[ Rafe will say it as often as it takes, not as a defense but as a fact. Nate can disbelieve all he likes but Rafe will still be here, stubbornly pointing it out again because no matter how things have shaken out, no matter how things ended back home, the facts should be all that matter. Even if he knows how often they get left behind for the catchier headlines, the neater narrative, the distortions people accept so they're more comfortable at the end of the day.

The facts are what Nate has on his side now and Rafe is too painfully aware that that's what makes the legend around the man that much more formidable. All the ridiculous things that were too implausible, too incredible to be true — they were. Every crazy rumor was backed up with the more valuable finds, the bigger discoveries, the vaster knowledge. All of it more than enough to unbalance Rafe's side of the scale, stacked against the few paltry facts that'd always outweigh Rafe's own best efforts to escape them. ]

Crash landing into shit and still managing to come out on top, [ is the ready answer. If Rafe hadn't wanted Nate to hear, he wouldn't have said it aloud at all. ] With people just tripping over themselves to lend a hand along the way.

[ Not that Nate ever realizes this. Never did. Which almost makes him that much more hateable — provided distance enough to keep from being sucked in by that ineffable fucking quality he has about him. God, Rafe misses being able to be in a different hemisphere by morning. ]