Nothing I Expected
Disclaimer: Manhattan productions are the sole owner and distributor of Totally Spies.
Disclaimer: Concept, ideas and OCs all belong to me, UID 140135
Chapter 5
"Gabriel! Gabriel, answer me!" Sam screamed as she made her way through the rubble. pieces of the ceiling tumbled down as her scream reverberated through the loose concrete. One hand in front of her mouth, she slowly made her way to the glowing mass of cables, tripping over shadowed debris. Tears ran down her face, but not from the smoke.
"Gabriel!" she shrieked. A hand suddenly gripped her ankle, causing her to stumble and fall. She looked down and saw Gabriel's father looking up at her.
"why do you still…call her? you know what…she…will…become," he said faintly, before his grip slackened abruptly. His dead eyes looked up at her as the tears flowed more rapidly. She pried his fingers from her ankle, hysteria quickening her actions. She staggered up, her legs still weak from the blast.
"Gabriel! Please!" she wailed. A cable tore from the ceiling at the vibration of her call, sizzling with electricity. she barely had time to dive out of the way before someone yanked her out of its path. It crashed to the ground, exactly where she had been standing. Sparks flew harmlessly from the dying supply. She squinted around in the dusty area where she had been pulled to. Lying some feet away from her was-
"Gabriel!" she yelled. She was leaning up against a broken chunk of ceiling, her head hanging on the chest, her arms aimlessly at her sides. Sam scrambled over. Her hand was on Gabriel's shoulders and shaking her before she could raise her head slightly.
"not…so…hard," she wheezed. Sam grinned through her tears, containing her panic.
"Gabriel, why?" Sam didn't know to what question she was asking, but Gabriel answered her anyway.
"I…know…it's stupid, but...I…love…ye," she barely even whispered, before her head slumped
"Gabriel!" she cried out. Gabriel didn't respond and the despairing scream tore true from her throat. She put her head in Gabriel's lap, curling around her, sobbing helplessly. Everything was lost. She now knew, through all that happened, through all her denial of her rationality, of 'love at first sight' as some corny, lovesick idea…she knew. And she was helpless to change any of it. And it made her howl only the harder.
"Samantha, hang on, we're coming!"
WOOHP HQ PRIVATE I.C.U., USA, 05:03 AM, FRIDAY 21 JULY
Sam stirred as someone laid their hand on top of her head. She opened her eyes, not really connecting with reality. She was in a white, white room with glowing green screens all around her, a faint rhythmic beeping in the background. She was sitting up, but lying on her arms on a soft blanket. The she comprehended. She shot up, eyes intent on Gabriel, wincing as she sat up at the pain that must be going through her arm.
Instead, her eyes drank in Gabriel's frail form covered in wires and bandages, face covered in an oxygen mask, still unconscious. She turned her head and saw that it had been Jeanie King who had laid her hand on her head, waking her. She visibly deflated. Jeanie King took this in her stride as she pulled up a chair next to Sam's.
"I'm sorry tae have startled ye so," she apologized. She looked from Sam to Gabriel and then back to Sam.
"There's nigh tae do than wait, aye?" she asked Sam. Sam lowered her head in agreement.
"Gabriel will pull through. He's a warrior," she said softly. Sam looked back at her, not understanding the change in pronoun. Jeanie King saw this.
"Ye noticed? I've gotten so used tae it. Gabriel…well, he's nigh been my daughter for a long time now. Might I tell ye something, Samantha?" Sam said nothing, Jeanie continued nonetheless.
"When Gabriel was changed, I didnae accept him for a long time. I refused tae comprehend it, and I fought it all I could. I thought he had become his Da, in all his blood and reincarnation. But, my son," she nodded to herself, as if finally acknowledging a truth, "my son, he was never his Da. And he would never be. And then, and then," she said, leaning forward, taking Sam's hand in her hands, "I saw him against his Da yesterday. I saw him with ye. And I know this sounds all so sappy, like I should be in a black and white film, but I know this: he was never meant tae be my daughter. And may it be I'm telling ye something you've been grappling with and come tae a decision about, or you've already decided, but I know. He cares for ye. And may it be there's something more." Jeanie King shook her head at her babbling. She got up to leave, leaving Sam leaning on the bed and waiting. She left Sam with a last thought.
"Be his warrior queen. You're what he's pulling through for." She left, a tear trickling down her cheek.
WOOHP HQ PRIVATE I.C.U., USA, 23:58 PM, SATURDAY 22 JULY
Jerry had finally ushered Sam into a bed of her own, although it was still in the same room as Gabriel. Gabriel's brainwaves had slipped into non-REM sleep, a vast improvement, but Sam had been asleep when it had happened. He thought to not wake her. And then while Jeanie King was sitting up with her, Gabriel had woken up.
"Ma?" she whispered, barely above the whine of the air-conditioner. Jeanie clutched at her hand as she smiled tearfully.
"Gabby. Gods, how ye feeling?" she asked quietly.
"I'm- Sam, where's Sam, did she make it, is she alright, is she-" she struggled upright with panic. Her mother tried to push her down.
"She's alright Gabriel, thanks tae ye. She's sleeping in the other bed, dunnae wake her." Gabriel flopped back down, relief awash in every feature. Her mother looked at her, one hand across her daughter's chest. Her daughter's chest. She sighed inwardly.
"Gabriel. Have ye looked at yourself since the change?"
"Da made me."
"And?" Gabriel was silent. "Gabby?"
"Fine, ma, I hate myself! Happy now?"
"Nay, ye know I'm not."
"Then why did ye ask me?" this time her mother was silent. "Ma? What?"
"You're eighteen tomorrow."
"And?"
"Legally, in the states, I have nigh a say…what I mean tae say, is that you're legally, but technically, an adult in America."
"Ma, spill what ye have tae say, I'm already in physical pain."
"Ye can choose."
"What do ye mean, 'I can choose'?"
"you're nigh going tae like this, but here it is: when ye were in ye male body, I took sperm samples."
"Gods Ma, follow down the path of Da, why dunnae ye?"
"Hush Gabby. The truth is, ye can be biologically male, if ye really want."
Complete, utter silence.
"What?"
"No-one knows this, but that first machine of your Da's, is still in working order. I'm the only one that knows of it. Ye are the only one who can work it."
"Ma… ye mean…?"
"I know ye, my child. I know ye. And I've learnt a little of Sam, and I know her a bit too." Gabriel was as still as a living statue. As her mother got up to leave, she weakly grabbed her wrist.
"Ma."
"Aye?"
"What has sperm got tae do with anything?"
"Just in case, Gabby. Just in case she's the one." Gabriel blushed.
WOOHP HQ PRIVATE I.C.U., USA, 00:12 AM, SUNDAY 23 JULY
"Sam? Sam, are ye asleep?" Sam rubbed her eyes and then realized who the voice belong to. She yelped, tripping over the sheets in her hurry to go to the other bed.
"Dunnae kill yourself now. I've already saved ye twice."
"Gabriel, oh god, Gabriel, you're all right!" Sam cried happily. Gabriel touched a droplet trickling down.
"silly things, tears, aren't they?" before Gabriel could make another comment, Sam had bent down and crushed her lips against hers. Gabriel was frozen in shock for a minute before she realized what was happening. Then she responded. She pressed against Sam, pulling her closer, urging Sam next to her. It was a desperate, hot kiss, but like before: velvet across silk. This time it was Gabriel that brought her hands up to Sam's face, and Sam grabbed them before they could go any further. They both pulled back for air, Sam's red hair hanging around Gabriel's head like a halo. She smiled down at her before coming down again, holding her hands at her waist while she showed even more passion than the second. They opened their mouths at the exact same instant, and bliss bubbled up and down their spines as their tongues became acquainted. They pulled apart again, their lungs dragging for air.
"…gods…" Gabriel finally managed to say. Sam's smile turned serious.
"I finally understood something. Gabriel, when you were caught in the explosion, and you pulled me out of the way of the falling cable… I knew. What you said, it wasn't stupid. Because I feel it too. Love at first sight, it means our souls are connected. I love all of you; I don't care if you're in a male or female body. I don't care that I've never had feelings for another girl before," she said, eyeing Gabriel's chest and then back to her face. She leaned closer.
"I." a kiss on Gabriel's forehead.
"love." A kiss on Gabriel's nose.
"you." A kiss on Gabriel's mouth that lingered longer than it should have for an ICU patient.
WOOHP HQ PRIVATE I.C.U., USA, 10:00 AM, SUNDAY 23 JULY
When the nurses finally left, when Jerry and Jeanie King had finally left, when all the women they had saved had finally left, when Clover and Alex had finally left, still ignorant that Gabriel was female instead of male, they were finally left alone.
Gabriel was now rid of a few of the wires and pipes, so there was room for Sam to lie next to her. both of them were comfortable in the silence, Sam beginning to doze off.
"Sam?" Gabriel said softly.
"yeah?" she said, shifting her to face Gabriel, awake now.
"I have something tae tell ye. And… and well, it might not be tae your liking." Sam put her head on her outstretched arm for more leverage, waiting. Gabriel grimaced inwardly.
"I've always like girls." No response. She tried again.
"I mean, I've never felt anything towards a boy. My first crush was a girl in third grade. And I've never felt comfortable in a girl's body, everything just felt…wrong. Ye know?" Sam kept quiet, still waiting.
"when my Da changed me, I felt relieved. Now, I could like a girl and she could like me back, without any horrible power coming down on my head. I was finally at peace with myself." She stroked a hand across Sam's hair. Sam leant into it, but no further.
"what are you trying to say to me, Gabriel?"
"I want tae go back. My Da's first machine still exists, and my ma has given her blessing tae what I choose." She blushed red at her mother's last comment.
"but I'm afraid. Afraid that I'll turn intae my Da, that we'll never work out, that ye won't love me anymore…" Sam brought a finger to her lips.
"sshhh, Gabriel. I'll always love you, I highly doubt that that can change now. but," Sam propped herself up with her elbow. "are you sure that you're doing this for yourself? That you're not doing it out of any fear that I'll realize someday that I don't actually like girls, and this is some kind of insurance?" Gabriel turned her head away from Sam for a minute, then turned back.
"I don't want tae lose ye. But I don't want tae hate myself for the rest of our lives." Sam smiled, kissing her on the cheek.
"then you've made your decision. And I don't love you any less."
To be continued…