xp_logs | Angelo, Nathan, Rachel and Amanda, Sunday afternoon

Nathan comes by to retrieve a sugar-fed Rachel. In which Angelo is drugged, Rachel is jealous, Amanda is bossy and Nathan is thoroughly amused.

Rachel was, indeed, on the ceiling when Nathan arrived at the suite. Angelo didn't seem inclined to help get her down even if he could easily have got further than up off the couch, being as he was stretched out on it, laughing up at her.

The door opened, and Nathan eyed his chortling offspring suspiciously. "Your mother is going to kill all three of us, you realize," he said, walking over to stand beneath Rachel. "Are you coming down?"

"Pbbbbth."

"Moira doesn't have to know", Angelo put in lazily, apparently unconcerned. "She wants to stay. Can she stay for the night?"

"You don't want to have to deal with her all night," Nathan said, waving a hand at Rachel - who waved back, the little brat, and didn't move. "She's taken to wandering, lately."

"I'll lock her in, she won't wander far. Can she get through locked doors yet?" Rachel didn't seem to be the only thing wandering. "Anyway, maybe she'll stay near me. 'manda told me you said she sat on you for twelve hours."

Nathan raised an eyebrow at him. "Had your pain pills this afternoon, I see."

"Not as much as before", was the cheerful response. "But 's still enough."

"He's turning into a shameless druggie, all right," Amanda chimed in as she came out of the bedroom, where she'd been locking said pain pills up after giving Angelo his dose. "Hey Nate. Don't mind Rachel -we can keep an eye on her easily enough, and she doesn't seem to want to leave Ange just yet. I can always bring her back when she wears herself out."

Nathan gave a theatrical little shudder as Rachel proceeded to scuttle around the ceiling like some particularly fast-moving, red-haired giant spider that just happened to be a toddler. "I wish she'd stop doing that. She looks like something out of a horror movie."

"AHAHAHAH!"

"And the maniacal laughter really doesn't help. If her head starts spinning around completely, you two are on your own."

"If she starts doin' that", Angelo offered as solemnly as he could, which wasn't very, "we're all in a lot more trouble than anybody thought."

Amanda snickered. "If she starts doing that, I'm getting Illyana to do the exorcism. And then Rachel can do the green pea soup thing on her head. It'll be hysterical."

"The frightening thing is, I suspect she'd be all for that. She's showing a definite liking for deliberately traumatizing people lately. I think she's realized that she's two," Nathan said dryly. Rachel proceeded to bounce off the ceiling and ricochet, bubble-encased, into one of the armchairs. She gave her father something of a demure look. "Just don't let Forge experiment on her, okay?"

"Forge only experiments on machines", Angelo pointed out. "Or anythin' he can use a machine for. Want him to make her a little gundam suit?" Yes, he'd just admitted to watching at least some anime and he didn't care.

"I knew all that TV you've been watching would do scary things to your brain." Amanda wasn't above teasing her invalid boyfriend. She perched on the arm of Rachel's chair and poked at the bubble. "And you don't need any help with the getting into trouble, do you, Red?" she asked
with a grin.

Rachel made a noise that sounded uncannily like her mother's 'hmph'. She then turned her attention to her father, gray eyes wide and artfully hopeful. "Dad? Want to stay."

"What do you say?"

"Please!"

"Well, all right then," Nathan said, mollified. Maybe she wasn't on quite so much of a sugar high as she'd been pretending to be. "But you behave. No jumping on Angelo - he's sore."

"She's been good", Angelo said proudly. "No jumpin' at all. Not on me, anyway."

"Me on the other hand..." Amanda snorted. "I think it's her way of letting me know I have to share Angelo."

Rachel proceeded to make her most appalling face, sticking her tongue out at Amanda. Nathan tsked at her. "You watch yourself, young lady, or I'll tell young Mr. Rabin that your affections have strayed..."

"My Ange," Rachel said, folding her arms across her chest. Her jaw set in a mutinous line, she was the spitting image of her father for one striking moment. "Not going to share!"

"24 hours in my days, chiquita", Angelo told her, reaching out to her in hopes of luring her over to his couch. "You get me whenever you want me if we're both here, you know that." Because at nights, most of the time, she was safely asleep in the boathouse, and missions
couldn't be helped.

Rachel continued to pout, but did slide down off the chair and over to the couch. She reached out and tugged at the leg of Amanda's pants as she went by, clearly in an indication that she should come along to the couch, and Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I think that was her way of
conceding something. But Ray, I don't think Amanda wants to make Angelo sit up so that she can fit on the couch too. She's a little bigger than you."

"I could sit up", he offered a little uncertainly, not really sure that was true.

"No, you couldn't," Amanda replied, matter-of-factly. "Not until you stop wincing when you move that ankle, any way. I'll take my turn later, Red - he's all yours for now."

"Okay," was Rachel's response as she pulled herself up on the couch with Angelo.

"Well. Glad we've got that settled." Nathan looked at Amanda. "You can give me a call when she's asleep, if you want. No reason I can't come back up and get her when the two of you are ready to hand her over."

"Considering how the meds knock Ange out, they'll both be napping, I think," Amanda replied, replying to the look he gave her by poking out her tongue. "Well, you do. It's adorable."

"Lies", he declared loftily. "The meds don't knock me out, I just get sleepy."

Nathan shook his head, trying not to smile. "You know, I'm almost tempted to bring you some paperwork, just to see what you'd do with it in this state..."

"Please, don't tempt him. I had to hide his phone to stop him from working already. And when I do mine, he gives me the puppy dog look." Amanda shook her head. "Workaholics, the lot of you."

"She stole it", Angelo said darkly. "An' she takes my laptop away, too. I just get bored..."

"You'll live." Nathan came over to the couch, bending over and dropping a kiss on Rachel's cheek. "See you in a bit. Behave yourself."

"Bye Dad."

"We'll be fine. As long as there's no more sugar. Something healthy for dinner, yeah? I can go down and see what Dani's cooked as a distraction mechanism this time." Amanda grinned. "I have to admit, I miss that part of living here - there's always food someone else made."

"Make Doug cook for you", Angelo advised sagely, craning back to look at her even as he cuddled Rachel.

"Better him than Marie-Ange."