xp_logs | Nathan and Angelo (Reply)

After the team arrives back from the tunnels, an exhausted Nathan heads upstairs to collapse where he won't be in the way. Thankfully, his loyal minion/partner waited up for him, and Angelo makes sure that he gets where he's going. Someone's perhaps a little twitchy after the vanishing act earlier in the month.

The security door slid shut behind him as Nathan stepped back out into the main part of the basement. He stopped, resting his hand against the wall and breathing shallowly as he tried to muster up the energy to keep heading towards the elevator that would take him upstairs, to his own suite where he could collapse without bothering anyone. If he toppled over down here, he'd be one more person on the infirmary's hands, and he really didn't want to do that. Especially when all he needed was some rest.

Well, and to not have gone out in the first place... But what was done, was done. And he'd been helpful. Nathan grimaced and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The headache was impressive even by his standards - well, repeated psi-attacks tended to do that -and his ribs were not at all happy with him. He was feeling distinctly ill, too, which made him wonder what his temperature was. Ah, well. Antivirals were upstairs, and he'd take a double dose when he got there...

He might have had to walk all the way, if Angelo hadn't been sitting on the bottom of the stairs waiting for the team to get back in. "Wondered when you'd show up."

"I think I dozed off in the shower," Nathan said tired, tottering to a stop. There was a blank spot that seemed to coincide with hot water, after all. He'd barely managed to drag himself out and pull on a set of Institute sweats from his locker. "Were you waiting for me? There's no crisis, is there? I think I'm done with crises for the day..."

"No crisis", Angelo assured him. "Unless you count you lookin' like you're about to fall over."

"Mmm. I was overambitious, but what else is new." Nathan blinked, then narrowed his eyes as his vision went in and out of focus. "I'm not hurt," he thought to reassure Angelo. "Just exhausted. Need to go upstairs and crash somewhere that I'm not going to be in the way..."

"Well, that's good, at least. Don't think I'm leavin' you to get back up there on your own, though."

"Well, you know. Elevator," Nathan said, waving limply in that direction.The gesture made him teeter a little, and he sighed. "Augh. I feel ancient."

"You can't even point without lookin' like you're goin' to fall over", Angelo pointed out, getting to his feet. "Come on."

"Impertinent... impertinent person," Nathan muttered, but sure as hell didn't resist when Angelo came over and pulled his arm around his shoulders. "You're just the right height for a leaning post, I hope you realize..."

Angelo rolled his eyes affectionately, but the smile soon vanished when he realized he could feel the heat coming off the older man through his sleeve. "Shit, Nate, you're burnin' up. Is the virus still high?"

"Oh, most likely," Nathan said with a sort of airy casualness that almost certainly had something to do with the fever. "But the antivirals are upstairs. And those and rest are all I can do."

"...right, then. Let's get you upstairs so you can get them."

"Call it the penalty for being so dumb earlier this month." Nathan was quiet, then, until they were safely in the elevator heading up to the third floor. "But I did my part today. More or less. So it's all good," he said, his eyes closed as he leaned against the inside wall of the elevator, completely unaware of the fact that he was sliding down it just a bit.

Angelo noticed, though, and stepped over to haul him upright again. "No, you don't. No fallin' asleep outside your own suite, 'cause I can't carry you."

"Least I'm not drunk this time, hmm?" Nathan said, thinking of Kashmir. The memory brought back a smile. "I guess Moira got someone to watch Rachel," he said vaguely, leaning more heavily on Angelo as the elevator stopped, opening onto the third floor. "I forget who she said."

"Well, she wouldn't've left her in there on her own, no. She's probably with Rahne or someone."

"Poor baby. Everything she's been sensing all week..." The floor was swimming. Or appeared to be swimming. Charming. "I do not," Nathan said very precisely, "feel well."

"Well, duh", Angelo answered dryly, struggling to hold him up as they made their haphazard way to the suite. "Do I have to make sure you don't fall asleep before you take your antivirals?"

"I'm not that tired." The suite door was unlocked, and Nathan let Angelo open it. Inside, the bedroom door was wide open and Angelo steered him in that direction. "Could use the painkillers, too," Nathan said, trying to think. "The blue pills, to go along with the white..."

"Right", he said, making a note of it. "Where d'you keep them?"

"Medicine cabinet. Bathroom." Nathan proceeded to faceplant on the bed.

Angelo shot him a worried look, and headed hastily into the bathroom in search of the medicine.

By the time he reemerged, Nathan had managed to get semi-upright again, but was slightly doubled over, a hand pressed to his ribs. "God... damn it, you'd think someone had punched me in the chest tonight..."

Angelo came forward with the pills in one hand and a glass of water in the other, holding them out. "Here. I thought you were just tired?"

"The ribs are still only half-healed and don't like strenuous exercise very much," Nathan said tiredly, taking the pills and the glass. "This was kind of dumb. Moira's going to smack me."

"Only 'kind of'?" Angelo asked dryly. "Yeah, she is. When you're feelin' a bit better, at least."

"What needed doing needed doing, though," Nathan muttered, chasing the pills down with a sip of water. "And since I wasn't actually bedridden... it behooves the rescued to help with future rescues."

Angelo eyed him. "They couldn't have done without you this once?"

Nathan gave him a long, slightly pained look. "Possibly. But the question is, could I have lived with myself if I hadn't gone and they'd needed me?" If that telepath had remained hidden and turned hostile, things could have gotten bad very quickly. "I just need to rest," he said, setting the glass on the bedside table.

"...okay." He was going to stay awhile, anyway. Just to make sure.