xp_logs | Nathan and Haroun, Sunday evening (Reply)

Haroun confronts Nathan in medlab about what his decision to practice with Jono in the boiler-room might have meant for Alison.

Haroun walked into Medical. This was not in and of itself extraordinary in any way. What _was_ is that instead of making the turn to the iso-rooms and Alison's chamber, he walked into the observation deck, to pay a visit to the concussed mercenary who lay there. "Let me guess. That kid tried to kill you." he said without preamble.

Nathan, who was trying very hard to rest, since Madelyn had told him she would be coming by to wake him up every hour on the hour, shifted on the bed, cracking his eyes open and blinking up at Haroun. "Not so loud," he muttered. "My head hurts..."

"No shit it hurts!" snapped Haroun. "Jono blew you through a boiler, to hear the tale told. I knew that kid was dangerous! I knew it! All this time, and he still doesn't have his shit together one bit," he seethed.

Nathan gave the two Harouns a baleful look and started to push himself up to a sitting position. A whimper of pain escaped him as he did, and he gritted his teeth, trying to force back the wave of nausea. "Wall," he grated, his voice unsteady. "Not through a boiler... just into a wall. And don't blame him. Should've called a stop to the lesson as soon as I saw he wasn't concentrating..." He'd remembered that much. Jono had been upset. About Sarah?

"The way that boy is, I'm surprised he hasn't killed us all by now." groused Haroun. "I give him points for trying, I really do. But the boy is dangerous and untrained and this is not the first time he's done this."

Oh, the room was spinning. How nice. "No sympathy for someone else with a maladaptive mutation?" Nathan muttered. "He has been trying. What the hell else can you demand of him..." He squeezed his eyes shut, willing his vision to clear. It didn't precisely work. Still two Harouns. Neither looked happy. "Also not his fault that his teachers let him blow up."

"I have plenty of sympathy for him!" Haroun protested. "What I don't have sympathy for is trying to take all of US with him on a one-way trip to the Other Side!"

"Aren't you overreacting just a little?" Why was Haroun arguing with him? This was not making his head feel any better, and in fact, he was starting to get increasingly aggravated by the fact that they were having this conversation in the first place. He just wanted to sleep, damn it. "Moira told me there wasn't much actual damage to the mansion, and no one else got hurt."

"We've heard that - what, twice before?" Haroun said sarcastically. "See, the difference is that when I fuck up, I burn, maybe carve a ditch into the ground. He fucks up, he takes chunks of the landscape with him. Why he's practicing around other living breathing human beings I'll never know. Dammit. Power feeds to Medlab go right by that part of the Basement!"

Ah-hah. Now they were getting to it. "Then blame me," Nathan said as steadily as he could, "because I told him we could practice in the boiler room. He felt comfortable there, and you know, given that the poor kid is--" Nathan stopped, his jaw clenching. "Was disintegrating more and more, I wanted any edge for him I could get." No longer distintegrating, at least. Like total discorporation was such an improvement. Nathan swallowed, resting his head in his hands for a moment. Didn't help.

"I don't give a flying fuck where he feels comfortable. Put him in a grass skirt and make him do the Hula for all I care. I draw the line at endangering other people." Especially a certain other person who was, if things went well, possibly getting out of Medical today.

"Do you think I expected him to blow up?" Nathan demanded, raising his head - too quickly, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. Not throwing up on Haroun's shoes. Tempting as that might be. "Damn it, Haroun, I wouldn't deliberately endanger Alison..."

"You certainly sound like you did a bang-up job of it, Nathan." said Haroun calmly. "It was blind luck that the feeds didn't go when the boy sent the balloon up. And you can't even credit Domino for this one."

"Alison," Nathan said, trying to keep his voice as steady as he could, "could have destroyed the house and killed people if the shielding had failed as we were bringing her back. Were we supposed to not help her? Just because of that possibility?"

"Nice try." Haroun said to Nathan sarcastically. "You had arranged backup containment in the form of Lorna. The both of you could eat anything Alison could dish out. Did you make the same arrangements with Jonothon?" he snapped. "Did you do anything to consider everyone else's safety, considering the boy's detonated twice before?"

"Firstly," Nathan said, breathing hard, "I didn't arrange anything with Lorna that day. She came down to the hangar of her own accord and it's a damned good thing she did. Secondly, there was no reason to think that Jono was going to explode!" He stopped, took a gulping breath. "We worked for better than six weeks with no problems."

"Playing with fire, Nathan. You want to get burned, that's your business. But what about the rest of us?" he retorted. He then took a deep breath and tried to get himself under control. "I know I shouldn't be snapping out at you like this, but fuckitall, Nathan, you could have killed her!"

There wasn't much he could say to that. "Point taken," Nathan said dully, unable to bring himself to look at either Haroun.

Haroun nodded, and then stood up to pace for a bit. "When I think about how close I came to losing her all over again..." he said helplessly. "I'm sure you can empathize with me."

"Yes..." The room was starting to spin a little more enthusiastically, and Nathan lowered himself back to the bed, not particularly caring whether Haroun objected. Sitting up was making him feel more and more sick.

"Hey - lean back and rest, old man. Get back on your feet soon." he said before collecting himself and his thoughts. "Anyway - I've got tests to grade and a banquet to plan. I'll leave you alone for now so that you can get reacquainted with your sprained brain. But next time, Nathan? Think before you pull this kind of crap, OK?"

"Right," Nathan said faintly, closing his eyes. Hoping that Haroun would take it to mean he'd passed out or something. Though sleep was now the absolute last thing on his mind.