Branch to the gut (open)

[Izzy James]

Older, eighteen, that sounded about right, and Izzy found himself nodding along to it. The state revelation was a bit more of a surprise though. For some reason, Izzy had figured that anyone who was from the South would have a Southern accent. He was almost disappointed that he hadn't noticed it.

"Parts of Colorado are really pretty," agreed Izzy, taking the safe route and discussing his own state. "But people always forget that like the Eastern half pretty much is Kansas. I was more West, sort of, like, within range of the mountains and stuff."

Izzy's family had gone to the mountains several times on vacations, and it had always been something that he'd enjoyed, on some level. Though he also knew that a lot of people, especially people his age, found the whole "enjoying spending time with your family" thing a little weird. The memory made him smile anyway, and there were questions to answer that helped move things along.

"Uh, yeah, I did," admitted Izzy. Because everyone wanted to tell a pretty girl that they were a late bloomer. "I didn't get my powers till, like, a little while ago. It all went really fast from there. I guess you've been here a while, huh? Do you ever miss home or anything?"

Sometimes Izzy certainly did, though he had to admit, climbing up a mountain or something to get to class would suck compared to this relatively easy hike.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

She nodded listening to him talk. She had never been out west but she heard it was beautiful. She wondered if he skiied or anything. She did like winter and snow. Snow was great for her. There was always an plentiful amount o water that was easy access for her to play with. Then again she hated winter months when there wasn't any snow and the weather was just dry and bleak. Those kind of days wore her out. Dried her out even. It wasn't fun.

Did she ever miss home? She glanced over at the boy masking her discomfort with a soft smile. "Nah Georgia is beat." She told him though it was a lie. She missed home terribly but homesickness was for the weak. She didn't miss home as much as she missed her mother though. The thought of her made her heart thump hard and painful. She could still hear her mother calling for her... screaming for her... then silence. She blinked the memory away.

"I like Hammel... I like it a lot.. I do miss my sisters though." That much she would give him. That much was safe. "I have three of them. I miss my sister Fleur the most she's the closest to my age, she's 20." She told him with a sigh. She had to remember to write a letter to her when she was done with this shit. That's what she was going to do in the tree anyway.

[Izzy James]

Didn't miss home? Man, Georgia must suck. Izzy didn't exactly remember going there for family vacation or anything. He seemed to recall driving through there, mostly on route to Disneyworld and stuff. Like you really remembered the drive on a trip to the most magical place on Earth.

More walking, more hobbling. Izzy had made certain to press close to Emma, supporting her and giving her something to lean on. He'd experienced the whole painful walk before, and knew that having someone to lean on could make all the difference in the world.

"Man, tell me about it. I've got a huge family," had he already mentioned that? He couldn't remember, and, at this point, he was just glad that his brain hadn't skipped back to an earlier point in the conversation or skipped ahead yet. Thank God for private lessons.

"Though I've got a kid sister, Lynsey, she was only, like, a couple of years younger than me. Thirteen or something," explained Izzy. And quite likely to be a meta herself, though he wasn't quite admitting that. His family likely had carriers in it, and he wouldn't be surprised to find that one of his nieces or nephews in the school sometime in the future.

"Any other metas in the family? I'm the only one in my clan, weird as that is."

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

Em was so thankful for Izzy. He was so patient and sweet and helpful through this whole embarrassing situation. She didn't like to look weak or helpless. She didn't like people to know that she even had that side to her at all and this was clearly not the picture of perfection. She couldn't help but feel a bit bad though. She was putting a lot of weight on Izzy and she wasn't exactly a small girl. She was slim but she was tall standing at 5'8". "Thanks again for this." She said then shrugged.

"Tell you about it?" She didn't exactly like opening up but maybe for him. She felt as if he was trustworthy. Plus opening up a little couldn't hurt could it? Of course it could... Of course it could but... "Lynsey... i like that name." She smiled then shrugged. "Four girls, My sister Marie is 23, Chantal is 22, Fleur is 20 and then me... 18." She said. "Most of my extended family is in France though we have some cousins who are also in the states. Me and my sisters are first generation American." She explained then got to his last question.

"I, like you my friend, am the only Meta in my family that i know of." She chuckled. then sighed. Her parents weren't exactly pleased to hear about her being meta either. They didn't see it as a positive gene at all and though they tried to be supportive for her sake, she knew it had caused tension. Then came the accident. She pushed it away like so many of her other thoughts refusing to deal with it.

"Were your parents happy when they found out about your superhero abilities?" She asked flashing him a smile.

[Izzy James]

"No problem," said Izzy. It wasn't, really. He had done a lot more to help people out before. Plus, this was like the only way he could get a girl to pay attention to him. Okay, he played music and sung awesome, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration.

"Wow, it's like my family, only in reverse," said Izzy. "I'm, like, the fourth son, and my sister is kid number five, so, yeah, big family. Plus my oldest brother, Silas, is married, and I think they've got a kid on the way by now or something."

There had been rumors about it when Izzy had left, and he'd only heard bits and pieces since. Silas had been out of the house for a while now, and while the family was still quite close, they weren't exactly the type who updated every second. Izzy still figured that the moment more definite information came along, he'd find out. Lynsey would tell him, if nothing else.

"But, yeah, my family was psyched by it. I mean, at first they just thought I was going crazy. My power's not really that evident, you know? So there were a few rough days before the recruiters showed up. For a while I really thought that robots were going to come get my brain or something," he laughed, shaking his head. It was hard to believe that this was just a few months ago. "So, that went well. Why? Was it like that with you?"

Only a few more minutes till they were in the school, and then Izzy would have to try and remember the location of the infirmary. You'd think his feet would just know the path by now.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

It made her smile to hear that he came from a somewhat similar family. She loved having a big family and couldn't wait for her sisters to get married and have kids. It was looking like Marie's boyfriend would propose soon and Marie was also with a boy whom she'd been going with since high school so she wouldn't be shocked if she was engaged within the year too. She could hardly keep from squealing just at the thought of weddings and babies and oh the cake they'd make for them! It'd be beautiful. Probably even more beautiful than the bride herself. She inwardly chuckled at the thought not sure if she was joking to herself or not. "Gotcha. That's still so exciting though!" She beamed at him.

Em laughed when he started talking about his experience. "Ow ow." She said through the laughter. "I guess you must have been relieved when you found out you were a meta and not going absolutely insane. Though i do sometimes wonder if Hammel is anything more than a psychiatric ward." She joked. When he asked her about her experience she shrugged. "I'm afraid that my parents weren't really.... fond of the idea. Meta's don't run in our family and both of them grew up in families who were weary of metas." She explained. "My family has come to accept it." That was mostly true. They still weren't comfortable but they loved Em enough to overlook it as long as she didn't make it prominent when she was home.

Em was relieved that they finally reached the building. She was starting to get tired walking all the way like this and knew she'd only feel sore the next couple days.

[Izzy James]

Nods, lots of nods. Yes, Izzy loved his family and was happy about the news. Yes, he was all kinds of glad that he hadn't actually been crazy: "It was actually all kinds of weird. I used to be super good at knowing what time it was and stuff. Now I'm lucky if I can remember what day of the week it is. I swear, if it wasn't for a phone, I'd be completely lost."

Yes, a phone, because there was no way that most of Izzy's friends would keep him up to date on the time. Well, actually, he could see Jordan more or less doing it, though he wasn't quite sure if the two of them were really friends. The problem was that it was much, much more likely that someone like AJ or Jared would take advantage of the fact that their friend didn't realize it was, say, Saturday and play a trick on him.

Izzy wouldn't even blame them.
Much.

But he couldn't hold his light tone and happiness as Emma explained her situation. It had occurred to Izzy that he was really, really blessed when it came to his family, and that there might be people with a very different background. that didn't make hearing it any better.

"That sucks," he wound up saying, turning to look at her. 'If you ever, I dunno, want to talk about it or something..."

Because that's just what you did. You offered to help people, like getting them to the infirmary and stuff. Now that they were actually in the building proper though, Izzy's brain was fizzing. His brow crinkled and he scanned the hall for a few seconds, before finally heading in what he was pretty sure was the right direction.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

She chuckled. It seemed that no one, not even a soon to be master of time could survive without their phone. So pathetic and dependent the human race had become. But she couldn't say a thing as she was in the same boat. Without her phone she was as good as dead to the world.

Em noticed his face seem to fall as she told him about how her family was less than thrilled by the development of her skills. Perhaps she had said too much... she was mentally kicking herself for being honest. "Yeah." She chimed in quickly as he offered his ear if she ever wanted to talk. "Of course." She said cutting herself off now. "I mean it's fine now. Perfectly fine and now if anything they're jealous." She joked though it was still a process. Yes, they accepted Em but they still harbored negative feelings towards other metas and when it came to the topic of her mother feelings towards metas in the her household got a bit tense. But every year it seemed to get better and that was all Em could ask for.

God she hated this wing of the building. It smelled so medicinal. Gross. She groaned as she spotted the sign for the clinic. She was happy to be there, but so not excited to be there. If that made any sense. She was ready for the pain to subside though.

[Izzy James]

Fine now. Perfectly. When people threw that word around, especially said like this, it usually meant that things were the exact opposite of perfectly fine. It usually meant that things were a half-step from going up in glorious flames. Izzy tried to figure out what he should say in a situation like that. He knew he didn't understand Emmanuelle; didn't know her, really. So any advice he gave would probably be hollow, empty, and really not all that helpful. Better to just do what he could and hope things worked out in the end.

Like escorting her to the infirmary. Izzy grinned as he saw the sign looming overhead, thankful that at least some part of his brain was firing correcting. He nodded toward it, even waving with a spare hand, as if presenting something grand. Hey, small things, right?

"Looks like we made it," he said, knowing full well that he stated the obvious. He shifted, trying to adjust his grip on Emmanuelle as they crossed those last few steps. "You definitely don't have to worry. They totally know me here," he joked, offering a smile. Anything to lighten the mood. He swallowed, licking his lips. "Plus, they're really quick and stuff. There's medicines that people have discovered, like, good ones, and there's usually someone here with healing powers."

He pushed open the door, helping Emmanuelle through. They'd be swarmed by various doctors and nurses soon enough. But things would get better after that. They usually did.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

"I'm really starting to think you're in here every day." She joked when he assured her for what seemed to be the thousandth time that he'd been here before. "Perhaps they should get you your own bed... maybe with your name on it and you can keep your teddy bear here." She said maybe pushing it too far but it was all in friendly jest. She was just trying to keep her mind off herself and her body which seemed to hate her more and more with every step. She'd stifled so many groans and impulses to just sit and give up that it was starting to come out in bitchy sarcastic jokes.

"Sorry..." She said catching herself. He'd been so nice, she wasn't going to ruin it now that they'd made it to the promise land. "I mean... if i was here a lot that's what i'd want."

She sighed. She was starting to get really nervous now that they were inside. She could feel her stomach churning and her breath starting to quicken as her mind started reeling thinking of all the things about this very room that she hated more than anything. She didn't want to be touched by the doctors who's hands had been on God knows who and in who knows what using instruments that she wasn't totally sure were really as clean as the doctors wanted her to think.

"Let's just hope that whoever can heel me quickly.... without touching me is here." She said her mask dropping and her voice revealing how nervous she was really starting to get. "Sorry... I just.. I REALLY don't like doctors or hospitals or.. well anyplace like this.. i mean it's so seemingly clean but i've seen things." She told him as the doctors and nurses caught wind of them. She could see at least one smirk seeing Izzy. She found herself chuckle herself. He wasn't kidding.