Nathan and Adrienne - Backdated to Tuesday

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Tuesday evening

Adrienne visits Nathan with the intention of getting him to read her mind, and ends up playing nursemaid.


"Nathan?!" Adrienne called out in a sing-songy voice, opening the
front door to the boathouse, "are you here? Juliette said it was okay
if I came by! Why's it so dark in here? Are you here?" She closed the
door behind her and looked around for a light to turn on to figure out
where Nathan was. "Nathan?!"

Nathan, on the couch beneath a couple more blankets than were strictly
necessary - he was freezing, though - eyed her with a sort of dry
amusement. His stomach was feeling better than it had yesterday, but
that was possibly because it wasn't being taxed by any solid food.

When her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Adrienne found that a light was
unnecessary. She spotted Nathan on the couch, and her eyes widened.
"Shit!" she whispered, and crouched down by the couch. "Are you
alright? What happened?"

"Stomach flu," Nathan said, lying through his teeth. "You may not want
to get too close. I'd hate to infect you." He was a little
light-headed, which was probably the only reason he thought it was a
good thing to lie to Adrienne. It did want to make him laugh, though
-the lie, that was. Which probably meant that it wasn't all that
convincing.

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "I think you're not as contagious as you
think," she muttered. "At least you didn't wake up naked on top of
anybody. Do you need anything? Some ginger ale and some greasy eggs
and bacon?" She was dying to ask what the hell had brought this on,
but she had to make sure he was alright first.

"No food," Nathan intoned, his voice gravelly. "Food is... bad.
Although Jean-Paul disagrees." He eyed the glass on the coffee table.
"The gingerale doesn't sound like a bad idea, though. There's some
that's flat in the fridge."

Patting Nathan's shoulder, Adrienne got up from her crouch. She picked
up the glass on the coffee table and went to the fridge, groping in
the gloom and using the fridge light to fill the glass with gingerale
before returning to the couch, helping to wrangle the invalid into
something resembling a sitting position so he wouldn't spill ginger
ale all over himself. "Does this have anything to do with the
consulting trip?"

"I forgot alcohol was a no-no when you were on antibiotics," Nathan
said, blinking at Adrienne as if he was trying to focus on her. "You
should have seen me yesterday. I think there was projectile vomiting."

"Holy shit, are you nuts?" Adrienne hissed. "No wonder you're always
getting bruised and ending up in comas! How dense are you?!" She felt
like smacking him, but knew he was probably mentally smacking himself
enough right now. "What brought this on?"

"Ennui?" Nathan offered, not seriously.

"Christ. You should have a career in standup, Dayspring," she
muttered, feeling his forehead to make sure he didn't have a fever. "I
came over here to ask you to read my mind and I end up playing
nursemaid. Must be that maternal instinct of mine. Speaking of
maternal instinct, are you sure you don't want to go to the medlab and
have Amelia pump fluids into you?"

"You came over here to ask me to read your mind." Nathan managed to
look both dubious and concerned. "Okay. Given that you're not usually
into that sort of thing, now you have me worried. What happened?"

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Everyone's so worried." She didn't want
what had happened with Morgan to happen with Nathan, (plus he was a
telepath so she knew it was pointless to lie to him) so she sat on the
couch next to him and sighed. "I had a dinner meeting with Manuel,
ended up drinking too much and being in a state almost as bad as
yours, though I think you've got me beat, but maybe I could have given
you a run for your money because I woke up in bed with him.
Sans clothing. I used my powers to tell me that we hadn't slept
together, but when the whole thing got out someone put it in my head
that I might have been influenced by Manuel's powers and while I spoke
to a behavioural psychologist about it and she's convinced I was
acting under my own emotions, I was just hoping you could tell me for
sure. You know, just to have that concrete proof, beyond any doubt?"
She wasn't sure how much Nathan knew of her own history, but she hoped
he would understand that even though Remy and Sofia were convinced,
she still had that grain of fear in the back of her mind that maybe
they were wrong. "But you're ill. It's wrong of me to ask you now."

Nathan made a face, pondering that for a long moment. "It's hard to
tell," he said. "If you have no clear memory. Although..." He
swallowed past the taste of bile at the back of his throat. "I've seen
minds that have been affected by empathy often enough. I could look. I
can't promise any sort of definitive answer. Although-" The smile that
tugged at his lips was odd and somewhat twisted. "If you know you
didn't sleep with him, I'm kind of wondering what, precisely, would
have been the advantage to Manuel of messing with your emotions.
Cui bono."

Recognizing the nauseous swallow and patting his knee, Adrienne got up
to bring Nathan more gingerale. "I was wondering that too," she called
out from the kitchen. "I didn't think there would be any advantage,
unless he'd been planning on sleeping with me and I passed out drunk
before he could have any fun." She returned with another glass and
handed it to him. "But I was told that Manuel used to be evil, so then
I didn't know what to think anymore. I want to believe he's changed,
but I'm not exactly inclined to be charitable when it comes to giving
evil men second chances."

"You were told he used to be evil." Nathan couldn't quite keep
the confused look off his face. "That's... a little strong."

"He didn't say evil, exactly. Why do people around here take
everything I say so literally?" she mumbled, frowning. "I guess I have
to learn to quote people literally now. He said something about Manny
nearly getting several people killed, something about psychological
torture and manipulation. Seemed a little bit evil to me"

"'He' did, huh?" Nathan raised a hand before Adrienne can answer. "I
don't want to know. In one sense, it's true - Manuel did a number of
really destructive and regrettable things. But about as much was done
to him. It was a complicated, ugly situation, and he was a very
dangerous young man. Like a number of other people around here."
Nathan made a face and pushed himself into a sitting position,
swallowing past the brief surge of nausea. "We're all entitled to our
opinions, or our emotional reactions. The latter can cloud the former,
and if there's one thing Manuel has always been good at, it's
provoking strong emotional reactions."

"I don't want to think he's a monster," Adrienne told Nathan, as if
admitting a great secret. "I didn't know about his past, what was done
to him. I know that some of the other people around here are on their
second chance. I want my opinion about him to change," she said with a
shrug, echoing what she'd told Morgan ages ago. "I just don't know if
I can trust him without knowing for sure that I wasn't manipulated."
She paced the room, looking at things in the gloom but careful not to
touch anything, the instance with the memory crystal still in her
mind.

Nathan considered that for a moment. He watched Adrienne pacing,
wondering just who had put it into her head that she'd been
manipulated. He really didn't want to know, though. A tremor crossed
his features when Adrienne had her back to him and she couldn't see
it. He was just so tired. He didn't have the energy to fight his own
battles right now, let alone Manuel's.

But he did owe Adrienne. "Stop trying to keep everyone out, and I'll
take a look," he said.

"Old habits die hard," she smirked ruefully. "I'm sure you can
understand that. But I'm trying. I am." She turned back to him,
smiling. "Thank you. It doesn't have to be today. I know you're
wishing you were dead right now. It'll keep until you're better."

"It's all right. It doesn't take a lot of effort." He watched her, expectantly.

"If you're sure," she told him pointedly, sitting next to him on the couch.

Nathan just shrugged, and scanned her mind lightly. Enough to
establish that there were no obvious signs that anyone had been
mucking around in her head, on any level. It didn't rule out the
possibility, not entirely - she hadn't said how long ago this dinner
meeting had been - but Manuel had so little control over his powers
these days. He'd seen the mess Jean-Paul's mind had been in, and there
wasn't even the suggestion that Adrienne had been through anything
similar.

"I don't see anything suspicious," he said. "The patterns of your
thoughts are running the way they should be." He at least had a good
model to work from, after the time they'd spent meditating together.

Adrienne let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and gave
Nathan a quick, careful hug in gratitude. "Thank you. Are you sure I
can't take you to Amelia? At least get you anything more than
gingerale?"

"The other redheaded doctor has already looked me over. I haven't done
any lasting damage - I'll just probably feel like death warmed over
for a day or so more." Nathan's smile was faint and oddly fixed. "I'm
glad I could put your mind at ease. I would however recommend not
getting drunk around semi-strangers in future. Empathic or not."

"I have sworn off all alcohol with all people," Adrienne assured him
with a sage nod. "Maybe you should be doing the same?" she teased. "At
least while you're on antibiotics?"

Nathan sipped at the gingerale and shrugged. "I like to think I'm old
enough not to make the same mistake twice," he said, not quite flatly.
"Mostly, I'm just not up for fighting for the weekly drama queen
crown. So yes, I will be minding what I put in my system until I'm
through these antibiotics."


Adrienne overexaggerated the nudge by flailing her arms and falling
off the couch. "Do you need anything before I leave you to pass out
again? I sort of feel like I should stay and make sure you don't
swallow your tongue or something."


"Trust me, I will live."