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[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Nathan watches Moira as she sleeps and when she wakes up, they talk briefly about what happened, her feeling guilty, and going to Muir. Moira starts to fall back asleep after he promises not to leave.



She looked so peaceful, Nathan thought, watching Moira sleep from more or less point-blank distance. Peaceful, and about sixteen years old, which was really very endearing. He reached out, stroking a stray lock of red hair away from her face. She murmured something, shifting closer to him, and he slid an arm around her, pulling her in against his chest, feeling the sudden urge to just wrap himself around her and shield her from the rest of the world.

The sudden, though gentle, movement woke Moira from her nap. Muttering sleepily, she cracked open her eyes and peered up at him. "'ey," she managed, before yawning slightly. Moira snuggled closer, if possible, to him and enjoyed the warmth from his body. Her head still pounded, slightly, though the 'headache' was almost completely gone. The link didn't hurt now, though it was still rather bright in her mind. "'ow lon' was I out?"

"Seya lokann," Nathan said, and then bit his lip, mildly irritated. "Six...hours." Better than twenty-four hours, now, and he was still searching vainly for his grasp on English. He really hoped this wasn't going to be permanent. Sort of put a crimp in his language-teaching plans...

"Six 'ours? God, was makin' up for nay sleepin' last night." There was a brief worry of not getting to sleep tonight but she suddenly realized that was probably not going to be a problem. If her body was any indication, that is. Moira grumbled a little about wasting that much time but let it go. "Ye feelin' any better?"

Nathan chuckled softly. "Feel...good. Te'loy--told you." There wasn't quite the same level of euphoria as there had been this morning, but he felt so alive, so... there really wasn't the right word for it.

"Aye, I know ye told me but I still 'ad ta check." Chuckling a little, Moira kissed his chin and smiled at him. "Thank God, 'tis over...though I may owe Samson an apology for scarin' th' damned daylights out o' 'im last night, poor man."

"Ma'hali si--forgive you." He closed his eyes for a moment, smiling as she nestled against his chest. "I'layra mi'mahara su'tasse immaena...glad he was--there."

"Ye an' me bot'. Man's a quick catch, I'll give 'im tha'." Lazily, she ran her hand over his arm, enjoying the warmth and the touch. She looked up at him, worried. "Talkin' English gettin' any easier?"

"Ni," Nathan said with a helpless half-shrug. Surely this was just lingering shock from having a hundred years of Clan Askani downloaded into his mind. It would be rather irritating, to go from being able to speak twelve languages down to one.

"It'll get better," Moira assured him. She hoped it would, anyway. The link helped, some, in that she got the gist of what he was trying to say, but it was still clearly irritating him. Though she had to admit some of the endearments in Askani were kind of cute.

Nathan merely grumbled and held her a little tighter. He was still smiling, though. It seemed like such a small price to pay, however long it lasted, for what he had been given in return. "Sleep," he prompted her. "Ne--not going. Promise."

"Already slept t' lon'," she protested. Part of her felt guilty for sleeping during the day but at least the guilt that she had felt yesterday for not being here for him was starting to go away slowly.

Nathan closed his eyes for a moment, pained by the renewed flash of guilt across the link. "Don't," he said softly, stroking her hair. "Were--here. Always."

"I know," Moira murmured, tucking her head into his neck. She couldn't help but shiver a little as her mind wandered a little bit. They had been lucky he had managed to make it to the shielded room. Without Marie's help...Moira clutched at him a little tighter. The mansion had already been rocked by the after affects and she'd been knocked unconscious while in that room. If he'd been outside...

"Boom," Nathan said a bit grimly.

"Aye, boom..." To the mansion and possibly to her. That was not a mental road she wanted to travel down, Moira decided. At all, ever. "But th' Mansion is still standin'. Yer okay. An' I'm okay."

True enough, Nathan told himself, and decided that since it was all said and done, he could be excused if he didn't linger on the more unpleasant possibilities. "All good," he proclaimed more cheerfully, kissing the top of her head.

She nodded against him and stifled another yawn. She did not want to go back to sleep, she reminded herself, irritated. "Aye, for now. Still waitin' t' 'ear 'bout Muir, nay a word yet."

Nathan shook his head a little, a bit appalled at himself. "So easy--to forget," he said. That life went on, that more had happened in the last few days than his personal crisis. He hugged Moira tightly, trying to extend a wordless apology across the link.

"It's nay yer fault, dinnae feel bad." Moira looked up at him. "Please. I jus'--try nay ta worry 'bout it. Because it'll eat me up. I wish I 'ad th' time before it started ta convince Billy an' me cousin ta leave th' area for a wee while."

"Wial'sai... be there soon," he promised her.

"I know." Gently, she pressed a kiss on his mouth and smiled at him. "I think we're goin' ta be glad when yer English is back full time."


Nathan snorted. "Yes," he said feelingly. "Glad." But for some things, you didn't need words, he told himself, holding Moira tightly, letting everything he was feeling move across the thankfully clearer link.

Moira buried her head in his shoulder and felt her body relax as the feelings washed over her. She felt sleep start to creep up on her again and she sighed, defeated. #Sleepy...dinnae leave, please? Love ye...#

"Staying," he promised her. "Always."