Adrienne and Nathan, Saturday evening

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Adrienne visits Nathan in the infirmary hoping to pick his brain about shielding. Nathan's brain still isn't really in a state to be picked. He does however offer her a raincheck.


Now that she no longer had jail and a lethal injection to occupy her thoughts, Adrienne's most pressing issue had returned to controlling her powers. The circuit-breaker the Professor had installed in her head was a dream come true, but the psychometrist knew that when Xavier warned her it wasn't a long-term solution, he meant it. Since her meeting with Fred Duncan, she had been working on her meditating, and had been trying to make some headway into learning how to shield her thoughts. Since she wasn't making progress as quickly as she desired, however, Adrienne had decided to go speak to Nathan and see if he could help her. Now that he wasn't in a coma anymore.

He was still in the infirmary, apparently, and Adrienne arrived at his room after some initial uneasiness over the thought of disturbing him. She knocked and waited a beat before opening the door to find him walking rather carefully around his room. "Are you here because you exploded your brain on that damn memory crystal?" she asked by way of greeting.

Nathan looked up at her, something close to incredulity in his eyes for a moment before his jaw clenched. "You," he said, breathing heavily - and that really wasn't doing his ribs any good, he had to admit, "are just weird. I'd think of a better word, but. Tired." Limping, and none too steady on his feet, he made his way back to the bed and sat down, shaking from the exertion. At least Amelia had finally supplied proper pajamas a couple of days ago. Adrienne was about the last person in the mansion he'd actually want to flash.

"Christ, you look awful, Dayspring," the brunette responded genially. "If this is how you look after an extended period of time in here, I'd hate to have seen how you looked when you first arrived." She sat on a chair across from him. "How's Rachel doing with dad still in the infirmary?"

It took considerably more effort than it should have to swing his legs back up onto the bed, and Nathan laid back against the pillows, trying to convince his heart to slow down. "Spending as much time in here as she can get away with," he said, his hoarse voice unsteady. His head was spinning, too. Equilibrium was a tricky thing since he'd woken up. "I don't think Moira minds. It keeps her out of trouble."

Nervous, Adrienne eyed the door and wondered if she should call for Amelia. Nathan looked pretty ill. "Don't pass out on me," she warned him. "I don't really want to have to talk to that evil Amelia." She spotted some pills on the bedside table in a cup, and held them out in front of Nathan's nose, grabbing a glass of water with her other hand. "Take your medicine. Maybe I won't feel so guilty about bothering you if I know you're not going to go unconscious."

Nathan eyed the pills; Amelia had left them earlier, and he'd promised to take them, fully intending to once he tried walking around a little again. The painkillers in particular left him so woozy that 'stroll first, drugs later' was a necessity. He took them and the glass of water from Adrienne, downing them in one gulp and taking a few swallows of water before he set the glass back on the bedside table.

"I may zone out on you, with these," he warned her and sighed, eyes moving to the ceiling for a moment. "I'm getting so sick of this room."

"What the hell did you do to yourself?" Adrienne inquired with genuine curiosity.

"I did not do anything to myself," Nathan grumbled. "Two bastards of my acquaintance killed me. Yes," he said before Adrienne could react, "literally. Just didn't stick. Hurray CPR."

Adrienne made a face, masking her concern with snark. "You need some new acquaintances, Mister Dayspring. Or else you need to stay in your boathouse and stop being so damned heroic. How many Boy Scouts does this place need?" Not that she minded the Boy Scouts around the mansion, of course. Helpful men were rather useful. "Speaking of Boy Scouts, I realize you're probably not in top condition, but I was hoping you could talk to me about psychic shielding and meditation."

"Oh, I see. You came down here to pick my brain. You think you could let me recover from the fractured skull before you try to use me for your own purposes?" The snappishness didn't have much energy (or sincerity) behind it. More pro forma than anything else.

Eyebrow raised, Adrienne gave Nathan a look. "Sorry, sunshine, it takes a lot more than a fractured skull to keep me from using people for my own purposes. Haven't you figured that one out by now?" If she suspected Nathan to be sincere she would have left, but Adrienne didn't think he really meant for her to leave. "I don't know why I'm still here anyway, you're probably too loopy to be much good to me," she said by way of challenge.

If she had any idea how refreshing it was for someone to be down here wanting or needing something from him, as opposed to treating him like an invalid, she was hiding it well. "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, then," he said, closing his eyes. "As for your shields, they look like little wee scraps of lace. Very pretty. Completely useless."

Adrienne shifted from the chair to the bed, landing as hard as she could, even bouncing once or twice to see how queasy Nathan would get. "At least they're pretty." She poked him in the shoulder, gently. "Come on then. Tell me how to make them stronger. I'm better at the meditating lately, now that I'm not so preoccupied with... other things. But I don't know how to strengthen my shields; if there's anything specific I can do. I thought you could tell me what I need to do."

Nathan grimaced in pain as the bouncing on the bed jolted his ribs; the drugs didn't kick in that fast. "I can tell you all kinds of things," he said, opening his eyes, one arm curling around his side protectively. "Apart from weird inexplicable lapses that are there one day and gone the next, my shields are usually pretty good."

Guiltily Adrienne pulled Nathan's covers up around his ribs, being careful not to jostle him. "Well inexplicable lapses don't sound all that promising, to tell you the truth," she said wryly, "but considering how my only other options are the Professor, who scares me, and Emma, who scares me even more, I'll settle for you. How'd you get your shields to be 'pretty good'?"

Nathan took as deep a breath as he dared, gazing up at her. "Charles wasn't the only one who trained me," he said after a moment. "My other teacher... shielding was an art form for her. And don't worry about the inexplicable lapses, that was probably just a hangover from all the shit with the astral plane..." He and Jean had never pinned down the cause, and just because it had vanished after that set-to with... whoever had wiped his mind in Arlington, didn't mean it hadn't been Farouk's 'episode' that had started it all.

"I don't know what an 'astral plane' is," Adrienne informed him, taking his water from the table and sipping at it, "but I promise I'm not going to get a hangover while I'm there. I have had all the celebratory libations I'm going to have for the next ten years. So how long did it take you to finish your training?"

Nathan had to think about that for a moment. "About.... eighteen months, maybe? From having bad shields to good shields... and that was working with Charles and Askani."

"Well, thank you, Deputy Downer," the psychometrist muttered with a sigh. "You're just conspiring to make me work with the Professor and Emma, aren't you? Maybe I should talk to this Askani woman..." she mused. "Who is she?"

"You realize that since you're not actually a telepath, it's less complicated, right?" He'd think, at least. There was a different need in the shielding, for her... one he had personal experience with, in retrospect. "And oh, Askani's dead. A couple of times over, unfortunately."

Raising an eyebrow at Nathan's probably-drug-induced answer, Adrienne cracked a smile. "A couple times over? Sort of like you? Except you're only half-dead right now." She set his water glass back down on the table and pondered what he'd said before speaking about Askani. "Less complicated? That's what I like to hear. How do I start?"

"When I'm out of here, we can talk. Or when there aren't two of you. Either's good." Nathan closed his eyes, resolutely ignoring the vague stirrings of nausea. "It has to do with meditative patterns and other things that would make me throw up on your shoes if I tried to do this now."

"I've been working on my meditating," she replied with a nod. "Hopefully I won't be a terrible student." Picking up on the gentle hints, Adrienne rose from the bed and gave Nathan an awkward pat on the shoulder, which was about as affectionate as she got with people. "I don't want you to throw up on my shoes. I like my shoes. Get some rest, Dayspring," she said as she moved to the doorway. "I don't want you to die on me before you teach me about shielding."