xp_logs | Angelo and Jake, Saturday

They coincidentally take a cigarette break at the same time, and catch up a bit.

After he´d started piling the stacks of files into even smaller piles, and then stuffing them into boxes marked "people", "places", "events", "groups" and "NOW", things had been easier. And it would probably had gone faster, too, if he didn´t keep on getting distracted by interesting tidbits of information. He´d been wondering for _ages_ about that fire in Stockholm... Jake cracked his neck. He surveyed Pete´s office, which was currently covered everywhere by either stacks of folders, boxes, single files, empty cups and a huge plate of brownies. It was time for a smoke break.

Angelo had had the same thought, as he so often did. He was out on the back porch, Joyita curled up under the bench, lit cigarette already in hand. He turned to look as he heard the door open, and grinned broadly at who he saw emerging. "Hey!"

Jake grinned back. "Angelo! You mind if I join you?"

"Sure!" Angelo said cheerfully, gesturing at the bench with his cigarette hand. "When'd you get back?"

"Friday. Remy kidnapped me and locked me in Pete´s office, forcing me to read Pete´s handwriting. Well, more or less," he added, sitting down. Then he paused for a moment before bending down and looking under the bench. "Hey," he said to the chocolate labrador. "You´re new." He looked back up at Angelo. "Dog, or an interesting new mutant?"

Angelo chuckled. "Nah, she's just a dog. Birthday present from Paige. Her name's Joyita."

"Little joy?"

"Well, I was thinkin' "little jewel", at the time, but that works too."

"Both have a shiny, sparkly quality," Jake nodded, and fished his cigarettes out of his jacket. "Have a light?"

"Always." He dug in his pocket and passed the lighter over, drawing on his own cigarette at the same time.

Jake lit the cigarette, then leaned back, taking a deep drag, and relaxing. "So, how you´ve been?"

Angelo looked at him sideways. "Overall, pretty good. Everybody's alive and not permanently damaged."

"Always an advantage," Jake nodded. "Any new kids around?" Making small talk, and interrogating, was often very similar to Jake.

"Er, yeah. A few rescuees from Mistra that couldn't go back to their families. And then there's Catseye. If you see a purple cat around, that's her. Or sometimes she's a purple mountain lion. Or human, but she doesn't really like to be."

Jake´s eyebrows rose. He glanced down at Joyita again. "And you´re _sure_ this is a dog?"

Angelo laughed. "Let's just say, if she's not, she hasn't shifted when I've been lookin'."

"Probably safe then," Jake decided.

"So, how've you been?"

Jake shrugged, taking another drag of his cigarette. "Busy. In Asia, mostly. Just working, a lot. This is kinda vacation time for me, if you´d believe it."

"How long's the vacation gonna last?" Angelo asked with another sideways look.

"Don´t really know yet." Jake frowned, thinking about it. "There´s a whole lot of leads to follow, and it´s just me and Remy... A while, I´m thinking."

That got a smile. "Good. People've missed you."

Jake looked a little surprised at that. "That´s... okay. Alison said the same thing, actually."

Angelo grinned at him wickedly. "So're you back to the student counsellor gig, in between Remy's stuff?"

Jake looked horrified. "Oh god no. Not that I´d have the time anyway, but oh god no."

Angelo laughed and teased, "Was it really that bad?"

"Yes, yes, it really was." Jake still looked horrified. "Teenagers truly are the devil. And remember, my first session ended up with me turned into a frog. You don´t forget that kind of thing."

"Amanda doesn't do that any more", Angelo assured him seriously.

"Maybe she doesn´t but I´m sure anyone here could come up with something equally traumatising. No, I´m sticking with attempting to read Pete´s handwriting." Jake bent down to pet Joyita, absently. "You thought about a career yet?"

"Um. Yeah", came the suddenly sheepish answer. "Law enforcement. Actually."

The eyebrows rose again. "Like a cop?"

"Yeah. Cecilia - I don't know if you ever met her, she was on the medical staff for a while before she decided to go back to the normal world - suggested it, and I've got no better ideas, so..."

Jake eyed him. "I´m not sure becoming a cop because you got no better ideas is the way to go about it."

"It doesn't sound so bad, though. And I've got a few more months to think about it."

Jake nodded. "Not anything I´d ever wanted to do, but I hear some people find it interesting and rewarding and what have you."

Angelo grinned wryly. "Yeah, so I'm told. And I'm not really team material - gotta do somethin' when I finish here."

"Yeah, I get that. Well, policing is about helping people as well." Jake was at least trying not to let loose with his natural suspicion towards anyone in law enforcement. People in that profession wasn´t usually very keen on couriers and the people couriers worked for.

Angelo nodded, silent for a moment, then volunteered apparently out of the blue, "I went back to LA."

"Back to LA? Why?" Jake gave him a surprised look. He was fairly sure that wasn´t the best idea for Angelo, although it had been a while, so he could be wrong.

"'Cause there were things goin' on... renovation projects, an' the guys were gettin' in the way. An' I understood why. So I figured I had at least some chance of stoppin' them. Nathan an' Paige went too."

"Did it work?"

"More or less. They quit messin' with the things that were really meant to help the place, at least."

Jake nodded, and dropped his cigarette into the sand bucket. "Sounds like you did good to me."

Angelo grinned suddenly, pleased. "I tried."

Jake grinned back. "You can´t do more than that." He sighed suddenly. "And now I have to go back to the never-ending stack of files. I´m sure Pete had a system, it just isn´t anywhere near my kind of system."

Angelo gave him a sympathetic look. "Paperwork, huh?"

"Loads and loads." Jake grinned. "If you felt really sorry for me, you´d have someone bring me more coffee in an hour."

"I'll do you better than that", Angelo answered lightly. "I'll bring it over myself."

"Wow, you feel _really_ sorry for me then. Thanks," Jake added, as he started heading inside. He paused and looked back. "Also? Love the dog." He disappeared inside, heading back to the office, feeling less exhausted and much more cheerful.