The X-Project

Angelo pays Nathan a short visit in the medlab.



Finally, he was allowed to visit. Cigarettes dutifully tucked away in his pocket, Angelo tentatively pushed open the door of Nathan's medlab room, and moved into his line of sight.

Exhausted after his long session with Jack, yet unsettled enough that dozing wasn't really an option - at least not until his next dose of painkillers - Nathan had been staring rather fixedly at the pictures of Moira and the baby until he heard the door open and sensed Angelo come in. "Hey," he said, his voice hoarse as Angelo leaned over him.

"Hey", Angelo answered with a slight smile, trying to be reassuring. "How're you feelin'?"

"About how I look, I think..." Nathan was all too aware of the fact that his eyes were probably very red from all the crying - he'd broken down two or three times before he and Jack had called it a day, and for all that he loathed having made his unsteadiness so obvious, he felt less... something, he wasn't sure what to call it. He was too tired to think of the right word.

Angelo nodded, smile fading just a bit. "Right. Anythin' I can get for you?"

"I keep wanting to tell someone 'a new spine', every time they ask me that..." Nathan swallowed. "Sit down or something," he suggested wearily. "You're looming..."

Angelo complied hastily. "Sure. Um... new spine's a bit beyond me, but you knew that. Anythin' else, though..."

"Think I'm okay. Can't really do much yet." He couldn't even read - his head was a lot clearer, but he couldn't hold a book, plus he still tended to doze off more often than not. Even when people were in the room with him.

Angelo pulled a face. "Sounds borin'. Music, or audiobooks, or anythin'?"

"There's a CD player. Have it on sometimes..." Nathan caught himself staring at the ceiling again - not the pictures this time, but the blankness beside the pictures. "Doesn't really help a lot. It's just noise."

"Fair enough", Angelo answered quietly, then subsided into slightly helpless silence for a moment. He wasn't very good at this. "Bet you've been gettin' lots of visitors...?"

"People have been in and out. Think I keep dozing off on them." Nathan closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, willing the ceiling to come back into focus. "You been okay? Amanda said you're looking after the featherduster..."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, me an' Miles've been watchin' her between us. She's been okay - not too happy that you're not there, but she stopped shreddin' the pillows."

"Her and pillows... she never used to do that." He missed Bella, suddenly. No chance in hell that any of the doctors would allow her down here, he suspected... although Moira might. Maybe he could ask.

"When you were in Italy, you mean?" Angelo asked, seizing on the chance to remind Nathan of happier things.

It took nearly a physical effort to drag his mind onto that particular track. "Yeah... Maria and Silvio never would have put up with her doing that. Suppose that means I don't discipline her properly or something..."

"Ah, no. I don't think so. Means she's comfortable here. Or somethin'. Not that she wasn't there... but she's attached to you, doesn't like you not bein' there. I could try smugglin' her down to see you sometime...?"

"Probably not a good idea. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble..." Although it would be nice. For all that she was loud and demanding, Bella tended to do things like curl up on the pillows - when she wasn't shredding them - and coo. It was soothing, and his nerves were... well, pretty much wrecked at this point.

"Well, you only need to ask if you change your mind."

"How're... classes?" He didn't really want to ask that. Didn't want to know how well the substitute teachers were handling things in his absence.

Angelo shrugged. "Not the same. Okay, though."

"Guess you're all pretty used to me not being there by now..." It had happened often enough, after all.

"It... yeah. Kinda. Still isn't the same when you're not, though", he finished loyally.

What, had he wanted Angelo to tell him no? Nathan's eyes shifted back to the ceiling, and he tried to ignore the way they were stinging. "The others'll make sure you all get through the rest of the term okay," he said, his voice more hoarse, suddenly. "Credits all in order and everything."

"I know", Angelo said quietly. "Don't mean we don't miss you."

"I'm still here. Just... stuck down here." In the basement. In a cage. His gaze flickered over the traction rig with dull loathing. "But life goes on, right...?"

"Always does", came the still-muted answer. "An' you'll be out of here in time. With Amanda doin' her thing..."

"It'd be a whole lot longer without her. I'm lucky." There he went with the parroting other people's words again. He really needed to knock that off. People were going to start thinking he'd lost his mind. The stinging in his eyes was worse and worse, and he wished to hell he could turn his head away so that Angelo didn't see... but he couldn't. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "It's not... been such a great day."

"Only to be expected", Angelo replied, glancing at Nathan then unobtrusively looking away. "It will get better..."

"So everyone keeps telling me." He let the air in his lungs out on a long, shaky breath that hurt his cracked ribs. "I'm so tired," he said without thinking, his voice breaking. "Just wish I could sleep through the next month..."

Angelo's eyes closed for a moment, defeated and pained. "I wish I could help..."

"It's okay." People needed to not worry about him. "Time... that's what everyone keeps saying. Just need time."

Angelo nodded again, more decisively. "Yeah. That's right."

Just time. He still wished he could sleep through the next month, though. Nathan closed his eyes, and realized, yet again, that the tiredness wasn't just mental. "Don't let Bella boss the puppy around," he murmured, his words a little slurred.

Angelo chuckled, watching him carefully as he dropped into sleep. "I won't."