xp_logs | Doug and Maddie (Backdated)

Doug comes to kidnap Maddie and promises her a blanket fort.

After the exchange on the journals, Doug had made a decision that Maddie was just as much in need of fun as he had been before his meltdown. And since most of his information-gathering for work was computerized, being out of the office for the rest of the day wasn't a huge hardship. He started several searches and set them to continue and ping his phone if anything important came up, then headed off to get his car and drive to Xavier's. When he arrived there, he parked himself on a low wall near the back patio door, the most likely place where someone out jogging the grounds would come back into the mansion. And then he waited.

She had been exaggerating about running to the point of sheer exhaustion, but only slightly. As she slowly trudged back toward the mansion, with pauses to stretch her limbs, Maddie felt completely drained. All of that frustration from the past week was gone, along with every other thought that was not focused on food, shower, sleep- anything else was too strenuous to think on.

"Hey Doug," she managed to say as she made it to the back door. Something felt not right, even through the haze of fatigue. Maddie paused, turned, blinked, and said, "Doug? You're in the city at work."

Doug tossed a towel at Maddie to dry some of the sweat off. "No, I'm playing hooky." He waved toward where his car sat on the driveway. "Get in, loser, we're going to make a blanket fort."

It took several moments of patting herself off with the towel for Maddie to figure out what Doug was saying. "But I'm all sweaty and...." She lifted up her left arm and sniffed, then repeated the action on the other side. "Okay. Not smelly. Yay deodorant." Her usual enthusiasm was gone from her voice, and was replaced with a hint of dry sarcasm. "Hungry. Starving. I need fooooooood."

Doug could hear the difference in her voice. That difference had also been there in her comments on the journals, which was why he was there in the first place. Paying it forward, returning the favor, however you wanted to term it. "I happen to know all the good delivery places that deliver to blanket forts, so you're in luck."

"Shower?" She gave him the puppy dog eyes. "And I need to change clothes."

"Oh, I -guess-," Doug replied with a theatrical roll of his own eyes. Using his shower wouldn't be appropriate, and using the one in Marie-Ange and Amanda's apartment would just involve a whole lot of logistics, especially since they were still almost certainly in the office. "But make it fast. Chop chop." He winked to show he was kidding.

"You're giving me a piggy back ride to my room." It wasn't a request, or a question, it was a statement, said as if Doug had already agreed. There were no other options when it came to Madelyne Pryor; she made up her mind and everyone else just needed to fall in. "I'm too tired to walk up all those stairs."

It probably helped that Doug was inclined to accede to her demands, anyway. After all, she'd built an entire ball pit in his apartment just because she'd been worried about him. There wasn't a whole lot he'd say no to, for her. He took the towel back and draped it over his shoulders, then turned his back to Maddie. "Upsy-daisy."

She made quick work of wrapping her arms around his neck and jumping onto his back. "Did you know you have a bald spot back here," Maddie asked once she was secure and settled, giving his head a poke. "I can totally see all your dandruff too." A bit of the usual mischievousness had returned; it was hard to stay pissed while getting a piggy back ride. With one last poke at Doug's head, the girl on his back nudged his sides with her feet.

"Heigh ho silver!"