Rachel/Angelo: Christmas greetings

[x-eidolon.livejournal.com]

A surprise call comes in for Angelo on Christmas eve.

A church’s bell tower surely was a strange place to be calling someone from, especially on a cold, wet and windy evening. But Rachel seemed completely at home on her perch, feet dangling several storeys from the ground as gloved digits fiddled with a small throwing blade. She held a burner phone to her ear with a shoulder, listening to the dial tone that, somewhere across the continent, translated into the ringing of a cell phone.

It didn't ring too long before being picked up, and a businesslike voice said "Angelo Espinosa."

“Yo.”

He dropped the phone. A certain amount of clattering and cursing later, "Hey, Chis. Glad to hear you're alive."

She chuckled, pleased. “Could say the same for you. Are you working on Christmas eve, Jellybean?”

"Not the whole of it!" he said a little guiltily. "I'll go home early, I promise, otherwise I'll get dragged out by the ear."

“It’s already past ‘early’,” Rachel pointed out. “I’ll thank whoever does so, even if you won’t.”

"Not for me." A rueful grin was audible over the phone. "My mother, Yvette, Sooraya, Jean-Phillipe, it's an open field."

“Well, far be it for me to lecture you on working on holidays,” she hummed, tilting her head skywards to enjoy another chilly rush of wind. “M’just callin’ to make sure you’re alive and not chasin’ down giant monsters or somethin’.”

"Not since the ice giants", Angelo promised. "There was a little incident in Africa, but I survived, right?"

“Right,” she said dryly. “M’not gonna ask.”

"Probably for the best. You'd only hit me again." There was a pause, then, "So how's your hunt going?"

“It’s… going,” was the lame reply. “Remy’s people have been very helpful. But he was apparently very helpful in getting my target to disappear in the first place. Too helpful.”

Still, Rachel felt that there was some headway being made, and the clues being turned up were getting less stale with each border hop she made.

"Yeah, they're pretty good at that, and your target having a superpowered brain the size of a star system can't help. But going sounds like you're at least not hitting dead ends."

“Please,” Rachel snorted. “If I had a dollar for every dead end I’ve hit, I’ll have enough money to fly back to you for Christmas and back again.”

"Not enough dead ends to make it impossible, then", he clarified. After another pause, he added hesitantly, "Do you want to come back? I've got money, I can fly you back, and there again."

“To what end?” She frowned down at the weapon she still held before sheathing it with the rest of her arsenal and grabbing the phone with her hand. Still, the redhead could not deny the warmth that blossomed in her chest at the offer. It was always, always nice to know that you weren’t completely alone. “It’ll just waste time and money while leads grow colder than frosty the snowman.”

"To not spend Christmas in the back end of nowhere, hunting down someone that's not too keen on being found", he said quietly. "If it's time and money you're worried about, I'll bribe Clarice. Instant transport and much cheaper."

Who was Clarice again? A teleporter, most likely. Rachel hummed a short tune under her breath, allowing herself to actually consider it for a few moments. “M’not in the back end of nowhere, actually. In fact, I think I’ll attend midnight Christmas mass tonight.” Along with one of her potential informants. “It’ll still be a great improvement from last Christmas, which I spent in a ditch somewhere on the East Coast if memory serves.”

"Up to you", he conceded. "But if you change your mind, you know you can always call. Or even if you don't."

“Thanks,” she said, tone softening as she kicked her heels against the bricked ledge. “M’sorry it took so long to call.”

"You were busy", Angelo told her understandingly. "And I know, it's not... you were trying not to make connections too much."

“Yep. Still, you didn’t have to drop your phone.”

He snorted. "Sorry about that. You wouldn't think I'd be so clumsy with my powers... at least it was a good shock?"

“Uh huh,” Rachel laughed quietly under her breath, leaning downward to watch as a priest in a parka jacket exited from the side chapel and headed for the parking lot. “Well, I just called to say: ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘get your ass out of the office’.”

"Merry Christmas to you too, and just for you I'll head out before anyone shows up to drag me. Where are you, anyway? I can hear the wind."

“There are so many ways I can answer that question, I dunno where to begin,” Rachel half-joked, already getting to her feet.

"You could tell me what country you're in", he suggested in the same light tone. "They're pretty big, countries. Hard to hunt you down just from that."

“South America,” she offered after a moment. Then took a deep breath and jumped off the tower.

"South America's not a country... Chis?" came after a startled moment when all he could hear was the suddenly increased whistling of the wind. "What did you just do? Are you scaring random passers by?"
The redhead caught herself with her powers, bouncing lightly off a psionic shield before landing lightly – and silently – on the ground.

“Of course not. What kind of person do you take me for?” She asked, tone flippant as she tucked her hands into her pockets and headed for the holy man. “I just… took a leap of faith, is all.” The psion snickered, amused at her own pun-niness.

"You flew off a building, didn't you?" He was trying to sound stern, but amusement was creeping in around the edges. "It's a step up from hovering 'round the ceiling."

“I fell off a building,” she corrected him. “But I’ll do the whole ceiling thing later. Just for old time’s sake.”

"I don't think accidental falls happen to you", Angelo countered. "Not for more than a second, anyway. Why did you "fall" off the building?"

“Oh, Jellybean,” Rachel mock-sighed, injecting a bounce in her step and a quirk to her lips as she came within view of her target. “Who said anything about accidental? And I’m working. Duh.”

He chuckled and bounced her words back at her. "Are you working on Christmas Eve, Chistery?"

“Just for a while. Then I’ll go get eggnog and attend Christmas mass and open the heapful of presents under my tree,” she said in a cheerful sing-song.

"You might not have a heapful, or a tree, but I got you something", Angelo remembered suddenly. "It'll be here when you get back, even if you only come back to go again."

“Is why you’re my favourite,” the redhead sighed, sounding slightly sad before she perked up again, flashing a huge smile at the priest who had turned to face her. “I gotta go. You be good and go spend time with your loved ones.”

"I will", he promised. "And you... stay safe. Call me tomorrow. Happy Christmas."

“Merry Christmas.” Rachel glanced down at the phone that would, within hours, be lying in a sewer, and hung up.