xp_logs | Bethany and Amanda; Amanda and Manuel

It's the early hours of Monday morning, and Bethany is struggling with the whole incident.

She hadn't meant to go to sleep - didn't think it was possible, actually, with the way her nerves were jangling and the unpleasant hospital-smell of the medlab. Strange that a place that looked like a high-tech sci-fi set still smelled of antiseptic and floor cleaner and underneath, where you didn't want to register, the smell of blood. But sitting in the chair by Amanda's bed, watching the IV replenish the blood she'd lost, drip by drip, Bethany had found her eyes drooping, her head sinking down towards her chest.

Sleep was perhaps a mistake - it seemed that no sooner had she closed her eyes, she was back at the club again, facing that thing. Only this time instead of Manuel it was her who stepped forward and was cast aside like a broken doll, the pain ripping through her guts, blood filling her throat… Bethany wrenched herself awake, eyes moving instantly to the girl who'd been lying so white, so still on the bed.

"Hey, babe," Amanda said with a faint smile. "Bad dream?"

Bethany nodded, not sure of her voice, and at that, Amanda shifted over in the bed, turning carefully onto her side. With a wince she pulled back the light blanket and sheet, trying not to disturb the needle in the back of her hand.

"Hop in," she said. "Hate… sleepin' alone."

"But…" Bethany was on her feet, already toeing off her sneakers - the protest was token, at best. She eased herself into the bed next to Amanda, wrapping her arms gently around her, careful to avoid the stitched and bandaged gashes in the witch's side. "Are you… you feeling okay?"

"Been better," Amanda admitted, resting her head on Bethany's shoulder with a sigh. "But I'll be all right. You?"

"Fine." It came out a little too quickly, a little too forced. Bethany rested her cheek against Amanda's forehead and closed her eyes. "So, that was a demon."

"It was." Amanda felt the sudden tension in the other girl's body, wished she could make it go away. "Welcome to my world, Beth."

"It's scary, your world," Bethany said quietly.

"Too scary?" Amanda said it calmly, but a sudden fear gripped her.

"I… I don't know, babe." She remembered the dock, Amanda telling her she could always tell her the truth. "It's too soon."

"'S all right, love." Amanda leaned upwards a little, pressed a kiss to Bethany's jawline. "Later. We can talk 'bout it later."

In the morning, it's Amanda's turn to sit vigil. Manuel's awakening is far more difficult.

It was strange, the silence in her head. The bit occupied by the link wasn't dead, wasn't that gaping hole of before, but it was… quiet. Amanda sat stiffly in the chair beside Manuel's bed, the gashes to her side stitched but still uncomfortable, holding Manuel's slack hand and waiting for him to wake up. There'd been no arguments with the medlab staff - she'd just told them she was going to sit with him until he woke up, and then gone and done it without waiting for a response. By the lack of drugging and dragging her out again, Amanda supposed they'd gotten the picture.

Manuel opened his eyes. He was so cold - not physically, but psychically. He couldn't feel _anything_ beyond a very familiar grey wet haze across his mind. They'd drugged him. No two ways about it - he'd finally crossed the line, passed some final barrier, and they'd drugged him. He would never feel again. He didn't even register the hand holding his own - he couldn't see much of anything for the tears in his eyes. With a small whimper, he tried to curl himself into a ball to block out the rest of the cold, dead world.

The attempt to curl up would jolt all the healing bits... Biting back the flash of pain as she moved far too quickly, Amanda got up from the chair, leaning over him, gently holding his shoulders. "Manny, 's all right. Don't move, you'll hurt yerself again..." The Thorazine would be messing with his head, she knew that from countless shared nightmares, and she projected as hard as she could down the numbed link, letting him know she was there, he was _safe_...

Manuel couldn't feel anything - his power was still swaddled in chemical oblivion by the Thorazine. ~No!~ he whimpered in Castillian. ~I'll be good, I will do whatever you say!~ he added in the same language before devolving into sobs. He _hurt_, from head to toe. He must have angered the gaoler again, and been punished. Or perhaps he was being punished for no reason at all.

Fuck. Bloody fucking hell - her end of the link wasn't enough.
"Manny, listen t’ me!" she tried again, before switching to clumsy Castillian. "~It's me, love, you're all right. You're not there.~" Her side was on fire and she was starting to wonder if maybe she'd pulled the stitches - Bartlet would be highly unimpressed if she had. Perching herself precariously on the edge of the bed, she leaned forward, trying to comfort him and avoid hurting him further at the same time. "~Manuelito, love, please, open your eyes. No-one will hurt you, I promise.~"

Manuel kept his eyes screwed tightly shut - it was safer that way, and he'd rather not know what was coming up next. Any second now, the orderlies would flip him over to administer a new dose. Curious that they'd injected it instead of doing it the usual way. A thought occurred to him in his chemical haze - if he cooperated, perhaps the punishments would be less. ~I cannot move very well. I think something inside is broken.~ he said in Castillian. ~You will have to inject the next dose. I will not struggle.~

The link wasn't working, talking to him wasn't working... Amanda didn't have the power for another healing spell - not so soon after the last one, or she wouldn't have had Bartlet sewing her up - but she had to try _something_. And it was magic or getting one of the telepaths, and she wasn't sure how that would go, considering the mess he was already in. If she could just speed up him processing the drug, just a little... Straightening, she lay her hands gently on his head, closing her eyes. The light that came from her hands was faint, weak, and her head began pounding, protesting against the effort. ~Come back to me, love,~ she thought desperately at him, ignoring the flare of pain behind her eyes, the inevitable nosebleed.

Manuel moaned as his head _burned_. Whatever they were doing to him, it made him hurt in all-new and all-annoying ways. He risked cracking his eyes open, only to be granted with the vision of a pair of somewhat scarred yet still lovely breasts, covered up by at least two layers, attached to a wytch of his acquaintance. She was laying hands on his forehead - could that be why his head felt like it was on fire?

"Ow, _fuck_," Amanda said with feeling as the spell cut out abruptly. Out of power. She pressed the heels of her hands to her forehead, willing her brain to stay where it was, thank you very much, and then realised her nose was bleeding. Lovely. Just fucking brilliant. She reached for a tissue to wipe it with, realising as she snagged the box with difficulty that Manuel had stopped struggling, had stopped sobbing. Wiping away the blood, she looked at him, reaching out despite herself to touch the side of his face. "Manny?"

Manuel shook his head, and then winced as his body protested. "They gave me Thorazine." he said. "Didn't they." he continued, not a question at all.

"They had to... Yer powers - you were projectin' pain at anyone who came near, an' there wasn't any other way t' help you." Amanda winced as she shifted back a bit, to give him space. "Now yer past the worst of it, they won't any more. I promise."

Manuel nodded tiredly, but didn't say anything. "What happened? It knew who you were, it knew your _name_, but it never said Amanda Sefton." he said. He knew this was important, but the chemical fog still in his brain made it difficult to think straight. Not impossible, just difficult.

Trust Manuel to get straight to the heart of the matter. "It knew my true name," she said softly, looking down at her hands. "That's how it stopped my powers, it knew my true name an' used it. Names're important, in magic - the true name is the true thing, an' knowin' that gives you power over that thing. Or person." Swallowing hard, she looked back up at him, meeting his eyes. "Gemile," she said, almost too quietly to hear. "That's my real name. 'Amanda Sefton' is the name Rom gave the doctors when she left me at the hospital after the bindin' spell."

"Why didn't you tell me before now?" he asked, wincing as his broken internal bits shifted slightly. "You did not trust me?"

"It's not like that," Amanda replied. "It's... it's t' do with the magic. Magic users... we never tell people our real names. Ever. 'S like givin' someone a loaded gun an' pointin' it at yer head an' hopin' they don't shoot, that they never have a reason t' shoot later. Until that fuckin' demon showed up, throwin' me name around like it was nothin', Nate was the only one I'd told it to, an' that was when I was in that coma from Mexico. I thought I was dyin', an' gave him me name t' try an' stop it." She lay a gently restraining hand on his arm. "Stop movin' 'round so much, yer'll hurt yerself."

Manuel sighed and tried to lay still. He wasn't very successful - the chemicals still in his body made not writhing and twitching in memory of what had been done to him difficult at best. "I was afraid when I woke up that I was back in the asylum. They used to drug me to turn off my power."

"I know. I'm sorry." The restraining hand became a comforting one, her fingers stroking the back of his arm lightly. "You were hurt so
badly, projectin' all over the place... there wasn't any other way t' stop you. What the hell were you thinkin', goin' up against it like that?" Her tone wasn't accusing or harsh, more worried.

"I wouldn't let it have you. Couldn't use my power." Manuel said, after a coughing fit that left him pale and wan. "Only thing I could do. Would. Not. Let. It. Have. You."

"You could've been killed. You nearly were." Amanda choked up at the thought. "Christ, I'm so sorry, love. The fuckin' thing came for me, it was here 'cause of me, an' you nearly..." She clenched her jaw, trying hard to keep it together. Manuel was hurt, he didn't need her blubbing all over him. He needed her to be strong.

Manuel didn't have his power right now, but even he could see what sort of emotional distress she was in. "I did it because I love you." he said softly. "It was my choice. If it was after me, I know you would have done the same."

"You wouldn't have had to at all, if it hadn't been for me..." The effort of holding in the sobs was straining her side, and she looked down to see a few spots of blood on the grey 'Xavier's" t-shirt she'd been given to wear. Bleeding through the bandage. Fuck. "I don't know what I'd've done if I lost you," she said, ignoring it. She'd live.

Manuel shook his head just a bit, wincing at the effort. "Doesn't matter. You would go on - figure out a way to bring me back from the Other Side." he said, then relaxed to concentrate on his breathing.

She blinked. He believed she could, he really did. "Let's not test that one out, all right?" she asked with a shaky smile, leaning forward despite another warning twinge from her side to kiss his forehead. "You should sleep, heal up. I"ve done what I can, but I need t' recharge for a while before I do any more." And she should probably go see Moira about getting the dressing changed again. Amanda could handle her lectures better.

Manuel closed his eyes again, and despite all the pain in his ribs and the shortness of breath, smiled. " I wish I could / Lay your arms down / And let you rest at last / Wish I could / Slay your demons / But now that time has passed / Wish I could stay here / Your stalwart, standing fast..." he sang, before the pain got to be too much and he slipped into unconsciousness again.