xp_logs | Nathan, Pete, and Domino, Wednesday morning

Pete stops by the medlab to find Nathan and Domino sparring about Mr. Demerol. They talk a little about what happened, and Pete makes some plans.

"Don't... you dare."

Domino raised an eyebrow at the man in the bed, who was doing his very best to look threatening. Given the bandages, traction split, IVs, and the fact that he was wearing a hospital gown, it wasn't working. Awfully cute, though. "Oh," she said dryly, fingering the control for his IV. "I'm terrified. Shaking in my boots."

Nathan glowered at her, his jaw clenching and sweat beading his forehead as he tried to ignore the pain. It made it almost as hard to think as the drugs did. He wasn't sure which was actually the lesser of two evils. "Touch that... and I kick your ass," he gritted out.

Bluster, just bluster, Domino decided cheerfully, and hit the appropriate button. Moira had warned her she might need to do this if Nathan started getting all male and irrational. "Now, listen to me, asshole," she said pleasantly as Nathan growled at her. "Mr. Demerol is your friend. Learn to love him."

"Bite me!"

"He's terribly impressive when he gets all macho, ain't he?" Pete was leaning on the doorframe, watching the pair of them with a half-amused grin on his face.

"I can't decide if it's just stubborn bloody mindedness or some kind of clinical paranoia that means he does his level best to ignore the doctors every time."

He crossed over to beside the bed. "How're you doing, old son?"

Nathan grumbled under his breath, shooting one last feeble glare at Dom before he looked up at Pete. "Got... taken down by a... dime-a-dozen special ops puke," he growled tiredly. "How do you think?"

"Oh-ho, I was waiting for that," Domino said with a snort. "Cue the wounded pride..." She smiled blithely at Pete, rather more blithely than she felt. "Personally, I think this is all just proof that putting him out to pasture is a great idea."

"Dom!"

"We could just skip the middleman, and phone the knackers yard. Render him down for glue."

He looked down at Nate.

"Or when I get back, we can try and get you back into some kind of shape. Between the falling in love and the getting your brain bogwashed twice a month for the last couple of months, I'm not bloody surprised your reflexes are shot to shit."

Nathan gave him an assessing look, or as close to one as he could manage, given that his eyes were starting to refuse to focus properly again as the meds kicked in. "That'd be good," he muttered. "If I do that...and keep Moira out of the fucking line of fire..."

Domino gave a slight, humorless smile, looking up at Pete. "Their link," she said by way of explanation. She had finally gotten Nate's side of the story out of him, or as much as he remembered, in any case. "She got knocked out, the backlash knocked him for a loop. Anonymous bastard proceeded to get lucky."

"They *were* after her..." Nathan murmured stubbornly.

Pete scowled. "Yeah, well, I'll do me best to make them a little less anonymous when I get over there. That ought to help keep the Doc out of their sights for a bit, if we can start chasing Essex and his crew of shitbags."

Nathan frowned, flinching a little at the strange, fierce buzzing of Pete's thoughts. He wasn't letting much slip, but he was angry, angrier than Nathan would have expected. "What... what're you..." He trailed off, his frown deepening.

Domino gave him a concerned look, but figured it had to be the Demerol taking effect. "I searched the bodies thoroughly before Theo and I disposed of them," she said to Pete, patting Nate's good shoulder gently. "Nothing. Not even helpful tattoos. Six men, one woman, all late twenties or early thirties by the look of them."

"I just got off the phone with Doyle. He's pulled a few strings, and it looks like I'm going to get to look at W.H.O.'s reports and footage from when they first went in, and see if there's any leads they missed."

Pete's demeanour brightened a bit at the thought of getting his hands on information he wasn't supposed to have.

"Between that and anything they missed at Muir, I might actually find something to go on. Even if I don't, it'll calm Doyle down a bit, which at least means that Five won't get too distracted over all this, and maybe some other lucky bastard will find Essex."

"Just call ahead, if you're going out to Muir," Domino said dryly. "Several very pissy mercenaries on site and all." She glanced down at Nate, who seemed to be finding something very interesting about the ceiling. "Still bugs the hell out of me that we got blindsided like that."

"Missed it," Nathan muttered as Dom's words sank in through the haze. "Stupid... Charles ought to kick my ass..."

Pete snorted. "I did a work-up on Essex a year or so back, and I couldn't get half of the real story - the man's been involved with so many dodgy military R&D jobs that I'm not surprised he could put his hands on boys with the talent to catch you off guard. Don't beat yourselves up over it."

He paused.

"Although I'd pay good money to watch a man in a wheelchair kick someone's arse."

Nathan tried to retort, but all that came out was a grumble. Domino smiled, patting his shoulder again. "Good boy," she said, feeling a distinct flash of satisfaction as he closed his eyes. "I think Mr. Demerol's winning," she quipped lightly, looking up at Pete. "Once he's safely out, what say you and I go find some coffee and chat more about details?"

"Good idea. Certainly more fun than listening to him snore, and I haven't had me breakfast yet."