Seeing Harley was relief enough that Gabby knew at once the answer to her question: she would smile again, but the little one that pulled at just the corners of her mouth was a far cry from the bright expressions that used to light up her entire being. Still, the small, sad little smile was gone as soon as she could see it hit Harley, the sight of her laying here. She was a little too far down the numbness spectrum to even register the sting in her eyes as the beginnings of tears, and the lack of reaction should have scared her. All it did was pull one of her eyebrows up a fraction, a brief, almost reflexive movement before her expression smoothed over again. Seeing the were-riflebird upset was not helping, no, and she could feel herself draw even further inside, coiling into a tight little emotional ball. She would break down eventually, wouldn't she? Once the numbness wore off? She had no idea, but she could feel them, the fractures in her character, the boldness and the brash personality all wiped away in the face of terror. "I--" No, that would be a lie. She shook her head and started again. "I don't know how to put it into words." Really, she didn't.
Gabby, the mad-gab, always gabbing away? She had no words. "I just feel numb." If her words couldn't paint the picture, she was sure that her behavior certainly did. Even her inner voice sounded expressionless. She finally reached her hand out to Harley, reassured by the warmth of his skin. It was the first time she'd actually began to feel something other than the cold that felt like it'd settled over her. Though, that was impossible, she always ran a warmer temperature than most other people. There was no way she would actually feel cold to anyone else. That she'd had to explain to the doctors just why her temperature was above normal hadn't even phased her, and she was sure that she was supposed to feel something. "I don't know what's wrong with me, why I'm not freaking out or anything. The doctor says what's happening is normal." Gabby did not feel normal. Even using her other hand to pull up the blankets so she could show Harley the bandages that covered most of her leg didn't stir anything in her. "The muscles in my leg got torn up pretty bad. Lost a lot of blood." Still, almost no tone or inflection in her words. "I think it hasn't hit me yet. The fact that I have to--" No, she couldn't say it. Saying the words would make it final, would make something snap in her brain. "My leg has to heal. Before..." Her eyes met Harley's, willing him to understand what she meant, so she wouldn't have to say it. Please don't say it out loud. The brief flash sorrow in her eyes was the only emotion she'd shown the entire time he'd been there, and she really hoped that he would put it all together. Harley was smart, he could figure it out.