O’Toole House Chapter 22
The sound of a key in the lock snapped Gabriella out of a dream as she sat up with a gasp. At the door, Amelia also took a startled step backward.
“Sorry!” she said. “Is James up?”
“I have no idea,” Gabriella admitted, blinking as the room around James’s couch came into focus. “I just woke up.”
Amelia closed the door, walked over to James’s bedroom doorway, and looked inside. “No, he’s still sleeping,” she said.
Gabriella shifted over so that Amelia could sit on the couch beside her, still in her coat and gloves. “He talked to you?” Amelia asked in a low voice.
“Yeah,” Gabriella replied. “I tried to talk him out of it. Then I forced him to eat and sleep.”
“Your M.O. lately.”
Gabriella shrugged. “It’s usually him doing it, someone has to take over.”
Amelia looked almost rested and she had a tray with three coffees in her hand. “I didn’t know what you like, so I got cream and sugar on the side,” she said.
“That’s fine, thanks.”
She took the coffee and Amelia set the tray on the coffee table before pulling out her own. “Do you think he’ll leave?” she asked in a whisper.
“I hope not,” Gabriella said. “But he seemed to have an actual plan in place, which is what worries me. I won’t be surprised if he leaves the Foundation, but if he actually leaves the state…”
She laughed slightly. “You know, I thought for a moment back in December that he might be trying to convince Meredith to let him come to Australia with her. And maybe it was because I didn’t get more than a few seconds into the thought, but this seems so much worse, even if it’s so much closer.”
“Why did you think that?” Amelia asked.
“He was being irritable about some texts he was getting right after talking to her. It turned out to have nothing to do with her, he was just arguing with Bradley. But this time he seems like he really thinks it’s the best option if he leaves.”
“We’ve been looking for Adele,” Amelia said so quietly that Gabriella had to lean in close to hear her. “But the Foundation is pretty sure she fled the country.”
“So they get on a plane and go after her.”
Like they were going to use those resources. “They’ll probably do the same thing they did with Robin’s death,” Amelia said, playing with the tiny plastic tab on the cover of her coffee. “Sit on it for a year, then declare the case closed.”
And she’d get away with what she’d done to James and all those other people. Including the man who had died. Gabriella didn’t know who he was since the Foundation’s main branch had swooped in and taken over the case when James was compromised. But now they were letting it go.
The worst consequence would be that Adele couldn’t peddle her fucked up wares at terrible health fairs anymore. Or, at least not the one in Leominster. She’d slipped away.
There was movement in James’s room and they both stopped. A moment later, he walked out and blinked at them. “Good morning?” he greeted quizzically as he peered at them through a yawn.
“I brought coffee,” Amelia said.
James looked at the tray and predictably shook his head. “Thanks.”
Something passed over Amelia’s face that was a little too close to how she’d looked on the phone with Riley the other night as James went into the kitchen. He poured a glass of water, then started back toward his room.
“Can we talk?” Gabriella called over.
“Gabs, I’m not changing my mind.”
Fuck. He didn’t sound irritated exactly, but there was a warning in his tone that if she pushed this too far, she’d regret it.
“Guys,” James said, stopping and facing them. “I’m sorry. I’ll make sure that they bring in someone else so that Amelia doesn’t have to be captain if she doesn’t want to. But I can’t do this. I can’t go back there.”
“You don’t have to,” Amelia said. “Just please don’t move away. At least not yet.”
He shook his head slightly, like he wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m really sorry,” Amelia blurted out as he moved to leave the room.
“You didn’t do anything,” James said.
“I did though,” Amelia said, and the sudden vulnerability made Gabriella realize what she was about to say. “I hurt you. I did it to help you, but I did the same thing she did and I don’t want you to be, like, scared of me because of it. I’m not going to do anything to you if that’s one of the reasons why you’re leaving.”
Amelia started to cry. Gabriella was unsure what to do right now beyond putting a hand on Amelia’s knee as Amelia wiped at her face with her glove. James stepped closer as Amelia tried and failed to stop crying.
“You saved me,” he said quietly, sitting down on her other side and setting down his water glass beside the coffee.
“But I used her poison to do it.”
James was shaking now too, but Gabriella could see him forcing it down. “I love you,” Amelia said. “It’s not a captaincy thing, I’ll do it. But I just want you to be okay.”
She was still wearing her gloves, which was probably the only reason why James took her hand. “I feel so guilty,” Amelia admitted with a tearful laugh.
“I tried to kill you.”
“You weren’t in control. No one blames you for what you did when you weren’t in control. I was.”
“You did the right thing.”
Amelia had been right about his reaction. But Gabriella agreed with both of them.
“It wasn’t just to get you to the antidote though. After, you were delirious and I was scared you were going to hurt yourself or one of us. And I told you-” She took a sharp breath. “I told you she wanted you to stop. And you stopped, but you were so scared and you were begging us to help you.”
“You did the right thing,” James repeated.
Amelia looked at him for a second, still in tears, then carefully rested her head on his shoulder. He froze for a second, but then relaxed slightly into her. He didn’t rest his own head on hers the way he might have a month ago, but he held her gloved hand as she tried to stop crying.
Again, Gabriella wasn’t going to be jealous. This was a process. And she had to get ready for work anyway. So she got up quietly, picked up the overnight bag she now carried everyday, and went into the bathroom.
Once she was dressed, cleaned up, and felt like she’d given them a few necessary minutes for privacy, Gabriella went back out to the living room. Amelia was in the kitchen now and Gabriella could smell the apple ginger tea brewing alongside something simpler. James still sat on the couch, his head bowed.
“I’m going to head out,” Gabriella said. “Do you need anything?”
“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “Gabs, I’m-”
“Please stop apologizing,” she said, moving closer to him.
When he reached for her this time, she moved toward him before either of them could hesitate. Sitting, James’s head reached her chest and she wrapped her arms around him. “Is this okay?” she asked.
James nodded against her. She held him tightly, one hand on the back of his head and one around his back, like he might slip away when she dared to let go. She pressed her hand against his hair and waited for him to flinch away, but then he just melted into her, taking shuddering breaths against her jacket. She was reminded again of the way he’d held onto her when McGovern called, but this wasn’t terrified desperation. This felt more like relief.
She was reluctant to let go, but Graham was going to need someone else there when Bradley took his break and Saskia wasn’t coming in until noon.
“I’m going to go now,” she said softly, squeezing him one more time. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Amelia’s here,” he said.
That was a good enough answer for her. He had Amelia. He’d be fine. Or at least as fine as he got these days.
