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"YES"
Victoria exclaimed, seeing that today Glam allowed the family to have bacon with breakfast. Glam smiled at the easy excitement. Dee simply rolled his eyes at her, then put his phone down to pick at the food on his plate.
"Hi!" Heavy greeted, rushing downstairs later than everyone else. He sat at the table as Glam slid him a plate. Heavy's enthusiasm for food must have come from his mother as he messily devoured the food.
Glam enjoyed this life: the warmth, the love, the joy that spread across each member (well, apart from Dee, but that's just his personality so Glam doesn't mind). Everything was just as it should've been his whole life. Glam smiled wider nowadays, since now he has such a reason to. Nothing could ruin this life he's built for himself.
Then, a sharp ring of the doorbell interrupts his thoughts.
"I'll answer" Glam offers, untieing his apron and draping it over the back of a chair. As the rest of the family eat breakfast, and Vicky speaks with her mouth open, Glam opens the door. His smile holds in the face of her.
Lydia.
"Lydia, I haven't seen you since the will reading" he says, voice dripping with false sweetness.
"Yes... well, turns out I don't have a need for everything that father left, so I'll give you this" she shrugs smugly, a grin on her face, "out of the kindness of my heart". Lydia roughly pushes a box into Glam's arms. The box was long yet thin: rectangular. It was simply a brown cardboard box, slightly longer than a foot.
"Thank you" Glam replies simply.
A beat passes.
"Won't you open it?" Lydia requests, a twitch in the corner of her lips.
"No" Glam states simply, tone cheery as ever.
"Open it."
"No."
"Sebastian-"
"That's not my name, Lydia" Glam cuts her off, tone sharper than before, less forgiving.
"Oh- whatever! I won't spend another second with you... rabble!" Lydia exclaims, walking away. She was obviously trying to hide a mix of irritation and a feeling of intimidation that had started pooling in her stomach. Glam often had that affect on people. Ordinary people, that is.
Glam simply closes the door, placing the box on a table nearby. He walks back to the kitchen, like nothing had happened.
"The fuck was that?" Victoria questions through a mouth full of egg.
"Lydia" Glam states simply, "She left a gift"
"What was it?" Heavy asks excitedly.
"I don't know, I didn't open it" Glam sits at the table, finally getting to eat his breakfast.
"Aww... why not?" Heavy whined, dramatically resting his cheek on the table.
"You should start walking to the school bus before you're late" Glam advised, not bothering to entertain the subject. He did that more often than he cared to admit, he could try to get information out of others but he hated when the questions were directed at him instead.
Heavy groans as he slowly approaches his school bag, picking it up and walking over to the front door with Dee by his side.
"Goodbye, father" Dee says, monotone.
______________________________________
Glam was just picking up the plates from the kitchen table, placing them in the sink to wash, when Heavy returns. Victoria had already started to leave for work, in the front doorway when it happens.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT"
Glam yells as he runs to Heavy, grabbing the object from his hand and throwing it as if it'd burn him.
"What? What- what happened?" Victoria rushes back in, exclaiming. When she gets no response, she looks to the floor, where the object landed.
A wooden ruler. It was worn, decorated with dried, old blood splattered along it's edge.
"Glam?" Victoria turns to him. He can barely pull his eyes from it as he looks to her, eyes wide.
"Dad?" Heavy quietly asks, still in Glam's arms.
Glam hesitantly lets go of him, frozen in place as he stares at the ruler.
"C'mon, Heavy... go to school" Victoria tells him quietly, stern but not unkind. She pats him on the shoulder as he goes. She watches him leave the front door before turning back to her husband, whose still frozen there, pale, as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Glam..." Victoria murmurs softly, carefully reaching out to his hand. He doesn't react.
She takes one of his hands in her own, her spare hand coming up to cup his chin and tilt his head towards her. His eyes are still wide as his pupils flick to hers.
"Hey... what's going on, babe?" She questions. Glam never told her about any of it. The abuse he had faced by the hands of his father. He never told her where the scars had originated from, she came to her own conclusions, having only known he'd had a hard life. But she couldn't have expected anything like this.
Glam slowly tilts his head away, pulling it from her grip. Then, he buries his head in her shoulder, as if hiding from the present, the past and what he knows he'll have to do in the future.
"Okay... alright..." Victoria whispers, uncharacteristically soft as she wraps her large arms around him. He'd always found the sensation comforting, having someone so strong by his side, who could protect him, who would protect him. Victoria always said she'd kill a man for Glam, but this time, if he really told her, she might actually do it.
_________________________________________
After standing in this position for another 20 minutes, Victoria finally eased him over to the couch, where she sat him down. She crouched in front of him, her hands on his knees as she waited. Her expression was worried, curious, anxious, but there was no pressure. No pressure to speak, or to be okay again. Simply time, and a strong presence. And that's all he needed from her.
Victoria breathed a heavy sigh before getting him a glass of water, placing it on the coffee table as she sat beside him. Glam's tight shoulders couldn't help but loosen as she wrapped an arm around him, pulling him gently closer. He felt her lips press to his hair, then her chin resting on his head. Glam couldnt help but let his eyes drift shut.
It's not that he didn't want to talk, he did. He wanted to be able to tell her, explain everything. He just couldn't get the words out, as if his throat would wrap around them and tie them back to his heart where they'd bounce around until they faded away completely.
"You uhh... watch something?" Victoria suggests. Glam nods in reply, curling closer to her as she flicks through TV shows on Netflix. They spend the rest of the day there, huddled close to one another with a blanket draped over them, until lunch time.
"You wanna eat?" Victoria questions.
"Vicky..." Glam murmurs, finally, his gaze not meeting hers.
"I... I'm sorry, for how I reacted earlier... I was simply unprepared.. " Glam pulls back to look her in the eyes.
"Hey... its-it's fine, just... uhhh..." Vicky mumbles, "are you okay now? Like... can I get rid of that ruler thing?"
Glam simply nods in reply. As Vicky gets up to walk to the kitchen, she stops in the doorway.
"Glam... you can talk to me, okay? No matter what, I'm on your side" She admits, "and whoever hurt you, whoever made you feel the need to react like that? I'll kick their ass" Vicky grins.
"Yes... thank you" Glam huffs out a chuckle, nodding.
After a few minutes, Glam follows her in, hugging her from behind.
"Hey" Vicky greets him, "you wanna a sandwich of something?"
"Yes, please. Thank you" Glam rests his head on her back with a smile.
"Vicky?"
"Yeah?"
"I feel as if we should... discuss this..."
Vicky shrugs in reply.
The couple stand together in silence for a few moments before Glam speaks.
"My father... would... use that ruler on me..."
"Shit..." Vicky sighs, leaning against the edge of the counter top with her hands, "wha-... that's..."
She grabs ahold of one of Glam's hands, turning it over to look at his scarred wrist. Vicky pauses for a moment, simply looking at it for a moment.
"Glam, you gotta understand by now how much I love you. Some fears, some scars ain't gonna stop that, alright?" She admits quietly, "I love you, for who you are, Glam. And that includes everything you're struggling with"
He hugs her tighter at that.
"Now- what do ya want in your sandwich? Peanut butter? Ham? Cheese?" She suggests, leaning over to open the fridge.
She was always so calm about these things. She had always been a rock in Glam's life ever since they met. From the moment he saw her, he knew that he wanted to share his life with her. And, that includes the past as well as the future. Neither knew what would happen, but Glam felt a little safer being with such a woman as Vicky. His beloved wife.
In sickness and in health.