xp_logs | Alison and Nathan, Wednesday morning

Backdated to Wednesday morning. Before she goes off to the spa, Alison stops by for a proper reunion with Nathan.

"What?" Nathan asked, grinning at the blonde head that poked through the half-open doorway. "You didn't think I'd be up?" He set down the cup of tea on the table and gestured impatiently at Alison. "~Get in here, little sister,~" he went on in Askani, beaming at her. "~I thought I was going to have to come find you.~"

Three months. Most of them spent looking for what might only turn out to be rumours, only certain that Amanda was there and needed to be found. And then the last 24 hours, still far too fresh in her mind. There wasn't even the ghost of a hesitation as Alison closed the door and crossed the room for a hug. "Mrf." Which really meant 'Happy to see you' but it was muffled against his shoulder, though she figured he'd get the idea anyway.

"I've missed you," he said quietly, hugging her tightly. "Oh, I know it's only been a week for me, but still..." He pulled back a little, giving her an intent look. "How are you?" he asked. "Did you sleep?"

"Not really." She wasn't sure why, having expected to keel right over, but instead she'd been working off an energy buzz most of the night. "Expect I'll crash tonight, though. I can feel that at the edges." She smiled a bit - keeping watch for the night hadn't been much of a hardship, considering she wasn't too worried about anyone snatching Miles away again. Worst nightmare come true.

"Want to sit down?" He sort of led her in the direction of the couch anyway, grinning. "I hear you have fun plans for the day."

She grinned a bit, more than willing to flop down on something comfortable, truth be told. The metal brace was a thing of the past, the time spent in Asgard doing a whole lot towards getting her back in shape in fact - there wasn't even the ghost of a limp as she allowed him to lead her to the couch and she curled up in one corder with a sigh of bliss.

"Miles is re-acquainting himself with his room, Artie and Jamie in tow right now. But he's coming along too and we are so spending the day at the spa. Three months of running about? It's been earned." She grumbled, remembering only too well the indignities she'd had to suffer while living the 'rough' life. "I am a city girl, dammit."

"You are taking Moira, right?" Nathan said. At Alison's nod, he grinned a bit ruefully. "She tell you she got diagnosed with an ulcer while you were all away?"

"She mentioned something about that in her comment to me, yeah," Alison shook her head a bit, a wry grin on her face. "You're going to have to be careful where you take her out for a while, those things limit what you can eat something fierce." The latter was an expression she'd picked up from Sam, adopting it without ever realizing it.

"I'm going to be watching her like a hawk and making sure she looks after herself," Nathan said, rather more vehemently than he'd intended. Alison merely raised an eyebrow at him, and he smiled a bit lamely. "I'm overprotective? I always have been, though. Ask her sometime about how I pried her out of living 24/7 in her lab on Muir. There was a lot of sheer cussedness involved."

Alison chuckled, shaking her head. "Good. It's scary how doctors can be so bad about looking after themselves, when you think about it."Hank had a similar disposition, working himself into exhaustion. "If you need help or a partner in crime for that, lemme know." She winked, even though she was already doing some of that, taking Moira off to the spa with the rest of the people who had elected to come along.

Nathan grinned. "Hey, you're already chipping in." Rather impulsively, he shifted across the couch and hugged her again. "I really did miss you," he murmured, then shifted to Askani. "~We all did.~"

Alison just looked down - not disputing him in the least, but feeling oddly blank and disconnected for a brief instant. She'd read back on the posts and comments of the previous week (in this time anyway) and couldn't help a small chuckle. "I got turned back into a kid," she offered, wrinkling her nose a bit.

"Yeah?" Nathan left his arm around her shoulders. "Doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun..." He trailed off, leaving the silent invitation for her to go on if she wanted.

Alison blinked then laughed this time, genuinely. "No silly. I mean here, on the journals." She leaned against him a bit, smiling self-deprecatingly and with a fair deal of amusement and quoted. "The kids are missing."

"Ohh." He gave her a faint, wry smile. "Well, you could always look on it as a compliment?" Odd. Most people had phrased it that way, including himself, more than once. And yet he had never forgotten that Alison was gone as well, not for an instant.

"I was the only adult," Alison summed it up, neatly enough in her eyes. It had simply been easier to go for the general label, she knew - it was just that. Her smile wavered slightly and she took a small breath. "I was the only adult there. Took me months to find any of them. And," she closed her eyes for a moment, trying to stay calm. "Miles can be taken from me. She took him and-"

He leaned closer, hugging her tightly again. "Shh," he said, trying to ignore the ache in his own chest. "He's safe. You're both back - you're all back."

She didn't break down and cry, just nodding as she leaned into the hug without a second thought. "I know." She also knew she wouldn't be able to keep Miles near her always and that it might happen again, given the nature of his power. She just didnt' intend to let it happen easily (or at all) should things turn out that way. "I know." She took another deep breath and held it for a moment, before releasing it in a long sigh.

"I have a hard time imagining you doing anything less than the best you can," Nathan said quietly. That wasn't enough sometimes; he knew that himself. But sometimes the platitudes needed to be said anyway. "I know it's scary. But you're not alone, when it comes to protecting him."

I know. But would it be enough? She looked ahead,nodding slowly, not really seeing the room, but remembering that moment when she'd found Miles again, held him after being seperated from him for so long. "Hey. You coming to the spa?"

Nathan shook his head. "Not the spa type," he said dryly. "Figured I'd stay here, see if Pete's reemerged yet." He grinned at her. "But you have fun. I'd say you look like you need it, but I don't want to have my ears boxed."

A wince and a sidelong look, as though she might catch the edges of her now short hair and Alison groaned. "Swords are not the way to go for a new 'do, y'know?" She rolled her eyes comically, still smarting at the memory.

"I think it has a certain panache," Nathan said with a grin. This time, she did swat at him, and he ducked, laughing.