15: It's Genetic

Gabriella cried and cried into Nate's shoulder. Dimly she worried about ruining his jacket, but if he minded, he didn't show it. She doubted he minded.

"It happened. I'd begun to hope..." she mumbled as Nathaniel stroked the back of her head.

"Shh..." Nathaniel hated feeling the painful sorrow coursing through her right now.

Caitlin was murdered. It happened just like it did in the vision. Well, the pair of them knew it must have. The cops found her in an alleyway with a bullet wound to her skull. They'd identified her by her fingerprints. Gabriella's mother didn't even know yet. The police had tried her first, and when they didn't get an answer, they called Gabby. Now they wanted her to come to the station.

Gabriella's phone rang again.

"It's Mom." she said. "I can't talk to her."

Nate nodded and answered the phone himself.

A few days later...

(I apologize for the tacky clothes of the townies. I was too lazy to change them all into funeral/visitation attire.)

They had to hold a closed-casket funeral for Caitlin for obvious reasons. Gabby and her mother, Marge, stayed busy. Gabby was surprised, but happy that Nate actually came to the viewing even though it was held while the sun was still up. She thought the idea of a "viewing" ridiculous since they weren't opening the casket, but her mother insisted that people needed to come and speak with them, and this would be their opportunity.

"Thank you for being here." Gabriella said as she pulled Nate into one of her now trademark unexpected hugs.

"Of course." he said simply. His arms tightened around her, wishing he could take away the pain he shared. He looked over to the woman to his right and asked, "Is this you mother?"

Gabriella pulled back and nodded.

Gabriella introduced the two of them awkwardly. Nathaniel could tell immediately where Gabriella got her eyes. Those eyes snapped to regard him closely when Gabby introduced him as her boyfriend. 

"I'm sorry I never met Caitlin." he told the woman sadly. She nodded, understanding that he was there for Gabby's sake.

Marge took a step closer to Nathaniel and said in a quiet voice, "I assume my daughter knows what you are."

Nate felt suddenly shocked. He couldn't read the mother at all. "Fascinating." he could hear the memory of what Augustus said in his head. He did his best to hide his shock as he answered, "Yes."

"So you're the one." she said cryptically, giving him that same shrewd look he'd seen on Gabriella's face a few times.

"I... I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." he replied. And that is very strange that I don't.

"Yes, that's right. I'd forgotten." she said just as cryptically as before. Then she shook her head slightly before she continued, "I saw you years ago." 

Nate went stock still with shock. It's genetic.

Marge considered the vampire in front of her. Handsome enough. Smart. Completely entranced with my daughter. Oh, but I knew that. It's what he's going to do with her that I wish I knew. She'd tried many times, ever since she saw her daughter with a vampire, to figure this out, but it was blocked from her knowing for some reason.

"She's in danger." Marge continued after Nate's befuddled silence. "And there's nothing I can do about it. But you can. You will. I don't understand that part. Maybe I don't want to, but just please promise me you'll be her angel and not her demon."

"She knows she's in danger." Nate finally found his voice. "And I will do everything in my power to help." After a pause he said, "You have the same gift?" He wanted to clarify.

"Yes. Both her father and me." She smiled at her memories, "Imagine living with someone that you knew they knew everything that the two of you were going to do, and you knew the pieces he didn't. It was irritating! Don't tell her I said this. I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you in case you ever needed to know. She knows I have the gift, but she thinks I don't understand her hatred of it. She never knew her father had it at all. He was better at hiding it."

"Why not tell her?" he asked.

"She hates her gift. How do you think she'll feel finding out it came from both her parents?" the woman's eyebrows raised in question. Nate remained quiet. Marge sighed and continued, "Tell her if you want. Not today obviously."

"No, of course not." Nate agreed.

Gabriella wondered what Nate and her mother could be talking about. She started to feel a little paranoid.

The mayor came by to give his condolences and to tell Gabby to take the rest of the week off. Gabriella gratefully thanked him. Mr. Knight didn't stay long, however, when Nathaniel turned his cold stare onto him.

Gabriella found herself standing at the entrance to the room to greet people as they walked in, and she felt rooted to the spot. Her mother would greet them in turn after her. Nate quietly stayed in the background. A few times, when Gabby would look in his direction, she got the strong impression the women that talked to him were flirting with him.

It didn't matter about age. They were drawn to him like bees to honey! And that sonofabitch is enjoying it!

The man in the tacky suit is flirting with Mom. Ew. 

Gabriella's annoyance grew. Well, at least it distracts me from what is actually happening... my sister's funeral.

Once she'd finished exchanging a small conversation with the man in front of her, Gabriella turned to face Nate. She thought she'd caught the girl in front of him trying to stifle a laugh.

What! Are! You! DOING!? she mentally screamed at him. His eyes snapped up to hers and he performed a 'What?' expression.

She rolled her eyes and started towards him. 

Nathaniel was, yet again, pleasantly surprised by Gabriella. He could feel the jealousy coming off of her in waves. Shoe's on the other foot now!

She walked right up to him and embraced him.

He whispered in her ear, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

She whispered right back, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

"I'm being friendly."

"Too friendly."

He sheepishly looked away, inwardly loving her jealousy. "I can't help it if they're flirting." Then he looked at her as he said, "I didn't flirt back, though." 

"But you didn't stop them from flirting!" Her whisper rose in volume.

Nate took a small step towards her as he spoke in a low voice, "Now you understand in a small way how I felt the other night when that sleazeball of a mayor was talking with you."

"Yes, pity I couldn't hear their thoughts." she said sarcastically.

"It is a pity because hearing his thoughts, even as recent as a moment ago, makes me want to throw him across the room."

"So you do this to get back at me?" she asked.

"I wasn't doing anything but trying to be polite!" he fussed at her quietly.

"I was the same! You think I don't get those vibes from him? How can I tell him I'm not interested if he hasn't done anything?"

"Easy. Quit! I'll go insane if you go to work there again." He stared into her eyes, hoping to drive the point home.

Gabriella gasped, "That's my job!" Already making these kinds of demands?

"I wouldn't be making these demands if he were a decent person! Any job is better than that one!"

"This isn't even what I wanted to talk to you about!" she gritted her teeth as she put forth an effort to keep her voice down.

That old friend of her mother's came by to give her condolences to Gabriella again, but Gabby guessed, since she stared at him the whole time, she was really over there to try and get at Nate again.

"Thank you. Now, if you would please excuse us." Gabriella did her best not to glare at the cougar when the woman turned her shocked gaze on Gabby finally.

Nate decided he liked Gabby jealous. He couldn't help but feel a small thrill at the thought that someone so beautiful was willing to fight everyone off just for him. It gave him hope.

Gabriella felt suddenly ridiculous as she realized she'd successfully driven the older woman off. "Sorry." she whispered. "It's not your fault."

A smile slowly grew across Nate's face, and he wished she'd open her eyes. "You being jealous is so hot."

Gabriella shook her head and placed her forehead on her fingertips before she said, "Do you realize how bizarre that sounds coming from you?"

He laughed very quietly. "I guess it does. I thought I'd try it out. The sentiment is the same, however."

"I don't like that feeling -being jealous." she said honestly.

"Then you will understand how I'll feel if you go back to that job." he looked at her pleadingly.

She sighed resolutely. "I'll honestly consider it, Nate."

He pulled her to him and had the sudden urge to tell her how he felt. However, he didn't think her sister's funeral the right time or place, so he held his tongue.

Gabriella smiled a small smile as Nathaniel's stubble grazed her ear and his smell invaded her senses. She had the desire to nuzzle right into him and just get lost from the world for a while, maybe forever.

Nathaniel opened his eyes to Gabriella's mother's resigned expression. Once again, it bothered him he couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"It looks as if everyone's gone, Gabby." Marge said.

Gabriella broke free from Nathaniel and felt suddenly weary, so she headed over to sit on one of the couches. Her mother joined her.

"I knew, Mom. I knew. I knew and I didn't tell her." Gabriella said as a few more tears found their way down her nose.

"You know her knowing wouldn't have changed a thing." Marge said comfortingly.

Nate knelt down in front of Gabby and said, "Remember, she knew you knew something, and she didn't want you to tell her."

"And then she was attacked, and I thought that maybe you were right, Nate. For a while I believed the future could change." she said disconsolately. 

"There was nothing anyone could do. I wish you would learn to control this, though, Gabby." her mother said.

Nate's head popped over to Mrs. Hudson. She and August need never meet.

"I don't want to." Gabby said as Nate held her hand reassuringly.

That evening...

Gabriella went to the graveyard to sit at her father's grave. Tomorrow they would bury her sister here. Depression settled heavily around her in a fog, making her unaware of the slight chill in the air that brushed against her bare arms.

She heard a very localized whisper of sound behind her, and she knew what it meant.

"Hello, Nate." she said to him in almost a monotone. "You don't have to be here." It had only been about an hour since he'd dropped her off at her house. She'd decided she couldn't stand the walls around her, and drove herself here.

"Nice candles." he said without much emotion. 

"Yeah. They were just sitting around my house doing nothing, so I thought I'd light them here. Sort of cheer the place up for a little while, you know?" she said as if she'd forgotten that he could hear everything going on in her head no matter the distance. 

Nate nodded anyway, wishing he knew what to do to make this melancholy go away.

A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she stood up and stared at Nate. A part of her still fought the idea of her becoming a vampire, and it was at war with the part of her that said it was inevitable.

"They always come true. Always." she said blandly, wishing she could stop the rising desperation inside of her for that statement to be false.

"It looks that way, yes." Nate said sadly. As the afternoon had progressed, her mother's words haunted him more and more. Mrs. Hudson knew something was going to happen, but not what, she'd said. She knew it was all going to fall to him how it would play out, and the idea of possibly losing Gabriella made him feel like he was being ripped in two.

"I'm afraid, Nathaniel!" she said as she collapsed on her knees. "The worst is I don't know for sure what I'm afraid of most!"

"Gabriella, try not to think so much about it. Let's just live our lives as if we didn't know what's going to happen." he said as he ran his fingertips along her thigh. "At any rate, just don't push me away because of it." he said because he'd felt her momentary urge to ask him to leave her alone while she was still standing.

Gabby sniffed and shook her head no. "I don't think I could even if I tried."

Nate could feel it in her, even if she didn't know what it was, and he wanted to cry with happiness. She loved him. He'd not felt this ever before--this feeling of feeling someone love him through them. 

Gabriella felt herself suddenly lifted into his tight embrace. She felt cradled by his arms around her. He was taking several deep breaths. She wondered what was wrong, so she tried to comfort him by running her fingers through his soft hair.

"I love you, Gabriella." he breathed to her in her ear before kissing her just under it. She felt a tightening sensation in her torso as Nate didn't stop at under her ear but continued down her neck in an almost frantic way. She had difficulty catching her breath when he'd made his way down to her collarbone. Her hands clutched at him desperately like he alone was her lifeline to everything in life that mattered.

"Oh, Nathaniel, I..."

Nathaniel was so caught up in waiting to hear what Gabby had to say that he didn't feel the presence behind him and at first mistook her gasp for something else. That is, until he felt her terror.