FicWad

Sharpening the Knives of Young Wives
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I watched Sophia and Gabe talk as if they were two old friends, reunited and catching up on old times. It was so weird to see. I felt like I didn't belong in such a familiar atmosphere. It did, though, remind me of a fuzzy, far-off place I couldn't quite remember. A time before the accident, a time before this. I sat silently between the two, taking sips of the now warm beer bottle sitting in my hands. I rubbed the aching headache that pulsed in my temple and waved for another beer. I just wanted to relax. I swallowed away what felt like lumps in my throat. As Sophia and Gabe's voices drifted away, I felt like drifting away too. I took the money I've been saving up, and placed a few dollars on the table to pay for my drinks, and got up.

"Hey, Tegan, where are you going? We're just getting started."

I looked at Gabe, who's over-use of the color purple made his now blurry figure look something like Barney.

I mumbled something to myself. I don't remember what though.

"No, Tegan," Sophia got up and grabbed my arm. "Stay. Gabe says he has a safe place in the city for us."

I was getting tired. The alcohol set in fast, since I had an empty stomach. I was sat down in a chair next to Sophia and Gabe looked at me.

"He misses you, you know." He reached over and grabbed my hand.

I looked down at it, and I felt confused. What were we talking about again?

"Who?" I looked back up at him.

"You know." He gave me this knowing look.

I felt irritated. I felt like I was left out of the joke.

"No, I don't know."

"Pete?" Sophia looked over at me, expecting me to remember.

Gabe shook his head and sighed, pulling out his wallet.

"No. I guess you're too drunk to remember '03?" He flipped through some credit cards, and a business card or two before pulling out a picture and sliding it across the table at me.
I picked it up, feeling the creases in the small photo. It felt almost as old as the actual memory itself. I stared at the odd, smiling face of the boy in the picture.

"I only kept the picture because Pete said we should have one of everyone in the group incase someone gets kidnapped." Gabe felt the need to defend himself.

The blue eyes seemed to pierce my heart as I stared blankly at the picture.

"Take this back." I almost jammed my finger as I threw the picture back on the table.

"But Tegan," Gabe started.

Sophia's head darted back and forth, watching us verbally joust at each other.

"Gabe," I stood up, a little too quickly, feeling nauseous. "Don't talk about him m-m-issing me."

"Tegan. He changed. He's not a 19 year old boy anymore. He understands the situation now. He knows why you did what you had to do. He knows he was childish."

I stumbled over the chair and headed for the door. I wasn't going to listen to this bullshit.

"We gotta go after her," I heard Gabe hurry Sophia after me. "She's gonna get hurt out there."

I threw open the door of the bar and the cold air smacked me in the face. I wanted to throw up, but I couldn't even tell from what it was. Guilt, sadness, alcohol, anger? Maybe a nice cocktail of them all. I kneeled over a short garbage can and sobbed as I nearly heaved my stomach out of my body. The sudden cleansing helped relieve my headache, but it didn't make me feel any better. I sat against the cool tin as Gabe and Sophia started walking over to me.

"Tegan, please, listen." Sophia crouched in front of me. "Gabe says he can take us back to his place. He can offer us a place to stay for the night. We don't have to wander, we don't have to worry. And he has a general idea of where Pete is. He can help us out. Don't torture yourself out here."

I didn't even bother answering. I was so worn out that I was ready to agree with anything that offered a full night's sleep. I nodded and Gabe offered a hand to help me up. I denied it. No matter how drunk I was or wasn't, I sure as hell did not need anyone to help me. Especially considering what happened to the last person who did.

Sophia and Gabe walked ahead and I followed like a trained puppy behind them, looking into streets filled with vampire gangs, all on the same level of threatening, all looking at me with hungry, thirsty, eyes. If I was by myself, I surely would've been devoured. I shuddered, feeling sorry for anyone in that situation. We soon arrived at a moderately decent two story, two family house. We walked into one of the two doors and Gabe waved to the air around him.

"Mi casa es su casa."

I sat down on the couch and I could feel myself sink into the soft, warm fabric. My bones practically screamed hallelujah. Gabe and Sophia giggled on the couch opposite to me. As he smiled, I could see Gabe's sharp fangs, almost fully protruding as he laughed.

"So Gabriel,..." I mumbled.

The laughing ceased, suddenly turning silent with my voice.

"What's going on with Pete?"

Gabe shrugged.

"Last I heard, he took Patrick and Joe and went to Beckett's. He left me and Andy around here to keep attacks on the decrease."

I didn't feel like asking anymore questions, but Gabe spoke to me in Spanish, asking me what happened to me, if we got attacked by any vampires, and if I saw anyone we knew. I told him about the one attack, and how I just found Sophia today, so we really weren't attacked at all.

"Hey," Sophia called, "I don't mean to interrupt the Spanish-fest over there, but can I have some water?"

Gabe nodded and grabbed her a glass.

"Why do you do this to yourself Tegan?" Gabe called from the kitchen. "I thought you were done with beer after the accident. Why do you torture yourself?"

My heart seemed to sink.

"Because beer numbs the pain for a bit. Because I don't deserve to be alive after that accident, Gabe, I don't." I yawned, and drifted off to blackness, to sleep.



Sophia looked over at Gabe who had the tv on, and was watching some odd spanish soap opera.

"What did she mean by that?" Sophia asked.

"She got into a car accident a couple of years ago."

"So?"

Gabe looked up at her as she waited for an answer.

"So?"

"Why is she so broken about it?"

Gabe sighed, and turned off the tv.

"I guess I'll figure out what happens to Manuela next week."

Sophia frowned.

"Dude, seriously."

"What?! I like my soaps!"

Sophia sighed.

"Well, when Pete was still human-Pete, he tried to kill himself. Like, dramatic overdose in a parking lot, kind of thing. And as soon as she found out, instead of going to the hospital, she cried it out at a bar. She felt at fault. She took it out on her liver. She drank herself half to death. Then her parents called her to come to the hospital. She thought she could drive, and she couldn't, obviously. She drove a mile and a half before she got into an accident."

Sophia nodded, listening with intent.

"She collided head-on with a woman driving home from a church party. The woman died instantly. She killed a mother of three kids. She ended up getting in jail for a few months because her parents shelled out the money to get an excellent lawyer and she pleaded with temporary insanity, and stuff like that. At the funeral, Tegan met her kids, and her husband. From that day on, she's been killing herself about it."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

The room went quiet, Sophia looked at a still intoxicated, sleeping Tegan. She now understood why she was so desperate to find Pete. Their traumatic experiences brought them closer as siblings. As Sophia went to ask Gabe a few questions about his life, the door knocked.

Gabe walked slowly over to the door, and looked through the peephole.

"Who is it?" He shouted.

A letter slid under the door and footsteps were heard thudding down the hallway.

"Who was it?" Sophia stood up.

Gabe turned, examining the letter.

"I don't know. But they left a letter to Tegan."

He put the letter on the side table by the couch, and sat at a worn table.

"So what about you?" Sophia sat across from him.

Gabe looked at her, confused.

"What about me?"

"I don't know," She shrugged, "What's your life story?"

He chuckled, leaning back in his chair to stretch.

"It's nothing dramatic, or special. I might be one for the dramatics, but my life is far from it."

Sophia raised her eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

Gabe and Sophia talked casually about his life in Uruguay, and how he met Pete in an underground bar in Chicago ten years ago, and was turned into a vampire three years ago. He told her about how they both knew Beckett, and he was the one who turned them both, and that this was their chance for revenge.

"Sounds exciting, actually." Sophia smiled at Gabe.

"Well you're the first one to think that." Returning the smile, he got up and yawned. "It should be morning in a few hours, and even though you aren't a vampire, you should be sleepy too. There's a small guest bedroom down the hall. Just make yourself at home."

Sophia nodded.

"I guess tonight we'll make a game plan?"

"Yep. See you tonight."

Gabe closed the door to his room, and Sophia almost laughed to herself as she fell asleep, thinking of Gabe and 'see you tonight'. She never would have thought she'd be using that phrase regularly, nonetheless live by it.



A man walked down the street, looking at the small apartment building he used to live in. He was shivering, more from nervousness than from the frigid night air. He stepped through the doorway and quietly made his way up the stairs. Stopping at apartment 2B, he placed his ear on the door. He heard Spanish conversation back and forth, then soft mumbling, before a voice, louder than the rest came through.

"Because I don't deserve to be alive after that accident, Gabe, I don't."

The man rested his forehead on the door, frowning in pain. He knew the face that went with that terribly guilted voice. He slowly took the letter out, addressed to a Ms. Tegan Wentz and held it for a few seconds. He slid it under the doorframe and quickly turned away. He heard commotion as he stepped back out into the cold air and down the street. He dialed a number into the phone in his hand and spoke.


"Pete, it's done."

He was surprised at how somber he sounded when he spoke. He waited for a response from his friend on the other line.

"Thanks Joe."

The silence was somber, filled with awkward pain.

"So at least she's in good hands. At least you know she's safe right?"

Joe heard a huff from the other line. He gave up trying to make Pete and himself feel better. They both knew how much danger she was in even being in Chicago, and that's why Pete wrote that letter, to try to get Tegan to wait home for him.

"Joe, you there? You alright?"

He shook his head.

"Yeah. I'm fine. What'd you say?"

"I said, how'd it feel being close to your almost-lover once again?"

Joe could hear Pete's light tone with the question.

"Fine."

"You sure? Because I'd think you'd be pretty pissed considering the way things ended between you guys-"

"Pete, stop."

"Joe, I'm just playing around."

It must've been the first time Joe heard Pete laugh in a while. He saw a group of vampires down at the end of the street, and he knew that there would be a problem, considering he wasn't armed.

"Pete, I gotta go."

He hung up, and a few of the vampires came near. Joe swallowed.

"Hey, pretty boy, wanna dance?"

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AN: Hey guys! I'd really like to give a big thank you to everyone who keeps reading, and an ever bigger I love you to my reviewers! You guys don't know how much it means to me! :] Hope you guys enjoyed it!