We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey [nathan]

[starchilde_lost]

[Dated June 17, 2011]She should be going back. She knew there were people worried about her. But she couldn't. Going back would be like... admitting defeat. Admitting that she really was absolutely powerless here, powerless to keep her family safe, powerless to keep them together. Her entire life, all she ever wanted was to have her family whole

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[mutant_gi_jesus]

It was easy to track Rachel, once he'd decided to do so. He had a hunting dog who knew her scent for a start and once Zero led him close him enough, he could follow the fire.

After a moments thought he tied his wolfhound to a tree a decent way back and approached the camp alone.

A telepath without their powers could be easy to sneak up on, even for a man unaccustomed to stealth, especially one as distracted as Rachel was just then, but he made no attempt at all to disguise his presence or silence his footsteps.

He walked straight into her camp, sat down opposite her and addressed her like they were sitting around a kitchen table. It was the only way he knew to make things right, by pretending that they already were with enough force that the universe had to comply.

"Hello, little sister. I must say, you've looked better."

[starchilde_lost]

Living as she had the last two weeks, she's learned to recognize what was normal forest sounds and what wasn't and so she was hardly surprised when her brother sat down in front of her. It was a coin-toss, really, him or Logan. No one else would think to come after her like this.

It didn't mean she had to like it.

"I've had better weeks."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"I can imagine."

The message she'd left had specifically told him not to go looking for her, but frankly, if she'd thought he would listen to that, she didn't know him at all.

He ignored the red eyes and other telltale clues that she'd been crying and spoke to her casually as if everything was okay.

"I brought some food," he told her with a guesture to the bag he carried. "And some news."

"No bandages, though."

He hadn't thought to.

[starchilde_lost]

She stood up and moved next to Nathan so she could dig in the bag, see what he'd brought. If he thought she'd be surprised he'd ignored her request he was wrong. The only surprising thing about it was that it took him this long to ignore the note.

Rooting around she stiffened a little. "Unless the news is that Jean was just lost in the jungle and she's back now, I'm not really all that interested."