The Dark Of Our Worlds

Reality

After living with the scraps from her Catholic upbringing, Lorelai had expected to wake up scorching hot, being engulfed by flames as her skin blistered, listening to the devil laugh. So, you can imagine her surprise when she felt the cushion of a mattress, warmth of a duvet, a cool breeze from an unseen open window, and a damp towel on her forehead. 

It was only the initial shock of not being in hell had passed that she realised how much pain she was in. Her head was throbbing and it felt as though at least three of her ribs were broken. One had travelled to her seemingly bare torso, but instead of feeling skin, she felt bandages. 

With great effort, she pulled her eyes open. Blue walls, canopy bed, writing desk, window, ensuite bathroom. 

"What the hell?" Lorelai whispered, pulling herself out of bed and groaning at the pain of doing so. 

She was home, in her and Alma's room back in their loop. She wasn't in hell, or in Miss Nuthatch's house, she was home; her own personal heaven, and she had no clue how she had gotten there.

She limped over to the bathroom, trying to ignore the pain shooting through every part of her body as she did so. The tap seemed deafeningly loud in comparison to the previous silence. Lorelai cupped her hands and filled them with icy water, splashing it against her face over and over again. 

She looked up in the mirror. She in fact, wasn't wearing a shirt, rather, bandaged were wrapped from the base of her ribs to just below her collarbone, bloodstained in places. She was wearing trousers though, baggy, pyjama ones, but trousers none the less. Her feet, as she had guessed, were bare. 

She dried her hands and face then, still completely neglecting the fact that her entire body hurt, limped over to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and looked out into the corridor. 

What

The 

FUCK?!

At the end of the corridor, in full health, and with an intact throat, stood Enoch, clutching in his hand a jar which Lorelai didn't want to know the contents of. Lorelai simply stared at him, and he stared back. She couldn't conjure any words in English so simply resorted to "Разве ты не мертв?" and a string of Russian swear words that even she limited herself to not using. She barely heard what Enoch said.

"I'll go tell Miss Peregrine you're awake. She's been worried sick"

"Это официально. Я не в своем уме"

Enoch, not understanding Russian, simply nodded and walked down the grand staircase. Lorelai, without realising, had clutched onto the doorframe for support. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Was she dead? Or was she just vividly hallucinating? 

She couldn't move, so she simply stood there in shock, staring at the empty spot where Enoch had been stood. Footsteps pulled her from her from her trance. She looked away just quick enough to spot Alma hurrying up the stairs towards her. 

"Oh thank the birds you're awake" She said, moving forward as though to pull Lorelai into a hug.

Lorelai stepped back. It was all too weird, nothing made sense. Alma looked at Lorelai, her expression one of mixed hurt and confusion. She tried again, this time taking one of the sirens hands in her own. Lorelai simply stared at their interlocked hands, completely confused, and hesitant to believe anything was real.

"Lorelai" Alma whispered, her voice soft "darling, what happened?"

"I was about to ask you the very same question"

***

"Okay, let me get this straight" Lorelai said, rubbing her throbbing head "I vanished a week ago, showed up two days ago bleeding, broken and unconscious"

"That's right" Alma said.

"And Enoch's not dead?"

"That's right love"

"And we were never at Miss Nuthatch's"

"I wrote to her the day before you came back and you were never there"

"And no one knows what has actually happened?"

"No"

"Oh my god"

Lorelai let out something between a laugh and a sigh, pure relief flooding her body. A smile appeared on her face, growing bigger and bigger until she was beaming and laughing in pure euphoria. She never snapped. She didn't kill all those people. Enoch was alive. Alma didn't hate her. 

Any awareness of her pain was gone. Lorelai stood up and walked over to Alma, and kissed her; suddenly, all of her problems were gone, the horrors and fears had vanished. She was kissing the woman she loved, the woman who loved her back. 

Alma's back was against the wall, one of Lorelai's hands on her waist, the other cupping her face. Alma's arms were looped around her neck. They were both smiling into the kiss, pure joy taking over.

"Oh my birds" Alma said, pulling back both to speak and to breathe "The children, they don't know you're awake. They've been so worried about you"

***

In hindsight, allowing all the children to hug her at once despite the three broken ribs was not a good idea.

"Okay okay, ow" She winced. The children stepped back laughing.

"Alright children, back to your seats"

Begrudgingly, they sat back down. Lorelai made her way to the head of the table, kissed Alma on the cheek, and sat in her own seat. Alma, now quite a violent shade of red, smiled slightly and took a bite of her food. Lorelai, laughing, did the same. 

She was home. She was home and everything was okay. 

A/N - I will explain but first enjoy the fluff.