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Lindsey loves her husband, she really does. It's pretty evident to almost anyone who's known her before she met Gerard – and some even after, like Frank and Jamia and Ray and Christa. On Projekt Revolution, she'd write little sayings on her arms as part of a little thing her and Gerard did, sort of like insanely public flirting, and stand in front of a mirror admiring her arm or her neck and smiling kind of a lot.
Jimmy used to poke fun at her for it, but Lindsey always pointed out he had absolutely no leg to stand on, what with what went on when Chantal was around.
The fact is that she would never do anything that would impede upon her marriage with Gerard. She loves him wholeheartedly and nothing could ever change that. He is her Gerard, the one who wakes up next to her in the morning and will cuddle with her while talking about the zombie apocalypse at nine in the morning, when it's too early to wake up. The one who will read the newspaper at the kitchenette while Lindsey starts the coffee, but who will put down anything for her if she asks. The one who will draw with her in their studio for hours upon hours and then talk about what worked for them, what they're thinking about starting, and what they're scrapping. The one who understands her the best, and she loves him even more for that.
Lindsey's brain constantly goes Gerard Gerard Gerard Gerard until one day it doesn't.
***
It's when she and Gerard are still dating, sort of. It's the end of Projekt Revolution and they'd decided together that they were going to get married before the tour officially ended, fuck what everyone else would think, they were ready. Gerard insisted that Lindsey meet his mother and his brother and his brother's wife before then, and Lindsey had no objections.
Mikey and Alicia and Donna all came out to the show, and Lindsey was glad that they all smiled at her and hugged her without question. It wasn't so awkward meeting the addition to her family as she thought it might have been; she had been imagining the stereotypical brigade of inane questioning coming from Donna and appraising looks from Mikey. She… hadn't really expected anything of Alicia.
Oh, how wrong she was.
Alicia was the first to smile brightly at her, cheer, "Lindsey!" and give her a hug so tight she thought her ribcage would implode. It brought a ridiculous and a bit of a nervous smile to her face.
Gerard tuts good-naturedly. "'Licia, you better not crush my girlfriend."
"I'm not going to, I'm just giving her a friendly hug, see?" Alicia hugs a little weaker than before, then laughs. "There's no crushing going on here."
Lindsey, a little unsure of what to say, just stands there with a sheepish smile and maybe a bit more redness to her cheeks. Gerard notices and grabs her hand, pulling her more toward his mother.
"Mom, Mikey, this is Lindsey. And Linds, this is my brother Mikey and my mom, Donna." Gerard smiles, holding onto her hip.
"Hugs for everyone?" Lindsey asks, moving toward Donna with her arms a tad outstretched.
"Of course," Donna replies, hugging her tightly – though not as bone-breaking as Alicia did – and Mikey does the same, but even weaker.
"Sorry," Mikey apologizes as he steps away from their embrace and catches Alicia's hand in his own. "I don't have the upper-body strength of my wife."
Lindsey thinks, oh.
After the meeting, she and Gerard are walking through the parking lot back to the buses. Lindsey's brain is whirring Gerard family mother Gerard Gerard love family brother sister Alicia Alicia Alicia Alicia Alicia.
When she falls asleep that night, she dreams of tattoos and tanned skin, a wicked smile and a huge hug.
Alicia?
***
Later, years after Lindsey's been married, she pulls her hair up into a messy bun and applies some darker than usual lipstick. She checks her smile in the bathroom mirror and grabs her keys from the counter, figuring out the schedules in her head. Gerard had gone to dinner with Scott Allie about a half hour ago, and they were heading to this old diner they both love that's about forty-five minutes away. Adding in the time spent for them to be eating and talking, Lindsey assumes she'll have about two hours, to be on the safe side.
Driving to her sister-in-law's house isn't as terrifying as it was when it first happened. Alicia had propositioned her, telling her that she's been dreaming of Lindsey, and she knows the feeling is mutual. Alicia points out that it's not wrong to do this, because they both still love their respective Way brothers as much as they ever did. That Mikey's perfectly fine with things, and will keep it a secret until Lindsey deems the time acceptable to inform Gerard; that Gerard won't even mind, because of what he has going on with Frank, what he's always had going on with Frank, everything's only fair.
Lindsey sort of feels like she's in a soap opera, what with all the interweaving love stories and the scandalous affairs. But it's not a soap opera, really; it's just them, their life, their love. It works for them and makes them happy; to hell with anyone who doesn't agree.
Lindsey opens the door to Alicia's house and steps inside, toeing off her shoes on the doormat and waltzing into the kitchen, lured by the smell of dinner.
"Hey baby," Alicia greets with a warm smile, grabbing the back of Lindsey's neck and kissing her breathless. Lindsey's brain is a little over stimulated, food yum Alicia touch kiss Alicia lipstick tongues Alicia Alicia but somewhere in the back of her mind, always, there's a voice going, Gerard Gerard Gerard.