xp_logs | Angelo and Sooraya: A trip to Attilan

Sooraya asks Angelo to come with her when she has to go to Attilan.

Around twelve o’clock Sooraya finally looked up from the documents she was summarizing. All around her people were gathering their things to head to lunch and with a deep sigh she saved the file on her computer and gathered her own things. Finally she grabbed the official looking envelope from the corner of her desk and headed in the direction of Angelo’s office.

Finally having arrived there she checked quickly if he wasn’t on the phone, before knocking briefly on the door. “Angelo? Do you have a moment?” She asked with a hesitant voice.

"For you, always." He reached out casually from the usual unnatural distance and opened the door from behind his desk. "Come in."

"Thanks." Sooraya quickly took a seat on the chair closest to his desk and fiddle nervously with the envelope in her hands. "Uhm... Angelo, I think I might need a few days off at the end of February..."

He tilted his head at her, noting the signs of nervousness. "You've got it, but can I ask what for?"

“I got an interesting envelope last Friday.” With a quick gesture she pushed the envelope over the desk. “You can see for yourself… It’s in there…”

Angelo took it, slipped the contents out, and scanned them quickly before looking back up at her, all business. "They can't make you testify. If you don't want to."

A shaky smile disappeared as soon as it had appeared. “To be honest, to me it sounded like I have very little choice, but I know very little about the law… And though a part of me wishes I could say no, I can’t… I have to do what I can to put him away and if that means facing him in court, then that is what I have to do… I would never forgive myself if I don’t and he gets released… If something happened to anyone… it would be on me…”

"They can summon you", he agreed, "but we'd have grounds to appeal it, emotional trauma... but if you want to do it, that's different. You're not going alone, though."

“I don’t want to appeal it.” Sooraya shook her head firmly. “I would never forgive myself… And as for going alone… I wasn’t planning on it. Because if I read things correctly, this means Sayyid is still on the loose. I have already spoken to the Professor and he told me to talk to Mr. Kane…”

“But that also brings me to the other things I wanted to ask…” Sooraya bowed her head and bit her lip. “There is a part of me that is really scared, Angelo… If you have the time and if you want too… do you think you could go with me?”

"I'll make the time", he promised her immediately. "Of course I'll go."

“Thanks Angelo… I really appreciate it.” For the first time during the conversation a real smile slid over her face. “Are you sure it is no problem for you? I know how busy you are…”

"The day I'm too busy for a friend that needs me, I might as well just give up", he said seriously. "Nothing's more important."

Hesitantly she reached out with her hand and briefly covered Angelo’s hand with hers. “Thanks… I really mean it… I’ll owe you a few home cooked meals or something.” She gave him a quick wink. “I hope that Sayyid won’t try anything though… But I don’t know what he will do when he gets wind of the fact that I’ll be coming to testify…”

"He won't come anywhere near you", Angelo assured her with determination. "And he'll be sorry if he tries. That's what he'll do."

“I hope so… I really hope so…” Sooraya quickly glanced at the clock, wincing at the time. “Can I buy you lunch? That is the least I can do… And I really would like to catch up a little… We haven’t talked in a bit.”