ꜱꜱɢᴛ. ɢᴀʟʟᴀɢʜᴇʀ "ʟᴜᴄᴋʏ" ꜰʀᴀᴢɪᴇʀ

— "You abandoned us when we needed you the most, Ma. You weren't the only one to be greiving, both me and Donnie were left to grapple it alone. It wasn't fair to either of us. "

— Ma, you were trying to do the impossible. The war would have gotten to us one way or another. "

Fear, that was what had motivated her. That much was now clear to him. He wasn't sure what he was expecting the truth to be. The corners of his mouth tugged into a line and he exhaled softly.

—

— was finally giving herself a moment to be human. It was something that Gallagher never thought he would ever get to see from her.

It felt like he was getting a glimpse of the mother he remembered having when he was younger.

"But it did. The day we lost them was when it reached us.

—

At first, he didn't know how to feel. Of course, there was the fact that he held resentment for being forbidden to attend the services back then. It had felt cruel, and he didn't understand why she did it.

But now, the woman he'd known to be so stone and unfeeling —

— "Ma, please. Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

— "Every year, you dodge the question, you wave it off or tell me you'll talk about it another day. It's time to stop running. We're having this talk now."

His brows knitted together somewhat, frustration bleeding both into his expressions and tone.

—

"If not now, when? Because I know I'm not getting answers from you when you're sober, Ma."

It was then that he broke from his stance, pulling one of the chairs in front of the desk back in order to sit down. His attention shifted between the glass and the Captain.

—

— "Was just coming by to check on you, see if you needed anything."

He hesitated in his speech, inhaling softly before continuing on.

" . . . I know you don't like to talk about things, but you lock yourself away every year. Maybe it's time to finally talk, please."

— He remembered the first time she'd started to withdraw from both himself and his brother— all those years ago.

Gallagher makes his way across the room, coming to a halt just a few feet away from the desk where the Captain sat. He'd call into a parade rest, hands behind his back.

—

The ODST pauses for a few seconds before he pushed the door open to the room, stepping in through the doorframe and closing it behind himself.

"Good evening, Captain. Mum?"

He saw the decanter and the glass on her desk and knew she'd had to have been in here for a while. —

— Gallagher would eventually find himself face to face with the door to the Captain's office.

He lifted a hand, rapping his knuckles against the cold metal.

There was no telling if she was still even there, but he would stay and wait for a response, should it come.

At this point in the evening, Gallagher had plans to go with some of the other troopers to 'paint the town red', so to speak.

Though before he followed through with that, there was a visit that he knew he needed to make. For both of their sakes .

Making his way down the corridors of the ship, —

"Maybe, yeah. But today, you're gonna be drinking this bottle with me."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, but it dinnae cost much more than something in the moderate area."

"Heh, got a bottle o' Limoncello, figured that might be up your alley."

"When am I not, is the real question."

Whistling an upbeat tune.

FILE_ GALLAGHER FRAZIER | Ellipsus Ellipsus makes it easy for anyone to write together.

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" 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥 , 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 ."