Overload
WHO: Paige and Angelo
WHERE: The Institute - The Living Room
WHEN: Afternoon day after her arrival
WARNINGS None
SUMMARY: Paige and Angelo reunion!
FORMAT: Para to start and then whatever works.
( This whole situation still weirded Paige out. )
WHERE: The Institute - The Living Room
WHEN: Afternoon day after her arrival
WARNINGS None
SUMMARY: Paige and Angelo reunion!
FORMAT: Para to start and then whatever works.
( This whole situation still weirded Paige out. )
But when she heard her name, something cold ran through her. A familiar voice that shouldn't have been familiar here.
When Paige turned to look, she gasped. A sharp, tight intake of breath that left her head spinning.
Angelo.
Angelo.
Paige tried to say something, anything but nothing came out. Just a string of sputterings as Paige's legs windmilled and she was dumped of the sofa onto her back, by her own shock.
She scrambled back a few paces, dragging herself to her feet only when she hit the wall. Paige was as white as a sheet, her expression caught between confusion and pain.
It wasn't possible. He was dead. She'd seen him. She'd seen him buried, been to his funeral. Had a bust up in the graveyard some time later.
Something Sam had said the previous night came drifting back.
Anyone can come here, Paige. From any time, any place.
Paige tried again, half afraid of saying his name incase he disappeared.
"...Angelo?"
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But either way...
Putting his hands in his pockets, he rocked back on his heels and forced the smile to his face.
"You look like you seen a ghost," he quipped, and if her reaction to that wouldn't tell all then he didn't know what would.
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And he was standing right in front of her, as alive as she.
"Oh my God..." She breathed. "Oh my God...Angelo...You're..." Her voice hitched, like a little laugh.
Alive and kicking? Living and breathing? Here? Here!
And there it was. The reality kicked in. Everything was overridden by that fact.
"Angelo!" She all but shrieked, running across the room at the poor guy. The coffee table got in the way, so she had to step onto it, then jump off, launching herself at Angelo in a full-bodied, arm-and-leg-tangling tackle.
They went down with a painful sounding thud.
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The back of his head smacked against the (thankfully) carpeted floor, but he found himself grinning anyways, and a laugh escaped him. He wrapped his arms firmly around her as any disappointment that he'd felt before melted away. Any Paige was a good Paige, even if he could guess as to when she came from.
"Missed you too, chica," he said.
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Gleefully she crushed her lips to his cheek, then remembered herself and, feeling guilty that she might be crushing him, she knelt up, shoving her hair out of her face.
"You..." Maybe saying 'alive' was not a good idea. He might not know. "You look so young!" She grinned. And there was that lump again.
"I...you...How long have you been here??"
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"Gracias. I think?" He shifted his weight to one arm and reached up with the other to ruffle her hair. "And look at you," he said, "all growed up."
How old was she now, anyways? How long had it been for her since he'd... died?
"I've been here almost... five months, now," he answered, and on an impulse reached his free arm around her waist in a quick and friendly hug, still grinning. "When'd you get here? I didn't see or hear anything on the network!"
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"I only got here yesterday. Sam picked me up after I butt-dialled on that Network." She explained with a hint of embarrassment. She had played back her original post a couple of times, the first time expecting to see just her intentional transmission, the second time to make sure she really had wandered around inside the port room talking to herself in front of God-only-knows how many people.
"It's all been a bit...crazy. I'm still not really sure what to make of it. I mean right before I got here things were--" not good? A fresh wave of grief threatened. "--And now Sam's here, and you--" Every time she said that, said any kind of indication towards Angelo, there was a certain inflection in her tone that emphasised the fact that she couldn't believe her eyes.
"--you look so good. City Mouse." She said, the old nickname tangling on her tongue, coming out much too high pitched to be normal. She was talking too much, not leaving room for breath. In the same instant her eyes glassed over and her face turned a deep shade of pink. "Sorry, I've been a bit--" She couldn't finish for tears.
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It wasn't to say that Angelo wasn't an emotional guy, that he didn't feel just as much as any other person, guy or girl, around him... but he wasn't all that much for expressing. You didn't do that growing up where he had, even if you were Catholic.
But if Paige was going to look at him like that and remind him of the future he had in store and drive the point home that he was going to be lost to his friends, to the people he'd shed blood with and risked his life for... No tears came to his eyes, but Angelo felt his throat tighten ever so much and his smile wavered.
"Hey," he said, "don't do that." Please, please don't cry. "It's okay, Country Mouse." He hoped the nickname would make her smile, if only a little bit. "You, uh... you wanna sit down?"
Putting his hand on her arm, he led Paige back to the couch she'd been sitting on before - at least this way they'd have a lot less farther to fall. He nudged the coffee table a bit, just in case.
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She had been strong for everyone else. That had been enough at the time. She could grieve in privacy and present a strong front for everyone else because she didn't expect anything less from herself. But one recent family death and the resurrection of someone she had fought alongside for years just became that little bit too much. She shouldn't have cried. She should have whooped for joy, not dissolved into tears.
Pull yourself together...
She told herself, drawing in a deep breath that made her shoulders tremble. She stayed like that for several long seconds, then dropped her hands, sweeping away the tears as she did so.
"Sorry...I..." She met his gaze. "The last few days have been a bit...overwhelming."
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"It's okay," he repeated, "I get it. It's a lot to take in all at once, right? And I guess there's..." He cleared his throat, and pressed on. "I guess there's at least a few people here that weren't back home?"
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"You could say that." She ventured, leaning into him. She stayed like that for a minute, getting used to the familiar, long-missed feel of him. She didn't know if trusting her eyes was such a good idea.
"How long have you been here??" She asked, not sure she wanted to follow up her fit of tears with telling him he was dead where she came from and starting him off.
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He had to smile a little at her question, and cleared his throat. "You asked me that already," he teased, "remember?"
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