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Tattletale was twenty-five when she had her first heart-attack.
It was an early morning like any other: furiously typing at her desk until she passed out from the exhaustion and lack of stimulants. She couldn’t remember what had happened after she noticed the sharp pain in her chest, and the shallow breathing and dizziness which made her head feel like a balloon only tenuously attached to her body. Fueled by panic, she knew that she had dragged herself over to Antares’ door, and passed out after slamming into it with her right shoulder, still smarting underneath the thin hospital blanket.
Victoria'd figured out the rest from there, apparently.
Tattletale woke up feeling like Death, and didn’t listen when the doctors tried to explain a bunch of bullshit she already knew. Impossibly high blood pressure for a woman of her age bracket, she must have inherited a congenital heart condition from her family, we’re going to have to monitor you for a few days—etc. etc.
Antares and Aiden. Outside the door. Waiting for you.
“No shit!” Tattletale bitched at her Shard through the feeding tubes which did their best to block her mouth.
Worried. Angry. Want you to be safe.
Lisa rolled her eyes, wishing she had a ballpoint pen to stab her Shard through the neck with.
Another knock came at the door.
“Just open the door already! It’s not like you’re not going to leave me alone otherwise,” Tattletale said, moodily, crossing her arms as they entered through the door.
To her mild surprise, it was Victoria who looked more concerned than Aiden. Her boy’s face had smoothed itself into an expressionless mask, just as she had taught him to—while Victoria’s face looked so emotionally constipated that Tattletale was worried she might actually shit a brick in front of them.
Aiden found you first. The bird was tracking your movements. Woke Antares up. Flew together to the hospital. Imp and the Tenders aren’t too far behind.
“So!” Tattletale said with mocking brightness in her voice. “I’m a heart attack survivor now. Yip-fuckin’-hee!”
The exotic bird on Aiden’s shoulder—black and tall—swiveled its head to stare directly at her.
“Lisa,” said Aiden, cutting her off midway through pumping her fist in the air. “We’re worried about you.”
“And who is exactly the we in this sentence, if I may ask?”
“All of us,” Victoria said bluntly, strands of perfectly golden hair fluttering behind her. “The Undersiders. Breakthrough. Even Foil and Parian called to see if you were okay.”
“How charming that they remembered little old Tats’,” Tattletale laughed, before coughing as she felt the feeding tube accidentally hit something deep in her throat. “If it wasn’t for the millions of dollars that I was wiring them to rebuild Needle Town, I would think they’d all forgotten about me!”
“Cut it out with the verbal acrobatics, Mom,” Aiden said, voice strained. “It’s not going to work on me or Vic. We can see right through you.”
Has been thinking of you as his parent for years. Unsure of what else to call you in this situation. Feels guilty for pulling it out, all of a sudden.
Victoria tightened the grip on Aiden’s shoulder as Tattletale shifted in her hospital bed to get a better look at him. It hadn’t escaped her notice that a flock of black birds had taken up residence on the tree outside her window, all of their eyes fixed onto her.
“And what do you see, Aiden?”
“I see a person trying her best to hold the weight of the world on her shoulders,” Aiden said, earnestly. “Crumbling under the pressure like the titan Atlas.”
Antares coached him on what to say. Relying on cliche to get the point across.
“Greek mythology references!” She exclaimed condescendingly. “Aisha and the Tenders must really be rubbing off on you, huh?”
“And—!” Aiden said, cutting her off before she could continue. “I see someone who keeps everyone at an arm’s distance, especially the people she cares most about. Because she can’t stand the thought of us getting hurt or killed while we’re under your watch.”
Tattletale had to fight to keep the easy smile on her face. She would have some words for Antares later.
“What else, Aiden?”
Her boy’s facade cracked for just a millisecond, long enough for the bird to shake its head, annoyed.
“I see…” Aiden said. “I see the woman who raised me because Taylor dropped me off in your lap and disappeared! I see the person who I think of as my Mom in so much pain and I don’t know how to help her because she keeps on saying that she’s fine, even though she’s not!”
The birds outside started to caw so loudly they rattled the glass.
The corners of Tattletale’s mouth turned inwards.
“You may be my protege, Aiden, but that doesn’t mean I’m your mother,” Tattletale replied emotionlessly. “That’s not the relationship we agreed upon.”
Tattletale saw Victoria’s fist clench.
She’s about to punch you through a wall.
“It’s not the relationship you wanted, but it’s the one you got, Tats,” Antares said, steaming. “Now take some goddamn responsibility, for once in your life!”
Tattletale sat up at that, anger rushing like lava through her veins.
“No!” Tattletale yelled. “I am not going to sit here and be lectured about motherhood by Victoria ‘Mommy Issues’ Dallon, of all people! Either shut up, or leave me alone so I can speak to Aiden in private.”
“And let you twist the situation until he leaves you alone again?” Antares asked furiously. “Here is your son, for all intents and purposes, spilling his guts out for you, and you can’t even look him in the eye?”
Aiden asked for Victoria to be here. He’s more afraid of you than he is of her.
Tattletale felt the wind go out of her sails at that revelation from her Shard, slumping back into the bed.
“What more do you want from me, Aiden?” Tattletale asked, quietly and with the slightest crack in her voice. “I don’t have anything more to give you.”
“I want you not to work yourself into an early grave for one! I want you to tell us if you’re stressed or in pain!” Aiden snapped.
“You know I can’t promise that.”
“Okay!” Aiden cried, getting up in her face as close as he dared. “Then give me Lisa back. She wouldn’t treat me like this!”
Tattletale paused, feeling a tear well up in her eyes. She rubbed it away, but it came back, as quick as a spider crawling up from the wall.
“Huh,” Tattletale said. “That’s strange.”
A sob bubbled out her throat. And another one, like butterflies trying to escape her stomach.
“I love you, Lisa,” Aiden whispered, throwing his fragile arms around her. “Please don’t do that again, for the love of God.”
In those sad and hopeful eyes, and in the hidden smile you could only see when you held him close, Lisa could see the face of Taylor in his.
And for the first time in Lisa’s life, she felt her heart hurting in her chest.