Wheelsy AU ~ Bad nights

[noteasytobepink]

The scream was probably a little unsettling. Ringing out sudden and piercing in the night. The walls of the house and blankets over her head did little muffle it as she thrashed. Nightmares. She had them most nights but she usually managed to bite her tongue...

...today had been bad though. She'd started physical therapy for her arm, wore herself out, couldn't wake up as easily as she tended to. How she hated being broken and weak. It was bad for her mental state and brought on more nightmares.

"No NO NO NO NO NO!" Each word was accompanied by the thick thump of her fists on the bed as she worked to tear herself free from the past and finally ended up tossing herself straight off the bed with a firm 'thunk'. The jarring of her shoulder helped yank her free of sleep until finally, gasping, she was awake and shaking, nearly in shock.

Coffee. Caffeine. Something to keep her awake. She was NOT going back to sleep again after that.

That decided she stumbled down the hall to slump, shaking and exhausted, at the table. "Hell..." she muttered, thunking her forehead on the cool surface.

Comments

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"I meant I was gonna make you move."

He shook his head, and reached over to poke her.

"I was bein' honest about what I said."

[noteasytobepink]

"I was teasing, Bill." She offered a small smile and held up her good hand. "Help me up?"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

Bill stood and took her hand to help her stand.

"I know. I'm startin' t'get how you work."

Which means she'll have to work a little harder to mess with him. Maybe.

[noteasytobepink]

"Hey, it's all in the cause of getting a smile Bill, so don't stop just because you're catching on." She groaned and lurched up to her feet when he tugged, then leaned against his shoulder. She was tired. Screaming nights always seemed to cut to the bone...

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

His arm went around her waist automatically to help support her.

"I'll be sure an' keep on smilin'," he promised, walking with her back to her room.

"Don't think there's much reason for you t'worry, though. I got a pretty easy goin' nature."

[noteasytobepink]

"Well, there's easy going because people expect it...and easy going because you're actually happy." And she was hoping to increase to latter? It was a personal goal. Her new physical therapist said personal goals were important!

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Hey, I'm happy. You seem t'have it in your head that I'm a sad old man, or somethin'."

And like he said earlier, he had a few years before he fit that description.

Getting the door, he helped her to the bed.

[noteasytobepink]

"You remind me of people I've known Bill. Happy or content because they think they should be a lot of the time." She barked her knee on the bed and winced, pain killers making her clumsy. She hated that. Another try got her kneeling on the bed so she could get to the other side, leaving room for him to sit if he wanted.

"I'm not calling you some tragic hero or something, suffering in bucolic silence, i"m just saying you settle sometimes."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He winced with her when she banged into the bed, and made sure she was good before pulling back from her.

The offer of a seat was plain, and he took it; resting on the edge of the bed.

"Now, just because I remind you of someone, doesn't mean that's me."

He prefers to think of it as accepting things, instead of settling.

"I think I do pretty alright for myself. I like my job, I've got my friends, an' it ain't like I'm hurtin' for money or anything."

[noteasytobepink]

She plumped a pillow against his knee and rested her head on it. Her diabolic plan had been to get him to sit so she could rest against him and know she wasn't alone before passing out again! Haha!

"No, you're not Bill. You're very much yourself," she allowed easily. "Just aspects sometimes." She chuckled softly.

"And you're not hurting, you're just not always as happy as you let on sometimes. It's in the crinkles around your eyes, the set of your shoulders sometimes. That's all. I'm not telling you to go run for president, I'm just saying I feel like getting you to smile and laugh more often is a good thing."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

Her resting against him was a surprise, but given the night she's had he was glad to be there if it'd be a comfort to her.

He had already got the impression that she was observant, what she was saying now made him realize just how much.

"Hm, remind me t'never play poker with you," he quipped.

[noteasytobepink]

"I don't think anyone on this world plays by the rules I know anyway, so no card games, I promise." She chuckled. "You grow up around a bunch of people who could be spies, and who might just be idiots driving themselves into the ground well, you learn to pay attention." She wrapped her fingers in her hair, twiddling with it.

"And, well, comes in handy when you end up leading knuckleheads from across the known realities."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Good. I'm lousy at cards as it is."

Her situation is still more than he can fathom, but she talks about it so easily he's quickly coming to respect her personality and strength.

"You were a leader than? With the team of folks you talked about?"

[noteasytobepink]

"You don't strike me as the type to be cutthroat enough for card playing." she agreed easily. "'Casual' and 'good card player' don't go together really." And she thought he would play for fun, rather than to win.

"Hmmm?" She turned her head to look up at him properly as she spoke. "Yes. By default really. I was the constant you know? And...had the most hard experience. Calvin led a team in his reality but he wasn't so good with...non X-men?"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"I don't know if it's the casual thing, or a lousy poker face, but I sit down to a table I usually get up from it cleaned out."

It was always in fun, though.

He wondered what her team would do now that she was gone, but didn't ask. The aim here was to get her back to sleep, not bring up something she was probably already worrying about on her own.

Instead, he chose something else to ask about.

"X-men?"

[noteasytobepink]

"I'm betting you smile when you get a good hand. Smile while trying not to smile and end up with a goofy smile..." She teased gently.

"Ah, yeah. The X-men." What to say about them? "In a lot of realities there is a series of mutant super teams that were assembled by a man named Xavier. He had a dream etc etc. Being an X-man is a big thing apparently, and a lot of mutants in the X-men can end up with a very skewed view of those not X-men or X-men related. I think in one reality they had like...fifty...offshoot teams with X names."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"I'd call it more like a smirk." Because goofy smile made him sound goofy (which of course was exactly what it was).

"Ah, so they're the 'big boys' around, an' don't care much for the under dogs."

Bill got that. In police work it was anyone above the local level and the suits.

"Kind of folks with a stick up their ass along with their head?"

Yeah, Bill didn't like those guys.

[noteasytobepink]

"Goofy smirk," she countered as a compromise.

"Hmmm..I don't know. A lot more like The X-men are the only...safe...mutants I guess? They have a code, they are working toward a dream of peace with humanity. Any other mutant not raised to those tenants is powerful and suspect?" She shrugged, not actually understanding it beyond that. "Like without Xavier's hand on the leash they believe we're just as bad as the human hate groups think we are usually." So weird in her mind. So very weird.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Hm."

Still sounded like the stick thing to him.

"What was your team called?"

[noteasytobepink]

"Popular opinion, by that I mean Morph introduced us as such, we were the Exiles. Not something I ever agreed to." She was fine being nameless really.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"The Exiles?"

Bill mulls that over, then gives half a shrug.

"Not too bad. I guess it fits, with the jumpin' around you talked about doin'."

[noteasytobepink]

"Yeah, well, it sounded a little permanent for my tastes." She shrugged and cuddled deeper into her blankets. "Fitting though, and Morph got a kick out of it. He was always one for jokes."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He can hear what sounds like a fond note in her voice.

Reaching down, he helped tug the blanket a little higher over her.

"The two of you close?"

[noteasytobepink]

"Morph ended up in the 'team' same time I did. Only one of us that hasn't switched out or gone home yet besides myself. He's like...everyone's little brother. Shapeshifting cornball comedian who won't take 'bad day' for an answer."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

Bill gave a small smile and nodded.

"Sometimes y'need that wise guy around."

Yeah, there were the times you wanted to ring their neck, but then there were the times when they were the only ones keeping it together.