xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan, Thursday afternoon

Angelo goes down to the medlab to see Nathan to talk about his Very Odd post to the journals, and to make him promise to keep letting Amanda heal him in return for information. Nathan doesn't take well to being manipulated. The conversation goes downhill from there.

As soon as he'd seen Nathan's latest post, clearly somewhat later than everybody else had, Angelo headed down to the medlab to see what kind of state the older man was in. Poking his head tentatively round the doorway, he said quietly, "Hey?"

"Hey," Nathan murmured groggily, opening his eyes and blinking at Angelo. "Touch the IV... and I kill you. People keep... doing that."

Angelo raised an eyebrow at him. "I won't if you don't give me a reason to."

"What's.. that s'posed to mean?" Nathan grumbled, and rather than go back to sleep, tried to flex the fingers of his right hand, without much success. He had heard Madelyn murmur something to Moira about neve damage. Hadn't made him very happy.

"It means, I saw your post", Angelo said almost-lightly. "That couldn't've waited 'til you wouldn't do yourself more damage writin' it? Not like anyone's gonna let Manuel back down here anytime soon, as I understand it."

Nathan tried to glare at him, but there were two Angelos overlapping, which made it kind of difficult. "Told him... I would," he grated. "Sorry if I... didn't want t'wait until he snuck... down here to perform an ex--exorcism."

"An' how, exactly, do you think he'd do that when he's not usin' his full powers an' won't be before you're better?" Angelo pointed out reasonably.

"Not...taking the chance," Nathan muttered disjointedly, trying to figure out why Angelo thought it was all that logical. Manuel wasn't logical. Manuel was pure emotion and that was why he was so dangerous.

"So you went an' undid everythin' Amanda did for you?" Angelo asked, giving up on reasonable.

"Don't... do that," Nathan growled, pushing himself up on his good arm and nearly collapsing back to the bed as a wave of dizziness crashed through him. "Don't... you do that, you didn't see him standing here saying he'd kill them... trying to b-blackmail me..."

Angelo looked pointedly at the IV button. "No, I didn't see it. But whatever he said he'd do, I'm pretty sure he's not capable of doin' anythin' to them, right now. An' blackmail? Only works when the person actually cares whether or not everybody knows whatever it is." He sighed. "Look. I wasn't gonna tell you this, an' if I do, you have to promise you won't stop lettin' Amanda heal you."

"Someone might have believed him," Nathan muttered. "He might've... told someone who didn't know, who believed him..." Then the rest of Angelo's words sunk in and he peered intently at the young man, frowning. "What?" he asked hoarsely. "What do you mean..."

Angelo shook his head. "Promise", he insisted. "Or I don't say a word."

Nathan laid back down, staring blearily up at the ceiling as he tried to figure out what precisely was going on here. Angelo had something he could tell him... but he wouldn't tell him unless he promised to keep letting Amanda heal him? So it was something that would make him not want to do that...?

"What did she do?" he muttered, turning his head on the pillow to look back at Angelo.

Angelo sighed. "Can't say. Unless you tell me you won't do somethin' stupid like refusin' to let her help you anymore. Wouldn't change anythin'."

"Angelo..." Nathan growled, then abruptly tired of the argument. He wasn't promising anything, not without knowing what the hell was going on. Narrowing his eyes, he concentrated as hard as he could and reached out telepathically...

Angelo's eyes widened as he watched Nathan, who was suddenly obviously in pain. "What the hell are you doin'?" he demanded, suspecting he knew the answer and not liking it. "Stop that, or I'll press the button."

Nathan couldn't answer him. Lightning-bolts of pain slashed back and forth through his skull, and he stiffened, every muscle in his body going rigid as he tried to fight through it. There were spots dancing in front of his eyes, and he had to force himself to breathe.

Angelo, not waiting for an answer, lunged at the IV and pressed the button anyway.

"Fuck..." Nathan breathed, shaking even as the pain started to ease a little as he stopped trying to reach out.

"Idiot", Angelo growled. "You tryin' to kill yourself?"

Nathan squeezed his eyes shut. "Get out," he gritted out. "Told you.. not t'touch that button... damn it..."

Angelo glared at him. "You were in pain. More than before. What, was I supposed to just watch, not knowin' how long it'd last?"

"Not... playing along..." People jerking him around, trying to get him to do things or react the way they wanted, just because he couldn't... think straight, or fight back...

Angelo glared a moment longer, then turned away. "Who said it was a game? Just wanted t'know you wouldn't go stoppin' Amanda healin' you again."

Nathan turned his face away, shutting Angelo resoundingly out. The drugs would have him asleep in a minute or two anyway, he thought bleakly.

Angelo stared at him for another long moment, then turned and walked out, letting the door almost slam shut behind him.