Giovanni Turri passed away at the age of sixty three, an old man who should have lived to be even older. When news of the man's death reached the couple Modena, husband and wife put their lives on hold and returned to Rome as soon as Gaia's grief eased enough to allow her to move.
As immensely upset as Erik had been by the news, he knew Gaia was tenfold more so. Before he had met her, her father had been her world. Her reason for staying in Rome was her attachment to the only family she had ever truly had; her mother died young, and she was so incredibly different from her sisters. Giovanni was the only living member of her family she had loved, and now he was gone. What haunted her the most was the idea that he died alone. Only a year after Erik and Gaia had moved north, their father had passed away… surely that wasn't a coincidence, Gaia thought. No, there were no coincidences in life. Everything happened for a reason. Her mother had died and it pulled her from a school she hated into a loving, if tiresome household caring for her father. If she hadn't been home, Erik would never have quite literally fallen into her life and brought her such love and happiness… but if she hadn't left home, surely her father would not have died.
Erik shared in Gaia's guilt more than he let her know. He tried to comfort her as best he could, but he himself was in need of comfort; at nineteen years old, Erik was only playing the part of the man of the house. He went to work, paid the bills, made love with a beautiful wife… but he was just acting. Improvising. At heart Erik was only a boy, no matter how adult he looked or acted. It was one of the things Gaia loved about him, but now it was tearing him apart; now he was a boy who had lost his father, the only real adult he had ever respected and loved. Giovanni was the sort of man Erik aspired to be in his daily routine, play-acting at manhood. His work on the home he was building for his wife was nearly finished and gathering a great deal of attention from the residents of Modena and Bologna, who were already requesting his services for their upcoming projects... and while Erik had always been a natural architect, he knew he was only getting work because of Giovanni. Giovanni had taught him to quell his fear of people enough to serve them so that he could serve his art. It was Giovanni who had taught him to follow his instinct, but to do so quietly and modestly. To choose his battles, and stick to his ideals when he needed to but to sacrifice art for practicality at times. Everything Erik had come to like about himself over the past two years, Giovanni had taught him.
The young couple had both wept for hours at the news, but it was only Gaia who continued to weep on the carriage ride to Rome. Erik did his best to keep his composure, if only so he could offer as much comfort as he could to his wife. But it wasn't easy; how does one give comfort when one lacks it? The best he could do was stroke his wife's hair as she cried, and quite literally bite his tongue when she raged.
"This is all your fault!" She spat at him wildly in the carriage just as they left their apartment. Erik could see heads turning as the carriage rattled down the streets of Modena, curious as to the outburst within. "If you hadn't wanted to build that stupid house as a wedding present, if you had just thought of something normal he might still be alive! I might have still been in Rome to take care of him while he was sick!" Erik bit the inside of his cheeks so hard he tasted blood, trying his best not to lash back out at her like instinct demanded he do.
"This isn't your fault, Gaia. You haven't been feeling well yourself, you probably would have just gotten worse in Rome. Whatever it is you caught, the fresh air seems to be helping," he pointed out quietly; the tightness in her chest had alleviated itself after several days in Modena, but was prone to coming back when she was under stress, like around the day she had coined his birthday since he wasn't sure of his and the day Erik nearly broke his neck falling from the roof of their new home. The week after that particular event, she had developed a rattling cough and had lost a significant amount of weight as she tended to her husband in his pain. Erik was deathly worried the stress now would trigger another illness.
Erik's silence only made Gaia more upset. "Well aren't you going to say something, or have you gone stupid on me?" She demanded. "I wish I never-" Whatever it was she wished was never voices as her words dissolved into a deep, painful cough. Erik frowned deeply and rubbed her back in an attempt to soothe her as she cried during short, desperate breaths. After what seemed like ages, Gaia's cough subsided and she simply sobbed quietly, curling back into her husband's lap and feeling even worse after having been so harsh with him.
When finally they rattled into Rome, it seemed as if the whole city was mourning. Nearly everyone who lived in Rome knew or at least had heard of Giovanni. He had been a well-liked man, a remarkable artist and philanthroper. After hours, the carriage came to a stop in front of the house they had once called a home so long ago. Erik stepped out and moved around the carriage to help his wife down. Gaia accepted his hand and stepped down carefully, hugging him tightly as she did so. "I'm sorry Erik. I didn't mean any of those things I said. I'm just-"
Erik kissed her gently, unafraid of catching whatever it was that plagued her; if he were going to get ill he would have any of the other times she had been. They were virtually inseparable in sickness and in health, just as they had vowed. If he hadn't bitten the inside of his cheek so hard earlier he might have been alarmed by the taste of blood on her lips, but as it was it went unnoticed. "I know. Thank you, I accept your apology gratefully," he promised, kissing her forehead this time and hugging her tightly. As they stepped inside the house, people flocked to them give their condolences. As they had at their wedding reception, the pair stayed as close together as they could for as long as possible, until Gaia caught sight of one of her nieces in tears and left unattended.
"I'm going to go see to Gabrielle for a moment. Her mother must be preoccupied…" she explained with an apologetic look to Erik who dismissed her with a kiss. Erik moved off to the side of the room, taking up a glass of wine and standing to the side of the room with one of the few men he actually knew from the Freemasonry. The physician Sergio looked to the young man with a frown.
"I'm terribly sorry for your loss, Brother Erik," Erik took a deep drink from his wine and nodded.
"Yes. So am I," he admitted quietly. Sergio had been one of the only men at the Lodge who had not once demanded to know why he wore a mask or requested that he remove it in the presence of his Brothers. Combined with the care he had given Erik when he was twice injured, Erik had grown to respect the man. "I take it you saw to him?"
The physician nodded. "I did. It's truly a miracle he lived this long, to be honest. I've seen cases of men dying within months after their wives, Giovanni lived a good ten years, and as a stoneworker on top of that! He had pain in his back, knees, elbows… and finally his lungs. It was simply his time," frowned Sergio.
"You should have told us he was ill," Erik reprimanded quietly. "Gaia would have wanted to have been here when he passed."
"I couldn't have possibly given you word in time. He kept brushing off my insistence to listen to his chest for that horrible cough. I didn't realize it was consumption until just yesterday, when he died. I had figured it was a chronic case of pneumonia he was managing to keep at bay, I never could have guessed-"
"Consumption?" Erik demanded, with a deep frown. "How on earth did Giovanni become exposed to consumption?"
"He caught it from his wife before she died, surely. She likely caught it as a child. It's such a strange disease, it almost seems to choose who it infects, and how it infects them. In some people it takes months, years, even decades. In others it kills them nearly overnight. Signora Turri probably got it as a child from her own mother. She was only ill in spurts, until the end. It's strange, we actually thought Gaia was ill with it at one point in her youth. The poor girl had a horrible, bloody cough for a year or two in her youth, but got better all on her own. It's remarkable what a youthful body is capable of. I've seen children bounce back from all sorts of ailments, but at the same time pass away from something as mundane as a cold…" the physician mused, taking a drink of his wine.
Erik frowned deeply, looking to Gaia as she wiped tears from the eyes of the young girl she was tending to. The physician was right; consumption was such a strange disease. He had read about it as a boy, and even seen it in the gypsy camp twice; a young woman caught it from her Russian lover, and wasted away into nothing in only days. The disease consumed her, as its name indicated. But he had heard victims appearing to be ill with consumption healing on their own, as the doctor described possibly happening in Gaia's case. He had also heard of the disease taking years or more to progress, as the doctor had also described… but he had never in any of his admittedly shallow studies heard of consumption returning after years of health. Surely it could not be what plagued Gaia.