No, I have no idea why I'm writing yet another story that would be better suited to Christmas, this time in the middle of February :P This fic is pretty much inspired by It's a Wonderful Life; if you've seen my other fics, you can probably already guess which of the agents is going to be the main character here.
While this fic is a standalone, it references certain parts of Temporal Fates Chapter 9, which is basically my universal headcanon for the start of Giorgio and Evan's partnership.
4.32 pm
Crisis Agent Division Office
Alan absentmindedly glanced up at the sound of someone entering the office. Upon seeing Evan's expression, his eyes widened as he turned his attention to the younger agent, paperwork swiftly forgotten.
"What's wrong?" He asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wesley glance up from his own desk as well.
Evan's usual smile was nowhere to be seen. He looked worried and upset as he bit his lip, taking a seat beside Alan.
"Have you seen Gi anywhere?" He asked.
"Giorgio?" Wesley shook his head. "Haven't seen him all day. Why?"
Evan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Remember that pharmaceutical company we've been investigating?"
Alan frowned slightly, brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to remember. "You mean the one that was supposed to be conducting human experimentation? We've got an informant on the inside, right?"
The younger agent nodded. "Janice Brown. A secretary working there who stumbled upon information she wasn't supposed to have seen. She's the one who tipped us off in the first place. She's been working with us to take down the people in charge, collecting evidence from within to help our investigation."
Wesley glanced at Evan cautiously, hearing the slight tremor in his voice. "What happened?"
"We…" Evan swallowed, visibly trying to collect himself. "She contacted us urgently this morning. Said she'd been discovered and needed to get out of there."
"By the time we got there, they'd already caught her. She'd been shot and left to bleed out in an alley behind the building."
Wesley went very still, while Alan swore under his breath.
Evan wasn't finished, however.
"Gi… He was a few steps ahead of me. He reached Janice first… He was trying to stop the bleeding, but… She died in his arms a few minutes later. He just knelt there, staring at her body… I tried to talk to him, but he didn't seem to hear me."
"Even afterwards, when we went after the ringleaders, he didn't say anything at all. He was just staring into space all the way back to Headquarters, and as soon as we got back here, he vanished without a trace."
"Did you try his apartment?" Wesley suggested.
"I knocked on the door, but he didn't answer," Evan replied. "He didn't respond to any of my messages either, and his phone was off when I tried calling him. If he is in there, I don't think it would be a good idea to force my way inside to check on him."
"No, he definitely wouldn't like that," Alan agreed softly. "Perhaps you should give him some space right now."
"I… I guess you're right," Evan said reluctantly. "I just… I'm worried about him. He shouldn't be alone right now."
"Give it a couple of hours," Wesley told him. "If he's still not answering by then, you might want to go check on him anyway."
"Alright." Evan managed to force a small smile for the older agents' benefit. "Thanks guys."
His friends didn't seem to be fooled, but they said nothing, allowing Evan to pretend that he wasn't desperately worrying about his partner even as he settled down to work on his report.
Giorgio's Apartment, VSSE Residential Wing
Giorgio wasn't sure how long he'd been standing here, leaning over the railing of his balcony and staring at nothing in particular. A small part of him dimly registered that he was shivering, given that he was out on his balcony in the middle of winter without a coat, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Far below him, the streets of New York were bustling with people as they went about their mundane lives. Snow was falling steadily, and most people were hurrying indoors to escape from the cold.
Even as Giorgio stood there watching them, the only thing he could see was Janice Brown, dumped in a lonely alley to freeze to death after being shot. By the time they'd found her, Giorgio had just enough time to hold her in his arms as her breathing slowed and her already freezing body went limp.
She had been young. Only 23 years old, but she had been brave and fiercely intelligent. She had insisted on continuing to help the VSSE, even knowing that she was putting herself at risk by doing so.
Smart and beautiful and brave, with a strong moral compass; she'd had her whole life ahead of her.
And now she was gone forever.
Giorgio realised he'd been unconsciously scrubbing at his hands for several minutes. Angrily, he slammed a fist into the railing.
Rationally, he knew that there was nothing wrong with his hands, but he could still see them covered in Janice's blood as he frantically tried to staunch her bleeding, knowing that it was already too late.
The rest of the day's events were a blur. He vaguely remembered Evan saying something to him, but he'd been moving on autopilot the entire time, as though he wasn't in control of his body. He couldn't even remember what had happened when they'd finally nailed the head of the pharmaceutical company and his cronies.
Somehow, he'd simply gone from kneeling in that alley to standing out here on his balcony, with no memory of how he'd gotten here.
Absently, he noted that he could barely feel the cold anymore. Some part of him seemed to realise that was a bad sign, but he couldn't quite remember why. For some reason, he was having trouble focusing.
His thoughts were rapidly slipping away like a handful of sand, leaving him numb and empty. All that remained was the overwhelming sense of guilt that cloaked him, flooding through every fibre of his being.
He bowed his head as he slumped against the railing, frigid tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Are you just giving up?" An unexpected voice abruptly spoke up from beside him.
Giorgio glanced up sharply, intending to snap at this unwanted witness to his pathetic condition.
Upon realising who his visitor was, his eyes went impossibly wide. In a wild panic, he stumbled backwards a few steps, mouth opening in a silent scream.
Janice Brown folded her arms, staring at Giorgio in disbelief. She looked exactly like she had earlier, except without the bullet hole in her chest and the bloodstains all over her clothes.
"Well?" She raised an eyebrow at Giorgio's lack of verbal response. "Is that what you're doing out here? Deciding to take the coward's way out and just let yourself die?"
Giorgio flinched, averting his gaze as he found that he couldn't refute her accusation.
He hadn't exactly been thinking about killing himself, but considering he'd been standing out in the cold and not caring that he was probably on the verge of freezing to death, he supposed that there wasn't much of a difference.
"I didn't… It would be better off for everyone if I just disappeared. I couldn't save you… I can't ever save anyone… I just make things worse, every single time… And then I end up being a burden on the people around me and making them miserable…"
Giorgio wiped roughly at his eyes, wondering why he was pouring his heart out to a ghost or hallucination or whatever Janice was.
He supposed it didn't matter that much; he was clearly dying right now. Perhaps unburdening himself of his guilt and bitterness would let him be at peace when he finally slipped into the sweet oblivion of death.
His words came in a whisper as he finally voiced the lone thought that had been buried deep within him for the last 19 years.
"Maybe… It would have been better if I'd died that day, along with my family."
There was a moment of silence.
Then Janice lunged at him, slamming him against the railing as her face twisted in anger.
"You want to die that badly?" She spat, glaring at him with disgust. "You think the world would be better off without you around?"
Giorgio coughed weakly, black spots beginning to dance at the edges of his vision as he futilely attempted to free himself.
"Fine." Abruptly, Janice released him, taking a step back. "Let me show you."
Before Giorgio could ask her what she meant, she lunged at him again, shoving him violently.
Caught off guard, he toppled backwards over the balcony railing.
His startled cry was lost in the wind as he plummeted towards the pavement. Desperately, Giorgio squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see what he knew was coming.
He failed to hit the ground.
Confused, Giorgio opened his eyes.
He was standing on the pavement, entirely unharmed. The snow was still falling thick and fast, and he was still wearing his regular clothes, but he didn't feel cold at all. None of the people passing by even glanced at him as he frantically looked around, trying to get his bearings.
"Don't worry, nobody can see you. After all, you don't exist."
Turning around, Giorgio found Janice standing behind him with her arms crossed, wearing a look of grim determination as she gazed at him.
"Miss Brown?" Giorgio stared at her in confusion. "What… What's going on? Where are we?"
"You believe that the world would be better off if you'd died as a kid, right?" She gave him a mirthless smirk, looking him right in the eye.
"Let's see if you still think that after seeing what this world is like. Because in this reality, you did."
