Nathan and Laurie log

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Laurie heads down to medlab with Nathan's lunch.



Laurie entered Nate's room, carrying with her a tray that held a plate, a cup and various condiments. It was dinner time, and she'd decided to take it upon herself to be the one that brought it down to him this time. Besides, she needed to catch up on some of her volunteer hours in Medlab, and bringing patients their meals was one of the least strenuous duties.

"Nate." she said, greeting him with a small smile.

Nathan had been staring rather blankly at the wall - or perhaps the currently inactive television screen, it wasn't entirely clear from where Laurie had been standing. He twitched at her voice, then winced, one arm curling around his side as he shifted restlessly on the bed.

Laurie wasn't sure what medications they had him on, so she resisted the urge to give him a little helping hand. They still weren't quite sure what sort of interaction, if any, her powers would have with traditional medical practices. Something that needed careful experimentation, in controlled environments. If she hadn't had those words drilled into her head over the past year or so, then she hadn't been listening well enough.

She walked over and moved the small table around till it stretched in front of him before she placed the tray of food on it. "I've brought you dinner, Nate." she said, voice modulated into what she hoped was a soothing tone.

Nathan's eyes narrowed and focused (almost). "Laurie," he said in a voice that still sounded rusty, even after a week awake. "I'm not five years old... or much more brain-damaged that I was in July."

"Sorry." she muttered, controlling the flash of irritation with a firm hand. She wasn't treating him like he was five years old, or brain damaged. He'd just seemed fuzzy, that was all. "You looked like you were a bit out of it."

Nathan raised his other hand, rubbing at his eyes. "Can't concentrate properly. Sleeping during the day - it messes me up."

"I believe the word they use for it is 'recovery'. It's the part where you're getting healthy, rather then injuring yourself." Laurie noted, unable to completely remove all irritation from her tone. " I know it's a new concept for you, but do try and make a go of it."

The flash of anger was sudden, and quite a bit stronger than it should have been. He caught his breath a little too sharply, and pain jolted through his chest. "If you want to see me injure myself," he said, his voice more gravelly than it had been a moment ago, "keep it up, and I'll find out if I can throw you bodily out of here."

Well, this was going just ducky, first, Kyle and now Nate. Laurie wondered if she'd be able to make it through the month without mortally offending or upsetting everyone in a five mile radius of herself.

"Sorry. That was...inappropriate." Laurie said, pulling the lid off the food she'd brought and then going to pick up the garbage can near to his bed, along with the bedpan close by. It was the least glamorous part of the job, but still one that needed doing. "Eat your dinner. I'll be back when you're done."

"Laurie, don't... scuttle off." Ow, ribs. Nathan closed his eyes and tried to even out his breathing, aware he was shaking, probably visibly to boot. "Couldn't throw you out if I tried, I think. Just... what the hell?"

"It's just reaction." she said, placing the pan and bin she was holding close to the door so she could pick them up when she left. "I was in Sri Lanka, I don't know if you knew that. It wasn't terribly pretty, and those people...It's nothing. I meant nothing. I'm just tired, and snappy and I took it out on you, I'm sorry."

She didn't mention the fact that none of the people she'd seen in Sri Lanka had been able to save themselves. They hadn't had the power, or the money and some hadn't even had the will left over to do it. By the end when they'd been evacuated, she'd found herself even resenting them slightly, the sheer defeat in their eyes, and she knew that none of it mattered. Their deaths were meaningless, just as their lives had been meaningless to anyone but themselves. But, at least that had been living, at least it had been something. Death was nothing, just nothing.

Nathan stared at her blankly enough that Laurie could have been forgiven for assuming his switch have flipped back to 'out of it'. "Fine," he said finally - not harshly, but not quite uncertainly, either. He really did need to make someone sit down and catch him up on what had been going on around here while he'd been sleeping most of August away. "It doesn't bug me if you're snappy. I've had worse. Just... leave that alone. Get so sick of it, even when it is a joke. And it's not, this time."

"What happened?" Laurie asked, moving further back into the room. "I haven't had a chance to read any of the team files since I got back."

The comment only brought it home how disjointed his sense of elapsed time had become, in all of this. "I think the technical term is 'ganged up upon'. Don't really remember all the details, and no one's really talking."

"I'm surprised Angelo isn't in here trying to mother you." Laurie said with a more genuine smile now. "Or, Pete called her Dom?"

"I don't need mothering. I need better luck." Nathan rubbed at his eyes. "Or fewer people who hate my guts. That might be the answer."

"Less people hating you does tend to be a solution in and of itself." Laurie noted, the tension in her shoulders relaxing suddenly. "Problem being, I'm told that being efficient at our job means there's lots of people who hate us. I'm not sure people like Magneto or 'insert name of bad guy dujour here', would make great poker buddies anyhow."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Who said it had anything to do with the job?" he asked flatly.

"You regularly piss off people that much outside your job?" Laurie asked, interested. "I wouldn't think it were possible."

"Depends on what you define as the job." His head was throbbing at this point, and his stomach was definitely not into the whole idea of food right now. He shifted gingerly on the bed, ignoring his lunch. "Enjoy being able to make that separation while you can."

"I wouldn't think I'd ever end up with that particular problem." Laurie noted, and then smiled slightly as she realised how prim that sounded. "Sorry, that came out badly."

"Right. We don't plan these things, you know. They just happen." Nathan rubbed at his eyes again, then at his forehead. "It's cold in here," he muttered. "I feel like shit today. I've been dreaming about being underwater, and falling..."

"Did you want some help?" Laurie asked, looking at the temperature gauge for the room. It didn't seem all that cold, but perhaps she was less sensitive then Nathan was right now.

"Help with what? Memories of hypothermia?" He smiled a bit crookedly and closed his eyes, willing the ache in his head to die down a little. "I'm sorry. You brought lunch, but I'm just not..."

"No, memories I can't do anything about. The ache in your head though, and your appetite? That I can help with." Laurie said, holding out her hand in offer.

He cracked open an eye. "Are you allowed?" he asked, not quite warily. "Don't fancy getting you in trouble with any of the redheads..."

"No one's ever said I couldn't." Laurie said with a shrug. "I don't think giving you a few minutes peace, enough to eat your lunch and feel better is going to upset Jean or Moira much. It's not dangerous, Nate. At least, not this type of use."

"Except if it masks the signs of something they need to know," Nathan said after a moment, fighting a weird sense of deja vu. "I'm not a masochist. I don't enjoy pain or discomfort, but they do a tell a doctor things. Sometimes important things."

"Possibly, except for two facts. One, I'm going to let Jean know what I've done, so she'll know how you've been feeling and two, doctors give patients pain management all the time. It's expected that you don't leave someone feeling so horrible they can't eat." Laurie replied, tone modulated now to hide her irritation. What was it with people and her powers? Was she really that scary? "But I understand if you're uncomfortable with this. I can talk to Jean about getting you some anti-nausea meds and perhaps something to dull the headache if you'd prefer."

"So who's the cute blonde," came a voice from the doorway, "and why precisely is she lecturing you, old man?" Domino came through the doorway, immaculately put together in an excessively business-like pantsuit that screamed 'I've just been meeting with people I need to impress'. She smiled briefly at Laurie and then went around to the other side of the bed, sitting on the edge. "By the way, that Russian attache? Asked me on a date."

"You told him no, I hope," Nathan said dourly, wincing as he shifted on the bed.

"I told him I didn't like men."

Laurie looked at this newcomer curiously, a grin appearing a moment later at the way Nate and she interacted. This most definitely had to be the 'Dom' Pete had talked about.

"I'm sure Pete will be terribly sorry to hear that." Laurie said, sitting back in her chair, her hands going back to her lap.

"See, by 'men' I actually mean 'boys'. I don't mind men. Once they're seasoned a little, they can actually be quite tolerable." Domino reached out and laid a hand on Nathan's forehead. He shivered, and she frowned. "You're hot."

"He's being stubborn." Laurie noted, giving Nate a look. "Won't let me help him with that in case it masks something else."

"Stop it, Laurie," Nathan sighed, pulling away from Domino's hand. "I don't want you going down that road with me."

Domino glanced back and forth between them, one eyebrow raised. Her eyes fell on the blank television screen and she frowned, looking around at the room for an instant. "Nice to meet you, Laurie," she said to the girl, even as she reached out for the remote, flipping the television on and through the channels for a moment until she located a nice, innocuous documentary.

Nathan found himself relaxing slightly at the sudden addition of background noise, and Domino smiled, if a bit tightly. "You know sitting around in the quiet down here does bad things to your head," she said quietly.

Laurie stopped herself from tensing up, and mentally counted to ten before allowing herself to nod at Domino. "Nice to meet you too. Sorry I didn't say hello earlier, I've been a bit of a hermit of late."

"Hey, it's a big school. And for all that I've been here a few weeks, I haven't gotten around much." Nathan's eyes had closed again, and Domino gazed at him for a long moment, tilting her head. "Well, there are worse things than playing Sleeping Beauty, Nate..." She didn't even get a growl in response, and looked back at Laurie, shrugging cheerfully enough despite the restrained if obvious concern in her eyes.

"He'll be fine." Laurie noted, as much for her own benefit as Domino's. "I'm told he's suffered worse. Mostly it'll just be him sleeping now while he heals. As long as he eats, anyhow."

Dom's smile was wry, but gentle for all that. "I've known him since I was fourteen, Laurie. I've seen him go through more than I like to remember. This..." She shook her head slightly. "Maybe once or twice, in all that time, it's been this close."

Laurie was silent for a long time after that, eyes drifting to the documentary as she sort for something to say. She had nothing very comforting to say, and Sri Lanka had sucked all the warmth from her soul, seemingly. She felt cold and tired now, and if she'd been able to shut off all emotion she might have.

It wasn't her way though, and nor was giving up. You went on, and when you couldn't go further, you found someone to carry you. Nathan would have his family and friends to carry him, that was what mattered.

"He will be okay, Dom. Jean and Amelia, they'll look after him. We've rebuilt someone's entire body almost before, this can't be that much harder."

"I know he will." Domino sighed, patting Nathan's shoulder as she rose. "Kind of wish he'd retire or something, though. Or just stick to harassing bureaucrats and chasing Ray around."

"I don't know if he'd be happy doing that." Laurie noted, glancing at the possibly sleeping man. She would have smiled at herself, she supposed, thinking she knew the man to speak of him. But they'd talked, when she'd been around for it. Maybe not about this, but about other things. "I think we get addicted to the idea that we make a difference by being out there. Hard to make someone believe there's other ways to do it. Especially when he does make a difference that way. He got me out of jail, once, it feels like forever ago."

Domino adjusted Nathan's blankets, then straightened. "We should let him sleep," she said, "and maybe make sure Amelia knows his temperature's up."

"We should." Laurie said, standing up and walking over to the door. She looked back as she opened it. "So, how long ago did you last eat?"

"I subsist on air and sarcasm, but thank you."