NUMB

29 - And the Truth Lies Afloat

"You... you do?" Alec's eyes scanned Luke's and his heartbeat drummed in his ears. After all this time, his dad finally remembered everything, but how? And why was he still calling himself Luke?

"Yes. Just call everyone. This is important and urgent."

.....

Alec's heartbeats kept ringing in his ears, left leg bouncing and hands fidgeting as the ones present gathered in the living area while waiting for others. He watched as his parents embraced each other, watched how his father pampered and cared for his mother, the same guy who refused to believe any of it barely a few days ago. He wasn't able to wrap his head around how suddenly he remembered everything when his siblings' memories were still foggy. But he wasn't complaining.

Once everyone arrived and saw Maryse awake, it was like a flood of tears with warm hugs and assurances that everything was going to be alright now, when though, nobody knew that. All his friends and family were there, including Clary, Raphael, Maxim, and that other witness, who somehow became a part of this tangled mess. After the chaos of the moment was over, everyone settled in the living area, with Luke holding Maryse's hand as she leaned against him and Magnus sat right beside him, lending support, and he couldn't be any more grateful to have that stubborn guy in his life, no matter how miserable his life was.

There was a dreadful silence hanging in the air, nobody knew what to say until Luke reached towards the bag he was carrying, took out two injections with vials that contained some kind of liquid, and kept that on the table in front. "Jace, Izzy," He broke the ice, his voice hoarse, holding an unknown emotion. "Take this. Whenever you people are ready to. It could make you go insane for a few hours, affect you mentally and physically, but it would be all fine once that'll be over."

"What is that, dad?" Izzy asked. Alec noticed the expression on his father's face at the use of that word, and he couldn't understand his reaction. Why was he still not ready to accept that?

"The..." Luke cleared his throat. "The antidote for salad." He said, and it was like the earth shattered below Alec's feet and swallowed him whole, and the other's reactions confirmed that he wasn't the only one feeling that.

"What in the actual heck, Mr Lightw-"

"Greymark, Lucian Greymark, agent Stewart," Luke spoke. "I'm... I'm not Robert Lightwood."

"D... Luke..." It still felt alien to Alec. "What in the world are you saying? What's happening? You said you got your memories then...." He trailed off and felt Magnus' hand wrap around his arm, making his racing heart slow down a little.

"I got my memories, that's why I'm here, champ," Luke said, and he noticed how his mother shakily rubbed Luke's arm. What the hell was happening? "After I stopped taking those multivitamin tablets, I started having visions of a place, of a specific box." He took a deep breath then continued. "I looked into it, and it was somewhere in Java, a small village. My home. Real home. That box... it contained this... all of this... the way to create salad and its antidote... and a lot of things. I... I took the antidote, and here I am."

"I'm not understanding any of it...." Jace spoke, "What are you saying? How can you not... you.... just... how!?"

"M..mom..." Alec looked at his mother who was trying to soothe Luke in her own way, and she wasn't affected by any of it. "You... you know... you... know exactly what he is saying... mom... dad... what is happening?"

"We.... we're so... so sorry, kids.... be... because of us... you all have suffered so-"

"No. No, Maryse, because of me." Luke turned towards her, his eyes damp with tears and what he could decipher as guilt and shame. "You have suffered too. A lot. Just because of the fucking revenge I wanted. Because I was so much consumed with rage and anger and-"