Who: Nate and tessa Where: Irvine General What: Nate and tessa talk When: During the musical plot Warnings/Rating: PG-13 Status Complete
Nate sighed as he sat on the curb next to the hospital. hed come to visit a sick friend, and the friend was doing better, but on the way out he had just... stopped. Life seemed a lot like that lately. He felt like he just stopped a lot. And he felt like he would for awhile. It was like things just suddenly got too much, and his brain shut down and thus, so did his body.
Today, sitting on the curb there near the emergency entrance, watching people go by, sure to be out of the way, he just sort of was. And he felt... okay with being, and not being much other than that.
Tessa was well accustomed to the rhythm of the hospital, sometimes rushing at a frantic pace, other times falling into a lull. It was during one of those lulls that she came out, carrying supplies to restock the ambulance, and her attention was drawn to the young man sitting on the curb.
She finished what she was doing, and approached him curiously. Wasn’t this the same young man she’d picked up when he’d fallen unconscious in the middle of class, a few weeks ago?
“Is everything all right?”
Nate blinked, then smiled a little, and opened his mouth, but song came out instead of words, and he sighed.
“Every single night the same arrangement I go out and fight the fight. Still I always feel the strangest estrangement Nothing here is real, nothing here is right. I've been making shows of trading blows just hoping no one knows That i've been going through the motions walking through the part. Nothing seems to penetrate my heart...”
Tessa couldn’t help but wonder, at Nate’s words, where he had gone wandering while he was absent from his body. To hear the words, and listen between the lines, it seemed to her that he had left a child, but come back a wounded man. She wanted to ask him, to reassure him somehow. But she wasn’t sure if she could find the words.
The words found her instead.
”When your body wants to run But your heart knows you're better than that The blood you spilled on battlefields I promise you will not go unspent Neither will I leave you stranded The promise rings as our battle cry You're never alone regardless of doubt But faith comes so easy to some Better luck next time, better luck next time...”
Nate smiled a little, and nodded, and then spoke softly. “I saw you in the future. I saw the you that was then. Much like the you that is now.” He held out his hand. “I’m Nathan Summers. We’re going to be friends for a very long time.”
She took his hand, her smile soft, and her eyes full of empathy. She had a strange sense of deja vu, thinking of a time in one of her dreams where she had reminded someone how they were supposed to know her, and she let out a soft laugh under her breath. She’d just take his word for it, this time.
“I’m Tessa,” she said, “But I suppose you already know that. Unless I am called by another name in the future.”
“Nope. Same Name.” He smiled and then canted his head, shaking her hand. “Would you like to see what happened?”
“If you’d like to show me,” she said, after a moment’s consideration. It couldn’t be all that different from Dreaming, could it? And perhaps it was important for him to tell her, if only to get it off his chest.
Nate smiled softly, and held out a hand to her. “Take my hand, and close your eyes, and the memory will be there...” And he reached into his mind and let the memory play.
Tessa did as he asked, opening her mind as the memory slid into place. It lasted only for a moment, but it felt as familiar as the memory of taking Nathan to the hospital two weeks ago, and as real as the gentle pressure of his hand in hers.
“Thank you for sharing that with me,” she said softly, “I wish we had met under better circumstances, but I’m glad I could be there for you.”
Nate nodded to her. “You are a good person, then and now. It is a pleasure to meet you, again, for the first time.” He smiled, even as his smile held a hint of sadness. Life was too crazy right now.
She nodded, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. She knew he was hurting, and struggling to move forward, but she wouldn't belittle his pain by telling him to cheer up. Looking on the bright side still took time to adjust.
"I'm glad to meet you, too, Nathan Summers. And if there's anything I can do to help...you let me know, all right? I'll be around."
Nate smiled a little and nodded. “Thank you, Tessa. How are you? How are your dreams?”
“I’m okay,” she said, smiling back at him. “The dreams can get intense sometimes--not to mention the powers that come with them--but I’m keeping afloat. It helps, having close friends who are also dreamers. And knowing that some of them will still be around for a long time, if the powers mean that I become less...mortal.”
“Good. And I don’t think so. You came off as very persony to me.” He nodded. He recalled the encounter vividly, just having brought it up for her. “That future will never happen now, but at least you know the potential is there.”
He grinned, a little, still roughly. “Say, are you busy?”
Tessa gave a soft laugh under her breath, relieved to hear that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on her part, and to hear from someone else that she had in fact held on to her humanity. It would have been so easy to become detached, in a world like the one he had shown her.
She shook her head. “I was just about to go on break. Why?”
“Would you like to get a shake with me? The place across the street makes good ones.” Nate nodded as he rose and stretched.
“Yeah,” she said, nodding as she stood to her feet as well. “That sounds just about perfect right now. I’d like that.”
Nate smiled and led the way, then, along the sidewalk. “People around here sometimes don’t look for pedestrians, which you think wouldn’t be so, since half the accidents are ones involving such.” He shook his head and then led the way across the crosswalk.
“Sometimes, I don’t get people.”
“Tell me about it.” Tessa kept a sharp eye out as they walked, all too familiar with the accident rate in Orange County--and the diving habits of the population. “I’m not worried for myself, but yeah. It can be pretty bad sometimes.”
Nate nodded to her. “I’m never really worried for myself. Somehow, I seem to be somewhat protected. But I worry what would happen to the idiots who almost hit me.”
“What would happen?” Tessa asked, cocking her head. She knew, or at least remembered vicariously, that Nate had some pretty strong telepathic and telekinetic powers. But if they were still developing, and he remembered more than he was quite physically ready for, that could be a little tricky.
Nate smiled in a sickly way. “Well... just after I got back, when I walked across the street, someone ran a red light and was headed right for me. their car blew a tire, suddenly, and they slammed into a pole to the side, , totalling their car and ending up with broken ribs. He’d just gotten regulation wheels and tires put in the day before.” Nate sighed and shook his head.
“A day ago, a guy on a bike didn’t see me and was nearing down on me, and a car ran a red light and hit him, sending him to the hospital. The person who ran the red light? Didn’t remember stepping on the gas. Apparently they suddenly and without precedence fell asleep in their car, at exactly that moment.” He nodded as he walked with her, and opened the door to the diner.
“Scary.” Tessa offered a sympathetic look as they stepped into the diner. She didn’t think that he was consciously causing any of that, but she could tell it was frustrating and worrisome for him all the same. “Sometimes accidents happen in spite of our best efforts to prevent them. All you can do is your best.”
Nate nodded. “I’ve been working on making sure my powers aren’t manifesting, and the truly scary part is that... I don’t think it was my powers, actually, doing it. It was something else.” He settled to a table and grabbed a menu. he was hungry now.
She nodded, sitting down across from him. “Do you want to talk about it? It’s okay if you don’t, but I’ll listen.”
“I’ve told most of it. Something or someone is protecting me... in ways that are sometimes outright violent.” He shivered. “And I have no idea who or what.” He smiled softly at her. The worst part was, some small part of him wondered if he really was causing it, and somehow not knowing it.
He hmmed. “Mostly, right now, I’m trying to avoid accidents, and trying to pick up the pieces of my life.”
“Is that something you’ve noticed just since you’ve been dreaming, or longer?” Tessa asked. She resisted the urge to try and open up her Sight and look around them to see if there was anyone of anything following him around that he could see. She wasn’t sure if it was something she even could turn off and on. Her other self existed almost entirely outside of the physical plane, and could therefore see spirits and things all the time.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be nosy. We can just focus on ice cream if you’d rather.”
“Just since then. But then, I didn’t think about it before that...” He wasn’t sure, now. He hmmed, and glanced at her. “It’s one of those things you just suddenly become aware of, you know?”
Nate smiled a little. “But they have lots of shake flavors here!”
“Yeah.” Tessa didn’t want to think about past lives, or alternate universes influencing her life choices either--though she couldn’t deny that she had done her share of worrying about that when she had first started dreaming. She was trying to stay present in the here and now.
“What’s your favorite flavor?”i
“Peanut butter and chocolate. I’ve always liked that flavor. Yours?” Nate smiled, putting away the other topics for now. Tessa was nice, and he could see talking to her a lot, really.
Tessa grinned. “Me too. I mean, I’ll try any flavor of ice cream at least once, but I am kind of a sucker for peanut butter chocolate anything.”
Nate’s mind dipped into the gutter for a moment and his cheeks heated, but he nodded. “Sounds good, then. Two peanut butter chocolate shakes.”
“Good thing, then! Will that be all for you?” nate jumped at the nice voice from next to them and looked aside at the waitress, who’d walked up quietly. “Er.... I think so, except for water for me and anything she wants?” He glanced at Tessa, eyebrows up.
“I think that’s good, for now,” Tessa said, thanking the waitress as she took down their order. She pretended that she didn’t notice the blush of a young man who was still waiting for his body to catch up with his intellectual maturity. She was very grateful that Zach was 21, instead of 12 and crushing on her anyway.
“So, I bet people ask you this all the time, but do you know what you want to study when you graduate?”
“Music and art. I love both, and like doing both. I just don’t know if I’ll be any good.” He paused. “With a minor in technology, I think, as it relates to bodies and biology.”
“I think it’s important to do things that you enjoy, even if it doesn’t turn into a career,” Tessa mused. “I mean, if you’re really good at math, but you just hate, then you’d probably be miserable as a mathematician. And that would be just as bad if not worse than being a musician or an artist who was just okay. You know?”
Nate nodded, grinning. “You’re pretty smart. I like musics and art, and tech, some, too, so I’ll try them, and see what happens.”
“Who knows,” Tessa said, “Maybe you can combine them and do digital art, like CGI for movies, or something.” She smiled. “You could probably invent something that no one else has thought of trying yet.”
Nate nodded. “Maybe?” He ordered his shake, then grinned at her. “I would like that.” It could be fun to doing something new. He wondered what would happen. All he knew was that he just wanted to get through this crazy life.
She smiled encouragingly, studying his face. He was a brave and determined young man. "You'll figure it out," she said, "I have every confidence. And you won't be alone."
Nate smiled at her and reached out to take one of her hands. “Thanks, Tessa. You’re pretty keen in any time.” He nodded.
“You’re welcome,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. “Any time.”