xp_logs | Angelo, Nathan and Domino, Thursday night

Angelo is working late when a totally sober Domino and a rather drunken Nathan arrive at the boathouse. The conversation that ensues is about as loopy and as revealing as you might expect.

"You," Domino said severely, "cannot hold your liquor." Nathan teetered and she reached out to steady him, laughing. "It's a damned good thing Moira's still on Muir. She'd have my ass for getting you this drunk."

"Probably," Nathan muttered, still swaying. There had been tequila. Rather a lot of tequila. But why did Dom look sober? Had she not been drinking the tequila? He couldn't quite remember.

Angelo had been working late, just happening to be preparing to leave as the two of them started down the path. Now he was standing in the boathouse doorway, watching them with a kind of horrified amusement. Or maybe amused horror. "Have fun, did you?"

"Stress release," Domino said blithely, then yelped and caught Nathan as he leaned a little too far forward. "A little help, here? We don't want him to fall up the steps."

Angelo leaned back into the building for a second to put down the stack of papers in his arms, then moved forward to support Nathan on the other side. "Yeah? Involvin' how much... tequila, to go by the smell?"

"Most of a bottle. I cut him off when he started getting morose."

"Was not morose," Nathan muttered, swaying again, even as Angelo moved in to support him. "Contemplative, thank you very much..."

"Oh, like hell," Domino scoffed as they steered him up the steps. "You were second-guessing yourself in a spectacular fashion. I believe I heard the phrase 'Maybe Mystique was right' come out of your mouth."

"Did not."

"Did too."

Angelo shot a sharp sideways glance at him. "Tell me you're not really thinkin' that way. Not after everythin'."

"I'm not," Nathan protested. "I just..."

"... 'am depressed, and feeling like an ineffectual ass'," Domino filled in the blank. "Look, Nate, couch. Why don't you sit down while I make some coffee?"

"Sounds like a good plan", Angelo agreed, steering Nathan forcibly couchwards. "Nathan, aren't you the one who always told me not to second-guess myself?"

"... yes, but I don't always practice what I preach, you know," Nathan said mournfully, sinking down onto the couch. "Especially when... evil women ply me with tequila."

"Oh, you didn't need any plying, bub," came Domino's response from the kitchen. "And I've already beaten up on you once this week. I figured it was time for a new method."

"Was this meant to cheer him up?" Angelo called wryly in her direction. "'Cause I think maybe you need a new strategy."

Domino just rolled her eyes at him. Nathan sighed and leaned back into the couch, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm fine," he muttered. "Seriously, I am not... going off in a depressive circle. Spiral. Any kind of depressive shape. I just... I was making all those calls today, trying to arrange stuff..."

"I know", Angelo said patiently. "I heard you. An' then Dom took you out for tequila an' you came back all mopey. So tell me where the depressive spiral isn't."

"I just... all this incremental crap. And I think the guy from Lawyers Without Borders thought I was cracked, or something..." Nathan sort of slid sideways, faceplanting on a cushion. Whether or not it was a controlled descent wasn't quite clear. "So I don't know anything about the Czech legal system," he said, his voice muffled. "So what?"

Angelo eyed him, trying to nudge him over sideways to see his face. "Start at the beginnin', Nathan, I could only hear one side. What about the Czech legal system?"

"It's quirky."

Domino sighed, reemerging from the kitchen, the coffeemaker percolating merrily away behind her. "Difficulties with getting lawyers to the people they took into custody in Smichov. But there are a lot of people working on that," she said, shaking her head at Nathan, "so you shouldn't be obsessing over it."

"Listen to Dom, Nathan", Angelo agreed. "Our job was to get in an' make a record of what was goin' on, remember? An' we did that an' more."

"... right." Nathan straightened, if only enough that his face was visible again. He looked... glum, was the only word. "We did what we did and they did what they did and no one's getting to do what should be done... only the moment's passed, so maybe we only have to worry about what should be done now, except, except there's something wrong with that idea and I just can't figure out why right now." He paused. "I think I should just go back to smothering myself."

Domino picked up a cushion from the armchair and threw it at his head, eliciting a growl. "Would you quit? Damn, I should have poured the rest of that bottle of tequila down your throat... maybe you would have stopped thinking in circles if I had."

"Only in the sense that he'd've passed out", Angelo pointed out dryly. "Which might not've been a bad thing, if you could've got him home after." He turned back to the older man. "No more smotherin' yourself. An' no more thinkin', or I'll go visit one of the legals an' steal their stash just to finish gettin' you drunk now you're safe here."

"Inconsistent, all of you. 'Do things the right way, Nate, don't just take direct action. Except when we think you should, and when that happens, you should know, because after all, you're the one who takes direct action all the time!'"

Domino looked heavenward, and then at Angelo. "Someone's been repressing," she said. "Probably best he gets all the whining out."

"Whining! I am not-"

"Yes, you are. But that's okay." She went over and sat down beside him. "We're not going to tell anyone."

"Not a word", Angelo promised, nodding. "But you know... you can't listen to what they were sayin' on the journals. All they've got to go on's what they saw on the news."

Nathan was staring at the floor. "I could have disabled every single one of those tanks," he said very quietly. "Without giving myself away, even. Didn't need to throw them around to disable them. I didn't and I should have."

"No, Nathan", Angelo said, quiet and decisive. "You shouldn't. Because you could've done that, sure, an' that would've taken out the threat that was there right then. But they'd have sent more, you know they would."

"We don't know that. We think that. We... I made the judgement call, and it..." Nathan shut his mouth, folding his arms across his chest and sinking farther down into the cushions of the couch.

Domino, oddly, didn't have a ready joke. "I sometimes think this job of ours sucks," she said, quietly and contemplatively. "Other times... other times it lets us actually follow through with all of those idle conversations we used to have when we were out in the field. We don't have to turn around and walk away anymore."

"Not always", Angelo said steadily, looking up at her. "But sometimes, it's the only thing we do get to do."

Domino made a face at him. "I'm trying to cheer him up, and you're not helping..."

Nathan unfolded his arms, rubbing at his temples. "Neither of you should need to be helping. This is me whining, you're right..."

Angelo pulled a face right back, from behind Nathan's shoulder. "Does that mean you're goin' to stop? Or just that you still need to figure this stuff out?"

"It means I'm tired and drunk and anyone beside me who wants to second-guess me can go to hell. That's probably bad of me. I don't really care." Nathan sighed heavily, folding his arms again and closing his eyes. "I want to be back here," he muttered. "Properly. I'm supposed to be able to come home when I'm home." Domino gave him a slightly quizzical look, then turned and went back into the kitchen to check on the coffeemaker.

"You'll get there", Angelo said quietly. "'s hard to get your head out of there, I know. But it'll happen sooner or later."

"It's not like with missions. You can't do the job and then come home. There's so much left to do..."

"You are turning," Domino said, coming back with a cup of coffee, "into the most unbelievable workaholic. Seriously, Nate. Do you have a life anymore?" She looked at Angelo. "Angelo, does he have a life?"

"Only when Moira's here or one of the Pack is, or he's on Muir", Angelo answered honestly and treacherously, not to mention vaguely hypocritically. "'specially since Haroun left."

The glare he got from Nathan could have melted steel. Domino snorted, and put the cup of coffee in the direct line-of-glare, holding it there until Nathan reached up to take it. "Moira mentioned to me how long it's been since you were on Muir. Why not head out there next weekend? Or for pity's sake, come to Tel Aviv for more than a day..."

"Maybe in a couple of weeks."

Angelo, seemingly not affected by the glare in the slightest, looked up at Domino. "Say the word an' I'll help you kidnap him."

"No kidnapping!" It sounded more like a plea than an order. "December is soon. Christmas holidays and all..."

Domino leaned over until she was almost nose-to-nose with Nathan. "A compromise?" she asked whimsically. He gave her a suspicious look. "You take a week off Elpis work - you take a week off, and you give everyone else who went to Prague a week off. And I will not then stage an elaborate kidnapping plot with the dozen or so helpful former paramilitary types back in Israel."

"I can't take a week off!" Nathan gave Angelo an uncertain look. "But you can have a week off if you wanted... you and Rahne. And Juliette. I didn't think of that."

"Don't forget the four helpful office workers back here", Angelo told Domino, then turned back to Nathan. "You really think I'd leave you alone for a week to try an' run the New York branch with just you an' Bobby? You wouldn't sleep."

"This is... a conspiracy," Nathan blustered.

"It's not a conspiracy if we're plotting it right in front of you. I think that makes it more of a promise," Domino said innocently, and got another black look for her trouble. "Seriously, Nate... you just got finished telling me that you've done all you can for the time being on Prague. And everything else can wait. There is nothing pressing. I bet Joel would agree that the lot of you probably ought to take some serious time to depressurize, too."

"Oh, sure, bring Joel into it..." Nathan looked oddly confused, though. "I don't know what I'd do with a week off everything but teaching and training..."

"You'd teach", Angelo said gently. "You'd train. You'd go on a mission if one comes up. If Moira or Rachel's here, you'd spend time with them."

"Listen to Angelo. And hell," Domino said, her eyes suddenly sharp, "you might find other things to do. Written anything in that little notebook of yours about Smichov?"

Nathan gave her a flat look. "No."

"Don't you think you should?" She tilted her head, regarding him. "There are other ways to make a point," she said, a bit cryptically.

Angelo glanced between them, momentarily confused, then it dawned. "Nathan... how many places are there to publish stuff on the Internet, with or without your name on it?"

Nathan took a sip of the coffee, and didn't respond. Domino shook her head slightly at Angelo and mouthed 'You've planted the seed, let him think about it.'

After a puzzled half-moment deciphering the long message, he nodded almost imperceptibly. "For right now... water for you."