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Andy Gallagher is not the droid you're looking for (brain_ninja) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-07-17 05:03:00

Entry tags:

!complete, andy gallagher, day 15, elliot reid, location: church

Day Fifteen - Late Evening
Who: Andy Gallagher and Elliot Reid
What: Finding out that Elliot's okay
Where: The Church
When: Day 15, late evening
Rating: PG-13 just in case (possible graphic imagery in introspection, that is)
Status: Complete

Judging by the fact that a few joints had only served to make Andy more paranoid and upset, rather than relaxed and mellow as per usual, it could only be deduced that Tonks had been correct in assuming that the point of the day was to break him. He'd seen Sam's handwriting in the journals and Shannon and Lexie's names on the roster Sam had put up, but Elliot hadn't been listed as present, deceased, or missing. It had only served to panic him more. He was supposed to be looking out for her. He was supposed to be keeping her safe. Andy had failed Luna and he'd thought he'd failed Lexie, but he wanted to make good on it with Elliot, but he'd failed there, too. At that point, he'd have welcomed the cougar all over again in place of the emotional baggage, worry, and pain he was carrying right then.

Even though he'd found that the deaths he'd witnessed had been fabricated - which, at the very least, gave him hope for Martha yet - they'd been horrible to watch. Worse to see Luna's burned corpse, let alone smell the burnt flesh. Waking up in the cemetary alone had freaked him out and he hoped like hell that Tonks had woken up somewhere safely as well. All he could think about, though, was Elliot's being missing in action and the way that Tonks had been so unsure about whether she'd been the only one to make it out of their first experiment alive.

Andy was jittery as he smoked a fourth joint on the front stairs of the church. He'd tried going inside. He'd tried walking around looking for her. Finally, Andy had been reduced to sitting outside hoping like hell that he'd see her coming up or down the road toward him sooner than later. Elliot had to be okay. She was his only charge; his only job. He'd have traded anything to know that he hadn't completely let her down.

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brain_ninja
2009-07-23 03:52 am UTC (link)

Elliot's response to his concern broke Andy's heart. Taking her face gently in one hand, Andy pushed her hair carefully out of her face with the other. "I know, I'm sorry," he replied. "I mean physically, are you okay?" he tried again as she let go of his arm and wiped her eyes. His brow furrowed and he frowned. What was it about crying women that always made men want to put things right for them? He wondered if maybe it was just him and it wasn't a man thing at all...

Then, Elliot asked if he was okay and he shook his head. "I've never been less okay," he admitted, "but I'm still in one piece." When Elliot hugged him again, sighing against his neck, he shivered at the ticklish sensation that came in response to it. He rubbed her back slowly and held her close again. If she's going to fall apart...

He heard her apologize to him, just then.

...then so am I. Andy closed his eyes and set his jaw as he felt the prickle of tears of his own. Resting his chin on her shoulder and stroking her hair again, Andy let himself go. He sure as shit wasn't going to cry in front of Jim and he'd been trying to stay strong for Tonks. Elliot was his friend and if anyone wouldn't judge him for crying, he hoped it'd be her. Besides, she was fucking crying anyway. It wasn't like he was sobbing, but he'd watched five people being murdered in front of his eyes and then had been face to face with Luna's burnt corpse. He could practically still smell the singed hair. Andy figured he was entitled to at least shed a tear and let himself break down a little bit.

It took a lot of effort to keep his voice under control all the while swallowing thickly against a sob he refused to release, but he did the best he could. "Please don't ever be sorry," he said in a low voice. "It's not your fault."

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frickonastick
2009-07-24 06:15 pm UTC (link)

"Yes," she said with a small nod, her hand moving up to touch her throat when he asked her if she was okay physically. Her voice was still hoarse and she thought she could still feel the phantom heat of the fire on her skin, but other than that she was fine. The trails of blood on her clothes were not her own.

"I'm glad," she whispered when he said he was still in one piece. Elliot closed her eyes as he rubbed her back and stroked her hair, taking comfort in Andy's touch. It was nice to just be held for a moment. It made her feel like she wasn't so alone.

She thought maybe Andy felt the same way, considering the way he seemed to relax into her hug. His words caused a new wave of tears to come to the surface and this time she couldn't stop the small sob from escaping her lips. "They killed Sid," she said, hugging Andy closer. "They suffocated him with gas. Why would they do that? He was just a kid."

She struggled to swallow down the lump in her throat, pulling back to look at Andy. She sighed, not bothering to wipe away her tears this time as she looked at Andy. "I'm sorry about your friend. Tonks told me you...saw someone else."

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brain_ninja
2009-07-25 06:21 am UTC (link)

The way that Elliot seemed to relax into the hug made Andy feel better about doing the same thing. There was something morbidly comforting about clinging to her, just then. Morbid because his level of relief in seeing her was far higher for having watched his other two friends die horribly. It made him feel guilty for not being relieved in his own rite.

Andy's eyes remained closed when he heard Elliot let out a small sob and hugged him harder as she explained what had happened to the kid called Sid that he'd seen in the journals a few times. Spliff...that was all that kid talked about. Spliff, Pyramid - whatever that was - and a girl named Cassie. Andy had been able to piece together, at least, that spliff was weed. He was sorry to hear that he'd never get to smoke a fatty with the kid and talk about stupid bullshit over a joint. He was more sorry that Elliot had to see the body and was broken over the fact that he was still a kid.

Elliot pulled away, catching Andy off guard and not giving him enough time to wipe his own leaking eyes. The tears rolling down her cheeks made him want to cry even more, if only because seeing her like that when she'd been so strong-willed during the earthquake was hard to see. When she brought up Luna, Andy set his jaw again and nodded curtly, swallowing thickly. "Yeah," was all he could manage.

Clearing his throat, Andy nodded toward the church. "C'mon, let's get inside," he said quietly. Staying out in the cold wasn't exactly appealing to him and he doubted it would be to her once her body registered the chill.

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