Chapter Text
Lake was lying on the couch with her arms crossed behind her head, just staring up at the ceiling and thinking while Jesse and Nate played video games next to her. They had tried to entice her to join them, but she wasn’t interested. It wasn’t that she didn’t like games, but they were one of the things that was hard to separate from her past life. It was still kind of a reflex to automatically reject anything that Tulip had liked because, even after all this time, the line between them was still too blurry for comfort.
The sound of a ringing phone caught her attention, bringing her out of her reverie. Mrs. Cosay—Whittney, she corrected—picked up the phone and began talking to the person on the other end.
“Yes, this is she... Ah, sir, I think there’s been a misunderstanding—Yes, that’s true, but—No, that’s not—Of course I had no idea that they’d—I understand how much of a shock this must be, but I assure you I have nothing to do with—”
Whittney went quiet for a few minutes, and Lake assumed she was just listening to whatever the angry man had to say. What she said next caused Lake to jump off of the couch with an audible clang.
“Hello, Tulip. No need for those kinds of formalities; you can call me Whittney, please.”
Lake broke out in a cold sweat. How did the Olsens even get the Cosays’ number? Then it dawned on her: if the government had given her a birth certificate declaring her an Olsen, of course they would have contacted them as well. Duh.
“Lake,” Whittney called out gently, “Tulip is asking to speak to you. Would you like me to hand you the phone?”
No. “Yeah.”
Taking the phone as soon as she got into the kitchen, Lake said, “Hey.”
“Hey… you.” The voice on the other line was an almost exact copy of hers, but without the extra reverberation added by Lake’s metal vocal cords. Tulip took an audible breath. “So, Lake, huh?”
She didn’t care what Tulip thought. She didn’t. “Yeah.”
“I like it.”
“Thanks,” Lake said, letting out a breath she didn’t remember holding.
They sat on the phone awkwardly for a minute before Lake heard someone clear their voice on Tulip’s end.
“Right,” Tulip said, “So, Dad’s kind of freaking out about the whole moving to Arizona and taking custody of you thing.”
Lake almost dropped the phone. “The WHAT?”
There was a pause on the other end, and then, “They didn’t tell you? Of course they didn’t; that would have been the responsible thing to do. The government agency is making him move to Arizona. They made it so he has to move his business over there and got him a house and everything. He’s… not happy about it.”
“What a bunch of jerks,” Lake huffed. “Of course he’s not happy about that! Who would be?”
And it wouldn’t be just him whose life had been turned upside down. There’s no way that Tulip wasn’t struggling with all this, train lessons or no train lessons. She cleared her throat and continued, “Um, how are you feeling about all this happening?”
Another long pause. “I want to say it’s fine, but it’s not.”
Lake could hear muffled sniffling coming from Tulip’s end. “Hey… hey, don’t cry…” Repressing her urge to kick something (making a hole in the Cosays’ kitchen cabinets seemed like a bad choice, even if it would make her feel better), she blurted out, “This whole thing sucks! Who are those guys to just… push us around like this?”
Hearing Tulip’s quiet laughter, she snarled, “What?”
“Sorry, sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just… you sound kind of like me.”
“Well, I’m not!” Lake crossed her free arm around her stomach.
“No, no, of course not!” Tulip said placatingly, clearly trying to convey to Lake that she had meant no offense. “I just meant that it was nice to hear someone say what I was thinking. I didn’t mean to imply…”
“Whatever. It’s fine.”
Tulip sighed. “Hey, Lake, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… well, I guess what I meant doesn’t matter.”
Lake opened her mouth to say something—what, she wasn’t sure—but Tulip wasn’t finished.
“Ugh!” She could practically see Tulip throwing up her hands in frustration. “This whole thing is new to me! All I had to do was not stick my stupid foot into my stupid mouth, but could I manage that? Nope! I couldn’t even go five minutes before running everything!”
“Tulip,” she said, but the other girl was too busy ranting to notice.
“Here I am, given a chance to start getting to know you, but noooo, can’t have that. Nooo, the first thing I do is muck everything up! What is wrong with me?”
“TULIP,” she tried again, loud enough to earn a startled look from Whittney. This time Tulip actually stopped talking. Lake bet that her face was as red as a cherry tomato.
“Sorry,” Tulip muttered.
“It’s okay, really,” Lake replied. “You didn’t muck anything up. All this is new to me, too, so I get it. And… well, I guess it could be nice getting to know you, too, now that I’m not stuck doing everything that you do and being forced to eat your dumb onions and whatever.”
Before Tulip could say anything in response, Lake heard her dad—no, Tulip’s dad. Mr. Olsen. She heard Mr. Olsen speaking to Tulip, but she couldn’t make out what he had said. Once he finished, Tulip told her, “So, uh, Dad wants me to tell you that he and I should be there in a few days. I won’t be staying long, obviously, because school’s about to start, but he’s meeting you for the first time, and…”
When it became clear that Tulip wasn’t going to finish her sentence, Lake spoke up and said, “Listen, Tulip, I don’t care what those government goons want. Your dad doesn’t have to move out here to take care of me. I’m fine on my own. I took care of myself on the train, didn’t I? And I had flecks trying to sand me the entire time. I’ll just… I’ll figure something out.”
“He’s your dad, too,” Tulip said softly.
“Hey, you don’t have to say that just because of some stupid piece of pa—”
Tulip cut her off. “I’m not. Honest. It makes sense, right? Us being sisters. Twins, really.”
Lake had no response to that.
“I know Dad doesn’t see it that way yet,” Tulip continued. “I can’t imagine how shocking it was for my parents to hear that my reflection was really a person and, surprise, she was in Arizona and I’m no longer their only child. I haven’t seen them so upset since… since the divorce.”
“Do…” It was hard for Lake to ask, but she had to. “Do you blame yourself? For letting me out of the Chrome Car?”
Tulip’s answer was immediate. “No! Of course not! None of this is my fault. Or yours. Or anyone’s.”
“Well,” she amended before Lake could say anything, “maybe it’s a bit of the government’s fault. They so dropped the ball on handing this situation with even a little bit of tact.
“Honestly, though, when I read that letter and realized that you were really here, it made me so happy. I always wished that you had come with us, even though I know why you didn’t. Second chances like this don’t happen every day, and I’m not going to waste it by moping about trying to blame someone. But… I don’t understand why you have to live in Arizona instead of here with us.”
The words left Lake’s mouth before she could think about what she was saying. “I can’t leave Jesse.”
The truth was more complicated than that—the possibility of actually living with Tulip scared her more than she wanted to think about—but she knew she couldn’t bear being separated from Jesse again. What had happened on the train while he was gone was just too painful.
“Why not?” Tulip asked, her voice shaking.
“I…” Lake began, unable to find the words to make Tulip understand. “I just can’t, okay?”
“…Okay.”
The uncomfortable silence stretched out, with neither girl knowing what to say to the other one.
When Tulip finally spoke up, her voice was so quiet Lake barely heard what she said. “Listen, I should get going.”
“Tulip, I…” Lake began, wanting to say something—anything—that would erase the hurt in the other girl’s voice.
Blowing out a breath, Tulip said in a more normal voice, “No, it’s okay. I understand. Well, no. I don’t understand, but my getting angry won’t change things. You’re your own person, and you get to decide these things for yourself. We’ll figure out a way to work out the rest, I’m sure of it.”
“Thank you. It… means a lot to me for you to say that,” Lake replied, her chest feeling uncomfortably tight.
“That’s what sisters are for, right?” Tulip said cheerfully, although she couldn’t hide the quaver in her voice. “Or maybe not! Neither of us have ever had a sister before, so we’ll just have to find out. Speaking of which, can you put Mrs. Cosay on the line so I can give her the flight details and all that?”
“Uh, sure,” Lake said, her mind still reeling. “M—Whittney? Tulip wants to talk to you again.”
As soon as Whittney took the phone, Lake shuffled back to the couch like a zombie and flopped down on it. She only kind of noticed that the boys had paused their game and were staring at her worriedly.
“Lake?” Jesse asked.
She threw an arm over her face and groaned. “Just go back to playing your dumb game, Jesse. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He reached out to pat her shoulder, before turning back to face the TV. “Well, I’m here if you change your mind.”
Sisters, Lake thought, tuning out the sounds of battle coming from the TV. Twins. Are either of those really different than what we were to each other when she was my Prime and I was her reflection? All she had wanted to do was escape from Tulip and be her own person, but that felt impossible now. No, she told herself. I don’t have to do everything that she does anymore. She had been able to make it to the Prime world and get off that stupid train, so there’s no way that she’d let herself get turned into a puppet ever again. She could find a way to get out from under Tulip’s shadow no matter who tried to force them together. Right?