xp_logs | Nathan and Ro | Thursday afternoon

BACKDATED. Ororo goes to the boathouse to check on Nathan; they both spend some time reflecting on what they accomplished.

"Nathan?"

Ororo had let herself into the boathouse; the door was unlocked, and she had taken that as ample invitation to come inside. It wasn't that she was snooping, per se, but she hadn't seen the man around but for a few brief moments, and there was something she needed to give him.
Things had calmed down at least a tiny bit, or had at least become slightly less hectic, and she felt justified to take some time out of her day to seek him out. "Are you in here?"

"Over here, lazing around..." The familiar gruff voice came from the direction of the couch, where Nathan was indeed lounging, or at least half-lounging; there was a book on his lap, and he had amassed a stack of pillows sizeable enough to let him sit half-upright. He smiled slightly at her, raising a hand and waving. He was still paler than he should be, and the dark circles under his eyes hadn't faded particularly yet. "Was wondering if I might see you today."

"You know me too well," she said, steering her steps towards the couch. "I would say congratulations are in order that you are actually relaxing and taking it easy, but just because I cannot see the manacles keeping you chained to the sofa does not mean they are not
there. Moira would not consider it an unnecessary precaution, I'm sure."

"Actually, the deal was either I spent the bulk of the next three days on the couch, or I can spend my nights there, too." There was a familiar twinkle in the gray eyes, despite his visible weariness. "You look like you've finally gotten a little sleep."

"It is much easier now, with everybody back where they belong." Ororo was by the couch now, but instead of moving to find a seat she instead knelt next to Nathan, barely pausing a moment before leaning in to give him a gentle but lingering hug. "Much, much easier."

He hesitated for a moment, clearly startled - his powers weren't back properly yet, and probably would take a few days - but after a moment, slid one arm around her, hugging back. "Yeah, well... you did a good job of rounding your wandering X-Men back up. I wouldn't have wanted to be planning that many rescues to that many remote areas with as few resources as you had..."

"Well, you all did a good job of staying alive while said rescues were on their way. Though I think the Blackbird may never be the same again," she commented with a shake of her head and a sigh. "Still, I think the distinct lack of laser from space means this was a successful mission. Especially since you all came back in one piece. More or less." Perhaps she was a bit giddy, but she had every reason to be, really.

"Now we wait to hear how things turned out on the political side of all of this," Nathan said, leaning back against the pillows as Ororo released him. "I'm presuming we'll hear something. They owe us that, I think." He let the subject go, however, not wanting to spend too much time thinking about it right now. None of his friends had died; he thought he'd take a couple of days to enjoy that, at least. "So," he went on, "we're going to be a little shorthanded for a while."

This inspired a laugh, however dry, and Ororo stood to find a more comfortable spot to sit. "This is true. Luckily, several members of the team have an accelerated healing factor, and at least a few of the trainees are not completely maimed. So as long as evil holds
off for a few weeks, we should be fine."

"Give me a week. Or maybe two. Depending on how the head sorts itself out... but I'm thinking maybe a week." His book was levitating, quite steadily, off his lap - if only for a few inches. "I think I had an easier time than Jean, from the sounds of it. Clarice pulled off three - no, four teleports, so it killed a lot of our momentum."

"I think you have earned all the time you need - all of you have." The silver-haired woman regarded Nate with a warm expression. "You were all amazing. True heroes." She was trying to think of something to do for everyone that had been involved in the mission - though with
rescues and the evacuation that meant just about the entire mansion.

"You're going to make me blush." There was a fair amount of banter behind the comment, but Nathan looked tired and pensive as he let the book sink back to his lap. "True heroes or true lunatics. There may not be much difference between the two. I think I'll opt for the notion that we prevented harm - and maybe divert some resources Elpis-wise to investigate prison conditions for mutants in Russia."

"I do not think a lunatic would be following up his world-saving actions with social welfare," Ororo pointed out.

"I never said we weren't well-meaning lunatics." Nathan rubbed at his eyes, then gave her a curiously intent look. "Speaking of shorthanded... from what Moira says, you're going to be alone in the big chair for a while. Feeling okay about that?"

The look she gave him was trepidatious, though strangely not as panicked as it would have been had the suggestion come several days earlier. Possibly because Scott wasn't dead, merely out of commission for a time. "I think so, yes," she said with a nod. "It is far from ideal, but... well, I think we all learned a thing or two about stepping up to a challenge. I would imagine this is just more of the same."

Nathan's smile was genuine, if a bit faint. "You'll do fine. You and Scott lead with your brain, not your powers, and there's nothing wrong with yours." The familiar twinkle came back, if only for a moment. "I promise to behave, although clearly I can speak only for myself..."

"And not even all the time, at that," came the rejoinder.

Nathan sighed, still smiling slightly, and leaned back further against his pillows. "Can I tell you something?" he said. It was clearly a rhetorical question, because he went on without waiting for an answer. "I think I'm getting old. I used to be fairly blase about near-death experiences, but they seem to hit me harder than they did when I was thirty."

"Older, wiser... they could be considered the same thing, in this case. There is nothing wrong with considering how staggeringly frightening and life-changing something like this mission could have been." Ororo pursed her lips for a moment, smoothing her fingers over the arm of her chair. "Especially this mission."

"I've got a lot more to come back to than I used to," Nathan said, his eyes straying in the direction of Rachel's room, where said small redhead was having her afternoon nap. "Kind of alters one's perspective a little. But it also makes me go, you know?" He felt more at peace over what he'd decided to do than he had prior to going into space. Surviving did wonderful things for the perspective as well.

"The more you have to come back for, the more you have to protect?" 'Ro hazarded. "It does change things to have a face for the people you are trying to save."

"Well, they always have faces. Some of them just have more weight now than others." Nathan gave her a crooked smile. "Parenthood. It does funny things to one's brain."

"Ah, so that's the cause of it all..."

Nathan did something that wouldn't have looked out of place coming from said daughter, and stuck his tongue out at her. "Witch."

Ororo laughed and straightened up in her chair, intending to vacate it and leave Nathan in peace now that she had determined he was truly all right. "Name-calling. The true hallmark of a diseased mind. I hope with more rest you can be convinced to behave politely in company
again."

"Not to worry. If I get too out of line, Moira will get me with arolled-up newspaper."