Kayla’s dreams were not restful. She’d slept peacefully for quite some time, but then something inside of her just below the surface awakened while the rest of her slept. The sound of her slapping Steve across the face made the breath catch in her throat. He righted himself to look her square in the eye, and his cheek was red. She looked down at her hand. It tingled, and she rubbed it. The sound of another slap made her look back to his face. Again he righted himself and stood there. This time she reached out to rub his cheek with a healing caress, but instead she heard yet another slap. She pulled her hands back, but instead of silence, the sound rang forth with another. Then another. She tearfully asked him why he was letting her do this, but all Steve did was stand there, expressionless, and take it.
Steve woke to a room that was still pitch dark and extremely quiet. The celebrating of the new millennium had died down a few hours ago while they heavily slept off the emotionality of the night. Steve could fall asleep and stay asleep anytime, anywhere, in any position. This morning, however, his soul needed its mate, so it overrode his body’s need to sleep and woke him when it couldn’t wait another moment.
Kayla had rolled away from him in the night, and with the heavy drapes drawn he couldn’t see her form in the near black of the room. This king sized bed was much larger than any of the beds they’d spent regular time in, but his hand quickly found her sleeping peacefully just beside him on her back. Steve rolled to his right and draped his leg over Kayla, engulfing her body in his. She didn’t give him more than a sleepy moan, but he needed her, and he knew she needed him, too. Steve kissed the slope of Kaya’s neck and inhaled her scent deeply while cradling the side of her head in his left hand. Then he whispered in her ear, “Sweetness … I love you.” Kayla stirred, and Steve slid his other arm under her back so that he was now fully holding her in a possessive yet gentle embrace against the length of his body. “I need you,” he whispered again as he nuzzled the side of her head and continued to breathe her in. “I love you so much.”
The moment she awakened, Kayla’s bad dream fell away. The disquiet lingered, however, and her soul felt the same need that her husband’s did. Chills passed through her as he held her so fiercely and so completely. She had no memory of the bad dream, but an innate need to love him drove her to touch her fingertips to the side of Steve’s face, and they both felt something pass through them at the connection.
“God, baby,” he gasped. Then he kissed and very gently suckled at her neck. Kayla reacted to the intimacy and immediately craved more.
“Never let me go,” she breathed sleepily.
“I promise.” Their lips met tenderly. “I won’t.” Steve felt Kayla lean up for another kiss, and he gave it to her. Then she pulled back and palmed the side of his face meaningfully, the memory of her open hand making contact with his cheek making her eyes water. Even without the benefit of being able to see her, Steve sensed very clearly the moment that Kayla’s face changed. They were silent, but he knew she was about to cry. “Shh …,” he whispered, but he felt it in his soul when the tear trickled down the side of her face. When she began stroking her thumb across his cheek he understood why. He wanted her to see him tell her it was ok. But Steve was so overwhelmed by her rush of emotions, as well as his own need to love her, that he couldn’t speak. All he could do was cover her hand with his own as she cupped his face.
Kayla wanted to take back the two hard slaps she’d given him last night. Not the way she’d felt, but the way she’d physically lashed out. And what affected her most was that he’d let her. She wanted to kiss away each slap. So she did. She kissed his cheek once, then twice, then rained down endless kisses, each one infused with remorse and devotion. The sob that escaped her throat came unbidden. It wasn’t because she thought she was wrong for feeling as she had. It was because he’d allowed her to hurt him this way.
They gently removed the clothing that separated them from each other, then Steve slid down her body to kiss the smooth, warm skin of her breast. He nuzzled his face into her breasts and felt her shiver as he placed his lips on her sternum. Kayla cupped his face again and guided him back up to kiss her lips. Facing each other on their sides, Steve took her hand in his and brought it to his left eye. Together they slipped the patch off his face, then Steve closed her hand around it. “Nothing between us,” he whispered. Kayla’s heart overflowed. Then she lifted her leg over his hip. Her core quickly found his erection, and Steve pushed himself inside of her.
Kayla clutched her husband’s patch with one hand, the back of his head with the other; Steve held her in his arms, and still facing each other, they made love in gentle, loving strokes. Their hips met slowly, unhurriedly as they alternately moaned softly in pleasure and whispered their devoted love into each others’ ears.
Steve didn’t want to lose Kayla in time. He didn’t want to lose her to the slipstream, and he didn’t want to lose her to the spectre of death within it. He wanted a Kayla that would remember their life after March 2nd, 2009. He wanted his whole wife. The one who would remember every jump. Every joy. Every fight. Every heartbreak. He wanted the wife that would remember this moment they were making love. The fact that he could live with a destination version of her scared him, though, and that fear only drove him further into the intimacy of this moment.
“I’ll never stop loving you, Sweetness,” Steve panted softly. “I’ll always find you. I promise I’ll always … find you.”
Another tear slipped down the side of Kayla’s face as she felt the undying love Steve was showing her. “I can’t live without you again.” Kayla inhaled sharply as she felt her orgasm start to crest. “I don’t want to!” At that moment, her body froze, and she clutched onto her husband fiercely. Steve kissed her passionately, and he felt it in their physical connection when the pleasure coursed through her body. They didn’t break their kiss while Kayla’s core pulsed around him, and they continued to kiss with love and passion while Steve’s climax rushed over him. Finally, the need to breathe forced them to release each other’s lips, but their emotional bond was strong and left them deeply affected.
The soft glow of the emergency light in the hallway didn’t quite reach into the bedroom, but it had allowed their eyes to adjust enough to see the contours of each other’s faces. Kayla stroked Steve’s cheek as she came back down to earth. “That was beautiful,” Kayla murmured.
Steve nodded solemnly. “Yes it was,”
“That didn’t feel like makeup sex.”
Steve’s eye pierced hers so meaningfully. “I just needed to love you, Sweetness. I hate it when we fight.”
Kayla cast her eyes down for a moment, then found his gaze again. “I am sorry,” she said. “I know there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me.”
Steve took her hand from his face and brought her fingers still holding his patch to his lips. “You’re not an object. We’re a team.” He kissed her fingertips tenderly. “I’m sorry, too.”
Kayla ran the pads of her fingers over the ridge above Steve’s left eye. Then they held each other for a long time before falling back asleep.
The two of them had some succor, but that cleared space in Kayla’s heart for all kinds of other worries to plague her about their sequestration. Which was why four hours later Kayla’s subconscious couldn’t take it anymore and woke her. She opened her eyes from a dead sleep and sat up, very alert very quickly. The impact of being 100% out of pocket really hit her for the first time, and her restlessness roused Steve out of his own sleep.
“Baby?” Steve said, instinctively reaching for his patch, which was now back on his face. “What time is it?”
“I’m worried about the house.”
Steve grunted. “That’s not what time it is.”
Kayla hurled herself out of bed and started pacing in thought.
“Aw, come on, baby, we were sleepin’ so nice.”
“But what about Kitty?”
“I’ll take good care of your kitty, just get back in here, I need another hundred winks.” He layed back down with his right arm out for Kayla to roll back into it, but she remained standing.
“The cat, Steve.”
“Mmm. Maybe the landlady can take care of her,” he said, his voice still sleepy. Kayla looked at her husband like he was crazy, and he thought better of it. “Ghost lady’s never walkin’ in that house again, is she?”
“No way.”
“Ok, we’ll think of something, just come on back to bed, it’s too early.”
“It’s after 9am.”
“We never get to sleep in, Sweetness. We got somewhere we gotta be?” He was frustrated, now, because wakefulness was emerging, and he didn’t want to be wakeful yet.
“No, but … Stephanie. I wish she had her things. Her stuffed animals. Even just a book.”
“She’s got Kim and Phillip and her cousins.” Steve wasn’t very convincing here, and his heart clenched a little because he hated that his daughter was separated from them, and he wanted to talk to her as much as Kayla did. “Baby, we can call her anytime we want.”
“Ok … but, we can’t just ignore the cat, someone needs to feed her.”
Kaya swayed nervously beside him. “Yeahp, ok, but you need to calm down, it’s only been half a day, here.” He sat up in bed while Kayla tried to stand still. “Besides, don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she likes to drink out of the toilet.”
Now Kayla chuckled. “Yeah, she always did that.”
“Ya know, I caught her the other day standing on the damn thing with her head in the bowl, butt in the air, and her front legs out like a tiny giraffe. I was like, ‘what are you doin’?!’” Kayla laughed at his half amused half disgusted expression. “All I’m sayin’ is that she’s not gonna run out of water.” Kayla put her hands on her hips, and Steve rolled his eye. “Ok, yes, she needs to be fed. Just relax, we’ll probably be home before she can get too hungry.”
“What about clothes?”
“Are we gonna need ‘em?” he leered.
“Steve!”
“I like what you’re wearin’ right now.” Which was nothing.
“We left Sam passed out on the floor in front of the payphones!”
“Great, I’m so glad you mentioned him,” Steve sneered.
“Oh my God, my job,” she ignored him. “I’m … I’m due at work! This is a critical time. If we don’t’ jump then I’ve got to wrap up my patients and hand them off to the next group of residents, then I’m handed off, myself, to the surgical rotation.” She was really pacing now.
Steve got up on his knees, his morning erection at full attention. “Just relax, baby,” he said with a seductive lick to Kayla’s nipple. Part of her wanted nothing more than to engage him, but the rest of her stayed her ground. “Chase said they were going to take care of Dr. Oncology.” He palmed her other breast and sucked a little more aggressively. “The other docs are there to cover for you, and ain’t none of this we can’t solve with a note from the ISA.”
“My pills are at home.”
Steve froze. That got his attention. “They’re not in your purse?” She shook her head and felt herself heat up against her better judgment. Steve gave a final suck to her nipple that he just couldn’t help, then lifted his head to meet her eyes. “They’re always in your purse.”
“This is a different purse. Why would I take my birth control pills with me in my tiny clutch purse to a party with Sam?” She had a point.
Steve was suddenly very nervous. “We just made love, Sweetness. I came inside you.”
Kayla nodded. “I know. And it was wonderful.”
Steve dragged a palm down his face. “Are we gonna be ok?”
Kayla put her finger to his lips. “Shh. I haven’t missed a pill yet. As long as I get them today, we’re fine. Even tomorrow, I can still double up.”
Steve got up out of bed now, too, and paced. “We got pregnant on the pill, doubling up doesn’t make me feel too confident, Kayla. We need to get someone to the house. Today.”
“I think I just said that.”
An hour later they were showered and had already talked to Stephanie. Kayla had also had a short conversation with Kim, and it was obvious to Steve that there was serious tension there. It left Kayla in a sour mood. He’d ask her about it another time, for now they had to concentrate on all the loose ends their presence in the safehouse had left. Mark agreed to send someone to the house to gather up a limited amount of things, but he wasn’t happy about it. It was a risk to have anyone there at all, because Stefano’s men were not amateurs, one ISA team was already dead. But in the end the ISA agreed to retrieve a small bundle of things. And the cat.
“Whoa, whoa,” Steve objected, “we’re getting out of here by tonight or tomorrow, right? Why not just send someone to the house to take care of her? I mean, this ain’t exactly Doggie Day Care, what’s Housekeeping gonna say?”
“Not much,” Mark replied, “since they’re not going to be paying you any visits.” Steve balked. “Sir,”
“Enough with the sir shit, man, how ‘bout just Steve.” Captain Chase grinned. He liked this couple, despite how volatile they’d been the night before.
“Steve, the only reason I’m making this concession at all is because there is a living creature in the home. All of this depends on Colonel Donovan and when he can infiltrate the compound. You can’t leave until we’ve completely neutralized the threat, and to send someone over to the house daily is going to put their lives in danger, as it’s surely being watched.” Steve threw up his hands. “One visit. Tell me everything you want from the house, and we’ll get one shot.”
Kayla was just as frustrated by this as Steve was and did nothing to improve her mood. She was desperate for her own underwear, her pills, and a hairbrush. None of these personal items thrilled her to have to put on a list. But she did, because that’s what they had to do. Almost immediately thereafter, however, they both started feeling guilty; a team had just died protecting them, now they were putting more people in the line of fire. It wasn’t about their convenience, though, it was about Kitty. She was a living creature, they couldn’t just abandon her. So, Kayla gave a very brief list of absolute necessities to Mark.
Just after lunchtime, a female agent who bore a striking resemblance to Mrs. Lopez arrived with a duffel bag filled with everything they’d asked for, including Kayla’s purse containing her birth control pills. Somehow she’d also hidden Kitty in that duffel bag. “You are now free to move about the cabin,” the agent said as Kitty jumped out. Both Steve and Kayla tried to greet her affectionately, but she wasn’t having it. She replied with a very displeased yowl, looked at them all with disdain, then sashayed herself out of their immediate vicinity with her tail very high in the air to, presumably, explore her digs.
“You know it’s only dogs that have masters,” the agent chuckled. “Cats have staff.” Kayla cracked a smile here, because in her experience that was true. “And she made it clear that I was very fired the whole way over here.”
“Thank you so much for this. I know it was risky going over there.”
“Well, you’re welcome,” the agent smiled. “Being your landlady is good cover. Believe it or not, she’s not the first pet I’ve rescued from being orphaned by sudden safehouse syndrome.”
Just then Captain Chase and his partner entered with kibble, kitty litter, a tray, and a cat toy.
“Well, if it isn’t the Pet Shop Boys,” Steve jibed. It was good-natured, but there was clear displeasure in his voice at the implication all of these supplies meant. Mark got right to the point.
“Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, I know you’re upset with the timeline.” He had no idea what an understatement that was.
“Don’t get me wrong, we get that this is like a vacation,” Kayla said, then she turned to the female agent and smiled appreciatively, “and we’re so grateful to you.” Then she turned back to Mark. “But to be separated from our daughter for a whole day like this is bad enough. But all of this,” she circled her finger at the cat supplies, “is enough for a lot more than that.”
Mark nodded. “You’re right, it is. There’s no telling how long we’re going to have to be like this.”
“So like … two or three days?”
“Hopefully.”
Steve didn’t like this at all. “Hopefully?” he accused. This was getting very old.
“It could be tonight, it could be longer. We’re having problems locating the target.”
“What?!” Steve shouted. “I told you exactly where he is, man! I drew you a goddamn map!”
“Sir, it’s not about locating the compound, it’s about cornering Dimera once inside.”
“Send me over there, I’ll do it for you!” Kayla couldn’t even protest, because if they didn’t send Steve, she’d go, herself.
“This isn’t helping, Steve! I’m doing the best I can. I got you everything on your list, didn’t I?”
“I think I did that,” the female agent said.
“She’s a pistol,” Steve snickered. “I like her.”
“That’ll do from all of you.” This exasperated tone was new, but Mark had had enough. Steve heard this loud and clear and tried being more reasonable.
“Dude … I can’t live like this. I’ve just left one place I was locked up and entered another. At least our family was together there.” Kayla wrapped her arms around Steve’s bicep and held on in support and agreement. “We can’t live like this anymore. I need to come out. Into the daylight. The hiding is … bad for all of us.”
“I know. Please, be patient.”
“We’ve been patient for weeks, Mark,” Kayla said with control but still in her upper register. “Ya know, I think we’ve been really, very patient.”
“Do you have a deathwish or something?!” Mark replied, putting his hands on his hips, exposing the guns in their holsters. He was frustrated, too, because he wanted to be on that strike team, but instead he was in here babysitting. He had no idea why Shane had refused him and kept him stateside, but he wasn’t happy about it. Mark calmed down and took a deep breath. “Sorry. Look, you’re right, Mrs. Johnson, you have been very patient. Just a little longer. I’m meeting with Colonel Donovan soon.”
“No!” Kayla blurted. “You can’t go there!”
“Go where?” Mark asked, confused.
“To Tuscany!”
“Kayla,” Steve warned.
“Ma’am … it’s a conference call. Colonel Donovan wouldn’t put me on the strike team, he has me … here. Assigned to you. Trust me, I want to go over there as much as you do,” he nodded to Steve. “But … he insisted I stay here.” Realization dawned on Kayla. Shane kept his promise. Not to let him go to Tuscany. For some reason, this helped calm her, and she felt suddenly a lot better about all of it. She looked at Steve and smiled in grateful understanding. Steve sighed in his own resignation but winked at his wife in acknowledgment while Mark obliviously went on. “Call Stephanie any time you want, she’ll be there, and she’ll be safe with plenty of food and water. The panic room is more like a panic apartment, everyone’s got their own bed, and there’s plenty of resources for them.”
Steve and Kayla looked at each other. “Think we’ll jump before it’s over?” Steve asked right in front of them all.
“Honestly?” she shrugged, “No.”
“I’m sorry what?” Mark asked.
“Nevermind,” they said together. There wasn’t a thing they could do about this, so they stopped trying and accepted that this was how it was going to be. Then they all headed into the agent’s homebase suite, to get what would be the first of their daily briefings.
“By the way,” Agent Paola Jones whispered to Kayla before following the men in, “I got everything on your list. Even the last one.” Kayla smiled with sincere gratitude. “Right where you said it would be.”
“Thank you so much. This is going to make such a big difference I can’t tell you.”
“I also threw in a few things you didn’t ask for.”
“Oh?”
“We’re probably not going to be able to get back to your house, so just in case you’re here a while, I didn’t think you’d want to ask Mark for tampons.” Kayla huffed out an appreciative laugh. “Women think a little differently in the field,” she winked.
“You’re right! Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she smiled. “Just hang in there. I honestly think they’re way closer to tomorrow than they are to next week.”
Steve and Kayla sat with the safehouse team and paid very close attention to their briefing as they ate the In-and-Out Burgers that Agent Jones had brought for the meeting. Kim and Kayla’s absences were being explained to the hospital as a family emergency, and their jobs were secured by some high-level conversations between the hospital administration and the ISA. Stefano’s men in Salem were neutralized, so the Bradys back home were safe, though there were agents watching both of their immediate families in case new teams were dispatched. Dr. Granger was attended to, and he and Dr. Bond from Surgery would be given the story the hospital administration passed to them. Kayla knew that Sam was going to be worried sick on many different levels. She was sure he was already calling her cell and upset that he wasn’t getting through. She knew he’d feel like a heel for his actions the night before, because that’s how he felt last time. Only now she’d up and disappeared, so now that would add another layer of anxiety. She knew Raj would be a nervous wreck, and she even felt strange for Stacy, though she didn’t know why. She felt terrible about all of this, knew she’d have a mess when she got back to work, and dreaded when she’d have to face Sam. Stephanie was on winter break, so there was no discussion of school yet. Finally, the ISA had rent money wired from Kayla’s account to Mrs. Lopez.
The location of Stefano’s men in LA could not yet be verified, and it was assumed they were in the vicinity, so it was imperative that no entry or exit be made into or out of their room; all traffic was to funnel through the adjoining ISA suite.
Back in their room, Kitty had made herself comfortable in the middle of their unmade bed, though it took until her dinnertime before she’d speak to them. Finally, she rubbed up against Steve’s legs as he watched college football in the livingroom with a beer in his hand.
“Oh, now that you’re hungry you decide I’m worthy?” The long-haired, white poof just purred at him and continued walking back and forth against his legs. “Alright, glad I’m all forgiven.”
Kayla was already in the tiny kitchen taking stock of their food supplies when Steve showed up to feed Kitty. She sent her husband back to his football game and fed the cat, who had forgiven her, too. Kayla eventually came back out and plopped herself into the chair and leaned back to peek past the heavy curtains out the window. It was early evening, but already dark.
“Hungry?”
Kayla shook her head. “Not really. It was a big lunch.” She had a look on her face, and Steve knew she was thinking about things. He was worried they weren’t quite ok yet.
“I hate fighting with you, Sweetness.”
Kayla took his hand over their two armrests. “I do, too.”
“You still mad?” Kayla shook her head, but there was something that still seemed off.
“Are you still mad?”
“Not at you.”
“But … you’re mad.”
Steve exhaled heavily. “Upset in general.”
Kayla shrugged. “Yeah, me, too. And … bored.”
“I’ve been bored for a month, baby.”
“God, Steve, I’m sorry. I’ve been going to work every day, and you’ve been stuck in that house.” He hated not correcting her, but the fact was that it was true. But it wasn’t her fault, and he told her so. “I have something that might help.” She didn’t sound remotely suggestive, here, so Steve cocked his head at her, wondering what on earth she could possibly have for him. “Go to your nightstand and open the drawer.” She watched him get up and disappear into the bedroom, then she simply waited. When he came out his face told her he was quite a bit less upset now.
“Do you know how much I love you, Sweetness?”
“Yes, but I’ll never get tired of hearing you tell me.”
Back in the panic room, Kimberly sat in the corner on her small bed. “You barely touched your frozen dinner.” Kim jumped at her husband’s words. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” Kim waved a dismissive hand. “You’ve got to eat something.”
“Oh, you know me,” she said in a detached tone, “I’ll get hungry eventually.”
Phillip sat down on the edge of the glorified cot and put a hand on her shoulder “I know what’s got your goat, here, Kim.” She turned to her husband but more or less stared through him to her niece, who was playing cards with Andrew.
“Yeah,” she said amiably. “I’ll be fine. It’ll all be just fine.”
But right now she wasn’t fine. Because Shane and Kayla were keeping more secrets from her. And she was not going to be fine with that.
When the phone rang everyone jumped, and Jeannie lunged for it. “Hello?! Daddy?!” No sooner had she answered, though, that she got a sour look on her face. “You aren’t my daddy.”
“Now, Jeannie, honey, what did we say about how to answer the phone when your aunt Kayla and Uncle Steve call?” Kim said as she ran after her. Phillip, however, got up with a sigh and picked the phone up off the floor where his step-daughter had chucked it.
“Hey, it’s Phillip.”
“Wow, man. You’ve got a hell of a spitfire there, don’t ya?” Steve chuckled, but he thought to himself what a difference she was from his own daughter and knew she was probably going a little nuts.
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. She’s got a mind of her own.”
“She’s spirited, Phillip!” Kim admonished.
Phillip muttered something under his breath to his new brother-in-law, and Steve realized he was maybe trying to reach out and make a friend. He really didn’t want to make small talk right now, but he did, anyway, because the two of them had not actually met yet. Steve knew that this marriage would not last, but he sounded like a nice enough guy, so they chatted for a little while. Eventually Phillip put Stephanie on the phone.
“Hi Papa!”
“Well, hey there, Little Sweetness! Things goin’ good since we talked this morning?”
Stephanie shrugged. “I guess.” It was clear she was just trying not to complain.
“Real convincing there, Steph.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m bored. And I miss you and Mama.”
“We feel the same way. So, this is gonna be a longer goodnight.”
“It is? Why?”
“Well, ‘cause I thought you might wanna see if Ron is still belching slugs and if Harry is still hearing voices.”
Stephanie gasped in delight. “You have The Chamber of Secrets?! You brought it with you?!”
Steve smiled at Kayla. “Yeah, baby, but you can thank your Mama. She’s the smart one.” Kayla smiled back, so pleased she could make her two loves happy in this moment. “How ‘bout you say goodnight to her, then we’ll finish up with a little book club.”
Stephanie jumped up and down in happiness as she held her stuffed dog by his floppy ears, and Philip wished, not for the first time, that his step-daughter had more of her cousin’s disposition. Kayla’s evening conversation with her daughter did quite a bit for her own disposition, causing many of the emotional clouds to clear. Stephanie told her mom everything she did that day, which wasn’t that much, but they did have a satellite TV connection, and that was a lot more than they had at home, so other than fighting with her cousins over what they’d watch, it wasn’t really as boring as she’d have them believe.
“I love you, Baby Girl, ya know that?”
“Yes, I do! I love you, too.”
“Mind if I listen?” Kayla whispered as she handed the phone back to Steve.
“Of course not, baby,” he whispered back. “Ok, Little Sweetness, you all hunkered down in your bunk?”
“Yep! Me and Doggie are listening.”
Then with Stephanie holding Doggie, Kayla holding Kitty, and Steve holding Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets straight out of Stephanie’s bedroom, Steve started in on Chapter Eight. Forty-five minutes later, they had knocked out not one, but two chapters, bringing them back on schedule. Listening to Steve read to their daughter and seeing the look on his face as he embodied these characters for her like she so loved to hear him do gave Kayla a huge shot in the arm of happiness. By the time they hung up with the promise of nightly book club no matter how long they were apart, everyone was contented. Stephanie was all out cheerful when she said goodnight to her parents, and Kitty was purring in blissed out heaven.
“You’re lookin’ a little happier, Sweetness,” Steve said.
“So are you,” she smiled.
“Yeah, well, if I’d known what bedtime stories would do for my mood I woulda started readin’ ‘em a long time ago.” Kayla gave him a good-natured smirk, but then Steve took her hand from the positions they were still in from earlier across the armrests. “Thank you for making this happen, baby. You always know how to make things better. This was just what I needed.”
Kayla squeezed Steve’s hand. “Seems to be what we all needed.” Kayla leaned over for a kiss, and Kitty jumped out of her lap to find another nook to sleep in. “Do you want to put the game back on?” she asked as she repositioned herself with her leg under her.
“Nah, it’s over.” Steve got up to get a beer, and Kayla tried to sweep off the long, white hairs that Kitty left behind on her lap.
“Sorry.”
“I’m not. Still got some NFL ahead of us this season.”
“Oh yeah? And how are the Bears gonna do in their last game?”
“Wow, am I rubbin’ off on you?”
“I pay attention sometimes,” she said playfully.
“Yeah, well, unless we’ve made some kind of change that the playoffs are payin’ attention to, we’re gonna lose in the first game, so doesn’t really matter that we beat the Jaguars next week.”
“How do you remember any of this?”
“It’s football, baby.”
Kayla reached for a sip of Steve’s beer and chuckled. When she gave it back, her expression turned more contemplative. Then she got very silent as she wrapped herself up in the thoughts in her head. Steve knew his wife well, so he knew right where this was headed. “It’s interesting, isn’t it?,” she finally said. “How it all sort of fell into place?”
“And here we go.”
“We’re ok, Stephanie’s ok, Sam got taken care of, even Kitty is here. It all just kind of worked out. Harry Potter and everything.”
“Yeahp,” Steve said before he took another swig. “So what are you gettin’ at, baby, you think it’s like a perfectly wrapped up chapter?”
Kayla shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. It almost wasn’t.” They both got a little more serious. “I mean, it was almost – really bad. Do you think Rolf is trying to help us?”
Steve wasn’t willing to go that far. “If he is he’s doing a shitty job.” Kayla thought about it and shrugged. “We’re still here in the slipstream. Home’s still out there. So, if he’s tryin’ to help us, maybe he should try stoppin’.
Kayla wasn’t sure if she agreed or not. “If Rolf is pulling all these strings—”
“He said he can’t control it.”
“Yeah, but he’s jumped in before. He’s done things in the background, like when he was the ISA mole. Maybe he helped here, too.”
“Baby, the only reason we made it through that last night is because of us. You and me. We’re the ones workin’ with Shane and the ISA. We’re the ones livin’ this life here every day. Rolf didn’t do any of that. You did.”
“And you did.”
Steve nodded. “We did. We’re the reason we’re ok.” Kayla sighed. She was sure he was right. But she was never going to be able to drop this puzzle. Rolf said he was going to come back to them. They’d been here two years since his last appearance, more than a month on this jump. When was he going to show up and give them some kind of update on his efforts to jump them home? They continued talking about it for a little while before Kayla finally had to just drop it. “Ya know what, nevermind, after a while this just hurts my head.”
“Ya got that jump project in that noggin of yours all the time, don’t you? You know every jump.”
“Every single one.”
Kayla’s eye was drawn to Steve’s cheek. She let go of his hand and reached up to touch his face. Steve let her caress it, enjoying the feel of her thumb rubbing it gently. Then she shifted on her chair, got on her knees, and leaned over to replace her thumb with a kiss.
“Why did you let me slap you last night?” Steve wasn’t expecting her to ask this, and frankly, neither was she. It just kind of came out. He knew this was bothering her, but he didn’t think talking about it was going to make that any better.
“This is not a good time for 20 Questions, Sweetness.”
She ignored his attempt at dodging the question. “You could see it coming,” she said so softly. “I could see you just taking it.”
Steve exhaled heavily and nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
“Why, baby?” Her voice was tender.
“Because …” Before he could finish his thought he swallowed it down and backed off. “Maybe I deserved it.”
Kayla shook her head. “You don’t.”
“You were pretty mad at me, so I figured … ya know …”
Kayla cocked her head. “You were mad, too.” Steve saw she was not going to accept this. “Tell me the truth.”
Steve looked down into his nearly finished beer. “I hated how I was feelin’ about you,” he said very quietly. “Pain was better. Than feelin’ that. Than bein’ that mad at you.” Kayla was silent for a long time, during which Steve continued not facing her. But the fact was that she understood what he meant when he said the pain was better.
“I … I did the same thing … in Chicago … at Murphy’s.”
“What?”
“The bar.” Kayla’s tone turned stoic as she realized just how wrong this was on both sides. “Do you remember … in your room … right before you jumped you looked at the bruises on my arm? You asked if you’d hurt me.” Steve finally looked up. He didn’t like where this was going. “Back in the bar … you … you’d grabbed my arm too hard.”
“Jesus.”
“You didn’t know me yet! And you didn’t know you were hurting me, she insisted, “When you realized it you let go.” Steve leveled a doubtful look on her. “You did, you let go as soon as you saw. What I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t you. It was me. I’m the one. I … let you. You wanted to let me go, but I wanted it to hurt. I wanted it to.”
Steve swallowed hard. “Why?” He wasn’t making the connection to what had happened last night.
“Because I wanted to feel some kind of emotion from you. Some kind of connection. I couldn’t handle what it was like between us. How I was feeling … so empty. Like you said, the pain was better than what I was feeling.” Steve adjusted his patch in nervous need to cope with this reminder of how bad it had been between them just a month ago. “What I’m trying to say is that I understand now. Why you let me hurt you. Because I’ve done it, too.”
“Don’t you ever let me do that again,” Steve said.
“You didn’t know,” she insisted somberly.
“Don’t. Let me do that again.” She nodded. “Promise me. Say it.”
“I promise. Don’t let me hurt you again, either.”
Steve nodded. “I promise, too.”
“I love you, and I’m sorry for slapping you.”
Steve took her palm from his face and kissed it. “I love you more.”
“Oh, I doubt that.”
A few moments later Kayla yawned as she had herself a massive stretch in the chair. Steve kicked back more of his beer. “Honestly, right now I’m just happy to be in my own clothes,” she finally sighed.
“I still say we don’t need ‘em.”
“Hmrph. Speak for yourself,” she smiled.
“Come on, baby, you said yourself you’re bored. How else we gonna pass the time?”
“Ya know, no matter what timeline I seem to land in, whether you know me or not, we seem to be able to find something to talk about.”
“I didn’t seem real talkative in Chicago,” he said, that jump now fresh in his mind.
“Oh, that’s not true at all.”
“Baby, come on, I abandoned you in the middle of the city.”
“True. But your mouth was moving before and after.” Steve leered. “I mean it, I got a tour of the Loop, you gave me a little art culture lesson, and I learned that the Picaso is actually just a great big vagina.”
“I still can’t believe I told you that.”
“You don’t think so anymore?”
“No, I still think so,” he snickered, “I just can’t believe I said it, I’d known you, what, two days?”
“One.”
“Nice guy.”
“Not so much at first, no. But I got to your gooey center.” Steve scoffed. “You’ve always been a perfectly engaging conversationalist.”
Steve busted up laughing. “An engaging conversationalist? Yeah, ok, baby.”
“From the minute you met me in that bar, you did all the talking,” she poked him. “Mainly because I was being elusive.”
“Which I hated.”
“You did. You wouldn’t just take my word for it.” Steve glared at her, because, of course, he wouldn’t. Finally she admitted, “Ok, fine, at first I did most of the talking.”
“That’s right, you said you answered 20 of my questions. I don’t even know what they were.”
“Neither do I, I was thinking faster than my brain could remember,”
“That’s what happens when you go playing 20 questions without all of me there.”
“Did you not just do the same thing the night before I jumped here?”
She had him there. “Yeah … but I recreated that one for you. You didn’t really give me the blow by blow of the one in Chicago.”
“I don’t even remember most of them, myself, I was pretty drunk before we were halfway done. I think. You were sure I couldn’t hold my liquor.”
“You can’t,” he chortled.
Kayla swiped the beer from her husband’s hand and took another swig. “You just never give me the chance to finish.”
“Oh yeah? I’ll give you a chance. Start drinkin’ baby.”
“Like in Chicago? That was tequila.”
“Steve got up and checked out the very fully stocked bar. “With or without the worm?”
“Neither,” she laughed. “I think I’m tequila’d out.”
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted a chance. We can play 20 questions without tequila if you don’t want to risk that big, bad worm, baby.”
“Is that a challenge, Mr. Johnson?”
“Why, you interested now?”
Suddenly, Kayla’s face read a very different kind of contemplative look. “Have we ever been drunk before? Together, I mean?”
Steve drained the rest of his beer. “I was just teasin’ ya, baby.”
“But have we?”
Steve had to think about that and eventually gave her a sideways grin. “I can’t remember a time that both of us were all out drunk at the same time.” Kayla smiled, and Steve liked it. “What exactly is goin’ on here, Sweetness?”
“Well … we have this great big hotel room … and we’ve got a whole lot of nothing to do, right?”
“Right.”
“So … well, I just thought it might be interesting to see how much fun we could have.”
“Fun? You’re talkin’ about drunk fun?”
“That side effect we’re feeling. Didn’t we say we were going to take that out for a spin?”
Steve was completely intrigued. “I thought that was for our sexual escapades,” he stressed with a very intentional ogle from her eyes to her breasts and back again.
“Yes, well,” she said in a sultry response, then licked her lips before she finished the thought, “Who knows how these elevated reactions will feel with a little … help. Pretty unique opportunity, don’t you think?”
“Unique, huh?”
“Mm-hmm. I can take you through the whole thing at Murphy’s, and we can see what the jump effect will feel like while we do it.”
Steve was turned on and completely taken in by how exciting having fun with his wife this way sounded. “You’re gonna get wasted in about four minutes flat, baby.”
“You underestimate me.”
“Why, you think you can outlast me?”
“Maybe,” she teased.
“Please. Even with this one-beer headstart I had myself, you can’t outlast me.”
“I think you’re afraid I’ll win,” she said very arrogantly. Steve couldn’t help but be very drawn in.
“Oh, it’s on, baby. You really wanna do this?”
“Yes, I do,” she sat up very confidently.
“Right here?”
“Right now.”
“Let’s go.”
“But with beer.”
“Fine with me.” Steve opened the small fridge.
“And 20 Questions.” Steve put one foot up on the tall stool and crossed his arms.
“You stealin’ my idea?”
“Oh, heavens, no.”
“Heavens!” he teased with a leer.
Kayla bounced up onto her feet and went to the other stool. She was so cute, the anger he’d felt the day before seemed a hundred miles away. But then she frowned. “We used shot glasses last time. Beer doesn’t work in a shot glass.”
Steve smiled. He loved that she was trying to recreate what they’d done at Murphy’s so that he could have it right, just like he’d done for her so many times. “It’s ok, Sweetness, we’ll just drink our beers.”
Kayla crossed her own arms and tapped her foot. “Ya know what?” she said as she scooched herself onto the stool, “I changed my mind. I think if we’re gonna do it we should do it right.”
“Baby, you got no chance against me if we’re doin’ this with tequila, come on now.”
Kayla leaned over and patted his stool. “You are going to eat those words. I’ll even let you pick the bottle.”
“There’s only two, one has a worm.”
“No worm.”
“I thought you said I was pickin’! I hear those worms are aphrodesiacs.”
“See, that’s exactly what you said in Chicago,” she smiled.
“You are somethin’ else, baby,” he said, relenting as he grabbed two shot glasses and situated himself on the stool. “You sure you wanna do this? I just don’t want you to cry when I win.” Though it was phrased haughtily, it was clear that he was giving her an out. But the truth was that Steve wanted the memory. It was like his proposal on the roof that his awareness was absent for – once Kayla had started giving it to him, he really wanted it. And now that it was here, he wanted this 20 Questions memory from Murphy’s, too. He knew he’d been a jerk, so it wasn’t going to be as happy a memory as the proposal was, but he’d have the memory, and that’s what mattered.
Kayla wasn’t about to back down, however and positively rose to the occasion by pouring herself a shot and tipping it back. Steve was impressed when she refused to react to the burn. “You went first, so go ahead and ask me something.”
The grin that split Steve’s face was wide and very, very eager. He felt the anticipation like an electricity crackling all around them. He didn’t know if this excitement was helped along by the amplification effect or if it was all him, but either way, he was charged up, and he felt good. They both did. This was going to be fun. And, frankly, after the hell they’d been through, they sure as hell deserved some.