xp_logs | Somewhere I Belong

Back at the mansion, Amanda and Scott try to get answers out of a very unwilling Topaz.

Not even a concussion for all her trouble, but that was fine. At least she didn't have to spend the night in the medlab. The doctor gave Topaz some ibuprofen for the headache before declaring her mostly healthy (slight rope burns on her wrists, a few bruises, but nothing horrible) and releasing her to a waiting Amanda and Mr. Summers.

Oh this was going to be fun.

Watching the slight form appear at the doorway, Amanda sighed, torn with relief that her student was all right, but non-plussed - and to be totally honest, pissed off - that Topaz hadn't even called her before taking off. Not to mention she was still furious at Taboo for what he'd done, which meant she was having to carefully control her reactions. Otherwise, she was likely to simultaneously hug and shake the kid to death.

"You're all right then?" she said in as neutral tone as possible, arms folded over her chest.

All right was a bit subjective. Her head was killing her - which was rather odd considering they hadn't really hit her that hard - but all things considered, she really was fine. "Yeah," she murmured, shoving her hands into her pockets, her shoulders hunching up a bit as she looked anywhere but at her teacher. Of course there wasn't much else to look at in the bare hallway.

Scott took a level look at Topaz; she didn't look any worse for the wear, although she did look a little subdued. With any other student Scott would say that that would pass, but this was Topaz they were talking about, she had never been the most ebullient of kids before her father had tried to sell her; that would put a dampener on anyone's day. "Why don't we get outta here?" he asked, "The hallway is never the most comfortable place to talk."

"There's Doc McCoy's old office still empty. We can talk there," Amanda suggested, nodding at a doorway down the hall. She knew medlab far too well, from her own student days as a patient and as a helper. "Should be private enough."

Topaz followed them silently, her hands still in her pockets. She didn't exactly want to talk about what had happened, but she wasn't stupid enough to think she'd just be allowed to just walk away.

Scott allowed Amanda and Topaz to precede him into the room before he closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall looking at Topaz. "I won't pretend you're not in trouble now," he began, "but I just want to know what you were thinking?"

"And why the hell you didn't call someone when Taboo contacted you," Amanda added. Her face was stern, but there was more than a hint of hurt in her eyes and voice. "I thought we'd gotten that far, at least?"

Finally, Topaz's eyes flitted to look at Amanda, meeting her gaze for a brief moment. "I just wanted to see him." More answering Mr. Summers' question then Amanda's.

"And if you'd said, I would have taken you there myself, Topaz." Amanda sighed. "No need for the cloak and dagger in the middle of the night. But I suppose he told you not to say anything?"

"Not...exactly." It was ridiculous - absolutely ridiculous - that she was still defending him, and part of Topaz knew that. But she was the one who had said she didn't have to tell anyone Taboo was in the city. And if nothing else she knew how to take responsibility for her own mistakes.

"It was your idea wasn't it?" Scott injected quietly into the conversation, "Why did you feel you had to hide it from us? He's your father, we wouldn't have said no to you if you asked. We just would have liked to know where you were, not have you run off on the middle of the night and frighten us all to death."

She was halfway to making a comment about who would actually care that she took off, but she stopped when her eyes flitted back to Amanda. She also had a good guess about who had brought her disappearance to their attention. "He said he didn't want to make things difficult for me here," she murmured instead, her eyes dodging back to the floor.

"If you hadn't been missed, you could be half-way to anywhere by now and we'd have no way to find you," Amanda retorted, frustration bubbling to the fore. "Bloody hell, Topaz, after everything that's gone on, you couldn't trust m - us just a little bit?"

Scott pushed off the wall and laid a calming hand on Amanda's shoulder, "She couldn't know what was going to happen when she went out to meet him," he pointed out before turning to Topaz. "Amanda's not wrong though, if we hadn't found out where you'd gone then who knows what might have happened. We have the rules around for a reason, we've found their the best way to protect everyone."

Suddenly, Topaz just wanted to escape. To be anywhere but under the scrutiny of Mr. Summers' quiet disapproval and the look Amanda was giving her. "Yeah, fine, I screwed up," she muttered, shoving her hands into her pockets. "I get it." Couldn't they just punish her and send her on her way?

Amanda shook her head. They weren't getting anywhere and probably wouldn't, at least not tonight. Topaz had gone through enough and was tired and defensive. "It's late," she said, not unaware of the irony of the situation. How often had she been on the receiving end of the type of talk she was giving now? And how shitty had she felt? "And things have been pretty shite tonight. We can talk about this in the morning, after a good night's sleep." There was resignation in her voice and she looked small and tired, nothing like the force of fury in the motel room. "Scott, you okay to take her back upstairs?"

Scott nodded, "Perhaps it would be better to come back to this in the morning," he agreed deciding to follow Amanda's lead as he gave the woman a concerned look,he couldn't remember the last time he had seen the woman look so down. Pushing open the door he nodded at Topaz, "Come on, you'd better get back to your room," he told the girl, Scott intended to ask her suite-mates to keep an eye on her. Topaz seemed to be holding things together now, but things had a habit of creeping up on you in your dreams without you realizing it.

Topaz ducked her head, nodding and closing her eyes. "Yeah." She was tired, she was hurting, and she felt horrible. She couldn't quite bring herself to look at Amanda as she followed Mr. Summers out of the room. She just needed to get back to her room and not think about any of this and it'd be fine.