Scott and Logan, Sunday night

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Logan catches Scott doing something very unusual - napping on comms duty. Scott isn't having what one would consider a restful sleep, and takes a swing at Logan when he wakes him up. Logan doesn't take it personally and Scott doesn't break his hand. They grumble at each other a little, and Scott puts Logan back onto active duty with a few words of warning.


Logan wasn't fond of all the REMF stuff going on around his little dance with the walking brick wall down in the Danger Room, but he'd agreed to follow their rules, so here he was ready for comm duty. Fresh pack of cigars in his shirt pocket, lighter in his other shirt pocket, six of longnecks in the insulated bag, and a whole boatload of psi-exercises Charles wanted him to run through. Plus, with any luck, maybe there'd be some hockey on somewhere. He used his shiny new door code to get access to the com room, then paused at the sight he was greeted with.

Scott Summers had always taken pride in the fact that when it came to the team, he did the boring or unpleasant tasks with stoic devotion to duty. Just because he sat in the big chair didn't mean that he got out of comms duty, for example. He'd never shirked the mundane jobs, and didn't plan to start.

He also didn't usually make a habit of falling asleep on comms duty. Today, for some reason, his subconscious had decided to make an exception. It wasn't a comfortable doze, unfortunately. Slumped in the chair, Scott was shaking slightly in his sleep, his hands clenching and unclenched on the arms of the chair and the muscles along his jaw twitching.

Logan looked at Scott and knew, right there, that he had leverage if he wanted to use it. Fortunately for Scott, Logan was a basically decent fellow for an amnesiac mutant killing machine, so he didn't rustle up a camera or anything like that. Instead, he poked a very stiff finger into Scott's ribs. "Catch your rack time in your bunk, Summers." he said with a rough chuckle. "Comms isn't the place for it."

caught, caught and being pushed back into the dark, farther and farther away from freedom... Scott lashed out at his captor with a sudden desperation. Getting away, getting free, I won't let you stop me...

Logan let Scott take his shot - it was unlikely that Scott would actually hurt him, and maybe the pain would snap him out of it. "ON YOUR FEET, SUMMERS!" he barked in true drill instructor style. See if the discipline could get its hooks into his synapses.

Scott didn't wind up on his feet, but he did snap awake, as much for the sudden pain in his hand as the barked order. He froze in the chair, blinking rapidly up at Logan and willing the itch behind his eye to go away. "What?"

"You were asleep. On Comms duty. Now, I'm pretty sure The Book doesn't tend to encourage sleeping while on Comms duty." he said in a pleasant, you-are-so-fucked tone of voice. "Log yourself out and git."

"I was not-" Scott started to protest, and then stopped. "Well. I guess I was." He flexed his hand, wincing. "Did I hit you?" he asked somewhat incredulously as the here and now started to replace the dream. Another of those damned dreams. Running and running and not finding any way out...

"Seems to be your thing. I walk in, you take a swing." he said with a grin. "Bad habit, really. Probably gonna get you a broken hand at some point."

"That hand's already been broken once," Scott said almost absently, thinking about the Hungary mission. "In a number of places..." He reached out with the not-sore hand and logged out, but didn't get up just yet. He still felt a little disoriented. "Sorry," he said after a moment to Logan. "I didn't meant to do that. Strange dreams."

"No problem. Last time I had a bad dream I put three claws through Marie." he said. "Figure your brain's trying to tell ya something?" he guessed.

"Get therapy?" Scott ventured somewhat wryly. "And yeah, I remember." He rubbed at the back of his neck, a sigh slipping out. "I just hope to hell this isn't about that missing night of mine... wait," he said with a frown, "no, it can't be, because I had them before, too. Huh." Just not as frequently.

Logan didnt' respond to his therapy crack - Charles had been on him to do something very similar, but so far he was fighting it. "Not like you to sack out during Comms duty." he pointed out again.

"I haven't been sleeping very well lately." His stomach twisted as he straightened in the chair, and Scott winced, too tired to hide it. "So yeah, maybe I should have passed the shift off to someone else, but I didn't anticipate napping."

Logan glanced over to the hardcopy log. "Lucky for you naptime didn't seem to coincide with any actual emergencies." he pointed out. "You got lucky."

"I would have woken up if the alarm had gone off or a call had come in," Scott muttered. "Trust me. I hear both in my dreams regularly enough and I'm bolt upright the instant after."

"I'm pretty sure that we don't want to risk it." he said again, leaning against the doorway. "You got somethin' else on your mind, Slim?" he asked. "Because your ass is still in my chair."

"You're that eager to get started?" Scott grumbled, getting up and stoically ignoring the pain in his stomach. "Have at it. And save the lecturing for a week when you haven't started your time back on the team with attempted murder and a psychotic break, okay?"

"First. The housekeeper can't get cut, as I understand it. Second: The claws stayed in. Third: Well, OK, it was a break of some kind, but Charlie's on top of it. We're working through it, and it ain't an everyday sort of a deal. And Fourth: You're the one who handed this thing down, so don't give me shit when I'm just doing what you ordered me to." he said, ticking off points on his fingers. "And finally, I got a ton of things I'd rather be doing but here I am, as instructed."

Scott paused and shook his head. "Sorry," he muttered, turning to start packing up the paperwork he'd brought down with him - and not done. "I guess napping is so unusual for me that I'm not my usual chipper self afterwards."

Logan just snorted in amusement at that image. "I talked to Gibney." he said conversationally. "We start work in a week or so. Nothing real extreme, just wearing him out and giving him some ideas on how to put his energy to use."

Scott nodded. "That's good," he said, sticking papers back into folders. "He's a good kid, you know. Just not coping as well as he could be."

"Got that impression." he said. "He'll be fine if he puts the work in. So how long is this suspension of mine supposed to last, anyway?" he asked.

Scott rubbed at his eye. "Has Charles cleared you?" he asked.

Logan nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much a one-time thing - we're still looking for the trigger." he noted. "Wheels is optimistic, but he always is. You gonna let the crazy telepath join?" he asked.

Scott gave him a very wry look. "We let the last crazy telepath join. He's worked out pretty well, apart from the occasional running off to do stupid things..."

"Guess you could call it that." he said with a shrug. "But the new crazy telepath is crazy on a whole new level."

"He's also extremely well-trained, and face it - we're down to one telepath, who's a whole lot more valuable as a telekinetic, quite honestly. David doesn't want to be a full fighting member of our little band of lunatics, from what I understand - he just wants to help, and we do need the help he's offering." Scott picked up his folders, giving Logan a long look. "Just like we need you. If Charles has cleared you, am I safe in looking at the last week or so as just you having some passing difficulties with settling back in?"

Logan nodded. "Think it's safe to say that yeah, you could call it that." he said with a grin. "Always did hate settlin' down."

"All right. Then when something comes up where you fit the situation, then we'll go with that." He really was tired. "Just so long as you keep in mind the whole saying about three strikes... although we're desperate enough for manpower that I'd probably give you some slack even after that."

Logan snorted with amusement, but nodded. "Gotcha." he said, and then moved so that Scott could move away from the console and Logan could finally log in. "Dreams are always the worst." he said quietly.

Scott, turning towards the door, stopped for a moment. "No," he said quietly, "actually, I think waking up can be even worse."

Logan nodded. "Heard that. Now git!" he said, moving to plonk himself down into the chair and log in. He was itching for a cold one, but he at least had the decency to wait until Scott was gone before cracking it.