xp_logs | Before Doug gets out of the medlab...

Angelo headed down to the medlab to visit Doug. Now the younger boy had woken up, he thought they should probably talk.

Doug sat quietly, alternately staring at the ceiling and pecking at the keyboard of his laptop. Being in the medlab without company became frightfully boring after a while.

Pushing the door open tentatively, Angelo stuck his head around it. "Hey."

Doug looked up. "Hey, yourself." Motioning Angelo in, he set his laptop aside. "How's it going?"

Angelo grinned and walked into the room, settling into a chair by Doug's bed. "Oh, I'm fine. How are *you* feeling?"

Doug smiled wryly. "Well, aside from the cracked ribs, remnants of a concussion, and a lingering mishmash of emotions not limited to anger, embarassment, and fear, I'm just fine." He shook his head. "And I just sounded entirely too much like Dr. McCoy just then."

Angelo chuckled. "When are they letting you out?"

Doug grimaced. "A couple of days. Dr. McCoy is still a little worried about the concussion, as well as taking care of the cracked ribs." Making a vague motion at Angelo's eye, he asked "How about that shiner? That the worst of it for you?"

"Few more bruises, that's all", Angelo answered. "Nothing serious..."

Doug nodded slowly. "That's good."

Angelo looked at him, suddenly sombre. "Hey. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help, you know?"

Doug reached out and patted Angelo on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, man. There were oh, ten of them, and only one of you. You did what you could, and that means a lot. I mean, if not for you, I might not be here, y'know?"

Angelo nodded. "I know. But still - it was Mr Summers that really scared them off..."

Doug nodded. "But you held them off long enough for Mr. Summers to get there. If not for that, all ten of them could have been whaling on me. And that would probably have been a lot worse."

Angelo leaned back in his chair, knowing Doug was right. "Hey, if you don't mind talking about it... how did it start? I didn't really want to ask Artie, poor kid was upset enough."

Doug sighed. "It was so silly. Artie was annoyed at the guy making fun of him, so he stuck his tongue out. It got worse from there."

Angelo winced. "Poor kid. It's the kind of thing he really should be able to do... Guess that's why he seemed to think it was his fault?"

Doug nodded. "Yeah. But he's got to know that he can't control people being narrow-minded morons. Yeah, there are things he can do to reduce the risks, but it sucks that we always have to watch out to make sure we don't put a foot wrong."

Angelo nodded in his turn. "It really does. But there's not a whole lot we can do about it right now..."

Doug grimaced. "Why not? Why _can't_ we do something about it? I refuse to accept that this is the way that it has to be." Shaking his head, he leaned back, slightly out of breath. "Sorry, my inner crusader gets the better of me sometimes."

Angelo looked concerned. "Hey man, try not to get worked up about it. Dr McCoy'll have my head if I make you sick again. But..." He glanced down for a moment, then looked straight at Doug. "Don't ever stop crusading. I only said we can't change it *right now*."

Doug ran a hand over his face. "Yeah. And I don't know how to change it even down the road. It's hard to fight willful ignorance."

"You'll work it out", Angelo told him. "If it's what you want to do, you will."

"That's the thing. I don't know _what_ I want to do. Part of me wants to learn how to defend myself, make sure it never happens again. And part of me knows that violence begets more violence. It's a big vicious circle."

"It can never hurt to learn to defend yourself, you know. Even if it's just ways to get away from a situation like that as fast as possible."

Doug went to reply, but was interrupted by a gigantic yawn, followed by a wince as his ribs pulled a bit too much.

Angelo looked hard at Doug. "And for right now, you need to sleep. Okay?"

Doug grumbled goodnaturedly. "Yeah, all I do is eat, sleep, and play around on my laptop. What a life. Can't wait to get out of this joint."

"Sounds horrible", Angelo teased. "Seriously, though -- the more you sleep, the sooner you get to come back upstairs."

Doug grinned. "Right. Sleep it is." With that, he laid down and fluffed his pillow under his head. "Thanks, Angelo."

"No problem", Angelo said warmly, standing up and walking to the door. "See you later."