Adam, despite the amount of stitches and bandages, was looking better than he had done in a few days. Then again, the passing out and then proper sleep had done its job. He was reading, or trying to with splinted fingers, sitting up in bed and wrapped up in especially soft blankets.
Lorna had absolutely no idea how on earth Adam managed to carry Bit around so many places. He was a squirmy thing that did not seem too keen on going anywhere. She found herself glad that the mice stayed put, ate doritos, and basically were even-tempered creatures.
"Hold still." She knocked at the door. "I said hold still."
Adam jumped at the knock - he wasn't precisely expecting a trail of well-wishers after all, and that suited him just fine. He stared at the door for a moment, before it occurred to him that the person did want to see him. "Uh...it's open." His voice was still hoarse and a little slurry thanks to the stitches in a particularly nasty cut over his lip.
Lorna didn't let go of Bit, sliding into the door and finally setting the rabbit down to do it's evil activities. "Bit does not like the boathouse."
Adam squeaked happily as Bit immediately jumped up to him, bouncing and chittering angrily at him. "Bit!" He hugged the tiny rabbit carefully, petting him. "Ow - Bit, I haven't got skin under that - that hurts - I missed you too-" He giggled, before looking up at Lorna a little warily. "I'll pay for anything he wrecked. Promise."
"Nah, he let his frustrations known but nothing's ruined...pissed on to high heaven but not ruined." She shook her head, sliding into a seat.
Bit was sniffing at his owner, squeaking occasionally before climbing up Adam's pillows and onto a shoulder, nibbling experimentally at his now short, messy hair. Adam winced a little. "Yeah...he um...he does that when he's stressed...I'm sorry. Would have taken him with me if I could but..." He scritched Bit a little. "H-hows Darren?"
"He seems to be recovering. Selene's been taking care of him anyway." She replied, settling back and kicking her feet up on the table beside the bed. "And why on earth are you apologizing about it?" Lorna's head shook, finding that ridiculous. "In any case, that's over."
"...I don't know. Maybe it's to do with thinking that somehow this was all my fault." Adam put his book down carefully, wincing as the light stretch pulled against varying bandages and stitches. They'd really done him over - McCoy hadn't told him how many stitches or handed him a mirror yet. "Y-yeah...I...hope so, though...part of me never wants to leave the medlab..."
"...Adam, do I have to give you a 'don't be emo' speech? Please say I don't, I'm not sure I have one in me right now."
"Well no. I've had enough of cutting." He tried a smile, though it ended in a quiet 'ow'. "But come on, Lorna - I tell you I'm part of the Brotherhood and there's members at the school and then I'm taken off the street by the FoH - which, by the way, was terrifying but oddly cool too - who have way too much information on what I did to them..."
He rubbed his hands together, resulting in another 'ow'. "And then with the whole...torture...and threatening death thing...yeah, I'm nervous about wanting to go ten feet away from a teacher right now." He was shaking a little, trying hard to cover everything with his normal cracked persona but damnit he was too sane for this shit.
"I'm well aware of what happened, Adam." Lorna sighed. "But you're not going to hide here. That would be exactly what people wanted to happen now, wouldn't it?"
"You will be safe here, Adam. You will be."
Adam looked down at the covers, picking at them a little. Medlab was safe. No one could kidnap him, no one could threaten him, no one could lynch him here. But she had a point. It would be what they wanted, to have him running scared, too scared to say anything. Once again, this was bigger than him - for the right reasons.
"...I'm scared, Mrs Drake." He said finally. "But...you're right, I mean, Doc McCoy would end up going nuts with me hiding out down here, right? Aaaand I do kinda need to go to class...and do my job...going back to normal routine would be best, right?"
She smiled and nodded. "Yes, and that's what I want to hear too...not saying it isn't going to be difficult but it's better you've made up your mind now than trying to go it the other way." She did hate to see people trying to go the opposite road, after all.
"Don't act like nothing is wrong though, yeah?" She had seen people go too far this way as well.
"...That's what I've got my meds and Dai for." Adam nodded. "Because something is wrong. I-I mean, I know I've got problems and all the psychobabble shit, but if it's one thing I've learnt it's that bottling is not healthy...I just don't have to sit in a corner and sigh at everyone every five seconds."
She had to laugh at that. "I more meant with the immediate coping but that's a good point as well, a very good point."
Adam managed a lopsided smile at that - Dr McCoy had threatened bad grades again so he wasn't going to risk burst stitches from a grin. "Immediate coping is going to be mixing like hell, gibbering at myself and staring at people until the paranoia goes away and my new meds kick in. But I promise as soon as I notice myself sighing I'll go bake cakes or something."
"I could do with some cake." She murmured thoughtfully over the thought of the dessert. "But yes, that sounds good. Talking is also quite good as well, highly recommended as a matter of fact."
"But Mrs Draaaaake that means I have to be sociable, and you know I have this image of the crazy emo in the school." Adam half-wailed, before smiling again. "I know. Hell, I'm planning on it. If you want, I'll even sit here and tell you who to keep an eye on in the school. I don't care any more - what's worse than torture after all?"
"But Mr. Kiiilllduuuuff, too baaad." She grinned but shook her head, able to come up with a few things that were probably worse than torture. "Considering the traitor element, I'm going to be keeping an eye on everyone. In anycase it seems the FOH is cutting back on activities, same for the Brotherhood."
"And if they see nothing specifically aimed at their members then they can assume I didn't get anything from you. It's better this way for now."
Adam nodded slowly. "...Alright, I guess I can kinda understand that, if they think I'm too frightened." He looked down at his bandaged hands. "I hope to hell some of them do what I've done and see the light. I'll see what I can do to make sure they don't get any new recruits from here too...not that it'll be much but I know what they're looking for. Right?"
"And you'll believe I'm going to be making sure people have a stronger sense of loyalty to what the X-men are if they're going to be involved...I've failed a lot in that regard it would seem."
"That's not true." Adam sat up a little straighter, frowning. "Not at all. You can't help it when people are dicks or..." He remembered Ronnie and Rose. "...or psychotic enough or in my case just plain fucking stupid to follow what they think's the right cause. It's not your fault at all, Lorna. It's nobody's except the bastards running the 'Hood."
"Oh no, it's not my fault but I need to be aware of X-men who don't want what the group is after. It's going to undermine us eventually."
"I suppose so." Adam rubbed his hands together - another 'ow' as he forgot the breaks again - and sighed. "Well...not like we can do a lot now, right? Guess I should just concentrate on not being too paranoid to get out of the door and trying to be pretty again." He smirked a little.
That earned another laugh. "You be the prettiest Adam you can be." She sighed, shaking her head a bit. "Hey, it's the summer, we're supposed to relax! There will be plenty of time to do things when everyone is back." Lorna assured him. "Time to relax, sit back, and not think of world ending terror."
"Nah, me and Chthulu are homies. He's actually pretty damn awesome once you get past the whole Elder God and instant insanity thing." Adam smiled at her. "At least this way I can keep my interestingly pale complexion, right?" He was glad he made someone laugh. "Trust me, I'm going to be relaxing. I've had enough of tension this semester."
"Amen to that." Though, sometimes, Lorna wondered if every year wasn't ridiculously tense. This one was right up there, however.
