xp_logs | The Long Log O'Doom

It looked like Paige was going to have to wear long sleeves tomorrow. And possibly gloves if she kept on attacking the punching bag like she was.

Paige was never very good at subtle, especially when she was angry, and it's not like the punching bag complained, even if her muscles would tomorrow. She hadn't been down here for serious training in too long, not since the accident.

Angelo wandered down to the gym, without any real goal in mind, just looking to work off some steam. Recent events had been wearing him down, and he wanted to do something mindless for a while, so he wouldn't have to think about it.

Figuring she was alone Paige let out a particularly vicious scream at the bag as she spun around to kick it. The scream was satisfying, but the falling down on her rear end not so much. She sat there, panting and glaring at the thing, deciding her next move.

Angelo ducked instinctively on hearing the scream, then straightened up in embarrassment when he realized who it was. "Hey, Paige", he called, trying for a light tone. "You OK over there?"

Swiveling, Paige found a mightily confused Angelo staring at her. She pushed back the hair that was falling from her ponytail and imagined how she must look about now. Her reply was with a laughing tone: "Hi, Angelo. Yes, I'm just fine, thanks."

Angelo crossed to the punching bag quickly, and reached down to help her up, grabbing a hand and quickly pulling her to her feet, before letting go equally quickly.

"I don't... I don't bite, Angelo." She pulled her hair out of its hold, combing it back and tightening the elastic around it again. Paige didn't like wisps. "Thank you."

Angelo sighed. "I know... but..." He grabbed her hand again, almost defiantly. "Is that better?"

She picked up her water bottle with her free hand, drawing long from it. "Better than cowering whenever I come into the same room as you? Yes, a bit."

Angelo rocked back on his heels, still clutching her hand. "I hadn't thought you'd noticed. Thought I was doing such a good job hiding it..."

"What? Ducking out of the room, yanking back every time our hands brush at the dinner table, this is hiding? Come now, Angelo. I may not be observant but it doesn't take my super genius to realize something is up."

"Was I that bad?" he asked ruefully, before pausing and asking, reluctantly but knowing it had to be said: "And does your super genius know *what's* up?"

"I assume I've done something wrong. I just can't think of what. Believe me, I've thought about it, I just... I'm not sure." She shrugged helplessly, unwilling to let go of his hand now that she had it.

Angelo looked at her with something like despair, but knew he had to carry this through to the end. "You've... you haven't done anything *wrong*. But..." He trailed off for a moment. "But if you can't figure out where this came from, then you might have to give up your Super Genius title", he joked weakly.

Her features went from lifting to falling and back again so many times they melded into one. "Oh, Angelo... You..." She trailed off, squeezing his hand tightly.

He squeezed her hand back and looked at her sadly. "Yeah", was all he needed to say, knowing she understood now.

It wasn't rational, but she pulled him to her, taking his other hand in hers. "But... why? You shouldn't and I'm not... I'm just..."

He looked down at her, almost angry now, although he could never be really angry with her. "I *shouldn't*? Paige, you of all people should know it doesn't work like that. I *do*."

She couldn't help but laugh, her breath surprisingly cool on his face. "You're right. I'm sorry. And I... I... understand."

He couldn't keep himself from twining his fingers through hers, on both hands. "You... understand." He almost didn't want to ask the next question, but he had to know. "So what happens now?"

"I'm not really thinking that far ahead right now. Actually, if we're being honest, I'm not thinking too clearly in general right now." Her thumbs ran over his knuckles, gentle and almost nervous.

He took a step towards her unthinkingly, holding her hands tight. "That makes two of us", he said softly, one hand moving up to the side of her face, taking hers with it.

"Angelo..." she said quietly, tilting her head to rest against his touch.

Angelo took another step closer, and leaned in slowly, giving her time to move away if she wanted to.

She held her place, moving neither away nor forward, and slowly let her lashes fall to rest on flushed cheeks.

Angelo sighed inwardly with relief, and took one final step forward, closing the remaining distance between them. Tilting her face up towards him, he leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

Paige's mouth was soft against his, her response tentative, careful, but certainly there. Her head tilted, narrowly missing his nose as she stepped in close.

He let go of her hands, dropping the one of his that was on her face, to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer.

In their preoccupation with each other, Angelo and Paige had missed the third person to arrive to the gym, looking for something, but definitely not what he found. The sound of Jono's voice inside their heads was like a whip crack, sharp and thin. "Heartwarming."

Angelo pulled away from Paige hastily, having been so lost in finally getting what he'd wanted for weeks that he hadn't heard the door open. "Jono..." he started, then trailed off. What was there to say?

"Miss me much?" The words were directed at Paige, devoid of emotion, while Jono stalked over to them, even more forbidding in his all black than usual. Then he nodded to Angelo, almost as if dismissing him.

Angelo was torn between getting out of the room, and not wanting to leave Paige alone with a clearly angry Jono.

There was not much more to say than, "Christ," and coming from Paige, that said quite a lot. "Jonothan, it's not-"

"It's not what it looks like?" Jono raised his eyebrows mockingly. "It never is." Then he turned to Angelo, seeming surprised he hadn't left yet. There was a brief moment when it looked like Jono would ignore him again, but instead he drew his hand back and hit Angelo.

Angelo staggered, having not seen the blow coming at all and thus not had a chance to brace himself.

Suddenly, in his mind he was no longer in the gym, having been thrown into a flashback to that LA street, fighting for his life against near-hopeless odds. Or was it the mall, where he'd had to fight to protect both himself and Doug? He lashed out against the source of the blow, seeing not Jono but a figure that blurred and changed, now one of his old friends from the gang, now one of Doug's tormentors from the mall.

Somehow continuing the fight with Angelo wasn't even a difficult choice to make. Jono dodged the first wild fist flying his way, but managed to get in the way of the second. He still expected things to hurt, and when they didn't he was always confused for a moment. For a second he was reminded of the chaotic scene at River Rock, how the bones had shot out of Sarah, one embedding itself into his thigh. He hadn't noticed it until they'd been running for cover and it had snagged against the undergrowth of the forest.

It was at this point that Paige quit her surprised damsel in distress pose and stepped between the two of them, pushing them apart. "Jono! Angelo! Stop it!" Her look was fierce, a hand on both their chests, and it was suddenly very apparent why her father used to call her 'spit kitten'. "You will stop it right now."

Angelo, lost in his flashback, was only aware of a hand pushing at him, and his instincts screamed "threat!" Acting without thinking, he hit out to knock the person away, catching Paige across the side of the face. Then he backed away from both her and Jono, looking hunted.

Jono shifted instinctively in front of Paige, eyes narrowed and trying to push down the urge to explode. For all his dislike towards Angelo right now Jono had to admit he'd never thought he would attack Paige. "What the fuck," he demanded.

Holding her cheek, Paige looked more confused than in pain, although the start of bruise at the side of her face said other things. "Angelo, what's wrong? Angel?"

Angelo, now standing with his back against the gym wall, fists clenched ready to defend himself, didn't even hear her, much less respond. He looked rapidly from side to side, alert for the next "threat".

"Are you all right?" Jono asked Paige, without taking his eyes off of Angelo. The tone of his voice was still rather cool, but his protective stance spoke volumes. And the fact he bothered to ask.

"I'm fine," she replied a little shakily, knowing a glance wouldn't be seen and instead letting her hand rest on his shoulder just a moment before moving back to her side. "But... I really don't think he is."

This time Jono said nothing, but warily advanced on Angelo, sizing him up.

Angelo was aware of Jono's approach, but did nothing about it for the moment, holding off until his "opponent" made his move.

It wasn't exactly what Jono knew he was supposed to be doing, which was informing the nearest staff member of Angelo's strange behaviour, but he could perfectly well justify another punch. It was intended only as a feint while he tried to sweep Angelo's feet from beneath him.

Unfortunately, Angelo was better versed in street fighting than Jono, and saw the feint coming. He neatly sidestepped the move intended to knock him off his feet, and aimed a punch at Jono's stomach.

Jono waited a second for something, then realized he had no breath to be knocked out, and grabbed Angelo's hand. "Bloody hell, Espinosa," he growled. Or as much as he could growl.

Angelo struggled, trying to wrench his hand away, without success.

"No! Jono, please, stop! Something's seriously wrong. Stop!" She put her arms around his waist from behind, pulling solidly in case he didn't heed her pleas.

For a second Jono wanted to shrug Paige off, but he knew everything wasn't all right, so he let go of Angelo, stepping back and pushing Paige farther away as well. "Got better ideas, sunshine?" The last word came out a little twisted, as if he didn't believe in it anymore.

Paige fell back with a tumble, barely managing to stay on her feet. "No, Jonothan but if I did they wouldn't involve punching people! Jesus Christ, heart." She righted herself, glaring and trying not to hold her cheek.

Angelo, not knowing why and not particularly caring, realized that he was free, pushed himself away from the wall and ran. The part of his mind that was still rooted in reality took him to the door. He wrenched at the handle until it opened, then dashed through, only dimly aware of his surroundings... crashing straight into a rather surprised Jamie, who was standing outside.

The padded ends of Jamie's practice stick thudded softly on the floor as he staggered back under the impact and caught himself under the arms with the dupe; once he'd regained his balance he blinked quizzically at Angelo. "You OK, man?"

When the only answer he received was a punch to the gut nearly hard enough to knock the wind out of him even with some of the force bled away to trigger another dupe, Jamie took a closer look, and winced. He knew that expression, the fast, shallow breathing, the vacant stare; he'd just never seen it from the outside before. One of the dupes took off in the direction of Moira's office at a flat-out sprint, drawing Angelo's attention long enough for the other one to get behind him and apply an immobilizing hold he'd learned from one of their self-defense instructors. He had just enough time to mentally compare the Mansion self-defense position to the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts chair before Angelo went berserk, thrashing and kicking.

The figurative dust settled quickly, leaving Angelo firmly pinned between four Jamies; the original scratched his jaw thoughtfully before leaning in close, right in Angelo's face, and dialing for his best approximation of Professor Xavier's Therapy Voice.

"Angelo, I need you to look at me, okay? See who I am. I don't know where you think you are right now, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't there—heck, you and I both know I wouldn't last ten seconds on the street in LA. So I want you to concentrate on me, and try to remember where you really are, all right? Upstate New York, in December—still kinda chilly even in here, isn't it? You're safe, nobody's trying to hurt you, I'm just hanging on so you don't hurt yourself. You come on back and I'll let go. Come on back, man."

He kept up a steady, calm patter on mundane subjects like breakfast, exams, and Christmas shopping—editing out a mention of Paige after a glance over Angelo's shoulder into the gym showed him the bruise already rising on her cheek—until first confusion, then shame bloomed in the other boy's eyes, and Angelo went limp. The dupes relaxed their hold, steadying Angelo on his feet, and Jamie stepped back, wiped his forehead on one shirt sleeve, then shot a look of profound relief over his shoulder as footsteps announced Moira's arrival.

Moira tore around the corner, lab coat flying in all directions. She screeched to a halt in front of the students, sending Paige a worried look. But for now, she concentrated on Angelo, who was still loosely surrounded by the dupes. "I got th' message, Jamie. Angelo...what happened?" She reached his side and gently took his hand.

Angelo, shaking hard and obviously only still upright because the dupes were holding on to him, looked at the floor. "I don't know..." he said, so quietly she could hardly hear.

Nodding, she noted mentally 'Shock.' She turned and placed a hand on Paige's shoulder. "Paige, lass, what happened?"

Paige sighed. "He... he took a punch, and I don't think he was ready. And then..." She trailed off. "And then it was kind of obvious that something was really wrong."

Angelo was still staring down at his feet, but he flinched on hearing her voice.

"How wron'? I need ta know everythin' if'n I'm ta help..." Her voice was professional, but soft, encouraging.

With another sigh, Paige looked up to meet the doctor's eyes. "He was lashing out whenever anyone touched him. It was like he didn't know where he was, or who we were..."

Angelo closed his eyes, pained.

Nodding, Moira turned around and placed both hands on his shoulders. Glancing around, she sighed mentally. Whatever was wrong, whatever triggered this, it would be hard to get to the bottom of it with everyone around. But... "Angelo?"

He looked up reluctantly, but unable to avoid it any longer, and almost whispered, "Yeah?"

She smiled gently. "Listen ta me, lad, yer a stron' one...but somethin' happened back there. Do ye know what it was?"

Angelo looked even unhappier, if such was possible. "Not really", he admitted softly.

"Ye jus' got hit an' ye...lashed back?"

"I don't remember." It was hard to tell if that was entirely true.

'Can't...maybe won't.' She glanced over at Paige and knew why. "Has this happened before?"

Angelo shook his head. "No."

She glanced down briefly at his hands, searching for signs of scratches on the knuckles or blood.

She saw none, but with his extra-thick skin, that meant very little.

Moira knew that it must be tough to talk about with Jamie, and especially Paige, standing so close. "Lad, let's go ta me office, aye?"

Angelo looked up, alarmed, and found the strength to pull away from the dupes' steadying grip. "I don't... I'd rather not talk about it. I'm OK. I'm sorry." And with that, he slipped past her and headed for the stairs at a slightly shaky run.

"Angelo!" She turned and then stopped. "Damn it!" She wanted to go after him but knew that could possibly make things worse. She frowned. And with no other incidents like this...she needed to talk to Xavier. And Alison. She turned and looked at Jamie and Paige. "I know this is hard... but I need ye ta tell me -everythin'-"