xp_logs | Nathan and Carlie, Friday morning

Early Friday morning, before his fitness test, Nathan meets Carlie in the kitchen. She is inquisitive about his powers, he is forthright. They talk about Columbia, and Carlie finds out the basic details of what actually happened. Then the conversation shifts to Maddie and her two blue men, and Nathan offers a suggestion that you just know is going to come back and bite someone in the ass. (Two words: Recruit Scott.)

Another nine hours or so and he'd be on Muir, Nathan consoled himself. Of course, he did have a physical, a tactical review and office hours to get through before then, but that still left him enough time to do some baking this afternoon. If he came bearing chocolate, Moira might forgive him for showing up with a cracked rib. Maybe. Nathan smiled wryly as he poured himself a cup of coffee, glad that the kitchen was quiet at this hour. He could stew in private.

Famous last words. Carlie chose that moment to walk in, intent on refuelling after an extended gossip and make-over session with Jubilee. They'd been picking out something for the Asian girl to wear to the party, and she'd surprised Carlie by having clothes that weren't actually yellow or lime-green or bright pink. Then had come the Experiments with Hair - Carlie's was still in the arrangement Jubilee had put it in, a loose knot with a few curls tumbling loose over her face. Seeing Nathan, she paused, curious. Another new person -the place was full of them. "Um, hi. Mind if I grab some food and some soda? Jubilee's conked out on me again."

Nathan blinked. Carlie, Maddie's little sister. "Help yourself," he said with a slight smile, waving a hand around at the kitchen. "Although it's a little earlier in the morning for soda, isn't it?"

"It's never too early for soda," Carlie told him with a grin. "Need my daily does of sugar, caffiene and artifical additives, don't you know?" She tilted her head at him. "I'm Carlie, but you probably knew that. And you are...?"

"Nathan," he said with a wave that might have been a half-salute, lifting his coffee mug with the other hand. "Weird languages, history, and basic cooking."

"And holder of the frequent flyers record for medlab..." Carlie added with a grin, grabbing a soda from the fridge along with toast fixings. She'd gotten to know the kitchen pretty well during her stay. "But that was a bit rude, wasn't it? I'm sorry - too early in the morning and I don't tend to engage my tact function until I've had my first soda."

"I was an accident-prone child," Nathan said dryly. "I never quite grew out of it." So Madelyn had been telling tales, had she? Well... no. Probably Jubilee. "But I'll forgive you. I'm rarely sane until I've had my first cup of coffee anyway," he confessed, going over and sitting down on one of the stools.

"From the way Jubes tells it, I was expecting you to have exploded at least once while I was here. I'm very disappointed in you," she teased, although she noticed the slightly stiff way he was moving, and the relief on his face as he sat down. Broken rib, her mind supplied helpfully, from the first aid classes Madelyn had insisted she take all through school. "Lets see... toaster, toaster, if I was a toaster, where would I hide...?"

Loud Maddie's-little-sister, Nathan reflected ruefully, reinforcing his shields a little as he waved his free hand at where the toaster sat along with the blender and the food processor under tasteful little covers that matched the color of the walls. The cover on the toaster whisked itself off.

Carlie squeaked a little, and realised that yes, there were other mutations than the obvious visible ones. "Oh wow," she said. "Was that you? Are you... what to they call it.. telekinetic?"

"Telekinetic, telepathic, and precognitive, actually," Nathan said briskly, to head off any misunderstandings at the pass.

Eyes growing round, Carlie just _stared_. And then blushed. "Oh God, you probably heard what I was thinking when I came in, right? I didn't mean to think you were kind of hunky... well, I _did_, but I didn't mean it like that, only I sort of did and I think I'm just going to shut up now..." Ears crimson, she turned her attention to toast. Nice, safe toast. Not at all embarrassing toast, definitely not sexy, not unless the condiments got involved, oh God she was doing it again...

"Not to worry," Nathan said amiably. "Telepaths have to keep up a certain level of mental shielding in order to... well, not go crazy. Think of it as just a lot of noise, all the time. We don't make a habit of listening that carefully to everyone around us." Of course, he had heard Carlie admiring him, quite easily, but the lie was a small enough price to pay to put her a little more at ease.

"Oh good. 'Cause Mad would _kill_ me. And I didn't mean any offence, really I didn't." Deciding a change in the subject was in order - as much as she was dying to ask more about his powers, especially the pre-cog - she went on. "Weird languages, hey? How many and how weird?"

"Well," Nathan said, hearing the curious thoughts, "I taught Mandarin and Arabic this summer. Mandarin and Hindi this fall. Just Hindi this term." He smiled a little, deliberately giving her an opening as he went on. "Languages are easier for telepaths. I speak thirteen fluently."

"Thirteen? Geez, I thought learning French was bad enough in high school..." She flicked back a curl in her eye with a practiced jerk of her head, and continued with the important job of making toast. "How does the telepathy help with that? You just sort of absorb language out of people's brains?"

"Not quite. It's more... you have a more instinctive grasp of how language works." Nathan shrugged, smiling. "I'll admit you do learn languages faster because of the telepathy. It's kind of a cheat."

"Man, I wish I had that sort of cheat... It would make learning stuff so much easier... You have an extra-good memory as well with it, don't you? I remember reading an article in one of Mad's medical journals about telepathy."

It was amazing, Nathan reflected. Absolutely no fear, as far as he could tell. "A photographic memory, yeah," Nathan said, the smile lingering, turning a bit quizzical. "If you don't mind me saying, Carlie, you're reacting to sitting in a room with a telepath better than some mutants do."

"Why shouldn't I?" she asked, spreading butter on her toast as it popped up. "You've already told me you're shielding so you don't pick up what I'm thinking, and you're a teacher here, so I believe you. And Mad's mentioned you - you're engaged to Doc Moira, right? She trusts, you, thinks you're a friend, and she's a good judge of character. All that counts to me more than what your power might be able to do. Sure, you could probably stripmine my head for every thought I ever had, and bounce me around like a basketball, but just because you _can_ doesn't mean you _will_." She looked up at him and grinned. "As much as I get all excited about people's powers, you're not just them. Mad thinks you're good people, and I trust her. Therefore I trust you, at least until you give me reason otherwise."

"Mmm. Very objective of you," Nathan said dryly, sipping at his coffee. "I'm used to being looked at sideways... although, admittedly, that's not just because of the telepathy."

"People need to be objective - it'd mean less jumping to stupid conclusions." Toast smothered with jelly, Carlie sat herself down opposite Nate at the counter. "So, it took me a little while to get it, but I do now. The fifty-one thing, I mean. And for you to say that means there's more going on there than I know, since why else would you count the people who did it?" she asked, apparently out of the blue. "And because I'm all objective, I'm not jumping to conclusions. Can I ask you what I'm missing? Because I think it'd be important, to understand what happened."

Nathan's eyes widened a little. So that was what an intuitive leap felt like from the telepathic standpoint, he thought, a little taken aback. The loud little sister was distressing like the overly-perceptive big sister. Imagine that.

"The people who did it..." Nathan heard himself say, and stopped, blinking at her a little warily. "If I give you the basics," he said, "will you take them and not press me for more details?"

Carlie gave him a long, considering look. She'd have to have been blind not to notice Nathan's... upset around the day of the memorial, and students talked. "Okay," she said at last. "Mad has stuff like that she can't talk about, with the medicine and the FBI, and I know not to push when it's top secret stuff."

"I was there, too." The basics only. Madelyn would have his head if she caught him telling her little sister all about Mistra. "The people who did it, the ones that died... they were mutants, yes, but they weren't acting of their own free will. Not entirely," Nathan said quietly, thinking about Amanda's words about the pyrokinetic.

"Who...?" Carlie caught herself and bit down the obvious question. "Like Kurt at the White House?" she asked instead. When he looked surprised, she shrugged. "There's footage from the security cameras on the Internet, and when Mad started working here, that was one of the things she asked about, seeing how she'd been involved in that investigation a bit. Not a lot," she amended. "And she didn't tell me secrets, just that the mutant who attacked the President hadn't been acting of his own free will. Some sort of brain washing."

"It's... something similar," Nathan said quietly. "But these mutants... it happened when they were kids, mostly. Or a little younger than you, at most."

"Kids? But who... why...?" Carlie struggled not to burst out in full indignant fury, even though the idea of brainwashing _kids_ made her feel somehow ill. "Because they were mutants, wasn't it?" she asked at last. "Because they were useful that way?"

Nathan nodded, then shrugged to himself. Everyone at the mansion knew; Carlie probably would even if she didn't tell him. "Pretty much. I was fourteen when it happened to me."

"You? Oh, God, how awful..." Carlie looked at him with eyes full of compassion, toast and politics forgotten. "But you're not... you got away, right? You're not brainwashed any more?"

"My mind is my own, yes," Nathan said with a smile. "Thanks mostly to the people here."

"Well, that's good..." Carlie picked up her soda, rolling the can between her hands as she thought, rather than drinking it, mind racing. Like her sister, she had a well-defined intuitive sense, and was good at making connections. "So... you were there, and not brainwashed, and they were there and were..." She shied away from the obvious connection, knowing it would be way too confronting for him. Besides, it wasn't like he'd _asked_ them to try and get him back. "It must have been awful, seeing the coverage being replayed this week, hearing people talk about evil mutants."

Nathan swallowed. "It wasn't... enjoyable, no," he said, managing the understatement with only the faintest edge of bitterness. "But you know, this isn't something that the general public can know about. It's important..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "It's difficult. The whole situation."

With a sigh, she nodded. "That stuff you can't tell me, I get it," she said, although the budding journalist in her was screaming that there was a Story here. A big one. Perhaps she wasn't quite ruthless enough for that particular job yet... She sighed again. "That bites. Not being able to tell the truth."

"You have no idea," Nathan said with a sigh, then shook his head again, sipping at his coffee. "That's why the post," he said softly. Wondering if Carlie would realize who had been responsible for most of those other five deaths.

"You didn't want them forgotten, or swept under the rug labelled 'anonymous mutant terrorist'..." Carlie said softly, not agreeing entirely - she'd seen the footage, the pure glee on the faces of a couple of them. But she did understand. "Why do people do such crappy things?"

"It's very easy, actually," Nathan said with a faint, wry smile. "It only takes seeing mutants as something other than human. Something less."

Carlie nodded. "Yeah, I get that. It's just... it's a long way from Nazi Germany, y'know? I'd like to think we'd progressed past that point, but as life keeps reminding me, no, we haven't. People are still bastards." She put down the soda and picked up a slice of toast, nibbling at the corner without much appetite. "Even the little stuff, like the fire at the coffee shop the other night, the police and fire department reacting so slow... Dents the idealism, y'know? Still, can't let the fact there are bigots out there stop us, otherwise the bigots win, guaranteed. At least by fighting them there's a chance we'll win. None if we don't do anything at all."

"Different sorts of battles," Nathan murmured, then shook his head at the quizzical look Carlie gave him. "Don't mind me. I have a very bad habit of talking to myself." His lips twitched helplessly as he reminded himself that no, telling the nice girl about who he was really talking to when he talked to himself was not on. The Askani chortled merrily in the back of his mind. "You're very enthusiastic," he said, and then raised a hand. "I didn't mean that in any sort of derogatory way. Just making an observation."

She giggled a bit at that. "That's one way of putting it," she said, with shades of Madelyn's dry sense of humour. "My family... well, you know Mad, right? All about the helping and the making a difference? It's something we all do, or try to, in our own way. It's not just a God thing, even though we're all Catholics to some degree, something we got from Dad, and I guess he got it from Grandpa. Grandpa always used to say it wasn't who or what we were that was important to the world, but what we contributed." She shrugged a little. "I'm not a doctor like Mad, and charity work isn't my thing like it is Joe's, but I can talk. And I can write. And be enthusastic." With another grin, she added. "And either drive people crazy with it, or make 'em at least think about it."

"It's a good talent to have," Nathan said, more firmly, and meant it. "Your sister's been known to make me stop and think things through a little more carefully, actually. I mean, it usually has to do with me fleeing the medlab..."

"You ran away from the medlab? When Mad was in charge of you?" Carlie gave him a pitying look. "You silly, silly man. How badly did she tear strips of you? It'd have to be worse than the time I spilt soda on her FBI application by accident."

"Hey, I ran away from the medlab repeatedly, thank you very much." He stopped, pondering. "Twice, at least. Then Hank started stealing my pants."

"And you lived to tell the tale? She must be going soft..." Carlie snickered at the last. "That is such a totally Hank thing to do. I've been visiting him when I'm bored - not that I've been bored that much - when Mad and Jubes and everyone else is in class. He's nice. Totally has a thing for Mad, but then again, so does Kurt. Must be a blue guy thing," she said almost off-handedly. "I don't know who to root for, actually. I mean, they're both nice, but they're all totally clueless. And Kurt's sweet, but he needs to push himself forward more, y'know? Otherwise Mad will walk all over him. But she doesn't take Hank seriously because he's always flirting and she thinks it's all a big joke."

"The three of them are getting on my nerves, actually," Nathan said. "I'm tempted to start matchmaking and see what happens. Aren't the happily engaged supposed to do things like that, after all?"

"Oh, totally. Same as nosy little sisters." A cunning look entered Carlie's eyes. "You think we could join forces? See if we can't get something happening? Me with my insider knowledge of Mad and her habits, and you with the whole sneaky thing? Since this has to be sneaky - Mad _hates_ it when people matchmake. Says it's interfering in not just her life, but the other person's. Like it's such a horrible thing to date her." She rolled her eyes in disgust. "She wasn't like that in high school. All that dedication to work has made her brain go funny - she doesn't see what a catch she is."

"Actually, do you know who you should talk to?" Nathan said with a sudden chuckle. "Have you met Scott yet?"

"No, not yet... The teacher with the turtle? Mad likes him - I get the impression they're buddies..." Carlie grinned. "You think he'd help?"

Nathan grinned. "He would, I think. He and your sister are good friends - she helped him through a pretty rough time this fall." He snorted. "I suspect he's seen the problem, too. And he's quite the strategist."

"Ooh, I want to meet this guy," Carlie said, with a small bounce. Solving Mad's singleness would be her Project, she decided. An entirely worthwhile cause, since a happy doctor type meant less tranqing people and grouchiness. "So, which one do you think? Is best for her? I'm still getting to know them, so I'm not sure. I like both of them."

"That's part of the problem," Nathan said with a rueful look. "You're not dealing with a cad and an angel, here. They're both very good men."

"I know. And there's no chance of _Mad_ making a decision, at least not until it's dropped in her lap..." Carlie wound a loose curl around her finger, thinking the problem over. "I'd say just lock the three of them in a room and let them figure it out, even if it results in happy threesome fun, only Mom would have a pink fit."

Nathan managed not to choke on his coffee. "I somehow don't think any of them are cut out for happy threesome fun," he said, his voice only a little wobbly. "As elegant a solution as it would be."

"No, you're right..." Carlie sighed a little. "Oh well, back to the actual choosing then. Or at least making Mad aware she _has_ a choice."

"The key would be to light a fire under Kurt and Hank," Nathan said, "make them get a little more serious. Your sister's a smart woman. If the fact that they're serious is right out there, she's not going to miss it."

"Hmm, you're right..." Carlie frowned. "I'm pretty sure they are... well, Hank's hard to tell, but he does like her, I know that much. And Kurt blushes when he says her name, tho' it's hard to tell with the blue skin."

"They are," Nathan said, then smiled as she looked at him. "Telepath, remember?" he asked, tapping his temple. "I may not go digging, but I do pick up interesting things from time to time."

"Oooh, now _that's_ good cheating!" Carlie exclaimed, beaming.