As she has done so often these past few days, she goes to the dining room to find a seat away from the overflow of everyone else's emotions until she can sort out her own. There aren't any chairs left (or the table or cabinets or shelves) and truthfully, she isn't quite sure anymore where the dining room ends and the kitchen begins. The family portrait is gone, but if she's honest with herself, she never really liked it anyway. She'd rather have the real thing, as messy and complicated as it can be.
She sweeps away bits of wood and food and broken china with her foot and sits cross-legged near the scattered threshold to the veranda. Some of the potted plants survived the collapse and sit numbly by, as she does, waiting to be re-homed.
The world still comes to her from a distance, as though there's wool in her ears, and she doesn't hear the footsteps climbing carefully over the debris until they are almost on top of her. She looks up to find Tío balancing precariously on a crumbled piece of wall.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Mind if I join you?"
"Uh...if you can find a place to sit."
He hops down and pushes a few more indistinguishable pieces of wall or floor or roof out of the way and tucks himself into the corner he's made beside her. Her head falls on to his shoulder, and his arm comes up around her. They don't speak for a while, just sit and watch people come and go and come and go as everyone tries to figure out what the next right thing to do is.
The sun smiles down on the family's efforts. Tía walks by them with a wave, Mamí stops to chat for a bit, Isabela and Luisa come and sit with them in turn. Everyone wants to see Tío, to touch him, to steal a hug, to ruffle his hair, to make sure they aren't imaging things. She understands, but that doesn't stop her from counting the hours, the minutes, the seconds until it's just the two of them again.
It isn't until the sun is setting and the front yard is being prepped for a Madrigal family camping trip, that he speaks.
"I found something."
She looks at what he offers her and reaches out slowly to receive it. An old book with a red cover whose spine is creased, whose jacket is missing, and whose words she once had almost memorized. She opens it, coughing when a small dust cloud erupts from it. She flips through page after page after page. Old, familiar stories leap up to greet her, bringing her memories she'd thought long buried.
Sitting in the squashy red armchair in Tío's lap as he read to her.
The first time he showed her his entire collection of books and allowed her to borrow one.
Late nights spent in speculation of a story whose next volume neither of them had yet read.
Laying her head on her arms, for just a moment, fingers stuck in the pages to mark her place while she waited for Tío to come back.
Throwing it across the room after everyone stopped looking for him and leaving it there for a week.
Storing it on the top shelf of her bookcase, never knowing if she'd open it again.
She finds the page that's been dog-eared for ten years and skims it, feeling her eyes water. "I couldn't finish the story without you."
He can't speak over the knot in his throat, but he nods and runs his finger over the last line he remembers reading with her. Her voice is small and thick with much more emotion than the story warrants, but neither of them cares. She reads until the day's light sinks behind the night's shadow and unwillingly closes the book. She hugs it tightly to her chest.
She looks around, fully taking in the ruin around them, the family curling up together to sleep under the stars. "What – what do we do now?"
He gives her a light squeeze. "We find either coffee or a bed or both because neither one of us has slept in about three days."
She sniffs and pushes herself further into his embrace. He somehow still smells just a little like smoke and can't quite wrap his arms all the way around her, but he does his best. He's always done his best.
"¿Tienes miedo...del futuro?"
Too many emotions try to escape at once and she splutters and coughs her way through them to find her voice.
"I don't have to be anymore. You're here. You came home."
Fin.
A/N: Whoo, what a ride! It's been an incredible six (almost seven!) months from beginning to end. I couldn't have done it without your support! Once again, a major Thank You to tigerlily24, who first asked for my take on the events around the movie and was the catalyst for a 1500 word one shot to become this 20,000+ word chapter story!
And! ...I'm planning a sequel set during the rebuilding. I already have the first chapter written, and I will post it soon. Please be sure to follow/favorite so you don't miss it!
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts! Have a great week, everyone! -WW