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[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

When Moira escapes the lab for a little bit, she wanders outside and finds Nathan down by the lake. They talk about a stupid, daft idea he has that might work to help out Amanda and Manuel. Just as they start to relax, Nathan gets hit by a vision and does the mirror trick.



Moira carefully stretched her back muscles as she headed for the lake. She had suddenly been attacked by a random bout of stir crazy and had high tailed it out of the lab so fast Henry's fur had probably moved in her wake. The chance to get out on a beautiful day--no, it was starting to get later--evening was always there, she just never took the chance.

The wind felt nice and cool and she smiled, knowing she'd better enjoy it while it lasted. Moira was *not*, by nature, a warm weather Scot. She preferred the biting wind to higher temperatures and she had a distinct loathing of humidity. She glanced up at the lake and suddenly smiled as she spotted a very familiar person down by the dock. She perked some more and quickened her step a little. The day had gone by so quickly that she hadn't had a chance to see Nathan yet.

Nathan had sensed her coming as soon as she had left the house, but had chosen not to unshield the link, at least until he saw whether or not she was coming in his direction. There were things on his mind that he didn't want her to know just yet, not until he had sorted them out to his own satisfaction. Well, that and the fact that he knew what her reaction would be. "No pushing me in," he warned, smiling as she came closer and taking another moment to compose his thoughts before he unveiled the link.

Laughing, Moira stopped by his side and looked up. Blinking, she tilted her head at him. The link was suddenly back upon but it seemed tentative, guarded, somehow. "Nay pushin' ye in...already got ye." She winked and then frowned a little. "Ye okay?"

Nathan rolled his eyes. "And you said you needed to get better at using the link?" he said humorously.

She shrugged and looked sheepish. "Ye also 'ad tha' slightly grumpy look on yer face," Moira muttered. "Yer nose was bunched up."

He wrinkled his nose at her more exaggeratedly, and then sighed, inwardly surrendering to the inevitable. It wasn't as if he could avoid talking to her about this. She was just one of a number of people he would have to clear this through if it was going to happen - and probably, it was best for him if she was the first. "I want to do something stupid," he said, smiling wryly at her. "Do you want to hear the details?"

"Are ye goin' t' end up in th' lake because o' this?" she asked dryly. Sighing at his sudden sad face, Moira took his hand and tugged him after her as she sat down on the dock. A good deal away from the edge of it, just in case this really *was* a stupid idea. "All right, o' course I want details."

Nathan sat down beside her, watching her expression carefully. "I want to go into Manuel's head and fix his link with Amanda," he said. Moira's eyes widened, and he hurried to explain. "Not on my own, and it wouldn't actually be me fixing. The way I see it, I can trick him into fixing it himself..."

"..." Moira took a deep breath to steady herself and remembered not to react too badly before she heard the whole idea. Surely, there had to be a *good* side, right? "'ow?"

"It's... hard to explain," he hedged, wishing he'd had the chance to think about this just a little more before it had come up in conversation. "I, um... well. What I thought - and I really think this might work - is that if he... lets go, 'follows' her down the link thinking he's following her into death... well, he'd find her at the end of it."

Moira stared at him, completely speechless.

"Okay," Nathan said, looking at her a bit wildly. "That didn't come out quite right." He chewed on his lower lip for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain. "He would be drawn to what I could project," he finally said. "I know... I know precisely how he's feeling right now. Exactly what he wants. If I could fool him into following me down that link and back to Amanda... I don't know, maybe Charles wouldn't see it this way, but it strikes me that it's important they sort it out themselves as much as possible. Too much interference is only going to make the situation worse."

"Nathan, is this a really...wise idea?" she said, slowly. The man was going to cause her blood pressure to go up for good and, currently, not in the good way. Moira was suddenly rather glad they were sitting far enough away from the edge, she had a sudden desire to dunk some sense into that thick head of his. The last times...things hadn't exactly gone his way.

Nathan laughed, the sound coming out a little strained. "Oh, not at all. And I'm half-hoping that Charles either talks me out of it or tells me it's total shit. You don't really think I want to do this, do you?" He took a deep breath, rubbing at his forehead for a moment. "Not something that has to be resolved right now, in any case," he muttered. "I don't think we can do anything until Amanda's awake and they're both a little more stable."

"Yer goin' ta drive me int' madness," she muttered, closing her eyes tightly. "Why cannae Charles do this? I mean, I know th' link but *still*, Nathan."

"Charles probably could," Nathan said. "Like I said, I'll be perfectly happy if he thanks me for my interest and sends me on my way. But..." He stopped, his jaw clenching. "But maybe I can be more effective. Manuel's not a telepath. And I wouldn't have to try and duplicate the emotions necessary. I'd just have to let them out."

"Let them..." Moira's eyes widened and she quickly thought back to something she'd caught on the journal system earlier that day. "Yer journal entry." Her mouth tightened. She was really, really not liking where this was going. At all.

"Caught that, did you?" She nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact with him, and he essayed a smile. "Yes, this is what I was talking about. Remember, we agreed that I shouldn't be letting old fears get in the way of what I do."

"I...jus'...ohhhh." Moira grumbled at him darkly. She had a bad feeling about this entire thing but...oh he was playing dirty. "Tha's nay *fair*, turnin' me words back at me." She was not going to pout, no matter how frustrated she suddenly was.

"They're true words, though," Nathan said with a sort of bleak amusement. "But even if I was willing to ignore de la Rocha's continued existence - and believe me, the thought is so very, very tempting - there's Amanda to think about."

All the fight seemed to drain out of Moira and her shoulders slumped at the mention of the not awake young woman in the MedLab. She kicked herself, knowing all too well that if there was anything she could do personally she would. Even at risk of self. So, why wouldn't Nathan be willing? "I jus'...still dinnae like th' idea," she murmured, staring down.

"And you think I do?" He put his arm around her shoulders, relaxing a little as she leaned against him. "I'll let Charles tell me if it's even feasible," he promised her. "I may be coming totally out of left field here. I'm a novice telepath, so I may not have a clear idea of what's possible, impossible, or just not safe." He pressed his lips together, hesitating briefly before he went on. "But I know links," he said more quietly. "And I know what it's like to lose one. What the temptation is, when it happens... except there is someone at the other end of the link for him still, Moira. He just doesn't know it."

"I know. 'e's jus' so lost right now." Turning, Moira buried her head into Nathan's shoulder and sighed. "I'm so bloody overprotective o' ye, I'm sorry. I may still think th' ideas completely daft, love, but if ye think it'll 'elp...without t' much damage t' ye, I'll 'elp ye anyway I can."

"I doubt there'd be any risk to me," Nathan said. "Like I said, even if Charles thinks this is a workable idea, I wouldn't be going in there alone. I think that would be tempting fate just a little too blatantly," he said, not really noticing that he was implicitly contradicting his 'no-risk' assessment.

She grumbled slightly at the last sentence but then stopped. "Times like this I really wish I could 'elp." But she knew she'd be waiting, again, to either help pick up the pieces or to finally relax as it was over. Moira sighed. The waiting was the worst.

Nathan tilted his head at her, all too aware of what she was thinking. "You do help," he said quietly, wishing there was some way he could really make her believe that.

"Mmm." It was a small noise but she wasn't sure what to say to that. Moira knew, really, that she helped him. But she wasn't a patient woman, not when things--people she cared for, for example--were on the line and all she could do was wait.

"I promise if I do this, I'll be careful," he offered, not sure whether that was what she needed to hear.

"Nathan, ye bein' careful isnae what I'm worried 'bout," Moira muttered into his shoulder. "It seems...I dinnae know, seems like ye've been *tryin'* t' be more careful since, well, we got linked." It was hard to tell sometimes, considering all the trouble he got himself into. "Thin's jus' 'ave a bad way o' turnin' 'round in this place."

"Well, true. But things don't always have to blow up in our faces, do we?" The words were barely out of his mouth when he snorted. "Oh, listen to me. I'm due for a headlong crash into suicidal depression and hopeless pessimism anytime now, really..."

"Ye do tha', I really *will* toss ye int' th' lake, I dinnae care 'ow far away from it we are."

He grinned and kissed the top of her head. "What, I have to be an optimist now?"

"Considerin' I'm th' one bein' all doom an' gloom, aye, for now." A small smile came out. "We can switch back later."

Nathan started to chuckle, but the sound caught in his throat as lights started to shimmer in his peripheral vision. He let his arm fall from around Moira's shoulders and straightened. "Here we go again," he muttered.

It was like the time she'd accidentally electrocuted herself, just a little, when she was a young girl and playing with the science kit her uncle bought for her. The world suddenly shivered around her, or she shivered in it, and felt little shocking feelings on her skin and through the link. Blinking rapidly, she reached for Nathan, uncertain, though. Not only because of the weird feeling she was going through but also because she hadn't seen his new trick yet.

Too many of them at once. Again. Nathan closed his eyes and imagined his hands, reaching out and pushing the screaming children running out of a burning house/fireballs falling from the sky into the center of an army/soldiers screaming as acid rain seared their skin/stormy skies over a ruined city away from him, behind the mirror. There was that shifting snap, accompanied by a rush of vertigo, and then he was looking down onto his beach-mindscape again, watching four more little windows coalesce in mid-air.

Noting that he didn't fall over, which was good, Moira hesitantly tried to figure out what was going on on the other side. It felt like cold water had been thrown at someone, snapping them back to themselves. Kind of. Gently, she put her hand on his shoulder and waited to see what would happen next.

Nathan pulled himself back out of the mindscape with a shuddering gasp, his eyes going very wide. "Oh, I'm not sure I like that," he said shakily, shivering as her hand tightened on his shoulder.

"Come on," Moira murmured soothingly, tugging his arm over her shoulders. With a practiced move, she suddenly had him on his feet and leaning on her. "Nathan, can ye walk all right? At least as far as t' our room? Get ye inside, we'll talk while ye rest."

"I'm okay," he said, trying to slow his breathing. But he didn't mind the support. Didn't mind it at all.