xp_logs | Nathan, Morgan (and Rachel), Monday lunchtime (Reply)

Morgan comes across Nathan and a very woeful Rachel, and manages to cheer them both up.

Nathan rubbed Rachel's back as he walked up from the garage, glad that the crying had diminished to the occasional sniffle on the way back from the vet's. She was clinging a little more fiercely than she might have on a normal day, however, and was still hiding her face against his neck. "We'll call Mom when we get back to the boathouse," he said gently. "How's that?"

Morgan was trotting her way along toward the very garage Nathan was departing from. She was on a quest. A very important quest, actually. Morgan was in desperate need of salami. Alright, it wasn't that important but she for some reason had the craving for a really good salami sandwich and, alas, there was none in the kitchen, hers or the main one. She grinned when she saw Nathan and a tiny female person attached to him. "Hey, love. Who's the berry?"

"Rachel, say hi to Morgan," Nathan prompted.

A tear-stained little face appeared. "Hi," was the barely audible reply before Rachel proceeded to hide again. Nathan sighed, smiling a bit helplessly at Morgan.

"Kind of a sad day," he said. "Our parrot passed away unexpectedly. Rachel was very attached."

"Heya, berries." She was cute, even when terribly distraught. Morgan frowned a bit at the parrot news. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you get him cremated? Maybe it'll help to go scatter his ashes so you can let him go flying again." The last was directed at the little girl, Morgan's voice having softened as she spoke.

"I thought that might help, yeah. I'm going to go pick up, uh, the ashes tomorrow." #As if it wasn't bad enough that I had to try and answer 'Why is Aunt Dom so sad?', the bird had to choose this month to head to that big aviary in the sky,# Nathan added telepathically, more irritably than he'd intended. It had left him more disconsolate than he'd expected, and it wasn't just the echo from Rachel.

Rachel sniffled and shifted around in Nathan's arms so that she could get a better look at Morgan. "You're a pretty color," she offered after a moment, sounding shy.

While she didn't say it aloud the word ouch was pretty apparent on Morgan's face. Great, try to explain to a kid that your pseudo-auntie's boyfriend is maybe dead and maybe just dying and maimed somewhere and then explain why Tweety's not coming back. Morgan in no way was envying Nate's position.

Attention was redirected the moment Rachel spoke up again. "Thanks. I think you're a pretty color, too. Especially your hair. I used to have hair like that color when I was younger, too."

Rachel actually brightened, if only a little. "I have hair like my mom. Except mine is curly."

"That's why we call you Carrots," Nathan said, mock-seriously, and got a fearsome scowl and a stuck-out tongue in response.

"No!"

"Not Carrots?"

"I don't like carrots! Yuck!"

Morgan was grinning at the sight in front of her. Oh, domesticate Nate, who knew that was possible? Or that it'd be so flippin' cute? "I think you look more like a berry. Strawberry or raspberry. Too cute to be a carrot. Dad," she poked at Nathan accusingly, "should know that!"

"I like her, Dad," Rachel said. "Can she have lunch with us?"

"Well," Nathan drawled, "given that we have the house all to ourselves-" #Dom headed back to Muir with Moira,# he sent to Morgan. "Maybe. We do have plenty of food in the fridge. Mom insisted."

"Look, I'm being temporarily adopted," Morgan grinned. She'd been avoiding the boathouse while Domino was there just to minimize ill will, but if she was gone then at least avoidance need not continue. "So the wife showed up and stocked what was likely looking like a bachelor's fridge, eh?"

"Don't trust Dad to eat!" Rachel said in an appropriately stern voice, clearly mimicking her mother. "He's daft!"

It took a great deal of self-control for Nathan not to dissolve in laughter. "Actually, Ray, I think she wanted to make sure you wouldn't starve..."

"Daft, daft, daft," Rachel chanted.

Morgan dissolved into laughter on both of their behalves. "Aye, he's a daft bugger alright. There's no arguing with her, she knows her stuff." She wondered if Rachel learned the stern voice from her mum. Surely she had. Which then made Morgan wonder what she'd learned from her dad.

---

"Dad, I want to color."

"Take your carrots with you," Nathan said, and smiled slightly as Rachel picked up her dish of raw carrots with exaggerated care, carrying them over to the coffee table and setting them down beside the bright plastic mock-toolbox full of crayons. He turned his attention back to Morgan, shrugged slightly. "I don't like the lectures I get if I confess I didn't force her to eat her vegetables."

"Tsk tsk," Morgan shook her head at him. "Instilling bad vegetable habits in her at such a young age. Blasphemy! You ought to be strung up by your nether bits for such crimes." She grinned and glanced over at the little girl and the crayons and shook her head again. "I'd known you'd domesticated but it was a bit hard to picture until now. I don't believe that's your kid, though. Fiesty enough, but way too cute."

"See, apart from the eyes, in looks she's all her mother. Although Moira swears that when she gets mulish she resembles me in an 'uncanny fashion'." Nathan snorted and sipped at his drink. "As if she didn't get her full share of stubbornness from the mad Scotswoman who gave birth to her."

"Isn't the point to breed out the undesirable qualities? You plus anyone stubborn equals stubborn to the point of trying to move a mountain as a flea. Really now, what were you thinking?" Morgan crunched into a carrot of her own while making tsking sounds at Nathan again.

Nathan's face fell briefly at the first question, and the smile Morgan got in response was a bit halting. "I was madly in love with the mad Scotswoman, so I wasn't doing a whole lot of thinking," he said, clearly striving for a light tone.

Morgan's face closed down into something much more somber. "Did I hit a nerve?" Another person may have apologized for it but Morgan wasn't the type to apologize lightly, especially since unintentional things rarely warranted such penance.

Nathan made a face, then shrugged. "Don't worry," he said, keeping his voice low. "Wakanda - it was that program I told you about, the one breeding up mutant kids as operatives." The slight smile turned humorless. "I was dreaming about it again when the munchkin showed up at the side of the bed this morning sniffling. It's not been a great day."

"Oh." So the little one got his dreams and the trauma from them. Then on top of that her parrot died. Yeah, not been a great day seemed like an understatement. "Anything I can do to help? You know, dress up like an elf and sing songs with the berry or run about with her or dress you up like a fairy..."

Morgan actually got a genuine smile, for that. "You already have. Thank you. She doesn't have much attention span yet - give her some interesting new company and it gets her mind off things pretty quickly. Although," and Nathan paused, glancing over to where Rachel was scrawling diligently with a black crayon, "I'm a little alarmed to see what she produces today, after all this. Hopefully scary stick people and dead birds will not feature in this afternoon's masterwork."

"Well, I am a pretty color, after all." Morgan grinned and wiggled blue fingers in his direction. "Though I was assured just the other night that I'm not pretty enough to be too distracting." A heavy, dramatic sigh was heaved and Morgan slouched in her chair for effect. "I'm sure if you give her enough puppies and rainbows and sunshine her masterwork won't suffer too terribly. It's the advantage of a short attention span."

"Maybe I ought to get her a kitten or something," Nathan said after a moment. "I'll have to see what Moira says. And you, un-distracting?" He went on in a more amused tone. "What misguided person said that?"

"Fluffy and cute is the way to go! And then you don't have to worry about all the upkeep like with a dog. Oh and it can terrorize and flirt with your workers in the office when the berry isn't around since I hear she has a habit of...rearranging things?"

Morgan's faux distress was back with Nathan's question. "Bishop. You know, tall, dark and cop. Cops, wonky priorities that lot have. Something really ought to be done about him."

Nathan tsked. "Never met the man," he admitted. "I'm doing a lousy job at keeping up with the new folks in our personal universe. Perhaps you should devote some time to proving him wrong?"

"Mm, maybe." She shrugged. "I'm not really concerned with distracting him, though, so any attempt would just be to prove I can be. While that's fun it's not really my idea of a hobby."

"I'm sure there's much more interesting and rewarding game out there," Nathan said with a chuckle, rising and gathering some of the dishes.

"Yeah, this time of year I think it's deer." Morgan smiled and helped him clear the table. "So how do you feel about venison?"

Nathan's smile was rueful. "You'll have me missing Rahne," he said. "I like venison."

"I was thinking of going hunting. I have all this time on my hands and my arrows would probably appreciate something other than targets to aim for..." Morgan trailed off. "But I don't really want to get the animal rights contingent," which may or may not have both begun and ended with Karolina, "telling me how horrible I am if I drag a dead thing back here. So I'm not sure I'll do it yet. Where's Rahne? Should I know this person?"

Nathan chuckled. "Rahne is one of my loyal minions. She's spending some time in Tel Aviv these days, but when she's here, she's very often stalking the wildlife population in lupine form. Especially the deer." His smile as he put dishes into the dishwasher was nostalgic. "I taught her how to field-dress said deer."

"More loyal minions, just what you need." Morgan laughed at the mental image of him totting all of his minions around on a leash, sort of like school children who all need to hold onto the rope so no one gets lost. "So you've got minions and you're teaching them things? Do the authorities know about this because that surely can't be trusted."

"They're teaching me things, more often than not," Nathan said after a moment, then shrugged cheerfully. "Although I'm certain I'm a thoroughly corrupting influence anyway, you're right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right. Except when I'm wrong. In that case I'm not right." A dismissive, blue hand waved through the air, "but we just ignore such things are at all possible anyway."

"Yes, you don't remind me of other women in my life at all," Nathan drawled.

"Obviously you have a type you attract to you." Morgan gave him an impish grin. "That speaks nothing of you though, not at all."