xp_logs | Nathan and Jean

Following up on her conversation with Moira here, Jean talks to Nathan about her proposed medical solution to his EM weakness and proves yet again that she has quite the bedside manner when she puts her mind to it.

His shoulders very slightly hunched, Nathan paused at the open door of Jean's office, seeing her sitting inside poring over something on her computer screen. "Knock-knock," he muttered a bit warily.

"Hey, Nate," Jean said, not looking up for a second. "Come on in. Take a seat. Try not to look quite so dour." Minimizing the screen she finally looked up with a smile.

He didn't quite manage one in return, but he did try for a joke. "I'll have you know that the only reason I'm here is that Moira promised she'd wear a very little dress when we go out for dinner during our night out."

"Ah, the grand tradition of bribing husbands with small pieces of clothing. I know it well. So I take it she at least told you the outline of the idea. How much detail?"

"I kind of started blocking it out when she started talking about testing whatever drug cocktail you come up with," Nathan said edgily, moving Very Slowly towards the chair. "You know. The thing you would eventually need to do."

"Ah, then you probably missed the bit where we're going to be testing it to death well before you're actually trying it." Jean removed her reading glasses and looked at him seriously. "Because of how incredibly complicated what we're hoping to do is, any drug we give you will have gone through extensive testing before we start asking you to try it. What this means for you right now is that I want blood samples. Er... a lot of blood samples. And we're going to pop you into the EEG for some more up to date readings."

"But you will have to test it, in the end. As in, expose me to EM distortion and see what happens." Nathan sank down into the chair, folding his hands together in his lap so that she wouldn't see him shaking. "Drugs are drugs, Jean, and Moira's had to experiment with the antivirals before, to the point where she's had me puking up my guts for days on end. I can handle that."

Jean nodded slowly. "Yes, at some point we will have to expose you to an EM field, but I promise you we won't be doing it indiscriminently, and we won't be doing it for a very long time. Currently, I'm hoping that, among other things, this will give us a much better understanding of how your precognition works, on a physical level. In which case we may be able to tell in advance of the final test whether or not we have succeeded. I'm not promising that, but it is entirely possible."

Nathan stared down at his hands. "It's silly to be this nervous about the idea," he said quietly. "I know it is. When it's you and Moira. It's just going to take me a little while to really get that through my own thick skull, I think." He took a deep breath, then let it out. "And knowing how the precog works would be a good thing, with all the trouble it's given me."

"And this could, potentially, give you some control. At the very least, if it works the way I'm thinking it does, it would give you an off-switch, a way to choose to have at least a certain amount of determination when it came to your precog."

"Rather than having the future forced upon me," Nathan murmured, a bit more wryly. "What a concept that is." He looked up at her, his eyes a little clearer, but still shadowed. "I trust you. You know that, right?"

"I know, Nathan, and I'm never going to do anything to give you a reason not to," Jean said seriously. Then she smiled. "And just think, what if this were more universally applicable? Not just you but other precogs might have control. Although that's a pipe dream at this point."

"You don't think small, do you?" Nathan looked down for a moment, then nodded. "All right," he said. "There are good reasons to do this. And if we're just starting with lots of blood tests and the like, I'll have time to get used to the idea."

"No, I don't." Jean's smile widened as Nathan agreed. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for trusting us."

"You're welcome," he said very quietly. "Just... if I snap at you at any point during this, although I'll try to avoid that, remember that I'm not really reacting to you?" He tried to smile again. "Other people in white coats, but not you, or Moira."

Jean's voice was gentle. "Of course, Nathan. We'll understand. We do understand."

Nathan nodded, not quite meeting her eyes. "So," he said, trying to keep his tone light, "do I make a date with a needle for some later date, or should we just get started now? I've eaten and all today, so I'm not going to pass out on you if you take some blood."

Jean considered him closely. Finally she said, "Well, I'm likely to need to take blood a couple times, but yes, let's get some today. Then you won't have to think about it for a while."

He rose. "Sounds like a good plan to me," he said, stepping aside to let her precede him through the door. "And I had damned well better get a lollipop."