Unravel Me | Arrow [ COMPLETED ]

chapter twenty eight

NOTE: There are some potentially triggering themes in this chapter. There is nothing explicit and nothing in depth, but please read with caution.

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"Smile, we're all dying

Hey, you've been lying to yourself again"

WILLIAM CRIGHTON - 'Smile'

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"Please don't name your child Anakin," Tommy said dryly, itching the side of his nose. "You know that's objectively, like, a terrible idea, right?"

"I like it," Cali protested, a smile threatening her lips. "It's better than Leon." She said the name as though it personally offended her. "Like honestly, that's what you think is a good name? Leon?" She shook her head. "That's worse than Thea's."

Thea, who'd suggested Klive. Unironically. With a deadpan expression. Cali had been horrified.

Tommy pouted, lifting a spoonful of half melted ice cream to his mouth with a dramatic huff. "Well, what does Michael think?"

Cali's smile slipped only slightly. She cleared her throat and picked at the skin of her wrist. "He thinks I should name the baby James."

"Isn't that his middle name?"

Cali shrugged.

Okay, so Leon wasn't actually that bad of a name - in all honesty, she wasn't sure what she wanted to call her unborn child. None of the names she'd agonised over seemed to fit right for the lifeforce growing inside her.

In every book she'd read, every online interview she'd watched, every mother always said that if they didn't have a name before the birth, then they'd look into their new-born's eyes for the first time and the name would just come to them.

Yeah, fuck that. If Cali didn't have a name for her baby before he came into the world, then she could just hold off the pregnancy until she found one.

Tommy cleared his throat. "Okay, the name Anakin aside, this is going to be your son. Not mine, not Thea's, not even Michael."

"It's his kid too-"

"As far as I'm concerned, if he's not pushing the damn thing out of his body, he doesn't get that much of a say, okay?" Tommy leaned forward. "This is your baby Cali. You name him whatever you want to."

Weeks later, right as the little life form was launching an impressive barrage of kicks against her soft insides, the name slipped into her mind and grew roots, planting inside her thoughts with a certainty she hadn't expected.

"Gabriel," she whispered to her swollen stomach. "Because you're my little angel."

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Cali liked Anita. She had a dry sense of humour that seemed at odds with her gentle hands, her presence a muted grey of calm and steadiness. Everything about her was unobtrusive and simple, and Cali appreciated that more than anybody could ever possibly understand.

As it was, even with Tommy and Oliver having been shooed out of the room, Cali was aware of them lurking outside the room in a way that wasn't entirely normal. They lingered and flickered in the yawning cavity somewhere beside her heart. They were... She could feel them.