xp_logs | The Gates: "... when subjects are rebels from principle" (Angelo and Nathan; Angelo and Sarah)

Nathan, Angelo and Rachel are spending a peaceable Sunday afternoon when breaking news from Prague hits the BBC. The situation just got a little worse.

"Ray, sweetie, don't even think about it," Nathan advised his wayward offspring from where he was sprawled on the couch. Rachel peering around the back of the entertainment center, looking entirely too interested in what was behind there. "We've talked about cords, haven't we? And your mother disapproves of electrocuted flying babies."

"Off," Rachel said pensively, looking back at her father.

Nathan raised an eyebrow, and then looked sideways at Angelo, who was sitting in the armchair making a lunch of some of the leftovers from the previous night's dinner. "New word," he explained.

"Offffffff."

"You leave Dad's CNN alone, you little demon."

"Hee!"

"Hey, Ray," Angelo called over, putting his plate on the arm of his chair and holding a hand out towards her. "You want to come over here? People're more interestin' than unpluggin' the TV, aren't they?"

Rachel squealed and ran over to his chair - or started to. Midway there, she tripped and wound up on her hands and knees on the carpet. With a prodigious scowl, she straightened, examining her slightly reddened little hands with obvious displeasure.

Nathan eyed her for a moment, waiting. Rachel's attention shifted immediately to him as she sensed him focusing on her, and she gazed back at him for a full five seconds before she opened her mouth and started to howl.

Very tolerantly, her father got up and came over to scoop her up. "This is why Mom tells you to settle down," he said, smoothing down her hair and kissing her forehead. By the time he sat back down on the couch, settling her on his lap, the screams had died down to occasional sniffles.

Angelo looked fleetingly disappointed that she hadn't made it over - he adored Rachel as much as ever - but took his plate back and turned to the TV. "So what's the news?"

"Not a whole lot. Slow Sunday afternoon, from the looks of it." He was turning into a worse and worse news junkie, really he was. "Oh, Paris Hilton apparently slugged someone. Again."

"...Paris Hilton is makin' it onto CNN now? There really must be nothin' goin' on."

"This is where I make fun of American news. But then, I really could switch to the BBC if I wanted, I suppose," Nathan said with a smirk, and then shrugged and levitated the remote over to do just that. Rachel squealed and grabbed for it, and he pulled it gently out of her grasp. "You tend to chew on it. Sorry, Ray."

Angelo had finished what was left of his food, and put the plate aside for good before reaching out to the baby again. "Come on over here, Rachel. Leave the remote alone."

Rachel pbbthed at her father and levitated, floating over gently to Angelo and snuggling as soon as she had properly landed. "Ange," she said smugly.

Angelo laughed, ruffling her hair. "That's right. Or close enough, anyway."

Rachel promptly tried to turn upside down in his lap, and Nathan laughed, shaking his head at her. "You have to be two before we can start you on the gymnastics, monkey, that's what the rules of the class say..."

"Bah!"

"She's going to be a natural," Nathan predicted - and then sat bolt upright, the smile falling right off his face as the anchorwoman began to chatter excitedly about 'breaking news from Prague'.

"... receiving word that Interior Minister Milan Syrovy has been assassinated on an trip inside the security barriers enclosing the Smichov neighborhood. Reports say that his entire security detail was..."

"Crap," was all that Nathan could manage to say.

Angelo's head snapped up at the word 'Prague', and the smile on his face vanished instantly as he heard the rest, absently holding a suddenly much less happy Rachel on his lap. "No, stay still, honey... oh, this is not good."

The cordless phone came floating over to Nathan's hand, dialing itself as it came. "It's me, Joel," Nathan said a minute later. "I think you want to turn on the BBC. Right now."

"... details are unclear," the reporter on the scene was gabbling excitedly, standing on what looked like a balcony somewhere in Prague, "but you can see from here, the plume of smoke rising from the center of Smichov! I spoke to an officer at one of the checkpoints, who claimed that they heard what sounded like an explosion shortly after a call for help from the minister's security detail."

"That's a sizeable explosion," Nathan said quietly, to both Angelo and Joel as he squinted at the screen. "Either that or there are secondary fires..."

"Or both," Angelo said grimly. "A big enough explosion, an' you get secondary fires just because."

"... impossible tell what's going on inside the walls," the reporter said, looking back over his shoulder again. "Security's been tightened even further, and the troops at the gates seem to be in a very aggressive mood! They fired a warning shot at our van when we approached!"

"... your guess is as good as mine," Nathan said, clearly to Joel this time. "Do we know anything about his successor... I was afraid not."

Angelo was concentrating on the TV report, holding Rachel down during her periodic attempts to fly away. Nathan was on the phone, after all, he might miss details.

"George, what have you seen in terms of movement into or out of the secured area since this began?" the anchorwoman asked.

"Military vehicles, of course, Elizabeth, escorting a-" The sky behind the reporter in Prague lit up with a blinding flash, and the camera swung around wildly, showing a view of what looked like a hotel room as the reporter and the cameraman hurried inside, both swearing.

"Elizabeth, clearly something else has happened inside Smichov this evening," the reporter's voice said shakily as the camera started to steady and focus on the glass doors leading out to the balcony. There was a second, darker plume of smoke visible. "We can hear gunfire from here."

"Oh, hell," Nathan muttered. "Please don't let this be it..." If Smichov exploded tonight, there was nothing anyone could do but hope there were enough pieces to be picked up in the aftermath.

Angelo was just staring at the TV now, eyes wide and horrified in a face greyer than usual, and his grip on Rachel loosened without him noticing. He hadn't really noticed that he was muttering under his breath in Spanish, either.

Nathan leaned back into the couch, shivering slightly as he watched the TV. The gunfire was clearly audible - the reporter had stopped talking - and as he listened, it seemed so loud. Joel had fallen silent too, watching, and so there was nothing but the sound of the guns, and...

"Da!" Rachel wailed softly, sliding down from Angelo's lap and coming running over to the couch. "Daaaaa."

Rachel's obvious distress got his attention away from the TV - the gunfire, and the flames - and he looked sharply at Nathan. The next second, he was on his feet, hurrying over to pick the little girl up. "Nate?"

Nathan shook himself, blinking. "Yeah... yeah, Joel, okay," he said in a strange, strained voice, finally registering the voice that was there in his ear again. "Call me back?" He set the phone down on the couch, then blinked again and focused on Rachel. "Hey," he said in a more normal, soothing tone, reaching out for her as Angelo handed her over. "It's okay."

Angelo didn't seem very willing to move right now, either, determinedly not looking at the television screen. "You zoned out again", he said quietly. "An' what with she must've been pickin' up from us already..."

Zoned out? He hadn't been zoning out since his powers had come back. Frowning, Nathan rocked Rachel gently, then sighed as she continued to sniffle. "I just... the gunfire, for a minute..." He shook his head, then stroked Rachel's curly red hair. "I'm going to see if she'll go down for her nap," he said. "It's early still, but... well, I'll help."

"She'll be all worn out if this keeps up," Angelo agreed. "An' you can help her along. She'll sleep."

"One of us should," Nathan muttered, getting up and heading for the nursery. By the time he had Rachel settled - which took considerably longer than it should have - and came back out, the living room was empty. Nathan looked around for a moment, then sent his thoughts gliding outwards, looking for...

Ah-hah. Nathan sighed as he settled back onto the couch to watch the news. That was all right. He wouldn't mind a little space, too, while he tried to figure out where the hell anyone who was concerned about this situation went next.

And maybe the phone would ring.

An hour later, Angelo is still on the roof, brooding and chainsmoking. Until Sarah comes looking for him, that is.

He wasn't hiding, Angelo told himself firmly. Just because nobody but him ever came to the roof, now almost all the fliers had moved out, and it was always quiet up there, and he needed a break... and he'd been up there for an hour chainsmoking and trying not to think about the scenes on the TV... totally didn't mean he was hiding.

"I thought I had the monopoly on hiding on the roof." Sarah settled down beside him, jacket wrapped around her tightly as she reached for her own cigarettes. "Care to talk about it? Or should we just sit here and destroy our lungs for awhile?"

"Not your roof anymore", he said with a wry smile, giving her a sideways look. "Also I didn't hear you come up here. An' it's just..." He gestured vaguely with the cigarette hand. "Somethin' I saw on the news."

"That'll do it." Sarah nodded, taking a deep drag off of her cigarette and letting the smoke out with a sigh. "Still, you're going to waste away up here and leave me without anybody to go clubbing with. Or someone to have wild sex in public with. And I'll be royally pissed off." She paused for a moment. "More than usual."

"I've only been up here for..." He glanced at his watch. "...an hour. Huh. Didn't feel that long. But I promise, I will not waste away an' take away the person you have fun with,"

"Good. I'm supposed to be working on that whole anger thing anyway." Sarah flicked away the ashes, pulling her knees up to her chest. "Sofia said something about being well-adjusted. Whatever the hell that is."

Angelo snorted, staring out over the grounds. "Like anybody in either of our buildings is as well-adjusted as they look."

"Fuck, half the time I can't even get the look down. I might as well carry around a neon sign that says "I'm crazy-- ask me how!" She brought the cigarette up to her lips, adding, "Somehow I manage to not scare off the clients, so I suppose I'm better at hiding it when I need to. Either that or we have a sign on the door that warns people that the Snow Valley folks are all some degree of crazy, and to turn back if that bothers them."

"Or some of both", he suggested, amused. "That guy Mark, on reception... nice guy, but he's got his own degree of crazy."

Sarah shrugged, grinning. "I like the crazy ones. They're more fun anyway."

"Yeah, I got that idea a long time ago", he drawled, with a wry grin in return. "I mean, you're sleepin' with the guy who can't even take watchin' riots on the news without goin' to hide on the roof an' smoke too much."

"It's not his fault he missed out on a healthy dislike of other people." She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and gave him a quick squeeze. "Quit beating yourself up. That's my job."

"An' you do it so very well", was the teasing response as he let himself be distracted, wrapping an arm round her in turn. "Only the best violence from Sarah."

She laughed, leaning forward to kiss the side of his head. "Ah yes. That's why I'm sleeping with you. You're just as crazy as I am,."

That just got a smile - and not a trace of denial - before he turned to look at her. "So what brought you to the mansion today? Just visitin', or...?"

"I was thinking that I hadn't inflicted myself on the Xavier's students and staff lately. Wouldn't want them to get all nostalgic or anything."

"Oh, yeah, can't be havin' that", he said with a crooked grin. "An' how'd you come to be up here? Someone tell you this was where I was?" He hadn't forgotten she didn't like heights.

"No, we can't. I worked hard for this reputation, and I can't have it ruined all because I seem to be holding a steady job and haven't attacked anybody lately." She looked very serious, but there was just a hint of humour in her voice. "As for how I knew you were here, I have my sources."

His expression turned curious, and just a little amused. "You do, huh? Well, Amanda's at the brownstone, Haller's in Kosovo... Nathan been tellin' tales on me?"

"What, I can't make new friends?" Sarah grinned, scratching absently at the space between her knuckles where bone was beginning to peek through. "I can't reveal my source. That would be against the rules or something."

Angelo laughed, the bleak mood seemingly passed for good. "Fine, then. Don't tell me."

"Ooooh. Now I feel guilty." She paused for a moment. "Oh wait, no I'm not. Nevermind."

He chuckled again, leaning back on his elbows to look at the sky and stubbing out his cigarette absently. "Never change, Sarah."

"Not if I can help it."