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Nile is not sure what to do.
She just received bad news, and she doesn’t know how to react to them.
It's been three years since she decided to come back for the immortal team and stay with them. They had become her family and she loves all of them very much.
But even if she had left behind her biological family, by echange all of them were her family and she loves them with every part of herself. It hurts to be apart from them, but Nile thinks about them everyday and hopes she is doing the best in keeping her distance. That’s why she keeps track of them. She checks them constantly, to make sure they are doing well. And she has Copley checking on them too.
Now Nile has worrying news about them. A year ago her grandma Adelia died and her mother and brother moved out to her house to stop renting an apartment. It seems like her grandma had a mortgage no one knew about. His brother had asked for a credit to pay the house mortgage, before the bank would take their house.
The problem is that the credit was given by some kind of mafia group from Chicago called “The Outfit” . From that moment they are stalking him and if he doesn’t pay soon he and her mom are going to be in real danger. They could lose their house, or get hurt or killed… Or maybe she is just overthinking it too much.
So, should she go to them? Tell them about her immortality and protect them? Or… Should she stay away to not complicate the issue even more? Send them the money anonymously from afar?
“Hey, are you okay?” Quỳnh asks, sitting down next to her to get her attention.
“I don’t know”, Nile says honestly.
“Did something happen?” Quỳnh continues to question her, a little anxious about the different possibilities that she is playing in her head.
“Not yet”, she answers.
Nile gives Quỳnh the information Copley had given her. She can see how Quỳnh’s mood changes as she reads the news and how she becomes worried very quickly.
“We should show this to the team”, Quỳnh suggests, as if keeping Nile’s family safe was something important to all of them.
“I don’t know what to do”, she confesses, feeling very unsure about everything. “I chose to leave them and made them think I died, I chose to stay with you guys”, she says sadly, feeling remorse about those decisions even if she wouldn’t change them.
“Your family is our family Nile”, Quỳnh tells her with confidence. “Come on, let’s go”, she indicates, as she helps Nile stand up.
She accepts Quỳnh’s hand and hangs on to it with all her strength. She is happy to have in her life. Quỳnh It may have taken a little while for Quỳnh to recover from her trauma and for Nile to stop being cautious around her. But once they have come to an understanding, they become very close. Quỳnh is funny, passionate and confident. She loves and protects fiercely. And Nile respects and loves her for all of that.
They go inside the safehouse and talk with the team. Nile tells everyone the news about her family. They all listen to her patiently. They let her talk, keeping quiet most of the time. She feels nervous and overwhelmed, because they are letting her do it at her own time, but really all she would want is someone to tell her what to do.
“So, what do you want to do?” Andy asks her, after a long silence.
“What do I want to do?” She repeats the question, confused about it.
“It’s your family, so it’s your choice”, Andy states.
“I chose to make them believe I’m dead, I chose to stay with this team”, she reminds her, feeling it is her obligation to take charge of her choices and their consequences.
“I’m always gonna be glad you came back and chose to stay with us Nile, because I love you”, Andy tells her with tenderness. “But you don’t have to feel like it’s something unalterable, situations can change and we make new choices. No one is obligated to stay with the team all the time or do all the missions, we can stay and go as we wish to”, she reminds her of the way they work, as a way to calm her anxiety.
“Really?” Nile asks, because she still feels fear about all this.
“Yes, really”, Andy assures her.
“Whatever you choose, you are always gonna have a place with us”, Nicky says kindly.
“And we’ll support you in whatever you wanna do”, Joe adds, agreeing with the others.
“Your family is our family too”, Booker says, concluding what everyone has been trying to say.
Nile exchanges a look with Quỳnh and can tell how the other woman is sending her love with the way she is looking at her and it warms her heart. Nile feels like crying, so she does. She feels comfortable expressing her emotions with them. Very quickly they are all surrounding and hugging her. They stay like that until she calms down.
“So, what do you want to do Nile?” Quỳnh asks her, bringing back the important topic.
“I want to go to them, give them the money to pay the debt and make sure that The Outfit isn’t a danger to them anymore”, Nile finds herself answering honestly.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Andy offers her.
At the offer Nile gets emotional once again, because she hasn’t been expecting it nor consider that as a possible option. But of course it is, they are her family too. And just like any family, they support each other. Nile loves them for it and finds herself agreeing with the idea. Having them at her ride will give her the courage and safety she needs.
The next day they fly to Chicago. They go directly to her grandma’s house. The whole team is going with her because she had asked them to. Nile wants to help her family, but wants to maintain the immortality fact as secret. They are going to pretend they had to simulate her death because she is in some kind of witness program and working in secret for the USA’s Navy.
Nile rings the bell and waits. Theresa, her mother, is the one who opens the door. She looks very shocked for a short moment and then pulls her in a big and strong hug. Nile collapses in the hug and lets herself feel all the love of her mom. They both cry and laugh at the same time. They are a mess, but it feels right.
Before Nile can realise what is happening, her mother is pushing her inside of their home and calling for her brother.
“Amur!!” Theresa shouts.
“What?!” Amur answers from upstairs.
“Come here right now!!” Theresa bosses him.
“Mom”, Nile calls her, trying to get her to calm down. They are together. They have time. “I’m sorry”, she apologizes, feeling the need to express the regret she has for all the pain she had put them through.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for, it is not your fault”, her mother assures her like it is the absolute truth, even though she doesn’t know the full story yet. “Amur!!!” She calls for her son again.
Amur comes down the stairs and almost falls when he sees Nile. He approaches her, repeating her name softly over and over again. And when he is at her side, he pinches her to test she is real. Once he realises he is not dreaming and she is actually real, he shelters her in a big hug.
Some seconds later her mother joins the hug and they just stay like that, sharing an emotional and warm group hug. Nile feels their perfumes and lets the smell of them relax her completely. They smell like home. She had missed them so much and she feels complete now that she is within their arms.
Nile has been so relieved to have her old family back, that she hasn’t realised her new family is there too, until Amur points it out.
“Who are they?” Amur asks her, as he gets out of the hug. “What happened? Why did the navy tell us you were dead? Where were you all this time?” He asks, kinda panicking.
“Hey, let your sister breathe”, Theresa slows him down. “Let’s go with the most important thing: can we trust them?” She says, pointing at the group of strangers.
Nile sees how all the team watches her mom with a proud smile, appreciating her bravery and protectiveness. Of course they would appreciate that, she can see Andy’s amused expression and suddenly she can perfectly hear her words “you came from warriors” being said again. Andy had been right. Her mom is a warrior and now the team is meeting her.
“Yes”, Nile nods.
“Then let’s go sit down, so we can talk and you can have all the time you need to explain”, Theresa says, guiding her to the living room.
Nile sits down in the living room with her mom and brother. The team stays in the other corner of the room and on foot, giving them space. She knows they won’t invade the space, even thought they are welcome to do it.
“So, tell us what happened”, Amur requests, bringing her back to the present.
She has a story prepared for this moment. Nile invented the story in the plane, but she finds herself being conflicted about it at this moment. Now that she is with them, Nile realises she can’t lie to them nor doesn’t want to.
Nile takes a moment and looks at Andy for guidance. Andy is the only person in the world who Nile thinks is able to read looks and body language from anyone, probably something she had learned to do in her almost seven thousand years of life or maybe her own super power. It is annoying and comforting at the same time, but at this moment is just what Nile needs. Thankfully she finds in Andy’s eyes what she had been looking for. The older woman gives her a nod, letting her know that she approves of her need to tell the truth.
“I’m immortal”, Nile tells her mom and brother.
“Immortal”, Amur repeats the word, testing it, like he doesn’t believe in it or doesn’t understand what it means.
“What? What are you talking about?” Theresa asks, confused.
“I can’t die, so I had to leave the navy because if I hadn't they would have locked me and used me for experiments”, she tries to explain the best she can.
That’s how they start a big and long discussion. They don’t believe her, of course. Why hadn’t Nile thought of that? They talk and they talk, until Andy has enough. It makes sense that she is the one putting an end to the family debate, she doesn’t have patience for bullshit when immortality is the topic and she has been too still since they are at her home.
“Nile is telling the truth”, Andy says, interrupting her family discussion. “We can prove it to you”, she adds with determination.
“Really? How?” Amur asks, looking disbelieving Andy.
“You all have knives?” Andy asks her team and they all nod. “Cut your hands, you too Nile”, she orders them.
They all do what she asks, even Nile no matter how her mom protests about it. They show their hands to Theresa and Amur, and let them see how their cuts heal.
“It is true”, Theresa says, astonished.
“It is”, Nile nods.
“What about you? Why didn’t you cut your hand?” Amur confronts Andy, and Nile almost stops him because he’s gonna get hit at some point if he keeps annoying her boss.
“Nile was telling the truth too when she said our immortality one day comes to an end, and now my time as immortal has come to an end”, Andy says honestly, looking Amur right in his eyes.
Nile can sense some pain present in her voice and she knows it is because Andy is thinking about Lykon. Andy had loved Lykon like a brother. Nile knows how hard it was and still is for Andy to have lost Lykon the way they did, Andy thinks she should have been the first to die because she is the oldest… but they never had any control or explanation about immortality, so it is not like age is some kind of condition to them for anything.
“I don’t believe you”, Amur tells Andy. “Are you controlling them? Are you using them for their power?” He accuses.
“Amur! Don’t be an idiot!” Nile calls his brother out.
“It’s okay”, Andy assures her, still smiling, like she is enjoying her brother's combat spirit. Another warrior is probably what she must be thinking. “See for yourself”, she says, giving a knife to Amur and indicating to him to cut her hand.
“Andromache”, Quỳnh protests.
“It’s okay, it's just a cut my love”, Andy calms Quỳnh.
Amur doubts for a moment if he should go for it or not, but Nile sees the exact moment he decides to do it. She knew he would accept the challenge, he was like her in that sense. They never back down. Amur makes a little cut in Andy’s palm hand. They wait for some minutes, but the cut is still there, open and bleeding.
“You are not healing”, Amur says, totally amused.
Nile thinks Andy is gonna say something smug like “I told you so” , and she deserves to say it. But her mom grabs Andy by her other hand and takes her to the bathroom to clean and patch her cut. Nile follows them and hears her mom apologizing for Amur’s action, but Andy assures her she understands and she doesn’t need an apology.
As Nile watches the two women interact, she realises how strange this situation is. Her mom is her mom and is gonna always be. And Andy... Andy is so much older than her mom. Even older than her great-great grandmother. But Andy would never take her mother’s place. Andy is her leader, a role model she admires, a friend she loves… Nile can even see her as some kind of older sister, although she doesn’t like to think about found families in patriarchal roles. But Andy is never gonna have a conventional maternal role with her and Nile finds that she is actually very okay with that, she is happy.
Theresa requests to have a moment alone with her children, so Nile and Amur go to her mother’s room to have a private conversation. They talk, they cry, they laugh, they hug. She feels really happy and relieved that now they know the truth, that they believe her and don't react badly to the fact that she would outlive them and won’t age.
When they feel satisfied with everything they have talked about, they leave Theresa’s room and go looking for the immortal team. Nile wants to present them and let them get to know each other. They find them in the kitchen, making dinner.
They have dinner together. Nile takes a moment to look at all of them, one for one. She loves them, she loves each one of them very much.
They eat and talk. Theresa and Amur tell stories about her childhood and teenage years. In exchange, the team tells stories about her in training and missions.
As Nile sees them interact, she thinks that she’s never felt this happy in her entire life. Maybe that’s what she has been needing to feel absolutely happy. Her two families colliding and becoming one.