Marie and Nathan, Thursday early evening

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Marie goes to find Nathan and meets the ever entertaining Rachel. They chat about this, that and the other. The pleasant conversation takes an unfortunate turn that causes Marie to leave abruptly.

Marie decided to grab a small, early dinner, still anxious about kitchen reunions. Fixing a sandwich for herself, she began thinking about people she still hadn’t had a chance to see since her return. Quickly deciding to make a second sandwich, Marie also picked out a couple of drinks, then slowly headed down the hall, making sure not to spill anything. When she reached the door of Nathan’s suite, she knocked gently.

Nathan, who'd finally given up on the whole walking-around thing and retrieved a Rachel before heading back upstairs, was lying on the couch, his injured leg propped up. He'd taken a couple of painkillers and was feeling pleasantly loopy, something he really hoped Rachel wasn't going to echo if she woke up. That would be disturbing.

"Come in," he called, hearing the knock. His mind was just fuzzy enough that he didn't try and reach out to identify whoever was at the door.

“Ah’m back!” she said while opening the door. Walking into the room she was surprised to see Nathan lying on the couch. “Oh, uh…Ah’m sorry, is this a bad time? Ah just wanted to say hi, but Ah can come back some other time…” She felt disappointment as she began slowly backing away.

"Hey," Nathan said, smiling warmly - and then scoffing at her as she started to back out. "Don't be silly. Come in. I would have come to find you, but it was a busy Tuesday, then I got eaten on Wednesday along with half of the rest of the team," he said, perhaps a little too cheerfully. But it was so good to see Marie!

She smiled back at him. “Ah don’t think Ah want to know.” And she really didn’t want to think about what could be big enough to consider eating half the team. Setting down the food she had brought, she stated the obvious. “Ah brought something to eat…figured Ah’d catch you before you headed to get something…but from the look of you, Ah doubt you had any intention of feeding yourself.”

"I probably would have forgotten, yes," Nathan agreed brightly. "Sit down? And thank you - I probably need the food. Although I did eat lunch." As she settled into a chair, he focused on sizing her up. Not so much in the way of visible changes - they were probably all on the inside. "It really is good to see you."

Taking a seat, Marie took a good look at him. “Lunch was a good long time ago,” she scolded. She pushed a plate towards him, eyeing him sternly to ensure he understood that he would be eating and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Well, some things didn't change, clearly. "Did you catch up with Angelo?" he asked. "Before yesterday got interesting, I noticed him looking unusually cheerful..."

Marie responded with a broad smile. “Ah got a good chance to catch up with him. Ah’m so proud of him…he seems to be doing real well.” Thinking back on what had occurred before she ran into Angelo, her expression darkened. “Ah just wish everyone was as happy to see me back.”

"Very, very well. He's got a real talent for the work we're doing," Nathan said, then processed the rest of what she'd said. "Ah. Hmm. Let's see. The one with claws, the one with the ice cream fetish, or the one with the precognitive girlfriend?"

Marie sighed. “Take your pick. Ah just wasn’t expecting to run into them on my first day back. All of them…at the exact same time. The only thing that could’ve possibly been worse…” Pausing, Marie realized she couldn’t think of anything and shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “And the way Ah reacted wasn’t so great either.”

"You didn't hit Logan, did you?" Nathan grinned quite shamelessly. He was on drugs. He had an excuse. "Tell me you hit Logan..."

“Not in the kitchen,” she replied, deciding not to elaborate. “Ah hit Doug…and he probably deserved it least of all.” Taking a moment to nibble on her sandwich, she quickly changed subjects. “Ah’m more interested in hearing about you.”

"Well, actually..." Nathan glanced in the direction of the nursery door and it swung open slowly. "Hey, munchkin," he said, sending an encouraging thought through the gap in the shielding. She'd been stirring already at the sound of a strange voice. "Come and see..."

"Oooo?" was the sleepy reply.

Following Nathan’s cue, she looked over at the slowly opening door. Her mouth dropping open in shock, she looked back over at Nathan at a loss for words. Finally, she was able to say, “Scott mentioned you had a child…but it appears he neglected to tell me a rather important detail.”

"Ooo?" Rachel said, yawning as she floated out of the nursery and over to the couch, where she made a picture-perfect landing on her father's lap. "Mah-bah," she informed him almost gravely, then gazed at Marie, her gray eyes wide and curious.

Nathan smoothed down the baby's fine red hair. "Marie, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Marie. She was telling Mom and Dad to get their acts together back when Mom and Dad were still doing things like pushing each other in the lake."

Marie laughed and looked approvingly at the baby. "She's darling Nate, just precious. You and Moira must be proud." Checking that her skin was completely covered, she looked curiously at Nathan and asked, "May Ah hold her?"

"Absolutely. Help yourself." Nathan watched, smiling, as Rachel immediately held out her arms imperiously. Oh, yes, you little monkey... you are indeed picking up English.

Marie opened up her arms as Rachel floated over. Settling the smiling baby in her lap, she looked over at Nathan. “She lands better than Ah could the first year after Ah started flying.” Cooing at the baby in her lap, Marie felt happiness mixed with bitterness. Having a child was one of the other things in the world she may never be able to experience and knowing that pained her.

"She's a natural," Nathan said, having a good idea of why Marie sounded so wistful. "She was using telekinesis and telepathy months before she was born. It was a little alarming."

Laughing, Marie imagined the handful that Rachel must already be for her parents...and the trouble maker she was likely to become. "Takes after her daddy, huh?" she teased before levitating with Rachel in her lap to see how the baby would react.

"HEEEE!" #HEEE!# Rachel's eyes were sparkling, a look of pure joy on her face as she clutched at Marie's shirt.

"I think she likes you," Nathan said. "I'm not surprised. She has excellent taste."

Marie winked at Nathan before slowly spinning in circle. "Well she must get that from her mom."

Nathan shifted on the couch, his smile turning into a wince. The painkillers weren't all that good, and his expression turned a bit sour. "She gets most things from her mother, thankfully."

Settling back on the couch, Marie noticed the pained look that flashed across his face. "How bad is it? Can Ah do anything?" she asked worriedly.

"It's not too bad," Nathan reassured her. "Clean cuts. They'll heal fast." He grimaced, shaking his head and reminding himself that Marie didn't need to know precisely how he'd gotten hurt.

Marie continued to look at Nathan with concerned eyes. "So long as the medlab folk have checked you out." She was sure they had...Moira'd kill him otherwise. Again shifting topics, she said "Ah'm thinking about going back to school."

"You should," Nathan said immediately, seizing on the subject change. "I'm a big believer in school. Well, you know that. And it's not like you haven't got plenty of options in this part of the world..."

"Ah know.... there are a lot of good school around here. Ah just wonder if Ah can transfer any of the stuff Ah worked on here." She remembered the last time she was excited about returning to school...and how her dreams had been crushed when the whole Stanley mess took place. "Just glad Ah can actually go to another school now...not that Ah didn't get a great education here, Ah just want to see what else is out there too." She looked at him intently, needing him to understand that while she appreciated all Xavier's had to offer, she needed the opportunity to begin interacting with the real world again.

"Then it's a good thing that you have all of these choices right here to hand, where you have you need here and explore what's out there, too?" He was rambling a little, and possibly reading her mind just a bit, but Nathan was sure she'd forgive him. "Lets you strike a balance, have someplace to call home while you're testing out your... um, metaphorical wings some more."

She smiled, content that he understood exactly what she had tried to express. "Yeah...an' a couple of the colleges have some online courses too, so Ah was thinking maybe just one traditional class to start with...Ah wanna make sure Ah don't bite off more than Ah can chew. And Ah want to make sure Ah have time for some powers classes here...Ah've self-taught myself some stuff about these new ones, but Ah know Ah have a lot more to learn."

"Well, you know Moira's right here to help with that. I know she's missed you too," Nathan said, the smile coming back. "And hell, if nothing else, I'm sure Scott will put you through the wringer if you're wanting to come back to the team... are you?"

Marie quickly nodded. "Ah've missed her too. And I definitely want to rejoin the team...Ah need to, for myself." Her eyes fell on his leg and she winced. "Ah'd ask you if you were up for some training, but Ah think Ah'm gonna have to wait on that."

"This? Oh, hell, I'll be back in the Danger Room next week." Possibly a little too much bravado, there, but he couldn't afford to be out for too long.

Marie shook her head "Not if Ah have anything to say about it...you let that heal the right way before you go gallivanting off again." She then laughed as Rachel floated up and out of her lap. "Doesn't stay put much, does she?"

"Not generally." Nathan made a bit of a face. "Seriously, Marie... I need to be back on active duty as soon as I can move around without making this worse. We're down a lot of people, and I'm the only fully field-rated psi around these days."

Marie wrinkled her brow. "Where'd everybody else go?" As soon as she asked the question, she regretted it. People generally left the mansion for less than pleasant reasons.

"Well, Alison and Haroun got married and took over the new training facility on the West Coast. Piotr and Warren went with them. Jean's... not in any condition to be working with the team these days, and Logan took himself off active duty." Nathan glanced at his leg sourly.

Marie's felt stunned. "He what?" She shifted uncomfortably in her seat...of course the conversation had come back to Logan, even if she had tried to steer clear of the topic. "Ah just thought that was part of the reason he left Canada...to come back to the team."

"He did. But he's been a little... unsteady," Nathan said, and thought that was remarkably charitable of him.

Marie thought back to her encounter with Logan that morning. She hadn’t noticed anything untoward about his behavior, but she had been distracted by the other tension that existed between them. Not wanting to chance Nathan getting a psychic read from her, Marie quickly stood and gathered the dishes. While she knew he wouldn’t intentionally pull anything from her, she felt like she was projecting a mess of emotions and thoughts. “You need your rest,” she said abruptly.

Rachel was crawling on the ceiling, occasionally cackling to herself, and Nathan made a face. He shouldn't have mentioned Logan. Damn it. "I'll see you later, then?" he asked, offering a smile. "When I'm a little more mobile?"

Marie offered a weak smile in return. "Yeah, of course. You know where to find me." Looking up, her smile grew more sincere. "And Ah'll have to keep checking in on the cute little munchkin."

Rachel preened, realizing she was being admired, and dropped like a rock back into her father's lap. "Bah!" she proclaimed and promptly started to snuggle. Nathan raised her little hand in a wave to Marie.

Marie backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Leaning against the wall, she closed her eyes...she needed to stop having such severe reactions to things. Since returning to the mansion, she had struggled to keep her emotions in check. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and began heading towards the kitchen to return the dishes.