[Forge and Jennie] - Sunday Morning

[x-roulette.livejournal.com]

Jennie gets her first visitor.



Glancing down at his watch, Forge alternated between checking the time and glaring down the hall towards the infirmary rooms. As soon as he saw the green mist forming in front of him, and heard Amelia's voice say "She can see you-", he walked right through her, rapidly pacing down the hall and ignoring the terse Russian curses behind him.

He stopped in front of the door, hand almost at the handle, catching his breath. What was he going to say? What was there to say? "Hi, how was your trip?"

Steeling himself, he turned the handle and walked into the recovery room, pulling up a chair by Jennie's bedside and sitting down to face the bed. "Hey," he said softly, leaning towards the bed. "Welcome back."

"Hey," Jennie forced herself to meet his eyes. What he didn't know is that for about ten minutes between Dr. Voght telling her Forge wanted to see her, and letting her go get him, she debated on whether or not to let him in. But it was Forge. If she could face him after everything that had happened, she could face the rest of the mansion. "I would have straightened up more, but only so much damage you can undo in a few minutes." She gave him a weak smile.

"Oh, believe me, I've spent enough time in here that it's practically like a second home anyway," Forge replied, intentionally missing Jennie's self-deprecating point. "So... lots of folks are glad you're home safe. We were pretty worried. Crystal practically burned down my workshop."

Jennie cracked a grin, "Did she? I gather it got your attention?" She shifted and adjusted her robe. Funny, it was normally her who was sitting on that chair, not the other way around.

"Actually," Forge smiled, "I don't think she even realized she did it. She was in the middle of one of her spoiled royal brat tirades and I called her on it. She thought people weren't putting any effort into finding you, but..." He leaned back, running a hand through his hair awkwardly. "We were trying everything. You guys were pretty hard to find. I mean, it's like..."

He took a deep breath, looking up but not meeting Jennie's eyes. "When you said you were on your way back, I waited. And, y'know, plane was late. No call. Day later, no call. I mean, everyone worried -and until I knew Manuel was behind it all... I kind of wondered if you wanted to come back."

"Manuel? You thought Manuel was the reason I..." Jennie drew her robe ever tighter, as if to draw some comfort from it. "No, it wasn't him. I, I did want to come home. My phone broke, the very first day. Busted into a million little pieces in the airport in Paris. My flight was delayed and then I...ran into Marius. And his flight was delayed too, and he was there with Manuel. And we decided to do something while waiting for my plane."

She put her head in her hands. "And that's when things get weird. I thought I was staying a little extra so I could talk Marius into coming back to the school. But, that might not have been the case."

Forge smiled, nodding. "You were doing the right thing. Look, it wasn't your fault. Manuel, he... he makes people do things that aren't like themselves. He gets off on it, it's what he is." He reached out cautiously, putting a hand on Jennie's bed, trying to reassure her without making contact that could spook her. "It wasn't your fault," he repeated softly.

"Forge," Jennie said, her voice starting to crack. "It wasn't Manuel. It was Marius." She extended her hand, palm-up, for him to inspect.

Gingerly, Forge took Jennie's hand in his own, inspecting the palm. "It almost looks like Marius's..." he trailed off, then dropped her hand to the bed. "It makes sense. He finds Manuel, feeds off him out of necessity, and... Jesus, Marius and his thing with psionics. God, he wouldn't even have known..."

Forge laughed to himself sardonically. "Well, if that isn't the biggest twist of the knife. Manuel's the fucking victim in all this. You ask me, the bastard got what he deserved anyway. But Marius? He wouldn't... he didn't...?" He shook his head, then looked up at Jennie. "And the girl? What about her?"

"No, don't you say that about Manuel," Jennie said sharply. "The only reason he's still barely alive with his brains smashed all over a street is because he saved me. I'd be in the trauma ward if he hadn't pushed me out of the way of that truck." That my powers sent after me.

"As for the girl," Jennie gave a bitter laugh. "You'll love this. Marius bought her. So he could use her to make himself look normal."

"Normal?" Forge's mind froze for a second. "But... without the respirator?" As Jennie nodded, Forge pushed away from the bed for a moment to think. "He's not with her now, it's been about a day... he's going to be reverting." He glanced up quickly, his dark eyes meeting Jennie's. "He's got maybe a day before he won't be able to breathe air again, tops."

"I care?" Jennie said dully. "Try again when I'm less pissed off about being empathically used." She leaned back on the bed with a sigh.

"It's in his luggage. The respirator, incidentally. He's stupid, but not that stupid."

"It means I have to fix it," Forge said, setting his jaw. "He'll need it. Whatever he's done, even if he wasn't thinking clearly -he doesn't deserve that. As angry as I am at him," he admitted, "I'm not going to just sit by and watch him suffer. He's been through enough."

Cautiously, he shifted the chair to look closer at Jennie. The dark circles under her eyes and the unnatural thinness made it look like she'd been running on empty for weeks, and it had all finally caught up to her. "But you... are you going to be okay?"

"I have no idea," several emotions flickered in her wide blue eyes. "I really, I want...I don't know." She looked at her hands.

"If you think of anything..." Forge managed to stammer out awkwardly, "you know I'm... I mean, I'll be... that is..." he took a deep breath and held it in for a moment. Now probably wasn't the best time for this, but it needed to be said. "I'll be here. As your friend. Just... I think after all this, it's what we both want, really. Just... friends?"

Jennie was slightly taken aback, and she ducked her head, confused. Oh, that's right. We were technically dating, weren't we?. No reason to let him know it'd completely slipped her mind. What with the traumatic experience in Europe.

"No, don't worry about it. I can't fulfill that promise I made you at the airport, so it's okay. Really." She picked at an errant cuticle. "I'm sorry I didn't call you on your birthday."

"Gee, you were kind of busy," Forge replied, unable to keep a small trace of bitterness from his voice. "I'm sorry, that was out of line. It's just... right now I wouldn't feel right expecting anything, and I've got the new job and you've got all this to deal with and... I'm here if you need me, okay?"

"No, it's okay to be mad at me." She rubbed her fingers together. "I let you down. But I do that, so it's a good thing you found out now. We are much better off being friends. I don't screw my friends over." Jennie felt tired all of the sudden. "I'm sorry, Forge."

"No," Forge said loudly, standing up and placing his hands on the edge of the bed. "No, you're not going to do this. You can be angry at Marius, be guilty about Manuel, deal with this however you're going to. But you are not going to sit around and blame yourself. And you can't let me down, because short of you drowning kittens in the creek, there's nothing you can do that'll make me think of you as less than my friend. Sorry, Jennie, but you're stuck with me."

Oh Forge. Only you would try to make me feel better by yelling at me. Jennie gave Forge a wry smile and snapped her fingers. "Darn. Guess I'll have to find a sack of kittens." She went back to picking at the lint on the sheet. "What sucks is I literally can't blame myself, for anything. And that makes me feel kinda sick."

"Helpless," Forge agreed with a nod. "Yeah, I know what that's like. But it's over now. And you'll never have to go through it again. Promise. And when you're up and ready to get out of here, just let me know. Don't think getting kidnapped for a month and a half means you get out of owing me low-cut shirts and some foosball."

He stood up and moved towards the door. "But take as much time as you need. You know me, I'll be around."

Jennie snorted. "You'll have to get someone else to wear the low-cut shirts. They sorta shrank. " She re-adjusted her robe again. "I'll be up and around soon, so, yay. Happy fun." The dryness of her tone belying her words. "Can't wait to explain myself. I think I'll just pretend I'm mute."

"You don't have to explain anything you don't want to," Forge assured her. "But you've got friends that are concerned. Trust me, you'd think you were Crystal's long-lost sister by the way she kept going on. As opposed to her ice queen of an actual sister, that is. But anyway, rest. I've got to go to work, but you know how to reach me if you need me."

He stopped and looked down at the floor for a moment, then glanced at Jennie briefly. "Even with everything... I'm glad you're back."

"Crystal missed me? Her obsessive-compulsive uncultured heathen of a roommate? I must've made a better impression than I thought." Jennie said, incredulous. "And Forge. No worries," she winced at the unintended use of Aussie slang. "I'm...I mean, I'm glad to be back. This is my home, y'know?"

Forge smiled as he stepped into the hall, looking back at Jennie. "Welcome home, then," he corrected himself as he shut the door quietly.