Voicemail (IC Contact Post) OLD - at capcha

[abrightboy]

 This is Bright. Leave a message.

Comments

[inlieuofadad]

"I'm at Bonnie's," he says. "I've been keeping an eye on things there. I'll take the restraints, but I can't just..."

Gil sighs. "I'm all right, Malcolm. I'm okay."

Alarmingly so.

[abrightboy]

“No!” Malcolm insists in a fit of childish temper. “Why is staying there so much better than staying here?”

[inlieuofadad]

Gil closes his eyes tight for a moment, mostly so he doesn’t have to see that helpless anger. “It’s not better, Malcolm, it’s not that it’s better.”

He rubs his face. “I’m making sure Jeff doesn’t hurt anyone. Or himself.”

[abrightboy]

“Jeff? Jeff’s never been better. He’s not suicidal anymore. Something is hurting you, though,” Malcolm stubbornly points out.

[inlieuofadad]

He can’t bring himself to tell Malcolm right now what he knows but can’t and won’t try to unequivocally prove. Instead he does what he always does where Malcolm is concerned: he folds.

“All right, okay. I’ll stay here.”

[abrightboy]

“Just until the spider thing gets figured out. Is anyone else having this problem?” Malcolm of the investigation department puts on his rarely used hat these days: investigator.

[inlieuofadad]

"That's part of the reason I made the post. I know at least one other person is. Same kinds of dreams."

He drums his nails on the table. "It feels like it's waiting for something. Getting us ready for something. I don't know what."

[abrightboy]

“You need to stay with us until we find out. You need to check in with us though the day, too,” Malcolm tells him.

[inlieuofadad]

Gil scowls at that. "It only happens when I go to sleep, Malcolm. I don't need to be nannied."

[abrightboy]

“We don’t know what it’s going to become.” He pauses. “You disappeared already and we don’t know why.”

[inlieuofadad]

For once--for one of the very few times in the years they've known each other--Gil is the one to look away, and it's not to protect Malcolm's feelings. It's to try and hide his own.

He doesn't want to think about his disappearance. What it means, where he went, where he didn't go. Where Tim did, or might have. He doesn't want to think about any of it. He can't change it. He can't get that time back. Was it carved out of his life, did he use up those months even though he didn't feel them passing?

He doesn't want to think about it.

"I told the doctor, John Carter, that I'd come in for an exam. I'll go for multiple exams if you want me to. And if I need help, I'll call for backup. I'll call you. I promise."

[abrightboy]

“You didn’t,” Malcolm points out bluntly.

[inlieuofadad]

Gil blinks. "What?"

[abrightboy]

“You didn’t call me when you had the problem,” Malcolm points out evenly.

[inlieuofadad]

Gil starts to protest, starts to get affronted. Stops.

It hurts, to see Malcolm look at him like that, and not because of the soft betrayal of not asking his kid for help when he needed it. It hurts to see Malcolm point out his hypocrisy without guilt or hesitation and to not know where Malcolm found that side of himself. To know that it wasn't with guidance from Gil, himself.

"No I didn't," he admits. He studies Malcolm's face, looking at him with a sense of something like wonder and something like fascination. "I wanted to protect you. I'm sorry."

[abrightboy]

“I don’t want you to be sorry for that,” Malcolm tells him. “I want you to not be gone again. Or dead like George.”

[inlieuofadad]

A little twist of a knife that Malcolm doesn't mean to drive in, probably. But there it is anyway, words slipped between Gil's ribs to puncture something hidden.

He gets up and gestures for Malcolm to come to him. "Get over here, kid."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm steps closer with uncommon obedience, but he always listened to Gil more than anyone else.

“I want to protect you, too,” he says as he steps. “Like a team.” Like the team.

[inlieuofadad]

Another body blow to the spirit. Gil blinks quickly to keep himself from tearing up with how much he misses his precinct in this moment. JT. Dani. Edrisa. How much he misses Jess.

Gil does the only thing he can do to comfort either one of them and pulls Malcolm into a tight hug. “We are a team. No matter where we are or where we end up. You and me.”

He doesn’t want to say this, but he can’t keep it silent now. “I know this isn’t the best time to say this, but there’s something else. Jeff. He’s…”

Gil trails off for a moment. “I have reason to believe he made the leap. That he’s an Avatar, tied to one of those things out there. That’s why I’ve been trying to keep such a close eye on him.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm sees it cross his face. The look he got when he talked about Jackie, but not about Jackie. He almost asks a question as he squeezes his eyes shut and clings to Gil, but then there’s that news.

“Jeff? He can’t be an Avatar. He’s… nice.”