7537/Visiting Hours

Visiting Hours
Date of Scene:	19 May 2019
Location:	Bellevue Hospital - Lower Manhattan
Synopsis:	Erik and Lorna visit Charles in hospital. Old tensions and new securities flare.
Cast of Characters:	Professor X, Polaris, Magneto

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Professor X has posed:
Bellevue Hospital is an incessantly busy place, no matter the time of day. Early evening on a Saturday is no different. Ambulances wail to and from the building, staff walk to and from looking important and busy, and people go between waiting rooms, appointments and the cafeterias. Thankfully, the 15th floor is a quieter place. Thoracic surgery is always the first to get whatever it wants, and the floor is modern, freshly renovated and well-staffed. The waiting area is filled with concerned or tired looking people. The staff are quite pleasant though, and an assistant from the Council on Global Relations is there to receive visitors for Charles. Young, sharply dressed and deferential, the man leads guests past the crowded shared rooms to a quieter wing where the private rooms are. He knocks gently, then holds the door open and smiles. He closes the door quietly behind him and walks away.

The room lighting is softened and Charles is propped up on a hospital bed reading a book held with one hand. The left side of his chest is completely swathed in bandages. An IV is in his arm and an oximeter is attached to his left finger. People who know these things would see his O2 sats are a little low, which means there might be something wrong with a lung. The monitor shows his vitals, quietly tracking how he is doing. He looks pale and tired but smiles when he looks up.

"Erik, I didn't expect you, old friend. Come in. And you, Lorna. Come in, come in," he says quietly.

Polaris has posed:
Lorna was on proverbial pins and needles after hearing the news that the Professor was attacked. She had just arrived back from Genosha, and had been busy getting ready to attempt some surveillance on a bank that had financial ties to Trask Labs. She was convinced that if she followed the money, and played it right, she might be able to find an angle to work. It was all she had until the meeting with John Doe was arranged and for now, it was far from her mind.

The young woman wore a pair of black yoga pants and a grey colored cardigan. Her sandaled feet stepped harder on the floor than usual, a sure sign of distress with the young woman. When her father had offered to join her on the visit to the hospital, she hadn't paused for a moment to rush over. "Professor." She swallowed a lump in the back of her throat, and then came down the expected slamming of guilt. She blamed herself, of course. There had been bullets. She was an X-men. She should have been there.

She mentally kicked herself, as she entered the room and stepped toward the hospital bed where there were various chairs waiting guests to visit.

Magneto has posed:
     Megneto had heard from his sources that Charles had been hurt at a speaking engagement. And despite what people think, he was concerned enough to find Charles himself.

  After seeing that his old friend was unharmed, Erik relaxed a little as he walked deeper into the hospital room. "Between Sentinels and ignorants, you seem to have yourself at odds, Charles."

  He wore a suit, grey colored and burgundy shirt, black tie.

Professor X has posed:
Charles sighs, which makes his breath catch a little and the heart rate on the monitor goes up slightly for a moment.

"So it seems," Charles concedes. "I've had many threats before, but this is the first time someone actually /tried/ to injure me at one of these events. A sign of the times, I suppose," he muses.

"But I'm still here. Surgery went well, and the very kind young nurse told me I should stay off my feet for six weeks and not try to walk up any stairs for two months," he says with a slight chuckle, followed by a faint wince.

"Lorna, you look miserable. I'll be fine, I assure you."

Polaris has posed:
Lorna sank down into the chair closest to the bed frame, her expression calm enough that only a telepath like the Professor could've known how much she was beating herself up. She swallowed thickly the first apology that came to her lips as she settled her hands on the edge of the hospital bed's railing. "I should have been there..." She mumbled softly, her gaze falling as if to try to hide the way her eyes welled up.

"Not watching a bank for intel that might not even be there." She exhaled a rough breath, and looked around the hospital room again. "You need more security."

Professor X has posed:
Charles shares the briefest glance with Erik and reaches across with his good arm to touch Lorna's hand.

"Lorna, this was not your fault, there was nothing you could have done. You have an important assignment, and should have been working on that," Charles says and smiles gently.

"We musn't own these things. The fault lays with whoever did this, not you," he adds with a squeeze of her hand for emphasis. Then he smiles again. "Even if I might need more security."

Polaris has posed:
Lorna pursed her lips as she returned the gentle squeeze of her hand to the Professor's. Though his words had some effect, it was clearly going to be something the young magnkinetic took to heart. "You were //shot//, Professor. If I had been there, you wouldn't be here.." She exhaled a rough breath and shook her head once as she turned her gaze around the hospital room.

"When can we move you to the Mansion? I don't like the idea that you're this exposed. If someone tried to kill you before, they might try again." Was she over reacting? Perhaps a bit. The Professor was a powerful mutant in his own right. But Lorna had always been protective and exceedingly loyal to those she cared for. The Professor had been one of those for years in her life. Longer than even her father had been.

Professor X has posed:
Charles leans back again and closes his eyes very briefly.

"Soon, they say. It was very public, I can't just disappear. And there is some value in me being here," he says with a glance at Magneto. "I would rather not have someone come looking for me at the school. But measures are being taken, I won't be left exposed. I promise you that."

Magneto has posed:
     Erik stood up from the chair and approached the two. "What measures Charles?" He needs to head something concrete, in this time of heavy uncertainty, his own heavy hand was the one that he pledged to the school he helped create. "When will it be enough for you? When you're dead and martyred? Because that is much too late for my taste. We almost lost you, and we have lost many others, who never got the opportunity to spread their wings but for one singular moment, only to have their life snuffed out."

  It was clear the nonagenarian was unsettled by this latest turn of events, his steeled eyes grew red, the memories of all the death he had witnessed hitting him.

Polaris has posed:
Lorna glanced up as her father stood and her gaze swung back to the Professor's bed prone figure. "The school has better security and you know it. If they came to the school there are people there that can stop another attack. Not hospital workers that are just trying to do their jobs.. Everyone at the school knows the risks there." She fell silent as her father spoke and her other hand reached out to try to gasp Magneto's.

It was almost a visual of the metaphorical pull Lorna felt between both of the men in that room. One the father had had birthed her, and one the man that had taught and raised her through her teen years and the re-awakening of her powers.

Professor X has posed:
Charles holds Magneto's gaze for a moment and then looks down.

"Some of the others are nearby, and the FBI has put some of their people here," he says quietly, sounding less his usual serenely competent self. "These things happen, Erik. We've known the risks of putting ourselves out in public to champion the cause. There has always been a chance something like this would happen."

Charles' brow creases as Lorna speaks and purses his lips.

"You are not the first to say that," he admits. "But I just left surgery, there hasn't been time..."

Charles trails off.

"It feels different, now," he says after a momentary pause. "The shift in mood, the Sentinels... Something has changed."

Magneto has posed:
     Magneto steps in, saying quite matter of factly. "It's changed because everyone is beginning to realize the gravity of the stakes. They see you and I as stalwarts, that we will always be there. But you and I are not gods, there will be a day when we draw our final breath." He grasps Lorna's hand, giving it a light squeeze.

  "I've told you once, and I'll tell you again, I will not allow another genocide. And young Rachel has shown that it is a very real threat towards our kind."

  "Even Scott understands the gravity of the situation, no other reason for him not to have protested my returning to the fold. But he also knows what needs to be done, the Sentinels will not simply go away, we need to make them useless, and Trask is a fool to send metal men against me."

Polaris has posed:
As the Professor and her father spoke, Lorna fell silent as she listened. She cared, and cared deeply about the situation. It was perhaps, why she'd taken on the investigation though she didn't feel at all prepared to lead a team for anything. She closed her eyes briefly, losing herself to the magnetic fields as she often did when things became difficult. She sought solace in the intricate patterns and expanded knowledge of the world around her.

She opened her eyes only at the pause in the conversation after her father had taken hold of her hand.

"How have they changed Professor?" Was all she offered after a beat, her father's anger a mirror to her own.. and yet Lorna's edge wasn't there. Not yet. She lacked the confidence that Magneto held from decades of experience. She lacked the bite. The trauma.

Professor X has posed:
Charles purses his lips while Magneto speaks and lets the quiet afteward stretch out until Lorna speaks.

"There's been a hardening. It started with the attack on New York, and it's grown. The Oomycetans, Shadow King, more incidents of super-being violence, magic, unconvincing responses from governments. Genosha. People are afraid," Charles looks toward Erik.

"But I can't accept that we feed that fear, Erik. I won't. That fear will create the very facism you are trying to avoid," Charles continues quietly but fiercely. "We can stop the Sentinels, but so what if we crush them? There will be more. Something new, something different. They will keep building these weapons until they no longer fear us. We've seen this before in this country; blacks, the Italians, Irish, Mexicans and South Americans. We can integrate, we have to. It's the only way. And it has to be soon."

Magneto has posed:
     "Genosha is the one place where humankind and mutants have been able to coexist without fear."

  Magneto stands, fist balled up at his side, his short silver hair shimmering in the light. "Our people are afraid, Charles. You have them in your school, those students deserve a world where they are able to be free without fear of someone attempting their life simply for the fact that they are alive."

  Of course, they have had this talk before, it was the basis for all the conflict they had between the two.

Polaris has posed:
Old arguments. The very same that Lorna had heard on the broadcasts and on the radio. The ones that had been going on for decades, long before she'd even been born. Yet here she was, once more caught between the two opposing sides. Both had their merits and Lorna could clearly see the reasoning behind each. She dropped her hands back to her lap, fighting back a sigh.

What was there to say between the two that hadn't been said a thousand times over?

"I can stay here Professor and help keep watch so that you can rest. At least until others get here, I'm sure they all want to come visit and make sure you're okay." She pursed her lips together. "And you need rest. Having this conversation again isn't doing anyone any favors. Except to separate us even further when we need to stick together. Now more than ever. Can't you see that? Father, you've always chided me over dividing my forces in chess. How is this any different? We're stronger together."

Professor X has posed:
Charles opens his mouth to say something but stops short. His face softens.

"She has a point, Erik. Listen to us," he says with a wry smile.

"Like an old married couple fighting over the same thing for years. I /know/ they're afraid, everyone is. And I know have to stop the Sentinels. But if mutantkind really is at war, help me at least keep it a cold war," Charles pleads. "We are going to need everyone's strength, Erik. Theirs, ours, the Asgardians, everyone."

Charles smiles appreciatively at Lorna's offer. "No, you were right. I should come home and let Hank take care of the rest," Charles admits. "I'll have them discharge me to his care."

Magneto has posed:
     "You-" Of course Erik has his follow up to Charles' follow-up. Not just because they have had this conversation many times, but also because they played chess, anticipating each other's moves rounds beforehand. "Very well. I will yield this time to you and Lorna. But this is not over. Consider it a brief respite to gather your strength."

  "I will be at the mansion." He offers, letting Lorna know he needs to take a moment to himself, under the helmet.

  And like that, he leaves, hard leather soles clapping against the sterile linoleum of Bellevue.