Lethe Vita

Chapter 37

Life had become measured in a series of messages.

Messages from Steve and his family. Messages from the specialists that Clare had reached out to, at the suggestion of her team.

A complicated individual who had passed on that complexity to his son, Rush Sanders had, at times, been something of an enigma to Clare. She hadn't questioned whether Rush had loved his son, but she had questioned whether Rush's love for Steve came with conditions.

If it had previously, gone were the days when Steve would have to enact foolhardy schemes in a ploy for his father's affection.

In Clare's last visit to Los Angeles, she had seen Rush's vulnerability with Steve, the way Steve had known exactly how to care for his father after a particularly trying day of Rush's chemotherapy.

Clare had vowed to Steve that if there was any chance the research Clare engaged in on a daily basis could help ease Rush's battle, Clare would take it.

That did mean that her visits out west were short, that her time with Steve was short.

It did mean that when she was home, quite a distance away from Steve, her mind would wander.

It had initially wandered in the direction of Janet Sosna, a woman who Clare thought may have made a perfectly fine significant other for Steve in another life where Steve hadn't reunited with Clare. It had been Donna who had made the introductions, during a luncheon between Donna and her D'Shawn, Janet and her boyfriend Jordan, and Steve with the bit of time he had with Clare.

They had been joined by a passing Gina Kincaid attached to the hip of Noah Hunter, who had both been more pleasant to Donna than Clare had expected them to be.

Donna, as ever, had been the epitome of grace and class in the face of her cousin's relationship with her ex.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Clare had asked.

"Does what bother me?" asked Donna.

"You and Noah dated for a while, didn't you?" asked Clare. "Surely it bothers you for your cousin to be dating him now."

"Will I lie and say it isn't weird?" asked Donna. "No, I won't, but he also dated Val, and David dated me. Neither Val nor myself have a problem with either of those things, so there's no reason I should have a problem with Gina."

"Despite Noah cheating on you with her?"

"Maybe he wouldn't've if I hadn't been secretly thinking of D'Shawn," Donna had lowered her head, "sometimes even when me and Noah were in bed together."

"No!" Clare had gasped theatrically. "Donna Martin, how could you?"

"I guess we all wanted something we didn't think we could have," said Donna.

Clare certainly had, and perhaps that was why the long-distance relationship she and Steve had engaged in had begun putting her ill at ease.

She didn't want to mention her concerns to Steve, who would instantly assume Clare had suffered from a loss of faith.

She hadn't.

Not really.

She trusted Steve more than she ever had before.

She did not, however, trust time, or distance.

Clare had been messaging with Janet when she had read the news.

Celeste Lundy has returned? typed yeahitsclaredontstare.

I don't think it's anything of concern, messaged gonnasmashthatceiling. Don wasn't too concerned.