Watch Out For The... Ice (Adam)

[Jesse Adams]

5:00 am was a stupid time, in Jesse’s mind. Nothing good ever happened so early in the morning. Perhaps he was just in a bad mood all around. He wasn’t looking forward to the stupid holiday coming up, despite having a few things stashed in his dresser for Clement. He’d slept terribly, dreams plaguing him to the point of stopping trying to sleep around 3:00 am. And his stupid knee was aching. Ever since the surgery to repair the ligament he’d torn falling down the stairs with Clement, the ache came and went like a tide. Despite all the stupid physio he was doing on his own now, it didn’t seem to matter.

At 5:00 am, he’d decided it was time to stop wasting time in his room, and escape outside for a cigarette. If he’d had his way, he’d be doing something like running this early in the morning. Not limping around outside in the snow, fumbling around in his coat for his lighter. A cigarette was already between his lips, waiting to be lit.

Just in case, he stayed close to the wall. No one in their right mind was really up this early, beyond the security guard he’d passed and told exactly where he was going. Probation was a terrible thing, regardless of the fact he deserved every minute of it. At least he had a few freedoms back, which included being allowed to slip outside now and then for a smoke.

As he dug around for his lighter, his attention to where his feet were going wavered, and that was all it took. One moment he was upright, and the next his bad leg slipped out from under him as he hit a small patch of ice. Jesse twisted awkwardly as he tried to right himself, only to crash that much more elegantly to the ground. Though his knee was healed for the most part, he was scared about re-injuring it, and the twisting action had definitely not felt good.

The string of curses he let out as he sat on the ground was far from censored – both for quality and for volume. Sonofabitch that had hurt, and a gentle test of his leg made him wince. This was so, so not good. He didn’t even have his phone on him, and there was no way he wanted to test his knee on his own. Like it or not, he was stuck for the foreseeable future. God damn it.

At least his cigarette had survived, though the filter was somewhat pinched now. Sighing and rolling his eyes, his fingers finally wrapped around the lighter. Well, he had nothing else to do. Might as well do what he came out here to do in the first place while he figured a way out of this mess.

[Adam Deulane]

It was bitterly, offensively cold. The drive from Adam's apartment heated up the car just enough that he never actually felt warm, but leaving it for the dark morning was like jumping into a lake. Adam skated out of his car with his teeth rattling. He fumbled with his keys, pulled his hat further over his ears, and then hurried with a compressed, shivering walk towards the distant glow of Hammel's front doors.

Rather than flying them both back to Portland, last night Adam's step-father Brent--Nora Marie's father--had arrived in Pilot Ridge for Christmas. The next four days were Family Time, and Nory had said that if she saw him touch a student paper between now and Boxing Day she'd turn it into kindling for the yule log. This made Adam smile, but he did have a few hours of work to get done before the new semester started. So he decided to come in early today, finish his grading, and be back at the apartment before anyone else woke up.

He had almost reached the amber warmth of the front doors when Adam heard an explosion of cursing. He froze and turned sharply to the left, where the faint crunching of snow underlined what was evolving into a masterpiece of abhorrent language. Adam took a few steps into the darkness. The oaths were dying down to grunts of pain, and then he saw an orange speck flick to life in the deep shadow in the side of the building.

There was no one else around. At five in the morning there was only one security guard on duty and the front desk was unoccupied. Adam shuffled forward, wary of ice and letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. “Hello?” he called as he peered towards the orange pilot light. His eyes finally picked out a figure huddled against the side of the building, sitting awkwardly and smoking. Male, lanky, dressed in black, certainly a student and most likely one of the delinquent ones. One leg was bent at an awkward angle.

“What happened?” This was said more sharply than he intended, and Adam winced internally and tried to continue in a kinder tone that just ended up sounding stiff, “What's your name?”

[Jesse Adams]

Sitting in the snow and ice in jeans was absolutely no fun. It was times like this that Jesse wished he had a useful power like pyrokinesis. Then maybe he wouldn’t be so damned cold. All he’d wanted was a little nicotine fix in the morning. Was that too much to ask? Clearly, or he wouldn’t be stuck where he was now. Silently, he mentally berated himself for being so stupid. He could have brought his phone, or hell, even stayed closer to the doors. But no, he’d had to go off on his own, and with no way to call anyone, he’d probably get hypothermia and die.

Not how he wanted to start his morning, no.

Huddling into himself, he tried not to jar his knee too much, instead focusing on the minute amount of heat coming from his cigarette. It wasn’t much, but thinking about it made him feel a tiny bit better. Tiny being the key word, of course.

He hadn’t been paying any attention to the parking lot, or much of anything, really. At least anything beyond his personal bubble of angst at the moment. So when he started to hear the snow crunching under feet, his chin snapped up. Maybe the security guard had come to check on him. Make sure he wasn’t doing something dumb like running away.

The dark made the person somewhat difficult to identify, but once he was closer, the dim light gave it away. Not to mention his voice. The sharp tone kicked Jesse’s reflexes into gear, and he automatically jerked away, losing his cigarette to the snow. Jesus Christ, today couldn’t get any worse. Hell, a meteorite striking him would be an improvement.

“Nothing happened,” he managed to get out in a tone that was far from confident. He couldn’t help it. His math teacher? Terrifying with a side of scary as all get out. Jesse didn’t try to tick him off in class for one simple reason. He’d seen what happened when other students got out of line. In Adam’s class, Jesse simply tried to be as invisible as possible. Unlike his trainer, whom he had learned to trust after a long period of being skittish around him, Adam was... well... kind of a wild card, and that made him nervous. “Just fell.”

He suspected it was his attempts to be invisible that brought the next question. Still, he suspected that Adam would only get even more testy with him without a real answer. “Jesse Adams,” he mumbled. He probably didn’t need the reminder that he was in his senior math class. Most teachers knew that name, if nothing else about the blond.

[Adam Deulane]

The student jerked away as Adam approached, and his stomach sank. Why was he so bad at this? He was just trying to help. And then he recognized the young man.

At the beginning of the semester, Nory had asked who Adam was going to have in his classes this year. Adam showed her the roster, curious for any tips she had to offer. Nory knew everyone, after all. She had perused the list with interest, occasionally pointing out a student as, “He was in detention with me,” or “Aw, you'll love her, she's crazy smart,” or “I'd put him somewhere with an empty desk in front of him, he sneezes acid during hay fever season.” And then, at one, “Oh.”

Adam looked over. “Oh what?”

“You've got Jesse Adams in one of your classes.” Nory grinned. “He's, like, a terrorist with nightmare powers. When I was a kid nobody wanted to mess with him, he'd screw with people's sleep and memories and stuff, people ended up in therapy. Then he like joined like a meta Nazi group and I think somebody died. It was all hushed up though. Oh, and Natalie Smithers. If she turns into a parakeet in class don't say anything, sometimes she does it when she's nervous and it makes her really embarrassed.”

“Somebody died?!”

“Well, no one knows for sure. Geez, calm down! It's not like he does it anymore.”

Nory was surprised that Adam didn't find that comforting. Come first day of class, he watched the young man like a hawk. None of the students around him were falling to the floor in agony, and he didn't even look up from his desk. Adam never tried to draw introverted students into the spotlight, so he had a good reason to not call on the young man for the rest of the semester. He didn't think they'd ever spoken a word to each other.

In the cold and the dark, Nory's story returned to the forefront of his mind. He had been extending a hand to help him up, and he unconsciously pulled back. “Mr. Adams.” He looked the young man up and down again. The boy had been on crutches for weeks. The bout of cursing resolved. “You've injured your knee again,” he said flatly.

[Jesse Adams]

If it made Adam feel any better, it wasn’t just him that Jesse would withdraw from like that. In fact, about 95% of the adult male population at Hammel would get that knee-jerk reaction. It was just who he was, and hopefully when he stopped resisting the process at every turn, something that Dr Neville could help him with.

It wouldn’t have shocked him if Adam knew more about him than his basic school statistics. Rumors flew around the school like wildfire, and he was the butt of a fair few of them. At one time it might have been a point of pride, but now? Now it was just like a big black shadow that followed him around. As scary as the idea of leaving Hammel was now, he was also looking forward to the day he could leave the doors as a graduate, rather than a messed up runaway. Then maybe he could start to shed some of the shadow. For now, however, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Especially with his scary as all get out teacher looming over him.

Wishing his cigarette hadn’t made a graceful dive into the snow, effectively snuffing it and making it too wet to re-light, Jesse had no real way to deal with this now. Smoking calmed his usually jittery nerves in a pleasant way, and he hadn’t had more than two hits off of it. Not nearly enough to deal with the situation at hand. Especially when Adam said his name. A sharp, cold feeling that had nothing to do with his current predicament zipped down his back, and he shivered slightly.

“No, I didn’t.” The accusation was met with an equally flat response. Yes, Adam, it was perfectly normal for him to sit in the snow at 5:00 am and smoke. His reasons for denying the injury were simple. One, he didn’t want to even entertain the idea that he’d just undone everything the god awful surgery had repaired, and two, he didn’t want Adam’s help. If he had his way, the math teacher would give up now and slink back inside to do whatever he was going to do so early in the morning. Probably read number porn, or something. No, it wasn’t very charitable, but Jesse was far from being in a charitable mood. “It’s fine. Just...” Just what? It wasn’t like he could actually order his teacher around. If he really wanted to, he could just reach out for his hand and wipe his memory, but that still wouldn’t do him much good. They’d just enter an endless round of Adam discovering him stranded in the snow. Perhaps it was best to appeal to logic. “If I busted my knee again, I’d know. ‘m just... resting it. Cold feels good on it.” Now please, please, go away.

[Adam Deulane]

The tension in Adam's chest lessened slightly in an imitation of relief. "Well, that's good," he said, tucking his hands back in his pockets and out of the cold. He was starting to shiver again. "Then come inside." His eyes moved down to the damp cigarette in the snow, then back to Jesse. "There's no reason for you to be out here this early." And then hopefully I'll never have to speak to you again. Every nervous flick of his thoughts felt like intruding "nightmare fingers," as Nory had so eloquently put it.

[Jesse Adams]

The simple direction was much easier said than done. Truthfully, Jesse wanted nothing more than to get up and go back inside. Originally being from California, he wasn't programmed to enjoy the cold and snow that went along with Vermont winters. Even worse was not being dressed for them particularly well and being stuck like he was now.

The blond watched Adam's gaze flick to the now useless cigarette, his fingers curling slightly against the snow. "Couldn't sleep, so came out to smoke. The security guard said it was okay." God, that made him sound like a kid, but he couldn't help it. Adam made him nervous. Nervous, and not so eager to put a toe out of line.

And that was the current problem. He couldn't really put a toe out of line, at least not without help. Worse yet, he didn't want Adam's help, but it looked like he had limited options there. Much as he didn't want to become hypothermic... he might just have to swallow his fear, despite trying to make it appear as pride, and let Adam help him.

"..." He was trying to think over what to do. Admitting he needed help was hard for him, especially if it involved Adam. Hell, if it was anyone else but Adam, he may not have hesitated. But on the other hand... he'd seen the math teacher angered before. It wasn't something he wanted to witness firsthand, much less have it directed at him. "Fine," he finally murmured, green eyes refusing to look up. "I twisted it when I fell, and I don't know if I can get up on it yet." It didn't feel as bad as it had when he'd actually torn the ligaments, so he had hope. "But it'll be fine," he hedged, trying to give Adam an out. God knew half the staff probably wouldn't want to help him, and he didn't think Adam was exempt. As long as he didn't have to touch him, maybe he'd be okay.

[Adam Deulane]

Adam's nose creased. Of course he smoked. All the "bad boys" smoked. Even his thoughts carried the heavy quotation marks. Adam's biological father smoked like a chimney, and Adam hated the smell, the powdery ash they left behind, the deflated orange butts. But it was a vindictive, magnetic hatred, and at MIT Adam had found himself picking up the habit. He'd stopped after only two months when his team moved into a lab space with a group working on chimpanzee lung dissection. Still, when he fell into a particular bitter, apathetic mood, he pulled one out and smoked it on the stairs in front of his apartment. It pleased him to scorch his bronchioles with Stephen's cigarettes, and he liked that he only touched them when he decided to, while Stephen couldn't stop.

And the nightmare kid was injured. Great. Would the security guard come get the little terrorist if he didn't come back in in twenty minutes? Adam just wanted to grade his papers and go back home, where Nory and Brent were asleep. He could barely feel his face anymore. "I'll go get the nurse then," he said with a sigh and began to turn back towards the doors.

[Jesse Adams]

Yes, Jesse smoked. It had started as a means to disobey his father, both stealing and bribing cigarettes from his older brother, and now... now it was just habit. Bad boy or no, he was probably going to be doing it the rest of his life, and at the moment he was fine with that. Every little stick was another tiny blow to his dad, which gave him a bit of perverse pleasure.

Jesse could have predicted that Adam would react poorly to his admitting to the remote possibility he'd hurt himself. What he hadn't predicted was that. God, what was with everyone trying to make him see the damn nurse? Making a rather undignified lurch forward, Jesse hissed out in pain. "Wait, Mr. Deulane!" This was the most pathetic thing ever, and he didn't even know what he wanted. Well, he sort of did. He didn't want to touch Adam, but he didn't want to see the nurse even more than that. He'd had enough medical personnel near him for a lifetime in the past few months, thanks. Slumping back into the snow, Jesse hung his head slightly. "Don't get the nurse. It's fine." He'd rather become hypothermic. ... Or touch Adam.

The hypothermia was currently winning, though.

[Adam Deulane]

Adam didn't have time for this. It was five in the morning and his ears were starting to ache from the cold. He stumped back around in the snow to face Jesse, chin tucked in and arms pressed close to his coat. "So you can stand on it then?" he asked impatiently. "Mr. Adams, it fifteen degrees out here. Come inside if you can come inside, or I would be happy to get the nurse for you."

He didn't exactly want to touch Jesse either.

[Jesse Adams]

It wasn't as though Jesse wasn't cold too. He hadn't really dressed for anything beyond five minutes of freedom, and not for sitting in the cold, wet snow. His gloves didn't even have tips to them, which was less than helpful when it was close to sub-zero outside. God, he hated Vermont.

But not quite as much as he hated Adam right now. Scowling, he felt all kinds of biting comments rise up within him. Somehow, he kept them all tempered down, but there was always the risk of a slip up. Thankfully his sense of self-preservation was currently winning against his desire to be a complete and total jackass. If he back talked to Adam, he wasn't all that confident the teacher wouldn't lash out at him, verbally or otherwise. Surely teachers weren't allowed to actually strike students, but at this time of day, with no one around? Anything was possible.

Gritting his teeth, he shot the math teacher a look. "Fine," he all but hissed, bracing an arm against the wall. This was probably going to hurt like hell, and possibly cause some damage, but that was hardly important when Adam was around. It took a moment of coordinating, and though he looked somewhat like a newborn foal as his good leg slid slightly on the ice, he finally got a grip and boosted himself up. For a moment everything was going well, all things considering. Granted, he was only putting weight on his good foot. Maybe he could do this. It wasn't like he wasn't used to supporting himself on only one leg, after all his practice on crutches. He could just use the wall for support, and...

And he only accomplished one awkward hop before he lost his balance. His injured knee reflexively kicked out to steady himself, only to buckle because seriously, ow. This caused the blond to pitch sideways, much closer to Adam than he really wanted to be.

Today could not get any worse.

[Adam Deulane]

It can always get worse.

Adam watched Jesse's cautious struggle dispassionately. Jesse projected a nearly visible fence that had 'do not touch me' painted on it, and Adam felt no compulsion to breach his personal space. He had taken a step backwards in premonition of walking the young man to the front doors when Jesse slipped and plunged for the ground.

Adam instinctively lunged forward to catch him, then equally instinctively jerked back to avoid touching him. And then forward again - he couldn't let the boy fall - the result being that he grabbed at Jesse's arm far too late to be of any use, overbalanced himself, slipped on the ice, and came crashing down across the young man's back.

It was as if he'd landed on a live snake. Adam all but bounced back up, scrambling and slipping away on all fours. Temporarily robbed of words out of shock and embarrassment, he was able to utter only, "Shit!"

[Jesse Adams]

Had he not been busy falling, Jesse would have lunged away from Adam the moment he saw him reach for him. Instead, he simply flinched hard at the touch to his arm, but he couldn't do much about it. Adam had a grip on him, and they were both going down.

At least this time he avoided banging his knee on the hard ground again. He swore loudly when Adam hit his back, and rolled away as soon as he could. The shiver that jolted through him had less to do with the cold, and everything to do with Adam's touch. Jesus Christ, now he really wanted that cigarette back. And a shot of vodka, or six.

"Don't goddamn touch me again," he hissed out, shifting so that he was at least sitting up. His knee still hurt, but he'd take that over another incident like... that. Jesus. "Just... leave me alone." He really didn't care if he froze his ass off, as long as Adam didn't breach his personal space again. He didn't think he could handle another go round of that.

[Adam Deulane]

Both of them having scrambled away from each other, the two now sat with six feet of icy sidewalk between them. "I'm sorry, I was trying to help," he said through gritted teeth. He'd done a great job of that, clearly. There had been no change in the boy's condition other than moving three feet down the sidewalk and possibly exacerbating his injury.

He was nearly at the point of giving up and going inside. But something held out for at least one more try. He wanted to be a good teacher.

What would Nory do? She always knew what to say to people. She persuaded through warmth, enthusiasm, and occasionally tears, none of which Adam felt equal to. He looked away from Jesse and stared instead at the vice principal's car parked nearby. "I'm sorry," he repeated. His tone was less stiff, less formal when he wasn't addressing someone directly to their face. "I do not feel comfortable leaving you here with your knee. If you do not want me to get the nurse, I can go get some crutches and bring them back for you."

[Jesse Adams]

It wasn't really Adam's fault Jesse was so jumpy. His teacher was just the right mix to feel threatening, even if he was only trying to help. He would have reacted similarly to any of the other male staff, born out of reflex if nothing else. If someone older than him was grabbing for him, it simply would not end well. That was what experience had taught him, growing up around his father, and it had been reinforced by several people now. He didn't want another repeat to add to the trend.

Of course, that also meant giving up at some point. There was a fine line that could be walked when it came to his behaviour. He could resist for only so long before realizing that whoever he was with was likely approaching their boiling point. To avoid aggravating their temper and invoking something physical, he'd simply learned to roll over before it hit that point.

He just didn't know Adam's threshold. That was a problem.

The second time the apology was issued, Jesse caught it. It honestly surprised him, coming from Adam. What surprised him more was the idea of his teacher giving a rat's ass about his well being. Tucking his arms around himself in a slight effort to keep warm, he finally broke his silence. "I've got crutches in my dorm. From... the surgery." More unhappy tingles arched down his back at the thought of it. Fishing in his coat pocket, he produced his dorm keys on a long blue lanyard and tossed them towards Adam. "Just don't get the nurse. Please." Adam was being.... well, as non threatening as he got. Jesse could roll a little.