Roof, Wednesday morning

[nadiathesaint]

3 AM isn't a pleasant hour to be on the wrong side of. Neither is 4 AM, 5AM, 6 AM. . . .

Nadia has tried several times now to get some decent sleep in, and it's not happening. Everytime she goes to sleep she has a fun new wacky dream that wakes her up, sometimes shaking, once halfway across her own room.

She wasn't entirely sure why Professor MacGyver swooping to the rescue with a manual pencil sharpener had made her sleep walk; that was probably one of the most mundane images that she remembers from the dreams. She hadn't had a decent sleep since the nap she took on the third floor.

She's been on the wrong side of sunrise more times than she can count, just not since she came to Fandom. So she climbed up to the roof, where she's sitting on the edge, wrapped in her blanket and listening to music, watching the sunrise.

[ooc: open to interaction if anyone else thinks their character might be up and on the roof at this hour. . . .]

Comments

[demonbelthazor]

Bel was surprised to find another person on the roof at this hour. The sunrise would prevent Angel from brooding, but about the last person he expected would be Nadia, she of the glitter morality bot. Must not get angry, must be good, he told himself. But he kept his distance as he engaged in his own rooftop brooding.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia heard someone coming up to the roof and turned to look . . . then turned around and looked back out towards the sunrise. As long as Bel didn't approach her or anything, she was willing to ignore him.

She did wish she still had her mallet, though.

[demonbelthazor]

When Bel saw Veronica join Nadia, he definitely kept his distance. Lighting a cigarette, he looked out over Fandom, pondering this "being good" thing and what it meant.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica woke up from yet another nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep. She didn't want to disturb her roommates or call Logan at this hour, so she grabbed her blanket and decided to check out the roof.

She didn't expect to find anyone else out there in the middle of the night and certainly not Nadia.

"Hey," she said softly so as not to startle the girl.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia looked up and smiled slightly. "Hey." She hadn't seen or talked to Veronica since the night she'd gotten lectured, but she had managed to keep Moral away from the demon guy until it wound down, so she was pretty sure she wasn't about to get another lecture. "What are you doing up?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Nightmares," she said simply, sitting next to Nadia and wrapping her blanket around her. "You?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Nightmares." Nadia agreed. "Also, headache. Robots suck."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica wasn't surprised to hear that Nadia had nightmares after what she'd shared about her past the other night. She wasn't going to push her to share though because she didn't know if she felt like sharing her own.

"Robots?" she asked.

[nadiathesaint]

"Shop class." Nadia said, as though this explained everything. She hoped it did, because she wasn't sure she remembered everything well enough to explain it. "I got hit on the head." She looked over at Veronica, remembering one of her dreams. "You don't own pearls, do you?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Um, no," Veronica answered, not sure what pearls had to do with Shop class or robots, but deciding not to question.

"Are you okay? Aside from the headache? Did you go to the clinic?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Twice. The doctor you interviewed is really nice, by the way. But, yeah, I think I'm okay. The witch doctor said I had a crack in my head, but then she let me go home, so it must not have been that bad."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Witch doctor?" Veronica asked. "Never mind, it's Fandom." She smiled. "I'm glad you're okay."

She hadn't noticed that Bel was also on the roof, or she probably wouldn't have said what she said next.

"Listen, I'm really sorry that Marty and I gave you such a hard time the other night," she apologized. "I'm really protective of my friends, though. My best friend was murdered a few years ago," she explained.

Then she sighed and pulled the blanket tighter around her. "It doesn't look like you'll need to worry about Bel retaliating against you though," she continued. "The other night he willingly gave up the dragon blade and he's apparently made the decision to try to be good." She swallowed hard. "I don't know if I believe it, but a lot of people I trust do."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia opened her mouth to interrupt Veronica when it looked like she might start talking about Belthazor, since she had noticed he was up there, but closed it again when Veronica said he was going to try to be good. "It's okay. It's kind of nice to know people care about me." She resisted the urge to glance over to where Bel had been last time she'd spotted him. "And I bet he will try to be good." If for no other reason, then to not blow his cover of being a good guy, now. If he was going to try something, it wouldn't be something people would expect, like taking that Angel guy's soul or retaliating against her.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure he'll try," she agreed. "But I just wonder how long it will last."

After a long pause, she said, "Marty told me that he deserves a second chance. Part of me agrees with that," she admitted. "After all, I was one of Angel's first supporters after he got his soul. But it's not just about the fact that he tried to kill me, it's how he did it."

She let out a shaky breath. "Last spring I was almost killed in a fire."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Nadia shrugged. "I guess, but I don't know if it'll help. They're really weird." She pulled her blanket tighter around herself for a moment. "Sometimes its a bunch of people from Fandom acting weird. But there's this man, too. I don't know his name, but in my dreams I know who he is. He . . ." Nadia let her voice trail off. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Veronica about the dreams, she just had no idea how to describe it. "In the most recent ones, he has a needle. With this green stuff in it. And I try to get away, but there's people all over the place holding me down and calling me a liar and saying they have to fix me. . . ." She shuddered. "And then I wake up."

Veronica put her arm around Nadia's shoulders and gave her a one-armed hug. "Do you think it's possible that you're remembering something that happened to you in the past?" she asked gently.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia smiled a little shakily. "But you said you don't have pearls. And I don't think Marty smokes a pipe." She sobered and stared out over the town. "Maybe," she said softly. "The needles part, maybe."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica was fairly certain that she didn't want to know what kind of dream Nadia had that involved her in pearls and Marty smoking a pipe.

"You said something on Friday about people," she paused as she tried to remember exactly what Nadia had said, "sticking you with needles to see what would happen."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia tried to nod and shake her head at the sametime, and ended up just sort of twitching slightly. She knew she shouldn't have said those things on Friday night, she'd just been so frustrated. . . .

"Yeah," she said, carefully not looking at Veronica. She didn't want to see shock or pity on her friend's face. She also hoped Belthazor wasn't listening in, but she probably owed it to Veronica to tell her, not leave her wondering. "When I was a little girl, in Russia."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica took a deep breath to contain her rage. The image of Nadia as a small child being used as an experiment almost caused her physical pain.

"I am going to find out about your past, Nadia," she promised. "And we will make anyone who hurt you pay."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia tensed and shot a panicked look at Veronica. Normally, this would have set off her headache again, but she was too worried to notice. "No! Don't--even if you do find them, they're dangerous! You'll just get hurt!"

Nadia's eyes were no longer exactly dry, but she wasn't quite crying yet. "Maybe that's why I'm having these dreams. Maybe they're to remind me that some things should be left in the past."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"No," Veronica said in a soothing tone. "You do deserve to know what happened to you. You trust me, right? I'm not going to do something that will put me, or you, or anyone else, in danger. I promise."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia bit down on a retort that it hadn't helped her much with the freezer and the fire. She really didn't need to go alienating any of her friends. She'd just have to be more careful with what she revealed to Veronica.

No one was going to get hurt because of her.

She had to swallow a few times before she got a handle on her voice again. "I know people here can handle themselves," she laughed slightly, a little painfully, and waved her burned hand towards her head. "Most of us, anyway. I just want you to be careful."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica was intelligent to realize that the story she just shared may not have been the best to bolster Nadia's faith in her ability to take care of herself.

"Don't worry, I have no desire to see how many near death experiences I can rack up," she said lightly. "Besides, I promised Logan I wouldn't do anything that might put me in danger and I intend to keep that promise. We'll see what comes up on Mac's searches and go from there. I promise I won't do anything without talking to you first, okay?"

She grabbed Nadia's arm gently and looked at her hand. "Robots?" she asked, concerned.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded. "My knee, too. Just to let you know? Robots suck. A lot."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I'll take your word for it," Veronica said with a sympathetic smile.

She blinked then, realizing how far the sun had risen while she and Nadia were talking. "I have a class second period," she said. "I better get back inside and try to take a shower before it. You going to be okay?"