Taking The Class Pt. 03

"Tell me, Will White. Have you ever done anything to intentionally harm my daughter, to undermine her independence, to prevent her from making her own decisions?"

The pressure on him relaxed abruptly, and he fell forward onto the table, struggling to breathe on his own. He slowly looked up, barely able to force himself to meet eyes that he could only describe as dragon-like from books he'd read. They blinked vertically at him, the crimson orbs glowing ominously, and all else faded from his consciousness. "No," he said through chattering teeth, struggling to get the words out despite the universe screaming at him not to speak. He felt something running from his nose. "I would never do something like that. Ever."

The eyes blinked at him again. "Huh," said Doctor Bishop, her brows lowering. "I was so sure I figured that all out." She brought a claw up and tapped it repeatedly against her lip, the smooth flesh puncturing easily on contact and regrowing instantly after. "Well, this is embarrassing. Sorry, Lainy. Sorry, Will. Let me clean this up."

She held her right hand up in front of her. A claw shot out almost too quickly to see and pierced clean through Will's skull. The last thing he heard was Alaina's scream.

* * *

4î½< blinked as the world came back into focus.

"How are you feeling?" asked a Ô?i-ü sitting across from him.

He blinked again, then shook his head. He rubbed at his eyes. Wow, did I Y²iÊ^ asleep? Memories crashed ©3¯¦T on him in a fractured jumble of a mess, and his eyes rolled back into his RÌF#Ø.

"Oh damn, I forgot to put them back in the right order..."

He àæ:2×B bú½èdäçCáÌ.

* * *

"Sorry, sorry, I haven't needed to do this in a while. Wake up, Will. Dinner's getting cold."

Will blinked. He rolled his tongue around in his mouth, then smacked his lips to try and disperse a lingering coppery flavor.

Dr. Bishop sat across from him, scooping a forkful shepherd's pie into her mouth. "Mmm, I think this might be the best one yet, sweetie." she said, savoring the flavor.

"Um, Will made that one," said Alaina, staring at Will with concern.

"Did he? Well, we'll just have to have him over to help with dinner more often, then! Will, you're welcome here any time." said Dr. Bishop with a motherly smile as she took another bite.

Ugh, what the hell. He blinked again. "What... What just happened?"

"Oh, that was my mistake," said Dr. Bishop. "Again. Twice in the same night, I haven't been this embarrassed in years! I'm so sorry, Will, I may have gone a little overboard."

A little? Wait, did all that really happen? I feel like... What? His face screwed up, and he looked in the direction of the atrium. "Do I really drive a fire truck?"

Alaina turned her wide-eyed gaze towards her mother, her hands cupped over her mouth and nose. "Mom, you broke him! What did you do?"

Dr. Bishop paused mid-bite. "Really? I could have sworn..." She pursed her lips. "Okay, maybe the third time's the charm," she said, putting down her fork and raising her hand.

"Whoa, hold on," said Will, holding his hands up in front of him. "It's okay, it's not that bad." He thought back. "There's a few weird things here and there from the past week, but it's not that bad. Uh, did you... Did you just rewrite all my memories?"

Dr. Bishop rolled her eyes. "No, I just looked through them all for fun. Of course I rewrote some of them. You wouldn't even be able to exist in the same room as me now and remain conscious if I hadn't." She picked up her fork again. "I removed some bits and pieces from our little misunderstanding so you could remember it more objectively. I'm really sorry, I thought—Well, it's in the past now, no point in worrying over it, huh?"

"Right," said Will. He felt something wet and looked down, finding a large wet spot on his shirt. "Um, this—"

"That's nothing!" said Alaina quickly, reaching over to grab one of his hands. "Don't think about that!" She turned her head to her mom. "Um, Mom, you did what? I didn't know you could do that. Well, any of that!"

"Let this be a lesson to both of you not to be alone with people whose abilities you aren't totally sure about," lectured Dr. Bishop, finishing her portion of shepherd's pie. "It's always a risk, even if it's a low one on average—statistically speaking, of course." She gave Will a meaningful look.

What's that look supposed to mean? Ugh, this is pretty fucked. What the fuck, were my parents really here? He looked over. The rest of the seats at the table were empty. He looked up. No Toby either. Wow, what a mind fuck.

"As for what I did, well, the short answer is that I reached into his brain and changed the way some of his neurons fire. I removed the emotional response and memories of most of his reactions. And a couple other bits that he probably would thank me for getting rid of." Dr. Bishop grabbed the serving utensils and fixed herself another, smaller portion. "I may have accidentally nicked a couple other spots along the way. Like I said, I'm a little rusty."

"Um," said Will. He blinked again. This is going to take some time to sort out. How far back does it go? The last time I remember having a car was... I had a car a week ago Sunday. "I don't think you did remove all of the emotional response?"

"No," said Dr. Bishop, smiling back at him in a less wholesome way. "I know you mean well now, but I wanted to leave a little reminder of what I'd do if that ever changed."

Will gulped. So that did all happen? He goggled at Dr. Bishop.

"Will, please, don't stare at me like that in front of your girlfriend," Alaina's mom said coquettishly. "You'll make me blush. Eat up, it'll get cold!"

Will blinked, then looked down at his plate. He took a bite. Is it just me or does this taste even better than I remember? He chewed quickly, realizing that he was starving. "This is really good, Alaina!" he remarked, looking over.

Alaina gave him a weak smile. "Thanks, Will. I'm really, really sorry. Um..." she trailed off, tapping at her emptied plate with her fork.

There's no clock in here. How long was I getting mind wiped for? Wait, why am I not more freaked out about this? "I take it you didn't change Alaina's memories?"

Dr. Bishop frowned. "I would never do something like that to my Lainy!" she exclaimed, sounding offended.

But you'd do it to her boyfriend?

"Um, wouldn't you?" asked Alaina, tapping her finger on her fork.

Her mom turned her whole body to face her daughter. "No, Alaina, I would never do that to you. I don't do it very often, and I don't do it lightly. It's only because I wanted you to have a chance being happy together that I did anything at all this time. Just imagine if any time you mentioned me he turned into a twitching puddle on the ground." She wrinkled her nose. "Nobody wants that." She turned forward in her seat, then took another bite. "No future son-in-law of mine had better be that spineless, Lainy," she remarked.

Does that mean she approves? This is too fucking weird.

"Mom!" Alaina spluttered, covering her face with her hands.

"Y'know, I'm glad this happened," said Dr. Bishop after she'd cleared her plate once more. "Well, maybe It would have been better if it wasn't your boyfriend here, but my point stands. Lainy, you should have more confidence in your mom. Maybe knowing that I'm not just some helpless doctor will help with that."

"And you're not afraid that I'd tell anyone?" Will asked between bites. "I mean, not that I would! I definitely would never, ever tell anyone. I promise."

Dr. Bishop laughed. "I believe you, Will. Your father would use his Skill and try to guarantee someone wouldn't talk about it that way, but that's so inelegant, especially with how pitifully short his little thing can last. I prefer more definite solutions. Believe me, Will, when I tell you that you will regret it if you try to talk to anyone other than us about my Class outside of this house."

Will gulped.

She turned to her daughter. "Sweetie, I'd really appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. I know you and Ayanna tell each other everything, but this really needs to stay a secret or your mom might get taken away to a lab to be cut up and dissected. Okay?"

"O-okay, Mom," said Alaina, fidgeting with her fork. She sighed, then reached over and scooped another heaping serving onto her plate.

Did she really eat that entire first plate? Where is she putting it all?

Dr. Bishop eyed her daughter's plate.

"Mom, um, you've mentioned you know Will's father?" asked Alaina. "I, uh, I kind of met him last night?"

Dr. Bishop blinked, her eyes once again glowing red. "What? Did he touch you? Did he—I'll kill him."

Alaina grabbed her mom's hand. "Mom, relax. It's okay. It's okay, I promise. It didn't work on me, okay?"

Her mom looked over. "He tried?" she snarled, a puff of smoke coming out of her mouth.

Fuck, Alaina's mom is even scarier than my father. What the actual fuck. She's like an older, craftier version of Alaina with crazy Skills that make my brain hurt to even consider. And an even worse temper.

"Mom, calm down for a sec. Look, he didn't know who I was at first, and it didn't matter anyway. I, um... I have a Quirk. None of those types of Skills work on me."

Dr. Bishop blinked, and her eyes returned to normal. "So you're finally going to tell me about your Class?" she pouted at her daughter. "You said we were gonna talk on Friday, but then you stayed over at Ayanna's all weekend. Almost like you were avoiding me..."

"Alright, yes, I'll tell you. But first I want to know how you know Mr. White. He, um, your name came up when we were talking, and he sort of had a weird reaction? He suddenly became a lot less, uh, confrontational."

Dr. Bishop chuckled, then began to laugh outright. She continued laughing for quite some time.

Alaina and Will shared a look, but neither was willing to disturb the older woman. They continued eating.

"Ah, Billy White," said Dr. Bishop at last. "It's not much of a story, but it is a fun one. Years ago, hm, maybe three or four years now, Billy's father got transferred to my care. He had an especially advanced case of lung cancer—years of smoking, nothing out of the ordinary. I was a little less well-known than I am now, but people still transferred in because I was still very good at what I did.

"The day he was moved to my hospital, Billy came in with his wife—who I immediately banned from coming back because she sneered at me when she thought I wasn't looking, what a lovely woman—and they did the whole onboarding process where I tell them what to expect, when visiting hours are, that sort of thing.

"Billy came back the next day by himself, though, and he tried to sign me up as his assistant. He said I had the beauty of a girl half my age—of course I did! I can look however I want, and I didn't need him to confirm that I made good choices—and he had some hard tasks that he needed help with. He tried to use his sleazeball Skill on me, and the other one that makes people want to agree with him."

Will's eyes were wide. "I can't believe he did that," he murmured.

"Were you—Did it work?" asked Alaina.

Dr. Bishop snorted. "Of course it didn't. No Skill works on me if I don't want it to."

What.

"But I pretended like it did just long enough to take him behind a curtain where nobody would see. And then, well, let's just say that while I lacked a number of the Skills that I have today, I more than made up for it by having a truly legendary temper and considerably less self-restraint than I've got now. And after that, I made him come in every Thursday to mop all the floors in my wing until his father was released."

Will gawped. "You really did that? To my father?"

She smirked. "I made him wear a janitor's uniform and everything. And he was very eager to help out, y'know. I'd get in at six in the morning, and he'd be there with his mop and bucket ready to go! Even asked—well, begged I guess is the right word—for me to let him keep doing it after his father was released in order to make it up to me, but I was tired of him barking after me like a puppy. And some of the patients complained that he smelled bad."

This feels like a joke. Is she serious?

"I'd apologize for doing that to your father," she continued, "but I'm guessing you two aren't that close."

Will shook his head slowly. "Not, uh... Not exactly."

"Tell you what. As an apology for tonight, if he ever does anything to bother you from now on, you can just tell him Dot's floors need cleaning. He'll know what it means. Deal?"

"Er, really?" asked Will.

"Of course. Can't have my daughter's new suitor living in fear of his father, can I?" She smiled at him as she snagged another forkful directly from the casserole dish, her eyes seeming to pierce directly into his brain.

That's...a little too accurate.

"Mom, stop it!" said Alaina, blushing slightly. "Can you tell us, um, what did you do to him, exactly? He had a really weird look last night..."

"I'm not gonna tell you exactly, you'll never be able to sleep again. Okay, what can I—Ah, I know." Dr. Bishop sighed, then scooped a big portion of food onto her plate. "I guess I'll have to eat a little more. Will, hold out your hand."

Will hesitated, then slowly held his left arm over the table, his hand palm-up. I feel like I'm barely keeping it together with everything that's going on here.

Alaina's mom brought up her right hand, flipping it around to show that she had nothing in it, then hovered it some distance over his palm and squeezed it into a fist. Her tongue came through her lips slightly, and she furrowed her brows.

I have no idea what's about to happen, but somehow I'm not scared. I... I think my brain is just worn out.

After a few moments, she lowered her fist on top of his and opened it, depositing something small and hard into his hand. "Save this for the ring," she said. Her hand retracted, picking up her fork. She began to shovel food into her mouth with gusto.

Will looked at the shiny object in his hand. Is this...

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" screeched Alaina. "Did you just make a fucking diamond with your bare hand?"

"If you want to get technical," said her mom between bites, "I made that stone from my blood and some carbon in the air."

"What the fuck, Mom? How? Ugh, my head is spinning! If you can do this, why the fuck do you even work as a doctor? Why don't you just sell these?"

Dr. Bishop gave her daughter a disappointed look. "Alaina, language. And why would I do that? It wouldn't be very fulfilling personally for me, and so many people would die without my care. Not to mention I'd have to find some way to explain it to anyone who asked where I was getting them, and I'd have to come up with something believable enough that didn't get lots of people with guns trying to kidnap me to make more for them." She took yet another bite. "Plus, it's hungry work. Transmogrification isn't a zero-cost Skill, y'know. And that day with Will's father I was very hungry afterwards."

Will held the completely clear stone up to his eye. "So this is a real diamond?" he asked.

"If by diamond you mean a chunk of carbon with a specific atomic arrangement then it sure is. I compressed it inside my hand with a little ambient carbon. Like giving blood." The woman who could create diamonds with her bare hands looked over at Will. "Don't lose that, it's priceless. And I mean that literally: it's a perfect diamond."

He blinked. Why is she giving this to me? Why do this at all? There must have been an easier way. He placed the stone on the table next to his plate.

Dr. Bishop turned to her daughter. "Now, Lainy, that's enough stalling. I wanna hear all about your Class. I'm sure you've already told Will about it, haven't you?"

Alaina gave him a look. "Well, yeah, some parts of it... It sort of just worked out that way, I guess. My Class... My Class is [Asclepeian]," she said slowly. "It's for, um, helping people."

A flicker of disappointment crossed over her mother's face. "Oh? Tell me about it. What does it do?"

Alaina fidgeted, casting a glance at him.

What am I supposed to do?

"Um, hold on a sec," she said. She stood up and scurried into the kitchen, returning soon after with a small and very sharp-looking knife. She stood next to Will.

I really don't like where this is going.

"Um, Will, do you trust me?" she asked, looking down at him with pleading brown eyes.

"Yes," he replied without hesitation.

"Can you, uh... Can you let me cut your hand a little?"

"Alright," he said. I give up. This night is completely out of my hands. He held out his right hand, palm up, in front of her.

"Alaina, that knife isn't sterilized," said Dr. Bishop.

"I know. I don't, um, I don't think it will matter," said his classmate as she lined up the point of the knife over his thumb.

Will looked away, continuing to hold his hand up with his thumb outstretched.

"This will only hurt for a sec," she said. "I think," she added much more quietly.

He felt a stinging pain in his thumb and looked over despite himself. She'd made a deep cut—deeper than she'd intended based on her expression—and blood was oozing freely from his thumb, dribbling down the sides. He looked away again.

Then he felt a new sensation. Something wrapped around his thumb, and a warmth began to spread around it. He felt a tongue stroking against the cut and looked over.

Alaina had bent over and was sucking on his thumb. After another stroke from her tongue, she moved her head back, releasing the digit.

He stared at his uninjured thumb.

"Remarkable," said Dr Bishop. "Will, may I see that?"

"Sure?" he said, holding his hand over the table, his thumb pointed upwards. The older woman squinted at it.

Will looked at Alaina, who had returned to her seat. She shrugged. I don't recall her mentioning anything like that to me. Is that new?

"Amazing, Lainy," said her mom after spending a few more moments studying his thumb. "How does the Skill work?" She looked at her daughter with gleaming eyes.

"Well, it's not a Skill. It's a Trait, actually," said Alaina.

Dr. Bishop's eyebrows climbed up her forehead. "I don't think I've ever heard of a Trait like this," she said. "Your saliva heals injuries? And sterilizes them, I assume?"

"Yes..." Alaina said haltingly, fidgeting with her hands on the table. "There's some conditions for it to work. I couldn't use it on you, for instance."

Her mom reached over and clasped one of her hands over the top of Alaina's, squeezing. "Still, it's incredible to have something like this so soon after getting your Class. I'm so happy for you! If this is a Trait, what Skills do you have? Show me!"

"Alright," said Alaina, sounding more confident. "Um, I can do this?"

Nothing happened for several seconds.

"You can change the temperature of your hands?" said her mom. "I can do that too!"

The two ladies sat staring at each other for several seconds.

Alaina finally broke out into a smile. "This is so cool, we both have the same Skill!"

"It's incredibly unlikely, is what it is, but I'm happy we can have something else in common," her mother said with a smile. "It's a very useful Skill to have if you want to be a doctor, too."