Sooraya and David: Meet Jim (backdated)

[xp_dust]

Sooraya pokes David to eat once more, but this time she learns something new about her friend. 

"David, open up!" Sooraya eyed the door, a little annoyed. "Or I am gonna follow Moira's suggestion and get you some haggis. She offered to ship me a halal version from Edinburgh. And I don't want to eat it, so open up!"

The door opened. This time it revealed the expected occupant: Jim, rumpled and clearly fresh from what was, if not sleep, then at least a period of unconsciousness that was potentially still in progress. He seemed to wake up slightly when he realized it was Sooraya he was looking at.

"I did spend a big chunk of my life in Scotland, you know," the man said with a wan smile. "That stuff doesn't scare me anymore." He paused, then admitted, "Well, not much, anyway."

"Well, it does scare me. And if Moira goes through with the halal haggis... I'll have to try it too. So..." Sooraya shooed David back into the room, popping her tray on the table. "The usual gossip mill has been doing its work though."

Jim grimaced. "Is this the same one that told Warren I'm dating Jean?"

Sooraya's eyebrow rose slowly: "You... dating Jean?!?!? That's almost as crazy as people thinking the two of us are dating. It's possible though, but from what I've seen with that guy... he might have come up with it himself." She peered at him closely for a moment: "So is this 'you you' right now?"

"'You y-' oh . . . right, you talked to Jack." Some of the tiredness returned to Jim's expression. He sighed. "Yeah, it's me. Sorry I'm a little slow on the uptake. I haven't really been . . . me-me a lot this week outside of the Medlab. Information isn't getting through like it usually does."

"I did... Come on, let's go sit down." Gently touching his elbow, she guided him over to the couch, leaving the tray where it was for now. "And it's fine. Jack explained a lot about what was going on. Now, I brought some bean and lentil soup this time... how does that sound?"

"Like I don't have a choice," Jim replied, with a touch of irony, "but the headache's finally going down, so I should be able to manage it now." Keeping up the professional facade in front of Jessica was taking too much energy to put up a fight even if he'd been so inclined. He allowed himself to be steered and sat down, feeling a pang of deja vu as he looked at the covered soup bowl on the tray. After a moment he realized it was Jack's memory of her last visit.

"Good plan." She smiled at him as she brought over the tray. "I kinda promised Jack I'd look after you a bit. It was interesting talking with him. I've met him and Cyndi before during training, but we never really had the chance to talk."

Jim nodded as he accepted the tray. "Yeah. That's my fault, I guess. Some people are uncomfortable with the DID, so I try not to throw it in people's faces. Besides, when I first started here I didn't really want students to be thinking about it when they talked to me. Most people don't really want to know, anyway." The smell of food didn't make him want to gag anymore, at least. Truly a miracle.

Sooraya shrugged a little. "Most of that sounds like good sense to me. Especially when you were in a role of responsibility to the students. I've got to admit though... it does make me wonder about..." She paused, searching for the right words. "I think the best way to say it is the 'whole picture'? You've explained bits and pieces in the past..."

Jim's forehead creased. He had been about to pick up a spoon; now he stopped to look up at her. "'Whole picture' in what sense?" he asked.

Letting out a sigh, Sooraya played with one end of a scarf as she sought for words once more: "How do I put it... I have many pieces of the puzzles, but something tells me there is more? Things that might be more private or something... Bah, I am not making any sense, am I?"

"No, I . . . think I understand." Jim sat back on the couch, tray now forgotten. "You mean, is there something more going on than just my DID."

"Could be." Sooraya eyed him, pointing wordlessly at the spoon. "It's just a feeling I had... the various pieces don't really fit together."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's an accurate way of putting it." Jim didn't make a move for the spoon. He was thinking.

He had known Sooraya for a long time now. They'd transitioned from student and teacher to teammates and professional acquaintances without much of a ripple, and from there fallen into a comfortable friendship. It hadn't occurred to him that he'd never actually revisited the foundation of their relationship -- never really sat down to explain the system to her, or really go into why it had come to exist in the first place. And Sooraya was kind, so even though she must have had questions she'd never pushed. He didn't think she'd even be asking now if she wasn't so worried. Now that he thought about what it must be like from her perspective the oversight suddenly seemed grossly unfair. He sighed.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked, and it was more for his own reassurance than an honest question.

"Only if you feel comfortable sharing."

"No, it's okay." Jim picked up the spoon and bowl of soup for something to do with his hands. "You know I killed people when I manifested, right? It's related to that. I was in their minds when they died. Some -- things -- stayed. The Arabic and Farsi are part of it. Some of the things I like to cook and eat. Other things. They weren't part of David. I took them from someone else."

"They... got mixed up with David?" Sooraya narrowed her eyes a little. "And became a part of 'you'?"

Jim gave the soup a listless stir. "When I say 'David' I mean the system. All of us. But it's also who I used to be. It's hard to explain." The telepath chewed his lip, trying to filter this through something that was bearable. "I've had DID since I was a kid, that wasn't what caused it, but the" person "things that got pulled in got stuck there, like a foreign body. Without getting too deep into it, it started causing problems. Since we couldn't just erase it the professor had to do some psychic surgery to integrate all the elements safely. But it was only with m- with David, not Jack or the others, because I'm the host. It wasn't system-wide. That's why the four of us don't always sync right."

Sooraya's eyes narrowed even more as she puzzled through the information. "So David is kinda like the name you use for the whole computer system..." Hastily she cast around for a working comparison. "But with four drives..." She thought back to something Jack had told her. "... and sometimes they work as one and sometimes they each do their own thing?"

"Basically, yeah." Jim scooped up the soup and watched it dribble back into the bowl. "I'm the strongest because I've got the telepathy and I was made from the host. The others have their own times, but usually they don't front around other people unless it's something I can't handle, like telekinesis, or Warren."

She nodded thoughtfully. "So Jack and Cyndi are two of the 'drives'..." Sooraya airquoted the last word. "Is David another one?"

"No, that would be Davey." Jim realized, belatedly, he hadn't told her about Davey either. Another thoughtless omission. He rubbed his forehead. "He was the first alter, or a version of him. I don't usually bring him up. He's a kid, he doesn't have any powers. He really only comes out around Charles and Moira these days. The friends he had at the mansion are . . . gone." He stared fixedly at the soup, hoping it would hide his expression. He hadn't meant to remind himself of that.

She hesitated only for a moment before simply addressing the young child: "I'm so sorry to hear that, Davey. If you ever want to come and meet me, I'd love that. I bet we could find something fun to do."

The telepath gave a rueful chuckle. "Davey and I can't talk to each other anymore. But Jack does. He'll pass it on." Jim smiled, a little sadly. "I think he'd probably like that, too."

"Then he is more than welcome. So Jack, Davey, Cyndi and..." Sooraya let her voice trail off a bit, before venturing hesitantly. "... so if David is the system... what's your real name then?"

For just a fraction of a second Jim hesitated. Then he set the spoon back in the soup bowl with a gentle clink.

"Jim," he said. "We go by Jim."

"Jim." Sooraya nodded firmly. "It's good to finally properly meet you, Jim. And now eat your soup before it's completely cold."

Comments

[xp_daytripper]

"It's good to finally properly meet you, Jim. And now eat your soup before it's completely cold."

Damn, guys. This is such a great log. Simple and devastating.