Amanda and Nathan, Monday morning

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While Nathan's waiting for the results of his blood tests, Amanda arrives to see him. There is hugging, and discussion of everything from what the hell Nate was doing over the weekend to oneupmanship, inexplicable-disappearances style, to the beauty of grammar.



Back in the medlab. He was getting very tired of the medlab, Nathan reflected, but at least this time he wasn't liable to be here for very long - he hoped, at least. Moira and the other two doctors had scurried away to examine the results of his blood tests, leaving him alone for a few minutes. It was the first time Moira had left his side since they'd woken up, and oddly, he was feeling a little petulant about it.

He didn't have long to sulk, however, and the door suddenly flew open and a dark-haired blur flung itself at him, grabbing him around the waist in a fierce hug.

"Ow--OW! Amanda!" he yelped, detaching her as gently as he could. "Mind the hole in my sorry carcass, okay?"

"What? Oh, fuck, 'm sorry. I just..." She blinked rapidly, trying to stop the tears of relief actually falling, and not succeeding very well. "I was that worried 'bout you," she managed. "You scared the shite out of me."

Nathan bit his lip. "I'm sorry," he said softly, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her a more careful half-hug. "I wish I could explain what happened, but... I didn't believe Moira when she told me it was Monday. I don't remember much of anything."

Sniffling a little, Amanda buried her face in his side, arms going around him again but far more gently. "Y'know, if you wanted me t' know that disappearin' is a bad an' scary thing, you could've just told me," she said after a moment, wry humour entering her tone. "No need for the object lesson."

"Well, you know me," he said, trying to match her tone. "I must overdo things." Drawing back a little, he peered down at her, more than a little touched by what he was sensing from her. "I'm all right," he said, hoping it sounded at least somewhat reassuring. "A little banged up, but really... whatever happened couldn't have been that bad."

"Drama queen," came the muffled reply. Amanda pulled back a little to look up at him. It was pretty obvious she hadn't slept much the previous night. "You sure?"

He gave her a lop-sided smile, unable to resist the urge to ruffle her hair. "Hey, I'm walking, talking, and here. That's a pretty good indicator." His side was throbbing, though, and he grimaced a bit. "But I think I will sit down," he said, pulling back a little further so that he could perch on the edge of the bed. She was giving him a dubious look, and he half-shrugged, grinning wryly at her. "Another scar to add to the collection."

"Better watch it, you'll end up worse 'n me," she said, sitting next to him on the bed, unwilling to let him out of arm's reach, just yet. "So, you have no idea what happened t' you? You didn't go on some huge bender or somethin', did you?"

Nathan shifted a little on the bed, feeling an odd discomfort as he tried to examine the fragmentary memories again. "I met someone in town on Friday night," he said, his stomach churning. "A friend, or someone who wanted to be... after that's when the problem starts." He caught himself rubbing at the bruises on the inside of his arm and made himself stop. "Looks like I was drugged somewhere along the way. How I wound up back here rather than waiting for transport to a Mistra facility is the question of the hour." He stopped, blinking as he realized he'd just let the program's name slip to her, something he really shouldn't have done.

"They're the ones who trained you? Taught you how t'... do all that merc stuff?" Taught you to kill? The question wasn't voiced, but it didn't need to be.

"Yeah," Nathan said a bit unsteadily. "You should probably... forget that name. I shouldn't have given it to you." He stared down at his hands for a moment, remembering grabbing someone's wrist, twisting it until he dropped the knife... but that hadn't been all the fighting, there had been others after him, too. Hadn't there? Briefly, he wondered whether or not bodies had been found in a warehouse in New York yesterday. "Moira says she could sense me on the link all weekend. I just don't know..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

Concerned, she reached over and lay her hand over his. "I won't say a word. Ever. I know 'bout names, remember?" There was something... lost about him, the way he was reacting. "The X geezer, he can get those memories back, can't he?"

"Depends. I'll ask him, of course, but..." He stopped, swallowing at the sudden surge of nausea at the idea of letting Charles inside his head. What was wrong with him? He'd been working with Charles for weeks, had gotten to the point that he felt quite comfortable with him... "I don't know that it's all that important," he said, hearing the sudden tension in his voice and wondering at it. "Except in security terms, I suppose. I guess we'll have to try and figure it out."

"You ain't curious?" Amanda asked, suddenly wishing she had the power to look at his aura. Although that hadn't been exactly helpful last time. Something had definitely happened, and for Nate to not want to know, something was wrong.

"I... I should know," Nathan said, that odd sense of vertigo increasing again. "I know I should, I just.." He forced his thoughts away from that particular question, and the unsettled feeling eased a little. "I have all these bits and pieces, and I don't know how they all fit together. It's about an hour's worth of memory for the whole weekend..."

"That don't sound good," Amanda said with a frown. She didn't add that the fact Nate was obviously uncomfortable talking about it was also Not Good. "I mean, I've had weekends like that, but they usually involved lots of drugs 'n drinkin'," she added, trying to lighten the mood but deciding to mention it to Moira later.

Nathan smiled faintly, managing a soft chuckle that sounded a little forced even to him. "I think I would have preferred the bender," he said, and then went about changing the subject. "Sorry to have missed our scheduled whip-cracking. Once they let me out of here we can catch up..."

"'S okay, disappearin' takes time. An' I've got Paige 'n Kitty helpin' me with the number parts, tho' sometimes they start speakin' Math an' I don't understand a word of it. Tell again why I need t' learn this stuff?"

"To satisfy your math teacher's sadistic streak," Nathan said as gravely as he could manage. "It's a universal truth." Amanda snickered at him, and he relaxed a little, smiling back. "And you're talking to someone who opted for an arts degree, remember? I'm no cheerleader for the maths and sciences."

"Thank fuck there's someone here who thinks like that," she said, rolling her eyes. "Place is full of number geeks, an' the more I do this stuff, the more I think it ain't my thing. Languages an' history an' art, that's the stuff I can handle. If it weren't for all those stupid grammer rules."

"Think of grammar as an art," Nathan suggested. "It's got a quirky beauty - try and admire that, and you'll have an easier time with it."

Amanda looked at him doubtfully. "You are a very strange man."

"You'll note I never denied that," he said with a wry grin, moving carefully up the bed. He touched his side lightly, grimacing at the wet spot on his shirt. Bleeding through again, how charming. "I really wasn't planning on being the disappearance of the week, you know," he said awkwardly, looking up at her. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"I s'pose we're even now." Amanda looked down, realising she was twisting the hem of her shirt in her fingers again. "Tell you what, I won't do it again if you won't."

Nathan regarded her for a moment. "Deal," he said, reaching out a hand. She took it, shaking it firmly. "I think I'm going to be a homebody for a while," he said, leaning back. "Get these course proposals all put together."

"Yer so doomed," she said, chuckling. Then a look of panic crossed her face. "Courses... fuck, 'm s'posed t' be in the X geezer's English class right now. When Moira told me you were up an' about, I didn't even think, just rushed down here."

He made a shooing gesture at her. "Go," he said. "I promise, I'm not going anywhere. Bring your stuff around up by the room after dinner if you want to get some of that missed whip-cracking in... I should be there."

"I'll come find you," she promised, turning to leave but then turning back and giving him another hug, definitely gentler this time. "'M glad yer all right."

"I'm glad to be home," he said quietly, then smiled at her as she pulled away. "Remember. A quirky beauty."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Very strange man," she repeated, before leaving him to himself again.