#taliah x gabe 001.

[ofwrxth]

+ GABE / INFIRMARY, TOWN HALL NOV. 11

Taliah moves around the infirmary, careful despite her newly bandaged and slung arm. The wound caused by a wolfs-bane coated bullet still smarts but less with medical attention. She knows some others from their group are being brought to the infirmary after check in and decides to wait for them. The guy checking people in mentioned something about taking names down and getting back to them so she'd given her brothers names, and her cousins, Danny and Azize's family too. It's been a while since she's been part of such a thorough process, but she tells herself not to get her hopes up. Hawk and Bear might want to move on and she needs to think of how best to stay put, to split off despite technically being in their debt still.

Thoughts swirl around her restless mind as she waits, free hand ghosting over some supplies she sees set up for the next patient. Her hand hovers over some bandages, picking them up to consider if it's worth taking when she hears the door to the infirmary swing open. Clutching the bandages tighter now, Taliah spins, hand behind her back. Any well-formed, at-the-ready remark about being grateful for their hospitality or when are the others coming through die on her lips when she sees who's standing in the doorway. @manybcdthings

[taliah-tezel]

LOCATION: Gabe’s Home

TAG: @gabriel-knox

-

“Your dad should be home now,” checking her watch, she noted how their quick trip to the supermarket to grab a small list turned into them visiting 5 shops. Some video game they ‘just wanted to see was in stock’. Yeah, sure, like she was born yesterday. Tyler and Lochlyn knew fine well that they only needed to give her a pair of puppy eyes to get her to buy it for them, and so she did. Even though she knew Lochlyn didn't really have a clue what she was asking for, the game would probably be for Tylers entertainment alone. Taliah didn’t mind though, if she could? She would give them the whole world. “Alright, here’s the deal,” walking through the door with the bags, the kids carrying what they could too. “You two put all this away and I’ll stay and cook your favourite for dinner. It was pizza last week, chow mein the week before... What is it this week?” She chuckled, shrugging out her jacket and walking over to the sofa, greeting Gabe with a ruffle of his hair. Taliah flops down on the sofa, waiting until they dispersed into the kitchen before sitting up straight. “We gotta talk.” She says seriously. “Tyler. Does he have a girlfriend? Boyfriend? Because he kept smiling at his phone every time a text came through and I just need to be clear that the safe sex talk? It’s coming from you and you alone. So if you haven’t already had that talk, I’d get on it. Unless you wanna potentially be grandpa gabe.” 

[ofwrxth]

The years had never seemed so long as they had in those facilities, in the places where light never reached. And yet they slipped away as she held onto her brother – her family. "Esperaba que no estuvieras dentro de una instalación." Taliah ekes out, wiping furiously at her face, the tears falling freely now. Joy is an overwhelming feeing – completely unexpected after so long. It nearly knocks her over as she listens to him. Taliah shakes her head vehemently at the apology. "Hiciste todo lo que pudiste." She knows that if they'd had the ability to look for her, they would've.

A watery smile crosses her face and she hugs him again, ignoring the twinge of pain in her arm as she shakes her head. "Ni siquiera puedo decir lo feliz que estoy, Gabe." Taliah pulls back again, this time laughing, disbelief still overwhelming her as she shakes her head. "¿Y Carlos? ¿Y el resto de nuestra familia? Dime todo."

Gabriel's heart was suddenly broken but mending, both happening at the same time as his arms collided around his sister. Her tears and the sound of her cracking voice only surged the overwhelming emotions. Relief above all else, but a remorse for not being able to find her sooner. "Nosotros tratamos. No hemos parado. Lo prometo, nunca nos detuvimos ni un segundo." he told her firmly, his hands moving to her shoulders as if to check that she was really there.

"Lo lamento." Sorry for not being able to find her, for not being able to keep her safe or rescue her from the things she went through. Gabriel's mind swam with those tormenting thoughts. Thankful that it was no longer happening but angry, at himself, at the world they now lived in, that he couldn't do a thing to stop it. "Estoy tan feliz de que estés aquí." he cried too, unashamed at the emotion as it surged through him. "No estás allí ahora. Estás a salvo ahora."

[ofwrxth]

There are too many emotions competing within Taliah, so she just laughs, a teary, joyful sound. She's still stunned to find them both here, stunned that after so long, they're reunited. And she knows there will be plenty of time for tears and tales and so she wipes at her eyes and nods at Carlo's suggestion. "Definitivamente me vendría bien una bebida," she says, mind racing as she thinks of where to even begin as they lead her out of the infirmary. "Estoy tan contenta de que ambos esten bien."

She imagines there's much to catch up on but for now, she decides to be grateful for their reunion. The past slips away, briefly, and she's fully rooted in the present. They're together. And things would be okay. She picks up her small pack, slinging it on her good arm before elbowing Gabe with the same one. "This is it. I should be fine in a few days to work." Taliah gives him a wry look, "I look forward to it too, actually. I'm not lazy." She returns with a broadening smile, feeling, for the first time in years, like a little sister once more.

END.

"Creo que eres la que no sabe lo felices que somos." Carlo speaks through a wave of emotions, and not one of them has a word. Overwhelming is the only one that comes to mind, eyes watering as he looks over Taliah as if she's a vision from one of his dreams. He hopes to whoever is listening that his eyes won't open right now, and make all of this fade into something that never existed.

"Ahora tenemos tiempo para hablar de todo esto." he tells her, throwing a hand to Gabriel's shoulder and the other to their sister's. The three of them together again and in safety, which brings a sense of how time is finally on their side. There's no rush to talk about things, and plenty of time to balance themselves into the fact they're all here and safe. "Hace dos años. Nos unimos a los Crosses después porque queríamos buscarte cerca de Colorado." another story that has plenty of time to be told. "It is safe here, as safe as can be anyways."

Carlo pulls back from their huddle, but his hand remains against Taliah's shoulder while the other gestures towards the door. "We have a lot of cabins, food. I am sure we can find space for your own room." he smiles but it's hinted with sadness. Clearly not sad for her being here, but sad that it's taken so long. Walking side by side is alien and familiar at the same time, a relief lifting from Carlo's chest but lodging in his throat. "Creo que probablemente habrá algunas bebidas para celebrar que estés aquí." @manybcdthings

[ofwrxth]

For once, Taliah is stunned into silence. Shock renders her frozen in place as her eyes land on Gabriel. She doesn't know if she can believe them, like if she blinks he'll be someone else entirely. It's happened before – on the days when food and water had been sparse in facilities and she'd been delirious, looking for hope in any face that crossed her path. But she blinks and he's still there and Taliah barely has time to process before he's pulled her into a hug and the damn bursts. Suddenly, it's like she's a kid again, clinging to her big brother, injured arm all but forgotten as two and a half years fall away.

"Pensé que no me ibas a encontrar" she cries, any pretense of composure and confidence the past few months evaporating in the span of seconds. "Intenté escapar. Lo intenté con todas mis fuerzas, Gabe." Her words are a jumbled mess, along with her thoughts, a string of memories she can't put into words. She pulls back slightly, watery eyes meeting his. Relief sags her shoulders even as her tears keep flowing, unable to stop the overwhelming wave of emotion that threatens to knock her over. "Te– te busqué a ti y a Carlo. En todos lados. En todas las instalaciones en las que estuve. En los campamentos. Everywhere."

Gabriel blinked when the messenger approached him on shift. An expression of surprise and disbelief on his face as the words barely registered. He was gone in the next second, urging sternly for them to get his brother from watch. Every emotion possible surged through him, even doubt that it could be true. That Taliah was there.

He didn't believe his own eyes as he burst into the infirmary, catching the sight of his sister as she turned to his hurried stumbling. "Pensé que me estaba jugando una mala pasada." his nervous laughter warbled as his eyes brimmed with tears next and Gabriel rushed the rest of the way to Taliah, careful with her arm as he pulled her closer. "Estás herido en algún otro lugar?" he asked naturally as he sighed loudly, but then there were so many questions. "Estas bien? Dónde has estado? Has estado a salvo? Te hemos buscado por todas partes. No hemos parado. Están trayendo a Carlo ahora, él estará aquí."

[ofwrxth]

"Es cierto" Taliah says when she sees Carlo, the tears flowing steadily as she hugs her brother tightly, arm be damned. "No sabes lo feliz que estoy de verlos a los dos… es un milagro." The chances of finding one brother, let alone two. Taliah shakes her head at Carlo's question, grateful the humans responsible are far behind. "Es una larga historia: estaré bien en unos días." Pain is the furthest thing from her mind as her heart swells with joy at the sight of her family. She squeeze Gabe's elbow, "I know," she says, speaking in English now, "but I know you did everything you could." Because she would've done the same in his position. She knows any of the three of them would've moved heaven and earth to find the other.

Her smile at the mention of Isla, Diego and Ines falls at the revelation of Amaris and Cece. "Ay, Dios," she whispers, drawing a hand to her face. "Pobrecita la Isla," Taliah sighs because it seems that no matter how good something seems, the other shoe always drops. "¿Cuanto tiempo llevas aqui?" She finally asks, gesturing around them with her good arm. "Cuéntamelo todo. ¿Dónde podemos hablar en privado?" There's not many people in the infirmary but she's on her guard in case Hawk or Bear might be near. @secrettyrant

"Es cierto?" Carlo's panicked voice cuts straight through the moment as he skids into the infirmary. He was pulled from his shift on watch and sprinted the entirety of the way after receiving the message, the concern and relief both existing at once. "Si Tyr estaba equivocado, necesito hablar con Wolf." And his eyes instantly meet the vision of Gabriel and Taliah together. He sighs out, loudly to dispel the tension that was creeping it's way over his body.

It's within seconds that tears fill his own eyes next and he rushes the rest of the distance to grab his sister into an embrace. Years become seconds within the moment it takes for his arms to wrap around her. Carlo can't even speak, holding her to him carefully and hoping somehow she can tell everything he wants to say. "Quien te hizo esto? Están ellos aquí?" Carlo pulls back enough to gesture to her arm, but his eyes tell a different story. "Te echamos de menos. Isla está aquí. Diego, Inés. Todos te hemos estado buscando."