Dear West

Chapter 6:

December, 1974

After calming the girl down and seating her on the couch, he retreated to the kitchen to fetch her a cup of coffee. He hesitated when he realized that it was the same brand that Lars had recommended to him just last week.

"Bitte," he offered the cup to her.

"Danke schön," she muttered back, taking the mug from him.

Figuring that he wasn't going to get much sleep that night, not with Lars' sister sitting on the couch and with his morning shift coming up, he sighed and took a drink out of his own mug. There was a long moment of silence before he tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling, "so Lars got taken away? What happened?"

Shuddering at the memory, she nodded, "we'd just finished supper and were sitting around the apartment as always…then out of nowhere, these soldiers began knocking at our door. Broer made me hide in the little space under his bed and went to open the door." Tears were stinging at her eyes again, "And the soldiers kept yelling at him and t-then…and then they began beating him up. They just wouldn't stop…a-and I could hear everything even though broer told me not to listen, I did, I heard everything! They kept laughing and hitting him and he wasn't even trying to fight back! An-and then, they t-took him away and I came here…"

He handed her a tissue and remained silent.

She wiped her tears away and blew her nose. Then she turned to him, "tell me, why'd they take broer away? You're his friend, you know him, you work with him, so you must know…"

Slightly shocked, he stared at her, "He never told you?"

Bella shook her head, "all he said was to find you if anything were to happen to him. I figured it was illegal, but for him to get taken away like that…"

Silently swearing to himself, he ran a hand through his hair, "alright…follow me." He led her into his room where he'd pinned up all the notes that the children had sent him, "this is what he was doing. He was helping me out. You're right about it being illegal, but it's the good kind of illegal. He was helping me get kids over to the west."

Wide eyed, she read a couple of the notes.

"Dear East,

How are you? Papa said that he's going to bring me to Quebec and that we can go buy maple syrup! America said he wanted to come but him and England are going away for a couple weeks so he can't. Are you having fun over there? Papa's taught me how to feed Pierre when he gets home! We all miss you.

Love,
Canada"

"Dear East,

Yesterday, Spain came to visit with Romano! It was a lot of fun and Spain almost brought all of us back to his house with him, he said it'd be like a paradise there but he got stopped by the adults. It's hard not writing names.

Will we get to see you again soon?

Love,
Veneziano"

She turned to him, "Who wrote all these?"

"The first kiddies I got over," he couldn't help but smile fondly at the memories, "Lars knew all about it. It began with him sneaking extra food for me, then after the first few left, he began helping me out. Your Bruder helped saved a lot of people."

A flash of anger surged through her. Those people were the ones that caused her brother to be taken away. It was their fault he was attacked and arrested in his own home. It was their fault she had to turn to a stranger for help. It was their fault for needing his help. It was all their fault. It was all Gilbert's fault for dragging her brother into this whole mess in the first place.

She snapped before she could stop herself, "why'd he have to know you? Why'd you drag him into all of this? I don't care if he was a hero or a criminal! I don't care about all those other people! I just want broer back! I'd trade all the people he helped for him! I just want broer…I want things to go back to the way they were before tonight!"

It was strange seeing the girl angry and upset. Every time she'd walked into their workplace, she always had a bright grin on her face which only widened when she watched her brother sigh and shake his head as he proceeded to place an order for her. She'd been so happy, so well protected from the world…but now here she was, yelling at him with tears running down her face. Idly, he wondered if Ludwig had the same reaction when he broke his promise and got out of the car that day.

Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck, "you're obviously in no state of mind to think straight. Here," he took her to the spare bedroom where the bunk bed was, "you can sleep in here tonight. We'll talk again in the morning."

Wiping the tears away, she tried to calm herself down the best she could and asked, "Why are there two bedrooms here?"

He shrugged, "that room used to be my grandma's then my parents' and now it's mine. This room used to be mine then it became West's and the kiddies."

She blinked, "West?"

"My little brother, he shared this room with all the other kiddies that were living here before," he told her offhandedly before closing the door behind him as he left the room, "Gute Nacht."

Once back in his own room, he sat down at his desk and raked a hand through his hair. Lars had been caught. There was no doubt in his mind what the ultimate result would be. Even if he wanted to go rescue the Dutchman, not only could he not jeopardize the plan they were going to go through with next week but by the time they reached Lars, it'd probably be too late. The blond wasn't the first person to get caught, and from inside sources, people like him were easily killed without a second thought, he'd be lucky to get sent to jail. During the interrogations and abuse, the people that didn't break, died. And the fact that he knew Lars wouldn't talk simply reinforced his fate.

Though the longer he sat there, the stranger he found the idea of his friend being gone. Stupid Lars and the constantly bored look he had on his face. Stupid Lars and his stupid last words which meant so little yet so much at the same time. Even in the end, he was trying to shield his sister from the cruelty of reality.

"Don't listen."

Those were his last words…and now he was being interrogated somewhere.

He didn't get any sleep that night as he pondered possible ways of getting his friend out.

Finally, he resorted to writing to Francis, informing him that planning would have to be put on a hiatus as his middleman had been taken in. But upon second thought, he realized that things were getting too real. His only friend in the east had just been taken away and eventually, they'd catch up to him. He shuddered when he thought about what his friend would be subjected to within the next 24 hours and realized that he had to get himself out before it became too late.

The next morning, he sat and ate breakfast as the blonde across from him stared at him, eyes weary from all those tears. And he couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards her; after all, her whole world had just crumbled into dust. Finally, he couldn't take the silence anymore, "alright, listen, because Lars asked me to help you, I will. But since you're not exactly a small child, I understand that I can't force you to do anything you don't want to. So, would you like me to help you?"

She nodded, "ja."

"And how would you like me to help you? I can arrange for you to cross over to the west and then from there, you can find your way back to the Netherlands or Belgium or whatever part of Europe you came from."

Bella frowned in confusion, "cross over? I don't want to go to the west, that's not the help I need. I need you to help me get broer out of jail."

He'd hoped she wouldn't say that .Not having the heart to tell her the truth about her brother's fate, he merely shook his head, "sorry, no can do. Look, Lars' request didn't entail risking your life to break him out of jail and speaking as a Bruder, that's probably the last thing he wants you to do. So as his friend, I'm afraid I have to decline your request."

"But-"

Gilbert held a hand up, "Listen to me, jailbreak plans don't work in situations like these. You won't get to see your Bruder for a long, long time, that's all I can tell you."

She stood up angrily, "but aren't you his friend? If you'd been caught, broer-"

"He would've said 'that's too bad. That Gilbert, damn he was awesome' in the same voice he always uses and then go to work the next day, and he'd probably have to cover my shift for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're friends, but we're also partners in crime. And we have a 'friends don't let other friends get arrested' policy, so whoever gets arrested first, they don't blab and whoever's still free continues the work. He understood what he was getting himself into when he first started helping me out and he probably knew what was going to happen to him when he hid you and opened that door."

Though she tried to hold back her tears, they began welling up in her eyes again, "but broer never said anything. We managed to live a normal life here despite everything that's happened to us. Why would he go and do all this? We could've been just fine…why didn't he tell me anything?"

His eyes softened slightly, "because he was trying to protect you from the east. You were the only family he had left and he loved you more than anything, so he kept you safe and sheltered, oblivious to all the problems around here. I did the same with West, except instead of just covering his eyes from the east, I sent him away from it so he'd never get a chance to even look at it. There were so many things Lars didn't want you to know about…"

It felt strange using nothing but past tenses and talking about his friend like the man was already dead. Suddenly, he couldn't remember any of those annoying habits he had or the way he always had that bored look on his face or the way his stupid matches were portable fire hazards.

Bella merely shot him a lost look, "what do you mean?"

He never intended to lecture the girl but everything just came tumbling out of his mouth before he could control himself. "I mean he didn't want you to know about all the parents who left their kids behind in favour of personal security or the ones who tried to give us the last of their money so that we could get their children to safety, to ensure that they'll have a future they can look forward to. He didn't want you to know about the people we snuck food for to keep them from dying on the streets. He didn't want you to know about how the police have arrested and killed people we knew for no reason whatsoever or how friends have turned out to be Stasi members.

"He didn't want you to know any of that so he tried his best to keep you oblivious to all of it because even though you're not a child anymore, to him, you're still his one and only kid sister. I'm not saying he was wrong for shielding you because I did the same thing and as older brothers, that's just what we do. And Lars was damn good at being a Bruder, which is why he specifically told me to help you if something were to happen to him. He knew what the police would do if they were to catch anyone connected to him. And that's why you should give up your rescue plan; because what you're thinking of right now is some crazy, unrealistic plan that has a sliver of a chance of succeeding and I can tell you right now, it won't work. Lars wouldn't want you to throw your life away like that, not for him."

People always talked better about a man when he's dead

He couldn't help but wonder if it'd be the same for him some day.

Her shoulders were shaking from her sobbing. Suddenly, she felt like a little girl again except she didn't have her brother there to hold her hand and fend off her offenders like he always did. Broer, broer, broer… Mentally, she could only hear herself crying out for him though she knew that there wouldn't be a reply; like groping for a hand that wasn't there. And although she didn't want to hear the answer, she asked, "Why are you telling me all this?"

Broer, make him stop. Make him shut up. He's lying. Your friend's making me cry, make him stop. I don't want to listen to him anymore I don't like him. I'm scared. He keeps talking about you like you're dead, make him stop. Make him stop. Make him stop. Broer, where are you? Why aren't you here? Make him go away. Broer…

"Because you're Lars' kid sister. If you didn't open your eyes to the truth, you would've gone and done something stupid, and he'd probably hate me for it." She tried her best not to listen. He got up, "look, I have to get to work. Feel free to stay here for as long as you'd like, but other than getting you through the borders, I can't help you. I'm sorry."

Then he left.

In the end, he still couldn't tell her that her brother probably wasn't going to make it. He was as guilty as Lars, feeding her illusions that something in the east might end well.

He felt cold inside for the rest of the day.

At work, after his shift ended, the owner frowned and walked up to him with an unreadable expression on his face. He'd probably already clued in as to what'd happened especially since Lars had never been late before. But instead of asking questions of noting hte obvious, the man merely asked him, "Can you do a double shift for awhile? It'll just be till we get a new worker."

Gilbert nodded, "sure, boss."

The place had never felt so silent and empty before…

And once he finished his double shift and returned to his apartment, the woman had disappeared.

Nya~

It's surprisingly super hot here right now, my legs get stuck together when I try to sit cross-legged, it's kind of gross. Yes anyways, read and review? Danke schön! Enjoy!