Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nadia had been tolerant, if that was a good word, of her boyfriends current behavioral changes. Perhaps something about Halloween had given him the annoyed persona, which was more then odd for the old Lorne but she wasn't sure with new Lorne. He had come back from the pumpkin patch with a tote of pumpkins for his kids and even more annoyed snappish behavior.

She had tried to ask what, but he brushed it off and so did she. If he wanted to handle it his own way, she wasn't about to push him.

Except now, where she was sitting in her kitchen, sipping her tea and leveling a blue gaze at the man. He had come over the night before, to be a couple and do couple things and woken up even MORE annoyed and irritable.

She had tried making him breakfast, bacon and eggs and some rolls but he was practically eating the bacon only.

"Lorne. I think we need to take you to the doctor." She would never find her boyfriend hideous, but there was certainly something about him right now that was particularly.....

ghoulish.

The snap of words would make any other woman probably cower away, but Nadia was no such woman, and her mother raised her to deal with NUMEROUS brothers.

"Well you should go again, because you look worst." She quirked a brow at him, daring him to argue with her. "I know you didn't sleep a wink last night, I could feel you tossing and turning."

Eventually she set her tea down and came closer to him, looking at his arms and neck. The scar made her jolt a bit, a reminder of the close encounter...

wait...could he have gotten rabies from a youma?

No no.

There was scratch marks and sores, and she was pretty sure she needed to get some of them disinfected. "At least let me get some dressed." She paused at the way he devoured all the bacon. "Theres more in the fridge if you want to make some more."

At least he had an appetite right?

"I didn't say you did." Just that he had been tossing and turning and no amount of her had given him comfort. He had been plauged with something and she wasn't sure if it was nightmares from the attack or something else. He didn't tell her.

"I don't mean to flinch. You were so strong that day, I'm just sad...." She tried to flirt, tried to lighten the mood, "That he got his mark on there before I could get my own." She would've nipped his neck or kissed him but the disease he was carrying might be contagious.

"Why are you being like this?" She pushed away and then crossed her arms, "Did I do something?"

She watched him go to the fridge, pull the bacon out and ask her plans.

"Taking you to the doctor and possibly nursing you." She said airily. "Otherwise, I am not doing much else. I haven't found work that I am quite willing to throw myself in."

It was hard to think of not doing ballet, but she hadn't found something in DC that offered what she was skilled at.

Didn't mean to flinch - Lorne didn't know whether he was relieved or more frustrated that she'd called attention to it. It was like being caught at a crossroads, and he didn't really love the way that felt. Still, he tried to muster a smile. "Plenty of time for that."

How many marks had she left on Hurst without telling him?

He swallowed at nothing and the first gut response to her question was, "No, " and then just as quickly, like the traces of too large a dinner creeping up the back of one's throat, "Maybe, " came out - it was not supposed to, and just as rapidly, "No, " with a bit more force as he shook his head and got up.

Couldn't find work to throw herself in. Guilt had a way of creeping too, and he clutched the pack of bacon a little tighter. "Will the ballet not take you back? Isn't there something you can do with dance?" He plucked out a piece of bacon, stuck it in his mouth, and hardly chewed before gulping it down. "Maybe teach? Or... I don't know, something?"

Didn't mean to flinch - Lorne didn't know whether he was relieved or more frustrated that she'd called attention to it. It was like being caught at a crossroads, and he didn't really love the way that felt. Still, he tried to muster a smile. "Plenty of time for that."

How many marks had she left on Hurst without telling him?

He swallowed at nothing and the first gut response to her question was, "No, " and then just as quickly, like the traces of too large a dinner creeping up the back of one's throat, "Maybe, " came out - it was not supposed to, and just as rapidly, "No, " with a bit more force as he shook his head and got up.

Couldn't find work to throw herself in. Guilt had a way of creeping too, and he clutched the pack of bacon a little tighter. "Will the ballet not take you back? Isn't there something you can do with dance?" He plucked out a piece of bacon, stuck it in his mouth, and hardly chewed before gulping it down. "Maybe teach? Or... I don't know, something?"

Didn't mean to flinch - Lorne didn't know whether he was relieved or more frustrated that she'd called attention to it. It was like being caught at a crossroads, and he didn't really love the way that felt. Still, he tried to muster a smile. "Plenty of time for that."

How many marks had she left on Hurst without telling him?

He swallowed at nothing and the first gut response to her question was, "No, " and then just as quickly, like the traces of too large a dinner creeping up the back of one's throat, "Maybe, " came out - it was not supposed to, and just as rapidly, "No, " with a bit more force as he shook his head and got up.

Couldn't find work to throw herself in. Guilt had a way of creeping too, and he clutched the pack of bacon a little tighter. "Will the ballet not take you back? Isn't there something you can do with dance?" He plucked out a piece of bacon, stuck it in his mouth, and hardly chewed before gulping it down. "Maybe teach? Or... I don't know, something?"

Part of him really wished she'd just let it go - he'd moved on to the next thing, but now that the question was asked - Lorne just didn't have the capacity to bite it back anymore, not in the state he was in. He shut the refrigerator door a little heavily and sighed hard.

"You told me Hurst was your friend, " and once it was started, there was no taking it back. Like vomit, it was both a strain and a release to get it out of him. Either way, he wanted it gone. "You never told me how... close two were. And make no mistake, I understand we were not together at the time, " as far as he knew, and Lorne refused to begin doubting her now, "but you never told me about him, never warned me, and that was not fair. I extended my hand to him as a friend of yours, and he cornered me in the damned grocery store of all things to lavish me with the details of it, mocking me, and I - you know me, Nadia, and I know I did something stupid when we were apart, but you know me, " and his anxiety, his stammering, everything. If he'd known, at least, he could have been uncomfortable but prepared.

"Then I'm sick, I'm miserable, and what does this - this salaud, he comes again when I'm out buying pumpkins for my children, I ask him to leave me be, and he starts again. Starts talking about you, and the things he's done with you, talking about our relationship as though he has any say, and god help me, I hit him. And I'm sorry for striking your friend, I am, but I'm also not, honestly, I am not. I do not like him, and some warning would have been nice. That's all."

His gaze dropped, suddenly, because even as awful as he felt, as frustrated and upset, amplified a thousand fold by whatever it was he had, Lorne was still Lorne. He murmured something that might have been an apology, the red in his face contrasting with the greenish hue of his flesh as he crammed another piece of bacon in his mouth, thoughtlessly.