Work Text:
The moment Gertrude returned alone to London, Gerard knew exactly what she had done.
"He's gone, isn't he?" he asked her, standing in front of the Archivist's solid oak desk. Her response was a curt nod, not looking up from her paperwork.
"The Michael Shelley you knew is gone, yes. It had to be done," she said simply. "Nobody would willingly sacrifice themselves like that."
In a sudden wave of anger, Gerry slammed his hands down on the desk. Gertrude’s tea sloshed over the rim of her mug and onto notes about the current case she was researching. “I would have fucking volunteered! He was my goddamn boyfriend!“
“I would never hear the end of it from your mother if I let you do sacrifice yourself, Gerard. You know that,” Gertrude sighed.
Gerry gritted his teeth, willing himself not to tear up. Not in front of Gertrude. “I don’t give a damn about my mother, Robinson. She’s an arse and I'd rather have sacrificed myself to The Spiral than to see her happy.”
He didn't know what he was going to without Michael. As cringey as it may be, he'd been a ray of light in Gerard's otherwise dull life. (Well, dull to Gerry- the thrill of hunting down Leitners wore off quickly.) He had been the reason Gerry wanted to even return to London after a trip. If it wasn't for the promise of Michael's warmth, he would have left his mother and Pinhole Books behind years ago. But now? Now, he had nothing to do, no purpose in life but destroying Leitners.
The anger Gerry felt had slowly faded, leaving nothing behind but a quiet emptiness. A part of him gone, that he knew would never be filled quite right again. Michael had been the one, the other half of his coin. The voice of reason when Gerry wanted to do something dumb, stopping him from near-suicidal risks he would've taken in a heartbeat otherwise.
"You said the Michael 'I knew' is gone," he said suddenly. "What does that mean?"
Gertrude looked up at Gerry, knitting her brows for a moment before mumbling something under her breath that sounded like a swear. "There is... a chance he's alive. Not Shelley, but a creature that looks like him."