ways_infirmary | (no subject)

Nicholas does, rather confused, but not before making sure Travis doesn't fall on his face as he gets up. He's surprised Travis can even stand at all, actually.

It occurs to him that maybe this is something that whatever Guppy has to say might have something to do with Travis' condition, and hurries into the office.

"Is everything all right?" he asks.

Guppy shuts the door.

"It's fine." he says. "But I had to... I..." Come on, focus, spit it out.

"I want to apologise again for the last time we met. I was totally out of line. I saw you collapse and then Travis took you away and then he said you'd moved out and... I have to know if you're okay now."

Nicholas' posture gets rather stiff, and he starts breathing quite slowly.

"I'm fine," he says stiffly.

"Okay." Guppy says, edging away a bit. "Are we able to move on from this then? Just... put it behind us?"

It takes a moment for Nicholas to respond.

"I thought we already had," he says finally, reaching for the door.

"Ah, okay, um, good. Yeah. Didn't really get closure on that. Sorry."

Guppy stands well away, and keeps his hands behind him, just on the desk. Not getting in his way.

No. They haven't. Nicholas knows the sort of thing he's expected to say right now, but he doesn't exactly know how to string the right words together.

"Right," he says. "Are we done?"

Guppy watches him, not moving (not daring to). Not knowing what the right words are.
He'd like to stop waking up at night seeing the expression on Nick's face after he broke down staring accusingly at him in his sleep.
"You tell me." he says.

Nicholas, having often been accused of not knowing how to switch off, interprets Guppy's behaviour as being rather suspicious. As far as he can tell, there's no reason for the man to be acting like this, and yet, he is.

"You're sure everything's all right?" he asks.

Guppy blinks for a moment, unsure what part of it he's referring to. Does he mean their dispute, the fact that he's now nervous of Nick because he doesn't want to do anything wrong, or are they back to Travis?

"With what?" he asks, tentatively.

Nicholas moves to see if Guppy might be trying to conceal something on the desk behind him. He doubts it, but he's not sure why else Guppy might be behaving this way.

"With you," Nicholas responds simply. "You don't seem all right."

Guppy flinches and takes another step further away when Nicholas moves.

"I...I don't know if I'm doing this right. I can't read you."

He wonders whether this is how Alex feels all the time.

...

"What?"

He really wishes Travis would stop trying to explain 'things.' It just confuses everybody and makes things worse.

"You're not acting like this is over." Guppy says. "You're acting sort of... pent-up angry copper. A-and I'm a chronicly anxious person in what is, on reflection, a confined space in which there is only one exit, which you are in front of."

It has less to do with Travis' explanation than his naturally anxious tendencies and the fact that Nick doesn't really respond to apologies or the need to apologise like anyone Guppy's met before.

Nicholas pinches the bridge of his nose and swears in French. Great. Apparently Guppy's developed a fear of law enforcement, no doubt thanks to the police around Milliways.

"It's over," he insists. "And perhaps you ought to call someone in to cover your shift, since you don't seem very well-prepared to handle it tonight."

The clarification of where they stand does calm Guppy down a little bit. Though now he's on edge because Nick is implying he's unfit, when he's only anxious because Nick made him nervous.*

"Call someone in?" Guppy raises an eyebrow. "How many staff do you think we have?

Unless you're volunteering, in which case I'll go to bed and you can use the call button if anything on his moniter goes red and beeps."

Probably just as well Nick didn't see him the time he was watching Teller and George, when he was 1. sleep deprived, 2. bruised everywhere and 3. mildly concussed.

[*Days like this make him wonder why he gets out of bed at all.]

"I really don't think I'm qualified to be running even a ward this small," Nicholas points out. "Surely you must have other staff?"

Nicholas wasn't so much implying that Guppy is unfit, so much as he was implying that he didn't seem like his head is really in the right place to be watching after Travis.

Which, as pissed off as he is at Travis right now, he does not want to see him get any worse.

"You're doing that thing again where you imagine this is a country." Guppy points out. "I only work here voluntarily. I've been known to have to stay with someone continuously for three days..."

He goes to the urn in the corner to get himself some tea.

"I haven't seen any of the others around today. You either have me, or you watch him yourself and have me on call. I can be down in two minutes if bleeped."

He doesn't admit to Nick right now that watching a patient usually involves him attempting to have a kip on the sofa with an alarm clock to check obs when required, unless anything beeps.

It's probably wise that he doesn't mention as much, because they might just wind up with a repeat of the whole security fiasco that put Nicholas on Belar's wrathful side for a little while.

Still, he doesn't like the idea of Travis having to stay here potentially unmonitored, and he does plan to do something about it.

"If it's all the same, maybe I will stay here with him," he says.

"You want us both to stay here?" Guppy asks, clarifying.

Damn, now he won't be able to sleep at all. Travis only needs hourly obs, but he's not going to dare take a kip with Nick hanging around.

"Unless you have someone to cover for you?"

Sorry, Guppy. Nicholas doesn't mean to be such a dick. He's just trying to make sure nothing else goes horribly wrong tonight.

"Better get comfortable then." Guppy says.

This could be a long and awkward night. He inches around Nick and goes back into the main infirmary.

"Nicholas is staying." he informs Travis.

Nicholas quickly steps out of the way to let him pass.

Travis looks up suddenly from his game, not really pleased with this turn of events. "CAN'T YOU TELL HIM TO BUGGER OFF OR SOMETHING?" he asks.

"Theoretically yes." Guppy says. "But he's decided I'm too anxious to look after you, there isn't anyone else, and frankly I'm too nervous of him to argue."

"NERVOUS OF HIM?" Travis asks.

That's a new one. Usually, people are just annoyed by him.

"Nervous of who?" Nicholas asks, having taken his time in getting back.

"YOU, YOU MORON. WHAT DID YOU DO?" Travis shoots back.