Rahne and Nathan, Tuesday afternoon

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Rahne and Nathan work on setting up the new office in the boathouse. If all early indications are accurate, theirs is going to be a very solid working relationship.


"This place is a disaster zone," Nathan said mournfully, standing in the middle of what had been the boathouse's living room and was now the Elpis 'Westchester office'. Hah. Hah, hah. That was an overly dignified name to give it. There were boxes everywhere, and while they did at least have the desks set up, things were not orderly. In fact, they were the opposite of orderly.

Rahne picked her way through a gap in the boxes that might or might not have been intended as a path. "I'd say at least nobody's bleeding, but I think one of the staples bit me." She was laughing about it as she stuck the side of her hand in her mouth, though.

Nathan couldn't help grinning. Oh, she was so much fun to have around, he thought contentedly, turning his attention to the box next to him. If it wasn't undignified, he'd be spraining his arm patting himself on the back for offering her the job.

"Maybe if we go at it one at a time, we'll make some headway." Angelo was off taking a meeting for him - he'd been very insistent about it, since all that needed doing was taking notes. "Oh!" Nathan said, blinking as he saw the printing on the box. "That's where they went... find someplace to sit down, Rahne, I've got something for you."

"Er.... Thank you," Rahne said, a little distracted by trying to comply with finding a seat. It was easier said than done, as most of the boxes that could bear her weight had other boxes on them. In the end she circled around and carefully moved two out of a chair. "What went where, now?"

"The laptops." Nathan opened the box, taking one out. "Ours, rather - the ones for Tel Aviv have already shipped." He shook his head admiringly as he lifted the computer. "They're heavy, for laptops," he said, carrying the GoBook over to her. "They also will take just about any kind of abuse you can put them through. I'd thought they would be good for when we're traveling, but come to think of it, that might be a helpful quality for everyday use around here, too."

Rahne accepted it, oofed, and lowered it carefully and somewhat quickly to her knees. "I see what ye mean," she said, and glanced up. "On both scores!"

Nathan, still grinning, went back to the box and pulled out the other three, carefully freeing them of their packaging and arranging them neatly on an empty spot on the floor, standing on end. It was rather entertaining, laptops that were designed to stand on their ends. "They've got the basic software package I asked for on them already," he said, "but we'll have to load them up with travelling copies of the database and the Great Rolodex." He laughed again, then oohed in appreciation as he found the single tablet PC he'd asked for in the box as well. "I've told you about the Great Rolodex, yes? Or have I?" He sat down on the floor to open the box the tablet was in. It might be just as hardy as the laptops, but apparently it required slightly more packaging for transit.

"Ye've mentioned the term before...."

"One of the few things I was smart about doing, when I started this, was amassing a master list of every contact I had going in, and adding every contact I've developed since. It's kind of a long list," Nathan said whimsically, "and has to constantly be updated, because some of those contacts, um, change addresses and contact information quite a bit. But it's been useful in the past and it's probably going to continue to be useful."

"Ah. Aye, that sounds like it would."

"There's a satellite modem to go along with that," Nathan said, inclining his head at the laptop on Rahne's lap. "It's in one of these boxes somewhere. Obviously, that you won't need until we're actually going somewhere."

"And hopefully we'll find it before then!" She'd flipped the laptop open and now gave him a sheepish grin and closed it. "Suppose I should stop playing and try tackling a box."

"Hmm, I guess I should do the same," Nathan said, looking mock-regretfully at the tablet, before setting it aside as well. "We can play with our new toys later. The office still looks like it used to look last fall, and that's bad."

Rahne slid out from under the laptop and let it have the chair. "Well, let's see if we can't get it up to last winter."

"That's the spirit." Nathan got up, too, and eyed his surroundings. "Bookshelves first?" he suggested, pointing to the row of half-empty bookshelves along the far wall. Most of the boxes in front of them were full of what belonged on them, so that should work. "Mostly, this is stuff that hasn't been digitized," he said, making his way over there through the maze of boxes. "Annual reports of relevant NGOs dating back years, phone directories from places that haven't made the jump to online directories just yet... that sort of thing."

Rahne nodded, weaving around to that side of the room and checking the labels on the boxes before opening one and pulling out a thick phonebook. "Start with this shelf?" There were a couple of phone directories already sitting on it.

"Absolutely," Nathan said cheerfully. "I'll start with our resource books. I may have gone a little nuts and bought every book I could find on NGO management," he confessed, pulling the lid off another box of books. "Even before we started to do this officially. I know I'm starting from a major experience deficit here."

Rahne looked over and her eyes widened. "...Should we each be reading all of those?" she asked, trying not to sound too alarmed.

Nathan blinked at her and then grinned. "No, kiddo. If I find anything particularly relevant, I'll be pushing it your way. Although Angelo seems determined to work his way through all of them... he's pretty stubborn about things like that."

"Mm." Maybe she should too, then, if she could make time. Or maybe she'd not need most of it until later. "He does seem to be, aye."

"Honestly, Rahne, if you're going to spend time in study for the purposes of this job, I'd rather see you reading up on the history of some of these places that you haven't gotten in school. Or working on languages," Nathan said easily, starting to fill the bookshelf in front of him. "The structural stuff, you can learn by doing, I think."

"I can do that." She paused, frowned at the phone directories, and swapped several of them back into alphabetical order. "With how many of them there are, which do ye think I should start first?"

"Alphabetical order by country would work best, I think. That's how we had them back in the office in the house," Nathan said, lifting books out of the box and arranging them on the bookshelf. "Actually, while we're on the subject, what's your opinion on beefing up your language skills? Eager to do it, anxious about the time involved...?"

"Aye," Rahne said, laughing a little ruefully. "Both. I'm sure I can get there."

"Basics first," Nathan said, bending over the box again. "Brush up on your Arabic. French, Spanish, Russian, in that order... the good thing is that I can provide you with conversational practice even just around the office with each of them." He winked at her.

She grinned. "That's a wee bit intimidating, but it should be interesting too."

"I need to ask Moira to take you shopping," Nathan said, giving her a knowing sideways look. "For a few business-type outfits, for when you come along to meetings."

"Eep," she said, completely deadpan. "I'll look forward to that...."

"I think she'd get unholy glee out of that, quite frankly. Although we certainly can't fault her taste in business apparel, can we?" Nathan said with one of those slightly dreamy, 'still more or less a newlywed' smiles.

"Wouldna dream of it."

There was a noise from the back bedroom, now the nursery, and as Nathan looked in that direction, Rachel came floating out, yawning widely and then "oooohing!" at the site of Rahne.

"Well, I guess that's the end of that nap," he observed.