WHO Gabe Damiani OT Abbie Knight WHAT Self-sacrifice? Wait wait, we're calling it honesty. WHERE Near the Knight estate WHEN Saturday, October 1, 2016 ~ 1:30 PM (backdated) WARNINGS Feels. So many feels.
Gabe knew the situation with Abbie was complicated. He knew, when used in that context, that complicated really meant messy as all hell. But he thought he was getting control of things back. He thought things were progressing slowly, moving in a direction that might eventually be positive again. Abbie was pregnant with his child. She told him that she was a shifter. They were hitting milestones in a somewhat unconventional order, but Gabe was confident that they'd pull through. Abbie wouldn't choose him just because she was having his baby, but Gabe thought, with more honesty, he'd be able to show her how everything she loved about him still worked in the expanded framework of her life. He'd be able to show her that the truths she kept hidden didn't change how suited they were for one another. They had their differences, but too many similarities stifled a relationship anyway. The panther was only appealing because Abbie thought he understood a part of her that Gabe couldn't. That sort of unreasonable reasoning at least made sense. It kept the situation manageable. He could show her how understanding he could be. It kept Gabe from losing hope.
Damianis didn't deal well with losing, after all. Losing. Loss. Some might even say they reacted badly to it. Justin lost his wife, and look how that turned out. Gabe was rather stubbornly opposed to the idea of losing Abbie. But he didn't feel like that was inevitable. He always felt like he'd find a way to tell Abbie the truth. Gabe thought he could soften the blow, frame the hunter thing with irrefutable evidence of the positive changes he'd made since meeting her. He'd take care of his father, and eliminate the risk of Abbie ever learning how dark their beginning really was. She didn't need the full story. Gabe was a changed person because of her. She loved that man. So the person he was before didn't matter. Maybe he hadn't figured out how to pull this off yet, but Gabe thought he had time. Even with the arrival of his siblings, he thought he had time.
And now he had no choice but to tell Abbie everything. It wasn't precise enough to just say he was going to lose her. It wasn't a big enough description. Telling her now was going to destroy everything. Take a match to every moment, every memory. Gabe couldn't soften this. He couldn't frame it, or cast it in a better light, because this wasn't about him. It wasn't about salvaging the thing he wanted most. His sister had nearly killed Abbie. His brother was too close to her.
He had to tell Abbie to protect her. She needed to know the truth so she would finally, finally, listen when he said she had to stay away from his family. Gabe wasn't prone to moments of selflessness. But he knew Jesse was right. He knew this was the only way. So he texted Abbie and he got in his car and he drove over to the Knight house. The radio was off, but the windows were cracked so he wasn't in complete silence as he waited. Not that it mattered. Selflessness was foreign to him, and so was anxiety like this. Fear. Gabe texted Abbie again to let her know he was outside, but when she stepped out of the house, his hand dropped from the wheel, and his muscles tensed as he fought the urge to put the car in reverse. Book it out of there. Find some other way to keep Abbie safe. When she reached the car, he couldn't even try to muster a convincing smile.
After all, there was no point in playing a part anymore. No point in keeping up appearances.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. Mostly because he didn't anticipate having many chances to ask after today.