Well that was good, Tarin thought as Lee responded about her energy levels. Sleep had not been a thing for Lee last night, and while Tarin was perfectly content with whatever Lee needed to do, it was nice when she was able to sleep.

It appeared that her hand was a bit more than sore though, Tarin decided as he watched Lee work at getting her glove off and packing her stuff. If she was struggling with it this much this soon after the punch, it was just going to get worse as it swelled.

Lee commented that a quiet evening at home would make sleeping easier and Tarin nodded, they’d done plenty this weekend to excuse a quiet evening in before the week started.

”You sure that hand is okay.” Tarin said, unable to help himself, ”I can’t help but think that if it’s already bugging you this much…” Maybe he was fussing, just a little bit, but that was his perrogative, wasn’t it?

As Lee turned to face Tarin again, he asked about her hand, whether she was sure that it was alright. Lee couldn’t help the small frown that appeared as she looked down at her hand, opening and closing it a few times.

”I think so?” Lee said as she looked up at Tarin again. ”I mean, I can move it and it’s not a weird colour or swelling yet, so I don’t think it’s broken or anything like that. It’s just…It’s really sore when I close my hand.”

Lee sighed as she made her way over to Tarin. If this was Kevin’s hand, they would already be on their way to see a doctor. She wouldn’t care that it wasn’t swollen or bruised looking.

Stopping once she was beside Tarin, Lee looked down at her hand again as she bit her lip. ”Do you really think I should get it looked at?”

Lee made a decent case for waiting and seeing as far as her hand was concerned. It had really only been a few minutes since the injury though, and she was having some trouble using it.

Coming back to his side, Lee asked if he really thought she needed to have her hand looked at and he shrugged, ”That’s up to you.” he said, ”It’s really too soon for it to be swelling or bruising though. If it hurts and you’re having trouble using it, you should probably have it looked at.”

Tarin knew for a fact that if the situation were reversed, he would absolutely not be open to the idea of going to a doctor. Doctors asked all sorts of questions about what had happened to you, and recorded those answers. Sometimes doctors reported those answers to people who had no business knowing.

This was Lee though, and she was smarter than he was. ”What’s the worst that happens? You find out nothing is wrong and we go home.”

Lee sighed again as she continued looking at her hand. Tarin was right, she probably should get it looked at. And if it really did turn out to be nothing, there was no harm done.

Other than having to see a doctor in the first place.

”Alright, let's get it looked at, then,” Lee said, her voice almost sounding defeated.

Pulling her bag forward, Lee put her water bottle in and dug her phone out. If she was going to get her hand checked, she needed to figure out which clinic was closest to the route home and also open on a Sunday.

After a few moments of tapping away and flipping between apps, Lee stopped. ”Huh. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it, but that could be an option.”

Tarin nodded when Lee finally decided that she was going to have her hand checked out. That meant actually going to a doctor though, and Lee went to work looking for a place to stop on their way home. Tarin was the absolute wrong person to ask about that as he hadn’t been to a doctor a single time since coming through the rift. Sure he’d been sick a few times, but nothing that had ever actually required a doctor.

After a few moments, Lee spoke and Tarin looked at her, eyebrows raised in question, ”Didn’t think about what as an option?” He said.

Lee looked up at Tarin again when she heard him speak. Right, because he didn’t see what on her phone had sparked the thought. Even if Tarin had seen it, that wouldn’t necessarily mean he’d be having the same thought.

”The infirmary at the mansion,” Lee explained to Tarin. ”There’s an actual doctor there, but he’s also a healer. I mean, I haven’t been there in a decade, but I highly doubt that he’s forgotten me.” How could he after she’d spent a month straight in his infirmary, not as a patient, only leaving the room when he’d forced her to, and then the dozens (hundreds?) of calls and visits while she was pregnant with Kevin?

”Though, I’ll be surprised if I’m lucky enough to be subjected to only a single lecture.”

Lee explained that she’d been talking about the infirmary at the Mansion and Tarin nodded slowly. Lee had mentioned the infirmary before, when they’d been on the tour and she’d been threatening Kevin with a shot when he wouldn’t stop trying to pry into the secrets of the Mansion.

The Doctor at the Mansion was also a healer, and Lee was confident that the man would remember her. Tarin could remember her mentioning that she’d had Kevin at the Mansion and had spent some significant time there herself. It stood to reason that she’d be remembered.

It was also likely she’d be subjected to at least one lecture? If the man was brave enough to lecture Lee about anything, Tarin wanted to meet him.

”Are they open on Sundays?” he asked.

Lee couldn't help the slight laugh when Tarin asked if the infirmary at the mansion was open Sundays. ”You’ve seen news about the X-Men,” she said as way of explanation. ”Do you think they'd avoid doing something risky or getting hurt just because of the day of the week?”

After looking at Tarin for another couple moments, Lee decided. She trusted DocProf far more than a random doctor at a clinic. And even all these years later, Lee still didn't like going to the doctor, so avoiding a clinic was even better.

”I guess we should go grab a can then,” Lee said as she tapped her phone a couple more times. And then it was calling the infirmary.

”I meant to the general public.” Tarin said when Lee laughed at his response, ”I forgot that you’ve got X-Man privileges.” he added lightly with a teasing grin on his face.

He could see Lee trying to decide exactly what she wanted to do and Tarin wondered if she was going to scrap the whole idea. The Mansion wasn’t far but it also wasn’t close and Lee seemed almost as reluctant to go to the doctor as he was.

Still, after a few moments, Lee decided and suggested that they get a cab. She was making a call, so Tarin started walking, hoping she would follow behind. Out the door they went, onto the street and Tarin went about hailing a cab.

All things considered, it didn’t take all that long and then they were on their way. Tarin was mildly apprehensive about going back to the Mansion, even if he didn’t know why. It was just weird for him to be in a place with so many mutants. It brought back memories, the type he didn’t want to think about. Lee was agreeing to medical attention though, and if this was how it was going to happen, that was fine with him.

Lee stuck her tongue out at Tarin when he talked about her having ‘X-Men privileges’. Ok…yes, she could show up at the gate at any time of the day or night and be let in through the gate. But mutants showed up at the mansion all the time.

And yes, she did have the direct phone number for the infirmary at the mansion, but that was just still in her phone from when she was pregnant and everyone got sick of transferring her calls when she had to dial the main number.

And now that she thought of it, she likely could even show up unannounced and be able to go train in the danger room if no one else was using it.

Oh…Tarin was right, wasn't he? She did kind of have X-Men privileges, didn't she?

Still, after she'd made her decision, her call to DocProf and hailing a can didn't take too long, and they were on their way.

”DocProf said he'd arrange for the gate to be opened when we get there, so we should be able to head straight in.”

Tarin could practically see Lee thinking through what he had said. She really did have special privileges, didn’t she? Again, Tarin had to wonder why it was so hard for Lee to realize just how singular she was until it was absolutely staring her in the face.

Comfortably seated in the back of the cab and rolling their way through the traffic lights and normal New York congestion, Tarin nodded when Lee said that the gate would be open when they got there. Despite the time it would take in a cab, this might just be faster than finding an Urgent Care or clinic that was open on a Saturday and waiting their turn.

”How did you get so many privileges.” Tarin asked, ”I know you had Kevin there…but is that how you got to know everyone?”

Lee sighted when Tarin asked if she'd met all the people she knew at the mansion when Kevin was born. ”God, do I wish it were that simple,” she said softly before looking over at Tarin.

”Sam I literally ran into outside the Chinese restaurant,” she told Tarin before her eyes drifted to look out the window. ”We kinda went on a couple sorta dates before he was a complete idiot about my powers. But then he helped in Times Square.”

“Shin…Shin I didn't really meet until the coma,” Lee continued explaining. She wasn't sure how much detail she wanted to go into, though, not because she didn't want to tell Tarin, but because full disclosure would likely be weird for him.

”He ended up being taken to the mansion when he was found. Shin came to check on us every day in the infirmary, to see if there was any change and to check how I was doing, and he brought me coffee every time.

“The ‘privileges’ as you call them, probably started then. Well, I thought I was going crazy. I kept randomly feeling someone around even when I knew I was alone. Sam helped me work on my ‘people radar’ during the hours I wasn’t allowed to be in the infirmary.”

Lee hadn’t just known the leader of the X-Men, she had gone on a couple of dates with him?

Leave it to Lee to talk about it like it wasn’t a big deal, even pointing out that the guy had been an idiot about her powers. Weird. They’d apparently stayed friends though and Sam had helped with the merge that had happened in Times Square. The thought of that still made Tarin shudder a bit, especially now that he knew that the same thing was very likely possible for him.

She met Shin while the other Tarin had been in the weird power-induced coma. That story didn’t bother Tarin so much, he knew he didn’t have that power. Still, it was upsetting to think of Lee sitting there, in the same infirmary they were about to visit, not knowing what was going to happen. It made Tarin like Shin even more to know that he’d made sure Lee had coffee every morning. It made Tarin like Sam, despite never having met him, that he’d given Lee something else to focus on.

”Well, with all the context it definitely makes sense.” Tarin said, shaking his head. ”They sound like really good folks. Anything else I need to know? Is this Doctor going to be as surprised as everyone else has to meet me? Want me to wait in the cab?” Tarin was only half joking.

Would DocProf react to Tarin being who he was the same way that everyone else seemed to have?

Did she want Tarin to wait in the cab? Honestly, if she was worried about that, why would she have invited him to come along on Kevin’s tour of the mansion?

”If you really want to, you can wait in the cab,” Lee told Tarin. It wasn’t like she was going to force him to come into the building if he’d changed his mind about coming along.

”But honestly, I have seen this man take everything that has come to him in stride, no matter how bizarre. And I’m sure that both the X-Men and the people at the mansion itself have dealt with the rift and people from your world far more than everyone else in my life, so it shouldn’t be as shocking.”

”I was halfway joking.” Tarin admitted when Lee said that he could stay in the cab if he really wanted.

It was somewhat reassuring to hear that the Doctor seemed to be a consummate professional though, capable of taking everything in stride. Tarin supposed it made sense in the man’s line of work considering the fact that he helped the X-Men. Surely that meant a lot of strange things had happened in that infirmary.

They also probably knew a lot of people from his side of the rift. It was starting to be weird to think about it that way. Sure, Tarin had spent a vast majority of his life on that side of the rift, but he had so few good memories that it was hard to think of it as home. No, definitely not home. Home was definitely here.

”I’ll go with you. I wasn’t trying to be dramatic or anything.”