Log [Alison, Mick] It's been awhile...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Friday, early afternoon. Mick and Anika arrive at the mansion, and after visiting Morgan, Mick then decides to go find Alison, who for the first time since Tuesday is on the hunt for food. They talk about what happened and generally agree it's good to see each other.



She wasn't exactly sneaking her way to the kitchen, or so she told herself. But being in the medlab an entire day and a fair part of the evening had been one thing, even with food ferried down by Miles or others and the next day had been about writing her personal report which hadn't been a fun thing at all to do and was still unfiled as of yet - she hadn't been hungry, really. Whatever she'd eaten during that time she could barely remember what it had been. And most of the kids were in classes now which meant the kitchen would be empty and well - hunger had finally resurfaced that morning, dodging her until she gave in and headed foodwards.

Turning the corner, Mick stopped, blinking at the sight of the very person he'd been looking forward. Alison was walking down the hall towards him, her eyes on the floor, and he smiled, then cleared his throat deliberately.

The sound didn't startle her, though she certainly did stop to look up a bit quickly. And then stared for a moment, clearly entirely surprised at seeing him there. Blinking, she opened her mouth to say something and then just closed it again - being surprised was stupid, of course Mick would have come over as soon aas he'd heard. And of course someone had told him. "Hey..." A smile of response followed that, Alison clearly happy to see him, once everything had been processed.

Mick crossed the distance between them, moving a bit tentatively, but smiling. "Hey," he said. "You're okay? Heard you were out there on Tuesday." The stutter was nowhere in evidence.

"I was." She hugged herself carefully, the smile staying there, falling into something more natural and warm. "I sort of laid dibs on the Mistra stuff, team wise, a while ago." She couldn't recall if she'd told him that before, but Alison figured it made sense - it explained why she'd been there in the first place, after all. "You sound like you're doing well. The island do you good?"

"It did. Funny - if we'd stayed a little longer, we could have just hung around longer with David and the others. They've been there for a while, helping with the security system and Moira's uncle's pub... cleaning up after what happened at New Year's and all." Mick came to a stop a couple of steps away, peering at her very intently. She looked okay, even if she hadn't quite answered his question. "Madelyn emailed me Tuesday night. Told me about Tim. Ani and I got on a plane as soon as we could."

"I should have thought about that," she murmured. Tuesday night was still a blur though, after a certain point. "There was just a lot going on when we got back. I'm sorry." Writing up her report and generally hiding out in the medlab had taken most of her time, the day after, as well. "I'm glad you're here. Have you had the chance to see Tim yet?" Her stomach chose that moment to remind her of the quest for food, and Alison smiled a little sheepishly. "I was heading for the kitchen. Rediscovered the meaning of hunger this morning. Mind walking over there with me?"

Mick fell in beside her, nodding. "Was down there for a while when I first got here. He drifted off again, though, so I figured I'd come find you." He took a deep, slightly shaky breath. "He's in better shape than I expected."

"I know." There was still that edge of surprise around that realization, though there was relief as well. "Has to do with how the conditioning was, well, wiped out really. All gone, all at once. Nothing leftover to clean up." Alison gave him a sideways look, before entering the kitchen. "The Trojan Horse worked."

"And didn't kill Nate. Always a plus." Mick grinned suddenly. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little... excited, still? I still can't quite believe it." Tim here, his conditioning gone... "Ani kept pinching me on the plane over."

Alison leaned on the counter, pondering toast as a simple and quick alternative - and smiled at him suddenly, shaking her head. "Don't apologize. I never expected we'd be bringing him back so soon, myself. I'm delighted about that." And she was, without reserve. Even though the small voice in the back of her head kept telling her that it had been an ideal moment to nab the others too.

Mick gazed at her for a long moment, his expression turning serious. "Tim told me about the rest of the team. I can't believe they sent out that many first-gens together - they must have thought they had a real chance to get rid of MacInnis."

"We could have nabbed them all," Alison couldn't help it, the words escaping her in a small voice. Her shoulders slumped and she looked down, shaking her head. "Just - figuring out it was the Trojan Horse that much faster, pushing just a little bit more..." There had been medical emergencies and having to regroup the team but if she'd just stopped to think about, even just taking back one more with them...

Mick opened his mouth, but then closed it again, starting to understand. He thought for a moment, organizing what he was going to say before he spoke. One of the ways to avoid the stutter, he'd discovered. "If their conditioning is cracked," he said slowly, having spoken to Nathan about this already, "they'll hide it. Or do their best to hide it. That's what you do."

"Shouldn't have to," she murmured, stopping before she went on, running a hand through her hair briefly. "I know." Alison offered him a small smile, taking a slow breath to collect her wits. And forcefully bit down on the 'but' that followed on the heels of that. "And we can go back for them anyway. One at a time, do it with a plan. Or try to. Already suggested it in my report."

"They might run. Depending on what's going on in their heads," Mick said, his expression going distant, troubled as he thought back to his own attempt to flee. "Maybe some of them even did it already... do we know?"

"No." There was a world of unhappiness in that one word. "MacInnis is looking into it. We will too. Both with our own resources and whatever contacts we have." The hunger had been forgotten by now. "Trying to move as fast as possible, but we can't just jump out there and hope either. If they ran and managed to keep under Mistra's radar, flushing them out to be caught again would be bad." Alison smiled wanly, wishing there was something concrete, to know or do.

He reached out and laid a hand on her arm, surprising himself by the physical contact. "You did what you could," Mick said quietly. "Don't get caught up in the what-ifs. There's always more you can do. If you get too fixated on that, eventually you won't be able to live with yourself."

A self-deprecating smile greeted that, though Alison was nodding without even the hint of an argument against what he'd just said. "Yeah. I used to beat Scott around the head with that one, and look at me doing it now. It's always easier to give people advice than to follow it, isn't it?" She rested her hand over his and patted it gently. "I'm working it out in my head. Working on the retrieval alternatives helped a little, too."

"I looked in on those kids, too," Mick said, and smiled hopefully. "They seem to be dealing with things pretty well, most of them."

"Yeah. I got two visitors at one point on Wednesday. Already exploring - kids are resilient," she noted softly. She shook her head just a bit though, not letting herself shift towards darker thoughts. "So, how long are you guys here?" Pushing away from the counter, she finally remembered why they were in the kitchen and pausing in front of the fridge, she considered her options.

"Not absolutely sure," Mick confessed, then shrugged a little. "I'm not sure what Tim's plans are, once he's back on his feet. I'm hoping it's back to Berlin with us. Seems like the safest idea..."

Somehow, Alison didn't think Tim would be going for that. It was just a thought though and she kept it to herself, opening the fridge and wrinkling a bit at the sticky note to her attention there. With a wry grin she held it over her shoulder for Mick to read, even as she obediently reached for the containers of food that had been set aside for her. Soup, something else to warm up (in the oven of course, heaven forbid anything Lorna made ever be nuked in the microwave) and a desert, in another container. "If you stay long enough, bet you Lorna decides to make a daily menu for you too."

"I remember Lorna's cooking," Mick said with a quick smile. "So does Ani. She was more appreciative, I think - heightened sense of taste along with everything else." He flushed, suddenly, but the look in his eyes was close to outright happiness. "She and I... well, um..."

A blink answered that, followed near instantly by a delighted smile,  Alison forgetting all about the fridge as the door closed with a thump behind her. "That's wonderful!" The containers were abandoned on the counter and the hug, though impulsive, was still tempered just enough to give him some warning and not startle him silly.

"Kind of took me by surprise," Mick said, hugging her back tentatively. "Not her, of course. Ani's always been insufferable like that." He was grinning, though, as Alison drew back. "She's down sitting with Tim, still. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw her."

Sure, the bruises were still there and somewhat sore, but they were only that and Alison didn't care much at that point. Hearing that had quite simply made her happy. And then the reminder that everyone else had thought Anika was dead... "Well. He's in the right place to have a heart attack at least," she winked. snickering a bit.

"He sputtered at Nate. For about five minutes straight. Next thing I know, the two of them are just laughing hysterically." And Ani had stood there looking like the cat that just ate the canary. He loved that little smirk. "Moira came in and thought the two of them had gone insane."

A shake of the head and Alison gave him a wry look at that. "Well, considering how often Nathan's done the head boom thing since he got here, I can't blame her." She finally got serious about the orders on the post-it, starting to reheat the food Lorna had prepared. "Hrm. Here I am getting ready to stuff my face and gee, d'you want anything too?" Manners, however belated, were finally surfacing it seemed, though Alison was feeling a bit sheepish about it.

Mick shook his head. "No thanks," he said. "Too keyed up to eat." He settled on one of the stools, still watching her. "It's so strange to watch them together again... Tim and Nate, I mean. They always did spend a lot of time with each other, because Tim was being groomed for command. They never went out on a mission together, though, not once. The directors weren't about to risk both of them at the same time."

"Mmm." Alison nodded at that, thinking it over as she finished setting everything into place for heating. That done, she turned back to face him, leaning on the counter. "I haven't seen them interact yet," she admitted, smiling faintly. "Checked in on both each day, but somehow I've always managed to catch them on their own. Not exactly the same back history though."

"They're not the same people they were back then," Mick said quietly. "Neither of them. I think it might take them a while to really process that." If Tim allowed himself the time. Mick had talked to him for all of an hour and was already starting to worry about that.

"You and Nathan still have things to work through," she pointed out gently, noticing the worry. The soup was heating slowly but steadily and smelled downright heavenly. "I imagine Tim will have to do so in his own way as well. He's not alone."

"He's always had to be so... hard, though. Uncompromising. If he'd blinked for an instant, back at Mistra, one or half a dozen of the second-gens would have been on him immediately." Mick smiled a bit faintly. "The problem with an artifically-created pack structure is the dominance issue."

"And even with the conditioning wiped out old habits and ways of life don't exactly hop out the window without a moment's notice," she finished for him. The defiance Alison had seen when going in to see him said a lot for his state of mind, she decided. "The choices he makes now, Mick, will be all his. Dominance issues or not," she added, lips quirking.

"That's what's important, I guess," Mick said, then smiled again, another purely happy smile. "Would it be too off-putting if I went and thanked the others who were out there on Tuesday? Could you tell me who was?"

The soup was near ready and though the rest wasn't - typical Lorna to arrange things so they'd turn out that way. Pulling the pot off the oven, sighed, just a bit. Seeing Mick like that was cheering her up - not dispelling everything entirely, but giving her the chance to set
some aside at least. "I don't think it would be at all," Alison murmured. She listed out those who had helped for him, including where some might be found so that he'd not wander about the mansion forever.

"Thanks," Mick said cheerfully, but didn't get down off the stool just yet. "You look really good," he said, the smile turning into a grin. "It's good to see you looking this well."

Alison blinked at that, though she wasn't about to contest any statement to that effect from anyone at all, really. "Darn right I do!" And then, she realized. Considering the condition she'd been since he'd last seen her - no wonder he was saying that. "And tomorrow is shopping day. And hair cut day," she grinned a bit evilly.

"A little well-deserved R&R, I'd say."