xp_logs | Bridge and Alison // Bridge and Nathan (Reply)

Out in New York on Monday afternoon, Alison finds out that it's a small world after all as she runs into GW, who's walking off his jetlag and doing a little window-shopping.

Bridge blinked at the reflection in the jewelry store window. A blonde woman, a familiar blonde, strolling peacefully down the sidewalk behind him, apparently not noticing him. "Alison?" he asked, amused and surprised as he turned. Coincidence was a funny thing. He'd just called the mansion to set up lunch with Nate tomorrow; he hadn't expected to run into one of his other favorite X-Men in the process of a walk to shake off the jet lag.

Though she'd started a bit at her name being called out, it was a familiar voice and Alison beat down her initial reaction with ease, even moreso when she saw who had called out, confirming what the voice had already told her. "Ha! It's you!" She grinned and stepped out of the traffic of people on the sidewalk to not block their way, grinning at GW in a cheerful greeting. "Fancy meeting you here!" This was a lot nicer than being ambushed in town, really.

Bridge grinned right back at her, walking over to join her. "This is where we make small world comments, I think?" he asked, and then eyed her thoughtfully. She looked good. Quite good, actually. "You look great. Happy New Year."

"It is a very very big world but this is New York, and thus, it makes perfect sense," Alison replied gravely, before winking at him. She beamed at the compliment and pulled him down slightly to kiss him on the cheek, in the traditional New Year's greeting. "And the same to you, on both counts! How's Lien? And the others?"

"In Tunis at the moment," Bridge said amiably. "I'm in to check in with Nate and meet a couple of Mac's people," he said, vaguely enough. "We had a very, very good week last week." He didn't even try and stop the smile of satisfaction. "Sixteen new temporary guests at the house in Tunis."

A grin of equal satisfaction greeted that revelation, Alison having no doubt that this meant the Pack in general were all feeling equally pleased with themselves. "Good for you," she murmured, nodding slowly. The faces of the children on Youra were still bright and clear in her mind, to this day. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Good for you, laptop-finding woman. And for Pete for coughing up the info he did while we were in Namibia. And hell, to Mac, too, for being generally devious and sneaky as hell." Bridge gave her a thoughtful look, then took her arm and led her back over to the window he'd been studying. "I need a ring," he said with a perfectly straight face. "Nate might be making it, but I need an idea of what I want. Suggestions?"

"Good grief, Nathan and Lorna might just as well open a ring making business at the rate we all keep hitting them up for rings," Alison murmured, before she could stop, staring at Bridge askance as she realized the implications of what she'd just said. Cheeks coloring brightly, she tried to brush it off, continuing as though she hadn't hinted at anything at all. "Um. Ring! Absolutely!" It wasn't as though she hadn't been looking through them all - looking at models for men's ring didn't mean she hadn't been very much looking at the women's models too.

GW smiled tolerantly at her, not particularly surprised. "I asked him if he kept up with his jewelry-making skills the last time I emailed him, before we headed off in our separate do-gooding directions. He proceeded to read my mind over email. Was terribly impressive, actually." He tilted his head at her for a moment, but then turned his attention back to the display of rings. "What do you suppose the settling-down urge is all about? I mean, okay, so I'm going to be forty years old in a few months, so maybe I'm starting to want to be more settled..."

"I'm almost half your age," she informed him far too cheerfully, "and look what I'm doing? It's a disease." She nodded wisely, looping her arm through his and peering at the selection offered in the jewelry store display window. "And we've caught it and there's no cure, which means we're all doomed. Doomed!" she added melodramatically, then suddenly pulled away from the display, wrinkling her nose as she looked up at the store name. "Ew... oh, that explains it. What the heck were you doing looking for rings here?" she asked sterntly, before tugging him away from the store. "No, no, no, you won't find anything good here. Two streets down, I know this perfect little store..."

--

Much later that night, Nathan, unable to sleep in his too-quiet suite, calls his friend at the hotel. He and GW have one of those terribly introspective conversations.

"Why aren't you asleep?"

The gently perplexed tone of Bridge's voice on the other end of the phone made Nathan laugh softly as he leaned back into the couch cushions. "Long story," he said. "I'll tell you tomorrow. Did I wake you up?" GW was probably dealing with a little jetlag himself, Nathan realized abruptly, reddening. Okay, so the late evening phone call wasn't all that considerate, maybe.

"Nah," was the relaxed answer, however, and Nathan couldn't detect anything but sincerity in his best friend's tone. "Glad you called, actually. I'm still a little too keyed up to sleep myself. Watch, tomorrow at lunch I'll faceplant into my soup."

The laugh that slipped out was a little louder, this time. "Cain would never let you live it down," Nathan said, propping one leg up on the back of the couch.

"Oh, is he coming?"

"Yeah. At this rate I'm not going to have gotten enough rest to be up for driving, and hell, I figured three was company." Nathan sighed, glancing towards the open door to the nursery. "Too quiet in here. Moira and Rachel aren't back from Muir yet."

"Aw," GW teased him lightly. "Didn't get your proper homecoming, did you? Poor baby."

"Yeah, you're just full of sympathy, aren't you?" Nathan asked tolerantly, inwardly wincing a bit at the image of GW's reaction when he found out tomorrow about Gideon having visited Muir. Not that he was likely to lose his temper outwardly, but GW was a little more alarming for the simple fact that he internalized these things. "And here I brought them back all kinds of goodies from Kazakhstan... well, was sent home with all kinds of goodies, to be fair. Baurzhan's womenfolk were thoroughly disgusted with me for not bringing the family along."

"Mmm, I bet. So what was it like seeing them again?"

"Strange," Nathan said thoughtfully. "Wonderful. I missed them. Sounds like a strange thing to say, doesn't it? That you could miss people you haven't seen for twenty years."

"Not strange at all," GW said immediately. "They're important to you. I was always fascinated by the way you talked about them. They taught you a lot. That's the impression I always got, at least."

Teachers. That was exactly what Farkhan and the others had been; as usual, GW had summed it up in a nutshell. Probably because he helped teach me the same thing. How to be human.

"You could always come with us, in the summer or whenever we wind up going over there. Moira likes the idea of a trip, once the weather's better." Nathan smiled a little, hopefully. "I'd like you to meet them. So long as you promise to eat the food." He rolled his eyes. "I was about ready to boot Haroun in the head."

"I have no moral issues with horsemeat. We've eaten worse out in the field," GW chuckled. "Deal, by the way. I'd love to see Kazakhstan when it's not passing by thirty thousand feet below me."

Nathan's smile grew and he felt a warm surge of contentment at the idea of him and Moira and Rachel and GW all visiting with Baurzhan's clan. Perfect. "You realize I am so dragging your sorry ass out of whatever you're doing at the time if you try to stand me up on this."

"Force me into a vacation? What an appalling thought." Nathan heard GW give a sigh that sounded oddly contented as well. "This has been a good week, Nate," he said finally, and the contetment was definitely there in his voice as well. "Only going to get better, too, with seeing you and Moira and the baby. They are coming home at some point soon, right?"

"Tomorrow morning, Moira said. And Mali went that well, did it?" Nathan asked. He had suspected it had been a near-perfect op, from how jubilant GW had sounded during his first phone call.

"Not a scratch on any of the kids or any of us, and they weren't in the camp for long enough to be too traumatized. The Professor's contact thinks they've got a good shot at reintegrating. Not back home, of course..." The happiness in GW's voice dimmed a little, but only a little. Which was fair enough; moving countries was a fair trade for a fresh start for most of these kids.

"That's good to hear," Nathan said quietly, still smiling.

"Yeah, I thought it would be." GW gave a sudden, almost sheepish laugh. "I can't remember the last time I felt this good about what I was doing with my life, you know. I really can't."

The note of wonder in his voice made Nathan's eyes sting. Fatigue, he told himself. "Likewise," he murmured. His trip to Kazakhstan hadn't had the sort of conclusive end as the raid on the Mali camp, but his second appointment with the Interior Minister to drop off the last of those documents had left him more than merely hopeful. Aliayev clearly hadn't been home the previous night. His staff had been scuttling around as if their boss had been chasing them with a horsewhip, and the determination burning in the minister's eyes had been impossible to miss.

There would be children reunited with their parents soon. Nathan was confident in that.

"I suppose some of our former colleagues would tell us we're mellowing. Losing our edge and all," GW said reflectively, when the companionable silence had dragged on for a little while.

"Eh, they can stuff it," Nathan said, striving for a flippant tone and not quite managing it. "When you look into the eyes of one of these kids you pull out of those camps, do you feel like you've lost anything?"

GW was silent for a long moment. "Pretty much the polar opposite of that," he said very softly. "I feel like I've won. Everything."

Nathan blinked suddenly, rapidly. "You have a hell of a way with words sometimes," he said gruffly.

"Says the lawyer," GW pointed out. "Written any more poetry lately?"

Nathan's lips twitched in another, more helpless smile. "I may have. Being back where I was when I started doing that was going to be inspirational whether I liked it or not, I think." His turn for the self-deprecating laugh, as the memories of sitting around the fire listening to the nomads singing their poetry came back so forcibly that he almost lost himself in the remembered images and sounds and smells. He remembered... wonder. For the boy he had been, wonder had been such a foreign thing. "Took a few long rides hoping to run into my nineteen year-old self," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Did he show up?" GW didn't sound quite like he was teasing.

"Sadly, no. I suppose telling him that things would turn out all right in the end would have been kind of pointless." Nathan stopped, swallowed. "While he was there, he believed that already." Hope, for the first time in his life. That was what the nomads had given him, the most important of all the many gifts he had received that year.

"Now you're getting all introspective on me."

"Am I boring you?"

"Nah," GW said again, more softly. "Kind of nice to see you being introspective without tearing yourself to shreds in the process."

"I can be taught."

"So you keep telling me." GW"s tone became a bit more brisk. "I think you should probably go and make yourself get some sleep, though. Usually a good sign that you're overtired when you start talking about having conversations with your subconscious."

Nathan made a rude noise. "Mother hen," he accused lightly.

"Always, bro."