4/7 Instance: The Snitch

[Starfish]

Timeline: Current.


Lazarus knew Neena well. Maybe better than she knew herself. Certainly better than Ben knew her. So he knew that if the punk was going to find out about her new schedule, he'd have to be the one to break the news. He took a deep breath and dialed the number, reminding himself it was for Neena.

"So when we get back, we'll go see Rachel, agreed?" Everyone of his fellow members nodded. "Okay, so everyone gets tattoos! Sweet!" They all laughed thanked Ben. He shrugged and then realized his phone was vibrating. He picked it up and checked the number.

"What the hell... Lazarus?" He looked to the others. "Okay, I gotta go get this,... uhhh." He looked at his hand. "Fold." He put his cards down and got up from his seat. Holding onto the bars, he moved to the back of the bus where there was a large couch, away from the others. Next to it was a fax machine, a lap top, and a collection of movies. This rig was sweet.

He opened the phone and sighed. "Welcome to the Magic Bus, this is Boston Jones." He smirked at his own ridiculousness.

Christ, the kid really knew how to push his buttons. "Shut up and listen. Has Neena talked to you about the baby at all lately?"

"Whoever Dr. McCoy is, you need to talk to him. Is he her ob-gyn?" Lazarus pulled out the folder Dr. Penn had given him. "How is she, by the way?

"Yeah... you can call him a master of all trades. And she seems fine, she won't let me put her to bed though, insists on eating at different times, and sadly I can't check up on her as much as I'd like, especially now that I'm touring on weekends." He ran his hands through his blue streaked hair. Something is wrong.... "Why all the questions Lazarus?"

"Damn it, Nee-nee," He sighed heavily. "And damn you too. Haven't you noticed how skinny she is lately?"

To be honest, Ben had thought of it, but had dismissed it and forgotten about it after their argument before she left. This was far more complicated than he had thought it would be. "Look... Lazarus if something is wrong, I need to know. Now."

"You're all kinds of...no you know what? This is about my sister. You need to take better care of her. She passed out when she was home this past weekend. I had to take her to the hospital."

Ben nearly crushed the phone. "You what!? Why the fu-" He took a long breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay... okay... look stop blaming me and getting all worked up, and tell me what happened. Why is she passing out!?"

"Because she's not eating. Get it? She's not eating, she's not sleeping, I heard her wandering around at night when I was there. She's living on fruit and water. Didn't you see this?!" Lazarus looked over the caloric chart. "She's been..weird. I'm really worried. Apparently she almost beat up a breeder that tried to cheat her too. This isn't Neena."

"Yeah, she's having strange nightmares too... about Milo, actually." He thought back to the fruit she'd been eating as well as the gratuitous amounts of water. "You know, when you mention it, I have noticed just.. I never reacted. I didn't think-... I figured she knew better." He rolled his eyes at himself. Stupid.

"Look, can you ... can you fax to me what she's supposed to be doing? So I can confront her about this?" He looked to the fax. "I'll give you the number. And anything else as a result of that hospital visit, actually."

"Nightmares? That would explain the not sleeping..." Lazarus bit his lip. "The doctor said she's underweight. He put her on a diet and gave her a couple calorie charts. I assume she hasn't shared those with you. He's also put her on partial bedrest. Bed by six every day."

He grabbed a pen. "Give me the number, I'll get them to you now."

Ben gave it to him and waited by for the fax. "Lazarus, I swear to you, I'm not trying to be oblivious to this stuff. I just... I really trusted her to know better, y'know?" He smacked his forehead. "I'm going to get back and let her know what I think about this. And I'm going to forward her this fax too, so she knows what's coming."

"God... by six?! She's been avoiding sleep! My God.... I am so... furious." He said it all rather calmly though. He couldn't believe how still his voice was.

"This is a serious thing, Ben," Lazarus grit his teeth. "And that's not even the most important part. She needs to relax. You know how her powers work with stress. If she gets angry or upset in her condition...the doctor said she could put herself into labor. She's too weak to deal with stress right now."

Ben nodded. "Keep in mind though, that's why she's here. Xavier would do everything in his power to prevent her abilities from harming her or any the other students around her. Or, in this case, our child. I'll call Xavier right away and let him know. She's obviously been out of the training sessions but..."

"Maybe she needs to be given house arrest too." Ben opened his MacBook in an attempt to contact Xavier right then, and suddenly an e-mail from McCoy popped up. "Okay... just got an e-mail from the doc. I'm going to tell him too."

"Training sessions? She swam every day she was here. I almost had to lock her in her bedroom to keep her off a horse," Lazarus faxed the last of the papers. "Ok, this is all of it. I wrote down Dr. Penn's number, if you have any other questions you can call him too. We can trust him, he's the doctor who discovered her mutation when she was kid. He took care of her when she was in the accident."

"Good. I'm going to have him contact ours here. And I'm also going to have him forward to me any information of various stages or whatever. I'm sick of being out of the loop, and she's putting everyone there. Out of the loop that is." He looked to his band members who gave him a shrug and a point to his phone.


He shook his head and mouthed the words "no good." He looked at the papers as they came through. "Okay... yeah... none of this, been told about absolutely none of it. That's it... I'm going to figure this out with her."

"She's really not well, Ben," Lazarus took a deep breath. "Neena thinks she has to take on everything on her own, but we both know she can't. I can't be over there every day taking care of her. That's...your job now. And I'm asking you please, PLEASE take care of my sister. Make sure she's happy, try not to make her cry. I'm asking you as someone who loves her, ok? Please."

"Lazarus, the last thing I want to do is make her cry. Her health, for herself and the child, are my main priority. I'm not going to let her block us out."

"Good. You shouldn't. I won't either, that's why I'm calling you now. And if you have any other suspicions, let me know, ok? Because if I hadn't been there when she passed out I wouldn't have known anything either."

"Good... yeah. I'm okay with that. And Lazarus..." he couldn't believe he was saying this. "Thank you."


He almost dropped the phone in surprise. Pausing to consider his answer, he finally relented. "You're welcome. Bye." Without waiting for Ben to answer, he hung up. "Neena's gonna kill me."

Ben rolled his eyes and closed his phone as well. "God, Neena's gonna kill me."

[Svartfreja]

Woo They're working together! And naughty neenee not telling benny!!!!

[Elfdame]

love the ending