JAWS (Complete)

Chapter 23

"Yeah. We're back in Trost."

"Oh." Galliard lets out a long, sighing breath and sits back in his seat, pinning Reiner's arm against the back of it. "Okay."

The plane doesn't taxi long, and they don't have bags to pick up, so Reiner breezes Galliard through the airport and to his waiting parked car. Reiner pays the parking fee-Galliard goes for his wallet and Reiner swats him away-and then they're pulling out onto the highway an Reiner realizes he doesn't know where they're going.

"Uh... where do you want to go?"

Galliard doesn't answer right away; he has his wallet open across his lap, and Reiner knows he's looking at the check Erwin wrote for him this morning, touching it as if to reassure himself that it's real.

"Gali?"

"Hmmm?" Galliard looks up, blinking, and then gives his head a little shake. "My place. Can you take me to my place?"

"Of course." And Reiner merges into traffic, trying to hide how much that response hurts. He'd hoped Galliard would ask to be taken back to Reiner's apartment, the place Reiner is slowly starting to think of as their place, rather than the cinderblock prison where he'd lived with Sarge.

There's traffic on the expressway, because of course there is, and Reiner has to slow to a crawl. Galliard doesn't complain about the delay, just keeps looking out the window, his gaze distant and far away. It worries Reiner; for all his secrets and aloofness, Galliard has never been terribly good at hiding his emotions, nor skilled at hiding them. This moody, introspective quality is worrying, and Reiner almost speaks up a dozen times before closing his mouth and letting things rest as they are.

Maybe Galliard is just tired.

They're creeping their way across an overpass when Galliard suddenly speaks up, his voice startlingly loud in the silent car.

"I was on a bus when I found out."

Reiner looks over at him; traffic is basically stopped, so he doesn't feel badly about taking his eyes off the road. "What?"

"When Marcel... when I found out he died." Galliard is still looking out the window, but Reiner sees his throat work as he swallows. "I was on a bus. To Trost. Erwin called me."

"Oh." Reiner isn't sure where this is coming from, but it feels like something that needs to come out. "Why were you on a bus?"

"I was supposed to meet him here." Galliard gestures out the window, encompassing all of Trost with a simple hand wave. "He was getting out in September, and I was going to get everything set up and Sarge settled and start school." Galliard swallows again, and Reiner can hear his breath rattling in his chest. "I had to leave early. In August. I was only supposed to be here by myself for about a week before he got here, but I had to leave early. So I was on a bus when... when I found out."

"I'm so sorry, Gali."

Galliard shakes his head. "Wasn't your fault." He lifts a hand and touches the skin under his eye, where his cheekbone juts out, and starts rubbing across it. There's a certain unconscious quality to the gesture that makes Reiner wonder if he's even aware he's doing it. "I got kicked out."

"Erwin kicked you out?" That sounds absurd, and the look Galliard shoots Reiner, like he's the stupidest motherfucker to ever walk the earth, makes it clear that he agrees.