Prompt: Gaby discovers her uncle tortured Solo

"What?"

Gaby spun around to face the three men as the horrific words flung out during the argument between Waverly and Solo struck home. The blood drained from her face as she stared at Solo in shock. Illya was at her side in an instant and she clung to him in desperation, looking up at him, her eyes wide with dismay.

"Rudi tortured Solo? After I betrayed you both?" She saw the truth in his eyes. Illya could never lie to her. "Oh my God."

"Gaby, it was months ago. Peril came to my rescue before your Uncle could get too up close and personal." Solo replied as he pushed his chair back and stood up, seemingly unconcerned about how close he had come to a very painful and ugly end.

"But…" her eyes flicked towards Solo, disbelief at the way he was casually just throwing this off. He could have been seriously hurt, he could have died. The result of her actions made her shudder, that the outcome could have been so very different.

"You were obeying orders, Gaby. Sometimes … they have consequences for other agents." Illya added in an attempt to ease her conscience.

"Did you know this could have happen? When you told me to betray them?" Gaby turned to Waverly. She wasn't looking to absolve herself from blame. She knew Ilya had been listening to every word she said and would have been given enough time to avoid capture. In her inexperience, she hadn't given a thought to Solo. Shame burned through her.

"It was a possible outcome," Waverly acknowledged, still looking guilty from having inadvertently blurted out the fact. "One of many factors I considered before I gave you that order."

"One rather painful death can't be weighed against the possible death of thousands, if not millions of people." Solo stated. "It's one of the consequences of being in the business that we are."

"You could have died," she snapped out, "slowly and painfully, because of what I did," she finished on a sob unable to comprehend Solo's casual acceptance of death. A death she would have caused, because of her family.

Solo moved towards Gaby and with a nod to Illya gently placed his hands on her shoulders. "Gaby, it's done with. I can't say it was a pleasant experience, but I survived it, thanks to our Russian comrade here and his obsession with bugging things." Even after months working together Illya still hadn't gotten out of the habit of bugging them. Rooms, clothes, shoes, cars, jewellery or the one memorable moment he had made Solo swallow a bug when he was going in undercover at a nudist colony. "You can't dwell on what could have happened. It didn't happen. You are not your uncle nor your father. You helped save the world from a very uncertain future."

"As Cowboy says, it is done. If you start to second guess yourself, you will get us all killed." Illya added, pointing out the harsh truth.

"If anyone must carry the burden, it's me and I carry it willing." Waverly cut in. "It was never my intention to cause harm to either Solo or Kuryakin. At that point in the mission the two of them were starting to work well together and I had calculated that they would cover each other's backs if things went pear shaped. And as Kuryakin had bugged you, it was a high probability that he'd also secreted bugs onto Solo too. But they are quite correct. You cannot dwell on this; it will make you a liability to your team if you start to over analyse every action or every order you given."

There was a heavy silence for a moment as Gaby looked at them each in turn looking for the truth of their words.

"What did he do to you?" Gaby asked Solo quietly, who had long since removed his hands from her shoulders after a pointed look from Illya.

Solo shook his head. "You don't need to know that."

"What did he do?" She implored Illya.

"It is not my story to tell. But I nearly got eaten by Rottweilers," Illya replied in a poor attempt humour.

"But I …" Gaby sighed and finally nodded her head in acceptance. "Very well. But I am sorry, Solo… Napoleon. I'm so sorry you were hurt."

"Apology accepted." He offered Gaby his arm. "I think this deserves a long lunch at that little pub by the river, don't you think so, sir?"

"Indeed." Waverly agreed. "But please do return at some point this afternoon. You and I have a conversation to finish."

With a nod of agreement, Solo escorted Gaby from the room, Illya lagging behind for a moment as he passed Waverly. Gaby watched suspiciously from the doorway as words were exchanged between the two men. Their body language reminded relaxed and at ease and the rare full smile Illya gave her when he joined them made her forget to ask what he had said to Waverly.

TMFU

Waverly stood by his office window and watched with a smile as Solo and Kuryakin tried to fit into Gaby's Mini with as much dignity as possible. Solo obviously having lost the argument of who got to sit in the front seat.

He turned back to his desk and the numerous files it held. He knew that by letting slip Gaby's uncle had tortured Solo he had risked a much bigger fallout than what had just occurred. However, he had counted on the strong bonds of the team to keep Gaby from falling too far into a quagmire of guilt. Solo, and Kuryakin, viewed being tortured as an occupational hazard and Waverly knew they wouldn't hold either Gaby or himself in contempt for what had had to be done.

He also knew he couldn't keep Gaby from knowing what Rudi had done in the Nazi concentration camps during the war. Even if Kuryakin had warned him not to be so loose with his tongue in regards to that subject. But Rudi's name had repeatedly come up during investigations into war crimes. For now it was hidden, but Waverly had exerted all the power he had in keeping it from the public records for as long as he could. Sooner or later Rudi Von Trulsch's inexcusable deeds would become public knowledge.

And as Waverly's mother had always said – forewarned is forearmed.

No, I'm not entirely happy with it either. I think I'll do another version from Solo's POV