Reaching Out [Fareeha]

The disposal of her pizza brought irritation, but the woman's words brought fury.

"Some family *I* am?" Jess exploded. "Nu-uh! You don't get to do that! You don't get to come in here and do that! I mean, where the hell were you when he actually needed you. Like didn't wanna live anymore needed you?" She demanded. "Not there! Know how I know? Cause I was! Busting my ass to keep us both alive, taking care of him...helping him get better! Do you know how much he's been through? How far he's come? You do *not* get to come in here and shit all over that! You do not get to come into our own fucking house and disrespect us!"

She thumped a fist down on the table, making everything on it jump. "Shouldn't encourage *what*? Him being who he is? So what, should I just have been fucking gaslighting him this whole time, making him think he's a broken mess with mental problems? Cause yeah, that sounds like some great family activities right there!" She continued to fume. "And while we're on that topic can you stop talking to him like he's three? He's not stupid, he's a damn adult and he doesn't need to be talked to like that!"

She looked over to Mido, hands on either side of her head splaying out in a gesture like they were exploding. She forced a deep breath, letting it out just as slowly before focusing her attention on him, it hurt to see him this unsure of himself after knowing who and how he could be. She wanted to fix it, but wasn't sure how...and wasn't even sure her telling off the other woman was even helping but she was too angry not to.

"Okay." She addressed Mido, obviously calmer, her tone and expression much gentler with him. "What do *you* want to do? Do you want to call your mom? Or wanna head out there? Whatever you wanna do....we'll make that happen." She promised.

He hated this, there was a part of him that had seen this altercation coming from a mile away, he knew both of these women very well, but he hadn't expected it to go this badly. With both seeming on the verge of a knock down drag out, Mido was becoming more anxious the more their voices raised. When Fareeha snapped at him to stand up straight, he jumped like he'd been stricken and immediately obeyed, still glancing between them with wide, panicked eyes.

When he felt her hand on his shoulder again, there was a visible flinch and he glanced over at her, quickly taking a seat as she ordered, his foot tapping rapidly against the floor now that he was confined to this sitting position, h hated sitting still when he felt like this, but the last thing he wanted was for her to bark at him like a child again, so he would deal with it.

When Jessica finally had enough, it broke Mido a bit more out of his cage, enough to finally speak, "Jess...The roof...After mom's death and just...Everything I..." He looked between them, then back down at his hands again, "Jessica is the reason you still have a brother." He glanced to the side with a somewhat wounded expression, "not that it matters...I've always just been 'the brother'...To everyone." He withdrew in more and held his hands close to himself, "I'm just broken. Jess doesn't think so...She...She loves me for me..." He realized he was mumbling again and pointedly stopped talking, "sorry..."

He finally looked up again when Jess spoke to him directly, looking unsure, "I...Dunno..." He sunk his head to the table and ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't know anything anymore...What if she's right...What if it's all been in my head..." He looked up, "I-I guess...We can drive out there...W-will you come...Jess?" He looked at her with a half pleading expression.

Jess just about started into another tyrade...but then paused. Something in the other woman's voice stopped her, something in the way she started moving and holding herself as the topic changed and in a lighting flash of realization Jess saw how hard all of this was on her too, even if she tried hard not to show it. It wasn't an excuse, but it was a moment of understanding, and in that moment she felt bad for her outburst, and instead just found herself feeling tired. So tired.

She signed, looked between the siblings and sighed again. She moved to stand behind Mido, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her chest agsinst the top of his head. She didn't say anything else for a few moments, just held him tightly.

"Alright. Let's do this." She finally agreed. "I'll come, I'll even drive if you want. But we should take your car. ..mines...kinda gross as shit right now" she'd been practically living in it the last week away for work and she wasn't the world's neatest person. She didn't feel weird about it around him, but didn't want to give his sister another reason to judge her.

Mido glanced up and balked at the menace in his sisters tone, the accusing look in her eyes. But he was surprisingly calm, he'd accepted what had almost happened years ago, the same way he'd accepted a lot of things, "It's true." He glanced back up at her, looking surprisingly collected for the first time that day, "it was only once, Fareeha. It was a moment of weakness." He looked away for a moment, "No. But thoughtlessness seems to run deep in our family. Doesn't it, Fareeha?" His tone was slightly pointed, it wasn't that he wanted to fight, but he'd been walked on all day and he was just about done.

His expression turned more into a glare when she said that, and he pointed at her, "it's not big deal to you because you never heard it!" His expression softened, "You have never just been 'the sister', don't pretend like that was just military talk!" He stood for a moment, "you can sit there and pretend I'm being over dramatic all you want, but none of you ever even tried to actually understand me!" He looked down, "everyone expected me to be you, Fareeha." He looked down, "even now you're tuning out half of what I say. Same damn thing people have done to me my whole life." He looked to the side, "I've always felt like I was broken." He let out a frustrated sound and then waved a hand, "Fuck, just forget it. You'll probably just ignore half of the words coming out of my mouth anyway."

He glanced up from where he was sitting when Jess put her arms around him, putting a hand over her's, "alright. We can take mine." He gave her hand a squeeze before sliding out of his chair to grab the car keys, handing them to Jessica, "Jess knows exactly where we're going...I don't have the energy to try and give directions." He would be glad to be distracted during the drive, though he was not looking forward to the meeting to come.

Jess stood up long enough to take the keys from Mido, shuffling around the room to get together her bag and a couple other things for the drive out to Gary. As she did though she still listened keenly to the conversation happening between the siblings.

Or...more importantly...the tense bit of silence that stretched on between them as they both seemed to consider and pick their words carefully. When they finally did speak she didn't interrupt. She was still kind of figuring this relationship out, after her knee-jerk initial impression and much of it felt like something they needed to work out for themselves, something her jumping into...she wasn't sure how much it would help, with only these glimpses into their obviously weird and convoluted relationship.

She just stood near the table and watched until they were both standing, before shrugging at the comment about riding in the backseat. "I don't really care where everyone sits in the car...as long as you are both in the car and...I dunno, trying to ride on the roof or something." She half grinned, trying to show a bit of her usual sense of humor, but it felt like it fell a little flat, and she didn't try to save it, instead she just shrugged again. "Okay, we ready to go? Let's go do this thing." She waited a few moments for them before turning to head towards the door.

Mido glanced at her for a long moment, noting the glazed look in her eyes and shaking his head, "yes you do. You're doing it right now." He said this in a blunt manner, it was something he was used to by now after all, "if you didn't see what was right in front of you then. You wont see it now." He glanced to the side, finally feeling more coherent and on track with his thoughts, "It's not like I'm saying these things to play victim, Fareeha." He looked up at her, "if you knew me at all you'd know I don't play that game." Not that he really expected her to know him at all, if wasn't like she ever took the time to do so.

At the hug Mido's eyes got wide, and there was a part of him that was glad for the gesture, it was something that no one did much for him when he was younger, at least not when he needed it the most. The soft feeling was dashed however, when she spoke, and confirmed that he was broken, "What?" He pulled away and looked at her with a stricken expression, unable to believe that she'd actually said that, "I'm not fucking broken...D-do you know how many years it's taken me to NOT feel fucking broken? I-I can't believe..." As his words faltered, he shook his head and his expression became completely voided of emotion, "I don't want to talk anymore." He glanced at her and shrugged, "do what you will. I'm ready to go."

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Later that day found the rest of the family returning to Mido's Chicago house.

Ana had taken the time before they left Gary to give him a call and give him at least a couple hours notice that they were all coming back. He was not a person who enjoyed surprises, especially not of that sort, and she didn't want to make him feel cornered in his own house when three guests showed up all at once in his space.

As the day stretched into evening Ana stepped out of the rental car that Pharah had agreed to drive them all over in, she'd happily taken the backseat to allow Reinhardt the front seat with slightly more room, he didn't fit overly well into the average sized car, especially for longer drives. She waited for the other two to join her before starting to head up to the house, this would be the first time her entire little family had been together in many, many years and she hoped it would all go well, that any misunderstandings or hard feelings could be worked out and smoothed over to allow them all to just enjoy a nice evening together for once, without all the worries of everything going on outside.