The Hammer and The Nail

by Imjusthappytobehereandreading

Summary:

Amanda Young quickly falls for the other side of her coin, Gabriela, and would do anything to protect her; but can she even protect herself?

 

Or
I wanted Gabriela/Amanda in long form content and the rest of the plot came to me from there

Chapter 1: Our Scars and Their Meaning

Amanda’s POV

She thought it would have been harder, communication that is. Both her and Gabriela spoke their respective languages fluently, but each others? Yeah no.

 

Actually that’s a slight lie; Gabriela could speak English and have conversations in it but Amanda? Amanda had never even attempted to learn Spanish in her life. She never paid attention during her high school Spanish class, but now she wishes she did.

 

Even with the language barrier whenever they worked together, which was often, they were a well oiled machine. There was always work to be done nowadays, especially since John is planning something big. She doesn’t know all the details yet, but she does know it is going to be the first time she will have to watch over the game from within. That makes her nervous, she doesn’t have the borderline psychic ability that John has to predict people’s behavior; anything could go wrong.

 

Amanda returns to her work, something resembling the Chinese finger traps she used to play with as a kid.It’s technically just a glass box with two holes at the bottom that are SUPPOSED to be lined with razors. Irritatingly enough; there are no fucking razors to be found anywhere on her table or the surrounding area.

 

She looks over to where Gabriela is sitting, hunched over with a brush in her hands repainting Billy;right there to her left, a box of razors.

 

“Hey Gabriela could you hand me that box to your left please?” Amanda yelled over to Gabriela.

 

The woman in question startles and turns around. Gabriela had taken to wearing a facial mask and tinted glasses along with gloves to cover her burns. Along with all of this,Gabriela was also wearing a zipped up jacket and jeans. Amanda could hear her harsh breathing echoing through the empty warehouse.

 

‘Not a great idea to be covered head to toe in a heat wave’ Amanda thought to herself.

 

Gabriela walked over with the box carefully,and put it down just as delicately.

 

“Thanks Gab” Amanda says to her distracted as she begins to look closer at her covered face.

 

Up close she could see that her hair was drenched in sweat and that her chest was rising in fast bursts. Amanda could even see that she was struggling to stand up straight and began to worry.

 

“ Por nada” Gabriela muttered as she began to walk away. Before she could make it back to her station, Amanda decides to speak up.

 

“You can take that stuff off when it’s just you and me you know.” Amanda calls out, trying to maintain an air of casualness.

 

Gabriela paused mid step and turned around, something hard in her eyes behind those green tinted glasses that wasn’t there before.

 

“ Why would I do that?” Gabriela retorted, still speaking softly but now with steel in her voice.

 

All air of casualness was now gone, might as well just go for it.

 

“We’re in a heat wave in a warehouse with no AC and you are completely drenched, that can’t be comfortable for you” Amanda says, trying for once to not add in any heat to her voice.

 

Gabriela’s defensive posture tightens further, if that was even possible.
“I can handle the heat, I lived in Mexico my whole life.” She gives out a unamused laugh “This? This is nothing.”

 

Amanda tries to gather her thoughts into a coherent argument.
“I won’t judge you, I know what it’s like to have such obvious marks from a game.” ‘Obviously you fucking idiot she can see them, just say what you are thinking!!’

 

“Our scars aren’t something to be ashamed of or to hide;they are proof that we are alive, that we fought with every single ounce of our soul to be alive” Amanda says, choked up.

 

Gabriela searches her eyes for a moment, and appears to find what she is looking for and begins to rapidly blink.
She nods to herself and then looks towards the ground as she begins to takes off her coverings.

 

She puts her gloves, glasses, and mask in her jacket pocket; which she ties around her waist. She does all of this, then looks up.Amanda steps closer and really takes a look at her. Her skin has mostly healed, losing the fresh black burn but keeping the rough texture. Along with the texture, her skin glows. Not only from the sweat, but her sun-kissed skins radiates with life. Without thinking, Amanda puts her hand on Gabriela’s face feeling the coarse sweaty skin. She has never felt anything like it, but she doesn’t hate it.

 

Her eyes though, god her eyes. Not just the color but the shape too. They were doe like, but they had a red hue to them that gave her a warm feeling in her stomach.

 

‘God Amanda what are you doing you are probably making this poor girl scared’

 

Amanda immediately breaks eye contact and looks at Gabriela’s hair instead. She still keeps her hand on her cheek, able to feel the rough skin cooling down. She manages to come to her senses and let go. She turns around and goes to sit back down at her station.

 

“Do you feel better?” Amanda manages to rasps out.

 

“Si, I am feeling much better” Gabriela whispers from behind her.

Chapter 2: No Escaping Reality

Summary:

Gabriela thinks on her time after her trap, and waxes poetic about Amanda’s face

Gabriela’s POV

There’s not a lot to do in a place like this. Amanda and John don’t leave often, but they still come and go occasionally, but her and Diego were trapped.It was a big city, they could probably disappear into the night never to be seen again if it wasn’t for the injuries they suffered.

 

God the pain, she has never felt anything like it in her life. She spent a month on bed rest, but it wasn’t enough, she doesn’t think any amount of time would have been enough. During this time she doesn’t remember a lot, but she does remember Amanda caring not only for her, but Diego as well. She wouldn’t say much to Gabriela, and she was completely silent with Diego, but her voice was oddly soothing to Gabriela when she would speak.

 

That is besides the point though, her hand and ankle were mangled beyond belief, and though she doesn’t walk with a limp, that’s only because she knows weakness in this place cannot be seen.

 

John would see it as her being ungrateful, unable to push through the pain,Amanda(call me Mandy) and Diego wouldn’t say anything but they would have a look of panic in their eyes, then there’s the matter of the police man.

 

Gabriela never caught his name, the first couple of weeks being a blur, but she remembers the cold look on his face. The same look of the orphans begging on the streets. Broken eyes with nothing but hate towards the world behind them.

 

The instant Gabriela showed weakness, she knows his hateful eyes would see it, and he would do what all federales do, use it to his advantage.

 

Gabriela’s thoughts are broken by a sniffle in the silent night. She looks over to the only other person in the room, Amanda.

 

Mandy is asleep at her workstation, hunched over and slightly shivering; the heat from the daytime evaporating into the same late night chill as Mexico City.

 

‘She looks different at night’ Gabriela thinks to herself, all of the playfulness stripped away,along with the wide eyed manic look she has at most times of the day. In her sleep, she’s not a killer, just a beautiful woman not much older than her.

 

Mandy has protected her, supposedly entirely out of guilt. Gabriela can tell that’s not all there is to it though, but for now she’ll leave it alone.

 

Still, she owes Amanda for not only caring for her, but also Diego when they were vulnerable. The least she can do is warm her up a little.

 

Gabriela takes the jacket she took off earlier in the day and silently walks over to where Mandy is sleeping. She gently lays the jacket over the other woman like a blanket.

 

As she lays the jacket down, she compares Amanda’s bare skin to her own. Besides the obvious texture difference (ugly ugly ugly), Amanda’s skin glows in the moonlight, her face almost completely devoid of all color, evidence of her time inside the warehouse. The only thing that stands out is her slightly smeared red lipstick she has recently taken to wearing. She looks almost ghost like, about to float off into the night.

 

‘You’re staring’ A whisper in the back of her head tells her, and Gabriela instantly takes a step back. ‘It’s too late, I need some sleep’ Gabriela remarks in her head, beginning the walk to her and Diego’s shared room.

 

It’s a long walk, and the atmosphere reminds her of the industrial clubs in Mexico where everybody was high and dancing the night away.

 

Right now though, Gabriela doesn’t have a craving for drugs even in this atmosphere. No escaping reality right here and now, she needs to stay sharp.

Notes:

Sun and moon coded

Chapter 3: The Thoughts Of The Wicked

Summary:

Diego is stuck in more ways than one

Diego’s POV

 

Diego has never been so scared in his life; which is saying something. Gabriela and him were never that close, him being closer to Valentina and her to Mateo.Now that they were here so far from home in such a dangerous place and their best friends dead he was hoping that would change.

 

It didn’t.

 

Gabriela stuck herself to that older woman, Amanda, since healing and she has stayed there. Diego doesn’t fault her for finding a protector, but he does fault her for leaving him in the dust.

 

The police man, Mark, is the one that has taken to teaching him what he can when John is unable to, but unlike Amanda and Gabriela, he has no care for Diego. Most of the time he looks at Diego with a cold distaste, and on bad days pure hate.

 

Mark looks at most people that way, except for Amanda.

 

Mark and Amanda seem to hate each other, but Diego is a good reader of people and can see that it’s a front. Mark seems to look at her on some days with affectionate nostalgia in his eyes, and Amanda looks at him the same way one would look at a rabid animal on the street; fearfully.

 

Diego earned to read people when he was a child,it’s why he’s survived so long. This was further sharpened by his time in both the crime scene and as a taxi driver. Dangerous people can’t hide their nature for long

 

And John? John is the most dangerous of them all. Looking at him through that glass into his eyes, Diego saw true evil for the first time. Diego curses the fact that he ever agreed to Cecilia’s stupid plan in the first place, because Cecilia might have been a firecracker,but John was a fucking bomb. The type that takes out everybody as it detonates. If he was never so greedy, he would have never been in the blast radius in the first place.

 

“Diego, why are you still awake?” John’s rasp rings out through the room. Diego shoots out of his bed, heart pounding in his chest.

 

“ I uh couldn’t sleep” Diego tries to whisper but his voice cracks midway through. He hopes Gabriela doesn’t wake up;she’s a light sleeper ever since they’ve gotten here.

 

John lowly chuckles and walks over to Diego, putting his hand on Diego’s shoulder.

 

“ I know what you mean, can’t stop thinking?” John lets out another short laugh. Diego begins to sweat feeling John’s iron grip through his thin shirt.

 

“Yes, yes exactly” Diego agrees, though the subject of their thoughts are likely very different.

 

“Since we both appear to be on the same track, would you want to join me in creating a new project?”John offers in soft voice.

 

Diego doesn’t. He really does not want to, but what choice does he have?

 

“I would like that.” Diego responds and begins to stand up, arms twinging with pain.

 

As they begin to walk away, Diego glances back to his room.

 

Gabriela is still fast asleep, her usual jacket nowhere to be seen.

 

“Do you require something else Diego?” John asks in a low tone(fuck)

 

Diego whips around back to John.

 

“No no, sorry.” Diego hastily apologizes in a whisper.

 

“Come along then” John beckons him out into the hallway.

 

As they say, there’s no rest for the wicked.

Notes:

Diego is living in a psychological thriller

Notes:

I basically gave Gabriela normal burn scars because with the amount of radiation she was exposed to and what we saw it do to her she would likely be dead by now either which way so I am going to ignore that.