xp_logs | Bridge, Alison, and Domino, Friday evening (Reply)

Alison heads down to visit Nathan, only to discover that certain mercenary friends of his have indeed arrived. Nathan is feverish again, and Alison sees him have a very unusual reaction to Domino. When Domino leaves the room, not wanting to upset him, Alison follows, and the subsequent conversation solves one old mystery and opens up a new can of worms.

"Nate?"

The deep voice was gentle, familiar, and even through the haze of pain and the white noise that seemed to be filling his skull again, Nathan felt the hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes - to absolute darkness, again, and a strangled noise caught in his throat.

"Easy," the voice said softly, and he felt a weight settle on the edge of the bed, the hand not removing itself from his shoulder. "Damn it, partner... I can't leave you alone for a month at a time, can I?"

He tried to say something, to tell GW that really wasn't funny, but the attempt to speak turned into a coughing fit, accompanied by the familiar taste of blood at the back of his throat. When it eased, he went limp against the pillows, shivering. Cold. He was so cold again...

Bridge swallowed and reached for a kleenex from the bedside table, carefully wiping the blood away from Nathan's mouth as his friend's eyes fluttered closed and he seemed to drift back out of consciousness. He looked awful, Bridge thought dully. Whatever Moira said about the fever- spikes getting fewer and less severe, he looked half-dead at the moment.

Bridge balled up the kleenex and tossed it into the garbage bin. He looked back towards the door where Domino was standing, her eyes suspiciously bright and locked like targeting beams on Nathan's face. "He's not contagious, remember?" he said a bit gruffly, knowing it was unfair.

She actually flinched. "I know that," she said under her breath and came over, sitting down in the chair on the other side of the bed.

Turning the corner, very mucn intent on being there right on time for one of her many daily trips to the medlab, Alison paused - had that been who she thought it was, just entering his room? A quick glance around the medlab only showed that there was no one in sight, though she was fairly certain Moira was in her office. Probably pouring over test results again. She briefly considered going to see Moira, to wait until Domino was gone - and then decided otherwise. All things considered.

She was more than used to ghosting down the hallways of the medlab now, and she made her way silently to the door leading into Nathan's room, pacing herself to the low beeping sound of one of the medical monitors.

Bridge looked up, instinct alerting him to the person in the doorway even though she'd moved all but silently. "Hey, Alison," he said softly, giving her a weary smile without moving from his spot on the edge of the bed.

Domino blinked and looked back over her shoulder, her expression going a bit wary at the sight of the other woman. "Hey," she greeted much more cautiously.

GW was there - Alison relaxed, briefly wondering at herself even as she smiled in greeting at the man sitting by Nathan's bedside. Domino got a somewhat more subdued nod, Alison focusing on Nathan instead, noting the difference of his condition as compared to the previous day. "He was better yesterday. Moira says the ups and downs are normal, until his TK settles down." As she spoke, her voice pitched in Nathan's direction, Alison moved closer to the bed until she could sit on the side, taking his hand in her own firmly. "Good afternoon, Nathan. Looks like tonight we're going to take it easy, huh?" It was just meant to be soothing babble really, so he'd know where she was at all times.

Nathan's eyelids fluttered again just briefly, but that was all the response Alison's words got, and Bridge sighed. "I know," he said quietly. "Moira gave me chapter and verse on how the virus behaves years ago. She told me he used pretty much everything he had to help Cain." A fainter, sadder smile tugged at his lips. "No sense of self-preservation whatsoever," he said very gently, and Nathan shifted a little, as if drawn by the sound of Bridge's voice.

"I don't know why Xavier let him push himself that far," Domino said a bit hoarsely. She was having a hard time coping with what else Moira had told them, that Nathan was blind. Even the likelihood that it was just temporary didn't really help. Just the idea of him helpless like that, knowing what it would do to him... She reached out to touch his other hand where it was resting atop the blankets.

And Nathan suddenly jerked away, the movement abrupt, almost violently. "Don't," he wheezed in his cracked, ravaged voice. "Don't..."

Domino stopped, shocked. "Nate?" she said worriedly, half-rising from her chair. "Nate, it's okay, it's just me..."

"G'way," Nathan slurred, shifting in agitation, ignoring Bridge's attempts to soothe him. "Don't... I don't... I'm sorry..."

Alison had been more than ready to pretty much ignore anything Domino might say about anyone 'letting' Nathan push himself - GW knew the score on that one and considering she was one of those he'd saved by getting the damn shards out of her - the memories linked to that shivered in the back of her mind, reminding her of everything else that had happen, though Alison didn't lose track of things this time.

"~You're safe. Everything is all right. Talk to me, clansib.~" The Askani was easy to slip into, something she hoped might get through to him somehow. She didn't even look at Domino, although part of her was tracking the woman's every move.

Nathan was shivering more violently, his free hand twisting in the blankets, gone white- knuckled. "~C-Cold,~" he whispered raggedly, tears leaking out from behind tightly closed eyes. "~So cold... don't let them... don't leave...~"

On her feet, Domino took a step closer - and stopped, pain written all over her face as Nathan shrank away from her, a whimper wrenching itself free of his throat. Bridge gave her a quick warning look, though he was no less confused by the reaction, and she swallowed visibly and retreated, back to the doorway where she lingered for a moment, before vanishing into the hall.

Bridge looked across at Alison, his expression tight with worry. "Moira said she wasn't sure of how much he was picking up telepathically," he said very softly, "but it's probably better we don't take the chance. If for some reason she's--" He glanced back at the doorway, shaking his head helplessly, but then focused on Nathan. "Easy," he whispered, laying a hand on Nathan's forehead. Nathan jerked, then relaxed, some of the tension easing from his body. Bridge's jaw clenched. "Fuck, he really is burning up," he said hoarsely.

"It will pass. It was worse before," Alison replied, surprisingly calm now that he wasn't so... scared anymore. What he'd managed to say to her was neatly emblazoned in her mind, not letting go in the least. Neither was his reaction to Domino. She reached for the side table and pulled the drawer open, withdrawing a cooling pack - in short time she'd activated it, the pack soon cooling between her hands.

"~I"m right here. Not leaving.~" She didn't bother apologizing to GW - if the Askani was getting through, she had no doubt he'd not mind being cut out. "~You have a fever. Feel me holding your hand, clansib. I need to help you cool down a bit - the cold pack.~" She kept talking to him softly, reassuringly - it was more about the soothing sound of someone's voice, than the actual words themselves, though she was making sure they had meaning, just in case he did catch on.

Bridge waited until Nathan's breathing had slowed a little more before he said anything. "I don't know what that was about," he murmured, frowning as he glanced back at the doorway. "I know they didn't part on the best of terms the last time she was here, but I thought they'd settled it since..."

Not saying a word for a moment, Alison simply kept the ice pack in place, wanting to make sure Nathan had settled down. Finally, she nodded to herself, as though coming to a decision. "Here." Reaching out she placed GW's hand on the ice pack. "Stay with him. If he comes to, talk. A lot, doesn't matter what but keep it light." She got up, still not used to being able to move without hurting.

"I'll go talk to Domino."

---

She was not going to kick the wall. Kicking the wall would be a stupid and juvenile thing to do, and so she was not going to do it. Domino took a deep, shaky breath and sagged back against the offending wall, her arms tightly folded across her chest. She'd fled the immediate vicinity of Nathan's room and the medlab in the general, not wanting to be anywhere near him if she was upsetting him somehow.

But why was she upsetting him? Domino's jaw clenched, her eyes stinging. Just because of the last time she'd been here? I should have apologized to him instead of acting like a sulky teenager...

Alison walked out of Nathan's room with an unreadable expression, pausing to look at Domino as she glared a hole in the wall. More pieces coming together slowly some still missing - there was an inexorable feeling to it all though, and it was one Ailson wasn't sure she liked. But she'd figure this one out, no matter what. It usually turned out that way. Which meant she was in no rush though, waiting and observing.

Domino turned the glare on her, hating the assessing look. Blaire. Haroun's girlfriend, to hear Nate tell it. Oh, yes, that says marvelous things about her taste... "Did I grow a third eye or something when I wasn't looking?" she snapped, her voice low, as the woman kept looking at her.

For some reason, the hostility put Alison right at ease. It wasn't as though she cared what Domino thought of her. This was, she knew only too well, a wonderful edge. It put her in a good mood, too. Well, something like a good mood, when one considered it was something some might feel when in the process of engineering the devastation of small countries.

"Mm. No." She was keeping it low which precluded Alison telling her to pipe down. For now. "Walk with me." Alison walked down the hallway and past Domino, with that odd smile still etched on her lips.

Domino stared at her for a moment, but then followed. All right, this I have to hear... This was going to be some sort of passive-aggressive crap based on the incident with Haroun, she just knew it. "Are we going somewhere in particular?" she asked, far too sweetly.

"Well, far away from Nathan, to start with." Because they were, no matter what Domino wanted to do or say about it. And the look on Nathan's face as she'd tried to touch him was the best weapon Alison could have ever asked for on the matter. That Domino sounded like about half the wannabee singers pretending to like Alison while really just wanting her career, from back in the days, yet again simply proved to be a source of amusement. Looking down at her nails, Alison smiled a touch - the manicure was perfect. How nice.

Domino's expression went flat. "Since when do you get to dictate who does and doesn't get to visit someone in the medlab?" she asked tightly. "I don't know what that was all about--I'll come see him when his fever's back down and we'll sort it out. I'm not about to force myself on him when he's delirious."

There wasn't much in that which bore taking into account - except the last sentence, really. If only because Alison felt like being less than cooperative. "Interesting choice of words, there." She smiled cheerfully at Domino, even as they left the down below part of the mansion and hit the first floor. Funny how they'd got that far without Domino turning back yet.

Domino glared at her. "Which, precisely?" she asked suspiciously. This was sounding suspiciously like a prelude to a lecture of some variety, and she wasn't going to take that from someone only a few years older than she was.

"Oh, the part about not forcing yourself on him when he's delirious." If she got shot for this, at least there'd be several people willing to be Very Upset about it. Though she was betting Domino's luck would turn on her and then some if she tried. She opened the door leading into the music room with a bright smile, waiting until Domino had stepped inside and the door to the sound-proofed room was closed once more.

"You only do that when he's hypothermic and drunk on vodka?" There were ways to get to the bottom of something, but she was betting blunt would be the best way here. Well, there was also the part about putting Domino off-balance, too...

Domino's jaw actually dropped. "What the--" She stopped, wrestling herself back under control, and glared coldly at the woman. "So Nate's been telling tales, huh?" So much for him squirming and avoiding the subject every time it came up. And even if he was finally going to talk about it, why to this person he'd known for less than a year? "Trust me, Blaire, there was no need to force myself on him back in Volgograd. It's amazing what a little vodka does to the inhibitions."

The smile turned razor sharp, Alison walking to stand in the middle of the room before turning to face Domino. "Oooooh. I see." She nodded wisely. "Mmm. We'll ignore the side effects of hypothermia for now." It was a generous offer, really. Besides, Domino was being amazingly useful in all of this. Alison was tempted to just hand her a shovel. "So. You're telling me you had to get him drunk to get him to do what you wanted? Since, you know," and there was a hint of The Blonde in there, just because there could be, "sober he'd never, in a million years, have actually slept with you of his own free will?"

Domino shrugged with a coolness she didn't really feel, trying to let the last comment in particular pass. What did Blaire know, after all? "Nate's got a lot of hangups," she said flatly. "There was nothing wrong with him seizing the opportunity to let go of a few of them. The fact that he decided to flagellate himself about it after the fact is the only stupid part here."

"Did he?" Alison was still smiling, although there wasn't much of anything at all in her eyes as she looked steadily at Domino. "That's the question, isn't it? I may not have known him for years on end, but he doesn't strike me as the sort of man who'd let go of his morals and ethics that easily." She paused, counting the seconds passing by for a short moment. "Especially after all the efforts he put into making sure you knew he hadn't bought out your contract just for sex, but because he genuinely wanted to help you? Not with someone he loved as a daughter. Cause, gee. That'd be what, like incest? Like abusing a trust he valued so very highly he'd do anything to keep it safe..." If she was wrong, she'd take any hit coming her way, having more than earned it. But she needed to know, needed to make sure.

What, had Nate given the bitch her whole life story or something? Domino flushed. "He is not my father," she growled, "and you don't know as much as you think you know." She stepped away, moving past Blaire and farther into the room. "Do you honestly think I'd ever hurt him?" she shot back over her shoulder bitterly. "Maybe you agree with your boyfriend and think I'm some sort of fucking black widow with no morals, but I would take a bullet for Nate and do it gladly."

"I don't doubt for a second you would take a bullet for him." Off, off, off. The reactions were off, the edges just not right. That was not the protest she should be hearing. Haroun's opinion of her was irrelevant, not even something Alison had thought of since leading her away from the medlab. "Nathan thinks of you as a daughter." Word. Reaction. "Worries about you, hopes that you'll have a happy life even if he wishes you were doing something else, something safer. He hopes that he taught you well enough that you'll have some sort of ethics system to see you through things. It still gnaws away at him, what happened. The guilt he feel eats away at him. He think he's failed you." She looked out the window, feeling that odd breathless sensation that came with standing on the edge of a precipice. "He was afraid of you, in the medlab. Why is that."

Domino could feel the color rushing to her face, and her reply wasn't nearly as calm this time. "How should I know?" she asked almost wildly, flinching at Blaire's words. "How am I supposed to know what's going through his head when he's delirious? Hell, I don't know anything about how he thinks anymore..." Off-track, they were definitely getting off-track. "As for Volgograd, he was upset," she flung at the woman.

"What? Delirious now? Or back in Volgograd?" Damn it, one day she'd learn to stop pushing. But Domino wasn't pushing back - not nearly hard enough, not nearly well enough. Alison continued, voice calm and entirely too reasonable. "What he upset before, during or after? Why did you give him vodka when you knew he was suffering from hypothermia? You're not an idiot. You know that could have killed him. And how could a man, keeling over from hypothermia, probably flashbacking because of the cold and so drunk he still can't remember a thing to this day actually get so far as to seducing anyone. Let alone someone he thought of as his daughter. How, Domino?"

"Give me a little credit, Blaire," Domino spat venomously. "I got him stabilized first. It took us nearly half an hour to get back to the safehouse, I wasn't about to mess around!" She sucked in a deep, shaky breath, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. "He was just so--" She swallowed past a lump in her throat. "He was panicking, bad enough that the furniture was flying around. I don't know who he thought I was, but... I just tried to talk him down, get him to relax. I gave him the vodka because I thought it might calm him down a little. I suppose it was pretty stupid."

One could say that yes, although now that Domino was actually talking, Alison wasn't quite inclined to agree with her out loud. Yet. "How did he end up so drunk he couldn't remember a thing, Domino?" Why she hadn't left ages ago caused one to wonder. They'd never liked each other all that much, that much had always been understood between the two of them, over which they applied a veneer of civility and left it at that. So why was Domino justifying herself. "He's a telepath, Domino. Why can't he remember that?" Oh. Wait. "Or is it that he won't let himself, remember?" The last was more of a thinking out loud than a question, Alison pondering the sudden flash of insight.

"I don't know why he doesn't remember," Domino said defensively. "He didn't really have all that much to drink. He was..." Her jaw trembled and she clenched it tightly. "He was crying, Blaire. Begging me not to leave him in the woods." Whatever that meant. Something from Mistra? "I just... it just happened, okay?"

"Not to leave him in the woods..." Alison stared at her, going deathly white under her tan. She felt dizzy all of a sudden, dawning realization and horror spreading over her features, plain to see. "Oh my God. He was five in the memory I saw. Lost and alone in the cold. Five. And he already knew well enough not to beg for help at that age. So he had to be younger in that flash back. Still thinking someone might help. Hoping someone would. Four maybe. Not older than that." Her voice was numb and she swallowed heavily. "He was four years old... and he wanted you to hold him and tell him he was safe, Domino. He was helpless and scared and he was asking you to keep him safe."

Domino stared blankly at the other woman, not understanding. "I--I don't... what do you..." But the pieces were coming together, slowly and inexorably, what Blaire was saying and a few of the terse comments Nathan had made over the years about his childhood, and... Her hand was covering her mouth for a moment, as if it had spontaneously decided to silence her. It was almost a struggle to lower it. "I didn't know," she said hollowly, her vision blurring. "I didn't... he was just so... it was like it wasn't him, and I didn't know what to..."

Everything fit together, far too perfectly. Of course Nathan didn't want to remember. As involuntary as it had been, it had still - her mind shied away from the concept and Alison sat down slowly on the floor, not even bothering to find a chair. She'd know there was Something there. And now she'd found it, all right. There was no wishing she hadn't done this though, a distant part of her realized, already knowing what had to be done. "So you just reached for something that was there, because it was easy and you didn't know any better." Of course she had. Alison went on, voice utterly blank. "Because it was the only comfort you knew to offer and... you had wanted that so badly for so long."

She... no, there had to be some other... shit. Her mind shied away from the ugliness of it all, but Domino forced herself to face it head-on. "I wouldn't... I didn't want to hurt him," she whispered, his voice shaking. "I never... I would never..." But he'd seemed so lost, as if he was slipping away from her and back into some unknown nightmare, and she'd just... taken what she'd wanted? Domino squeezed her eyes shut, a small, miserable noise escaping her.

"You," her voice wavered at first but steadied out rapidly, "are going to go see Jack Leary. You are going to make an appointment with him and tell him this. For Nathan's sake." Even if it meant Jack taking an evening appointment. Alison was going to be sick later, perhaps - but now was not the time. "And then you are going to see the man until he says you no longer need to. Also for Nathan's sake." It wasn't an order so much as statement of fact, listing out What Needed to be Done.

Domino nodded jerkily, not opening her eyes. "He was so..." Her voice broke. "He was so... shocked, the next morning. Leapt right out of bed, staring at me. I thought he was just being... I didn't believe him when he said he didn't remember... I thought he just didn't want to--" She cut herself off brutally.

"Go. See. Jack." Alison was fairly sure she couldn't manage upright just yet. "Tonight. I'll call him to make sure he'll see you. You will taxi in and back. No driving." Alison took a small, shallow breath, and then another - her breathing was still widly uneven and it hurt to try and steady it. She could see the five year old little boy, struggling to survive on his own in the Alaskan winter. She managed to fight down the wave of nausea, somehow. "Now."

It was as if Nate himself, or GW, had snapped an order at her. Domino opened her eyes, nodding again, and then fled the music room.