InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "A lot can change in a week."

Allison Hargreeves Heard a Rumor (changingreality) wrote in chances_rpg,
@ 2021-12-24 22:10:00

Entry tags:

!gamewide plot (generic), ~!game plot: christmas ghosts, ~ex: umbrella academy allison hargreeves

Who: Allison Hargreeves and Raymond Chestnut
What: Just chatting with your not-dead-but-kind-of alternate dimension husband
When: Christmas Eve
Where: Allison's room
Warnings: Some feels up in this joint?
[[Thank you to Tory for playing Ray!]]

Allison was slowly adjusting. Not only to life in a whole other dimension with half of her family missing, not only to life with a brother who had been dead over half of her life now being here and very alive, but also to the year 2023. It had taken her enough time to adjust to living in the 1960s. She'd been fully prepared to put that life behind her to return to 2018, only to end up here. She couldn't pretend that was something she was ready for.

But she was working on it. Slowly meeting people, helping Klaus to take care of Ben, getting a pretty incredible job if she did say so herself. Putting the past - literally - behind her was going to take time and healing. And, of course, letting go of Ray. That part was a little easier said than done.

If she was being honest with herself, she'd never really loved Patrick. Patrick had been a part of her power hungry rise to the top. They'd looked great together, he'd fit into the world she wanted to build for herself, and she'd chosen him. But while she loved Claire more than anything in the world, she really hadn't missed Patrick when he'd filed for divorce. Ray was different. She'd had no powers when she met him. She meant what she'd told Klaus - everything she had in 1961, she'd earned for herself. Her job, her friends, and him. All of it she'd had to do with no voice which meant no rumor. No money, the Hargreeves name meant nothing. It had all been her. And she'd been proud of it. Obviously she knew returning to 2018 was the right thing to do.

That didn't make it easier.

She slipped into her room after telling the boys goodnight and collapsed on the bed, exhausted. She was trying really hard not to think of Claire, spending Christmas without her mother. As much as she wanted the best for the little girls here, she wished she was home, wrapping gifts for her own baby girl. Instead, she reached under the bed to grab the small stack of gifts she had for Klaus and Ben in order to start wrapping them. But when she came back up, she almost fell flat on her face. "Oh, no no no. I'm not losing my mind, not now."

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chances_npc
2021-12-25 04:31 am UTC (link)

Raymond Chestnut's hand was big and warm and real as it wrapped around her shoulder to steady her. "Whoa there, sweetheart. I'm pretty sure you're not the one losing their mind here."

All it took was one look around the room to tell him he'd left the 1960s well behind. Even so, he still managed to give his wife a dazed smile. She was just as beautiful as their wedding photo—more so, because she was real and right in front of him. It took everything in his power not to grab her and kiss her right there, but the shock and fear in her eyes kept him at arm's length.

"Doesn't take a genius to see this is the future, so unless I've gotten really good at lucid dreaming, I'm thinking this might just be real. Feels real, at any rate." His hand drifted away from her shoulder to lightly touch the side of her neck and then her cheek. The smile tugging at the edge of his mouth blossomed into a huge grin. "Love the hair, darlin'."

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changingreality
2021-12-25 04:39 am UTC (link)

Allison blinked several times, but he was still right there in front of her. And that touch was real. Sure, she'd dreamed it enough to imagine it, but she could feel him. His hand was as solid as the first time he'd almost shyly taken hers.

"It's... It's definitely the future. It's the future for me, too." None of the other new arrivals showed up like this. Which meant... "You're not really here, are you?" Would the others even be able to see him? Would he remember Klaus? God, she wanted Ben to meet him, too. She wanted to sit him down for coffee and Christmas cookies and chat like they used to about everything and nothing and... "I'd just gotten used to you not being there all the time and now you're here. How?"

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chances_npc
2021-12-25 04:46 am UTC (link)

He wasn't willing to stop touching her, so his hand moved back to her shoulder and then down her arm to take her hand, all while Ray patted his hand down his suit lapel and chuckled. "I feel real enough. Just like you. Couldn't tell you how, except that I was just leaving the house to go to a meeting, briefcase in hand and hat on my head, and then I was in this room between one blink and the next. But I saw you first thing, and I knew I'd be all right."

Ray looked around her room again, but he didn't see anything in it that really screamed Allison. "Is this the Academy you told me about? The Umbrella one? You didn't make it back to 2018?"

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changingreality
2021-12-25 04:56 am UTC (link)

She was smiling, even though she was fighting tears. He felt real enough. Her hand gripped his as if she was going to lose him in any moment. "No. We're not sure what this is. It's a different...dimension, I guess? They don't know how we got here. We were on our way back to 2018 and I ended up here. Most of the others didn't come through."

There was so much she wanted to say. Apologize for basically lying to him for years. Beg him not to leave. Apologize for leaving all over again. "You look way too good to be hanging around this time period. We're all going to look like total slobs to you."

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chances_npc
2021-12-25 05:11 am UTC (link)

Confusion clouded his face for a moment, but it cleared after he set aside the idea for the all-encompassing truth that he had Allison back in his life for one more second than he thought he'd ever have. "Guess none of that matters," he said, mostly to himself, and then shifted their hands so their fingers were tangled up in one another and palm to palm. "Only thing that matters to me is this right here."

He laughed, one of those startled ones that turn big and loud in no time flat. "Well, you can take that one up with my wife. She's the one to blame for my devastating fashion sense."

Another laugh, this one quieter as Ray searched her face. "You have no idea how many feelings I've cycled through since I got your letter. How angry I was, how sad. Everyone asked where you went, but I didn't know what to tell them, so I didn't say anything. People stopped asking after a while, assumed the worst."

He took in a shuddering breath, eyes brimming with tears. "And, God help me, Allison, I let them. It was mean and it was selfish, and I never should have let it get that far, but I was so hurt. I thought if I let our friends say these terrible things about you, that somehow it would hurt you too, but all it did was make the pain even worse. Because you're still the love of my life, sweetheart, and you have no idea how much I hate that you left, but I understood—in time. They were your family. Of course you had to go after 'em. It's just... I miss you every damn day."

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changingreality
2021-12-29 04:28 pm UTC (link)

She was no longer fighting the tears now. They were flowing freely. She'd known. Of course she'd known that when she walked out of his life to follow her family back to the 21st century that he would be hurt and confused and angry. And lonely. God, the last thing she'd wanted was for him to ever be alone.

Her free hand reached up, cupping his cheek. If she didn't know better, she'd swear he was really here and she was getting a second chance. A part of her, a deep down part, swore she wouldn't mess up this time. But Allison already knew she would. It was who she was.

"It's what you should have done. Let me be the villain. I walked out, I left you, the weird mute who just showed up in town one day, who would have questioned it?" It wouldn't be the first time she'd been the bad guy in her marriage. Maybe that's who she was meant to be. That was something she'd have to get used to, probably. Every Hargreeves kid had their curse, right?

"You're my family, too. And it isn't fair that I had to choose between you. I needed to go back. We weren't meant to be there, we were messing with things we didn't understand. My brother...well, one of them...he was going to get us into trouble sooner or later." And they had all been followed, would probably always be followed. It wasn't right of her to bring that to Ray's doorstep and she knew it. He'd end up dead because of her, and then what?

Which was a terrifying thought. Back home, back in 2018... Maybe she shouldn't go back to Claire, either. Maybe she was better with Patrick. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I never... If I'd known there was a way out, I wouldn't have..." Well, now she was just rambling at him. A very attractive quality, really.

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chances_npc
2021-12-30 12:17 am UTC (link)

This was all the things they should have been able to say to one another before she left. All the things no letter could ever contain, no matter how many pages. Ray pulled at her hand so they could sit—well, more so he could sit her across his lap, like they used to do on lazy nights when the world didn't feel like it was their responsibility to change or fix.

Reaching up, he brushed at her tears, more sorry than anything to have been part of the reason they were there while also feeling this peculiar kind of vindication that she did feel so bad. But that feeling was small and petty, and he put it away before it could gain traction in his head. He leaned in and tenderly kissed her cheeks and forehead and the very corner of her mouth. Some other-sense told him this wasn't a forever gig, so he let himself have this one moment. "Hey, hey, hey," he crooned softly, arm wrapped around her, "I think we've said enough 'I'm sorry's, don't you? Let me just sit here a moment with my beautiful wife, huh?"

But something nagged at his brain, making laugh quietly as he took in Allison's face with both rapture and open curiosity. "Was it Klaus or the big fella? The one who had a mind to start trouble. Or does that describe all of 'em? I guess it really doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. You think that's what brought you here? To the wrong place and time? Where are we, anyway? Air doesn't much feel like Texas."

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