Soon I lay me down to rest...for now

[Frostbite]

"Yeah," Lorelai said with a small nod, a slight smile on her face as she felt like she had something to look forward to after she conked out for a while. Apologizing to people could wait for a little; she'd not ruin their fun by trying to talk to them during the barbecue. It had been the thing she was going to do to Bobby, but that just sort of worked itself out by way of her losing her mind. Things seemed okay now that she had at least got the gist of what she wanted to say to Bobby out to him. She felt like there was more, but at that moment in time, she didn't know what because she was trying to mull everything over in her head. She glanced over at the reflective chrome wall of the sub-basement hall and saw what she looked like after everything. Despite having taken some medication to make it heal, she still couldn't help feeling self conscious about the way her face looked, and her puffy red eyes from crying again. She couldn't help looking away quickly while trying to keep from looking up at Bobby so he wouldn't have to see her messed up face.

She leaned against him just in case she felt like she was wobbly, and reached out a hand to press the button for the elevator. "You know, aside from having gone mental and trying to freeze people, that little blizzard thing was pretty cool I think. It was wicked easy to get a bunch of people," she said, feeling a slightly bigger smile come on her face as she started to think about it. "A good move, sorta, don't you think?" she asked, about to look up to see his reaction, but remembered that he'd seen enough of her messed up face for a while and kept looking forward as the elevator doors opened. "You ever do one of those?" she asked, going with the distraction that made her situation not so hard to think about. "Probably, right?" she asked with a small laugh as they stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go up. She stayed quiet for the ride, just watching the little light at the top of the elevator move up as they went up, though felt a little weird when it moved up and wobbled a little as if she were felt dizzy.

The dizzy feeling stayed for a moment even after they got off the elevator and she leaned against him until her head felt right. When it seemed relatively normal again, she glanced around at everything they passed as they walked from the foyer heading towards the dorms. When they passed by the kitchen, she couldn't help looking into it to catch a glimpse of people moving around outside and felt a twinge of guilt. She'd made a fool of herself out there, and taken Bobby away from everyone who was having fun with him. She looked away as they kept walking toward the dorms and looked down at the floor. "Thanks for staying with me. I know you could be out there having fun with everyone, but it means a lot," she said somewhat quietly, unable to help looking up at him to give him a small but grateful smile. "So when I fall asleep, are you gonna go back out there? I'm sure there are people waiting to play some kickball with you, and I'm sure there's some grilled food calling your name," she said with a small laugh, sort of feeling a bit hungry again at the sound of food. Now that she thought back, she hadn't eaten everything on her plate, and she guessed crying was a good way to burn food off. She could wait until after her nap to eat; she was sure the kitchen had something good.

"It definitely smelled good out there, all that grilled food and everything. And there was that new girl with her jambalaya," she said, sort of feeling like she was just rambling on while they continued the walk to her room. At one point when they reached the hall in the girls dorms, Lorelai nearly tripped over a pencil someone left on the floor that she hadn't noticed. She couldn't help feeling embarrassed even though it was an accident and tried to get up without much help, though she found herself back up rather quickly. She was grateful when they finally got to her room so that there wasn't anything else that might make her seem all the more unstable.

Approaching her door, she had to laugh somewhat sheepishly. "It's kinda okay in there...not the cleanest, but not gross either," she said, almost immediately remembering the dirty clothes she threw into the closet when she couldn't get rid of them the way she wanted. She felt like they weren't hidden even though they were shut tight away from anyone who came in. She leaned over slightly to open the door, showing a slightly messy room. Her things were laying around; a couple books sitting crookedly on her bedside table, her iPod resting on her bureau next to some eyeliner that she sometimes used. It wasn't a big mess, but there were probably improvements that could've been made to make things neater. The curtains were moving with the breeze coming through the open window and letting fresh air in, and knocked over a piece of paper that had been laying on her dresser.

It was probably some assignment that she left there, but she wanted to go pick it up so things didn't look as messy as Lorelai herself. She stayed where she was, however, and smiled grimly. "Yeah...this is it..sorry if it's not exactly guest friendly," she said with a short laugh, one hand scratching the back of her head sheepishly as she held the door open so he could look and see before going in. "Um, yeah, there's that free bed for you to sit on or you can grab a chair, whatever you want to do," she said, looking off to the side with a shrug, trying not to feel self conscious about her room too. It was times like these that she sometimes wished she had a roommate so the state of the room wasn't all her doing. She didn't want to come off as a slob.

[Iceman]

Bobby looked at her and smiled, though the way she was repeating herself from earlier had him a little concerned. He should have checked her for a concussion after that heavy hit she took to the tree. "Hey its fine, my room is like ten times worse than this. The only way I can find my bed is because I call it the biggest pile on the floor," he said with a slight laugh. "Okay, just sit on your bed for me for a sec, I'll get it nice and comfy in here." Bobby knew how to make a nice and cold room, just the way he liked his own after a crazy day. He closed the window and then went over to play with the thermostat, making it on the lowest setting. The best feeling was waking up in a nice cold room. For the longest time, and still now sometimes, Bobby would make it snow around him in his sleep or make the area icy. He didn't mind, but he was forbidden to sleep on the Blackbird or anyplace else that involved a lot of people.

"Ok don't go to sleep yet, I should probably have done this downstairs, but oh well. I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions and no matter who weird they are, just answer them. I oughta check if you got a concussion, cause you're repeating yourself a bit there." He knelt down in front of her on the bed, his eyes searching hers and checking them to see if her pupils were normal. "Well..." Bobby studied her eyes carefully. "Your eyes look fine, so that's a good start. Now I just need you to answer a couple of basic questions."

He smiled at her and leaned back a little, still looking at her. "Okay, What day is it? What's your name? What's my name? How old are you? Where are you from?" Bobby knew that if she had a concussion, he couldn't let her sleep for the first two hours, cause if she threw up then he'd have to get Beast and have him take care of her. Concussions could be really serious, he had one or two before and both the Professor and Hank stretched how important it was for him to tell them if something wasn't right.

[Frostbite]

Lorelai couldn't help it; she just had to laugh. "I don't have a concussion, can't I feel some nice repetitive guilt?" she asked, shaking her head, unable to help smiling at the silly idea that she had a concussion. Sure, she hit her head by being thrown against the tree, but she really didn't think it would make her lose her head. Her head had stopped throbbing from the meds she got, so that was something good. "I'm fine, really," she said before seeing the insistent look that she answer the questions. She heaved a sigh and then answered him in no particular order, beginning to wonder if order mattered. "You're Bobby. I'm Lorelai. I'm from Boston. It's Saturday. I'm 17. I told you, I'm fine. I hit my head, thanks to that skank, but I haven't literally lost my mind. Like I said, can't I feel some guilt until things are fixed? Dang, man," she said with another laugh, actually amused that she'd just gotten tested for a concussion.

"It's all okay up in here," she said, tapping a finger to her head to reassure him that she was fine. She only hoped he believed her because then it would just add to the long list of things that were wrong with her, physically and mentally. The temperature in the room started to drop nicely since Bobby had played around with the thermostat and the cold made her sigh happily. It felt so nice that she felt as if she could just fall asleep right then and there, but she wasn't getting too tired yet, and she wanted to make sure Bobby knew she didn't have a concussion. "So do I pass? Or get called mentally stable or something? I wish I had a carrot so I could ask you 'What's up, Doc,'" she said with a laugh, resting a hand behind her on the bed and leaning back slightly, unable to help smirking at herself as she waited to hear that she was fine.

[Iceman]

Bobby grinned at her in satisfaction. "Yea you passed, I just had to make sure," he said with a slight laugh. "I had to check you know, trust me a concussion really sucks, and it would be really really bad if it ain't treated." He ruffled her hair a bit a She had looked so frail in the lab that it had Bobby really concerned, but now she looked like she was back in good spirits.

"Well I'm glad you're okay," he said standing up and going over to the window. He grabbed the curtains and moved them shut, blocking out virtually all the light in the room and checking the window to make sure it's closed tight. "Now you better get some sleep. You had it tough today, and right now all you can do is sleep kiddo." He walked over to her and grabbed her chin gently, looking over her bruised face. "On the bright side though, the bruising is already going down."

His thumb moved across her chin affectionately before he let it go carefully. "I'm gonna get going okay? You get some sleep and I'll check on you later," Bobby promised and walked toward the door. "Sleep well kiddo, I'll save you some food from the cookout." He opened the door gently and then closed it softly behind him. Bobby was convinced that she would be fine now, and he needed to get back to the cookout anyways. He was still really upset with the way they all behaved, but he needed to face them sooner or later, and he might as well get it over with.

[TuneUP]

Sean grinned down at her slightly and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "Katie girl, it ain't your power that makes you special, its just you that makes you special." He brushed his thumb over her cheek and he smiled at her with reassurance. "There ain't no pressure on ya Katie girl, Kitty, Riker, and all of us for that matter get your situation, and it ain't the end of the world. If you think you're ready to use your power, then we're all behind you. Don't put any pressure on yourself, got it little lady?" he said with a grin and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Here goes nothing," Sean said turning to the door. He knocked softly on it, and then again a little harder. "Lorelai? It's me and Katie. May we come in?" His voice was calm and gentle, not wanting Lorelai to think that they were coming to do anything but hang out with her and check on her. Sean would never ridicule her and not once had he laughed at her expense, or anyone's really. He just wanted to be the friend that he felt she needed.

[Frostbite]

The sliver of light on the wall from the bit of light that slipped through a crack of her curtains was no longer Lorelai's focus point while waiting to fall asleep when she heard a knock at her door and someone talking to her on the other side. Her eyes flicked in the direction of the door as she got up from her bed somewhat slowly, feeling heavy and ruffled her hair so it fell around her face to hide it somewhat. It was dark in her room, so it was probably messy, but she rather be seen with messy hair than her messed up face all out in the open.

It took her a minute to realize it was Sean's voice and she felt somewhat relieved that it wasn't someone who might've wanted to kick her ass just a little bit more after everything. The slight twinge of nervousness she had felt went away as she walked to the door in the dark, knowing her room well enough not to bump into anything. More visitors...I admit I'm surprised, she thought to herself with a hint of a smirk. She wasn't sure if k'8 would be coming back or not, but she hadn't been expecting Sean to come too, but she wasn't about to turn either of them down.

As soon as she opened the door, light flooded in and she had to squint from the brightness in contrast to the near pitch black she had gotten accustomed to. She remembered to put on a slight smile as her eyes focused and looked at both Sean and k'8 at her door. "Hey, uh yeah, come in," she said, opening the door a little more and stepping back so they could come in. "Uh, excuse the dark and the cold, Bobby made it like that so I could take a nap. It's cool though, I hadn't fallen asleep yet," she added after so they didn't just turn around and leave thinking they woke her up. "Oh," she muttered to herself as she leaned over to turn her bedside lamp on for them so they could see where they were going.

"You guys can sit on that bed over there if you want, and there's a chair..." she said, wanting to make them feel welcome. They took the time from the ever-fun cookout to see her, so she thought she may as well try to make it worth their while. She closed her door to keep the cold in before sitting down on her bed. "So uh, what's up? Um..how's everything outside?" she asked, half afraid to find out just in case anyone was plotting their revenge on her for flipping out.

[D'mnchyld]

"Oh well, it's-" K'8 began to reply as they came into the room. She didn't want to let on to Lorelai how the party carried on without her, and didn't want to not answer her either, so she opted to stall "wow! It is chilly in here" She hugged herself and rubbed her arms with her hands "but I guess if it helps, then we could bundle up over here."

She sat down on the other bed with Sean next to her and they wrapped the blankets from the bed around themselves. "Oh that's a little better. So, how are you feeling?" She started then, changing the subject from the ongoing barbecue that they could hear the music and laughter from, to a subject hopefully more easy to discuss. "You looked like you-"

At that moment, THAT VERY SECOND IN FACT, the windows burst in with a startling force. Sailing in through them came a dripping wet streamer looking pile of bed sheets. With a *Ker-PLoPP!* they landed in the middle of the floor and the trailing tail end of them whistled past the three of them to flop against the wall. "Oh my." K'8 said after the initial shock passed.

She looked at Sean and then at Lorelai. "Uh, I guess your 'friend' is still hoping to get your attention. Wow, he sure is, uh.. desperate? I wonder if this is his version of a display of affection?" She shrugged as she got up out of the bed and rushed over to quickly gather the nasty sheets together and stuff them in the trashcan. Pulling the bag out and tying it up she said "I'll take care of this don't even get up. You need to rest and not worry about the dumb stuff."

Looking under the sink k'8 found some paper towels and used almost the whole roll to blot up the wet spot on the carpet before she washed herself off really good. "It's a good thing I don't get all squeamish around blood, heh, c'ept for my own nowadays. Okay, all gone, now don't worry about a thing, um okay? You okay?" She went and sat on the bed next to Frostbite then as she dried her hands and arms off and took the new Paragon's hand in her own. "It's your choice, remember that, your choice to be okay. You can choose a different path. I learned that, in LIMBO, you saw... you were there. So what's it gonna be?"

[TuneUP]

Sean looked out the window in time to catch Rumble's wave and to see his arm around Ana's thin frame. He frowned and shook his head with a sigh. "I'm sorry for that Lorelai. I know it may not seem like it, but they'll all get over it. You know how this school works, why just earlier this week, we had a trend of gossiping rings going on. Remember all the rumors that came when Alex told everyone about the pool of blood he saw in the gym after the Corsairs were there? And then the next thing everyone is talking about goes from Ember's shirt at gym class, to Haven and Ian beating up Rumble in gym and him burying the two of them. Then they were all talking about Katana and Frostbite switching, and then about Wolverine throwing Rumble out the window, and then Ember throwing Rumble threw the boathouse wall and nearly killing him..." He looked contemplative for a minute with a frown on his face and then shook his head. "Come to think of it, Rumble's involved in nearly everything. He really knows how to turn this place upside down."

Shaking himself out of it after a moment, he closed the windows and put the lock down on it this time and then closed the curtains shut tightly. "My point is Lorelai, that it all passes and moves to the next thing. And like Katie girl said, the way to move on is up to you and the choice that you make. She's pretty darn sharp about these things," Sean smiled at his little lady and sat down at the bed next to Lorelai's. He gave her a smile to and stood up to take off his jean jacket and drape it on Kate's shoulders.

"You aren't alone though, not as alone as you think you are. We ain't the only ones who wanted to check on you, we just got to you first," he said with a slight grin to distract her mind from Rumble's torturous antics. No one deserved anything that guy did and the way Sean saw it was that whether he was torturing Aideen or charming Lorelai to bend to his will, he was still making other's lives worse.

[Frostbite]

Lorelai sat frozen next to k’8 on her bed; only her eyes had moved to watch as the two made it seem as if the boomerang bedsheets never happened. She was just frozen. She didn’t know what to think because it just didn’t end. Did it ever end? Would it? She was embarrassed when k’8 picked up the sheets and got rid of them, because why would she willingly touch them? She was too nice. Sean was too, even while he was trying to make her feel better. Having both of them there showed they were both too nice, more than she deserved after the past couple of days. But was this how it was going to be now? Stay in her room until she wanted to talk to someone so she’d find specifically them, or wait until people decided to come to her room to see if she was still alive or okay?

It was her fault, but she blamed Rumble too. Why did he have to just throw them in her face again? She had an idea why- for his amusement, of course, but it didn’t seem like a good enough reason anymore. His amusement meant nothing to her now, and she didn’t want any part in it. It probably wouldn’t end now, not after she decided to go after him. She could try to avoid him all she liked, but she knew it probably wouldn’t work, and she knew she’d probably be afraid to talk to him or even look at him. It just wasn’t right. None of it was.

“Sorry you had to touch that,” she said to k’8, her voice low as her neck decided to let her turn her head to look at her friend. “I should’ve taken care of it…I wish you hadn’t seen this,” she said, before looking over at Sean. “They aren’t gonna forget this. He won’t let them forget, cause he has to be entertained, and he’ll do it in front of everyone. He already did. I can apologize to everyone who I pissed off, but they won’t forget about this,” she said, shaking her head as she looked at the floor with widened eyes, realizing that this was probably going to be the case. She could feel a lump in her throat and could feel tears coming on as everything just wouldn’t stop happening for one second, but she swallowed it down and covered it with a yawn. “I wanna be okay, but I don’t know how to get to that yet,” she said, yawning for real this time. “You see what it’s like right now. It just keeps getting worse, and I don’t wanna lose it again. Getting thrown against a tree and then having a face pounding isn’t all that fun,” she said with a half laugh, letting the small amount of humor try to lighten up things just a little bit before she remembered what her face must’ve looked like then, even with the meds and reducing swelling.

She shook her head a bit to let the hair fall in front of her face again to hide it, but let her eyes meet k’8 and Sean’s. “If you two weren’t here, I don’t know what I’d have done,” she said quietly as she stifled another yawn, knowing it probably would’ve been a lot worse. She was honestly thankful that she wasn’t alone right now, but the desire to just sleep her way into a dream world where life wasn’t this was starting to grow on her.

[D'mnchyld]

"Okay. No more talking from you, time for rest." Katie was not going to drag this out any more than it should be. Their visit was meant to be short and sweet and so it appeared that it was going to be since Frostbite was fats on her way to sleep. To speed her on her way k'8 decided to help.

"Time for a story, if you don't think it's too babyish. Whenever I was sick my Auntie would tell me stories and they always helped me to feel better, or at least to fall asleep with my mind at ease." She looked up to Sean and nodded for him to help her tuck Lorelai in all comfy cozy. "So just lay back and relax. Close your eyes if you like, but you don't have to- no pressure" she grinned "and I will tell you how tomorrow will be..."

She paused for a moment to let Sean fluff her pillows and for Lorelai to lay back into them. When she heard the sigh of comfortable contentment she had anticipated she began. "In the morning, when the sun warms the world and the light of it's happy greeting sneaks past your curtains to wake you, don't be alarmed. All that happened today will be only a memory, like a vapor and so easy to forget. You will wake and dress and splash some water on your face and when you are ready and not before and not a moment after, you will turn the knob on that door and join us all for breakfast."

"I know you will want to stay here, but you wont, you can't because you're stronger than that. You will let the past drift away like the steam lifting up from your oatmeal and you'll sit down with us and you'll smile past the pain, and past the fear." She widened her eyes and nodded her head slightly as she said it. "I know this because you are not a quitter. Sure it's going to be hard for you, lets face it you made a lot of people mad, so I would expect them to not like you for some time. You have very little chance of making anyone understand, or getting any of your friends to want to even listen to you, let alone give you a chance to be their friend again..."

She knew her words would be hard to hear as she said them, which was why she said them in such a soothing manner as she did. She also felt the weight of Sean's stare as he too was probably not sure where she was going with this whole little 'story' of hers, but she had started it and now she had to finish it. She had a really good point to make and so with ease and care in her voice she layed it on thick, the better to make her point that way.

"...yeah, slim chance at that. I would guess your teammate Chase would give some long odds on it, but I'll tell you why I would bet on you... can ya guess?" She grinned "If anybody ever says it I always have to giggle, but you might have a snowball's chance in hell, and you are the one snowball who made it through hell so I know you can do it. You survived way worse, sure it was a different kind of thing, but you made it through that and you can make it through this too."

"And at the end of the day when you find yourself right back here, you will be one day close to your goal... whatever that might be. Since it's for you to decide what you do and how you do whatever you do, I wont begin to suppose..." she shrugged since she kind of confused herself with that last bit and from the looks on the faces of Sean and Lorelai she was pretty sure she confused them too. ".. but however it works out I know you will be alright in the end, and the little blue haired snow princess lived happily ever after...the end."

Glancing down she saw the last of Frostbite's resolve to stay awake melt away as snow in the spring must do, and nudging her head to the door she slipped off the bed. Raising a finger to her lips to say for her and Sean to be quiet as church mice she tiptoed to the door and scooped up the bag full of nasty sheets as they left. Closing the door behind them and listening with one ear pressed to the outside of it to make sure Lorelai had stayed asleep she turned to Sean in the hallway and smiled.

"So what should we do with these?" she asked holding the nasty bag of wet, bloody, spunktacular sheets out before her. "I have an idea, but I'm not so sure it's a good one." She looked over at her man, his calm and relaxing cool demeanor had done wonders for her, and as she saw his face she thought her clever idea less and less good until it seemed a rather bad idea after all.

[TuneUP]

Sean looked back at the door and then at Kate, shaking his head softly. "If we do anything to Rumble Katie girl, it's only gonna bring more trouble for Lorelai. The two of us ain't on his radar, and I wanna keep it that way, but if it involves these sheets, he's only gonna take it out on Lorelai. It ain't worth it," he said and took the trash bag from Kate, reaching out to take her hand. "It don't matter if she brought it on herself or not, she's bit off more than she can chew and she don't need anymore ore to that. Let's just throw these things out, I have a feeling that Rumble won't miss them."

He walked with Kate down the hall, lost in thought for a moment about everything that happened, especially seeing Lorelai looking so broken up. "You know Katie girl, there are some really powerful people here, and I don't just mean the teachers. It's really disheartening to see how some people use that power." Sean looked over at Kate and gave a grim smile. "It was Ana that had the sheets go through the window and she was with Rumble. You know as well as I do that she's as sweet as can be when she likes you, but has a sting nastier than a bees when she's crossed. I guess I'm just a bit disappointed that she teamed up with Rumble of all people. She's got some crazy power, but it worries me that Rumble may influence her even more," he said and stopped in the hall to drop the trash bag down the garbage chute.

"You got a lot of other people here who got some insane powers, but lately I only been seeing that people been using them in bad ways. Not everyone, but some. Right now, I'm thinking of what happened earlier with Haven. She never really liked me, and I'd ordinarily never say anything against her in respect to Ian, but for someone with such a great power she's just a plain ol' bully. The way she pushes people around just cause she had some extra training, well I can't respect that. Look at someone like Aideen, we all know she's dangerous, but she avoids fights and never abuses her abilities. The first time I ever saw her beat someone out of anger was the other day, and that was Rumble, the same man who terrorized her for months. I ain't gonna cry a river over that. Everyone uses their powers for mischief, the Hellions use them for evil, and they were always bad." Sean sighed and made his arm move around his little lady's shoulder. "I guess I'm just upset that all this happens all the time. I know that without conflict and problems there is no living, but I would think at a place like this it would teach us to deal with our problems that don't involve using our powers and abilities to solve them violently." He shrugged and sighed again.

He leaned over and kissed Kate on the cheek. "It's just me rambling though, and it ain't like it can be fixed. C'mon little lady, we got a cookout to go to. We can save some food for Lorelai later so she don't totally miss out," Sean said with a smile as they made their way to the cookout, both looking forward to maybe some laughs and some really good food.