2007-10-07: Outlook Not So Good

Starring:

Nathan_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif

Summary: Cass takes a blood sample from Nathan.

Date It Happened: October 7th, 2007

Outlook Not So Good


Bat Country Labs

Bat Country in Brooklyn at the moment is filled with the music of Flogging Molly. Hair pulled back underneath a colorful handkerchief, Cass is wearing a white lab coat and a pair of black framed glasses - non-prescription. It's her typical lab outfit. On the plush carpet by the comfortable chairs, she has a slew of books open to different pages and a cup filled with multi-colored highlighters at her disposal. Lying on her stomach, she looks kind of like a college student studying as opposed to someone in charge of a lab. Chewing on the end of a pen, she's scribbling something down on a notebook and then flipping through another book sighing. The door the the labs is closed, but give it a push and it should open to show the scene.

As he had said he would, Nathan has shown up. Of course, he could have called ahead, and though that's one of society's niceties that he criticises other people for not doing, he's never gotten a handle on it himself. He's dressed down, apparently having not tended to Senatorial-wanna things today, but there's no Cosby sweater in sight - he's not gonna give Cass the opportunity this time. "Hello?" he says, as he opens the door, in only the wary way one can when approaching a clinic named 'Bat Country'.

Nathan could have called ahead, could have alerted Cass that he was going to stop by. It's lucky that Cass is here, because otherwise he would have only run into a locked door and would have come to Brooklyn for nothing. In Nathan's favor, she's here and studying and trying to puzzle out this whole strange anomaly. However, she's just as far from understanding the nature of it as she was when she saw it the first time. Right to the left, Cass' head perks up and she takes the stereo remote to turn the music down. "Why hello there. Come in. Come in!" Said the spider to the fly.

The door is shut behind him, and Nathan glances around to see if anyone else is occupying the space. When it's only Cass, he relaxes a fraction. "Busy?" he asks, though he's walking in anyway, whether she answers or not, and coming to lean against one of the comfortable chairs. He looks tired, but then again, wouldn't most candidates look tired on what appears to be their days off?

"Oh, you know, there's some strange anomaly in someone's blood, people are trying to melt appendages off of others…" Cass could go on and on. "Nope. Not busy." There's a quirked eyebrow at that and she pushes herself up so that she's kneeling in her scattered books. "You look tired. You alright?" Of course it may just be the campaigning. But there are a lot of other factors that it could be attributed to.

Taking his weight off the furniture, Nathan goes to offer Cass a hand up. He grunts a response, initially, then shakes his head. "I'm fine," he dismisses. "I just have a younger brother intent on having me go grey before I see forty-one." Yes, blame Peter for his tiredness. Not totally a wild claim, actually, considering the past few days.

Taking Nathan's hand, Cass uses his support to help herself get up on her two feet. Though she doesn't really need to brush herself off, she does so anyway. Stooping over, she scoops up the important things she doesn't want to leave lying around - the notebook and the sheets of paper and fold them up into each other. "See, this is why I'm an only child. No younger or older brother trying to make me go grey." Just a fiancee attempting to help her along that path. "At least you know he's doing it because he cares." There's a smile. "Come on, let's head back to the lab." Gesturing with her head, she starts to lead the way to the actual lab with it's glistening metal counters and scientific apparatuses. Aha. Now it looks professional.

And with professionalism comes comfort, because it— just makes more sense to see metal and scientific things lying around in a place that's supposed to be a lab. "Well no one can argue that he cares," Nathan agrees, as he looks about the place, more or less following Cass's lead. "The anamoly you mentioned— is that what you're gonna be looking for in mine?" Pause, and he adds, "Uh. Made head way on that?" Why Nathan, are you worried about a dream virus! By the looks of things, slightly more than he was when Peter first brought it up. He takes off his jacket and sets it aside for now.

"He can care too much, really." The two of them had that conversation while Cass was hopped up on morphine, but she doesn't actually remember it. "Though in this case I think he has reason to worry. I haven't figured out anything new from that sample he managed to get for me. In order to make more headway, I'm going to need to actually see Evelyn." And who knows how easy that will be. "Ready to get your blood drawn?" Already moving for a needle and vial, she indicates a stool he can sit on. "I'd roll up your shirt." Since she can't really take blood through a sleeve. "And, yes. I'm going to try and see if there's any difference or similarity. I would say it might be an affect of your abilities, what you could do, but I took a sample of Peter's blood awhile ago and it didn't show it. I might just have to check it against a sample of my own, too." See if that may have something to do with it.

Nathan is already unbuttoning the sleeve of his shirt, rolling the fabric high enough up his arm and offering it out. It's a little weird, actually, seeing as Cass is seen as a friend before seen as a doctor, and usually you don't let friends stick you with needles (and Nathan's wild teenagehood wasn't quite that wild). But he trusts her, and all. Right? Okay, so he's hawk watching the way she handles the needle, but don't take offense. "My ability?" he repeats, glancing towards her face then back to the needle, frowning slightly. "Okay, well, work that one out before I decide to jump off a building for a quick route home, would you?"

Luckily, Cass has actually been trained to stick needles in her friend's arms. So after grabbing a needle and getting a vial to store Nathan's blood, she heads back to her friend with a small rubber tubing. It's not something she's used all that many times, so it takes her a two tries to actually make sure that it stays tied tight enough to make Nathan's veins stand out, but not too tight that it totally stops circulation. Nervous yet, senator? "Whups," she sighs as it goes flying off like a rubber band second time. Finally, though, it stays and she gives Nathan a grin. Actually finding a vein takes her a moment or two, too. This was much easier with Peter. However, once she sticks Nathan she manages to take a vial full of his blood with less issue. As soon as she has the amount she needs, she pulls out the needle, caps the vial and pulls off the rubber tubing. Tadaa! Getting a small cotton ball, she puts it on the injection site and then takes his arm and pulls it upwards so pressure is applied as well as elevated. Nurse trick. "No, I meant, I thought that people with abilities may actually have something else in their blood stream. Something that may be activated when they want to access their ability. Like, maybe there's actually another sort of cell in your blood that helps you to fly? Or that actually is what Peter uses to absorb other abilities. But, that doesn't seem to be the case for whatever this thing is." Taking a grease pencil, she writes a string of numbers on the vial and moves for the fridge. "Do you want a Snoopy band-aid? Or maybe the Flintstones?" She sounds serious.

Nathan sits patiently through Cass's oh-so-smooth blood taking, and by patiently, that's fake patience, the kind you wear when you're impatient but the other person has a very sharp object in their hand. He listens to her theories without really listening, medicine and science not really his field of expertise, and so mostly just nods along. Then, on her question about band-aids, he hesitates, before saying, "Snoopy. I have a— tie that— matches."

<.<

Well he does, and we can blame Peter for that one too. "Do you know what I should be looking out for with this thing? If— if the dream has any grounding in reality."

Even if Nathan isn't listening, it's allowing her to voice her opinions out loud. Which is something that Cass enjoys doing when she can. Especially when she's with someone unlike Lachlan who just sort of glazes over and goes, 'Wha', baby? Was tha' English?' At least Nathan just nods and smiles. There's a laugh and after Cass puts Nathan's sample in a rack in the fridge where it won't get knocked over, she comes back with a snoopy band-aid. Just for him. Getting another, smaller, cotton ball, she pulls his arm gently back down so that she can put the cotton ball over the small wound and then plaster the band-aid over it. "Here you go, Cotton Balls." Smirk. Then, back to the serious conversation. "Well. I trust Peter. And if he said that this is something we should worry about, I'm going to believe him. Especially when I find something in Evelyn's blood I can't identify, but surely looks like a virus. Keep a guard out. I don't know what the symptoms of such a virus would be, so I wouldn't hide under the bed at every cough, but keep an eye out for the natural virus symptoms. A fever is a very good indicator that something's wrong."

Did she just— Nathan just blinks rapidly when she smirks at him, and for his own sanity, dismisses that. Dismissed. She's answering his question, after all, and he listens without the addition of nodding and smiling and making 'that's interesting!' sounds. "Alright," he says, after a pause of contemplation, as he pushes his sleeve back into place, doing up the button. "I'll let you know. I just— I don't want this to be something that my family winds up catching if it proves to be true." Possibly hence his paranoia. Heidi doesn't have super abilities, but who knows about Simon and Monty at this stage?

Did she? Maybe Nathan just imagined it. Maybe he really is sick and is already starting to hallucinate. The far more likely scenario is that she did. Cass smiles and steps back to allow Nathan to adjust his shirt sleeve and the like. "Please do. If you think you're getting sick or if you just have questions, you know my number." And he shouldn't hesitate to call. "I don't know what this thing is. And I don't know if it targets only those with abilities or if it's non-discretionary. I can't even tell what it's targeting in the body. If what Peter saw was true, then we've got a lot of people we're going to have to worry about who might have caught it." Reassuring, she knows. Hence why she's devoting so much time to it. "I'm working on it, Nathan."

Very reassuring, and Nathan stands up from his seat, picking up his jacket and easing it back around him. It's not exactly cold in here, but he seems grateful to have the extra layer back on. "I know you are," he says, jerking the collar of his jacket back into shape. "I don't know about sick, but I haven't been feeling particularly outstanding." He's being undoubtably male and Nathany about it, as if reluctant to share with Cass that he's not one hundred percent healthy. "It's how I reminded myself to even come here."

At least she's on the case, though, right? That's got to be something. Noticing that, Cass frowns and studies Nathan. When he mentions not feeling outstanding, she moves forward - without asking - to put the back of her hand on his forehead. Just a quick measure to see if he has a fever. Not exactly the most fool-proof method of determining anything having to do with a virus, but it's a start. "What are you symptoms? Or, well, describe not outstanding." Just in case, maybe it's something she can start to identify what the virus may be attacking and therefore pin it down.

It is a start, and Nathan tolerates it with only a slight twitch. What Cass might be able to gauge from her gesture is… well, he's warm, probably a little more than he should be. "Uh. Tired," he says, rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling as he thinks. "Woke up with a headache, stomped it down with some tylenol. Sort of cold, but it's fall in New York, I don't expect much less."

That's not really good enough for Cass to tell if he just has a cold or if this is actually something related to some sort of virus that Nathan has in his system. Curse not knowing. Pulling her hand back, she goes for a thermometer just to be extra special sure. It may be a cold. It may be some other strange virus. But, Cass wants to be sure. Even if a lot of it can be chalked up to the changing weather. "Hm. Well. Stick that under your tongue and we'll see how that goes." Handing over the thermometer - a regular pharmacy bought one, nothing too fancy - she keeps a watchful eye over Nathan. She'll play momma bear if she has to.

It's certainly nothing Nathan hasn't felt before, hence he only brought it up at when she urges him to do so. Now he sort of regrets it, as she hands over the thermometer. But oh well, what if it does mean something? "I should have just gone to a real doctor," he teases, but he takes the thermometer from her and sits himself back down, doing as she tells him.

There's a bit of a face that Cass makes when Nathan makes his joke about going to a real doctor. She knows that he's joking and that he's her friend, but the whole 'not being a real doctor' thing can be a bit of a sore subject with her. But, now he has a thermometer in his mouth and can't retort when she shoots back, "And maybe I should go vote for a Republican." She smirks. "It's probably nothing. But, I just want to start tracking symptoms just in case. It's probably just the famous fall colds that go around. In which case you should keep taking Tylenol, lots of water, and do hot water with honey."

Nathan nods mutely in agreement, once he's shot her an equally mute glare at her retort. Once he's allowed to take the thermometer from out of his mouth, he adds, "I'll stock up." On— probably Tylenol, he's not one for beating around the bush too much with self-medicating. He inclines his head to her. "What's it say?" If it's 'Reply hazy, try again' or 'You may rely on it', Cass had better be buying a new thermometer.

"It says 'Vote Crane.'" Cass manages to keep a completely straight face for that. Amazingly enough. "Damn. I knew I shouldn't have picked these up from that campaign office." Sighing, she shakes it as if it were a Magic 8 ball. Finally, though, she allows a smile, knowing she'll be getting the full brunt of the Nathan Glare in a moment. "It says you've got a mild temperature, Mr. Petrelli. So, start with those fluids, drink lots of Orange Juice and fresh fruit. If it's just a cold, then that should help your immune system." If it's not…well, she doesn't know what will help him if it's not just a cold.

But she's working on that. Good thing it's probably just a cold, then, which is what Nathan thinks to himself as he stands back up, readjusting his jacket. "Thank you, Dr. Aldric," he says, with mock-formality that's still semi-serious. "Next time I'll even make an appointment. I'll leave you…" He spares a glance around the lab. So not his world. "I'll leave you to it."

Mock shivering at that, Cass shakes her head. "Dr. Aldric is my father." And there's just no getting around that. For as long as she's in Bat Country, she's not going to be Dr. Aldric. Maybe never. "Cass will be fine. Or maybe Dr. Cass. I could deal with that." A half smile and she moves to follow Nathan to the door. You know, do the whole hospitality thing. "Well then, maybe I'll have to get lollipops for my good patients. And more Snoopy band-aids." Not that she's really out to be a doctor again. But she might as well if she's going to start drawing a lot more people's blood to check for this mystery virus. "Thanks. I'll…yeah. I'll be working on it."

"Dr. Cass. Not quite the same ring to it but if you insist." Nathan opens the door for himself despite her following him politely, reaching out his other hand to touch her shoulder in a parting gesture, as he's wont to do. "Just let me know," he says, slightly more solemnly than the mood had just allowed, what with the teasing, but there it is. He's disappeared out the lab a moment later.

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