Tokyo, five years after the events of Furious Six
Han awoke with a start, shaken as if it was only yesterday that he had lost the love of his life. Replaying that fateful scene where he had caught her and held onto her hands for dear life atop the car attached to the wing of the getaway plane. Deep down he always blamed himself for putting her in that position to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Angrily he slid the shōji open and almost fainted at what he saw. Gisele sat at the dining room table in a legless chair. The setup in Japan differed greatly in that everyone sits on the floor or near the floor. Her chair had a slight cushion while the top of the table measured only a couple feet off the ground. He drank in the sight of her, the slender neck, brown bedroom eyes, long sexy legs.
"Boker Tov, Abba," spoke a sweet young voice belonging to a little girl who wore a white nightgown.
"Good morning babe," Gisele glanced at Han. "Nili eat your sabich."
Sabich consisted of hard boiled egg, eggplant, tahini ,hummus, and Israeli salad stuffed into pita bread. She fancied it as her goto breakfast dish.
The little girl scowled. Her brown tresses had been placed into a stuffed bun with a pink flower adorning it. Her mischievous eyes had an oriental look. "I want choco flakes!"
"Nili Lue," her mother threatened. "You will eat this or I will put you over my knee."
"But daddy got me choco flakes," whined the precocious child, unknowing that Gisele had once been a deadly Mossad agent.
Han gaped at the scene in front of him, wondering if he had smoked some bad weed. But he remembered his experimental use was a thing of the past.
"Babe," the brunette fixed her gaze on him. She did not have to speak to convey her message. Obviously, it fell to him to reinforce her position.
Too bad he acted only how he thought he'd act. Han slapped himself hard. Don't do this to yourself. When nothing happened, he continued to stare incredulous at the pair before him.
"Gisele," he breathed.
Her gaze softened. She always had a soft spot for him and instantly she saw anxiety in his manner.
She stood up. "Are you okay?"
He looked at her then the little girl sitting on her own little pink chair. Nili had a puzzled look on her face too.
"I can't be," he whispered.
"What can't be?" Gisele took a step towards him.
He always wondered what he would do if she ever miraculously reappeared in his life, somehow showing up unscathed like Letty had back when Dom thought he had lost her forever.
Call him a sap or a hopeless romantic, but he vowed to hold her and never let go again.
Despite his reluctance to believe this was real, because it was her, she would always get the benefit of the doubt and manliness be damned; he wore his heart on his sleeve about anything to do with her. Moreover, he always regretted not telling her he loved her enough when she was alive.
Before he knew it, she was on his arms and they were hugging and he was sobbing against her chest. Gisele held him, awkwardly at first, but then embraced him fully, getting choked up herself.
"Mah Karah,Ahuvi?" her eyes filled with tears too.
"Why did you leave me?" he choked.
"What?" she asked afraid. "I'm right here, I didn't go anywhere."
Nili ran up to her parents and wrapped her little arms around both their legs.
Han closed his eyes, breathing in her sweet orangey perfume, a combination of amber and ginger called Zangvil.
"Did you hit your head racing, daddy?" Nili asked, her innocent brown eyes showing tender concern.
Gisele eased her husband and daughter to the floor where she protectively cuddled with both of them. It had only been less than an hour when she had gotten up to get Nili ready for school. Han had been sound asleep and seemed alright at the time. She stroked her fingers through his hair as he tried to ascertain what was going on. After several long minutes, he broke the silence.
"Did you ever watch the Twilight Zone?" he asked her.
"No," she replied warily.
Nili knelt beside her prone father, copying her mother's soothing strokes.
Han took a deep breath. Would admitting to some figment of his imagination that her death had irrevocably changed him be some kind of catharsis?
"Can you answer some questions?" he posed.
"Of course," she replied, starting to feel some trepidation.
"What happened back in Spain at the NATO base?"
Gisele was taken aback. "When we stopped Shaw and rescued Mia?"
"Yeah. How did that all go down?" he stared ahead, trying to ignore how great it felt to be in her arms again and how beautiful the little girl in front of him was.
"Dom and Brian saved her. None of Shaw's team survived," she told him.
"Go on."
"We went to California for a few weeks then moved out here to Tokyo."
"Did we?" he wondered.
"Han," her voice was low. Did he suddenly have severe memory loss? "What's the matter?"
He turned his body to face her and blinked. She was there right in front of his eyes, a disconcerted look on her face. Always strong and in control, she now looked vulnerable and forlorn.
Was anything really the matter? Despite the improbability of the current situation, if there was the slightest chance he could have one more day with her; that could be more than he ever asked God for.
"I guess I just woke from a really bad dream," Han smiled sheepishly. "Come on let's have breakfast."
It had been ages since he had a Sabich. The three of them maneuvered over to the table and sat around it.
