xp_logs | Nathan, Moira and Rachel, Thursday evening

Moira finds Nathan taking a break from packing for the Kashmir trip to play with Rachel. Rachel demonstrates that she learns fast, much to her mother's delight. It is agreed that Nathan will stay out of trouble in India.

"Hee! Heeeheeehee!"

Nathan grinned at his daughter, who was waving her fists exuberantly, eyes huge and sparkling with delight as he levitated her just above her crib. "Look, it's a flying baby," he said happily. She squeaked in excitement. "Now, don't you get any ideas about doing this yourself."

"Heeheehee!"

Moira leaned against the doorway to the nursery and giggled as Nathan cheerfully (and carefully) tossed their squealing daughter into the air again. The age-old game of toss the baby but with a slightly different twist to it. "If ye drop her, I'll never let ye hear th' end o' it," she said, laughing, as Rachel let out a higher pitched squeal at the sight of her. "Hello, sweetie."

"Heehee!" Rachel squirmed energetically at her sight of her mother, burbling in pure joy. Nathan, still smiling, shook his head.

"I'd never drop her," he said, mock-severely. "Although I perhaps shouldn't be encouraging her." Whimsically, he floated her over to Moira, smiling hugely as Rachel immediately grabbed for her mother, almost imperiously.

"Why 'ello, there," she said dryly, cradling the baby in her arms close to her. "Ye're all full o' spitfire today, aren't ye?

Rachel burbled and snuggled contentedly into her mother's arms. Nathan watched them, and 'warm fuzzies' really wasn't an adequate term for the emotions the sight provoked. "I came in here to play with her because I made the mistake of leaving the door open and she spotted the suitcases. Someone was making unhappy noises, weren't we, Rachel?"

"Mneh!" Rachel wrinkled her nose at him and hiccuped. Moira shifted her to her shoulder and held her like that.

"Cannae say I blame 'er," Moira replied.

"I'm not overly crazy about the idea, either," Nathan said, coming over and kissing Rachel on the top of the head before he kissed Moira's cheek. "But I think that the only way I'm going to figure out what's going on is to go look in person. Too easy for people to blow off a phone call or an email."

"Wit' all th' crazy goin' on right now," she sighed, "I wish ye wouldnae. But I know ye do need ta go. Jus'...be careful, okay?"

"It's a lot different," Nathan said reassuringly, "going to Kashmir as an observer like this, rather than actually going to do anything. It's not like I'm off to hunt suitcase nukes like the last couple of times."

Both Rachel and Moira gave him a Look suddenly.

... well, that was creepy. "Are you teaching her how to do that?" Nathan asked with a perfectly straight face. "Because she's too young, Moira."

"She is me daughter after all." Actually, Moira thought that Rachel just had gas. But still, it seemed to have worked. "No nukes for ye, at all. Got it?"

"No nukes. Drat." Nathan laughed suddenly. "I'm never going to forget Dom, the last time the Pack went - the time I wasn't there, last... what, August? Crowing about getting to disarm a nuclear weapon..."

"No one is allowed ta play wit' nukes, includin' Angelo. ESPECIALLY Angelo. He even looks sideways at a nuclear device an' he comes 'ome immediately."

"Rachel, tell your mother that she worries too much. As if your cautious and prudent father would ever be caught in the vicinity of a nuclear weapon." Rachel sneezed and gave him a disgusted look.

"See?" Moira crowed, looking triumphant.

"Conspiracy," Nathan said mournfully. "It's a conspiracy of redheads. I have no chance, here, do I?" He bent to kiss Rachel again, and then gave Moira a more serious look as he straightened. "I'll be careful. Scrupulously. I'm not going to be anything but, with Angelo along."

"Good, because I promise I'll run ye bot' ta th' ground if somethin' goes wron'," Moira said gruffly, leaning against him with a sigh.

"I almost wish I could take the two of you with me," he said, putting an arm around her. "Kashmir is... beautiful. Spectacularly beautiful. And more or less peaceful, these days."

"More or less, but nay less enough for th' wee one 'ere," Moira said, wistfully. "I may take her ta Muir, though, this weekend, if ye dinnae mind us goin' without ye? I've promised a few people a trip over there an' I think 'tis time I came through."

"Honestly, the thought of the two of you on Muir makes me happy," Nathan said a bit cryptically. Rachel blinked up at him. "We shouldn't be gone more than a week at the absolute most."

"Are ye bein' spooky again?"

"No, I just..." He shook his head a little, biting his lip. "Stay for a few days? If that... works, for everyone."

#Wha's wron'?# Moira sent, keeping the thoughts away from the cooing, slightly drooling baby. #Or tis jus' a feelin'?#

#Just a feeling. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, not wanting the two of you here while I'm gone.#

#I would think 'ere would be safer than Muir. Unless David did somethin' more ta th' security systems...# She gave him a look.

#Just humor me. The image of you and the munchkin on the island while I'm gone feels right.# Maybe he was being irrational. Okay, probably irrational. But this was the first time he had voluntarily left the two of them for more than a day since Rachel had been born.

#I'll see if everyone can spare th' time. If nay...I dinnae want ta go over there without Paige an' a few others.#

"I'm fussing," Nathan said aloud, wryly, and kissed her. "Really am. Shall I go shopping in Kashmir before I come back? Bring you back a rug?"

Moira laughed at that. "Somethin', if nay a rug. Goof. Somethin' shiny. An' maybe ye should get somethin' for our Sunshine 'ere, aye? Never ta early ta start on th' international gifts."

"I'll have to be creative. Although shiny is easy." Nathan grinned at Moira. "I'm good at shiny," he said smugly.

"Aye, why do you think I married ye?" she teased.

"I also have my pills all stashed away securely, so there's no need to remind me in the morning that I need to make sure I take them all with me," Nathan pointed out with a straight face. "Since you are a nag."

"Meh!" Rachel scolded him.

Moira kicked him, only slightly, in the shin for that one. "An' yer an old fart."

"Makes us the perfect pair, doesn't it? Trio," Nathan amended soothingly at Rachel's indignant squeal. "An old fart, a sharp-tongued nag, and a megalomaniacal baby. We ought to have our own sitcom."

"...we don't already?"