xp_logs | Nathan and Sooraya, Friday afternoon

Nathan continues to defy all previous precedent by making like the best patient in the world, but when Sooraya stops to visit him, some of the questions she asks force him to realize that he's been avoiding thinking too hard about what happened in Chechnya.

Sooraya hadn't been down in the infirmary, well, ever. In truth, it scared her a little. Most of the strangeness of the mansion she had adjusted to, in the way that constant exposure would do to just about the oddest things, but the infirmary was still foreign and a bit intimidating. She wanted to visit Nathan, however, and once she had been told that it was fine to do so she had taken a deep breath and headed down there, ignoring the nervous turning of her stomach. At least if she was going to be sick she was going to the right place?

Nathan was dozing when she got there, propped up on pillows and a book lying open on his lap. His eyes opened as she paused at the doorway, however. His telepathy had been oddly in and out - probably the drugs, injuries or both - but Sooraya's presence was unmistakable.

"Hey, you." He frowned slightly, noticing her nervous state. "What's wrong?"

Sooraya offered him a smile, hovering in the doorway for a moment before taking a step further inside the room. "This place has a funny feeling to it," she said by way of explanation. "I have not seen it before."

"And yet you know me so well. I'm going to start using you as an example of how I really can't be that bad, if you've never come down here to visit me before." Nathan closed the book and set it aside on the bedside table. "You can sit down, if you want. I'll protect you if Amelia comes storming in."

"I'm sorry I did not come sooner," Sooraya said, finding her way to a chair and taking a seat. She looked at Nate anxiously, afraid that he would be upset with her for not visiting him before now.

She got only a smile in response. "It's okay - Moira's been happy to see me doing as I'm told and resting. It's good to see you now, though. How are you?" Now watch, she would point out the irony of him asking that when he was the one in the hospital bed.

Sooraya didn't say anything, but she did give him a faintly incredulous look, relaxing a little more comfortably in the chair. "I have been worried," she admitted, "about all the teachers who have been leaving and coming back hurt. And all the fighting happening. It seems everybody is very unhappy right now."

Nathan sighed, the smile fading. "I've heard things haven't been very quiet." News had trickled down via other visitors about the mission that had gone bad. He'd asked Moira if hiding in the infirmary for another week was an option; she'd immediately checked him for fever. "As what happened to Dr. Grey and I..." His mouth twisted slightly. "We were trying to do something we felt was important, to stop someone who's made a bad habit of hurting people. Turned out the situation wasn't quite as it looked, and we had some trouble."

"What happened?" Maybe it was a bit presumptuous for her to ask, but she had learned in her classwork and her time with Elpis that the best way to figure things out was to ask question, and Nathan had always encouraged that. She hoped he wouldn't mind this time.

Nathan hesitated. "I can't tell you the whole story," he said, "but we were... tricked, basically. Someone else was there with this person, and when I tried to help Dr. Grey, she shot me." He didn't sugar-coat that part; no real point, after all, given Sooraya's background. She'd seen violence and the consequences of it before.

The frown grew, but Sooraya merely nodded, picking distractedly at her sleeves. "Why were you tricked? Why did this person want to do that?" She understood now the deceitfulness of countries, of corrupt leaders and groups that would rather look the other way than help people in need. She still didn't grasp how an individual could willingly hurt another; what kind of motivations could lead to such behavior?

"I... wouldn't listen to her." Nathan stopped, trying to think of how to put this. "You encountered... fanatics, back home," he said slowly. "That's what she was. She wanted me to believe in what she believed..." Nathan stopped, his expression increasingly disturbed.

Why had she shot him? That didn't make any sense at all.

Taking in Nathan's odd expression, Sooraya first glanced at the wall, where he was staring and then looked back at him, concerned. "Maybe you cannot understand why she did that because she does not think like normal people do," she ventured. "Maybe it is not possible to."

Nathan was paler than he had been a moment again, but he wrestled his expression back under control, his smile a little wan. "You know, that makes a lot of sense. Strange people we meet in this life, sometimes... I'm hoping not to meet her again anytime soon."

But part of his brain was still worrying away at the question that had finally been raised. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't been trying to avoid thinking about what had happened. Lying down here stewing for a week hadn't been a pleasant thought, so he'd... avoided.

But he wasn't going to be able to do that for much longer.

"And if you do, please have many other people with you. I do not think this woman is a person to have lightly."

"No, definitely not..." Nathan raised a hand and rubbed his eyes, sighing. "Tell me something happy," he said, impulsively. Just a little more avoidance. Just for right now.

Thinking quite deliberately for a moment, Sooraya pursed her lips and dropped her eyes to her lap. "I have an A in history," she said, naming something that had made her happy recently.

Nathan's eyes lit up, and for a moment, he just smiled at her. "An A," he said. "In history. Damn this whole being flat on my back thing, or I'd take you out to celebrate..."

"It would be good to celebrate by you getting well," the girl replied sternly, though there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "I think I will like that best of all."

"It's a deal. I'll get mobile, and we'll celebrate. Best of both worlds." Nathan tried to shift position slightly and winced.

Sobering, Sooraya stood, sensing that it was time to let Nathan rest some more. "I must go to do my homework now," she told him, once again shaking her sleeves down over her hands. "But if it is okay, I will come back later?"

"Hey, I might be out of here, tomorrow or the next day..." It depended on Amelia's verdict on the next set of X-rays, but he felt pretty hopeful. All in all, he had gotten off a lot more lightly than he might have. "So if not here, then in the boathouse, okay? Although I will definitely not be in the office for a while."