xp_logs | Nathan and Ororo, Thursday morning

Nathan seeks out Ororo to ask her a question.

"Have you ever noticed that Charles has a really bad habit of answering a question with another question?" was Nathan's greeting as he came around the aisle into the greenhouse aisle where Ororo was working. "He's as bad as my shrink."

"I think it is supposed to help us work things out on our own," came the slightly amused response. "Or perhaps to give us all enormous headaches. I have not worked out his goal yet. Give me another fifteen years."

"I think that's probably a conservative estimate," Nathan said, sitting down on the bench opposite where she was working. "Anyhow. Would you look at me funny if I asked you to put me back in the training rotation this week?" At some point on the walk up here he'd apparently decided to be flippant about the whole issue. Ah, well. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that. If Ororo had doubts, she was perfectly capable of being serious enough for the both of them.

The funny look consisted mostly of a smoothly raised eyebrow, her gaze turned on him almost assessingly, though the rest of her expression gave nothing away. "Training is rarely a bad thing," she replied eventually, reaching for her shears. "I believe there are some sessions that could use another member."

"Oh, don't be coy." Nathan fell silent, watching her pick up her shears and turned her attention back to the plant - although, not quite. He got the impression that she was still watching him with one eye. "The strange thing is," he finally went on, "I'm not champing at the bit to get back at it, and yet, I suspect that's a good thing. Means I'm not being driven by boredom, or a craving for action." Or guilt.

"Why do you want to get back at it, then?" she asked curiously, focus still on the ficus in front of her.

Nathan shrugged, thinking about the answer. "I think it's still worthwhile," he finally said. "I think I can do it for at least a little while longer - and accident-prone as I am," he added with a brief twist of a smile, "I like to think I've made some important contributions over the years." Another pause. "Plus I just don't feel like it's time to hang up the leathers yet. This whole last year or so, 'Ro - it's been like things are coming full circle. I don't feel like I'm ready to... I don't know, move on into retirement yet, or something like that."

"Well, good," Ororo said, a wry smile growing on her lips. "Because I think if you do, I will have to as well. Not that I would be the oldest member of the team without you, but certainly the one with the most white hair."

"Please. For you the white is flattering," was Nathan's equally wry reply. But there was a reflective look in his eyes as he gazed down at Ororo. "Joking aside, you are still young," he pointed out. "When you get to be my age... well, you generally get less battered than I do, which speaks well for your sense of self-preservation and common sense, but the general point stands. When it starts to hurt to get out of bed more mornings than not, the mind starts to consider other options."

"I cannot say I blame that kind of thinking. There are so many other ways one can contribute to the betterment of the world besides putting on leathers and hitting things - I would hate to think that anyone would restrict themselves only to that."

"All true. Yet I'm so good at hitting things," Nathan said, giving her a wide-eyed innocent look that wouldn't have been out of place coming from his daughter. It was entirely clear where Rachel had gotten it.

This earned him a chuckle, a clod of dirt flying towards his nose as if in reprimand. "I am sure Forge will be happy to fix up a mechanized walker for you should you desire to continue hitting things well into your dotage. But for now, if you are willing and able, you can make do as the rest of us do and begin training again."

And that was that, Nathan told himself. Now, to actually get back into training and make sure that Jack Leary and Charles were right, and he could handle it. "Okay then," he said. "I promise not to scare the new kids - too much."