Gabriel's been quiet, in the few days since his last appointment with Dr. Navarro. "How did it go?" she asked, and "All right," he answered, and that was that
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"I know you won't," she says, more calmly. Makes herself say it more calmly.
"I know you won't overwork on purpose -- well, no more than ever," and that's with light wryness. (It's a joke, an old tease, except now she has to work hard to keep it teasing and not truth.) "But -- Gabriel, if the doctors are telling you to be cautious there are reasons for that, aren't there?"
Regan makes a note to talk to Vincent Navarro sometime soon.
Possibly very soon.
(She doesn't want this to be happening. She doesn't want this to be happening. She wants this nightmare safely behind them.
She's learned bitterly well that God and the 'verse don't listen to her wishes on these subjects.)
"But you still feel up to a full Parlimentary session?" This is a neutral question -- worried, unconvinced, but neutral, and not a demand as part of her wants it to be.
Gabriel's spinning a pen back and forth in his fingers as he concentrates.
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He was getting better.
(I will be as stone, as stone and water untroubled)
Haven't they been through enough?
"That's not possible. We, we'll get a second opinion."
"You can't just -- just give in, assume this is all there is and work yourself to death from it! These things take time, that's all."
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(But only a little. He's had time to get used to the idea; to think it through from every angle.
She hasn't.)
"But I'm going to work. There's too much still left to do. I'll have to take more care than I used to, that's all."
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"I know you won't," she says, more calmly. Makes herself say it more calmly.
"I know you won't overwork on purpose -- well, no more than ever," and that's with light wryness. (It's a joke, an old tease, except now she has to work hard to keep it teasing and not truth.) "But -- Gabriel, if the doctors are telling you to be cautious there are reasons for that, aren't there?"
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Dangerous ground, this, but he's prepared for it.
"As I understand it, I'm going to be a little more vulnerable to ... things. Colds and the like. I'll need to be careful."
Navarro had put it in stronger terms, of course.
"--You're not listening to me, Gabriel. If you don't take proper care of yourself, you're going to die."
"We're all going to die, Vincent. It's only a matter of when."
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Possibly very soon.
(She doesn't want this to be happening. She doesn't want this to be happening. She wants this nightmare safely behind them.
She's learned bitterly well that God and the 'verse don't listen to her wishes on these subjects.)
"But you still feel up to a full Parlimentary session?" This is a neutral question -- worried, unconvinced, but neutral, and not a demand as part of her wants it to be.
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After a moment of studying her, Gabriel reaches out to put his hands gently on Regan's shoulders.
"I'll be careful. I'll be fine, ai ren."
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(The horrible scars disappearing under his collar. The new lines. The faint lingering pallor.
The determination.)
"All right," she says quietly, at last. "We'll see how it goes, at least."
She needs to talk to Vincent soon.
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