xp_logs | Nathan and Haroun, very late Friday night / early Saturday morning at the safehouse in Vegas

Back at the safehouse after all is said and done, Nathan and Haroun take stock. Then a very tired Nathan makes a slip of the tongue on the subject that's been obsessing him all week.

Haroun could not stop grinning. His bags were packed, his cellphone charged, and in a few hours he was heading back to Westchester and a certain full-of-woe ex-rockstar. For the moment, though, he was puttering around the kitchen of the safehouse, trying to figure out what would best satisfy his urge to snack. The pretzel rods weren't doing it for him, and Jubilee had demolished the last box of Cheez-Its. He was tempted to think that was grounds for a shallow grave out back, but he doubted other people saw it that way.

Nathan paused in the kitchen doorway, smiling slightly. "Not much left," he said. "The kids went through here like a hurricane after we all got back."

"I noticed. At least they left a couple bottles of water behind." he said, waving one of the aforementioned bottles. "So, ready to head back to your Scottish doctor?" he said with a wide grin. Dammit, he was jonesing for Cheez-Its in the _worst way_!

"I'm not going back right away," Nathan admitted, leaning against the doorframe and folding his arms across his chest. "Since LeBeau saw fit to have Amanda burning the candle at both ends all week, she needs a recharge. Turns out there's a spot south of here that'll do, so I'm taking her out there."

Haroun began to search through the cabinets - maybe somebody left some Goldfish crackers behind or something. Anything! "Bien." he said distractedly. "Guess that'll be good for her. May want to pick up some Kevlar while you're out, because Moira is going to shoot you."

"Already talked to her about it. Besides, someone's got to do it, and I'm not about to leave it to LeBeau." Moira hadn't been precisely happy to know he would be a day or so longer, but Amanda needed this. "The less time she spends around him the better, as far as I'm concerned." Nathan smiled thinly. "Whoops. Did I say that out loud?"

"I didn't hear anything." he said, not at all innocently. Ah, score! Triscuits! The new garlic flavor! Allah must be pleased with him. He grabbed the box, tore it open, and munched on a cracker. Ahhh, bliss. "Anyone not prepared to call LaBeau on his shit shouldn't spend much time around him. Gotta admit, shooting him was the highlight of my week."

"You had to be the one who got to do that," Nathan grumbled. "I think I could have made as convincing a mutant terrorist, don't you think?"

"See, I actually _was_a mutant terrorist. Still am, by some definitions." he said with a grin. "You were a mercenary. There's a difference. And you're too big to be a terrorists. Terrorists all tend to be wiry and thin. It's all the extremism." he said with a grin.

Nathan scoffed at him. "I was a government-sponsored terrorist long before I was a mercenary. So there." And this was a very odd conversation. "I don't suppose you'd let me take a peek?" he asked, his lips quirking in a smile. "At your memory of the big, happy moment, I mean..."

"Be my guest." he said, relaxing his mental discipline enough for the other man to get the peek he wanted. He kept the walls in other parts of his mind high, though.

Nathan went for that memory, examined it with interest for a moment or two, and then backed out of Haroun's mind as gracefully as he'd gone in. "Thank you," he said, mock-gravely. "That somehow makes the whole week worth it."

"Doesn't it just? And let's not forget that we pulled this whole thing off. Got the data, cheezed off Arcade, nobody got so much as a hangnail. By any reasonable standard of success, we're golden. I'd still like to wire up a truck-bomb in Arcade's parking lot, but that's just me." he said with another grin. "Want a cracker?" he said, offering the box to Nathan.

"Not true about the hangnail," Nathan grumbled, thinking about Amanda getting smacked around yet again. But he took the box of crackers, telling himself to let it go. No permanent damage had been done, and as Haroun had pointed out, the job had been a success. If it had been him, or one of the Pack, he'd have counted the bruises well worth it.

Haroun hrmmed. "Did we take some hits when my back was turned?" he asked curiously. "I've been a little removed from the day-to-day in the casino group."

"Amanda got a little banged up before Remy 'killed' her," Nathan said dourly.

"She's OK, though. Superficial wounds only?" he asked with concern. "Dammit, I was hoping that this was going to be a bloodless op."

"She'll be fine. Once she's recharged, she can probably even heal herself." Stop being so fucking cranky, Dayspring. She's not holding a grudge - why should you? Nathan made himself smile.

Haroun nodded. "Handy talent, that." he said. "Won't work on me, but that's a rant for another time. How'd Forge do, since you were riding herd on his team?"

"Quite well. Froze a bit while he was in the ducts, but given that he's an inexperienced kid, I half-expected that. He pulled himself back together pretty well, too." Nathan snorted softly. "Which is good, because it would have been very awkward if I'd had to go in and fish him out of there."

Haroun laughed. "And it would have blown the op sky-high." he said with a grin. "Good. I'm thinking of taking the kid under my wing, pun not intended. If I can use him to lessen my reliance on Shaw and Frost, that's probably a good thing. But right now I don't know if he has what it takes."

"Good luck to you with that," Nathan said dryly. "He thinks I'm schizophrenic and my better nature goes right out the window when I'm dealing with him, so I suspect I should probably be staying well clear of the lad." The crackers were terrible, and Nathan made a face. "People eat these why?"

"Hey, at least now we know it's not just the Spanish kid." he smirked. "And gimme those." he said, snatching back the crackers from Nathan. "They're no Cheez-Its, but they're not _bad_..."

"Speaking of Forge, I gather he picked up the specs on Arcade's psi-suppressant technology while he was in the computers." Nathan couldn't help a smile. "Charles will be delighted."

"No kidding. That's huge." he said with a pleased grin. "Score another one for us. He didn't happen to leave that backdoor live, did he?"

"I'm not sure. You'll have to ask him." Nathan moved into the kitchen, retrieving one of the other bottles of water. "I suppose we're out of coffee, too. Damn it. I think I've had three hours of sleep in the last four days."

"You know, other than your tendency to sound like you're being disemboweled by a midget, you should really look into this whole sleep thing. All the cool kids are doing it." he said with a smirk, fishing out another cracker to munch upon.

"I can't help it," Nathan said crankily. "Nasty little casino owners with delusions of grandeur, making me leave my pregnant fiancee--"

There was a slapping sound. It was the noise of his own hand covering his mouth at speed, and he blinked at Haroun, who had frozen with a cracker half-raised to his mouth.

"Pregnant? Moira is pregnant?" Haroun said. "Damn! This calls for a celebration - although I take it you didn't want the word getting out quite yet?" He still smacked Nathan hard on the back to show his support.

Nathan suspected his face was probably about as red as the aforementioned pregnant fiancee's hair. "No," he muttered finally, sheepishly. "We were going to tell the world just before the winter break... crap. Keep it under your hat?" Haroun was grinning at him, though, and after a moment, Nathan couldn't help smiling back. "But yes. She is."

Haroun smacked Nathan on the back again. "Congratulations!" he said, unabashedly letting tears fill his eyes. "That's so fantastic." he added. "I will honor your request, of course. I would be honored to think of your child as my own kin."

Nathan's smile grew. "Thank you," he said more quietly. "On all counts..." His eyes gleamed mischievously. "And I'd hope you'd consider him or her kin. I mean, who else is going to teach the little prodigy to say 'brain-sprain' before their first birthday?"

"That's my little prodigy!" he said with a rousing laugh. "How far along is she?"

"About six weeks," Nathan said - and stopped, his mouth hanging open for a moment as he made a certain calculation for the first time. "Oh," he said with a helpless smile, going even more red. "Okay. Chalk up our first story to embarass the poor kid with when they hit teenagerhood..."

Haroun grinned. "Don't tell me, I'm fairly sure I don't want to know. Since I'll never have kids of my own, I'll just have to spoil yours rotten." he said with a laugh that mostly managed to cover the pain. "Way too soon to tell on gender or X-gene-status, I take it?"

Feeling a sudden stirring of sympathy for what Haroun was trying very hard to hide, Nathan opened his mouth to reply to the first comment, but hesitated, his expression going somber for a moment at Haroun's question. "Way too soon," he said quietly, "and it's the X-gene status that worries me."

"Well, I'm guessing that whatever it is that you have isn't transmissible." he said. "Else you and Moira would have had a major problem before now. And I feel for you, I really do. I will pray for your child's safety." he said, completely seriously.

"Thanks," Nathan said, leaning back against the counter behind him. "It's not the virus that worries me, though. Has she--" He paused, giving Haroun a speculative look. "You know she's had a child before," he said, suddenly sure of it.

Haroun nodded. "And it didn't end well." he said quietly. "I know. Is that what you're worried about? Well, you're in the best possible place to be to get help if it turns out that you need it." he added. "Hank, Charles, hell, any of us would storm the gates of Paradise if we thought it would help."

"I know," Nathan said very quietly, staring down at the pattern on the kitchen floor. "And I've been the one telling her that, since we found out. I just... know that it would break her, if she had to go through that again." He took a deep breath, trying to shake it off. "Okay, mind off the worst-case scenario," he promised, managing a smile that was only slightly strained as he looked up at Haroun.

"Hey, look on the bright side! With all the Hell you've been going through, it is about time for Allah to turn His face to you and smile." he said with a grin of his own. "It's not always bad. You're the one who sees the Divine Plan, you and Marie-Ange. Look and pay heed."

"That's true, I..." Nathan stopped in mid-sentence, remembering that strange feeling he'd gotten Halloween night, that not-unpleasant sensation of impending... significance, for lack of a better word. "I think I knew," he said wonderingly, blinking as other bits and pieces from the last few weeks fell into place, into a very interesting pattern. "All along. As if it were tweaking my precog..." But if his was long-term, like Charles had hypothesized, why... or was it that... Nathan laughed helplessly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Yeah. So. The last little while's been a bit of a roller-coaster."

"I can only imagine ... Dad." he said with a smirk. "When the news gets public, we'll have to have a party. We can _always_ use a good party."