xp_logs | Nathan and Manuel, Friday afternoon

Backdated to Friday afternoon after this log. Nathan stops in the medlab to visit Manuel and finds a very different young man from the one he knew - and something of a mystery.

He looked too young. That was the first thing that popped into Nathan's mind as he stood in the doorway and watched Manuel. The look in his eyes was wrong, entirely. Should I be surprised by that? He had been in the young man's mind on Monday night, after all. Had seen what little Selene had left of Manuel's personality.

"Hello," he said quietly when Manuel looked up at him. "How are you feeling?"

Manuel sat up in bed, struggling a bit, and then waved. "Hello." he said, his normal Castillian accent _gone_ in favor of an upper-class New England one - superimposed on the rasp of throat trauma. "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name. I've had a bit of an accident, and my memory is not what it once was. My name is Manuel, but you probably already know that." he said with an embarrassed smile.

"I do," Nathan said, almost gently. The accent-shift was interesting. And I know all about accent-shifts, don't I... "I know about the accident, as well." He came forward into the room, slowly, deliberately making his body language as open and unthreatening as possible. "I suppose that's why I'm here. To re-introduce myself. I'm Nathan."

"Hello, Nathan." he said, holding out his hand to the larger man. "Are you a doctor? Doctor MacTaggart says that as long as I keep sucking on my lozenges that I should be able to sleep in my own room tonight. Wherever that is. I'll need to get someone to show me where it is." he said with an embarrassed smile. "There's a lot I don't remember."

Nathan took Manuel's hand a bit hesitantly. The physical contact, as always, sharpened his telepathy, and he had to fight to keep his reaction off his face as he got yet another flash of just how badly Manuel's mental pattern had been altered.

"We'll get you to your room," he said, his voice a bit unsteady even as he managed to smile. "Don't worry. And no, I'm not a doctor, I'm a teacher. I was yours, actually."

Manuel blinked. "Really?" he said with surprise, and then nodded. "Of course. I don't remember your class, so please don't take it personally. What were you teaching? Was I any good of a student?"

"This fall, you were in my international relations class," Nathan said, settling down into the chair next to the bed. "And you were..." He paused, unable to help a wry smile. "You were quite a good student, actually. Tended to argue with me a lot, but hell, that kept me on my toes..."

"International Relations." he mused. "Interesting. Well, I'm glad I was at least a good student. I hope I took notes, so that I can get back up to speed quickly."

"You don't need to rush yourself," Nathan said, the smile fading. "Your recovery is what's important here."

"I know." he said with a cheery open smile. "Professor Xavier has already told me that I don't have to worry about my grades for this semester, that if my memories cannot be recovered that it won't be held against me." He then put his hand to his head like it pained him. "Can you hand me the bottle of aspirin over there? I keep getting these ferocious headaches, and no one seems to know why."

Nathan glanced at the bottle of aspirin and it floated to Manuel's hand. "The accident," he said. "When something happens to the mind, you very often get physical reactions like headaches."

Manuel stared at the floating bottle of aspirin, forgetting to actually take it when it got within reach. "H - How did you do that?" he asked wonderously.

Crap. Really bright, Dayspring. Nathan smiled reassuringly at Manuel. "My gift," he said easily. "It's all right. Just take it out of the air... do you need a glass of water?" He got up out of his chair, this time.

Manuel nodded, still staring at the floating aspirin bottle before taking it gingerly. "I'm sorry, I must seem quite the rube, staring at things like this. I've never seen anything quite like that before. Apparently I'm some kind of an empath, but my power is broken." he said with an embarrassed smile. "Not much of a mutant, I guess."

Nathan, pouring Manuel a glass of water, felt a distinct pang at that. "You're not the only one to have had problems with his powers," he said softly, turning back towards the bed with the water. "It's actually fairly common around here. And we do our best to help you heal and get through it." He handed the glass to Manuel and then sat back down.

Manuel nodded. "I know from what Amanda tells me that my gift was fairly strong. But I don't remember anything at all about it or anything. It's not there now, that's for sure. I don't feel anything other than tired, sore, and amazement." He shook out two aspirin into his hand, put them in his mouth, then took a drink of water to wash them down. "Thanks." he said, putting the aspirin bottle down on the table next to him but keeping the glass of water.

"You're welcome." Nathan watched him, still having difficulty wrapping his mind around the reality of the young man sitting there. New reality. Whatever happened in terms of his recovery, Manuel was going to be changed by this forever. He might not be the expert Charles was in psychic damage, but he knew that much.

"You'll find a lot that's... amazing, here, once you're up and around," he said slowly. "Just... don't worry about having to take it all in stride or anything. You're entitled to a little shock."

Manuel grinned ruefully. "That's what Professor Xavier, Doctor MacTaggart, and Doctor - oh, what _is_ his name? Taller fellow, longish hair, predilection for suits? Counsellor? Him. They all said that. I believe them, truly. I think I'm in for an interesting next few days while I take stock." He paused for a few moments. "Everyone is being maddeningly vague. Can you tell me _anything_ about who I am - or, more accurately, who I was?"

"What do you want to know most?" Nathan countered, gently but quite cautiously. He wasn't about to give Manuel a rundown of his life so far, and wouldn't have even if Charles and Leonard hadn't cautioned him about what not to say.

"I don't know, really." he said with another embarrassed grin. "I don't know _anything_ outside of my love for Amanda. She saved that for me, did you know that? When everything else was burning, that she saved." He bore a very proud smile. "So at least I kept _something_. Can you tell me about my academic career here, since you're one of my teachers? What sort of a student was I, what kind of grades did I get?"

Nathan nodded slowly. "You had some trouble at first," he said, his voice even, soothing. "English wasn't your first language, and you struggled with it for the first several months that you were here." He smiled a bit. "Then Amanda helped you, and you started to be able to express your ideas in English a lot more effectively. Your grades got markedly better almost immediately."

"It isn't?" Manuel said with some surprise. "Guess I lost the others in the accident. What else did I speak, out of curiousity?"

"Castilian, Latin, and Basque," Nathan said. "No memory of them at all?"

Manuel shook his head. "I've never heard of any of them." he confessed. "No memory whatsoever. Sorry." he said with a helpless little shrug. "So where did I grow up, to learn those languages? Did I speak them well?"

"In Spain. And you did... you spoke them very well." Getting a little too close to sensitive subjects there. "You seem to be doing very well with English at the moment," Nathan pointed out, shifting the conversation quite deliberately. "That suggests to me that your facility for language is still there. Which means that you could probably pick other languages back up again, if you wanted."

Manuel hrmmed as he thought that over, then winced as his headache came pounding back. "I'll think about it when it hurts less to think." he said with a grimace. "But it does sound like I was good with languages."

"It's one of the things you and I had in common," Nathan said with a smile. "I speak twelve, myself."

"Twelve?" Manuel asked with a strangled rasp. "That's very impressive indeed." he said after he'd taken a moment to recover from his surprise. "So I'm Spanish. I'll need to read up on it, as I don't remember a thing about my childhood. Not right now. It will probably come with time." he said, putting on a brave front.

"There are... books you can read," Nathan said a bit hesitantly. "About Spain. Pictures you could look at, if you wanted." He smiled again. "But you're right," he said. "You need time to heal. The mind's an amazing thing - it can start to repair itself, if you give it the chance."

Manuel looked askance at Nathan for a second. "There's a lot you're not telling me." he said. "But I guess I'll have to wait on the answers until I'm better."

Nathan thought about it for a minute. "Would you really want me to tell you?" he asked very carefully. "If I sat here and gave you every detail of your life that I knew, it would still be me telling you. It would sound like a story of someone else." He tilted his head, regarding Manuel steadily.
"Much better to rediscover it for yourself, no? To find the connections there as you heal?"

Manuel shrugged. "I guess so." he said, and then idly started tapping his fingers against his opposing forearm. "I get - flashes, I guess you could call them. From time to time. Mostly about my sister. Do you know my sister and where she is? I'd like to see her, if I could. She'll need reassuring that I'm all right."

"Manuel..." Nathan paused helplessly. "I don't know your sister. I didn't even know you had one."

"She's the one thing not given to me by Amanda that I can remember clearly." he said, the frustration leaking out all over his voice. "And you don't know her either?"

Nathan shook his head. "As far as I knew," he said quietly, "you were an only child. What do you remember about her?"

"She's just a baby." he said. "I know that much. And she needs me terribly." he added in a firm voice. "As soon as I'm able to get up and get around and get my memory back, I'll have to find her."

This was... definitely odd. Charles had mentioned it, but it took seeing Manuel's insistence to really understand. "We'll do what we can to help you," Nathan said. "I'm sure everyone's been telling you. But I promise... I'll do my best, too."

Manuel couldn't help but smile at that. "Oh good. Sorry, it's just something that's really important to me. In addition to getting better, anyway." he grinned. "I'm very hungry. Do you think you could show me where a guy could get a bite to eat? And maybe some better clothes?" he said, picking at his Xavier sweats. "Grey isn't my color."

"Why don't I go check to see if you're okay to get out of here?" Nathan asked, rising again. "If you get the go-ahead, I can take you up to the kitchen for some lunch and then show you your room."

Manuel nodded. "Sounds good. And if you could please tell Dr MacTaggart that I'm running low on throat drops? The fruity ones are the best." he said with a grin. "And my throat's still pretty raw - I don't know what I did to it, but I have no desire to do it ever again. Feels like I've been singing for hours." He then stopped dead as he thought about what he'd said. "Do I sing?" he asked Nathan curiously. "Because I just said that without thinking about it."

Nathan nodded. "Music was--is a very important part of your life," he said, starting towards the door. "You should listen to some of what you have in your room, when you get up there. It might help."

Manuel got an ear-to-ear smile at _that_ pronouncement. "Thank you." he said, fighting back tears. "Now I at least have _something_."