Lethe Vita

Chapter 41: Montmartre

They hadn't made it back out to Maine.

There had been plans, several plans, none of which had come to fruition.

The latest hurdle had been a small cold Aria had picked up, which had leapt in its contagion over to Brenda.

Unsurprisingly, this had terrified Dylan, who had contacted Brenda's cardiologist perhaps one too many a time to ensure Brenda's cold was not detrimental to her impending heart transplant.

A transplant which would have moved along speedily, had Brenda not prevented Dylan from pulling strings he surmised were essential to quicken the process.

Brenda had insisted it would not be fair to the patients who had been waiting longer if she was moved up because of Dylan's money.

Their money, Dylan had corrected, but had abided by his wife's wishes nonetheless.

An ethical choice he regretted every time he sat with Brenda, one of them holding Aria as they listened to the cardiologist detail Brenda's lack of progress.

Clare's team had better news; the clinical trial remained on track, and Brenda's mind continued to strengthen.

Promises weren't made for a full recovery. Brenda's memories still came in bits, minuscule enough that Dylan either filled in the blanks or got Brandon to do so.

Brenda's recent one about Donna had been such in its specificity that it had thrown them all for a loop, until Donna confirmed that she did, indeed, prefer popcorn with ice-cream.

Andrea said that had she been in the house when Brenda had verbalized her memory, Andrea could have confirmed that fact for Dylan and Brandon.
Donna had been delighted to learn she had been the next person Brenda had remembered, albeit with the smallest of memories.

Dylan thought it may have been better for Brenda to talk more regularly with Valerie, which was itself a struggle.

He had kept in constant contact with David, as had Brenda; mostly to monitor David's own health, whilst also checking in on Valerie's mental state.

"Some days are better than others," David had sighed. Dylan's glance had flicked to Brenda bathing Aria as, Dylan imagined, across the planet, David's eyeline had settled on Valerie. "It was a lot, man," David had continued. "Val's been through a lot this year. I swore up and down and all around that I wouldn't abandon her, and when she needed me the most, where was I?"

"You were fighting to get back to her," Dylan had said. "That wasn't abandonment. You can't fault yourself for that."

"Doesn't mean Val doesn't secretly think of it as abandonment," said David. "And just when I'd gotten her full trust. Just when she'd finally decided we were good, that we were really fucking great, then she thought I was dead. You all thought I was dead. Val thought it enough that she - she," David's strangled gasp caused Dylan's ponderance over whether his and Brenda's concerns about Valerie had been correct, "that she'd stopped looking. She was hurt enough by it that she breaks up with me as soon as I get back. And man, when I found her; she – God, I can't even bring myself to think about it."

That told Dylan all he needed to know, without saying anything.

"Can our relationship really recover after everything?" asked David.