The X-Project

Julio comes to Nathan with a request. Nathan makes a decision he will so regret later.




It had been good for Julio to go home. But it has also been odd. Like putting on an old pair of comfortable jeans and finding out they no longer fit. His friends hadn't changed in the two years he'd been away, still obsessed with girls and cars and clothes. It was he who had changed quite a bit in the past two years. He was too quiet while hanging out with them, simply because he felt he had nothing to say, not anything they could really understand anyway. It was better seeing his family, and getting cheek pinched within an inch of his life. Some things never changed, no matter how far away you went or how many cities you accidentally destroyed. Family was still Family.

But Westchester was where his life was taking him, much to the disappointment of his family who had hoped he'd go to college somewhere closer to home. He'd been accepted into Vassar, and he felt a little smug in knowing it probably wasn't because of his last name. However, there was the question of work in-between classes, his father did not want him working while he was in school, but he wasn't going to sit around and do nothing either.

Which was why he found himself in the boathouse that afternoon. He stuck his head in the door to the Elpis offices, where the man he was looking for was predictably at his desk. He rapped on the door frame to get the older man's attention. "You busy?" Julio said.

"Do I look busy?" was the dry reply. Juliette was working away peacefully at her desk, and astoundingly enough, Nathan did not have a stack of files in front of him. Nathan was looking for likely sites in Bolivia on the computer, though, a search that had been proving particularly fruitless for the last several days. "Come on in," he said, scrolling down a real estate page.

Julio placed a hand over his heart, approaching the desk. "Oh Julio, I've missed you. How was your time away?" he said, mimicking Nathan. He dropped his hand and flicked his hair out of his eyes. "Oh, it was not so bad," he said, mock-answering his own question. "My father sends his regards, and says you still owe him a finger," he wagged his pinky and grinned to show he was kidding.

Nathan just raised both eyebrows. "Don't mock me, boy, or I may have to hurt you out of jealousy. I didn't get a vacation."

The boy shrugged and pulled out a seat. "I'm sorry, it comes naturally, you know? I blame the old man." Julio sat and then scratched his chin. There was no real way to lead into it gently, he'd just have to spit it out. "All right, so, I have something to ask you," he said.

"I was figuring you didn't come down here just for a social call," Nathan said wryly, leaning back in his chair. "So, ask."

"I. . .need a job," Julio said. "I don't need the money," he amended quickly. "My father has fixed it so I don't have to worry when I'm in school, but I would like to work. I need to be doing more than what I have been, and I thought, perhaps, that by working for you I could start doing that?"

Nathan eyed him for a long moment. "Well," he said, "there's work to be done, certainly. Especially when term starts back up - having to schedule around everyone's classes means that having an extra person in the schedule would help patch some of the inevitable holes. It'd be fairly dull work, though. Reading, research... although your Spanish would certainly be helpful."

Julio shrugged. "I don't think I mind the boring. Boring is nice," he nodded for emphasis. The most he probably had to worry about around there was the occasional papercut. "And I could certainly help with translating if you need it."

Truth be told he'd also thought about the team, he was now 18, but he still wasn't sure. He'd discussed it with his father, and while his father had mused that it was ironic that his son's path was diverging so sharply from his own, he had cautioned Julio not to do it while there was the slightest bit of doubt. And his father was right on that end. Julio felt, if it was something he was going to do, it would have to be something he could put his whole heart into. Elpis, on the other hand, was something that he could ease into. Slowly.

Nathan leaned further back in his chair, rubbing briefly at his eyes. "We can give it a try, then," he said. "A week to start, to make sure it's something you won't hate - don't feel badly if that winds up being the case, it's not for everyone."

"It's office work," Julio said, waving a hand dismissively. "I don't forsee any badness unless there's something you're not telling me about your files." He titled his head at the older man, and quirked an eyebrow. "Have your assistants not been forcing you to eat?"

"Oh, yes. You're going to fit in just fine," Nathan muttered, rubbing at his unshaven jaw. "Do me a favor and take notes from Rahne, if you're going to start that. She has this wonderfully subtle approach that manages to leave me not wanting to shake her."

"I am my father's son," said Julio, nodding and looking a little too much like his father for comfort. "You will have to get used to this," he grinned.

"My hiring practices are going to make my hair go white, at this rate." Nathan tilted his head. "So, when can you start?"

Julio shrugged. "Now? Classes don't start until September, and I might stack my classes so the commute won't suck as much in the fall. I can start bothering you as soon as possible."

"Juliette?" Nathan asked, looking in her direction.

She smiled briefly at him and more kindly at Julio. "Orientation 101, coming up. Come over here and sit with me. Lesson number one is leaving the grumpy old man to his work on mornings like this."

"So you don't spike his coffee?" Julio said, getting up and walking over to Juliette's desk. He leaned down and whispered, "My father said that a little bit of Jameson went a long way. . ."