#thcwidow

            He was furious, maybe more than he had been in his entire life. Everything he thought he knew was a lie, he didn’t even know what to believe anymore. There was a whole host of emotions coursing through him, ones he didn’t even understand. Anger was the easiest to focus on. Anger at least made sense, he understood it.

            Even with his memories coming back in bits and pieces, something had still felt off about it all, like there was something missing. Now he knew what that something was. Now it all made sense. That one missing piece, his mind had finally filled it in. Unfortunately, with that clarity came even more questions.

            It didn’t take him long to find her, once he had gone through the trouble of getting inside. That had been the hard part. Having joined Pilgrim, he wasn’t exactly welcome there. Now he was questioning even that though.

It was the kind of conversation that could have easily turned into a heated argument- and that was exactly what happened. Lydia understood completely where Minerva was coming from, and maybe she should have tried a little harder not to get frustrated. Sometimes it was hard though.

Finally Lydia took a small minute to gather herself, letting the irritation go. It was coming from a place of caring, and anger wouldn’t do any good.

“You’re going to have to trust someone sometime, Minerva” she said, her voice much more gentle this time, all signs of anger gone.

She was used to being taken along on some of her husband’s business trips, but it seemed it wasn’t something Minerva was used to. Quinn had insisted on giving them their own suite, to ‘not bore them with all the business talk’ he had said, but she knew that wasn’t the truth, that he just wanted them out of the way and keep them from overhearing anything they shouldn’t. Lydia hadn’t complained. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

They had planned to go out for a nice dinner while there husbands met with some other business partners. Lydia had been ready for some time, but Minerva had yet to emerge from her room. The door was cracked open, and when Lydia went to check on her, she was shocked by what she saw. She managed to hold in a gasp, but one hand slowly covered her mouth.

She had never seen so many bruises on one person all at the same time. It shed a lot more light on some of the things Minerva had told her, some of the things she had given vague and completely unsatisfying explanations to. Everything was so much more clear now. She had a feeling Minerva would prefer if she said nothing and left, but she wasn’t going to keep watching her struggle to apply some ointment from a small tub in her hand to the cut on her back that she seemed to be struggling to reach.

Moving closer, Lydia was gentle as she carefully took the small tub from the younger woman. “Let me help” she said softly. That was all she said. She wasn’t going to ask questions. She didn’t need to. And an interrogation probably wasn’t what Minerva needed right now. She left it at a simple offer to help, but letting Minerva decide whether to accept it or not.

It wasn’t hard for her to tell when something was on Minerva’s mind, and it was obvious to Lydia that something had been bothering her for a while now. Settled comfortably under the blankets next to the young woman, Lydia gently reached out, placing a hand on her arm to get her attention and pull her out of her thoughts. She was pretty sure she knew what was on Minerva’s mind, she was more observant than she sometimes let on.

“Are you ok?” she asked quietly. “Talk to me, Minerva. I know something is bothering you.” She would give Minerva the chance to divulge the information first before bringing up what she already knew. Maybe it would be better that way, but in the ended, it was clearly something that needed to be acknowledged and talked about. She could practically feel the conflict and guilt radiating off of the younger woman, and the last thing she wanted was for her to be feeling like that. They needed to get everything out in the open, Minerva needed to know that whatever she was feeling, it was ok. She moved her hand to the young woman’s cheek, tenderly caressing her skin. “Talk to me...”

“Word has it you’ve had a little training before.” That was an understatement, by the sounds of it. He had seen the girl watching him training the clippers on multiple occasions, and her fascination hadn’t escaped him, maybe there was a little longing in her gaze too, like it was something she missed.

“What do you say we get you a little more training?” She was quite small for her age, maybe a little underfed (which he had come to expect with Chau’s cogs)-- she didn’t look like she could do much damage at all. But looks could be deceiving. “If you’re up to it, that is.”