Thomas, Madeleine A.

Nick sighed. “I dont know, I can’t remember. And no, not for no reason. I found out later exactly what the reason was. When I woke up there was another man in the room. He was bigger than me, and older. Which wasn’t that hard at the time, I was only seventeen. He looked to be in his 30’s. He noticed I was awake and he came towards me and started asking me these questions. I couldn’t answer, my mind was so fuzzy and I had an oncoming migraine. I couldn’t see straight, let alone answer questions.”

"Oh." Maddie's lips formed a perfect circle, holding like that for a moment before closing into a thin line. She was disgusted by the information she'd been presented with, but not disgusted at Nick. She couldn't be disgusted at Nick, nothing she'd been told happened to be his fault. He couldn't have controlled the way he looked or what he was mistaken for. Admittedly, she did feel a sort of overwhelming pity that hadn't been there before, and it was blatant on her face. "Two years?"

Nick laughed at Maddie’s questions. “Yeah, it was crazy. And no, I never went back to see them. They never sent out a search party or ‘lost child’ so I figured why dig up a problem that’s already been buried. As I grew older I found jobs along the way, small paying jobs but I was able to buy food and clothes so it was enough for me. Eventually I realized that I would need a place to sleep instead of a bench or under a bridge so I would put aside small amounts of my pay so I could save enough money.” Nick leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. It’s about to get interesting. 

Maddie was taken aback, surprised that Nick's parents had never even bothered to put up lost child posters or anything. Had they been that disappointed in him that they'd merely written him off once he'd left? "My god, Nick. Honestly, I'd tell you that I'm sorry, but I'm not. You shouldn't be sorry for leaving, and I shouldn't be sorry that you left. Instead, your parents should be sorry. The way they treated you, even though they weren't physically abusing you or anything of the sort, was still appalling. And for them to not even try to look for you? That's disgusting. I'm sorry you had to live with them for so long." She realized that her wording had been the slightest bit wonky, but she hoped that Nick understood what she was trying to say. She had absolutely no intention of being offensive.

Nick gave a shy laugh and shook his head. “No, not…immediately, at least. It went on for days. I would drink myself dumb and then go to sleep. Start again the next day. I didn’t bother with eating, which was stupid, trust me, I know. It was about four days after my parents left when I looked at myself- really looked at myself. I looked like total shit. You know, I had these bags under my eyes, my cheeks were sunken in, I just looked..dead. And that was how I felt.” He gave a choked laugh. 

Maddie leaned back in her chair, widening her eyes slightly and letting out a low whistle as she took in all the information that'd been thrown at her. She'd definitely just broken her 'don't learn anything more than the basics about other people' rule. No, scratch that. She'd taken a sledgehammer to the rule. She didn't entirely mind learning more about people, she just wanted to make a point of avoiding awkward situations where the information she knew could come back to bite her in the ass. Regardless of her rule and her views, she wanted to sit and finish out the story being conveyed to her.

Nick shook his head. “No, he didn’t. They didn’t. And you know, they were these hot shot lawyers so they always had these parties, right? And I swear to you, every single party they tried to set me up with one of their colleague’s daughters. Every damned one.” Nick sighed. He was frustrated, obviously. But he was glad Maddie was here. Someone he could talk to that wasn’t a cheap therapist or scumbag who just wanted a drink and pretended to care.

Maddie rolled her eyes, liking Nick's parents less and less with every word he said. She was biting her tongue, not wanting to openly insult them in front of him, unsure how he'd take it. She'd come to realize that some people wanted to bitch about people all day long, but would grow defensive if someone else had a bad thing to say about the person in question. She was hoping to avoid that type of scenario. "That's very antiquated logic. My son's gay, let's try and hook him up with any girl we can find! It's not like he's not in to girls or anything!" Maddie was disgusted, unable to even fathom just how mad she was over how his parents had treated him.

Nick laughed, relieved. He could feel some of the tension slip away. She’s not like your parents, she’s better than that, you’re okay. “Thank you.” He gave a warm smile, or what he hoped was a warm smile, and ran a hand through his hair. “After I realized I wasn’t into girls I decided to tell my parents. Because you know, they never said they had anything against people like me and they never said anything bad to the gay people we ran into. So I figured ‘what’s the worst thing that could happen?’ Well, wrong thing to think. I sat them down after dinner one night and I told them, flat out, that I was gay.” Nick frowned, the memories rushing back and all of a sudden he just felt angry. His parents, who he respected almost his entire life, and loved even more of it, had treated him like complete shit. He sighed and calmed down before he continued.

"You're welcome. You shouldn't thank me though. I'm just expressing my viewpoint." Maddie, as interested as she was in Nick's story, wondered how exactly this was going to lead into how he became a teacher. She didn't particularly want him to speed along and skip over important details, but her mind was dreaming up scenarios that would probably make the real story pale in comparison. In an attempt to continue giving Nick the respect he deserved, she pushed the thoughts out of her head. Maddie was surprised to hear that her colleague had flat out told his parents about his sexuality. She respected him for it, even if the results of his coming out had been less than successful. It certainly wouldn't have been something she'd have been able to do if she were in his position.

Nick blushed the smallest bit but laughed along with her. He gave a fake gasp and gave a scared expression. “Oh no! You weren’t supposed to find out this way! No one was supposed to know!” He ignored the feeling of wanting to erupt into a fit of giggles. He did, however, take a moment to enjoy the feeling of laughing, really laughing, before he sobered enough to take a drink of water.

"I'm willing to listen. I swear." She focused all her attention on her colleague, giving him the attention and respect he deserved.

Jim listened. For the first time in his life, he sat back and let someone else do the thinking. He wanted to explain his belief in no-win scenarios, but he kept quiet, understanding that Professor Thomas had a point. There was no way to tell how what he was planning on doing was going to be taken, and there was no way to tell who would oppose or support it. He was trying to buck the system, and no one in charge would appreciate what he was doing. So he understood where Professor Thomas was coming from, he just refused to accept the possibility that they might fail.

"Yeah, no, you're welcome. It's a ridiculous and antiquated rule. Academy students, and Starfleet personnel for that matter, should be able to date whomever they please. If that person so happens to also be in Starfleet, so be it. I just hope that the administration will listen to us." She sighed wistfully, glad that Jim seemed to be so appreciative of the help she would be giving. "I mean, with the teachers and the students banding together, that'll hopefully give us a bit of leverage. If that's the right word."

Nick returned back to the table with a bottle of water instead. “Noted. I did notice he didn’t really talk about his family much, but I left it alone. He seemed perfectly happy so it worked for me.” Nick laughed as he sat down and took a sip before he continued. “Oh, I agree. I think I would’ve just quit. Or moved everything to a PADD. I dunno, just something about using paper is relaxing.” He snorted and shook his head. “What an old man thing to say.”

Maddie cracked up, amused by just how much Nick did sound like an old man. "God, you sound just like the professors I had in college! Oooh, paper is so relaxing. Are you sure you're not an 80 year old inside that young body of yours? At least I know what to get you for a present. I'll just go buy you a stack of composition books or something." She calmed down enough to take a sip of her drink, wondering how many other ways the man in front of her happened to be old fashioned. She didn't think it was a bad thing, just an interesting sight in such a modern and technology driven world. For a man his age to use paper as his preferred way of getting information across was about as out of place as a 150 year old with a Spacebook account.

"Yeah, he did. It completely threw me off, I was thinking the same thing you were. But he’s doing really good in my classes. If you ask him I’m sure he’ll say he hates it but he loves it, you can tell." Nick smiled and got up to pour his coffee out, finally, but he would’ve felt bad. Maddie just seemed so proud of it. 

"He's an interesting kid, I'll give him that. I embarrassed him terribly the first time we met, I still feel horrible about it." She turned the tiniest bit red, glancing down at her shoes. "You see, I rarely read the files I get for my students when a class starts, and this year was no exception. I didn't have a clue about his family situation, or anything. When he put down Dr. McCoy as his emergency contact, I asked if he had family he could put down instead, and of course that's when I found out that his dad's been dead since the Kelvin and that his mom doesn't have a relationship with him. I felt so horrible!" She put her hands on her cheeks and looked distraught, her face returning to normal shortly after. "He was very polite about it though. Kind of bitter, but polite. So...I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't ask him about his family. Ever." She watched Nick go to pour out his coffee, waiting patiently until he returned.

"I don’t need you to help me bury her body," Jim grinned up at her, malice definitely showing on his face. "I’ve entirely eliminated the problem without laying a hand on her pretty little head." His grin twisted, but he didn’t care. Jocelyn had said cruel things to him, which he could more or less live with. But she crossed a line when she went back to their room and spoken to Bones like she fucking owned him. He’d made sure she’d never make that mistake again. He watched her laugh, appreciating her humor, but thinking that she probably wouldn’t like the laugh that came out of him at that moment.

Maddie watched as Jim thought, wondering what sort of things were going through his head. In all honesty, she hoped that he would decide to drop the idea, to not pursue it any further. She was willing to help, but she didn't want to see Jim lose something that was obviously so important to him. She'd heard about the special relationship between Kirk and Captain Pike, but she knew that not even Pike would be able to help Jim out if he and Dr. McCoy were split up. Starfleet had no mercy when it came to doing what it felt happened to be right for its students. She'd seen past students broken apart and sent to opposite ends of Federation space after their relationship became public. She'd known one couple that'd been found out in their first year, and instead of letting Starfleet break them apart, they both left the Academy and continued their relationship elsewhere. She didn't want any of those things to happen to Jim Kirk or Dr. McCoy, but she hoped that Jim would make the logical choice.

Rosalind raised another curious eyebrow at her. “Really?” She asked. “So what does this meal say about me?” She asked genuinely curious. She did understand what she meant, Rosa herself loved eating too. She wasn’t a picky eater and that made it much easier for her to like any kind of food she came across.

Maddie moved her hands in a circular motion, trying to mimic the action of a psychic gazing into a crystal ball. "This meal tells me that you are....a woman of great taste. It also tells me that you will go far in life if you continue to bribe people with food this delicious. Yesssss, that is what the magic pasta tells me." She cackled, taking another bite of her food.

"Oh yes, very close." Nick gave a smile that said there’s something I know that you don’t and looked to make sure the door was shut. “And yes, I do. It was the strangest thing, though. Halfway through the year Jim showed up and decided he wanted to take my history class. Said he had heard I was the best of the best.” Although Nick would never admit it outloud to anyone, the words had left him warm inside.

Maddie raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly Castle was alluding to. She figured that he had probably heard the rumours of a more-than-strictly-platonic relationship between the two roommates and had decided to take them as fact, but she wouldn't know for sure if he didn't tell her. In the interest of trying not to get involved in the personal affairs of others, she decided not to ask. She wouldn't shy away if Nick told her, but she didn't want to seek out more information than she needed. "Did he really? Jim Kirk doesn't really seem like a history type to me. In fact, he told me he was more of a fighter than anything, his record proves that. How's he doing in your class?" She genuinely wanted to know the answer to that one, since it would have no effect on how she'd end up viewing her student.

"Sorry," Jim flushed, reaching out to shake her hand. "I uh…had a little incident with my roommate’s ex-wife yesterday and we kind of just…yeah." Jim scratched the back of his head nervously, "I promise I’m normally on time to things, I really am." He let his hands fall down to his side, unsure as to how to proceed. He knew he needed her help, but he wasn’t sure how to ask for it.

Maddie sat back down on the bench, wondering what kind of incident involving an ex-wife could be so bad that it'd extend into the next day. "You can tell me that you're not usually late to things all day, but your track record tells me otherwise." She grinned, referring to both this time and the time that he'd missed the first day of her class. "Anyway, I hope things have been smoothed over with Dr. McCoy's ex. I hope you're not asking me to help you bury her body or anything of the sort." She had a very warped sense of humour, as shown by her laughter at the thought of burying a body. "Sorry, sorry. Go on."