Room 507, Monday evening

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was sitting up against the wall with Furrball curled in her lap, the wool poncho finally set to one side, revealing the immobilizer in all its glory.

Jamie was right. The room did smell like gravy.

She was considering hunting down a cup of coffee, just to sit there and smell that instead.

[ooc: up for the fake BF, but also open]

Comments

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

It had been quite some time since Walter had left Nadia in here and gone off to brood think about his last conversation with her. He'd mostly gone to class (when he thought about it) and brooded sat in his room or went to exercise away from all and sundry.

Now he'd decided he'd had enough brooding thinking and was ready to talk to her again.

Provided she wanted to talk to him.

Which was where he was when he knocked on his door and announced himself. "It's Walter."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia's head shot up from where she'd had it lowered over the coffee mug. She looked around, trying to figure out if she needed to clean things up or anything. "Come in!"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter opened the door and slipped inside, closing it quickly behind him to keep Furrball from making a break for it.

"Hi- What happened to you?" He crossed the room to look her over, his eyes returning to the immobilizer before looking up into her face. "Are you... well, not alright. How bad?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia used the excuse of clearing her throat to take a moment to just take in Walter's expression.

He really didn't know.

"It's not too bad. Well, it could be worse. Pippi really didn't tell you, did she."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Tell me what?"

Come to think of it, when was the last time he'd seen Pippi?

[nadiathesaint]

She'd thought Pippi had just been saying that to make her feel better. "Last Wednesday. I was--I got--um, kidnapped. El Professor and some others came to help on Friday."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"What?" Walter's brow furrowed while he tried to put together a coherent picture from what little she'd just told him. Kidnapped? And their Dance instructor had helped? And he'd been where? And Pippi hadn't told him?

What the hell? He was rendered momentarily speechless by his conflicting reactions to what she'd said.

[nadiathesaint]

"Pippi and I went to the Isle of Ikea, and Pippi went in to get some . . . thing . . . in the store and this van pulled up--" She shrugged helplessly. "They kept me drugged. I managed to try to escape once, but the water was really cold and then the next thing I knew there were gun shots and Professor Next was there and we were getting out."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Why didn't Pippi tell me?" Maybe because he'd been trying not to be found? He'd obviously never do that again.

"Why did they do that? What happened to them? Do you hate me for not coming to help?"

[nadiathesaint]

". . . and that's where it gets weird," Nadia said, deciding to go with the easier of his questions, first. "Apparently they wanted to use me to get El Professor to come to them. They wanted to kill him, because he fights people like them in Mexico. He . . . killed them. Well, him, Professor Next, John Conner, and the nun. I think. It's all kind of fuzzy."

She fiddled for a minute with the strap of the immobilizer, not looking up at him. "I don't know why Pippi didn't tell you. And I couldn't really think about it all until last night. . . . I thought maybe you just didn't care."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Shit. Shit. Shit.

That this was about their teacher was almost a relief. It meant that Nadia didn't have new enemies that were coming after her. Or not her enemies per se.

But that wasn't the problem. "Never think that. I would have been there if I'd known. I was..." Being stupid? "...I was keeping to myself. Which..." Was stupid. "Wasn't a good idea."

[nadiathesaint]

He really hadn't noticed. She'd been missing for three days--drugged and handcuffed and locked into a tiny room and cold for three days--and he hadn't noticed.

She couldn't pretend that didn't hurt.

"We were trying to find a present for you. To apologize. When they grabbed me."

Yeah, that wasn't the nicest thing she could tell him. But he hadn't noticed. . . .

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Shit.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were giving me time to think. I had wanted to come here to tell you I was done being stupid about what happened. Now..." he trailed off and shrugged. "That doesn't seem good enough."

[nadiathesaint]

"I'm still not sorry I made that deal." Nadia took as deep a breath as she could without coughing or wheezing. "And . . . if this hadn't happened, I probably would have given you space. As far as I can tell, the radio didn't say anything, so if Pippi didn't tell you, I guess there was no way for you to know. . . ."

He didn't notice. . . .

But he was here, now.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I shouldn't have taken so long to think about it." He shouldn't have. He was supposed to make split second knife's edge decisions. This should not have taken him a week.

"And I don't want you to be sorry. I would have made the same decision." He sat down next to her and tried for a slight smile. "Now, is there anyone left for me to 'talk to' about what happened to you?"

[nadiathesaint]

She hesitated and tensed when he sat down next to her, then shook her head. "El Professor did a really thorough job, apparently. I know he killed everyone but the leader, and he says he took care of that guy, too."

This was stupid. He was her boyfriend, not some skeezy drug dealer. She didn't want to be stuck having issues with physical contact. She made a conscious effort to relax, then shifted to lean against him. "We're okay, right?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter noted the tensing but took it as a good sign when Nadia leaned against him. He slipped his arm around her waist and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "I want us to be okay."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia coughed once, but made an effort to keep it quiet. "Good." She laughed, but it was a brittle sound. "I've had enough of being kidnapped and drugged. I'd like to not do it again."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter frowned at the quality of her laugh. "You don't have to be kidnapped and drugged for us to be okay. Now, truth - how badly are you hurt?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Dislocated my shoulder again. Don't even remember how it happened, but it was apparently out of joint for almost 24 hours. I have to wear this thing to make sure it heals okay." She coughed again, then bit back a groan. "And I have the mother of all colds. They had me on a boat. When I tried to escape, I jumped into the water . . . didn't see that the boat was docked . . . and they didn't dry me off when they locked me up again. After that . . . all I remember is being really cold until Professor Next showed up."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Did you hurt your ribs?" Walter asked, based on her reactions to coughing. "And do you want my electric blanket? If you were cold for that long, you must want to be as warm as you can be."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head. "Throat. Been coughing for three days. Starts to hurt after awhile." She hadn't sat up from her lean against him, and she didn't much want to, any time soon. "Furrball has been helping. I think he missed me and he can be like a little space heater." So could Walter, when it came down to it. He always seemed warm, to her. "I'm not going to take your blanket away from you, though."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"You wouldn't be taking it away from me if I were using it, too."

He knew she wasn't likely to take his next offer, but he simply could not keep himself from it,"And a good cup of hot tea with honey and lemon is good for a sore throat."

[nadiathesaint]

"Mr. Aziraphale gave me tea, too." Nadia smiled slightly. "Coffee would be better for getting the gravy smell out of my nose. But anything hot sounds good."

And, no, she still wasn't sitting up.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

He wasn't really going anywhere, either. He'd been brooding sulking pouting for the past week and wasn't in a hurry to let her go.

"Gravy smell?" For no logical reason Walter gave her hair a sniff as though expecting gravy smell. "Were you captive on a gravy boat?"

Then he groaned when he realized what he'd asked, even though Nadia likely wouldn't get the bad pun.

[nadiathesaint]

"Noooo, just a boat. In here. Jamie's friends sent him a gravy bomb. Apparently Furrball got to eat some." Nadia twisted her head to give him a funny look, wondering at the groan. ". . . It's probably good for me to talk about it. You can ask if you want to."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Yep, she hadn't gotten it. Walter thought he was probably relieved she hadn't.

He pecked a kiss on the nearest bit of not hair and nodded. "I'd like to know. Can you tell me from the beginning?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded slowly, shifting to turn her body more towards him and pull her legs in, a bit. "Like I said, we were at Ikea, and Pippi went back in, so I was going to sit down and wait, then this van pulled up and these men jumped out of it. I had no idea what was going on, but I was able to fight those men off pretty well, but then he. . . . the leader came out. I tried to run for the store, but he shot me with some kind of tranquilizer. I remember just seeing Pippi come out the front door, then I passed out." She shivered subconsciously. "When I woke up, I was handcuffed and in this tiny, dark room with the men all around me, grabbing at me--I tried to kick them away, and one of them had this needle--he said--well, it was really nasty and in Spanish and then he injected me. After that, it seemed like any time I could start to think clearly again, they came back with another needle."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"How did your shoulder get dislocated?" And even more importantly, was the person responsible for it truly dead? Walter rather hoped they weren't, so he could remedy that oversight.

[nadiathesaint]

"I'm not sure. The drug they used . . . it was almost like I was numb. I could feel things around me, but I was so detached. . . . All I really knew was that I was cold and scared." Nadia shivered slightly at the memory. "I guess they were late at one point, at giving me more, because I came down enough to realize what was going on and that I had to get out. I had to get my arms in front of me--that might be when it happened, I guess, but I don't remember feeling it--and when one of the men came in, I attacked. I got his gun and broke his nose and then ran for it. When I realized we were on a boat, I didn't even think, just fired at the men following me and jumped off the side." Another shiver, harder this time. "That was a mistake. They pulled me out, injected me again . . . I think they used more at a time, after that. I was really just . . . lost."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Dammit. Walter tightened his hold protectively and rubbed a hand down her arm.

"Kidnapping you was their very first mistake. But they won't be making any more, right?"

[nadiathesaint]

"El Professor says that they're dead." She took a deep breath. "And I know a lot of them are. When Professor Next showed up, they were all lying on the ground, and there was blood--we found El Professor and then the other one . . . called himself El Pistolero . . . he showed up and I tried to shoot him, but I missed--and then I woke up in the clinic." She was shaking almost continuously now. "I asked El Professor when he came to explain things if the leader was dead. He said he couldn't be sure. And he told me I wasn't allowed to try to kill him if we found out he wasn't."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

The shaking was disturbing him. He wanted to ask more questions, but he didn't want to push Nadia any closer to the edge. Maybe she'd be able to talk more later.

"You're here and they aren't." Which was the closest he could honestly come to telling her that she was safe in Fandom.

"And your boyfriend would really like to do anything he can to help you feel better."

[nadiathesaint]

"I know," she replied, with more conviction then one might have thought, considering how tense she was, and that she was almost pressing herself against him. "And you're doing it. Just . . . being here. That's always helped."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I'm here and I won't leave." He was still berating himself for pulling away from Nadia over what she did to save his life. If he'd reacted better, maybe she wouldn't have gone through everything she had.

He leaned over to kiss her forehead and regarded her seriously. "Thank you for making a hard decision that kept me alive."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia gave him a small smile and reached up with her good hand to play with a bit of his hair. "You'd have done the same for me."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter's expression softened into a small smile of his own and he nodded. "Yeah, I would have." Even if she'd hated him afterward. "But you know me - sometimes I'm a dumbass, although I'll deny it if you ever tell anyone I said that."

[ooc: My drugs are knocking me flat. I'll pick up any ping after I crash out for a bit.]

[nadiathesaint]

"I won't tell a soul, I promise."

[ooc: no prob. we can probably leave it there, if you want. Talk to you later!]