xp_logs | Nathan and Richard Forge, Thursday afternoon

On his way to the kitchen, giggling baby in tow, Nathan runs into Forge's father. The two of them renew their acquaintance, talk a little about Forge's accomplishments this year, and Richard gets to meet Rachel, who shows off rather shamelessly.

Rachel was giggling. Aloud, telepathically, and constantly. It was actually pretty damned cute, Nathan thought indulgently, shifting her in his arms as he headed towards the kitchen. #What's with the giddy, munchkin?# he asked, and got an increase in the giggle-level and very sloppy baby-kiss on the cheek in response.

"And it seems fatherhood rears its head here as well."

From the foyer, a middle-aged man in a tan suit waved to Nathan, his other hand absently releasing his shoulder-length salt-and-pepper hair from its ponytail. "John Henry mentioned your daughter, I can see she's absolutely adorable."

Nathan smiled, changing course. "Good to see you," he greeted Forge's father. Rachel went very wide-eyed at the sight of the new person, although the occasional giggle still escaped, and Nathan was hard-pressed not to laugh. "This is Rachel. She's in a strange mood today - I just got back from Nicaragua, and she doesn't like it when I go away."

"Nicaragua?" Richard raised an eyebrow, reaching out to stroke a lock of red hair away from Rachel's face. "Is the Professor taking the school internationally now?"

Rachel made an interrogative noise, and Nathan smiled down at her, a little fatuously, before turning his attention to answering Richard's question. "Funny story," he said a bit dryly. "I've been doing some humanitarian work since last August, and I recently came into an inheritance that allowed me to make things a little more formal. I was down in Nicaragua getting our very first project started. We're going to be running a shelter and training facility for young mutants out of an old church in Managua."

Richard made a small 'ah' noise and nodded sagely. "The excitement never ends, does it? Well, the work you do has definitely inspired John Henry. Or more accurately, the work you assigned." He gave a knowing smile to Nathan, the wave of gratitude behind the expression unseen but still obvious. "You gave him a way to turn possibly the most horrifying experience of his life into something he sees as a stepping stone to bigger things. It's too bad Cheryl Anne and I won't be able to make it up here for his big day when his book's released."

"It's quite a remarkable book, and it's been my privilege to see it develop, quite frankly," Nathan said, very sincerely. "The reception it gets should be interesting." He was about to say something reassuring about how Richard and his wife would certainly be there in spirit on the book's release day, when Rachel abruptly squealed and slipped out of his arms, levitating. Nathan coughed. "Now you're just showing off," he told the baby, who giggled and floated up to the ceiling, where she proceeded to start crawling around in that unbelievably creepy way she had. Nathan gave Richard a look that was half-wary, half-amused. "I don't know if your son mentioned. She is absolutely adorable, yes, but she also has a psionic mutation that manifested in the womb. We're having the damnedest time keeping her off the ceiling."

"He'd... mentioned..." Richard said in amazement, watching Rachel with a stunned expression. "It's another thing to see. And to have it taken so casually, as much as anything one's child does is ever taken casually by a parent." He composed himself, laughing lightly. "I definitely don't envy you when the toddler years come about. It's hard enough to keep track of them when they start walking, not to mention flying?"

Nathan concentrated for a moment, floating up to where he could get his hands on her. She shrieked and thrashed a little as he pulled her off the ceiling - and she was developing quite the little ability to pull back, but quieted again fairly quickly as he floated back down to the floor. "Moira and I owe your son quite a bit for all the work he's done to help us deal with our little prodigy's... prodigiousness," Nathan told Richard. "Sensors for her crib, alarms just in case she takes a sudden leap forward... those in particular are helpful these days, since she's recently learned how to open doors."

"Mah," Rachel said discontentedly and stuffed her fist in her mouth, glaring rather balefully at her father.

"When he was four," Richard replied with a smile, "John Henry was a climber. We found him asleep on top of one of the bookshelves once. I'd just made junior vice counsel at Aerie, and we were going to have a dinner party to celebrate. Cheryl Anne and I hadn't left the room for but a moment, when we came back to find our son had climbed the counters, managed to open the cupboards, and almost methodically smash every piece of the good china."

He laughed for a while, lost in memory. "Cherish these moments with your daughter, Nathan," he advised. "Our children grow up far too soon, and before you know it, they'll be out in the world."

"Good advice," Nathan said with a warm smile, rubbing Rachel's back as she grumbled. "I should go - I'm supposed to be meeting Lorna in the kitchen," he said. "I imagine I'll see you again at some point over the next day or two? At graduation, if not before." He grinned a bit wryly. "I've let Charles talk me into teaching again in the fall. My own language classes - I was just doing some substitute work this term. But between the two, that makes me an official member of the faculty again. Not that I wouldn't have shown up to see your son and the others graduate. That's a very talented group of young people."

"In so many ways," Richard agreed, ruffling Rachel's hair once more. "I'll introduce you to Cheryl Anne at some point as well. She's been dying to meet this teacher our son speaks so highly of. Take care, Nathan."