xp_logs | Nathan and Tommy, Tuesday afternoon

Nathan, on his way down to the infirmary for another MRI, runs into Tommy, on his way back from the gym and being very stubborn about doing that himself. Nathan keeps him company on his way back to his room, and the two of them have a rather odd conversation, as you'd probably expect given the circumstances of how they first met.

He was going to get tired of these constant MRIs before too long, Nathan thought darkly as he headed towards the infirmary. He supposed it could be worse. But they were very, very tedious, and he kept getting perverse ideas as to how he could occupy his time while he was lying there. Surely that wasn't psychologically healthy.

With one hand braced on the wall as he walked, Tommy was slowly moving down the hallway back to his room in the medlab, having just finished another physio session in the gym. What he wasn't prepared for was the large man who came striding down the stairs just as he was trying to pass them, which caused him to brace both hands on the wall to prevent himself from falling over. Damn, did he hate being this weak.

Nathan stopped, catching the flash of aggravated thoughts, despite his distraction, and looked in that direction. His eyebrows headed for his hairline as he identified the unsteady-looking youngster. "Good afternoon, Mr. Jones," he said wryly.

Tommy looked up with a glare. Oh, he remembered that voice. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and pushed off the wall, not even allowing one hand to brace himself. If he was going to face this man, he wasn't going to allow himself to appear weak at all. "Good afternoon." His tone was polite but cold.

"Heading back to the medlab, I'm assuming?" Nathan stepped away from the stairs to give Tommy room to continue on a straight line. "I'll keep you company. My wife would never let me hear the end of it if I left one of her patients lying on the floor."

He tried very hard, he really did, but he couldn't completely bite back a groan. Tommy wasn't sure he could make it all the way back to the medlab without bracing himself against the wall and also wasn't about to show weakness in front of this man. He clearly had a dilemma. "Please, don't let me keep you. I'm sure your wife would rather you not be late."

"Moira's used to it," Nathan said coolly, "and besides, from what I can tell from here, she's currently deep in another experiment in her lab. If I don't show up precisely on time she won't notice."

"Tell from here...?" Then Tommy's mind clicked with what happened at the fair. Telepath. Damnit. Finally he just gave in and rolled his eyes, remarking sarcastically, "Fine, whatever."

"Yes, telepath," Nathan said somewhat irrepressibly, keeping pace with Tommy but not reaching out to touch him, even when the boy swayed a little. "And did you ever water that fern your mother gave you?"

Tommy visibly winced at the mention of his mother. He remembered clearly seeing her face in the crowd of people intent on beating him to death amid the cloud of constant pain. He had to stop and gave in to brace against the wall, to stop himself from falling...or hyperventilating. He was going to stay controlled, he was not going to show weakness. Not now...not ever.

Nathan eyed Tommy, his expression not quite softening, but somehow less hard than it had been. He'd be damned if there wasn't a part of him that empathized. After all, hadn't his own family held to their ideals over him? "Do you need a hand?" he asked, his voice calm, his tone undemanding.

"No." His voice was cold, but not in response to Nate's question per se. It was more a defense mechanism on Tommy's part. He would not be weak. Taking another deep breath, he pushed off the wall and began walking again, this time not caring if he leaned a hand on the wall.

"Physio's hard, I know," Nathan said, following as Tommy started towards the medlab at a slower clip. "I broke my back earlier this year."

"Good for you." He really wasn't in the mood to try and be polite anymore. He just wanted to get back to his room and pretend his world wasn't still crashing down around him.

"Now, there's a very odd thing to say," Nathan said, almost in a drawl. "But as to the main point... it will stop hurting as much, eventually. When you can push and still walk back to your bed afterwards, you know you've turned a corner."

"Wonderful. Just what I want to hear." Tommy's voice was strained as he bit back a ruder retort. Thankfully, his door was in sight.

"You do realize I heard that?" Nathan said, raising an eyebrow.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Yes I do. You're the telepath, can't you see I'm trying very hard to be polite? Isn't that what you want?" He didn't look at the other man as he spoke, just concentrating on one step at a time.

"Pretend politeness while you silently continue to think that we're all freaks? No, I think we could all probably do without that."

Tommy stopped in the hall and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "What the hell do you all want from me?! I'm trying here! Or would you like to just go in and change everything for me? Would you prefer that? Because fine, go ahead...but you would prove everything I have ever learned right." Then he opened his eyes and looked squarly at Nathan, drawing himself up as much as his body would allow. "I'm not afraid of you."

"No," Nathan said, "you're afraid of yourself. Which is the thing that's going to be hardest to get over." Ignoring Tommy's defiant look, he took the boy's arm and nudged him gently in the direction of the infirmary. "You can't help but start to see the people around you as human, because they're treating you like you're a human being. Unlike the people you considered friends, up until the point they left you half-dead on our doorstep." Nathan smiled very slightly, not looking down at Tommy. "In essence, your old self is losing the war already, whether you like to admit that or not."

"Just get away from me." He pushed weakly against Nathan's grip on his arm. "I don't need helped from the likes of you."

"Stop thrashing around before you fall over," Nathan advised, but did let go, judging that Tommy wasn't likely to fall. "And stop posturing. We've established that you're not afraid of me. You can save your energy."

"If you're done trying to patronize me, I'm sure your wife is waiting." If asked later Tommy would not admit to giving a sigh of relief on reaching his door.

"Trust me, if I was trying to patronize you, you'd be a whole lot more offended than you are right now. I'm rather good at it." There was no lock on Tommy's door, Nathan noticed as he stood in the doorway to make sure that the kid got back into bed okay. "About the incident at the Fair," he said as Tommy sat down. "I do realize you didn't do anything to Terry."

As he pushed himself up on the bed, he looked through his bangs at Nathan, still standing in the door. "Whatever." He didn't totally believe the man but then again, he also didn't want to explain why Terry was different.

"Telepath, remember? I saw that you were trying to stop your... friend," Nathan said, with a grimace of remembered distaste and a certain flicker of pity for the other boy. However repugnant a personality he'd been, he didn't deserve what Malice had done to him. "You should give some thought as to why you did that," he advised, turning back towards the hallway, "given the fact that you didn't show any hesitation when it came to nearly killing another young mutant your age. Almost contradictory, I'd say."

Tommy visibly flinched and finally gave up all pretense of being polite. "Get out. Get out now. I have nothing more to say to you." He moved to pick up his current book, firmly centering his gaze on the page and ignoring the mutant in the doorway.

"The contradiction's worth pursuing," Nathan advised quietly, a continuing lack of edge in his voice. "You might just start seeing things clearly that way." He offered a faint smile back over his shoulder as he stepped out into the hall. "Good luck with the rest of the physio."

Tommy ignored him, just paying attention to the book in front of him.

Nathan shrugged to himself, just a little, and then closed the door quietly behind him. Nathan shrugged to himself, just a little, and then closed the door quietly behind him.