Log [Alison, Domino] Knowing is half the battles...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Early Saturday morning. Domino knocks on Alison's door to let her know how things went with Nathan. Alison is relieved. The conversation is much less heated than their last.



Chewing on her lower lip, Domino stopped in front of the door she had been told belonged to Blaire--Alison, she corrected herself. Last names were so confrontational. Hence why she didn't use one. She raised a hand and knocked firmly, telling herself that she needed to do this. It wouldn't be fair to leave the woman hanging, especially when everything had turned out so comparatively well.

It didn't take that long before the door opened, Alison looking rather tired as she opened the door - literally leaning on the doorframe to prop herself up as she slowly worked through the sleepy fog that was her brain. She was still wearing the cotton tights and the camisole she'd crashed in earlier, the scar on her arm visible if you took the time to look for it. "Domino." Yes, there was someone home. Of sorts. And then Alison blinked, apparently regaining some sort of awareness fast. "Oh. You... look better."

Domino blinked right back at her, realizing. "I woke you up," she said with some chagrin. "I'm sorry... I didn't realize..." She closed her mouth firmly and looked down at her watch. Yeah. Rather earlier than she'd really realized. Flushing, she looked back up at Alison. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I can come back."

"S'okay." The woman was actually stammering. And flustered. Well - she had cause, all things considered. Alison wasn't feeling all that high and mighty herself right now. "I keep falling asleep all over the place, since I - got better." Carefully editing out 'blowing up Cain and ending up healed' was a good idea, she figured. "You could swing by at any time and I might be awake, or not. There's nothing regular about my sleep schedule yet." Hrm. Rambling. Oh well, it was better than stammering, at that. "How did the talk with - gah. Come in." She wasn't sure about inviting Domino in her brand new room, but at the same time, talking in the hallway was ridiculous. "We can talk. Yes?"

"Talking is good. Much better than hitting. Usually." Domino followed her in, then paused, chewing on her lower lip for a moment as Alison closed the door behind them. "Look, I... before we talk about you-know-what, I should... I don't know, apologize for being such a bitch yesterday?" She could feel more color rushing to her cheeks, and damned her overly pale complexion. "I have trouble with other women. Especially other women who are confident."

Her mind really had to stop stumbling to a stop like that each time Domino said something. Contradicting her about the confident bit would be rude, after all. "I didn't cut you much slack." Which was pure fact really - Alison had been out to push some buttons there, and then some. "Apology accepted. Not sure how to word what I'm feeling about the whole thing right now, except that I could have handled it better."

"No..." Domino said a bit vaguely. "I think you handled it just about how it needed to be handled. Things would've kept right on going the way they were if you hadn't." She folded her arms across her chest, then thought better of it - awfully confrontational posture - and lowered them back to her sides. "I told him," she said unnecessarily. Alison had obviously guessed that already, after all. "I think he was relieved."

And however she'd told him had been the right way - the only way really, since it could only have worked coming from Domino herself. Shoulders slumping, Alison closed her eyes and sighed in relief. "Ooh. Oh, that's good to hear." Another deep breath and she smiled, tiredly perhaps but genuinely as well. "Thank you for letting me know."

"Uh... you're welcome," Domino murmured a bit uneasily. "I... think it scared him at first. When I told him what he'd said." She took a deep, somewhat shaky breath. "I thought by now, he wouldn't be so afraid of looking vulnerable, at least with me... I suppose given what happened, that's a pretty stupid thing to think. But he never told me. Not even before that..."

Ah. Well, this at least she could at least set clear. A little. "I found out by accident, Domino. Purely by accident. His telepathy was slipping at the time and I happened to get drawn into one of his dreams. Well. Nightmare is more like it." She sighed a bit and headed for the basket chair in the corner, not quite flopping on it but certainly doing a good curling up attempt, even as she gestured for Domino to have a seat as well.

"He told me a little more about it." Domino sat down on the edge of the couch, still a bit stiff in Alison's presence. "Actually, quite a bit. I never imagined..." She smiled a bit tightly. "I suppose like most people who had crappy childhoods, part of me always assumed I had it worst than anyone else I knew."

"Everyone has something they need to deal with, in their own ways." It was a blanket statement, really, but true nonetheless and about as far as Alison was willing to go in a sense. And she was not taking potshots at anyone or anything right now. She so wasn't.

"Knowing clears up a few things," Domino said very quietly, her gaze flickering around the room. "How he always reacted to kids, whenever we ran into any on a job... and I could never figure out why the cold made him so twitchy. Never made any sense to me, after he told me he'd grown up in Alaska."

"Well, assuming people are a certain way just because of how they grew up isn't always the best thing to do." Shaking her head, Alison sunk deeper in the chair, still sore from the previous day's training - and there was more to come today as well. The warm-up would have to be longer. "I think part of it is Nathan actively not wanting to think about it, or remember at all. When you don't ever talk about something, you can pretend it was never really there. And then there's the whole 'I don't deserve sympathy' crap he's got going now and then." Dark thoughts were spared on Mistra's behalf, there.

"He told me a lot, like I said." Domino stared down at the floor. "Even how he left... did he ever tell you?"

"No, he didn't." Alison suspected there were things Nathan would never  tell her - and knew only too well why, although some of those she had no intention of sharing with Domino, even now. Bosom buddies they weren't. "Wouldn't be surprised if there are some things he never really tells me, either. For a lot of reasons, but also because of Miles."

Miles... oh. That made sense. Domino nodded slowly. "So I'm going to see Jack again on Monday," she said, a bit uncomfortably. "And again in a couple of days if we're still here... depends on when Nate and Moira leave for Muir. When I go, he's given me the name of a colleague in Berlin." Domino looked up at Alison a little defensively. "He made me promise I'd stick to it."

"Good." Threatening to hunt Domino down and make her stick to it would be silly in a manly testosterone chest thumping sort of way. Besides - Alison didn't need to get all obvious about it. Domino seemed to know already. And Alison wasn't looking smug or superior at all, but there was a definite 'that is how things are' air about her that she didn't have the slightest clue she was exuding.

"Well, I guess that's it," Domino said a bit uneasily, getting up. "Just wanted to let you know. I think he's more okay with it, knowing what happened, and that's what's important..." She trailed off uncertainly, offering a very faint smile.

Alison merely nodded at Domino's words and then reminded herself that smiling just a bit wouldn't hurt anyone. "Thank you for letting me know. It's good that he's getting the chance to resolve this." You as well, though she didn't say that part out loud. "Have a good day, Domino."