Nathan and Adrienne, backdated to Thursday morning

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Adrienne makes an appointment at the Elpis office to discuss their latest fundraising initiative. She winds up making a couple of completely unrelated offers to Nathan.


Because it was her company's money she'd been donating, Adrienne made sure to make an appointment with Juliette to see Nathan at the Elps office, rather than just showing up at the boathouse for a casual conversation. She arrived precisely on time, never one to show up early as it meant waiting around doing absolutely nothing while the person you were meeting usually scrambled around trying to prepare, leaving them flustered which affected the quality of the information they gave you. Or they left you in the waiting area and you were bored and irritated that they hadn't been ready for you even earlier because surely they'd had nothing better to do than spend all their spare time preparing for your arrival. The only time being early was advantagous was when one wanted the person they were meeting with to be flustered and unprepared.

This was not one of those times, so Adrienne showed up when she'd said she would. Everything was nice and official on her schedule and on Elpis's: Meeting between Nathan Dayspring and Adrienne Frost re: fundraising and donations. "Last I heard from you," Adrienne called out when she spotted Nathan as she entered the office, "was on New Year's Day when you said you were going on a consulting trip on the journals. You didn't even announce your return," she pointed out, trying to find a balance in her tone between irritability and concern. "Everything okay?"

"Fine," Nathan said, looking up from the work he was doing. The visible bruises had faded - a little, but that only meant that he looked like he'd tangled with a bus, rather than a train. He scratched self-consciously at the edge of the bandage on his head, shrugging, and then rose. "Can I get you some coffee?"

"You look stunning," Adrienne said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "No, I'm fine. Are you sure you should be here? It's not as if my business can't wait until you've got a few less bruises."

"When our donors call, we answer," Nathan said with a faint smile, and got himself a cup anyway. He'd only had two today. "Otherwise, they tend not to remain donors."

Adrienne took a seat. "I sort of figured you'd say that," she smirked. "The donor thing was really just an excuse to see how you were, but I am curious whether you got all those bruises because of something you were doing for Elpis, or a side project."

"It didn't have anything to do with Elpis," Nathan said, coming back over to sit down. He could almost see Juliette's ears pricking. Pity he was going to disappoint her. "It's not something I can talk about, unfortunately. Regarding the donor thing - I know the appeal for more funds was sounding a little more desperate than usual this month."

Narrowing her eyes, the psychometrist toyed with the medallion around her neck. "It was, yes. Which is why I was worried your current state and the begging for more donor money were a part of the same project. Can I ask you what the money is being used for, then?"

He didn't want to talk about this. He really didn't. Why couldn't she have gone to see Joel? Nathan sighed and set the coffee cup down. "The DDR project is turning out to be more complicated and expensive than expected," he said. "We're having to enlist more staff than anticipated, and that's an ongoing expense. Either we get the funds to address those expenses or we have to scale back. And we'd prefer to avoid the latter."

"Of course." So there was the official angle taken care of, then. Something for her to take back to her bean counters. Her next question might have been construed as being mere donor interest, which was fine, but Adrienne suspected that Nathan would be able to tell from the change in her tone of voice that she was asking out of personal interest. "Have you begun to see any results from the project, or has it not really started to pay off yet?"

The tightness in his chest made him pause for a moment, looking away. "It's a long-term thing," he said, his voice neutral. "The challenges these kids have... there's a lot of damage to overcome."

"Of course," she repeated, then had her own pause for thought, deciding that perhaps it was better to change the topic, though she wasn't sure if the one she was interested in would be any more welcome. "The last time I saw you was at the Hellfire Club, and you'd just found out that your mother had given some random man a watch for graduation. I never heard the story behind that. How did she know him? Did you ask her about it at all?"

Nathan's mouth opened and closed. "Uh... um. Sorry," he said finally, haltingly. "I suppose I was too much in shock that night to explain." And then Wakanda had happened. "My mother's been dead for... thirteen years now, almost. I... hardly knew her. Something-" Someone. "-damaged my childhood memories so badly that I remember very little of her. I only saw her once more, between the time I was fourteen and her death, and I... well, I didn't know who she was at the time."

Adrienne sat with her mouth open for several moments, trying to process what Nathan had been saying. Someone had damaged his memories? Before thinking about the consequences, she found herself saying "if you have access to anything of hers, I might be able to help you get those memories back." Her experience with Morgan had already shown her that sometimes it wasn't always better to just bury the past-sometimes, for some people, it was comforting rather than damaging. And while it wasn't an offer she would make for anyone, she would offer Nathan that chance for comfort if she could help provide it. "If you want that," she added with a shrug.

Nathan was looking rather like she'd smacked him upside the head with a baseball bat. It had never occurred to him, not even the times he'd worked with her on meditation... "I...I don't know," he said, not feeling the slightest bit self-conscious at the stammer. "I don't know if I have anything..."

"Alright," Adrienne said gently, suspecting that he would react in this way. "Well, think about it, and if you... think of anything you might be forgetting about, let me know." She shifted gears once again, still trying to pick a topic that would go over well. "How's Rachel?"

"She's good. She and Moira should be back tomorrow." He didn't look like he knew whether to be thrilled or vaguely worried. He still hadn't told Moira much of... well, anything. That conversation was not something he was looking forward to.

Scrutinizing the look on Nathan's face, Adrienne gave him her best sympathetic look in response. "Nathan," she began in her best schoolmarm tone, "does your wife not know about your bruises and bandages?"

Nathan managed a faint smile. "Fairly nosy question, that one," he said. "Why wouldn't I tell my wife about my bruises and bandages?"

Smiling back, Adrienne gave him a pointed look. "Because you're afraid of her wrath over the fact that you obviously went out and got yourself hurt again?"

"Yes," Nathan said. The smile stayed on, but there was something very dark in his eyes. "It's an old, old story. My life is a series of repeating motifs. It's part of my charm. So, are you feeling more charitable than usual this month, or should I go talk to your sister?"

Adrienne recoiled at the look in Nathan's eyes. "I... I'm really not feeling charitable," she admitted, "but because it's you, and because I don't want my sister to out-charity me, I'll increase my donations." Frowning, she toyed with the medallion around her neck. "You're really not fine, are you? You know, Morgan says keeping your problems to yourself is bad. You want to tell me what's going on?" Not that she would have any idea what to do if he did tell her what was going on, but the offer, like the offer to help him rediscover his memories, was there anyway.

"I can't," Nathan said, not ungently; he could tell the offer was sincerely meant, and he didn't want her to think he didn't appreciate it. And yet, there was as much chance of him telling her (or anyone, at least right now) as there was of the sun rising in the west tomorrow. "Suffice to say I will not be making any more consulting trips. I'm all consulted out."

"Good plan," Adrienne agreed, relieved that he wasn't going to be telling her something she couldn't help him with. "Stay home with your girls and let someone else do the consulting and the getting bruised."