Sure Thing • Gavi

Chapter 63: Operation

🎶 you were there for me — Henry Moodie 🎶

Gavi POV

The days passed and I felt empty. The club had sent its therapist to talk to me but I gave him the silent treatment for two hours. The next day, he was back and got quite the opposite: he had to listen to an angry monologue where I poured out my feelings of desperation and anger. Why did I have to go through so much pain? Why did my girlfriend leave me in the first place, she knew I needed her, maybe if she had stayed, my injury wouldn't have occurred - and even if it still had, my morale would be better as she would at least be by my side. But no, she just had to go and get herself kidnapped, which left me worried sick.

On Sunday morning, Kike called me and told me the NATO would launch a targeted operation that night at the compound where Vicky was imprisoned, to get her out of there. Mr Lopez had told us to come to his office that evening so that we would have immediate informations on her rescue. Kike texted the news into our friends' group chat and some came over to mine for lunch. Staying together made us feel better somehow, everyone was depressed and missing Vicky a lot.
"You need to stay strong for her, Pablo, we don't know in which state she'll be in when she returns" Chiara said to me and I shot her a look.
"If - she returns. And thanks for building me up, I'm at the lowest point in my life but now I have to be strong because she did a dumb thing?!" I replied angrily and I knew that she wanted to put me in my place, but she pitied me enough to just resort snarling at me: "Well, many people also see playing football as a dumb thing" and walked away.

"We're all tense" Ana said as she came over to me after having heard our conversation.
"Let's just hope everything goes as planned later" I sighed.
"We'll be waiting here for you and Kike." she said and gave me a smile. It was contagious, I smiled back - that was the first time I did since the injury and that made me happy. Ana was a good person, she was nice and cared about me. And she was here. In Barcelona. Not on the other side of the world.

At 6pm, Kike drove us to Lopez' office where a few men in suits were already assembled with Vicky's parents.
"Good evening. We will be in the control center a few rooms further down the corridor. I'm very sorry, but for security reasons you aren't allowed to watch along, but we will inform you as soon as Miss Hernandez is in our custody." one of them said confidently and we all nodded and sat down. The men eventually all got outside and us four were left alone. Vicky's dad asked me a few questions about my knee, probably trying to distract me, but he got the memo that I wasn't interested in talking when I only replied with one-word-sentences.

It felt like we were sitting there for hours, until two of the men finally came back, with very gloomy looks on their faces. Oh, shit.
"I..." he started and Maria cut him off angrily.
"What happened?" she shouted.
"The... we were overpowered. They were much more than we had expected. We couldn't carry out our Plan A, so we had to resort to Plan B..." he said quietly, seeming a bit embarrassed by having to admit that.
"What the hell does Plan A and Plan B mean?" I asked with a shaky voice.
"Well... Plan A was to gain control of the compound and safely release Miss Hernandez, but... that failed. We carried out Plan B which was to blast it by retiring our men first and then shooting a missile - we... we don't know if she made it out in time. A search and rescue team will be there in the next days to evaluate the extent of our success. I'm... very sorry" he replied.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this and just as I was about to speak up, Kike asked the exact same question that was going through my mind.
"What are the chances... that she's alive?" he stammered.
The men inhaled sharply and looked at each other before we got an answer: "Very slim. You... should prepare for the worst."
"Oh my God" her father mumbled and I broke out in tears, no, no, no, this couldn't be true.
"We will keep you updated on when we will have finished securing the compound" one of the men said and closed the door behind him.

We were in that room probably for another hour to cry and bawl our eyes out. Eventually, Kike drove me back to my place, I don't know how he did it, his eyes were so watery that I wondered how he could even see the streets. We arrived and as soon as we opened the door, our friends swarmed us expectantly, but when they saw our state, their moods changed too.
"No... no, no, no" Irene whispered and I broke out crying. Ana came over to me quickly and hugged me tightly. She helped me hobble on to the couch where Fermín and Balde slumped down on each side of mine so quickly, that I couldn't even blink, making Ana stand awkwardly in front of us.
"Ana, could you please get Pablo some ice for his knee from the freezer?" Fermín asked and she just nodded and disappeared.

When she returned, Kike told them what we had been told and the girls started crying, with the boys comforting them. Fermín hugged me and cried into my sweater while Balde pulled up his t-shirt over his face to dry his tears.
"Ok... we should not lose hope though, there is a chance that she made it out alive" Irene said and Chiara quickly nodded, taking her best friend's hand, her other was intertwined with Pedri's.
"You are so delusional. A leaked video of tonight's operation is already blowing up on Twitter - I... I don't know, it looked like 9/11, everything is in ruins and ashes. We shouldn't feed any hopes as they will only be crushed. We need to accept it and learn to deal with it" Ana replied, wiping away a tear from her cheek.
"How can you say such a thing? As long as there's a bit of hope we have to hold on to it!" Chiara shouted back.
"Deal with it however you want, but I'm staying realistic. I've held on to hope way too often in life and have only been disappointed. I know you all live in your picture perfect worlds, but we have to keep it real: the building she was kept in blew up. Period." Ana answered sternly.

"Pablo! Say something!" Chiara said to me now.
"What do you want me to say? Of course I hope that she's alive at the bottom of my heart, but I've just learned what it means to getting your hopes crushed. I..." I replied but was cut off by Irene.
"You're seriously comparing your knee injury to Vicky possibly brutally dying?!" she shrieked and was ready to plunge at me but Ferran was quick to stand up and hold her back.
"You know... Maybe we should all go and process the evening on our own. Everyone copes with pain differently and all our emotions are way too high right now." he said and he was right.

"You ok to stay here alone?" Fermín asked me as he hugged me goodbye.
"I have to be" I sighed and he nodded before making his way to the door.
"Where's the loo? I'll quickly go before leaving too" Ana asked and I gave her the directions. Everyone came over to me to say goodbye and goodnight and give me some words of encouragement, but my mind was blank. When the house was empty again, I sat down on the couch, staring at the ceiling and reminding myself of all the happy moments I had shared with Vicky . Why did the two best things of my life - football and her - get taken away from me in a matter of days?

When I heard the bathroom door unlock, I remembered that Ana was still here.
"Oh! Everyone already gone?" she asked surprisedly and I nodded. She sat down on the sofa next to me and mirrored my actions, also looking up at the ceiling.
"She was the happiest person on earth" I said and recalled her smile and laugh.
"She was. One could never really be pissed at her, she was way too funny to let you stay seriously mad at her" she chuckled and I grinned.
"Nah, even she couldn't break down my anger issues completely, I once was angry at her because she did my laundry" I laughed, recalling how stupid I had been. The three days she stayed mad at me were three days I lost with her and I would never get them back.

"You're a great person, Pablo, don't let anyone tell you otherwise" she whispered and I looked at her, which made her turn her head towards me too. We looked at each other, both with teary eyes.
"She left us..." she whispered and I closed my eyes, tears rolling down my cheek, but I felt her cold fingers wipe them away, which sent shivers down my spine. I opened my eyes again and looked at her. And then I kissed her.

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Next chapter will be out on Thursday!