xp_logs | Nathan and Angelo, Sunday in Oman

On their last day in Muscat, Angelo and Nathan do a little more sightseeing and have one of those long, contemplative conversations. The time away has definitely done both of them good.

"Damn," Nathan said softly as they paused at the outer wall. The view from the Al-Mirani fort, one of the so-called Twin Forts flanking the Sultan's palace and facing out into the Gulf of Oman, could be termed 'pretty' - if you were having a severe failure of imagination. It was a perfectly clear day, just as it had been the day before, and the water was only a few shades greener than the blue sky. "I wouldn't have wanted to try and attack this place from the water a few hundred years ago. I suppose that was the idea."

"I don't think anybody'd want to try an' attack it from the water now, if it was still active", Angelo said absently, staring absently out over the sea. He'd grown up in a coastal state, after all, and sometimes he still missed the ocean.

"I see why they built the city here, two thousand years ago... you know, Vasco da Gama landed here on his way to India?" There was something about places with this much history. They always seemed to have a life of their own. Nathan laid a hand on the stones of the wall, leaning out slightly. More likely it was just the texture of the psychic atmosphere in a place whose people were this well-grounded in their own history. "I would have wanted to be an explorer, I think, if I'd lived five hundred years ago," Nathan said contemplatively. "Can you imagine what this city must have looked like to him when he sailed into the harbor?"

"Full of wonders", Angelo said quietly before he caught himself, looking faintly embarrassed. "When I was little, before... when I still thought I'd get out of LA, I wanted to go see the world. The one in the junior atlases."

"And now you are," Nathan reminded him gently. You are, and you did... He got the impression sometimes that Angelo was still pinching himself from time to time, not quite sure any of this - not just Oman, but the life he had now - was real.

He'd be right. It had just all happened so fast, there was a part of him whose head was still spinning, three years later. Angelo nodded, though, and smiled. "Yeah, I am."

Nathan nodded, although his smile turned reflective as he looked back out at the water. "Rough year," he said after a moment. "Rough year, long year..."

"Really has been", Angelo agreed, eyes on the lights of boats out on the water. "But hey... New Year's comin'. And this last few days've been good."

"I know I haven't said anything yet," Nathan said after another brief pause, "but Moira and I would really love it if you and your mother came to Muir for the holidays. If you didn't have other plans, of course."

Angelo looked at him sideways, not quite quickly enough to mean real surprise, but... it wasn't entirely expected either. The smile that answered the offer was quick, though, and genuine. "Nah, we weren't doin' anythin' we can't do on Muir. I'll ask her, but I'm pretty sure she'll say yes."

"We're going to ask Sooraya and Rahne, as well - well, technically I've already asked Sooraya. And everyone's coming over from Tel Aviv... it won't quite be a full house, but it'll be good."

Angelo raised his eyebrows at the last. "Everyone? You've got the whole Pack comin' over an' that doesn't count as a full house? Now I want to see what does."

"Well, it is a castle, you know..." Nathan laughed suddenly, shaking his head, but there was a hint of sorrow in his gray eyes. It would be a mostly full house, but there was one person who should be there, and wouldn't...

"True!" Angelo agreed, keeping his voice light though he hadn't missed that touch of sorrow. "Guess they would be hard to fill all the way."

"The gang can drink Billie's pub dry, and the babies can amuse each other..." He looked sideways at Angelo with a little smile. "Speaking of babies... I have a secret."

"Do you now?" was the amused response. "Gonna tell me what it is?"

"You have to keep it entirely to yourself. Moira and I are the only other ones who know, just yet." Nathan's expression softened, a hint of something close to wonder in his smile. "Come summer there's going to be another new arrival in the house in Tel Aviv."

That got a grin. "Oh, yeah? A new Pack baby? Please tell me it's not Domino."

"... and that, you brat, was the sound of Pete's heart stopping just at the possibility being broached aloud. No, thank God," Nathan said, shaking his head at the idea. "No, it's Ani. She hasn't even told Ian yet. Moira and she had a long talk on the phone this week, and then she called me. Why she thought I needed to know before Ian, I don't know... okay, so I'm lying." His smile came back as he stared out at the water. "She's nervous. She's lost so much in her life that this hardly seems real to her, the whole new life and new job and new love, and now, a baby..."

Angelo laughed out loud, pleased. "Good for her. She deserves it, after the hell she went through before. All of it."

"She does. They all do." It was just hard sometimes, when you'd lost so much, to believe in the good things. Even when you could touch them, feel them... Are you thinking about Ani or yourself, Dayspring? Nathan let his breath out on a soft sigh. "They all deserve real lives."

Angelo swallowed slightly, turning back to the sea. He understood that feeling well enough. "Everybody deserves real lives. That's why we're doin' this, isn't it? All of it."

Nathan looked over at him, smiling again. It was a rhetorical question, no need to answer. They both knew the truth, in any case. It was why they were doing it, and in the end, it was all the reason either of them needed.