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"You're not going to tie me up too, are you? It's just, I get claustrophobic when I'm restrained and start flipping the fuck out, and I wouldn't want to upset all the lovely things on the table."
Bobby pulled her chair out. Mercifully it was not next to Angelo, but one seat down.
"Sit down," he ordered.
She did as she was told, thoroughly prepared to freak the fuck out, as previously mentioned.
It was not necessary. Bobby sat down next to Angelo, and threw his arm around the back of her chair in a gesture that might have been possessive, or maybe even protective.
"Oh my god, Willy, I'm so glad you're okay!" Gemma burst out, unable to keep any kind of real composure. She wanted to get up and rush around and try to free Willow, but she knew better than to try.
"Okay is a relative term, but I am unharmed," Willow said stiffly. "You seem to be getting along well."
"I am. Bobby's been really nice to me."
"Has he?"
The question came from Angelo, and it was not approving.
"I mean… Uhm…" her glance darted left, to the head of the table where Angelo sat, his dark presence looming over each and every one of them. "…he's beaten me terribly. With sticks."
"It's fine," Willow said. "It's to be expected that your loyalty would have limits."
"Hey! I'm not disloyal. I haven't done anything wrong. I just haven't wound up the head psychopath and made myself a target."
"The head psychopath would like to eat," Angelo said dryly.
Nobody was stopping him. Nobody was stopping him from doing anything at all. He was a man who could do what he liked in almost every respect.
"Willow, I'm not… I didn't… I haven't told them anything."
"Be quiet," Willow said. "Every time you open your mouth, you give even more away."
Willow's sharp words stung Gemma's pride. After worrying about her all day and all night and then all day again, to be greeted this way was galling. Willow had never been what Gemma might have called nice, but she was at least mostly tolerable.
Angelo was watching every minute detail of the interaction, Gemma was sure. Willow was probably right. She should be quiet and guard what remained of their limited secrets.
Gemma chanced another glance at Willow. She looked angry as if she really did think that Gemma had betrayed her.
"Dude!" Gemma exclaimed. "As if I would!"
She was having an argument with someone who wasn't actually saying words, but that was the beauty of having been friends for so long. She didn't need Willow to say what she was thinking. Those pursed lips were enough.
"You don't like it when Willow is displeased with you, do you?"
Angelo made the insightful comment in a way that made Gemma feel completely bared.
"I don't like it when people think I'm a dirty rat. I'm not."
"Gemma, enough," Willow said firmly.
Gemma stood up, scraping her chair back as she did. "It's not enough! What the hell, Willow! We've been besties since we met, and you think I've gone and told this old man everything?" She pointed a trembling, wildly offended finger in Angelo's direction.
Bobby laughed at that.
"Gemma, you're making a scene," Willow said in very tight, disapproving tones.
"Good. I hope I make the biggest scene in all of history. You got us kidnapped, Willow!"
"Actually, you got us kidnapped by trying to get surveillance and going alone."
"Well, you told them that the men with guns were coming, and you gave them long enough to get away!"
Willow pursed her lips and said nothing more besides visibly bristling at the accusations hurled at her by the younger woman who had once been her faithful sidekick and was now little more than a thorn in her side.
"Siddown and eat," Bobby drawled.
"I'm not hungry!" Gemma picked up a spoonful of mashed potatoes nonetheless. She was deeply offended and thoroughly upset. She and Willow had won both the 14B egg and spoon race and the wheelbarrow marathon. They were closer than sisters, and here Willow was, making grand accusations of a most terrible kind.
In a flash of pure pique, She used the mash in the same way she'd once used it in the old boarding house. Spoon grasped firmly in one hand; the rounded tip pulled back by a crooked finger. Willow never saw the mashey missile coming. It arced through the air, splattered on the side of her face in a very satisfying manner, dripped down her collar, and thence made its way downwards as gravity dictated.
"Oh, jolly good!" Digby's outburst was notable for being rare.
Everybody enjoyed a good mashing, save Willow, who only had one hand free to deal with the mess.
"I can't believe you've done this," she said in tones of deep disgust while Bobby laughed uproariously.
Just as things seemed to be on the verge of turning into complete and utter chaos, Angelo folded his napkin, got up, and took Gemma by the ear. Without a word, he steered her into the nearest corner and placed her nose firmly in it, leaving her there with a very firm slap to her behind, which left her stinging and more than a little scared. When Angelo took hold of you, you never knew quite what would happen.
