xp_logs | Jane, Nathan, Monday Night

Backdated to Monday night, Nate stops by the hospital to see Jane.

Ow.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Jane gave up on trying to roll over and slumped back against the mattress. She could look at the ceiling. The ceiling was cool. It had all of those nifty dots and that brown spot kind looked like a chicken. Eating the dots. Which were moving around a little bit. Okay, maybe a lot. Aaaaand there went her stomach again. She pressed her eyes closed and tried to will the nausea away. When would they let her sleep?

"Hey you." The quiet, gruff voice from the door of her hospital room belonged to her boss. Nathan came the rest of the way in, looking around for a moment before settling into the chair beside her bed. "You look a little better than I expected."

Jane looked over at him and smiled faintly. "'M not completely squished. Just a little bit. Wanna sign my cast?" She nudged her plaster encased arm toward him and winced. "I'm only letting the cool kids sign it."

"Maybe later." Nathan watched her for a moment, as if reassuring himself that she was there, still possessed of all her various senses and limbs. "I called Rich," he said after a moment, a faint smile taking shape on his lips. "He should be getting on a plane... well, no," he amended, looking at his watch, "he's probably already on a plane. It took me longer than I thought to get here. Traffic."

"You did not!" Jane didn't know whether to hug him or hit him, and in any case she certainly wasn't able to do either at the moment. And if she could, she'd probably only puke on him anyway and he really, really wouldn't appreciate it, especially after doing something so nice for her, so it was probably for the best. "He's really on his way?"

"Of course he was." Nathan's voice was softer. "It's just a good thing I was able to tell him you were going to be okay. I wouldn't put it past him to speed up the plane. He can do that, you know. The right kind of wind, applied in the right kind of way..."

"Aww..." She grinned bashfully. It was so strange to have someone be so worried about her that he'd cross an ocean to make sure she was okay. Really, really nice, but strange. "I don't want him to worry. Or get in trouble."

"And I'm not nearly as squished as you usually get," she added after some thought. "Do I get to join some sort of club now?"

"Yes," Nathan said, his voice still low, but very grave now, too. "You get a button. I'm currently having it handcrafted for you."

"I'm sure it will be very nice," she assured him. "I'm in the club! Yay me!"

Nathan smiled again, faintly, but the sadness in his eyes was visible even in the dimness of the room. "You haven't seen the button yet. It says 'Never do it again.'" A pause, and he tilted his head. "I can help with the pain a little. If you want. Telepathy can be handy."

"You worry too much about your kids, Nate," she chided him gently as she pondered this. It would be nice to breathe without it hurting, if Nate could do that, but at the same time it was almost like cheating. Not everybody was lucky enough to have a telepath on hand to help them out. "I think," Jane said finally, "I think I'm okay. At least for now. I may take you up on that later, though. The nurses keep looking at my bruises and shaking their heads. That can't be a good sign."

"Well. I'm not going anywhere," was the soft reply. "If you change your mind, I mean. And don't worry too much about the nurses. You're probably triggering their 'lovely young woman gets hurt Doing Good, must tut-tut over her' impulse."

"Maybe." Jane chuckled and immediately regretted it. At least they weren't shaking their heads over how dumb she'd been to go in that building alone. She'd been so lucky to get off so lightly. She smiled up at her visitor. "Thank you, Nate. I'm glad you're here."

"Where else would I be?" Nathan asked, just as quietly, and settled more comfortably into the chair. As he'd said a minute ago, he wasn't going anywhere.

"I know, I know," she replied, "Silly question."