Kayla hadn’t the slightest idea where she was. She just hoped Steve did, because he was all she had to go on. She’d fished the quarter out of her purse the minute he turned his back and worked at lightning speed to keep him in her sights while pocketing the locker key. She had to be on the top of her game from the word go, because as soon as he was out the front doors he took off at a run before he changed his mind about sending her home.
The sun had just set, and the overcast skies did nothing to illuminate the dusk, so it had gotten a lot darker just in the short time that they were inside the station. Before Kayla had a moment to get her bearings Steve had hopped over the cement pylons separating the single-file line of busses from the traffic. It hadn’t been difficult to follow him out and stay hidden amongst the tall columns supporting the massive stone building, but once away from their protective camoflauge she really had to focus. She was keeping him at a safe distance at that point and was able to use the darkness and traffic noise to her advantage, which was critical when she followed him over the Chicago River. The Jackson Street Bridge was long and open with nowhere to hide – and it was an awfully long way down – but there were enough evening commuters all going the opposite direction than they were walking to conceal her, so between that and the dark she had good cover. Once they’d cleared the bridge, however, it became a lot harder. He seemed to take one turn after another, so her directional awareness was shot.
Kayla was running out of breath. They’d been at this cat and mouse game so long now that she wondered if maybe he knew she was there and was playing with her. He’d just crossed yet another street, leaving her on the curb, when a large truck stopped in front of her, blocking her view of him. She got a very bad feeling very quickly and wisely chose not to wait for the light and ran around the back of it, her cover be damned. It was too late, though, because Steve was gone.
“Sh*t, sh*t.” Kayla threaded her way through the stopped cars and looked in all directions. Where did he go?! He couldn’t have gone far, it was just a few seconds that he was out of her eyeshot. She resisted the temptation to scream Steve’s name and instinctively ran … to where she had no idea, she just blindly ran. It didn’t take long for her to reach the mouth of an alley, and she just knew he’d ducked inside. It was a complete unknown in there. It was dark, it was narrow, and it was still wet from the earlier downpour, but if she didn’t go right now, she was going to lose him (if she hadn’t already). She told herself not to panic and thought for a moment about just going back to his room. But she didn’t have a key, and that meant loitering outside his door. Maybe wait at Murphy’s? But what if he jumped in without her? She felt him slipping away and had to make a decision this second. She took a quick look around, and it was suddenly very deserted. Fear rippled through her, and she got angry with herself. “You’re a grown woman, Kayla,” she scolded. She made sure her purse was secure across her body and entered the alley.
Whereas the city blocks were lit up and open, the alley was dark and confining. It didn’t matter how old she was, this was a creepy place, and an immediate sense of foreboding slid through her like ice. No time to process, she had to get eyes on her husband. Assuming he was even here. The two buidlings on either side of her forming this alley were not skyscrapers, they were made of brick instead of concrete, and they had several bricked over areas that clearly had once been windows before their view was rendered pointless. She willed her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but she didn’t see him and was half sure he hadn’t even come in here in the first place. She was ready to scream his name when she finally saw a glint of blonde several yards away in what looked like some kind of doorway. “Oh, thank God,” she said out loud. She ran faster, and when she got there it wasn’t a doorway but another alley from another intersecting building. This one, however, had a visible dead end at an imposing chain link fence meant to prevent exactly what Steve was now doing – sneaking through it.
Not for the faint of heart, dark and dingy alleys of Chicago like this one were like a subterranean alternate universe that only a handful of people truly understood: City planners, Steets & Sanitation workers, career delivery drivers … and people like Steve, who used this area to conduct business under the table. There was a very clear element of danger beyond that fence that screamed keep out as clearly as if it had a voice. The rank odor of unwashed bodies emanating from the shocking throng of homeless people on the other side of that fence wasn’t the only deterrent, there was also a distinct aura of malevolence back there. Like a dark, seedy portal to the underworld. And she did not want to go in there. Kayla was hiding in the shadows of a small recess created by the backdoor of a Chinese take-out when Steve glanced her way sharply. She wasn’t sure what made him suddenly turn torward her, but she froze and hoped the shadows were concealing her. “Crap,” she whispered, her pulse racing. She took a chance to slowly peer out and breathed a sigh of relief that he’d climbed through the slashed gap in the chain links instead of heading toward her. Now she had to make a decision, follow or not. Her instinct was telling her to stay put, but it didn’t feel right. Steve was already through the fence, and the idea of losing sight of him after all of this felt like a very clear mistake. “Come on, come on,” she said, willing him to come back out and make her decision for her. It was not to be, however. Kayla exhaled heavily and started moving.
Pressing through the chain link fence was harder than it looked, because the give wasn’t very significant. Once on the other side, it was like another world where she was sure the swamp thing lived. Or giant rats. Or both. In any event, the creepy environment made her very nervous. The fact that Steve had disappeared again and was literally nowhere to be seen made it worse. Kayla was more or less invisible to most of the homeless, as they were in their own worlds consisting of boxes, sleeping bags, blankets, newspapers, or just their own heads. It really gave her serious pause to see them. They were filthy, unmedicated, and in real need. She hadn’t had one-on-one interaction with people like this since her days at the Emergency Center, and she felt a very strange sense of abashment about it. Almost selfish. There was a time that all she wanted to do was help people like this, and in 2009 she was too busy trying to be an administrator to remember that … help was needed for people like this.
There was one pool of light illuminating a homeless man who’d started coughing that caught Kayla’s attention. He saw her and wolf whistled. Then another whistle came from the darkness. She jerked her head toward the sound of it but saw no indication of who it belonged to. When she turned back Steve was inches in front of her, dangerous anger spread across his face.
“Jesus!” she barked and jumped back, her heart startled into an unnatural position in her throat.
“He’s not here,” a homeless woman slurred in a pronounced smoker’s voice. Kayla’s eyes shifted toward the direction of the voice unable to ignore the pang of sympathy, then looked immediately back to Steve. He was about ready to throw a solar flare.
“Hi,” Kayla said with a shaky, nervous titter.
“Hi?” he threw back at her through clenched teeth. “That what you’ve got to say, hi?” He grabbed her by her upper arms and drew her shoulders up roughly. “What the f*ck are you doin’ here, little girl?”
“Not happy to see me, then,” she said mainly to herself as she glanced back off toward the homeless people.
“Not by a long shot, goddammit!”
Kayla thought about staying tight-lipped, but the jig was up, so why bother? “Did you really expect me to go quietly?”
“I expected you to get on the damn bus when I told you to! I expected you to give up by now!”
Kayla’s mouth fell open in surprise “You knew I was following you?”
Steve smirked. “Please, I had you made on the bridge.” Kayla was annoyed. That was a lot of stealth for nothing. “Thought I’d finally lost you when I came in here, that you’d do the smart thing and go-back-to-the-BUS!” Steve finally released her and took a step back before turning from her, livid. She ignored him to get to the important information.
“Last night, you said you weren’t in any trouble,” she pointed accusingly. “No off-the-books deals.”
“Yeah? Well newsflash, baby, I lied!”
“So, that’s what this is? Some kind of job?”
“You don’t think I come down here for my health, do you?”
She exhaled with frustrated concern. “I wish you would have told me.”
“Are you serious? I don’t owe you my life’s story, baby!”
“Ok, fine. So what job is this?”
“The kind you don’t need to know about!”
Even speaking with low tones, their shouts were clear. “I do need to know, and you’re just going to have to trust me.”
“Who died and made you my keeper?!”
“I am your keeper,” she snapped, “now I know you don’t understand, but I am trying to look out for you!”
Steve’s eye widened, and he took a step back with his arms out. “Look out for me? I don’t know what kind of demented dreams you’ve got, and I don’t know if you were born with ‘em or if baby brother planted ‘em there, but I don’t need you to look out for me. I don’t need you, and I don’t want you!”
“Really?” She tried not to sound hurt, but she did, and Steve hated it. He gave her a yes, really nod of his head.
Kayla clicked her tongue but then plowed on. “We need to get out of here right now!”
“Yeah, well I’ve got a job to finish, so that’s not happening.”
“Why? Why can’t you just come with me right now, go back to the room?”
“The room?” You mean my room? The one you’re gonna be squattin’ in for a second night in a row?” Kayla crossed her arms defiantly. “You’re a thick-headed, stubborn—” The sound of footsteps shuffling toward them cut the conversation very short.
Steve craned his neck and got antsy. “Sh*t.” The look in his eye was very clear; her being here was a bad thing.
Kayla rubbed at her forehead with acknowledgment. “Trouble?” she asked with some humility.
“Not if you stay out of sight.” He looked around. There was nowhere for her to hide. Steve couldn’t believe he had to deal with this. He was almost sure she would try to follow him, but when he didn’t immediately see her he thought he’d really succeeded in getting rid of her. He’d pushed the disappointment away, because it’s not like there was a chance in hell that it could be any other way. But then he looked over his shoulder on the bridge, and there she was. She’d had him in her sights the whole time, he knew she did. Damn if she wasn’t sneaky as hell. She was looking down over the railing she’d been hugging against just at the moment he’d spotted her, so she didn’t see him connect, but when he did he about flipped his lid. Anger, relief, and a surge in his belly that felt a whole lot like excited anticipation. All of which he plowed through to start walking a hell of a lot faster. After that truck blocked her view he’d ducked into the alley fast and thought that was really the last he was going to see her. But now here she was. He knew the kind of people he was dealing with, and Kayla was exactly the person he didn’t want wrapped up in it all.
Steve saw that his contact was approaching the fence and had already spotted them. He took a lightning quick double step before turning to face her again.
“You don’t say a word,” he warned.
Kayla tugged on his arm. “Let’s just go, Steve. Please.”
“And don’t you call me that here,” he hissed. You got me?”
Kayla threw up her arms in defeat. “Yeah,” she acceded and looked down at the ground over her refolded arms.
“I need you to put on your listening ears,” he patronized like she was four.
“I’m not a child,” she barely whispered.
“You’re a goddamned little girl not gettin’ her way,” he growled “Now you’ve gone and made yourself my problem when I’ve got enough problems!” Kayla glared at him. “For once, just trust me, Sweetness.”
Kayla felt that angry use of Sweetness in ways this Steve was not going to understand. “I do trust you.”
“Then do what I say,” he ordered.
Kayla nodded. Then very quietly as the man slid through the fence she whispered, “Steve?”
“What?!” He’d only really mouthed this angry reaction to her use of his name.
“Be careful.” She’d said this to him a hundred times in their lifetime, but it was the first time this Steve had heard it. All he could do was look at her and wish she’d gotten on that bus. He did soften though, she could see in it in his eye.
Kayla watched as the man strode over, a surprised look on his face, clearly not having expected Steve to have any company with him beyond the sleeping homeless around them. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of him, because he was kind of familiar.
“Patch!” he called out. The voice was as familiar as the face, but she wasn’t placing him. Is it possible she might have crossed paths with him? She must be imagining things. Maybe in Salem, but here in Chicago it was really unlikely. Steve gave him a nod. He was half a head shorter than Steve with black hair and a leather jacket, and his voice sounded like he was something straight out of Don Corleone’s organization. It was when Steve called the man Werner that she placed him and remembered the gems from Stockholm.
This guy was really bad news.
He’d stabbed Steve years ago over stolen emeralds her husband had really, truly tried to walk away from. It was her interference that had caused that assault – a chill ran through her. It came to her in a rush that this was all wrong now. Whatever deal this was, it was supposed to happen last night, not tonight. The impact of her actions, keeping the emeralds from Steve so he couldn’t hand them over to this man meant he got stabbed. But now the stakes were a lot higher. She had no idea what the impact of her being here and preventing last night’s deal was going to mean for the slipstream. All she knew was that so far she was still there, Steve still wasn’t, and events were now happening either a day later than they should or differently; either way, nothing good was coming out of any of this.
All of this went on in Kayla’s hindbrain in the moments the two acknowledged each other.
Steve stood in a protective stance beside and just in front of Kayla, slightly overlapping her.
“Well aren’t you gonna introudce me to your luscious friend?”
“Kayla, this is Werner,” he said warily.
“Hi,” she nodded in a soft but neutral voice.
“Well, hello, baby doll.” Steve didn’t like how Werner was sizing her up and down. “She your secretary?”
“Let’s get to it, you got the delivery?”
Just Werner’s eyes shifted from Kayla to Steve. “Not sure I know what you’re talkin’ about with your lady friend around, Patch.”
Steve shifted a bit. “She’s fine.”
“Oh yeah? ‘Cause, see, I wasn’t expectin’ her.” Kayla tried very hard to render herself invisible.
“She’s fine, Werner,” he repeated. “Friend of a friend.”
“Oh, friend of a friend, well … in that case … ‘Cause, ya know, for a minute there I thought you were goin’ for the big impression. Only she doesn’t seem like your type.”
“That’s enough.”
“I get it now.” Then he asked Kayla, “You got any friends in that high-priced business you got goin’?”
That Werner had just called Kayla a hooker made Steve’s blood boil. “That’s enough of the sleezeball act, we both know you’ve only got one thing on your mind, and that’s money! So, just hand over the stuff, and I’ll get it where it needs to go!”
Werner looked her up and down, and it looked to Kayla like he was assessing her or something. When he tried to touch Kayla’s hair Steve slapped the man’s hand away, and she stepped back.
“Lay off!”
“Relax, I’m just lookin’ at her.” He shifted his weight back and forth in a show of pompousness. “She’s interesting. Boss might change his mind if you’re takin’ her with ya, know what I mean?”
“No, I don’t know what you mean,” Steve shot him a warning look, “so just leave her out of this.”
Werner shifted his weight some more, then settled into a posture that looked so much like a ridiculous Fonzie imitation that Kayla almost cracked a smile. But she didn’t, because there was nothing funny going on here. “Look,” he exhaled with serious attitude, “I like ya, Patch. But it ain’t up to me. Boss says you’re done; sent me to break the news.”
“Oh, and why’s that?”
“Drop was yesterday.”
“So the f*ck what? You ever hear of sick days?”
“Why, were you sick?” he winked.
“I told you last night I was good for it. I’m here aren’t I?”
“Day late and a dollar short, pal. But with your lady friend, here …” Werner rubbed at his chin and raised his eyebrows.
“Oh hell no.”
“… who’s gonna stop a guy with an innocent lookin’ angel like that! You two can start makin’ the drops, boss will love that …”
“I said no!”
“… Got some hot diamonds comin’ up next week.”
“Do you see my lips movin’, Werner?!”
“Diamonds?” Kayla blurted. “Is it always gems with him, then?”
Steve and Werner both looked at her, and she told herself to shut her damn mouth. Too late.
The banter between the two men had become a lot less civil, and her interjection did nothing to help anyone’s cause.
“You been flappin’ your gums?” Werner accused, smarmy pretense gone, he was all business now.
Kayla immediately took over to clean up this mess she was making. “St—he hasn’t said anything to me. I just like diamonds. I am a girl.”
Werner wasn’t buying it. He closed the distance between himself and Steve, who spread his arm protectively to push Kayla behind him. Steve didn’t retreat, however. The two men postured, and Kayla tried to figure out something to say.
“You’re a mule, Patch, not a recruiter. You don’t bring the dames with, ya leave the money on the dresser and come alone!”
Steve straightened to his full height. “She’s not like that,” he warned in his lower octave. “Now, don’t you be startin’ somethin’ you can’t finish.”
“Pal, you’re the one who started it by not showin’ up last night,” the enforcer said. “Now you leave me no choice but to finish it like the boss sent me to. Now ‘cause I like ya, and the dame’s easy on the eyes, I’m gonna just give you a warning, tell the boss it all went down good.” Werner began to turn away, but then at the last minute, he turned and punched Steve so hard in the stomach that he doubled over and fell to his knees. Kayla started to shout his name, but something in her made her heed Steve’s warning not to use it. But she wasn’t about to call him Patch, either. She fell to her knees and tried to shield him, it’s just what came naturally, but Werner nudged her out of the way with his knee. It wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t a violent shove, either. Somewhere she recognized that his beef wasn’t with her and that he just wanted her out of the way so he could have a clear shot at beating Steve up.
Which he did.
“How ‘bout we not get your pretty face in the way of my boot, heh?” Then before Steve even had air in his lungs from the sucker punch, Werner kicked him in the side. Steve gasped.
“No!” Kayla cried out, “Help!”
Werner kicked Steve twice more, then shot out his hand and grabbed Kayla’s bad arm. Now Kayla really cried out. “Quiet, you. You make another sound and I’ll put out your boyfriend’s other eye.” Steve was waving one hand up in a feeble attempt to remove him from Kayla’s proximity, but the control of all this had now shifted from Steve to Kayla, and this was now up to her.
“Please,” Kayla said quietly through the pain. “Just let us go, and you won’t have to deal with either of us ever again.”
“Get your hands off her, motherf*cker!” Steve gapsed out.
Werner chuckled. “Since you asked me so nicely …” He let go of her arm and watched her rub at it. Then he grabbed Steve by the front of his shirt while Kayla was crouched beside him and bodily dragged him to his feet. Steve’s patch had gone askew, and Kayla cried inside when she watched him desperately try to adjust it. Steve seethed in heavy gulps of air and would have pummeled the man if he’d had just a few more moments to recover. “Since you didn’t ask nicely at all …” Werner punched him several more times in the ribs, causing Steve to lose his breath over and over. Kayla tried to pull Werner off of her husband, but he shoved her away hard until she fell over a homeless man who didn’t appreciate it, re-pushing her off of him into her second mud puddle of the jump. Before Kayla could get back to them, Werner landed a punch hard across the chin one last time. When Kayla heard the crack of his head against the brick wall his backward momentum flung him into, she couldn’t help the scream that escaped from her throat and reverberated through the natural echo chamber of the narrow alleys. The collection of homeless people didn’t do much but look on. Steve fell to his knees, trying to fill his lungs, and Kayla fell with him. She held on to him from behind, and he let her. Werner squatted down beside them resting his arms on his knees.
“You don’t know me. You never met me. Get the picture?” the criminal said directly to Kayla.
In answer she leveled a stare at him that was nothing short of a solemn promise. “See you in Stockholm.”
Werner had never been to Stockholm and didn’t know what she was talking about. But something in Kayla’s tone made him a lot more uneasy than he’d have guessed an innocent, angel-faced girl could make him feel. He stood up, backed out of the enclave, stepped over two homeless people, and darted out through the hole in the fence. “See ya, Patch,” he spat hastily from a cowardly distance. Because it wasn’t him Werner was afraid of, it was her. “Nice doin’ business with ya.” Then he scurried away. That was the last time either of them would see Werner on this jump.
“Steve?!” Kayla took his hand. “Oh God, Steve! Baby!”
“I’m fine,” he wheezed and tried to get up. That shove against the wall was hard, though, and he was still seeing stars.
Kayla was leaving wife mode and entering doctor mode real fast. “You’re not fine, Steve, you need an ambulance.” In her current surroundings, however, she had no idea how to get one there and wished not for the first or last time that she had a cellphone.
Pain licked at him, but he wasn’t sure if it was real, everything around him was getting fuzzy, like a dream.
“Nooo, no, no, no, baby, come on, you need to stay awake!” she shouted. “Steve!” His progression to unconsciousness had to be stopped, because she could not drag him out of there herself.
Kayla continued yelling his name. At least he wasn’t bleeding.
“Steve! Open your eyes, and look at me! Steve!”
“Eye, baby, just one. Stop all that hollerin’.”
Kayla sighed in relief. “You need an ambulance!”
“No!” That got a much more alert reaction. “No ambulance!” His ribs were killing him, not to mention every other place Werner’s fist connected with.
Now, this was the Steve Kayla remembered. “You’re hurt, you need a doctor!”
“I said no! I’m fine, it’s just a couple of bumps and bruises.” And they hurt like hell. “I don’t want a doctor!” He tried to get up, but the pain made him slump against Kayla and wince.”
“Easy, easy,” she said soothingly. “Ok, fine, I don’t want to argue. I’ll doctor you. Come on, lean on me.”
Steve was beyond the ability to control any of this, so he gave in and let her get him up. He felt light-headed immediately and almost passed out, but somehow between the two of them he was able to stay on his feet. Kayla had her right arm wrapped around him and brought her palm up to run her fingers over the back of his head to check for bleeding.
“That hurts like a bitch, baby,” he eeked out.
“I know, I’m sorry,” she said with that gently sympathetic yet in charge doctor voice of hers. “Do you remember how to get out of here?”
“Oooh, you askin’ if we’re lost? You scared the boogeyman’s gonna get ya?”
“No, I’m asking if you remember the way out or if I’m going to have to consult a compass,” she snarked back.
Steve smiled. “Yeah, I know the way.” Then he glanced at her sideways. “That’s what you get for followin’ me instead of goin’ home.”
“It’s not my fault you …” only she stopped herself, because …
“Oh, it sure as sh*t is, baby!”
Kayla stopped and looked at him, guilt written all over that beautiful face of hers. “You’re right,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.” The tears came on fast, and Steve got very anxious. He had no idea what to do with a crying female.
“Kayla …”
“I know you don’t understand, but this is bad,” she squeaked.
“Yeah, uh … look, it’s just a job, Sweetness, there are more where that one came from, it’s—I was bored of the gem business, anyway.” Kayla sank her head into her hand. “Come on now, it’s ok. I’m … I’m not mad at ya.”
“No, you are.”
“Ok, I’m not that mad at ya.”
“Well, you should be. You’re going to be.” He was still leaning against her. She was still crying. “I know. I screwed up.”
Steve straightened some and looked at her. The intense blue of her eyes shone even in the darkness, and he wanted to lose himself in them. In her lips. In her genuineness. “You’re apologizing?”
She nodded and swiped her fingers across her cheeks. “This isn’t the way this was supposed to happen. I … shouldn’t have come. I couldn’t help it.” She shrugged. “I hope you’ll forgive me …” when you get here.
She was so vulnerable and honest in these statements that didn’t make exact sense to him – and he didn’t care that they didn’t. “You should have gotten on the bus,” he said.”
She shrugged again. “I shouldn’t have come at all. Damage is done now.”
Steve should have been angrier than he was, but the fact was that he was happy to see her. “Come here,” he whispered then covered her lips with his. It was so gentle. Unlike all of their previous kisses in this timeline, there wasn’t any sexual tension here. This one was about the true affection Steve was feeling for her in this moment. Kayla pulled back swiftly. “Your jaw,” she said and reached up to feel for alignment and assess damage.
Steve pulled her hands down. “Not feelin’ any pain there, Sweetness,” he assured her. She smiled a little. “Can’t say the same for the rest of me.” He coughed and wrapped his arm around himself.
“Steve, we have to get you home so I can examine you.” Dr. Johnson was back. “I mean it.”
The passageway was just wide enough to walk side by side, so Steve hugged himself against her as they stumbled through it. She felt so good holding him like this.
Half an hour later Kayla had somehow managed to get Steve into and back out of a cab and leaned against the wall of his building. He was a serious mess, and she wasn’t looking much better. As usual, he was a terrible patient and fought her when she tried to check him over in the cab, but she suspected cracked ribs. He was also showing every sign of a concussion, and that spiked Kayla’s anxiety. What if Steve jumped into a concussed brain? What would that do to him? She remembered what it was like jumping into her drunk body and hoped it would be the same, just another physical condition and not something that would impact his awareness. Steve swayed against the wall.
“Steve? Are you with me? Can you make it through that revolving door?” When all she got was a moan she went for broke, reached down to his crotch, and started rubbing his penis hard. Steve’s eye flew open, and looked at her with shock. “Got your attention?” All he could do was blink. “You get to collapse the minute we get to your room. Until then, you’ve got to stay with me. Ok?”
He cocked up one side of his mouth in a lopsided smile. “I think you missed a spot.”
Kayla swatted his cheek. “There’s the Steve I know,” she smiled. “You can do it, come on.”
By some miracle, they got through the door, into the elevator, and up to the room without much notice. Kayla had to dig into Steve’s skin tight pockets for the key, which elicited some more choice words that she encouraged so that he wouldn’t drop before she got him into bed. As it turns out, she had nothing to worry about, as he was alert now and ready for a fight.
“Ok, I’m back, now you go back to the bus.”
“It’s almost 10:00, the bus is long gone, and someone’s got to check you over if you won’t go to the ER,” Kayla said as she pulled off his boots.
“I can take care of myself!” Only he was cooperating with every move she made. She pulled on his boots, he provided the backward tension to allow her to get them off. She tugged on his jacket sleeve, he pulled his arm out of it. When she tried to lift his shirt, however, he grunted with pain.
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry,” she said gently.
Did you just call me baby?
Yes. And you love it.
Steve’s heart fluttered beneath the searing pain. “I don’t need your Florence Nightengale act,” he tried, but his head was really pounding, and he couldn’t have sounded less persuasive if he tried. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”
Kayla didn’t reply. He was right. Just being here was wrong, but then her actions in the alley, reacting to Werner – she just knew that she was the one who’d got him beaten up. She knew he was protecting her, and if only she hadn’t had been there, or at least kept her mouth shut, Werner wouldn’t have beaten him up. Every action she’d taken was wrong for the timeline … but it was right for them.
Kayla’s introspection made Steve uneasy, so he sniggered as best he could through the pounding in his head. She didn’t reply to that, either, and instead tried to get his shirt off. “I’m checking you over whether you like it or not,” she said softly.
Steve gave up and nodded.
Kayla checked her husband’s sweaty body, and because she knew him so well knew exactly what was in the most pain whether he allowed himself to react to the tender spots she’d pressed on or not. At one point, though, he did suck in a breath, and Kayla’s heart flipped. Steve!
“Anybody ever tell you your bedside manner sucks, baby?!”
As quickly as her heart flipped, it now fell in disappointment. “Yes,” she said softly, “you’ve told me more times than nature intended.” Steve didn’t understand a word of that, but he wasn’t exactly processing right now, anyway, he’d become dizzy. Kayla watched his eye lose focus. “You’ve got some bruised ribs, and a concussion.”
“Goody.”
“Sleep, ok? I’ll take care of you.”
“What are you gonna take care of?” he slurred with obvious prurience. Kayla smirked. “You just wanna kiss my booboo when I’m not lookin’.”
“Yep, that must be it.”
“Well, that’s not the only thing that might need kissin’, baby.” He was trying to be lewd, but the desired delivery was seriously muddled by the fact that his head was trying to explode.
“Shh. Your body needs rest.”
“Yeah, I won’t be owin’ old Werner any favors,” he slurred.
“Or me,” she whispered. Steve opened his eye to a slit. He felt like serious sh*t, but Kayla sitting by his side, despite any contribution she had to getting him this way, was a comfort. He needed her to leave and hoped to God she didn’t. “Oh, Steve, I’m so sorry.” It was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness for the rest of the night. In those final moments, however, Steve heard far more than remorse in her voice. He heard the sweetest, most tender affection. He’d have gone through a lot more than this to protect her. Then he was out.
Kayla used a washcloth to wipe the dirt and sweat off her husband. He slept through all of it, including when she cleaned the dirt around both his eyes; he would have fought her on that one and won had he been awake; what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Her bag was still at Union Station. She didn’t care about Frank or Ray or the big, scary city Steve seemed to think she couldn’t handle, so she would have been happy to go back and get it, but with the concussion she knew Steve had to be watched for a day. So she was pretty stuck and would have to make do. Steve didn’t know her, but she knew him and, therefore, had little if any modesty, so she stripped off her filthy clothes, washed up, and put on one of Steve’s shirts, which was long on her. She then spent the next four hours watching him carefully, monitoring his heart rate and his breathing. He was holding his own for a little while, but in the middle of the night he’d started to wake up confused, his brain addled by the concussion. She’d been watching the one and only option in late night programming from the chair but was startled when Steve started babbling. Kayla went to sit next to him on the bed and held his hand.
“Did you take my train?” he asked greatly distraught.
“Shh, it’s ok.”
“It’s mine!”
“Ok, it’s ok.”
“Don’t take my train.” He was almost weepy. She hated hearing him like this.
Kayla shook her head. She looked like an angel to him with her hair framing her face messily. “I won’t take it. I promise.”
Suddenly, Steve’s eye cleared for just a moment, the heavenly sight transforming into Kayla beside him. He was never so relieved to see anyone in his entire life.
“Sweetness …” he mumbled.
Kayla held her husband’s palm to her cheek. “Yeah,” she smiled. “I’m your Sweetness. I’ll always be your Sweetness.”
At this vulnerable moment, Steve had never wanted anything more than for that statement to be true. “You’re right. You’re not a little girl.”
“Hmmp,” she grinned. “Remember that when your head clears,” she smiled. “Now go back to sleep.” So, he did.
Kayla was exhausted and didn’t bother getting back into the chair.
Steve opened his eye to a shaft of bright sunlight streaming in through the gap in the curtains that were still drawn. When he looked at the clock it said it was after 2:00. That couldn’t be right, it was broad daylight out there. That’s when he realized Kayla was laying beside him, her arm draped protectively across his chest. She was completely uncovered and wore one of his button-down shirts … and nothing else.
He could smell the shampoo from here. When had she showered? It was slow in coming, but it dawned on him that it was the middle of the afternoon. The events of last night came rushing into him, and he dragged a hand down over his face. She was still here. She hadn’t gone home. What the hell was he going to do with her?
Steve watched her continue to sleep. He had a hard time being mad. He leaned over and pulled the covers up over her sleeping form, then placed a kiss on her cheek before hoisting himself up into a sitting position. Which hurt, so he sucked in a good bit of air in the process.
The sounds of arrival were hard coded into both of them, and in this tail end of sleep, they woke Kayla right up. When she leaned up on her arms quickly, Steve startled. She looked at him with a kind of desperation. “Steve? Is that you? Do you remember Stockholm?”
“Yeah,” he rasped with serious confusion.
“You do?! So …”
“So … ?”
“So, Twenty Questions?” she asked with a bitterly hopeful tone that was utterly disappointed.
“Are you sure you’re not the one with the bump on the head?” When she just blinked at him he let his eye skim over her and then back to her big blue ones still staring at him and added, “I thought you said no more games.”
Kayla’s eyes filled with tears. “Nevermind,” she said softly.
Steve dropped the attitude. He didn’t know what to say to her.
Maybe it was the stress of the last 48 hours. Maybe it was the grief of her broken heart. Or maybe it was waking up next to him this way or a combination of all three. But in this moment, Kayla missed her husband so badly that she felt positively ill. He was right there, laying with her in this bed. Only he wasn’t. It was so cruel.
“How do you feel?” she asked with such melancholy in her voice.
Steve only stared. He wanted her. She was right here half naked in his bed, and he wanted her. He wanted to bed her, and he had the ramrod straight cock to prove it. But more than that, he wanted to erase the pain that was making her cry. She was so sexy and vulnerable, and he couldn’t imagine how she was actually in this bed with him; but she was, and she was crying, and he wanted to make the pain go away.
“Steve, I asked you how you feel.”
In answer he lowered his lips onto hers and kissed her slowly and tenderly. His kisses were sweet and consoling,
There were no words. Only lips and soft hands touching each other in tender ways that no one who knew Steve today would have guessed he was capable of. But he was. He was very capable of the gentle affection that he was showing her right now. Because it was this very kind of closeness and tenderness that he had craved his whole life but rarely received. Now Kayla was here giving it to him and had been since the moment she’d come into his life. Somehow she had known what was inside of him better than he did, not that he was ready to admit that. But she moved him. And he had to make her sadness stop.
Kayla knew primary Steve was not in there, but his essence sure was, and she felt it here in this bed, comforting her and wordlessly telling her not to cry. She took his comfort and smiled. Steve smiled back. It was one of the few honest smiles he’d given her since she arrived two days ago.
“Are you better?” he asked in that velvet voice of his.
Kayla nodded her head. “That was some kiss.” They were sitting up in bed, Steve shirtless, Kayla pantless, both of them under the blanket.
“I have an important question.” Kayla tilted her head waiting for it. “Are you wearing any panties under that shirt, baby?” The flush that hit her cheeks was the cutest thing Steve had ever seen. Innocent but sexy as her hair curled wildly about her face.
“Yes, smart ass, I’m wearing panties,” she emphasized for some reason but was glad she did when she saw his face react. “And a bra, sorry to disappoint you.”
“Oh, I’m not disappointed,” he said, meeting her banter.
“You’re not?”
“Nah, I don’t wanna go and forget any fun we may have had.”
Kayla smirked. “Well, your memory is already failing you.”
“You mean the groping?” Kayla flushed again. “I remember that,” he smoldered at her, enjoying the pink in her cheeks.
“I was trying to keep you conscious!”
“Yeah, well that worked. Wanna keep me conscious some more?”
She did, actually. Instead she picked up her original conversation of the day. “Tell me how you’re feeling, please?” she implored him. “You weren’t in good shape last night, and unless you want me to call 911 with that phone over there, you need to tell me what’s going on inside your body.”
“Wanna find out yourself?” he teased.
“Will you be serious! Do you hurt anywhere or not? How’s your head?”
“You’re asking about my head and want me to be serious?” Kayla rolled her eyes and then rolled herself out of bed. Steve blew out a breath at the sight of her. “Jesus, Kayla, you look – my shirt looks – good on you.”
“I’m going to the phone,” she bluffed as she headed over to the ancient thing.
“How’d you get that way?” he ignored her.
“What way?”
“Wearin’ my shirt.”
Kayla gave up the bluff and crossed her arms across her chest, suddenly more modest than she thought. “I got myself this way after my outfit got as filthy as you did in the alley.”
The alley. Right, he thought. Dammit. He was letting his desire cloud the fact that she was supposed to be back in Salem by now and this whole thing was her fault. Kayla saw it when his disposition changed. Steve stood up on the other side of the bed and pointed at her accusingly, the sexy banter over.
“I bought you a bus ticket, Kayla. You were supposed to go home.”
“How about, ‘Thanks for taking care of me, Sweetness?’”
“Thanks for taking care of me, Sweetness. Why the f*ck didn’t you go home?”
“I told you I wouldn’t, so why the f*ck did you bother?”
“Nice fuckin’ talk.”
“Nice fuckin’ gratitude.”
“Gratitude?! If you weren’t here, I’d’ve made the drop yesterday!”
“You mean the day before?”
“That how long you’ve been here? And then I wouldn’t have gotten the sh*t kicked out of me!”
“I already apologized, or did you forget that?”
Steve made an irate sound and started rubbing the back of his head. Kayla turned on a dime. “Does it hurt?” She went to him. “ Please,” she asked him, “I really need to know.”
“Little headache, that’s it.”
“Let me feel, please.” He complied and sat down on the bed so that she could see it. Her hands felt good on him. She checked his ribs, too, and she was positive now that there were no cracks, just some bad bruising. She went to the bathroom and gave him some of the Tylenol that seemed to be a real staple of this jump and told him he was lucky the injuries weren’t worse.
Steve opened the window and let the fresh air in. He fired up the camping stove and grabbed what he needed out of the closet. He made them pasta, and she still marveled at what he was able to cook without so much as an oven. She started re-wrapping her wrist, Steve finished it, and then they ate dinner as they talked more about the events of last night. Steve had to hand it to her, she was a real bulldog. Clever. He couldn’t believe she’d managed to stash her bag and follow him out without losing him. When they were finished he sat her down on the edge of the bed and tried one last time to get her to go home.
“Kayla. You don’t belong here, baby.”
“You’re right,” she nodded calmly. “I shouldn’t have come at all, I know that now. But I had to do it.”
“I want you to go home,” he lied.
“I don’t believe that you don’t want me.”
“Don’t you flutter those eyelashes at me, Sweetness, I know what you’re doing, I just don’t know why.”
“I’m not fluttering, and I told you as much as I’m gonna tell you, so you may as well just accept it.”
“Accept it? That you’re my keeper? I should just accept that?” They were facing each other on the edge of the bed arguing in a way indistinguishable from an old married couple.
“I—it’s not what you’re trying to make it sound like, Steve. I just …” she took his hand and gently kissed his knuckles. It sent shivers up his spine that seriously challenged his resolve. “… know how things are going to go, and the choices—”
“You are so goddamn arrogant,” Steve interrupted her.
“What?” Now she was annoyed and dropped his hand.
“You think anyone can just make a choice and live all happy.”
“Yes, I do,” she replied.
“Maybe you can, but not me.”
“Yes you can, it’s very easy, you just do it.”
“No. I don’t. I just take it one day at a time, one job at a time, and survive.”
“No,” she was insistent. Things can change!”
Now Steve was riled up. He moved against Kayla so that she had to move herself back on the bed until eventually he’d started crawling up her legs as she leaned back on her elbows.
“I’m a bad boy, Kayla.” He wasn’t being seductive, he was being dark.
“You’re a good man,” she insisted even as his eye burned with desire.
“No, I’m not. I’m not the man you bring home to mommy and daddy, I’m the man they tell you to run away from.” Before she could reply he bent his head down and kissed her belly through his shirt, the fact that it was his shirt on her body sexy as hell. He unbuttoned it from the bottom and she let him.
“I don’t let bad men undress me,” she said, her breathing heavier.
“Oh yes you do, because I’m a bad man, and that’s exactly what I’m doin’. He opened the shirt up to reveal her perfect breasts in their bra “And now you let ‘em touch you, too.” He slid a finger down over the rise of her right breast and was shocked that she didn’t stop him when he reached in and fondled the bare, warm skin against his palm. But the desire was radiating from the inside of Kayla out, and he felt it.
Kayla also felt Steve’s penis hard against her upper thigh and ground herself against it, wanting it to show her the physical love she’d been needing from him for so long.
“Why are you letting me do this?” he whispered.
“Because,” she whimpered, “I’m yours.”
Steve had no more willpower left, he had to have her. He had to sink himself into her and and feel what her tight wetness was going to feel like surrounding him. He kissed her wildly, and she kissed him back. He was still on top of her and now dragged his kisses from her lips, down her neck, and onto her breast before taking her erect nipple into his mouth and sucking it.
Kayla was lost in her husband trying to consume her. The sensations were erotic and lusty, and she wanted to hear him tell her he loved her.
Steve shifted so that he was sitting on the bed and wished his jeans were off. He unbuttoned them so that his erection could escape its painful confines, then pulled Kayla to sit astride him. She closed her eyes and let her head loll back when his lips met the taught nub of her one nipple, again, then the other, his tongue licking at them and enjoying how hard they were in his mouth.
He was touching her. He was really touching her. “Kayla,” he moaned, “mmm … need you …,” he gasped between kisses. “I need you, Sweetness.”
Something in the way Kayla reacted to him – how natural she felt in his arms – made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He realized that if he did this, he wasn’t going to be able to go back. He wouldn’t be able to love her and leave her. And he didn’t want to. He wanted to love her and … be loved back. Steve stopped what he was doing very abruptly.
The moment Steve stopped Kayla knew why. He was spooked.
“We can’t do this,” he said.
“Steve—” She knew he was right. But she missed her husband.
“I can’t do this.” Steve disengaged himself from her and stood up. “Don’t think I don’t want you. I do.” It was the last thing he said before he disappeared into the bathroom, which was the only place he could really go to get any space. He stood with his hand against the wall and pumped his hand over his cock. He was close to shooting his load. He desperately needed to release. But he stopped before the cum was able to leave his body. He had no idea why he was stopping, but it just felt … wrong. He’d just left a woman he cared about almost naked in his bed. Rejected her. The most beautiful, sweet, and kind woman he’d ever known. Because jerking off was safer. Because he was too scared to make love to her. He sat down on the closed toilet and forced himself to calm down.
In the meantime, Kayla felt suddenly very exposed. She had nothing but a filthy shirt and pants to her name now, and deep down, she knew what she was doing was wrong. Misguided at best. And she hated herself a little. She was so lonely for her own Steve that she was pushing this one beyond the limits of what he could handle. When she heard the shower go on, cold she assumed, she started digging in his drawers for something to wear. Unfortunately, all she found were skintight jeans for bottoms. She tried on every one of them, and they all went up fine until they hit her female hips, as this Steve was at least one size thinner than hers. She looked in every drawer, under the bed, and even in the closet, but there weren’t sweat pants, slacks, or even gym shorts. She didn’t hear him when he came out.
“Pickin’ through my laundry?”
She turned toward him. “I-I-I was just looking for something to wear. Pants, I mean.”
“No luck?” She shook her head. “That’s why I’m goin’ to go get your bag.”
“You shouldn’t leave, it hasn’t even been a whole day since the concussion.”
“I’m fine, dammit, do you have to argue with everything?” Kayla hated his tone. She knew this pushing her away thing better than she knew some of her own friends, but she felt very insecure, anyway. “Now you can’t stay like that,” he pointed his finger in circles, “forever, and I don’t have a ladies section.” His sarcasm was only increasing. “Now this is how it’s gonna be. I’m goin’ to get your goddamn bag. This the key?” He picked it up off the dresser.
“You see any other locker keys around here?”
“What number?” he ignored her.
She realized she had no idea. Steve threw up his hands. “Well that’s just great, baby,” he sniped at her.
“Don’t get all bitchy with me, Steven Earl Johnson,” she sniped right back.
“Bitchy?!”
“I’d know it if I saw it.”
“Well, you can’t very well go and see it, now, can you?!”
“Sorry, I was too busy saving your ass to file away the number!”
Steve grabbed one of the discarded pairs of jeans Kayla unsuccessfully tried to put on and pulled them on under the towel that was hanging around his waist, right in front of her. She looked away while he did, not out of modesty but out of anger. Did he know he’d be this infuriating when they discussed their lifelong whereabouts? She hoped she never jumped back here without him again. He slipped his last clean tank top over his head, pulled on a pair of socks and his boots, then opened the door.
“I dunno what I’m gonna do with you once I get back, but I’ll find the bag and be back fast. Don’t leave.”
Kayla’s mouth dropped open with a disparaging sound. “Where the hell am I gonna go?!”
“I’ve been askin’ you that for two days, little girl.”
He was back to little girl again. “I can’t believe how mean you are.”
“That’s right, I’m a mean son of a bitch.”
Kayla huffed out a humorless little boff. “You’re a bad liar.” More spooked than ever, Steve hastily walked out the door and slammed it behind him. “God,” she gasped to herself.
“Lock the f*cking door!” he yelled from the other side.
She turned both the locks. “I just did!”
“Good!” he said far more faintly from half way down the stairs.
Without thinking about it she slid the chain across for good measure then threw herself onto the bed and stewed in anger. This was a disaster. This was an absolute, unmitigated disaster. In the two days and three nights she’d been there she’d succeeded in changing just about everything in Steve’s life, her own life, the lives of the people they touched, and gotten him pummeled. She’d also engaged in all kinds of sexual activity that she knew was worng but felt right and was going to make Steve very jealous when he got there. An image of Steve making love to her in their car at home flashed in her mind, which reminded her of when they did the same thing in their Dodge Dart in 1979.
“Eleven days,” she said out loud. “I can’t do this for eleven days. How did you do it?” She knew how she did it, the destination version of her had fallen in love with him on day one, that’s how. “Well, if I know you, you’re in love with me, you just hate yourself.” She had it exactly right.
Kayla took her own shower and wondered if she jumped right now what would happen. They would have missed each other at a destination. She wasn’t sure what was better, missing him on a jump or staying in this one. All she knew for sure was that she missed her husband. Not just from his absence on this jump, but from his absence on the last several jumps. His refusal to face his grief over losing Emily was destroying them. The hot water mixed with her hot tears, until she was able to get past it for the moment.
She felt better once she was clean and did not relish putting any of those dirty clothes back onto her just showered body. She was pretty much past modesty with Steve at this point. So, she towel dried her hair, then wrapped it around herself. She sat in the chair to wait for him and her clean clothes when movement outside the window caught her attention. When she saw what it was she jumped back and screamed. Ray was on the fire escape watching her. He was literally just a few feet away, separated by the closed window. He took a long drag on his cigarette, then blew it at her. He took another drag. The look on his face was … frightening.
“Did you get him to do you yet?” he said loudly before exhaling the smoke up and to the right.
Kayla was frozen for just a moment. His voyeurism no longer potential but now reality. She was scared. The look on his face was a lot more malevolent than he’d looked before, and now Kayla really understood what Steve meant. Ray’s eyes suddenly focused on a specific spot on the window. When she realized what it was, the chill that ran through her was intentse. It was the latch. Neither she nor Steve remembered to re-lock it after dinner. It was a simultaneous realization and frenzied race to get to the window, Kayla to lock it, and Ray to open it.
Unfortunately, Kayla lost this time.