xp_logs | Log: Feeding Nathan (Reply)

Dani does her best Jewish Bubbe impression (okay not really) and brings Nathan lunch, proving that there is in fact a conspiracy to get him to eat properly. They end up discussing her powers.

Checking over the tray one more time to make sure everything was balanced, Danielle knocked on Mr. Dayspring's door. Roast beef and cheese sandwich, fruit salad with yogurt dressing, water with lemon and a brownie in her chef-jacket pocket. He didn't get the brownie until he ate everything else.

Nathan, poring over a geography quiz, was deep enough into it that he didn't sense Dani outside the door until she knocked. "Come in," he called, looking up. This wasn't actually office hour, he mused, curious now. Her reason for being here became perfectly obviously as soon as she opened the door, though, and he half-rose, surprised.

Nodding at him, eyes firmly on his desk, she put the tray down carefully, "Dr. McCoy says you need to eat."

Nathan frowned a bit. Oh, so Hank wasn't just satisfied with nagging him about his dietary deficiencies, he was actually attempting to rectify them? And recruiting a henchwoman he wouldn't be able to growl at, to be. Sneaky pants-stealing blue person... "Thank you, Danielle," he said with a slight smile. "This is very kind of you."

"You get a surprise for eating everything," she sat down in one of his office chairs, making herself comfortable. "But I guess you know that."

Nathan blinked. "Wouldn't be much of a surprise if I did," he said with a chuckle.

"You're a telepath, so don't you know?" she asked, curious. She could guess things like that, based on peoples emotions, but she wasn't very good at it yet. She tended to mis-read emotions.

"Telepaths don't generally know everything everyone around them is thinking," Nathan told her. "It's a lot of noise. That's why we shield, to keep the worst of it out." He smiled. "My shields have been a little shaky lately, since my telepathy got stronger, but they're improving."

"Your meditation kinda works, if I notice I'm losing control early enough," she informed him, watching him eat, "Eat your salad, too."

"Kinda works?" he asked, obediently turning his attention to the fruit salad. As unsuccessful as his attempt at breakfast had been, he didn't have much more appetite this evening. Bad week for eating all around. But Danielle was watching him like a hawk and he didn't really feel like getting into an argument. "There are some other methods we could try that might work better. If you had some free time."

"I don't usually notice the lack of control until it's too late," she replied, pleased that he was eating, "but it's getting a little better. Manuel helps too. Gives me a stable person to focus on."

Nathan opened his mouth, fork with a bit of fruit salad freezing halfway there. "He's... uh, what?"

"What?" she asked, confused. "Helping?"

Nathan set the fork back down. "How is he helping?" he asked, careful to keep his voice light, his shields up, and his emotions carefully coiled into the spiral-defense Askani had taught him to keep an empath from accessing them.

Dani looked at him strangely, feeling a difference in him, but not knowing what it was. He had gone from whatever he had passing for normal and then shut down, "He lets me focus on him," she replied cautiously, "If the emotions around me are too much, focusing on one person is better than everything at once. And he understands...what it's like to not be in control and need that focus. He thinks about weird music."

Nathan reminded himself that Manuel's memory was still very much patchy. That he was probably genuinely trying to do what he could to help Dani. Unfortunately, although those two facts counted for a lot, they didn't change the fact that this sounded very much like what had gotten Manuel in so much trouble in the first place. He set his fork down. "I don't know that it's such a good idea for you to be doing that," he said quietly.

Raising and eyebrow, she looked at him curiously, "It's worked so far," she said, "I go to sleep."

er power wasn't the same as Manuel's, Nathan reminded himself. But still, his gut told him that this wasn't a good idea. "You remember what I just said about how telepaths have to shield?" he asked. She nodded. "If we don't, it's like... hundreds of people, screaming in our ears, all the time. It's impossible to think... to have your own thoughts. So we have to keep the thoughts of others out."

"Right..." she nodded again, following, she had almost no shields, despite trying to make them. "But his weird music is better than everyone elses thoughts."

"And if you focus in on someone else's thoughts, or emotions, without shielding, the line between them and you gets blurred," Nathan said softly. "Maybe it works now. Maybe it'll keep working for a while. But what happens when you can't tell the difference between him and you?"

Danielle looked at him, shocked. She hadn't even known that could happen, although it made sense. She'd never worried about losing herself in other people before, she'd been able to shield herself enough, but now she tried and tried and nothing seemed to work. "I...don't know," she finally admitted. "But I can't stay on this rollercoaster either."

"No," Nathan agreed, his voice low. "You can't. But Manuel's way is not the way. It's a bad habit that got him into all kinds of difficulty with his power."

"Oh," Danielle looked down, not willing to meet Mr. Dayspring's eyes, it had worked well the one time they had attempted it, she thought. She was almost back to where she started. It didn't seem right, even if she was doing slightly better.

Manuel's and Danielle's powers weren't the same, though, Nathan thought, troubled. Maybe that meant he was being overly worried, but it also meant that the effects on her weren't predictable. And her baby needed to be considered, as well. Psi tended to breed true; if the baby had a nascent psionic mutation of any kind, what might happen if something went wrong with Manuel's attempts to help Dani?

"I don't know what to tell you," he said with a sigh. "I'd like to tell you not to do it anymore, but I'm not your teacher, and I understand that if it seems to help it might not be something that you want to stop. Will you let me talk to the Professor about this?"

"Of course," Dani agreed, Mr. Dayspring was a teacher and Professor Xavier was the head of the school, both knew more about this than she did. "We only did it once, though. I don't want to use him or anything else to control my powers, I just don't think I have that many options."

"I know. But it is a crutch, in the end. Learning to shield properly..." Nathan winced, shaking his head. Surely she wasn't as badly off as Manuel had been on that score. She had managed for so long, after all. "Let me talk to Charles."

Fishing around in a pocket she pulled out a brownie wrapped in plastic. Placing it on the desk, she began clearing the used plates and utensils. "You ate."

Nathan blinked, and smiled suddenly. "I did. That was the surprise, huh?"

"That you ate," Dani agreed."I wasn't sure you would, even with chocolate incentive. But this is a normal brownie, no bad precog whatsis or anything in this."

"I'll hold to you that," Nathan teased gently.

Smiling, she picked the tray up and headed towards the door, "I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Dayspring."

"Tomorrow? Nathan shook his head. "Yep," he murmured as she went out. "Definitely a conspiracy."