xp_logs | Nathan, Jean, and Rachel, Friday afternoon

Jean stops down at the boathouse to catch up with Nathan - and continues to be a bad influence on ~~the Flying Kinross~~ Rachel.

Sitting on the floor of the boathouse's living room, Rachel squealed abruptly, and Nathan sat on the couch, watching her in a certain amount of wonderment as she proceeded to levitate her blocks. They were moving in a pattern, too - a rough reflection of one of the many exercises that he did with her on a regular basis.

"Terribly impressive," he said, as she looked up at him with wide gray eyes, clearly waiting for his approval. "I wish Uncle Charles was here to see this. We'll have to show him."

"Boom!" Rachel proclaimed merrily, and the blocks all hit the floor. Nathan tried very hard not to laugh.

Making it to the door of the boathouse without Rachel noticing her was the goal. It would be a sign of her control, really, and so far it seemed she could do it. Jean smiled to herself as she reached out and tapped on the door frame, wondering if Nate or Rachel would spot her first.

"Oooo," was the response from the little redhead, who immediately pulled herself to her feet and bounded over to the door. "Hi!" Rachel said gleefully. "Hi."

Nathan stared for a moment at the redhead on the other side of the door - that's what you call being wrapped up in baby thoughts, Dayspring - and then laughed, rising. "Well, look who came home - it's that evil woman who taught you how to fly. Come in, Jean."

"Hi yourself, sweetheart." Bending over, Jean picked Rachel up, hugging her. "Look at you. When did you get so big?" She smiled at Nate. "Hi."

"I swear she's sprouted since she started spending half of most weeks on Muir. They're putting growth hormone in her porridge or something." Nathan smiled, taking in how well Jean looked. Apparently Tibet had agreed with her. "Come on in and sit down - can I get you anything?"

Settling Rachel on her hip, Jean did as instructed, taking a seat on the couch. "Water'd be good," she said. "Just came by to say 'hi' and 'I'm home' and all that. How've you been?"

"I've had better falls," Nathan said wryly from the kitchen. "On the bright side..." He levitated the glass of water over to her, remembering that when she'd left for Tibet he'd still been powerless.

Intercepting the glass before Rachel's waving hands could get to it, Jean grinned. "That's definitely a bright side. So we're both doing better on that score."

Nathan tilted his head, studying her for a long moment, his smile somehow mystified. "You're... heavier," he said. "And I don't mean weight-wise, so don't throw anything at my head, woman. You're more... solid on the telepathic level than you were. Tibet definitely did agree with you, didn't it?"

"It was good for me, yes." Leaning back into the couch she sipped at the water. "Very... calming, obviously, but also centering. And there wasn't exactly much to do out there except practice and train. And did Charles ever talk about his time in Tibet with you?"

"He's mentioned it a few times. I have to confess," Nathan said, settling down beside her on the couch, "it's sometimes seemed tempting." Rachel squirmed, sliding down off Jean's lap and crawling over to her father, humming. He lifted her onto his lap and she settled, apparently content, although her eyes were still locked on Jean and full of curiosity. "Centered... that's the impression I'm getting from you. That's really good to see, Jean," he said softly, his smile warmer.

"Tibet is beautiful, but very, very quiet. As good as it was for me, I'm very glad to be home. And I've missed you all."

"Some of us a little more intensely than others, I imagine." The smile was rapidly changing into a knowing grin.

Jean stuck her tongue out at Nate. "Not even going to dignify that with an answer."

The grin didn't vanish. "Well, we are mindreaders, you know." Rachel grasped his hand, examining it with a sudden, determined focus, and Nathan laughed at her, but his eyes were serious as he looked up at Jean. "Speaking of the person you probably missed the most... he is doing a lot better."

Jean nodded. "Yes, I can tell. I'm... still a little concerned, but some of that's me just fussing, I'm sure. And, after everything, I'd have been surprised if everything was okay again. Mind, it would have been a pleasant surprise..." She tried for a little smile.

"I know it can't have been easy for you to leave when you did... but you know you made the right decision. So does he, I think. It will be all right." Nathan's voice was soft but firm, and the confidence behind the words went beyond simple reassurance.

"I know," Jean said, sighing softly. "It's a matter of time, really. Time and care." Shaking her head, she changed the subject. "And how about you? How are you doing?"

"Oh, fine..." Rachel blew what could only be called a highly derisive raspberry, and Nathan rolled his eyes. "I can't wait until she gets to the point of being able to say 'Dad, you're lying through your teeth'."

"Ah, but by then she may have developed the tact not to. Although given she's your and Moira's child, that seems unlikely." Jean leveled a Look at him. "So, want me to go with your obvious lie, or are you willing to talk about any of it?"

"I had a slightly less than fruitful trip to Prague back at the beginning of the month. The ennui is lingering." He looked up at her. "You probably didn't hear about any of it, given where you were. Stupid situation." There was a tired bitterness in his voice as he went on. "Nothing like being in the middle of a disaster and having your hands tied because stepping in would only have made things worse."

"Scott mentioned," Jean said, voice soft, "but no, none of the details."

Nathan shrugged a bit uneasily and lowered his shields, offering her his memories of Smichov and the weeks that had led up to it. It actually wasn't so bad to talk about this with Jean, he realized - mostly because he could do this, rather than reiterate everything that had happened.

"So," he said, after a minute. "Not a shining moment for Elpis."

Jean's eyes were distant as she sorted through the memories, seeing what he had seen and hearing what he had heard, making them her own. Blinking as she returned to the hear and now, she met Nate's eyes. "I can see why you would say that. Can you see why there are so many who would disagree with you? No, you couldn't stop it. But you did help."

"It's... hard to remember that, when you stack it up beside everything we couldn't do." Nathan summoned up a faint smile as Rachel looked up at him, grumbling. "We managed to accomplish a few things after we got back. Clean-up, I guess? It helped, a little..." Rachel tried to turn a somersault in his lap. "I'm sure there are all sorts of things I should be learning from this. I'm just not ready to put it into proper perspective just yet, I suppose."

"Well, yes. Perspective is hard indeed. Particularly so soon." She paused slightly. "And it's not as if I needed another reason to feel good about it, but you might like to know that I got to break Mystique's ribs. Retroactively in your honor."

Nathan grinned, if a bit tiredly. "I knew there was a reason I liked you." He shook off thoughts of Smichov and focused on her again. "Are you planning to come back to the team, Jean? Or is it a little early for me to be asking you that when you haven't properly settled back in yet?"

"I plan on it, yes. Haven't talked with Charles yet, but I don't think there will be anything in the way of my returning straight away."

"If you can get your husband to agree he's ready to come back," Nathan said more wryly, "between the two of you we might wind up not quite so short-handed. It's a bit ridiculous, just now..."

"Mmm, yes, I'd gotten that impression. As for Scott, well, we've been talking. I think you're right, it's going to be more about convincing him that he can do it than anything else." Although there was the very good argument about how well Tibet had gone to help with that.

"I have to admit, it's a terribly good incentive not to break myself," Nathan said, his lips twitching. "I've had my quota of time off, I figure." Rachel grunted at him and squirmed until he let her down - at which point she levitated, turning lazy somersaults in the air as she drifted across the room. Nathan watched her, shaking his head.

"Alarming that you needed more incentive, but so long as you have it, I'll not complain." Jean grinned at Rachel. "Sweetie, your dad still hasn't forgiven me for teaching you to do that. Now you're just rubbing salt in the wounds. But next we work on cartwheels." Projecting the idea at the little girl, she couldn't help but laugh as Rachel stalled in midair, considering it. Looking back at Nate as Rachel attempted to figure out the necessary coordination she added, "And after the team, the next thing is to try and get Amelia to loosen her death grip on the medlab schedules. She seems to have gotten the idea that I'm not reliable enough to work in her medlab."

"And just because the woman doesn't need to sleep doesn't mean she shouldn't have some kind of life," Nathan agreed. "Although I have to say she's had a salutary effect - people around here do try to avoid winding up in the infirmary a little more determinedly than they used to." He shook his head at Rachel as she drifted there in the air, looking like a little red-headed female Buddha, beaming benignly at them. "You think you could spare some time to work with me and the prodigy? Telekinetically speaking, I mean..."

"So the secret all along has been to forget what the words 'bedside manner' actually mean. Now it becomes clear." Jean smiled and nodded. "Of course. I'd love to. I'm always glad to help, you know that." The request reminded her of another offer she'd made, one which was very overdue.

"Ah, good. Charles has been easing back on the circuit-breaker a little - just a little, but it does leave her with a little more TK than she's used to. And two fellow telekinetics to teach her good habits are better than one." Especially when the one who was related to her was still shaking his own bad habit.

"She's growing so fast," Jean said, watching the little girl. "I dread when she hits the terrible twos."

"Especially when you think about the fact that the terrible twos are generally the symptoms of increasing mental development - which will come hand-in-hand with powers development, for her," Nathan said wryly.

"A very scary thought," Jean agreed, but she couldn't help smiling as Rachel seemed to decide what she wanted to do and, still eschewing the floor, began turning fake cartwheels in the air.

Nathan gave Jean a mock-baleful look and Rachel a thoughtful one. He really needed to talk to that baby-gymnastics teacher again and point out he had a very special case here. "You're going to continue to be a bad influence, aren't you? Ah, well. Every child needs an evil red-haired aunt."

"Yes, exactly. And Rachel has several."