xp_logs | Morgan & Nate, Morgan & Lex

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Morgan stops by the medlab to check up on Nate and remind him what sort of limitations he's up against.

Morgan was pretty fantastic about not reading the journals most days. It took up brainspace and she just didn't always have that to spare. It wasn't that strange that she had no idea why Nate was laid up in medlab, but she'd browsed the journals enough to find out that he was apparently now well enough to take visitors, which of course lent itself to the question of what the fuck he'd done to land there in the first place? Since she had time to kill she'd grabbed her helmet and drove over to the mansion.

Now Morgan was leaning in Nate's doorway giving him a thoroughly disapproving look. "So, you realize you don't have one of those handy healing factor things that some of the people 'round these parts've got, right?" She arched an eyebrow at him. "You should really be more careful. Take more backup. Get you ass handed to you less often. Because, y'know, you're old and you just don't bounce back so quick when you get like that. I hear it's a degenerative thing, that whole age business." She grinned and hoped he wasn't quite up to lobbing something across the room at her head.

The man in the bed gave her a faint, rueful smile. Nathan still looked pretty terrible, pale and wan beneath the bruises, and the uneven rasp of his breathing was still all too audible, but he could almost focus on people's faces at this point. Amelia had been fiddling with his pain medication. "Generally true." His voice was hoarse and had no strength behind it at all. "The back-up thing. Would've defeated the purpose, though."

She rolled her eyes, not that it was particularly obvious when she had her own on anyway, and waved a dismissive, blue hand through the air. "So, what'd you do this time? I saw you were laid up, again and figured I should come see you. Check up. Make sure the docs aren't going for humane euthanasia considering your history and all. Maybe smack you around but I'm not sure if that would jostle some stuff into the slots it got loose from or just do more brain damage at this point. Tough call." She wandered over and turned a straight-backed chair around so she could straddle it beside Nate's bed.

Nathan took a moment to answer. He'd discovered that it made for easier conversations to keep his own comments as succinct as possible. It didn't quite hurt to talk, but even so... "Played bait. Got what we needed. Finished the job. Then neglected to stay in bed." He tried to smile again, but his still-hoarse voice broke a little on his words, and he blinked rapidly. Apparently he hadn't reached the 'able to make light of matters' stage yet.

Morgan shook her head and reminded herself it was bad to smack the invalid. She should at least wait until he was able to fight back. Then, she'd smack him. Assuming his wife didn't do a thorough job of it before she got there, anyway. "Don't take this the wrong way, love, but you suck as bait. And I say this as someone who is always the bloody bait. Bait only works if you have backup. Without backup you're not bait. You're just stupid. And you, you're old and stupid. It doesn't bode well for your life expectancy." Unfortunately for Nate, this was Morgan's version of concerned. He'd seen worse from her, he could deal with her concern.

The noise he made might have been a 'pft' if there'd been any real force behind it. "Had backup. Unfortunately, wound up in Greenland. So it took a couple of days. All worked out for the best, though," he murmured, and relaxed a little to realize that he could say that and mean it. That part of it had worked out, better than they'd expected. "Lots of non-catatonic kids."

"Ah, so the half-pints around here are all your doing?" She'd seen them all, or at least a number of them, on her way to see Nate. Morgan hadn't stopped to inquire about them, though. After all, it was Xavier's, miscellaneous kids in the medlab were up there with the dinosaurs and whatever else they did around here, she was sure. They sure as hell weren't as odd as being told about fucking dinosaurs, though. "Figures. The wee redhead wasn't enough, you needed to have Tribe Dayspring."

"SHIELD has lots more." He really didn't have the energy to explain, but maybe he could give 'in a nutshell' a try. "Little baby supersoldier program," he finally said. "Responsible for all kinds of crap. No longer operating-" He'd tried to talk too fast, and the coughing spasm left him white as a sheet and shaking.

She shook her head at him and grabbed the pitcher of water on the bedside table to pour him some water. Then Morgan frowned and searched about until she found a straw. "Moron," she grumbled and held the glass up close enough that he could drink from the straw if he wanted to. Her raised eyebrow was expectant. "It'll help your overworked throat. Maybe I should get you one of those wipe boards so you can just draw pictures and write answers to people." She thought the illustration for baby supersoldiers would've been either hilarious or adorable or unrecognizable. She was pretty sure Nate probably wasn't much more of an artist than Rachel was. Actually, Rachel might've been better.

The water helped with the throat, if not the pain. "Maybe," he croaked, slumping back against the pillows, still shaking. "Could p-pantomime?"

Morgan grinned and then fingerspelled "I like charades" in sign language. Unfortunately, she knew British sign language, not American. Fucking Eamon. "Charades, sign language. We can explore our avenues here. I think you with the flailing hand gestures would be hot. Seriously hard to resist." She chuckled and placed the glass down on the table figuring he'd likely need it again soon. "Or, y'know, I could shove off and get you food like soup or ice cream to help the throat and let you rest. I can behave sometimes, see?" She gave him her most angelic smile, which quickly turned into a mischievous grin.

"So don't believe you," Nathan rasped, a flicker of amusement in his eyes, despite everything. "And I don't flail."

Morgan leaned forward, the chair going up onto only two legs, and her grin widened. She looked more and more up to no good the longer she smiled at him. "You do. You big girlie man!" Then she blew him a kiss.

Nathan rolled his eyes at her, but his lips twitched as he tried to relax. "Amelia's going to be in here with pills soon," he told her. "At which point I'll get much less fun."

The woman rocked backward and the chair landed back on all four legs with a clanking sound. "Oi, that woman kinda terrifies me." She blew Nate another kiss and stood up. "I'll smuggle you in some ice cream still, yeah?" Then she winked, gave him a two-fingered salute and disappeared out the door. Seriously, Dr. Voight could peel paint off walls just by glaring at it, Morgan was convinced.

Afterward, she stops on her way to harass the usual suspects to say hi to Lex, but apparently he's embracing his inner moppet instead of spanking it like he should be so she decides to harass him instead and secures a bed to crash in for the night in the process.

She'd been down to the medlabs already to give Nate her standard warning about how he's not getting any younger and still doesn't have one of those handy little healing factors a few folk around the mansion have got so he really should be a little more careful. Because, y'know, he was old. Since she was there, though, she'd figured she could make the rounds. Stop in, see if Peaches or Cupcake were about. Maybe poke the Canadian. Maybe poke the other Canadian. While he hadn't been on the list initially Lex's suite was the first one she passed on the way to the others. She paused, stared at the door and then shrugged. Hey, why not? So she knocked and leaned against the doorframe while she waited to see if he was in. He was probably out being manly and killing things, though. Damn, why wasn't she out killing things? Obviously her priorities had gotten a bit fucked up in recent months. Stupid work.

Lex put down his book and walked to the door. He wasn't expecting any visitors, so he assumed it was for Julio. Opening the door, he said, "Julio's not..." Oh, he thought, I must be in serious trouble. I didn't think I'd pissed anyone off that badly. "Hi," was all he could manage in his stunned panic.

The metamorph raised an eyebrow up at him in a graceful arch. "Hey there soldier boy," she greeted him with a grin. Her tone was playful and almost affectionate. Of course, whether or not she meant that affection or it just suited her for a moment was a bit up in the air. "Expecting someone to come for your head? I left my scythe at home but I could run and get it if you wanted."

"I wouldn't rule it out here. This place surprises me daily," he said with a grimace. Her tone had done a great deal to destroy his misgivings, and he felt almost relaxed to see her, almost. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. Would you like to join me and my scotch--courtesy of Manuel--in a little party I just decided we should have?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You and your scotch are going to make me need to crawl into someone else's bed tonight instead of my own, huh?" Drinking and then riding a bike for an hour? Not the best plan in the world. Morgan didn't survive being a mercenary by being that stupid. It was alright though, she could always steal a number of couches or Adrienne's bed. During which both women would keep their clothes on this time. Really. "But who am I to say no to a party when the guy looks like he might kick it any minute now? I'd hate your last minutes on earth to be preceded by rejection." She'd given her best dramatically concerned voice and then placed a hand over her heart. "It would break my heart, really."

Lex couldn't help but smile, cheeky and honest, much better than what he'd been dealing with recently. "Pardon my appearance but I haven't been sleeping well. Actually, that's a good point, you can always crash on my bed, I'm pretty sure I slept better on the floor last night than I have in the past week." He let her in, walked over to cabinet and pulled out two decanters. "One or two shots to start?" he asked, figuring he could gauge her desire to be there by how fast she wanted to get wasted. He thought about it for a moment, and then decided he wasn't going to try to figure anything out, it'd probably turn out better for him that way.

"One, I don't really do the drunk thing." Not if she could help it, anyway. Sometimes there was no way to not blow cover unless you sat there drinking whatever was put in front of you. And then sometimes there was baseball and a Canadian and he got her and cupcake to sing stupid Canadian songs on the walk back to the mansion. Yeah, she still remembered that one. "Though, really, I'm hurt. Get me into your bed and I can't even get all that soldier boy wrapped around me?" She sighed dramatically and collapsed down onto the couch. She was joking about the bed thing to an extent.

Lex laughed, he couldn't understand it, but Morgan seemed to be cheering him up more than he could ever have expected. "I wouldn't mind wrapping myself around you," he said, taking a drink, "but I think that might be the nail in my coffin." He winked at her to let her know that he understood her position.

"Who's nailing your coffin shut, pet?" She sighed, this one sounding a bit more genuine. "But I'm not gonna go and be responsible for the last nail so I guess I'll have to go find cupcake's bed later instead. Pity, bet you're warmer." She grinned at him, broad and warm. "So, what's gotcha down soldier boy? Should I be threatening violence on someone for ya? 'Cause, y'know, it's my job to ignite your paranoia. I don't like other people stealing my job." That, clearly, also was meant in jest, though the question about what had him so mopey was posed seriously. Or as seriously as her tone got right now.

"Nobody," he said, apparently he wasn't as funny or as witty as he thought. "The coffin was in reference to your earlier statement." The fact that she seemed to genuinely care was a bit surprising, but he'd get over it. "But if you want to know what's got me down, I haven't slept well since getting here. That, and I seem to have pissed off a lot of people here. I never really was a tactful one."

She waved a hand dismissively. "I never liked most of the people here. It only matters if you like them. Can't please everyone, can't be everyone's best mate and sometimes people just don't take to new personalities." She made it all seem like it wasn't a big deal the way she said it. "What'd you do to piss them off? Even I only managed to make lasting, snarling, vicious kitties out of two people around here. You can't possibly have done much worse than me." Then she stopped to think. "Wait, maybe three."

"Yeah, I might have used some poorly phrased words to tell everyone I was going into the woods. Now they think I'm on some sort of power trip." He really needed Friday to come, with the Luau he might be able to just put the past weekend behind him and start worrying about training for the team.

"So you say you're sorry, explain what you meant and try to remember to placate their sensibilities later on." Maybe she should try to read those stupid journal things more often. On the other hand, she had better things to do with her time. "So you've got all this mopey over people getting twitchy over bad phrasing? Fuck, soldier boy, I thought you were made of stronger stuff than that."

"No, that's merely a thorn in my side. The reason I'm in such a slump is because I'm still making bad decisions with women. I was apparently the only one who didn't know Lil had a husband, and when she told me I didn't take it as well as I probably should have. Then she decided to vent everything over the journals, cause I mentioned that I was perfectly fine, and now she's acting like some sort of giant on a rampage." He sighed, all he needed was Morgan judging him for what he already saw as a very stupid decision.

Morgan made a face at Lil's name. Not her most mature reaction, but it was a genuine one. "Yeah, you're not the only one who's made that mistake. Difference is Bishop never seemed to care she was still married. Me? I've got issues with people still legally married going off and fucking other people." There was a sharp edge to her tone, one that was directed at Lil more than Lex though Morgan wasn't entirely sure he'd realize that. For his sake she added in the obvious, "Obviously I need to read the journals more but I'm convinced that broad's got fucking bipolar. I dunno what went down with you two, but it's her with the husband and her who should tell you. If you didn't take it well I'm assuming something or other happened, yeah?"

Lex tried to figure out how to say it. "Not exactly, more like she assumes I've jumped off the deep end because I want more than just sex. I'm not the fuck'em and leave'em type. If I make a commitment to someone with my body, it's only a mirror for what I'm doing emotionally." He'd already stepped out on the branch, might as well jump off, "I'll admit I'm sexually frustrated, but I'm not without restraint. As you can see, I have a beautiful woman who's accepted an invitation to stay the night, and I'm not going to do anything unseemly." His smile showed the true depth of his longing and sincerity. Upon thinking about it, he knew it must be an odd display.

Well, that was...not expected. Fuck, she should be used to this shit after dating Sam, virgin extraordinaire, but the whole stand up guy thing? Strange and unsettling. That probably showed on her face. "Loads of people will thinking you're lying, trying to manipulate them or crazy for not doing the just sex thing. Been there, given that explanation. Last boyfriend? Never got laid. In six months. But that was complicated in a personal-not-my-place-to-divulge sorta way." Because Vanessa was in no way comfortable with taking someone's fucking virginity when it came down to it. Not unless she was in love with them in a way that far surpassed what she'd felt for Sam.

"And I appreciate that you would actually manage to not try to get me to fuck you just because I couldn't ride back home after hanging out drinking with you." Especially because she didn't drink actual liquor much and Morgan, to be honest, wasn't entirely sure where her tolerance for it was.

"Not a problem," Lex said simply, "I wouldn't feel right listening to other people gossip. As for the sleeping arrangements, I'll tuck you in and read you a bedtime story if it'll make you happy." He tried to say it with a straight face but found himself scrunching it to stop the laughter. He poured himself another drink, and offered her some more.

The woman eyed her glass and after some consideration held it out to be refilled. Pacing was so going to need to be kept in mind but she was pretty sure she was okay for now. Once the bottle was down, though, she poked Lex in the side. "I could do without the bedtime story, pet." She giggled, something Morgan kind of hated that she did, and then raised an eyebrow at him as the giggling calmed to merely a smirk. "Though I was serious about that wrapped around me bit." Her smirk only got bigger. Yeah, that was a terrible thing to do to a sexually frustrated man, but if she could deal as a sexually frustrated woman then so could he damnit.

Lex tried to decide which was better. He had an odd fascination with Morgan, she was at once utterly terrifying and extremely beautiful. "How about I give you a light massage, instead of the story, and we call it a night?" He said, nodding towards his room. If she accepted he'd teach her why he'd never been without a date while on leave for the first six years of his career.

Oh, well, now there was an offer. She could find peaches and cupcake in the morning. Fucking hell, Adri was going to ask why she kept showing up at the mansion in the morning after being in someone else's bed. A slow smile spread over her face and there was a bit of a challenge in the amused look that crossed onto her face. Her voice, though, had dropped lower when she spoke. "You're on, soldier boy." She stood up and held a hand out to him. Her glass was left on the table. His offer trumped the scotch. He'd put it to use later, she was sure.

Lex took the proffered hand and led her to his room. Some say the world will end in fire, some in ice, he thought, feeling rather uplifted. He knew he'd be back out to clean his mess later, probably when he couldn't fall asleep, but for now he was just going to relax and stop thinking.