Amanda, Nathan - Tuesday afternoon

[xp_daytripper]

Angst break - Nathan takes Amanda out on the lake again to give her a chance to catch her breath. With Bella as co-conspirator, it works beautifully.




"If you fall in," Nathan told the bird sternly, "you can swim back to shore." Bella, perched on the edge of the boat, merely hooted at him and flapped her wings, looking very much like she was contemplating a dive. Nathan chuckled wearily and turned his attention back to Amanda. "She's overly ambitious," he said, watching Amanda watch the bird.

"Like someone else I know," she said with the ghost of a grin. The sunshine was definitely making her feel better - less insubstantial - but it was hard to feel much else besides tired. Her system was crashing badly - come downs were always a bitch. "Hey, Bella, got some fruit for you, if you want it?" She waved an apple slice at the parrot enticeingly.

Bella cooed and jumped down off the edge of the boat, then walked over and climbed up onto Amanda's lap. "Fruuuuit," she chirped and took the apple slice in her beak.

"I haven't had her out in the fresh air nearly enough these last few days," Nathan said quietly, watching the two of them. "I'm very bad, aren't I, feathers?"

"Bad!" Bella pronounced as she ate. "Sucky baby!"

Amanda couldn't help chuckle at that as she scratched Bella's head. "Biggest bloody baby I've ever seen," she said, glancing at Nathan with a grin. The expression tugged at the sticking plaster over the gouge Jubilee's thumbnail had left in her cheek, but it felt good, regardless.

"What is it with me, women, and verbal abuse? I must have one of those faces." Nathan started to row again, noticing that they were drifting closer to shore. Out in the middle of the lake was where they wanted to stay. Well away from the mansion and everyone else... "I think you're stealing my bird," he said fondly, watching the two of them. Bella squealed and he laughed. "Traitor."

"Or she's stealin' me - I woke up this mornin' t' find her tryin' t' feed me." Amanda fed Bella another slice of apple, smiling at the bird's antics. "Seems she's in on the whole conspiracy t' get me t' eat more too."

"Do you know, I took her to one of my lessons with Charles once and the two of them had a whole conversation? Terrifying. Especially when she started telling him his head was shiny." Despite the miserable session with Manuel and the one with Jack, which had been just as hard if much more productive, despite Angie's email and what Moira had told him, Nathan found a warm smile tugging at his lips as he continued to watch the two of them. "As for conspiracies... we'll take all the help we can get."

Bella snatched another piece of apple from Amanda's fingers, but instead of eating it herself, she pushed it towards Amanda's mouth. "Good!" she chirped. "Mangia, mangia!" Amanda snorted and looked at Nathan.

"So I see." Bella became insistent and Amanda obediantly took a small bite of the apple. "Okay, see? 'M eatin'."

Nathan chuckled again. "Remind me to laugh at the next person who uses the term 'birdbrain' in a derogatory fashion," he told Bella, then let the oars go again as they got back out to the center of the lake. "You okay in all of this sun?" he asked Amanda, concerned.

She nodded. "Helps," she said briefly, rolling the sleeves of her shirt up - carefully, with the burns on her arms - to let the sun touch her pale skin. She'd gone back to the layers of clothes, all of which seemed too large for her, and she looked very small and fragile. ""I'll let you know when I've had enough."

Nathan nodded, reaching down to take a sandwich out of the tupperware container. "Then we can sneak back in and find somewhere else to pretend we're the only people in the world, if you want," he said lightly.

"Nice thought," Amanda said with a sigh, remembering the email exchange with Manuel. He'd been so cruel... just like his father. Nothing less than what she deserved, she supposed. Bella climbed up onto her shoulder and cooed in her ear, disrupting that train of thought. "You sure you ain't telepathic?" she asked the bird, smiling despite herself. "Yer determined t' not let me mope 'bout this, ain't you?"

"I think that's a lost cause," Nathan said gently, "but she does like reminding people, when they're brooding, that there is still cute in the world. After years around me, she's sort of gotten into the habit."

"Lots of practice," Amanda replied, gently scratching under Bella's beak. "You look tired," she observed. Deflection was a good distraction technique.

He let her. Pushing wasn't what was called for, here. "Spent a few very long hours with Jack today," he said calmly, taking a bit of his sandwich, chewing and swallowing before he went on. "And I didn't sleep very well last night. My internal clock's all messed up." He smiled slightly. "Head's feeling better, though."

"That's good." Amanda avoided eating anything more substantial than the pieces of apple Bella poked at her periodically, feeling too jittery to eat. Detoxing again. Yay. Too bad she hadn't thought of that earlier. "Heads're hard t' fix, so you should look after the one yer've got."

"Maddie keeps refusing to give me a new one," Nathan said with a straight face. "Cruel, cruel woman. You should be drinking some water, by the way." He instinctively started to reach out to one of the water bottles he'd brought, to levitate it over to her - and grimaced, stopping himself. "Here," he said, leaning down and picking it up. "Before it gets warm."

She rolled her eyes at him but took the water, unscrewing the cap and taking a small sip. It did taste good - damn smart alec adults, being right... "You sure you should be askin' strange women for heads?" she asked, innocently.

"Moira seemed to think it was funny. Constantly surprising me, she is." Nathan grinned at the giggle - strained-sounding, but real - that escaped Amanda.

"Surprises everyone, does Moira. She told you 'bout me findin' those photos of her wicked youth at Muir, didn't she?" Amanda had another of mouthful of water before putting the cap back on. Her fingers were still shaking, she noticed irritably.

"Oh, yes. I even got her to show me them--well, some of them." He noticed the shaking fingers as well, but didn't say anything about it. "I'll talk her into leather again soon. You just watch."

"Halloween, maybe?" Amanda suggested, grinning. "Seems t' be a big deal here, what with costumes an' all... Could be a good time t' talk her into it."

"I'll have to make a concerted effort." They were drifting away, and he finished his sandwich and picked up the oars. Bella bounced back over to the edge of the boat and he sighed. "Don't," he told her sternly.

"Whee!"

SPLASH!

Snickering helplessly, Nathan dropped the oars and leaned over to fish her out. "Feathers! Come on, that was dumb..."

"Whee!" the very wet bird trumpeted gleefully, shaking herself. "Whee!"

Giggling so much she could barely sit up straight, Amanda carefully levitated the soaking wet bundle of feathers to within Nathan's reach. Bella was certainly a sight, and as Nathan lifted back on board, she flapped her wings vigorously, spraying them both with water. "If I'd wanted a bath I would've jumped in meself, silly bird," she chuckled, wiping water off her face.

"Bath! Whee!"

Nathan laughed, shaking his head. "Oh, for a camera." He picked up the oars again, snickering. "Two Mutants In A Boat, To Say Nothing Of The Bird?"

"C'mere, you, 'fore you do the Esther Williams trick again. Yer've been watchin' too much divin' at the Olympics, haven't you?" Amanda held her arm out to Bella, who obligingly climbed on, still dripping. Somehow the bird knew to avoid the gauze-covered areas. "Should have yer category, bird divin', what d'you reckon?" She prattled at Bella, forgetting for the first time in a while everything else, just enjoying the moment. Nate made an odd noise, and she looked up quizzically. "What?"

"Nothing," Nathan said, smiling as he rowed them back out towards the center of the lake. "Nothing at all."