Moira and GW

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Moira's back from the hospital in time to have an unexpected guest show up to find out what's happened this time. Bridge is in for several nasty surprises--one being when Moira simply can't hold on anymore.



I really should have called ahead, Bridge thought, baffled and somewhat concerned as he reached the door to Moira's office. Lee had been not-forthcoming, as usual, and told him to head downstairs and talk to Moira for the details of where Nathan was. X-Men mission, maybe? But why would Moira know the details of that? He paused in front of the door, raising a hand to knock.

The papers were fairly swimming before Moira's eyes and the knock on the door brought a much needed, if badly timed, break. "Come in," she called, shutting Haroun's files and locking up the computer ones. She'd always been paranoid about patients files, even more so since she had met Nathan.

Bridge opened the door, blinking at the sight of how tired Moira looked. "Okay," he said with a half-hearted smile, closing the door behind him as he came in. "Do I want to know what's going on, or...?"

"Bridge!" Staring at him in surprise, she got up to go around her desk. "Th' usual, unfortunately. An X-Man in critical condition an' Nathan..." Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to be calm. "Tha's a lon' story. So, ye probably dinnae want ta know wha's goin' on but..."

Bridge gave a pained sigh. "What did the ass do now?" he asked, but then shook his head. "Hold on for a minute," he said, and stepped forward to give her a firm, if gentle hug.

If Moira held on a little longer or a little tighter than she normally would have done, he didn't comment on it. "Coffee?" she asked, voice sounding more and more tired by the minute now that she wasn't immersed in work. All she wanted to do was hold her baby and curl up next to Nathan, but that would have to wait. "I'm allowed one cup o' day until I'm done breast feedin' Ray."

"Sure," Bridge said, letting her go finally. "I just flew in straight from Kinshasa... I could use the caffeine." He gave her a critical look. "I'll get the coffee. You sit down." He headed over to the coffeemaker without waiting for her affirmative. "So where's Nate, and what happened?"

Opening her mouth to protest, she thought better of it and settled herself on the couch with a sigh. "Nathan's...in th' 'ospital," came the reply after a second.

"Color me several different shades of completely unsurprised," GW murmured wryly, pouring two cups of coffee. "I'm Stateside, Nate's in the hospital. Isn't this the way more often than not?" He brought the cups over, handing one to her and then sitting down beside her. "I'm guessing by the fact that he's not here and you're looking more tired than scared than he's not in really bad shape but there's some kind of complication."

Moira shot him a wry glance before taking a long sip of her coffee. "I said 'ospital, nay MedLab. He's in a 'ospital in New York an' aye, there are complications." Turning her head, she fixed him with a look. "Nathan asked me ta tell ye but I'm askin' ye ta keep this close ta yer chest. Especially from Domino."

Bridge took a sip of his coffee, a troubled flicker in his eyes. "That's never good, when he's telling me to keep things from Dom. Who or what put him in the hospital?"

Staring down at her coffee, watching it swirl around as she moved it, she swallowed hard. "It was a trap set by Gideon. He ran inta Wisdom an'...well...he was on a ventilator when I got there." Her hand clenched tightly around the mug.

Bridge promptly choked on his next sip of coffee. It took him a moment to recover, and he put the cup down, focusing all of his attention on Moira. Caffeine could wait. "Wait. Gideon... okay, not all that unexpected, but Wisdom? Pete put him in the hospital?" He noticed the tremor and reached out to take her free hand, squeezing it gently. "Hey," he said, more softly but very firmly. "But if he's fretting about Dom not finding out, he's okay, right?" Moira didn't answer for a moment. "He's going to be okay?"

"'e should be." Should, always should. "Wisdom nearly bloody well killed him." Moira clutched as tightly to Bridge's hand as she did to her own mug of coffee. "There were files tha' Nathan needed ta pass on an' he wouldnae give them over an' he 'it Nathan wit' an EMP ta short out 'is powers..."

Bridge shook his head, fighting back a swell of disbelieving anger. "The virus," he said tightly. "EMP, and the virus... it's back under control?" Priorities.

"Aye, between th' normal cocktail o' drugs I give him an' it goin' down naturally, 'tis back under control." She gave him a shaky smile. "I 'ave ta speak wit' th' CDC 'bout it. Once Nathan's out o' th' 'ospital." Moira tried to take another sip of coffee but her hand was shaking too much.

Bridge took the coffee from her and set it down beside his. "You're so like him, you know," he said softly, almost soothingly. "Falling apart is fine, but only well after everything's settled."

"I cannae," Moira started, even as her voice got heavier. Blinking back tears, she shook her head. "Rachel might sense it an' I've got work ta do tha' if I dinnae someone could die an' jus' want ta kill Wisdom for nearly takin' 'im away from us..." Babbling was bad, she thought desperately.

Bridge shifted closer, putting his arms around her. "It's okay," he said softly. "Bet you Charles is keeping an eye out and will shield the munchkin if he has to. And you can take a little time to react - you'll probably be able to work better if you do."

For a fleeting second, she stiffened--to protest, to go back to work, to avoid that rock in her stomach that had been there since Scott first appeared in her doorway, looking worried. But a sob cut through her thoughts and she crumbled, just a little bit, as the tears finally came out.

Pete, you bastard... Moira was crying on him. Moira. Crying. And as feasible as going after Wisdom wasn't, Bridge was still getting the rather vicious desire to do it anyway.

"I can't..." She shook her head as she burrowed into him, sobbing. "I can't take much more o' this, he nearly died this time. An' twas someone he was close ta..."

"I'll talk to him," Bridge said softly, stroking her hair. "Seriously. I will go right over there after this and read him the riot act, if you want." Not that he wasn't planning to do that already - from the sounds of it, there had been a certain amount of stupidity at work here, on Nathan's part. "He knows how to be more careful than this, Moira. I don't know what's with him these days."

"He promised," Moira responded, weakly. "On our first getaway together, he promised me." Well, it had been more of a "I'll stop running off and doing stupid stunts with the Pack" but it still held. "'Tis like he's a bloody magnet for trouble."

Bridge was silent for a moment. "I think this stuff with his father and his uncle's messed him up more than he's letting on. He's trying to channel it in productive directions, I know, but I get the sense that it's knocked him off balance big-time. And when he gets that way," Bridge went on a bit wearily, with the voice of long experience, "it's like he closes off, like there's part of him that still thinks the only one he can rely on is himself."

"Nathan needs ta stop. 'Tis nay jus' him anymore, he has a family an' we're nay goin' anywhere for a verra lon' time." She sighed. "Nay tha' th' Packs nay his family, mind ye. But he needs ta remember tha' Rachel needs him. Tha' I need him. An' while he'll never stop bein' an X-Man--God knows I wouldnae want him ta--he needs ta stop doin' stupid stuff."

"Well, hopefully this put a good scare into him on that score," Bridge said, then gave her a thoughtful look. "He say anything about what he plans to do about all of this?" Because if he hadn't, they needed to worry.

Nodding, she relaxed slightly as she remembered what he had told her. "Nathan's nay goin' after th' intel. He promised me tha'."

Bridge frowned a little. "What kind of intel was this that Nate walked merrily into a set-up?"

"I should probably extract a promise from ye as well tha' yer nay goin' ta go after it."

Not taking his arm away, GW still leaned back a bit, frowning down at her. "That I'm not going to go after it? Moira, what the hell..." His eyes suddenly went wide as the connection fell into place, and this time he did move away, but only to sink his head into his hands. "Oh shit. Gideon... the camps, right?" He raised his head abruptly, real anger flashing across his face. "Pete is involved in this somehow? Jesus Christ, no wonder Nate didn't walk away. That's like waving a red flag in front of a fucking bull."

"George Washington Bridge," Moira said, bringing her head up to stare at him intently, even through the tears. "Ye are nay goin' ta go after tha' information." Shaking her head hard when he opened his mouth, she glowered. "After th' information, after those camps or after Pete. They'll be waitin', they know wha' kind o' friends Nathan has. Promise me."

Bridge gave her a very narrow-eyed look, although part of him saw the way she was looking at him and wanted to make a run for it. "Ngggh," was the first response he managed, through gritted teeth. "... okay, so I see where trying to get at Pete would be a bad idea. But we are not giving up on those camps, Moira. If the Inner Circle wants to come at us, they can go right the fuck ahead. We're staying mobile enough that it'd be hard, and it's not like we're not running a number of risks already."

"Keep wit' yer work because God knows it'll look suspicious if ye stop. On top o' th' fact tha' tis work tha' needs ta be done. But dinnae go snoopin' around tryin' ta find out th' info Wisdom had." Her eyes narrowed to match his. "Or I'll be havin' a lengthy talk with Lien."

Bridge gave her a baleful look. "Going to sic my girlfriend on me? Low, MacTaggart." But there was a very tiny smile tugging at his lips. "She might feel the need to tie me to the bed and make the point repeatedly until I surrender."

"From th' sounds o' it, ye almost want me ta talk ta her," she responded dryly.

"There would be worse fates." The smile got out, despite everything, and he put his arm back around her shoulder. "Hey," he said more softly. "It's going to be okay, you know. If he was going to backslide, there were worse ways it could end up. And he's got a hell of a lot of reason to make this a one-time attack of stupidity."

"I know." Trying to force herself to relax, she rested her head on his shoulder. "I jus' want ta beat his head in but tha's nay goin' ta do any o' us any good." She wasn't quite sure if she was speaking of Nathan or Wisdom.

"He and you are right about one thing," Bridge said, his voice dropping even a little lower. "Never telling Dom. Ever."

"It would kill her."

"She'd go after him, and there wouldn't be a damned thing any of us could do to stop her," was Bridge's bleak prophecy, and he pursed his lips, studying Moira for a moment. "Her powers are changing again, I think. I just about dragged her back with me to talk to you, actually - kind of glad I didn't, now."

"Changin'? How?" This was something she could focus on.

"I know you always said there was a little precognition at work in what she did, but that sixth sense she's got for danger seems to be sharper, to the point where it's noticeable. She and Cole got chased by some DRC soldiers week before last, and according to Chris, the three jeeps respectively had an engine fire, ran off the road and flipped, and fell into a sinkhole." GW paused. "And I watched her sit down with a pair of dice and roll sixes for a solid fifteen minutes in a little bar in Kinshasa the night before I got on the plane. I don't think she even realized she was doing it. She seemed zoned out."

"When did ye start noticin' th' difference?"

"As soon as we headed back to Africa and started getting ourselves into regular trouble again," Bridge said thoughtfully. "Impossible to tell when this started, though, given that she was in the Sudan for a couple of months and I didn't see her. She certainly wasn't showing any signs in Tunis before she left." He tilted his head at her. "Stress? Dom's last breakthrough with her powers was stress-related."

"It might be. Do me a favor an' keep a close eye on 'er when ye get back. If it keeps buildin' up or changin'--or if she keeps zonin' out--let me know an' we'll bundle her back here, protests or nay, for tests."

Bridge gave her a subdued grin. "I always keep a very close eye on Dom, Moira. Part of the job description. And I'll keep you updated as much as I can, if I notice it continuing." He raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of people who don't get to know about Nate and Pete's little tete-a-tete... Amanda? And what story did the school in general get?"

"Amanda's in th' same category as Domino," Moira said, firmly. "As for th' school, they were all told Nathan was in an accident." She looked chagrined for a second. "They're so used ta him bein' injured they took it in stride."

"Accident. Check. Just wanted to make sure I was on the same page." Bridge looked thoughtful, again. "I imagine they have to get used to a lot of their teachers getting hurt, given what so many of the teachers around here do. And who's the X-Man who's in critical condition, by the way?" he asked concernedly.

She could tell him this. "Haroun," Moira responded, suddenly looking much more tired. "He got infected an' then beaten ta a bloody pulp an' now his hardware is all messed up."

"Oh, damn... I'll have to look in on Alison." Bridge rubbed at his jaw. "I'll ask her if she wants me to let his parents know. Since I've been passing Haroun's letters and packages to them all year..."

"Probably will be a good idea. He's stablized right now but beyond tha'..."

"You're amazing, you know that?" Bridge asked after a moment, gazing down at her. "Juggling all this... Nate's a lucky man, even if he is an idiot."

Moira snorted at him.

"You really can't take a compliment, can you?" Bridge chided her jokingly.

"Honestly? Nay really." Giving him a weak grin, she hugged him again. "Thank ye."

"Anytime." He hugged her back firmly. "I mean that. You're the closest thing I'm ever going to have to a sister-in-law, and I love you dearly, even if you're crazy enough to have married Nate."

Laughing, she hit him lightly. "Ach, but ye lived wit' him for years, so who's th' crazy one now?"

"Hey, I never said I wasn't crazy. In fact, we crazy people have to stick together, don't we? It's the only way we survive him."

"We'd 'ave ta be crazy ta survive this," Moira agreed. "'Tis a miracle any o' us can make it out without bein' gibberin' fools."