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xp_logsA couple of hours after this scene, Bridge heads up to the kitchen for food, and runs into Amanda along the way. He cooks, she eats, and they talk.
There had to be a rule about getting this much sleep. Seriously. Amanda found herself waking from yet another unanticipated nap, to find she'd lost several hours and she was starving. Again. The bottom seemed to have fallen out of the Bottomless Pit, since she was eating pretty much every couple of hours. With a sigh, she crawled out of bed and pulled on the nearest available pair of shoes (the slip-ons Manuel had bought her BH - Before Hellfire) and made her way downstairs. She'd missed dinner, what with the napping, but Lorna was getting in the habit of leaving meals in the fridge ready to heat to cover that.
Bridge, heading up from the medlab and in the same general direction, stopped, a smile tugging at his lips as he watched the somewhat groggy-looking girl shuffle her way towards the kitchen. "I thought you were emulating Sleeping Beauty upstairs," he called to her, grinning as she stopped and looked around at him.
The sudden voice puzzled her, but when she caught sight of the owner, she beamed. "GW!" she exclaimed, coming over but stopping just short of a hug, even though it was clear she wanted to - she wasn't sure of whether they were up to hugs yet. "I should've figured yer'd be turnin' up. Moira called you?"
Bridge shook his head, interpreting the hesitation correctly, and stepped forward, giving her a brief but firm hug before letting go. "She did indeed," he said, stepping back and giving Amanda an assessing look. Obviously exhausted, again. From what Nathan said, that was getting to be a regular state for her. "You'd think I'd get used to it by now. News that Nate's gone and landed himself flat on his back again... he has been making something of a habit of it."
"'M not exactly thrilled with it either - but we really didn't get a choice about it this time. Then again, when do we ever?" Amanda's stomach growled rather insistently, and she blushed a little. "Um, can we talk in the kitchen? Part of the whole recovery thing with a spell that big - all I seem t' do is eat an' sleep."
"Sure thing. Was heading there myself - we came back from a job to Moira's message, and then Dom and Theo and I hopped on a plane." They started towards the kitchen again, Bridge giving her the occasional sideways look. She seemed relatively steady on her feet, exhausted or not. "I have something for you," he volunteered suddenly. "In my duffel upstairs, I mean. The boys had been planning to send it to you for Christmas, but decided they could save on postage..."
"I figured Dom'd be here, but Theo too? Brilliant." She grinned across at him. "'S always good t' see you lot, even if it's usually after some disaster or other." She blushed a little at the mention of the boys, and a present. "They got me somethin'? That's... nice." The grin turned a little silly - given the mess her personal life had been in lately, it was good to be reminded that people thought she was cute. "You want a cuppa? There'll be leftovers from dinner - Lorna's good like that - but you can't knock back the traditional English greetin'."
"Tea sounds good. And Theo insisted - got really kind of grumpy about it, which is always... well, immensely frightening." Bridge grinned at her as they reached the kitchen. "And the boys remember you very fondly, you know. I don't know what the gift is - they promised it wasn't explosive, and the security folks at the airport didn't bat an eye, so I'm assuming it's nothing dangerous. I do worry, with them..." He nudged her in the direction of the table. "Why don't you go sit down? I can make tea. Just point me in the right direction."
"Now yer startin' t' sound like Nate," Amanda mock-grumbled, but did as she was told. The walk downstairs had been tiring. Then again, everything was tiring, at least at the moment. She'd get up and grab food in a minute. If she didn't fall asleep first. "Tea's in that small cupboard," she said, pointing it out. "An' mugs're in the next one... Nothin' dangerous? They must be slippin'." She chuckled. "An' that's good t' hear - ego's taken a batterin' lately, so it's good t' know someone remembers me." There was a lot less bitterness in her tone than there would have been even a day or two previously. The talk...dream...whatever with Manuel had helped.
"Well," Bridge said dryly, switching the electric kettle on, "I don't know much in the way of details about whatever you and Nate and Moira did, but I'm gathering it was pretty damned impressive. Maybe you should keep that in mind, if your ego's stinging?" He headed over to the fridge. "What do you want to eat?" he asked briskly. "Protein? You look like you could use a protein-heavy something..."
"T' be honest, 'm not sure of all the details meself - it all got a bit blurry towards the end there," Amanda said, but a smile crossed her face as she considered that, yes, they had done something pretty amazing. Even Strange had said he was proud, once she's stopped yelling at him about the geas. "Um, I was just gunna grab whatever was leftover from dinner..." GW and Nate were very similar, she realised. Especially that whole 'looking after you' thing. Which was odd, considering their occupations and pasts...
The kettle boiled, and Bridge went over to set the tea on before he came back to the fridge to forage. "I'm something of an expert on food as fuel," he said, tossing her a grin over his shoulder as he examined the leftovers. "Comes from too many years of Nate's idea of MREs... uh, field rations, basically..."
"What did he use?" Amanda asked, curiosity sparked. "'Cause I would've thought it would be hard t' go wrong with that stuff - 's all dehydrated, ain't it? An' yer probably right 'bout the protein - big spell like that tends t' take a lot out of me. I've been eatin' everythin' in sight, so maybe somethin' heavier will slow me down a bit."
"Hmmm..." There were eggs, and a variety of possible omelette ingredients... "Can you hold on for five minutes? I could make you something fresh. And Nate's MREs... well, high on nutritional value, low on taste."
"I'm not gunna fade away t' a shadow or nothin', GW," Amanda said, amused. "An' thanks. You don't have t' do this, y'know, but I'm glad you are." A brief mischievous grin crossed her face. "I never say no t' food. An' it sounds like Nate's learned a lot since then - did you know they're gettin' him t' teach the littlies cooking class next year?"
"He told me the day he got talked into it, actually," Bridge said with a chuckle, getting the various ingredients out. "And he's always been a fairly good cook, Amanda, it just never translated to what he threw together for MREs. I remember when Lien took over that end of our supplies. We were all very, very grateful." He really couldn't help the sappy little smile that tugged at his lips as he mentioned Lien.
Oh, the sappy smile was cute. Really cute. Leaning her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hands as she watched him at work, Amanda smiled a little herself. "Still in the silly grin stages I see," she said, perhaps a little wistfully. But then again, it wasn't like there was no chance of getting that back with Manuel, especially now.
Bridge chuckled. "Nothing like having something like this sneak up on you," he said. "She wanted to come, but she had a job lined up for this weekend and cancellations are bad for the reputation." He had the omelette cooking in about two minutes flat; Nate might be a not-bad cook, but he was better.
Oh, that smelled good. Really good. Amanda's stomach growled a little more, and she shushed it. "It snuck up, all right," she said, chuckling. "I remember how she was in Amsterdam, all angry an' wantin' t' do horrible things to every man's nether regions, an' not in the good way. Gave Mann... Manuel a right headache." Gah, she'd stop using the nickname eventually. "He felt awful 'bout what happened - if he remembered it still, it might be good t' let him know it weren't all bad. No point now, of course..." She dropped her hands to the tabletop, and gave him an inquiring look. "Did Dom tell you 'bout that? What happened at the Hellfire Club?"
"Yeah," Bridge said with a sigh, turning away from the omelette for long enough to bring her the tea. "You've probably heard it all already, so I'll just say I'm sorry it happened, okay? We've had our run-ins with the Hellfire Club before, too. Dom ever tell you about what Shaw did to her?"
Amanda nodded, gratefully accepting the tea since it meant she had something to do with her hands. And besides, Tea Good. "Ta, GW." She took a sip, and went on. "Yeah, she told me when she was here last, after what happened t' Manuel an' me. It sort of helped, in a way. Me an' Manuel were stupid, just walkin' in there, but we're not the only ones t' have been caught by 'em." She sighed - obviously it was a hollow bit of comfort. "I keep lookin' back on it an' wonderin' just where my brain went that night."
"You live, you learn," Bridge said, going back to the omelette. "And I know you, and particularly Manuel, paid an awfully high price for this lesson. But you're both alive." He looked back at her. "And yeah, I know I don't understand everything that happened to him -- Nate gave me the basics -- but alive is alive, Amanda."
"So it is," she replied after a moment, thinking on that. "'S hard - he really doesn't remember a lot, an' that includes most of the 'us' stuff, but yer right. He's alive, an' so am I, an' we're learnin' t' deal with it. Slowly." She gave him a wry grin. "But you didn't come all this way t' talk 'bout me love life, or lack of. How long're you stayin'? An' how's Ani doin'?"
"We're here until we're sure Nate's okay, or things heat up back in Berlin." The omelette looked just about ready. He fetched two plates while it was finishing, then divided it neatly in half. "And Ani's doing well. Mick, less so." He couldn't help a grimace, but tried to wipe it off his face as he turned back towards Amanda.
"After Dom's fly-by visit last time, I like the sound of that. Oh, that looks great." Accepting a plate from GW, Amanda managed to restrain herself long enough for him to sit down himself before tucking in. It was good. She did however wait until she'd swallowed the first mouthful before addressing the last half of what he'd said. "The conditionin'?" she asked, expression sympathetic.
Bridge nodded, then sampled his half of the omelette. Not bad. He hadn't lost his touch. "Fucking Mistra," he sighed. "Mick's a good man, Amanda - he reminds me so much of Nate. But he's just about as screwed up as Nate was that first year, and that's scary as hell."
She nodded, taking that in. A very scary thought indeed - they hadn't let her see Nathan when he'd been reconditioned, but she'd heard the stories, seen how he'd been afterwards. Freshly-broken conditioning for the first time, having to relearn everything, always questioning whether your motives and reactions were actually your own... "He'll make it," she said eventually. "He's got you, an' Dom, an' the rest of the Pack. That's gotta make a difference, yeah?"
Plus, Mick wasn't running off on homicidal rampages, Bridge thought, but didn't share that with Amanda. "We're stubborn people," he said with a faint grin. "Membership requirement, don't you know. We're not about to give up on him, and even if we were, I think Anika would drag him through this all kicking and screaming if she had to." He mock-shuddered. "She's more stubborn than Dom. It's terrifying."
"I'd noticed that, the whole stubborn thing," Amanda said, almost contemplatively. No, bad thought, very bad thought. Pete and Nate would... well, they wouldn't kill her, but they'd make a lot of growly noises and point out just what a bad thought that was, even if it did make them the world's biggest hypocrites... Still, she did enjoy hanging out with the Pack... Squelching the Very Bad Thought, she kept eating. "This is really good," she said. "Ta."
Bridge spotted the thoughtful look. He hadn't basically raised three teenagers and failed to learn how to read faces. "Thank you," he said, a hint of the long-discarded drawl in his voice. "It's really kind of distressing, you know. The women almost outnumber us now."
"No more walkin' 'round in yer underwear an' doin' all those male bondin' things?" Amanda teased. "Nate an' I were talkin', when we were doin' that whole road trip. He reckons women are more practical than men. Maybe that's it."
"Oh, he shared that particular theory, did he?" Bridge took another bite of his omelette and then leaned back in his chair, thinking. "I'm not absolutely sure I agree," he said, "or at least, I don't know that 'practical' is the word. Women in my line of work often tend to be very successful because they're... well, unpredictable. They're existing in what is basically a man's world, and sometimes thinking very much like us men, but it's never quite the same. Their reactions are different, and a lot of times, that gives them a very different sort of insight into situations." He grinned. "And yeah, I've thought way too much about this, but the Pack is heavier on female members than most mercenary groups. In a way, meshing that way is just as challenging as meshing mutants with humans."
"It seems t' work, most of the time, at least." Amanda fell silent, remembering how stressed Domino had been the last time she'd seen her. "How's Dom goin'? I know Mistra was breathin' down yer necks last time she was here, an' that was distractin' her, but she seemed like things were gettin' on top of her again."
Bridge started to give the easy, facile answer, but then paused, remembering just how well Amanda had handled herself in Istanbul, how highly Nate and Dom and Wisdom all thought of her. "They are," he said simply. "It's not been good, wondering whether or not we're going to get attacked in the middle of the night. We've had a little information recently suggesting the threat's slacked off a bit, which is good, but we were all walking on eggshells there for a while." He shrugged a bit uneasily. "Add a couple of rougher than usual jobs, and we're all running the ragged edge. Dom handles crisis well, constant stress that she can't do anything about less well. I think it's a function of her mutation, really."
"An' Nate an' me probably don't help, with the phone calls an' the sudden flights over..." Amanda frowned down at her plate, obviously thinking. "'M gunna be over yer side of the pond for the holidays - seein' Rom, maybe goin' t' Muir... Are you lot gunna be in Berlin then? I was thinkin' maybe I could make a surprise visit, turn the tables on Dom for a change." At this last she'd looked up with that "I'm planning something devious" grin. "Do a spot of kidnappin' of me own..."
Bridge grinned in appreciation. "Well," he said, "from what I hear, Moira is still planning to drag Nate to Muir as soon as term's over here and he's fit for the plane - not that I think he'll need much dragging, mind you - and we'd talked about descending upon them en masse at least for a couple of days. But other than that, we should be in Berlin the rest of the time." His grin faded, but only into a calmer, more determined sort of smile. "We sort of jointly decided that we'd all take a bit of a break at the same time. No jobs until after the New Year. I mean, it's not as if any of us are hurting for money."
"Sounds perfect, then." Amanda reflected briefly that if she travelled under her real name - all of it - she wouldn't need a visa to get into Germany now, and here she was not speaking a word of German, beyond some fragmented Old German, which bore as much relation to the modern language as Old English did to English. "Manuel might be with me - is that gunna be all right with everyone? He's lost his power, so it's not like there's gunna be a repeat of what happened in Amsterdam..."
"No one's holding a grudge over what happened in Amsterdam," Bridge assured her. "Hell, if Li wasn't aware of the fact that he'd lost his memory, she'd probably want to thank him." He grinned shamelessly, flushing a little. "Apparently I have restored her faith in my gender. Don't ask me how." His expression went a little wistful as something struck him. "I'm kind of wondering if that's part of Dom's problem. Nate's getting married, Lien and I are kind of in the all-over-each-other phase of things, David and Mina are still cooing at each other over the breakfast table..."
"An' the boys are the boys..." Amanda's voice was far more sympathetic than anyone might have expected of her a year ago. "'S hard, bein' alone when everyone else is pairin' up." She toyed with her fork, pushing omelette remains around her plate. "Beth left," she said at last. "Her parents decided enough was enough after Halloween an' moved down t' Georgia. An' then this thing with Manuel happened about a week later... Made me feel like I was losin' everythin', y'know? I think Dom's feelin' like that. Nate, you... yer not just hers any more."
Bridge nodded, sympathy crossing his face at her mention of Beth, followed by a wince as he heard how soon after the incident at the Hellfire Club had come. "I remember how upset she was when we actually started the team up, years ago," he mused. "It had just been her and Nate and I for about a year when we recruited David, and then we started adding the others... I just wish I knew what to do to make her happier." He smiled a bit wearily. "I think it helps her to spend time with you, you know."
"I hope so. People keep tellin' me that, tho' sometimes it feels like all I do is make people worry. An' don't tell me, I know that's not true," she added as GW opened his mouth to do just that. "Right, 's a plan then. Can I email you an' let you know what's goin' on closer t' the time?"
Bridge nodded, getting up to dispose of the dishes. "You've got all our addresses, I think?" Amanda nodded, and he smiled. "Like I said, we may be on Muir for a few days - I think the others are going to want to reassure themselves that Nate's okay, too." He sighed heavily as he rinsed the plates. "I know Moira says he's getting better already, but his fever was back up when I was down there. I've watched him manage this damned virus for long enough... and the blindness scares the crap out of me. I don't know how he's going to handle that if it lasts for very long."
"It won't." There was utter certainty in Amanda's voice, and GW looked at her strangely. She shrugged. "Dunno how I know, but I know. Maybe 'cause we were linked when it happened. But 's not permanent, I know it isn't." Getting up, she grabbed a dishtowel to help dry, ignoring his protests. "Call it witch's intuition," she said with a snicker.
He shook a finger at her. "If you wear yourself out helping me clean up and I have to carry you upstairs, Nate and I are both going to laugh at you, you realize." But he was reassured by Amanda's confidence, moreso than most people who knew him might have suspected. He might be the logical, rational strategist, but he also believed in intuition. He'd seen it too much in Nathan and in Domino, in their very different ways, not to.
"I'm fine - a couple of plates an' forks ain't gunna kill me, 'specially with all that food on board," she retorted, rolling her eyes a little. Okay, so she'd developed this habit of napping whenever she sat still for five minutes. It didn't mean she was useless, even if her magic was inaccessible for the moment. "It'll all work out," she said quietly, drying the cutlery. "I don't normally say stuff like that, but I think it's true this time. We're due a break, all of us, an' I think it's time." With another shrug, she grinned. "Or I'm completely daft an' the world's about t' end."
"Now I know you spend too much time around Nate. That sounds like one of his little disclaimers." There wasn't much to clean up, really. "'We'll make it out of this, GW,'" he quoted, mimicking Nathan's more clipped way of speaking. "'Unless I'm wrong and we die horribly. Which would suck.'"
Amanda laughed, the tiredness leaving her face for a moment. "Him or Pete - they're both as bad as each other." Her grin softened into a found smile. "Wouldn't have it any other way, either."
Dishes were done, and Bridge gave her an assessing look. "I am going to see you upstairs," he said very firmly. Least he could do, given that Nathan would probably be doing it if he wasn't down in the medlab. "You want to bring anything up with you in case you get hit by the munchies later?"
"Good idea." Amanda knew better than to argue - GW had That Face on. The same one Nathan was so good at. Grabbing a couple of apples from the fruit bowl, she shoved them in the pockets of her jacket, then gave GW a grin. "Ready," she said. "Walk me home?"
Once Domino gets back from seeing Jack, she comes looking for Amanda, and for once it's Domino's turn for comfort...
Something was wrong, disrupting the patterns, pain, grief, anger... Amanda came out of sleep to find there was a Domino sitting by her bed. A Domino who was radiating so much hurt it made Amanda's head swim for a moment before she managed to lock down the lingering after-effects of what had happened with Nathan and see the room normally again. "Dom? " she asked, sitting up. "What's wrong? Is Nate...?"
Domino sniffled, wiping her eyes quickly, and reached out to lay a hand on Amanda's arm. "He's okay," she said, her voice low and ragged. "His fever was up again earlier, but I checked on him again when I... got b-back, and he was resting better."
Her hand was shaking. Domino's hand was shaking. Untangling herself from the blankets, Amanda scooted to the edge of the bed, ignoring the wave of dizziness in favour for reaching forward and grabbing both of the older woman's hands in hers. "Dom, back from where? What's wrong?"
Domino swallowed past the lump in her throat. Even in the dimness her eyes seemed too bright, glittering with unshed tears. "I screwed up," she whispered, barely managing to force the words out. "Oh, fuck, how I screwed up..."
"C'mon." Tugging at Domino's hands gently but firmly, Amanda pulled her off the chair and made her sit beside her on the bed, so she could wrap her arms around Domino's shaking body. "If it helps t' talk about it, talk t' me. You can tell me anythin', you know that..." she soothed, using the same tone she'd used a hundred times with Manuel, with Angelo, even with Nathan. "'M here, an' I don't care how bad you fucked up, 'm not goin' anywhere..."
"You're not... you're not going to say that when you know," Domino almost whimpered. But Amanda just held on, murmuring soothingly to her, and the whole sordid, awful story started to spill out. Not just the brief, half-regretful, half-smug version she'd told Amanda months ago, but all of it. Volgograd, the firefight on the ice, Nathan falling through. The desperate run back to the safehouse, him semi-conscious and hallucinating... and the rest. All of it, every detail she'd given Alison, and the truth behind Nathan's broken pleas that night.
Oh gods... Amanda felt a wrenching in her chest as Domino told the story, told her the truth she hadn't known herself. Such a fuckin' mess, for all of them... But she didn't let go, feeling the shudders racking the older woman as she talked, rubbing her back gently, instinctively trying to comfort her through touch. "You didn't know," she said quietly. "How could you know, Dom?"
"I should've... I'm supposed to know him, Amanda," she almost moaned. Strangely, the faint British accent that seemed to come and go with her sometimes was getting noticeably stronger as she spoke. "Stupid... so stupid. He was just so scared, and I'd never seen him like that before. I didn't know what to do."
"Dom, I've been in his head an' I didn't know any of that stuff..." Amanda unwrapped one arm from around Domino to wipe the tears off her face with her fingers. "He was askin' for comfort, an' you gave it to him, the only way you knew how." She looked intently into those haunted violet eyes. "The only way either of us knew how at one stage."
Domino sniffled, not ready to forgive herself just yet. Maybe not for a good long while, despite what Jack had said and what Amanda was saying now. "I was so awful to him about it," she whispered. "Afterwards... and Alison said he's got himself convinced that it's his fault, that he h- hurt me..." Tears welled up afresh and she clung almost desperately to Amanda.
"Alison'll talk t' him, Jack'll talk t' him, they'll make him see it weren't his fault..." Privately Amanda was resolving to talk to him herself, when he was up for it, about the parts of her history she usually edited out, and why, if he was going to keep having issues with the whole thing. "I don't know what it'll take t' fix this, or if it's fixable at all, but he loves you, Dom, he really does. He's not gunna forget that, no matter what." She kept on in this vein, rocking Domino slightly, ignoring the way her own eyes were tearing up.
"I love him too." Her voice was cracking, something close to hysteria sneaking through. "But I've never been anything but trouble to him, Amanda. I made it so hard on him so many times, just because I could, and then I do th-this?" It was getting increasingly hard to force the words out. "He's lying down there in that fucking medlab, sick and scared and--" She bit back the 'blind', honestly not sure whether Amanda knew yet. "And I don't dare go near him like this, even if he wasn't afraid of me..."
It was times like this Amanda wished she had Jamie's duplication power - right now she could do with another her to mix a batch of calming potion, since she didn't dare let go of Dom just yet. "Not just trouble, Dom," she said, remembering having this conversation with Pete on occasion. "How many times have you saved his life? An' back at the start, d'you really think he would've made it if he didn't have you around? He never told me, but 'm not stupid - straight out of Mistra, after losin' his family... he needed a reason t' keep goin' an' you an' GW gave him that." She moved from rubbing Domino's back to stroking the touselled head resting on her shoulder. "An' no, you shouldn't go an' see him, not like this, but once you get some sleep an' he's not so sick... we'll go down in the mornin', yeah?"
"I just wish..." A sob slipped out, despite her best efforts to keep it back. Amanda just held on tighter. "Guess it doesn't matter what I wish? Can't go back and not make the mistake in the first place. Can't... take back the things I did, or said..." The next sob was almost a laugh. "I feel so selfish, Amanda. I always raged at him for not taking me seriously, treating me like a kid... I pushed and I pushed. I was never satisfied, and I thought--" She cut herself off, unwilling to give voice to that. Bad enough that she had to admit to herself that there had been a part of her that had thought he would have to take her seriously, after Volgograd.
"There's no takin' back anythin' we do, Dom, but we can try an' not make the same mistakes again. When he's well enough, he's gunna need you. Be there for him - even with all this shite, you still know him better 'n most of us. You can tell when he's havin' trouble an' bein' all stoic 'bout it. You know hw t' distract him when he's bored, or mopin'. You even know how t' kick him better in the pants than the rest of us, when he needs it." Amanda knew Domino was holding something back, but that could wait. Enough that she was thinking about it, at least. "You want him t' treat you like a grown-up? Then maybe 's time you showed him you are one. Stop runnin' from him. Talk t' him when he's able, an' in the meantime, start thinkin' 'bout ways t' help him, even if it's makin' sure Moira's taken care of. Especially that."
Amanda's voice was calm, firm, and Domino managed a ghost of a smile, taking a deep, shaky breath and fighting to pull herself together at least a little. "You're right," she said very softly, her voice still hoarse. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, doing one of the breathing exercises Nathan had taught her years ago. "Past time I grew up a little, I think."
"I do that sometimes," Amanda said wryly, reaching for one of Domino's hands and squeezing it gently before letting go and reaching for the box of tissues on the bedside table. "Get things right, that is." Pulling a couple of tissues form the box, she handed them to Dom. "You look a right mess, big sis. Worse 'n me when I cry."
"I don't do it very often." Domino wiped her eyes, her hands still a little unsteady. "Last thing you want people to think of you as in my line of work is a weepy woman."
"Yeah, I imagine not." They were so alike, Amanda reflected, only Domino had never had a place like this to feel safe in, to let the defences down. Only Nathan and GW and a life of risks and danger and dodgy ethical decisions. "Well, we can't have you wanderin' the halls like that, you'll scare people. So you'll just have t' stay here a bit, yeah? Keep the invalid entertained? Least 'til I fall asleep on you again."
"I was really hoping you'd ask," Domino said with a shaky laugh. "Not quite up to wandering the halls, I don't think..."
"An' lose me favourite pillow? No way. 'M selfish that way - 's all about me, y'know," Amanda said solemnly.
"Oh, yeah," Domino said, sniffling a bit again as they settled back down, Amanda very pointedly not letting go of her. "Selfish little wretch, you are..." She didn't want to think any more, not just now. Lots of stuff that needed to be done in the morning, but for now...
"Uh-huh, that's me. Evil incarnate." Amanda shifted slightly until Domino's head was resting comfortably on her shoulder, stroking her hair gently.
Domino sighed and closed her eyes, aware of nothing but a sudden, not at all unpleasant fuzziness. "Sneaky and evil," she murmured, and drifted off to sleep.
There had to be a rule about getting this much sleep. Seriously. Amanda found herself waking from yet another unanticipated nap, to find she'd lost several hours and she was starving. Again. The bottom seemed to have fallen out of the Bottomless Pit, since she was eating pretty much every couple of hours. With a sigh, she crawled out of bed and pulled on the nearest available pair of shoes (the slip-ons Manuel had bought her BH - Before Hellfire) and made her way downstairs. She'd missed dinner, what with the napping, but Lorna was getting in the habit of leaving meals in the fridge ready to heat to cover that.
Bridge, heading up from the medlab and in the same general direction, stopped, a smile tugging at his lips as he watched the somewhat groggy-looking girl shuffle her way towards the kitchen. "I thought you were emulating Sleeping Beauty upstairs," he called to her, grinning as she stopped and looked around at him.
The sudden voice puzzled her, but when she caught sight of the owner, she beamed. "GW!" she exclaimed, coming over but stopping just short of a hug, even though it was clear she wanted to - she wasn't sure of whether they were up to hugs yet. "I should've figured yer'd be turnin' up. Moira called you?"
Bridge shook his head, interpreting the hesitation correctly, and stepped forward, giving her a brief but firm hug before letting go. "She did indeed," he said, stepping back and giving Amanda an assessing look. Obviously exhausted, again. From what Nathan said, that was getting to be a regular state for her. "You'd think I'd get used to it by now. News that Nate's gone and landed himself flat on his back again... he has been making something of a habit of it."
"'M not exactly thrilled with it either - but we really didn't get a choice about it this time. Then again, when do we ever?" Amanda's stomach growled rather insistently, and she blushed a little. "Um, can we talk in the kitchen? Part of the whole recovery thing with a spell that big - all I seem t' do is eat an' sleep."
"Sure thing. Was heading there myself - we came back from a job to Moira's message, and then Dom and Theo and I hopped on a plane." They started towards the kitchen again, Bridge giving her the occasional sideways look. She seemed relatively steady on her feet, exhausted or not. "I have something for you," he volunteered suddenly. "In my duffel upstairs, I mean. The boys had been planning to send it to you for Christmas, but decided they could save on postage..."
"I figured Dom'd be here, but Theo too? Brilliant." She grinned across at him. "'S always good t' see you lot, even if it's usually after some disaster or other." She blushed a little at the mention of the boys, and a present. "They got me somethin'? That's... nice." The grin turned a little silly - given the mess her personal life had been in lately, it was good to be reminded that people thought she was cute. "You want a cuppa? There'll be leftovers from dinner - Lorna's good like that - but you can't knock back the traditional English greetin'."
"Tea sounds good. And Theo insisted - got really kind of grumpy about it, which is always... well, immensely frightening." Bridge grinned at her as they reached the kitchen. "And the boys remember you very fondly, you know. I don't know what the gift is - they promised it wasn't explosive, and the security folks at the airport didn't bat an eye, so I'm assuming it's nothing dangerous. I do worry, with them..." He nudged her in the direction of the table. "Why don't you go sit down? I can make tea. Just point me in the right direction."
"Now yer startin' t' sound like Nate," Amanda mock-grumbled, but did as she was told. The walk downstairs had been tiring. Then again, everything was tiring, at least at the moment. She'd get up and grab food in a minute. If she didn't fall asleep first. "Tea's in that small cupboard," she said, pointing it out. "An' mugs're in the next one... Nothin' dangerous? They must be slippin'." She chuckled. "An' that's good t' hear - ego's taken a batterin' lately, so it's good t' know someone remembers me." There was a lot less bitterness in her tone than there would have been even a day or two previously. The talk...dream...whatever with Manuel had helped.
"Well," Bridge said dryly, switching the electric kettle on, "I don't know much in the way of details about whatever you and Nate and Moira did, but I'm gathering it was pretty damned impressive. Maybe you should keep that in mind, if your ego's stinging?" He headed over to the fridge. "What do you want to eat?" he asked briskly. "Protein? You look like you could use a protein-heavy something..."
"T' be honest, 'm not sure of all the details meself - it all got a bit blurry towards the end there," Amanda said, but a smile crossed her face as she considered that, yes, they had done something pretty amazing. Even Strange had said he was proud, once she's stopped yelling at him about the geas. "Um, I was just gunna grab whatever was leftover from dinner..." GW and Nate were very similar, she realised. Especially that whole 'looking after you' thing. Which was odd, considering their occupations and pasts...
The kettle boiled, and Bridge went over to set the tea on before he came back to the fridge to forage. "I'm something of an expert on food as fuel," he said, tossing her a grin over his shoulder as he examined the leftovers. "Comes from too many years of Nate's idea of MREs... uh, field rations, basically..."
"What did he use?" Amanda asked, curiosity sparked. "'Cause I would've thought it would be hard t' go wrong with that stuff - 's all dehydrated, ain't it? An' yer probably right 'bout the protein - big spell like that tends t' take a lot out of me. I've been eatin' everythin' in sight, so maybe somethin' heavier will slow me down a bit."
"Hmmm..." There were eggs, and a variety of possible omelette ingredients... "Can you hold on for five minutes? I could make you something fresh. And Nate's MREs... well, high on nutritional value, low on taste."
"I'm not gunna fade away t' a shadow or nothin', GW," Amanda said, amused. "An' thanks. You don't have t' do this, y'know, but I'm glad you are." A brief mischievous grin crossed her face. "I never say no t' food. An' it sounds like Nate's learned a lot since then - did you know they're gettin' him t' teach the littlies cooking class next year?"
"He told me the day he got talked into it, actually," Bridge said with a chuckle, getting the various ingredients out. "And he's always been a fairly good cook, Amanda, it just never translated to what he threw together for MREs. I remember when Lien took over that end of our supplies. We were all very, very grateful." He really couldn't help the sappy little smile that tugged at his lips as he mentioned Lien.
Oh, the sappy smile was cute. Really cute. Leaning her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hands as she watched him at work, Amanda smiled a little herself. "Still in the silly grin stages I see," she said, perhaps a little wistfully. But then again, it wasn't like there was no chance of getting that back with Manuel, especially now.
Bridge chuckled. "Nothing like having something like this sneak up on you," he said. "She wanted to come, but she had a job lined up for this weekend and cancellations are bad for the reputation." He had the omelette cooking in about two minutes flat; Nate might be a not-bad cook, but he was better.
Oh, that smelled good. Really good. Amanda's stomach growled a little more, and she shushed it. "It snuck up, all right," she said, chuckling. "I remember how she was in Amsterdam, all angry an' wantin' t' do horrible things to every man's nether regions, an' not in the good way. Gave Mann... Manuel a right headache." Gah, she'd stop using the nickname eventually. "He felt awful 'bout what happened - if he remembered it still, it might be good t' let him know it weren't all bad. No point now, of course..." She dropped her hands to the tabletop, and gave him an inquiring look. "Did Dom tell you 'bout that? What happened at the Hellfire Club?"
"Yeah," Bridge said with a sigh, turning away from the omelette for long enough to bring her the tea. "You've probably heard it all already, so I'll just say I'm sorry it happened, okay? We've had our run-ins with the Hellfire Club before, too. Dom ever tell you about what Shaw did to her?"
Amanda nodded, gratefully accepting the tea since it meant she had something to do with her hands. And besides, Tea Good. "Ta, GW." She took a sip, and went on. "Yeah, she told me when she was here last, after what happened t' Manuel an' me. It sort of helped, in a way. Me an' Manuel were stupid, just walkin' in there, but we're not the only ones t' have been caught by 'em." She sighed - obviously it was a hollow bit of comfort. "I keep lookin' back on it an' wonderin' just where my brain went that night."
"You live, you learn," Bridge said, going back to the omelette. "And I know you, and particularly Manuel, paid an awfully high price for this lesson. But you're both alive." He looked back at her. "And yeah, I know I don't understand everything that happened to him -- Nate gave me the basics -- but alive is alive, Amanda."
"So it is," she replied after a moment, thinking on that. "'S hard - he really doesn't remember a lot, an' that includes most of the 'us' stuff, but yer right. He's alive, an' so am I, an' we're learnin' t' deal with it. Slowly." She gave him a wry grin. "But you didn't come all this way t' talk 'bout me love life, or lack of. How long're you stayin'? An' how's Ani doin'?"
"We're here until we're sure Nate's okay, or things heat up back in Berlin." The omelette looked just about ready. He fetched two plates while it was finishing, then divided it neatly in half. "And Ani's doing well. Mick, less so." He couldn't help a grimace, but tried to wipe it off his face as he turned back towards Amanda.
"After Dom's fly-by visit last time, I like the sound of that. Oh, that looks great." Accepting a plate from GW, Amanda managed to restrain herself long enough for him to sit down himself before tucking in. It was good. She did however wait until she'd swallowed the first mouthful before addressing the last half of what he'd said. "The conditionin'?" she asked, expression sympathetic.
Bridge nodded, then sampled his half of the omelette. Not bad. He hadn't lost his touch. "Fucking Mistra," he sighed. "Mick's a good man, Amanda - he reminds me so much of Nate. But he's just about as screwed up as Nate was that first year, and that's scary as hell."
She nodded, taking that in. A very scary thought indeed - they hadn't let her see Nathan when he'd been reconditioned, but she'd heard the stories, seen how he'd been afterwards. Freshly-broken conditioning for the first time, having to relearn everything, always questioning whether your motives and reactions were actually your own... "He'll make it," she said eventually. "He's got you, an' Dom, an' the rest of the Pack. That's gotta make a difference, yeah?"
Plus, Mick wasn't running off on homicidal rampages, Bridge thought, but didn't share that with Amanda. "We're stubborn people," he said with a faint grin. "Membership requirement, don't you know. We're not about to give up on him, and even if we were, I think Anika would drag him through this all kicking and screaming if she had to." He mock-shuddered. "She's more stubborn than Dom. It's terrifying."
"I'd noticed that, the whole stubborn thing," Amanda said, almost contemplatively. No, bad thought, very bad thought. Pete and Nate would... well, they wouldn't kill her, but they'd make a lot of growly noises and point out just what a bad thought that was, even if it did make them the world's biggest hypocrites... Still, she did enjoy hanging out with the Pack... Squelching the Very Bad Thought, she kept eating. "This is really good," she said. "Ta."
Bridge spotted the thoughtful look. He hadn't basically raised three teenagers and failed to learn how to read faces. "Thank you," he said, a hint of the long-discarded drawl in his voice. "It's really kind of distressing, you know. The women almost outnumber us now."
"No more walkin' 'round in yer underwear an' doin' all those male bondin' things?" Amanda teased. "Nate an' I were talkin', when we were doin' that whole road trip. He reckons women are more practical than men. Maybe that's it."
"Oh, he shared that particular theory, did he?" Bridge took another bite of his omelette and then leaned back in his chair, thinking. "I'm not absolutely sure I agree," he said, "or at least, I don't know that 'practical' is the word. Women in my line of work often tend to be very successful because they're... well, unpredictable. They're existing in what is basically a man's world, and sometimes thinking very much like us men, but it's never quite the same. Their reactions are different, and a lot of times, that gives them a very different sort of insight into situations." He grinned. "And yeah, I've thought way too much about this, but the Pack is heavier on female members than most mercenary groups. In a way, meshing that way is just as challenging as meshing mutants with humans."
"It seems t' work, most of the time, at least." Amanda fell silent, remembering how stressed Domino had been the last time she'd seen her. "How's Dom goin'? I know Mistra was breathin' down yer necks last time she was here, an' that was distractin' her, but she seemed like things were gettin' on top of her again."
Bridge started to give the easy, facile answer, but then paused, remembering just how well Amanda had handled herself in Istanbul, how highly Nate and Dom and Wisdom all thought of her. "They are," he said simply. "It's not been good, wondering whether or not we're going to get attacked in the middle of the night. We've had a little information recently suggesting the threat's slacked off a bit, which is good, but we were all walking on eggshells there for a while." He shrugged a bit uneasily. "Add a couple of rougher than usual jobs, and we're all running the ragged edge. Dom handles crisis well, constant stress that she can't do anything about less well. I think it's a function of her mutation, really."
"An' Nate an' me probably don't help, with the phone calls an' the sudden flights over..." Amanda frowned down at her plate, obviously thinking. "'M gunna be over yer side of the pond for the holidays - seein' Rom, maybe goin' t' Muir... Are you lot gunna be in Berlin then? I was thinkin' maybe I could make a surprise visit, turn the tables on Dom for a change." At this last she'd looked up with that "I'm planning something devious" grin. "Do a spot of kidnappin' of me own..."
Bridge grinned in appreciation. "Well," he said, "from what I hear, Moira is still planning to drag Nate to Muir as soon as term's over here and he's fit for the plane - not that I think he'll need much dragging, mind you - and we'd talked about descending upon them en masse at least for a couple of days. But other than that, we should be in Berlin the rest of the time." His grin faded, but only into a calmer, more determined sort of smile. "We sort of jointly decided that we'd all take a bit of a break at the same time. No jobs until after the New Year. I mean, it's not as if any of us are hurting for money."
"Sounds perfect, then." Amanda reflected briefly that if she travelled under her real name - all of it - she wouldn't need a visa to get into Germany now, and here she was not speaking a word of German, beyond some fragmented Old German, which bore as much relation to the modern language as Old English did to English. "Manuel might be with me - is that gunna be all right with everyone? He's lost his power, so it's not like there's gunna be a repeat of what happened in Amsterdam..."
"No one's holding a grudge over what happened in Amsterdam," Bridge assured her. "Hell, if Li wasn't aware of the fact that he'd lost his memory, she'd probably want to thank him." He grinned shamelessly, flushing a little. "Apparently I have restored her faith in my gender. Don't ask me how." His expression went a little wistful as something struck him. "I'm kind of wondering if that's part of Dom's problem. Nate's getting married, Lien and I are kind of in the all-over-each-other phase of things, David and Mina are still cooing at each other over the breakfast table..."
"An' the boys are the boys..." Amanda's voice was far more sympathetic than anyone might have expected of her a year ago. "'S hard, bein' alone when everyone else is pairin' up." She toyed with her fork, pushing omelette remains around her plate. "Beth left," she said at last. "Her parents decided enough was enough after Halloween an' moved down t' Georgia. An' then this thing with Manuel happened about a week later... Made me feel like I was losin' everythin', y'know? I think Dom's feelin' like that. Nate, you... yer not just hers any more."
Bridge nodded, sympathy crossing his face at her mention of Beth, followed by a wince as he heard how soon after the incident at the Hellfire Club had come. "I remember how upset she was when we actually started the team up, years ago," he mused. "It had just been her and Nate and I for about a year when we recruited David, and then we started adding the others... I just wish I knew what to do to make her happier." He smiled a bit wearily. "I think it helps her to spend time with you, you know."
"I hope so. People keep tellin' me that, tho' sometimes it feels like all I do is make people worry. An' don't tell me, I know that's not true," she added as GW opened his mouth to do just that. "Right, 's a plan then. Can I email you an' let you know what's goin' on closer t' the time?"
Bridge nodded, getting up to dispose of the dishes. "You've got all our addresses, I think?" Amanda nodded, and he smiled. "Like I said, we may be on Muir for a few days - I think the others are going to want to reassure themselves that Nate's okay, too." He sighed heavily as he rinsed the plates. "I know Moira says he's getting better already, but his fever was back up when I was down there. I've watched him manage this damned virus for long enough... and the blindness scares the crap out of me. I don't know how he's going to handle that if it lasts for very long."
"It won't." There was utter certainty in Amanda's voice, and GW looked at her strangely. She shrugged. "Dunno how I know, but I know. Maybe 'cause we were linked when it happened. But 's not permanent, I know it isn't." Getting up, she grabbed a dishtowel to help dry, ignoring his protests. "Call it witch's intuition," she said with a snicker.
He shook a finger at her. "If you wear yourself out helping me clean up and I have to carry you upstairs, Nate and I are both going to laugh at you, you realize." But he was reassured by Amanda's confidence, moreso than most people who knew him might have suspected. He might be the logical, rational strategist, but he also believed in intuition. He'd seen it too much in Nathan and in Domino, in their very different ways, not to.
"I'm fine - a couple of plates an' forks ain't gunna kill me, 'specially with all that food on board," she retorted, rolling her eyes a little. Okay, so she'd developed this habit of napping whenever she sat still for five minutes. It didn't mean she was useless, even if her magic was inaccessible for the moment. "It'll all work out," she said quietly, drying the cutlery. "I don't normally say stuff like that, but I think it's true this time. We're due a break, all of us, an' I think it's time." With another shrug, she grinned. "Or I'm completely daft an' the world's about t' end."
"Now I know you spend too much time around Nate. That sounds like one of his little disclaimers." There wasn't much to clean up, really. "'We'll make it out of this, GW,'" he quoted, mimicking Nathan's more clipped way of speaking. "'Unless I'm wrong and we die horribly. Which would suck.'"
Amanda laughed, the tiredness leaving her face for a moment. "Him or Pete - they're both as bad as each other." Her grin softened into a found smile. "Wouldn't have it any other way, either."
Dishes were done, and Bridge gave her an assessing look. "I am going to see you upstairs," he said very firmly. Least he could do, given that Nathan would probably be doing it if he wasn't down in the medlab. "You want to bring anything up with you in case you get hit by the munchies later?"
"Good idea." Amanda knew better than to argue - GW had That Face on. The same one Nathan was so good at. Grabbing a couple of apples from the fruit bowl, she shoved them in the pockets of her jacket, then gave GW a grin. "Ready," she said. "Walk me home?"
Once Domino gets back from seeing Jack, she comes looking for Amanda, and for once it's Domino's turn for comfort...
Something was wrong, disrupting the patterns, pain, grief, anger... Amanda came out of sleep to find there was a Domino sitting by her bed. A Domino who was radiating so much hurt it made Amanda's head swim for a moment before she managed to lock down the lingering after-effects of what had happened with Nathan and see the room normally again. "Dom? " she asked, sitting up. "What's wrong? Is Nate...?"
Domino sniffled, wiping her eyes quickly, and reached out to lay a hand on Amanda's arm. "He's okay," she said, her voice low and ragged. "His fever was up again earlier, but I checked on him again when I... got b-back, and he was resting better."
Her hand was shaking. Domino's hand was shaking. Untangling herself from the blankets, Amanda scooted to the edge of the bed, ignoring the wave of dizziness in favour for reaching forward and grabbing both of the older woman's hands in hers. "Dom, back from where? What's wrong?"
Domino swallowed past the lump in her throat. Even in the dimness her eyes seemed too bright, glittering with unshed tears. "I screwed up," she whispered, barely managing to force the words out. "Oh, fuck, how I screwed up..."
"C'mon." Tugging at Domino's hands gently but firmly, Amanda pulled her off the chair and made her sit beside her on the bed, so she could wrap her arms around Domino's shaking body. "If it helps t' talk about it, talk t' me. You can tell me anythin', you know that..." she soothed, using the same tone she'd used a hundred times with Manuel, with Angelo, even with Nathan. "'M here, an' I don't care how bad you fucked up, 'm not goin' anywhere..."
"You're not... you're not going to say that when you know," Domino almost whimpered. But Amanda just held on, murmuring soothingly to her, and the whole sordid, awful story started to spill out. Not just the brief, half-regretful, half-smug version she'd told Amanda months ago, but all of it. Volgograd, the firefight on the ice, Nathan falling through. The desperate run back to the safehouse, him semi-conscious and hallucinating... and the rest. All of it, every detail she'd given Alison, and the truth behind Nathan's broken pleas that night.
Oh gods... Amanda felt a wrenching in her chest as Domino told the story, told her the truth she hadn't known herself. Such a fuckin' mess, for all of them... But she didn't let go, feeling the shudders racking the older woman as she talked, rubbing her back gently, instinctively trying to comfort her through touch. "You didn't know," she said quietly. "How could you know, Dom?"
"I should've... I'm supposed to know him, Amanda," she almost moaned. Strangely, the faint British accent that seemed to come and go with her sometimes was getting noticeably stronger as she spoke. "Stupid... so stupid. He was just so scared, and I'd never seen him like that before. I didn't know what to do."
"Dom, I've been in his head an' I didn't know any of that stuff..." Amanda unwrapped one arm from around Domino to wipe the tears off her face with her fingers. "He was askin' for comfort, an' you gave it to him, the only way you knew how." She looked intently into those haunted violet eyes. "The only way either of us knew how at one stage."
Domino sniffled, not ready to forgive herself just yet. Maybe not for a good long while, despite what Jack had said and what Amanda was saying now. "I was so awful to him about it," she whispered. "Afterwards... and Alison said he's got himself convinced that it's his fault, that he h- hurt me..." Tears welled up afresh and she clung almost desperately to Amanda.
"Alison'll talk t' him, Jack'll talk t' him, they'll make him see it weren't his fault..." Privately Amanda was resolving to talk to him herself, when he was up for it, about the parts of her history she usually edited out, and why, if he was going to keep having issues with the whole thing. "I don't know what it'll take t' fix this, or if it's fixable at all, but he loves you, Dom, he really does. He's not gunna forget that, no matter what." She kept on in this vein, rocking Domino slightly, ignoring the way her own eyes were tearing up.
"I love him too." Her voice was cracking, something close to hysteria sneaking through. "But I've never been anything but trouble to him, Amanda. I made it so hard on him so many times, just because I could, and then I do th-this?" It was getting increasingly hard to force the words out. "He's lying down there in that fucking medlab, sick and scared and--" She bit back the 'blind', honestly not sure whether Amanda knew yet. "And I don't dare go near him like this, even if he wasn't afraid of me..."
It was times like this Amanda wished she had Jamie's duplication power - right now she could do with another her to mix a batch of calming potion, since she didn't dare let go of Dom just yet. "Not just trouble, Dom," she said, remembering having this conversation with Pete on occasion. "How many times have you saved his life? An' back at the start, d'you really think he would've made it if he didn't have you around? He never told me, but 'm not stupid - straight out of Mistra, after losin' his family... he needed a reason t' keep goin' an' you an' GW gave him that." She moved from rubbing Domino's back to stroking the touselled head resting on her shoulder. "An' no, you shouldn't go an' see him, not like this, but once you get some sleep an' he's not so sick... we'll go down in the mornin', yeah?"
"I just wish..." A sob slipped out, despite her best efforts to keep it back. Amanda just held on tighter. "Guess it doesn't matter what I wish? Can't go back and not make the mistake in the first place. Can't... take back the things I did, or said..." The next sob was almost a laugh. "I feel so selfish, Amanda. I always raged at him for not taking me seriously, treating me like a kid... I pushed and I pushed. I was never satisfied, and I thought--" She cut herself off, unwilling to give voice to that. Bad enough that she had to admit to herself that there had been a part of her that had thought he would have to take her seriously, after Volgograd.
"There's no takin' back anythin' we do, Dom, but we can try an' not make the same mistakes again. When he's well enough, he's gunna need you. Be there for him - even with all this shite, you still know him better 'n most of us. You can tell when he's havin' trouble an' bein' all stoic 'bout it. You know hw t' distract him when he's bored, or mopin'. You even know how t' kick him better in the pants than the rest of us, when he needs it." Amanda knew Domino was holding something back, but that could wait. Enough that she was thinking about it, at least. "You want him t' treat you like a grown-up? Then maybe 's time you showed him you are one. Stop runnin' from him. Talk t' him when he's able, an' in the meantime, start thinkin' 'bout ways t' help him, even if it's makin' sure Moira's taken care of. Especially that."
Amanda's voice was calm, firm, and Domino managed a ghost of a smile, taking a deep, shaky breath and fighting to pull herself together at least a little. "You're right," she said very softly, her voice still hoarse. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, doing one of the breathing exercises Nathan had taught her years ago. "Past time I grew up a little, I think."
"I do that sometimes," Amanda said wryly, reaching for one of Domino's hands and squeezing it gently before letting go and reaching for the box of tissues on the bedside table. "Get things right, that is." Pulling a couple of tissues form the box, she handed them to Dom. "You look a right mess, big sis. Worse 'n me when I cry."
"I don't do it very often." Domino wiped her eyes, her hands still a little unsteady. "Last thing you want people to think of you as in my line of work is a weepy woman."
"Yeah, I imagine not." They were so alike, Amanda reflected, only Domino had never had a place like this to feel safe in, to let the defences down. Only Nathan and GW and a life of risks and danger and dodgy ethical decisions. "Well, we can't have you wanderin' the halls like that, you'll scare people. So you'll just have t' stay here a bit, yeah? Keep the invalid entertained? Least 'til I fall asleep on you again."
"I was really hoping you'd ask," Domino said with a shaky laugh. "Not quite up to wandering the halls, I don't think..."
"An' lose me favourite pillow? No way. 'M selfish that way - 's all about me, y'know," Amanda said solemnly.
"Oh, yeah," Domino said, sniffling a bit again as they settled back down, Amanda very pointedly not letting go of her. "Selfish little wretch, you are..." She didn't want to think any more, not just now. Lots of stuff that needed to be done in the morning, but for now...
"Uh-huh, that's me. Evil incarnate." Amanda shifted slightly until Domino's head was resting comfortably on her shoulder, stroking her hair gently.
Domino sighed and closed her eyes, aware of nothing but a sudden, not at all unpleasant fuzziness. "Sneaky and evil," she murmured, and drifted off to sleep.
