nadiathesaint | Streets of Fandom, Late Sunday night

It was some time later that Nadia became even remotely aware of her surroundings again, and by then, it appeared that Sloane was gone, along with all of his things.

Well, nearly all. There was a letter sitting on the table where the drugged drink had been.

Though her vision was fading in and out, and her body felt like it had been turned to mud, Nadia forced herself off the bed. She landed on the floor with a thump and a whimper in her throat, which quickly turned into a gag, then into a sob.

Sloane had betrayed her. She'd only known him for a few days, but she'd known he was right, that he was her father.

Her father had tied her down and stuck her with needles. She gagged again, and lay shaking on the floor for what could have been a few years or a few seconds.

She had to get out of here.

She staggered to her feet, her hand snatching up the letter without her even thinking, and she stumbled out of the room, down the stairs, and finally out onto the street.

	Walter was out instead of sleeping. It had been a bad/weird weekend and he couldn't sleep. The person who staggered out onto the street ahead of him looked like Nadia. Had she been drinking again? She shouldn't be out alone, if that were the case. "Nadia?"
	Nadia didn't hear him. In her mind, she wasn't in Fandom any more. She was in the grey city, and she could see now that the red sun wasn't a sun at all, and the people around her were monsters . . . . She stopped sharply, staring down at the ground, her right arm clutching her left at the elbow. It seemed to her that a hole had opened up in front of her, suddenly. Walter might, perhaps, notice that she was wearing the same clothing she'd had on the night before at Cafe Fina.
	Walter approached her slowly, not sure what to make of her behavior. "Nadia?" Given his detail-oriented nature and training, he did notice her clothing. "Are you okay?"
	She twitched her head to the side for a moment, clutching at her arm tighter. "Non vengo più vicino, non sono sicuro," She stumbled forward again, veering away from Walter, but stopped when the hole followed her.
	Great. No English, no stability. She was ripped in one way or another. "Let's get you back to the dorms. You need to sleep this off."
	Hearing English spoken shifted a gear in Nadia's mind, and she stepped away from Walter again. "Don't come near me!" She saw him now, but the drugs still running through her system were changing everything around her. "Il mostro!"
	"Are you calling me a monster? I thought we'd worked things out." Or was she using drugs other than alcohol or marijuana?
	The world shifted in and out as the elixir started to leave her system, making her more confused than before. She blinked, her breath hissing through her teeth as she looked past the red eyes and mottled skin and saw "Walter?" Then everything spun again and she was standing on a roof . . . her right hand released her left arm, revealing fresh needle marks as she gripped her head. "Come potrebbe fare questo? I trusted him--come potrebbe. . . ."
	I trusted him? Walter looked Nadia over and didn't like what he saw at all, including the needle marks. "I'm going to give you two choices right now. I drag you to the clinic, or I walk you back to the dorms and stay with you while whatever you're on wears off. What's it going to be?"
	Nadia's hand slapped back down over the marks on her arm as she stiffened. "No, no clinic. No doctorsneedlesbloodgreenneedles. . . ." Her voice trailed off as she seemed to space out again for a moment, the hole opening up in the ground and trying to pull her in. She seemed to snap back to something resembling lucidity again and looked pleadingly at Walter. "Please, I want to go home,"
	"Okay, no clinic." He held out a hand, pointing up the hill toward the school. "We'll go home. Can you walk on your own?"
	Nadia nodded hesitantly and stepped toward Walter. The grey city tried to slam back down around her, and her right hand began twitching, as though trying to write something, but she forced the city back and stepped forward again. And it worked. The city stayed mostly away, even if holding it back made her head hurt. She turned towards the school, still staggering, but no longer halting every third step. She peered at Walter. "I'm . . . not drunk. . . ."
	"Most people don't put the alcohol in through their veins," Walter noted dryly. "What happened?" He put out a hand to steady her.
	She felt tears burning the backs of her eyes and tried to force them back with the city. "He tricked me. He said he would protect me and he tricked me just like the others did," And yes, she knew she wasn't making a lot of sense. But then, neither did anything else around her right now. "Tied me down, needles . . . ." She doubled over, squeezing her eyes shut with a grimace. "he was supposed to be my father, why would he do that?"
	Walter was at a complete loss for how to respond to that. It had to have been the man she'd had dinner with the night before, which, given her clothes meant that he'd done whatever this was to her after their dinner at Cafe Fina. He bent over and put an arm over her shoulders. "I don't know why he did this," and we'll find a way to make him pay for it, "but let's get you inside and taken care of first."
	Nadia swallowed and nodded, doing her best not to lean on Walter as she straightened. "It'll wear off. It always has before." She started stumbling forward again.
	Walter hooked an arm through hers and walked with her. "It always has before? I thought you two only found each other recently?"
	Later, Nadia will blame the drugs for the fact that she kept talking, should she even remember the conversation. "Not him, before. In Russia. A long time ago. . . ." She swayed. "I think I'm going to pass out."
	"No, no." Walter moved his arm around her waist and steadied her. "Stay with me." He'd deal with the Russia information later. "What day is it? Do you know?" And didn't that remind him of another time trying to keep her awake?
	Nadia frowned, trying to think past the grey city and the monsters still lurking in the back of her head. She opened her mouth to answer, then shook her head. "Saturday . . . ?"
	"Close enough." He kept walking, looking for ways to keep her awake. "Do you have a middle name?"
	Nadia spotted the gates to the school and renewed her determination. She was going to make it to her room on her own two feet, damn it. Thank god for elevators. The red sun flashed before her eyes and she almost growled. She forced it back. "No." Why was she getting deja vu? Must be a side-effect of the drug. "Do you?"
	Walter nodded. "And because you're you and this is a weird night, I'll even tell you. But if I hear it spread around the school, I know where you live." Thankfully, they were almost there. Carrying Nadia up the hill would not have been even a little fun. "It's Cum. Walter Cum Dornez."
	Fortunately for Walter, Nadia was not familiar with that particular slang term ~~though the mun admits to giggling like a school girl~~. "Okay, I won't tell,"
	"Good. Because I like you and I'd hate to have to paint you blue for it." And here came the dorms. See, no carrying. "Let's get you inside and into bed, and we'll see how you're doing tomorrow. Alright?"
	Bed. Yes. "I don't have to shake a stick all night?"
	"No, no stick, you're stuck with me instead." Because there was no freakin' way he was leaving her on her own until he was sure the drugs had worn off.
	"Good." Nadia staggered into the dorms, managing only to lean on Walter a little. She had a feeling she could sleep for a week. Assuming she hadn't already. "What day is it?"
	"Sunday. You had dinner at Cafe Fina last night." He steered her to the elevator and hit the button. "Do you know how long this stuff stays in your system usually?"
	Sunday? Madre del dios. "I think I'll be okay by . . . Tuesday. . . ."
	"Right." He pushed her into the elevator when the doors opened. "Tuesday. We'll make sure you aren't on your own for that."
	"'Sokay if I am," Nadia muttered. "I'm used to it." She opted for leaning against the elevator wall rather than Walter for a bit.
	"No, it isn't." Walter kept the wattage on his glare very low. "It is not okay that you're alone, and I don't leave my friends alone in this sort of shape." He didn't bother pointing out that they had recently had some problems because she also cared about her friends' well-being. They were both stubborn and a little dense about caring about their friends. So be it. The elevator doors slid open and Walter stood aside to follow her out.
	Nadia didn't have the energy to argue as she held back the hallucinations that kept trying to swarm over her and concentrated on getting to her room. Truth be told, she was a little relieved. "Won't Victor be mad if you stay?"
	Walter grimaced. He'd been really trying not to think about that. "Don't worry about it. This is more important."
	"Just don't want him mad at me again." Nadia stumbled through her door and made it as far as her bed before she fell over. Her left hand flopped over the edge, and as she finally started to relax, uncurled, dropping a piece of paper to the floor. Within moments, she was out completely, save for the twitching of her right hand.
	"He'll understand." Walter followed Nadia inside and watched her pass out. After assuring himself that she was breathing and checking that her bare feet weren't too banged up from the walk up the hill, he picked up the note and read it. Future self? Very little about this made sense, but maybe it would help her. He tucked it in his waistcoat and would definitely give it to her as soon as she woke. He kicked off his own shoes, pulled up a chair from her desk and propped his feet, trying to relax while he watched over Nadia.