Gabriel enters the hospital with his head held high, smiling, sweating, and holding a crumpled gift. He says little to the receptionist, asks the name of a room, and the patient, and is quickly directed in the right direction. Gabriel runs, and the gift he had so carefully wrapped is crumpling around the edges, he certainly hopes its contents will stay together, he has spent months designing it piece by piece, pestering LYLA every few days.
He was going to be an uncle! His bastard brother was going to be a father, Dana was going to be a mother, Conchata was going to be a grandmother, and he was going to be an UNCLE!
AN UNCLE!!!
A little girl! They told him a few weeks ago that it would be a little girl, and Gabriel can't wait to see what she takes out of each one. Will she have Dana's hair color? Or Miguel's eyes? Will she be gentle like Dana or intense like her father? Will she have something from Gabriel, something from Conchata? A little girl!
His self-absorbed brother is going to have a girl!
Gabriel runs faster towards the right room and he's pretty sure he heard one or two nurses or bots yell at him and tell him to stop but he's so excited. It's been a few days since Miguel talked to him about naming the girl, and Miguel looked so embarrassed and Dana looked so happy as they said they would name the girl Gabriella after him. Him of all people in the universe! Dana says it was Miguel's idea, which makes his brother even redder, which makes Dana laugh and Gabriel laugh, and LYLA plays some kind of cheesy sibling song, which only makes Dana laugh even harder... Gabriel could feel the tears in the corner of his eyes as he laughed.
Gabriel goes ahead and runs and is faced with a doctor and Miguel talking to him.
He is faced with the doctor saying an “I'm sorry”, and a pat on his brother's shoulder, and when the doctor leaves, he is faced with Miguel crying. He sees LYLA on his shoulder, hands hesitating as he doesn't know what to do.
Gabriel can feel his hands going limp and the present falling to the floor.
“Birth complications, both Dana and the baby died,” LYLA says when they arrive at Miguel's fancy apartment in Babylon Towers. “The doctor said nothing was wrong, that he doesn't understand what happened, that they were just…”
“Gone” Gabriel finishes.
"Yes…"
Gabriel feels the chill of the night on his shoulders, the soft yellow glow of LYLA beside him as they both look at the large window in Miguel's apartment. It took a long time to get him out of the hospital, he wanted to look at the body, be sure, he wanted to stay and sit down and he didn't want to leave. Gabriel almost begged on his knees for them to leave that environment at once. Gabriel only saw Dana's body out of the corner of his eye, she looked peaceful, like sleeping. He's sure he won't forget about it anytime soon.
“I can't understand,” says LYLA. “they were fine, there was nothing wrong.”
“Sometimes nothing is wrong LYLA, sometimes it just… happens,” Gabriel says and bends down, the crumpled gift is left on the table, useless, with no one to enjoy it anymore. “When things have to happen… they just happen, regardless of what we think.”
“Do you think they had to die then?”
"No. God no, LYLA. I just want to say that sometimes these things come out of nowhere.”
LYLA doesn't answer, instead deciding to look up at the sky. Gabriel doesn't believe in that nonsense his mother used to say, that dead people turn into stars in the sky, but this time, just this once, he wants to believe it.
Conchata appears the next day. Gabriel sees her give Miguel his first hug in a long time, Miguel hugs her back and he's sure he can hear his mother crying and saying “I'm sorry”.
The gift he made still remains on the table.
Miguel disappears two weeks later. He calls Jess and Peter, but none of them know where he is, none of them know where his grieving, stupid, his brother able to do stupid things while grieving has gone. Gabriel tries hard not to yell at them.
“I know where he is,” says LYLA, in new clothes, “but I won't tell you where he is.”
“LYLA” Gabriel says, his voice getting low. “I have to know where he is! What kind of nonsense do you think he's going to do wandering around alone without telling anyone?”
“I know where he is.”
“You don't count.”
“He is happier this way, Gabriel.”
“Away from us? Without any kind of support, LYLA?”
“With a family.”
“LYLA, I'm his family, what are you talking about?”
“Trust me,” She says, and she says it with eyes so sincere, Gabriel can barely keep himself from jumping back.
“I…” Gabriel looks at the floor, thinks, rethinks, and messes up his hair the gift he made is still on the table, but Miguel never opened it “Okay, I won't look for it, but only if you tell me where he is, you know that even if you deny it I will find him eventually.”
"All right" This was easier than he thought.
It only takes five months, two weeks, and three days for him to get a panicked call from LYLA and Miguel.
“Don't you realize what you're doing?!” Gabriel shouts to his brother, who pins him tightly against a wall, he looks down at the boy- Miles, if he remembers correctly, unconscious on the floor after taking a particularly hard hit from Miguel. "You're shockin' insane!"
“Don't argue with me about this Gabriel! The fate of an entire universe is in his hands!”
"He is a child! A kid wanting to save his dad Miguel, who are you to take that away from him?!”
“And who is he to make a gamble with the lives of millions, Gabriel?!”
“Wouldn't you do the same thing for Dana? For Gabriella? Are you really saying you would just let them die? Even if you had the opportunity to save them?!” Gabriel says and sees his brother hesitate. “Your theory is flawed, by the way! Several universes are intact even after what happened! You have no idea what you are doing!”
"Do not talk to me like that!"
"You're blinded by grief and sadness and guilt and you don't know what to do with it but fight and fight and fight some more." Miguel grips him a little harder. Gabriel looks to the side of Miguel's head, watching the boy get up, he quickly looks back at Miguel. “You were always like mom in that aspect.”
“That's not what they would want, bro. Spider-Man doesn't hurt innocent people."
Miguel lets go of it, and set down on the table in Miguel's fancy office, the small handmade music box begins to play.