xp_logs | Log - Angelo and Marie (Reply)

In which they talk about recent events, and Angelo has at least one *stunningly* Loganesque moment.

Before breakfast, Marie decided that she had to see Angelo as soon as possible to get him in to Dr. Samson if he hadn't made an appointment already. Still sweaty from running and training, she knocked on the door to the room he shared with Shinobi.

"Skin? You up?"

Angelo was indeed awake, sitting up in his bed. Recognizing her voice, he didn't bother dragging himself up, instead simply calling out, "Door's open, Em. Come on in."

"Hey, hon." She let herself in and closed the door behind her. "Need to talk." She sat herself on his bed, taking in his bruises but not commenting on them.

Angelo nodded. "Yeah. Guess we do."

Marie held out her gloved hand to him. "Not your fault," she said gently. "It's okay. I promise. You have nothing to feel bad about. I'm more worried about how you feel about me having you running around in my head."

He shrugged. "Saves me havin' to tell you, I s'pose. An' some would say I've got a fair bit to feel bad about. Just not what you mean."

"So tell me?"

"You know it all already", he said flatly. "You know who I am now, Marie. You know what I've done."

She nodded and moved a little closer. "Yeah, I do. And?"

"An' I was just like them. Kinda justice, don't you think?" he answered bitterly.

"I'm not going to pass judgement on you, Angelo. What happened to you wasn't just. There are many ways for a person to turn their life around. You could have fallen in love instead. All that matters right now is who you are and who you're trying to be." Marie reached out and rubbed his arm gently.

"I don't know who I'm tryin' to be", he admitted quietly. "Not sure I..." He trailed off, lacking the words.

"Not sure you know who you are? You've had some harsh, terrible lessons, Angelo, not the least of which was what kind of person you can be if you let yourself go that road. You're not the only person in my head with a horrible past, you know. At least I can say I understand you better now." Marie offered him a hug. "And I can forgive you when you can't forgive yourself."

He accepted the hug gratefully, leaning his head on her shoulder. "Thank you." He paused, before continuing quietly, "You... you know what I did after I manifested. Don't you." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I do." Marie rested her cheek on his hair briefly. "I was out there for a bit myself, you know. And I know how you feel about yourself because of it. I wish you weren't so hard with yourself sometimes."

He shrugged. "Not everybody'd understand the way you do."

"But only a few people would condemn you for it, honey." Marie rubbed Angelo's back soothingly. "And those people aren't worth your time. I'm more worried about how you feel about yourself."

Another shrug. "Workin' on it. It's not easy, you know that..."

"Oh, I know. You don't know how long it took me to stop hurting myself for what I am. I still fight it." Marie sat back so she could look at Angelo's face. "Is this what you're upset about, what I think of you now?"

"Part of it", he admitted, looking at her honestly. "Didn't want you to find out - 'specially not all at once like that."

"Oh, Angelo. Honey, it's okay. I'm just sorry you had to live it." Marie shook her head, looking incredibly sad. "So what's the other part of it?"

He glanced away. "I let you down", he muttered, almost under his breath. "Should've been there to watch your back."

"You did /not/." Marie took Angelo's chin in her hand and leaned in so she could look into his eyes. "You did not let me down. Not for a second. You couldn't control what happened."

Angelo squirmed a little, eyes downcast. "Still an' all. 'Cause I didn't just let you get hurt, did I?"

"You didn't /let/ me get hurt and you didn't let me down." Marie ducked her head around to where he couldn't get away from looking at her and smiled at him. "Things suck sometimes, Skin. We got out alive. We're still good, right, you and me?"

"'Course we are, if... well, you said you could forgive me, right?"

"Already done. The past is the past. What happened the other night, not your fault. We go on from here," she assured him.

He nodded. "Thank you", he said simply. "You're too good to me."

Marie shook her head. "You deserve it. No such thing as 'too good' where friends are concerned. Are you going to be okay?"

He shrugged, mouth quirking wryly. "I deserve it? Keep sayin' that an' I'll try to believe it. An'... yeah. I think so. Eventually."

"We can talk whenever you need to." Marie's expression was still a little worried. "It's not like I've really gotten to talk to anyone about it afterward, you know, except John just the once."

Angelo nodded. "Probably take you up on that. You already know it all, after all."

Marie looked distant, pensive. "It's weird. Logan and I never talk about it, really. I guess... I don't know." She shrugged it off and turned her attention back to Angelo. "Have you seen Samson yet?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. 's only been a day and a half, though - I'll sort somethin' out."

"You're going to go, though, right?" she prompted.

He rolled his eyes at her affectionately, before answering dutifully, "Yes. I'm goin' to go."

Marie looked at Angelo for a moment with a little frown and then laughed and hugged him. "Good. I want you to be okay."

He hugged her back instinctively, chuckling. "I will be. I am, most of the time. Completely okay, now that might take awhile, but I can usually hold it together..."

"Me too," she said quietly. "Speaking of holding it together..." She sat back again, looking serious. "Paige is not okay. I just don't know how not okay she is, but I'm sure you know that."

His eyes darkened. "I know she's not. She hasn't been for awhile. I just don't know what t'do about it..."

"Me either. But, I'm going to talk to someone about it, maybe Moira. There's nothing we can do right now but wait." Marie shook her head. "Doesn't mean we can't be looking out for her."

"Yeah", he said flatly. "Even if it has t'be from a distance. You know how she gets when people try an' talk to her about all this stuff - like she has to act fine..."

Marie nodded. "I know. And I don't want to make it worse. I'm around if /you/ need anything, though. It's not easy to sit by."

Angelo sighed. "Just... watch her for me? Maybe she'll talk to you sooner than she will me. Think I'm kind of too closely involved to expect her to."

"I don't think she'll talk to me," Marie said sadly. "She just gets all mom-ish at me or clams up. She doesn't need us poking her anyway. What she needs is to seek someone out. And we can't pick who that is for her."

Angelo nodded sadly. "Yeah. Just wish I could help."

"We can help by being there when she's not okay," Marie said with a shrug. "That's when it really matters anyway, doesn't it?"

Another nod, in resignation this time. "When she's not okay enough to actually show it? Yeah. But that'll just mean things have got really, really bad."

"You got a better solution, honey? Because am in if you do."

He laughed a little. "No. An' that's the worst thing."

"Maybe Moira will have an idea. She's all smart and everything." Marie smiled and brushed some hair back from Angelo's forehead, careful of his bruises.

"That she is", Angelo answered lightly, managing a small smile in return.

"We'll get through, all of us," Marie promised. "It's what we do."

He nodded. "Always. One way or another."