Don't Own AHS
A/N: Hi, everyone! Long time no update! First off, I want to apologize for my absence. I'm not going to let these stories die off but I have been busy out in life and have been dealing with some major writer's block so I've neglected any updates. However, seeing your messages over the last few days have inspired me to update some stuff, so enjoy! :)
.
EIGHTEEN
Share With Me the Sun
.
The days turned into weeks and the storm in Lana's mind slowly came to a halt. There was still a heavy haze but for the most part, the darkest clouds were disintegrating into peace and acceptance.
It was warm out that day, Oliver had made lemonade. He had cracked a joke about getting the recipe from a little girl in one of the foster homes he had lived in as a child for a little while. Lana always saddened when she remembered Oliver was an orphan. He had mentioned it a couple of times to her but she hadn't fully asked. Her mind always wandered to her own family and how she could not remember them either.
But on that day Lana sat on the porch with her lemonade in hand and watched as Oliver tended the garden. Her eyes wandered up and down his strong masculine arms, curiosity filling her from the stomach to the tip of her fingers. She knew that once upon a time she had loved women but in those days, she found herself in a mixture of confusion.
She loved women, yes. She could still feel it in her gut when those commercials came on the television of women cooking and tending to their husbands. She studied their bright smiles and their slim hands. There was something so alluring about a woman and her soft skin. Lana could still dream of their scent and the way their hips moved. It was such an odd thing to remember from her past and yet, the scent of the man in her life was just as tantalizing. It was warm, strong like bark and earth and yet ever so comforting.
Sometimes before she drifted off to sleep, Oliver's lingering cologne was the last thing she smelled before she began to dream.
It started off with his scent, then with the warmth of his skin and the safety of his voice. She felt it could repel all evil because to Lana, Oliver had been her savior. He had rescued her from the hells of an asylum and had given her life once more. He had helped her rise from the ashes like a phoenix slowly regaining its strength and for that Lana adored him. He was the only human being in her life. He was slowly teaching her what love was. Perhaps not in a romantic way but in a platonic way.
Oliver was always there to chase away the monsters and as the clouds dispersed, Lana wondered if she could live life without him.
Oliver stood to his feet and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked over at her and smiled. Lana returned the smile.
She didn't think she could.
"Sitting pretty there." He joked coming up to the porch.
Lana chuckled softly, "Well, there's not much to do when you insist on doing the work yourself." She offered him her cup of lemonade and he took it without a second thought, drinking from it as if they shared everything.
"I know but I don't want you exhausting yourself in this heat." He handed the half finished cup back to her. He then glanced down the street half expecting to see a car from Briarcliff roll down the street still in search of the missing woman. However, it was clear by now that they weren't going to come looking for her.
Briarcliff had a reputation of "losing" patients. It was one thing he had noted while he worked there.
"I'll be fine."
Oliver sighed, "Well, when you have your own garden again you'll be able to. For now, I can do the work."
A sense of panic ran through Lana, "My own garden?"
"Well, wouldn't you like to go back to your own life? You're doing much better." The words coming out of his mouth pained Oliver but he knew Lana wasn't his to keep. She wasn't a little stray he had bottle fed back to health.
Lana's eyes fell to the walkway beneath their feet. "Then who will kill all the spiders?" She joked, trying not to let the panic show in her voice.
Oliver chuckled, "Lana Winters isn't afraid of spiders or monsters."
Lana forced a smile.
Perhaps she still was.
Oliver went out for the evening. He said he was going to meet some old colleagues about possibly opening a new practice. Lana stayed behind, she sat at the window and watched the clouds begin to form in the sky in such an odd manner when it had just been terribly hot the last few days. Life made just a little bit more sense every day. Lana felt less like a child and more like a woman and that scared her.
In the back of her mind she tried to remember her old life. The name of her street and the numbers that made her address. She tried to recall the color of her carpet or if perhaps she had wooden floors but nothing came back clearly. What was clear to Lana was that she would have to start fresh.
She glanced over her shoulder and glanced over Oliver's home. It looked different than the night she had arrived. Her belongings were now sprinkled throughout the place making it "their" home and not just "his" home. Lana knew she didn't want to leave. She had found a home in Oliver. The feeling inside the pit of her stomach was undeniable.
When Oliver returned home he found Lana sitting on the porch smoking one of his cigarettes. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn the old Lana Winters was sitting there waiting for him.
"Hi."
She looked up at him with those honey brown eyes and gave him the softest smile he had ever seen on a person. She wasn't the old Lana Winters. That Lana had been lost to the walls of Briarcliff. Or so he believed. "Hi."
"Did you do well on your own?"
"It's getting better by the day." She admitted.
"That's good to hear."
Lana glanced over at Oliver's car in the driveway. "Are you tired?"
Oliver pondered for a short moment, "Can't say I am."
"Do you want to go for a drive?"
Oliver smiled.
They drove through the suburbs of Boston; the car shining under the street lamps. Lana looked out the rolled down window as Billie Holiday played on the radio.
"Living for you is easy living, it's easy to live when you're in love and I'm so in love, there's nothing in life but you-"
The loving melody calmed Lana and felt like she was in a life she had always been living. She watched the cookie cutter homes pass them one by one and wondered what living such a life was like. To get married, own a home and raise children.
"Did I ask you about marriage?" Lana asked.
"Marriage? What about it?"
"Do you want a wife?"
"Well, I did always think I would get married. I mean isn't that the way life goes?"
"Not for everyone."
"No, I suppose not."
"But do you want that? Marriage."
Oliver chuckled, "I swear we had this conversation already."
"I mean, I'm just saying that wouldn't another woman be jealous that you already have someone else in your home?" She turned to him, "In your bed?"
Oliver felt his face go hot and stuttered on his words. "Uh, well, I mean, you and I- we aren't. Well, you know."
"I'm in the way."
"No." Oliver said firmly stopping the car at a stop sign. "No." He glanced at her, "You are not in the way. Don't you say that."
"But...aren't I holding you back?"
Oliver continued the ride. "Lana, sometimes life sends you in different paths. Not every single one leads to marriage and a family. Sometimes it does but not in traditional ways. People, they meet under peculiar circumstances. You never know."
Lana smiled playfully at him, "Are you trying to propose to me, Dr. Thredson?"
Oliver was stunned but then chuckled. "If I did would you say, yes?"
Lana laughed. "You are easy to live with."
Oliver smiled, "Well, that's good to know."
Lana leaned back on her seat. "Do you think two people like us could be happy together?"
"Two people like us?"
"A lesbian who can't remember her past and the doctor who saved her."
"Well, I believe in the impossible."
She sighed, "I feel like I'm a piece of a puzzle put back in the wrong box…" She paused for a moment, watching the homes again, "But I feel like I only fit with you."
Oliver felt his heart pounce. "Lana. You belong in this world. You were just dealt the wrong hand. You were done wrong by those who you trusted."
She glanced at him with those eyes, "Would you do me wrong?"
Oliver met her gaze. "I don't think I ever could."
She smiled, "Thank you, doctor. I feel a lot better."
They rode in silence for a couple of miles and then Lana spoke, "Do you know where I used to live?"
Oliver frowned, "Why?"
She looked to him, "Can you take me?"
