xp_logs | Angelo and Nate, Tuesday night

Angelo, a little belatedly, calls home.

Angelo had tried to get some sleep, most of the days he'd been in London. He had a hotel room, and at least made a nominal effort at using it. But all too often, he gave up on the idea of sleep and headed back out into the city. Not tonight, though, or not yet. Tonight, he had a promised phone call to make.

"This classes as regular contact?" was Nathan's dry reply when he picked up the phone in the boathouse. "I was about to ask Moira to fly down from Edinburgh and smack you upside the head for me." It was slightly unfair, as Angelo had kept in touch via other means, but lightening the situation wasn't such a bad thing.

"She'd have to find me first", Angelo retorted, but his heart wasn't in it. "Anyway, there's been nothin' to tell."

"Updates on the search weren't the only reason I asked you to call me," Nathan said as Rachel pulled herself up onto the couch and onto his lap. "Hold on a second-" At her demanding look, he held the phone up for her.

"Hi," Rachel said very seriously into the phone. "Love you, Angelo."

"Hey, Raquelita", he returned, and for her he even managed to get a smile into his voice. "Love you too. How've you been, baby girl?"

"Good. Miss you," Rachel said wistfully. "Bye." She slid down off the couch as quickly as she'd come, retrieving Mr. Bunny off the floor and heading into her bedroom. Nathan frowned after her for a moment, then made a face, returning his attention to the telephone.

"She's been moody and remembering that she's two. How are you doing? Sleeping at all?"

"Some", Angelo said with a shrug. "Enough. Not so peaceful, but you know how it gets."

"You sound coherent, so that's a good sign."

Angelo snorted. "Well, yeah. There's been sleep. There's been coffee, too. An' I brought the sleep pills." He didn't like using them, though.

"How are the others?" Nathan asked. There'd been no sign of them on the journals, which suggested to him that they were all still wrapped up in the search.

"Don't see that much of them - we're all kind of busy. Wanda's between here an' Cambridge an' the others are just here." He smiled faintly. "They're okay, I guess. Same as I am."

"You know," Nathan said, "I almost hate to say it, but maybe it's a good sign that you haven't found her yet? If she hasn't wound up in a hospital or something like that, that suggests she's still mobile, and relatively okay. Physically, at least."

"...yeah", Angelo admitted reluctantly. "Emma's pretty damn sure she's alive, an' she wouldn't be sayin' it like that if... She's out there on the astral plane, Emma says, she just can't pin her down."

"Remind me to arrange to run over Farouk," Nathan muttered, not quite facetiously.

Angelo laughed dryly and flopped back on the bed, phone still in hand. "I wouldn't have a problem with it. He was stalkin' Amanda for magic theory lessons, before this."

"Stalking too, huh? I bet she just loved that."

"Oh, yeah. Kept findin' him waitin' for her at the brownstone."

"See, this is why the Pack always used to just shoot trespassers. I mean, shoot at them." Nathan's tone was deliberately deadpan.

"You mean shoot at them", Angelo echoed, in a matching - if tired - tone. "An' you think I'll believe the Pack used to miss."

"Well, you know. More fun to scare them sometimes. Unless they were very determined trespassers."

"Did you ever get casual trespassers?"

"Oh, sometimes. Curious kids. Dom's boyfriends..."

"Dom did not let you shoot at her boyfriends."

"Trust me, boy, some of the things GW and David and I used to do to Dom's boyfriends made warning shots like an approving pat on the head," Nathan said, his lips twitching. "I still maintain that at least part of her fell for Pete for the simple reason that we couldn't actually intimidate him."

Angelo laughed quietly. "Oh, I don't know. It'd take more than your average guy, sure, but the three of you could have done it, I bet. Or you could always bring up the baby thing again."

"I only make that joke when I want to invite bad karma," Nathan said, then eyed the clock. "Okay," he said, "I will call this checking in. I'm sure you have things you want to do before the day gets away from you for good over there."

"...yeah", he agreed with a glance at the clock in turn. "I was gonna go back out for an hour or two. Just in case."

"How did I know," Nathan murmured. "Stay safe - I'll talk to you soon."