Amanda, Nathan - lunchtime
Nov. 3rd, 2007 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAmanda drops in on Nathan to make sure he's not working, and gets lunch and a long conversation.
Nathan glanced back over his shoulder, unable to help a smile at the sight of a mischievous little face peering around the doorway of her room at him. "Nap, kiddo," he said. "Do I need to come tuck you in?"
Rachel's response was to giggle and vanish. The door shut behind her, and Nathan listened - his telepathy was back already, which was more than nice - for long enough to make sure that she was indeed getting into bed for her afternoon nap, before he continued into the kitchen to make himself something for lunch. Moving around was altogether easier than it had been yesterday - the lightheadedness was almost gone, and it was amazing what some real rest did for bruises. Maybe you should keep that in mind, Dayspring.
There was a knock at the door, followed by a familiar female voice calling out: "Anyone home?"
"Just in the kitchen, Amanda," Nathan called. "Come on in." He heard the door open and close again, and smiled. "You had anything to eat? Someone seems to have made sure that the fridge in here was stocked...
food gnomes ducking in here while I was sleeping on the couch the last couple of days, maybe."
"And here I thought food gnomes took food. " Amanda appeared around the opening door, giving Nathan a grin. She looked tired, but without the edginess of the previous week. "If you're making something, sure, I'll have a bit. You know me, always up for food. What're you doing sleeping on the couch? Moira kick you out for snoring?" The last was said with a flash of her youthful cheekiness.
"Oh, no. Just have been relegated to the couch during the days - she doesn't want me wandering around exerting myself until she's sure I've gotten over being someone's psionic Slurpee," Nathan said cheerfully. Just to be disturbing.
Amanda's eyebrow went up. "Do I even want to know?" she asked rhetorically, leaning back against the counter. Normally she'd pull herself up to sit on it, but she'd learning some manners over the years. "Ange was fretting, so I came down to make sure you weren't overdoing it. Seems like he doesn't trust you to not be working or something - can't imagine where he got that idea from."
"Well, you can assure Angelo, I've got no desire to throw myself back into work of any sort just yet," Nathan said, and hmphed thoughtfully as he discovered a container of already-made sandwiches in the fridge. Those would do.
"At least I talked him out of setting up the webcam in the office?" the witch said, cheerfully. "He was all set to have Forge knock something up, cross my heart." Of course, the mischief in her eyes made that hard to believe.
"Your boyfriend's an old woman at times. I keep meaning to tell him that." Nathan reemerged from the kitchen with a plate of sandwiches in one hand, a jug of juice in the other, and two glasses tucked in the crook of his arm. It was a telling but subtle indicator that his telekinesis wasn't properly back in working order just yet.
"I think it's cute. Then again, I tend to think most of what he does is cute. Except when he leaves the toilet seat up in the middle of the night and I nearly fall in. You want a hand with that?" she asked, nodding at his load. "Since I'm guessing you're in the land of the powers overloaded? Talk about the walking wounded - the mansion was looking like a zombie movie at one stage."
"Yeah - take the glasses before I drop them?" Nathan said, and paused to let her rescue the glasses before he kept moving towards the table. He was still limping a little, but his knee was markedly better than
it had been even yesterday. "As burnout goes, I've had worse, but it's never a lot of fun. It probably would have been worse, except Clarice managed to teleport the glider a few times on our way down and killed some of the momentum."
Amanda shook her head as she carried the glasses to the table. "You know, I just can't get my head around how big this was. Bad enough when Angelo told me he'd gotten sucked into space and we found Cain in the bottom of a crater in bloody Sri Lanka, of all places, but every time I talk to someone, there's something else new. 'S a bleeding miracle everyone came through."
Nathan deposited the rest of his load and sank into a chair. "Getting down wasn't even the hard part, in most cases. It's what we had to do on the ground - most of us couldn't have landed anywhere much more remote than we did, and most of us had company." His mouth twisted briefly. "Nothing like fighting mutants with a tree branch."
"Is that when the Slurpee thing happened?" she asked, taking a seat and reaching for the juice to pour them both glasses. "Or was that on the station? Ange said you had to go deal with Brotherhood after you'd crashed."
"Well, we had to deal with them on the glider and on the ground. But the tree branch, yeah, that was on the ground. We'd have been in trouble if the cavalry hadn't arrived when it did." Nathan reached out for the glass of juice. "I may be old and sneaky, but that doesn't count for as much as you'd think."
"Well, not after you'd just helped land something from orbit. I think you were a bit disadvantaged there." Amanda lifted the top piece of bread on her sandwich, checking to see what it was and picking out the tomato. Ew. "And you were old and sneaky enough for that."
"I've been wanting to go back to Tibet for ages, you know." Nathan snorted as he selected a sandwich. "Crashing there from orbit was not what I had in mind." The image of the snow leopard came back all at
once, and Nathan smiled slightly. "Strange, though. We went from being in the middle of a bad SF movie to taking shelter in an abandoned monastery. Weird juxtaposition."
"Life as a movie. 'S weird, Ange and I were talking about that the night before you guys went up." Amanda bit into her sandwich and chewed, making sure to swallow before she spoke again. "I know world travel's part of the deal, but I don't think anyone expected orbital crashing."
"Really, though, on the weird-shit-o-meter, I'd say maybe a seven, tops. Of course, this is coming from the man who used to have ghosts from the future in his head, so take it with a grain of salt." Nathan rotated his sore wrist experimentally, then rubbed at it. "The view was quite something."
"I'm sort of sorry I missed it. The view, not the weird shite." Amanda quirked an eyebrow at the wrist movement. "Hurt your wrist again, did you? That's the one you broke, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's just a bit of a sprain." Nathan's lips twitched slightly. "I'm amazed I didn't break anything. I never want to hear anyone laugh at my exoskeleton again. I mean, when I managed to prevent two-thirds of the people in the glider with me from going splat with it broke up..." There was a brief flash of sadness in his gray eyes. "Although I would have traded Toad and that Indian bastard for those two cosmonauts. One of them helped Clarice give Angelo CPR."
Amanda's eyes widened slightly, and her hand froze in the act of reaching for her glass. "...CPR?" she asked, voice faint.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "Well, I can't really blame him for not telling you - I doubt he remembers." Although all things being equal, it was probably better to hear this from him than Clarice. "He wasn't breathing when Clarice teleported him back into the glider, at first. She fixed that pretty much right away, though."
"I don't think he knows, no..." she replied distantly. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she concentrated on pulling herself together. He died, but only for a minute or two. 'S okay, he's okay. "'M sorry, I know he's all right now, 's just... I didn't realise we came so close to..." Losing him.
"He is all right," Nathan said, quietly but firmly. "It's all right to reel a bit, finding out something like that happened, but just keep the here and now in mind."
"I feel dumb, reacting like this, 'specially when he's all right," she admitted. "And 'specially when there's people who aren't, like those cosmonauts you mentioned. Selfish, I s'pose." She rubbed a hand over her face, then pushed her hair back. "I'm sorry they didn't make it, after everything."
"Me too." There was a suspicious creak from the direction of Rachel's bedroom door, and Nathan leaned sideways in his chair. "Nap." A muffled giggle and the sound of the door closing again was the only response he got, and he shook his head quizzically. "I ought to take her up to the house to see him tomorrow, she's been asking."
"He'd like that." Amanda recovered enough to give him a wry smile, glad for the diversion. "He's bored silly, and it's only been a couple of days. The munchkin would cheer him up a lot, as long as she's okay with him not being up and about - the cough's getting better, at least."
"Are you kidding? According to Moira, she curled up on me the first day I spent on the couch and didn't move for twelve hours. I think when we're immobile, she's kind of gleeful. Easy target and all."
"Something like that. I know Ange'd like to see her too." Amanda finished her sandwich. "He's been a bit up and down, mood-wise, but I'm guessing that's the whole trauma thing."
"If it's just a bit, he's doing well, all things considered. Although I'm hoping he's planning to make an appointment with Jack once he's recovered a little more - I'd kind of like to see him sidestep the whole new phobia thing if possible," Nathan said, remembering rather vividly that portion of the conversation in Tibet. "He's got enough weighing on him already." And I wish I could stop dreaming about seeing him floating in space.
"Maybe we can tag-team him on the Jack appointment?" Amanda asked, not entirely joking. "He's having the odd nightmare already, and I remember what he was like after Tel Aviv." She grinned a little.
"Benefits of having a shrink on-staff - you get used to the whole post-trauma counselling. After Candra... talking to Sof really helped. Even if she does threaten to take me shoe shopping as therapy."
"Tag-teaming could work. Although if I don't soon make an appointment for myself while I'm at it, Jack will start stalking me and conniving with Moira again. Speaking of which, I need to call your scary shrink," Nathan said. "I seem to recall her and I making a deal, prior to the whole space thing. I was going to take her out to lunch and she was going to tell me all my shortcomings. Again."
"Everyone needs a hobby," she replied, teasingly. "And there's only so much fun for her in Remy-baiting."
Nathan glanced back over his shoulder, unable to help a smile at the sight of a mischievous little face peering around the doorway of her room at him. "Nap, kiddo," he said. "Do I need to come tuck you in?"
Rachel's response was to giggle and vanish. The door shut behind her, and Nathan listened - his telepathy was back already, which was more than nice - for long enough to make sure that she was indeed getting into bed for her afternoon nap, before he continued into the kitchen to make himself something for lunch. Moving around was altogether easier than it had been yesterday - the lightheadedness was almost gone, and it was amazing what some real rest did for bruises. Maybe you should keep that in mind, Dayspring.
There was a knock at the door, followed by a familiar female voice calling out: "Anyone home?"
"Just in the kitchen, Amanda," Nathan called. "Come on in." He heard the door open and close again, and smiled. "You had anything to eat? Someone seems to have made sure that the fridge in here was stocked...
food gnomes ducking in here while I was sleeping on the couch the last couple of days, maybe."
"And here I thought food gnomes took food. " Amanda appeared around the opening door, giving Nathan a grin. She looked tired, but without the edginess of the previous week. "If you're making something, sure, I'll have a bit. You know me, always up for food. What're you doing sleeping on the couch? Moira kick you out for snoring?" The last was said with a flash of her youthful cheekiness.
"Oh, no. Just have been relegated to the couch during the days - she doesn't want me wandering around exerting myself until she's sure I've gotten over being someone's psionic Slurpee," Nathan said cheerfully. Just to be disturbing.
Amanda's eyebrow went up. "Do I even want to know?" she asked rhetorically, leaning back against the counter. Normally she'd pull herself up to sit on it, but she'd learning some manners over the years. "Ange was fretting, so I came down to make sure you weren't overdoing it. Seems like he doesn't trust you to not be working or something - can't imagine where he got that idea from."
"Well, you can assure Angelo, I've got no desire to throw myself back into work of any sort just yet," Nathan said, and hmphed thoughtfully as he discovered a container of already-made sandwiches in the fridge. Those would do.
"At least I talked him out of setting up the webcam in the office?" the witch said, cheerfully. "He was all set to have Forge knock something up, cross my heart." Of course, the mischief in her eyes made that hard to believe.
"Your boyfriend's an old woman at times. I keep meaning to tell him that." Nathan reemerged from the kitchen with a plate of sandwiches in one hand, a jug of juice in the other, and two glasses tucked in the crook of his arm. It was a telling but subtle indicator that his telekinesis wasn't properly back in working order just yet.
"I think it's cute. Then again, I tend to think most of what he does is cute. Except when he leaves the toilet seat up in the middle of the night and I nearly fall in. You want a hand with that?" she asked, nodding at his load. "Since I'm guessing you're in the land of the powers overloaded? Talk about the walking wounded - the mansion was looking like a zombie movie at one stage."
"Yeah - take the glasses before I drop them?" Nathan said, and paused to let her rescue the glasses before he kept moving towards the table. He was still limping a little, but his knee was markedly better than
it had been even yesterday. "As burnout goes, I've had worse, but it's never a lot of fun. It probably would have been worse, except Clarice managed to teleport the glider a few times on our way down and killed some of the momentum."
Amanda shook her head as she carried the glasses to the table. "You know, I just can't get my head around how big this was. Bad enough when Angelo told me he'd gotten sucked into space and we found Cain in the bottom of a crater in bloody Sri Lanka, of all places, but every time I talk to someone, there's something else new. 'S a bleeding miracle everyone came through."
Nathan deposited the rest of his load and sank into a chair. "Getting down wasn't even the hard part, in most cases. It's what we had to do on the ground - most of us couldn't have landed anywhere much more remote than we did, and most of us had company." His mouth twisted briefly. "Nothing like fighting mutants with a tree branch."
"Is that when the Slurpee thing happened?" she asked, taking a seat and reaching for the juice to pour them both glasses. "Or was that on the station? Ange said you had to go deal with Brotherhood after you'd crashed."
"Well, we had to deal with them on the glider and on the ground. But the tree branch, yeah, that was on the ground. We'd have been in trouble if the cavalry hadn't arrived when it did." Nathan reached out for the glass of juice. "I may be old and sneaky, but that doesn't count for as much as you'd think."
"Well, not after you'd just helped land something from orbit. I think you were a bit disadvantaged there." Amanda lifted the top piece of bread on her sandwich, checking to see what it was and picking out the tomato. Ew. "And you were old and sneaky enough for that."
"I've been wanting to go back to Tibet for ages, you know." Nathan snorted as he selected a sandwich. "Crashing there from orbit was not what I had in mind." The image of the snow leopard came back all at
once, and Nathan smiled slightly. "Strange, though. We went from being in the middle of a bad SF movie to taking shelter in an abandoned monastery. Weird juxtaposition."
"Life as a movie. 'S weird, Ange and I were talking about that the night before you guys went up." Amanda bit into her sandwich and chewed, making sure to swallow before she spoke again. "I know world travel's part of the deal, but I don't think anyone expected orbital crashing."
"Really, though, on the weird-shit-o-meter, I'd say maybe a seven, tops. Of course, this is coming from the man who used to have ghosts from the future in his head, so take it with a grain of salt." Nathan rotated his sore wrist experimentally, then rubbed at it. "The view was quite something."
"I'm sort of sorry I missed it. The view, not the weird shite." Amanda quirked an eyebrow at the wrist movement. "Hurt your wrist again, did you? That's the one you broke, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's just a bit of a sprain." Nathan's lips twitched slightly. "I'm amazed I didn't break anything. I never want to hear anyone laugh at my exoskeleton again. I mean, when I managed to prevent two-thirds of the people in the glider with me from going splat with it broke up..." There was a brief flash of sadness in his gray eyes. "Although I would have traded Toad and that Indian bastard for those two cosmonauts. One of them helped Clarice give Angelo CPR."
Amanda's eyes widened slightly, and her hand froze in the act of reaching for her glass. "...CPR?" she asked, voice faint.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "Well, I can't really blame him for not telling you - I doubt he remembers." Although all things being equal, it was probably better to hear this from him than Clarice. "He wasn't breathing when Clarice teleported him back into the glider, at first. She fixed that pretty much right away, though."
"I don't think he knows, no..." she replied distantly. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she concentrated on pulling herself together. He died, but only for a minute or two. 'S okay, he's okay. "'M sorry, I know he's all right now, 's just... I didn't realise we came so close to..." Losing him.
"He is all right," Nathan said, quietly but firmly. "It's all right to reel a bit, finding out something like that happened, but just keep the here and now in mind."
"I feel dumb, reacting like this, 'specially when he's all right," she admitted. "And 'specially when there's people who aren't, like those cosmonauts you mentioned. Selfish, I s'pose." She rubbed a hand over her face, then pushed her hair back. "I'm sorry they didn't make it, after everything."
"Me too." There was a suspicious creak from the direction of Rachel's bedroom door, and Nathan leaned sideways in his chair. "Nap." A muffled giggle and the sound of the door closing again was the only response he got, and he shook his head quizzically. "I ought to take her up to the house to see him tomorrow, she's been asking."
"He'd like that." Amanda recovered enough to give him a wry smile, glad for the diversion. "He's bored silly, and it's only been a couple of days. The munchkin would cheer him up a lot, as long as she's okay with him not being up and about - the cough's getting better, at least."
"Are you kidding? According to Moira, she curled up on me the first day I spent on the couch and didn't move for twelve hours. I think when we're immobile, she's kind of gleeful. Easy target and all."
"Something like that. I know Ange'd like to see her too." Amanda finished her sandwich. "He's been a bit up and down, mood-wise, but I'm guessing that's the whole trauma thing."
"If it's just a bit, he's doing well, all things considered. Although I'm hoping he's planning to make an appointment with Jack once he's recovered a little more - I'd kind of like to see him sidestep the whole new phobia thing if possible," Nathan said, remembering rather vividly that portion of the conversation in Tibet. "He's got enough weighing on him already." And I wish I could stop dreaming about seeing him floating in space.
"Maybe we can tag-team him on the Jack appointment?" Amanda asked, not entirely joking. "He's having the odd nightmare already, and I remember what he was like after Tel Aviv." She grinned a little.
"Benefits of having a shrink on-staff - you get used to the whole post-trauma counselling. After Candra... talking to Sof really helped. Even if she does threaten to take me shoe shopping as therapy."
"Tag-teaming could work. Although if I don't soon make an appointment for myself while I'm at it, Jack will start stalking me and conniving with Moira again. Speaking of which, I need to call your scary shrink," Nathan said. "I seem to recall her and I making a deal, prior to the whole space thing. I was going to take her out to lunch and she was going to tell me all my shortcomings. Again."
"Everyone needs a hobby," she replied, teasingly. "And there's only so much fun for her in Remy-baiting."
