xp_logs | Crystal and Nathan - One for the road (Reply)

Crystal finds Nathan staring at the lake. Conversation turns to a variety of topics including the past weekend, evil redheads, vacations, language lessons, and poetry.

Nathan was sitting on the dock by the boathouse, staring out at the lake. No papers, no work... he was just there. Staring at the water. just sitting there and staring without doing anything else, just as Crystal had found him three months earlier in the darkened sunroom. Crystal floated slightly closer, not quite sure if she should say anything. Last time, he had been aware when she approached. Let him acknowledge her presence this time too if he wished.

Nathan jolted suddenly forward in his chair - the presence approaching him was shielded, but his own shields were still ragged enough that he felt it. He looked back over his shoulder, a disoriented, oddly alarmed look on his face. It didn't fade quite as fast as it should have, even when he realized it was Crystal.

"Oh. Uh... hi." He rubbed at his jaw with an unsteady hand, trying to think... "Were we supposed to meet? Before last weekend, I mean..."

"Probably," Crystal said amiably. "We do have an independent study class, after all." She floated closer, sitting in mid-air next to his chair. "So. That was a rather unusual way to spend a weekend. I suppose I was lucky, though, as my experience took place over less than a day-and-a-half."

Focus, Nathan. He cracked a very thin smile. "I don't think any of us could be called lucky. I'm very glad you weren't hurt, though." He eyed her leg. "I think you've had your share of that, this spring."

"No?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "We were not lucky to survive? Angel, Laurie, Dani and I were not lucky enough to escape with Sooraya before our captors decided to harm us? Those of you in Las Vegas were not lucky enough to find each other, help each other, and manage to return to the mansion together. My leg is nothing," she said after a moment's pause. "I am certain that if you asked Jennie, Kyle, or Marius whether they would have preferred suffering from a broken leg rather than endure the horrors they did when they were taken last month, all three of them would trade in for the broken leg option in an instant."

Nathan's expression went rather alarmingly flat. But he looked away from Crystal, rather than responded. The tiniest telekinetic shiver through the planks of the deck was just barely noticeable, but faded almost instantly, lines of pain appearing in Nathan's face.

Crystal looked at Nathan, a small frown passing over her face. "Nathan? Did I say something wrong?" Crystal couldn't recall ever seeing the man like this. Before, when she had said things that appeared to bother him or he didn't agree with, he told her, had even told her in no uncertain terms that she was wrong. What was happening now?

"No. You're right, of course." It was the mild, almost conversational tone he'd finally mastered for meetings and the like, at Joel's suggestion - People are sometimes put off by your sheer size, Nathan, and the battlefield bellow doesn't help.

"Nathan." The tone was patient yet tinged with a hint of sharpness. "Please, do not patronize me. I deserve more than that. I am not a frightened student under your protection. Graduation is a mere formality at this point. If you do not wish to speak to me, fine. If you would like me to leave you alone, fine, but please do not speak to me as you would to a small child."

There was a trace of something close to incredulity in Nathan's gaze as he looked around at her. "Crystal... not to be abrupt, but how were you just speaking to me? Correcting me, lecturing me on why we were indeed lucky..." He stopped for a moment, lips pressed tightly together. "I've never spoken to you as if you were frightened, or a child. I think that I have done an admirable job this year at treating you as a young adult. I know that I've done my best to do just that, especially after that nonsense from Logan."

"I was not attempting to correct you or lecture you, I was simply stating things from my perspective," Crystal explained. She sighed softly. "It is different this time, I think. Before, people immediately cracked jokes about things that happened and made light of nearly any event that transpired. 'We were kidnapped again' or 'we were hurt again or 'look who ended up in the Medlab again.' A few light comments have been made, but still.... there is something very different this time. Nearly every mansion resident was involved in some way. Surely something must be known, and it is clear that the various events were related, yet no explanation has been given. I could ask about it, yes, but I never know which questions will gain an answer and which ones will cause someone to become uncomfortable."

"I imagine they're working on an explanation," Nathan said, in something closer - if not quite - a normal tone of voice. "But it's something of a common-sense thing, in post-crisis management - you don't flood people with information before they've had a chance to decompress a little."

Crystal nodded, glad that they seemed to be moving away from the odd-tones and sharp words. She'd been ready for information the moment Cain had placed her into the cab of his truck on Sunday afternoon. However, she had spoken with Yvette and had seen how shaken Laurie was. No, many people had not been ready to be bombarded with information, even yesterday. Yesterday, many people had done their best to have fun or just relax. She had studied for finals.

"I understand," she said seriously. "That should make for a rather interesting read, I am sure. I do not envy the ones who have to write that post."

"They are definitely not lucky," Nathan said with a grim sort of humor. In fact, he was rather looking forward to what the hell Scott or Ororo or the Professor was planning to say about this. What was going to be said, and what was going to be... glossed over. Some of it would have to be, he knew.

Crystal smiled briefly before taking on a sincere look again. "I apologize for speaking to you in an impolite manner. You did not deserve to be spoken to in such a manner." She was just very, very ready to go home. Now.

Nathan looked back at her as she fell silent. "You're headed home soon, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes," Crystal said, nodding. "I will be leaving tomorrow. I will do a bit of the 'good-bye' routine, but it is not really good-bye since I will be seeing many people two weeks later in Attilan." Would everyone be better by then? It was good than the engagement party had not been planned for the following week... would anyone here have been ready to travel so soon after what had just happened?

Nathan reached... down, past it all, and summoned up a real, if tired smile. "I'm really looking forward to seeing your home, you know. Everything you and your sister have said about it since you've been here..."

Crystal smiled. "Medusa and I are looking forward to having you and Dr. MacTaggart visit us. I think my parents are quite interested in meeting you as well."

"I'll be honored to meet them," and there was nothing facile about that comment, despite his quiet tone. "They raised two very remarkable young people." Nathan paused for a moment. "I'm going to miss both of you, you know."

"You can always take a break from work and visit us," Crystal answered with a small grin. "You are allowed to take a vacation now and again, you know. Really, it is in your best interest to do so, otherwise you will continue to be besieged by redheads wanting you to step away from your work and take a much needed rest."

"I suppose comparatively, it's not all that far from Muir - where I should be spending more time this summer anyway," Nathan conceded more softly. His jaw trembled very slightly for a moment, but was steady again in the next instant. "The thought does appeal. I'll have to take you up on that."

A small frown came onto Crystal's face for a second as she wondered if she'd actually seen or imagined seeing Nathan's jaw tremble. It really was different this time, wasn't it? "I hope you do spend more time on Muir," Crystal said. She looked out at the lake for a few moments, then turned back to Nathan. "One last Farsi lesson before school is over, perhaps?"

Nathan smiled, a bit too brightly, and gestured to one of the other desk chair. "I could do that, I think," he said, and if his voice was unsteady, it was barely perceptible. "For my prize Farsi student."

Crystal smiled, settling down into the chair. "Do you actually have any other Farsi students at the moment?"

"Sometimes you seem like six?" Nathan's laugh sounded a little broken around the edges, and he looked back out at the lake, rubbing at his temple with one hand. "I didn't mean that. You're just very enthusiastic."

"Nathan, are you..." Crystal stopped, not wanting to go into the "Are you ok?" routine. Nathan was clearly not fine, and asking him if he was fine was rather silly. She hated being asked the question and she didn't want to ask it herself. "Something is bothering you, that much is obvious. Is there anything I can do to help?"

My wife and daughter went back to Muir and I'm having bad dreams, he thought, but didn't say. It wasn't entirely the truth. He was trying to sleep more, to let the psionic damage heal, and the dreams were bad, but just walking around in the boathouse, even when Moira and Ray had still been here...

"It's been a bad month," he said a bit vaguely. "I'm not... I think I need a vacation, like you were saying earlier. I could wish the engagement party was sooner..." He hesitated, sighed. The light caught the gray in his hair, rather more than had been there at the end of 2006. "I haven't been able to sit down and write any of my poetry for weeks. That's bothering me, too. I miss that outlet."

"Come for a visit earlier, then," Crystal suggested, "or go ahead and go to Muir. The palace is rather... chaotic right now, I think, what will all of the final preparations underway. More than one planner has suffered from Medusa's wrath. Still, it is something that might be interesting to see, and by that I mean both the palace in a state of confusion and Medusa on the warpath. For now, though... poetry? You are sitting down, now, yes? Farsi lesson and then a bit of poetry writing, or maybe both at once?"

"Farsi poetry," Nathan said, seizing a bit desperately on the idea. "You know, we never really got to talk much about it. I always meant to show you a little of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, at least in translation..." He paused, a rather appropriate verse coming to mind.

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it..."