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"Oh. That's easy. I've defected."
"From who? Willow?"
"No," she laughed. "The people I worked for are way more powerful than Willow. Anyway. I used to work for them, and now I decided I don't want to anymore. I want to be with you and Bobby."
"You say that as if you've decided to switch little league teams. The stakes are impossibly high, Gemma. What you've done to us…."
"I haven't done anything to you. Nothing that you weren't already doing to me. I didn't know Digby was going to shoot me. I didn't know I was going to end up dead. It all just happened to me. It's complicated. I know you want answers, but, dude, I'm tired, and…."
"GEMMA!"
Bobby had regained consciousness. He launched himself at her and wrapped her in the most effusive, passionate, and desperate of embraces. The two of them tumbled back onto the couch together, Bobby's arms and legs wrapped around her like a gleeful octopus dragging its prey to the depths of a leather sofa.
"She's wounded, boy, be careful with her!"
"Oh my god!" Bobby pulled his hands away and stared at Gemma as if she were a bomb. "Oh my god, did I hurt you?"
"I don't know. Probably," Gemma smiled. "You usually do."
"How are you alive? I buried you. I touched your dead body."
"Well, that's a whole story."
"A story you'll be telling us in great detail when you've eaten. You're exhausted."
"She's alive," Bobby said, wonderingly. "Is this real? Am I having a psychotic break?"
"You're fine, boy. These things happen."
"She was dead, Angelo. She was cold. She was dead. Dead. And now she's alive. Alive!”
"This is so fucked up," Gemma sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. You're alive!" Bobby was getting excited all over again, as happy now as he had been sad before.
"I am alive," she agreed. "And I am hungry.
The house that had felt empty didn't feel hollow anymore. It had been transformed into a home by the simple addition of someone who wanted to be there. Bobby was thrilled just to have Gemma back, but Angelo was not letting the matter slide. There were questions that needed to be answered. There were conspiracies on top of conspiracies, and there were things he did not know that he needed to know.
After a plate of spaghetti, Bobby took up the interrogation without any prompting.
"How are you alive? We saw you die."
"I didn't die," she said. "I'm so sorry for letting you think I did. They made me."
"Who are they?"
"It's an agency. A government agency, I think. They call themselves the Organization. They're very old school. They're like, I don't know how to explain it because I've never really seen the inner workings. I only ever knew my handler. Mr. Brown."
"Is that what Willow was a part of?"
"Oh no," Gemma laughed, though it wasn't funny at all. "No. Willow works in the interest of ancient kings. The blood of true nobles runs in her veins. She settles scores from times before anybody alive today can even remember. Willow is… or was, she…." Gemma trailed off, choking up.
"She was my friend before all this happened, when we were innocent, before the agendas. Now she's gone because she served masters she never knew. And I'm almost gone because of the same thing. If I’m going to die, I want it to be for a good reason, and I want it to be because of people who care about me.”
“That’s a very mature outlook, girl."
Angelo was calling her girl almost the same way he called Bobby, boy. Gemma liked the sound of that. It made her feel warm, though she knew she was a long way from being accepted or even being out of danger. Angelo hadn't gotten this far by trusting every gunshot victim with a sad story.
"Maybe I am mature. Who really knows who or what I am. I don't think I even know."
She saw Angelo's jaw tighten. Vague answers like that were just going to piss him off. She had to be more honest, even if it terrified her.
Bobby put an arm around her shoulders.
"I know who you are," he said. "You're all the things I missed when I thought you were gone forever."
"Oh my god, you are the sweetest."
"He is. Isn't he," Angelo mused. "That's new."
"It's not new. It's who he's always been. He just needed a chance to be sweet."
"Was he sweet when he shot Digby in the face?" Angelo asked the question, challenging the notion that Bobby was anything other than a dark little void of violence and despair.
"Yes. Yes, he was. And I wish I had seen that. Asshole got what was coming to him."
"And Willow?"
Gemma's breath halted. "Willow was confused."
"If there was one way I'd ever describe Willow, it wasn't confused. I've never known anybody who knew their mind as well as she did."
"Willow thought that it was her job to right ancestral wrongs. She thought she had some claim to the Braybrooke fortune because of something that happened seven generations ago. That's why she wanted Tilly…. Is Tilly okay? Is the baby okay?"
