xp_logs | Nathan and Sooraya, late Wednesday afternoon (Reply)

After getting an email, Nathan has some news for Sooraya - about her mother.

The email had come as something of a surprise. A pleasant one, all in all; this particular search had been stalled for far too long, and as much as Nathan knew that Sooraya didn't blame him for that, there was part of him that wanted very badly to make this work. He knew there were elements in that yearning that had nothing to do with Sooraya -but if she knew, not that he would tell her about his own parents, at least not for a good long while, he thought she would probably understand.

She was seated at the boathouse's large table, head bent over her reading. The two of them were the only ones in the place, which meant that this was probably the opportune moment.

"Sooraya," Nathan said, adjusting his arm in its sling as he sat down in the chair next to her, "I had an email today you need to know about."

The look this elicited was just like the one she wore in class: alert, attentive, and only just slightly apprehensive at the prospect of receiving bad news. "Yes? I will like to hear, if it is important," she told him, pushing aside the article in order to give Nathan her full attention.

"I know it's been a few months since I last talked to you about how it was going, looking for your mother," Nathan said. He hoped, he really hoped that she would take this as a good thing. He'd have to phrase it carefully so as not to worry her, though. "I got an email from an acquaintance of Moira's today, someone who works with Doctors Without Borders - who was working in Afghanistan, in the area you came from. She treated your mother, a few months ago. I get the sense that it wasn't for anything particularly serious, although of course she couldn't tell me," Nathan said swiftly, before Sooraya could react.

"My mother? Someone has saw her?" The girl gave a little start, wrapping her arms around herself as if to hold in the emotions that threatened to burst forth. "A doctor?" Frowning, Sooraya gave Nate an entreating look; he would tell her all he knew, but she needed to know more. "Where is she being? I will like to know, please."

"The clinic was outside Kunduz," Nathan said gently. "In one of the villages, one weekend. I guess their group was passing through, and some of them needed medical treatment."

"Oh." This was good news, wasn't it? Sooraya knew how difficult a task it was to locate someone whose entire life was spent travelling. Even this much of a sighting was fortuitous. And yet... "Dr. Moira's friend, she is saying things of me to my mother? So she will know that I am all right?"

Nathan tried not to wince. "She... didn't know, at the time," he said, even more gently. "About you. This isn't someone who knows Moira well, it's just an acquaintance from years back. Moira and I have been talking to the people we know in Afghanistan, trying to get them to help us search and keep an eye out... this was just chance, that she remembered your mother from months ago."

Sooraya nodded, a bit too enthusiastically, trying to keep the disappointment from showing on her face. "It is good, she remembers. I am glad. It is good to know my mother is there. I will like to say thank you, to Dr. Moira, for asking these people for me. And to you, for all the helping. I will not worry, now, so much."

"It's actually a really good start, finally," Nathan said, trying to sound encouraging. "We know that your mother is in that part of the country, that she's still with the same group... we really do have more to go on now than we did."

"Yes. You are right." She gave him a smile, which, while not altogether convincing, meant she was at least trying. "I am happy. Is there a thing for me to do, to help? I will like to do it. I will like to do anything to find her."

"I might have some documents to read, in a bit... now that I know what part of the country we're looking at, for sure. Things in Dari or Pashto." He'd had some thoughts, now that the search area had been at least somewhat narrowed down.

With another enthusiastic nod Sooraya folded her hands in her lap; somehow she didn't expect reading documents would find her mother, but who was she to question his methods? Look at all he had accomplished... if anyone could find her mother, it would be Nate. "Thank you," she murmured again. "Your help is very good. I am glad for it."

I just wish there was more than I could do. He smiled at her, rising from his chair. "If I can narrow it down further," he said as he headed back to his desk, "I may go back to Afghanistan and look myself."

This piqued Sooraya's interest, but she said nothing, merely biting her lip and looking back down at the article in front of her. Although her eyes moved over the page, she didn't see anything; her thoughts were elsewhere and would be for quite some time.