(no subject)

[gabriel_tam]

Gabriel is in his study, ostensibly going over a sheaf of files that need review before the next Parliamentary session.

What he's doing instead, however, is twirling a pen back in forth in his fingers, and paying absolutely no attention to the open document on his desk.

He's looking at a picture of River, taken just before she went to the Academy.

Comments

[wolflord_andain]

There is a knock at the door, sharp and quick.

There is nothing timid about the Wolflord, even when he is being polite.

[gabriel_tam]

"Come in," Gabriel calls, glancing up from the image and toward the door.

[wolflord_andain]

"I do hope I'm not interrupting?"

Galadan's tone is both arch and amused.

He's also carrying a thick set of files.

[gabriel_tam]

"Not at all," he says, quite cordially. Gabriel nods at the files in Galadan's hands.

"It appears that you've been busy."

[wolflord_andain]

"I've revised a few of the more outdated security procedures."

Again.

His mouth quirks at the corners.

"I do hope your security forces will have less difficulty in implementing these."

[gabriel_tam]

"I suspect that Bajian Li will see that there's no objection."

Dryly said, as though there's nothing to be concerned about. Gabriel seems slightly distracted.

His gaze drifts back to River's picture.

[wolflord_andain]

"Will he."

Galadan's attention at this moment is focused on Gabriel.

"Well, if you're certain."

His voice is very dry.

[gabriel_tam]

"Between the two of you, I have every confidence."

He glances back up at Galadan, a crooked half-smile on his face.

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan merely raises one eyebrow.

[gabriel_tam]

He folds his hands together on the desk in front of him and looks blandly back at the other man.

[wolflord_andain]

"I wonder, have you spoken to Mary of late?"

It has all the earmarks of an idle inquiry.

Save, of course, that Galadan is clever, and Gabriel has not been entirely unobvious.

[gabriel_tam]

"Actually, I have."

His eyes have narrowed a bit as he focuses on Galadan.

"As have you yourself, I take it?"

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan nods fractionally.

"Of course. And River, as well."

His voice is still very dry.

[gabriel_tam]

"Ah."


Silence, for several seconds, in which Gabriel's glance returns to the picture.

He's still staring at it when he says,

"Mary is unhappy at her new school."

[wolflord_andain]

"I believe she plans to run away to Milliways, yes."

[gabriel_tam]

"She said something of the sort."

His glance flicks back to Galadan, and then Gabriel sighs and waves his hand at a chair.

"Sit down, won't you?"

[wolflord_andain]

"If you're entirely certain."

But even as he says that, Galadan takes a seat.

"Have you objections to her proposed course of action?"

[gabriel_tam]

"Primarily that I don't think it'll work."

It's very dryly said.

[wolflord_andain]

"She has been difficult to convince of that."

Galadan's lips twitch.

"River seems to have a plan, as well, though it may also be of dubious efficacy."

[gabriel_tam]

There's a flicker of startled alarm in his eyes, and Gabriel straightens abruptly.

"What plan?"

[wolflord_andain]

"Building a communications device that will let Mary contact someone. River herself, I imagine, though I may be wrong."

His voice is very dry.

"That would be quite a feat of engineering, should it work."

[gabriel_tam]

"It would indeed."

He relaxes again, but his gaze drifts back to River's picture.

"... I can certainly understand why."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan remains silent, eyebrows lifted.

"Can you."

It hardly needs to be a question.

[gabriel_tam]

"Yes."

Gabriel glances up, meeting the Wolflord's cool gray gaze directly.

"Galadan. Did... did my daughter say anything to you to indicate that she feels that Mary is in danger of any sort?"

[wolflord_andain]

"She has very little certainty on that point, so far as I could tell."

His voice is dry.

"I doubt she finds that pleasant."

[gabriel_tam]

"To say the least."

He drums his fingers on the desk in a restless rhythm.

"Mary doesn't seem to think she is, either."

The unvoiced 'but' hangs silently in the air.

[wolflord_andain]

"Mary is young."

Galadan can give voice to that 'but'.

"And her world, I imagine, is very little like your own."

[gabriel_tam]

"One hopes."

There's a long silence before he says, baldly,

"I can't afford to be wrong a second time."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan refrains from saying he could hardly afford to be wrong the first time.

"There is that, yes."

[gabriel_tam]

"I just can't figure out how..."

Gabriel trails off there and looks up at Galadan with sudden speculation.

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan raises one eyebrow.

"I do have some investigative skills, as you may have noted."

He is looking back at Gabriel, winter-grey eyes assessing and cool.

"Though what use they may provide here, when I have never been to Mary's world--that, I believe, is up for debate."

[gabriel_tam]

"I'm well aware," he says, dryly. "Just as I'm aware of precisely how skilled you are in those areas in which you take an interest."

He has reason to know, after all.

"They may not be of particular use in this instance here, as you say; but if you were to go there..."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's eyebrows go up.

"I hardly imagine her uncle would be best pleased with a stranger investigating his conduct."

His mouth quirks, if only slightly.

"Though perhaps you are speaking of something else."

[gabriel_tam]

"I'm more concerned with Mary's school than I am with her uncle's conduct," Gabriel replies crisply.

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's eyebrows remain upraised.

"Ah. There are, I suppose, ways and ways to accomplish such a task. Shall I ask your preference, or shall you instead leave it up to me?"

[gabriel_tam]

"As you'll be the one doing the investigating, I hardly feel that I should dictate the details," he says.

"Needless to say, I trust to your discretion."

[wolflord_andain]

"And here, at least," he says, smiling faintly, "I have lived through similar time periods before."

As opposed to having to learn about computers and spaceships at a ridiculous rate.