xp_logs | Nathan and Haroun, Monday morning (Reply)

Nathan takes it upon himself to see that Haroun at the very least showers and sleep. Haroun puts up a little bit of a fight, but eventually sees reason.

Haroun was in serious danger of becoming the Phantom of the Medlab. He had staked out a corner of Medlab near Alison's iso-room, and he Was Not Moving. He listened as Madelyn and Moira discussed the problem and possible treatments. He carried things, he fetched things that were needed, and when he wasn't doing either of them he prayed. Quietly, to himself, but he prayed. What he did not do, however, was eat, sleep, or bathe.

Nathan supposed that a sign of just how far out of it Haroun was at this point was that his friend didn't appear to register his approach, and in fact looked startled - in a dull sort of way - when Nathan laid a hand on his shoulder. "I won't insist you eat," he said steadily. "Ramadan and all, I know. But Madelyn and Moira are telling me that the stench is getting to them, so you're going to shower if I have to dump you in one myself." And then they could talk about sleep.

Haroun blinked. The statement took a little while to process, and reflexively he looked over at Alison's isolation chamber. "Watch her. If anything changes, anything at _ALL_, you let me know." he said dully. "Wait. I need new clothes to change into. Grab me a set of Xavier sweats, and I'll go take a shower."

"Moira will let me know through the link instantaneously if anything does," Nathan assured him. To be honest, he would much rather be dragging Moira out of here for a shower, food, and sleep, but he knew precisely how far he was going to get with that and no matter how anxious her increasing fatigue was making him it would still be a losing battle. "Let's go up to your room," he said, taking Haroun's arm as the younger man got up.

Haroun shook his head. "I told you I'm not leaving." he said stubbornly. "Not until she does."

Nathan gazed down at him steadily. "Which is not going to be for days, most likely," he said, "and she's going to need you rested and alert in the interim. Not half-dead."

"I'm already half-dead." he said, pinging his leg. "And I won't leave her side. She would not leave mine if that was me in there." he said. "Grab me a change of clothes and I'll go hit the showers quickly. But do _NOT_ tell me to leave this Medlab, and do _NOT_ tell me to walk away from her."

Nathan forebore to point out to Haroun that yes, Alison would in fact have left his side by this point because he or someone else would have carried her out whether she liked it or not. "All right," he said, with a docility that Haroun likely would have found very suspicious if he'd been in anything resembling his right mind. "You head in the direction of the showers, I'll be right there with the sweats."

Haroun nodded, too tired to be properly suspicious. He also steadfastly was ignoring the acid-scarred empty wasteland that was his stomach. He wandered over towards the Medlab shower, already beginning to shed clothing. A fast shower wouldn't be too bad - he'd be back at her side just as fast as he could.

Nathan went to get a pair of sweats, picking up Haroun's discarded clothing on his way back. Burning was probably in order, he thought with a sigh, wondering what facilities the medlab had for the disposal of toxic waste.

The shower didn't visibly perk Haroun up much, but then, Nathan hadn't expected it to. Damn Ramadan anyway, he thought, scowling inwardly as he saw how unsteady the younger man still was. What he really needed to do was eat, but Nathan knew better than to even try.

"There's an empty room just down the hall from the isolation room," he said quietly. Might as well make the token attempt to appeal to his good sense first. "Why don't you get a couple of hours of sleep? I'll wake you up if anything changes."

It was a measure of his tiredness and nonrationality that he actually considered it. "Nope." he said after some deliberation. The shower had done him some good, even though he was fairly sure he'd fallen asleep in the shower. He hated it when he did that. Then he stopped and thought about what Nathan was saying - and finally the tired underfed gears of his brain starting turning. "Might not be that bad of an idea, actually." he said with a jaw-cracking yawn. "If I go catch a few hours of downtime, will you link me to her mind so I can let her know what's going on out here?"

A pained look escaped before Nathan could help himself. "No," he said faintly, "no, I can't." Haroun blinked at him, and he shook his head. "I couldn't link myself to her mind if I tried. I could feel her the whole time I was scanning the grounds Saturday night and Sunday morning." Light. Like this knot of shapeless light, blazing away on the astral plane. Haroun didn't look like he was comprehending. "Charles has established a refuge for her," he went on, a bit more steadily, "but it's taking a hell of a lot of focus to maintain and I am not going blundering in there to screw things up. I'm sorry."

Haroun scowled. "So you can't do it." he repeated after a few moments of thought. "Then I'm staying right here."

"In the shower room?" No, apparently not the moment for levity, Nathan reflected as Haroun's scowl deepened. One last appeal to reason, then. "And when you pass out in another twelve hours, are Moira and Maddie supposed to take time away from Alison to pick you up off the floor?"

"No, next to her room. I'm not going to pass out. I've done stakeouts before, I can handle it. My body doesn't need much to keep it going." he said slowly. "And I keep out from underfoot whenever possible."

"She is liable to be in that iso room for days," Nathan said, biting off the end of each word. "Are you seriously planning to stay awake in your little corner that whole time?"

"If I must." he replied. "I'll take catnaps when I absolutely must. But I don't need to right now." he said, giving lie to his words with another jaw-cracking yawn.

"So I guess it comes down to one question, then, "Nathan said, his eyes never budging from Haroun's face. "Do I knock you out telepathically, or just hit you?"

"I may be tired, old man, but even you won't throw down with me in Medlab." he said with a dangerous calm. "And if you try to force it, I will fight you."

"As satisfying as hitting you might be when you're being this irrational," Nathan said, not without a certain amount of compassion, "I don't need to 'throw down' with you. All I need to do is tell you to go lie down in that empty room I mentioned."

Haroun yawned again. "Shit, I know on some levels you're right. I need sleep fairly badly, and I am absolutely starving. But I have to be here for her, man! I _have_ to. If that was Moira in there, you would be doing the exact same thing."

"Absolutely. Just like I know that you or someone else would be doing just what I'm doing right now." He was silent for a moment. "When she's conscious," he said more quietly, "she's going to need you alert. She'll need your strength, because she's not liable to have very much of her own after this. If you run yourself into the ground, you won't have it to give."

Bastard was fighting dirty. Haroun thought about it for a moment, and then yawned and nodded his agreement. "I ... I just don't want to leave her, you know? She got to me, man. She got to me _bad_, and I can't stop thinking about her. And it is driving me nuts that I can't do anything to help her other than to just be here!"

"There is something you can do for her," Nathan said, unable to help a faint smile. "After you sleep. You should go and keep Miles company for a bit." He tilted his head at Haroun. "You know that's something you can do for her," he pointed out, his voice low. "Something she'll be very glad you did when she comes out of this."

Haroun scowled. "I thought about that." he admitted. "I have _no idea_ what to do with that kid. He kicks my ass at any videogame yet invented, and he gets all puppy-eyed when I decline to share his goddamned cookies with him."

"He's with Cain right now," Nathan said. "Barring any other ideas, you could always take my bird with you. Bella and Miles get along very well." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "He's... hanging in there, but he's been through a hell of a trauma, too. Above and beyond the fact that he's terrified for his mother."

"Your bird." Haroun said disbelievingly. "That's right, I forgot! You have a pet bird." he said after a moment's reflection. "Suppose it's worth a shot. I am not good with kids, but for Alison I'll give it my best shot."

"Later, though," Nathan said, taking Haroun's arm and steering him towards the door. "Right now you sleep. Don't think I was joking about knocking you out telepathically, either." He smiled a bit tightly. "I seem to be the mansion's only functional and available telepath at the moment. It's been interesting."

Haroun scowled at Nathan. "Keep your brain to yourself. Wouldn't want you to sprain it." he added with a chuckle. "And I'm going, I'm going. Wake me in two hours. And if you don't, when I do wake up I will personally kick your ass from one side of this Mansion to the other, Askani or no Askani."

Nathan snorted at the threat. "Oh, wait," he said a bit wryly, "you'd have slept by then. So you might actually have a chance in hell of doing it." He laid a hand on Haroun's shoulder briefly as they headed down the hall. "You know there's no better place in the world she could be than here, right now," he pointed out more quietly. "Between Charles and Moira..."

Haroun exhaled heavily and nodded. "I know." he said simply. "Doesn't mean I don't want to go find Magneto and the Brotherhood and kick all of their asses."

"You'd have a long line-up of people waiting to hold your coat," Nathan said, then shook his head, his expression tightening a little. "I really didn't think I was going to be able to hold onto her, on the way back..." he confessed very quietly. "Remind me to do something really damned nice for Lorna once Alison's better and things have settled down. Quite a moment to pick to demonstrate how much better her control's gotten."

Haroun nodded. "And I believe I remember something about cabana boys for the Medlab staff?" he said with a sigh. "But yeah, Lorna needs a whole lot of love for this one."

"Fuck cabana boys," Nathan growled suddenly, all of his anxiety for Moira coming flooding back. "Once Alison's back on her feet, I'm taking Moira and we're getting the hell out of Dodge for a little while. The rest of you can get Maddie her cabana boys."

"I don't want to fuck cabana boys, but thanks for offering." he said with a weak smile. "Take Moira, go spend a few weeks someplace disgustingly nice. I think that we'll send Madelyn to Tahiti for a few weeks. And anyone who comes down with _anything_ from leprosy to a hangnail can just suffer until they get back."

"Sounds like a plan." They had reached the door of the aforementioned empty room. "Two hours," Nathan promised Haroun, meaning it. If there was one thing he'd learned, leading his teams at Mistra and with the Pack, it was that partial victories sometimes had to be accepted. He would much prefer Haroun to get a solid eight hours sleep and could probably force him to do so, but that would be as damaging as it was helpful, at the moment. In another two days, he might feel differently.

Haroun looked at the all-too-inviting bed, and then over to Nathan. "Thanks." he said quietly, and then shuffled over to the bed. "See you in two." he said before passing out.