xp_logs | Get some rest. (Reply)

Basement. Visiting. Marie scribbled the words on a scrap of index paper and stuck it to her door with a tack. The sound of the kids in the hall and the smell of food was making her jittery. She'd kept a lid on Angelo and the others all day but she was getting tired. Grief and fear kept slamming around in her head and all she wanted to do was find a bolthole and hide in it. She took the lift down, keying in her staff code to use it, to avoid meeting anyone on the way.

"Sarah?" She tapped at the door and waited, biting her lip and rocking back on her heels a little.

Sarah looked over from the spot where she was sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by bones, notes, and three empty soda cans. "Come in!" she called, hopefully loud enough to be heard over the music and through the door.

"Uh. Hi." Marie opened the door. She'd never been down here before and she stood in the doorway, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt that obviously wasn't hers by the size of it, hugging herself and looking nervous.

Pushing herself up, Sarah smiled, a twinge of curiousness in her expression. The fact that Marie never came down here was obviously not lost on her. Neither was Marie's nervous expression. "Hey. Come on in," she said, stacking the papers around her into one pile, "Welcome to the basement. What's up?"

"Do you mind if I hang out here for a bit? You could just ignore me. Ignored is what I'm looking for, but I just don't want to be alone while it's happening." Marie bit her lip, knowing that she didn't make a lot of sense, but hoping that Sarah would just overlook anything like continuity of thought and tell her to sit down just to get her to stop explaining.

Sarah nodded, leaving her questions unspoken... at least for a while. "Sure thing. This place is good for getting away until the smoke clears." She stood, tucking the stack of papers into an open folder on her desk, and throwing it into one of the drawers. "The couch, though it's uglier than I am on a bad day, is actually really comfortable," she adds casually.

"You're never ugly," Marie said absently, closing the door and then seeking refuge on the couch. "It's quiet here, yes. The sounds of the kids were bothering Angelo for some reason." She curled up, pulling her knees up under the flannel shirt.

Sarah shook her head, laughing quietly. "I'm beginning to think this entire mansion is full of blind people." She took a moment to mull over Marie's reasoning, trying to find a way around the explanation that came to mind first. "Marie... what happened exactly?"

"Pardon?" Marie focussed on Sarah. She'd come down here not to be alone and not to be asked questions. It made it harder to partition when she had to think. "When?"

Sarah took her seat back on the floor, stretching her legs out and letting them stay wide open. "You don't have to answer-- I'm not going to make you, but you just said you were down here because Angelo was bothered by the kids. Angelo who is in the medlab. By kids who are not. So, I asked what happened during that fight."

"Oh." Marie blinked and shook her head. "I... oh. Crap." She dropped her head to her knees with an audible thud. "I. Look, don't say anything, okay? Angelo kind of lost it when we got mugged and he reacted by trying to strangle me when I was taking him out of there. He freaked. It wasn't his fault and I wouldn't have done what I did except that he'd have woken up with me dead."

Sarah leaned forward, tapping Marie's leg through her pants to get her attention. "It's okay. You did what you had to."

Her laugh was harsh but muffled by her knees. "That's my mantra. I did what I had to do." She looked to Sarah. "Anyway. Shock and adrenaline are gone. Focus on training and classes gone. Me? Tired. Partitioning? Shot to hell. The kids were really getting on my nerves."

"So hang here for awhile. I promise I won't ask anymore questions." Sarah leaned back onto the palms of her hands and gave Marie a little grin. "Besides, I have to sit and reflect the fact that the planets must be in alignment again, since we're in the same room for like the fourth time since we've lived together."

"Yeah, true." Marie mustered up a little smile and laid her cheek down on her knees, closing her eyes. "Just ignore me, okay? Crying, anything stupid like that is all Their fault. They're sad sometimes. Someone with enough grief gets in there, it... resonates with Them." The emphasis on the words "They" and "Them" was clear enough. "I'd go hang out with Logan but I don't want him to worry. He's seen me sad enough lately."

Sarah sat still for a moment, keeping her posture as relaxed and casual as she could make it. Marie couldn't see it, but just in case it helped.

"I figured you could put up with the weirdness," Marie said quietly.

Don't worry about it." She said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "You can have all the time you need."

Thanks, Sarah." Marie sighed and snuggled against the back of the couch. "It gets easier. I didn't have him for long. I won't bug you again, I expect."

"If you need to, I won't mind. Jono's about the only person I'll ever kick out of here, and that's only because I don't figure Shinobi'd enjoy the audience." Her feet swayed slowly from side to side as she spoke. "Hell, Clarice spent the night down here for a couple of days after the last attack."

Marie laughed quietly. "Yeah. The privacy thing... indeed. Very useful, that." The fact that she had very little privacy in some ways pricked at her and she bit back tears. -Oh. Cut it /out/,- she told herself in frustration. "He's a good guy. Shinobi. But you knew that."

"I had an inkling," she said with a smile, scratching absently at her shoulder through her t-shirt. "But I think he'd be glad to know somebody else thinks so."

"Will you be okay with him moving into my suite?" Marie asked absently. The questions were keeping her occupied without disturbing anyone.

"Yeah." She didn't elaborate; didn't feel she needed to. She could go on about trust and how she'd been rooming with Jono for months, but really, it didn't matter.

"Good." Marie felt a little more relaxed at that. "I mean, it's not like... I don't know. I just wanted to make sure we were good, that's all."

"We're good," she echoed, nodding. "I don't have any problems with it." With her last comment, she makes a gesture to the room around them.

Marie nodded. "Yeah. That's right." She sighed heavily. "Thanks, Sarah."

Sarah smiled again, and finally brings her knees up to rest her chin on them. "Welcome. Though I have no idea what for."

"Letting me hang out. I always felt really bad about bailing on you and Paige when I moved out. I just... I couldn't handle being around people then and now I hate being isolated. Except when I want to be. God, I'm a brat." Marie shook her head and thumped her forehead lightly on her knees again."

"And I did the same thing." She sat still, just watching Marie. "Except later I asked the guy my roommate had a crush on to come live with me. I think I may be the bigger brat."

Marie pondered that for a moment. "Mmph. Let's just call it even. I think if we get into comparing brattiness, we'll go right into TMI and then we'll both be in trouble," she said seriously.

"Good point," she grinned, "Can't have you knowing all my secrets."

Marie giggled and blushed. "I don't keep secrets, but that's okay. It's not mine you don't want to know."

"Oh?" Sarah raised her eyebrows in curiosity. Yes, Marie had just told her she didn't want to know, but still. Where's the fun in taking somebody's word for it?

Marie looked over at her with an impish smile. "I wouldn't want to compromise the student-teacher atmosphere in your training sessions," she said with mock-modesty in her tone.

A wide grin spread over her face. Oh dear. She /had/ to know it now. "I can keep a secret."

Marie laughed and shook her head. "So can I. It's awful when it's not just /my/ secrets. Maybe when you're not his student anymore."

"Damnit." She looked truly disappointed. "You /are/ the bigger brat, apparently."

Marie gave Sarah a wicked grin. "You could ask Logan. I bet he'd say you're right." Her mood was lifting; apparently the chance to just be herself and be silly helped this time.

"Yeah, go ahead an suggest that I tell Logan I'm trying to get his secrets out of you right before her trains me," she says dryly.

"You make it sound like a few extra bruises are a /bad/ thing." Marie uncurled and stretched out on the couch, lying on her side to look at Sarah.

"It depends on how they got there," she grins, "And having Logan beating the fuck out of me for /that/, is not on my top-ten list. Besides, I prefer blood to bruises."

Marie raised an eyebrow and gave Sarah a slow smile. "Oh. I see."

Marie closed her eyes and ran her tongue over her lower lip, almost unconsciously. Then she sighed and rolled over on her back and lay there, sprawled and submissive, throat bare. "Can we leave it at the fact that understand where you're coming from?"

Sarah nodded, but realized that Marie probably hadn't seen her response. "Gotcha." You know, one of these days she was going to find some way that she and Logan were different. Really.

Marie turned her head to look at Sarah and smiled sleepily. "Thanks. For everything. Do you mind if I just... drift for a bit? I didn't really sleep last night because I was with Angelo. I feel mostly like me right now and tired,
so..."

"I'm beginning to think I'm boring," she said, shaking her head. "Either that, or incredibly soothing. Paige did the same thing last time she was down here."

"Soothing," Marie assured her. "Not boring. And not ugly." She cracked an eyelid to give Sarah a sleepy glare. "Can't argue back. I'm asleep now." She closed her eyes and curled up like a cat.

Later, Sarah e-mails Logan, here.

Having spread her papers back out on the floor again, Sarah was sprawled out in pretty much the same position she'd been in when Marie had stopped by earlier. Marie was still asleep on the couch, curled up on the seat cushions nearly an hour after she'd fallen asleep. Sarah scribbled on the paper in front of her thoughtfully, not really paying attention to the time.

Logan read Sarah's email and snorted, then cleaned up his mess and headed to the basement. He'd never actually been to Sarah's place in the boiler room, preferring to keep his relationship with Sarah as close to trainer-student as he could, knowing how badly she needed that, for now. Still, he was grinning when he knocked on the door.

Normally Sarah would have just yelled out to open the door, and she nearly did. But she remembered just in time, pushing herself off of the floor and making her way to the door. She grinned back when she saw Logan, pointing over her shoulder in the direction of the couch. "Over there," she said, keeping her voice low.

Logan peered around Sarah's shoulder toward the couch. He could see a vaguely Marie-like shape lying there. "Thanks for th'email," he said quietly. "...did she eat, d'you know?"

"I don't," she said, shaking her head. "She came down here looking for some quiet, and then she fell asleep. That's starting to become a regular occurance down here. A couple of weeks ago, it was Paige."

He raised an eyebrow at that. Paige seemed...well, no, maybe she didn't. He nodded. "I'll keep an eye on 'er, then, an' make sure she eats when she wakes up." He paused, then gave in to his curiosity. "Paige, huh?"

"Yeah. She hadn't slept for a day or two, came down here, and fell asleep over there on the floor underneath the blue lights. It was odd." She looks at him bemusedly, "I told Marie I'm beginning to think I'm boring."

He snorted. "Don't think that's the problem. Though your roommate's a bit...quiet." He walked past Sarah into the room and stood over Marie, chuckling quietly.

Sarah took a seat on top of her desk, wincing as Logan nearly stepped on a pile of papers. "Yeah. She didn't get much sleep last night?"

He glanced at the floor and shifted his foot away from a stack of paper, then shrugged. "She was in th'medlab watchin' Angelo all night. Slept some, but not enough." He didn't mention that he'd been there, too, unwilling to let her out of his sight.

"And I'm sure when she slept, /they/ didn't." she said, resting her hands on her thighs, and leaning forward when she talked. "Either way, she was obviously exhausted. Physically and Emotionally."

"We," he corrected quietly. Marie was wearing his shirt and it made him smile, just a little. "No, I don't think we let 'er get much rest, most nights. 'specially not lately."

Oh. Sarah nodded in understanding of Logan's correction, legs swinging idly beneath her. "Shinobi wants to move into the other side of her suite, to help her out a little. He's good at that." She smiles slightly.

Logan raised an eyebrow at that. Marie hadn't said anything. Shinobi. That was the Shaw kid. Marie'd gone skiing with him and that'd gone okay. He looked at Sarah. "He's yours, right?"

"Yeah." The tone of her voice, though still quiet, carried all sorts of unspoken comments. He /was/ hers, yes. And she trusted him, very much so. She /loved/ him.

Logan nodded. He understood. He trusted Sarah. If Shinobi was hers, he could probably trust Shinobi, too. That was enough for him. "Okay."

Sarah nodded, and stuffing her hands into her back pockets, she sighed a little. "And don't worry about coming down to move me out on Friday. I don't need to waste your time too."

Logan shrugged. "Not a waste, but if y'don't need help, I'm not gonna make y'give me shit t'carry." He glanced at the stacks of paper on the floor. "If y'decide y'need anything, though..." He looked up at her, meeting her eyes. "Let me know."

"Thanks." She smiled, still swinging her legs gently. "I'd say the same for you, but I think Em's got that under control."

Logan smirked, a hint of things he probably shouldn't be thinking about with Sarah in the room creeping into his eyes. "Yeah, I think she's got that all taken care of."

If Sarah noticed, she doesn't show it. Instead, she just sat there, smiling still. It's a little bit harder to have a conversation with Logan when she's not trying to hit him.

Logan smirked for a few more minutes, thinking about Marie, then walked around to the front of the couch and knelt carefully among the papers. "Gotta get 'er upstairs without wakin' 'er," he mused quietly.

"It shouldn't be too hard. She's out." Sarah said with a grin, "I'm pretty sure she's been asleep for at least an hour now."

Logan slipped his arms under Marie and pulled her slowly toward him. The kittenish ball of Marie on the couch was now against his chest and he stood carefully, turning back toward Sarah. "Thanks for the email."

"No problem," she smiled, nodding. "I thought you'd like to know. And besides, she'd probably be happier waking up in her own bed."

He raised an eyebrow at Sarah's assumption that Marie was going back to the second floor. Though, he supposed his bed was just as much Marie's as her own was. He smiled in return, walking slowly toward the door. "Prob'ly. 'Specially lately."

"Yeah. Let her know when she wakes up that she's welcome to come back down if she wants?" Sarah's hands returned to the tops of her thighs. "I don't want her thinking that I kicked her out or anything."

Logan gave Sarah a look, standing in the doorway. "I'll tell 'er. But if she fell asleep with y'here, I'm thinkin' she don't need no help trustin' you."

Sarah grinned, and nodded in agreement. "Thanks Logan. Night."

Logan nodded his goodnight and walked out of the room, carrying Marie up to the third floor and into his room. She was still in the kittenball on his bed when he went to take a shower.