He's leaning close as he stitches the wound, so there's not much room for Horatio to see the facial journey Gabriel goes on as he's carefully pulling the muscle back into place. But the flinch is obvious, and hard to avoid, Gabe looking down and away as he debates with himself on whether he should lie and cover what had actually happened. It was personal. It should be private.
But... He didn't know how to deal with it. He didn't know how to broach the topic with Montgomery over text and he was frankly... Scared to try it face to face. What if he snapped? What if Montgomery snapped? It was too much. There were too many variables he couldn't control.
"...He didn't think I was real."
It's so soft at first. Like he doesn't trust himself to say it louder.
"Said I didn't make any sense when I tried to tell him what had happened. That he'd been gone. I... Snapped. Lunged at him because I wasn't sure if it was him or some trick. We'd just arrived here and I was in my old tactical gear."
He sets down the forceps, giving the wound one last clean out with saline before he begins carefully pinching the skin back together, assessing if this is a stitches job or if he needed to get the medical staples.
"He's always been stronger than me. And I guess... He didn't think I was real."
He smiles, but it's thin, tight. Sad. He doesn't yet know that to Montgomery's eyes, with his ability to detect magic and strangeness and with the Veil absent, he'd lit up on his radar in a way he never would have before. Of course he hadn't thought this was Gabriel. He hadn't had the benefit of the Veil to help hide away just how fucked his bloodline really was, and just how much closer to monster than human they were.
"I... I regenerate, Horatio. I have to pay a blood price for it, but my wounds close themselves over time. Makes me a nightmare to kill, when I've got access to it. I stopped fighting."
He picks up a fresh needle, and starts attaching fresh sutures.
Horatio's initial thought is: Who didn't think he was real? For a brief moment he thinks Gabe is talking about one of Felfri's Fog followers - try saying that three times fast, he amends, wryly - and then he realizes exactly what's being explained to him.
"Fuck."
The curse comes out as a pained sigh. After having seen Gabe grieve Monty's disappearance the way he had, talking him out of putting himself through death after death until nothing hurt anymore ... Horatio can only imagine how much all of this must have stung.
"I don't blame you for not trusting seeing him, not after the shit that's been pulled on us in the past. And if you were in your gear... Christ, that must've been like taking the partition out of a betta fish tank." When Gabe pinches the wound closed and explains the regeneration, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other on which is making Horatio wince in pain.
"So you just let him beat you up?" Something about that really makes him upset, and not in the sad sort of way. He can feel his jaw clenching again already. He wants to ask if some twisted part of Gabe thought he deserved it because of all the shit his old man beat into his head ... but that wasn't the sort of thing you said when someone, dumb as they were in some ways, was in the act of poking a needle through your open wound.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sforzinda
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 01:00 am (UTC)But... He didn't know how to deal with it. He didn't know how to broach the topic with Montgomery over text and he was frankly... Scared to try it face to face. What if he snapped? What if Montgomery snapped? It was too much. There were too many variables he couldn't control.
"...He didn't think I was real."
It's so soft at first. Like he doesn't trust himself to say it louder.
"Said I didn't make any sense when I tried to tell him what had happened. That he'd been gone. I... Snapped. Lunged at him because I wasn't sure if it was him or some trick. We'd just arrived here and I was in my old tactical gear."
He sets down the forceps, giving the wound one last clean out with saline before he begins carefully pinching the skin back together, assessing if this is a stitches job or if he needed to get the medical staples.
"He's always been stronger than me. And I guess... He didn't think I was real."
He smiles, but it's thin, tight. Sad. He doesn't yet know that to Montgomery's eyes, with his ability to detect magic and strangeness and with the Veil absent, he'd lit up on his radar in a way he never would have before. Of course he hadn't thought this was Gabriel. He hadn't had the benefit of the Veil to help hide away just how fucked his bloodline really was, and just how much closer to monster than human they were.
"I... I regenerate, Horatio. I have to pay a blood price for it, but my wounds close themselves over time. Makes me a nightmare to kill, when I've got access to it. I stopped fighting."
He picks up a fresh needle, and starts attaching fresh sutures.
"He didn't."
no subject
Date: 2022-11-14 02:00 am (UTC)"Fuck."
The curse comes out as a pained sigh. After having seen Gabe grieve Monty's disappearance the way he had, talking him out of putting himself through death after death until nothing hurt anymore ... Horatio can only imagine how much all of this must have stung.
"I don't blame you for not trusting seeing him, not after the shit that's been pulled on us in the past. And if you were in your gear... Christ, that must've been like taking the partition out of a betta fish tank." When Gabe pinches the wound closed and explains the regeneration, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other on which is making Horatio wince in pain.
"So you just let him beat you up?" Something about that really makes him upset, and not in the sad sort of way. He can feel his jaw clenching again already. He wants to ask if some twisted part of Gabe thought he deserved it because of all the shit his old man beat into his head ... but that wasn't the sort of thing you said when someone, dumb as they were in some ways, was in the act of poking a needle through your open wound.