Moira and Rahne

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Rahne brings food down to Moira but the smell of it brings her out of the shell she'd been trying to hide behind. Rahne offers comfort as Moira breaks down and cries on her shoulder



When the rounds were done, serum's handed out to those Skippy had managed to get with his glove, Moira found herself back in her office. Someone had kindly removed the thing that had blocked her door, so she started to clean up the mess left over. The vent covering was easy enough to put back on but cleaning up the glass took some time. When it was done, she found herself sitting on the floor, staring at her hands in exhaustion.

"Now wha'?" she murmured, shivering a little from everything. "Need somethin' ta do."
"I was thinking ye might do with somethin' ta eat?" Rahne's voice came from the doorway.

She jumped and blinked as Rahne entered her office carrying a tray of food. "Rahne? Dinnae 'ear ye approach."

"Dinna mean to sneak up," Rahne replied, looking down at her with some worried curiosity before reaching a decision and dropping cross-legged to the floor in front of Moira, setting the tray down between them. "'Tis time and past for dinner, I'm thinking. This is pretty light, but I can get ye something more if ye want it after."

Moira looked down at the food and her stomach actually rumbled slightly. "...thanks, I dinnae even think o' food. Mind's so wrapped up in everythin' tha's 'appened." The oatmeal smelled wonderful, she decided and reached for the spoon. "Livesaver...damn..." She clenched her fist to try and stop the sudden shaking. The smell of the food had started to bring her out of that protective shell she'd put herself into.

"Lady Moira?" Shaking a little honestly wouldn't have worried Rahne so much, but the reaction to it did, the fist and Moira's expression. She licked her lips nervously. "I doona think very many are remembering about food just now, and some maybe wouldna want to, but it seems to me it shouldna hurt. ....Lady Moira?" she repeated, giving up on the normal conversation. "Is there something I can do?"

"I dinnae..." Moira bit back a curse. "Ye ever break a verra large promise when ye dinnae 'ave any choice?" she asked, voice starting to shake a little.

"...I doona think so...." It probably wasn't a helpful answer, but Rahne hadn't had occasion to make so very many large promises yet in her life.

"Th' rational part o' my mind is tellin' me tha' a dupe is nay more than tha' but 'tis still 'ard ta reconcile th' fact tha' 'e died because o' me. I'm a doctor, I'm nay supposed ta..." She wiped the tears from her eyes and struggled to regain control. "I'm sorry, should be dealin' wit' this better. 'Tis nay like I 'avenae seen deat' before..."

Rahne carefully scooted around to the opposite side of the tray and put her arms a bit gingerly around Moira. "I'm no sure what happened," she admitted, "but... if ye killed one of... Skippy's dupes... I think... he was still there then. And if he'd killed ye, then ye wouldna be here still. And we need ye." She swallowed, her voice wavering a bit. "I doona ken what I'd've done... I missed the fight... seems from what I've heard like they just fell apart if somebody so much as knocked one out though...." She had some idea what she'd have done; she'd have bitten one and probably found out what that sludge tasted like, and she had the nasty feeling the taste wouldn't have bothered her very much.

A sob escaped as Moira let herself be hugged. Normally not one to seek comfort in the students, even the one's she was close to, she welcomed this. "'ad patients die on me," she murmured through the tears. "Durin' th' last attack, I 'elped take one o' th' assassin's down." She had only blown out both of his kneecaps, she reminded herself as she flinched, Cain had been the one to "accidentally" step on him on his way out. "But this? Much as I knew it wasnae Jamie...God, I'm such a bloody old woman t' prone ta tears..."

*It used to be Jamie. Jamie took him back over.* "I think ye've got room to be upset...." Rahne said helplessly.

"T' stubborn ta be upset," Moira sniffled, unable to stop the tears or the shaking. "Must be everythin', nay every day I 'ave ta crawl through vent shafts an' drop acid on someone, is it?"

"I'd certainly hope not," Rahne muttered, and sat up on her knees so she could tuck Moira's head under her chin.

Thankfully Nathan was completely out of it, she thought, or else the link would be flooded with pent up emotions. Everything over the last few weeks, all the emotional distress she'd managed to shut in, came out as she clung to Rahne, crying her eyes out. There was simply no fight left in Moira, not after everything that had happened.

Rahne found herself crying a little too, in sympathy and a little fright, and with no idea what else to do she just held on.