Chapter Text
Book 2 To Trust the Guard
Introduzioni
Nile gasped awake, chest heaving. She looked wildly around the hold of the cargo plane and her eyes landed on Booker. He was propped up between two wooden crates like he was some kind of house cat known for sleeping in bizarre positions...
Nile actually had a cat like that growing up. His name had been Boozer because he always walked just a little bit crooked and passed out dead asleep in various twisted positions that frankly defied several laws of the natural world. He had been a ginger colored long haired tabby Nile and her brother had found in an alley on their way home from school one day. They had begged their mother to keep him and she had caved with hardly any resistance.
Nile tilted her head slightly at the man who had jolted awake and was now heaving for breath like he hadn't had fresh air in years... there was a striking resemblance between Booker and Boozer...
Andy charging back from the front of the plane, where Nile was sure she had been hovering menacingly over the pilot's shoulder, broke Nile out of her wandering thoughts and focused her attention back to what had woken her up in the first place.
Shouting. Searing too- bright sun. A gasp of fresh sea air. Glorious beautiful oxygen.
"She's out."
Andy whirled on Booker, sharp words ready on the tip of her tongue, Nile could tell. The woman was still a stranger but Nile had always been able to read people pretty fast.
"Joe and Nicky got her out."
At Booker's rushed words, Andy abruptly threw an arm straight out to the side to brace herself against the wall of the plane. Relief sagged through her and every scrap of tension and stress left her body like a puppet with its strings cut. Slowly, the most beautiful smile spread across her lips exposing perfect white teeth in a radiance that had Nile seriously glad that she had already known herself to be Bi... Nile thanked boot camp for clarifying that fact for her.
Apparently strong, dangerous badass women did it for her. In her men, Nile tended to prefer tall, physically strong but emotionally sensitive types. And without her permission, Nile's eyes strayed back to the bedraggled Frenchman crammed into a corner there was no way his 6'2 broad frame should have ever been able to fit in.
"Who's out?" Nile asked, trying to turn her focus off of her libido(not her fault... but what the hell, why did they both have to be hot?!) and back onto the matter at hand.
"Her name is Quynh. She's one of us... the first immortal Andy found." Booker paused and both he and Nile looked up at Andy. Andy gave them a tight smile and nodded at Booker to continue.
"They had both been alone so long before they found each other that Quynh had given up... Way back before Joe had shown up, it was just the two of them." Booker hesitated again and stared imploringly up at Andy, pain and sympathy crossing his features as he regarded her.
"She and I ran through the world togther and fought thousands of battles side by side. She was always right there with me..." Andy paused, a small smile on her lips as she closed her eyes as if she was drawing up a fond memory, "...she was a pit-viper in a fight."
Nile had the question 'what happened?' on the tip of her tongue but Booker's subtle shake of his head stilled her.
"We were in England, freeing so called heretics from the witch trials. But then we were accused of being witches ourselves and we were caught. When we didn't die, it only proved their case and we got sentenced again and again. We were killed in dozens of different ways but it was fine... because at least we were still together."
Andy's eyes squeezed shut as the agony of those memories swamped her. Nile felt her stomach drop in sympathy.
"I guess the executioners saw it too. They said we were too powerful together, they dragged her away from me in chains and locked her in an iron coffin." Andy drew in a shuttery breath, a tear streaking down her cheek and Nile hurriedly wiped at her own cheeks, clearing away the tears that had started falling steadily.
"I watched her get pulled away, screaming and begging for mercy and crying my name..." Andy paused to scrub a hand over her face and Booker softly continued the story where she had left off.
"After Andy escaped, she met up with Joe and they spent decades searching for her or anyone on that ship who could tell them where she was cast off."
"I've lived with the guilt ever since." Andy said in a hushed whisper almost too soft for Nile to hear, "It's my fault that she'd been captured and it's my fault she's been stuck down there for so long."
Nile didn't even know what to say. She could barely comprehend the story she was being told; the pain and despair and longing that they had all gone through...
"That's the reason why we all dread capture." Nile looked over at Booker's soft rough whisper.
"Spend eternity trapped in a cage."
After that frankly terrifying statement, the three of them were silent for a long time. Nile processed the information but in the end she decided she needed more answers to make sense of it.
"Why? Why us?"
Booker raised both eyebrows like, 'Good question' but repsonded with a trace of amusement in his voice, "That way madness lies."
Nile rolled her eyes at the oh so helpful non-answer. She tried another one.
"What were the dreams? The flashes of pictures, I saw you and Andy before we ever met. I saw... Joe and Nicky?"
At Booker nod of confirmation, Nile continued, "I saw the woman, Quynh, trapped underwater. She was smiling though... why? Wouldn't she be crazy if she's been down there all these years?! I would be!"
"Over five hundred years in a box at the bottom of the ocean would make anyone insane." Booker agreed.
Nile barely held back the exasperated look she so desperately wanted to give the man. He was just so helpful. The amused glint in his eye and the twitch of his lips told Nile that he was enjoying irritating her and she just narrowed her eyes at him until he decided to be helpful.
He held out for another second before caving with a chuckle, "I have been dreaming of Quynh on and off for two hundred years. For the first one hundred and sixty years... yeah... she was insane. She was furious and desperate and resentful. I could feel her pain. I could feel her insanity.''
"She's not that way now... what changed?" Nile asked almost hesitantly.
Booker smiled a fond little thing. The lines around his eyes crinkled and that told Nile that he smiled often enough that their so called healing factor couldn't keep up with the laugh lines.
"Nicky did. We found Nicky is 1980. He started talking to Quynh in his dreams almost right away."
Nile stared at Booker in straight up disbelief.
"Wait... you can actually talk to her?!"
Booker's amused little smirk told Nile that she had heard him correctly.
"How come I just saw flashes?" Nile demanded and Booker's amused smirk turned into a rueful little smile.
"I did too for over a century. She was angry and insane and all I felt was her pain and fury and her drowning over and over again. It was alot and I admittedly... hid from her. I tried to bury the emotions under alcohol and I was pretty successful for decades. It wasn't until Nicky figured out how to actually communicate with her that her rage subsided enough that I could see more than flashes.
And eventually, Quynh crossed the line between us herself and we could 'speak' so to say, in longer flashes. It's kind of like the old reels on a movie that has colors and you can feel each other's emotions but it had no sound. It's easier and clearer to read with calmer emotions on both sides."
"If you or Andy didn't know how to "talk" through the dreams, how on earth did Nicky figure that out?" Nile asked, gobsmacked.
Booker huffed out a laugh and Andy, who had been content to sit back and let Booker answer all of Nile's questions, actually snorted.
"You haven't met Nicky yet, but don't be fooled by his quiet, sweet demeanor. The man used to be a feral little shit... clever and wicked smart but completely fucking unhinged."
Nile raised both of her eyebrows and Booker nodded quickly at her unvoiced question.
"Nicky was the head of the Italian mafia in the 1970s. He would have just as soon as killed you as looked at you."
Niles eyes practically bugged out her head. "You said... he used to be... But he's better now... right?!"
When Booker shrugged nonchalantly, Andy rolled her eyes and "tried" to reassure Nile.
"Well Joe has been working on it with him for the last few decades but he's still a little..." Andy lifted her hand and tipped it side to side in the classic 'wishy washy' gesture.
"Intense and creepy are the words you're looking for, Boss." Booker added.
Nile sat back against the wall in a stunned silence. She was joining a group of crazy people.
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It was nightfall when the plane landed outside of the city limits of Odesa, Ukraine.
Nile was almost depressed about not getting to explore the city and the amazing architecture it was known for. As Andy hustled both her and Booker into a newer model car from the rental agency close to the private airfield they had landed in, she shared with Nile the stories of how she had been there when the city was just a small trading town with barely two bars and an Inn.
But as fascinating as the story was, it struck Nile hard that this was what her new life was. Passing through, just watching the world change around her... It all felt too big... it felt like too much.
Nile must have been quiet for too long because Booker reached into the backseat and tapped her knee.
"You okay?" Nile just hummed in response. "Get some rest. Andy and I will take turns driving. With any luck, we'll meet the others at the safe house in Warsaw by midmorning. We should be across the border into Poland before dawn."
Nile nodded her agreement, stuffed her jacket under her head and slept.
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Nile's dreams were simple and for that she was grateful.
The setting looked like a loft style apartment that Nile had seen in Chicago. Not the higher end lofts but the ones that had been converted from the old warehouses downtown. It was spacious and open and had no walls separating any of the rooms except the bathroom.
The bedroom flowed into the living space where a pullout couch held ruffled bedsheets and a quilt that had been thrown back. The livingroom opened into a moderate sized kitchen with modern appliances. The certains were drawn shut but Nile could still see the glow of a streetlight through them; it cast a warmth around the room during the pre-dawn hours.
In one corner of the large space, on what looked like a king sized bed on a floating frame, were three entertwined figures. The petite figure in the middle had to be Quynh. On either side of her, curled around her protectively were Joe and Nicky.
The wave of safety and contentment that resonated off the three of them was comforting and reassuring. Nile smiled her in her sleep and allowed herself to drift deeper into a dreamless slumber.
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It was in fact midmorning and sunny by the time Andy, Booker and Nile rolled into the parking space in front of the large converted warehouse. There were plenty of other cars parked in the spaces to either side of them so Nile took some comfort in not being stuck in the middle of nowhere.
They all got out of the car and stretched out the kinks from being cramped in first the cargo plane and then the car for the last day.
Booker winked at her as he stepped up to her, "Don't get used to the modern digs. This is Joe and Nicky's place and we won't stay here long, just a few days to come up with a gameplan."
Andy stepped up beside them with a bag in each hand, "We'll head somewhere else with more room. Probably Booker's farmhouse in Canada. There are more than enough bedrooms there and we won't have to be on top of each other."
Booker scoffed playfully at her, "More like you wanna have a reunion with Quynh in the biblical sense."
Andy flung one of the bags at him for him to carry and then wacked him upside the head with her palm. Booker just snickered and hunched over to protect himself from the assault. Nile smiled at their antics, grabbed her own bag and followed them inside.
It was Nicky who opened the door. His bright eyes held a hawk-like intensity but when they settled on Andy, they visibly softened. Even though his expression didn't really change, his whole being, his whole presence relaxed and he looked impossibly warm and welcoming.
Andy hugged him without hesistation, one of her hands coming up to cradle the back of his head. They separated and Nicky moved to the side to let them all pass by him. When Nile slipped in after Booker, Andy was being spun around joyfully by Joe. From the smile on her face and the lack of tension in her body, this seemed to be a common occurence. It was nice to see the stressed woman so relaxed and happy.
Nile felt a gentle hand on the small of her back. She turned her head to look into the smiling eyes of Nicky. How the man could so clearly display his emotions in his eyes without any outward demonstration was so unique and different. Booker had been right when he had called Nicky Intense.
"Come sit, you've had a long few days."
Joe came bounding over to them, wrapped an arm around Nile's shoulders and guided her into a chair at the kitchen table. It had six mismatched chairs crammed around it and Nile had a feeling that Joe and Nicky had rushed out first thing to find the extra chairs so that she and Quynh felt welcome.
Nile couldn't help but relax into Joe's affectionate embrace. It made her feel safe and welcome, like she hadn't felt since the last time she hugged her mother goodbye at the airport. When Nile sat with Booker on one side and Joe on the other side, she looked over to where Andy and Quynh were still locked in a tight embrace.
There were tears treaking down both women's cheeks and they were whispered words in a language that Nile couldn't make out. Joe reached over and nudged Nile. She dragged her gaze away from the emotional reunion to give Joe her full attention.
"It's a mix of ancient dead languages that only the two of them know."
"You've never asked?"
Joe tilted one side of his mouth up as he looked at Nile with a fondness that she knew she would soon reciprocate.
"No. It's theirs alone. You spend thousands of years with someone and I'd say you earned the right to a secret language."
"How about you and Nicky? Do you have a secret language?"
Joe's eyes, already soft with affection for Nile, absolutely melted when he turned his head to look at Nicky. The Italian man had just finished setting a glass down in front of everyone and had taken a seat next to Booker. Nicky's eyes sparkled. The two of them honestly looked liked anime characters when they stared at each other like that.
"Booker explained to you about Quynh?" Nicky's direct question somehow didn't shock Nile. He seemed very straightforward to her.
"No... it was mostly Andy."
Nicky tilted his head at that, like what Nile had said was an interesting tidbit of information. Joe on the other hand looked completely shocked.
"Andy told the story?"
Nile nodded slowly at Joe's inquiry. Nicky's mouth curled upward just a little when he smiled at her and Nile got the feeling that he was very pleased. When he spoke it was in his beautiful lilting Italian accent.
"It is because we found Quynh. Memories are easier to relive and speak out loud when there is a happy ending."
God, Nile could listen to him speak all day long and never grow tired of it. She should ask him if he'd ever consider making a podcast or narrating books on audio.
Nile looked back at the two women and they looked they were separating rather reluctantly. The two women took the open seats, Andy next to Joe and Quynh next to Nicky. When they seemed settled, Nile couldn't have stopped her flood of questions even if she had tried.
"Why did I dream of you all?"
Joe opened his mouth to answer but Nicky cut in, "I believe we were meant to find each other."
He was staring at Joe intently as he said it and Nile caught the ridiculously soft wink Joe sent back at him. Nicky looked at Nile when he continued, "It's like destiny."
Nicky looked over at Andy and Quynh. Quynh reached out to touch his face almost reverently. Nicky took her hand in his and tucked their entertwined fingers onto his thigh under the table.
"More like misery loves company." Booker quipped raising his mug of coffee to his lips. Around the table there were various smiles, rolled eyes and Andy throwing a bread roll at him.
"How old is everyone? How long did it take to find everyone?"
Booker jumped in to answer her, "Nicky was the last in 1980."
"Was it love at first sight?" The little girl inside Nile that still loved Disney movies just had to know. She looked between Joe and Nicky, impatiently waiting for one of them to tell her.
Joe motioned between he and Nicky with a chuckle, "We... we killed each other."
There was laughter in Nicky's eyes and a secret little smirk on his face when he volleyed back with, "Many times yeah."
Next to her, Booker snorted into his drink as if the apparently understated little inside joke would never get old. Nicky brought them all back to Nile's original question.
"Booker was before that. 1812."
Nile looked at the Frenchman in astonishment. Booker chuckled seemingly embarrassed to admit how he had come to die.
"Yeah, I died fighting with Napoleon."
Nile's eyes were so wide she didn't think that they'd ever go back into her head.
"I died in the Crusades. Stabbed through the gut by a fucking Italian Catholic priest with a giant red cross on his armor."
The look Joe shot at Nicky just screamed Sass with a capitol "S". The Italian man just smirked slowly back at his lover like the devil himself couldn't catch his tongue.
"The love of my life makes a habit of getting stabbed by large swords wielded by Italian Catholic men."
Nile actually spewed her drink out across the table at the sexual innuendo. As she covered her mouth and tried to recover from Nicky's dirty joke(the man looked far far too pleased with himself) her eyes landed on Quynh. The petite woman looked absolutely luminous when she smiled at Nile.
"Hello Nile." Her dark gaze fixed to the right of Nile. "It's good to finally meet you, Booker."
Booker cleared his throat, his eyes suspiciously wet as he nodded his returned sentiment. When Quynh's gaze moved back to Nile, Nile blurted out a question before she could stop herself.
"How old are you?"
Quynh looked to the ceiling as if pondering the answer. She raised the hand that had previously been held in Nicky's(Nile noted that Quynh had yet to move her other hand out of her lap and she had a feeling that if the table were not blocking her view, Nile would see it wrapped tightly in Andy's) and she tapped the tips of the fingers on her chin in a rhythm that made it seem like she was actually counting.
"Hmmm... Two-- no three thousand years... Give or take a few centuries."
Nile's jaw dropped open. Quynh just sent her a saucy little wink, "I look good for my age, no?"
Nile couldn't respond, she just closed her eyes and shook her head, like maybe she could shake some semblence of order back into her world. When she opened her eyes back up, she turned them pleadingly on Andy, silently begging the woman to just give it to her straight and not throw another curveball at Nile. Andy's mouth lifted at one corner; it wasn't quite a smirk but Nile braced herself for what was coming anyway.
"Old."
"How old?" Nile practically begged.
"Too old." Andy responded in literally the vaguest way she could have and Nile should have known Andy wouldn't give her an actual straight answer.
"Andy is the grumpy old lady of the group." Joe said, snickering under his breath.
Andy made an affronted noise but Nicky was quick to add in his input, "It's true, Nile."
"I am not!" Andy insisted pointing an accussatory finger first at Joe and then a Nicky.
It was Booker though who hammered the last nail into her coffin, "Wasn't it the safe house in Thailand where you yelled at that kid to get off our lawn?"
Shouts in multiple languages and loud laughter echoed in the kitchen when Andy lunged up from the table and darted toward Booker. If he hadn't anticipated her move and scrambled backwards, she would have caught him in a headlock.
As Nile watched two old Immortals play catch-me-if-you-can around the kitchen table with shouts and howling laughter from every one of their little family, she couldn't help but feel the wave of happiness wrap around her.
She still had a lot of unanswered questions and concerns and she still missed her mom and brother like a missing limb, but for the first time since she had her throat cut open and felt her blood drain out of her body, Nile felt content and confident that she could belong with this little mismatched family.
Somehow, something in her heart of hearts, Nile knew they'd do everything in their power to keep her safe and she truly felt like she'd do the very same... or she'd die trying.
Finite.