(no subject)

[gabriel_tam]

Privacy, such as it is, becomes a complicated matter for members of Parliament-- perhaps especially for Senator Gabriel Tam, given the circumstances that brought him to office and the more recent events, as well.

As a result, his staff is already well accustomed to dealing with the sorts of things that commonly affect those who exist in the spotlight of public opinion, including a standard media monitoring service.

Therefore, on the day that the mags hit the stands and 'feeds, there's less than an hour's delay before Mark Jiang pokes his head into Gabriel's office with the news-- and with a complete and annotated report in hand.

When Gabriel arrives back at the apartment, he has the report with him, and a rather amused expression on his face.

Comments

[gabriel_tam]

"Something like that." He's grinning openly now, and leans forward to pick up the report before settling back once more. Gabriel puts his arm around her shoulders as he hands her the file.

"Here. See what you think."

[regan_tam]

Regan shoots him a slantwise look at him, amused and a little wary, and takes the folder from him. And opens it.

And reads the headline on the top piece of paper. (There's a tidy bundle of digital paper beneath it, but this sheet has been clipped slightly less tidily to the top, as if someone removed it from the stack and placed it at the front after the bundle was assembled.) The headline is purple, and it sparkles, with text effects she hasn't seen since she was thirteen and hid issues of Young Women's Weekly under her bed.

It's purple, and it's sparkly, and it reads SIMON TAM: MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR, and that alone makes her eyebrows rise as far as they'll go. A quick, disbelieving glance to Gabriel, and she keeps reading.

By the time she's halfway through the third paragraph, she has her hand pressed to her mouth to stifle laughter.

[gabriel_tam]

By now he doesn't need to read it; he's practically memorized it. Gabriel's watching her reaction instead of the report.

Humor is clear in his voice when he says,

"For some reason he never told us about that nickname. I wonder why."

He manages to keep a straight face, but just barely.

[regan_tam]

"Must have been an oversight." That's slightly strangled.

She flips the sheet up to reveal the next page, and--

"A table of contents?"

She's leaning into his arm, now, shaking with laughter.

"Oh -- oh, poor Simon-- Gabriel, can you imagine--" His reaction, she means, but she's just accidentally pressed the scroll button on the first sheet, to reveal an even more gushing article with three colors of text for extra emphasis, and the sentence is lost in more laughter.

[gabriel_tam]

It's been some time since he's heard her laugh like that, and Gabriel draws her closer to him and presses a quick kiss to her hair.

"It's a very popular article, evidently," he tells her. "Mark had the full report on my desk early on, but they kept updating throughout the day."

His matter-of-fact manner is slipping now that he's safely home, and finally Gabriel begins to laugh as well as he reaches out to draw her attention to a particular image of Simon captured at the MedAcad's graduation ball -- with him in the act of looking back over his shoulder with a smile. The caption beneath it reads, "Is that a come-hither glance Dr. Tam is casting? We can only hope!"

[regan_tam]

There's maybe more than a little catharsis in this helpless laughter, for both of them -- but it's sorely needed and entirely welcome.

"Gabriel," she manages finally, reining in her laughter through deliberate effort. It bubbles through anyway, and the gravity of her voice is only a thin skim on the top. "He'll be red for weeks."

[gabriel_tam]

"At the very least," he agrees. "I can just hear him trying to explain this to River, can't you?"

[regan_tam]

Regan snickers.

(And she can't entirely, nowadays, with River as she is -- but she can, too, because some things are the same as ever.)

And then casts a sidelong glance at Gabriel, with the laughter more successfully subdued.

"I wonder how Kaylee will take it."

It's light and amused, still. These articles are ridiculous (even if there's a small part of her that's smug on her son's behalf, too), and it's not as if Kaylee would have anything to worry about in any case.

But, all the same... Kaylee gets insecure without cause, sometimes.

[gabriel_tam]

"It's a good question." He's sobered slightly, considering.

"Hopefully she's assured enough of his caring that it wouldn't matter."

He quirks a smile at her. "They've come through worse-- besides, knowing that young woman, she'll likely have fun teasing him about it."

[regan_tam]

Regan ducks her head slightly, with a grin.

"I should hope so," she says cheerfully. "It's a wife's duty, after all."

[gabriel_tam]

He slants a glance at her, smiling.

"Really? Is that why?"

It's almost perfectly innocent.

[regan_tam]

"Mm," she replies, just as innocent. (Or, perhaps, just as unconvincingly so.)

"What, surely you aren't implying that I'd tease you just for the sake of it?"

[gabriel_tam]

"I'd never dream of it," he says.

Gabriel manages to keep a straight face, even, but the lines around his eyes crinkle with suppressed laughter.

[regan_tam]

"Good."

Serene, and satisfied.

At least on the surface. But it's a very thin veneer over the laughter that dances in her eyes.