it's in my head, darling i hope

[pushed]

Who: Nick & Cassie
When: 7/17
Where: Medbay
What: Nick comes out of cryostasis
Warnings: none



[Something rattles. Something falls and breaks. Nick has his hand outstretched even before his eyes are open, like he can move the numbness and confusion far away from him, instead of whatever he just broke.

If he doesn't break himself in the process. He's still gasping for breath when he hits the floor, - he'll be feeling that later, probably even have a nice bruise to show for it, but for now the impact is dulled. His body is still catching up. Everything feels tingly, and not in a good way.]

Cass-

[His voice sounds hoarse and unused. Nick grimaces as he pushes himself to his hands and knees, the cryo-fluid dripping off his hair, his eyelashes, rolling down his arms and spine to remind him that he's naked. It doesn't matter, only one thing does. Nick lifts his head to look around the Medbay, using his powers to help him get up and steady if his liimbs can't be trusted. If she's gone - shit, what if she's gone? His voice is louder this time, louder than his chattering teeth.]

Cassie?!

Comments

[pushed]

What, never? Never ever?

[Nick tries to inject some humor into his voice, something that will make her smile or smack or give him that judging look that she's got down to an art form. But she still sounds tired and vulnerable.]

How long was I out?

[He suddenly dreads hearing the answer to that, because he knows what each and every day did to her. He doesn't even want to think about the times that she cried and it didn't help at all, because none of the bad stuff could be lifted for as long as he was in that damn cryo. Nick can already tell that she didn't have any visions of this. There's no crappy little drawings of stick figures hugging in her notepad.]

Did you stay in here?

[Because it's cold and she's dressed for it, so her misery was complete right down to the physical. He's in no more of a hurry to move than she is, so Nick reaches a hand out to bring a couple of blankets to them.]

[drawed]

[ All Cassie does is just shake her head a little at that. She knows what he's trying to do, and it hurts to try following up with a smart remark of her own. It's impossible to think about looking at him without seeing how he'd looked in that cryotube either, wanting to remember him any other way, and she eventually turns her head, wiping her face against her shoulder. It's gross, she's gross and he's gross, and all of this is just turning out to be the worst space trip ever. ]

I don't know. A couple weeks, I guess. [ Because trying to shrug it off is easier than thinking about the nights she really had cried laying there underneath his cryotube, and Cassie wiggles a little to snatch up one of those blankets, thinks about throwing it at his head for trying to make her laugh all this off before unfolding it and wrapping it around him like a towel. No more mostly naked Nick, thank god, and she's never going to acknowledge that fact for the rest of her life. Probably. Besides, she's seen a few people pop out of cryo before him and how they hadn't exactly had it together for a while after they'd woken up. Cassie shrugs, still a little unsure about looking him in the eye but eventually making herself do it anyway. He looks mostly the same with the same fuzzy face and the traces of color from when he'd let her dye it. That gets a smile, though only a partial one. ]

Wasn't really anywhere else I wanted to stay. [ A sigh, and Cassie tries so hard to let it be normal, to get them back to where they'd started and had quickly rolled their way towards. ] So, what was it like? Did you dream about anything while you were in there?

[pushed]

Two weeks in that thing? No wonder I feel like crap.

[All stiff and weak and kind of sick. Nick frowns and wipes at the cryo-slime with the other blanket, two swipes at her for every one that he takes at himself. In the end, nothing's going to help but a shower and a change of clothes.]

What? [He smiles at her when she finally lifts her eyes, looking worried about what she might see, or at least a little unsure.] I guess that counts as beauty sleep. Don't I look more beautiful?

[God, it's even in his ear. He takes the corner of the towel and starts trying to get it out, at which point he's probably super attractive.]

Nah, not a single good dream about anything. No winning the lottery, no supermodels, nothing.

[drawed]

[ She makes a face when he tries to clean her off with the blanket, but rather than push his hand away, she just stands there and tolerates it. Cassie's never liked the fact that he sometimes tries to baby her, having been on her own long enough to take care of herself. Still, it's nice to have him awake and moving around and doing all those Nick things she'd missed those really long weeks. ]

You kind of look like hell. [ Sorry, Nick. It's true. ] But I don't think anyone's going to care all that much. Not after all the stuff that's been going on.

[ Which is probably a long, complicated story she's just going to sum up real fast so he doesn't start worrying or blaming himself for something that is (apparently) not his fault. She'd asked around when it had first happened, why people get stuck in those things, and no one seems to know why. So, it couldn't have been his choice. Cassie's firm on that, pushing sticky hair over her shoulder as she looks at him. No use being touchy-feely right now; she hopes she's gotten that out of her system. ]

We should get out of here before they decide to keep you even longer. [ A pause, and she frowns a little. ] Bad dreams?

[pushed]

[Look, at least he's not doing that whole 'clean off with spit' mom thing, so she should consider herself lucky.]

Just 'kind of'? I'll take it. [Getting out of there sounds like a good idea, but Nick still puts his arm around her shoulder to keep her against his side.] Just the one. I dreamed you got a mohawk.

[He smiles down at her. She had to miss this. Had to.]

Now tell me what happened.

[drawed]

[ She has missed it, which is why she doesn't fuss over the arm on her shoulder or his comment. In fact, just for that, she pokes an elbow into his ribs and nudges him, but she doesn't stray very far, glancing at the chair across the medbay she'd left all her things in and deciding that leaving with Nick is far more important than that. She could come back later for that. ]

You won't like it. [ Considering the fact she now has a gun and some weird knife thing stashed in her bag. ] Some guys tried to attack the ship, and stuff got turned into glass after they were tossed into that thing we came through back on that planet. You should really see the mess hall.

[ It's just one huge empty room now. Super boring, no color at all. ]

[pushed]

How the hell did they turn it to glass?

[That's weird, even for a guy who move things with his mind. She's right though, he doesn't like it. He doesn't like that she had to face it while he was a Nicksicle, doubling the load on her shoulders.

He nearly stops at the thought of the mess hall being messed up.]

But they still have ramen, right?

[Priorities.]