Her poison was sitting at the end of her bed when she finally looked in that direction after getting dressed. She bit her lip, knowing how unbearably upset Mark would be if her found out, but that reasoning snapped: Mark wasn't there and she needed something to dull the world.
Opening it she took a drink and lay down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She remained that way, taking a sip every couple minutes, until there was a knock at her door. "C-Come in!" she called. Caim stepped in, chewing on the end of a pepperoni stick, and glanced at her. "I didn't think you'd actually drink it," he told her.
"Y-Yeah well…" She took another drink and closed her eyes. "H-How'd you k-know?"
"I could smell it on your breath when we first met." He sat down at the end of her bed and she opened one eye. "E-Explain where th-they are," she said. A smile twitched on his lips. "Straight to the point now are we," he muttered quietly, nodding. He took another bite off the pepperoni stick and swallowed, staring at the ground. "So you know about all the commotion with Jane Kelley running to be New York's senator," he stated, and Quinn nodded. "Well she's behind all this-"
"H-How do w-we know th-that?"
"Because she told us. She called Mr. Xavier after she kidnapped our friends."
Quinn opened her mouth to speak and he raised a hand to quiet her. "Please just… let me finish." He took a deep breath and another bite. Quinn took another drink.
"She pretty much took them as bargaining chips so that Mr. Xavier will keep his mouth shut. She can't have him exploiting her and her father and her father's friends while she's running-"
"H-Her father's f-friends?"
Caim nodded and picked a piece of pepperoni off the stick. "William Stryker."
Quinn blinked and took another drink. Caim stared at her. "You don't know… Alright. Well-" He ate the piece he had picked off. "-he was basically one of the worst men in the world. Hitler, but instead of killing Jewish people he killed mutants and did experiments on them a stuff."
"Y-You've got t-to be over-over exaggerating…"
Caim smiled slightly. "A tine bit." He crumpled up the pepperoni stick wrapper and tucked it in his pocket. "He was still terrible though, and he and the older senator Kelley were a bit more buddy-buddy than was safe of the mutant community. Now that Jane is trying to get into a position of power, mutants are freaking out because they realize that she will have gotten all the tips and tricks from her father and Stryker." He lay back, his feet hanging off the edge of Quinn's bed. "Mr. Xavier is one of the very few people who truly know how bad Stryker and Kelley really were, who knows what they had done and were trying to do, and therefore…"
"Th-therefore J-Jane is w-worried about h-him speaking a-against her."
Caim nodded. "So she takes our friends as collateral for his silence. He doesn't say anything, she gets elected, and we get everyone back supposedly unharmed. Physically anyway…" He shook his hands out and folded them behind his head. "I'm worried."
"N-No shit." Quinn smiled and held out the partially empty bottle to him. He eyed it for a moment before sitting up with a shrug and taking it. "Here's to getting them all back in one piece." He raised the bottle as though toasting and took a swig. Quinn took it back as he handed it to her and took a drink of her own. "W-We will. I-If it k-kills us w-we will." Caim nodded and lay back down, eyes closed.
Quinn took another, smaller drink and glanced at the bottle. She wondered where Caim had gotten it, but she wasn't going to ask. She capped the bottle and set it down on the bedside table before lying down next to her friend. She could feel the alcohol settling into her body and she knew that her stutter would disappear shortly. She had been drunk enough times to know how her system reacted.
"We'll get them back," Caim repeated as he looked over at her. She met his gaze and nodded. "W-We will…" She stared up at the ceiling. "But when?"
"Soon. Tomorrow. The day after. Don't worry."
"You talk a-a lot when you're w-worried."
Caim laughed. "I talk when others are worried. I'm here to make sure you don't freak out."
"Love the s-support and confidence." She rolled her eyes and Caim smiled at her. "No problem, but that really is why I'm more vocal." Quinn rolled onto her side to face him and she started to feel personal barrier slowly weakening. "If you weren't watching out for me, where would you be?"
"In a room somewhere or outside."
Quinn nodded. "Oh." He looked away and tugged his shirt down from where it was starting to expose his stomach. She caught the small shudder that wracked his body and she frowned. Her walls, by now, had crumbled and everything that she really thought and felt came forward. "Are you ok? You always seem to be shaking."
He shook his head, brushing her question away, and Quinn mumbled under her breath. "Fine."
He shrugged and sat up. "Are you hungry?" he asked. She shook her head and he stood up. "Alright, well I'm going to start dinner. I'll come check on you later." He started towards the door and Quinn sat up. "How are you so good at this?" she asked.
He turned. "How good at what?"
"Consoling people, helping people, knowing what to say and do to make them ok."
A small smile passed his lips. "I may not social, but I know how to act around people when I need to and I learn to get to know them. If you know how to make people happy, you're set in life." With that bit said, he left.