Maureen's Office, The Runnels Building, Denver, Colorado....
Dr. Maureen Welch could not believe what she'd been told despite hearing it from the horse's mouth via her own ears. Julia Rawsone was pregnant once more and there was a possibility that the child she was carrying wasn't at all her husband's. Despite her dislike of Julia and her recent affair with Gary, Maureen had hoped that the affair would have come to an end by now and she'd focus on her life with Hadrian given all they had and the years they'd been together. She was furious with being played for a fool despite giving her word to let Hadrian know about the affair once his illness was dealt with. She had agreed to keep the secret since then but seeing as Julia has done nothing to atone nor show respect for her ailing friend, Maureen was intent on telling him the truth the first chance she got.
"How could you do this to him?" asked Maureen upset. "He loves you!"
"I know." replied Julia in tears. "I know that now...but when he was home I didn't believe he did...he was so callous and cruel to me..."
"That was Lonnie and you know it." said Maureen. "Hadrian hasn't been himself for quite some time."
"Again...I know that now." replied Julia. "It's just...he was so...he's been attacking me every night since he returned and when I finally figured out what was going on...Lonnie had taken over completely and I caught him having sex with the freak former patient of his."
Maureen was still shaken by that revelation.
"I don't know what to say." she said. "It's been proven that sometimes Alters have different preferences....than the host...perhaps Lonnie has a thing for this Alexei boy."
"Lonnie apparently, just has a thing for blondes and anything with two sets of lips." said Julia bitterly.
"So you are saying Alexei is..." Maureen attempted to recall the case file on him. "Intersex?"
"Didn't you hear that vulgar brute bragging about sleeping with him?" asked Julia. "He is a horrible man and it's just messed up that My Hadrian is stuck with him for an Alter."
"So it appears that Lonnie Collins, is our Mr. Hyde." agreed Maureen recalling how Lonnie had choked her when she first was introduced to him.
"My sentiments exactly." said Julia with her arms folded across her chest. "And right now Mr. Hyde has my husband halfway across the country by now in an effort to be with his mental patient lover."
"According to Alexei's file, he was suspected of setting the fire that killed both of his maternal grandparents." said Maureen " But they couldn't actually prove that the deranged boy started the fire that killed them.
"He's also the bastard that kidnapped Hadrian in the first place." added Julia embittered all the more. "He probably did something to him, drugs of some kind which is why he hasn't been himself on top of getting him nearly shot to death....my poor Hadrian, what this little bastard is putting you through...."
Colin Winters sat in silence unsure of what to make of what was revealed to him. His son was an undiagnosed sufferer of Dissociative Identity Disorder and an active Psychiatrist, and now it seemed his runaway alter had him in some kind of physical relationship with one of his former patients, a teen boy named Alexei Bortnik whom had been suspected of committing arson and burning down his grandparents apartment building which resulted in their slow and painful deaths.
"Why is...Lonnie so drawn to him?" asked Colin in confusion.
"Possibly the sexual bond or the fact that Alexei suffers from Co-Dependency Disorder and Lonnie from Borderline Personality Disorder." explained Maureen. "Perhaps, they found a way to deal with their mutual issues together that benefits them both."
"Lonnie seems to be obsessed with Alexei, almost as much as Hadrian was." recalled Julia.
"Hadrian was obsessed with Alexei?" asked Colin shocked by this news.
"Our son had died and he'd just taken Alexei's case, he was only fourteen at the time and Hadrian saw him as a fatherless boy where he'd been a sonless father." explained Julia. "He obsessed over that boy night and day to the point where I had to call and suggest they remove him from the case altogether."
"And I take it that Alexei didn't take to kindly to that approach once he got out of the mental ward." said Colin piecing it all together.
"From the looks of it, no he didn't." admitted Julia evenly.
It started to make so much sense to Colin from that point.
"So the deranged and angry teen then kidnaps Hadrian wishing to extract revenge for being abandoned only to fall in love with his alter after causing it to come forward..." he reasoned.
"After sexually assaulting Hadrian during the kidnapping." said Maureen recalling the story Hadrian had told her about the barn. "Wait a minute...Hadrian mentioned something about a barn...do you think Alexei has a barn in his name or his family's name?"
"You think that's where he took him?" asked Colin with an arched brow.
"It's worth a shot." said Maureen. "If Alexei and "Lonnie" fell in love where ever the barn is, then he's bound to go back there...especially given how symbolic it is for them."
"That makes sense." said Julia suddenly hopeful. "I'll give detective Gordon a call."
The three of them had been in agreement with the new plan hoping they weren't too late or off the mark when it came to rescuing Hadrian from the deranged teen.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
ELSEWHERE
The Bortnik Farm, City Outskirts, Unknown State....
The moment Lonnie pulled into the back of the house, Lex had seemingly been at ease in the passenger seat. The lad had never been more pleased to see his family far in all the days he'd been the head of it as when Lonnie had brought him back to it. After the shooting at the diner, Lex had refused to come back to this place without a measure of vengeance or Lonnie himself in tow given how special this place had been to the two of them. Neither one of them had ever felt at home in the world aside from when they first met one another on these very grounds. Lex couldn't think of a more appropriate place for them to live all things considered.
Lonnie got the bags of groceries he purchased before hand while they were in town and their suitcases out the back while Lex opened the front door as they both ventured inside the large house that had been their home three months before their little road trip due to Lonnie's boredom. It seemed he was just as eager to be back as Lex was once they stepped inside and he sat down the suitcases and grocery bags. He pulled Lex into his embrace and kissed him on the lips only for the lad to return the favor with as much passion as he had exhibited.
"Finally." said Lonnie looking into Lex's blue eyes. "We're home."
Lex closed his eyes at the instant of Lonnie's touch against his cheek and they kissed once more before Lonnie turned his attention toward putting away the bags and Lex set about checking the mail. By the time they were done, Lonnie stocked their new supplies and started diner and they seemed to fall back into their familiar routine as if they had never left.