You're Always You

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Lydia Minett

Lydia kept herself glued to David's side once she felt stable enough to climb out of bed. Since waking up, her head had been throbbing.

...Primarily because she was trying to figure out who she was.

Thinking about her childhood, as a whole, was relatively easy. Everything there lined up - right up until Richie... Dickie started hitting on Lydia. In one, Lydia met the most wonderful man. The man she would marry and try to have kids with.

In the other, Lydia found herself going down a dark, abusive path with a man who did nothing but hurt her and draw her back in.

...And balancing that in her head? It was hard. Lydia wanted to have hope that in time, in sorting, she would be able to just... file both of these as pieces of her history. The past. But in her head, at the moment, it was as though two pieces of history were sizing each other up. Trying to understand each other. The Lydia who married David was trying to understand what happened to him, what he had gone through. Who he had been with. But the Lydia who was with Richie was trying to understand where David had come from. Who made him the way he is. What had gone wrong in her own reality that didn't set her down this path.

Once the two pieces of information were balanced, Lydia felt like she might... be one person again. But right now, how she was, Lydia felt like two.

It was also why she stayed closed to Davie's side.

David eventually finished breakfast and brought it to the table, though Lydia normally ate it in bed. Even eating at the table was a bit different, since Lydia glued herself to his side instead of sitting across from him.

She just... wanted to hold his hand at the moment, and he wasn't going to argue.

Once they had finished eating, Lydia leaned against her husband and closed her eyes, rubbing at her face. "...Richie... Dickie... He - he was awful, Davie." Lydia murmured to him.

"I know, baby." David said, wrapping his arms around her to kiss the top of her head.

"That Lydia... she... I never knew a healthy relationship. She - we... whatever..." Lydia waved her hand and continued speaking. "It was so lonely. And... she knows now. I know now..." Lydia specified, turning to look at David with a frown. "...But Richie was going to kill me. Loki... he said that Dickie pushed me down the stairs in seven years or so. That was my fate."

David didn't seem happy about it, though he didn't say anything. Instead, he fell silent and pulled Lydia closer into him, nuzzling her against his torso.

Lydia dropped her head back against him and closed her eyes. "...I think... both Lydias would agree that this place is better. That you are better." Bringing up her hand, Lydia placed it against David's cheek softly. She leaned forward to kiss his lips softly, keeping her forehead against his. "...God... David... you took care of me when I wasn't even... me... I love you. So much."

"You'll always be you to me, sweetheart." David murmured, kissing her lips again lightly before leaning back.

Humming, Lydia nodded her head and closed her eyes. "You hurt me, you know. Picking... me over me." Lydia said, giving a soft laugh at that. "...God I must sound insane to you..."

"Now you know how I felt when I kept saying 'you wouldn't believe me'!" David argued.

Though, Lydia shook her head. "No," She stabbed his chest with her finger. "You still only had one life in your head. I'm over here with broadway lines memorized in my head as well as tips and tricks for how to work a pole. Davie. This is weird."