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]

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.

[noteasytobepink]

"Yeah, he always managed to get people to smile, even if he had to fall back on bad humor to do it." Really bad humor. As in changing into a hammer to nail badguys humor. "I worry about him though. He needed to get home just as much as the rest. His real team needed him to."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Y'always worry as a leader."

And worry more, when it's someone you care about.

"I'm sure him an' the rest are alright. Sounds like y'all have been at this for awhile. If you two were the last ones left for so long, maybe his turn was comin' up for a ticket home."

Bill, every trying to be optimistic for everyone else.

[noteasytobepink]

"That or he got stuck with the Talus when it got ripped off me," she countered with a dark chuckle. "But I hope so Bill. I hope so. The new players...not so sure they'd step up well." Worry worry worry.

She was good at it, despite her bubbly exterior.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Well if he did, you know they'll be in good hands."

Smoothing the blanket, he patted her shoulder.

"They'll make out alright. People with a job t'do always seem t'find a way."

[noteasytobepink]

"Yeah, there is that." Morph, leader of the Exiles. She could see him posing now.

Dear gods help them all.

"I know."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Y'know," he said quietly, taking his hand back and resting it on his thigh. "my mom has a sayin' about worry. Likes t'tell me, worry never did no one but the devil any good."

Sometimes you can't help it, but sometimes it was good being reminded that you couldn't change things by worrying on them.

[noteasytobepink]

"I'm pretty sure that the Devil has better things to do than smirk over some displaced souls." Much more. She was sure Mr. Creed had kicked the Devil's ass at some point too.

"But it passes the time in the night you know? Thinking and worrying."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Not in a good way."

He knew all about the thinking and worrying, and the way those things cut into sleep.

"It's one of those things you start, then run yourself into the ground 'cause you can't stop."

[noteasytobepink]

"Yeah, I know. But hey, some nights it's best not to get back to sleep." She chuckled softly and patted his knee. "Tonight being an exception. I'm getting back to sleep despite my better judgement and under weak protest. Honest."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Sleep is supposed to be good for you," he reminded her, even though he knew some about it not being the greatest.

"Should I be quiet now to help you get there?"