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"It's food," Walter equivocated. "And who are we to complain about that?"

[ooc: SP from me, too. The deadline, she looms.]

"Free food. That's the important part." Nadia started dosing her food with hot sauce. "What's that you're reading?"

"I should be doing revision for exams," Walter admitted, turning the book toward her so she could see the tiny printing of technical specs for a variety of weapons. "But I'm studying something I'll probably never get a grade on."

"And yet, might turn out to be much more useful, in your line of work."

"There is that," he said with a nod, but closed his book anyway. "How is your arm feeling?"

"It's fine. I should be able to get rid of this thing tomorrow morning."

"Excellent! Then we can try a bit more active activity once you're free of that thing."

He paused and decided he should tell her about his visit to Wilson's office and get it out of the way before it turned into a secret, even though it wasn't really one.

"Do you mind if I tell you something you might think means I'm upset or bothered, but doesn't?"

Nadia blinked a little. "No, that's fine. Though thanks for telling me that you're not."

"It's sort of a touchy subject and I like that we aren't arguing or hurting each other's feelings right now, so I'd like to keep it that way."

And as much as he really, deeply cared about Nadia, sometimes her reactions to things baffled him.

"I talked to Dr. Wilson yesterday. He explained what he did."

Nadia nodded slowly. "Are you okay?"

Walter shrugged and slowly spun his book on the tabletop with a fingertip.

"I'm alive. But if anything happens again like what you say happened with the needle? Take me to Wilson. He knows what I want."

Nadia lifted her hand to rub her neck silently for a moment.

"Okay."

Walter had seen that gesture often enough to recognize its significance. He left off spinning his book and got up to sit next to Nadia ~~assuming she didn't already sit next to him, which she might have, but anyway...~~.

"Hey. I couldn't fix this whatever it is if I were dead. You gave me a second chance. But I don't want to hurt you or any of my friends any more than I already have. There's only so many times I can say 'it wasn't my fault' and have it mean anything, even when it's true."

Nadia nodded, looking a bit more sure of herself. "Okay. I still trust you."

And maybe probably possibly she shouldn't, but Walter was selfish enough not to want to tell her that.

Instead he gave her as honest a smile as he could manage and reached for the hand she'd rubbed her neck with. "Thank you."

Nadia squeezed his hand. "No problem." She smiled suddenly. "We need a happier topic."

"Pippi and I are going to conscript Al for our next bit of fun. And then we're going to... ah... not exactly flee the island with you and Pip and maybe Al."

Nadia quirked an eyebrow. ". . . What are you two going to do this time? It'd better not make me miss the weetiny bunnies in top hats."

"There are weetiny bunnies in top hats? I don't want to miss those, either."

"Not yet. But Chad assures me there will be. It's part of his terms of surrender, after all."

"Ah yes, after you defeated him, right? I'm rather fond of weetiny bunnies, so I will definitely have to see that. Do you think we can tie Jamie up and let them use him as a dance floor?"

"And here I was just going to get them to perform a tap dance on his desk."

"He's your roommate, so I'll let you choose. I just like the image of him thrashing and begging for the bunnies' mercy."

"It would totally teach him to set off gravy bombs in the room, if nothing else."

Walter nodded. "Or stuffing garbage under the bed. Anyway, the point was that we want Al to help us with some alterations we want to make to the school's water supply. Just for a short time."