The next morning Dawn woke to the inviting smell and rattle of a fresh breakfast being rolled up to her bed by Wanda. Surprised at Wanda being the one with the cart instead of one of the kitchen staff, Dawn started to sit up before realizing that she was surprisingly not in her room and that she did not have a shirt or nightgown on and was confused because she could not remember how she had gotten undressed or how she had ended up in the nursing area when she had gotten home the night before.
Noticing her discomfort and startled look at awakening undressed, Wanda calmed her by saying, "Relax. Just us girls in here. And no you didn't undress yourself last night. I had to do it for you and I will explain while you eat."
Confused, Dawn started to try and get out of bed to get dressed but Wanda quickly stopped her and confused her further when she said, "Stop! Stay in bed. I had you placed here for serious medical reasons so until you eat and I can check to make sure that brain has healed up as properly as that body has I'm gonna have to constrict you to bed rest."
"What medical reasons are you referring to?" Dawn asked, "I feel fine. If anything I feel better than fine like I could run a mile in a heartbeat and not even have to catch my breath."
"Either way," Wanda responded, "Let's stay on the safe side for right now. After all, I sure don't want to get my behind chewed by your dad if your behind has a bruise or even a scratch on it. So stay seated and eat. Afterwards we will rectify the situation and make sure you're back in shape and good to go."
Slightly irritated, Dawn used her pusher talent to open the dresser drawers in her bedroom and pick out an outfit. She then used her jumper talent to make the chosen clothes appear on her bed laid out like she was preparing to get dressed after she finished eating.
"OK miss showoff. That was all nice and impressive but let's finish eating before we get out of bed to get dressed." Wanda replied with a smirk.
Dawn smirked back and, piece by piece, teleported the outfit onto her body. With the pants being the final piece, she lifted herself slightly off the bed and the sheet slightly off of her to make sure the pants would not bond with the sheet. Then, after settling back into a seated position, she finished her breakfast with an arched eyebrow directed at Wanda.
Wanda reacted by saying, "Ha. Ha. Ha. Now that you're done eating let's get this checkup out of the way so you can resume your day and go bother someone more deserving of such daring behavior. After all, we both know how much effort and energy it takes for you to levitate so much at once and then teleport the chosen items onto your body."
Dawn objected with, "That's the thing though. I don't feel quite as energetic as I did when I first woke up, but I don't feel in the least bit tired like I would normally feel after doing that little trick. To be honest, when I first woke up I almost felt like you had shot me full of some stimulant or like I had drunk like a gallon of some energy drink."
"You're lucky you feel energetic at all after last night." Wanda responded.
"Yeah. What happened last night? Last thing I remember is leaving Stephan's house to come home." Dawn asked.
Wanda explained by saying, "You came flying back from that boy's house yesterday evening and somehow ended up brushing the electric fence as you flew over it. When the shock hit you it caused you to lose hold of the talent and fall uncontrolled. When you landed you ended up breaking several bones in your leg, your foot, and a couple ribs. Then, with the flying and whatever other talents you used while you were with that boy yesterday having already taxed your energy reserves, and your healing ability trying to fix the damage it caused you to pass out. And to top it all off, when you passed out you ended up laying against the fence and thus receiving a near constant electrical current from the fence. But, luckily, you were still in good enough shape to withstand the damage until one of those breakers tripped right before me and the security guy were able to break the contact and bring you up here and place you in bed so you could recover."
Surprised, Dawn responded, "So I was in constant contact with the fence and still survived with no permanent damage?"
"As far as I could tell when I undressed you last night. Which is why I wanted to do a quick exam this morning before I let you out of bed. Because you not only healed up perfectly even though that leg looked bent in half when I first saw you but you had ended up absorbing so much of that electricity that you were acting like a magnet and practically glowing like a lightning bug when I was testing you last night." Wanda answered.
Concerned now, Dawn conceded to Wanda's demand to get checked out and contacted Jessica telepathically during Wanda's physical exam to inform her that she wouldn't be able to come by that day like she had intended to and explained why. Then, when Wanda finished the physical exam and asked Dawn if she was experiencing any difficulties with her talents, Dawn replied, "No. If anything I'm actually stronger with my talents so far today. Like I mentioned a minute ago, I don't feel as energetic as I did when I first woke up, but I still feel fine and was just able to contact Jessica over at Step's house like she had been sitting in front of me"
"Very interesting." Wanda returned, "So you may be using the enormous energy to boost your talents. And it may have also boosted your healing because it usually takes you a couple minutes to heal broken bones and yours had been set and had all healed perfectly by the time the security guy picked you up because him picking you up didn't seem to cause you any pain."
Dawn then asked, "I wonder if it was the healing ability that was doing it."
"I doubt it." Wanda replied, "We've had others get shocked with an electric current before by trying to use a curling iron while they were taking a shower or other careless silly stuff and they came close to outright dying. The electric fence was giving you a shock at least 10 times stronger than they got. Plus they got momentary shocks while you were getting a near continuous shock. Not to mention the security guy came running because you were absorbing so much of the current that it tripped the breaker for that section of the fence."
"Wow!" Dawn reacted. Then, after considering the possibilities, she proposed, "Could it be because of the mystery gene that me and only a couple others have? Could it be some trait or ability associated with it that was able to absorb the energy?"
"I don't know." Wanda replied. "But it is definitely a possibility. I'd hate for us to be wrong but we could test it to see."
"Well since Jessica also has the gene, we could get her to join in the testing to see. That way we wouldn't have to worry about any other folks trying to test it out and getting hurt. Because with Jessica being new to this I'm pretty sure she would be more cautious and skeptical than the others would be." Dawn suggested.
"That is a good idea." Wanda agreed. "I wonder how we can conduct the testing in a safe way without tripping more breakers and making your dad mad enough for him to demand an explanation though."
Dawn smiled and said, "We don't have to do it here. We could go to Steph's lab area and test it."
Wanda grinned and asked, "But how would you be able to test yourself too? Or are you thinking of you and Jessica taking turns shocking each other or something?"
Dawn smiled and surprised her by saying, "I was going to take you with me."
"And how would your dad agree to that? As soon as he found out his medical director was sitting in a car he would probably lock the gate and chain me to my office." Wanda giggled and replied.
Dawn waved a finger in a scolding way and said with a smile, "He would have to let you go because you're going on business. You'll be going to evaluate the people that might receive the drug for any conditions that might set off a psychotic episode if given the drug."
"I...I...I..." Wanda stuttered. Then she took a breath and said, "I could go for that. That way we can go on official business and conduct the testing on this mystery ability at the same time."
Dawn then contacted Jessica again and informed her of the plan. They decided to set it up for the next day and made sure she was willing to go through the testing. After receiving her agreement and confirmation that Stephan approved of her bringing Wanda with them tomorrow, she ended the exchange. Her and Wanda then spent most of the rest of the day discussing ways to safely test to see if the mystery gene was an actual ability or had been a lucky circumstance.