Shadow King: Little Earthquakes

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Laurie brings Nathan some lunch, and gets a little too familiar.


Laurie closed the door firmly behind her, and walked over to the bed where Nathan was sitting. "Lunchtime." she said brightly, smiling at him and placing the tray on the table stretched over the bed.

Nathan didn't react to either her voice or her presence. He looked terrible - unshaven and ghostly pale, and the way he sat, hunch-shouldered and tentative, didn't bear any resemblance to his usual confident posture. Unfocused gray eyes flickered towards her almost warily, then away.

Laurie would have liked to reach out a hand, soothe away the pain and give him a chance to sleep but Amelia had asked her not to. They weren't sure yet exactly what was going on and it wouldn't help Nate to be sedated constantly, even if her power was a little less harsh then medication.

"I brought you soup today, just the way you like it. And some fresh baked bread, I thought you'd like that." she continued instead, trying to keep her voice light and unfettered by her internal worries. "Would you like some help, or do you think you can eat it by yourself?"

"No need for force-feeding." Nathan looked up at her sharply - then froze, his eyes widening in something close to horror. "Don't... come near me," he said, his voice increasingly hoarse, tight with something close to panic.

"Nathan? What's wrong?" Laurie asked, her voice gone soft as she moved closer to the bed, her hand reaching out for him.

He was off the bed in an instant and into the corner of the room, his back to the wall. His face was tense and ashen and he watched her with a frightening level of intensity. Though he wasn't making any aggressive moves, the rigidity of his posture suggested that the moment he did wouldn't be too far away if she got too much closer.

"Don't you trust me, Nathan?" Laurie asked, tone indicating hurt along with something else, something much darker. "I'm only trying to help you. Come on now, just let me help you, and you'll feel so much better."

She wasn't in focus. What was wrong with his eyes? Nathan blinked rapidly, then rubbed his eyes, trying to shake the blurriness. The double-image. Lab coat... no lab coat. There was something on the pocket of the lab coat. An access card? That made sense. These rooms were secured, you couldn't get into them without an access card. The shape by the door was the guard with the taser.

"Nathan, you need to stop this and get back into bed. Unless you want me to call the doctor." Laurie continued, moving around the bed in order to get closer to him. "You don't want me to have to do that, do you? You know how she gets."

Lab coat... no lab coat. And the guard at the door wasn't a guard, but just a shadow. Only how were there shadows in here, when there was so much white? Nathan slid down the wall, head down on his arms for a moment as he choked back a moan of protest. Dark would be easier. Maybe if he smashed the lights? Except he didn't know where the light was coming from, because it was everywhere...

Laurie was closer now, and she crouched rapidly, placing her hand against his shoulder. "You can trust me, Nathan. I'm your friend, and you trust me. Now, come with me and we'll do something about that headache."

The hand that clenched down on her wrist had a grip like steel, but he didn't quite slam her against the wall in his next movement. It was his instinct to do just that, to put his other hand around her throat and squeeze... but there was just enough rationality left in his brain to say make some space instead of fight.

Laurie reacted instinctively to the grip on her wrist after so much training with Garrison, pulling a foot upward she scraped it down Nathan's instep hard while using her other hand to push at his shoulder.

"Dr Voght!" she called out sharply.

There was green smoke everywhere suddenly, and then Laurie was across the room from where she'd been, Amelia all but holding her upright. "Nathan!" the Russian doctor said sharply as the psi came up into a defensive crouch, all the furniture in the room rattling violently. The vibration moved through the floor as well, a localized mini-earthquake. "Calm down! I do not want to have to sedate you again!"

Laurie trembled in Amelia's hands, trying to keep her legs from giving out on her. She'd never been on the receiving end of violence from Nathan and having him suddenly grab her had been a shock.

Nathan was trembling just as visibly. "Then don't come near me!" His voice was an exhausted, desperate snarl. "Don't come near me, don't touch me, get out of here! And take them with you!" He jerked backwards, hitting the wall with his shoulder and then pushing himself into the corner. His eyes were reddened, and he was blinking rapidly, as if trying to focus. "You come near me with that, and I'll kill you. I'll break it and I'll kill you - I'll do it, you taught me how! You wait until I'm asleep, or I'll make you sorry you ever put on that uniform!"

Laurie wondered what he was talking about, or who. He'd said them, them who? She suddenly had an idea that she was missing something rather substantial here. She got her feet back under her and gently pushed Amelia's grip away. "I think I should go, Dr Voght. I don't want to upset him any further."

But Amelia took her arm in a grip that was almost as tight as Nathan's had been. "I think we should both go," she said, her voice steely, and all but marched Laurie out the door, pausing only to lock it securely behind her. "Did you touch him?" she demanded, once they were safely outside.

"He was freaking out, crouched in a corner. I thought...I thought a friendly touch would help." Laurie protested, rubbing her hands against her upper arms to calm herself. "I don't know what happened, he just, he went mad."

"Just when I was starting to give you credit for more common sense than the vast majority of your peers!" Amelia was quite impressively wrathful, hustling her down the hall and away from the rooms where the psis were confined. "We are trying to keep him calm, so that sedation or the Box isn't necessary! You're a member of the team, you know his background - do you want to be the one to explain to Doctor MacTaggart what drove her husband into flashbacks?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't...it wouldn't have come to that. He's just scared, that's all. I'd have been okay, he'd have been okay." Laurie exclaimed, allowing herself to be pushed ahead of the doctor.

"Your optimism astounds me. I swear, I have no idea what-"

"Amelia, why are you yelling at a student?" The question came from Scott, who had just stepped into the infirmary, and raised an eyebrow tiredly at the scene with which he was presented. "We generally try not to do that. It's unproductive."

"No, it... Mr Summers, Dr Voght was just explaining to me why we don't try to touch patients suffering psychotic breaks." Laurie said, standing up straighter, her face going carefully calm and neutral.

She wasn't about to get the doctor in trouble for disciplining her when she'd obviously done something wrong.

Scott sighed, rubbing at his temples for a moment. Amelia was giving him a level look. "Good thought, that one," he said. "Of course, I'm not-touching my wife because she thinks she's eleven, and so a pat on the shoulder makes me feel like a pedophile."

"She's been good today," Laurie murmured, looking at them both with a somewhat helpless expression.

Scott's look turned rather pained. "I'll go see how she's doing," he said, starting towards the hall - then paused, eyeing the doctor and the young woman. "We're fine here, right?" There was an edge to his tone that suggested they had better be.

Amelia nodded curtly. "Although Ms. Collins and I need to finish our talk," she said, shepherding Laurie onwards towards her office. Her tone was more moderate, if still sharper than usual, when she finally went on. "I deeply appreciate your help this week, Laurie, but you need to be careful. For your own sake, as well as everyone else's."

"I know, doctor. I'm sorry about what happened, I'll be more careful in the future." Laurie replied, following Amelia into her office.