xp_logs | Nathan, Angelo and Fred, Friday afternoon

After their conversation the day before, Angelo brings Fred to meet Nathan and talk about a potential job. It turns out that Elpis may actually be a very good fit for him.

Nathan's voice was perfectly audible a good ten meters away from the door of the boathouse as Angelo and Fred approached (and not just because the door was open, only the screen door separating the goings-on in the office from the outside world). "-no, I will not send you the originals!" It wasn't quite the full roar, but pretty close. "I will send you notarized copies, if you're going to pull this... oh, just try and claim they're forgeries. Go ahead and try. You don't think we've got witnesses? Between that and your own goddamned paperwork, this is an open-and-shut case... you think I'm talking about court?" The burst of laughter was derisive. "Actually, I was thinking the media."

"...oh, no." Angelo had broken into a run the moment he heard what was going on, and had reached the door by now. "Nathan! Quit threatenin' them, I brought a visitor."

Nathan raised a hand, glaring at Angelo - but winked at Fred as he followed Angelo into the office. "... you do that," he said to the person on the phone. "I would say consultations are definitely in order. And you know where to find me if you're actually willing to start dealing with the issue, as opposed to sweeping it under the table and pretending that it doesn't exist.... you have a good day, now."

Fred looked wide-eyed at the scene; whatever was going on sounded important, so Fred decided to just shut up and wait to be spoken too...or at as the case might be. He Nathan acknowledged his presence in the room, he simply gave a mute wave to the older mutant, still unsure of whether or not to speak...

Nathan set the phone down almost delicately, giving Angelo a wry look. "You are not to call him back," he said. "No hitting redial as soon as I'm out of the room. We're going to wait and see what he says, and then decide what else to do."

Angelo looked at him for a moment, then sighed. "Fine, I promise I won't call him back. But you know what I think about you doin' that. You didn't actually insult this one, did you?"

"Goodness no. Calling him names would have diminished the impact of the threat. I was going for 'shit-disturber'." Nathan eyed Fred cheerfully. "Hi, Fred."

"Hello, Mister Dayspring," Fred said, his voice a little more formal than usual. He was used to smokey clubs and phone booth offices when he went to apply for a job, where all he had to do was look big and he was in. This new, relatively normal process made him nervous, "How, uh, how are you, sir?"

"Peachy, Fred." Nathan raised an eyebrow at Angelo.

"Goats", Angelo said darkly, reminding him, then grinned at the younger boy. "Fred wants a job. Said I'd bring him in to see how he'd fit here."

"We could definitely use another set of hands. And the attached brain." And he'd always been favorably impressed by Fred. Nathan tilted his head at the other young man. "Pay's decent by any standards. The work itself can be a little dull at times, at least at the outset."

Fred looked from Angelo to Nathan, and gave a small shrug, "One of the only things my Dad ever taught me was: any job, any legal job, 's worth doin' as hard as ya can. If you flip burgers or haul garbage, then you flip burgers and haul garbage as best as ya possibly can, sir," he scratched the back of his neck as he winced. He was nervous, so he was rambling. And he accent started fighting it's way into every word. He looked back to Angelo, a concerned look in his features.

"You'll do fine, Fred", Angelo assured him. "Work doesn't suit everybody - it didn't suit Lil - but if you're up for givin' it a try, sounds like we can give you a chance."

"Lil was a special case," Nathan said, his lips twitching. "It was a stopgap sort of thing for her, just a way to earn some money. Fred, if you try this and find out that you like it, it can be more for you. A career, even. Elpis is not going to do anything but expand, for the foreseeable future. We're still in investigative mode in a lot of ways, and every investigation turns up more and more needs that have to be addressed."

Fred puffed up a little bit as Nathan spoke. He'd heard talks of Elpis, what it did globally, how it operated and helped... Fred realized his mouth was agape, and shook his head a little. He looked at Angelo and Nathan with a deep earnest, seeming to age ten years in front of their eyes, "Can I tell you guys something? About me...about working here?"

Nathan's smile, no longer repressed, was warm, his gray eyes very intent on Fred. "Sure."

"I've...I'm..." Fred sighed, and collected his thoughts, "I've heard about Elpis. What is does all over the world. I...I'm good at beating people up. 's just kinda what I can do. I went out for Red X, with the train thing? And...I saved lives. I mean, they proally woulda been okay if I hadn't been there but...me. Fred Dukes. I saved lives. I...I helped, you know?"

"I guess...what I'm trying to say...I'll push papers, sir. I'll travel with you guys or answer phones or sort files or...anything. I wanna help. I wanna be able to go to sleep at night knowing I...you know?" Texan Gibberish was Fred's first language, and it showed. He heaved a breath and looked to Nathan, then Angelo, "People get hurt. People push other people around. I wanna push back. I wanna help people up and dust em off and be a part of something better"

Nathan leaned forward, a glint in his eyes, although his smile stayed warm. "All very good motivations. But you know what's really addictive about this work? You're not just helping people and sometimes even saving their lives... you're making their lives better. The work we do in crisis-" And this was reminding him of the conversation he'd had with Jean-Paul, before... "-that's important, and we're going to keep doing it, always. But sometimes it's the everyday projects that are the ones with the shot at changing the world."

"So we keep doin' it", Angelo added simply. "Mutants all over the world, we do education, we do projects t'help their communities, we look into what needs changin' for our own work an' to advise other people... there's a lot of everyday work needs doin'."

"I'm happy to do it, sir, iffen it needs doin'." Fred exhaled, feeling as if he hadn't done so since he walked into the office, "Like I said: I wanna help push in the right direction."

"Then let's give it a try." Nathan's gaze slid towards Juliette's empty desk. "Juliette can get your paperwork done when she gets back this afternoon, but Angelo could give you a bit of an orientation now, if you want?"

Fred looked shocked that, after all that rambling, the answer was still 'yes', "Uh...uh, yes! Yea, sure, of course!" He turns to Angelo, "That's okay, right?"

"Be glad to." He grinned and pointed to various places around the office as he kept speaking. "That's my desk, that's John's, whatever you do don't look under it, that's Monet's, that one's kind of a hot desk for the volunteers..."

Fred nodded along. While it was relatively simple information, Fred knew he could be scatter brained, and didn't want to miss the most basic things even before he started...