Chapter Text
After Pote and Teresa had driven to the normal meet point in which they hoped they would find George, they arrived back at the house.
"We need to handle this," Pote grumbled.
"I know, can you make arrangements for us to go Columbia?" Teresa asked. "When I said handle, I didn't you going there," Pote quipped. She then cocked her head as she eyed him for a full minute until he walked in another direction.
They would soon fly out in a few hours so Teresa figured it would be best to move her appointment further out. Whatever the issue was with George, she figured if he didn't get in contact for more than 5 days, she'd need a good amount of time to go there and resolve it without having to worrying about missing her appointment.
It was now late in the evening but that didn't stop Teresa. She was insistent on them rolling out immediately after packing.
Just as she was rolling her suitcase down the hallway of the house she saw an annoyed Pote walk in along side a tipsy George. She then stopped right in her tracks. "Where have you been?"
"Hey Principessa," he greeted as he started to come up for a hug but was then stopped with Pote blocking the space between them.
"George, it's been five days. You haven't made contact. You know we've had a rough start here. You can't just-"
"I know, I know. I just needed a minute"
"A minute!? A minute to drink," she responded with a raised eyebrow as she noticed his lack of balance. She watched as he didn't meet her eyes after that.
"Is everything okay with the shipment?" she finally let out a breath and questioned.
He nodded looking out to the distance.
"Is everything okay with you?"
"Yeah I'm alright," he said as he took a load off on the seat across from where she was standing. Teresa dismissed Pote as they shared one final look.
She then sat down herself across from George.
"George I know it hasn't been that long since Bilal passed, but I need to know if you can still handle managing to the shipments," she stated as she eyed him awaiting a response.
"If you're going to be going dark like this- it isn't going to work for me. I need to be able to depend on you. Can I still do that?"
George looked down for a moment at his drink then nodded. A few seconds more and he locked eyes and said, "I know before all this, I had warned you. That it'd be dangerous, I guess I just never thought I'd be the one getting drunk, trying to cope over a loss."
In that moment, a sad smile crept up on her face as she thoughtfully replied, "Losses don't have to hurt you know. They only hurt us if we let it."
"Keeping it all below the surface until it explodes...yeah I don't think that's good thing."
"Probably not." she shrugged.
"But it's something that works." he said as sighed.
They shared a few more seconds of silence then George slowly began to get up on his feet.
"I'm glad you made it back safe George," she said looking up at him.
"Me too principesa, me too. Are you gonna head up?" he said as he signaled upstairs in the Phoenix safe house.
"No, I think I'ma do a little more work down here."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."