2007-07-22: For Her Own Good

Starring:

DrAldric_icon.gif Mohinder_icon.gif

Summary: Daddy Anger, Engaged

Date It Happened: July 22nd, 2007

Log Title For Her Own Good


Primatech - Hartsdale Facility

It didn't take Mohinder long to return to work after the snafu over the weekend. He's mostly forgotten about the indignation that was Doug interrogating him. Dammit, he's a scientist, not a field agent! Which was precisely the point, regardless of wanting to fix a situation when it landed on him. So what does he do when mentally bothered? Get to work. He's meticulously going over tissue samples in a microscope, fine tuning it as needed.

Creeeeeak. The door to the lab Dr. Suresh currently occupies opens a sliver, just enough for one person to peek in without sticking their head through the crack. The glasses that touch the doorframe belong to Dr. Aldric, who looks in on the scientist dutifully at work. He watches for a moment, not particularly covert, and eventually clears his throat. "Dr. Suresh." He guides the door open. Like most of his profession and related professions (read: Mohinder) in the facility, he has his white labcoat on.

And cut the discomfort in the air. At the creak of the door, Mohinder looks up from where he's studying tissue samples from Megan. Oddly formal, the geneticist nods to the doctor. "Dr. Aldric." This is going to get more uncomfortable iasn't it? About to discuss the samples he's going over, Suresh thinks better of it. The name Deatley will definitely bring about a conversation he's not wanting.

Dr. Aldric shuffles in approximately one and a half steps, only just barely enough to be considered inside the room at all. The man's mouth is set in a straight, firm line, made bolder by the similarly straight, firm line of his slightly greying moustache. He doesn't say a word. He calmly pushes the door shut behind him with a muffled click.

Mohinder was about to return to the work at hand, before catching The Look. He's seen that look on a father's face before, it's never pleasant. In fact, it sets him to squirming. On the inside. Clearing his throat, Suresh remains standing in place. "It was for her own safety and welfare." Best to get to the point, isn't it?

"I'm aware of that." Dr. Aldric's voice is lower than usual, gruffer. He takes one step forward into the lab, takes off his spectacles, and polishes the rectangular lenses with the fabric of his coat methodically. "Has anyone found the leak. The source. The reason you had to go violating my daughter's brain."

"Dr. Aldric.. you know the rules.. If I had of said damn the rules, she and her boyfriend would not have rested until they found his sister. Then what? What would have happened to her then?" Mohinder sees this, then again, Cass isn't his daughter.. but when that thought occurs to him, Molly comes to mind. "I am sorry that it had to happen that way.. and no. The leak has not been found just yet."

"I'm aware of that," the man says once more, the exact same words… just a little tighter. His mouth flickers downward in a heavily outlined frown. He moves on from polishing one lens to the other, holds up his glasses at arm's length, examines them, and goes back to polishing them. "You happened to be a gamepiece on an unfortunate part of the board. My daughter's life isn't a game. But what can you do." Dr. Aldric frowns deeply again and adjusts his glasses once more on the bridge of his nose. "What are they doing with Ms. Deatley?"

Mohinder remains uncomfortable as he speaks with Dr. Aldric. He can't blame the man for being an upset father. "She's still in holding. We should begin practical evaluation of her abilities immediately. Miss Deatley is still in denial about what is happening to her," and he sympathizes utterly. The operation and secrecy of the Company is a delicate thing these days. The woman can't be released too soon, and her ability obviously must be wanted by the higher ups. Otherwise she should have been gone in two days' time.

"Mmh." Dr. Aldric is excellent at expressing himself today, see? "Do you think it's likely," he begins, advancing one neat step closer to the surface Mohinder was working on, "that her immediate family are also specials?"

Mohinder settles onto the stool at his workstation. "I suspect that Lachlan Deatley has an ability. There was no mistaking the look of panic the closer he got to myself and the Haitian." He gestures briefly towards the casefile on Megan, "My father and I have tried finding shared genetic factors for abilities in families. This is the case in some families, but is also as elusive as trying to discern why one child in a generation is born with red hair."

"I see." Dr. Aldric nods, both in confirmation of his suspicions and in understanding of genetics. He finally reaches the workspace to thumb through the file Mohinder has on Megan Deatley. He frowns rather deeply yet again at what it is he skims. "I just…" His gruff exterior this evening falters, if only slightly. "Cassandra is involved with this Lachlan Deatley, I don't want to see her hurt, you understand. With the incident in Battery Park, and him being a wildcard… just what is she involved in."

Mohinder reaches for his glass mug, cleverly disguised as a beaker, and drinks from it as he regards Aldric levelly. "I understand completely. I did not wish to see either of them harmed as well. It is difficult to say exactly what she is involved in. The surveillance from her bookstore is being analyzed. Suffice to say, she knows enough with her friends to possibly cause problems for the Company." The other night, case in point.

Dr. Aldric, by this point, has lifted the casefile on Megan; in troubled thought, he taps its corner against the side of his face idly. One, two, three. One, two, three. "You remember that she's very stubborn. Admirably… stubborn… you could say. I would get her out of all of this, if I could. She wouldn't listen, and she'd put herself in more trouble than she could already be in." The file folder lowers and the doctor shakes his head slowly, regretfully. "And Dr. Suresh, I'm afraid neither of us are in the position to decide what to do."

Mohinder is just as troubled as Aldric, just hiding it a little better. "I do remember that. Perhaps you could appeal to Bob on the matter.. None of the options available are pleasant." His mouth sets in a grim line as he thinks about that. "No. We aren't. We can only do what is within our power. I take it that if you asked her to drop what she's doing and to run, she wouldn't listen." He looks down at the tea in his mug, contemplating, as if the answers were there.

If only the answers were in Mohinder's 350mL laboratory mug. Dr. Aldric stares at it distantly, himself. "Hm." Appeal to Bob. He tries not to think about how that would go, but finds it's all he can think about. Whatever other thoughts the man has turning over in his head are quite masked. "No. You see, she's an optimist." He glances down at the folder in his hands. "Would you mind if I made a copy?"

Mohinder shakes his head, "Help yourself to the file. I gathered that about her. Stubborn, an optimist, good hearted." He drums his fingers against the mug before setting it down. "There is no pleasant way for this to be handled. Unless she can be reasoned with to keep her silence." Now who's being the optimist?

"Now who's being the optimist?" Dr. Aldric just so happens to say. "Mm, but by even trying, I compromise the Company's sanctity. Its, uh. Its trust. You see… where I have a problem." As for the file, he tucks it under his arm.

Mohinder offers a tight lipped smile in return, "Guilty as charged." What a delicate situation this has brought about. "Again, I am very sorry Dr. Aldric. I genuinely like Cass. It pained me that things took such a turn." He doesn't envy the doctor's position.

Dr. Aldric nods once and turns to head toward the door. After he grabs the doorknob, he halts and lets go of it, instead turning to point at Dr. Suresh. It's a casual motion, thoughtful, tapping midair as he adopts a thoughtful expression directed at the floor. "Did it, ah…" He clears his throat and looks up at Mohinder. "Did it pain you to get uh, stabbed in the face with curare, too?"

Mohinder blanches at the question. Very funny Aldric, very funny indeed.. The only response Suresh can give is to uncomfortably turn his back to Aldric and resume working with the microscope, "It wasn't in the face."

"Oh, well. Office… office gossip. You know… how it is. I thought it was the face." This time, Dr. Aldric actually opens the door, but he still he still lingers for just a moment more. "The curare, uh… sorry about that," he mumbles. He gave it to his daughter, once upon a time, and while he didn't intend for it to be used in quite this situation, he is somewhat indirectly responsible. Somehow, however, the doctor's apology doesn't sound particularly apologetic. He's quietly smug. He walks out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Mohinder's lips twitch into a slight grin at the mumbling. Ah. That explains a bit there. "Do not worry about it Dr. Aldric," Suresh says as the other doctor leaves. The curare was another indignity on the list of things he's faced.

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