Stay with me I got this...
Chapter 14: Me Without You
For the next several weeks the girls lived with Aunt Hildur, attempting to adjust to their lives being totally altered in almost every way possible. Jack, as well as many of the other newsies, constantly checked in on the girls and spent time with them. Gabrielle changed her view on her aunt-she became her hero. It was now her own parents that she never wanted to see.
Neither one of the two girls actually spoke to the other about how they had been feeling. It was almost as if there was a silent bond between them. They didn't need to tell each other what was going on inside their heads and hearts-they both felt the same. But results of tragedy and hardship can only stay bottled for a time-it was only so long before one of them finally cracked...
Gabrielle walked through the market, finished with what she had to do. As she was heading back, her mind went into auto-pilot, leading her body unknowingly back towards her parent's house. She took the same route she and Mush had taken the night he walked her home before she left the following morning. Suddenly it hit her and she stopped dead in her tracks. She began having flashbacks. She couldn't see anything but the two of them-happy and in love.
Suddnely her mind switched gears...she began seeing and feeling something she had never experianced-war. She saw Spot, but not through her own eyes. Suddenly chaos erupted and she began running-in her mind as well as in the streets. All she could see was the battlefield. She watched as men around her were hit and dropped to the ground. She was following another boy-one she didn't know. Shots fired-they fell to the ground. The other one had been hit.
Hands that were not her own reached out to stop the bleeding...what she saw nextmade her heart skip a beat-the hands pulled out a white glove and placed pressure on the wound. More shots fired and she watched as the boy take his final breath. Running again-only this time something hit...
Gabrielle's mind returned to normal as she found she had run right into someone. He held her up as she could not stop crying, "Calm down Gabrielle, what happened?"
She looked up at the figure holding her-it was Spot-she had unknowingly run all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, "I-I was there Spot...I saw you, and I saw the explosion and the, the-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa-what are talking about?" his eyes were serious.
"I saw the battle through Mush's eyes Spot! I saw his friend get shot, and he pulled out my glove to stop the bleeding-but his friend died. He was shot in the face-he didn't even look human..."
"Okay, okay, it's alright. Let's get you back to your Aunt's and we'll get Jack, okay?" she nodded and he walked her back.
Gabrielle sat on the couch, tea in hand, shaking. Jack came running in and squated in front of her, attempting to look up at her face as she couldn't seem to take her focus of the floor. He tried to get her to speak but she wouldn't.
Placing her cup on the table next to him he took both of her shaking hands into his and spoke gently, "Gabrielle-I can't help you if you don't talk to me..."
She lifted her eyes to his-they were bloodshot. She really had seen something, but how? Spot finally repeated what she had told him. Jack shook his head, when was this going to end?
"Me without you..." she suddnely whispered.
"What?" Jack came back in front of her.
"This is me without him...." her focused never faltered as she spoke, "Broken and bruised. Jack-I can't even remember what happy feels like..."
After comforting Gabrielle, Spot and Jack stepped out onto the front porch. Jack pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a deep inhalation. He let his head fall back as he let the smoke out again, "When is this nightmare going to end, Spot?''
Spot lit his cigarette, "When this war does..."
He nodded to Jack and went on his way. What did he mean, when the war ends? What will that do? If he truly knew something Jack didn't, he would tell him. Now it was only a matter of time-they still had boys out there fighting-how many more were they to loose?
A/N: more coming ummm NOW...