Doug and Maddie: Invasion (Backdated)

[x-pryor.livejournal.com]

Maddie barges into Doug's apartment and sets to work making sure he doesn't fall down a black hole of depression and stuff.





Maddie had been worried about Doug ever since their take down of Moreau. All of his emotions had flowed onto her; she knew exactly what he was feeling, and she knew it didn't feel good. And what struck her most, what she couldn't shake, was what she couldn't only describe as passively suicidal. Like he had almost wanted to end up in the line of fire and die protecting her and everyone else. And Maddie was worried that even now he would find some way to put himself in danger.

Plus, she figured he could do with some general cheering up, a reminder of all the good things after the epic suck that had happened. So, packed bag on her back, and rolled up blanket tucked under her arm, she had sojourned to the Brownstone and knocked on the door of D. Ramsey.

Dun dun dun dun dun, she tapped out the well known quintet.

Doug looked up from where he sat on his couch, poking at his laptop. The internet had been surprisingly unsatisfying since his return from Genosha. But at least it was something. Work, games, whatever, it occupied his brain. Or at least most of it.

The knock on the door confused him. He wasn't expecting anyone. And 'shave and a haircut' didn't really narrow it down, as he could think of a handful of people off the top of his head who tended to knock like that. But he went and checked the peephole. On the list of people he expected to show up at his door, Madelyne Pryor was on the list, but a decent ways down it. Especially at this time of the evening.

He opened the door. "Um. Hi, Maddie. What's..." he trailed off as she bustled past him and elbowed him out of her way.

First thing first as Maddie pushed past her teacher, flicking her wrist in a sort of dismissive half-wave. She marched straight over to his laptop and pushed it closed. "It's not polite to internet while you're entertaining," the girl explained as she shrugged off her gear and looked around the apartment.

It could have been worse. There weren't beer cans and empty pizza boxes strewn everywhere, so she had gotten to him before the gross frat boy stage of depression.

But there was an obvious slept-on look to the couch with the smooshed pillow and messy blanket. She shook her head and set to work folding up the blanket into a neat, tidy square, before turning to fluff the pillow back into its proper shape. As she worked, Maddie chattered on, cutting off any attempt at Doug to respond.

"So I'm totally staying with you, because you obviously need it. I mean at your age, sleeping on the couch is going to give you serious hunchback. You don't need that. And I made cookies, because that's what you do after something bad happens. And I like made-made them, not cut and bake. Totally got my Betty Crocker on. And I made DVDs of 'My Little Pony', and because I love you so much I will watch them all with you. You're totally welcome. By the way."

Doug just blinked as Hurricane Maddie blew into his apartment. "Um...thanks?" he said in reply to her somewhat stream-of-consciousness bulldozing when she finally had to take a breath. "You're...staying with me?" He had about a dozen questions about that. Like for how long. And how she'd managed to get someone to sign off on it. And who that someone was. And so forth.

"Well," she continued, having refilled her lungs with breath. "Mr. Haller technically gave me permission to stay with Marie-Ange to get me out of the mansion because it is just so, freaking, weird being there." Maddie shook her head. There was no other way to describe the atmosphere since their return from Genosha. It wasn't that she didn't want to deal with it, she just didn't want to deal with it.

"But because you were all 'Ahhh. I wanna die' and stuff in Genosha (and don't even try to deny that because I totally felt all your feelings) and I don't want you to die, I am going to be sleeping here. And I'll go to Marie-Ange's to shower and when you shower. But Doug," she finally turned to look at the puzzled man. Her tone changed (less stream-of-conscious, more thoughtful) as she slowly approached him. "I really don't want anything to happen to you. Okay? I'm worried about you. Because you're like the brother I never had, and am kinda glad am not related to because you're kinda weird sometimes with your cat pictures and animated videos and stuff, but you're still kinda cool. Sometimes."

"All?" Doug felt a bit short of breath, especially when Madelyne had mentioned showering. Dammit, he'd tried to keep all of that locked away, compartmentalized, out of the link. Especially from Maddie, who was shaping up to be a surrogate little sister (even if he'd never said as much) to replace the hole in his life since he'd had to cut ties with his family and send Katie away. It was bad enough guessing that Meggan and Emma had probably gotten a fair amount of it without more people possibly sharing in it.

"Oh no no no no no." Maddie was not about Doug to slip into a spiral of blame and upsetness. She didn't blame him, it hadn't been his fault, but she knew that he would. So before he could protest, Maddie rushed forward and threw her arms around him, enveloping him in a giant bear hug. "Not. Your. Fault. I don't blame you, so no beating yourself up." She looked up.

"Okay?"

She was so earnest it almost hurt. Doug put one arm around Maddie's shoulder awkwardly and hugged back stiffly. "That's not always the way it works, Maddie," he told her quietly.

Her face darkened. "No," she pinched his tricep, hard. "No. You are not blaming yourself for me feeling all the feelings because of the link that was designed to share All The Things. Haller helped sort it out. No one was hurt by it. So on this matter at least, you don't get to wallow. Or I will punch you in the face."

The pinch in the tricep -hurt-, and Doug naturally flinched away from the pain and stepped back from Madelyne. He rubbed it and flexed his arm slowly. "So how long are you planning on staying?" he asked.

"Depends." She shrugged. "A few days, probably. I just want to make sure that you're gonna be okay."

Define okay, was the snap thought in Doug's head. He kept himself from a dry humorless snort, but just barely. These days, he wasn't sure he knew what 'okay' even was anymore, much less how to find his way to 'okay' from where he was.

Maddie glanced at him warily, noticing the tension that had appeared. Did he not want her there? He would totally tell her, she knew. But since he hadn't kicked her out yet, Maddie figured she was going to stay at least the night. Besides, he'd thank her for her company and concern later.

"Okay. Whatever. We're watching MLP, and Wade said he'd like to join us, but that's totally your call, but I hope you have popcorn and peanut butter because I am going to make my world-famous Peanut Butter Caramel Popcorn. And maybe later I'll paint your toe nails. I bet Marie-Ange has some awesome polish."