Nathan and Bridge, Wednesday night

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

After an evening spent at Billie's pub, Nathan and GW go for a walk on the beach at Muir. There's some laughter, some taking stock of the past year, and even some falling in the North Sea.


"If you fall in, I am so telling Lien on you," Nathan said severely as he watched GW climbing over some of the boulders that dotted Muir's rocky beach.

GW paused for long enough to cheerfully give him the finger. "We can't all fly, bro," he said, then crowed in triumph as he got to the top of one particularly large boulder. "All right," he said happily. "If I can do that with this much of Billie's Scotch in me, I'm not as old as I thought I was."

"You're three weeks younger than me," Nathan said with a snort, but couldn't help grinning. It had been a good evening. Better than good, really. They had spent it down at Billie's, and between the music and the company, Nathan had relaxed almost completely for the first time in... well, months. "How do you think comments like that make me feel?"

"Particularly decrepit?" GW tossed at him, then turned to regard the North Sea, the moon hanging low over the water. "Nice view," he said more quietly. "Very nice."

They were on the north side of the island, away from the mainland, so all they could see was the water. It was a clear, if cold night, and the stars, as always on nights like this, were pretty spectacular, Nathan thought with a softer smile.

"I never want to leave, whenever I'm here," GW said abruptly, still staring out at the water. The perpetual low-level tension Nathan had been noticing in his friend for the last few months was gone, absolutely gone. It was nice to see. "I've told you that, right? It's like time stops, and all the things I usually worry myself to death about don't make it here with me. Like I leave them back in Edinburgh or some such thing."

Nathan concentrated for a moment, floating upwards and over to join his friend on the boulder. "I feel the same way," he said quietly. "Even with the things that have happened here during the last two years. It hasn't changed Muir for me." Proteus, getting shot the previous May... they seemed to recede into the distance, no match for the solid here-ness of the island.

"I think Muir's been home for you for a while," GW said wisely, giving him a sideways look. "Even before you married the Clan Chief." He laughed suddenly, with a white flash of teeth in the dimness. "I am never going to get over the locals coming to pay homage to the munchkin. That's what that was, you realize. I was half-expecting gifts of frankincense and myrrh."

"And there she sat, lapping it up as if it was only her due," Nathan said, grinning. "My little Scottish princess." He had been entirely entertained. And almost as entirely ignored, although a few of the older women had pointed out, very pointedly, that there would be nothing wrong with a spare to go along with the heir. If I ever get an inflated self-image, I know where to come...

"Oh, I don't know. I think she was relieved when Theo scooped her up and took her for a dance," GW chuckled. "Or maybe it's just that she really, really likes Theo."

"She has an attachment to furry people in general," Nathan said after a moment, thinking about Catseye and Rahne. "But yeah, she really does like Theo. I think he makes her feel very safe," he said thoughtfully, thinking about the impressions he got from Rachel telepathically when she was around Theo..

"Wouldn't surprise me. He'd probably kill anyone who looked at her sideways." GW gave him a very serious look. "So would I, in case I hadn't mentioned that."

Nathan gave him a brief smile, then gazed out at the water for a long moment before he answered. "I hope it doesn't come to that," he said, thinking about Moira's run-in with Gideon in the mall. He'd been doing very well not stewing about that, but there were limits. "For any of us, or for her. It's not fair, you know," he went on a bit heavily. "She's not six months old yet, and already there are people unhealthily interested in her."

"You're worried."

"I always worry," Nathan murmured, and his mind went back to a hotel room in San Francisco. "Always."

GW elbowed him in the arm, gently. "Hey," he said softly, and Nathan looked at him. "In a lot of ways this has been a pretty shitty year, I know. But there have been some wonderful times too, no?"

Nathan paused, then smiled again. "Yeah, there have been, Mr. Silver Lining." Trust GW the eternal optimist to point that out. But he needed that optimism, always had.

"You're come through it well, you realize." Nathan raised an eyebrow at him, but GW shook his head, his expression serious. "You have. Three years ago, you wouldn't have been able to handle half of what you've been through in the last few months."

Nathan made a face. "Am I really handling it all that well?"

"You have to ask?" GW countered, his gaze very direct. "Look at you. You've gotten knocked down, yeah, but you've gotten back up. No one would have faulted you for hanging it all up after Youra. But you didn't. You went back out with the X-Men as soon as you could." Nathan opened his mouth, but GW went on steadily. "And when your psychopathic family showed up and tried to undermine everything you'd built for yourself, you didn't just get back up, you found a way to fight them."

"Which hasn't borne a whole lot of fruit just yet."

"Time. You're just getting started. I can tell that just by listening to you." GW smiled again. "And I do listen, you know. Very carefully."

"You always did." Nathan glanced back out at the water, a helpless little smile tugging at his lips. "Is this a pep talk? This is beginning to sound like a pep talk."

"I don't think you need a pep talk," GW said after a moment. "I think you just need to be reminded of how far you've come, every once in a while. Helps with the perspective," he said, and when Nathan looked at him, he was smiling, if wistfully. "Do you remember what I told you when we were in Mexico City, after we got back out of the States nine years ago?"

Nathan was silent for a long moment. Those were very hazy weeks, that month or two after GW had retrieved him in New Mexico, after he'd destroyed the old Mistra home facility. He'd been badly hurt, multiple new gunshot wounds on top of the older, barely-healed ones from San Francisco and his escape from the hotel. "Well," he said, trying to keep his voice light, "I seem to recall you telling me multiple times that if I didn't take my antibiotics you'd force-feed them to me."

GW rolled his eyes at him. "Well, yeah. I was actually referring to one of my preachier moments that turned out to be prophecy." Nathan gave him a deadpan look, and GW gave a long-suffering sigh that changed into a very warm, if very serious look. "I told you that someday we'd be looking back on that year and marveling at how far we'd both come."

Nathan gazed at GW. "You are happy," he said quietly. "Doing what you're doing. I'm glad." It wasn't just him, either. The Pack, especially the newer additions, all... radiated contentment. They'd all looked pretty weary when they'd arrived, but it had been a good weariness. What they were doing in Africa was agreeing with them.

"Hell, yes, I'm happy. It's hellishly stressful, moreso than the jobs we used to take. But damn," GW said, his smile huge again, "the rewards are so, so much better." He gave Nathan a poke in the arm. "Just wish we didn't have to spent so much time doing the things we're doing on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I miss you, bro.,"

"Miss you too," Nathan said softly. Phone calls and emails, however regular, really didn't make up for being so far away most of the time. He made a mental note to mention to Jack how right it felt to be around GW and the others. Maybe that was part of the disassociation Jack was worried about, but he wouldn't change it, even if it was. "But you never know what the future brings, do you?"

"So long as it doesn't bring us any more Libyas," GW said, before Nathan could, and grinned at him.

"My brain. But amen to that, even so," Nathan said, and then floated over to the next boulder. GW tried to follow, and the awkward hop landed him, not unexpectedly, in the water. Nathan sighed, very deliberately not smiling, and hauled him out telekinetically. "What did I say? The North Sea's cold in December, idiot."

"You're t-telling me!" GW reeled against him, laughing. He was soaked from the waist down, despite how quickly Nathan had dragged him out of the water.

"I think," Nathan said placidly, levitating them both into the air, and turning in the direction of the castle, "I will deliver you to Lien's tender mercies, and then go find Moira so that we can laugh at you."

"Hey!"

"Rachel will help."

GW was laughing too hard to reply.