xp_logs | Kurt, Nathan and Rachel, Tuesday morning

Nathan, with a small red-headed accomplice, tracks down Kurt. There's not much to be said, but sometimes all you can do is try anyway.

He'd had to cut back on some parts of teaching, obviously - being ordered not to do anything strenuous saw to that. But Kurt could still give instruction in the physical classes, and German wasn't affected at all, so he'd been taking his classes as usual. The German class was just letting out and he walked slowly out behind them, carrying his books in his good arm.

"Oooh! Kurt! Kurt!"

The piping voice was very unmistakably Rachel's. She came running up the hallway to a relatively gentle impact with his legs. Behind her, more slowly, followed her father, who smiled slightly at Kurt, then eyed his offspring.

"Found him, I see."

"Kurt!" Rachel held out her arms. "Up?" she implored, giving him puppy-dog eyes that would have put her father to shame.

Kurt looked at the books, then at his injured arm. "I cannot pick you up, Rachel", he said apologetically. "Not and carry these books as well. Unless your father would like to help." It wouldn't be easy to carry a toddler with one arm even without the books, but he thought he could manage.

Nathan eyed him, this time. "Can you pick her up without hurting yourself?" he asked, reaching out to take the books. Before Kurt could respond, Rachel floated up off the ground, wrapping her arms delicately around his neck and hovering for long enough to let him get his good arm securely around her.

"...I can if she does that", was the faintly befuddled answer, before he smiled at the little girl. "You were looking for me?"

"Mmmm. Sort of." Nathan fell in beside him as they headed down the hall. "The problem is," he went on conversationally, "I have no idea what to say to you about what happened this weekend, so I figured I'd bring her." He inclined his head at his daughter.

Kurt blinked at him again. "Because she will be able to help you with that problem?"

"Well, no. She may be managing three-word sentences these days but she still isn't much for finding the right words, if you know what I mean."

"Silly," Rachel pronounced, laying her head on Kurt's shoulder. "Silly Dad. Hi Kurt."

"Hello, Rachel", he responded solemnly. "Why is he silly?"

Rachel just giggled, but her wide gray eyes were oddly anxious as she peered up at Kurt. Nathan reached out and smoothed her red curls. "Possibly because I'm using her as a... well, I don't even know what you'd call it."

He couldn't even imagine what she might be making of anything she read from him, and made an effort to firm up his shields. "My English is good, but I am not sure the word exists", Kurt agreed. "But I understand. We do not have to talk about the mission."

"Mm." The monosyllabic response sounded somewhat grim. "I'd encountered... well, Baron Wagner's 'work' several weeks ago. He's been making things difficult for friends of Elpis's in Berlin."

"...has he." That came out less grim than deeply tired. "I wish I could say I was surprised."

"I didn't make the connection, of course. Wagner's hardly an unusual name in Germany." Even so, it came out sounding rather more apologetic than he'd intended.

"I know. You cannot... I heard his name when Scott was telling us about the mission, and I did not ever think there might be a connection. Perhaps I should have, given that it is the area where I was born..."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Nathan said with a brief, bitter twist of his lips. "Should we expect these insane coincidences?"

"I think it may be a safer bet than not", Kurt said wryly, looking down at Rachel. "We do seem to attract them."

"Kurt sad," Rachel volunteered suddenly, hugging his neck - if gently.

Unsurprised, he focused again on the top of her head. "Yes", he admitted quietly - it wasn't exactly the truth, but when even he wasn't sure what he felt about the situation, 'sad' was as good a summation as any. "Yes, Rachel, Kurt is sad."

Rachel gave a slightly disconsolate sigh and laid her head back on his shoulder. Nathan nearly echoed it. "Sad's better than other things, you know," he said.

"It is also a simplification", Kurt said, a little sharply. "But Rachel is too small to understand all she senses, I think."

"Sad. An-gy." It was an obvious attempt to say 'angry', and the gray eyes that met Kurt's were almost as sharp as her father's.

Nathan coughed. "We may or may not have been working on different words for different moods," he said almost apologetically. "It's as important for a telepathic child as the ABCs and being able to count to ten."

"Not angry with you", he assured her, looking into those intelligent grey eyes. "Never that. And I did not mean to say you understood nothing, but when I do not understand it myself..."

"It'll take time," Nathan said. "It took me... rather a lot of time, as a matter of fact. You were there with me in San Francisco in April."

"I was", Kurt said with a nod. "And I have been with other people, in other places."

"The important thing is to keep in mind that you're more than the sum of your parents, you know. Which is easier said than done, but... it would help." Even if it was only a little.

"Neither of them raised me", Kurt said quietly. "I know that I owe little more to my mother than blood, and nothing more than that to my father. But..." He shrugged expressively... wishes were wishes.

You wish it was different. "I saw your post about Yvette's mother," Nathan said. Changing the subject, but not really.

Another nod. "I think it would be a good thing if she could be here. Yvette has not been having an easy time, recently... I thought perhaps it would help her to have her mother for a visit."

"It was a kind thing to think of," Nathan said quietly. "Especially with what else is going on."

"I am fond of Yvette", was the answer, not quite as easily as Kurt might have hoped. "She has been bringing me apples, since the rally. And I can help her, at least. Or try."

"It's something," Nathan pointed out.