O’Toole House Chapter 25
The next load of junk coming out of the medbay was a lot smaller, but Reese still picked it up. “Thanks so much,” Gabriella said as he loaded the old equipment into the back of his truck. “The doctor moving in there was able to use a good amount of it, but there was still enough that we couldn’t get it to the dump ourselves.”
“Don’t worry about it, Gabs,” Reese said with a grin, and the familiarity of it made her hurt inside. “Hey, my brother said you called him?”
“Yeah, we need a home inspector for a case.”
“Manny said if you try to pay him, he’s not taking it.”
“Don’t worry, he’s essential to solving an eighty-year-old mystery. The Foundation might actually pay him on time.”
Reese laughed loudly as he picked up the last box of outdated textbooks and threw it in his truck. Then he jumped down and gave Gabriella a hug. “Hey, it’s nice to see you,” he said as he crushed her into powder. “Don’t forget you can always come to us for anything. James too.”
“He won’t, but I appreciate it.”
“No, he won’t. You’d think that whole ‘I’m the oldest, I have to keep you safe’ thing wouldn’t apply so much when we’re all adults, huh?”
Her throat was tight as she nodded. “You would,” she said. “But that’s just him. You know it.”
He laughed again. “Don’t we all? Alright, Gabbie, love you. Good luck with everything.”
Reese kissed her on the cheek, then got in his truck and drove away, leaving the medbay project as complete as Gabriella could get it.
She went back inside where Amelia was in the living room, hanging up the phone. “So Rosa said that she’s actually heard about two cases where the demon didn’t fulfill its end of the deal. One of them was originally theirs, way before she became captain. But it ended up going to an exorcist instead.”
That was promising and came with earth-shattering implications. But so did everything they did here, so what was one more reality-shifting piece of information? “Good,” Gabriella said. “So maybe we can save this guy.”
“If he doesn’t get in his own way again, yeah.”
Amelia looked around the room. She clearly had something else she wanted to say, but wasn’t sure how or if she should say it. Gabriella waited patiently as she found the words.
“Do you think I was wrong to go to Rosa?” she asked.
“It got results.”
“I know,” Amelia said as Fang strolled over and hopped up onto the couch. “But maybe Riley has a point. Yeah, there’s technically no rule against dating a captain at another branch, so we would have been fine if I’d ever been brave enough to ask. Or if she was even interested. They frown on it, but it’s not technically a violation. But I didn’t talk to her for so long, and then when I needed help on this, I went straight to her when there were other options.”
“But she had the information you needed.”
“Maybe other captains would have too.”
“I don’t know,” Gabriella said. “Maybe I’m wrong, but when I look at what happened, I see that you were in a situation where you needed help. And our usual person, who we all turn to, is hurt from a very fucked up situation that hurt you too.”
Amelia opened her mouth to protest, but Gabriella shook her head. “And you’re stuck in this impossible situation and you need help, right? So you turn to someone you know, trust, and is a really practical option. Did you think about anything else when you called her?”
“I thought about how awkward it might be?” Amelia offered.
“That’s not particularly sexy.”
Amelia laughed, but her face still looked glum. “I don’t think you were wrong,” Gabriella said. “I know I suck and I keep taking Elliot back after he says mean things to me, so maybe you don’t want my opinion on what happened. And you can tell me to shut up if you want. But I don’t think it was right that Riley got upset about you calling Rosa.”
“But she knew how I felt about Rosa. So why wouldn’t she assume that?”
“What’s going on?”
Bradley came into the living room, noticeably limping and having apparently given up on trying to hide it. Amelia waited until he sat down. “Riley got pissed that I called Rosa for help.”
Bradley looked at her. “I’m lost,” he said after a second.
“Rosa from Palmer? I called her for help with the Bana case.”
“I’m familiar with Rosa. What’s your point?”
Amelia sighed. “Riley knew I was in love with her before she and I got together. And so she got mad that I called Rosa instead of any other captain.”
Bradley continued to just look at her. “And you think you might have been wrong in this situation?” he asked skeptically.
Amelia nodded and Bradley leaned forward in his seat, shaking his head as he gave Fang a long-suffering look. “God, I don’t miss being in my fucking twenties,” he told her, reaching over to scratch under her chin.
He ran a hand down his face, then sat back up and looked back at Amelia. “This girl is mad at you for this?”
“I don’t know. I mean, she was? But we talked a little and she just said she didn’t feel secure about it.”
“And you feel secure with someone who’s mad at you in this situation?”
Amelia went to answer him, then paused, mouth slightly open. Bradley waited expectantly, then shrugged his shoulders after a pause.
“I think it’s immature, but I’m a decade older than everyone involved in this situation. So maybe I’m just old and out of touch.”
The tone of his voice made it very clear that he did not at all think that. “He’s right,” Gabriella said.
“But-”
“I’m not saying she’s a bad person,” Gabriella said quickly. “Or even, like, a bad girlfriend.”
Bradley went to interrupt, but she kept going. “But she knew that you were in a really hard situation during a really hard time and she got mad at you instead of trying to understand. And maybe that wasn’t the right thing for her to do.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Bradley said, instead of whatever terrible thing he’d been about to say before.
“Should I talk to her about it?” Amelia asked.
“Do you want to?”
“No,” she said immediately. “But I probably have to, don’t I? When we talked after, she kind of apologized for it, but I got the feeling she still thought she was right to be mad at me. And that maybe I should be apologizing to her. But it’s been a little while and we haven’t really talked about it since. So maybe we can just not talk about it at all?”
“Aren’t you the one who told me that was a terrible idea?” Gabriella asked her.
“We all told you it was a terrible idea,” Amelia said.
Gabriella laughed and tilted her head back on the couch. “I think I’m mad at her,” Amelia said.
“Good,” said Bradley.
“Like, you’re right. I tried to keep all this shit together and you guys are great, I’d be fucked without you, but I’m so tired. And I’m still having nightmares and I barely sleep enough to actually have nightmares, so when they do happen I’m, like, mad about it. And she was a little irritated that I wouldn’t leave town right now-”
“-yeah, I noticed that,” Gabriella said before she thought it through.
Amelia looked at her, then nodded. “She thought it would be a good thing to take a break for a night. Which, I don’t know. I know that if it was James, I’d be doing the same to him. I do the same to him. I tried to get him to come to the same dance night that she was trying to get me to come to. But she said it was for me and I know she meant it, but I don’t think it was entirely for me. And anything I suggested out here wasn’t good enough. And I’m already scared she’s going to dump me for someone cooler and James said that she wouldn’t, but maybe she will.”
Amelia seemed like she needed to get this out, so Gabriella stayed quiet. “And what happens in the future when I talk to other people she doesn’t like?” Amelia asked. “I can’t just go to her branch and her captain for everything. I mean, Connie’s great, she’s so smart. She’s an awesome captain. But she’s our age and Rosa’s older, she has more experience. And I know there’s others who are older and have that experience, but I either don’t know them or I’m terrified of them.”
“Captain Delgado wouldn’t actually kill you if you email her,” Bradley said.
“How did you possibly know I was talking about her?” Amelia demanded.
“Who else could it possibly be?”
Gabriella didn’t know who Captain Delgado was, but she was immediately intrigued. “Fuck, guys,” Amelia said, closing her eyes. “I think I’m talking myself into breaking up with her.”
“Don’t do it right now,” Gabriella said quickly.
“No, no, I won’t. But, if she did that to me this time, what happens next time? Or what if I was wrong? Maybe I’m breaking up with her because I secretly think Rosa will take me now that I’m a captain, even if I’m hopefully only going to be captain for a few more days.”
“Amelia?” Bradley said.
She looked at him. “When are you off?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”
“You’re off now. Either go home or go to one of the bedrooms and get some sleep.”
Gabriella wasn’t sure that Bradley had any authority to give that order, but Amelia looked like she was about to follow it anyway. She looked at Bradley, exhausted. “You know what you’re doing.”
“Sometimes.”
“No, I mean, you have your shit together.”
“No, I’m just old, so it looks like I do. Have you seen where I live?”
Amelia laughed. “Have you dealt with this?” she asked.
“My boyfriend left me right after I started with the Foundation,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t really date anyway. I just go to dance nights.”
“You should,” Amelia said. “You’re good at it.”
“I assure you I’m not.”
Amelia laughed, sounding slightly loopy from fatigue and stress as she gave him a long, searching look. “I won’t ask about it,” she said finally.
Then she sighed. “You’re right,” she murmured. “I’m going to go lay down.”
She got up and went down the hall, avoiding the gray bedroom the way that they all had been.
“She should dump her,” Gabriella said quietly as the back bedroom door closed.
Bradley shrugged. “It’s her choice.”
Why was he being so rational about this when he had been, and continued to be, openly malicious with Elliot? But before she could start an argument, he stood up. “I’m going to be at a meeting,” he said, nodding toward James’s office. “Saskia is in in about two hours. You have two cases over there that you should start while I’m in there. Don’t leave before Saskia gets here.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
He ignored her and went into the office, leaving the door wide open as he sat somewhat awkwardly at James’s desk. Gabriella got up and went to the printer to read what cases she had coming up today.
