Backdated to Wednesday

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Moira's there when Nathan wakes up after a nap and she reassures him about the tests she had to run. He finally breaks down and talks to her about one of the issues that came up with Betsy and Moira counteracts the only way she knows how.



Moira sat on the bed, rubbing her tired eyes. She had just gotten back upstairs after doing another round of tests. With the stress Nathan had been under, she had been keeping close watch on the virus levels. A frown deepened on her face. A part of her understood what Betsy had been, probably, attempting to do. But the consequences could have been enormous.

A small snore interrupted her train of thought and she turned, crawling across the bed to Nathan's side. Leaning over, she smoothed the rumbled hair from his face and relaxed a little. It was good that he was getting some sleep, at least, with the night previous he hadn't slept at all.

The gentle touch pulled him out of a dim, uneasy dream, and Nathan opened his eyes, blinking up at her. "Hey," he murmured, his voice coming out sleepy and rough. "What time is it?"

She glanced down at her watch. "Wee bit after seven," she answered. "'ow're ye feelin'?"

He shifted a little, but didn't lift his head off the pillow. "Head's clearer," he said, relieved to be able to say that. If his mind was an engine that had stalled after last night, it was now running again, if not as energetically as it should be. "Funny how missing one night's sleep can feel almost as bad as missing six, huh?" he said, managing a very faint smile.

"I remember tellin' ye tha' a few years back," Moira pointed out, shifting so that she could stretch out next to him. "Especially wit' th' amount o' stress tha' ye're under. Ye need ta keep routines, I swear."

"Or stop inflicting that much stress on myself," Nathan said, a very tired, somewhat strained chuckle slipping out. He reached out and folded his hand around hers. "Your hands are cold," he murmured. "Been in the lab again?"

"Aye, was done there once ye fell asleep. Ran th' last few series o' tests on ye, makin' sure th' virus was behavin' itself." She smiled at the look he shot her and squeezed his hand. "Everythin' came out normal, relax."

"Do anything with that leaf?" Nathan asked, remembering giving it to her when he'd come back in. The last several hours were a little patchy still, though. "It was kind of pretty, wasn't it? I almost wish I could do that under controlled conditions..." He had a sudden, rather attractive vision of turning a rose into crystal for Moira, just to see her expression.

"We could always work on addin' tha' ta yer trainin'," she murmured, warmed by the images coming down the link. Leaning over, she kissed his cheek gently. "I'll be runnin' tests on tha' tomorrow, ye were me first priority."

Nathan sighed. "I would say I don't know what I did to deserve you, but we've established that you get to hit me when I do that, so..." She settled back down beside him, her eyes lingering watchfully on his face. "I finally looked at all the stuff on the journals," he confessed. "I really should have just left it at 'classes cancelled', shouldn't I?"

"Mmm, probably." There was some agreement in Moira's voice as she curled closer. "Th' kids worry an' they're pretty smart, so they've probably got all sorts o' explanations o' wha' 'appened." She rolled her eyes. "Probably most wron'."

"I wasn't really thinking this morning," Nathan muttered, a bit sheepishly. Moira made an odd noise that didn't sound quite like a laugh, and he managed another weak smile. "Hey, I can admit it."

"Sometimes 'tis like pullin' teet' an' gettin' blood out o' a stone...all at th' same time."

Her hand tightened on his again, and Nathan squeezed back. "At least I'll have plenty to tell Jack this weekend," he bantered feebly. "Can't wait to hear what he makes of this..."

"Jack's nay goin' ta judge ye on anythin'," Moira reminded him, kneeing him slightly in the thigh.

"I know. But I'm still not looking forward to telling him about it." Nathan gazed at Moira for a long moment, still not sure what to tell her. She had been to see Charles, he knew, but she hadn't really pushed him for details. And there were a couple, or at least, a couple of things that had come out in that confrontation with Betsy, that he wasn't looking forward to sharing with her.

But he needed to. He knew that. "Do you remember being on the volcanic island... talking about trust?" he started a bit haltingly.

"Aye, o' course I do." She frowned. "Why?"

"I... don't know that I was entirely honest with you. Not deliberately dishonest," he corrected immediately as she gave him a startled look. "Just... not really understanding what the problem was myself." Shame twisted inside him as he thought back on what he'd shouted at Betsy, and he started to wonder if this maybe was a little too soon to be rehashing it, even with Moira...

Despite her confusion of what he was talking about, Moira reached out mentally to touch the link. #'Tis alright, Nathan,# she soothed, caressing the tie between them.

"I am... terrified at what might happen to you if Mistra comes after me," Nathan said slowly, feeling the color rush to his face. "But I think... I think there's more. I don't think I really... trust anyone to help me. When they come, I mean. Which is stupid and thoroughly wrong-headed," he went on, his hand tightening on hers as the words came out in a rush, "and I really fucking hate the fact that it makes me sound like I'm still fourteen, believe me, but Be--but I just snapped, last night, and that's what came out."

Moira watched him and tried to find the words. But there was nothing that she could say that would even be what she meant. So instead, she concentrated and reached down the link, nudging everything that wouldn't come out in words at him. Yes, she was terrified that they would come and that she, a human, wouldn't be able to do anything. But beyond that terror was an overwhelming determination that no one would ever take him from her, that no one would ever harm him again. Trust, love...all of it bound up and shoved at him as well as she could make it.

Nathan swallowed, then reached out and pulled her very gently into her arms. She curled against him with a shaky little sigh, and he squeezed his eyes shut at the weariness in the sound. "I love you so much," he said hoarsely. "So much. It's why I'm so scared."

"I know," she mumbled, eyes closing against the strained headache that was now dancing in her skull. "But we'll be okay."