Chapter Text
Perestroika
-
I think that’s enough geopolitical fun for one night. Kids, come on. Clear the plates.
Sorry to have hijacked your home, Victor.
No, it’s okay. Please keep going. They just need to go to sleep.
Dad. It’s only 9:00.
4x09 (Brazil)
-
Draw a 3D diagram of a strong electrical field. Then, draw a 3D diagram of a weak electrical field.
Surveying his physics homework, Javi taps the eraser end of his pencil on the page with his right hand. He digs the fingernail of his left index finger into that little groove where the distressing on the kitchen table’s a little deeper, and racks his brain. He knows how to answer this question - even talked about it while sitting in exactly the same spot the other night. The one where they had company.
The closer together the lines are, the stronger the field, Javi hears in his head, in a patient, Russian-accented voice. He flips his pencil over and begins to sketch the first diagram.
Sergei’s mostly a mystery still, but there are a few things about him that are very clear to Javi. First, he’s obviously some kind of physics genius. It’s not just that this dude was even better at helping him with his homework than Mom. Javi’s never seen Mom smile at anyone else before and tell them their ideas were “really smart.”
Second, even though he’s really nice and has kind eyes, you probably wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. He’s like Abuelo in that way - Abuelo was kind and gentle 99% of the time, but he also made a super-dangerous escape across the border and raised Mom, which must have required nerves of steel.
Third, even though it’s a little icky to think about, he clearly wants to be Tía Margo’s boyfriend.
He’d figured this out even before he watched the man stare sappily at Tía Margo the entire dinner. His first clue that something remotely weird was going on was about a month ago, when his friend’s older brother had driven him back from school and he found both Mom and Dad in the house. Usually, only Dad got home that early.
Mom’s eyes looked a little red, like she’d been crying, and Dad was talking to her in a low, reassuring voice. They’d stopped talking immediately when Javi approached them. Mom had disappeared into their bedroom for a while, and Dad had just said tersely to Javi, “Don’t bother her. She’s fine, she just had a rough day.” An hour later, when Javi was doing his homework at the kitchen table, Dad was cooking, and Graciana was watching some stupid TV show, Mom had emerged from her room, still dressed in her work clothes and carrying a stack of folders. Javi heard Dad say quietly, So you’re gonna give it to her? Mom had just given him a tense look, and Dad had pulled her into a tight one-armed hug and whispered something Javi couldn’t hear. Then she’d left. “Is her Tía Margo?” Javi had demanded, as soon as the door swung closed. Dad had said nothing, the expression on his face clear enough confirmation, and gone back to cooking.
Mom arrived back at the house without the folders halfway through dinner. Then over the next month, she’d disappear with one of the cars at random times of day - always in the day or two after Mom drove to NASA for asteroid meetings with Tía Margo. Javi didn’t realize that Mom was passing some super secret intel between Tía Margo and some guy called Sergei until the one time he glimpsed Mom trying to leave the house at 9:30 in the evening, and overheard Dad pushing back forcefully. No, Aleida. Look, I know Margo told you to change up the times, I’m just not comfortable with you visiting that motel in that part of town at this hour. Yes, I know you lived on the streets 25 years ago, and I’m still not okay with it. I’m sure Sergei can wait till tomorrow morning.
It was two weeks later when Javi really started to grasp the situation. Mom had another long meeting at NASA that day, and they weren’t expecting her home for a while. Javi had just started to help Dad with chopping some vegetables for salad, and Graciana was coloring at the kitchen table, when -
“Javi, you’ll need to chop up double that amount. Here.”
He’d looked up, surprised, to see Mom striding into the kitchen, still in her work suit. She’d flung open the fridge door, pulled out an assortment of vegetables, seemingly at random, and tossed them on the counter in front of him. Then she’d grabbed Dad by the arm, hissed, “We need to talk, now,” and frog-marched him into the living room.
Mom and Dad usually avoided fighting in front of him like the plague - for the past seven years, anyway - but he could hear them in the next room over the sound of his knife hitting the cutting board and Graciana’s crayon scratching on paper, arguing in increasingly loud whispers.
Mom sounded annoyed and impatient. “You said you were happy I was talking to her again. And now you’re balking at the idea of having her over?”
“It’s not her,” Dad was saying animatedly, “she can come around for dinner every night this week for all I care. It’s the fact that you decided we’re also hosting a guy who the fucking KGB would want” - there was a deliberate pause, and while Javi couldn’t see him, he assumed Dad was miming a throat being cut - “in our home, hanging out with…” Javi was sure he was gesturing frantically over to the kitchen.
“I told you, we need him for the asteroid capture. Margo says he knows” - Mom mentioned some boring science topic that Javi couldn’t decipher - “better than anyone.”
“Aleida, you’re telling me the combined powers of Helios and the M-7 nations don’t have any other experts on - translunar whatever…”
“It’s not just for the work, it’s…” Mom sighed heavily. “Okay. It’s for him, too. Vic, in eight years, he’s the only person who’s really helped me make sense of it all, you know? And I know he kind of - got Margo into this mess, in a way, but I’ve gotten to know him better with all the meetings over the past month, and I can tell he’s sincere, and that he cares. He cares a whole fucking lot…about her. I mean, he didn’t drop everything and rush here on the interstate for the work. He came here for Margo, and since coming here, he hasn’t really had the chance to be alone with her in a safe space-”
“I’m sorry,” Dad cut in, incredulously. “Am I going crazy, or are you actually suggesting - I mean it wasn’t much more than a month ago that you said you wished she was still dead, and now not only have you reconciled with her, you’ve made it your mission to cast her in some kind of grand love story? You’re inviting this guy over partly because you think he has a thing for Margo?”
“Well, maybe, if of all the experts on translunar trajectories, she’s insisted that we work with him, she might have a thing for him too. I don’t know why you’re acting so shocked,” Mom said huffily. “Don’t you remember? I mentioned him to you years ago. I told you about working with both of them on Apollo-Soyuz, and you were the one who said it sounded like I crashed their date.”
Dad was silent for a beat, and when he spoke, he sounded far gentler than before - but like he was trying not to laugh. “Baby, that was 20 years ago.”
“Okay, I know, but he said the KGB ordered him to ‘go to her at the IAC conference to do whatever I had to’ to give up the engine design - you know what that means, right?”
“Yes, Aleida, I know what a honey trap is, but-”
“He refused, but they must have seen something there if they thought it would actually work, right? And get this. When he first came here, he was wearing a wedding ring. The last two times I visited him at his motel to pass on the notes - no wedding ring. Gone.”
“I guess I’m not buying that that necessarily has to do with Margo. Look, the man apparently left his wife, he’s been living by himself for the past month - it doesn’t sound like that marriage was going well, regardless. That ring was gonna come off anyway.”
Mom cleared her throat pointedly.
“Okay,” Dad whispered indignantly, “that was a totally different situation.”
“Obviously, but hear me out. What if it wasn’t? I’ve been thinking about it…what if you had been in the same situation as him?”
Dad had sighed, in that way he does when he’s exasperated but trying to be patient. “Aleida, I’m really not following…”
“Imagine I’d disappeared after the bombing, okay? And you thought I was dead, and you moved to the Midwest - yes, I know you’d never do that, but let’s just say - okay, and you remarried, and made a nice little life for yourself, and then you learned from the TV that I was alive in the Soviet Union? And then found out I was coming to Houston…you don’t think you’d drop everything and do whatever you could to see me? To spend time with me?”
Dad was silent for a long time. Eventually he said, “That drive on the interstate would have taken a lot longer for me.”
“Why?” Mom had asked, and Javi could tell without seeing her face that she was smiling a little.
“Well, I’d have a teenage son riding shotgun who’d insist on stopping every two hours for food.”
Mom had laughed, but Javi thought her laugh almost sounded a little sad. “No, you wouldn’t. I guarantee that kid would stay home with his new mom. Who’d be much more present and involved with him than I ever was.”
Dad had laughed too, but his laugh sounded warm and affectionate. “And I guarantee that you’re completely wrong. As present and involved as you are now - and you’re both - you don’t know him like l do.”
He’d exhaled deeply, and then said, “All right. I’ll agree on one condition. Figure out all the shit we have to do to keep his coming here completely under wraps. He’s been on the other side - if he’s as smart as Margo says, he should be able to outwit ‘em. If he needs to get here three hours before Margo, park his car far away from the house, wear a disguise, whatever - figure it out, and do it.”
Mom let out a deep breath, too. “Yes. I’ll do that right now. God, thank you, Vic. I promise I’ll make it up to you. Seriously, in whatever way you want.”
Dad had chuckled at that, and that was Javi’s cue to turn off his listening ears.
Sergei had arrived at the house just one hour later, when Javi had moved on to his homework. Dad answered the door without a trace of his prior annoyance, though he seemed a lot more serious than he usually was with guests. He did offer Sergei a beer, but Sergei politely refused and asked if Mom and Dad needed any help with the dinner prep. He followed Dad’s direction well, although he worked a lot slower than both of Javi’s parents because he kept stopping to respond to dumb questions from Graciana, who was standing at his elbow and watching him with great interest.
It was at that point that Javi realized that he was going nowhere with this physics homework question on voltage, and there was no way he was going to finish this in time for tomorrow. He’d need to call in the usual expert.
He’d tried to catch Mom’s eye and get her attention subtly, but she was watching Sergei and Graciana interact with an odd little half-smile on her face, and didn’t notice. “Mom,” Javi whispered, eventually.
Mom had looked over at him then. “What do you want, baby?” she’d replied in a much louder voice, which would have been embarrassing enough without her using a pet name for him in front of a complete stranger.
“I need help with my physics homework,” Javi hissed, feeling his face grow hot.
Mom looked flustered, like she had 50 different problems to solve and she was being asked to tackle the 48th most important one. “Javi, just - just hold on a minute, okay, let me-”
“Javier,” Sergei interjected in a gentle tone, and everyone’s eyes snapped over to him. “You may be interested to know that I am a high school physics teacher. Perhaps we could give your mother a break, and I could help you?”
Javi blinked, as he watched Mom and Dad exchange an indecipherable look. “Um, okay. Sure.”
Sergei had been really good at explaining voltage in a way that made it sound a lot more simple - and maybe even sort of interesting. Javi had been so immersed in the discussion that he’d almost forgotten who they were waiting for…until he heard a tentative knock on the front door.
“Okay,” Dad whispered, gesturing frantically to Sergei, Javi, and Graciana, “the three of you need to stay back here, and be quiet. Please.” His voice came out so fast and tense that for the first time in his life, Javi wondered if Dad might have a panic attack tonight.
Mom seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she put her hand on Dad’s shoulder and squeezed. Javi watched Dad took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay,” he said to Mom eventually, touching her hand briefly, and then they both went to the foyer together as a second, slightly louder knock sounded.
Margo, Javi heard Dad say.
Come on in, Mom had said, and that’s when Javi noticed the anxious, fluttery feeling in his stomach.
Javi’s eyes met Sergei’s, and it occurred to him that he might not be the only one. “Are you nervous?” he whispered.
Sergei nodded slightly, and with a wry smile, held his thumb and index finger up close together - signalling a little bit. “Me too,” Javi admitted quietly.
They both heard the door shut, and Sergei exhaled. Then he murmured, “She must be more nervous than you, even if she does not show her emotions. She does not care what most of the world thinks of her - but I have heard her speak of you, during the few years she knew both of us, and I believe you are an exception, Javier. Like your mother.”
And at that, he’d stood up determinedly and made his way into the foyer.
Javi remembers glancing over at Graciana, who’d pouted back at him; the adults were chatting in tones neither of them could make out. He remembers that Mom was the first one to re-enter the kitchen, with what Javi thought looked like a tense smile painted on her face, and right on her heels was - Tía Margo. Most of all, he remembers that seeing her had - strangely, and all of a sudden - calmed his nerves. Like it was more stressful to imagine meeting her, the person who went from being family to a forbidden discussion topic to - well, maybe, something in between - than to actually meet her.
As soon as Tía Margo saw Javi, she’d stopped in her tracks. Put her hand over her mouth, and just stared at him for a while with bright eyes. Then she said softly, “I, uh - well, I was trying to work it out in my head on my way here…just how much you might have grown in eight years. Somehow, I didn’t expect you to be this tall.” She glanced over at Dad, a little nervously. “Victor, he might have a few inches on you when all’s said and done.”
“Hey,” Dad said, smiling faintly at her. His voice sounded lighter than it had all evening, at least, though that wasn’t saying much. “Jury’s still out on that one.”
Javi looked over at Mom to check her reaction. She had her face turned away from him and Tía Margo, so he couldn’t see her expression, but Javi noticed that Dad had his hand resting on hers on the countertop. He tended to do that when she was having a hard time managing her feelings.
“And, uh-”
“This is Graciana,” Dad said more gently, putting his free arm around his daughter as she sidled up to the group. “She joined us in ‘97. We actually moved to this house just before she was born.”
Tía Margo was silent for a moment - less time than when she’d seen Javi - but when she addressed Graciana, her voice sounded a little uneven. “I’m probably not the first person to say this. But you look” - she let out a little breath through her nose - “just like your mother.”
“Everyone says that,” Graciana replied, very seriously. “I don’t mind,” she added, locking eyes with Tía Margo. “Mamá is really pretty, so it’s a nice thing to say. I don’t like when people say mean things. When people are mean” - she narrows her eyes - “I yell back, and I fight them. I do that a lot, even when Papá says I’m not supposed to.”
“It appears the resemblance to your mother goes beyond looks, Miss Graciana,” Sergei cracked, and Tía Margo let out a surprised little laugh. Javi felt grateful that the man had lowered the tension in the room - Mom was looking back at them again, smiling. And he couldn’t help but notice the way Sergei was grinning sideways at Tía Margo - like it was a rare joy, making her laugh like that.
“All right,” Mom said briskly, swiping the back of her hand across her eye, “we have some work to do - I’m thinking we can start with updating the CG estimates. Sergei, do you have…”
Mom and Sergei started chattering away about the asteroid, but Tía Margo was still standing by the fridge. Javi realized she was looking at the old photo of him, Mom, and Dad with Abuelo at the park, from when he was three and a half.
“It was two years ago,” he mumbled, because he was pretty sure Mom hadn’t told her. “Um - actually, almost three now.”
“So he, uh - got a few years. With your sister,” Tía Margo whispered.
“Yeah. He got to spend more time with Mom, too. She was home a lot more - after…”
An odd expression crossed Tía Margo’s face, and for a second Javi wondered if she was going to cry. Then Tía Margo just scrunched her eyes and shook her head a little, and the expression passed. “I still think about your grandfather. Sometimes,” she said quietly. “How kind he was. And, uh - how good his food was.”
“His food was the best,” Javi agreed. “Although Dad’s done a pretty good job filling in. Even before he - you know. Officially moved back into the house, with me and Mom and Abuelo,” he added, and Tía Margo nodded silently, like it was helping her - filling in the gaps that Mom hadn’t shared. “After everything went down at JSC, Dad was at the house helping with dinner again every night, and he’d take note of how Abuelo made all his special dishes, and I guess he just - gradually took on more and more of it. But I always spent the most time with Abuelo after school, so I’m kind of the expert on his food. Dad still asks me to remind him how he cooked things, sometimes.”
“Javi, you can brag to your Tía later. Come help me set the table,” Dad said from behind them, and Javi jumped a little, because he hadn’t realized that Dad was listening. Dad turned away quickly, but not before Javi caught Tía Margo throwing him a grateful look. She hadn’t seemed to mind talking to Javi, so maybe she was just grateful to Dad for taking care of Mom after she disappeared. Or for calling her Javi’s Tía, which he definitely hadn’t done in a while.
Dinner was kind of a blur for Javi - it went by quickly. It’s not that Javi’s eyes didn’t glaze over a bit when Mom was doing math and physics with Sergei and Tía Margo. But the conversation got a lot more interesting when Sergei brought up the idea that maybe, the asteroid shouldn’t even be going to Earth at all, because it might mean that all of the governments around the world are going to give up on Mars.
To Javi, it was kind of surprising that everybody in the world seemed to be okay with moving forward on a plan that maybe, wasn’t even the right thing to do. I mean, it would hurt the future of space exploration, which was, like - everything Mom stood for.
But maybe this wasn’t as mind-boggling as it would have been six months ago, at least for Javi. So many people being wrong about something, missing the point. Well, it was like Tía Margo, right? Judging from the comments Javi heard at school and on the news, everyone in Houston thought she was some kind of villain. And it was just the five of them, sitting around the kitchen table with her, who knew that she was a good person. There was no doubt of that in Javi’s mind, anyway - not from the way she looked at him and Mom during dinner.
It was weird that Mom and Tía Margo just seemed kind of - sad about it, resigned to what Sergei had said about the asteroid capturing being a shame? Like they weren’t going to do anything about it, or try to change anyone’s minds. Maybe it was because they were the ones who came up with the plan - or because it would be too late to back out now? He had thought about asking Mom about it on his way out of the kitchen, after Dad rudely interrupted the conversation to tell Javi and Graciana they had to leave the table early. But that’s when Tía Margo handed him a Tootsie Roll - and it brought up fuzzy recollections from when he was a little kid that made him feel so warm and weirdly soft inside, that it was hard to focus much on the asteroid. Or even on his frustration with Dad.
And okay, maybe there was a legitimate reason for kicking him and Graciana out of the kitchen. After he brushed his teeth, Javi figured he’d need to wind down with some music to get in the mood to sleep, but couldn’t find his headphones. He’d probably gone into his parents’ room at some point and left them there. It would be easy to pop in and grab them, he’d thought, since Mom and Dad must be back at the dinner table with Tía Margo and Sergei. Except when he got to their room to retrieve his headphones, Mom and Dad were very much there, casually lounging on their bed.
“Why aren’t you back at the dinner table with our guests? Isn’t that rude?”
“We’ll check on ‘em in a bit. Just taking a break from geopolitics and physics,” Dad answered, without even looking up from the New York Times crossword.
“She’s literally doing physics right now,” Javi pointed out, gesturing toward Mom, who ignored him and crossed out an equation she had just scribbled into a notebook, shaking her head slightly against Dad’s shoulder. “Wait. Did you guys clear us out of the room because” - he lowered his voice to a whisper - “you’re trying to give Sergei a chance to ask Tía Margo out? Because that would be okay, I guess.”
“Really?” Mom chimed in, incredulously. “So you’re okay with giving them some time to themselves. But when we ask you to give us some time alone, it’s disgusting?”
“I mean, they’re old, Mom. It’s not like they’re going to do anything gross. He’ll probably just try to hold her hand.”
Dad snorted with laughter, and Mom elbowed him. “Victor, do not share that news story with him about the nursing homes. It’ll scar him.”
“Yeah, please don’t.”
“All right, then keep your nose out of Tía Margo’s business,” Dad retorted. “And our business, for that matter. Your headphones are on the shelf. Take ‘em and scram.”
That was the end of the evening, and after that…Mom and Dad really hadn’t talked about Tía Margo or Sergei at all, with either Javi or Graciana. It was almost like the dinner never happened; or like it was some sort of unspoken secret.
Except that the asteroid capturing mission’s happening today. Everyone at school’s been talking about it, especially to Javi because many of them know his mom’s involved, and Javi’s not sure how to feel about it anymore.
Javi heaves a sigh, sets down his pencil, and wanders over to the living room. He picks up the TV remote and flips to the news channel to see what’s going on with the asteroid. There’s a giant countdown on the screen.
The next twenty minutes end up being a whirlwind. The suspense, waiting to see whether the asteroid shifted onto its course toward Earth. Fast-talking reporters. The unexpected thrill of realizing that the mission didn’t work, and the asteroid’s going to stay in Mars orbit.
And then a breaking news alert flashes across the screen, and there’s grainy video footage of a group of serious-looking people in matching jackets leading a gray-haired woman out of the Cobb Space Center in handcuffs, and Javi freezes in horror.
*
Victor feels the pit in his stomach growing steadily heavier as he attempts to handle the barrage of frantic questions coming from his son. How could they do this to her? (The Soviets made sure she had something called diplomatic immunity, which means the U.S. government couldn’t arrest her even if they thought she did something wrong. It sounds like the Soviets took away the immunity, so now she can be arrested). Is it really because of the asteroid or are they just mad at her for defecting and telling the Soviets about NASA’s top secret space stuff? (I don’t know. It could be either, or both). Are they going to throw her in jail for a while? (They’re probably going to try, but she has the right to defend herself). But if they still decide to put her in jail, how long? Like, for the rest of her life? (I don’t know).
As much as Victor cares about Margo - and he does, she’s been kind of a packaged deal with Aleida for nearly two decades, in life and apparent death - there’s only one big, terrifying question he has the mental space for. And he’s not sure how long it’s going to take Javi to get there.
Finally, Javi asks, “Where’s Mom? Do you think she’s trying to help Tía Margo?”
“I don’t-” Victor starts. “I don’t know.”
Technically, that’s true. He’s been stepping out of the room every few minutes since Javi had alerted him to the news coverage, ostensibly to check the oven. Calling her, texting her repeatedly. No response.
“What time was she supposed to be back?”
“She didn’t give a time. Said she’d probably be back late. It’s a big mission.”
“Yeah, but it’s done. I mean, it failed, right?” Javi says, and Victor can hear the first trace of panic in his voice. “Why didn’t she call to say she’s on her way back?”
“I don’t know,” Victor repeats, flatly. What else can he say?
While Madison has admitted to playing a role in the heist, the news anchor on TV states, it is not yet publicly known whether she worked with others to hijack the asteroid. However, our sources tell us this is unlikely to be the FBI’s last arrest. NASA administrator Eli Hobson has vowed that anyone found to be involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Javi turns toward his father, face falling like a stone. There it is.
“Dad. Dad. You don’t think Mom helped Tía Margo change the direction of the asteroid? ‘Cause they said they’re going to - arrest, prosecute, that means put them in jail?” Javi sinks down onto the sofa, the TV remote he’d been clutching slipping out of his hands. “What if those people took her into custody too? Or what if she tried to run away from them but they come looking for her here? What do we do?”
As a general rule, Victor prides himself on being honest with his kids. But at that moment, Graciana appears in the doorway. She takes in the tense scene and then takes a seat on the sofa - not saying a word, just looking up at her father. She’s so young - younger even than Javi was at the time of the JSC bombing - and Javi, he’s still so young too. So he’ll swallow it down, for them, for at least a little while longer. Javi, remember when I told you she walked back inside a burning building for Tía Margo? Well, I know her and I know what Margo is to her and she’d do it again, in a heartbeat.
“No,” Victor responds quietly, “she wouldn’t get mixed up in a heist - she’d think of us, she wouldn’t risk it.”
But Javi’s face has tightened up, like he knows his father’s just willing it to be true. Javi’s smart in that way - always has been.
Carnal, Luis had told him earnestly over a catch-up drink in ‘95, a few months after the JSC bombing, that chavo of yours is smart. That day in September…I was really worried he’d put two and two together before we heard from you whether Aleida was okay. We tried our best - kept the TV off. Took Ma’s calls in the other room so he wouldn’t hear her crying - she felt so guilty for telling you Aleida would always put NASA first and you’d be better off making it official - distracted him with toys, the works. But Javi knew something terrible had happened, I could see it in his face.
All of a sudden, headlights stream through the blinds, interrupting Victor’s reverie. They hear the jarring sound of a car roaring into the driveway; tires screeching to a halt.
Javi rushes out to the foyer; Victor follows close behind with Graciana. When Javi gets to the front door, he unlocks it - then stops with his hand on the handle.
“Dad, I can’t,” he says in a choked voice.
Standing next to a very quiet Graciana - a mini replica of her mother - Victor suddenly sees Aleida just as clearly in Javi’s eyes, her expression reflected back at him. He thinks of separation from parents and parental figures as a defining trauma of Aleida’s life; of the look in her eyes nearly 20 years ago, when she’d sat across the table from him and told him about having to part with her mother’s grave and finding out her father was going to be deported. He thinks of himself, holding her shaking body close after panic attacks and in a cold chair in a hospice room, fighting down his own grief to be strong for her. And he fears that maybe, in her unconscious drive to hold onto and re-align with the one remaining parental figure she’d thought she lost, she really did give it all up today - years they both spent re-building their family structure into something strong and impenetrable, something that would shield the kids from it all, gone in a flash.
“No, of course,” Victor says, and his words sound devastatingly calm. “I’ll open it. Stay behind me for now, with your sister, all right?”
Javi falls back, and Graciana reaches up silently and slips her hand into his. He squeezes back, hard, and Victor’s eyes sting at the sight.
He breathes in sharply, pushes the door open, and gazes down the path to the driveway.
It’s not the FBI. It’s just Aleida, standing next to the Acura with red eyes, looking completely broken.
Javi pushes past him, runs down the walkway to his mom, and throws his arms around her.
Victor follows slowly, with Graciana on his heels. Javi’s crying now, harder than Victor has ever seen him cry. “We watched the people in the jackets take Tía Margo away on the TV and I thought - I thought…”
Aleida’s crying too, hugging Javi back tightly, whispering, She told them I had nothing to do with it, baby, and then, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, over and over.
Her eyes meet Victor’s over Javi’s shoulder, wordlessly acknowledging that getting this close to being arrested is worse than anything she’s knowingly put them through before.
It’s clear to Victor that there’s some scary shit she isn’t even mentioning in front of their son, and he wonders if it has to do with Sergei. His first instinct had probably been right: the dinner at their house was ill-advised. Getting the kids mixed up in it all…Aleida’s heartbroken right now, he knows that - but they’ll still need to have a difficult, boundaries-setting talk, as soon as Javi and Graciana are asleep. And Margo’s word is highly unlikely to count for much in the eyes of federal authorities, so he’ll need to press his wife to lawyer up to the hilt. Dev Ayesa surely has the funds, and Victor’s certain the man owes Aleida - for keeping the lights on at Helios down on Earth, no doubt, and probably for a great deal more.
But for now, he puts his arms around Aleida and Javi, rests his chin on the top of Graciana’s head as she curls up against him, and exhales in relief.