xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan, Saturday night

Angelo gets back to the mansion after a day spent bonding with his new car, only to find out what's happened with Nathan - who doesn't quite brush it off, but does urge Angelo to keep planning the road trip.

He'd been out driving for most of the day, only turning back to return to the mansion when it started to get dark. That was why Angelo hadn't known what was happening at home until he got there and was told, at which point he all but flew down the stairs to the basement. By then - thankfully, given the state that he was in - Amelia had been willing to let him into the Box for a brief visit, after a quick consultation with Charles. She had warned him to keep his thoughts as well-shielded as he could, but then left him to it.

His shields were fairly good, after all these years at the mansion, and he was putting special effort into it as he stepped into the Box and shut the door behind him.

Nathan appeared to be asleep, not even stirring when the door opened and closed. But as Angelo stepped closer to the bed, he stirred, his eyes opening. "Hey, you," he murmured. "Stop looking so appalled."

"I go out drivin' for one day an' I get back to the news you've collapsed?" Angelo demanded, though there was more relief in it than annoyance. "Keep this up, you'll make me rethink that road trip."

"Don't be ridiculous." Nathan offered him his best stab at a repressive smile. It wound up looking more sleepy than anything else. "Pack you into that car myself, you just watch..."

"If you were up an' fit to do it, there wouldn't be any reason not to go", Angelo pointed out.

"I'll be fine," Nathan stressed, although there was no real energy behind it. "And in any case, I won't be here for you to fuss at. In lieu of killing Professor Trask, Moira's decided we're taking a vacation." He gave the younger man a crooked smile.

"Good", Angelo said hypocritically. "I'm not the only one due one. Where're you goin'?" He said nothing about Professor Trask.

"Santorini." Nathan didn't miss the deliberate lack of reference to Trask. "Tomorrow, maybe... or the morning after. Depends." He raised a hand, rubbed his eyes.

"When you're ready to fly." He noted the sleepiness, and shifted slightly. "They said this was only s'posed to be a short visit. Can't keep you from restin'."

"Mmm. Check on Rachel?" Nathan sighed. "I mean, she's with Moira, but she was so upset, Charles said... I was in the kitchen, getting her breakfast."

"...she was there?" Angelo winced. "Yeah, I'll look in on her. It might even help." Especially if he could project images of this visit at her, show her that Nathan was okay, if exhausted...

"Yeah, she was there..." Nathan grimaced tiredly. "I could kill this woman for that."

"That's the least of the things she did wrong", Angelo said grimly.

"That part, she didn't do on purpose."

"You heard the whole sordid story, then..." Nathan sighed again, looking away. "Why is it always me who gets the strange women in my head?"

That got wry and short-lived laughter. "I don't think you really want to look too close at that."

"Tell me about it." His shields were still busily repairing themselves; he was picking up much less from Angelo than he had from Wanda. Not nothing, though. ".. I'm sort of afraid of her," he said a bit disjointedly, responding to a thought of Angelo's he didn't even process as thought and not spoken. "She's a problem."

"...Trask?" Angelo blinked. "Don't think anybody'd blame you for that, after this."

"I need to talk to her, though. When I get back." He wasn't looking forward to that, either.

"Why?" was the startled response. "I'd be stayin' the hell away from her, if it was me."

"I have to. For Askani's sake," was Nathan's answer. "But not right now, though." He rubbed at his eyes again. "Right now, I sleep. And you keep planning for your trip."

Angelo nodded. "Okay. I'll come by again in the mornin'. You sleep well."

Nathan muttered something, but his eyes were closed, and he was asleep again, even as Angelo finished speaking. There was a pointed rap on the door; Amelia, letting him know that her patience was, as usual, very limited.

He shot a last reluctant glance at Nathan, and turned to leave.