Beyond The Walls

Chapter 53: Worries

Gary sighed as he walked down the dark road towards Anna's house. It was a fairly dark night with the moon concealed by an overcast sky and the road was lit only by Umbreon's bright rings as she walked only a few paces ahead of her trainer. The night seemed to reflect Gary's fairly downcast mood and did little to improve it.

Umbreon looked back at him with a curious glance. Easily recognizing this as another one of his unhappy moods, she paused and waited for him to catch up. She couldn't quite understand what was going on. She recognized this as the way to Anna's house but her trainer's attitude confused her thoroughly – he was usually always happy to see the girl. This was just completely abnormal.

Gary absentmindedly patted Umbreon on the head as he caught up with her, too caught up in his thoughts to do much else as they approached the long winding driveway which lead to a large vaguely-Victorian styled house that was familiar to them. It was quite a bit smaller than the mansion Gary was used to living in, about half of the size of the house without the lab, but still rather large and indicative of a well-off family. A few short moments later and they were climbing the stone steps to the large porch.

He paused at the door. He could easily hear the piano playing in the living room beyond the foyer and he had to wonder for a moment which sibling to try talking to first. That particular speculation dissipated from his mind quickly – his priority was not that particularly difficult to figure out. He had to appease Anna and soften her grudge against her sister before he could talk to Rachael.

Doing it in the reverse order… Well, it would only create even more trouble and tension that Gary was simply not willing to deal with.

With a groan, he rang the doorbell and hoped that someone other than Rachael would answer the door. Beyond the door, the piano stopped playing and he could clearly hear the girls' mother calling for one of them to answer the door. Anna's voice distantly replied to the request with a comment likely to be something along the lines of "get it yourself."

Gary was tempted to ring again when he heard footsteps approaching. The door was flung open to reveal a slightly-harried looking brunette woman who smiled when she saw Gary and Umbreon.

"Hey, Nicole," Gary greeted quietly, suddenly having second thoughts concerning coming to see Anna so soon after such a massive argument.

Nicole gave him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before stepping away from the door to allow him inside. "I feel bad for you, sweetie. Your hand is going to be getting a workout this week, that's for sure."

"That's reassuring," Gary replied dryly, rolling his eyes as he closed the door behind himself and his pokemon. "You always know exactly what to say."

She smiled in response as they stood in the foyer. "I have to hand it to you, Gary – no one else puts up with Anna the way you do. She's a hell of a lot more lucky than she realizes."

"You know Anna… I take it she's home?" he added as a burst of loud music came from the second floor.

Nicole grimaced and pursed her lips before turning to the stairs. "Ann! Good lord, she's going to put me in an early grave…"

"At least she's stopped playing Slayer when she gets pissed off," Gary offered with a small smile. "Not that Behemoth's vocals are much better."

She turned back to him and gave Gary a small smirk. "I think you need to raid her cd collection and replace them all with eighties metal. If she listened to Iron Maiden half as much as you do, I would be ecstatic!"

Gary stared at her for a moment before blinking in confusion. "You like Maiden?"

Nicole laughed and shook her head with a grin. "Oh, Gary, you know so little about your own future mother-in-law," she teased as Gary blushed slightly. "You think I was never young? Monica and I used to be concert buddies back in college – Cinnabar Uni. We were the only ones in our sorority that liked metal. It's about time Alex grew a spine and proposed to her!"

"Ooo-kay… It's obvious that you and Anna are related. Do you think it's safe for me to go up there or should I wait a few more hours?"

"It should be safe, seeing as you brought Umbreon along for protection. Though I would recommend not mentioning Rachael; there's really nothing to worry about with her, Gary. Worrying about her is only going to cause issues between you and Anna."

Gary frowned as he glanced in the direction of the living room where he had heard the piano playing earlier. "You do know why I'm worried about her, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, but this is Rachael we're talking about. Just go talk to Anna – the sooner you two get past this, the better."

"I guess so…" Gary agreed though it didn't quell his concern in any way. He talked to Nicole for a few more minutes before heading upstairs, leaving Umbreon in the kitchen with her so he could track down Anna.

It wasn't particularly difficult to find her: Gary needed only to follow the sound of her stereo belting out the band that he disliked. He knocked loudly on the door and hoped that she had heard it before pushing open the door and entering the room to find Anna lying on her stomach on her bed with her head resting on her folded arms.

"Anna?"

"Go away," she replied flatly, her voice muffled by the pillow beneath her arms.

"You know that's not going to happen," he said softly, slowly approaching the queen sized bed. "How often do I actually listen?" Anna remained silent without changing her position at all, not even when Gary kneeled next to the rather low bed and gently shook her arm. "Come on, Anna, this is ridiculous," he continued gently. "We've never fought this badly before."

"I guess there's a first time for everything."

Gary sighed and rested his head against the mattress for a moment before speaking again. "I know I wasn't exactly the nicest to you earlier but you weren't any better… Anna, we can't keep blowing up at each other whenever one of us gets annoyed about something that the other person did. It's not good."

"It's not good for you to be more worried about my sister than you are of me," Anna said, finally turning her head to look at him.

"I'm not more worried about her than I am of you! Nothing matters more to me than you, you should know this by now. You know me better than that… What's actually bothering you: the possibility of me being friends with Rachael or something between us?" Gary couldn't help being baffled by what he perceived as a total overreaction to everything going on.

Anna turned her head away from him to stare out the window, not wanting to say what was coming to her mind. She had immediately noticed that he was wearing long sleeves in the warm weather and though she was concerned about it, she found herself feeling a bit sick of dealing with this sort of thing from Gary. He had been getting better but then there were times when she would catch him gazing at his arms or running his fingers over the scars with an unreadable expression… It was times like those that she wondered if it would ever be possible for him to fully heal. She wondered exactly how much of this she could take.

"You're wearing long sleeves again," she finally spoke up after a few minutes of silence had passed between them.

Gary smiled slightly, though he knew she couldn't see it with her head turned in the opposite direction. He thought of telling her that he hadn't resorted to cutting himself but reconsidered and tugged the hoodie over his head and tossed it to the floor. His t-shirt left his forearms bare but after a brief moment of consideration, he pulled that over his head as well, figuring that it would be best to show her that he had not resorted to finding a new place on his body to mutilate. He stood and walked over to the other side of the bed so that he could kneel in front of Anna.

"You shouldn't jump to conclusions, babe," he said with a smile as he held out his arms for her to see.

At first, Anna hardly glanced over them but then did a double take and let her eyes slowly move up his arms, inspecting the scars closely for new ones. "There's nothing new," she observed.

"I told you that you shouldn't jump to conclusions. Is that one of the reasons you're being so difficult?"

Anna sat up and met his eyes solemnly, as though she wasn't entirely sure of what to say. "Gary, it's just that… things have changed a lot in the past few months and they've changed really fast. Sometimes it kind of scares me," she admitted. "Sometimes I just wonder if you're mature enough or if you will be mature enough for us to… I don't know, take this relationship further." Her gaze fell to the floor as she spoke quietly and slowly. "I love you; I guess I'm just scared of this not working out."

Gary stood and gazed down at her for a minute while she continued to stare at the carpeted floor before moving away from the bed to stand at the window. Outside, the moon was shining more brightly than before as the clouds had begun to clear. It was actually quite nice out, he realized dimly; a night that would be great for simply hanging out on the porch for a long while. He shook his head distractedly and forced his mind back to what Anna had just told him.

"I'm scared too, Anna," he admitted softly. "It would be insane for us not to be! Hell, you saw how terrified I was of just telling you that I love you; think of how it was for me when you suddenly put me on the spot when you made me choose whether or not to date you!" Gary gave a shaky laugh and ran a hand through his hair as he finally turned away from the window and approached the bed again. "I think everyone in a relationship gets scared… Anna, if you keep worrying about this then it's going to ruin the relationship. I don't want that to happen; I finally stopped worrying about it and look how much better it's gotten since then! Maybe you just need to do the same thing."

"I don't know. Maybe we just need some time away from each other; we've been living together since we started dating, maybe that was just too soon for us," Anna suggested quietly as she slowly traced the embroidery on her comforter.

Gary sighed softly and sank on to the bed next to her. "You're probably right," he agreed. "But, Anna, if we're going to go further with this, then I need to know that you're not going to get cold feet and back out at last minute."

Anna glanced up at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes. "Gary… I want to go further – I want to get married and have kids one day! I want –"

"I want that too," Gary interrupted her quickly. He grabbed her hands and met her eyes, silently searching for some sort of reassurance that there wasn't some hidden meaning behind everything that she was saying. "I love you, damn it; can't you see that by now? I want to marry you, I want to have my own place with you, I want to have kids that'll grow up being, hopefully, more sane than us! For god's sake, we've been best friends for almost ten years. We're solid, you know that. Why question that just because we got in an argument? Do you have to keep tormenting yourself over the fact that I was friends with your sister?"

Anna gave him a weak smile. "I'm not tormenting myself," she replied firmly.

"If you say so," Gary shrugged off the comment, not wanting to start yet another fight. "Can we just forget about this?"

"On one condition," Anna began with a small affirmative nod. Gary raised his eyebrows slightly, silently telling her to continue. "Worry about me, not Rachael. Mom's got an eye on her so there's nothing for you to worry about."

Gary frowned at her condition but nodded in spite of himself. "I don't believe you or Nicole but as long as someone's watching out for her… I guess I'll let it go for now. Are we good now?"

"I guess so," Anna agreed somewhat hesitantly as she laid back on the bed once more. "I think I do need some time to myself though, that way I can just… think about stuff."

"And so that this whole thing can blow over," Gary added, knowing that the best way to make up with his girlfriend was to just give her time to find something else to occupy her mind. He figured it shouldn't take too long for that this time, considering the way she was constantly being kept busy over the past few months.

"Yeah, that too."

"Okay," Gary stood to leave but paused and looked down at Anna for a moment. "Can I at least have a kiss before I go?"

Anna gave him a halfhearted glare before sighing and softening slightly as she stood up as well. Gary couldn't hold back the small smile that crossed his face as she slid her arms around him and rested her hands at the back of his neck. She seemed stiff at first but loosened up slightly as his lips descended on hers, her fingers curled slightly in his hair as his lips parted for her to slip her tongue in.

Anna began to pull back slightly but Gary's hands grasped her hips and held her in place, unwilling to break the kiss just yet. She seemed to melt under his touch and kissed him even more fiercely, tangling her hands in his long hair and pressing herself against him, letting his hands on her waist steady her.

Seeming to come to her senses, Anna pulled away breathlessly and scowled up at him for a moment. "Happy now?"

"Not entirely, but it'll do," he replied as he tugged his shirt back on and picked up the hoodie that had been discarded on the floor earlier.

"Good," Anna replied as she dropped back onto her bed. "Because that's all you're getting; I'm still annoyed at you."

"And I'm still confused," Gary muttered under his breath as he headed towards the door. "I'll see you soon, babe."

"Later. Oh, and Gary?" He turned and faced her for a brief moment. "I better not find out that you went and fucked around with Andrew or Tracey, and I sure as hell better not find out that you slept with Chelsea."

It took a lot of effort on Gary's part not to roll his eyes at the comment but he restrained himself and simply nodded. "Bye, Anna," he said somewhat irritably as he closed the door behind him and began making his way to the stairs. "What am I going to do – have a threesome with Andrew and Tracey?" he hissed under his breath in disbelief. "Honestly," he scoffed. "Like Trace would actually go for that, and Andrew already learned his lesson about three-ways…"

Gary paused at the top of the stairs to glance back at Anna's closed bedroom door; her stereo was still blaring through the door but that wasn't what caught his attention. Rachael's door near the stairwell was open and she was lying on her bed, gazing silently up at the ceiling.

He hesitated with his hand on the railing, part of him wanting to simply go home only to appease Anna's wishes. Another part of him was curious and worried – he hadn't been able to get the latter emotion out his mind and he found it once more rearing its head when he saw his former friend lying on her bed like that. He bit his lip and turned his gaze to the stairs before him, weighing the consequences of any actions he took.

With a final glance towards Anna's closed door, Gary backed away from the stairs and headed in the direction of Rachael's bedroom. With the way Anna's music was playing so loudly, there was no way she would know about this. What she didn't know wouldn't necessarily hurt her. He tapped gently on the open door and gave Rachael a small smile in greeting when she looked up.

"I figured that was you at the door," she said softly as she settled amongst the covers on her bed.

Gary entered the room and closed the door gently behind him. He hesitated, not knowing what to say or do as her distant response to his appearance had thrown him off somewhat. It hadn't been what he was expecting. "Well, you know me."

Rachael snorted softly as Gary crossed the lush white carpet to stand over her. "Yeah, I do. You'll let Anna drag you to the depths of the abyss just so that she can spit you out and repeat the whole process over again."

"You know she's only like that when she's mad."

"Yes, and you're tempting fate just by being in here. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" she added sardonically, barely noticing the frown that crossed Gary's face at her words.

"We've barely talked since Halloween, aren't I allowed to at least say 'hello' to you?" Gary sat down at the foot of the bed and let his eyes slowly wander over her form, taking in the subtle changes he hadn't noticed in the mall – the chipped polish on her fingernails, which were shorter than normal; the longer hair, overdue for a trim, clothes looser than usual… Tiny, trivial things which most people wouldn't even notice.

She stayed quiet for a moment as she glanced at the long sleeves of his sweatshirt. "Did you cut yourself again?"

"No."

A strange, unreadable expression crossed her face and disappeared as suddenly as it had come. "Good for you," she said softly, the tone in her quiet voice leaving Gary even more confused than he had already been. Her eyes flickered away from him and settled on the far wall, she looked uncomfortable as she swallowed hard before speaking again. "I didn't mean what I said on Halloween."

"About Anna cutting?" She nodded slowly and closed her eyes with a small sigh. "Rach-"

"No, Gary," she cut him off before he could continue. "I was jealous and angry and I just threw out whatever I could think of at Anna. I didn't realize – I didn't think that you, of all people, did it too..." Her eyes skimmed over his arms again, lingering at his wrists where she had seen the most vivid scars. "Don't see how we managed to miss that one though; it was pretty obvious now that I think about it." A strange, mirthless grin spread across her face as she boldly met his eyes. "It's amazing the things people can miss, isn't it? Especially the people close to you. Sometimes I think the people closest to us are the most clueless about what's actually going on with us."

Gary felt a slight chill go through him at her words spoken in a quiet yet cold tone. She was starting to unnerve him now. "Rachael, what are you talking about?"

She brushed the question off with a small wave of her hand which, Gary noticed, seemed to shake slightly. "I'm just being philosophical. Don't worry yourself, sweetie."

"Don't worry? Rachael –"

"Stop," Rachael snapped at him suddenly as she sat up and met his eyes again. "Don't screw up your relationship with Anna because I said something that got your panties in a twist."

Gary stared at her in confusion for a moment, a frown furrowing his brow as his eyes narrowed slightly. The snap was uncharacteristic. She had always been cool and collected, even during arguments, even when she was trying to bait her sister with insults. This was vastly different from the norm for her.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it when the music down the hall suddenly shut off and the door to Anna's bedroom opened and closed, her footsteps echoed through the hallway and then down the stairs while Gary and Rachael held each other's gazes. The air in the room was tense when Rachael spoke again after Anna's footsteps had faded.

"It's probably time for you to go, you wouldn't want her to get mad at you again," she advised softly.

Gary nodded and stood up. "This conversation isn't over yet, Rach," he informed her solemnly.

"There's nothing more to talk about, Gary." He frowned as he silently walked to the door, his mind spinning as he tried in vain to process what had just happened. "By the way," her voice stopped him at the door when he was about to open it. "I never did thank you for always being there for me, even though you were always so focused on Anna. You're probably the only person who did that." Gary turned back to her to respond but she simply shook her head and gestured for him to leave. "See you, Gary."

"Right… See you around, Rach. Take care of yourself, okay?"

"You're going to want to leave before my sister finds out that you're up here; she'll probably castrate you for it."

Recognizing defeat, Gary nodded slightly and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. He stood in the hallway for a few seconds, simply thinking, everything that had happened all day running through his head rapidly. Realizing that Rachael was right, he headed towards the stairs and quickly descended them, knowing that there was no way for Anna to not realize that he had not yet left. Heading into the kitchen to say goodbye to Nicole and to retrieve Umbreon, he paused in the doorway when he found Anna and Nicole talking, Anna obviously irritated as she scratched Umbreon behind the ears with a dark expression. She looked up at him the instant she felt his presence and crossed her arms over her chest, shooting him a venomous glare.

"What have you been doing?"

"I had to use the bathroom," he quickly lied, knowing that she most likely recognized this as untruthful.

Anna stalked across the tiled floor and pushed past him in the door way with a scowl. "I'm not that fucking stupid and you know it."

"Anna!"

Gary glanced at Nicole before turning his gaze to Anna and then guiltily to the floor as he apologized quietly. She scoffed in response and headed back upstairs, her footsteps echoing loudly as she furiously made her way back to the lair that was her bedroom.

"I'm really screwing this up," Gary said when she had disappeared beyond the top of the stairs. Hearing the slight despair to his voice, Umbreon leaned against his legs, nudging his hand with her nose. She whined softly as he absently patted her head.

"Just give it a few days, you know how she is," Nicole reminded him.

A small groan escaped Gary as he nodded in reply; right now, all he wanted to do was to go home and go to sleep. The day had certainly not been a good one and he could only hope that things would get better quickly.

::Author's Notes::

Snailsgomoo – thanks! I can totally understand where you're coming from; finals have been killer this semester! I'm glad to hear you felt that way about the whole Rachael thing – it makes me proud! Lol, thanks as always.