Under a Bad Sign 3
Title: Under a Bad Sign 3
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Rating: PG
Word count: 2,978
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Rescued from Odessa Maya has to make a hard choice.
Note: KW Verse. Takes place after Let Go. Maya visits Gabriel in Level 5.
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4
Pushing the rain dampened hood back Maya stands awkwardly in the small foyer of Hartsdale, a place she had fleeting, jumbled memories of. The red 19th century building stands silent under a louring sky and all but empty, Mr Lemay being one of the only key holders. He greets her and walking quickly through the building, heads towards a flight of stairs and down. He had agreed to take her himself, only two days left until she had to decide.
"Level 5 has been defunct for some time now, we have built other prisons but as his records were already kept here it seemed counter productive to move him. And we half the interference of the damned reporters."
"Reporters?" Maya comes to a stop as he reaches a pair of doors, a security guard on a desk beside it. He bends down to write in a log book.
"Yeah, it got out that he was alive. He's been something of a legend to the hoi-polloi." He gestures for Maya to sign to and she does, her hand shaking and Lemay cocks his head. "You're perfectly safe, we've suppressed his abilities."
Maya straightens and offers the man a weak smile. "Does he know that I'm coming?" Lemay nods his head and Maya inhales deeply as the door is unlocked and she moves to it.
"I'll be outside. If there's a problem the guard is just by the door. He's in the middle cell." Maya nods and casting one more glance back opens the door and walks through. Sneakers scuffing against the concrete she walks past glass, her reflection cast pristine on each one. The cells beyond are empty and very cold looking, much like the cells back in Primatech. Light shines onto her path, illuminating a chair set before his cell and she slows, curling her hands into fists before she moves before the observation window. She had gone over what she would tell him, the possible outcome of their meeting but now her head is foggy and thumping, words lost to her.
He sits on the end of the bed, hands clasped together and looks up as she comes into view. His eyes flick over her face, her body and then back to her eyes and they are as unreadable as she has ever seen them, devoid of any emotion and she wants to back away, leave and never come back. But then his shoulders slump, the battle within himself seemingly lost and he finally offers her a small smile, eyes behind the lenses of his glasses soft and very tired.
"Hi." his voice is husky, ill used.
Maya sits, weak legged and tries to calm herself. Her heart felt like it would burst. "Gabriel..." she trials off, no words to utter yet. He shifts, eyes overtly intense with worry.
"Where is Nadia? Is she ok?"
Maya nods vigorously, licking her dry lips and prays that she can begin to string a sentence together. "S-she's ok. She wants to see you but..."
"Not in here." he nods, sad and she relaxes somewhat, relieved he understands. He looks into her eyes and she sees he's trying not to break down. "I miss her."
"I know, I know. She misses you to." seeing him so vulnerable and torn makes her feel on the edge of tears, his grief something she can understand. "Gabriel, I - I don't know what to do."
"What?" he stands and comes to the window and she feels her breath hitch at the closeness, even separated as they were.
"I think she knows, she saw the blood on my hands. She saw...you. She asked me if I hurt you."
His dark eyes flicker quickly, brows deeply furrowed. He was panicked. "And what did you tell her?"
"Nothing, I couldn't even speak. But she seems so miserable, so quiet Gabriel. I tell her that I love her and she says she knows but - but it's just words, I don't know if she means it anymore." Hot tears spill down her cheeks and he presses his hand to the glass, gaze sombre for her before it hardens.
"You lie to her Maya, tell her it wasn't you."
Sniffing she tilts her head, face wet and scolding but finds it hard to keep eye contacted with him. "What? I can't lie to her anymore Gabriel. Everyday I'm so scared she'll find out, she already knows too much already."
"Would you rather her know the whole truth? I know you don't. We've been shielding her from it for good reason Maya. For eight years and she was happy." Maya nods, face scrunched up and he sighs, fingertips white on the window. "Maya...please look at me."
"I can't. Your face...what I did to you Gabriel, don't you hate me?" she stares then, a flicker and he's shaking his head, tired while his other hand skims across his torso. Where she had stabbed him.
"Would you prefer it if I did?"
She shrugs, drained and wipes her sleeve over her face, shaking her head. "I don't know."
Her confusion is matched by his own. "I honestly don't know how I feel about you now...Did-did it make you feel better, doing it?" His voice is so quiet that she has to lean in closer, stare at his lips. The memory of what she did and felt is clear, clearer then she wishes it was and she can't bring herself to ignore it anymore. She stares honestly into his hurt eyes.
"I wanted to kill you for so long, I kept telling myself that one day it would happen and I would be free," she looks at him, her eyes shining, "I thought I would find peace if I avenged myself, my brother...but it didn't get any easier afterwards, I felt everything get heavier. All my sins...I thought it was the right thing to do."
"And now?"
She bites her lip, so confused and unsure. "When they revived you I didn't feel angry or scared or anything like that. I didn't hate. I didn't love...I-I just felt relief. But I don't know if that was for me or for you." He looks down and nods and it's her turn to try and suss out the expression on his hidden face. A silence descends and she moves to sit on the ledge by the window, her shoulder pressed against the glass, head rested there.
"It all seems so petty now, doesn't it?" He whispers.
"What?"
"Us, the fights, all of that. I understand why you hate me and I knew that one day you would probably kill me, part of me even welcomed it. But I hoped as the years went by you would forgive me, see that I'd changed, been rehabilitated. See how much I love her. But now," he runs his finger down the glass, against her face on the other side, "now I'm not going to wait for your acceptance, prove to you something I know is true. I'm done. We could go around and do it all again, like we used to but I think we've moved beyond that now, don't you?"
Still, she thinks and lifts her eyes to his and they're so like her own. Just done with it all. She nods and the minutes tick away, Gabriel never taking his eyes from her, willing herself to speak.
"I feel...I feel that she is being punished for what we did. The iniquity of the parents..."
Disgusted lines grow around his eyes and mouth," don't quote scripture at me, you know I hate it."
"Don't you feel that it's true?!" she says passionately, hands pressed to the glass. "I always feared that one day it would come to light, it was too big a sin to keep hidden from her. She was already cursed being born to us." she utters, completely despondent and he flinches, grows angry.
"Don't say that!"
Ashamed she lowers her head, hair obscuring her face and she stays silent for a very long time, all the while he stays just as quiet. Head tilting her hair waves in lustre against her raised knees and his breath fogs up the glass. "...What was it you said to me before? Some people are born under a bad sign?"
He smiles at the phrase, at the memory that comes with it. "Yeah, I think the whole planet must have been...where does Nadia think I am?"
She lifts her head to him. "I told her you were in a hospital, recovering. That it was private. I don't think she believes me."
"Make her believe you. Tell her I'm helping them, that's true." He responds stridently, eyes fierce and Maya nods, straightening her back up and looking down the corridor. He presses the against the glass, speaking low and stressed. "Don't go yet."
"I'm not." she looks into his face with a smile that feels at odds with the rest of her. He relaxes and his eyes roam over her face.
"Still beautiful."
She scoffs and scrubs her hands over her face. "I feel awful...are you alone here?"
"I am now. Meredith was here a few days ago, in one of the cells."
"Meredith?!" she hadn't seen the woman since the airport, when she had been separated from their group. "Where is she now?"
"The guy that brings me food said she was working with this government now. I don't think he knows it's basically the Company, if there ever was a difference between them...People with abilities are common knowledge now, they're revered. Well, most of them..." he mutters darkly, moving to sit on the bed again. "If you're useful they'll take you up, instead of locking you up in here."
"Are you useful to them?" she suspects so but wishes for an answer. he nods, unconcerned.
"Appears so. You know when they saw the fields I had grown they called it Eden? Paradise in the middle of the desert." he smiles with not a little pride. The crops had been a godsend, she knows their lives could have been that much harder. She recalls him taking her out one chilly night to the crops, asking if she could hear the corn growing.
"They want you to provide food for them?"
"Amongst other things...can you ask them if I can see her? Away from here. I tried but they won't give me an answer." the desperation is clear on his face and she touches the glass with sympathy. She didn't know what she would do if Nadia was separated from her. She doesn't know how he's still standing. But he was very good at keeping up pretences, his act was woven deeply into his being that there was no telling the truth from fake.
"I don't really know. I don't think I'll have time. You're not the only one being locked up." she utters darkly.
He frowns at her in confusion. "What?"
"Y - you don't know?"
"Know what?"
The fear and anxiety that she had been pushing down rises and she voice shakes as she speaks. "They know about me Gabriel, they know what I did. Mr Lamey, he's given me two options and I have two days left."
"What is it?" He walks back to the glass, peering nervously into her eyes.
"He said I could go to prison here, do labour and Nadia would be put into care." tears creep back over her eyes, so frightened of that prospect. This is the first time she's spoken of it. She continues with difficulty. "The second option was to go back to the Dominican Republic, with Nadia. He said it's not safe there anymore, no law and these groups..."
"But you'd be free?" she nods and he copies her, pacing back and forth like a trapped animal. "Have you thought of the alternative?" he regards her significantly and she catches on, not voicing it here.
"Yes. But like you said, they have people with abilities working for them," she lowers her voice, "they could find us again." she sits back down on the chair and he sits back on the bed, hands between his knees. When he speaks he sounds weary, disappointed.
"I know you thought that I was keeping you in a prison but I wasn't. It was a shelter from this. I never wanted Nadia to get hurt, and I know you don't believe me but I never wanted you to get hurt again either. It was boring and the fights were never ending but at least we were safe there. I just wanted to have a chance at something normal." he finishes plaintively but every line of his body is aslant in a lackluster droop.
She shakes her head, depressed. "I couldn't see that then. You must understand that?"
He shrugs dismissively, but looks around his cell and then back to her with a misery he can't contain. "I'm never going to see her again, am I?"
"I'm sorry Gabriel." They stare at each other in surprise, the first time in years she had ever voiced pity for him and she sits still, feeling very awkward. Crossing her arms over her chest she comes to the glass and turns her head to the doors. He comes back to her, face troubled.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm not sure. I wish there was someone that could help us." At these words an emotion flickers quickly over his face before it is gone but Maya catches it and cocks her head, feeling the onset of suspicion and doubt. It is an old, well used feeling. "Gabriel?"
He crosses his arms over his chest, blank look fading into a wincing guilt as he begins to speak. "I think there is someone that can help us - you."
"Who?"
"...Petrelli, Peter Petrelli." he speaks with difficulty, expression sour at the man's name. Confused Maya thinks back, remembering a pale, silent and grief stricken man from many years ago.
"I remember him, barely. I was told that we must never be near each other, because of his ability and mine. How can he help me?"
"He visited my dream, said that once we left Odessa he would keep you and Nadia safe." Nervous of her inevitable outburst he says this quick and breathless and as expected her eyes flash with shock and anger.
"You knew?! When was this dream?"
"A couple of months ago. He said he wanted you..." He moves away from the window, from her loathing gaze. Hands on her hips she shakes her head, eyeing him up and down before she scoffs with resentment but internally she's deeply disappointed.
"No matter how much time has past, how much you've changed you're still that callous, lying, only thinking of yourself coward at the core. Were you even going to tell me? Or just let me walk out and into that fate? Would you have let Nadia?"
"No! I'm sorry! Christ...Maya, I don't want to fight, not now, not after everything. Please just listen to me?" Remaining in her resentful stance he carries on, peering up at her earnestly. "I don't think this," he waves around him and gestures at her, "has anything to do with him, I thought he was the one coming for us but it wasn't. I was expecting him. Anyway, once you get out of here ask Lemay to take you to him. From there I think things will improve." He says, assured and Maya lowers her arms, moving behind the chair.
"What makes you think he'll help me? If he had wanted to wouldn't he be here now?"
"I know, I don't know why he's not Maya but if there's one thing I know about that annoying man is that he's just as honest as you are. He's good." He sneers at the word, not because he finds goodness repellent but because it applies to that man. Maya catches this and lifts a brow at him.
"Why do you dislike him?" But he remains silent, moodily shrugging and Maya prepares to leave. She looks around the cell and even though the place is oppressive and cold there is a part of her that doesn't want to go. The sight of him there is surreal because she's imagined it so many times but over the years it had become a faint pipe dream. She never imagined she would have this conflict of interest, emotion, at the situation.
"Are you leaving?" he comes back hastily, all anger and resentment gone and replaced with trepidation.
"Si...you know I used to dream of you in one of these."
"I remember." he utters and a salacious smirk passes over his face before he looks down, mollified and Maya feels an odd sense ofdéjà vu. And humiliation. She rolls her eyes and looks at the door, sees the guard there. "Would you prefer me to stay here?"
She turns back, silent for a long time before she speaks "...Yes. Revenge is for fools, I know that now...all I ever really wanted was for you to answer for what you have done. But," she cuts in, finger raised, as he opens his mouth, "I know that would be, as you so often tell me, hypocritical. If I never had Nadia I would walk into the cell next to yours willingly for what I have done. But I can't and if you were now in my place I wouldn't want you to either. Our daughter is what matters most. Only her and if they load more charges against me for it then so be it." Impassioned she blinks and has to look away from his gaze, which had grown proud and shone with such tenderness that she couldn't bare to look at him.
"Hold her for me? Tell her I miss her?"
"I will, I promise." she bites the inside of her cheek, reeling at the anguish in his voice.
"I wish I could touch you..." Maya flicks a quick look at him that turns into a gaze, her eyes roaming slowly and carefully over his features, now a touch older like her own and captures that expression. It may be the last one she would have so she hopes it is sincere.
"Goodbye Gabriel. Maybe, one day..." she leaves her sentence unfinished and undecided, dragging her gaze away. With a final tight lipped nod he watches Maya sadly as she walks out of view and is lost to him.
*
One more part left I think.
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Rating: PG
Word count: 2,978
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Rescued from Odessa Maya has to make a hard choice.
Note: KW Verse. Takes place after Let Go. Maya visits Gabriel in Level 5.
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4
Pushing the rain dampened hood back Maya stands awkwardly in the small foyer of Hartsdale, a place she had fleeting, jumbled memories of. The red 19th century building stands silent under a louring sky and all but empty, Mr Lemay being one of the only key holders. He greets her and walking quickly through the building, heads towards a flight of stairs and down. He had agreed to take her himself, only two days left until she had to decide.
"Level 5 has been defunct for some time now, we have built other prisons but as his records were already kept here it seemed counter productive to move him. And we half the interference of the damned reporters."
"Reporters?" Maya comes to a stop as he reaches a pair of doors, a security guard on a desk beside it. He bends down to write in a log book.
"Yeah, it got out that he was alive. He's been something of a legend to the hoi-polloi." He gestures for Maya to sign to and she does, her hand shaking and Lemay cocks his head. "You're perfectly safe, we've suppressed his abilities."
Maya straightens and offers the man a weak smile. "Does he know that I'm coming?" Lemay nods his head and Maya inhales deeply as the door is unlocked and she moves to it.
"I'll be outside. If there's a problem the guard is just by the door. He's in the middle cell." Maya nods and casting one more glance back opens the door and walks through. Sneakers scuffing against the concrete she walks past glass, her reflection cast pristine on each one. The cells beyond are empty and very cold looking, much like the cells back in Primatech. Light shines onto her path, illuminating a chair set before his cell and she slows, curling her hands into fists before she moves before the observation window. She had gone over what she would tell him, the possible outcome of their meeting but now her head is foggy and thumping, words lost to her.
He sits on the end of the bed, hands clasped together and looks up as she comes into view. His eyes flick over her face, her body and then back to her eyes and they are as unreadable as she has ever seen them, devoid of any emotion and she wants to back away, leave and never come back. But then his shoulders slump, the battle within himself seemingly lost and he finally offers her a small smile, eyes behind the lenses of his glasses soft and very tired.
"Hi." his voice is husky, ill used.
Maya sits, weak legged and tries to calm herself. Her heart felt like it would burst. "Gabriel..." she trials off, no words to utter yet. He shifts, eyes overtly intense with worry.
"Where is Nadia? Is she ok?"
Maya nods vigorously, licking her dry lips and prays that she can begin to string a sentence together. "S-she's ok. She wants to see you but..."
"Not in here." he nods, sad and she relaxes somewhat, relieved he understands. He looks into her eyes and she sees he's trying not to break down. "I miss her."
"I know, I know. She misses you to." seeing him so vulnerable and torn makes her feel on the edge of tears, his grief something she can understand. "Gabriel, I - I don't know what to do."
"What?" he stands and comes to the window and she feels her breath hitch at the closeness, even separated as they were.
"I think she knows, she saw the blood on my hands. She saw...you. She asked me if I hurt you."
His dark eyes flicker quickly, brows deeply furrowed. He was panicked. "And what did you tell her?"
"Nothing, I couldn't even speak. But she seems so miserable, so quiet Gabriel. I tell her that I love her and she says she knows but - but it's just words, I don't know if she means it anymore." Hot tears spill down her cheeks and he presses his hand to the glass, gaze sombre for her before it hardens.
"You lie to her Maya, tell her it wasn't you."
Sniffing she tilts her head, face wet and scolding but finds it hard to keep eye contacted with him. "What? I can't lie to her anymore Gabriel. Everyday I'm so scared she'll find out, she already knows too much already."
"Would you rather her know the whole truth? I know you don't. We've been shielding her from it for good reason Maya. For eight years and she was happy." Maya nods, face scrunched up and he sighs, fingertips white on the window. "Maya...please look at me."
"I can't. Your face...what I did to you Gabriel, don't you hate me?" she stares then, a flicker and he's shaking his head, tired while his other hand skims across his torso. Where she had stabbed him.
"Would you prefer it if I did?"
She shrugs, drained and wipes her sleeve over her face, shaking her head. "I don't know."
Her confusion is matched by his own. "I honestly don't know how I feel about you now...Did-did it make you feel better, doing it?" His voice is so quiet that she has to lean in closer, stare at his lips. The memory of what she did and felt is clear, clearer then she wishes it was and she can't bring herself to ignore it anymore. She stares honestly into his hurt eyes.
"I wanted to kill you for so long, I kept telling myself that one day it would happen and I would be free," she looks at him, her eyes shining, "I thought I would find peace if I avenged myself, my brother...but it didn't get any easier afterwards, I felt everything get heavier. All my sins...I thought it was the right thing to do."
"And now?"
She bites her lip, so confused and unsure. "When they revived you I didn't feel angry or scared or anything like that. I didn't hate. I didn't love...I-I just felt relief. But I don't know if that was for me or for you." He looks down and nods and it's her turn to try and suss out the expression on his hidden face. A silence descends and she moves to sit on the ledge by the window, her shoulder pressed against the glass, head rested there.
"It all seems so petty now, doesn't it?" He whispers.
"What?"
"Us, the fights, all of that. I understand why you hate me and I knew that one day you would probably kill me, part of me even welcomed it. But I hoped as the years went by you would forgive me, see that I'd changed, been rehabilitated. See how much I love her. But now," he runs his finger down the glass, against her face on the other side, "now I'm not going to wait for your acceptance, prove to you something I know is true. I'm done. We could go around and do it all again, like we used to but I think we've moved beyond that now, don't you?"
Still, she thinks and lifts her eyes to his and they're so like her own. Just done with it all. She nods and the minutes tick away, Gabriel never taking his eyes from her, willing herself to speak.
"I feel...I feel that she is being punished for what we did. The iniquity of the parents..."
Disgusted lines grow around his eyes and mouth," don't quote scripture at me, you know I hate it."
"Don't you feel that it's true?!" she says passionately, hands pressed to the glass. "I always feared that one day it would come to light, it was too big a sin to keep hidden from her. She was already cursed being born to us." she utters, completely despondent and he flinches, grows angry.
"Don't say that!"
Ashamed she lowers her head, hair obscuring her face and she stays silent for a very long time, all the while he stays just as quiet. Head tilting her hair waves in lustre against her raised knees and his breath fogs up the glass. "...What was it you said to me before? Some people are born under a bad sign?"
He smiles at the phrase, at the memory that comes with it. "Yeah, I think the whole planet must have been...where does Nadia think I am?"
She lifts her head to him. "I told her you were in a hospital, recovering. That it was private. I don't think she believes me."
"Make her believe you. Tell her I'm helping them, that's true." He responds stridently, eyes fierce and Maya nods, straightening her back up and looking down the corridor. He presses the against the glass, speaking low and stressed. "Don't go yet."
"I'm not." she looks into his face with a smile that feels at odds with the rest of her. He relaxes and his eyes roam over her face.
"Still beautiful."
She scoffs and scrubs her hands over her face. "I feel awful...are you alone here?"
"I am now. Meredith was here a few days ago, in one of the cells."
"Meredith?!" she hadn't seen the woman since the airport, when she had been separated from their group. "Where is she now?"
"The guy that brings me food said she was working with this government now. I don't think he knows it's basically the Company, if there ever was a difference between them...People with abilities are common knowledge now, they're revered. Well, most of them..." he mutters darkly, moving to sit on the bed again. "If you're useful they'll take you up, instead of locking you up in here."
"Are you useful to them?" she suspects so but wishes for an answer. he nods, unconcerned.
"Appears so. You know when they saw the fields I had grown they called it Eden? Paradise in the middle of the desert." he smiles with not a little pride. The crops had been a godsend, she knows their lives could have been that much harder. She recalls him taking her out one chilly night to the crops, asking if she could hear the corn growing.
"They want you to provide food for them?"
"Amongst other things...can you ask them if I can see her? Away from here. I tried but they won't give me an answer." the desperation is clear on his face and she touches the glass with sympathy. She didn't know what she would do if Nadia was separated from her. She doesn't know how he's still standing. But he was very good at keeping up pretences, his act was woven deeply into his being that there was no telling the truth from fake.
"I don't really know. I don't think I'll have time. You're not the only one being locked up." she utters darkly.
He frowns at her in confusion. "What?"
"Y - you don't know?"
"Know what?"
The fear and anxiety that she had been pushing down rises and she voice shakes as she speaks. "They know about me Gabriel, they know what I did. Mr Lamey, he's given me two options and I have two days left."
"What is it?" He walks back to the glass, peering nervously into her eyes.
"He said I could go to prison here, do labour and Nadia would be put into care." tears creep back over her eyes, so frightened of that prospect. This is the first time she's spoken of it. She continues with difficulty. "The second option was to go back to the Dominican Republic, with Nadia. He said it's not safe there anymore, no law and these groups..."
"But you'd be free?" she nods and he copies her, pacing back and forth like a trapped animal. "Have you thought of the alternative?" he regards her significantly and she catches on, not voicing it here.
"Yes. But like you said, they have people with abilities working for them," she lowers her voice, "they could find us again." she sits back down on the chair and he sits back on the bed, hands between his knees. When he speaks he sounds weary, disappointed.
"I know you thought that I was keeping you in a prison but I wasn't. It was a shelter from this. I never wanted Nadia to get hurt, and I know you don't believe me but I never wanted you to get hurt again either. It was boring and the fights were never ending but at least we were safe there. I just wanted to have a chance at something normal." he finishes plaintively but every line of his body is aslant in a lackluster droop.
She shakes her head, depressed. "I couldn't see that then. You must understand that?"
He shrugs dismissively, but looks around his cell and then back to her with a misery he can't contain. "I'm never going to see her again, am I?"
"I'm sorry Gabriel." They stare at each other in surprise, the first time in years she had ever voiced pity for him and she sits still, feeling very awkward. Crossing her arms over her chest she comes to the glass and turns her head to the doors. He comes back to her, face troubled.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm not sure. I wish there was someone that could help us." At these words an emotion flickers quickly over his face before it is gone but Maya catches it and cocks her head, feeling the onset of suspicion and doubt. It is an old, well used feeling. "Gabriel?"
He crosses his arms over his chest, blank look fading into a wincing guilt as he begins to speak. "I think there is someone that can help us - you."
"Who?"
"...Petrelli, Peter Petrelli." he speaks with difficulty, expression sour at the man's name. Confused Maya thinks back, remembering a pale, silent and grief stricken man from many years ago.
"I remember him, barely. I was told that we must never be near each other, because of his ability and mine. How can he help me?"
"He visited my dream, said that once we left Odessa he would keep you and Nadia safe." Nervous of her inevitable outburst he says this quick and breathless and as expected her eyes flash with shock and anger.
"You knew?! When was this dream?"
"A couple of months ago. He said he wanted you..." He moves away from the window, from her loathing gaze. Hands on her hips she shakes her head, eyeing him up and down before she scoffs with resentment but internally she's deeply disappointed.
"No matter how much time has past, how much you've changed you're still that callous, lying, only thinking of yourself coward at the core. Were you even going to tell me? Or just let me walk out and into that fate? Would you have let Nadia?"
"No! I'm sorry! Christ...Maya, I don't want to fight, not now, not after everything. Please just listen to me?" Remaining in her resentful stance he carries on, peering up at her earnestly. "I don't think this," he waves around him and gestures at her, "has anything to do with him, I thought he was the one coming for us but it wasn't. I was expecting him. Anyway, once you get out of here ask Lemay to take you to him. From there I think things will improve." He says, assured and Maya lowers her arms, moving behind the chair.
"What makes you think he'll help me? If he had wanted to wouldn't he be here now?"
"I know, I don't know why he's not Maya but if there's one thing I know about that annoying man is that he's just as honest as you are. He's good." He sneers at the word, not because he finds goodness repellent but because it applies to that man. Maya catches this and lifts a brow at him.
"Why do you dislike him?" But he remains silent, moodily shrugging and Maya prepares to leave. She looks around the cell and even though the place is oppressive and cold there is a part of her that doesn't want to go. The sight of him there is surreal because she's imagined it so many times but over the years it had become a faint pipe dream. She never imagined she would have this conflict of interest, emotion, at the situation.
"Are you leaving?" he comes back hastily, all anger and resentment gone and replaced with trepidation.
"Si...you know I used to dream of you in one of these."
"I remember." he utters and a salacious smirk passes over his face before he looks down, mollified and Maya feels an odd sense ofdéjà vu. And humiliation. She rolls her eyes and looks at the door, sees the guard there. "Would you prefer me to stay here?"
She turns back, silent for a long time before she speaks "...Yes. Revenge is for fools, I know that now...all I ever really wanted was for you to answer for what you have done. But," she cuts in, finger raised, as he opens his mouth, "I know that would be, as you so often tell me, hypocritical. If I never had Nadia I would walk into the cell next to yours willingly for what I have done. But I can't and if you were now in my place I wouldn't want you to either. Our daughter is what matters most. Only her and if they load more charges against me for it then so be it." Impassioned she blinks and has to look away from his gaze, which had grown proud and shone with such tenderness that she couldn't bare to look at him.
"Hold her for me? Tell her I miss her?"
"I will, I promise." she bites the inside of her cheek, reeling at the anguish in his voice.
"I wish I could touch you..." Maya flicks a quick look at him that turns into a gaze, her eyes roaming slowly and carefully over his features, now a touch older like her own and captures that expression. It may be the last one she would have so she hopes it is sincere.
"Goodbye Gabriel. Maybe, one day..." she leaves her sentence unfinished and undecided, dragging her gaze away. With a final tight lipped nod he watches Maya sadly as she walks out of view and is lost to him.
*
One more part left I think.