xp_logs | Kurt and Nathan, Tuesday night

Kurt stops in to visit Nathan. He winds up telling him about Radonic; Nathan isn't particularly helpful, although he does give Kurt one good piece of advice.

Kurt noticed as soon as he walked into the medlab that Nathan at least
appeared to be sleeping. Not wanting to wake him - the man needed his
rest, after all - he settled carefully into a chair and waited.

Nathan was dreaming about New Mexico. New Mexico, and the impromptu
party the other operatives had thrown after his and Aliya's marriage.
His team was there, his team and Mick and Tim, and even Anika, sixteen
years old and just out of training. They knew that they were being
watched, of course, but no orders came down from on high to break
things up. And for a while, they were just family, celebrating, and...

He was being watched. Nathan opened his eyes, blinking in an attempt
to clear them. "Kurt?" he rasped, his foggy mind trying to analyze the
presence beside the bed, since whoever it was was sitting out of his
peripheral vision. Definitely Kurt, though.

Kurt nodded, moving so that Nathan could see him. "Yes. How do you
feel today?"

What was today? Nathan wondered dimly. The last thing he remembered
clearly was talking to Alison, and he wasn't sure when that had
been... "Hurts," he muttered without really thinking about it. It was
just that 'I'm fine' was so much more mockable than usual at the
moment.

That brought a faint wry smile. "Yes, that was a stupid question. I
apologise. Is there anything I can bring for you?"

'A new spine' was probably asking too much. "Water... should be a
glass over there..." Kurt got up and got the glass, holding it so that
he could take a sip through the straw. It helped his voice, a little.
"You okay?" Nathan murmured as Kurt settled back down into the chair.

"I was not badly hurt", Kurt answered honestly if not a little
evasively. "And the bruises are already beginning to fade."

"That's good..." The morphine button was right there. Very tempting.
His fingers brushed across it, but didn't push it.

Kurt noticed, and asked quietly, "How long since you last had a dose?"

"Don't remember... it doesn't help much anyway. Hate not being able to
think," Nathan muttered, and could have hit himself for the petulant
edge to his voice. If he'd been able to move, that was.

"This too will pass", Kurt murmured sympathetically. "And relatively
soon, as I understand it."

"Right." It crossed his mind to snap at Kurt that he didn't find that
all that comforting, given that 'soon' equalled weeks like this, but
he didn't have the energy.

"The children have been asking after you", Kurt told him quietly. "I
think when you are allowed more visitors, we may have to operate a
queuing system. Talia is claiming one of the first spots." He was
focusing determinedly on the not inconsiderable good that had come out
of their mission, distracting himself from the rest.

Why was he... "All in circles in your head," Nathan muttered fitfully.
"Stop it. Making me dizzy..."

Kurt's eyes darkened slightly at that, pained. "I am sorry.
Shielding was never my strongest suit..."

"What's wrong.... what happened?" He asked the question because he had
to, because Kurt was a teammate and at least something of a friend,
but part of him resented it bitterly. He was tired, and he hurt, and
he didn't feel like being the reasonable sounding board right now.

Kurt was silent for a long few moments, head bent, considering the
relative merits of making his excuses and leaving. Finally, he looked
up again with a sigh. "An encounter with a Mistra operative on the
island that... did not end well. For him."

"Trigger?"

"Yes. I was forced to... hit him, repeatedly, with a piece of
concrete, to protect myself and Madelyn." His voice was flat and dull
as he recounted this.

"They wouldn't go down. Couldn't." Nathan closed his eyes for a
moment, trying to concentrate. "Nothing in their minds except the
imperatives... their systems super-charged with adrenalin."

Kurt nodded, knowing that perfectly well - intellectually, but
admitted in a low voice, "I cannot stop thinking... there must have
been another way, if I had just seen it."

"Is he dead?" Blunt, but he didn't have the energy to beat around the bush.

"Not the last time I saw him. But it seemed likely before long."

"And what... you know that no one evaced him?" He was angry, suddenly.
Angrier. Kurt was brooding when he didn't know for sure? "Find out,"
he rasped. "Before you count him dead." A bitter, breathless, broken
little laugh slipped out before he could stop it, and it was enough of
a jolt that darkness crept in at the edges of his vision at the pain.
"If you're lucky," he gasped out, "he lived... and I just left him
without a mind..."

Kurt winced, and decided this had been a bad idea. Staying any longer
risked getting Nathan further worked up, and that would do no one any
good, least of all Nathan himself. "...I will. I am sorry. I will
see you again soon." Curling up in his chair, he mustered the energy
and concentration to teleport, though it was harder than usual.

"Just don't... blame yourself." Oh, this hurt. His fingers, all he
could really move, brushed shakily across the morphine button again.
"The directors... Ruiz... she did it. Not you... and if you were
p-protecting Maddie..."

"I was", Kurt agreed quietly. "And... thank you." The next instant,
he was gone, leaving nothing but the usual smoke behind him.