The X-Project

Reed comes to get a physical. Cecilia tries to be patient.

It was important to fact check and assure inter reliability with any scientific finding -- moreso when the area wasn't particularly one's expertise. Every year, Reed took stock of his body, kind of like a mutant physical. He found it important to ensure everything was as it were, but it had been a while since he was in a place where he could be free to investigate it, rather than cobble together results.

Striding into the medical lab, he was about to use the equipment until he saw someone there. Propriety stated he at least introduce himself and ask permission.

"Dr. Reed Richards," he called out. "I need to do some base exams to test my mutation." There, that should be good enough, he thought as he started rifling through some drawers.

"Back away from the supplies and put your hands up, kid." Dr. Cecilia Reyes looked up from her computer and gave him a glare that she'd honed over years of working with interns. "Unless you've got an M.D., you're not authorized to use any of the equipment in my medlab."

"I have several doctorates in enough fields that I probably could have an M.D. By tomorrow if I so choose," he responded matter-of-factly. "But I have no interest in curing people." in deference to her position in the lab, he did reluctantly close the drawer. "I really do need to do a complete physical." "Well," Cecilia continued to give him the look as she stood and straightened her lab coat. "You're welcome to apply to med school and test that theory. But in the meantime, why don't you tell me what you're looking for, and I'll see what I can do."

Reed pondered this for a few moments. It probably looked odd, a grown man standing still, staring into nothing but he didn't care. Just as suddenly as he stopped, he nodded. "I already said it: a full mutant physical. DNA analysis, blood work, tensile measurements, etc etc. Can you help?"

"Sure," Cecilia said, not bothering to smile. The thought that this kid was on the spectrum hit her, and she couldn't help feeling momentarily guilty about it. But it was better than the alternative: That he was just rude. "How about you sit over there?" She ushered him toward a nearby stool, her no-nonsense E.R. voice. making it clear this was more of an order than a request. "And tell me about yourself and your powers and your oh-so-many doctorates." She turned her back on him and began pulling supplies out of drawers.

"Alright," he agreed, sitting down. "Well, where to begin.... I have three doctorates. One in Mathematics, one in physics and one in biomedical engineering from Columbia, Harvard and MIT respectively. I am currently researching a fourth in either astrophysics or robotics, not entirely sure yet. I've published in several medical journals and have peer-reviewed countless more." Stretching his arm out in front of him, he lazily tied it into a knot. "As for my powers, I have a hyper elasticity and malleability. It's interesting."

"Uh huh," she replied somewhat reflexively, the words coming before she'd really processed what she said. As her brain caught up, she flinched a bit. The last mutant she met who matched that description had tried to kill her and she'd — she shut the drawer in front of her, perhaps a bit too quickly. That was the past, and there was no use thinking about it now. By the time she'd turned around to face him, she looked as detached as she had before. "So you're tensile," she said, summing up his paragraph, looking at the knot in his arm, "and intelligent. Not a bad combination, I guess."

Reed didn't respond. Her comment didn't seem to warrant an answer so he untied his arm and waited until it seemed that maybe he had gone with the wrong decision. "Yes. I'm highly intelligent."

"Modest, too." He was a strange one, that was sure. But Cecilia doubted he was any more strange than anyone else here — his oddness was just more superficial. "I just have the one doctorate, if the M.D. counts, but it's served me well enough." She smiled as she looked him over. "You're fully contracted now, right? Pretty sure that distortion will throw your blood pressure reading off.

"Oh." Reed had to admit, he hadn't thought of that. Maybe there was more to this medical profession than he's thought. "I am at my most baseline right now," he replied, making a conscious effort. "I repeat -- I need to know if there's any change from last year.". Fishing around in his pocket, he pulled out a flash drive. "This has my yearly results since I manifested. As you can see, I have plateaued."

"Great," Cecilia nodded as she took the drive from him. "That's probably expected. You're,what, 25 or 26? By then things tend to have normalized."

"Oh?". Another interesting thought. "So secondary or tertiary mutations don't occur then?"

"Well, they're relatively rare." Cecilia turned away from him, searching for the nearest laptop. "And a lot of what people think are secondary or tertiary mutations are often more a reflection of maturation and growth. When powers are more familiar to people, they find they're often capable of more than they expected." She was glad her back was facing him and not her face - she couldn't help the somewhat vacant look that came to her as she considered whether that was what had happened to her.

"It's not outside the realm of possibility, of course," Cecilia continued, "that you'll develop additional powers." She jammed the drive into a laptop, then brought the computer back to where he was seated. "But your guess on that's as good as mine. Hop up on that exam table."

This all made sense to Reed, so he saw no reason to continue the conversation. Instead, he hopped onto the table and nodded. "You are very well educated and clearly have extensive knowledge in your field. I put myself into your capable hands."

"My capable hands were trained to cut people open and sew them back together," Cecilia pointed out, "but I'll go easy on you. Before we get started, any medical concerns or problems I should be looking for?"

Ignoring her question, Reed looked at her inquisitively. "You're a surgeon? Why are you in a med lab then?"

"You've seen the people here, right?" Cecilia raised an eyebrow, because she wasn't going to admit that she often had the same question. "Sometimes a surgeon's not a bad thing to have. I put my skills to use more than you'd think."

"I'm not sure I believe you," Reed responded, laying down on the exam table. "But you seem content so I won't continue to nitpick your career choice."

"Gee. How generous of you." Cecilia sounded as pleased as she looked.