A/N: Hi everyone :)
I'm so sorry that it's been a little longer than I intended it to be before posting this chapter. I had originally planned for more to happen in it, but then this part ended up being longer than I'd expected, and I didn't know whether to wait and give you a super long chapter, or to break it up. As well as that, I finished my second year at uni, and had to move all my stuff home again...so yeah, I've been busy haha Just know that even if it chapters are sometimes (Ok, more often than not) are few and far between, I'll always finish the story, and if I don't intend to continue, you'll all be the first to know. I love writing this story, and although my plans for how to end it have changed as events have come up in the show, so I don't actually know how I'm going to end it yet, I have no intention of it happening any time soon :)
Anyway, I'm going to stop babbling now, I promise :) They'll be another A/N at the end of the chapter, but it's most relevant to what's in this chapter, and a few chapters to follow, so I didn't want to put it up here :)
Thank you for sticking with me! Please let me know what you think :D
xoloveJBox
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The house was silent. It was the first thing Lydia noticed, because she couldn't remember the last time it had happened. In fact, it was such a rare occurrence that she found that something about the emptiness of her house unnerved her. She started to slowly wander from room to room, calling her brother's names, but she found nothing, and got no response.
As she lingered outside of her own bedroom door, trying to ignore the unease creeping up her back, attempting to decide what to do with her new found solitude, she felt a chill pass through her. But, before she could question it too much, she heard a familiar voice calling her, warming her slightly, like being pulled into a comforting embrace.
"Lydia?"
She hurried back down the stairs, sure that the voice was coming from the living room.
"Lydia!"
When she got to the bottom, her eyes darted around the room, but there was no still no-one there. She ran to the kitchen, in case she'd misjudged where the voice came from, but there was still no other people around. It might have helped if she'd known who she was looking for, but, despite the fact that she knew the voice- loved it, in fact- that was all she could be certain of.
"Lydia!"
Growing desperate, she ran to the last place she could think of that she hadn't checked yet; the garden.
As soon as she got out the door, she had to raise her hand to shield her eyes, blinded by the sun.
"Lydia!"
The voice was louder now, if only she could see where it was coming from. She squinted against the light, but it seemed to be burrowing into every pore, and her eyes just couldn't adjust to it. She stumbled forward clumsily. She had to find the voice. She felt like whoever it was needed her, but the more steps she took, the further away she felt. She tripped, and couldn't stop herself from falling, and falling and falling...
"Lady, wake up!"
Lydia's eyes snapped open, and she felt Heath nudge her roughly. She let out a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding, and wrapped herself tightly into her quilt, cocooning away as she shook off the last trailing remnants of her strange dream.
"Finally!" Heath exclaimed when her saw her eyes open "Come on, get up. The big fella's coming back today, and I don't want him to think I've let you sleep all day the whole time he's been gone."
"What time is it?" Lydia grumbled groggily, unravelling herself just enough to turn and see Heath place a mug of tea in her bedside table.
"Eight-thirty." He answered simply, and Lydia almost believed she'd heard him wrong, because there was surely no way Heath would be brave, or stupid, enough to wake her up so early for no reason other than Brax coming home. She really wasn't a morning person. Lydia opened her mouth to complain -or possibly to threaten to punch his head in, she hadn't quite decided- but Heath quickly cut her off.
"Don't argue, just do it." He told her firmly, heading towards the door "The shower's empty if you want it."
Before Lydia could get a word in, Heath strode out, leaving the door swinging open behind him, something he knew would drive his little sister crazy. Lydia lay in her bed for a moment, almost stunned that Heath-Heath Braxton!- was acting like an adult. But, even if maturity hadn't always been one of her brother's strong points, relentlessness was, and she knew that he'd return if she didn't emerge soon. With a sigh of defeat, she threw back her quilt and slid from her bed, grumbling to herself as she gathered some clothes and headed to the bathroom.
Her shower did a great job of fully waking her up, but all too soon, Lydia was clean and ready to get out. She dressed quickly, then towel dried her hair, deciding to let it fall in her natural, loose, beachy waves for the day.
When she got down to the living room, Kyle was already there, playing his guitar on the couch as Heath hurried out the door, dressed in his gym uniform, throwing a goodbye over his shoulder.
"If I'd known he'd be gone so soon, I wouldn't have let him get me up so early." Lydia commented as she padded to the kitchen to flick the kettle on.
"I won't stop you from going back to bed, if you want to." Kyle told her quietly, and his tone only confirmed what Lydia had suspected from the moment he'd returned home the night before- that something was wrong. But, she decided not to push him, for a while at least, and shook her head, wandering over to him.
"Nah," she replied as she sat on the other end of the couch, crossing her legs comfortably "I'm up now."
"You'll miss it when you go back to England." Kyle added, his fingers strumming lazily at the strings, keeping his gaze purposefully lowered away from his sister's. Lydia was silent for a moment as she considered her response.
"Can I tell you a secret?" She asked finally. Kyle nodded, and her serious tone hadn't escaped his attention "I'm not going back."
This time, Kyle's fingers stopped mid-note, and his eyes shot up to meet hers.
"What?" he exclaimed, genuinely surprised "I thought you liked it."
"I do," Lydia answered quickly, then let out a sigh, trying to decide the best way to explain it to him "A few years ago, there was a storm here. It was pretty bad; I mean, it caved in half the school. Heath and Bianca got stuck under the rubble, it took me half the day to find Case, and I had no idea where Brax was. Darcy's mum died because of that storm, and Darce could have died too. Until recently, it was the most scared I've ever been."
"Ok?" Kyle began when Lydia paused, not quite sure where she was going with the story, or how it related to England.
"I had to wait until the storm passed to find out if the people I loved were safe. With everything that happened while I was gone, with Casey getting stabbed and then all that happened with Adam, every day felt like that storm all over again. I loved England, and I don't regret going, but I'm not sure anything's worth feeling like that again."
"Lydia," Kyle started, then paused, wanting to make sure his words were meaningful enough to make a helpful difference to his sister "If I'm honest, I'm glad you weren't here. It meant you were safe."
"That didn't mean a lot to me when you guys weren't." Lydia retorted with a small, weary smile "Besides, now there's Sam too." Kyle shot her a confused look, so she elaborated "I can't make him choose between coming home and coming to see me when he has time off. If I stay here, I eliminate that problem."
"Lyd, you need to make the choice for you, not anyone else." He told her seriously. It wasn't very often he had to act big-brotherly for serious issues, and he could only hope that he wasn't out of his depth. "Just take a few more days to think about it, ok?"
"I would, but it's already done mate." Lydia replied, hoping her casual tone would relax Kyle now that she'd clearly put him on edge "I'm officially no longer a university student. But I haven't said anything to anyone else, so this is just between us for now."
"Well, what are you going to do with yourself now?" Kyle asked, going back to his guitar.
"That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about big brother," Lydia answered, shooting him a mischievous grin "Is there any chance I can get a few shifts at Angelo's?"
Kyle looked uncertain for a minute before passing off the decision "You'd better ask Brax when he gets home."
"Come on Kyle, you know he's not going to say yes," Lydia argued softly "but he won't argue if you've already given me the hours."
Still, Kyle didn't seem to sure. But, there was something in his sister's eyes that told him there was more to it than just something to fill her time. He'd felt like something was going on with Lydia for a few days, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, so he hadn't said anything. He still didn't know what to say, but he finally gave her a nod, hoping that if he kept her close, maybe she'd open up on her own.
"Fine," he relented "but if I start to think that you're pushing yourself too hard, that's it Lyd."
"Gotcha." Lydia agreed, trying not to look too relieved. It had been a few days since her failed pregnancy test, and she'd sworn Bianca and Ricky to silence, certain that they would keep their word, but that hadn't been all that played on Lydia's mind. The email lurking in her inbox that she'd received two days earlier was the most immediately troubling thing she had to deal with, and she had no idea what she was going to do "Thanks Kyle."
Lydia's phone buzzed on the table in front of them, and she reached across for it as Kyle stood, leaning his guitar up against the end of the couch.
"They'll be a few hours this afternoon if you want them." He offered, and Lydia nodded fervently, though her face held a slight frown at whatever message she'd just received. "I've got to head there now, so do you need anything before I go?"
"Actually, yeah," Lydia answered, getting up and grabbing her bag from the kitchen table "Could you drive me to the hospital? Ricky's there, and she wants me to help her with something."
Kyle saw a determined look on his sister's face that told him she'd be going to meet Ricky whether he drove her or not, and he'd rather see her delivered into the other woman's care, even if it meant that he had to open Angelo's a little late, so he nodded willingly.
As Lydia clambered into the front passenger seat of her car-which Kyle was driving, since she couldn't for a while, and it seemed pointless for her brother to walk across town and leave the small but efficient vehicle in the driveway- she had no way of knowing just how busy her day was about to get.
A/N 2: Ok, so I know it seems like Lydia is making a fast recovery, especially considering she had heart surgery, but if I made it truly realistic, I think it would drag too much, and I don't want that :) So yeah, I realise that she wouldn't be doing so much so soon, but I took a few artistic liberties :)
