Silence rolled over them once more. David continued to keep her close, idly stroking his fingers through her long hair. Kaly leaned against him, one arm resting on his leg and the other hand clutching at his shirt, finding comfort in him through the chaos tumbling through her mind, her stare fixated on the water out beyond the edge of the cliff. There were tears in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Not for this.
"I don't."
David's voice rumbled in her ear through its placement against his chest. "You don't what?"
Inhaling shakily, the sugary-sweet, angelic voice came out strained. "I don't think it's him."
She had plenty of time, after seeing the televised segments and so on that this questionable individual, to think the possibilities over. That he had found a way back from the dead. That he was back in the DWF. That he would be back in their lives.
But that didn't last long.
"How are you so sure?" he asked quietly, almost at a whisper. Almost as if afraid she might start lashing out sooner or later from this discussion.
The tiniest of smiles touched her pouty lips. "I was his Valkyrie. His soul was connected to mine in the deepest sense, and I could sense everything about him. He could hide nothing from me. I may not have been able to know every single detail, but I knew more than he ever could fathom. He never knew how far reaching that connection between us had been. When we weren't together, for one reason or another, my soul called for his, and his would answer."
Her teeth caught her bottom lip, sighing softly. Flashes of that last match belted through her mind, and she remembered vividly the grief she went through following it. "When he died, that connection disappeared. I couldn't feel anything anymore, and I think that broke me far more than anything he had done to me during that match, before that night, whatever he said or did while we were separated. I lost the warrior my soul was destined to watch over for eternity." She shook her head softly. "I buried him. His body went into the ground, his spirit gone from the world, from existence."
Craning her neck back slightly, dislodging his chin from the crown on her head to look up into his face, the blonde woman stated quite firmly, "If that person really was Conner, I would know. I would be able to feel him. He was my warrior, my ward. But I can't. I can't get a sense on that soul. Whoever that is out there pretending to be him is some sick, twisted creep making a disgusting mockery of the dead."
Skepticism crossed the Southern gent's features as he looked over the woman in his embrace. She could tell he wasn't as sure about her certainly as she was. She would even go so far as bet he thought she was delusional. Too stubborn to admit that this really could be her dead husband.
"Kaly," he softly said, his hold on her tightening while he brought his lips to press against her hairline, "I know you don't wanna think this guy is destroying his legacy, but I gotta tell you, babe... that's always the way Conner's been. He's always been on self-destruct mode, and always blaming his mistakes on everyone else. This is the real deal, hon."
Her nose wrinkled. "I don't think so. But regardless, whether or not this person truly is Conner, my feelings are all the same. I don't want him around me, I don't want him around Joshua, and I don't want him coming near you for a retribution he has no right in asking for." Her hand clamped tighter around the material of his shirt in her clutches. "Because you're right, David. He's dead. He's been dead. The man that I married disappeared so long ago, well before his actual death, and I watched him be physically buried, knowing I gave him everything of me, even during those last rocky months, despite knowing he wasn't the man he once was."
"What happens if you're finally convinced he is who he says he is?"
The woman shrugged. "I guess we'll come to that bridge when we cross it. And I don't plan on crossing any bridges without you beside me."
David regarded her carefully. "What about Joshua? Would you deny either of them knowing about the other?"
Kaly shifted, easing away from him minutely while sighing. He let his arm fall from her body, but she caught it before it went too far, wrapping it around her waist as she adjusted herself so that she faced him while on her knees. She wanted him to be able to see her clearly, to know that she felt this as deeply as anything.
"I wouldn't dream of being such a heinous bitch as keeping a father from knowing his son, or vice versa. You know I plan to tell Joshua who his biological father is when the time is right, and should we cross that bridge about this creep truly being Conner, then we'll deal with explaining about Joshua." A smile crossed her mouth, her blue eyes clear. "But as far as I'm concerned, his real father has been with him all along. His real father has been there for diaper changes and middle-of-the-night feedings, been there to handle slight colds and days of an upset stomach, been there to see his first smile, to raise him as his own without once saying he's not, and to make him feel safe and loved." She laid her palm against his cheek, adding in a whisper, "My son might be another's by blood, but his father will always be the man who loves him like no one else ever could."
