Molly and Gabriel: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

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Returning to the mansion, Molly reunites with one of the other mansioneers.



It had been a while since Gabriel had really went running. Not since M-Day, at least. And that had mostly been because the runner's pseudo-zen that he'd once enjoyed so much had become something to be feared. Alone, with nothing but his thoughts and his feet. That was a terrible idea.

Today, though, the urge struck him. Taking that as a sign of progress (progress he'd be sure to tell Charles about), he'd laced up his shoes, snagged some warm workout gear from the closet and gone to it.

It hadn't been that bad, at least mentally. But even with him easing into things, his body was rebelling. It had been a short, slow, run but as he jogged toward the mansion, an exhausted and sweat-drenched Gabriel was struggling. In the midst of everything, he'd gone soft. That would need to be rectified.

In the distance, a lone figure trudged through the snow around the perimeter of the mansion. The figure appeared to be wearing some sort of purple garb with gold chest and shoulder plating, with a green hood that almost floated as they walked.

Gabriel stopped in his tracks as he saw the figure approaching the building. Was hallucination a symptom of overexerting himself? He didn't think so, but then maybe that was a symptom too? This was all kinds of fucked.

He watched the weirdly-colored figure trudge toward the home, then glanced around. Nope. It figured - a potential threat to the mansion, and nobody in sight. He sighed between panting, threw the hood of his hoodie back and started sprinting toward the thing.

It looked the same. Exactly the same. But it wasn't destroyed. The others had gone back into the mansion to get cleaned up but Molly had to look for herself. She wasn't gonna be long. She just had to see it. They told her it'd only been almost four months since what happened but it'd been years for her. They couldn't build in four months, not that much. But some guy with a freaky helmet fixed things.

She heard something running towards her from behind, their footsteps crunching in the snow like someone were eating celery. On reflex, Molly's hand slid to the handle of her sword, prepared to draw as she spun around to face the would be foe. Her hood fell back, revealing a head of light brown hair that she'd tied up in a ponytail.

When she saw who it was she quickly dropped her hand. "Oh! Uh...This is um...Lord of the Rings Cosplay?" she said with a 'please believe me' sort of grin. She didn't want Gabriel to freak out. They mentioned the world was different, including the people sometimes. So she wasn't sure which version this Gabriel was.

Gabriel again came to a halt. "Molly," he whispered in disbelief. They stood, both of them eyeing each other in silence, taking each other in, with neither of them apparently sure whether the other was the one that they once knew. He had no clue what she was wearing or why she'd suddenly appeared, or why she'd—

And then, all of a sudden, Gabriel blinked. "Wait," he broke into a grin. "You recognized me. Molly!" Before he could object, he lunged toward her and wrapped her in a hug, armor and all.

Welp, that answered that question. Molly's eyes widened and she let out a squeal of happiness as she hugged Gabriel back.

"GABRIEL!" she said, easily lifting him off his feet before she caught herself and quickly put him down with a sheepish giggle.

"Er...sorry. I got excited. Ohmygosh how are you?"

It was still kinda weird to not see everyone older. They looked the same too.

"I'm..." Instead of answering, he took a few steps back to take her appearance in again. She looked different in a way that he couldn't place, and that was before he took account of the... whatever that was. "Forget me - where the hell... Molly, what what are you wearing?"

Molly peered down at her outfit. Sometimes she forgot this wasn't normal for Midgard, er...Earth."Oh...armor," she said, nodding matter of factly.

"I don't need it but it absorbs like...impact and stuff so I don't go flying as far since I'm small." She shrugged, hunching her shoulders a bit, which made the armor shift and clang together. It was awkward to wear at first but now she was completely used to it.

"Me and Tandy and Ty...we um...went to Asgard. Cause we um...Well, it's a long story. And I got to meet some gods! Lady Sif taught me stuff. They said time goes by slower here so it was a long time for us but not a long time for you guys."

"Asgard," he repeated slowly, staring intently at her armor. "Huh." Gabriel thought he'd remembered Clint or somebody mentioning that once, not that it mattered. He hadn't processed it much then, and he wasn't really doing that well understanding it now. "So you're, like...?" He tilted his head and a muscle ached. Boy, he needed to sit down. "Gods?"

"Well...sorta. Norse gods. Like...Thor? But he doesn't live there right now. He lives here. It's complicated," Molly offered helpfully. She didn't wanna tell him how she got there yet if he didn't already know. She and Tandy and Ty had died and Paige saved them. He looked like he was gonna fall over already so that might make him really fall over. She furrowed a brow thoughtfully.

"I'm not a god though! Is that what you mean? I'm just Molly. Except...y'know, wonder woman warrior Molly," she said, flexing her muscles with a big, earnest smile. She tilted her head.

"Hey...do you wanna go inside? I totally could use a hot chocolate. They didn't have those there. Mostly mead. I SO want chocolate. And like...pancakes...and...cheeseburgers."

"God, yes." His stomach grumbled to punctuate the thought. "Also, Advil. I hurt." He shook his legs, trying to keep them loose. "Unlike you, I am as far from a wonder woman warrior as you can get."

"Psh. You're still pretty awesome to me," Molly said as she nodded toward inside, then started back to the door. Luckily the snowpiles weren't horrible, and they were close to the kitchen. Hopefully it was empty. But she could just use the other excuse from before about cosplay. Come to think of it, it'd probably make a great DragonAge outfit. Hmmm.

"Why do you hurt? Oh! From the running?"

"Uh, yeah." Gabriel followed her, trying to take her in. She still sounded like Molly, but the fact that she'd kinda returned from the not-dead after spending time with Norse deities hadn't totally hit him yet. It was a different kind of shock, although maybe one he preferred. "I kinda took a break. Things have been... weird."

"I bet," Molly echoed with a nod, stomping some snow off her boots on the doormat before she headed into the kitchen. She suddenly stopped in her tracks, blinking up with Gabriel with a look of dread in her eyes as her voice dropped to a whisper.

"Does chocolate still exist here?"

Please say yes. Please say yes

"What?" Gabriel laughed. "Yes! Of course." He unzipped his coat as he entered the door and tossed some of his gear onto a nearby chair. "But, uh..." He glanced around them, his voice lowering to match hers. "Can't really go around and saying things like that. Not unless we're really alone, and even then." He removed his gloves on his way to the sink. "Like I said. Weird."

"Yeah, that's why I whispered," Molly said, shrugging. She was trying to be careful.

She peered around the kitchen, her armor clanging and the leather bits squeaking as she walked. "Is the hot chocolate still in the cupboard above the coffee monst--Oh." She stopped in her tracks to find the coffee maker Dr. Beast made (one she called the coffee monster cause of all the stuff it could do) replaced with a regular machine. She bit her lip.

"Nevermind," she said, opening the cabinet. She grinned when she found she was right, then held up a box of Swiss Miss.

"You want some?"

"Nah, I'm good." He followed her started rooting around cabinets in search of a bottle of ibuprofen. "You know," he said after a little while, "you start to get used to it. Most of it, anyway." It's just that little things would happen to remind you that things weren't what they were or would have been or should have been, and that set the adjustment back. But he wasn't going to explain that to her.

Molly stared at the coffee maker bit then let out a breath. "There should be a manual. Or something..." She whispered again. "How to adjust to life in the giant reality blender."

She frowned. "So I have to drink hot cocoa alone?" she said, then went back to stand in front of him, lowering her head with a pout, batting her eyelashes. In armor she looked quite strange. But she had the same big, soulful Molly eyes.

"Just a little cup? Pleeeeeease? With whipped cream on top? Literally?"

"Fine," Gabriel relented as he finally retrieved a bottle of Advil from a drawer. He'd always had a weak spot for Molly. "Just a little whipped cream, though." He fiddled with the cap, then shook two pills into his hand. "After going through, uh... I mean, Asgard," he reached over her for a glass, trying hard not to think too much about that phrase, "I bet it'll be easier than you think." God, what a hypocrite saying that made him.

Molly beamed broadly. "Yes!" she said, fist pumping the air. "Hot cocoa's best with two people anyway," she said with a sage nod. She poured one packet into each cup, then turned on the giant Keurig to let the water get hot.

"Yeah, maybe it'll be easier," she said. She glanced at him pointedly with a soft smile. "But it's okay if it isn't."

The water was ready to go and she put it in the mugs, then stirred them up and added a bit of whipped cream for him, then a big mound for her. She offered him the mug.

"Cause we got people to help us."

"Yeah. Thanks." He took the cup with a smile. It was a surprisingly mature thing to say, but then this was a more grown-up Molly, at least by some measure. "Good point." He wondered how much she knew, but he wasn't going to ask.

Cupping the mug with her hands, Molly learned to blow on it, since she didn't really feel the heat until it got too hot. She smiled back, then glanced down at herself.

"Man, I'm gonna miss not getting to wear my armor anymore."

"I bet, but, you know." He grabbed a nearby seat. "Welcome back to Kansas, Dorothy."

Molly couldn't wait and took a big drink of her hot chocolate. Her eyes got all big, like she'd just eaten the best thing ever.

"Oh. My. GOSH. Gabriel. I haven't had chocolate in TWO YEARS. THIS IS SO GOOD!" she said, her eyes still big as she peered over at him with a broad, completely content grin on her face and a huge whipped cream mustache on her lip.

"Well," Gabriel couldn't help but grin. Her happiness was contagious, and there had been a real shortage of it at the mansion anyway. "Welcome back." He raised his glass to her before taking a sip of his own.