xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan, Wednesday afternoon (Reply)

After seeing his post about not wanting to be disturbed unless there's an emergency, Angelo comes up to check on Nathan and finds him making friends with the bathroom floor. More male pride on display.

He had managed to convince Amanda that he would be all right--no small feat, but he was a decent enough actor when he really had to be, and he'd had no intention of letting her hang around and watch him lose what was left of his dignity. He'd had just enough time after she had departed to leave a very terse message on the journals as to his whereabouts before the nausea had won out. And it was still winning, Nathan reflected dimly as he sat on the bathroom floor, dizzy and weak and trying to convince himself that there couldn't possibly be anything left in his stomach. It wasn't as if he was eating a whole lot these days, after all.

Angelo, alarmed by Nathan's post, chose to ignore the part about "impending emergencies only" and go to make sure nothing was really seriously wrong. Picking up the plate of cookies Rahne had left outside the room, he knocked, then tried the door on an impulse, just in case.

Nathan heard the door open and on instinct, reached out telepathically to figure out who was there. Pain ballooned inside his skull, and the next clear thing he registered was the coolness of the tile against the side of his face. Nice, cool tile, actually.

Angelo heard the thump and headed straight for the bathroom, setting the plate down on the chest on the way. "...Nathan?"

"Go away," Nathan tried to say, but what came out was a wordless, rather piteous-sounding growl.

That didn't help Nathan's cause, and Angelo practically knocked the bathroom door off its hinges in his haste. "...Oh my God", was all he could say, taking three rapid paces to Nathan's side and dropping into a crouch to try and help him into a sitting position. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Big...flaming... bird-bitch," Nathan muttered, his stomach lurching alarmingly as Angelo helped him sit up. He gritted his teeth, his jaw clenching and sweat standing out on his forehead. Mind over stomach, he told himself fiercely. It was probably all just psychosomatic anyway. Though his nose was bleeding again, which was annoying, he thought wearily as he wiped the trickle of blood away.

Angelo, unsure how long he could hold Nathan up, propped him carefully against the bathroom wall, then frowned in confusion. "Big flamin' bird-bitch?"

Nathan gave a shaky laugh, wincing as he tried to shift his cast-encased leg. "Big sister had a temper tantrum," he said with heavy irony. "She forgets it's my damned brain..."

Angelo frowned more deeply. "Askani? Do I wanna know what brought that on?"

"Not... my story to tell." Nathan took a deep, unsteady breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "She's quiet now. They all are." In fact, they were quieter than they'd been since showing up in his head in the first place. The silence felt deliberate, almost... ashamed.

Angelo nodded, accepting that answer for lack of any other good choice. "Damage is done, though, t'look at you."

"Oh, I'm good," Nathan said vaguely. "Just... liking the bathroom floor."

Angelo raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure you are. Such a nice place to spend time, after all."

"But it has little patterns... see?"

Angelo just looked at him. "Nathan... you don't have to let me get Moira, or take you to the medlab, or any of that. An' by that, I mean you really don't - I know you could stop me if you wanted. But could you drop the act, please?"

A bit blearily but as levelly as he could, Nathan studied Angelo for a long moment, assessing the Very Serious look he was getting. "But if I drop the act," he said a bit dimly, "then I have to admit that Manuel had a point. A small point. But a point."

Angelo blinked. "About... them bein' parasites? No. He doesn't. Just 'cause Askani can do this, whatever exactly she did, doesn't mean she normally would. An' they sure as hell can't infect anyone else, an' I'm pretty sure they're not out to overwrite your mind, like he thinks."

Nathan raised a hand, rubbing at his eyes, then his jaw. "Voice of reason," he muttered dazedly. "Good that someone's being that... don't think I have it in me today."

Angelo tilted his head wryly. "I try", he said would-be lightly.

Nathan sighed heavily, then reached up to the towel rack, using it to pull himself to his feet - or foot, rather, and having only one good leg made it more of a challenge to get and keep his balance. His stomach twisted and he saw spots almost immediately, but he stayed absolutely still, willing it to pass.

Angelo stood up at the same time, poised and ready to at least try and catch Nathan if it looked like he was about to fall. "Where you goin'?" he asked.

"Going to try the bed," Nathan rasped exhaustedly. "Sick of... being sick. Can't even take my damned pain pills... they won't stay down."

Angelo nodded, moving to the older man's side, ready to lend a supporting shoulder if it was needed. "You told one of the doctors?"

Nathan reached out for his crutch, which he'd had the presence of mind to lean against the wall in the corner rather than just drop. "Wouldn't be able to do anything," he sighed, taking that first hobbling step. Only about eight more to the bed. "All in my head... it'll wear off."

Angelo looked dubious. "Not that I'd know, but couldn't "all in my head" mean somethin' different to a psi than to anyone else?"

Nathan took another painful step, gritting his teeth again. "Don't know," he grumbled weakly. "But it'll go away... mind over matter and all that shit.." Six or seven more steps.

Angelo kept pace with him, eyes watchful. "Sure. Even when you're already hurt an' not on your pain pills?"

"Mind. Over matter." Nathan made it to the bed and managed not to faceplant right into the middle of it. Something embarassingly close to a whimper escaped him as he lifted his broken leg up onto the bed, and he slumped sideways onto the pillows, shaking. "Do me a favor?" he choked out. "Put the garbage bucket beside the bed. Not sure I'm done being sick."

Angelo moved to do as Nathan asked, eyes worried. "When did you last eat anythin'?"

"Don't eat so much anymore, anyway," Nathan muttered, squeezing his eyes shut. "All their psionic energy. Moira knows."

Angelo nodded. "That gonna be enough? When you're feelin' a bit better, Rahne's been by."

"Maybe in a while..." The bed in this room was awfully soft. He remembered that he hadn't liked it during the time he'd been living in here, but right now it felt good. Really good...

Angelo eyed Nathan uncertainly, trying to work out if he was falling asleep. "You want me to stay a bit longer? Make sure you're okay?"

"Sound like Amanda," Nathan muttered without thinking. "She didn't want to leave either..."

Angelo blinked in surprise. "Amanda was here? An' she left you in a state like this? Or were you keepin' the act up better then?"

"Uhh..." Oh, shit. Nathan forced his eyes back open, shifting awkwardly on the bed so that he could look at Angelo. "She'll worry," he said hoarsely.

Angelo raised an eyebrow. "Maybe she should. What happened?"

Nathan sighed heavily. "Can't tell you," he said, closing his eyes again. "She's okay, it's just... something we were talking about."

Angelo sighed. "That's what got Askani all riled up, isn't it?" he asked, watching Nathan's face.

Nathan couldn't stop his jaw from clenching as he recalled just how swiftly and brutally Askani had wrested control away from him. "Think I ought to try and get some sleep," he muttered, turning back over onto his side. He knew Angelo would take it as an evasion, but he couldn't tell him, and he didn't have the energy to keep parrying questions. "It'll be okay... don't worry..."

Angelo pulled a face at Nathan's back. "You tell me somethin' like that an' expect me not to worry?" he muttered.