Hello There

Steven Grant used to believe that he had some sort of severe sleeping disorder. In his eyes, it would explain why he was chronically tired, why he kept waking up in odd places, and why his dreams were so vivid. For what he perceived to be years (but more likely was just a couple months if Marc's timeline was correct), he did what he could to prevent the "sleeping disorder" from affecting his life, including some things that in hindsight were a bit ridiculous. Perhaps Steven was a bit naïve, but if you had told him a year ago that he had Dissociative Identity Disorder and that his best friend would be an American man living inside of his head, he would have laughed at you.

Though, that was exactly the place he found himself in today.

It was Thursday, he believed. His last day of work before the weekend began. Since everything had happened in Cairo, Marc had helped Steven apply for a new job, this time at the British Museum rather than the poorly run museum he used to work out. It took some convincing, considering how his previous job had ended, but Steven managed to convince the lovely old lady that eventually hired him that he was seeing a therapist and that he would make a wonderful tour guide. It wasn't exactly a lie, if trying to talk Marc into seeing a therapist at least once a week counted as therapy.

Steven hadn't exactly been gung-ho on the idea, especially after the whole incident with "Dr. Harrow" in the Duat, but with the hints of a third alter being present, Steven started to believe that perhaps talking to one wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

"I don't know why you keep bringing up that stupid idea," Marc had told him once.

Steven fronted and crossed his arms. "It's not stupid. You know there's another one. You're just too stubborn to admit it."

Marc moved back to the front. "Steven, if there were another alter, I would know about it. I'm the one who made you, remember?"

Steven pretended like Marc's comment hadn't hurt him, but he remained in the headspace, too tired to take over the body and argue when clearly Marc didn't want to talk about it. "How do you explain our blackouts then?" He put himself in the mirror, and made sure that Marc caught his glare.

"People blackout from anger or sadness or fear all the time. That doesn't mean there's another person there."

"Marc, we have entire days of time taken away from us! It's only gotten worse as the year has gone on. You really don't want an answer for it?"

"Maybe you were right and we do have some sort of sleeping disorder."

"You are such a pillock sometimes. I don't know why I put up with you," Steven finished, and the conversation had been left at that.

Well, Steven was going to have to pick that conversation up again, because this was most definitely not his bed, and that was definitely not Layla next to him.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes. Perhaps he was still sleeping. No, this felt too real to be a dream. It reminded him of his experience in the Alps where he'd nearly gotten them killed protecting the scarab from the likes of Arthur Harrow.

"Marc?" He called out quietly, so as to not wake up the woman next to him. He looked over at her. She had her back facing him, so he couldn't make out much, just her long, blonde hair that he imagined to be very soft to the touch. Steven looked around the room. It was far grander than anything he'd ever seen before. The bed alone probably cost more than the flat he and Marc were currently living in. Where the hell was he?

Suddenly, the woman groaned and stretched, turning her face towards him. He realized only then that he was naked, and suddenly feeling very bashful, he pulled the blanket over his shirtless form. Sure, Layla and Marc had seen him shirtless countless times, but Layla was his girlfriend and Marc was well... Marc. He had no idea who this woman was, and seeing him shirtless was far too intimate for him to be comfortable with. "Oh bollocks," he whispered.

She opened her eyes and smiled at him, then she frowned when Steven didn't say anything. He could only imagine how scared he looked.

"Hm. You aren't Jake," she noted. It wasn't a question, but rather an observation. Steven thought she had very pretty, green eyes.

"...Jake?"

She was naked too, Steven noticed, and she pulled the blanket over her chest as she sat up. "What's your name?" She asked. She didn't sound mad or even worried that there was a man she'd never met before in her bed. They'd been there, before, Steven guessed.

"I'm uh... Steven. Steven Grant. That's Steven with a V, by the way. Oh, not that it would matter I suppose. But I used to get called the wrong name a lot, like how you just said I wasn't Jake. Nope, I'm Steven. Steven Grant. O Gods, I'm rambling aren't I?" He hated when he did that. Marc always said that it was perfectly acceptable to ramble when he was nervous, but it was something Steven had always been self-conscious about.

The pretty blonde woman chuckled. "No, it's okay. It's a nice change of pace from the man that usually wakes up next to me."

"And... who is that, exactly?"

She smiled warmly at him. Steven wasn't sure what to feel, but he wished Marc would wake up. "His name is Jake. Jake Lockley. I've heard a lot about you from him."

"And this Jake is... he's one of us? One of me, I mean. Like, an alter? Like, he's in our body? I mean my body... well I suppose it would be his as well. I mean... well you know what I mean."

She nodded. "I'm Marlene, by the way. I'm Jake's girlfriend. He told me we would meet at some point, but that it would be on his terms. I don't think he expected you to wake up this morning."

Steven cleared his throat in shock. "Wait... Jake has a girlfriend? But... Well, I also have a girlfriend. I mean, it's Marc's wife and it's sort of complicated but like... I didn't even think about dating someone other than who Marc was already married to."

Marlene shrugged. "Well, she seems to be okay with it. I imagine this is a lot to take in, though."

Steven just nodded. He didn't think he was supposed to wake up today. "Wait... isn't today Thursday?"

She shook her head. "Saturday."

Bollocks! I missed work again!

He sighed. "Well, this has been very... informative. I suppose I'm making you uncomfortable by lying here naked in your bed so I best be off. Um... it was good to meet you, by the way."

She laughed. "It's okay, Steven." She stood up, and Steven felt his cheeks heat up as she made her way to the dresser on the far left of the room, taking a quick peek in the mirror on her way there. He couldn't get himself to look away, which made him even more embarrassed.

Of course, if he hadn't looked away, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"I'm... um... please forgive me if this sounds offensive or anything and of course, I don't mean to intrude in your private life... I mean everyone should have access to that privacy and I suppose I would be overstepping a boundary, especially because you're not my girlfriend and-"

"Yes, Steven. I'm pregnant."

That was enough to get Steven to look away. His cheeks were hot and he could feel the bile in his throat from panic. "And it's... Jake's?"

"Yes."

"Ah."

Gods, how the hell had this happened? Marc had let the subject go for too long and now they had another alter who was getting other women pregnant. They were going to be a father. Well, technically Jake was going to be a father, but it was his body, right? Did that make him the father, too? He needed to have a long conversation with Marc, and meet this Jake fellow so that they could figure out how the hell this was going to work. This was not how Steven wanted to start his day.

"I'm... sorry you had to find out like this, Steven. I told Jake when I found out that he should introduce himself to you and Marc already. It seemed unfair to you both that something so major like this could happen without your consent or knowledge. Now it's been three months and..." She paused to sigh. "I really am sorry. I love Jake, honestly I do, but he's as stubborn as a bull sometimes."

Steven had no response to that. He was still reeling from the shock.

He didn't look at her as she dressed herself. He figured he had stared enough for one day. He hoped Layla would understand that he was a little... distracted... and that she wouldn't take him seeing another woman naked as him cheating on her.

Oh Gods, he hoped Jake would understand, too.

"It's okay, you can look now."

Steven whipped his head back in her direction, and saw she was fully dressed in white sweatpants and a shirt that probably would have been too big for her three months ago. He had no idea how pregnancy worked, and maybe he should ask Layla and Taweret for advice on the matter. After talking to Marc, of course. Or, maybe he'd invite them both to dinner and talk about it then. Gods, his head was scrambled.

Suddenly, Steven felt an unfamiliar presence enter the headspace, and it wasn't but a few seconds later that he blacked out.

Steven had never been so happy to wake up in his own bed, ankle restraint around his right foot. He couldn't remember putting it on, and he doubted Marc had, so he imagined Jake had done it, whether it be force of habit or out of spite. That was whom he assumed had taken over after his conversation with Marlene. At least this time, Marc was here with him.

He felt Marc attempt to push to the front, and Steven let him, in no mood to spend an entire day with the body. "Steven? What's wrong?"

"We need to have a talk, Marc. A long talk."

Marc scoffed and began undoing the ankle restraint, as was their routine, at least on the weekdays. "Is this about that third alter again? Listen Steven, I told you-"

"He's real, Marc. His name is Jake. And he has a pregnant girlfriend."

Marc stopped, then pulled back, essentially pushing Steven out to the front again. The man sighed and continued fiddling with the lock on the restraint. "You're lying," Marc said. "You're just trying to get me to talk about it."

He finally undid the lock and stood up. "Her name is Marlene. I met her on Saturday. I think I accidentally woke up instead of Jake."

"Saturday? But yesterday was Wednesday."

"Yeah, we missed work on Thursday. We probably missed the whole weekend, too." He checked the phone that they shared, and sure enough, it was already Sunday evening. He sighed. "Shall I call Layla? I'm sure she'd want to talk about it, too."

"What's there to talk about?" Marc snapped, and Steven shook his head before picking up the phone.

He dialed Layla's number and was immediately comforted by the sound of her voice. Steven had wanted her to move in, but Marc thought that Steven's flat was far too messy to be able to house the three of them (even if two of them shared a body) and all of Steven's junk. Steven had reluctantly agreed that moving in with Layla was probably the better option, but neither of them wanted to ask her. If she wanted them to move in with her, they figured she would ask, and who were they to believe that they had any right to move back with her just because they were in a relationship with her?

"Well, look who decided to finally call after all this time."

Steven blushed a bit. "Sorry, love. We got a bit busy with work and... well, something else that we'd like to talk to you about."

Marc fronted so he could interject. "More like Steven would like to talk to you about something. I personally don't think it's a big deal."

Steven pushed Marc back into the headspace. "It is a big deal. Just please come over for dinner tonight. I'll make you that spaghetti you really liked." He hoped she could hear the smile on his face.

She sighed. "Alright. You're both very lucky that I love you. And that damn spaghetti."

He grinned and refrained from hopping in excitement. He really had missed her. "Aces! I'll get started on it and I promise it will be done by the time you arrive."

Steven could feel Marc's sigh from the headspace, and Steven got to work on boiling the noodles and cooking his vegan marinara sauce. He had become quite the chef since last year, and Marc liked to leave the Steven with the cooking. That was okay with Steven. Marc wasn't vegan and didn't really know how to cook anyway, so Steven was perfectly content with taking over the body himself. Besides, he had discovered that he quite liked cooking.

"I think you're overdramatic," Marc told him as Steven sat down to let the sauce simmer.

"You think that figuring out who the bloke in our body that impregnated a woman is being overdramatic?"

Marc thought for a moment. "I just think... if he does exist... why can't we just leave him alone? He seems to have no interest in getting to know us."

"Maybe he doesn't know we exist," Steven replied, staring out into space as he was reminded of the months, years really, that he had gone without knowing Marc. How strange everything was. How difficult it was to maintain a life. Yet this Jake fellow had clearly managed. He had no idea if Jake knew who they were, or if he cared, but Steven wanted to know Jake, even if Marc didn't.

Marc went silent at that, and Steven stood to put his finishing touches on the spaghetti right as someone knocked on the door. He smiled and called out, "It's open!" He left the spaghetti on the stove so that Layla could grab her own bowl. He had tried once to get her a plate of food he had cooked, but had dropped it in his clumsiness and nearly cried as Marc and Layla cleaned all the glass off of the floor. Since then, he figured it was best to let her do it herself, or to let Marc do it, since he was much less clumsy.

"Hi, Steven," Layla greeted with a smile, clearly forgetting all of her bitterness from earlier. She set her bag down and began preparing herself a bowl of spaghetti, right as Steven was sitting down at the table.

He put a forkful in his mouth, but nearly spit it out as the heat from the food burned his tongue. Marc fronted to take the pain, blowing on the bowl of food and fanning his tongue with his hand. Layla covered her mouth and hoped her giggles weren't obvious. Marc shot her a glare, though, before letting Steven come back to the front. "That was embarrassing," he admitted.

Layla sat next to him and took his hand. "Are you okay?" She asked, not hiding the smile that was still on his face.

Steven nodded and blew on his spaghetti again before carefully putting the fork in his mouth, so as to avoid further embarrassment. "It's a bit hot," he deadpanned, and Layla giggled. She nodded and blew on her own food.

"So... what did you invite me over to talk about?" She asked, seeming to not be as affected by the heat as Steven was. She hummed. "This is delicious, by the way. Thank you."

Steven smiled, but his smile fell as he was reminded what the entire point of this dinner was. "Well uh... I think I accidentally discovered something that I wasn't supposed to," he said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, well..." he hesitated, and checked the reflection in the mirror to make sure Marc was listening. Sure enough, there he was, arms crossed as he waited for Steven to continue. Perfect. "Well, on Saturday, I think I woke up instead of... someone else. And we weren't in my flat or at your place. We were in some other woman's bed. And... she seemed to recognize our face, anyway. Just not me specifically." Layla looked away from Steven and focused intently on her bowl of spaghetti. "She said... she was dating someone named Jake. And I'm guessing from the way that she spoke that means that the third person that Marc and I have suspected exists is this Jake fellow." He glanced over at Marc, who also wasn't meeting Steven's eyes. "I mean, maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, but that is a bit strange, innit?"

Layla sighed. "I know who you're talking about," she said, and Marc fronted, with Steven replacing him in the reflection.

"You knew about this?" He asked her, and Steven could tell that Marc was getting angry.

"Well, I knew about Jake. And Marlene. I don't know what exactly they do when you two aren't fronting, but yeah. I knew."

Marc blinked, and Steven shook his head. "Marc, please don't get angry at her. It's not her fault."

"How long have you known?"

She sighed again and dropped her fork in the bowl. "I met Jake right after Khonshu released you in Cairo. He made me promise not to tell you all about him. I couldn't... I couldn't break my promise to him. He seemed so lost. So sad. He needed me, Marc."

Marc shook his head. "What about your husband? You didn't think about how it would affect me?"

Layla matched his anger. Steven considered slipping into the Innerworld, but this conversation was too important. "You didn't care enough to even want to know who he was. Jake asked me for my help, and I gave it. I would do the same thing for you or Steven. I'm not the one you should be talking to about this."

"And you knew about Marlene?"

"Yes, Marc. I knew about Marlene. I'm the one who helped Jake find her."

"Did you know she was fucking pregnant?"

The room was filled with tense silence for a few moments. Everyone appeared to be holding their breath. "No," she whispered. "No, I didn't."

Steven couldn't tell what Layla's emotion was anymore, and he was usually pretty good at that. Was it anger? Sadness? Jealousy? Envy? Perhaps it was a mix of all of the above. He could see her start to shake, and he took control from Marc so that he could comfort her.

"Layla, love, it's okay," he told her, wrapping his arms around her body. She leaned into his touch and began to sob. Steven held her tighter, making light circles on her back as she cried. He didn't say anything, he just let her cry in his arms, doing his best to calm her down by gently caressing her.

After awhile, she stopped crying and she pulled away to look at Steven. "I'm sorry. I have no idea what came over me." Steven let her go, but he didn't look away from her, even though she refused to look him in the eyes. Perhaps the feeling was guilt. "I just... I wish Jake had told me. Or asked what I thought about it. I mean, I'm totally okay with Jake and Marlene being together. Jake is definitely not you or Marc. He's a completely different person. And... maybe this sounds intolerant of me, but... it is weird that my husband's body was used to impregnate another woman, right?"

Steven wasn't so sure, considering the status of his and Layla's relationship, but he nodded anyway. "Your feelings are valid. I wish Jake had talked to you about it, too. Or at least introduced himself to us before we found out through his girlfriend."

They both exhaled, as if they had been holding their breath for the entire conversation. Some of the tension fell away, and Marc moved back to the front. "He didn't think that you wanted to know him," Layla told them.

Marc scoffed. "Well, I would have rather known him than to be thrown into all of this shit. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"

Layla gave him a soft smile. "Well, maybe you should start by meeting Jake."