milliways_bar | (no subject)

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In the last few weeks, he's been keeping hours that start before dawn and end deep into the darkest hours of the night. He looks it, too, enough so that a few media reporters have inquired.

When they do, Gabriel just smiles and tells them that some things are worth giving up a little sleep for.

Still, he knows he can't keep this pace up forever. He doesn't care-- it doesn't matter, as long as he can keep going long enough. Which means, of course, that he's got to find at least a little more time to rest, and soon.

With that in mind, Gabriel brings a sheaf of documents with him to Milliways, and settles at a side booth to review them. If he can get a few hours' work done here instead, then he can spend those extra hours sleeping back in New Mayfair.

Or so he hopes.

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A quick, crooked grin. "Don't get me wrong, though -- just as nice not havin' people underfoot everywhere, you know? Bad and good in most everything."

"I'll have to take your word for it," he says, striving for a dry tone, only it comes out a little more wearily than he'd meant it to.

Weary enough for her to notice the change, and Kaylee's gaze sharpens a little. "Everything all right? I mean -- if I can ask?"

"Dāngrán -- of course you can, Kaylee."

Gabriel scrubs a hand over his face, willing his eyes to stop blurring and the exhaustion to go away, and then gives her a small, weary smile.

"Things have just been-- very, very busy, of late."

"With the...?" She nods to the papers. "The bill thing? The IIGA?"

He nods, and one corner of his mouth twists, making his smile a wry one.

"It's caused quite an uproar."

A pause.

"Perhaps a bit more of one than I'd expected, but--"

Gabriel shrugs.

"...but?" Curiously.

And a little hesitantly.

"But it's nothing to worry about," he finishes, firmly.

"That, I promise you. Neither you or Simon or River, or anyone else, will take harm from this."

Kaylee looks -- almost startled, for a moment; she picks up her teacup and doesn't respond immediately.

When she does, it's with a slightly wry half-smile. "That's...not exactly the only thing I'm worried about, but it's a pretty gorram big one." And then the wryness is gone. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

That's not the same as saying that she believes him; she's smart enough to know that that's a big promise, that nobody will get hurt.

She's also smart enough to know why he's making it.

"You're welcome. I just--"

A pause, and this time he's the one to glance aside, needlessly shifting a piece of paper and reaching for his coffee cup.

"I thought you'd like to know."

Steadily.

"And now I do." Easily -- and it sounds as though she's smiling.

"Just -- you groupin' yourself in with anybody else? It -- just looks like you been workin' a lot. Is all."

"Grouping-- shenme?"

He looks up, a little startled, and then gives her a quick, practiced smile.

It's worn around the edges.

"Well, yes, I have, but not too much-- and besides, some things are worth giving up a little sleep over."

"...don't want you to take this the wrong way, but..." Kaylee's eyebrows are raised, ever so slightly. "A little?"

There's a moment's visible hesitation, and then--

"Perhaps more than a little, yes."

Kaylee takes a sip of tea.

(At least he'll admit to it. That says something.

She's pretty sure, anyhow.)

"...can I ask what it is has it necessary for that?"

He leans back in his seat, just a little, studying her-- but it's almost automatic, and there's nothing cold about it.

Just a weary sort of curiosity, as a bit of lyric drifts through his tired mind.

Try again, you politicians...

"I sponsored the Act," he says, with a shrug. "I'm responsible for it. The more questions there are, the more challenges, the more that needs to be done in order to make sure it passes, that it doesn't get torn apart before the third reading and the vote -- the more work I have to do."

"And -- there just wasn't supposed to be this many people tryin' to poke holes in it?" Curiously; Kaylee likes to know how things work, the whys and wherefores.

Even if people aren't as easy to get as machines.

"I didn't expect quite this many, no."

It's very dryly amused.

"I did expect opposition, though."

"What kinds of things are they sayin' about it?"

"There's quite a spectrum of reactions, actually," Gabriel informs her.

"From 'the crazed idea of a rank political amateur who should never have been elected' to 'idealistic, but utterly impossible,' on one side of the line, and on the other..."

He shrugs, expressively.

"Well. There are always those who will try to use any cause for their own ends."

It takes her a couple of seconds to process all of that, and Kaylee isn't quite sure what he means by the last part of it.

Which is why she asks, a little cautiously, "And who is it that's sayin' what, with all of that?"

"Who-- it's not really that important, Kaylee."

Gabriel sighs, pressing his fingers to his eyes for a moment.

"It's just-- evidently this is something so new and surprising that everyone, on all sides, is trying to figure out what to make of it. Some people only want to profit; some want to cause trouble. Some are suspicious, and some really believe it could work. Everyone has an opinion, and as the Act's sponsor, I need to have the right answers for all of them. That's all."

It's enough. It's far more than enough.

Kaylee nods.

He's talking to her like she's smart enough to get it. About something that isn't the weather, and about something that isn't awkward.

That's a change, and it's one she likes.

"I know the captain's behind it, and I know -- he's been talkin' to people out on the Rim who're...suspicious. People he knows, I mean." Not the feds, for example. "Are people bringin' up the whys and wherefores of that kind of suspicious?"

This, evidently, is news -- or at least some part of it is. Gabriel's eyes widen in clear surprise.

(There's a flash of what might be hope in them, too.)

"I-- well." He takes a careful breath, then lets it out again. "Some are, yes."

He's thinking quickly, trying to remember if there's any pattern to the news of changing opinions that's been occasionally drifting in from the Rim.

She catches it, and maybe smiles, a little, but doesn't comment.

(It's not only a Core thing. You learn to ride over what ought not to be commented on. That's all.)

And Kaylee nods, instead. "Good." That's quiet. "Seein' as it's them this thing is gonna hit the most."