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[x-pinnochio.livejournal.com]

Frank shows up to work a little worse for wear. Angelo notices. Backdated 27th June.

The door slammed shut behind Frank as he stepped into Angelo's office. His head turned mechanically as he looked back at it, then straightened again. "Hello, Angelo. What will I do today?"

Angelo looked up, eyebrows drawing together at the unusual lack of animation in Frank's voice and manner, and studied his face.

"I was going to give you some more phone calls, but I think now I want you to sit down and tell me what's wrong", he said bluntly.

Frank tilted his head slightly, eyes dully fixed on Angelo's desk. "Nothing's wrong," he said. "I'm recovering fine." Pause. "Perfectly fine." He didn't mention spending the night in the medlabs, or how he'd sat staring blankly at the wall for an hour and a half before coming down to the office. It didn't seem relevant. "Who am I contacting?"

"Nobody, in this state." Oddly enough, Angelo didn't seem convinced. "You sound like somebody dosed you with heavy sedatives. Recovering?"

"Yes. I was checked out of the medlab this morning. I haven't been given any medication." Another pause. "I don't see how this is relevant. I'm quite capable of working." He did't mention how different he seemed. He barely even realised.

"Yeah, you probably are, but you're sure as hell not yourself." Angelo eyed him, more worried than ever. "What happened?"

Frank thought for a moment. "I found Topaz and Mister Summers in the hall," he said eventually. "She seemed upset. I tried to find out what was wrong. She..." a pause. "did something. Magically. I was taken to the med labs and kept there overnight. Then I was released, and came here."

"She did something, magically", Angelo repeated, concern taking on an edge of suspicion. "And her powers are all tied up in emotions. What did she do, exactly?"

Frank went very quiet. "I..." something struggled beneath a thick layer of emotional blankness. "I don't know. She was upset." A longer pause. "She'll still be upset. I should go." He rose, face still blank.

"Frank, stay here." Angelo got up to intercept him. "I'm not going to be mad at Topaz, whatever she did, my graduating class probably did worse. Did the doctors say this will wear off?"

Frank turned back to face Angelo. "Yes. They don't know when. I did't see much point in staying in the medlab indefinitely, so I asked to be allowed to leave." Another, even longer pause. "She was very upset," he added, like it was important.

"Okay. And you're going to be fine, eventually, we'll see about keeping you busy..." He looked at the younger man. "You said you tried to talk to her? Did she tell you anything about why she was upset? Or did Mr Summers say anything?"

Frank looked at him, then shook his head slowly. "No. She didn't say anything. Or maybe..." he paused, considered. "I'm not sure. I can't remember properly. I hadn't realised that before." He might as well have been talking about the weather.

"I've seen that happen before. Memories can be tied up with emotions, lose one, you lose the other... you care about her, don't you?" he realized quietly. "Seeing her upset got you upset too."

There was another even longer, pause. "She's my friend," said Frank. "I don't like my friends being upset. Then she... did this." He looked at Angelo, his brow furrowing slightly. "Why did she do this?"

"That, I can't tell you", Angelo said apologetically. "She's the only one that can answer that for sure, but I've got a few ideas. She's an empath, maybe her shields are letting her down, and she was already upset... maybe she wasn't thinking straight and just wanted to stop your feelings leaking onto her."

Frank's brow furrowed again. "I don't understand," he said eventually. "Should I see if she's alright? She was..." he didn't finish the sentence, but Angelo would probably guess.

"Very upset", Angelo finished with a nod. "No, I think you should give her some space for now. I'll talk to Amanda, make sure she knows what happened, but she probably already does, and she's the best person to help Topaz right now. When you're both feeling better, you can talk to her and maybe understand more."

Frank looked at him for a while. "Alright. What should I do till then?"

"Study, work, read, sleep... whatever you can do to fill your time until you're able to enjoy doing things again", Angelo advised. "I'm not going to have you call anybody you've talked to more than once for work while you're like this, if they know you they'll just get confused. But hey, at least you're not going to get bored."

Frank tilted his head again at that. Then he nodded. "I suppose I should go back to my room, then," he said eventually, standing. I'll have to explain things to Clint and Billy anyway."

"Want me to come along and help?" Angelo offered genuinely. "At least try and keep them from worrying too much?"

Frank considered, and then shook his head mechanically. He would feel uncomfortable enough about all this when he could fell anything at all. No need to add to it. "No, thank you."

"Okay." He nodded again, accepting the decision. "If you run out of other things to do, come on back and we'll find you some work. I promise not just busywork, either, there's too much that really needs doing to bother with that."

Frank nodded again, and started towards the door. He was fine. He felt fine.

He felt nothing at all.