The XXX-Gene (Marvel)(Mutant OC)

Chapter 77: The Next Morning

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Madelyne is a little bit excited about what might happen today between her and Thaddeus. If only she knew…

-x-X-x-

Madelyne is rational enough to acknowledge that any expectations for the following day are completely on her end. Thaddeus had been quite clear with her when she'd asked if he would see her tomorrow before or after the lecture. His exact words had been 'If it works out, sure. Can't promise anything though.'

It didn't get much blunter and more honest than that, now did it? And yet… and yet, she'd been vibrating with excitement all evening, all night, and all morning. And now here she was in the lecture hall over an hour ahead of schedule, waiting and hoping to see him walk through that door at any moment.

But then… could anyone blame her? Thaddeus was just so damn scrumptious! And the experience they'd had together in the coffee shop bathroom yesterday had been out of this world! Sure, Madelyne would have probably preferred that their first time happened in a bedroom of some sort, but she wasn't complaining.

In fact, she was doing the exact opposite of complaining! Thaddeus had rocked her world in a way she had not expected. He'd utterly ruined her yesterday and left her wanting more like never before. Madelyne couldn't even remember it all that clearly because of how amazing it had been, but she definitely remembered how good he made her feel.

Last night, she'd contacted Dr. Essex to let him know she'd found someone. Now, obviously she hadn't told him the sordid details of what happened… hell, she hadn't even told her doctor Thaddeus' name. That wasn't information he needed to know. But… at the same time, Dr. Essex had been so helpful and wonderful to her. He'd gone above and beyond the normal doctor-patient relationship and in some ways, Madelyne saw him as a surrogate father.

So yes, she'd told him that she'd found someone and that they had reciprocated her feelings and how happy she was. Dr. Essex had been just as happy for her, like she knew he would be. And just like she'd known he would, he'd also encouraged her to go for broke, to grab hold of the relationship with both hands and not let go for anything.

That… Madelyne had promised the good doctor she would do. After all, it wasn't like it was a hardship for her. It was what she wanted to do anyways! Hence being on campus this early in the morning, waiting in the lecture hall to see if Thaddeus might show up before anyone else.

Maybe he wouldn't… and she would just have to be okay with that. Maybe he would make time for her after her lecture… and maybe he wouldn't. Madelyne would accept that too.

She would accept anything if it got her more time with Thaddeus after yesterday. He'd truly ruined her for other men… and ruined other men for her at the same exact time. Nobody could possibly hold a candle to him, as far as Madelyne was concerned. No one could-

Madelyne's eyes widen as the door suddenly pushes open and Thaddeus steps inside. Gasping in delight, she immediately hops out of her seat and begins making her way over.

"Thaddeus!"

Smiling softly at her, Thaddeus nods.

"Professor."

But Madelyne isn't about to let him be distant with her after what happened yesterday! Sure, they're currently in a rather public area… but no one else is around yet this early in the morning! Reaching him, Madelyne grabs Thaddeus by the shirt and pulls herself up onto her tiptoes so she can kiss him directly on the mouth.

To his credit, he doesn't even hesitate to return the kiss, or at least Madelyne can't tell if he does. His tongue meets her tongue and his hands go to her hips for a moment before drifting down to her ass. Madelyne moans into his mouth, her eyes fluttering happily as she shivers in abject delight.

All the while, Thaddeus is staring at her, studying her intently while they makeout… but Madelyne barely notices. She does notice, however, when they finally pull apart for air. Gasping and panting heavily, she sees the way he's looking at her and bites her lower lip, blushing profusely.

"Q-Quickie on my desk?"

Thaddeus smiles at her… and shakes his head.

"Sorry Professor, but we don't have time."

Madelyne blinks as he carefully sets her down a foot away from him and… fixes up her slightly disheveled appearance with just a few deft motions. It all happens so fast she doesn't even have a chance to react before she hears them… the sounds of laughter and voices coming towards the door to the lecture hall.

A heartbeat later and some more coeds enter the room, leaving Madelyne more than a little upset. There's still… a quick check at the time leaves her pouting. Fifteen whole minutes left until lecture! Ugh, where had the time gone? She'd been so lost in her thoughts about Thaddeus that she hadn't even kept track!

Thaddeus just gives her a wink from out of view of the others.

"If it's alright with you Professor, I'd like to continue our discussion after the lecture."

Perking up at that, reading the underlying meaning to his words, Madelyne is quick to nod.

"Y-Yes! Of course, Mister Cummings. I'll see you afterwards."

Then, with all the dignity she can muster, Madelyne makes her way back to her desk at the front of the room, even as the lecture hall fills with more and more coeds. If only he'd gotten there a little earlier… but no. She refused to think like that. Thaddeus had TOLD her he couldn't promise anything yesterday. And he'd still shown up early enough for a kiss!

Oh and what a kiss it had been. When she's sure nobody is looking, Madelyne brings her fingers up to her lips for a moment, the latter of which are still tingling. She wishes… she wishes she could still be kissing Thaddeus even now. Or doing more than kissing, of course. But alas, duty calls.

As fifteen minutes pass by, Madelyne rises from her seat and begins the lecture. She's more than a little distracted, but thankfully the relationship between a Professor and her students means that nobody calls her out on it.

All the same, she can't help glancing Thaddeus' way a few times throughout the lecture. She finds him in one of two modes as time goes on. Either he's staring at her intensely, which forces her to fight back a blush… or he's sketching something on a piece of paper in front of him.

He's definitely not writing notes from the way his pen is moving, so what exactly is he up to? Madelyne almost wants to call him out, but not only does she not want to embarrass him in front of everyone in the lecture hall, but he also spends just as much time staring at her as he does sketching so… really, there's no reason to.

Her curiosity is undeniably piqued however, and by the time the lecture comes to a close, Madelyne is well aware that she's more eager for it to end than the coeds filling the lecture hall. As everyone begins to file out of the room, Madelyne tries not to come across as desperate… but she can't quite keep herself from perking up when Thaddeus finally starts making his way down to her desk.

He has that paper he was drawing on in hand too, causing her to furrow her brow as she watches him put it down in front of her.

"Professor… what can you tell me about this?"

Madelyne blinks and looks down at what he's drawn, only to do a double take at the sight of a familiar but also unfamiliar double helix. DNA… Thaddeus has spent her entire class sketching an extremely intricate, incredibly detailed set of DNA.

She almost says as much but stops herself before blurting out something so stupid. Of course Thaddeus knows he's drawn DNA. He's here talking to her, his Biology Professor after all! The question is WHY he's drawn DNA.

"I don't… quite understand what you're asking me, Thaddeus?"

Coming around to the other side of her desk, Thaddeus leans over her so they're both looking at the drawing from the same angle. Madelyne tries not to blush at his proximity, though fortunately everyone else has left by this point, leaving just her and Thaddeus in the otherwise empty lecture hall. Unfortunately, she does have another lecture within the hour, so their time here isn't… unlimited even if she might want it to be.

"Look at it more closely, please. Doesn't… doesn't something about all of this seem off to you? I just can't put my finger on it, but there's something weird here."

His frustration is palpable and Madelyne finds herself focusing far harder on the drawing then before now that she understands what he wants to know. Her eyes narrow as she studies the double helix more intently for several long moments before her eyes widen.

"Ah! Well, t-there is one thing… this right here… these markers represent a dormant X-Gene. This DNA comes from that of a potential mutant!"

Madelyne beams, mentally patting herself on the back that she got it, even as she gives Thaddeus a grin.

"Is that what you were looking for, Thaddeus? Heh, was this some sort of test maybe?"

… But Thaddeus doesn't grin back at her. He just shakes his head, no less serious than before.

"No, that's not it. I'm sorry Professor, but please look again. I wouldn't be asking if this wasn't important. What about these parts here. They don't seem quite right to me. What do they mean?"

The drawing really is detailed, to be fair. Incredibly so, to the point where Madelyne is increasingly amazed that Thaddeus could just… sketch something like this in a single lecture period the longer she looks at it. But when he points out those specific parts it finally dawns on her what he's talking about. And unlike Thaddeus, who can tell something is off but can't tell what, Madelyne immediately figures out what the problem is.

"Oh! Now I see what you mean. This DNA is cloned!"

Silence falls for a moment as Thaddeus stares at her wordlessly. Finally though, he manages to respond in a quiet tone.

"… Cloned?"

Humming, Madelyne nods as she points to each of the intricate drawing's parts that reveal the truth.

"Yes, it's rather obvious once you're looking for it. Cloned DNA often times goes through a process called DNA Methylation, in which methyl groups are added to the DNA to amplify certain aspects and deactivate other genetic markers. This DNA you've drawn has several methyl groups added to it, which you wouldn't find in a naturally occurring sample."

Only… by this point Madelyne has gone past the point of assuming that Thaddeus drew this for fun or to challenge her knowledge. She'd left that idea behind when he hadn't cared that she'd found the dormant X-Gene hiding among the double helix's nodules.

"Thaddeus… why did you draw this? No, rather… how were you able to draw this without even knowing what every part of it meant? That would mean you drew it from memory and… I don't see where you would have seen something like this."

Letting out a shuddering breath, Thaddeus suddenly drops into a crouch next to her desk. His height makes it so that this means he's closer to eye level with her than not, albeit still looking up at her from a foot or so down as he turns her chair so she's facing him.

"I'm glad you're already sitting down for this, Madelyne. I have… something to confess to you. I haven't been entirely honest about myself, for starters. The truth is, I'm a mutant."

Madelyne's eyes widen in surprise at that reveal. A mutant! On the one hand, it explained a little bit… and she certainly didn't mind mutants at all, barring her weird experience with Professor Munroe. But Thaddeus admitting he was one… well, she hadn't seen it coming.

"I have some pretty outlandish abilities and one of those abilities is that I can perceive someone's DNA if I look closely enough at them."

Now, Madelyne isn't an idiot. Sure, maybe she's a little socially stunted from the amnesia, and still has a lot to learn about a lot of things… but she's not and never has been stupid. Putting it all together at this point is easy… distressingly so. Because frankly, as she begins to put the pieces together into the full picture, she almost wishes she were too stupid to do so.

"… No…"

Thaddeus grimaces, even as Madelyne looks back at the drawing.

"That… that can't be my DNA."

She wasn't a mutant after all, dormant or otherwise. Dr. Essex would have told her. And she certainly wasn't a CLONE, thank you very much! She'd had an entire life from birth to now… even if maybe she couldn't remember most of it.

Except looking back at Thaddeus, she sees it all over his face. He's apologetic… but also certain. And given the way he'd been intensely staring at her while sketching this drawing in the first place, it made a sickening amount of sense. Who else's DNA could he have possibly drawn besides hers?

"There must be… t-there must be some mistake. Look again! M-Maybe you just… misinterpreted things. I can't be… I'm not a…"

Madelyne trails off, unwilling to say it out loud. Saying it would make it too real. She wasn't a clone though!

She wasn't… was she?

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Madelyne refuses to believe she's a clone - 1%
[ ] Madelyne wants more information before she comes to a conclusion - 26%
[X] Madelyne sure is stressed right now, pretty good circumstances for a dormant X-Gene to activate... - 72%