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CHARACTERS: Bobby & Delilah
WHAT: a reunion
WHEN: about a year ago
WHERE: the mess hall
WHAT: a reunion
WHEN: about a year ago
WHERE: the mess hall
There was news on the ship that a couple of new people had joined them, but Bobby didn't rush out to meet them. It could be overwhelming for them, and the ship was small enough that he knows he’ll run into them soon enough. So the day passes and he goes to dinner like normal, stopping in his tracks when he spots the new girls across the mess hall.
Had he been here too long? Was he hallucinating? Misremembering what people looked like?
But he’d know that face anywhere, no matter the changes of a few years.
“Del??” He moves across the room to stand next to where she's sitting, looking down at her with wide eyes, still not sure he believes what he's seeing even from this close.
It's the name that catches her attention first. No one here knows her well enough to shorten Delilah.
(The familiar voice Delilah assumes is her imagination running wild; she hears and sees Bobby everywhere, and she's learned by now to quash her hope. It's never been him, even if some strange man shared his eyes or nose or curve of his smile)
She twists in her chair, half wondering if there is another Del here (a Delphine, perhaps, or Adelaide) because the voice can't be calling her. She doesn't want to hope again, but nevertheless her heart is pounding in her chest as she looks up—
"Bobby!" Delilah stands up so quickly she sends her chair toppling but she doesn't care. Instantly, tears fill her eyes as she wraps her arms around her brother in a tight hug. "You're here?"
“You’re here,” Bobby returns, emphasis on the opposite word as his arms wrap around her too tightly, worried she’ll disappear in front of him again if he lets her go. “How?”
She pulls back just enough to look at him though her arms are still looped around his back. "My implant started malfunctioning and I didn't get it fixed because I wanted to be myself again, to remember everything. I guess I wasn't hiding it as well as I thought because Dislinked found and recruited me. How are you here?"
“Casper and I signed up,” Bobby answers briefly, more interested in how Delilah got here than how he did, and the whole concept of being veiled still hard for him to come to terms with. “I’m happy that you wanted to remember. You should always be yourself.”
"Of course I wanted to remember," she insists. She still has questions she's desperate to ask but this strikes her as important. "Good or bad, I want my life to be real." She doesn't know how to tell him how much the Veil erased, how it wiped away their early traumas— and with it, the memories of the three children fighting to stay together. How to explain how guilty she felt when she came to, how physically sick, over how the veil prevented her from recalling how much Bobby had sacrificed for her. How the onslaught of emotions and memories long repressed was so destabilizing and disorienting and yet she was— and is— so grateful to be whole.
But that feels like too much to blurt out right now.
"Casper is here though? What made you change your mind?" They had always been aware of Dislinked but she couldn't recall Bobby ever being eager to join. But then, she had last seen him ten years ago and ten years ago, she had never considered joining either, not without Bobby.
“Casper’s here. We’re still waiting for Apollo to get clearance to get here. Remy and Rio are here. It’s kinda like being home.” Bobby offers her a smile even though nothing has ever really been a real home for them. The people had always been the closest it got, and now he also had his sister back, and they’d hopefully have Apollo with them soon enough. “Pol got veiled, so we joined up to help him.”
"Apollo was captured too?" Delilah can't help but repeat his words back to him because she missed so much in the ten years since she's seen him— seen all of them. "And then you…Oh." In her shock, it takes her a moment to process the rest of his sentence and finally, it hits her now. They rescued Apollo. They joined the resistance to free him. She, meanwhile, had been left to fend for herself, to find her own way to freedom. "How did you find him?"
Maybe she's overthinking this. Bobby hadn't been old enough to join when she'd been taken and that doesn't mean he didn't try to find her. For all she knows, he spent years searching for her.
But nevertheless he joined for Apollo, not for her. Maybe at some point, he had written her off as a lost cause.
She swallows and tries to school her expression, tries not to reveal the way her heart just cracked.
“We were able to follow him,” Bobby explains, something he hadn’t been able to do with Delilah, making it impossible to even know where to start looking for her again. None of it is details that feel important to him right now though, because Delilah is here and something that had felt impossible was now real. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
How, Delilah wants to ask, because she doesn't understand how they could track him undetected (she doesn't understand how the same wasn't done for her). But that's not the point. That's not the important thing. She's been reunited with her brother and she should be happy— she is happy. She will not let herself spiral over right now.
"I can't believe you're here. I hoped to use Dislinked as a way to find you, without putting you or anyone else at risk and yet here you are! I'm so glad you're okay." She pulls him into another hug because he's real and they're together and it's a miracle they're both here.
Bobby squeezes her tightly again, anything else that needs to be said something that can be talked about later, anyway. All that matters to him is that she’s here and she’s safe.
Had he been here too long? Was he hallucinating? Misremembering what people looked like?
But he’d know that face anywhere, no matter the changes of a few years.
“Del??” He moves across the room to stand next to where she's sitting, looking down at her with wide eyes, still not sure he believes what he's seeing even from this close.
It's the name that catches her attention first. No one here knows her well enough to shorten Delilah.
(The familiar voice Delilah assumes is her imagination running wild; she hears and sees Bobby everywhere, and she's learned by now to quash her hope. It's never been him, even if some strange man shared his eyes or nose or curve of his smile)
She twists in her chair, half wondering if there is another Del here (a Delphine, perhaps, or Adelaide) because the voice can't be calling her. She doesn't want to hope again, but nevertheless her heart is pounding in her chest as she looks up—
"Bobby!" Delilah stands up so quickly she sends her chair toppling but she doesn't care. Instantly, tears fill her eyes as she wraps her arms around her brother in a tight hug. "You're here?"
“You’re here,” Bobby returns, emphasis on the opposite word as his arms wrap around her too tightly, worried she’ll disappear in front of him again if he lets her go. “How?”
She pulls back just enough to look at him though her arms are still looped around his back. "My implant started malfunctioning and I didn't get it fixed because I wanted to be myself again, to remember everything. I guess I wasn't hiding it as well as I thought because Dislinked found and recruited me. How are you here?"
“Casper and I signed up,” Bobby answers briefly, more interested in how Delilah got here than how he did, and the whole concept of being veiled still hard for him to come to terms with. “I’m happy that you wanted to remember. You should always be yourself.”
"Of course I wanted to remember," she insists. She still has questions she's desperate to ask but this strikes her as important. "Good or bad, I want my life to be real." She doesn't know how to tell him how much the Veil erased, how it wiped away their early traumas— and with it, the memories of the three children fighting to stay together. How to explain how guilty she felt when she came to, how physically sick, over how the veil prevented her from recalling how much Bobby had sacrificed for her. How the onslaught of emotions and memories long repressed was so destabilizing and disorienting and yet she was— and is— so grateful to be whole.
But that feels like too much to blurt out right now.
"Casper is here though? What made you change your mind?" They had always been aware of Dislinked but she couldn't recall Bobby ever being eager to join. But then, she had last seen him ten years ago and ten years ago, she had never considered joining either, not without Bobby.
“Casper’s here. We’re still waiting for Apollo to get clearance to get here. Remy and Rio are here. It’s kinda like being home.” Bobby offers her a smile even though nothing has ever really been a real home for them. The people had always been the closest it got, and now he also had his sister back, and they’d hopefully have Apollo with them soon enough. “Pol got veiled, so we joined up to help him.”
"Apollo was captured too?" Delilah can't help but repeat his words back to him because she missed so much in the ten years since she's seen him— seen all of them. "And then you…Oh." In her shock, it takes her a moment to process the rest of his sentence and finally, it hits her now. They rescued Apollo. They joined the resistance to free him. She, meanwhile, had been left to fend for herself, to find her own way to freedom. "How did you find him?"
Maybe she's overthinking this. Bobby hadn't been old enough to join when she'd been taken and that doesn't mean he didn't try to find her. For all she knows, he spent years searching for her.
But nevertheless he joined for Apollo, not for her. Maybe at some point, he had written her off as a lost cause.
She swallows and tries to school her expression, tries not to reveal the way her heart just cracked.
“We were able to follow him,” Bobby explains, something he hadn’t been able to do with Delilah, making it impossible to even know where to start looking for her again. None of it is details that feel important to him right now though, because Delilah is here and something that had felt impossible was now real. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
How, Delilah wants to ask, because she doesn't understand how they could track him undetected (she doesn't understand how the same wasn't done for her). But that's not the point. That's not the important thing. She's been reunited with her brother and she should be happy— she is happy. She will not let herself spiral over right now.
"I can't believe you're here. I hoped to use Dislinked as a way to find you, without putting you or anyone else at risk and yet here you are! I'm so glad you're okay." She pulls him into another hug because he's real and they're together and it's a miracle they're both here.
Bobby squeezes her tightly again, anything else that needs to be said something that can be talked about later, anyway. All that matters to him is that she’s here and she’s safe.
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