‘Liz is wrong’ was all Carrick heard and his smirk turned into a smug one, ”What’s that Doc? Lizzy’s wrong?” he asked knowing that wasn’t what he said, ”A teacher?” he blew a raspberry away from Doc and then chuckled, ”Unheard of.” his tail flicked and he sat still long enough to let Doc get over his eyerolls and onto healing.

There was a quick glow and his body felt a warm sensation in his finger tips and whatever cuts were there were gone leaving the dried blood and lint tacked onto his fingers. “No infections.” Doc stated grabbing Carrick’s hands and giving them a once over. The amount of blood on them for the cuts was odd to Doc, ”Aye, careful with the goods. Hands are already spoken for.” he said allowing them to be turned over.

“Carrick.... do you have a regeneration ability?” Doc asked studying his hands. ”Yeah, everyone heals. Just how bodies work.” Carrick said maybe having picked up that info in Liz’s class when he was there but he didn’t give her the credit. Instead he looked out the window wondering if Icarus was able to fly. “No I mean, can you heal faster than others? Cellular regeneration?”

”Yes, I can heal. Like everyone else.” he responded having already answered the question. This was getting annoying now. The despite the wind the sun was shining now. “Humor me.” Doc said walking over and grabbing a small piece of broken glass from the floor and tossing it to the shifter.

Carrick turned and grabbed it quickly out of muscle memory and grabbed tight of it. ”Aye! Fer @@@@ sakes Doc! Thought you were supposed ta heal!” Pulling the glass from his hand and looking at the blood that started to form he held it out.

Elizabeth sighed and rolled her eyes at Carrick’s antics yet again. Her eyes were starting to hurt from this much exercise actually. She briefly imagined unleashing the hawk on him, but she canceled those thoughts quickly when she felt the hawk start associating Carrick with an enemy and classifying him as a target for bloodthirst. Liz smiled awkwardly and quickly smoothed that over.

No need to attack the boy. Not right now, anyways. At least, no need that had any tangible support.

Instead she focused on altering the bird’s mood and redirecting it’s thoughts. It wanted flight and freedom but that wasn’t possible in a medbay in the heart of the mansion. There weren’t any windows around and the dead air inside and relatively cramped corridors and rooms were not suitable for a hawk to obtain decent lift. He’d just hurt himself again.

Liz fostered curiosity and complacency instead, picking out the very shiny things in the rooms and infecting the bird with a bit of a raven’s interest in shininess, causing ti’s attention to be absorbed by the metal and--

At once Liz and the hawk turned and sharpened their gaze and ears on Carrick, who was now bleeding. She slid a foot back and half-shifted to a krav maga stance before her brain caught up. Doc attacked Carrick? Dang, how come he got to do it and she didn’t? “Doc, what are you doing?” Liz said with notes of warning. Her eyes began to assess the room as she left the hawk to fix the Doc with its predatory gaze. There was a scalpel on that table if she needed it or there was a mind-dominator on the lo--

“I’m testing a theory, Elizabeth,” the Doc said, correctly reading her body language. “Carrick seems to be demonstrating enhanced healing abilities. See for yourself.” He gestured at the wounded hand and Liz couldn’t find the curiosity.

The other scratches were fading already, practically gone. She’d seen them herself. So had the hawk. She and the hawk cocked their heads at the same angle. “Huh,” she said as the hawk gave a soft coo. “I think you’re onto something Doc.” Then came a smile. “Now can I cut him? For scientific research purposes, of course.”

The shifter looked down at his hands where the shard of glass was and then looked to the open cuts starting to form over. His eyes narrowed from the glass to Doc and he smirked giving him a pointed canine grin, ”So basically I don’t need ta see ya anymore?” he rolled the glass between a finger avoiding the sharp edges.

”Don't worry I’ll come see ya still. Know ya love having me fer a visit. The messy place ain’t much without decent company.” his tail flicked towards a beaker that was already on the floor. If it was still on the counter it would have been nudged off at that moment.

All Carrick was getting out of the conversation was that he heals fast now.

Mismatched eyes shifted from Doc to Liz and they narrowed towards her, ”I mean, this pain ain’t much but it’s beats a heartbreak though.” he smirked again this time more of a chaotic grin, ”They say the first cut’s the deepest, we can test the theory if ya want but at what point is it no longer for research and more for pleasure hmmmm?” he asked.

”You’ll get none from me teach. That ship has sailed.” he said coldly towards Liz, ”Now, can we see if Icarus can fly? More curious about that than me ability to shrug off some cuts.” he said tossing the glass he was holding behind him satisfied with the small shatter that occurred when he dropped it.

Liz favored Carrick with a bored expression. The heartbreak jabs were really, really old. Almost eight years old, actually. She had moved on a long time ago and what would’ve hurt when she was a teenager did not hurt her as a mid-twenties adult. Besides, just looking at Carrick in this moment and how he’d been all day so far, if there had been any part of her that wanted to rekindle anything with him, they would’ve committed suicide.

Besides, the insult material was getting boring. Liz enjoyed banter as much as the next gal, but that required variety (or a well-timed use of repetition) neither of which Carrick displayed much. Which was also annoying.

Her expression turned into an uncaring smile as Carrick threw another jab at her. She didn’t retaliate - this wasn’t the time or place and honestly, Carrick would probably just devolve into petty insults and barbs. Best not give him the satisfaction of bringing her down to his level. “I rather think you should stay here and clean up your mess,” she said pointedly, indicating the broken glass all over the place with her free arm. Then she saw Doc’s look of alarm.

“...but I dare say you’ll just make things worse. Come on, let’s leave Doc to his peace and quiet,” Liz decided, pausing only slightly as she completely changed tracks. The hawk spread his wings and shrieked but he didn’t try jumping off Liz’s forearm, so he headed toward the doors. “Thank you for your help, Doc!” she said warmly as she treter the older man with a warm smile.

“My pleasure, Elizabeth,” he said, equally genteel and with a grandfatherly wink. “Your presence is always a delight.” Neither of them said anything about Carrick’s presence. Normally Liz would’ve stayed behind to discuss the Doc’s findings and help clean up but Carrick was a menace in the med bay, so Liz was helping prevent more disasters by removing him.

“You know, you really shouldn’t name wild animals,” she chided Carrick as the doors slid open and she strode into the hallway. “It’s not good to get too familiar with them, for your sake and theirs.” Liz wasn’t a prophet, but she suspected that if Carrick grew attached to a bird that died or something, it’d be a knife in him, on top of all of his other loss-related issues.

”Oh?” his tail flicked behind him as Liz suggested he stay and clean. The shifter’s mismatched eyes darted around to the other things that had yet to be broken then everything on the floor. He shifted his weight stepping on a piece of glass with a slow ‘crunch’. He smirked at Doc shaking his head dismissing the idea of Muti appendage mutant trying to clean up after himself. He’d probably break more by accident. His wings shifted uncomfortably as he tried to keep everything close to his person. This was why he avoided Fine-China shops.

”Yeah, thanks fer the helping hands Doc, it was illuminating.” he waited for the reaction but threw his hands out shaking them at the delivery. Doc’s smile twitched which Carrick counted as a smile. He’d get there eventually. No one was immune to his humor. ”I’ll come visit soon!” with his friends and adventures even a ‘faster-healing’ ability wouldn’t solve all his injuries.

Ignoring the comments Doc made to Liz he sauntered out of the infirmary waiting for the raptor of the sky and unfortunately Liz. Whom he was starting to run out of things to say to. The tension he felt around her made him about as uncomfortable as hanging out in Doc’s windowless office.

”Yeah well they say that 'bout me. I don’t do what I’m normally supposed to do.” his tail flicked behind him as he threw his hands behind his head. ”Part cat.” he looked back to the bird in his least favorite person in the mansion’s arms to see the bird looking around, ”Think we bonded, little beasty was giving me love pecks after all.” he said waving a hand before placing it back behind his head.

”Sides, not like I’m gonna follow him around to make sure he’s okay flying.” Carrick lied making sure to look away. ”He’s a wild animal, doesn't belong here.” he said trying not to make it about himself, ”The big guy is more worried about him than I am anyways. Like giving ‘em a piece of mind.” and to show both forms and his current one that just because you can’t fly doesn’t mean you are better off dead.

Technically speaking Carrick wasn’t part cat, Elizabeth mused to herself. He was part gryphon, which, while commonly known as half eagle and half lion, couldn’t possibly be a Frankenstein creature of two radically separate families in one being. It was neither a bird nor a cat. But Liz knew Carrick would not be an appropriate audience for such a conversation. So she’d have to speak on his terms.

“Yet birds are very rule-following creatures,” she countered. “Even eagles. Specific hunting patterns, working with wind currents instead of fighting through them. More importantly, they know when to leave things alone.” She knew that one from experience. She’d been able to get her hands on (and her mind inside) an eagle during a special seminar at a zoo back in college. She’d rate it as one of the top ten possessions of her life. “If anything, it sounds as if you’re fully human, picking and choosing only what’s convenient for you, whether or not it is for anyone else.”

She didn’t acutely mention the mess he’d left behind in the med bay, not all this extra headache he’d given her by approaching her in the first place. He’d figure it out. Or he wouldn’t. Either way she didn’t expect him to change.

She breathed out a bit. “That’s good,” she said. “The hawk needs time to sort itself out. It’s not going to be able to do that when a massive giant predator is flying around after it. Fear-induced cardiac problems are a real issue in birds.” And Liz wouldn’t be around to modulate the hawk’s emotions. She certainly wasn’t going to spend the day possessing it.

She didn’t comment on the “big guy”. She tucked that nugget of information away for later. Animal psychology was easy for her. Human psychology was not. And Carrick’s psychology could probably be an entire field of its own.

They got to the nearest exit and Liz pushed through the push bar door and into the fresh air. She released her emotional dampening field on the hawk and held her wrist up. “Fly!” she said, the impressions echoing from her mind to the hawk’s.

And the hawk flew.

”Aye, they can be.” he agreed but didn’t like the fact that she seemed to know more about a species Carrick thought he was a part of, ”They are also curious creatures, add that with the other half and well.” he shrugged and flicked his tail at her. He didn’t want to say she was right. Even if she was. Liz was definitely the brains between the two. She knew it and he did so why did she feel the need to point that out?

His tail flicked again and he smirked, ”Maybe? Don’t always have a say when I’m shifting either. It was pretty inconvenient fer me as well. Though don’t need ta remind ya about that do I.” it was the reason she left after all and eventually lead to him leaving as well.

”I’ll keep me distance. Just want to make sure he’s gonna be alright on his own. Be nothing more than a...” he smirked at the idea, ”Guardian Angel. Suits me.” he mused his wings flexing behind him as his casual walk turned more into a strut.

They got to the nearest exit, not out a window otherwise they would have been out a few minutes prior.

>>> “Fly”

The small bird of prey opened it’s wings and took off. Carrick watched in wonder starting to purr happy for the formally injured bird. His tail flicked and his eyes narrowed as they followed the bird who seemed to be off to a rough start but then quickly corrected it’s flight pattern and rose into the air. ”Well, been an interesting day all round I’d say.” his wings snapped open, ”Time to go guard the Lil' angel then.” he smirked.

His purring continued and then slowed when he turned to look at Liz.... ”EH...... thanks?!?” before snapping his wings down and kicking off the ground. A little more dust than usual was kicked up as he tailed the bird of prey they just released ignoring the next bell for classes.