Cammie & Kurt

[x-scorpion.livejournal.com]

Cammie wakes up on Kurt's couch and, a bit more lucidly, continues the conversation from the night before.

Cammie opened her eyes slowly. She felt like she had slept at least two days. Then again, the first real rest after nights of not really sleeping could do that to someone. She had pulled all nighters before. Both back at home and on the streets and this reminded her just why she didn’t like to do it.

She sat up, the blanket falling around her waist. She was totally dressed and not in her bed. She was on a couch and then she remembered, in part, going to Kurt’s room. That was about all she remembered, outside of the stuff with Jean-Paul, which she still felt guilty about. But one thing at a time. She yawned.

“What time is it?”

"Almost midday", Kurt told her, standing in the kitchen watching the coffeepot bubble. "I did not want to wake you until it came naturally, with how tired you were yesterday."

“Yeah, ‘suppose,” Cammie said, trying to push her hair back. It was frizzed all over the place. She took the couple of minutes to re-braid her hair just to get some of the frizz out of her face. “Wow, I have a headache,” she grumbled. She wondered if this was what it felt like to be hung over.

"I am not surprised. I hope you slept well and undisturbed, at least?"

“Yeah,” she had a hand on her head, “I mean, I think I had some nightmares, I really don’t remember, but they didn’t wake me up,” Cammie said. Progress. Every other day she had tried to sleep this past week she had shot awake every time. “Heh,” she smirked, “Here I am a Big Kid and I kept being woken up by nightmares.”

"It happens to the best of us", Kurt told her, more seriously than her own tone. "Especially here, sanctuary that it is."

“Yeah, I suppose I’m not the only one who has bad dreams,” she admitted, testing her legs and standing up. “I think that may have been the longest I’ve gone without sleep though,” she admitted. It was a dangerous thing to do on your own simply because the more sleep you missed the harder it got to deal with things that were happening right now.

“So…um…thanks for letting me pass out on your couch.”

"You are very welcome." He smiled faintly. "We are here to provide help in any way we can, after all, and that seemed to be what you needed."

“Yep, I’m always one who needs to pass out on someone’s couch,” Cammie quipped and then stopped, “Oh shit, I hope Jean-Paul is okay,” what a time to remember you had almost killed someone the other night. Dr. Grey had said he would be, and Cammie tried to trust that. But she remembered what her ‘handiwork’ was capable of.

"He has had radiation sickness in the past and come through that", Kurt informed her. "With my sister's help, true, but I think your poison is not as bad as that if you do not mean it to be."

“I don’t remember what I meant. I only remember I wanted him to back off,” Cammie said, shaking her head. “But Dr. Grey said he’d be okay… so I’m sure he will be…”

"She would not lie about that", he agreed. "I am sure he will be fine."

“Yeah,” Cammie said, sitting back down, “I’m sure he will be,” she didn’t care what everyone else would think of her for socking someone. It didn’t even occur to her outside of proof that she really wasn’t safe to be around and wanting to leave. But the more she thought about that, the more she could remember of what Dr. Grey had said that it was more dangerous for her to take off.

As crazy as that sounded it did make some sense. “I suppose running off would be a bad idea, huh?”

"Yes", he said simply. "I think it would be a very bad idea, for your own sake and for others'. Do you remember I asked you yesterday what would happen out there, if you had to fight to protect yourself again?"

“…Kind of,” she said thinking back, “I really don’t like living like that.”

"And you do not have to. No one here would want you to feel driven out."

“Even though I am dangerous?” Cammie returned.

"Even so. You have as much right to safety as anyone."

She leaned back into the couch looking up at the ceiling, “Yeah. As long as it’s not safety like a lab rat. I’ve been driven out before, I could deal with that so long as no one starts handing out pitch forks and torches,” she said. She’d been driven out of town right from a dance, she recalled. She hadn’t hung around any after that. You couldn’t expect people to be all calm about it being an accident right afterwards. She didn’t think people would be calm about it now.

"Is there a way to drive someone out without it seeming like pitchforks and torches?" he asked rhetorically. "In any case, Jean will not treat you like a lab rat."

“Yeah, the second A Group becomes A Mob they may as well have the pitchforks and the torches pop out of nowhere,” she answered, not caring it was rhetorical. “Yeah, I guess she won’t. She’s too nice for that.”

"Much too nice." He glanced back at the coffeepot, assessing it. "Do you want some coffee?"

“Can you put something in it?” she asked, looking over in his direction, “I can kind of taste coffee but it’s sort of plain on its own.”

"I am sure I can find something suitable. What is your favourite to add?"

“I like anti-freeze, because it’s really sweet,” she said nonchalantly. “Other than that, anything you have under the sink should do in a pinch. Like floor cleaner or powdered bleach.”

"Anti-freeze would be in the garage, more", he said, thinking it over. "Let me see what I can find."

“Just a little bit of anything as long as it’s not pine-sol,” Cammie said. “Pine-sol has this horrible aftertaste,” all things considered this seemed a very mundane conversation to be having.

"Not pine-sol." He nodded. "Understood."

“Isn’t it weird, having a totally normal conversation after everything?” she mused, “And yeah, no pine-sol.”