I9DT: Ding Ding

[Will Stanton]

"Why don't you keep your nose out of my business?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Because you're one of us, and we do not need this right now!" she growled. "We just lost a lot of great people and I'll be damned if I lose another one to a pit of self-despair and loathing. You could've just gotten yourself killed, and then we'd all be worse off, especially your wife and daughter!"

[Will Stanton]

Will growled, and half cocked his arm back before stopping himself.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph bared her fangs and let out a warning growl--a decidedly more animalistic one, "Go ahead. Hit me for telling you what you know is true deep down."

[Will Stanton]

"I don't hit teammates," Will said, letting out a deep breath.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Well at least you haven't lost all sense..." she said, visibly relaxing, her fangs retreating and her eyes returning to normal.

"You need to rest, and then you need to talk about this with your wife, or with someone at least," she said quietly. "That's really all there is to it. We cannot afford to be without another good mutant, and I don't want to see someone whose company I enjoy so much go down such a dark path."

[Will Stanton]

"You really have no idea what you're talking about."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I don't know what I'm talking about? You're the one with a wife and kid who depend on you and want you around for a long time that's busy trying to get himself killed in the Danger Room." Steph snapped.

[Will Stanton]

"I was doing just fine until you butt in!"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"You were doing just fine but the safeties were off. One bad decision or mistake away from being NOT fine. And if you really were doing just fine, me jumping in wouldn't have mattered,"

[Will Stanton]

"One bad decision or mistake ALWAYS leads to not fine!" Will argued. "That's what those words mean."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Will, when you screw up in training like a normal person, you realize the mistake, adjust, and learn from it. You do it with the safeties off, and you've got much bigger problems. If you really, REALLY wanted to run a program with no safeties, why on earth were you doing it ALONE?"

[Will Stanton]

"Because no one else gets HURT if I do it alone."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I'm pretty sure your wife and daughter would be pretty hurt if you did it alone," she said quietly.

[Will Stanton]

"You DON'T understand," Will sighed, whirling around to head out.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Walk out that door like this and you just prove how irrational you're being. You worry about not being a good enough leader? You're just proving yourself right, risking yourself needlessly and then trying to justify it to the person who calls you on it. It's a waste, Will, and I thought you were better than this." Stephanie called after him as he walked out, not bothering to chase him.

Now she was just left wondering whom she needed to talk to first about what she''d seen.