xp_logs | Nathan and Angelo, Sunday evening

Not having heard from Nathan for days, Angelo calls him. It's not the most reassuring (or informative) conversation.

Angelo was pacing, there was no other word for it. The phone pressed to his ear, he was also muttering repeated imprecations to someone to pick up the phone.

Someone, evidently, had been out of contact for too long.

Back in his room for the night, Nathan was sitting on the bed, back against the wall behind him as he stared straight ahead into empty air. His mind was just as empty - a curiously comforting sensation, given the events of the last few days. It took a few minutes for the flash of light in his peripheral vision to register. He'd turned his cell phone's ringer off.

Nathan glanced at it, and it floated over to his hand, where he checked the signal - better than the last time he'd used it - and then answered it.

"Hello."

"You", came an irritated voice from the other end, "missed your check-in. Twice."

Nathan was silent for a moment. "I don't remember setting up a check-in schedule with you," he said finally. Although there was the usual rule, and maybe he should have remembered that Angelo would likely consider it to apply in this situation.

"I don't remember you sayin' there wasn't gonna be one", Angelo retorted. "Where are you?"

"I'm not supposed to say." The flat, tired tone was all he could muster. "It's a secure facility."

Angelo breathed through his nose in something that wasn't quite a sigh. "Okay, so don't say. Are you safe?"

Nathan managed a briefly quizzical look that Angelo, of course, couldn't see. "It's SHIELD," he said, skirting around the topic of what was apparently planned for the week. "There's no threat here. And I've been behaving myself." Behaving himself scrupulously. He had some lingering paranoia - or terror - about putting a foot wrong and Fury changing his mind about all of this.

"No threat if you stay in the buildin'", Angelo pointed out. "Probably. But I know what we're all like about runnin' into trouble."

"You're getting old and cynical before your time." It was the usual banter, but not, and Nathan hoped the static on the line would prevent Angelo from picking up on nuances of tone. "Need to watch that."

"Prove me wrong an' get home without a scratch on you or anythin' to cause one", he said with a wry note to his voice, if Nathan could hear it. "An' you didn't say there wouldn't be any."

Nathan didn't answer, just closed his eyes and listened to the static. "The consulting may get a little more active," he finally said. "I'll be a few more days. Maybe a week."

"A week", Angelo echoed, making it sound like he was accepting a promise. "What does more active mean?"

"I can't tell you that, either." And wouldn't, even if he could. He could do without the sight of Angelo trying to literally travel down the phone line and shake him. "Look," Nathan went on, his voice hoarse, "I have to do this their way. It's the only way I get to do it at all."

"...it's worth it, then." That wasn't a question. "Is it somethin' you're goin' to be able to tell me about later?"

There was the million dollar question. "I don't know." Could and would were two very different things. Nathan closed his eyes again. "Look, I should go," he went on, more raggedly. "Plenty to do tomorrow."

"It's not that late", he said quietly. "But if you have to... don't forget to check in again."

"I'll do my best." It wasn't a promise, because this wasn't the week to be making them. "Do me a favor. Call Moira and tell her you talked to me. She's worrying."

"Her too, huh?" He smiled faintly. "Will do."