The roof, Sunday late afternoon/early evening

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia hadn't been able to find everyone she had wanted to apologize to after the gremlin incident, yesterday. Part of her was saying that maybe finding River and apologizing to her might actually be more important.

But that just made her angry.

Her headache had grown steadily worse through out the day, and was now accompanied by an odd, anxious feeling and a rather unhappy stomach. Despite the heat and humidity, she headed up to the roof and threw her body into some of the practice routines she'd learned while she was gone.

She thought about the look on River's face when the knife had hit the painted octopus. It melded with the look on Roberto's when she had pulled the gun, with the look on Cesar's when he'd told her the news of Roberto's death, and the look on everyone's face here when she'd told them what she'd done.

It was stupid. It was a painted octopus. It could be fixed so easily, not like a human, who even if they could be fixed would just scar over, and show the wound forever. River had grieved so easily for a painted piece of wall and Nadia couldn't seem to get anywhere when she thought of killing Roberto. It wasn't fair.

She continued spinning on the rooftop, launching kick after kick after punch into the air and wishing there was something on the other end to resist the moves. Wishing she had a parachute to jump from the roof with, feel the free fall without worrying about the pain at the end.

None of the movements were ever enough and her headache just got worse and she grew dizzy and finally dropped to her knees, gasping for breath in the humid air.

[ooc: open, but responses may be slow as I attempt to do some laundry and such and then migrate over to where I'm house sitting for a month.]

Comments

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Cally was going to actually work on the Viper today, she decided.

When she saw Nadia on her knees on the roof, that idea may have gone out the proverbial window.

"Erm, you okay?" she asked, hurrying over. Her toolbelt jangled and chimed as she moved.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded, feeling a rather strong sense of deja vu.

At least she hadn't started screaming this time.

"Stupid . . . octopus. . . ." was about all she managed to say.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Octopus?" Cally said, looking around. "You were attacked?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head. "Painted . . . octopus. River's."

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"What about it?" Cally said. "Are you... what's wrong?"

[nadiathesaint]

"She said she killed it. It's just a painting, but she was so upset. . . ."

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"River's kinda crazy," Cally said. "You. . ." Cally just leaned in to give Nadia a hug.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia hugged back. "She bit me. Then kicked me. And everyone was mad at me, but it was just a painting!"

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Cally didn't let go. "Hey, hey, it was just a painting, and I'm sure nobody is really mad at you, okay?"

[nadiathesaint]

"I was just trying to help. I think I might have made it worse."

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Come on now," Cally said. "You just need to calm down, okay? Everything is gonna be okay. I promise."

[nadiathesaint]

"She. Bit. Me. At least when I was biting people, I had the excuse of being a gremlin."

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Cally bit her own lip for a second. "Okay, did I mention the part where River is crazy?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter had finished with River and Proty's flowers and spent the day reading more about gunsmithing.

Given Nadia's wish to blame herself for the gremlin incident, he wasn't surprised to find her there. Finding her in this condition was.

"What happened?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head and pressed her palms against her eyes. "Just . . . piled up on me."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter went over to her and put his book down to give her a hug. "It's a lot. Can I help you in any way?"

[nadiathesaint]

". . . Can we jump off the roof?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter gave her a squeeze and nodded. "Let me get one warmup jump in just to be sure, then we can."

He picked up his book. It was going to be his test subject before he tried his wires on Nadia.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia rocked back on her heels and wrapped her arms around herself, watching him carefully.

She didn't remember having this urge for freefall before she'd met him. What did that say about them?

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter took the book and tossed it away from the building to flap open as it fell. He gave it a moment to drop a story and then launched himself after it.

Falling was easy. He caught the book at the bottom and tucked it inside his waistcoat for the climb back up.

At the top he pulled out the book and flipped through the pages. The cover was undamaged, but a few pages had light cuts in the edges. He held the book out to Nadia and showed her the cuts. "I don't know if this is a good idea yet."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia took a deep breath and nodded slowly, trying not to let her disappointment show. "Okay. It's up to you."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"We can do it, but I can't promise your clothes will be unharmed." He flipped through the book again and sighed. "This is why I wear the bloody things all the time."

[nadiathesaint]

"I lost my clothes yesterday. At least this time it won't be because of being a gremlin,"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter nodded toward the edge. "Right then. Besides, I missed out on you naked yesterday."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia slowly rose to her feet. "Cally didn't. She was very good about it, though."

She stepped over to the edge and closed her eyes. "Just tell me when."