xp_logs | Nathan and Alison, Tuesday afternoon

Nathan comes by for the visit he promised Alison. They get perhaps a little mushy. Then Alison asks him for a favor.

She looked better, Nathan thought, lingering in the doorway and watching her. Not well, per se, but better. But then, anything would be better than the condition she'd been in, he thought bleakly. He supposed he should just concentrate on being glad that his stupidity hadn't put her recovery in jeopardy on Sunday. Hurray for blind luck...

Alison wasn't in the least inclined to let him linger there however, the smile of welcome directed at him easily discernable through the light surrounding her. She'd not spent a night in her new quarters yet, still destined for the medlab for the few hours of sleep and more of observation she got, but today that didn't faze her in the least. The window was open a crack, the temperature in the room lower than most might like, but considering she was her own furnace at the moment, it hardly mattered to her. "Come in!" She mouthed the words, not getting up from the overly wide and comfortable chair which had been added to her room's décor by someone who had yet to claim the credit.

Nathan came over and sat down in one of the other chairs, smiling a bit hesitantly at her. #Telepathy okay?# he asked, the question barely brushing against her thoughts.

She pondered that for a moment, brow furrowing slightly in thought. "You'll feel the hurt, though." There was no reserve in the way Alison spoke to him, the tension in her body habitual by now more than anything else. #Is it okay?# she tried tentatively, though it was hard to clear her thoughts enough to focus as required, and she hoped the pain wasn't leaking through to him too badly.

He shrugged, the smile a bit wry now. #Still have a headache myself, Ali. A little more doesn't make much difference.# Even with Amanda's healing spell last night, it was a strain to be using his telepathy. But surely a few minutes weren't going to hurt him. And if they did... so what?

#Oh it's so good to be able to talk to someone and if it does hurt you'd better stop and are you okay? You look worn out!# The thought was actually a run-on sentence no less, Alison slumping a bit in the chair because telepathy meant not using her hands to try and type on the console and as a result also meant less pain to be added to the already healthy amount of pain she was feeling.

#I got blown into a wall. No one told you?# he sent back, hoping she'd take it as a joke. He could feel her pain, across their connection. Very different sort of pain, really. Almost refreshing. #Chalk up one more failed teaching job. And yet Charles still steadfastly refuses to fire me.#

He was doing that again, she decided, head tilting to the side just a bit. #He hasn't fired the rest of us even when we couldn't manage to get through to a kid in particular or settle a powers problem. Why would he fire you?#

#Repeated incompetence?# he suggested lightly, continuing to try and make a joke of it. It was good to know that he hadn't been responsible for Jono's explosion, but he couldn't quite shake a certain amount of residual guilt. Jono was his student, after all. #But enough about me. How are you feeling?#

#Gnrgrm.# Apparently fond grumpiness towards someone translated that way in thoughts as well as speech. #Land of owie,# Alison offered flippantly. He'd know anyway, why bother not talking about it? And now that it was out of the way... #Very glad I'm out of the medlab partially at least.# It was hard not to say 'I was going insane in there' but in light of the fact that she nearly had, Alison managed to keep away from that particular joke. #It's like someone decided to make sure I made up for a year of not being in the medlab all that much!# she added wryly.

#See, the key is to get somewhat banged up on a regular basis. Then you don't have to have it all at once.# Nathan paused, snorting softly. #I can't believe I just said that. I'm very weird.# He gazed at her, that faint, almost pained smile coming back. #I missed you,# he sent softly.

#Missed you too. Though you were there. I remember some of it.# Her thoughts went still at that, as she also remembered the darker moments of her stay in the isolation room. #I may go for the semi-regular damage thing, if this is what it's like otherwise,# she offered gamely, keeping up the joke.

#If you want, I can give you advice as to how to go about it. It's not hard. Just takes a particularly pervasive sort of stupidity.# And carelessness. #There are of course cons to that approach,# he went on, striving to keep the bantering tone. His head was beginning to throb much more noticeably already. What was left of the concussion, reminding him that it was still there? Or backlash from having been linked to Jono during the explosion? Or both? #I could make a list for you. Pros and cons.#

#You're not stupid, doofus.# The thought, edged with Alison's own constant pain, was rather wry. #But lists are good. I like lists. Nice and organized.# She wasn't differentiating any of the subtle ache coming though the telepathic conversation from her own.

#I've been making Jubilee do lists. It's done wonders.# Hurting. This was really starting to hurt. Nathan kept a somewhat glassy smile on his face and went on. #Might turn out to be a successful teaching relationship, that one. Would be nice.#

She'd been annoyed at Madelyn about Jubilee. Might as well not start here too.

She might not have been able to differentiate his pain from hers in the exchange of thoughts, but physically it was another story. #Sign language. Or lip reading.# Alison raised an eyebrow at him and waited for his choice, finding it far too easy to let her mind settle into an unfocused sort of calm.

Nathan's shoulders slumped. Couldn't even manage to keep up a telepathic link for long enough to make her feel like she was having an actual conversation. Some good he was. "It's just what's left of the concussion, I think," he said tiredly, careful to enunciate.

"Just that's left of the concussion?" she mouthed the words at him, giving him an incredulous look. And on top of that he'd been exposing himself to what she was feeling every single moment. "Doofus," was the first verdict. Alison shook her head (just a bit) and carefully wagged a finger at him in admonishment. "Concussions are bad. Even half healed. Concentration shot. Your head must be killing you." With her pain tacked on, it had to be.

"I told you. I got blown into a wall. No big deal," he said, then shrugged. "Just lucky no one else got hurt."

He was doing the Mistra thing again. Pretending he was fine while still pushing himself. Or the guilt-punishing thing while still pushing himself. Or both even. "Things like that tend to happen around here. Not a huge surprise - we have some students with pretty out there kind of powers..."

He snorted softly. "Yeah, and I seem to wind up neck-deep in it with a number of them. You'd think they'd have figured out by now that I tend to screw things up more often than not."

She sighed a bit at that, and settled for something else than talk just this more, because trying to think out words was complicated just now. Hurting did that. Instead she just let her thoughts get a bit stronger, emotions easily discernable - worry, fondness, a faint touch of wryness.

Nathan sighed. "I'm sorry," he said softly, his voice a bit uneven. "I was going to have pulled myself completely together by the time I came to see you. I forgot you do bad things to my defenses." He mustered a faint smile.

It was easier to say this the same way she'd done the previous bit. And listening didn't seem to be as wearing on him as talking telepathically as well. That might be a good compromise. So she settled back and let another bit clearly hover on the surface of her thoughts - no needs for walls. Safe.

Nathan's eyes stung. "I'm supposed to be the one in here reassuring you." He sighed again, rubbing at his temples briefly, one hand shifting back to rub at the back of his neck. "How are you feeling?" he asked, forgetting that he'd asked that already.

"Land of ow." Alison repeated herself without batting an eye - she'd done a fair bit of asking questions more than once herself, lately.

Remembering was easier now though. And she planned on ratting him out on the medlab folk without a second thought, too. "I'm alive. They tell me the pain will go away. Can't push it." So she endured and waited and tried not to think about it.

"I know what it's like to be in pain for weeks on end," Nathan said, blinking at her. Of course she was out of focus, she was emanating light. That was the problem, not his eyes. "Every time I breathed, those first couple of months with the virus. The air burned."

Alison just looked at him for a moment, blinking rapidly. "Joints ache. muscles hurt. Stomach too. Skin on fire and not in a good way. Air hurts. Everything hurts. The suit hurts less today. I think. Hard to tell sometimes." And damn it, she'd said that out loud. But it was the truth and he knew anyway. Being a telepath and all. "Can think though. No sleeping yet. Too wired still. Will get better. They all say so." Short sentences were blissfully easy.

"You will," Nathan said, his voice hoarse. "You have too much to do. Too much still to live." He raised a hand, rubbed at his eyes. "I wish I could..." But that was beyond him, dulling pain like hers. The most he'd ever been able to do was take away one of Moira's headaches.

Unmoving, because it was really the best thing to do, Alison studied him for a moment. He looked like she felt, really. "Wish I hadn't gone out shopping that day," she offered, trying to go for light even though she fervently did wish they'd not gone out. "Did. Lucky no one died." She frowned a bit, something coming back to mind a bit fuzzily. "Eugh. I think I put a really big hole in someone."

"I'm sure whoever it was thoroughly deserved it," Nathan said dryly. "I just wish we had managed to get there ten minutes earlier." He let his hand fall back to the arm of the chair and gazed at her. "~What is, is,~" he tried tentatively, not sure she would read lips as effectively in Askani as she did in English. It was a relief that the Askani words came as easily as they did. But then, his grip on the language didn't seem to be slipping, even he still couldn't hear anything more than buzzing at the back of his head from the Askani themselves.

"I think it was Sabertooth," she added a bit faintly, glad she wasn't remembering the whole thing exactly. Very glad. The Askani caught her attention entirely though, diverting her from giving that particular matter any more thought as she tried to puzzle that out - the language had subtonals she was missing when isolated from sound this way. "Oh. Huh." She smiled a bit, sighing softly. "There is that."

"It's less comforting than it should be, isn't it?" Nathan asked, echoing her faint smile. "I've been noticing that a lot lately..." He gazed at her for a long, measuring moment. "Am I tiring you out?" he asked hesitantly.

"Don't tire. Physically. Sound overload this there - keeps me active. Hank figured out that's why I have a different sleeping cycle than most. And why my heart stop when they cut off all the sound. Normally I'd just faint, but... hypersensitive, here. Yeah." That particular bit of news had left her feeling very ambivalent about things, in fact. "You? Head hurting and all?"

Nathan shrugged. "No big deal." In fact, the ache was diminishing a little, now that he wasn't actively trying to maintain a telepathic link. He tried very hard to ignore the feelings provoked by her comment about her heart stopping. She was doing better. He knew that. "Just what's left of the concussion. I said that, didn't I?"

"Yes. Did." He always said it was fine. She really, but really wanted to talk to MacInnis more, she realized. And it'd give her a way to pass the time from being awake so damn much, at that. They hadn't really talked about that since before the shopping trip though, but she didn't think he'd be too upset if she brought it up. "Can I... ask you a favor?"

"Anything," he said immediately, brightening. If she'd thought of something he could to help... well, it would be done as soon as he could. That went without saying.

Well, asking for things seemed to put him in a good mood. Hrm. Miles has muttered something about needing extra help - and while Alison didn't mind being spoiled at any given time, right now not having to move was just the basics, being coddled having nothing to do with it. "Can I mess with MacInnis' head? I have so much time on my hands and well... I need a hobby?"

Nathan gaped at her for a good ten seconds. "You want to... but I don't..." He stopped, reminding himself that she was lip-reading. "I don't know how to get in touch with him again," he told her, frowning. "He hasn't sent me anything from a new address, yet... and why?" His frown deepened. "It'd stress you out," he protested.

"He'll email you again. He's just waiting. Trying to make you nervous. To be sure you don't shut him out when he does contact you again." She paused for a moment, just to take a small break. "It will be a wonderful distraction. I need entertainment. He will be very annoyed at having to talk to me and not you." The gleam in Alison's eyes was nothing short of something akin to sadistic glee. "Set your email to bounce anything he sends to you to me instead?"

Nathan almost laughed. Almost. "You," he said, folding his shaking hands together in his lap, "are a devious evil woman, and I love you to death for it." He gazed across at her, his eyes stinging. "I do, you know. And you scared me to death."

Sometimes, people just had a way of comnig out of nowhere and making her speechless. And doing so when she was deaf and mute no less was just unfair. And the light hid the sudden tears at that pronouncement to a degree, though the small sniffle was probably a dead giveaway. "Scared myself too." And she went for Askani on the other pronouncement. "~Loved ones are true Family. Ties of heart and soul.~"

Nathan smiled a bit. "This is where there would be hugging," he said, mock-gravely. "Can I have a raincheck? And I'll set up my email to do that. So long as you don't overstress yourself tormenting the old rat bastard. And keep me in the loop?"

"I intend to collect on that," she replied, a bit too fervently. "And it will be stress relief. Trust me. I'll let you know how things go, promise." Alison tried not to smile too overtly - she really was going to enjoy this. Far too much.

All right. This was probably not the smartest thing to be doing, really, but she was clearly liking the idea, and as he'd mentioned to more than a couple of people by now, he really didn't have any desire to be back in touch with MacInnis just now in any case. "Devious," he told her, the smile lingering. "And evil."

"Just having fun," she countered, smiling serenely despite the pain, because she was looking forward to this that much. Let MacInnis dangle on the hook for a while. A lot in fact. Alison wasn't being vengeful in the least, not at all.

"Charles wants to do some more scanning," he said after a moment, wondering if he should be telling her this. "Just to see..." He shrugged again. "You'll copy Pete on anything MacInnis actually sends to you?"

More scanning was good. Not fun, but good. Safe in the head Nate was also good. "Full report in the database. Access to team leaders and seconds, as well as you and Pete. Fair?" She paused a moment. "When are you due to get a check-up at the medlab?"

She was impossible. The medlab's prize patient at the moment, and she was still fussing over him. "This evening," he told her, smiling a bit reprovingly. "Stop fussing, all right? I'm okay. The concussion's mostly healed, and the backlash from my link with Jono breaking has got to go away on its own, Charles says."

Alison smiled a bit, not at all feeling sneaky. Worrying about others was proving to be a very good distraction from her own lot. "Oh good. If it's when I have to go down, mind keeping me company a bit after?" She didn't know if she'd have more midnight (or 3am) visitors. And Nathan wasn't one of those that made her want to hide in her room instead.

"If you want the company, I'd come down even if it wasn't when you had to go down," Nathan pointed out, the smile lingering, if a bit more faintly. "All you have to do is ask."

There was a long silence after that, Alison taking a slow and careful breath before releasing it. "Too many people are scary. Some aren't. Moira says that'll pass, it's a normal reflex." And yes, she did want him to visit. "If insomnia strikes..."

"It hurts you to touch," Nathan said gently. "Of course too many people are going to be scary." He rubbed at his more-than-somewhat-stubbled jaw. Shaving would probably be a very good idea today. Especially since the beard was still coming in silver - he felt old enough already this week. "If you need some company in the middle of the night, I can be there, too."

Oh. She stared at him, a bit at a loss - she hadn't taken the time to actually try to figure out why, still unsettled by the reactions she had at the mere thought of many people at once. She nodded though, eyes a bit wide. "Oh. Okay. And the medlab will be better than the gazebo this time of year. Too cold." It was a not so oblique reference to his favorite insomnia moments perch. And a way to hint that he was only to wander down if it was insomnia.

"Alaskan boy, remember? Even if I did turn around and live in the desert all those years. I have no problems with the cold." He smiled a bit tiredly. "But keeping you company sounds like a much better plan."

"Of course it does." There was a hint of her natural arrogance showing there, if only for a moment, after which she tensed a bit, re-arranging herself in the chair carefully.

Nathan noted the movement. "Should I go and leave you to rest?" he asked, giving her a steady look and making it quite clear on the telepathic level that a) he had no problem with doing so and b) he expected her to tell him the truth.

He was making it plainly okay on every level and while she wasn't tired she knew she was starting to lose focus. "Time alone, for a bit, would be good," Alison admitted, a bit reluctantly.

Nathan got out of the chair, smiling slightly at her. "Then that's what you get," he said. "I have some marking I should probably do, too... oh, joy. Got a little behind last week."

Alison looked up at him innocently, waggling her fingers in an unmistable 'wooosh!' sort of way. She had no control at all on her power, but it was still an entertaining thought, in her opinion.

"Don't tempt me," Nathan scolded lightly, then smiled again. ~Be well, little sister,~" he said in Askani, enunciating clearly. "~I'll see you soon.~"