xp_logs | Alison and Nathan, Tuesday noon-ish...

Whistling to herself, because whistling was good and meant music, and music always made everything right (right?), Alison walked down the stair, a bag of cookies neatly tucked under her arm, holding two glasses in one hand and balancing two plates on her arm, holding a large carton of milk in the other. She headed towards the medlab, still whistling merrily as the door wooshed open for her, pausing only to beam and wink at the camera near the door before going on. "Hey? Where's all the thunderous snoring for me to follow?" she called out, grinning.

Nathan looked up from the laptop again. "In here?" he called out rather tentatively. Moira had left the door open on her way out.

Breezing into the room, Alison stopped a few feet from the bed, looking him over without even pretending that she wasn't, smiling cheerfully the entire time. "Cookies 'n milk," she announced, walking neatly about the bed to lay the glasses on the table easily, then balancing the plates off in a clearly practiced way. The milk and cookie bag were set down proudly, and she stepped back, hands on her hips. "You look better than yesterday."

Nathan frowned. "I don't--were you on the plane?" He really did hate sedatives, he reflected sourly. His memory was usually very good, but they messed with it to no end. Eyeing the things she'd brought down with her, he managed a faint smile. "That's an awful lot of chocolate chip cookies," he said lightly.

"Yep, I was on the plane," she nodded, solemnly starting to work on the cookie bag, her name written in black felt marker, round blocky still awkward letters, clearly made by a child. "I was told it had to be the entire bag," she chuckled lowly, smiling a bit fondly as she snuck a look at the writing.

Nathan stared at the writing, feeling a strange pang as he remembered a little blond boy who had written just like that. "Ah," he said, his voice a little husky. "The seven year-old you mentioned?"

"Yes," she tilted her head, giving him a sidelong look, the shift in his voice not going unnoticed. "His name is Miles. He's... been here since just before Christmas," and her voice tightened at this a bit, a pang going through her as she remembered the state of perpetual amazement Miles had lived in, during the Holidays.

"I'm very glad he's got the opportunity to be here," Nathan said, closing the laptop, more to buy himself a moment to gather his composure than anything else. "Anyhow," he said, more briskly. "I think we were going to talk about security issues?"

The change of subject was accepted without comment, and Alison handed him a plate of cookies before busying herself with the pouring of milk. "Let's see. Short version..." She hummed to herself, then nodded once, sharply. "Mansion got broken in by secret government section run by madman. We all scrambled, kids that got taken were rescued. That was last summer. Not long ago, brit agents broke in, took the kids hostage," a slight pause, "then got taken down and ran for it. No one got permanently damaged." She turned, holding two glasses of milk, full. "We're upping security now. And I'll trade you a cookie for a glass of milk?"

Absorbing the information, Nathan handed her a cookie and took a glass of milk. It was nicely cold, and he took a long sip of it before he spoke again. "Succinctly put. I'm sure there's a longer story behind each, but I don't need my curiosity satisfied at the moment." He paused for a moment. "I guess it's my turn. I'm not sure how much I should be telling you and how much I should be telling Scott--"

"Honestly? As much as you can would be nice. But as much as you're comfortable telling is fine too. Actually, we can talk about it if you want, but an email to Scott with whoever you want in copy might be best." She grinned wryly. "There's a whole lot of us, so it'd save you telling the story over and over again if you got it down once on the computer?"

Nathan took a deep breath, reminding himself that he was going to have to be forthright about this to a number of people around here if he planned to stay for any length of time. Couldn't hurt to get a bit of practice in now. He didn't have to tell her any of the personal stuff. "I'm sort of wanted by the US government," he said. "I'm a tool that got away, to put it bluntly."

Alison paused as she was drinking her milk, then leaned forward, trying not to spit it out or swallow it wrong. "Ergk!" She waves off any attempt to help, trying to catch her breath while setting the glass down safely. After a long moment, she looked up, a bright gleam in her eyes. "Oh!" she said, in a strangled voice. "Is that all?" she managed to add, before starting to laugh, helplessly.

Nathan was briefly taken aback, but then couldn't help a smile. "Glad to see you're taking this so well," he said, and tried the chocolate chip cookie. "A little dry," he quipped. "My wife used to tell me--" He stopped, blinking, unable to breathe for a moment. "Um," he finally said, giving her a slightly suspicious look. She didn't feel like a telepath, but he wasn't sure precisely how he had let that slip out. "Should I assume that I'm not the only person around here who the government would like to get its hands on?"

Stops and shifts of direction in conversation, telling in their own, but certainly not a thing Alison was going to pry about, not with the subjects matters involved. Not with what had happened Sunday night still fresh in her own mind and heart. "Naw," she shook her head, laughter quieting down to a rueful smile. "We've got, oh, a few here. That's what the second one was about, but we think that's... settled now. And hey, the government attacked us that first time." She shrugged. "Ok, a rogue splinter cell of the government, but yeah. Let Scott know, and the Professor, at the least, 'kay?"

Nathan nodded. "Planning to," he said a bit wearily. "Full disclosure, such as it is. Last thing I want to do is threaten this place." He tried to smile. "I think I said this in one of my many replies to those emails last night, but it's awfully good to see a place where mutant kids are getting to be kids, rather than being trained up as weapons."

Alison bit back on a reply she knew would sound as bitter as she felt on the matter - and kept the reflection that far too many of them wanted to start things that had a lot with being trained as weapons, instead of just being kids. "Mmm," she sighed, shrugging slowly. And went on to what she had meant to tell him and the actual purpose for her visit. "Speaking of which... there's something I need to tell you, but... I want your promise to keep it to yourself. Only the mansion people know."

"Of course," Nathan said slowly, trying to restrain his curiosity. He got the definite impression that the talk about security, while sincere, wasn't the primary reason for her visit.

Taking a deep breath, Alison forged on. "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you what you power is," she said, finding herself stalling for that much more time, even though it was a valid question.

Oh, this was going somewhere interesting, Nathan thought with an inward sigh. He could feel it already. "Apart from the dysfunctional precognition?" he asked wryly. "I'm a psi. Low-level telepathy, fairly strong telekinesis."

Relief. Easy to see, as she didn't bother hiding it. "Oh. Good... then he won't have to actively be careful around you," she rushed on, "because... his power is to dampen other mutants' powers. Uncontrolled zone of effect for now, but he's learning to control that."

Nathan managed to limit his reaction to a twitch. "I'm--afraid there is a problem," he said, in as normal a tone as he could muster. "Is this one of the students?"

She shook her head, concerned at his expression. "No. It's Miles." She opened her mouth, trying to find a way to explain why he was here, how he'd arrived... and failed utterly. "He's seven," she settled for saying, "and green?"

"And he nulls mutant powers," Nathan said, and waited until Alison nodded. He forced himself to smile. It took a real effort, and he had to remind himself that this was this woman's child, or something like that, from the sounds of it. "I'm--going to have to make sure I keep my distance," he said, as gently as he could. "I guess Moira hasn't spilled all my pertinent details yet. But it would be--very bad if my telekinesis was disrupted."

Alison nodded, matter of factly - not at all offended, feeling oddly sad at the notion for some reason she couldn't quite pinpoint. "We think Miles will have it under control soon, although we're not sure yet. He's been working hard on it, and both Charles and Moira have been helping a lot. Hank too." She patted his hand lightly, again pure reflex, something about the way he reacted making her want reach out. "His range right now is only about five feet. And he'll be told to be careful 'round you. We should have an intro so he knows what to look for. And expect him to be calling out your name around the corners in hallways... he did that for a few of the kids for weeks before feeling safe about not hurting them. He's only starting to see that there can be good sides to his power too." She smiled, wistfully.

"I'm sorry he has to be so careful," Nathan said, trying not to jerk his hand away. Moira understood his problems with physical contact, but he didn't want to either offend Alison or have to explain it to her. "If it's any comfort, he'll probably grow up extra-conscientious as a result. That's not a bad thing." And it was a stretch for him to imagine positive uses for that sort of mutation. Probably because he'd spent so much time avoiding anyone with it.

"Oh, we're working on the good sides of it," she smiled secretly, remembering the look on Miles face when he'd returned from the sunrise watching with Scott, and the way Scott had taken to lifting him up on his shoulders afterwards for impromptu rides. "He's very resilient... especially with everything he's been through." Her voice tightened over the last words and she went quiet, studying the cookie in her hand.

"Children generally are," he said slowly. "It's just--a shame when they have to be."

Alison looked ahead for a moment, throat tightening nearly unbearably so. People knew, in general what had happened to Miles. But she'd never actually outright told anyone. They'd always know ahead from someone else mentioning it, reading it in the journals... something. "They were holding him in a freakshow," she whispered, carefully setting the rest of her cookie down rather than crumble into pieces. "Using him to keep some of the other mutants they were keeping there in line, by damping their powers."

"But you got him out," Nathan said after a moment, as firmly as he could. He could feel the push at his shields, and even if he hadn't, he could see in her eyes how much she was struggling to hold onto control. "He's here, with you. He's got a chance now." His throat was thick again suddenly, and he swallowed. "Whatever's happened, don't forget that part."

She nodded once, sharply, looking down not to hide the tears threatening to spill over, suddenly, but to try and regain some measure of control - he was a telepath after all, even if only low-level as he'd said. She took a few deep calming breaths, willing herself to regain some form of mental tranquility before looking up once more. "Yes," she said firmly, with a small smile. "He does." She paused, then the grin because lopsided as she tilted her head to the side. "You too."

Nathan opened his mouth and then closed it again, trying to figure out precisely what she'd meant by that. Sometimes he did wish he was more of a telepath. "I--umm." He took a bite of his chocolate chip cookie and another sip of milk, still at a loss for words.

Alison smiled serenely, a rather impish gleam in her eyes but kept silent on the matter. He'd figure it out for himself, in his own way and time - and it had felt right to say. Very much so. She reached for the bag and rooted inside, drawing out a packet of twinkies. "Hank's favorite. Don't let him know I told you that," she winked, leaning back to look through the doorway to catch a glimpse of the man in question. "I figured I'd leave you bribing material," she chuckled, setting them down on the side table.

Nathan snorted, nearly choking on his milk. "Appreciate it," he managed once he caught his breath. "One can never go wrong with a well-chosen bribe."

Well, the security information had been touched upon, as well as Miles power, and the milk snorting had also been achieved. Yep, that was most of what Alison had planned for in this first talk. She grinned cheerfully, snagging a last cookie from the plate, leaving the bag in plain view on the table before taking a step back. "And there's precious little Hank would not do for Twinkies. Especially if, say, someone made sure his usual stash suddenly turned up empty." She waggled her eyebrows, stealing another look at the doorway, making sure Hank wasn't close enough to overhear that one.

Nathan raised his glass in mock-salute. "Good to know."