Work Text:
Hetty sits on the edge of her bed, staring at the wallpaper, alone.
That is what they all think she needs right now, to be alone. It is her own fault of course. All those decades locking away her true feelings behind so many walls of ice, she has shot herself in the foot, desperately craving someone to just be there yet knowing nobody will come. A prison of her devising where she is both captive and captor, bound by her own hand into the deafening silence of isolation with only the spiraling thoughts threatening to pull her under for company.
The cord wound tightly around her neck like a snake makes it so difficult to breathe sometimes. Who is she trying to fool? It is not only sometimes, the ache in her throat is constant. An eternal reminder of her greatest failure. The squeeze she feels is only exasperated by her emotional state. The faces of everyone she cares about when they saw her unwind her shameful secret have scarred themselves into the back of her eyelids, leaving her unable to merely blink without reliving that dreaded moment.
The only glimmer in the darkness is the small ember of relief burning away in her her heart at being able to bring Flower back home. That makes all the aches, physical and psychological, more than worth it. It almost distracts from the tightening snake. Almost.
As if on cue or summoned by the Victorian redhead's fracturing state of mind a voice, as familiar as it is welcome, makes itself known from the other side of the door. "Hetty? You in there, girl?" Alberta's musical tone is clear even when the singer is not preforming. "Can I come in?"
Hetty's own response is delayed despite how only moments before she had been wishing for exactly this "Of course. Come in." Her voice is rough from disuse. That is why, no other reason, especially not that she had been crying to herself all alone in her bedroom.
Alberta slowly phases through the door. Her face is certainly knit into an expression of concern or pity but Hetty does not know for sure as she refuses to look the other woman in the eye. A soft hand finds itself holding Hetty's own, she does not pull away though it takes what feels to be the reminder of her avaliable strength to stop her hand from shaking. Alberta breathes out a little huff of air, somewhere between worry and care.
Hetty still does not dare to meet her friend's gaze, she continues to stubbornly look away. She refuses to be seen any weaker than today has made her felt.
"I'm not here to make you talk about..." Alberta's words fail her, leaving her trailing off awkwardly. "I can leave if you want." Her voice is quieter, more gentle.
"No!" That comes out far too quickly and far too desperately. "I mean, you needn't leave on my account." Real smooth, Woodstone.
"Alright." Hetty finally steals a look at Alberta's face, bracing herself for pity but instead finding a soft smile. She releases a breath she did not know she was holding. Alberta has a lovely smile. "We can sit here, not saying anything, and just enjoy each other's company?"
The smallest of smiles graces Hetty's lips, shining nowhere near as bright as Alberta's but still unapologetically there. "I would like that."