xp_logs | Nathan and Betsy (Reply)

Some time after her arrival and discussion with Charles, Betsy makes her way quietly over to check on Nathan, who's a bit perplexed at her sudden appearance but glad to see her.

The third-floor halls were all but empty and she was grateful for it. Striding down the corridors with her eyes closed, Betsy let her hands trail along the walls, remembering each groove and divet, turning right, then left before heading up the stairs and coming to a stop in front of Nathan and Moira's suite. The room was empty of all but the sleeping telekinetic and his bird, Bella.

She knew it would've been best to let him rest, but needing to satisfy her own concerns, Betsy quietly opened the unlocked door and slipped inside. The room was sparsely-lit besides the errant sunlight peeking in through the curtains. Turning into the bedroom, Betsy found the sleeping man in bed. Decidedly not waking him, she took a seat and crossed her arms at the man before her, a forlorn smile on her face. "I can't leave you alone for a moment, Dayspring..."

He had been quite sound asleep - he'd been up at midnight, unable to sleep for the pain, and taken more medication - but the awareness of another presence, a presence which was decidedly not Moira, tugged him back out of the hazy, half-formed dreams. Nathan opened his eyes, frowning sleepily at the purple-haired figure in the chair across from the bed.

"Betsy?" he muttered, perplexed. "What are you doing in my bedroom?"

"Don't worry, Nathan." Betsy smiled. "You won't have to defend your honor against me. My intentions are noble, I assure you." She got up from her seat and crossed the room over to him. "I just wanted to see you with my own eyes...." She left the rest unsaid, her face darkening slightly before shaking off the expression and smiling down at him. "It's good to see you."

Nathan pushed himself at least semi-upright, wincing visibly. The back brace really didn't help much when it came to moving around. "I didn't know you were back," he muttered, flexing the hand attached to the arm that had been so badly lacerated back on Youra. Still stiff, still not quite as responsive as it could be. There'd been some nerve damage, he knew - thankfully not much. "You wanted to see me? I'm fine. Been out of the medlab for a while now."

"Don't," Betsy said plainly, her hand on his shoulder, urging him to lie back down. Her voice was more authoritative than pleading and she softened it up with a apprehensive expression. "You don't have to get up on my account." Betsy moved away from the bed and dragged a chair to Nathan's bedside, taking a seat next to him. "Got back this morning, actually. Not many know that I'm back just yet."

Nathan relaxed gratefully back against the pillows, unable to help a sigh. "Well, I'm glad to see you," he said, then mustered a weak smile. "You seem better. I'm glad."

"I am, mostly," she said, her eyes flicking over to his back. The stench of pain wafted off his body in an alarming way, but she knew he was used to it. Nathan was stronger than most, Betsy reminded herself. So, she needed to restrain the need to coddle him. "I'm glad to hear you're doing better, though."

"The body heals. It's what it does," Nathan muttered. "Especially when it gets helped along." He snorted softly. "I have rehab on a daily basis. It's not a lot of fun."

"It does, indeed," Betsy whispered. "The moment rehab becomes fun is the moment we both know something is wrong."

"So. Are you back?" Nathan asked, gazing up at her. Knowing that she'd catch the added level of meaning. "Since I seem to have deprived the team of their only functioning telepath by getting the shit beaten out of me, I feel a certain responsibility for that gap on the roster."

Betsy caught his gaze and nodded her head in agreement. "I'm back," she paused. "If they'll have me, that is." The nagging thought that the team wouldn't accept her willingly had plagued her since she decided to head back to Westchester. Her prior behavior...was not something that could be ignored. "But, I wouldn't have come back if I didn't have some hope."

"I don't know how long I'll be out for," Nathan said. "Possibly the beginning of June, if I progress steadily." And that was far faster than anyone should have expected.

"Don't run yourself into the ground just yet," Betsy said, jokingly. "I'm going to need a decent sparring partner in the coming months and you're the only one I'm probably up to speed with."

Nathan snorted again. "Very funny. At least that way you'll know that if I start beating you, you're not progressing fast enough."

"I'm sure I'll keep up," Betsy added, smugly, knowing exactly how she'd changed over the past month. Her smile turned a shade past devious. "And if not, I'm sure someone will have a cattle prod handy to lead me kindly along."

"It'll be a while yet," Nathan said, the tiredness creeping back into his voice. "Maybe once I stop collapsing after rehab I can start thinking about other things..."

Betsy lightly tapped Nathan's leg, "I'm looking forward to it." Her smile waned slightly at the thought of Nathan's rehabilitation process and the struggle ahead.

"It's taking a lot out of me," Nathan said a bit flatly, catching the turn of her thoughts. "Rehab. Coming to terms with everything that happened in Greece. I'm finding myself short on energy for other things, quite honestly." Making the decision that yes, he wanted to be an X-Man again had been an important step, but there was a lot of work still to be done. And not just physically.

...rejoining the team. "Right," Betsy nodded, making a mental note to talk to Scott about team rotations. "So, since you're the first person I've sought out, care to fill me in on what's happened while I've been on holiday?"

"Well. Mistra's gone." He didn't quite manage the deadpan tone.

Betsy winced. Stupid move, Betsy. She nodded her head in understanding, "I've kept in contact with some of the others that were involved." And not to mention, I'd gotten updates from them on your status.

"Mmm," Nathan said. "Worst-kept secret mission in the world, this one..." Not that he was unhappy about that. Few enough people knew about what had happened as it was. "I'm still wrapping my mind around it. It's going to take a while. There were..." He faltered for a moment. "A lot of casualties. Mick and Tim, other people... friends."

"Not so much," Betsy said, easily. "I'm almost positive it was kept in the family." She let her eyes drift over to the window, the sun was scaling the horizon and with it the school seem to rise with it. In her mind, she felt the dredges of sleep lift and the day being pushed forward into motion. She looked back on Nate within his forced solitude. "Please don't do this to yourself, Nate."

He raised an eyebrow, mustering a faint smile. "Don't fret. I'm working on it... trying to remind myself of the good that came out of it. It's just going to take time. Both Jack and... my own instincts are telling me that." He needed to accept that it had been a victory, like his alter ego had said.

My own instincts? Betsy quirked her head at that peculiar statement. "Sorry, I'll keep my fretting to an absolute minimum. But I know you don't think that any of us would think any less of you for actually getting better? Unless you want to follow Scott's example and end up on the opposite end of some spiked coffee?"

"People were drugging me before Scott made it fashionable, I'll have you know..."

"Alright, I stand corrected." Betsy huffed, playfully. "You think you lot wouldn't be proud of such a thing. Boys," Betsy said, shaking her head at him. "So not worth the trouble."

Nathan smiled, a broad, genuine smile. "I've missed you, you know."

"Probably one of the few." She kicked up her legs on his bed, letting her head look up toward the ceiling, and staying quiet for a moment. "I don't know why I came back," Betsy finally admitted. "Besides the sauna, there's really no good reason. The pay is shite."

"The people." Nathan's smile turned a little wry. "I may be trying to conserve my strength these days, but it doesn't mean that I don't love most of the people in this place half to death."

"Right, there is that." Betsy kept her expression focused on the ceiling and away from Nate. The People. While she was here, she hadn't done much to get entangled with the occupants of this school. The staff was one thing, Betsy had to interact with them on a daily basis, but the students... Betsy shook her head. She would fight or even die for the people within these walls, but she really didn't know them. At least, not anymore.

"Came to a few realizations myself," Nathan murmured, watching the small shifts in her expression. "I hold on too tight. I need to work on that."

"We all do from time to time," Betsy replied, thinking of her romp across the globe. "It's what we do when the strings are cut from under us that leads to character growth." She looked back on him, a mischievous look on her face. "Or so I hear."

"I've been getting my character growth the hardest way possibly. So typical of me." Nathan paused for a moment, then flashed her the memory of that hallway on Youra. Trying to hold the line as his friends fell around him, fighting to keep the second-gens back from the door, then from Alison's shield.

Her smile fell at the scene unfolding in front of her. She closed her eyes, almost trying to turn her head away from the chaos. Eyes fluttering open, bright and filled with anguish, Betsy shuddered for a moment. It took a moment before she felt strong enough to speak. "You did better than I ever could, Nate."

"I did the best I could," Nathan corrected her quietly. "I'm coming to terms with the fact that that's all that matters."

"I'm sure you did." Quickly swiping at her face and Betsy moved her feet off the bed. Bulstering herself against the emotions emanating from him and shielding her from him, she leaned over and placed a strong but soft hand over his. "So, when do I get to see you bolting down the halls with that dangerous piece of machinery you're supposedly calling a chair."

"Whenever I decide that getting out of bed would be a good idea," Nathan said wryly. "I tend to be very lazy these days, still. Comes with having no demands on my time except the rehab."

"That isn't a bad thing, you know." Betsy said with a smirk. "I'll have to be good and stop asking you to come out and play."

"Not to worry. I am getting the hang of pacing myself - hurts too much to push too hard, still," Nathan said honestly.

"Good thing to hear. But, I'm sure you'll lose that little sensor in your head for pain soon enough." She gave his hands a squeeze before pulling back. "So, I better not speed the process."

His eyelids were drooping again, despite the fact that he was carrying on a conversation. He still drifted off far too easily, as far as he was concerned. "No, I promised I'd be good... and good I'll be. Really."

Betsy hid her smile and stood up, her hands still on Nathan's. "With all that gray hair, I'm sure you'll be respectable from now on. You need your rest, I'll be going now."

"All right," Nathan murmured, his eyes closing. "Good to see you home, Betsy."

"It's good to be home. See you, Nathan."