A/N: Not much to say this time. We're finally getting to the actual plot, which is good, but it's still just a lot of sitting around and talking, which is not how I usually write things, so it has me a bit insecure about my writing. But my muse doesn't care, she'll send me wherever she wants me to go, regardless of how confident I am that I can get there properly.
Disclaimer: Still nothing ownable in this chapter that I can see.
5.
"you're joking, right?" I ask.
I've been listening quietly while the family had their little powwow, but this all seems just a little too insane for me to keep quiet any longer.
"you do realize you're suggesting someone has possessed H, right? Like, what does that even mean? And if he's possessed, wouldn't he know it himself? I mean, there are times when he's back to his old self, you know? Wouldn't he use those moments that he's 'back in control' or whatever to, I don't know, tell someone that there's someone else inside his body with him? That's what I would do if I was in that situation, at least," I say.
"well, yes, but what if he's unaware of the fact?" Diana asks and I sigh.
"then he'd at least have told someone about the fact that there seem to be weeks missing from his memory at a time, right? If he's asleep or something while this other person is in control, that would explain how he doesn't know about it himself, but he would at some point have looked at a calendar and went 'huh, I wonder where the last two fucking weeks went', right?" I ask, looking at Paolo for help, even though he's the one who came up with this cockamamie idea in the first place.
"but what if he's not completely in control at those times? Maybe the other entity put false memories in his head of him actually living those days normally," he suggests and I sigh again.
"actually, the girl has a point. There is no way he could've been possessed this long and not have realized himself that there was something wrong with him at least," Mina says. "if he has memories of himself living the way he normally would, he'd be confused by you, Dio and Leila suddenly being angry with him, seemingly without any reason to be, and that would tip him off that there was something wrong. Maybe not the first time, but if it keeps happening over and over, he'd eventually have realized that the problem lies not with the others, but within himself."
I nod. "and if he does have the full memories of 'the other entity' and everything he's done, then he would start to wonder why he would treat everyone so horribly and act so out of character all the time," I say.
"so either he has false memories, which wouldn't add up to reality, which would tip him off; or he has the real memories, which wouldn't add up to his personality, which would tip him off; or he has no memories at all, which wouldn't add up to the timeline and he'd realize soon enough that he's missing ginormous portions of his memory, which would tip him off. No matter what, there is simply no way he could've been possessed this long and not know about it. There must be another explanation."
"like what?" Juno asks, seeming to actually want an answer from me.
"aside from the obvious, that he just changed or is suffering from some kind of mental disorder and there's nothing weird or supernatural going on at all?" I ask.
They just look at me in silence and I sigh.
"alright, it has to be a weird magic thing, I guess. Whatever. Well...I'm not sure what it could be. But how about this? What if everyone here writes down a timeline. Like, write down every time you've been with him – and if he was himself or this 'other entity' at the time – in the last three months or so. Then we put all those timelines together. At the least it'll give us a concrete answer about how long this has been going on and how often he's gone back and forth between himself and 'the other one' and if we're lucky the timelines might even overlap at some point," I suggest.
"why would the times-lines overlapping be lucky for us?" Jove asks and I'm about to answer, but Mina – who I've already figured out is some kind of 'wunderkind', the smartest, most rational of them all, despite also being stuck on the idea that H's attitude is a supernatural problem, not a normal one – beats me to it.
"because if the timelines overlap, meaning he was in two places at once, that means Hermes himself isn't the problem, there is just someone who looks like him that's causing trouble, which would make it much easier for us to fix this, whatever this is," she says and I nod.
"like, for example, two days ago H spent the day with me. And that was 'the real one'. So if anyone happened to meet with 'the fake one' two days ago, that means there really are two of him. And, like I said, even if the timelines don't overlap, it'll still give us a little more information about whatever it is we're dealing with, right?" I ask, this time looking at Mina for help.
Paolo still seems sold on his 'demon possession'-theory.
Mina nods and everyone begins taking out pens and paper and writing down everything they remember from the last couple of months.
I write down my own timeline, although it's only three days long and I haven't seen H at all since yesterday-morning, when I stormed out of his study, even though I'm currently living in his house.
"I cannot believe I'm writing down a timeline of my baby-daddy to figure out if he has a doppelgänger or if he's just possessed. This was not what I had in mind for my vacation in Greece," I mumble, but I still write down everything I know, making sure I get the exact timing right.
"say what you will about this whole situation, but I bet this is the most interesting 'vacation' you've ever had," Paolo says, smiling and squeezing my knee before turning his attention back to his own timeline.
"interesting is one word for it, I guess," I say. "but I figured I'd go looking for H, tell him about Liz and then spend the rest of my time here having a nice, relaxing vacation with the little ones. Not find H, tell him about Liz, sleep with his freaking brother, find out H might be possessed and then completely forget that I even have little ones up until this very second," I say, getting up and running to the guest-room, where Liz and Alex are luckily still sleeping.
I wake them up, bringing them down into the living room with me and I laugh when I see Diana scolding Paolo for sleeping with Hermes' winter-girl – whatever that means – when 'she's having a rough enough time as it is'.
Paolo just looks up and me and winks, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
"oh, may I hold her?" Juno asks when she also notices me coming back into the room, a half-asleep Elizabeth in my arms.
"hmm? Liz? Yeah, sure," I say absentmindedly, still mulling over H's timeline. I carefully lay Liz down in her grandmother's arms and get back to my almost empty piece of paper.
Paolo did say that this strange behavior of H's is something that started about three months ago, so I guess my memories of him a year ago wouldn't do them any good, but other than those, I really don't have all that many memories of him. As much as I care about him, and what with him being my daughter's father, I actually don't know him all that well.
"you're thinking too much again," Paolo says and I laugh.
"just sleep, right? Can't really do that now, though," I say and he also laughs.
"well, you seem to be just about finished with that, so I don't see why you can't take a little nap," he says.
"what game are you guys playing? Can I play?" Alex asks sleepily, coming to sit down on my lap.
"oh, right. Hey Alex, do you remember all the times H was with you and Liz?" I ask, putting my arms around him and pulling him a little closer.
"you mean like yesterday before you guys came home?" he asks, rubbing his eyes.
"yes, and the day before that, and the day before that. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it would help if you could tell me what you know," I say.
He thinks about that for a while and then just shrugs.
"well, obviously he was with us two days ago, the day we met him. He was with us all day then, from the moment I woke up until you left with him to go to that discotheque," he says.
I nod, not writing that down, since I was there the whole time.
"And then he came back about ten minutes after you guys left, saying he forgot something. He went to his study, picked something up and left again. After that he didn't come home for another three hours. And then he stayed in his room most of the time. I don't know what he did when we were sleeping, but I didn't see him leave his study before yesterday-morning, when we heard Pollo's car," he says.
"wait, go back. You say he came back after ten minutes? But we went straight to the club and that's a thirty-minute drive, we never turned back." I say, a bit confused.
"he said he forgot something, went into his study, came back out and left," Alex repeats.
"didn't come home for three hours? That's impossible. He was with me from 10PM until well after 3AM," Dio says, also confused.
"two days ago he came over to my house in the afternoon, saying he wanted to borrow some of my books," Mina says, frowning at her timeline.
The others all start comparing timelines and everyone comes to the same conclusion.
"there are two H's'."
"actually, I'm starting to think H isn't the only one with a doppelgänger," I say.
I can't believe that now I'm the one coming up with the conspiracy theories, but whatever.
In for a penny, in for a pound, right?.
"what do you mean?" Paolo asks.
"well, the real H wouldn't take me out to a club and then just leave for five freakin' hours without telling me anything about where he's going or why or when he'll be back," I say. "and the one who came to the club with me was definitely the real one. So I'm guessing he left someone a message telling me what's what, right? And he's not stupid enough to leave an important message like that with the angry bartender who never made any secret of the fact that he can't stand me and would probably flat-out refuse to give me the message, so who did he tell? Because nobody told me anything. I was at the club until morning with Pollo and I never found out what had happened to H," I say, looking at Dio, as he was the one with him at the time.
Dio doesn't answer at first, but just stares at me, his face a mask of pure dread.
"he told Pollo," he eventually says softly.
I look at Paolo, but he just looks confused.
"guess we need to make a timeline for Pollo as well," I say, going right ahead writing down the times Pollo was with me.
I don't actually know which Pollo is the real one, so I can't be sure if the one I was with was real or not, but whatever.
And guess what?
The timelines for Pollo overlap as well.
Not only that, but when Mina suggested we make a timeline for everyone in the room, we found out that H and Pollo aren't the only ones with doppelgängers.
Mina has one, Dio has one, Alex – Pollo's brother, not my son – has one, Diana has one and for some bizarre reason, even I have one.
Turns out the reason Dio was so confused and amused when I came in asking him about H was because he'd seen me in the club twice before, but I never actually talked to him.
He'd convinced himself I'd just gone there intending to ask about H, but then lost my nerve and left again.
And only on the third try did I finally gather enough courage to actually ask about him.
"I have a doppelgänger? But why? I'm nobody. What reason could there possibly be for someone to pretend to be me?" I ask.
Juno laughs. "my dear, you are far from 'nobody'," she says, looking down at Liz, who is sleeping in her arms, with a look of adoration.
"you are, at the moment, Hermes' favored girl, and possibly Pollo's, too. On top of that, you are the mother of Elizabeth, who is Hermes' daughter, which makes you a member of our family."
I laugh.
"well, thanks for the confidence-boost, but that's not what I meant. In the 'greater scheme of things' I am nobody. Yeah, I'm Elizabeth's mother and those two's 'favored girl', whatever that means, but I wasn't anything when this started. My doppelgänger has been here for two weeks, according to your timelines. She never actually conversed with any of you, but Dio saw her in the goddess central twice while I was in another country. Back then the only people who even knew of Liz' existence were me, my mother and Alex – my son, not this guy – and more or less my father, and I hadn't even met Pollo yet at that time. Hermes probably never thought about me, let alone talk about me enough to warrant someone taking on my appearance to get to him," I say. "at the time my doppelgänger was 'created' or whatever, in the eyes of everyone here, I was nobody."
"that is not entirely true," Dio says, seeming confused and deep in thought.
That seems to be everyone's favored state of mind today.
"he did talk about you. A lot. He didn't know about Liz at the time and he didn't tell us your name or what you looked like, but he did talk a great deal about 'his precious winter-girl'," he says, making me smile happily before snapping myself back to attention.
"to you?" I ask.
"to everyone. You made quite the impression on the kid," Jove says, smiling kindly.
He looks scary, but in a 'get off my lawn, you stupid kids', grandfatherly kind of way, which is kind of endearing.
"he's right. If I had to hear one more story about Hermes' 'winter-girl',..." Alex says, making a strangulation-gesture with his hands.
"we get it, she was pretty and nice and awesome and fun. And now she's gone, get over it," Diana says exasperatedly, as if H is standing right here telling her yet another story about his winter-girl.
Of course I'm just sitting here smiling like an idiot, feeling happier than I've felt in a long time.
Everyone laughs when they notice it and of course my face turns beet-red, but I'm still happy.
"but..." I say when my happy feeling finally fades enough for the stress of the day to come knocking at my door again.
"how did this person know my face? She obviously didn't know my name or anything like that, since she would've found out about me the same way you guys did. H probably talked about 'his winter-girl' to the doppelgängers, thinking they were you guys and the doppelgängers decided to use me to their full advantage, probably by creating a doppelgänger of me and having her pretend to be me to get to H and through him – for whatever reason – to you guys, right? But without knowing my name – since H only ever talked about 'his winter-girl' and not about 'Leila Virou, 22 years old, born and raised... – so my doppelgänger couldn't really come 'back' into his life, since she didn't have enough information about me to convince him she was me. But if she didn't even know my name, because H never told anyone my name, how the hell did she know my face?" I ask.
"well, that's easy. She could've just followed Hermes any one of the times he went to America to check up on you," Jove says and then his eyes go big, as if he can't believe he just said that.
"huh?" I ask, feeling a throbbing pain starting in the back of my head.
"uh...well...I'm gonna go make us some tea," Jove says, escaping to the kitchen before I can question him about that remark.
"I went to America several times," H admits, walking into the living room just as Jove exits.
"I didn't know about Liz, of course. Well, I knew there was a baby in your family, but I always figured she was your sister, not our daughter," he explains, taking Elizabeth from his mother's arms and coming to sit down on the armrest of the two-seater next to me, Elizabeth opening her eyes and mumbling for a bit before falling right back to sleep.
"the first time I went to check up on you I did notice you seemed a little...bigger than I remembered, but I figured you'd just put on some weight. Girls do that sometimes after a break-up, right? After that I couldn't go for a while because of my work, so the next time I saw you Liz had already been born and I figured I'd just missed your mother's pregnancy, not yours."
"you were stalking me?" I ask incredulously.
He just smiles sheepishly and shrugs.
"well, I figured you probably didn't want me in your life, since you didn't give me your contact-information before you left, but I couldn't help wanting to see you again, so I just watched you from afar. I didn't really stalk you, I just went to check up on you, to make sure you were happy and healthy, a time or two,...or six," he admits.
"you were in my town six times and you never came to say hi? Do you have any idea the stuff I had to go through to gather enough money to come here so I could tell you about Liz? Oh, wait, yes, you do, 'cause I freakin' told you. If you had just come over with some lame excuse about 'being in the neighborhood for whatever reason', you could've saved me so much time and money," I say, pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to calm myself down as the throbbing pain slowly morphs into a full-blown migraine-attack.
"do you know how many cookies I sold for this? How many fake tears I had to cry? Do you have any idea how hard it is to fake crying that often?" Alex asks, sounding almost as upset as I am, making me laugh and lightening my mood a bit.
"I washed cars! I cleaned up other people's rooms! I don't even clean up my own room, but I cleaned up other people's rooms!" He throws his hands in the air in an exasperated gesture, making me laugh again.
"seriously though, the reason I didn't give you my contact-information is because I figured I'd probably never see you again anyway, considering we live so many miles apart. I thought it'd be easier if we had a clean break," I say, shrugging.
H smiles down at me and strokes my cheek, showing me that half-smile that tells me that this is the real one, if the tightening in my chest is any indication.
He leans down and kisses me softly and I melt into a puddle.
Even though I found him three days ago, the whole deal with Elizabeth being his daughter and then the doppelgänger-stuff made it so that we never did get to rekindle the old flame like I'd wanted to.
"happy ending?" Alex asks when H lets me go and lazily runs his fingers over my neck and shoulder, sending shivers down my spine.
"hey, bro?" Pollo asks and H looks at him, but his fingers never leave my skin.
"I know she's your 'precious winter-girl' and all, but do you mind sharing her with me? I've come to like her too, you know," Pollo says.
H thinks about that for a second and then looks at me questioningly.
I'd answer his unspoken question if I wasn't too busy laughing my ass off at Alex, who is now sitting on the floor at my feet, his hands over his ears, going 'ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew' non-stop.
Instead of saying anything I just reach behind me to grab Pollo's hand.
H looks at our intertwined fingers and then smiles widely. "our precious winter-girl," he says dreamily, running his fingers over my face again as Pollo runs his fingers over my arm, sending twice the shivers down my spine.
This must be what heaven feels like.
