they treated the office space. If anyone really knew that Juliette saw on a regular basis, they would be evicted in an instant.

"You cannot have a cat in a hospital," Juliette continued, her voice growing louder and more shrill. "You have a roach man and a dirt man and a daughter who leaves feathers everywhere, but I will not let you have a cat!"

>“Not saying you have rabies...but…”

Ohmigod she totally had rabies. Zero wasn’t wasting a second more of her tethers than she had to. As soon as she saw the box, she let that sucker go. Geo’s last bit of advice was to lie. Raine didn’t really want to lie, but she wasn’t about to out the X’s. She was protective of them like her own— No. She actually worried about them more than her own family.

”I won’t let you down.” Unless, of course, she died of rabies.

And just like that she had a cat-in-arms and a name for the little troublemaker. ”Bijou? Is that French?” She scritched the kitty under the chin until the little floof closed her eyes and a little rumble started down low in its tiny body. Such a pretty kitty. Seraph may have found a mischievous scamp, but wasn’t that what they all were? She was just practicing what her momma preached.

Zero tried to take solace in her kitty hug, resigned to the fact that she’d never get a real one. She took a step toward the doorway before Impact stopped her. And took away her kitty hug! She pouted until Impact replaced it with a real one.

An honest to goodness real hug.

She had been doing good about the whole not crying thing until that point. Tears prickled her eyes, but she refused to let them spill over instead opening her eyes wide to keep it contained. Raine felt an echo of that prickle in her very core.

Impact cared. She knew that. She’d always known that, otherwise she wouldn’t have joined the team. It was just different when she got a taste of maternal protectiveness. Raine didn’t have a mom, and that fact rarely bothered her except for moments like these where she wished so dearly that maybe this person could have filled that role.

And just like that, it was over. Impact went to collect her ward from where she bathed herself on the table.

>”Oh, and Raine… Tell. No one.”

”Ha!” She had to wipe the spilling tears from her cheeks. ”I’ve got plenty of secrets, Impact. What’s one more?”

She went to sit where directed and to wait for their surly nurse friend.

When she pulled away from the hug, Rebecca was surprised to see the tears spilling from Raine’s eyes. The leader surely knew the hug would mean a lot, but she might have underestimated the role she had taken on for the young blonde. Raine was Rebecca’s newest “stray,” and it was no secret to the redhead that the girl’s family life left something to be desired. She lived a tough, motherless life, but since joining the X-Men, she quickly grew attached to their bizarre family structure. Rebecca did not like seeming “soft,” but maybe there was a soft spot for a girl like that who was finally finding her home for the first time. Once upon a time, there was a thirteen-year-old British transplant who could relate.

They were walking out of the conference room, and Rebecca was letting Raine know, ”And yes, it’s French—Astrid picked it out, of course. It means—” when a familiar angry voice interrupted her.

”No, Rebecca Grey, no.”

Yes, that was about right. Rebecca was going to have to deal with this eventually, so it was best to simply get it out of the way now.

Taking a deep breath, she walked confidently toward Juliette, who was standing in the hallway in front of her office, glowering at the world’s most frustrating tenant. Rebecca kept Bijou cradled in her arms, petting the top of the cat’s head nonchalantly as her nurse friend berated her.

Rebecca let Juliette get all her grievances off her chest, which encompassed issues she was constantly complaining about alongside the new cat-related protests. Once it seemed like the nurse had reached a stopping point, Rebecca causally sighed and defended herself. ”First of all, Jules, I do not have a cat in a hospital. This is a privately rented office space. I am either unaware or not at liberty to discuss how the cat made it to this floor, but the main point is I do not have a cat in the hospital.” It was a flimsy defense, but one she would stick with.

”As for everything else, in order,” she continued curtly, ”Doc tries to stay clean, Geo… can’t help it, Astrid can’t help it either, and seriously, have you even met this cat?” Rebecca held up Bijou so he could meet Juliette with his heart-warming green gaze, hoping the stone-hearted woman might have a soft spot for cats.

Hoping to move the conversation forward so she could (fruitlessly) try to prevent a continuation of their fight, she spotted the antiseptic in Juliette’s hand. ”Thanks for bringing that, Jules. Did you manage to grab a rabies shot, too? We’re just trying to be careful; you know how I am.” There was clearly some ironic humor to the statement, given Juliette’s list of gripes.

Juliette's eyes narrowed as she glowered at her friend. Was she really trying to justify her behaviour? Really? It wasn't like Juliette was the one making the rules. She was just the trying (and ultimately failing) to make sure that people followed them. A cat in a hospital. A cat in a goddamn hospital.

She almost wanted to laugh, it was so absurd. Almost.

"Don't you dare try to argue with me," Juliette hissed, "this is a hospital, no matter where you are in it. There's an air system that runs through the whole building. Just below you, there's a long-term care ward. Children with cancer, for Pete's sake, and you're trying to convince me that 'this isn't a hospital'."

She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest, too angry to listen to more of Rebecca's arguments. She couldn't believe that she was telling someone not to have a disease vector in a place where people went to heal. Plus, Rebecca had the audacity to act as though she had the high ground with her crazy strays and her need for them to be safe. She had a few people to think about. Juliette had an entire hospital to think about. Full of sick, possibly dying people.

The needs of many had to outweigh the wants of a few. Why couldn't she see that?

Juliette raised her finger to punctuate another round of arguments, but she found a cat in her face. A very cute cat. With big green eyes and tabby markings. Despite herself, she took the cat in her arms and let him curl into her shoulder. She could feel her heart softening. She tried not to let it, but it was too late. There was no way she could say no to those eyes. She suddenly found herself wanting the same thing as those few.

Internally, she was conflicted. Externally, she was still glaring at Rebecca. 

After a minute, the woman sighed. "This had better be the cleanest cat that the world has ever seen. If I see a single flea anywhere, I'm telling my boss. And tell Geo to clean up his sand. It's clogging the air filters."

She huffed and handed the cat back to Rebecca before reaching into her pocket to grab the rabies shot she had grabbed before coming upstairs. "You owe me big, Rebecca. So big. Free drinks are not going to cut it."

Shaking her head, she walked into the conference room, where she was fairly certain that she could hear sniffles. "Alright, Raine. Where's the bite?" she asked the blonde in lieu of a greeting. 

She let the adults squabble, absolutely fascinated by their exchange. Bijou was like a homing missile lasting past the surly nurse's every defense.

When Jules did finally turn to her, Zero had to bite her tongue from correcting the woman. Here, in this place, she was Zero and Raine was supposed to be a secret. Apparently they were terrible at the whole secret thing. It didn't matter here but in the field... where the nurse never went because she wasn't actually on the team... Yeah. Zero kept her correction to herself, but she would at least try to keep calling every X by their designation.

"Could we change the filters more often? Would that help assuage your concerns about Bijou?"

She would have offered to sweep, but she was kind of terrible at it. Plus, everyone knew it would just end up the same by the end of the day anyway.

Zero took off her ballet flat and hitched her pants leg so that Jules would have easy access to see whatever was going on at the back of her heel. It still hurt, but she realized that complaining wasn't going to benefit anyone here, least of all herself.

"It bit me so I kicked it." She was starting to feel a tiny bit proud about that.

The key to negotiating with Juliette was not to back down. Both women were strong willed, and while Rebecca liked to believe the nurse was a friend, they would butt heads almost as often as Rebecca and Agnes. In this instance, Juliette held the distinct advantage of being right. The hospital was an ecosystem, and even if they were separate, the office had small effects on the building as a whole. Hell, she had a “children with cancer” card, which was definitely an ace.

It was fortunate that Rebecca’s advantages were: being a debatably bad person, being willing to play dirty, and being in possession of the world’s most adorable kitten. Jules took Bijou from Rebecca and she watched, fighting the urge to grin, as the kitten curled into a ball and rested against her shoulder. That small moment was her Battle of Gettysburg—the point where the tide turned and she knew the war would be won.

Rebecca nodded to the demands Juliette laid out, knowing she would keep Bijou well-groomed and constantly attended to by herself and the cat’s growing avid fanbase. She nodded at the request to keep Geo’s sand under control, knowing full well he had a room with a dedicated sand pile. She counted herself fortunate that Bijou’s intrusion forced Geo to close his door; that might have been a truly unwinnable battle, because Tristen was not as adorable as Bijou. Instead, she focused on Raine’s suggestion of swapping out filters. ”Yes, we can certainly do that, if necessary.” She tacked the stipulation to the end because, in an ideal world, the X-Men would be better off if they could keep “new air filters” off the budget.

The nurse pulled a rabies shot from her pocket, reminding the X-Leader of how many favors she was indebted to Juliette. Smirking, she replied, ”That’s why I’ve added wings to the menu.” The Rock Bottom Pub was no cash cow, but Rebecca could still afford to bribe a friend with free food and drink for the greater good.

With the battle fought and won, the three women left the hallway and moved into Rebecca’s office so Jules could take a look at the bite on the back of Raine’s heel. Rebecca, of course, made a beeline for the burger on her desk. It was already starting to get cold, but at this point she cared about the meal more as a source of fuel than a tasty treat. The fries were still good, though; that cafeteria had one thing it did super well, and that was enough.

While she was popping one of the fries in her mouth, she almost choked as Raine recalled her victory over the rat intruder. She chuckled and muttered under her breath, ”Attagirl.” If they bite, kick them back. It was a sound life philosophy.

"Yeah, you probably could," Juliette replied indignantly, narrowing her eyes at Rebecca's added, "if necessary". Changing the filters would help. It would probably help quite a bit. It was their mess, after all, not the hospital's, and they were already draining its supplies and resources without much of a second thought. She wasn't all that sympathetic toward them spending a bit more money.

Wings. Wow. She had added wings. How impressive. It totally made her want to continue to put her neck out for them. She side eyed Rebecca but didn't say what she was thinking.

Or that it was a little weird to be serving the very things that came out of her daughter's back.

Raine, she was slightly less annoyed with. Despite her ability to always be somewhat naïve and cheerful, the girl wasn't all that bad. She mostly kept to herself, she was clean, and she even gave back to the hospital in a small way. Bandaging her up wasn't the worst of all fates. Cait, however...

She nodded and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly as the blonde recalled her run-in with the rodent. "Good for you," she commended as she put some antiseptic on a cotton pad. "This is going to sting a little."

She held the cotton pad there for a second, making sure that the wound would have the proper amount of contact with the substance. Rats could carry a lot of diseases, and there was no telling what was on the surface of that bite.

After removing it, she unwrapped a band-aid and placed it over the cut. It felt so absurd. She'd been reduced to fixing boo-boos for a bunch of overgrown children that fought crime in costumes. What a world.

"If it starts to pus or otherwise looks infected, then let me know, but if you call me for anything else, I will not come." Raine was in her twenties, after all. She wasn't seven.

"We're doing the rabies shot next. Relax your arm and rest your elbow on the table for me."

She was bursting at the seams with an apology, but instead she sat on it and tried her best to be unobtrusive.

Ms. Reyes didn't have to come up here. She had decided to. That meant that on some level she wanted to. Zero glanced back and forth between the adults as they quibbled. It was kinda cute. Like they were best frienemies.

And really. Wings. At the bar? Zero mouthed started to inhale to say something about that too, and then thought better about it. She rolled her lips under and let Impact eat. The woman deserved a medal for handling the surly nurse. Zero would not make her life harder just because she added wings to the menu at her bar, no matter what she thought Seraph's reaction might be.

Seraph would just have to defend herself.

Aaaand then Ms. Reyes had to go and talk about puss and infection. Raine hadn't eaten lunch either, but now she was thinking that it could wait until after class. She turned her head away and tried to relax as instructed.

"Tell me when it's over?" Dumb rat. At least it was out of here now. "If there's anything I can do to help you downstairs, just let me know. I'm here most Tuesdays and Thursdays." She would shamelessly suck up if it meant skipping cafeteria duty.

Juliette was on board with the idea of frequently replaced filters for the vents, but her tone suggested this was not something she saw as optional. Begrudgingly, the X-Leader knew it was the right thing to do and it was important to keep the hospital from suffering on behalf of their upstairs neighbors. She genuinely hoped Astrid appreciated the lengths she was going to so Bijou could have a safe, loving home.

Rebecca could clearly tell her joke about wings was not well-received by either woman in her office, but they both refrained from making a comment. She could not care less about their disapproval, as she sipped her coffee and took large bites of her burger, determined to finish the mediocre meal before it grew cold enough to be truly inedible.

Watching as Jules took care of Zero, she had to admit, she found the nurse impressive. She was direct, but professional, and she would not be there if she was not willing to help. Yes, it was just a rat bite, but those were the kinds of things you did not want to leave unchecked in New York. They were X-Men, but they were human, (or, well, mutant.) Infection and rabies were as much a health concern for them as anyone else, and Impact was glad Jules was around to discretely help the team, even in small ways like that.

Raine was clearly not looking forward to her rabies shot, but focused instead on ways to make the inconvenience up to Juliette. Rebecca chuckled to herself, picturing her gruff friend handling the pep of a new assistant. ”The kid does work her butt off, Jules.” Between all the work, volunteering, and vigilantism, Rebecca often wondered if Raine found any time for a social life outside of coworkers and teammates.

She glanced between the two other women in the room. Rebecca seemed to be against the idea of having one of her X-Men working at the hospital more than she already was. Luckily for her, Juliette was not about to take her up on the offer.

”No, don’t worry about it,” Juliette shook her head at Raine. As much as she was one of the least annoying of the X-Men, she still didn’t really want them to follow her around at work. She saw enough of them as it was.

She took a fresh cotton swab from the things she’d brought and poured some antiseptic on it. She held it over the place where she planned to inject the needle for a few seconds and then tossed it aside. She injected the needle into her arm carefully, watching to make sure that Raine didn’t suddenly flex.

”Alright, done,” she told the blonde, putting the needle to the side. She slid the cap back on and then tucked it back into her pocket, making sure to make a mental note to put it in the next hazardous waste container that she saw. ”Make sure to move your arm around and keep it loose for the next little while.”

She stood up and gathered the things on the table in front of her up. ”We’ll have to do three more shots over the next two weeks. Remind me in a few days and I’ll come back up.”

Normally, she would have just administered the shot and then sent the patient over to reception to have them handle the cost of everything and the discharge papers, but in that case, it seemed like they (Rebecca) were expecting not to have to pay for anything. Unfortunately, Juliette didn’t have $2000 lying around to cover the cost for them.

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Rebecca had already been uptight about the subject of money throughout the entirety of the conversation, which meant that she would be less than pleased to find out how much it was going to cost her.

”It’s about $500 per shot. I can see if I can get the price down, but there’s not a lot I can do.”